Naruto couldn't help but feel lonesome during the break. Saber, his first Servant, who he thought of as family was all but ignoring him. Yes, he knew part of the reason why, he had trampled upon something more valuable than his pride, but it was more than that.
For lack of better words, it was the girls... They were stealing Saber away.
Every meal since they came, he had to stand in a corner or up against the wall instead of his table. His house was filled to the brim with boarders that he had never agreed to take in. Where Rider and Saber slept was beyond him. He suspected that they gave up sleep as it wasn't really needed for Servants. Otherwise, the girls, and Shiki were sleeping in his house.
At least the old man always left after dinner. How he did it was beyond him, but frankly he didn't care. The house was already crowded enough. With the girls visiting, Saber was held up doing a great deal of laundry, cooking, cleaning, and patrolling. Although, unlike the Grail War where patrolling meant searching for various Servants to defeat, Saber and the others would go out and do some mysterious hand motions in various places, usually along the village walls and in street intersections. Whatever magic they were doing, they were leaving him out of it.
The strangest part, was that the village didn't seem to notice them when they went out into patrol. Honestly, when half a dozen new people arrive in the village unannounced, there should have been some sort of commotion. Yet, not one person gave them a glance unless they were buying something. Naruto went up to several villagers trying to see why they were ignoring the girls and found something odd. To the villagers, the new people were unremarkable, in fact, they were so unremarkable, that they hadn't even noticed Saber was in their group.
How did someone miss a group dressed completely unlike any other outfit in the world was beyond him. Yet, they all said the same thing, the newcomers were completely unassuming and uninteresting. Naruto couldn't explain it, so he had to ask one of them. While the girls all blew him off, Shiki was at least willing to answer. Apparently it was a fairly common spell that made people look away from them unless they wished to be seen. Even then, the others would only see normal people and not make the connection.
As a ninja, Naruto was impressed by the spell. If he was able to learn magic, he would have done whatever he could to master that spell. Rin, of course, instantly shot him down by saying he had no magic, he was relying on the demon inside him to feed his Servants. Naruto was shocked by Rin's knowledge of his unwanted resident. But then again, she wasn't exactly normal herself. At least she didn't seem to hold it against him that he had the demon inside him, instead she held it against him that he had 'defiled' Ria's image.
Rider took him aside and informed him that the reason none of them cared that he had a demon was because the old man was a Dead Apostle, basically the ultimate form of a vampire or undead, while Acruied was a True Ancestor, basically, an immortal being at the epitome of creation made to protect a planet, Illya was an artificial human called a Homoculus, Shiki was Immortal, and Rin and Luvia were magi, beings that had lived their entire lives hiding their true selves from the world least they be discovered. Compared to them, what was a person who was imprisoning a Demon? Heck, he fit right in with the whole group.
While that did help him keep calm around the girls, the fact was, they were still hostile to him and Saber did nothing. At least the girls didn't beat him. What they did however was look at him in scorn and promptly ignored whatever he said. He had to turn to Rider again for advise on how to get back into their good graces.
Rider had to leave for a while to consider it, but she did come up with an idea, and it involved having fun with Saber, a definite bonus in Rider's opinion.
"So Saber," Rider asked after another day of helping set out magical traps and barriers. She herself checked on her own barrier for the Blood Fort newly made. It would be ready long before the tournament. "When will you have that date with Illya you promised?"
That got the homuculus' attention, and Rin and Luvia's. Naruto watched in curiosity as Saber's hairs on the back of his neck stood up. It was clear that the question had evoked some survival mechanism in him. Saber's head slowly turned to see the three girls looking at him in accusatory glares. While Illya did have the promise of a date, there was no way in hell the other two girls would let him go without a date of their own invasion be damned.
Naruto had to admit, what happened next was rather slick.
"Oh," Rider added, "But it wouldn't do for you to leave this village unattended. After all, think of Hanabi."
Saber's forehead literally began sweating buckets.
"Hanabi," The three girls gnashed through their teeth. "Who is Hanabi Shirou?"
"Just someone I helped." Saber explained trying to defuse the bomb in front of him. Of course, Rider wouldn't have any of that. She went on into great detail of his heroic rescue, or at least what Saber had told Naruto that he told her. Then she went on to explain how Hanabi was forever calling him Onii-chan. Illya's eyes narrowed dangerously and Rin and Luvia both clenched fists and their hair began waving in the air ominously. How dare this girl get so intimate with their Shirou. Naruto swore that their eyes were on fire and they were suddenly several feet taller. Must be some sort of jutsu or magic...he hoped. Kami, but if they used that ability on the enemy, there would be no invasion, just a horde running away in fear at the sight of the girls.
While Naruto amused at the events in front of him, it still did not fix the problem. Luckily, that was just stage two of Rider's plan. Whatever anyone might say of her, Rider was good at messing with people, especially Saber. Rider was constantly telling the others of the interests several other female ninjas had in Saber. Both Naruto and Saber had been surprised by the popularity he had developed, but this only antagonized those three on. In addition, Aoko was looking at Saber with a twitch in her eye while Zelretch was silently cackling. As each girl was added, that twitch was getting bigger and more ominous and the cackles were becoming harder and harder to hide. Though, of all the women she mentioned, Rider kept Anko a secret for the moment. It wouldn't do to use the ultimate trump card so early on. Saber had to violently grab Rider and dash off evading spells of death and destruction.
"What will it take?" Saber hissed at her. There was no way he was going to survive very long at this rate.
"Forgive him." Rider said indicating Naruto. "He's young and makes mistakes. Forgive him, or I'll tell them about what you and Anko did in the forest."
Saber paled, but glared at her at the same time. He was not pleased that he was being manipulated. If his young Master was older, that incident would have destroyed friendships and created bitter enemies. But still, he is only twelve years old. Can he really hate him for as long as the contract remains? More importantly, could he withstand more of Rider's interference? No, no he cannot. What was done was painful, but forgiveness must come.
Besides, he still wanted to live.
"All right. I will forgive him." Saber agreed.
"And keep those girls off him." Rider added.
Saber nodded then fled as the others had caught up with them.
The end result of a long drawn out chase that was for some reason completely ignored by the village was that Saber was forced to agree to have a date with all the girls, except Arcuied, individually. Details would be determined by the girls on who got to have the first date. Though Aoko just wanted to straighten Saber's behavior out and stop him from getting any other girls falling for him.
As a last form of punishment, Naruto was roped in to help Saber carry the shopping bags that would inevitably appear.
Naruto had no idea how much girls could buy when they ended up in a completely different world. Even with Kage Bushin, he was still holding enormous amounts of bags. Yet, for as much pain as Naruto had while carrying the bags to the house, Saber was in feeling even worse pain as he saw the last of his savings vanish. All those months of saving, gone in a moment.
After the dates, which Naruto would never try to think about for years, Saber was noticeably more available to Naruto. Saber even gave him great advise on a new technique. That, and Saber was willing to refill his trump card.
Earlier, Saber had been tinkering with sealing scrolls with Naruto and found something interesting that no one noticed. The higher quality sealing scrolls stopped time itself on whatever was seal inside, such as Saber's swords. Foods for example would never spoil inside the scroll, water would always be fresh, and weapons would never deteriorate. Saber had explained how his swords were distortions on the world and would never last more than a few hours. The more powerful the weapon the shorter the time it would last in the world. Simpler nameless weapons could stay in the world for hours, but epic weapons lasted less than an hour. Inside the scrolls, however, they would be available whenever.
Unfortunately, through experimentation, Naruto and Saber found that the weapons could only be sealed once, so Naruto would only have one chance with the weapon until Saber gave him a new one to seal. In addition, there was a limit to how many weapons could be sealed in the scrolls. The higher the rank of the weapons, the more space it took up. Naruto could, for example, use up one scroll to hold one Durandal, or have a dozen Kansho and Bakuyas.
So, Naruto held a small armory within his four sealing scrolls. That was great and all, but without learning how to use them made storing them all but useless. Well, unless, one used something like Excalibur. Unfortunately, Naruto held no magic energy to activate it's killer ability. Thus, many of the copied Noble Phantasms would not work for him. However, Saber was adamant that he hold onto three powerful Noble Phantasms in case of dire emergency while the final scroll held several odd ones that he would be allowed to use in the finals if he had no other alternative.
On the other hand, Rider was busy helping Naruto on his fighting technique. Part of the problem, according to Rider, was that he was too stiff in his movements. Though she had not fought as often as Saber, she was also experienced in combat and had some helpful pointers for Naruto's combat. She began working on his flexibility so that Naruto could attack from the oddest positions. Though he would take years to achieve a fraction of Rider's flexibility, he was definitely far more flexible than before.
Though, privately, Rider had also had him increase his flexibility for the bed whenever he had his first time. Whoever the girl was, she would find that Naruto unconsciously knew several exotic positions courtesy of Rider...
Still, Saber was treating Naruto better. He sat at the table every meal, and Saber kept reminding the girls that what ever passed between Master and Servant was their own business, so please back off. Didn't help much, but at least Saber was not encouraging them unconsciously like he had before.
Aoko stayed back with Zelretch while the others went out shopping. The Second Magician had asked the Fifth to stay so that he could discuss something with her.
"What is it Zelretch?" Aoko asked. The old man never asked for her to do anything unless it was serious.
"We'll be needed back soon." The old vampire told her. "The lords are gathering for the annual meeting."
"So?" Aoko asked. She didn't care a wit about those peacocks. True, she had once been a part of the Mage's association, but she had left on a lark and never look back. The old stiffs were way too formal and annoying for her tastes. They all wanted to use her as a weapon against the threats to the Mage's Association. Why bother with all that when she could have the time of her life on the road. The Sealing Designation on her sister had not helped matters either.
"Aoko, it is important. The topic for this meeting directly affects you and your family."
"Family?" Aoko said. Suddenly her eyes widened, "Touko!" True, the two of them had fought over who would be the head of the family, but they had patched things up a bit courtesy of Shirou. That boy was the catalyst needed for the two to reconcile over past differences. To be frank, he had guilt tripped her into doing it. There had been more to it, but she had no intention of thinking about it.
Aoko gritted her teeth she had intended on helping out Shirou here, but it seemed she would need to put the fear of the Blue back into the Association again. No one, besides herself, was messing with her sister.
Zelretch smiled. Everything was going as planned. There was no need for the Fifth to be here. In fact, it would be counter productive for the mistress of Blue to be here. While his apprentices and the Einzbern could be discrete, Aoko was nothing more than a blatant advertising of magic. It hadn't taken much for him to whisper in the ears of a few power hungry Lords to bring up the discussion of dealing with Sealing Designates that had fled. With Blue out of the picture, things would not change much, he had faith in the Distortion. The Faker would find victory with or without the aid of the others.
Besides, his 'granddaughter' and her husband would be there to deal with anything he missed.
All the while, Aoko began exuding an ominous dark aura that promised massive explosions. Lots of massive explosions
The break between the second exam and the finals had been intense for the rest of the various genin.
Neji had partnered with TenTen to perfect his eyes and created the ultimate defensive jutsu of his clan Kaiten. Using his chakra points, he leaked out chakra while spinning quickly forming a dome of chakra that repelled all attacks. With this, Neji was certain that he could withstand any attacks yet attack people at the same time. What he was worried about was Gaara's sand attacks. Kaiten did not work underground, though it did drill into the ground everywhere except where he was spinning. That one spot could be a fatal weakness. He tried time and again to fix that flaw, but Kaiten required him to stay in one spot. Instead, he focused on switching from Kaiten to dodging at a moments notice by using a rather dangerous training technique.
Dangerous as in any other instructor would not attempt it, for Gai-sensei, it was par for the course. In Neji's case, it involved spinning on top of an explosive tag that had a small fuse. TenTen had refused to give him some of the explosive tags initially citing that he was going to blow his legs off, but when Neji bought his own, TenTen relented as she had some of the weaker tags that would only singe his feet. By the end of the training, Neji was confident that with his eyes he could evade any of Gaara's attacks. The only thing left was the sand armor, but he ran out of time to figure out how to get past that barrier.
Oh well, if he could not beat the boy, then that was what fate dictated.
Naruto, on the other hand would be easy to defeat. The boy had to understand that fate would not let him win his match against Neji. What was he going to do, Orange flash? Neji smirked slightly at the thought of that move. While using shadow clones in large numbers was impressive, the way it was used was so crude. Neji was confident that his abilities would easily dominate over the boy.
Sasuke spent the month learning a powerful jutsu known as Chidori, a lightning jutsu that resembled a straight charge at the enemy. Normally this jutsu would be suicide to use, but with the sharingan, it was possible to see what was about to occur and dodge the attacks. With his eyes, Sasuke now had the ability to kill even jonin level opponents. Sasuke couldn't help but smile at thought of ramming his arm through Itachi. His older brother would never be able to stop this move. He was too fast and too dangerous for Itachi to live now...probably. After all, it's not like his brother was a monster that could stop his attacks with one arm, right? No, no, he would not go into that route now. First, he would focus on getting better with this technique. So far, the best he could do was make two Chidoris in a day. The sheer amount of chakra required to make it was staggering. Even Kakashi was severely limited to two or three a day himself with his chakra reserves.
Ah, but Kakashi wasn't Sasuke. He didn't have the drive Sasuke had, the hate the rage.
'yEs, HaTe rAgE. YoU aRe tHe bEst, tHe sTronGeSt, ThE gReAtEsT. LeT mE hElp. I cAn gIvE yOu mOrE pOwEr. JusT aSk aNd It Is yOUrS AvEnGeR.'
He could hear it inside his mind, the whispering. Whatever it was, it was enticing to hear. No matter his disappointment, it encouraged him, pushed him on to be more. Maybe, maybe it was just a part of himself, a part that he had ignored for too long. Was it too much to just try relaxing and letting the seal gr-
No
Nononono. He was an elite, an Uchiha. He would not rely on anyone else besides himself.
'PlEAsE SaSukE-kUn. I jUsT wAnT tO hELp.'
No, he would not. Besides, Kakashi was watching him. He would have to experiment when he was alone. There was no way that he would let Kakashi steal it from him before he decided on what to do.
Gaara was making life miserable to his siblings. All day and night he would switch between raging and frothing at the mouth to whimpering to 'Mother.' The demon was raging that Berserker had failed and that it's offering of blood had been denied. What was worse, the one time he had gone out to find some blood, a giant arrow slammed into the ground at his feet. A clear warning that he was not allowed to kill anyone here. While the sand could protect him, the arrow seemed dangerous to Gaara. It seemed to hunger for a target, especially one such as a demon.
So, here he was, stuck inside a hotel room with only his siblings and occasionally Baki for company. While he did have the urge to kill everyone of them, at least he held back on it. It still made him sound like a deranged madman with his constant mutterings and glares. Hie every free thought, when not being bombarded by 'Mother', was on killing the Servant and his Master. Surely, killing the two of them would vindicate his reason for existing and give him the greatest pleasure he had ever experienced.
Temari and Kankuro took every opportunity they had to find a way to stay away from the hotel. While the arrow had warned Gaara off, there seemed to be no problem for the two of them to leave the building. Temari would head towards the various training grounds to work on her control of the wind and work on her summoning jutsu. While the Weasels were old companions of her family, she was still vastly inexperienced summoning any but the lower level creatures. Lower level as in those who could only destroy a an area a few hundred feet wide. The medium level Weasels could easily destroy everything with a mile or two. It was said the the Lord Weasel could conjure a tornado in his passing that could travel for several hundred miles, but not ever her father could summon the Lord. Only Gaara, if he was sane enough for the Weasels to allow him to make a contract with them, would have been able to summon the Lord.
Still, she would not be discouraged, she had a job to do and she would do it to the best of her ability.
In the mean time, she began considering the best way to defeat any possible opponents. The Nara boy had kept his abilities hidden except fro the shadow mimic jutus. While dangerous if she was caught, all she had to do was be smart and be aware. The Aburame was no problem if she kept hitting the bugs with wind jutsu, but the two kunoichis were an interesting bunch. The pink head may not have many jutsus, but she was clearly an expert on poisons. Any and all contact with her and her weapons was to be avoided at all costs. The worst of her potential opponents was the Naru girl. Lightning trumped wind any day, and she was a powerful Bloodline Limit user.
The others were not deemed issues as Gaara was going to kill them. She shuddered at the thought and went back to work.
Kankuro, on the other hand, was working on his puppet jutsu. While he could use all the abilities of Crow or Black Ant alone, he still could not figure out how to manipulate both puppets at once. He knew it was possible to control multiple puppets at once, but while the legendary Chiyo could manipulate ten puppets, one for each of her fingers, Kankuro was no where near her level. The problem was that manipulating multiple puppets required unmatched dexterity in the fingers. Every twitch had to be perfect and distinct. To do anything less would only create tangles and/or create faulty movements in the puppet. No, perfection was required for any puppet master lest the puppet fail at a critical moment.
He tried once more to control both puppets at once, and found a new combination of the two of them. Still, it wasn't battle worthy. Kankuro filed the move away for future reference and tried a new one, only to tangle his threads.
Yeah, being a puppet master sucked sometimes. Years of work and failure in hopes of becoming slightly better. Still, there was no denying that he enjoyed toying with his enemies and using his puppets. Where else could a guy play with figurines and use them in combat? Even better, puppet masters were viewed with respect in the village.
Now then, back to work. The invasion was coming soon, and he wanted to live.
Naru, Tamaki, Ace, and Yugito were constantly going to one of the available training grounds and working to the bone to improve. Ace was still upset that he had humiliated himself in front of so many rival genin for falling straight into the Nara's trap. Tamaki on the other hand was busy trying to learn some jutsu that could counter the Aburame's bugs should he ever meet one in the field. To be weak during a competition was one thing, to be weak in a mission was another. If he did not become stronger, he would die. Naru and Yugito were constantly sparring improving her reaction timing so that she could avoid any chance of being poisoned. In addition, she was beign trained how to counter puppets using long range attacks and how to swiftly kill off any bugs in her general area using Black Cloud.
The three genin noticed, but never dared to asked, that their Sensei was always glaring at Archer. Whatever she had been told by the strange woman had caused her to always glare whenever she saw the man. Every now and then, they would hear her mutter things like "Fool, what were you thinking?" and "Didn't you see how where it was going to lead?" Whatever these ramblings meant, Archer would always stay back from Yugito. Always in sight, but at least a good hundred meters unless Yugito came towards him. This usually ended with her dragging him away to scold him away from the others.
Yet, Archer seemed not to mind. For some reason, he seemed to stand a bit taller, a bit prouder. He had always been a bitter tired man from whatever conflicts he had endured. But now, it seemed like he had a new purpose in life. Ace, of course, was ecstatic that his idol was happier, if only marginally. He would constantly bombard Archer for training lessons. Tamaki and Naru always wondered why he wanted to learn from Archer. All the guy did was beat him up in sparring matches. Still, Archer insisted that it was the fastest way to learn. Whether that was true or not, Tamaki and Naru were not going to argue with him while he got the tar beat out of him. Tamaki because it was too much of a hassle, and Naru was looking for any excuse to snuggle beside him such as when she treated his wounds.
Tamaki watched the relationship between Naru and Ace with a mixture of skepticism and worry. The fact was, while Naru was not the heir to her clan, she was still expected to marry someone strong. While Ace was a close second in strength for the team strength wise, he was always rushing things too much. If he didn't stow down, the rest of them would have to start planning the funeral. On the other hand, if Ace wised up and kept getting stronger, Naru's clan would have no objections with her marrying Ace into the family.
Only the future could tell what would happen between the two, and he would do his best to ensure that they had happy lives. Even if it cost him his own...
Sakura was enduring the most difficult month in her life, including the month with boot camp and the month in Wave. Anko was running her butt ragged getting her physically stronger, tougher, and nastier. She couldn't roll out of bed in the morning without having to disarm traps, dodge needles, or reach for a vial of antitoxins that had been injected into her a few minutes ago. Anko was clearly working out her frustration out on Sakura as Saber's movements had become impossible to track. There was no way for her to locate the elusive man in red and Rider had not shown up to help her in her conquest.
Therefore, she spent all her time tortur...er...training, yeah, training Sakura to try to calm herself down. The only reason she was not going completely basaltic and gone hunting was that she had finally been approved for being promoted a jonin. Sure, there was the month long observation and testing perios that she would have to endure after the chunin exams (and the battle), but with the seal removed, he chakra control was perfect and she was in no risk of falling apart at the wrong time.
Day in and day out, Sakura was trained in her martial arts style and poison making. Sakura learned not only how to make deadlier poisons, but also how to make various battle stimulants. Dangerous, but if circumstances required it, Sakura could fight on the same level of a veteran chunin. Her mind was constantly tested on how to fight against various opponents in varying terrain and weather. The challenges pushed her mind to the limit, but it was rewarding. Even with her miniscule skills, she was sure that she could defeat any of the other opponents by out thinking them. Well, all except Shikumaru maybe...
Anko was impressed at how well the pink head absorbed her instructions. She was able to remember complicated instructions the first time and repeat them back without mistakes. Not only was this good for poison making, but it would also be good for memorizing overheard conversations in future missions. Secretly, Anko was proud of her unofficial apprentice. The fledgling kunoichi had the same drive as her younger self...at least before the betrayal. Anko swore that she would never betray the girl like she was betrayed.
"All right Sakura, due to your efforts, let me teach you a new poison. One of my personal favorites, Cyanide" Anko said with an evil smirk. Sakura smiled as well in an almost mirror fashion.
Across the village, several people began shivering in fear as though something dangerous was forming and they weren't doing anything to prevent it.
Shino spent his month training with both his team and his father. In addition, he constantly spent a great deal of time looking for new insects that could prove useful to his family. Though he was unable to find any useful insects, he did find a new subspecies of the walking stick and cicada. While he never showed it, Shino was slightly annoyed that he had not been able to show how strong he was like the rest of his team. The fact that his opponent forfeited was a sound strategic move, and his clan emphasized the distancing of emotion, but he was still annoyed slightly. How was he supposed to show his abilities off if his opponents forfeited.
Shino mentally reviewed his first opponent and sighed. The puppet wielder would be unable to do much of anything against him. His bugs would feast upon his chakra easily. Those chakra strings would be easy to destroy. But still, there was a chance that the Suna nin had some other tricks up his sleeve. Shino arched his eyebrows slightly in his form of a shrug and went back to practicing. He would do the best he could do, no one could ask for more.
As for Shikumaru. Well, he spent his month playing shogi with Asuma, cloud watching, and calling pretty much anything involving work as troublesome, but that was to be expected anyway. Ino was a pain trying to get him to practice more. The more she yelled, the more he sighed and said that it was "Troublesome". This of course only spurred her on to berate him further. It was a constant cycle that was only broken by Asuma when he pointed out that strategy was as important as skills. Ino would blush thinking of her loss to Sakura and go off on her own to train in her clan jutsus. Choji on the other hand was working out as hard as he could to avenge his loss. He had not endured the Forest of Death, twice, just to go down so easily. It grated on him that the Kumo nin had easily crushed him with one more. True, it was a powerful Bloodline Limit, but still...it hurt to see all his hard work end for naught. He would constantly ask his father to help him out on mastering the various ways to stretch his body in anticipation of the next chunin exam.
While the genin were busy with their lives, the adults of Konoha were silently becoming afraid of the situation spiraling out of their control. Many different areas of Konoha were suddenly becoming frightening to Inuzuka dogs and Aburame insects. For some reason, the dogs and bugs reported that these areas felt wrong, sickening, distorted. Yet, no one else could identify what it was that was causing it. Several times the jonins cordoned off the area sighting evaluating construction and structural integrity of the area, but the number of areas was spreading quickly.
At first, it was only in the outer most regions, more particularly the areas that would have been easy to use in an invasion. Then the areas grew and grew and moved closer in to the center of the village culminating at the stadium. After they had marked down all the areas where the wrongness extended on a map something became apparent. It looked like some sort of complex maze. The Hokage spent half his days trying to determine how these areas were growing without them finding out whoever was causing it.
It was clear that the areas were growing in the daytime, therefore, someone was doing this in the daytime. Yet, no one reported any particular pattern of appearances there. In fact, a few time the Inuzuka dogs reported an area had become wrong as they were patrolling through an empty street.
(Actually, Saber and company were right next to them, but their magic was too good for them to notice. After all, most magi, with the glaring exception of lousy magi like Shirou, had evaded the notice of their world for a thousand years.)
The Hokage was contently rubbing his head from the headaches and taking as many pain medications he could. Either Orochimaru and his minions were doing some sort of powerful jutsu, or there was another party involved in this. He had been puzzling over who that possibility might be, and came with several potential ideas.
The first, and most obvious answer was Orochimaru or Suna. Yet, this kind of jutsu was beyond anything he had ever seen. Then there was those nins from Kumo, he still recalled Saber reporting that they were doing something when they came to the village. In fact, they were in many of the areas marked on the map. Was Kumo in on the invasion as well? If so, then Konoha was probably doomed. While Oto and Suna could be fought off, Kumo had a military might that was almost twice as large as Konoha. If Kumo was involved, then the best he could hope for was to evacuate all the civilians, young, and old, while the rest of them fought a delaying measure to buy them time. Sarutobi seriously considered asking for help from the old bastard in Iwa, but Iwa was still sore about it's losses from the Fourth. Kiri was no good as they were still in a civil war, thought his sources were able to determine that the Third Mizukage and his men had fled the village and the rebels had taken control. Still, Kiri would be unavailable to negotiate with for some time.
Yet, as Sarutobi looked at the map, he couldn't help but think that thins might be to their advantage. They knew where the wrong areas are, they know the paths to avoid them, and they can easily memorize it.
Yes, looking at it now, unless this was a jutsu that would cause the entire village to explode, there would be little problem avoiding the wrongness, unfortunately, it came down to timing. If these areas flared up unexpectedly, there was a good chance that there would be civilian casualties.
Sarutobi rubbed his head again, he felt like he was playing, shogi, Go, and chess at the same time against three opponents. While he was called the Professor and the God of Shinobi, he was still a man, a tired old man who was tired of wars. Yet, it seemed that his foolish apprentice was still planning on these wasteful actions. So, it would be up to him to deal with his wayward student...and his mistake. *Sigh* How did it come to this? Tsunade was drowning her sorrows in alcohol and gambling, Jiraiya kept putting on a smiling face while enduring the pain of losing all his students and seeing his hopes of the future fade before his eyes, and Orochimaru was killing countless people on his quest to find his parents and running from death.
Looking back, maybe he wasn't cut out to teach anyone. He was the Hokage, there wasn't enough time to teach them everything. He had taken in the three most talented graduates of the time and put them into a team. At first, it seemed like a good idea, but something must have gone wrong in the process...
'No, I know where it all went wrong. Nawaki. The day he died, everything changed. Tsunade began her downward spiral into despair and Orochimaru probably began his experimentation. Jiraiya tried to make her happy, but she fell for Dan. Dan who now lies in a shallow grave somewhere in a forgotten battlefield.'
The Hokage lowered his head and thought back on his young pupils. They had been inspiring, true believers of his will of fire who were supposed to become more than he ever could. Now look at them.
Tsunade: The greatest medical ninja in history, now a drunk in perpetual debt. A missing nin in all but name in hopes that she might forgive the village that took everyone that mattered to her. While physically powerful, she was technically the weakest of the batch as most of techniques were medical jutsu. Add in her phobia of blood and she was all but useless.
Jiraiya: A legendary sage trained by the toads, spends his days writing erotic material and hunting for a traitor. Though he was a good spymaster, he was forever getting himself in trouble with women. When it came down to it, Jiraiya would be a terrible Hokage. He couldn't see the long term effects of his actions and was terrible at negotiating.
Orochimaru: A traitor. Forever delving deeper into the darkest of arts looking for immortality and resurrection. No matter how many bodies piled beneath his feet, his best and brightest student, the one he had considered as the Fourth Hokage, was a monster. Sarutobi shuddered to think of what would have happened if he had chosen Orochimaru as the Hokage instead of Minato.
Three legendary Sannin, ha! What a joke, more like the legendary failure. There was a reason that the best genin in the village were split up into various teams. Not so that the teams would be evened out, but to prevent any more fuck ups like his team became. The strongest genin would focus on their training without feeling too competitive with the other team members while the weaker ones would feel slightly inferior, but would burn with the need to become more than what they were currently.
While Kakashi might be anticipating his team all becoming chunin on their first try like the Legendary Sannin, Sarutobi could only grimace with worry. Would Team Seven end up like his team? Would they break apart and fall into ruin like his or would there finally be a team that could do the impossible time and time again?
Honestly, were it not for Saber's...unique ministrations, Sarutobi would have placed everything he owned on the team braking. Sasuke had been nothing but vengeance incarnate, Sakura had been a smart fangirl, and Naruto was the village idiot. Yet, Saber had beaten most of the flaws out of their system and, with minimal aide from Kakashi, turned them into a real team.
Saber...the man was up to something, he was sure of it. But what? As far as his Anbu could tell, he was either staying in the Uchiha compound, or he was wandering almost aimlessly in the village. Whatever he was up to, Saber was discrete. Even Danzo had not found anything, or at least found anything important enough to warrant telling his rival. What was going on? Maybe he should have included Saber into the planning process for the village, but no. Saber was an outsider, an outsider who cared, but an outsider none the less. The villages problems were not for foreigners no matter how much they cared.
Sarutobi rubbed his head again while he pulled out some pain killers. This headache was going to kill him before the war did.
It was the night before the exams, and Naruto Dreamed (and Rider watched)
Months fly by after the war. For most people, the strange evens during the two weeks in winter have been forgotten. Lost loved ones are mourned, buried, and left behind as the people move forward. As tragic as death is, people cannot remain in place mourning the lost. Life must move forward, else it will stagnate, and stagnation leads to death. The school is repaired and the students return, and with them come the normal problems civilian teenagers deal with. Love, heartbreak, petty issues, these things are their whole worlds.
But not for Shirou.
His life has become different since the war. So many things had changed since the war, the first of which was Illya...
"Hold still," Taiga yells as she chases Illya round the table.
"Yada," Illya says cheerfully as she dodges the tiger of Fuyuki easily.
"Get back here you demon," Taiga roared
"No way obaasan" Illya yelled causing Taiga to freeze for a second. Suddenly, behind her a giant tiger's face appeared behind Taiga and roared.
"Obaasaan! I'm only in my twenties you brat."
Shirou is in the kitchen making dinner with Sakura while Taiga and Illya romp around the dining room fighting to determine who will have the control of the T.V. Remote. Ever since the war ended, Illya has been staying at Shirou's house.
Well, not staying exactly, Illya has actually been sleeping at Taiga's house after Shirou explained how she was now an orphan. Illya had already explained to him how she was Kiritsugi's biological daughter and therefore, Shirou was her adopted brother. This news was shocking to say the least to Shirou, but he accepted it with a smile. He had family again, and he would do everything he could to take care of his little sister. Still, Shirou was too young to take care of little girls, or at least that's what Taiga said. If Naruto had it figured right, Illya was actually the older sister by about a year. Or was it younger? He was never that good with math to begin with.
Anyways, Illya was basically dragged away from Shirou and force to sleep at the Fujimura residence. That said, unless she was sleeping, she was staying at Shirou's house. Illya was a force that brought some life into that house. Where it had once been a dead place, Illya brought life and light to it. She was forever teasing Shirou, Sakura, and Taiga and having a blast.
Illya would have been sent to school, but she had declared that she was too smart for school. Taiga had then brought home a practice test for college in hopes of proving Illya wrong...only for it to backfire. Illya was smart, like crazy smart. Every test she took she got a hundred percent on. Taiga had bowed her head in shame, then demanded something outrageous to eat from Shirou.
Some things never change.
The second thing that was different was Rin...
A few months after the war, Rin left. No nothing dramatic like dying, instead, she had been accepted into a place called the Clock Tower. From the sound of it, it was clearly a powerful organization of Magi. Apparently, she was accepted into the organization for three reasons. First, she was classified as and Average One. While the title was mediocre sounding, in actuality, it meant that Rin had an affinity with the Five Great Elements, a rare and valued attribute. Second, she was a genius that came only once or twice in a generation. Third, she was a Master, that title of having participated in the Grail War granted her a great deal of clout and respect. She had, after all, summoned a Heroic spirit to fight for her cause. By basically performing a miracle, her application into the tower was approved. She was now accepted into the Clock Tower's Department of Mineralology. Or as Illya called it, "The Boring place where they polish rocks all day long"
Rin had not been amused by Illya's comment to say the least and resulted in much hair pulling and Gandrs shot with little accuracy.
End result, Shirou was hit by two bullets and had to lay down sick as a dog for two days.
Anyways, Rin left for the Tower and told Shirou that he was in charge of watching over her land (Fuyuki) as her proxy while she was away.
As she headed off for her flight, she turned to Shirou.
"Ah, right," She said with a strange, yet kind smile, "It would be a good idea to brush up on the world of magi Shirou." With that, she took out a key and tossed it to him. "Feel free to browse my library and brush up on the facts." Shirou was touched by this gesture. Magi guard their library almost as hard as their workshop. For her to give this to him was a profound gesture.
Which leads directly to the last, and most significant thing that changed since the war.
Shirou...
Before the war, he had been dedicating himself to the eventual conflicts he would face as a hero. His magic was a joke, but he had kept on regardless. Now, with properly working Magic Circuits and a style of magic that worked for him, Shirou's training intensified. He worked out more, pushing his body to new limits. Hundreds of sit ups, push ups, weights, miles of road work, swordsmanship, archery, and above all, Magic.
Where he used to have difficulty even forming a magical circuit, now he was forming weapons, no not weapons, Noble Phantasms. Weapons that could destroy cities in a single swipe, weapons that rode on the wings of death, weapons that inspired either awe or fear. Illya loved watching as he Traced the various weapons of the long forgotten past.
Shirou's archery was, as usual, perfect. He never missed unless he focused on missing. His arrows always went exactly where he wanted them to go. He could, and did once just to try it, put six arrows through each other directly on the bulls eye. It looked like something out of the movies, but that just proved how deadly he was with arrows.
As for his swordsmanship, it was improving., To Naruto, it looked nothing like Saber's perfected style. While it was still based around using countless weapons in an instant, it was sloppy looking. Where Saber was precise on how much of his body was left open, his younger self left too big a hole in his defenses. Not that he could really tell as he didn't have an opponent to face. It appeared that he would have a long road to perfecting his swordsmanship.
When he wasn't training, he was cooking, studying for school, in Rin's library learning of the world of magi, or strangely enough, composing poetry.
Poetry.
When did it start? It was hard to tell, but he was constantly going back and rewriting the same poem. It was like some sort of demon that refused to let up on him until he got it right, whatever it was.
I am one with my sword.
My body is steel and my blood is fire
I will clashed with mighty opponents
Never knowing victory
Nor facing defeat
Yet, I am a hollow sword
For all that I will combat, for all that I will face
She has left me, here in this world
My body is made of swords.
Steel is my Body and Fire is my Blood
I have given up that which I treasure most
unaware of loss, not aware of gain
To fight meaningless battles
Against meaningless enemies
Is this all that is left for me?
Over and over again he wrote the poem in new renditions, new styles, but it always came back. Some were of hope, some were of despair. Some were of the possible future, some were of the past. At times, the style of the poem became so different from the earlier renditions that it stuck out from the others
I can see where I will go, yet not where I have been,
I can see the outside, but I'm blind within.
Fire is my blood, but my heart is cold,
Steel is my bone, but my soul is old.
My hands can feel, but never grasp,
Death is obscure, Life is a rasp,
I cannot hope, I can only pray,
Before Emiya fades away.
But then the poem began seeing something, a phrase, right at the end of the poem. Only those who knew what to look for would understand the significance of it.
I am the bone of my sword
Steel is my body, and fire is my blood
I have created over a thousand blades
Unaware or loss, nor aware of gain
Waiting for ones arrival
This is the only path
My whole life was unlimited blade works
I am the bone of my sword
Steel is my body, and fire is my blood
I have created over a thousand blades
Unaware of her presence, nor aware of her absence
Searching for my destination I have no regrets
This is the only path
My whole life will be an unlimited blade works
Unlimited blade works...both Naruto and Rider recognized it as Saber's Noble Phantasm, his one true Noble Phantasm. It is a fitting name for what Saber is. He is a repository of countless weapons from countless battlefields and wars. Every weapon, every blade perfectly remembered and copied from their forging methods to the people they killed to how they met their ends. He is the recorder of countless heroes both famous and forgotten. What they endured, he remembers. What they fought he recalls. He knows what the heroes of old faced, the decisions they made, and how the heroes died, and he is not afraid to follow in their paths and become a hero himself.
Something was changing in him, something wrong, yet it would also be correct in saying that it was always there to begin with. Shirou had always been...different. Who else would plan from childhood to seriously become a hero? Who else would be willing to live a life of pain and sacrifice for the countless masses who will never fully understand who he is and why he acts the way he does?
Yet, as often as the poems sounded ominous, Shirou was smiling, for he had found hope. In an ancient text covered in dust in Rin's library, he learned of an old legend, the Tale of the Two Lost Lovers. It told of how two people who were separated by time and space could see each other again if two impossible things were met.
One must wait forever, never losing the wish to see the other. No matter how much time passes, that one must continue to patiently wait for the other wishing to see the other again.
The other condition was that one must search forever to find the other. No matter what distractions lay in the way, no matter how much pain and torment the searcher endures, the searcher must continue to look for the one who waits.
Only when these two impossible conditions are met can the two be reunited again.
I have seen where I will go, yet not where I will be
Have witnessed much, but have yet to see
Fire is my blood, and my heart is steady
Steel is my bone, and my soul is ready
My swords will cut, but never rust
Life was false, but in death I trust
I cannot stop, I could not flee
I can only pray that she waits for me.
Impossible, who could wait for eternity never wavering in resolve to see the other again? Who could search forever, enduring who knows how many trials and tribulations to find the other one? No, it was impossible, no one had that kind of resolve, right?
But Shirou believed, he believed that she would wait for him, forever if she had to.
I am the bone of my sword
Iron is my body, and Fire is my Heart
I will overcome countless battlefields
Without retreating, or wavering in resolve
Forever searching for her
As long as she waits, I will fight
Here in Unlimited Blade Works
And so a year passed by...relatively quietly. Anyone who has Taiga visiting on a regular basis has no right to say that the year passed by quietly.
Although, there was this strange incident about six months after the grail war. Everything seemed to be covered in fog for a few days. Everything was hard to see, everything was hard to remember. Was there a man covered in tattoos? Was that an army of shadows? Whatever happened was forgotten, but a woman showed up at the door of Shirou's house for a bit before leaving after the fog lifted. Strange woman, purple hair, business suit and gloves. It looked like she wanted to come in, like she recognized the place, but hesitated and finally left.
Weird woman.
Yet, in the month of February, in an almost anniversary of the Grail War something happened significant happened. Something that changed Shirou's life and ripped out any hope of ordinary days.
The Einzberns arrived.
As fate would have it, Illya was spending the night in the Emiya residence on one of her frequent sleepovers. Shirou was, as usual, in his shed/workshop working on his latest projection when the house alarms went off.
"What the?' Shirou spoke aloud as he dashed out of the house. What he beheld was an old man, six homucli and two other humans. "What are you doing?" Shirou asked as he mentally began tracing various weapons.
"Where is she?" the old man asked.
"Who?" Shirou question.
"Illyasviel von Einzbern. It's time for her to come home."
Shirou blinked, "She is home."
The old's hand twitched and one of the Homuculi dashed forward wielding a massive ax. Shirou's honed reflexes forced his body to roll to the side even as he traced two swords, Kansho and Bakuya. The Homunculus tried again and again to kill him, the creature's strength was beyond human. But then again, so was Shirou's his body was now stronger through his honed magic. As fast as the homunculus was, as strong as it was, Shirou was better. It was an impressive difference from what Shirou had been at the beginning of the Grail war. Where had had once been a flailing meat-shield, now, he was a a competent fighter. Again and again the Homunculus attacked him, and each time he deflected it. Still, compared to Saber's or Archer's forms, this was a pathetic show. Either of the Servants could have easily countered the attacks rather than just parrying them.
Yet, as he was busy, the rest of the group walked towards the house, intent on getting to Illya. No, he would not allow that, Shirou would not allow the last of his family to vanish before his eyes. He focused on his limbs and forced even more magic into them to reinforce them. Beneath his clothes his skin hardened and sharpened. Small jagged points poked through his pants.
Pain
His world was pain, but he couldn't focus on that now. Illya, must focus on Illya. With a mighty swing he cleaved the ax in two on the middle of the shaft and dashed to get in front of the intruders.
"Move." The old man commanded like it was his god given right to.
Instead, Shirou brought his blades up in combat stance. He would not retreat, he would not surrender.
"I am the bone of my sword."
Two of the homunculi dashed forward as soon as they heard the aria. One raised a massive mace while the other swung a giant hammer. He tried, oh how he tried to parry their attacks, but these two were different. The other homunculus was nothing compared to these two. These two were clearly made for combat. Shirou was sent flying backwards into his house in a reverse image of the time he fought Lancer. Shirou flew end over end through the glass on top of the table breaking it in an instant and smashed into a wall.
His side hurt from the blow, but unlike the time with Herakles, his side was not split open. Instead, his side looked, for a second, like countless miniature blades interlocking together. All in all, other than a few bruised organs, he was fine.
"Mugu, what's going on onii-chan?" Illya asked sleepily as she came to the source of the sound. She was dressed in a frilly white night gown that covered most of her body save her feet and hands. In a pure instinctive move, Shirou grabbed Illya and dashed out of the house in the opposite direction of the intruders.
"Eh? Onii-chan? What's wrong?" She asked seeing the seriousness in Shirou's face as he ran out of the house and down the street far faster than any normal human could hope. The world's fastest man would have looked slow compared to Shirou right now.
Illya looked back and her eyes widened. "Stella? Lysritt?"
"Ojou-sama," The two said as they chased Shirou. Behind them were the two combat Homuculus slowly closing the distance. "It's time to go home."
"Ehhhh? But I like it here." Illya moaned ignoring the sheer panic Shirou was in and the seriousness of the artificial humans.
*Sigh* "Ojou-sama, Jubstacheit-sama has ordered your return so that the family may extract the power of the Holy Grail residing in you."
"Yaaadaaa." Illya said sticking out her tongue.
Ignoring the whole thing, Shirou was dashing on rooftops panting all the way. His body, while reinforced, was tiring. He had been sprinting incredible speeds for the past several minutes and was tiring. Looking around, he noticed that he was instinctivly heading to the last place in the world he ever wanted to go.
The church.
Why? Why was he going there? Oh yeah...that was where he was supposed to head if he ever wanted sanctuary from the Grail War...
Well, it would do probably. Kirei was dead, but that room, that dark corridor would be an acceptable place to fight. Long dark hallway, only one way in or out, narrow passages that would impede the giant weapons. Yes, for a last stand, this place would do well; and who knows, maybe the church could give him sanctuary. He'd have to a pay a price or something, but he would not allow the bastards to take his sister away from him. He put on a new burst of speed and burst into the church.
For a brief second he could see someone with long white hair playing on the old organ, but he was moving too fast for him to take more than a glance before he ran straight for the dark staircase. He almost wept when he saw that the staircase had vanished. Clearly the church had found and covered it up.
"Trace on."
In his hands a large white spiral sword appeared. Calaborg, a sword d that could pass through rock like water. With three swings, the floor was broken and the staircase was revealed.
SomEtHIng....iS wRoNg
Go BaCk
ThErE iS nOtHiNg hERe
Seems like the evil of this place had not diminished over the year. Fine, he could work with that. Illya clung to him all the tighter as she could feel the darkness trying to chock the life out of here.
"I don't like this Shirou. This is a bad place."
"I know Illya, I know. But it's the best place to fight right now." Here could hear footsteps running in their direction. Whether it was the white haired person or the enemy he did not know or care at the moment. He had no choice, he made his way down into the darkness holding Illya all the tighter.
The staircase was still as dark as he remembered. All light was sucked out, but he knew the ground, so he could dash down with little risk of falling. No, he would not fall, nothing would hurt Illya. All around him the darkness enveloped them, trying to consume them, but the contact of each other held the evil at bay.
Soon, they were at the bottom. Shirou knew what there was to see, an ancient temple dedicated to death and corruption. So why, why did it feel less threatening than before? Why did the place not smell like death and medicine? Ah, they must have cleaned up the bodies. Still...no creature came hear willingly. No spiders, not ants, no roaches. All living things avoided this place so saturated by the evil of a fallen priest and a mad king.
Tap Tap Tap
He could hear footsteps making their way down. By the sound of it, it was only one person. So either only one was clumsy enough to make noise as they approached, or it was a single person. He placed Illya down and stood at the bottom of the stairway.
"I am the Bone of my Sword." he intoned. In his hands appeared the Sword of Choosing, the Sword of Owed victory, Caliburn. Here in the darkness, it seemed to radiate a light, a warm soothing light that pushed back the darkness.
"Haff, Haff." the one who was descending was breathing heavily. Like the person was tired, or in pain. Shirou stood his ground, sword at the ready. He would die before he let the Einzberns dissect Illya.
"Um, hello there. *Haff Haff* Might I *Haff Haff* ask why you are down *Haff Haff*here? No wait, *Haff Haff* actually how did you know about this place?"
At the edge of his vision came a short woman with long white hair and a red scarf. His magical sense told him that this woman had magic of some sort. While it was hard to tell in the dark, he could see that she was wearing the vestments of the church.
And she was bleeding.
Rather badly actually.
Normally, someone running from death wouldn't' stop to help other people, but this was Shirou. He took off his shirt and ripped it off without a seconds hesitation. He then proceed to tear them into strips for bandages and tossed them to her all the while waiting for the sound of pursuit which was absent at this point and time. Strange, they had been so close before he entered the church. They should have arrived already.
"Ah, arigato." the woman said. "it's the air here, it's bad for me." She made no attempts to affix the bandages to herself however. "My, that's a magnificent sword, so why are you prepared to use it?"
Tap Tap Tap
There it is. Whatever gave the homunculus pause is over.
Here they come.
The woman's eyes noticed how he had tightened up even more. It didn't take a genius to figure out that he was prepared for whoever was coming. As she turned, he grabbed her arm and pulled her back. There was no way he was going to let her get herself killed for his sake.
"Really now Emiya, it's a sin to covet a woman of the cloth."
Emiya? Wait, how did she know him? Had they met before? Had the church been informed about Shirou from the War?
Doesn't matter.
They are here.
Real World
Quietly entering the village unannounced, four individuals entered the village. The were draped in gray cloaks with their hoods covering most of their face, but golden medallions stood out clearly. Two were male, two were female. All looked so similar they had to be related. The guards found the four of them interesting, but their passes checked out. Though why Kiri had any interest in seeing the chunin exams was beyond them.
As soon as they were alone, one of the males spoke up. "There is a great deal of magic here. Mother told us that magic would indicate others."
The others nodded and silently split up. They had a job to do find any Servants and call mother with their medallions when they found one. Mother would see what they saw and hear what they heard.
They would not fail mother.
Author's Note:
Right, sorry for the delay, but college was kicking my ass. I finally finished my finals and went to work on this chapter. As a heads up, I do have college next quarter. Twelve hour clinical four days a week and eight hours of lecture one day a week. So...my updates will be few and far between for a while.