Broken Faith

by Kur0Kishi

Betrayed by Konoha at the end and sealed into oblivion. Given a second chance at a childhood in a different world can Naruto rebuild his faith in humanity. A somewhat darker Naruto than most i've read on site, not dark emo, just dark. -First Naruto/Negima fic to reach Mundus Magicus and be considered complete. Sequel in progress-

30. Daybreak's Epilogue

Broken Faith Chapter 30

Daybreak's Epilogue

Disclaimer : I don't own anything. All source material belongs to their respective creator/author/artist.

Alright, nice long chapter for the readers.

Broken Faith is now exactly one year old, not to mention, we finally hit 1k reviews AND we finally get to Mundus Magicus for real in this chapter. Not bad for a birthday huh? Don't congratulate me yet though, wait until AFTER you finish the chapter.

Hehehe...

Soundtrack List

Rie Tanaka – Fields of Hope

Angel Beats OST – Ichiban no Takaramono – Karuta ver

D-Technolife – UVERWORLD

ALTIMA – Burst the Gravity

Yuna Ito – My Heart Will Go On

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann OST – Libera Me from Hell

****Broken Faith****

Play Rie Tanaka – Fields of Hope

Asuna gently kneeled down beside the Japanese tea table in Evangeline's living room, with Ayaka on the other side, her back to a wall.

"Thanks Iincho, I owe you one." The red headed girl happily thanked her friend as she gave the contents of a yellow folder with a picture of a mature looking red head on the front a quick glance through.

"It's nothing. It's for Negi after all." Ayaka gently replied as she stroked her hand through soft green hair.

"That is... Chachamaru right? Is she alright?" Asuna inquired softly, staring at the gynoid who looked blatantly like a ten year old girl and appeared to be napping on Ayaka's lap.

"She's fine. She's just using an obsolete model so her batteries run out faster than usual and she needs to rest more. It seems like her real body is being upgraded in preparation for your trip to the Magic World." The golden haired girl quietly replied.

Her friend knitted her brows, "That makes it sound like you're really set on not coming with us. Are you sure? This is for Negi after all." She glanced to a corner of the room where another blonde was peacefully sleeping with a dozing Makie on his chest and a small ball of fur curled up in her arms, "Naruto isn't coming either is he?" She added with some disappointment.

"Well..." Ayaka smiled wryly, "I want to come, but ever since Naruto somehow miraculously made friends with him, my father seems set on grooming me to be the heir of his company. If you ask me though, I think he's just happy to get another male in the family. At any rate, I will be busy training for the most part, although I'll try to make it before the holidays end. Naruto is going though, didn't you know?"

Her jaw dropped comically with an accusing finger at the sleeping blonde, "Eh?! Negi told me he wasn't coming!" causing her childhood friend to roll her eyes, "Then it either didn't get through your thick head properly, or he told you wrong. The idiot's going, but he has a mission or something else to do but he can be contacted if you need him. He says that he will meet up with you guys as soon as he finishes whatever his client asked him to do. Probably before I arrive so, we'll have some time for sightseeing before we return." She added thoughtfully.

The two of them fell into a reticent atmosphere; Ayaka was content to wait for her friend to breach the subject on her own terms while she slowly stroked her new pseudo sister's glossy hair, serenely watching the pond while the red head took a closer look at the contents of the folder.

After a few minutes of uncomfortable fidgeting, her friend finally spoke, carefully keeping her eyes on the investigation report in front of her. "You seem really... different. More... mellow." She gestured at the blonde girl, "Even the way you seem to dress lately seems different. No offence, but before you always dressed elaborately like you had something to prove, standing out to the point that it was almost abrasive."

"Really?" Ayaka replied easily with a brief check of her casual attire, a simple pale pink shirt and white skirt, her long hair tied in a long motherly pony tail that drooped down her front, "I guess it is a little different from usual. In a way, I don't have anything to prove anymore. I'm happy to be who I am, happy to stay at home where people appreciate me no matter what I wear or how I act." Ayaka commented with a casual shrug.

"Is that why you're not hiding the fact that you knew about magic from me anymore?" Asuna muttered, wincing a little at the hint of accusation that made its way into her voice.

Ayaka shook her head with a throaty chuckle, "That doesn't really have much to do with it; I might have known magic existed, but to me, magic was the reason my mother died. And it's not like I could actively use magic anyway, so I did everything I could do disassociate myself with it." She grinned mischievously, "Though I have to admit, watching you frantically scramble to try and hide it from me, was rather hilarious."

"I take it back. You haven't changed at all." Asuna grumbled as her friend laughed her typical noble lady's laugh, "Why is he so tired by the way?" a red headed girl lowly whispered to her best friend, who simply quirked one eyebrow in return and motioned at the identical plain silver promise bands on their ring fingers.

"Chachamaru told me that getting those rings weren't easy and he had to ask for a lot of favours."

Asuna's thoughts immediately went to the plain golden band, decorated with a ruby red gem that seemed to glow with an innate fire, that she kept in its velvet box deep in her safest, most secret hiding place, under so many locks and chains that not even Konoka's horrifyingly powerful combination spells wouldn't be able to blast through it. Probably.

"So he was pretty much running errands for more than two weeks straight. Then after that, he was spending time with Makie because he didn't have the chance to bring her up to date since everything kept happening so fast. He more or less ran himself into the ground, trying to keep everybody happy." Ayaka smiled lovingly at the blonde, "Stupid idiot."

Seeing the affection Ayaka had for the blonde caused the red head to feel slightly envious, "You're really serious about him aren't you?"

Turquoise eyes turned to regard her inscrutably, "Aren't you?"

Her mismatched eyes could not bear to see the confidence they lacked in Ayaka's and carefully looked down at the glint of silver on her finger, playing with the silver band on her finger, "I... I don't know. You are not even going to consider that he won't be completely devoted to you? Not to mention we aren't even 16 yet..."

She nodded, carefully choosing her words, as sincerely and honestly as possible, "I am willing to accept that. Like I said, he knows that and admits that it's unfair to us, but at the same time, but seeing him strive so hard to keep us happy..."

She smiled softly, her golden hair flowing peacefully in the soft breeze, "Even I am not cold hearted and selfish enough to punish him or those that have done nothing wrong but have feelings for him, so I wish that we can all be happy together. That includes you, Asuna. Of course, that doesn't mean I'm not going to knock his block off if he tries to chase more skirts." She added with a ruthlessly cold grin that caused the blonde sleeping in a corner to unconsciously shiver.

Suddenly Chachamaru yawned a cute "Muuu..." and the green haired slowly got up from Ayaka's lap with a stretch, though the fact that her eyes were clear and sharp told Asuna that she had been more or less listening in on the conversation, even in sleep mode.

Must be useful, being able to sleep in class and take notes at the same time, Asuna mused.

"Ah, you're awake." Ayaka greeted the gynoid cheerfully and poured her a cup of hot tea that was received with a grateful nod.

"He told you didn't he?" Chachamaru directed her words at the third member of their trio, continuing the conversation despite not even being an active participant until now, "He isn't asking for an answer now, that promise ring he gave us," she motioned at the silver band, "It's a promise that he sincerely wants to be with us and that he will wait for us to properly decide and treat us as we deserve in the meantime. If we chose not to accept, well..." she shrugged carelessly, "It's up to you. I'm not going to force either of you to make that choice."

The golden haired heiress nodded in agreement and slowly leaned over to gently take Asuna's trembling hand, "My reasons are similar to Chachamaru's but I just want you to know, this warm feeling in my heart when I'm with him, with Chachamaru, Negi, Akako and even Evangeline. I want you to feel it with me. We're best friends aren't we? And I'm certainly not going to offer something like this to someone I don't know."

"I..."

The blonde in the corner gave a particularly loud snore, causing the three girls to stifle snorts and break out into helpless giggles as the mood was completely broken.

"Stupid idiot."

"Agreed."

"That's why he needs us three to keep him in line I guess." Asuna wryly commented.

"Oh that reminds me," The gynoid rummaged around in the small bag hanging on her yukata's obi before pulling out a handful of small brooches, "Master asked me to pass these to the Negima Club. Make sure everyone has one and are wearing them when we go to the Festival tonight. She also said that anyone who loses their badge before we leave for England shall be forced to leave the club."

"Ehh! Why?!"

"I am unsure, although I noted that she placed an unusual emphasis on that particular caveat." The gynoid smiled slyly, "I am also not supposed to mention that the fact that she was talking to the rest of 3-A and that she told them that they could have the slot of whoever's badge was taken."

"That evil vampire!"

The blonde girl interrupted them with a chuckle, "Maa... why not go along with it? It sounds fun, and we can test if the Negima Club are strong enough to handle Magicus Mundus. I mean if they can't even keep a brooch safe from a group of school girls, that's a little disappointing isn't it?"

****Broken Faith****

"Uwahh... this isn't even a fight. It's a frigging massacre." Makie sweat dropped as she nibbled at a cloud of cotton candy, watching the remaining members of 3-A who hadn't been inducted into the Negima Club get thrown around like sandbags, "Neh, Akako?"

"Muuu!" was the happy and muffled reply.

"Right... you're not even paying attention." She murmured with another sweat drop at the small girl who only came up to her waist, gobble down a cloud of cotton candy in one hand and a toffee apple in another, "I'm so dead if Naruto-sensei finds out I let you eat that much sweets."

"Makie! What are you doing!? Help us get those badges!" A flustered Yuuna yelled at the pink haired girl as she was rebuffed by a grinning Haruna with ease.

As soon as Asuna had dryly relayed the situation to the rest of the Negima Club, they had all surprisingly and uproariously approved of the competition, even timid Nodoka had smiled confidently. In fact, they even arrived at the festival in full battle formation, dressed in cute and beautiful kimonos with their respective white wing brooches proudly pinned to the front.

In the deadpan words of 3-A's infamous philosopher as she fended off the Narutaki twins' ambush with a discreet wind spell, "Epic fail."

"Ahaha, gomen, gomen. I'm babysitting Akako you see. So I can't help!"

"What's wrong with you and Iincho?! Don't you two want to join the Negima Club?! This is for your precious Negi-sensei you know!?"

Makie pursed her lips to stop herself from bursting into laughter and hurried away with the small fox girl at her side, "Mah, it's not like I need to join." She muttered quietly to herself, "But it's kinda sad seeing them try so hard and not get to join... Maybe I should ask Iincho to let them come on the beach trip with us..."

A tiny brooch, shaped like the mirror image of the ones Yuuna and co. were so desperately trying to steal, only these ones were made of jet black onyx, was a black wing that glinted proudly on the front of her's and Akako's kimono.

****Broken Faith****

"Ah! It's the BEACCCCHHHH!" A group of extremely excitable girls dressed in bikinis, most of them from the class 3-A of Mahora Academy dashed out in to the water without hesitation.

"Oi! Shouldn't you be thanking me before you lot just you jump into the water like that?! I'm the one that let all of you come with me after all."

"Thank you, Iincho!"

Ayaka sweat dropped, "It's a little half hearted... but whatever! Ohohohoh!"

Negi's jaw dropped all to way to the sand as he surveyed the beach filled with brightly coloured umbrellas and swim suits of all kinds with wide eyes, "Wh-why are we suddenly at the beach? What's with this sudden development?!"

A voice spoke from behind him, "Meh... Isn't it fine? Besides we need to have fun after all..." The red head dropped to her knees with a haunted look in her eyes as she started trembling violently, "Or rather... I'd do anything just to get away from that nightmarish, hellish, training for just a while. That crazy bitch is worse than Naruto when it comes to training; at least he wasn't actively trying to kill me...I think."

"Ahaha..." Negi chuckled awkwardly as the memories of his own training sessions with Evangeline and Naruto returned with a vengeance, "That is uh... Evangeline-sensei's way of showing affection? Still, I'm surprised you let everyone come. I expected you to at least protest. Loudly."

She glared at him, "Is that how you really think of me? Loud?" when Negi began to stutter a denial, she rubbed her temples and she got up, waving away his stutter, "Ignoring your little word vomit there, stopping them from coming along is too troublesome, at least this way we can keep our eye on them."

"You expect them to cause trouble?" Negi questioned with a quirk of the brow.

"Not trouble per se. I just think they can get a little too excited without realizing how dangerous things can be sometimes." Asuna replied easily.

"Heeh... Even if you look like that, you sound really mature nowadays."

A vein popped on Asuna's forehead as she towered over the ten year old teacher with a dark aura of pain, "So... that's how you really see me huh? Loud, immature and flat?"

"Hiiii! Sorry! Wait, I never said anything about flat!"

Asuna began cracking her knuckles, "You implied it."

"Ma, ma..." Negi's ass was saved from getting spit roasted by Haruna who suddenly appeared behind Asuna with an eerie grin causing the red haired girl to shiver as if something cold was slithering up and down her spine, "Negi-boya has a point, and you have to admit it though, you and Ayaka have been really weird lately, well not weird, just more calm and confident sort of feel." She giggled evilly; her gossip detector was going off the charts around the red head, "Maybe you two... love?"

The rest of 3-A students within hearing range immediately closed in upon the word love, save Ayaka who began rubbing at her temples, feeling the incoming headache.

"Sa... You can tell Haruna-baa chan, no one else find out, I promise. Kukukuku..."

Asuna tried to backpedal, a brilliant blush on her face, only to find that her escape route had been cut off by a pair of grinning twins that wound themselves on her arms, "Do-don't be stupid, it's nothing like that!"

"Hora, hora... Ah... maybe... Naruto? You've been getting close with that quiet guy haven't you? How far have you gone with him?" Haruna countered with a lewd grin.

The blush threatened to turn volcanic, "Wha-wha-what are you talking about, you stupid hentai!? We haven't gone ANYWHERE, he JUST proposed!"

The jaws of every one of her classmates simultaneously hit the ground with a crack.

"Ah..."Hello, headache, my name is Ayaka.

Eyes bulged all around the chagrined girl, whatever they had been expecting; it wasn't a bold declaration like that.

"..."

"..."

[Ding Ding Ding!]

Yue immediately punched Haruna with an upper cut, "Why didn't you turn your damn phone off for such an important moment!"

"I mean... I uh... GAAAH!" Asuna wrenched her arms free from the slack grip of the Narutaki twins and made her escape, face absurdly red, filled with a strange mix of embarrassment and horror.

Negi watched her go with amusement when he felt something burning the back of his neck, almost as if there was a whole group of predators behind him. When he spun around, he immediately started sweating bullets, "Why... why are you all looking at me like that? Why do I feel like a slab of meat?"

When Yue, Haruna, and everybody else started advancing on him with all the force of a group of predators hungry for gossip, Negi decided that Asuna had the right idea. In other words, he turned tail and ran away as fast as possible.

As one they spun around to find their class president. She was missing too.

"Ah! They ran away! Everyone spread out! I want to know what proposal she was talking about!" Haruna began issuing orders like an experienced commander, a flat out creepy, hungry glint in her eyes, "Hunt them down. Dead or alive!"

****Broken Faith****

Play Angel Beats OST - Ichiban no Takaramono Karuta ver

Asuna slammed the door to her room shut behind her and slowly collapsed onto her butt, sagging in relief with a small sigh as the sounds of her classmates footsteps faded away down the hall way, "That was a close one..."

"Is there something wrong?" the other occupant of the room inquired with a vaguely amused tone as he slowly ran one hand up and down Akako's back.

Asuna immediately jumped, completely unaware that he was still here, she had assumed that the blonde was already out on the bleach, "N-no!" the heat in her cheeks which had been slowly fading away, returned with a vengeance as she scrambled back to her feet, feeling highly conscious of herself especially since she was still in her swimsuit, "Wha-what are you still doing here anyway?"

Naruto shrugged, the blonde was sitting beside the window, leaning on the wall with a dozing Akako on his lap, "She got really excited on the plane. Fell asleep as soon as we touched down. I fully expect her to be up and jumping again the moment she wakes up." Naruto finished with a wry grin, ruffling Akako's soft fox ears with exceptional gentleness, causing the vibrations coming from her throat to sound just that little bit louder. They flicked back as the sleeping girl unconsciously tried to make him rub her ears harder by pushing upwards.

The red head with the bells in her hair slowly shuffled over to the blonde, carefully petting the small girl's hair with gentle strokes as well, "Don't be so harsh on her. It was her first time on a plane and I think it's the same for the beach isn't it?"

"You try being the one to stop her from jumping around the plane. She was so excited she almost lost hold of her transformation a few times." Naruto shot back easily, "Wasn't as easy as it looked."

Asuna pursed her lips, "I haven't seen her in full fox form lately, why is that?"

Naruto nodded slowly with a brief, half hidden wince, "It's probably because of us, those closest to her heart. We wear these forms, so she wants to fit in more. She's not truly comfortable with a full human form yet, that's why she still has her tail and ears, though I suspect she'll lose them fully after a few years... if she stays with us."

Before the red head could ask what he meant, the fox girl in question awoke with a cute yawn, showing off her tiny fangs. Ruby red eyes flicked around the room with feral wariness before landing on the two people leaning above her, causing the sharpness in them to soften dramatically. Clambering out of her pseudo father's lap, she looked around the room before remembering where she was. Instantly, the small girl dashed for the door, dreaming of the wide open oceans and treasures that lay behind that paper door, only to be dashed like glass on rocks when she was hauled up by her exasperated father, "Not yet. You have to get dressed before you can go out."

The small fox girl pouted adorably at the other person in the room as she shook a small fist at the wryly grinning blonde, "Swim! Papa won't let me go!"

"You have to put on your swim suit first, Akako," Asuna crooned at the small girl who nodded reluctantly, "Come here, I'll put it on for you, then we can go together, alright?"

Naruto rolled his eyes, as the small red headed girl obediently toddled her way towards Asuna and lifted her chubby arms up for Asuna to properly pull up the swimwear, "Why in the world does she obey you more than she does me? For that matter, why does she obey Ayaka and Chachamaru more than she does me as well?"

"It needs a woman's touch." The red head replied smugly as she picked up the fox girl who was contentedly nuzzling her hair, "Can we err... go somewhere else other than the main beach? I want to avoid the others for a while." She admitted with a blush.

Naruto, who was just about to pick up a carry bag containing some of Akako's clothes and essentials, quirked an eyebrow at her, "What for?"

"I might have accidentally let it slip that you uh... you know..." Asuna made vague waving motions with the one not carrying Akako.

"Know what?" the blonde replied blankly.

She rolled her eyes and lifted up her left ring finger with an embarrassed glare at the dense blonde.

"Ah..." a hurt look crossed his face, so brief that Asuna had to wonder if she hadn't imagined it, "If you don't want them to know, you don't really have to wear it." He noted blandly as he walked out of the room and bumped into a rather wild eyed Negi hiding behind a potted plant.

Naruto blinked, "Oook... I assume you're being chased as well?"

"This is your fault." His adopted brother hissed like an angry cat, Naruto on the other hand, found it adorably cute, "All of them are looking at me as if they were waiting for something."

The blonde rolled his eyes and placed his hand on the smaller boy's shoulder along with the red head and teleported them to a out of the way cove that he had noticed during their track to the hotel from the airport, "You should be safe here. Assuming they don't find a way to track us."

Akako practically leapt out of Asuna's hands and raced into the crashing waves with an enthusiasm befitting a child of her age, if a little overboard.

While the small girl began splashing Negi with sea water, Naruto himself simply found a nice shaded spot under a rock and pulled out a scroll and a pair of glasses. Asuna arched an eyebrow as the blonde slipped the glasses onto his nose and peered at the scroll, jotting down some notes with a pen, "Didn't we come to the beach to relax? Why are you studying now of all times?"

She sat down beside him with a long suffering sigh, "I was expecting Negi to be the one giving me trouble with his stupidly serious attitude, instead I you're the one doing homework on the beach?"

"I'm not studying," He replied without looking up, "It's a side project. A rather interesting one actually, it's an original energy conversion seal. However, the person who designed this was a certified mad man. He is pretty creative, but still a mad man."

"Humph? Asuna grunted lowly as she parked herself beside her fiancée, "Why do you say that?"

"It's the formula that Chao Lingshen used as a base for her own seal, since she didn't have any chakra of her own, she forced the seal to burn her body and soul as a power source instead. The original seal isn't that much different...There's not a single failsafe in this design, if he had activated this thing, every single bit of his reserves would have gushed out of his body like a broken dam and forcefully turned into magic, sort of over loading a light bulb. In that one instant, there would probably be nothing he could not achieve, even rewriting time and space, but he would have died when his body and soul burnt out. So he either didn't plan to live past activation or it was never finished." Naruto grinned blandly, "Personally, I'm betting it was a mixture of both."

"Why would someone make something like that?" She inquired quietly, "As long as you are alive you can keep trying, if you plan to die you only have that one shot. What if you mess it up?"

"I'm not sure." Naruto admitted reluctantly, truth be told, he truly did not understand what the future him found so pressing. Furthermore, he knew that the future Naruto had at least gotten married, or he would not have had descendants. He had a family to look after, he apparently had goals; to free the nine trapped Bijuu's, and if he went by what Chao had told him, to give Chachamaru true humanity. What did he have left to reconcile with, that was so urgent that his own life was nothing but another tool?

"Mah, it's not really a problem. I just thought that it was an interesting concept."

"Interesting concept? I seem to remember a certain someone thinking his life wasn't worth anything either though..." Asuna chirped teasingly.

"I was afraid of dying. It's one thing to know that everyone will die but another to actually find yourself looking at it straight in the face." The blonde shrugged with a smile, "I'd say I was entitled to act stupid for a day or two."

"Dying? Looking at it straight in the face?" Asuna echoed blankly before she grabbed him by the cheeks and pulled his scared blue orbs up to her own blazing ones, "I was talking about your cavalier treatment towards your own body during the tournament but you said it wasn't lethal. Now that brings up the question of What. Exactly. Were. You talking about? Why wasn't I told anything about this?!" she began shaking the blonde in her hands like ragdoll, punctuating each of her words.

'Open mouth, insert foot,' Naruto internally thought as he began sweating bullets, blood draining from his face as he realized his slip up, "I might have uh... been dying because of a problem with my seal for a week or so? Ehe?"

"Dying?" Asuna echoed with a dangerous glint in her eyes, "Care to elaborate, my 'dangerously-close-to-getting-castrated-with-a-blunt-SPOON' future husband?"

Naruto whimpered pitifully and decided that proposing to three very stubborn, sharp and strong willed women probably wasn't a very good idea for his manhood's general safety, "I wasn't supposed to wake up, but since I did and the seal keeping me buried under the World Tree didn't react very well to that. It was going to destroy me and everything around me until the World Tree itself... or rather Akane," He pulled out the Empty Throne's Pactio card with trembling hands.

Emblazoned on its front was the almost lifelike portrait of a beautiful red head sitting under a massive tree, a sword cradled in her arms, as jewel like ruby eyes dreamily gazed into the sky. The words that usually designated the Pactio's Magistra Magi on the reverse side was conspicuously absent, "I'm not very clear about what really happened either," He admitted shamefully, "Whoever it was, granted me a pactio that circumvented the seal. It, in general manner of speaking, stabilized and repaired the seal before turning it dormant. For all intents and purposes, I'm completely free and have access to all of my former skills and powers as long as the Nihil et Regnum is in Burst Mode."

The red head gave him a shrewd glare as she seemed to internally weigh his answer for any hint of deception, when she failed to find any, she let go of his cheeks with a grunt and sat down with her knees drawn up to her chest, choosing instead, to vent her anger on the crashing waves with a fierce glower, "Does Chachamaru and Ayaka know?" She asked in a piercing tone, even the tinkling of the bells in her hair managed to sound angry.

The blonde gingerly poked at his bruising cheeks, mutely shaking his head in a negative gesture, "I... didn't want to make any of you worry. And I received the Patio before Ayaka joined us anyway, so it wasn't an issue."

"Wasn't an issue?" Naruto gulped when the piercing stare switched from the ocean and figuratively pinned his about-to-be-roasted ass to the sand, "Is that how you see us? Mere obstacles and decorations?" the blonde tried to protest her words but a single look from the furious girl told him that it was a rhetorical question and caused him to obediently shut his mouth up with an audible click, "You expect to us to sit at home and knit while you hide things from us so that we don't worry about you? Am I the only one here that understands how stupidly and pointlessly dramatic that sounds?"

She let out a barely audible whisper, filled with hurt, "What are we to you? Or is that you think we're not capable enough to stand beside you, so you shouldn't put even more burdens n our shoulders as well?"

"No! I... I'm sorry. I have no excuse..." Naruto mumbled a contrite apology, looking properly chastised in a dogeza.

Asuna simply sighed in frustration, "Just don't do it again. If you have a problem, tell us. We are NOT some stupid decorations for you to save." Asuna slouched down to hide a radiant blush, "Yo-you proposed to us didn't you? That's a real ma-ma-mar-partnership is supposed to work isn't it, you stupid fool. How do you think we will feel when we find out that you've been hiding everything, suffering everything on your own?"

The old shinobi scratched the side of his nose embarrassedly, "Understood."

She gave another tired sigh of exasperation, half wondering if this was what Chachamaru had to put up with all the time, "I won't tell Chachamaru or Ayaka. I don't think you would survive what they will do to you if they found out you were hiding something like this from them." She turned to glare at him again, "But you are sure that there is no problem anymore right?"

"I promise. It won't happen again." Her fiancée replied softly before leaning in to slowly peck her on the cheek.

A blushing Asuna turned her face away before reluctantly leaning in towards him with half lidded eyes.

"ANYA FLAME BUSTER KIIICK!"

"..."

"..."

"I'm going to drown whoever that is."

"I'll help." A furiously red Asuna who had somehow learned how to teleport muttered from the other side of the cove.

****Broken Faith****

A rather familiar looking small girl, slightly taller than Negi with her hair tied in two pigtails similar to Asuna's, sat in the shallow water, a few wisps of smoke rising from her smouldering clothes, an equally smoking glare directed at a startled looking Negi, "Anya?! What are you doing here?"

The smoking girl grabbed his arm and began to pull, "I finally found you, Negi!"

"What? What are you doing here? Whe-where are you taking me?"

An even smaller red haired girl with pout grabbed Negi's other hand and began to match Anya's grip on the child teacher, with Negi being strung up in the middle. The two girls matched glares and began to tug harder.

Negi began turning blue from the pressure from his arm sockets.

"Is this why you haven't gone back to Nekane-onee chan's house huh?! I'm nice enough to go all the way to Mahora to find you, you weren't there. I searched all over the place before I finally find you and what do I find? You, out here flirting with a little girl? Besides it's illegal Negi! She's not even 10!" Anya started sweating as the tiny girl that was barely tall enough to reach her shoulders actually began winning the tug of war with her deceptively small body.

"Stop pulling Negi-jii san! We were playing you stupid girl!"

"Who are you calling stupid, someone still wearing diapers like you doesn't have the right to call me that!"

"She's... my NIECE!" Negi choked out, desperate to keep his body in one piece. He swore he heard his bones giving way over the voices of the two girls bickering with each other.

Her eyes bulged and her grip on Negi slackened, causing Akako and Negi to go flying into the water with a loud splutter, "Ni...ece?" She knew that Negi had no relatives or siblings... which meant... "You got mar-mar-Corrupted ALREADY? I knew letting you come to a place like this was a bad idea!"

The young boy began rubbing at his temples and gave his childhood friend, who was currently in the middle of a nervous breakdown, a gimlet stare, "Why was me being corrupted, the first thing that comes to your mind? And no, I'm not married." He cut her off before she could begin ranting again, "She's Naruto-nii san's adopted daughter."

Anya furrowed her brows, "Whose daughter?"

Negi motioned to something behind her with a jerk of his chin; Anya felt a shadow slowly being thrown on to her from above.

Anya's eyes drifted up from a pair of orange swimming trunks, a lean and nicely shaped torso, a sharp and lean jaw line before finally landing on cheeks with 3 scars one each side and an creepily smiling face fitted with clear blue eyes and blonde hair and a rather beautiful red head standing beside him, "May I know why you're bullying my daughter?"

"Nagi-jii san...?"

"Not exactly.

"Why did you dye your hair a stupid colour like that?"

"Excuse me?!"

"And why did you tattoo your cheeks with something so stupid looking?"

Naruto's jaw opened and closed soundlessly, beside him Asuna collapsed to her knees and held her trembling sides tightly, desperately trying and failing not to start laughing hysterically.

"Oh... No wonder you look more idiotic than Nagi-jii san." A vein popped on Naruto's forehead, the young girl continued dismissively, disregarding what she had just said, "Wait, brother?"

"Yeah. Dad... sort of adopted him into the family." Negi remarked blandly as he carried a pouting Akako back onto dry land.

Anya started looking like she was going into overload; steam was even rising from her head, "Hu-huh? You met Nagi-jii san?"

"Long story." Both brothers remarked flatly, "Just think of it as a long lost cousin from his mother's side of the family." Naruto finished vaguely.

She blushed shyly, "Oh, so you were the one that Nagi wrote about in his letter to Nekane-onee chan..." the small girl who was a head taller than Akako politely bowed deeply, doing a complete attitude change from barely a moment ago, "I'm really sorry about the fuss and I thank you for taking care of this idiot for me and Nekane-onee sama."

She smiled sweetly while a tick mark appeared on his forehead, "I'm looking forward to having you in the family, Naruto-JII san."

"BWAHAHAHAHA!"

****Broken Faith****

Play D-Technolife – UVERWORLD

"Wooooah! Where is this?!" a small red haired girl, Anya looked around in wide eyed enthusiasm. She had stepped through a small inconspicuous looking portal in a shabby cabin onlyto find herself in the middle of a massive castle overlooking a massive tropical forest and perched on the side of a majestic waterfall. She ran over to the railing and peered down, seeing the basin of a waterfall, nearly 30 feet below her, yet the sounds of crashing water and spray of foam and mist still managed to reach her face.

Then she heard the flapping of large wings, a high speed shadow cut its way across the pavilion, followed by the shadow of a boy on a broom. Red wonder filled eyes looked upwards at where a focused Negi was chasing a flying Setsuna.

'Sattica Magica; 17 Arrows of Light!' a shower of white arrows made of light blasted out of Negi's outstretched palm, angling towards the girl in front of him, soaring on white wings. Without hesitation, her wings flapped powerfully and unfurled to their maximum width, sending the girl flipping over skywards and backwards until she was directly behind a young boy with red hair. Another flap of her powerful wings sent her rocketing straight for her teacher.

Negi glanced backwards, his body as tense as a wound string as he waited for the half youkai behind him to get closer and closer. Just as her sword reached its arc and began its descent towards his back, the young teacher simply disappeared with a faint chuckle.

Setsuna's eyes widened as she automatically banked to the left in order avoid a direct hit to the back of her neck, "Not bad Negi-sensei, you mastered Empty Air Instant Movement already."

"That wasn't all I mastered, Setsuna-san, don't let your guard down." She heard a faint voice from directly above her reach her ears. Instinctively, Setsuna spun, a foot that was wreathed in electricity barely missing her wings, as it was, a stray tendril had managed to hit one of her feathered limbs. Swaying slightly in the air with one slightly numb wing, Setsuna could only grin as the next part of Negi-sensei's staggered combo was launched, a direct and fully powered Raika Houken at her chest.

Staggering slightly, Setsuna threw her blade up into the sky and gathered KI in the palm of her fist, "Orou Gekka!" and caught the crushing fist with one palm before smiling softly. Without a word she twisted the fist in her hand so that the younger boy unbalanced and her wings flapped, sending her shoulder into Negi's chest. The Half youkai finished her gasping teacher and slammed the heel of her palm into his chin, "Zankuushou!"

Just as she thought she was about to win, Negi twisted in mid air and wrapped his legs around her neck, dragging her downwards with him, the two of them struggled to use the other's body as a landing pad with kidney punches, bites and scratching.

Anya winced as the two of them crashed into the ground with a massive boom that threw up a spray of fine mist.

"You've really improved Negi-sensei. Your use of the Hollow Truth was magnificent."

"Is that what they're calling cheating nowadays?" a rather sore and bruised Negi muttered as he clambered out of the crater with his student's arm slung around his shoulder.

"It's waay better than what he wanted to originally call it; Naruto's School of Bullshitting. It's no fun if you just say you are feinting and cheating isn't it? Besides I notice that your movements are no longer as direct and blunt as they used to be." Setsuna replied with a grin. The Hollow Truth was concept that their blonde mentor had taught to them, in essence, the concept simply meant that not everything one saw was the truth. A punch could be hiding a kick, and a block could be hiding a punch. It could also be summarized as 'If there was an opening, take it and make the bastard hurt.'

"Wha-wha-what was that!? What kind of high level combat was that? Was it an illusion?!" An anxious Anya darted over to him and began to pat down his body, as if trying to convince herself that he was really hurt, and it had been a real battle, "Ho-how? I've never even see movements like that, even in high class duelling textbooks."

"Our teachers don't exactly use a textbook. " Negi mumbled.

"They'd have to make it 18 and above if they did." Setsuna giggled lightly.

"Where is he anyway?"

"I think he was having one last spar with Evangeline-sensei before we left for Wales." An approaching Asuna replied easily.

Anya scratched the back of her head, "Why does Evangeline sound so familiar?" she slowly began to pale, "Wa-wait, Ev-evangeline? The Undead Mage? The Maga Nosferatu that was sealed under Mahora by your father?"

Negi nodded easily as he waved one hand around the sprawling estate, "Who else do you think can create a dimensional pocket of this size and complexity?"

"Ne-Negi! You don't know how scary she is! W-we have to get out of he-GHurk!?"

A massive Shuriken, twice as tall as her buried itself deep into the ground, one of four blades, proof of how hard the man sized thing had been thrown, quivered directly in front of her wide eyes. She could see a thread of red hair hanging from the blade.

Her own hair.

A girl with narrow eyes and dressed in some sort ninja like uniform darted out of the trees with a sheepish look on her face, "Oh! I'm sorry-degozaRUUU!?"

A shorter girl with tanned skin leapt out of the trees from behind her, taking advantage of the apologizing girl's inattentiveness to kick her in the back.

Kaede slammed in to a wall hard enough to crack it and was subsequently buried under the mass of rubble.

"Kyaaah! Someone save her!"

"Aru? Kaede is fine-aru. She gets worse injuries every other day."

"How can getting buried under tonnes of rock get any worse!?" A rather hysterical Anya shouted at the short and tanned girl with Chinese buns decorating her hair.

"Hahaha, it's my miss for not paying attention. That was a good kick Ku-degozaru." A rather cheery Kaede popped up from under the rubble, blood fountaining heavily from her temple, without even missing a beat.

"Hiiii!? She's bleeding to death! What's wrong with all of you!?"

"It's ok Anya-chan." A girl dressed in a nurse uniform with long straight hair, appeared beside Kaede wielding what Anya realized was a practice wand. Konoka gave the trembling red head a creepy smile complete with hidden eyes, "I can heal you. As long as you're not dead... Or your head hasn't exploded yet. Hehehe... So go ahead and get hurt more..."

As the gathered group of girls stood there watching Anya run away, screaming her head off about devils and monsters, Asuna slapped a palm to her forehead, "This was Naruto's plan wasn't it? He's the only one I know that is petty enough to hold a grudge for so long."

As one her friends all nodded and followed Anya with wide grins, even Negi had one, albeit a slightly guilty one, eager to watch the show.

A panting Anya ran down a desolate corridor until she found a thick wooden door at the very end. Panicking, she slipped through the slightly open door and shut it before sagging down onto the floor, "Wha-wha-what is wrong with this place? It's filled with all sorts of monsters!"

Gathering her breath, she shakily stood up and slowly walked forwards, muttering to herself, "That's right, I have to save Negi from this place. Who knows what kind of weirdo he'll become if he stays in a place filled with weirdos like that..." She glanced around her, "Where is this anyway?"

It was a large circular chamber; the ceiling was so high up that she could barely even see it through the dark lighting. The ominous atmosphere and flickering torches set all around the walls reminded her of a boss chamber in those videogames that her friends liked to play, "Th-this isn't where the Undead Mage stays is it? Ahaha..."

A face loomed out of the darkness, inches in front of her nose; the face was exquisitely, inhumanly beautiful, blonde hair whipping in the nonexistent wind like tentacles, "You called?"

"Keeee!"

Play ALTIMA – Burst the Gravity

She turned to run away only to find herself once again, nose to nose with a blank white mask, blue fires flickering in its empty eye sockets. She was struggling to swallow the massive lump that had formed in her throat when a massive sonic boom exploded right next to her shoulder, only then did she realize that she was standing right in the middle of a spar between two monsters.

Barely visible fists and kicks flashed in the air around her, punch met punch and kick met kick with loud sonic booms, and she was standing alone in a peaceful nexus, shaking like a leaf.

Anya immediately hit the floor in a sprawl and crawled away from the two monsters, only turning backwards when she realized that they weren't chasing her.

Evangline grunted as she caught an uppercut with her left hand, narrowly stopping it from hitting her chin, her own right hand was caught in the exact same position by the blonde. Grunting, the two of them froze, silently struggling against the other when the blonde start hitting her abdomen with rapid knee strikes. Before he could damage her anymore, she flicked her fingers, capturing next knee strike with invisible threads before sending an entire tailor shop's worth of wire at the blonde, only for him to block the manoeuvre with razor sharp chains that burst out of his back, beating back her wires and tangling them up.

Not giving up, she jerked on the wire that had already caught his knee, sending the man in the black trenchcoat soaring through the chamber into the wall with a loud explosion. Staggering out of the dust cloud, Naruto braced himself and grabbed the wire, repeating the same move, sending Evangeline into the wall beside him.

Anya watched in blue faced shock as the two monsters began some sort of weird competition, throwing the other around the chamber like a bizarre contest of strength when the Maga Nosferatu sent a bolt of ice magic through the thread, freezing the masked man's arm. Without hesitation, he whipped out a black sword that was as tall as himself and cut off his own arm before he could be fully frozen. Blood splashed out of the stump before a red aura surrounded him and a new arm exploded out of the stump. Flexing it a few times, the black coated man wasted no more time in charging back into the fight, one black sword splitting into two smaller ones.

"If you want a sword fight, that's what you'll get!" the blonde woman roared back, almost happily as two blades faded into existence in her outstretched palms, "Ensis Exsequens!"

Deep blue blade made of pure cold energy sparked against cold alloy as the two began hacking away with each other, somehow making it look elegant despite the pure ferocity they were showing. Evangeline weaved through the flashing blades before thrusting the one in her left hand at his abdomen, causing him to parry the attack and riposte with one of his own, only to realize that his opponent had ducked into a low spinning crouch, her free blade whipping through the air to cut him off at the knees. Chains exploded out of his back again, anchoring themselves to the ceiling before pulling him out of the way just in time to avoid a painful dismemberment, without missing a beat, he threw the blade in his hands at the crouched woman, only for her leap away from the attack.

Skidding backwards, she widened her eyes to see the blades had somehow turned in mid air and were following her around the chamber. Dodging another near decapitation, she glanced upwards at where the blonde was hanging when she understood how he was doing it. He was using his chains like a pair of powerful, heavy whips with his blades attached to the ends. She leapt upwards to avoid another chained blade before beginning to twist and turn to avoid the multiplying blades.

A quick look told her that there was now 6 chain blades flashing around the chamber in a complicated manoeuvre, but only two were of any real danger since he was controlling them manually, the rest were all attached to his back.

"Crystallitatio Tellustris!" Spires of ragged ice exploded out of the ground in a mockery of a frozen forest, freezing all his chains and blades mid attack. The blonde immediately touched the second card shaped bandolier that Anya only just realized was strapped to his left shoulder, three card shaped containers hugging his left shoulder in a vertical row. His trenchcoat turned dark blue with a shouted "Abeat!" and a large rifle appeared in his hands that he used to being volleying shots at the approaching vampire. Evangeline charged through the ineffective storm of bullets with a vicious grin even as she leapt up to claw at the hanging blonde.

"Vindice Deux, aim for the stars and strike them down." A quietly intoned chant caused the rifle to briefly glow, before elongating into a massive canon that seemed to be made of dark alloy, the barrel of the rifle already powerfully humming with a sphere of roiling red energy.

Evangeline only had time to widen her eyes before she was blasted straight out of the air, mid leap. A titanic beam of red energy blasted a huge crater in the ground; the man in the blue coat himself was sent flying into the air from the backlash of his weapon, crashing to the ground on the other side of the chamber in a crumpled heap.

Shakily he got up, "Hehe, it's my win, Eva-chan."

"Not if I can help it brother." A clawed hand burst out of his chest, sending blood and bone splattering all over the chamber, a grinning Evangeline appearing behind the masked man.

The masked man coughed up blood before gripping the hand to stop Eva from moving away, "Tsk. Draw then."

"Draw?"

A huge light green orb that screeched like a furious gale force wind and surrounded with a four pointed shuriken made of energy slammed into both of them from behind before exploding with a violent force, the shock wave sending everyone watching tumbling away.

"Ne-ne-negi? Why is The Black Paladin here?" a shaky, high pitched voice reverberated in the conversation.

Negi who was crouched down in front of her with a fully powered water shield up absorbing the brunt of the shock wave, grunted in reply, "What do you mean? Wasn't it obvious? He was sparring with Evangeline-sensei. We usually don't watch them fight because well..." He looked around the destroyed chamber sheepishly, "More often than not, we get blown up along with them. This is already pretty toned down. Usually we have to rebuild this whole section of the castle if they go all out." He observed flatly.

"That's not what I'm asking! I'm asking why someone like Him was in Mahora!?" she hissed at him.

"What are you talking about?" A nonplussed Negi replied, "He came with us to the beach, of course he would come back with us isn't it?"

"Huh?"

Negi gave her an exasperated look, "He's Naruto-nii san. Tall, blonde, scarred cheek, overly protective of a small red haired fox girl? You even said hello to him remember? Well, you said a lot more than hello... but eh."

"Naruto? That blonde, goofy idiot that acted like a stupidly doting father? That was him?!" Anya replied in a faint voice, "He is Evangeline, the Maga Nosferatu's BROTHER?! Actually why didn't you say anything about it in your letter!?" a rather incredulous and disbelieving Anya screeched hysterically.

"Technically they're not blood siblings. Dad adopted her as well." Negi said sheepishly, "besides I wanted to introduce him to Nekane-onee chan as a surprise. Didn't really expect you to show up so soon."

"Oh..." A faint memory appeared in Anya's mind and she paled even further, her expression now had the consistency and colour of week old porridge, "I called him an idiot..." she muttered faintly, "I insulted The Black Paladin to his face... ah." Her jaw slackened, her eyes rolled up into her head. A line of drool began leaking from the side of her open mouth.

"Anya? Anya!?" Negi frantically waved one hand in front of his childhood friend's bluish greenish face, "Wow. This is the first time I've actually seen anyone faint while standing up." He commented with amusement.

****Broken Faith****

A young woman with narrow eyes smirked at a shogi board and instantly countered her opponents move with a white piece before turning the aforementioned smirk upon the sweating blonde whose usual smile had dissipated like fog on a sunny morning, "It's your move now, Naruto-dono. Don't forget, you owe me a new jutsu if I win."

Naruto looked up with chagrin, "But you ALWAYS win, I've taught you almost every skill I have that's under B-rank already!"

"I guess it's time for you to start paying me with the A-ranks then." Kaede grinned smugly, "I'm looking forward to the solid clone technique that you have."

"Don't you have a solid clone technique yourself? What do you want mine for?"

"Mine can't talk or think like yours can." She pointed out, "Their just more solid."

"That's because you are using pure KI for them, you need real chakra for mine. The infusion of mental energy gives them a certain level of independence and personality." The blonde replied easily.

"Thank you for the free tip." The blonde chagrined expression comically worsened, "Now you get to teach me another A-rank skill. Sure is a shame for such a high level ninja like you to keep losing so badly in a simple game like this isn't it?" Kaede replied with a victorious grin.

"You could always just ask to apprentice under me instead of taking this stupidly roundabout route." Naruto muttered in a disgruntled manner.

"I... never thought of just doing that..." Kaede admitted sheepishly as she checkmated the blonde with another black piece.

"Nii-san, we're ready to go." A young red haired boy walked into the castle's luxurious hall where most of the Negima club members were gathered, "I managed to calm her down." At the blonde's sceptical look, he continued, "Somewhat. At least she isn't blubbering every time I mention your name anymore." Negi finished with a glare at the chuckling blonde for good measure, "I agreed with that first plan because she deserved a little of it, but don't be so mean to her from now on, alright?"

"Okay, okay," Naruto replied with a surrendering wave and a good natured grin, "Yosh! Ayaka we can pick up the rest of 3-A, then we're good to go."

"TO WALES~" everyone in the room simultaneously cheered and began leaving the room in droves.

"Wooohoo! This is the first time I'm going overseas!"

"Isn't that right?! I can't believe that we're actually going to take a plane there!"

'We're really bringing them as well?" Negi quietly asked his older brother.

"Do you really want to come back to a class full of angry 15 year old girls after the trip? Besides, it's not like we're bringing them to Mundus Magicus." was the carefree reply, "Not to mention, I KNOW a certain shotacon vampire told them and a dark skinned priestess sold them the information about us going to London. You can damn near bet that if we don't bring them there, they're just going to find some other way to do it, and then get completely and utterly lost in London. This way, we keep everyone where we can see them, in one organized group."

"Good point." He replied with a sweat drop, "It's just... I can't help but feel worried everything might go wrong."

"Meh, it's just a vacation trip to find Dad. What can go wrong?"

Negi peered up at the taller male and nodded reluctantly, "I guess."

As Naruto watched the youth leave the hall, he glanced aside at the very end, where another door was embedded into the walls, leading deeper into the castle, "Did you add the charms that I requested?"

A shoe came flying out of the crack in the door, "Who the heck is a Shotacon!?"

Naruto side stepped the flying projectile with an easy chuckle, "So? Have you?"

"Of course, it was easy for me. All of them have emergency forced teleportation charms enchanted into them, keyed to the coordinates you were given by Theodora. As long as someone gives the order, they will forcefully activate and send everyone to her doorstep without exception. They can wait there for you to show up." A cool voice replied from the vampire leaning on the other side of the door, "Chachamaru knows the code as well, so they will be fine as long as she keeps her own badge. That aside, why didn't you just tell him that you were worried too?"

"No reason to make that idiot worry pointlessly until I actually have some solid proof about whatever is going on down there." Naruto pointed out casually, "It's too much of a hassle making them cancel a huge project like this for some unfounded concern of mine. At best, there's just going to be few idiots that hold a grudge on Negi because of his parents. Nothing he and the rest of 3-A can't handle."

"Fair enough."

"Thanks for the help sis. I'll see you when I get back then?"

"Just don't die... brother. I'm... tired of seeing people connected to me die so early." Evangeline admitted in a strangely emotional tone.

"I won't. Promise of a lifetime."

****Broken Faith****

Stepping out of the cabin, the blonde stretched, noticing that everyone else was already gone, presumably already boarding the bus that would take all of them to the airport where the private plane that Ayaka had so graciously allowed them to use was waiting.

"When are you and everybody else coming back then?" a calm, motherly voice asked.

"Probably in a week or so." Naruto replied without hesitation, already sensing her presence there the moment he left the cabin, "How did you know we were leaving though?"

"Ayaka has told me some bits and pieces," She smiled threateningly, "Mana was very forward about it as well, Fufufu... I was quite disappointed that you didn't come and at least talk to me about it though. Especially since the children at the orphanage are always waiting for Naruto-jii san to come back and play with them."

Naruto gave the tall auburn haired girl an apologetic smile, "Sorry. I've been really busy lately. I keep forgetting to come over and have a nice talk over tea. By the way, you have a really bad habit of manipulating every one of us like some omnipotent match maker."

Chizuru grinned, "Arara, can you blame me? Ayaka has been smiling so radiantly nowadays. Blackma- I mean politely asking Christina-baa chan to take a 6 month vacation to Bratislava was so worth it." She touched one hand to her cheek in a ladylike manner, "Understand this though, if you make Ayaka sad, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask some of my friends to cut you up into pieces before burying each piece in a different continent."

Naruto gave her and her dark frigid aura a dry glance, "Oi, oi... don't say something so evil and threatening with such a noble, motherly smile. The children will be scared if they see you like that."

"Fufufufu... I don't think it was evil at all. I was just politely stating a fact."

"Tsk," Naruto gave the beautiful girl a wave, "I'll see you when I come back."

"Hmph. I'll hold that raincheck for an afternoon tea to you."

"Osu." He gave her one last wave over his shoulders, with a heavy bag slung over the other before halting in his steps, "Eh?! Oi, aren't you coming along with us as well!? What the hell is with this tragedic good bye scene then!?"

"Fufufu. 3"

****Broken Faith****

Play Yuna Ito – My Heart Will Go On

It was a hill with gently declining slopes, the soft green grass on the ground, scattered with brushes of Chinese milk vetches, moved like waves under the gently blowing wind. At the top of the hill was a lone and simple Ginko tree, it's thick branches wavering slightly under the wind's caresses, the view from under it was magnificent, a small but charming town lay at the bottom of the hill.

The air was fresh and sweet, a far cry from the one filled with thick acrylic smoke that Naruto and Asuna remembered from inside Negi's memories.

A beautiful blonde woman placidly walked up the hill towards them, a sedate grace filled her every move until she saw the wide eyed Negi waiting for her at the top of the hill.

"Nekane-onee chan..." Negi whispered breathlessly, his luggage bag slipping from his slack fingers.

The two of them began running at each other with crying eyes while the rest of 3-A watched from their spot under the tree.

Everyone could feel a warm, fluffy feeling in their chests as they watched the two cousins hugging tightly, Naruto started a little when he felt a timid synthetic hand slip into his, a tiny amount of regret in her pale green orbs.

Naruto simply smiled warmly to show that he did not care. Or rather, as long as everything worked out well, would no longer be a problem, though he had not told her yet because he didn't want to get her hopes up needlessly.

At the bottom of the hill, Nekane and Negi separated and began to talk animatedly before the smaller boy dragged the tall blonde over to where everyone was waiting, "Nee-chan, this is Naruto-nii san, Asuna, Akako, Ayaka, Chachamaru," one by one he personally introduced everyone under the tree as his students with a bright and heartfelt smile on his face.

The statuesque woman, whose beauty and grace matched even the blushing Ayaka's, bowed politely, "Thank you so much, for looking after Negi while he was teaching. How can I ever thank you?"

Naruto placed a hand on the crying boy's head, "There's nothing to thank us for. He took care of everyone here equally well." He have a wry half grin when Akako's tummy began to growl loudly, much to the small girl's embarrassment, "Though... I guess dinner wouldn't be a bad idea."

Akako hid her face in her father's trousers, eliciting a bunch of croons from the girls overcome by her adorableness, even her small fox ears lay flat onto of her head and her tail drooped in a vision so sweet and cute it almost gave everyone watching a heart attack.

"Huhuhuhu... " Nekane knelt beside the blushing fox girl and gathered her up into an warm embrace, "Akako-san is so cute..." she turned back to the tall blonde man with a warm smile, "Of course, dinner is already prepared; McGuiness-san is also already waiting for us to start at my home."

"McGuiness-san?" Yuuna echoed disbelivingly, "What is she doing here?"

"Oh you know her?" Naruto inquired curiously.

"I've met her once." The brown haired girl admitted grudgingly, "Why? Are you here to meet her?"

"In a way." Naruto replied warily, knowing that Yuuna was not one of the girls that knew about magic, "You could think of her as a middle man between me and my client. That's why I'll be leaving here about an hour or two before the rest of you do."

"Client?" Makie pouted at him, "You're not staying with us?"

Smirking he ruffled her hair, "I'll be here until a few hours before dawn. It's just a side job anyway; so I'll meet up with you guys after it's done. Now come on, it's time for dinner."

"Hurray~"

Naruto sweat dropped at how easily the fickle girls switched gears at the mere thought of food.

****Broken Faith****

Negi silently watched the whole group of rambunctious 15 year old girls partying in the Springfield home, sitting in between Ayaka and Asuna. On another couch, the tall blonde man had a bouncing little girl on his lap who he was feeding while Chachamaru sipped a cup of tea beside him. Around them, various members of the Negima club sat, contemplating the rather haunting mood, despite the party that was going on barely 3 feet away from them.

He glanced aside to where his brother was apparently watching him with a half grin.

The blonde gave him a nod of the head and a thumbs up.

"Nii-san, guys. Come on, I want to show you something." He quietly got up, and their small group left without letting the rest of the partying 3-A know. Konoka, Nodoka, Yue, Setsuna, Chisame, Kaede, Ku Fei and Makie followed without debate.

Outside, Negi took a dep breath of the familiar, refreshing air, "Come on. I want to show everyone something.

The majestically huge building was built underneath the shadow of another hill, overshadowed by a huge oak tree. The first room they came across was the huge, beautifully aged reception hall, the edges where wall met ceiling were decorated with stained glass that allowed faintly tinted sunlight from the setting sun to stream through.

"This is where everything started for me. This is the where I studied... where I graduated. The place where I started my journey to Mahora. There were a lot of difficulties, it was really hard to adapt, I wasn't used to the food and temperature. I was really REALLY scared of everyone in 3-A at first. They all seemed so much older and stubborn and strong."

He spun around to face the group standing behind him, "But then Asuna helped me, helped me fight, helped me keep my secret. I wasn't alone anymore, and then Nodoka-san, Yue-san, Konoka-san, Chisame-san, Chamo, Ayaka-san. Then Nii-san, Akako and Chachmaru also came into my life." He bowed deeply, eyes watering slightly, "I don't regret any of it. I don't regret it anymore. I'm happy about everything I've done so far. Thank you for coming this far with me, for trying so hard for a foreign, newcomer teacher."

All of them looked at each other, reluctant to say anything at his display of heartfelt gratitude.

"Idiot. What are you thanking us for something that doesn't need to be thanked?" a fist hit his head with enough to power to send the boy to the floor with spirals in his eyes, "Nii-Nii san!?"

"Idiot." Asuna whacked him as well, wearing a glowing blush on her face. Behind him, every girl was lined up, cracking their knuckles

"Wai-wait!? All of you are going to HIT ME?!

"Negi-jii san bakaaa!"

Negi's eyes nearly popped out, "Akako?! No knives! I'll really die!"

Akako pouted and began hiding all her nicely sharpened butter knives back into the folds of her cute kimono.

"Uuu... all of you are so mean..." Negi crouched on the ground nursing the many bumps decorating his skull.

"It's your own fault isn't it? Saying something so embarrassing all of a sudden." Asuna murmured quietly, "Besides, we wanted to help. We already know you are grateful, you didn't have to thank us like that."

"Hahaha... I guess. Anyway the reason I'm saying this now... is because," He gave a watching Nekane a determined look, "I want to go to Mundus Magicus. To find Otou-san."

The blonde girl paled noticeably, "What? Yo-you can't..."

"I'm going Nekane-onee chan. I have to go but I want your blessings first."

Nekane looked down, her long bangs hiding her eyes, "That's right isn't it... but how will you get there? It's not easy to get permission to go through the Magic World's Gate you know..."

"That's..."

"That's why I'm being allowed to help." A low voice that sounded like the clashing of rocks echoed in the empty hall.

"Headmaster!"

A grinning man with a long beard and tanned skin stepped out of the shadow.

As Negi and the rest began to crowd around the elderly man Nekane stepped up beside the silent blonde man, "It looks like I have to thank you for Nii-san. Negi has grown a lot stronger and able to deal with pressure ever since he left here."

The blonde arched an eyebrow at the way she addressed him, prompting her to smile mischievously, rolling his eyes; he spoke quietly, "I didn't do anything. With or without my help, he would have reached this point sooner or later. It's just in him."

"Perhaps. But he seems much more confident in himself than I expected. Especially since its only been 6 months since he left. Much has changed." The blonde girl lifted one hand to her mouth and giggled sadly, "Where has that cute little boy that worked so hard to even cook an omelette gone?"

"He grew up." Naruto answered easily, "Time passes and people change, even you."

"That's somehow really sad..."

"Then its lucky that not everything changes. No matter how much time passes, you will always be Negi's kind and lovely onee-chan isn't it?"

"Oh my, you're such a charmer, huhuhu, if only I were 5 years younger."

A cold, malevolent aura suddenly appeared behind him, "Naruto? Can we talk to you for a moment?"

Naruto sighed gloomily, "There's three really pissed off women behind me isn't it?"

"Huhuhu. Three and a half actually, Akako-san is so cute even when she's trying to look angry..."

"Yeah well, you're not the one that has to sleep with someone with enough pointy stuff hidden in her pyjamas to start a blacksmith."

****Broken Faith****

Donnet arched an eyebrow at the blonde man who was slowly walking down the stairs, "You look like a truck ran over you."

Naruto rubbed the multiple of bruises and cuts on his face, "A rather apt description." He answered flatly.

The blonde woman chuckled and set down her cup of coffee, "Well then, are you ready to go, or do you need to recuperate some more?"

Sighing, the shinobi slung his heavy bag onto his shoulders with a tired grin, "I'm fine. Can't afford to miss this one can I?"

"Not really." The sharply dressed blonde woman admitted, "Usually the portal is opened at set intervals. It's only because of Theodora-sama that we have a special porting just for you."

"Understood, let's go then. I don't wanna miss it."

The two of them silently climbed through the dark mist in an uncomfortable silence, a slight red tint of the rising sun was all the light that they had to show the way, "The portal is set a ways behind the local Magic Academy and surrounded by anti-normal charm to keep non magic users away from it..."

Naruto listened to the blonde woman's seemingly memorized commentary with only half an ear as he concentrated on trudging through the dewed grass and rocky ground until a circle of rock slabs slowly appeared out of the misty darkness.

"We're here. Just wait for a moment while I make the preparations for your transfer." A glowing array appeared under her palm and she began typing something into it. Half a glance towards the glowing circle told the blonde man standing beside her that it was a complex catalyst array that allowed her to manually open the portal from this side.

A huge thrum slowly began to pick up around them as each rock slab started glowing brighter and brighter with a white light.

"Credentials and documents have been confirmed. Naruto Namikaze is ready for teleportation. Have a good trip, Namikaze-san."

"You're not coming?" the blonde inquired with a tilt of the head.

"No, I'm sorry; I have to stay on this side to open it for the later group. I'll be sure to keep in touch with you." Donnet replied with an apologetic smile and a bow.

Taking a deep breath, Naruto glanced aside to where the sun was just only begin to peek up over the hillside and he stepped forward into the circle of light, into a new world.

He briefly experienced a discomforting weightless sensation before gravity regained its grip on him, sending his booted feet into contact with the hard marble floor. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself standing within an identical replica of the stone slabs that he had left behind in Mundus Vertus, only it's surrounding looked completely and utterly different. He found himself in some sort of futuristic port with an open view of the sky, where he could see small black shapes floating around lethargically in the rising sun.

"Well, I'm here. Wonder who was supposed to greet m-"

An intense pain ripped through his abdomen and limbs, sending the blonde screaming to his knees, at the same time, he could feel his toes begin to petrify, "Well... this is going to suck." He chuckled to himself.

Whipping out one hand, he sent a kunai whistling towards a small red circle that was obviously the Magical World's version of an emergency alarm judging by the large red WARNING emblazoned above it.

"TERRORISTS!" he roared loudly.

All around him, the bustling tourists and officers seemed to freeze momentarily before resuming with the volume turned up to maximum, mingling with the loud clanging alarms, as the mass of flesh struggled to escape the port.

"You don't seem surprised. In fact, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were expecting this." A calm monotone noted.

"You don't grow up in a village filled with skilled assassins or go through a war where almost everything with a mind is trying to kill you without learning a few things." Naruto commented casually even as he propped his stiffening body on a stone slab with some difficulty.

"I see..." the youth that Naruto recognized as Fate stepped out from behind a stone slab, "I do apologize for the rudeness but it seems that my employer has determined that we must kill you at all costs. I do not understand why he has such a fixation on you when he has insisted that we refrain from using excessive force thus far."

"There's no need to tell a dead man anything Tertium." Another individual, looking as if he was an older twin stepped out from the shadows as he chided the blank faced Fate.

"My apologies, Secundum. I saw no point in hiding anything from a dying man."

"Oi, oi. I'm right here. Besides," Naruto flexed his arms, shattering the rock covering his skin and slowly got up with a malicious smile that he stole straight from Evangeline as he dusted the remaining dust away, "Who said I was dying? Though, this constant pain is getting rather annoying, would you mind turning it off?"

The strange Fate clone, Secundum, gave him a rather disturbing grin, "You can ignore pain of such magnitude? This trap was designed to cripple even dragons and yet you are simply shrugging it off. Perhaps you are someone worth playing with after all... I am-"

The blonde cut him off, "Don't bother introducing yourself. I don't need to know. And I did say that I lived through a war. Learning how to ignore this much pain is something of a given... by the way... would you stop looking at me like that? It's kinda creepy and I REALLY don't swing that way..."

Behind a growling Secundum, six figures shrouded in shadows stepped forward, the tallest of which swished his hand to disperse the shadows hiding all of him.

"Ah, so that's how all of you hid from my senses. You were hiding in the shadows." Naruto observed easily even as he slipped one hand under his shirt to touch his Pactio belt, his eyes darting around the port to find a quick escape route, "That being said, I have no quarrel with any of you. Would you mind letting me go since there's no reason for us to fight?"

A deep bass voice from the tallest man at the very back of the group, swathed in black robes that had white ornaments and a similarly white mask replied, "An insect has no quarrel with a boot. You are simply in our way and we will have to step on you."

"That... doesn't really make sense since you had to go out of your way to trap this whole damn place and wait to gang up on me." Naruto pointed out with a pained smile as storm clouds began to gather above them.

Instead of replying, the tallest one, who appeared to be the semi-leader, waved his hand, sending all the Fate lookalikes charging at him with varying degrees of amusement and enjoyment on their faces. The first to reach him however, was not a Fate lookalike, but rather a skimpily dressed and an insanely grinning Tsukuyomi. Blade sparked against kunai as Naruto caught her first slash with two kunai, locking the nodachi in place. Drool slobbered down her chin, "I have been waiting sooo long to fi-Gehoh!"

Naruto slammed his knee into her gut, mostly because he really didn't want to let her finish her sentence, folding her in half before wrenched the girl to his left, allowing her body to take a burst of water to the back before grasping her legs and swinging her around like a bat, slamming the screaming girl into another Fate lookalike that was creeping up behind him before kicking her in the face, sending her flying into the robed man furthest away from him.

The man simply batted her away with a fist made of shadow that was as large as himself.

As the insane swordswoman flew away, Naruto couldn't resist himself even as he leaped away from a manically laughing Secundum, "That's the third time that she has fought me. You'd really think that she would learn to fight with her hands after being blown away the first two times."

He settled into a defensive stance and began parrying as many attacks as he could while looking around for an escape while the remaining members began to pepper him with coordinated bursts of magic and melee attacks. Ducking under a blast of lightning, Naruto surged forward to stomp on the lightning user's foot before slamming the heel of his palm into his chin and finishing it off with a elbow to the chest before back flipping over a stone sword onto a handstand and wrapping his knees around the fire user's head, Naruto flipped upright again, bringing his prey forwards and crushing his head into the ground with his knees.

"This is not right Tertium. His abilities far surpass the records that you brought us, this is a failure." He heard the water user mutter angrily as he acrobatically dodged a series of staggered high pressure water blasts when a massive fist of shadow slammed into his back, crushing the blonde into a stone slab, "Guhah!"

"Get him now, while he is immob-Hnn?!"

The fist made of shadow that was pinning the blonde to the stone slab was slowly being pushed back by a grunting blonde with red mascara around his eyes, "What is with his ridiculous strength?"

"Guuuuargh!" the blonde pulled upwards and began repeatedly slamming the robed man on the other end of the fist into the ground until the man finally released his spell, sending him soaring into the ceiling.

A pale green orb that absolutely screeched with power materialized in the palm of one hand, it grew bigger and bigger in size until it was the size of a small house. Surging forwards, the blonde slung it at the soaring man in the robes even as he dodged another blast of water.

"Hargh!" a huge fist of shadow shot out of the man's chest and grabbed the screeching orb and slowly began to crush it, similarly, the Rasenshuriken began to grind away at the fist until it exploded in a massive orb of light that disintegrated the arm and the tops of two stone slabs. Naruto leapt over Fate and began running towards the exit with brief spurts of speed when a seventh figure wielding some sort of staff with an orb on it faded into existence above the exit.

The sheer power flowing from the newcomer was enough to send a shiver down Naruto's back, his heart skipped a beat, "Looks like I can't keep playing anymore." He touched the first card on the belt strapped to his shoulder, "Adeat."

Brown leather jacket and white shirt was replaced by a black coat that flared out behind him, scarred cheeks was encased in a blank white mask and a gleaming great sword materialized in his hands, "Nihil et Regnum. Even if all of Heaven's hosts stands in my way, the blade of my conviction shall pierce them. This is my Justice."

Without any pomp or ceremony, the gleaming blade in his hands morphed into its segmented form and the blonde started glowing with a golden aura and black writing running down his front.

He flashed forward with such speed that he took even the shadow user by surprise, immediately burying the blade deep inside the newcomer's chest with unmatched ferocity.

Golden cloaked clones appeared all around the small platform; each wielding a similar blade attached to a chain and began advancing on the Fate lookalikes and the shadow user.

What is your justice?

It wasn't a voice, or not a conventional one. It was a question in a form of a thought that was placed inside his mind, jarring the blonde badly that the newcomer had managed to get through his mental defences with such ease.

"What?" Naruto replied, struggling to keep his blade buried in the newcomer's chest when he swung the weird staff at him. The blonde immediately tensed his body and tried to leap off when his body froze without reason, allowing the newcomer to smash his face with the orb on the end.

What is your Justice?

A bleeding from the nose Naruto struggled to get up, feeling a little wobbly and confused about why his body was not responding properly, "There's no Justice here. I'm just trying to survive an attack from fools who attacked me without provocation."

A blade attached to a chain shot out to stab deep into the fire user's chest, before the original blonde used his body like a weight at the end of a chain to slam the floating newcomer. The screaming fire user simply phased through the cloaked man like he wasn't material.

Naruto blinked and promptly disappeared, heading straight for the exit instead of fighting when a dome of impenetrable shadows slammed itself down, trapping all of them on the platform.

Your death will benefit the World.

"I am NOT dying for some faceless freak, especially not since I promised to go back." Naruto grunted as he swiped away simultaneous attacks from all the other attackers and launched a spread of Rasenshurikens that devoured the ground in front of him, before surging forwards, a spear made of pure crackling lightning poised to give the shadow user a new nose.

What if I told you I could bring your wife back from the Dead?

Naruto froze in almost breathless expectation, "What?"

He was promptly stabbed from six different directions.

****Broken Faith****

Negi yawned widely even as he began trudging up the hill, Chachamaru who was carrying a still sleeping Akako in her arms patted him on the shoulder gently, "Heheh, thanks Chachamaru. Did Naruto-nii san leave already?"

The gynoid nodded stoically, "He left exactly 3 hours before we did. He should already be in Hellas right now."

"Did he mention what was his mission entailed?" Negi chatted quietly with the gynoid as the rest of the classes separated into groups and began milling around the stone slabs, waiting for the sharp eyed blonde woman to finish preparing the portal. Off to one side, he could see Yue-san taking an almost professorial pose and lecturing a sheepish Nodoka-san. Asuna was currently missing, though he suspected that she was talking with Ayaka who had followed them this far for one last farewell. Setsuna, Konoka, Ku Fei and Kaede were talking quietly in one corner of the masonry.

"I was only made aware that it was an escort mission. Any further information was considered a violation of his client's privacy."

"Heeh... I kinda wish I could go on missions with nii-san. They sound like a good way to get some good combat experience.

Off to the side, Makie was desperately trying to pull Yuuna, the three cheerleaders and the Narutaki twins away from the teleportation site, "C'mon guys. This isn't right, what if we get into trouble, and this looks really bad."

"Eehh... if you want to go home then go ahead, baby-Makie." The basketball player teased the smaller girl, "While the rest of us adults go on and charm Negi-kun while you stay at home safely."

'Kuh... this is bad, if they find out about magic, Negi-sensei and Naruto-sensei is going to be in trouble... I have to get them out of here!' Makie thought grimly. Just then, a bright flash lit the sky and a white beam pierced the blood red sky above them, along with a massive array that slowly revolved around the pillar of light.

'Ah... they're going to find out anyway now...' Makie comically began crying as the ground beneath them began glowing and a weightless sensation spread out all over them, resigning herself to at least be the guardians for her wayward classmates no matter what happened.

"Negi-sensei. It's time." Chachamaru quietly spoke as she observed the spiralling layers of array that lit up the sky with a myriad of colours.

Negi glanced around at his too cheerful students, "It's almost as if we're going on a picnic, not to another world. They're not intimidated at all."

"Of course. We're your students aren't we, Negi-sensei?"

"Technically you're my sister in law."

"That too."

The white light slowly spread out, and got brighter and brighter until even squinting was painful. Without a choice, everyone shut their eyes and waited for the weird sensation to end.

The sound of something clattering caused Negi to open his eyes.

The first thing he saw was a familiar blonde, torn, ragged and bleeding, pinned to a stone stab with spears piercing each limb. His eyes were closed and bleeding, his blonde hair was matted with copious amounts of blood, so much so that he almost looked like a natural red head.

"Aa...AHHHH!"

He heard McGuiness screaming as she looked around, whatever she had been expecting had been replaced by a burning destroyed wreck. Huge amounts of concrete and remnants of a once majestic airport was scattered all around them but Negi only had eyes for the blonde stabbed into a stone slab like some weird perversion of a holy idol, blood raining down from his torn body.

He heard the sound of clothe rustling as a completely berserk Asuna rushed forward, dull eyes glinting in the fire light.

"Papa?"

Negi snapped and disregarding everything else, charged forwards. He was only vaguely aware of Kaede and Setsuna coordinating an attack to rescue the bleeding blonde but his only target was the only one he recognized amongst the people gathered beneath the blonde, Fate Averruncus.

"FAAATEEEEE!" He brought down his staff like a hammer, the wooded end splintering slightly under the pressure of his magic.

The silver haired boy caught the staff with one hand, but the force of a berserk Negi was still enough to send him to his knees with a loud grunt, and that was before a screaming Negi slammed a fistful of lightning straight through his stomach with his free hand. Negi began flailing wildly at the downed boy, roaring angrily. Nothing but the look of pain as Fate buckled under his fist mattered to the child teacher.

"Konoka! KONOKA-OJOU SAMA! We need your HELP!" Setsuna urgently shook the brown haired girl's shoulders, blood soaking through the hem of her cloak.

"Hu-huh!?" when Setsuna gestured at the bleeding blonde lying at her feet, Konoka fell to her knees, "Th-this isn't real right?" she asked in a strangled tone as the elements and the sound of breaking bones raged all around her.

"It's real Ojou-sama, please! Lend us your strength; no lend Naruto-sensei your strength. He needs to be HEALED!" Setsuna urged the Konoe heiress while Kaede and Ku Fei fended off the white haired clones away from them long enough for Naruto to be healed.

"Ha-hai. Adeat!" Konoka called out her fans and began frantically waving them above the blonde's closed eyes, casting every healing and diagnosis spell she knew. Moments seemed to crawl by as they watched the crying girl shoot spell after spell of every colour at the unresponding blonde.

The brown haired girl slumped down lifelessly after a few minutes of futile casting, "It's no use..." she turned her teary eyes on her childhood friend.

"He has... no pulse."

The air seemed to freeze for an instant, then as if she had spoke aloud instead of in a whisper and everyone on the platform had heard her, and began to fight even more fiercely.

"Master. What should we do?" The shadow user reverently asked the man with the strange staff, "They have already seen us. The barrier keeping reinforcement out is falling as well."

The hooded man pondered the question silently, "There is no helping it. Regroup and finish them off. It is a small sacrifice in the grand scheme of things."

"Understo-ACK!" a ribbon wrapped itself around his head and yanked him into the ground.

"You killed .Kill..Kill...Kill...Kill..." A small pink haired girl muttered in a monotone, the indestructible ribbons tightened themselves around him and began pulling his limbs apart, inch by inch.

Dynamis flexed his arms, only the ribbons refused to yield as expected, instead they became even tighter, cutting off his air supply even further. How was such a girl so strong? growling out loud, he commanded his shadows to rip the ribbons away.

"You insolent human!" His shadows managed freed himself from the ribbon's embrace, though they still failed to break the ribbons themselves. Makie simply lashed her ribbons like whips, dull eyes filled with tears glaring at the masked man with hatred.

A small Akako, wearing a blank expression slowly walked out of Chachamaru's lifeless hands and toddled over to the prone blonde. She tapped his cheek with one small hand; it wasn't even large enough to cover his whole cheek, "Papa?"

Her throat wobbled, "Papa? Playing?"

She pinched his cheek lightly, the way he always did when he wanted to tease her, "Papa? Wake up?" tears began welling up in her ruby eyes as the small child wavered on her feet. the blood seeping into her small boots.

Warm synthetic arms circled the crying kitsune, "I-I'm sorry Akako... I promised Papa, you'd come first. Uzumaki!"

As soon as the shaking Gynoid uttered the password, translucent orbs of power immediately expanded around everyone with a badge and those around them, protecting them from further harm. The orbs began floating into the air, Negi and Asuna in particular began clawing at the orbs, trying to get out to the limp and lifeless blonde lying in the dirt, his own badge was cracked and damaged beyond functioning.

"They're getting away! Stop them!"

A beam made of the combined might of the entire Cosmo Entelechia ripped out with a roar, devouring everything in the way.

"Aequilibrium et Stella. Stars that watch, that shepherd, that stand sentinel over us. Guide me."

Nine glowing crystals cut through the air and formed a nine layered barrier in front of the defenseless bubble. Unstoppable attack hit unbreakable barrier with a deep ringing sound like a gong being viciously pounded and everyone stared stupidly at the glowing barrier standing strong against the ultimate class spell.

"Nii-san!"

"NARUTO-SENSEI!"

"PAPA!"

Vaguely, out of bloodied and fuzzy vision, the swaying man could see outstretched hands reaching for him from the bubbles, dull blue eyes looked up and smiled softly as he reached out to touch each hand in turn.

"I'll see you soon, guys." He gave Asuna a glance. He heard his barrier cracking behind him, "Sorry, but It looks like I can't keep that promise to you about not bearing the burden alone." he touched her forehead once, before pushing them away with all the remaining strength that he muster from his torn muscles and soft breeze.

The barrier cracked, before exploding with a huge mushroom cloud, sending all the bubbles scattering uncontrollably through the sky.

Play Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann OST – Libera Me from Hell

"Did we do it?" the water user muttered curiously, trying to peer through the billowing smoke, her senses completely dampened by the amount of wild magic fizzling around the field.

The fire user punched the sky in happiness, "Hell yeah, we should do that more often! Nothing can stand against u-Urk!" a black blade split the dust cloud and embedded itself deep in his skull, the chain yanked his entire body into the dust cloud, the sheer brutality of the attack left the remaining members of Cosmo Entelechia gaping.

"Remember how I said you didn't have to introduce yourself? I take it back." A deep malevolent voice echoed around them through the smoke and flames, "Your new name is Red... huh... wait. You bleed white stuff; White Stain One."

"That asshole is ALIVE! Secundum, sc-GAK!" another blade snaked out of the dust cloud from behind him, with such speed that not even Dynamis managed to stop it. The blade sliced through Quartum's neck, leaving it hanging by barely an inch of sinew and skin before the chain wrap around his head and tightened. The head exploded under the sheer pressure. The last thing Sextum saw of Quartum, was his disbelieving eyes popping out of his head.

"White Stain Two."

The remaining members immediately gathered in a defensive circle around the Life Maker. Fate heard the sound of something shaking and when he looked beside him, he realized that Sextum was trembling. She looked down at her shaking hands with something that almost resembled curiosity, "Is this... fear?"

The sound of footsteps reached their ears and the smoke began clearing, Secundum grinned, darting forward out of formation with glee. He leapt towards the shadowy figure only to find a man clad in trenchcoat, one hand raised and motioning to his right side.

"Are you an idiot?! You expect me to fall for something like th-GYAH!" a massive orb of red boiling energy slammed into him from his left side, completely melting him into nothing but atoms within seconds, with all the heat of a dying sun.

"Not my fault White Stain Three didn't want to believe me." The man clad in a black trenchcoat that was dripping with blood, turning his deep red eyes at the calm Life Maker, he took one lurching step towards the Life Maker, "You asked me about my Justice earlier."

I did. Was the excruciatingly confident reply.

He took another step, blood splashing all around his feet.

"I don't care if you hurt me. I don't even care if you try and kill me. Part of me even thinks I don't deserve to live when men far better and purer than me have not. But then you attack my family. You try to kill my brother. My wives. MY DAUGHTER." His deep voice rumbled like a thunder crack. Under his trenchcoat, three cards began glowing a deep ruby red with bright gold outlines..

"My Justice is protecting my family."

The three cards shot out of his trenchcoat and hovered in front of him, "Expergiscere, Deus ex Ira."

The glowing orbs hit their peak and slammed into each other slowly expanding until the engulfed the masked man, a ringing like that of a crystal bell chimed throughout the enclosed dome. Both light and sounds abruptly disappeared as if they had been sucked into a void, leaving an empty arena in front of them.

What? Where is he?

A man in a grey trench coat with gold ornaments on each shoulder and a white scarf, faded into existence, directly in front of him, deep red eyes that burnt like fires glared at him, eye to eye, out of a gleaming metal mask that was topped with a half crown, its bottom half was jagged, like fangs.

One clawed fist lashed out before it was stopped by a barrier and the Life Maker immediately buckled and instinctively threw up his arms, reinforcing the barrier which had almsot completely failed with just one hit. The man in the cold silver mask, completely ignoring the fact that his first attack had failed began pounding away on the barrier, each hit slowly but surely cracking the glowing blue barrier despite The Life Maker's best efforts to keep him away.

What are you waiting for? Kill him!

Dynamis, jolted back into action by the Life Maker's command, dove at the masked blonde, and formed a large shadowy fist that was poised to swat the grey coated man away.

One malicious red eye glared at him disdainfully out of the corner of the mask, evaluating, dismissive, like he was nothing but a bug. And Dynamis found himself being surrounded by a whole swarm of buzzing black blades that materialized out of thin air, black sharpness gleamed in the dark. He barely had a second to form a shadow barrier around himself before the swords tried to impale him with extreme prejudice.

Naruto lurched forward when Fate managed to weave out of the network of floating blades and plunge a key shaped blade into his abdomen. The silver haired boy blinked as the blonde ignored him and continued to pound away at the shield, the only thing that stood between him and the Life Maker.

An almost frantic Sextum stabbed him in the back with her own Grand Master's Key.

He ignored it.

"What are you!? Why? WHY can't I rewrite you!?" she screeched, almost hysterically, stabbing him repeatedly without any visible effect save the splashing of his blood.

Dynamis stabbed him in the side with another, causing his structure to fizz and almost fade out for a moment before resolidifying with a dark, commanding growl.

The blonde ignored them and slammed his claws through a crack in the barrier, wedging it apart with another hungry growl.

What stubbornness... to be hit with three Keys and still reject it. Humans truly have no limits.

The mask moved into a cruel grin, emphasized by the fangs that shaped its lips and began chuckling ominously, "I have limits. I just don't accept them." The following punch shattered the dimensional barrier and gave the Mage of Beginnings the beginnings of an absolutely beautiful black eye.

The clawed hands then grabbed the sides of his head and pulled the Life Maker's face into a vicious head butt that cracked the gleaming silver mask.

Stepping backwards, the black coated man finally staggered and toppled onto his back when his legs finally began to fade.

Lifting up one clawed hand he pointed at the Life Maker's "Let that black eye forever be a reminder to you. You may be a deity, the creator of Magicus Mundus, or God himself, but don't forget. Even Gods can die. Ku...Hahahaha!"

The masked man slowly faded away, laughing loudly.

Shakily, the hooded man took a step away from the no longer existing Naruto Namikaze and lifted one hand to gingerly touch his eye.

"That black eye looks like a work of art. I hope it hurts." A cheerful voice reverberated in his own mind, causing him to whirl around in an undignified manner.

Who are you?

"Who am I? The owner of this body, who else?" the disembodied voice chuckled humorously.

Impossible, I completely suppressed you.

The remaining members watched as the Life Maker whirled around like a mad man, shouting at thin air.

"You did. Or at least you did until that young man landed a blow on you. One strong enough to shake your grip on me. It was pretty impressive by the way, you trapped this place to hell and back, ganged up on him like bees on honey and he still managed to kick your collective asses until you showed up. Then you killed him, and he STILL managed to kick your ass post mortem." He heard a deep chuckle in his mind, "It's only reasonable that I use the chance he gave me isn't it? Time to take get your hands of my arse, you fucking homo."

Enough, I have no time for this!

The voice in his head went silent but he could still feel the original owner of the body he inhabited fighting against his control.

Dynamis, Regroup. We have to rest and heal our wounds.

"Understood." a panting Dynamis shakily stood up, even the sheer brutality of the silver masked man's attacks had unnerved him.

****Broken Faith****

The End. Broken Faith is now Complete.

Expergiscere Deus ex Ira – Awaken, Raging God.