Only the strong survive

by Salem52

On a mission outside of the wall, something is discovered that could very well save humanity from total destruction, or rather someone. Watch as the war against titans changes with the introduction of soldiers known as shinobi. strong/dojutsu naruto semi-dark/cynical naruto(Still human though, and respects those who deserve it). pairings undecided(If any). NOT YAOI.

6. The Ravine

Hello my peeps, this is Salem52 signing in.

So, another chapter, another day (week) of writing. I hope you all enjoyed the last chapter, I sure did. I really don't have much to say, other than, enjoy.

"Life and Death are both part of essential parts of our being, don't live either in vain,"- Hindu scripture.

Naruto was clinging to the walls of the Ravine like a spider. Around him, on the floor of the Ravine lay three steaming corpses of titans. He had just sheathed his nodaichi, when the group came into view moving at a very fast canter, almost a gallop. Thus far only one man had died, and they were already a third of the way to the north entrance.

The striker teams were doing well, although Naruto was taking the brunt of the kills. He had left his horse a little while back, opting instead to run along the walls. This provided him with good vantage points to kill the titans. He had used very little chakra thus far, only what he needed to allow himself to run along the walls and enhance his muscles enough to run in front of the group. Even so, he had dispelled his third and final clone, choosing to regain the chakra he had invested in it.

They had been charging for close to ten minutes, and from what Naruto estimated, they still had another twenty or so minutes to go. The distance from the south entrance to the north entrance was about three kilometers. This distance could be traversed in short enough time, but with the titans and the rock fall from the Ravine, the going could be difficult, especially for the wagon. And with the sulfurous cloud layer above them, the sun light was twisted, filling the Ravine with dim, sickly red light, lowering visibility. The cloud layer hindered air movement in the Ravine, so it was quite musty and had an almost stale feeling to it.

Naruto moved on ahead, the group being safe for the time being. The other strikers had been moving behind him, intending on taking any titans that he didn't get. Some would take this as cowardice, but others would call it smart.

The next group of titans that he found was four twelve and thirteen meter titans. He ran along the wall at a very high speed, before leaping toward them, drawing his sword in mid jump. He started spinning, gaining momentum. The titans turned to look at him, but as the first one looked at him, it had its head sliced in two by Naruto's sword. He landed on the floor of the Ravine, before sprinting toward the nearest titan and slicing the tendons in its ankles.

The titans had been standing in a somewhat diamond shape, and Naruto had just taken out the first and last in the diamond. Behind him, there were two titans on either side of him, but he was out of their swiping distance. The titans rushed toward him, the one on his left took a dive for him. Naruto sheathed his sword, threw it behind him very high, and did several back handsprings, dodging out of the way of the falling titan. He did this all in the same movement.

The titan that hadn't dived for him, the one on his right, turned and ran toward him. He stopped, and caught his sheathed sword, unsheathed it, and ran toward the titan. The titan swiped at Naruto when he was close enough, Naruto dodged the swipe, and ran under the titan and sliced its feet off at the ankles. That titan fell, making three titans disabled.

The titan that dove for him had gotten up when he was doing his back hand springs. It started to sprint at him, much like the last titan had just done. Naruto waited, not doing anything, aware that the titan he had just temporarily crippled was crawling toward him. The sprinting titan reached him first, but right before the titan could take a swipe at him, he leaped into the air impossibly high. The titan looked in the air to see Naruto, sword sheathed, pointing his index and middle at them. On the tips, two small, blue, marble sized orbs were forming. It wasn't a moment later that Naruto muttered something under his breath,

"Sasu you na hari, (piercing needle)" as he said this, the blue orbs exploded from his fingers, streaking toward the titans. The first orb impacted with the only standing titan, taking out both the standing titan and the titan who was crawling up behind Naruto. The second orb impacted between the titan without a head, and the titan was without tendons, it was getting up, having just healed. The second orb expanded larger than the other, engulfing both titans in blue chakra induced, light.

Naruto, seeing that the titans were killed, moved on down the Ravine, the strikers following in the wake of his destruction

Because the Ravine was, for the most part, straight, the group of recon corp. that had been following Naruto and the strikers had been seeing this light show and were awed by his power. This also put Hideki in a sour mood, because Naruto had been right. Even if Hideki complained about insubordination, Naruto wasn't part of the military, so Erwin couldn't do anything, assuming he actually would do anything.

They had only lost one man thus far, two, if you counted the unlucky bastard whose horse died. Even so, having only two deaths thus far was unheard of, especially in the Ravine. They had also seen the bodies that Naruto had left behind, and most were just a few lumps of skin, nothing more. The body that the strikers killed was the first body that the group of riders had seen that was whole since they entered the Ravine.

The group saw another flash of blue and looked to see Naruto killing another titan, this one an eleven meter class. They watched as he flipped over the titan and landed on its back, driving his blade into the nape of its neck, before yanking out the blade and slicing its head in two. He jumped off its back as it was falling, and attached himself to the wall of the Ravine. He started running along wall, before he disappeared behind an outcrop of rock along the wall.

Naruto ran for a little while, the group shrinking away behind him, before coming upon another group of titans. This group consisted of two fifteen meter titans, and one ten meter titan. He drew his nodaichi and held it out behind him. As he was about twenty meters away from the three titans, he flipped away from the wall of the Ravine, landing on the ground and continuing his sprint. The titans turned and started lumbering toward him. The ten-meter titan fell down onto its hands and crawled at extremely fast speeds, similar to the one his clone contended with in another part of the Ravine. The ten-meter titan was the first to reach Naruto. It lunged at him with an open maw, its jaw was dislocated, making the titan look like some demented bastard offspring of a spider and a python. Naruto dodged to the left and held out his nodaichi to his right as he ran beside the crawling titan. When the blade met the titan in the side of its stretched jaw, it started to slice through the flesh like a knife through water, effortlessly cutting away at the titan's body. As Naruto ran, his blade moved with him, and when he had run past the crawling titan, it collapsed onto the floor of the ravine, having been thoroughly gutted, its stomach fluids flowing onto the ground.

The next of the titans, the fifteen-meter titans, both kept on lumbering toward him, not acknowledging the titan Naruto had just killed. They both were next to each other with only a few feet between them, they were about twelve meters away. Naruto put up his left hand, and making a symbol with his hands, his index and middle fingers pointing straight up, while his remaining fingers were curled.

"Kage Bunshin, (Shadow Clone)", he muttered. Beside him, a clone appeared holding an exact replica of Naruto's nodaichi. They both ran up to the titans, and when they reached six meters away from the titans, they both leapt up at the titans with incredible force, being exact mirrors of each other. They both bisected the titans in an upward slanting angle at the waist. Both of them were still flying through the air, their momentum causing them to still be flying upwards. Both Narutos reached toward each other, before grasping each other at the wrist. The original Naruto then flung his clone back at the stunted titans.

The clone held up the same symbol that Naruto held when he was created. As he landed between the two titans he closed his hand. Naruto, who had been holding the same symbol as he flew through the air, closed his hand as well. The clone closed his eyes right as he detonated, creating a massive explosion of fire and smoke.

Naruto didn't cringe, having used the technique many times in the guerrilla tactics his village had used at the beginning of his war. He didn't even need to say the name aloud, unless he needed to make the clone extremely powerful. He landed and looked toward the smoke cloud to make sure the two didn't survive. After a second or two, he jumped to the walls and continued down the Ravine.

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Ahiah rode at the back of the group, years of service having taught him that being far from the titans usually meant that you weren't killed by them. He had seen the light show that Naruto put on. It would be a lie to say that he wasn't impressed and a little awed, but in the Recon corp. you became accustomed to odd happenings.

Once, when he was just a new recruit in the northern Recon corp. he had seen a great comet that lit the sky day and night for three weeks. It awed him, that there could be such an object in the sky, that it could rival the sun and moon in brightness.

The awe he felt then was similar to the one that he felt here, impressive, even frightening at first, but fleeting. He was more focused on his immediate surroundings anyway, there were titans in the Ravine that were known to hide amongst the rocks near the cloud layer. He looked to his right and saw a steaming hunk of titan. Similar pieces of flesh had been strewn about the ravine, some even sticking to the walls. Ahiah chuckled.

"You have to give it to him," said Ahiah to no one in particular, "when it comes to killing, he knows no restraint,"

In front of them another explosion. Ahiah gave a grim smile before shaking his head.

"Just proves my point," he urged his horse forward with a flick of his reigns. While being in the back of the group keeps you away from the titans in front, falling too far behind leaves alone and easy pickings for the ones in the back.

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Naruto sheathed his sword, having just detonated another Bunshin Daibakuha, (Clone great explosion), using the same tactic against these titans as he had against the previous pair of titans. He was running along the sides of the walls, as he had been doing his whole time in the Ravine. A shadow fell over him, and by some instinct he had gained through years as a shinobi, he dodged off the wall, allowing the titan to fall past him.

Naruto fell to the ground, but still landed on his feet. When he landed he looked to see a titan looking almost identical to the long-nailed titan his clone had fought earlier. Its nails were about two meters long, and looked vicious, being on both hands and feet. It was crawling along the wall very speedily, its body contorting in sickening ways, making it look very much like a lizard, unlike the other which was more cautious and reminded Naruto of a spider.

It bent its neck at 180 degrees so that when it looked at Naruto, the back of its head was touching his shoulders. Naruto unsheathed his sword, before sprinting at the wall of the Ravine. The titan did something unusual and hissed at Naruto, although the hiss sounded more like a strangled gasp than a true hiss. It crawled down the wall to meet Naruto. He decided instead to shorten the trip and jumped at the titan while it was still attached to the wall. Naruto drove his nodaichi into the titans mid back, staking it to the wall. Naruto back flipped off the titan who was now squirming, trying to detach itself from Naruto's sword. Naruto landed on the ground, before once more leaping toward the titan. As he moved toward the titan, Naruto put his hand back and a blue orb the size of a grapefruit started to form in his hand. The blue orb looked exactly like the small, marble-sized orbs that appeared on his fingertips whenever he did his Sasu You Na Hari, (piercing needle). Naruto grasped the orb, and as he reached the titans neck, he thrust forward with the orb, and started to carve a chunk out of the titan's neck. Wherever the blue orb touched, the flesh would vaporize away. Before long, Naruto had the entire neck area completely destroyed, leaving the head to hang by a few bits of flesh.

The titan hung limp, and when Naruto pulled his sword free from the rock, the titan falling to the ground in a lifeless heap. Naruto turned, having attached himself to the wall to retrieve his sword, and started to sprint onward.

Naruto started to keep his eyes out for the exit; they had been traveling for nearly ten minutes, so the exit had to be close. He had gone ahead of the strikers. So if he came upon the exit, he would be the first one to find it. But he kept on running; he would come upon it eventually.

After another minute or so, he came upon another group of titans, this one consisting of only two titans. They were about fifteen meters apart, the closest one was around thirteen meters tall, and the other was slightly taller at fourteen meters. When Naruto was about fifty meters from the first titan, the titan had a slight spasm, before looking at Naruto with a terrifying face.

The face was quite disfigured, like most titans, but the difference was that this titan's face was stretched, like rubber pulled taught and the eyes which were usually terrifying, gone. Not like they had been gouged out, but just gone, like the titan was created without them. In their place were dark pits.

The titan turned toward Naruto, and started running at him, albeit a very awkward run. Naruto didn't know how this titan had known he was there, since all of the titans he had encountered relied on sight and touch for the most part. Erwin had told him that titans could sense where people were, but he not expected the titan to sense him as well as it did.

Naruto still ran along the wall, and when the titan reached him, it stopped, and looked up at Naruto with unseeing eyes. Naruto kept on running along the wall, and the titan followed. Naruto, losing interest in the titan, drew his nodaichi, and held it towards the titan. He jumped off the wall, and dove. When he was about three meters above the titan, it reached out with arm and caught his downward momentum with its arm, and instead of having Naruto's blade impale its head, its arm caught the blade instead, the blade piercing all the way down to the hilt in the titan's palm. The titan closed its hand into a fist, intent on crushing Naruto. He leapt away before that could happen, leaving his sword sheathed in the titans flesh. Naruto landed, and slid his hands into his sleeves and pulled out two kunai.

The other titan, the one fifteen meters away noticed the commotion, and started walking over. It had eyes, although its legs were freakishly large, having stringy, deformed musculature. Its walk started to break into a sprint; the eyeless titan sensed the sprinting titan and stumbled out of the way. Naruto saw the sprinting titan and turned to face it, he crouched on the ground on waited for it to come to him.

Right when the titan was about to come upon Naruto, he jumped into the air incredibly high. In the middle of the air, right above the titans head, he flipped over so that his head was facing down and the titan's neck was right where his blades would be. His kunai, which were not long enough to even pierce the titan's skin, shimmered with invisible air extending quite a few feet from the kunai. When he sliced down with them, the skin of the titan started to open long before the kunai even touching the flesh. The titan stepped past Naruto, the near entirety of its neck was gone, and after another step, it collapsed and tumbled sprawling across the floor of the Ravine.

Naruto landed safely, but had to dodge right away, due to the eyeless titan coming after him. Naruto ran to wall before jumping onto it, he then ran up it past the titan's reach and crouched onto the wall, holding with both hands as well as feet. The eyeless titan went up to the wall, and looked up at him, much like it had when Naruto first attempted to kill it with his sword.

He closed his eyes for a moment, before placing his hands together, and formed a seal. His thumb, index finger, and middle finger, were all pointing up (AN: in relation to Naruto), while his ring and pinky fingers were inter locked. He then took a deep breath, before shouting.

"Katon: Gōryūka no Jutsu, (Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Technique)!" From his mouth, a mass of barely visible* white fire spilled out. The fire took the shape of dragon and headed toward the titan. The dragon roared toward the titan, the air around it super heating and moving upward, before being stopped by the dense sulfurous layer of the dragon met the eyeless titan, the titan's flesh just started curling up. All moisture evaporated from it almost instantly, and after that the skin took fire. When the dragon passed the titan, all that remained was a blackened husk of skin that, when Naruto touched it, crumbled away and fell apart into ash. Where the titan had been, all that remained was Naruto's nodaichi, untouched by the flames, a seal on the base of the blade glowing extremely bright.

Naruto performed another Jutsu, giving the stone of the Ravine, bright red with heat, a thick layer of earth so that the horses would not be hurt. He walked to the center of the dirt where his sword was. He thrust his hand into the earth, until he found the hilt of his sword. Naruto grimaced and when he pulled his hand out, it was completely charred black. He put his sword back in its sheath and started to flex his fingers on his charred hand. Flakes of stinking flesh fell from the hand exposing muscle underneath. Except, this muscle was looking odd, writhing in odd ways, and soon skin started to form above the muscle, and not long after his hand was completely operable again, not even looking like it had been burnt to a crisp moments before.

He turned and looked down the Ravine. He couldn't see any titans or the exit, but the air was feeling a bit…cleaner. He shook his head and leapt up to the wall before resuming his sprint along the Ravine.

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At the north entrance there were about fourteen titans that Naruto could see. That made sense considering that the entrance was the easiest place to get into the Ravine. But it was still the largest group of titans he had faced thus hadn't noticed him yet because he had placed himself next to the cloud layer and he was also pretty far away from them

He couldn't use any of his AOE Jutsu because the Ravine acted as a funnel, and would probably destroy the front half of the group of riders. So he restricted himself to use of his sword. Naruto chuckled.

"I'm starting to be like Lee." Naruto drew his sword, before sighing "Well, if I'm going to be like him, I shouldn't half-ass it." Naruto closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and rushed towards the titans, and, about sixty meters above them, leapt off the wall.

"BY THE POWER OF YOUTH, I SHALL BURN YOU WITH MY UNDYING WILL OF FIRE!" Naruto's battle cry echoed through the Ravine as he brought his sword down upon the first titan, completely splitting it in two. All the titans turned toward Naruto, who was right in the center of them. As if by some invisible command, every titan simultaneously rushed towards him. The first titans to reach him dove for him; he leapt backward over the heads toward the exit of the Ravine.

When he landed, he had all of the titans in his field of view, allowing him to react to them much better than if he was in the center of them. The titans who had been on the outer edges of the pack, mainly those who were too small to get past the bigger titans, got to him first and were the first to resume the attack. The first one to reach him was a six-meter titan.

The titan's hand raced toward Naruto, attempting to grab him. Naruto's nodaichi flashed, slicing the hand off the wrist. He didn't wait for the titan to recover, hopping onto its arm and running along its length. When he reached the shoulder, he sliced the arm off. The titan reached up and tried to grab him, so Naruto hopped onto its head. He stabbed his sword into the head, and slid it down its scalp, splitting the back half of the titans head open. When he reached the titans neck, he took the blade out of the titans head, spun, and sliced out a large chunk of the titan's neck.

Naruto leapt off the titan, the force from the jump pushing it to the ground. The other titans were not idle while this was happening. Three of them, all of whom were in between eight and ten meters tall, had run up during the battle and when Naruto landed, one of them jumped for him right away. He dodged right, twisting so that he was facing them. From Naruto's position, they looked to be in a line in front of him. They turned and started to run toward him, their lopsided strides hindering them some.

Naruto turned his body so that his right shoulder was facing them. He held his nodaichi at his side, next to its sheath. The seal on the base of the blade started to glow bright red, its light similar to the light coming from the clouds above them. The light from seal covered the blade of his nodaichi in a coat of red chakra that swirled and writhed like as if barely contained. Naruto lunged forward and swiped upward toward the line of titans. A red line trailed behind his sword, and when his sword reached the zenith of its swing, the red line exploded forward, turning into a crescent of fire. When the flame impacted with the first titan, it was bisected from groin to head, the second titan didn't fare much better, having the flame explode in front of it, and having its flesh more or less melted from its bones. The third titan survived the fiery projectile, having lost its power on the third. But it was cut down by Naruto, who was sprinting behind his attack.

Naruto turned towards the rest of the titans, when a foot impacted with his torso, sending him flying into the wall of the Ravine. He was slumped against the wall, having lost his wind from the impact upon the wall. He looked up to see two titans, one of which was a fifteen-meter, the smaller one, a twelve-meter titan, ran at him, intent on eating him during his moment of weakness. It jumped at him, but while it was flying through the air, Naruto got back his wind and he leapt out of the way. The titans face met the wall with a meaty thud, a web of cracks spread from the impact.

The other titan walked over to Naruto in an awkward walk, looking like it was drunk. Half way over to Naruto, the titan actually fell down. It started to crawl over to him, seemingly being unable to walk anymore.

Naruto didn't have time to stare at the spectacle, because another titan had walked up and was coming from his side, six more were following it. The titan that had slammed its head into the wall, was also getting up, Naruto saw stones lodged in its face that were quickly being pushed out of its skin by a healing factor that was as impressive as his own.

The titan coming from his side was stumbling towards Naruto, as were the titans that were following it. The reason was because all the titans that were fast had reached Naruto first along with those who were at the edge of the group and had been killed first, leaving the slow titans to be the last. The titan that had crashed into the wall ran at him once more, appearing to be the last titan that could run.

Naruto got in a sword stance, before starting to sprint towards the running titan, leaving the slow titans for later or, if he somehow died, the only one that the strikers would have to deal with. The titan drew back its foot mid stride, intent on kicking Naruto once again. Naruto dodged to the side. The leg was now next to him and, not one to waste an opportunity, Naruto took his sword and, when he reached the knee, sliced off the leg. The titan fell forward, not having a leg to support itself. Naruto climbed onto its back and ran to its neck, where he promptly sliced into it, his sword cutting deep. The titan started steaming immediately.

He turned toward the herd of titans that were slowly walking towards him, many of which had disturbing deformities. Seeing the group was only a few minutes away from his position he climbed down from the titan he was on, and started to run towards them.

The first titan he went to was the drunken titan, which was trying to get up. It fell down again, and Naruto jumped onto its back, before swinging his sword, and decapitating it. After that, he resumed his sprint towards the group of titans in front of him.

The first titan Naruto came upon had arms as long as its legs and its knuckles were dragging along the ground. When Naruto came up, it tried to hit him, but its arm took too long to draw back. By the time it had its arms coming forward in an attack, he had already decapitated it. He started to run after that. The next three titans he took in stride, leaping from one to the next, decapitating them as he went.

The next titan he met didn't last long either. He leapt up at it, and spun with his sword held out, cutting off its head. When he landed, he ran up to the next one, and cut off its feet at the ankles, its stumps spewing blood that evaporated as soon as it met the air. The titan fell forward, but Naruto was there to meet it, and by the time the body had hit the earth, the head was already rolling off somewhere.

The last titan in the small group had a terrifying deformity; it had mouth that took up most of its face in a horrifying grin, which was full of teeth that were sharp and unnatural in any human mouth. Naruto, sprinted up to the titan, and jumped into the air, thrusting his sword at its neck, hoping to get a quick kill. Instead, the titan leaned down slightly, and when Naruto had thrust his sword into its neck, it opened its mouth and chomped down on Narutos straw hat. Naruto sliced side to side, and decapitated the titan; he leapt off the titan, and out of the way.

Naruto reached up, and pulled off his straw hat, exposing his head to the world. The top of it had a large chunk taken out of it. He gave an annoyed mumble, before tossing it away.

"That was a good hat," He complained, before reaching into sleeves and pulling out an exact duplicate of the hat. He placed it back on his head, and his face was once again concealed.

He looked down the Ravine one way, then the other. To his right, he saw the group of riders, along with the strikers, whom Naruto had told to hold back in case he used an ability that could endanger them. To his left he saw the exit, a steadily sloping rising path that disappeared into the clouds above them, it was on this path that the last titan stood.

Naruto, not really wanting to deal with the titan, pointed his index finger at it. On the tip, one of his Sasu You Na Hari, (piercing needles) was forming. When it reached sufficient size, he wordlessly launched it, and not a moment after that, there was one less titan in the world. Naruto turned away and jumped onto the wall. The group was still a few minutes away. With nothing else to do, Naruto assumed a lotus position and started to calm himself after the battle. It was really pointless, all things considered, but Naruto liked the calm stillness of focusing upon one's self.

Naruto closed his eyes, stilled his breath, and dove into his mind.

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Naruto awoke within his mind. His physical self was still sitting in a lotus position on the wall of the Ravine. He looked around; he was in his command center, sitting in the command chair in the middle of the room. All around him were the windows that represented his senses, each displaying their respective selves in their own odd ways. Naruto rose from his command chair before walking over to a door in the wall of his command center labeled: common room.

Naruto walked in. His mental senses were immediately assaulted by sights and odors he didn't want to see or smell ever again. With a wave of his hand, the room was devoid of all smell and furniture, and other things. After that, all that was left was a white room with two people in it, standing about two meters apart. One of the two was Kurama, who was smirking. The other was a clone of Naruto, except he was different than Naruto, in the same way that Mr. C was different. This Naruto had a shaved head and had a long scar across his face. Instead of the long coat that Naruto wore, the scarred Naruto was wearing a combat vest with a black undershirt. He wore khaki, cargo-style pants with many pockets. His face was the epitome of rage. He looked at Kurama. His teeth were bared showing elongated fangs where his incisors should have been.

Kurama was still wearing his black kimono, although it was slightly disheveled with a tear running down his left sleeve. He stood straight, smugness coming off him in waves.

"Welcome Naruto, B-san and I were just having a small dispute, nothing to worry about. Isn't that right, B-san?" said Kurama, looking over towards Naruto. B snarled at him, before pulling out a nasty looking curved kukri.

"NO, YOU DISHONORABLE BASTARD," said B, lunging at Kurama with his Kukri. Kurama stepped to the side, dodging the swipe.

"Ooh, such language, I was just being polite and then you just go off and start cursing. Have you no shame?" chided Kurama, obviously goading on B. Naruto, stepped into the room, holding out his hand. Both Kurama and B went stock still, seemingly unable to move.

"So…What was it this time?" said Naruto addressing Mr. B.

"Fucker cheated! I don't know how he did it, but he did!" Replied Mr. B angrily.

"Oh? Is that so? Then pray tell, how I can cheat at shogi," replied Kurama snidely. Mr. B didn't respond, instead trying to break loose of Naruto's mental hold. Naruto just looked at his counterpart, before face palming, contemplating on how this thing could be a part of him. After a while Mr. B stopped struggling, and looked back at Kurama

"I know you did, there isn't any way you could have won if you hadn't. I had you clearly in tsugi!" replied B, trying to kill Kurama with his eyes. Kurama just stared right back.

"Is this all it is, a dispute over who won and who lost?" asked Naruto, pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance.

"Of no, it was much more." Explained B, "We had the game to see who would have the last of the sake, unt-"

"Until you destroyed it," interrupted Kurama.

"You shouldn't be able to drink something that you won dishonorably!" said B.

Naruto, having enough of their pointless squabbles, waved his hand, and their voices all disappeared, along with their movement. Both Kurama and B looked at Naruto, unable to do anything other than listen. Naruto took a deep breath, before looking at B.

"Now B, I know it is in your nature, but if you need to make conflict, at least do it over something less petty than a game," reprimanded Naruto, "now go back to your sector. I'm sure C has created some abomination that needs killing," Naruto released B from his grasp. B looked at Kurama, before walking, with difficulty, toward the door. He stopped at the door, his shoulders shaking, before turning quickly and sprinting at the still-immobilized Kurama, Kukri in hand. He didn't make it three steps though, before he warped from the room, presumably to his sector of Naruto's mind. Naruto shook his head and sighed, before looking at Kurama, who was smiling smugly. Naruto waved his hand, allowing Kurama control of his body once again.

"Is this what you do for fun?" asked Naruto wearily. He had come into his mind for a moment of respite from the combat that was happening outside of his body, only to have to break up a fight that would have probably messed with his senses.

"Well…yes. When you have been reduced from the place of power I once held in the world, to the place I am in now, you do whatever you can for a little bit of fun. Plus, it is easy to get a rise out of him," replied Kurama, Naruto snorted in laughter.

"That is an understatement," said Naruto, "even if you were a deaf, dumb, blind, cripple, you could still get a rise out of B just because you were drooling the wrong way," stated Naruto, chuckling.

"It is good that you do not use him as much as the others. He is too impulsive for my taste. He would make a poor battle commander," replied Kurama. Naruto sighted, before sitting down, a nice chair coming into existence to catch him. He waved his hand, and another one appeared in front of him. Kurama walked forward and sat in the one across from Naruto.

"About B, while I do agree that he isn't exactly the best commander, he is a beast on the battle field," said Naruto.

"And beasts should be caged until they are needed," said Kurama in reply, Naruto snorted once more, this time at Kurama.

"You do know how hypocritical you sound right now, right?" said Naruto, Kurama just frowned.

"I may have been an animal in form, but in mind…I surpass even you," replied Kurama, "B is my opposite, he is human in form, but his mind set is that of a beast, set off at the slightest thing. He would have been more fit in my old body, but he is occupying it right now,"

"No denying that," acknowledged Naruto, "But give me a thousand years and see how my mind is then,"

Naruto waved his hand, and all around him appeared miniature versions of windows in the main part of his brain. His sight was exactly like he left it, blank, but that wasn't what he was looking at. His ears told him that the riders were approximately three real minutes away. The window formed a representation of the Ravine, using lines, making it look like a topographical map. Whenever a new sound was introduced it was added to the map, before fading away slowly. Naruto waved his hand, and a new window appeared in front of him. This one showed the world in a multi-colored haze. The Ravine was represented by a lively green color, the cloud above them was a sickly yellow color, the riders coming toward him were a vibrant blue; the birds in the sky were of the same blue, as were the animals in the earth. All of these colors were the chakra of the world, each different and unique in their own way.

Naruto gave a frustrated grunt as he looked at the window in front of him. Despite being in a meditative state, he still couldn't sense the titans, which annoyed him to no end. He had become accustomed to sensing things before they came at him. Being unable to sense a titan, beyond a faint chakra signature, was unsettling.

He sighed before waving his hand again, and all of the windows went away. He leaned back in his chair, and closed his eyes for a moment, resting them. After a minute or two, he sat up, and looked at Kurama.

"So…how is the seal holding up?" asked Naruto.

"I just replaced it. Not three hours ago, it's holding up fine. For now at least," replied Kurama.

"I see," was all Naruto said, he leaned forward and clasped his hands in front of his face, deep in thought.

"He is getting stronger, soon not even C's seals will be able to contain him," stated Kurama.

"I know, but we have to postpone it as long as possible," replied Naruto.

"I won't say it again, but you know my standing on the situation," said Kurama.

Naruto sighed. "I know, 'let him out before he gets too powerful to control', and you know my standing on it," Naruto sighed, "He's gaining power, I won't deny. However it is not like I'm not doing anything. I grow more powerful with every passing day as well,"

Naruto stood up, as did Kurama. Naruto walked to the door and held it open, gesturing to Kurama to leave. When Kurama exited, Naruto turned around to face the room. He closed his eyes in concentration. He lifted his hand, and slowly passed it over the room. As his hand moved, the room gained color and shape, furniture started to appear, and windows. When he was finished, he stayed in the doorway looking over the room with longing, before he turned around and left it. It was a circular room with six great windows facing north, on either side there was a couch, and in front of the windows was a large desk of some exotic hardwood. The roof was a great red cone. In front of the desk there was a cloth hanging with the same symbol as the one on his metal headband. Behind the desk was a great, green, high-backed chair. Behind the desk, there was a crate of sake, just waiting for someone to come for it.

Naruto walked out into the command room. He couldn't see Kurama, who had probably gone to another sector of his mind. He looked at the screens and, not seeing anything threatening to him in his vicinity, walked over and sat in his command chair. He looked up at the window for sound and saw that the riders, while three minutes real time away, were still around twenty mental minutes away. He closed his eyes, resting, as he waited for the group of riders to reach him.

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Naruto opened his eyes, he looked down the Ravine and saw the riders about two hundred meters away. He cracked his neck and rolled out his body from his short nap. Wishing to conserve chakra, he leapt down from the wall, landing on a stone outcropping of wall near the exit where he sat in clear view of the riders.

When they got about twenty-five meters away from him, he leapt down onto the soft earth of the Ravine, intending on getting a mount for himself to ride on. Hideki saw him and around ten meters away he raised his hand made a signal to those behind him. The group slowed down before stopping. Hideki looked down at Naruto, his eyes showing contempt for Naruto at proving him wrong…he hated being proven wrong.

"You survived," stated Hideki, his voice echoing his mood.

"Oh, you say that like it is a bad thing," replied Naruto.

"Your mount was lost back at the south entrance. You will have to ride in the cart for the time being," said Hideki, apparently not hearing Naruto's last statement. Naruto shrugged. He had ridden amongst the injured and dying before, it was nothing new. He started walking past Hideki, when many yells erupted, along with the frantic neighing of horses. Naruto started pushing through the crowd of riders, who could apparently see something Naruto couldn't. He had just started contemplating on jumping onto the wall, when a strong nagging sensation started itching at the back of his mind. With less than a thought, Naruto vanished from his place in the crowds of horses and people, and reappeared on the face of a titan. Naruto was grasping the knife he had given Ahiah. It was stuck in the titan's eye.

This titan had come out of the ground, like the one that had eaten Naruto's clone. Naruto saw Ahiah slumped against the wall of the Ravine about eight meters away. The titan itself was in a pained frenzy, clawing at its face, trying to pull the knife from its eye. One of its hands grasped Naruto and threw him at the wall of the ravine extremely hard. Naruto flipped mid-air, and landed on the wall of the Ravine, cracks spreading out from the impact.

Naruto drew his nodaichi from its sheath and rushed toward the titan. It didn't even notice him when he ran up its back. It was only until he had reached the titan's neck that it even acknowledged Naruto's existence. By then it was too late. Naruto swung his blade and decapitated the titan completely.

Naruto jumped off the titan's back and landed on the ground next to the hole it had made. Naruto looked around, seeing the devastation the titan wrought. Six men were and their horses were dead or dying. The cart had made it out. Naruto looked until he found Ahiah, still slumped against the wall of the Ravine. Naruto ran over to him.

He grimaced at what he saw. Both Ahiah's legs were mangled, the left one only hanging by a few sinews of muscle, and his arm was twisted at a sickening angle, presumably by the fall. The titan had thrown him away when he stabbed it in the eye. Ahiah looked up, even though one eye was caked with blood, making him unable to open it.

"Heh, got me good this time, didn't it?" said Ahiah, coughing up blood. Naruto didn't say anything, instead kneeling down next to Ahiah. He put his hand up to Ahiah's left leg.

"Shōsen Jutsu, (Mystical healing palm technique)," muttered Naruto under his breath. Ahiah's leg started to slowly mend, but the blood was pumping out faster than Naruto could heal it. Naruto grunted in frustration. He had been a fighter, not a healer. The only reason he even knew this Jutsu was that he needed a backup ability if his healing factor was unable to regenerate his wound. Ahiah lifted his hand and put in on Naruto's arm.

"Whatever you're doing, stop. I can already feel my life fading. Though I know who you are,I cannot see you, and my body feels cold." He squeezed Naruto's arm, as if he was trying to hold onto him, trying to hold off death. Naruto ignored him, instead pumping more chakra into the Jutsu.

"Naruto-san…I have one request of you," mumbled out Ahiah, his voice becoming slurred. Naruto just kept up the Jutsu, beads of sweat were pouring down his forehead and into his eyes in concentration.

"My daughter…Chana…I am the only family she has. Her mother died from the Plague, same as her brother. We lived in…Trost district, fourth sector," whispered Ahiah, his eye started to become unfocused, "She had her mother's hair, beautiful stuff, wish I could hold her once more…but we don't choose when we meet death, only how we do so. My friends, I'll be seeing you soon," Ahiah let loose his final breath, and life left him. His one open eye became glossy, and his body went limp.

Naruto deactivated his Jutsu before reaching up to Ahiah's face and closing his eye, so that his body might rest. He grasped Ahiah's hand in between his own.

"I promise you, I will protect her. I give you my word," replied Naruto. Naruto laid Ahiah's body against the wall of the Ravine, making him as comfortable as he could. He then went to the six other men he had seen around the titan, but they had all been struck by the titan in its rage frenzy, and had died, be it from the hit of the titan or being crushed by their horses.

Naruto shook his head in frustration and anger, but there was nothing he could do. By the time he had checked everyone, the group was already moving, getting out of the Ravine as fast as they could. Naruto climbed into the cart as it passed by him. He looked around. There were various people with various injuries, the worst of which was a man who had his entire right arm torn off. In front of the cart, behind the driver, was a chest of wood, held down by many chains. He sat at the end of the cart, with his left leg hanging down. He took out his nodaichi and laid it across his lap. He reached into his coat, and pulled out a whetstone, and set to sharpening his blade. With each pass of the stone, if you looked closely, you could see some kind of barely-controlled rage that was just behind his eyes.

After a while Naruto put down his whetstone and looked into the sky. The sun was near setting. Soon it would be night. He set aside his blade and stood in the back of the cart. He looked towards the north, to their destination, the last refuge of humanity, Wall Maria.

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Well…holy shit (excuse my French), that chapter was intense. This was my first long sequence of combat that I had to do, so I ask you if it was good, any suggestions? Anyway, I killed off Ahiah. My editor was really sad when I told her he was going to die, and kept on telling me to not kill him off, but sadly I did so anyway. It is late, right now as I finish this chapter, so I will say goodbye.

Please review.

Salem52,

Signing off.