The Hunter Chapter 8
The One who Listened
Disclaimer: I don't own anything, Sword Art Online and Naruto belong to their respective creators and I am just using that, illegally, without explicit permission. Sue me. The only things that are mine are the ideas that I introduce in this fic.
Note from Kur0 : I'm sure most of you don't care but the stitches went fine and I found Kishi already complaining about the hard bed and the lack of cute nurses the very next day. Surprisingly, he liked the food. At any rate, I got him writing again. Not that he had anything else to do other than twiddle his thumbs anyway.
Post edit note from Kishi; I'm alive! Yay! Funny thing is, I never even noticed I got stabbed that night, for some strange reason, the pain only came WHILE I was being stitched up. Oh and I couldn't reach my two friends either, Nicole won't give me a straight answer, but I get the impression that she scared (shouted) them away before I woke up if the way the nurses keep shushing her is any indication.
Incidentally, you notice some seriously strange thing while you're high on pain killers. I just realized that I've been using blonde(feminine) instead of blond(masculine) to describe Naruto all this time and my sister's laptop uses American English while mine uses British. No wonder people keep telling me to pick armour or armor.
I'll shut up and stare at the lights now… pwetty….
Soundtrack List
Yuki Kajiura – Rule the Battlefield
Ivan Torrent – Legacy
Yuki Kajiura – Cynical World
Nier – Ashes to Dreams – Nuadhaich
****The Hunter****
24th Floor; Delos
Naruto yawned widely, stretching backwards with a satisfied grunt before he fell back on the carpet of green grass. A transparent blue window hovered above his half lidded eyes as he lazily flicked a finger up and down the screen, making some minute adjustments to his skill set before opening another window to his inventory.
Crystal blue eyes flicked from one screen to the other as the blond thought to himself, seemingly weighing his options with one finger hovering over the delete button.
While he wasn't entirely sure if Kayaba could check his status from wherever he was at the moment, he didn't really feel like taking chances. On the other hand, the advantage he could gain from staying with his original plan outweighed the possibility that Kayaba was spying on him and the loss of his initial surprise factor if that assumption was true.
If it wasn't; then he didn't really have anything to lose other than the risk of being stabbed to death and that was a loss he could bear with enormous fortitude.
He hummed a quiet tune to himself as he deleted the Light Armour skill, losing all progress permanently and any passive or active skills that it had granted him, swapping his defences in favour a skill that was more useful in the long run.
Unlike at the beginning of the game, where everybody only had four skill slots and needed use those slots as wisely as possible, alongside a heavy dependence on the quality of their equipment to even survive the first few floors because of their abysmally low stats, sooner or later, things would even out as they reached the game's middle phase; where a player's own skill and abilities slowly eclipsed the importance of equipment.
Not to say that it wasn't important anymore but those who continued depending on their armour and neglected their skills would slowly find themselves being outmatched while those that compensated for weaker equipment with sharper skills would find the playing field being levelled. Only those who kept their equipment up to date, their blades sharp and their wits sharper would stay competitive above the other clearers.
The fact the system seemed to parallel a real life scramble to keep up with progress did not escape his notice and amused the blond to no end.
Of course, he suspected that one good hit from a sufficiently strong player or Boss would probably kill him but now that his Health Points, agility and awareness was enough to keep him moderately safe, his skill slots could finally be devoted to his original plan.
Selecting one of the weapons in his inventory, he materialized a heavy Lochaber axe out of thin air before closing the blue screen with a cheerful tinkle.
Absentmindedly, he tested the edge of the axe before clumsily giving it a few swings, something that his awkward position wasn't really helping. Then again, the blonde was currently too distracted to give it a real go.
"Goshujin-sama?" Someone asked him curiously.
The axe dropped from his hands as Naruto yelped and scurried behind the nearest bush while his spectators merely watched inquisitively.
Unknown to the three of them, someone who had been just about to leave his spot in the shadows and stab the blond in the back before he realized what was happening immediately tucked himself back out of sight, his earlier plans dashed with the sudden presence of reinforcement.
A head of yellow hair poked out from behind the bush after a long awkward moment as he finally realized that the two pink haired girls weren't going anywhere, "Uhm…. Serah, Tamamo. It's nice to see you. Wonderful day for a walk isn't it?"
"You might as well come out and say that." She said slowly, as if talking to a special needs child while Tamamo's amber eyes glittered with silent mirth.
Two blue eyes blinked at them from the bushes, "Can't the two of you uh… pretend that you never saw me?"
"Okay… let's try another way. Did Asuna or Lightning give you any medicine to eat?"
Naruto ignored that, "I was just… relaxing."
She slowly and deliberately looked around the empty field, "Out in the middle of nowhere? Really? Does anyone even know that you're out here alone while everybody else is trying to find the Boss Room?"
The way the blonde went out of his way to avoid her gaze said everything.
Slowly, she lifted one hand and dragged down her own interface, "It's alright, Naruto-sama." She said soothingly, "I'll just message Asuna-nee chan so she can come and get you before you get lost again."
"No!" A yellow and white blur darted out from the bushes and caught her hand before she could send the message, "I mean… I'm not lost. I'm," He hesitated, "… training."
"You mean slacking."
"Please don't tell them." Naruto begged with a wild look in his eyes, "I've been looking through so many reports; Lightning keeps bringing me more and more of those damned things even though I keep telling her that if I see another one; I'll roll up in a ball and die."
Serah had to try very hard not to giggle, "I bet she said that you could die after you finished signing everything."
Naruto made a vaguely disgruntled sound, "I wish I was that lucky. I have this strange suspicion that she'll find a way to keep shoving papers at me even while my coffin is being lowered into the ground."
"Probably….." Serah allowed with a mock thoughtful expression, "Though I'm sure I could be persuaded to forget this. Me and Tamamo wanted to get some training in… and no one seems to have the time to spar with us since they're busy doing what you're not…." The lithe girl in leather armour trailed off with a pointed look at the blond.
The blonde blinked and gave her a measuring look for a while before shrugging with a grudging smile, "Sure. Why not? I might as well exercise since it's obvious that my peaceful afternoon nap just went down the crapper."
Heaving a resigned sigh, the three of them began tracking back to town, pausing only to pick up the blonde's discarded axe before they stopped just inside the limits of the Safe Zone of a small hamlet whose name she did not know to practice
He was just reaching over his shoulders when he heard Serah stop him with a giggle, "Not with a bow, Naruto-sama. I want a match, not waste my time chasing you down while you pelt me with spears."
Play Yuki Kajiura – Rule the Battlefield
"Serah," He began with an exasperated expression, "I'm an Archer. As the name implies, I use bows. I wouldn't even know how to start using a Sword Skill."
Seeing the girl's pleading pout, he rolled his eyes, "How bout I use a spear then?" He offered grudgingly, "I'm pretty fair with one."
"Nope. With a sword." Serah continued, unrelentingly staring at him with those big glittering eyes.
"I thought you wanted to practice? You know, simulating a real battle with someone whose skill is higher or equal to yours?"
"Pleeeease?"
Naruto gave her a long hard look, "You just want to try and beat some poor defenceless sod don't you? Only in this case, the poor defenceless sod is me so you can brag."
"I wouldn't call it brag," Serah hedged with a wide grin, "It sounds so evil."
"Isn't it?" Naruto observed dryly.
"Pretty please, Naruto-nii chan?" She fluttered her eyelashes a few times for good measure.
All things considered, Naruto melted pretty fast. Even Kline held out longer, and that was saying something.
"Alright, alright." The blonde muttered grudgingly, "If only because I love the two of you so much."
Serah beamed at the blonde and materialized a pair of harmless wooden swords and another pair of wooden daggers that were handed to Tamamo while the blond stalked over to the wall hedging the hamlet and dropped the bow and quiver of spears slung over his shoulders with a thud.
Turning around, he casually plucked the wooden sword Serah had thrown him out of the air, lamely swinging the sword back and forth like a club as if testing its balance.
Shrugging once again, he sighed heavily, and in Serah's eyes, it sounded like the sigh of a man who was resigning himself to a bruised pride in order to humour two pretty girls.
"Tamamo, can you let me go first?" Serah pleaded with her friend excitedly, "I've never sparred with Naruto-nii before."
Tamamo gave her a long hard look before sighing, "Fine…. But you owe me dessert." The other pink haired girl in the kimono acquiesced with an annoyed pout. Leaning against the wall, she sighed and stowed the wooden daggers away in her obi.
"Whenever you're ready, Naruto-nii!" She called out cheerfully, not entirely expecting the blond to mount a meaningful resistance.
Naruto shrugged.
It was over before either of them knew it.
The blond struck like a damned snake, only he lacked the decency to even give her a hiss as warning.
There was no flash or light that usually accompanied a Sword Skill, though Serah would later figure that it was probably because he didn't need it. The tip of his practice sword hit the base of her blade so hard that her hand was numbed, and then he twisted twice, sending the poor girl reeling as she tried to hold onto her blade before he wrenched it out of her grip and threw it up into the air with a mere flick of the wrist.
She stood there gaping as Naruto calmly plucked her blade out of mid-air and flipped it around so that he was holding it by the sharp end.
SAO's White Archer bowed flamboyantly, "I believe this is yours." He declared with a mischievous grin, handing the sword back to her, pommel first.
"Goshujin-sama!"
Serah blankly stared at the wooden sword in her hand, only faintly hearing Tamamo squealing as she practically flew into a laughing blonde's arms. The lean man caught her easily and spun the girl around, chuckling the entire time before setting her down, "I didn't know you could DO THAT!" She blabbered excitedly.
"You didn't ask." The blonde countered her question modestly, "Plus, underestimating me is usually a very bad idea."
"You said you didn't know how to even START a Sword Skill!"
"I didn't." Naruto agreed, "I never said that I didn't actually know how to use a sword though. They're two very different things." he pointed out with a blasé smile as Serah pouted childishly and stomped her foot, "But you didn't even give me time to get ready!"
He shrugged blithely, "You told me to move anytime I was ready. So I assumed you were as well, besides I don't think those mobs are going to be affected by your pout the way I was."
"My turn! My turn!" Tamamo excitedly cried out as she shooed the petulant Serah away and took up a ready position even before Naruto realized what was happening.
"Go!" Tamamo cheered with a broad grin that never left her lips.
The small and lithe girl almost seemed to blur with speed, her daggers swinging alternately in a furious combo that was barely fended off awkwardly with a comical yelp, something Serah immediately noticed with a vicious smirk.
A bead of sweat ran down his forehead as he tried to counter the overly enthusiastic girl's swift daggers with his slower blade. If he was honest, it had been a while since he held a sword and he had never actually tried to use it against daggers before, but he improvised. Knocking away one dagger with the flat of his blade, he caught the other with his pommel before bending over backwards, dodging a glowing horizontal slash before the Tamamo's other dagger swung in a smooth and continuous barrage that left him no openings to take advantage of. Leaping away from the almost too eager fox girl, Naruto cracked a thin, approving smile at the way Tamamo took advantage of her daggers to create an uninterrupted flow of attacks.
Grunting, he ducked to the side, barely avoiding another dagger thrust, though the edge of her dagger caught on his cloak, lifting it up slightly.
Almost immediately, Naruto's eyes widened in a moment of panic and Serah's sharp blue eyes caught a strange glint of steel half hidden in the shadows of his cloak for the a split second.
It felt like a switch had been thrown as the blonde retaliated, and for the barest instant, it seemed like the noble White Archer had been swallowed whole, by someone that absolutely no qualms about doing whatever needed to be done in order to reach his objective.
Abandoning all pretence of fair play, his foot snapped upwards to kick the knife away from his chest while the off balance Naruto suddenly hurled his blade at Tamamo in an underhand throw.
At first, she thought that the blonde had thrown his sword at Tamamo, but Serah's expectations were dashed as the wooden sword stabbed itself into the ground between Tamamo's ankles and tripped her up, throwing her off her momentum instead of hitting the girl herself, before the blond swept her legs out from underneath her. Flowing the low kick's horizontal momentum, his offhand wrenched the sword out of the ground and he finished the spin by coming full circle, stabbing the blade into the ground an inch away from her neck, pinning it between the blade and his elbow.
The two panting fighters were eerily silent as false adrenaline ran through their veins; their heaving bodies were intertwined on the ground as Naruto pinned the defenceless Tamamo to the ground with his weight, her daggers having been knocked out of her grip by the fall.
Tamamo was the first to break the silence by cracking an incredibly wide grin before she wrapped her arms around the blond's neck, completely ignoring the blade that would have cut a vein open had it been made of real steel, and hugging him tightly, "Goshujin-sama." She said with a strange adoration in her voice as she peered up at him through large liquid pools of amber, "Where did you learn to use a sword?"
The blonde covered his slip up by winking suavely as he carefully let go of the sword and helped her up, though it wasn't exactly necessary given the way she was clinging to him, "That's a secret. Maybe I'll tell you when we get out of this game." Naruto said as he carefully detached the arms wrapped around his neck.
Tamamo pouted before she caught Serah's mischievous look.
The two of them shared a glance before grinning wickedly at the suddenly apprehensive Naruto who was dusting away at his cloak, "What?"
Before he knew it, the two precocious girls had his arms in a steel grip, as they press-ganged him to a bench, "We have time~"
"Tell us, Goshuujin-sama~"
Play Ivan Torrent – Legacy
Naruto made a face as they sat him down, "The two of you aren't going to let me go until I break, are you?"
"Nope!" Tamamo chirped cheerfully.
"You can resist us and sing, or you can just sing. For the sake of expediency, you might as well just do the former since you're going to sing anyway.' Serah added with a throaty giggle.
"I love you girls too much." The blond muttered with a resigned sigh.
"We know~"
Rolling his eyes, the blonde surrendered to the inevitable, "It's nothing special. I used to work for a wood carver that made bows and arrows for my grandmother's dojo, however that wasn't all he made. Sometimes, they got orders for bamboo swords or the heavier wooden swords from the city next door and when they were finished, the old man would force me to cycle them over."
The blonde made a discontented sound, "The cheapskate never paid me for that either. Either way, I'd cycle the package to this old kendo dojo that was being run by a husband and wife pair. I don't know if they had children but the husband always looked really happy whenever I came and always insisted I play with him for an hour or so and I couldn't really say no after seeing how happy he was."
Naruto scratched his chin in a thoughtful manner as he struggled to remember something, "After beating me into the ground, he always said to me, 'Your weapon isn't just the sword in your hand. Look around carefully, everything that isn't nailed or bolted down can be a weapon in the right hands. Even a concept or an idea can be sharper than any blade.'"
The blonde smiled faintly, "It took me a while to understand what he actually meant, several months of play to be precise. In the end, blades can break and arrows can miss but your mind and your body will always be with you. Temper your mind so that you are not confined by what other people consider normal and strengthen your Body so that it can carry out what the Mind desires. If you can do that, you already have the toughest shield and the sharpest blade." Naruto quoted with a vague smile as he thought of the warm couple.
An image of a tall, lean man with greying red hair smiling at him warmly appeared in his mind, the red haired man's arm was wrapped around his wife's waist, a golden haired woman of incredible beauty. Her plaid and homely clothes only served to somehow enhance her regal bearing rather than hinder it.
Then he grimaced as if remembering a phantom pain, "Right after every session with the husband, the wife took over. I don't know if she was a foreigner, but she carried herself with this noble air and formal way of speaking that always reminded me of a queen. For some reason, she was offended by his teachings and insisted on undoing everything he had taught me by beating proper sword fighting etiquette into me. The husband and I used to joke that her good looks were all wasted on her since she was so strict." He glanced at the two pink haired girls seating on his side and grinned his trademark half grin, "Suffice to say, between the two of them, I ended up with a sword style that was one part pragmatic, one part noble and completely illegal in any competition. Though it's been a while since I've seen either of them…"
"What happened to them?" Tamamo asked quietly.
"I'm not sure." Naruto murmured with some regret, "Between work, Tsunade-baa chan getting drunk all the time, Nii-san starving himself in his room because of his project and the… hospital… I sort of stopped going over there." His lips curled into a faint grin, "One of the first things I'm going to do when I get out of here is buy them a truckload of wooden swords."
Serah opened her mouth to say something, she had never seen the blond look quite so forlorn, but then she realized she didn't know what to say.
Seeing her conflict, Naruto gave her a tender smile that said he appreciated the thought even if she couldn't find the words to express it. Standing up with a slightly slumped over shoulder, the Archer placed a palm on top of their heads and ruffled their hair affectionately, "Don't worry about it."
Abruptly, he turned around to hide his face and pretended to stretch, his hands reaching for the heavens, "Ahh… that was a good workout."
"You have no idea how glad I am that you didn't completely waste the afternoon." A new voice suddenly noted dryly.
Naruto spun around and went completely ashen, any hint of his earlier moodiness was gone as he squeaked, "A-A-Asuna! Ho-hhhow nice to see you here, how long have you been there?"
The girl in red and white armour gave him a withering look, the two men who stood beside her looked perfectly content to watch Naruto cower from the much smaller girl, "Long enough to get annoyed."
"Oh…. Ah…. Were you looking for me? I accidentally turned off my Private Messaging."
"Really?"
He winced at the glare.
"S-So were you looking for me?"
Asuna glared at him for a bit longer just to let the message sink in before she finally sighed and gestured at the two men shortly, "Kline and Siegfried."
At the girl's curt tone, the red headed man with a short, untidy beard smiled expansively and waved carelessly as his companion the soft spoken, rapier user Siegfried bowed politely, "Yo, Naruto! Been looking for you all over the place."
"Yes we were." Asuna cut in coldly, "For the better part of an hour actually." Another glare, "An hour of looking for you and that idiot, Kirito, which I could have used to soak in the bath."
"Well, you found me, though I have no idea where Kirito is." The blond Archer replied with a nervous glance at the fuming Asuna, "What was so important that the three of you needed to see us so urgently?"
"Nothing much," Kline buffed his nails with a pretentious smirk that didn't suit his thug-like face, mostly for Tamamo and Serah's benefit, "We just found the Boss Room earlier, nothing too hard for an experienced clearer like us you understand. We been alerting the Guilds that there's going to be a strategy meeting tonight on the way here."
"Oh… Oh!"
"Yes, oh!"
Naruto swallowed thickly and hurriedly grabbed Kline and Siegfried, "Looks like we can't waste any more time. I'll even go and notify everybody else in person! Let's go!" He cried with a voice filled with false enthusiasm, dragging the two yelping men away.
"What's the body count like?" Naruto hissed at Kline as soon as he was sure that Asuna couldn't hear him.
"None," Kline whispered back while Siegfried grinned, "Though, Takamatsu looked like he was about to cry when Asuna-chan and Lightning-san double teamed him."
"Takamatsu? The tubby accountant in your guild? Username Killah666?"
"That's the one."
"Good, it means that she got her coffee beforehand. Now let's hurry before she can fix that little oversight and add me to the body count as first blood."
Back with Asuna, Serah could hear the KoB's second in command suppress another sigh before a helplessly exasperated smile touched her lips, "That idiot is just like a big kid sometimes."
"You weren't really angry with him were you?" Serah noted from behind her.
The auburn haired girl flicked a strand of hair from her face with an elegant shrug, "I had to do it for Lightning's benefit. If your sister thought no one was seeing it her way, she would have been even more upset, so I pretended to be angry and ran damage control at the same time. There's absolutely nothing wrong if I let him suffer my imaginary wrath for a few days though. If anything, it'll give him some motivation to do something nice in order to make up for it." Asuna smiled at Serah in conspiratorial way, "He doesn't need to know that right?"
"You knew where he was all this time didn't you?" The pink haired girl accused.
The auburn haired girl smirked, "Of course. I just let him think I didn't. Makes it so much easier to find him when something really serious crops up."
Serah grunted to herself and muttered under her breath, "Feels like you've got him tamed already."
"I'm sorry?"
"Nothing. They are almost gone, shouldn't you go with them?" Serah remarked neutrally.
As Asuna hurried away with a quick apology, Lightning's younger sister rolled her eyes towards the heaven, "If you're going to do something, you better do it quick, Nee-chan."
"Not likely." Tamamo commented lightly.
Goshuujin-sama would be so proud if he knew that she was being generous like this; she didn't mind making some space for another girl in Naruto's bed.
"Lightning won't see it your way until you beat it over her head with a stick."
"True that. How big a stick are we talking about?"
"The explosive kind."
"Gotcha. Let's get back and set things up."
****The Hunter****
As Serah and Tamamo left the little clearing, a figure that had been well hidden in the shadows of the tree, watching them the entire time, shifted from his cramped position and dropped out of his cover.
Blowing one strand of dark hair of his eyes, Kirito smiled a smile that had no humour in it whatsoever, "Well… that was interesting."
****The Hunter****
1st Floor; City of Beginnings
Play Yuki Kajiura – Cynical World
Kline pulled off his hachimaki and wiped away the sweat beading his temples with a tired sigh, "This is the last stop isn't it? We've gotten to all the Guilds?"
"Yeah," Naruto nodded, "Just MMO Today and the ALC left."
Kline made a face, "I don't mind Thinker, but I'm not very good with the other guy."
"I'm surprised that Thinker didn't kick Kibaou and his group out before the week ended." The normally quiet Siegfried agreed with a rare display of distaste"
"See, even Sieg agrees with me. So…. Can we leave this to you two?"
Naruto chanced a brief glance at Asuna and her cloak of almost visible silence and winced before grabbing the two men who were about to run away, coincidentally sticking them between him and Asuna, "Bear with it. I'll owe you dinner."
"And lunch and breakfast." Kline muttered under his breath as the four of them entered the appropriately named Black Iron Castle with a simple nod at the guard.
"Too bad there's no alcohol in this game." Siegfried noted with an amused grin as they were ushered into a small and plain office.
Kline looked around with apprehension, his shoulders sagged in relief that Kibaou wasn't in attendance, "Maybe we won't need to go that far."
"Naruto!" The blonde chuckled as the larger man embraced him warmly.
"Thinker, it's been a while." Naruto gestured to the auburn haired girl and the red haired man with the scraggly beard behind him, "I'm not sure if you've met them before."
"Kline and Siegfried of Fuurinkazan," Thinker's eyes gleamed as he shook their hands energetically, "and Asuna of Knights of the Blood. I must confess that I'm feeling a little stupid for not confirming rumours of your beauty with my own eyes but I haven't had much chance to join the frontlines yet. Too much to manage here, better to let the more enthusiastic ones take the field."
Asuna blushed prettily, the cold silence wafting from her disappearing almost instantly as the tall man let go of her hand, much to the other two male's amusement.
Naruto on the other hand, was busy wondering how she managed to switch gears so quickly.
"Unfortunately, I was a little put off with KoB for the longest time for stealing a good man from us." the older man glanced in Naruto's direction, "I haven't forgiven you for joining KoB instead of coming with me either. My little grudge aside, may I know why are the three of you here?"
"We found the 25h floor Boss Room earlier today, Thinker." Kline said with a simple nod, "We were going around and alerting the Guilds that there was going to be a Strategy meeting later today, so that everybody can pool our info and resources for the Clearing."
"I see…." Thinker said seriously, "There must be a real problem though. Normally we just send messengers or there wouldn't be a reason for the four of you to come and tell me in person."
"Oh there's a problem alright. Of the domestic kind." Siegfried murmured.
Kline snorted much to Thinker's confusion while Naruto stiffened.
"What does that mean?"
"It means that I was getting a little sick of being used as a training dummy by the younger members, Thinker. So I decided to do this myself." Naruto hurriedly cut in before Asuna could say anything, "Being couped up all day either reading reports or training is bad for the health after all."
On the far end of the room, he could hear a low, disapproving, feminine growl.
"At least you can get out. I don't think I've seen the frontlines in months." Thinker remarked with a pout.
"Don't pout, Thinker. It really doesn't suit you. Maybe if you were a decade younger." Naruto commented.
"And a few pounds lighter." A voice noted teasingly from behind them as someone entered the room, "I've been telling him not to do that for ages but he never listens. Maybe he'll listen to you."
Kline immediately began drooling as Asuna restrained him with a sigh the moment a silver haired woman made her presence known. Her amber eyes watched the graceful woman enter the room and smile at them, or more precisely, at the curly haired man sitting behind the desk.
The blonde turned around and smiled at the familiar woman. The way she took the shortest path to stand demurely beside Thinker made it look almost as if the movements had been memorized, "Of course he won't." His smirk widened, "I'm not his wife after all."
Thinker blinked, "Wife? But I'm not married."
"Not yet." Naruto observed with some malice, his fear of a certain auburn haired girl forgotten in favour of some entertainment, as a silent Asuna watched the byplay curiously, "Though I'm fairly sure if you start running now, you might just get away with a little luck."
"Run away? What are you talking about Naruto?" The brown haired man narrowed his eyes suspiciously, "Is this some sort of riddle?"
"More like a game." Naruto drawled, "The kind where winning means losing."
Beside Sinker, Yulier's face had been steadily turning a dark crimson as she discretely glared at the mischievous blond.
Thinker gave Asuna and Kline a pointed look, "You see what I have to deal with every time he comes here? He keeps insisting on teasing me, or at least I think he is since I have no idea what he is referring to."
"I didn't even know that the two of you were acquainted." Asuna murmured, still watching Yulier.
Thinker shrugged, "Whether we like it or not, leaders of the big guilds have to get together and hash out the details. Spawn spots, logistics, sharing of information. It's all very technical."
"And tedious." Naruto said mildly, "If you want, you can always go in Heathcliff's place instead of me. I'm sure you'll find it fascinating, Asuna."
"At least we'd have something nicer to look at rather than Kruz's shaking beard."
Asuna gave the Kline a questioning look as Thinker laughed to himself.
"Divine Dragon's Leader. Big hairy man that doesn't seem to like bathing too much." The red headed man murmured in reply.
"That probably applies to more than half of SAO's player base." Asuna noted primly, prompting the Thinker to wink at her mischievously.
"Though... we've actually known each other even before we met in SAO, we just never knew until we saw each other's face again." Thinker explained with a chortle, "We occasionally exchanged ideas on the net and Naruto has helped me with a few other projects before."
"You mean that one where I introduced you to some girls from my college?" Naruto said innocently.
"Eh? What girls?" Thinker blinked as someone's hand clamped down on his shoulder, "What's wrong Yuli?"
"We need to talk."
The poor man shivered as cold eyes stared down at him, automatically blurting out his thoughts although he wasn't sure why, "It was a programming project. The person he introduced to me just happened to be female. We didn't have any contact beyond a few emails."
"I love coincidences." the blonde commented with the content grin of a man who was content with a day's hard work, "So why don't we leave you two alone."
"I'll escort you out, if you don't mind, Naruto." Then she glared at the man who had a helplessly confused expression on his face, "We'll talk after that."
"That was really mean of you." Asuna observed as soon as Thinker was safely locked into a room where he would be easily accessible in the near future and she was sure he couldn't hear her.
"Fun though." The blonde replied candidly, he gave the neatly dressed woman an admiring look, "Red really goes with silver doesn't it?"
"I don't quite appreciate you having fun at my expense, Naruto-san." Yulier retorted with a hint of anger to her formal and polite tone, "It's not very good for my heart."
In the real world, she didn't think that she would be able to muster enough courage to chid someone like she had just done, nor did she think that someone as young as Naruto would have been able to talk to her like an equal. Here in this game, money and status no longer mattered the way it had in the real world. As far as the strange blonde was concerned, she was a good friend, and someone to be respected because of what she had done, not what she had inherited.
It was strangely refreshing, particularly when they had first met through Thinker.
"Oh please, any idiot with a pair of eyes in his head could probably see that you have feelings for him from the way you look at him, Yulier." Naruto remarked mildly, "I'm just making sure I get a few jabs in before he becomes your exclusive scratching post. By then, I'll probably be too busy feeling sorry for him to tease him." He commented snidely.
Asuna absently noted that Naruto was right. The woman's bright red cheeks actually complimented her silver hair really well, "Besides, it's not my fault you get embarrassed so easily. I'm just helping you practice… for the future of course…."
The bawdy wink he shot her caused Yulier to light up like a particularly red Christmas tree again.
Kline, who had been staring at Yulier in a dumbstruck manner the entire time, immediately exploded, "Likes him?! Yulier!? Bu-But... she's... he's..."
The blonde glanced at his friend and deadpanned, "Ah. Idiot found."
The silver haired woman let out a deep, calming breath as she willed the heat in her cheeks away before fixing the blonde with a disgruntled look, "Help me die of embarrassment maybe." She mumbled under her breath.
"You don't trust me?" Naruto fluttered his eyelashes at her and pouted.
Yulier snorted, "Not very damn likely. You've got more secrets and sharp things hidden under that cloak of yours than a blacksmith's wet dream can shake a stick at."
Then the scowl melted away into a resigned sigh and she bumped his shoulder in a somewhat friendly manner as she escorted them to the exit.
"The day will come when a nice, homely girl realizes that the Archer isn't as funny and as self-assured as he likes to think he is," Yulier regarded him something that almost seemed like an affectionate smile, "then she's going to twist him around her little finger and everybody who has ever heard of the Archer will laugh as he finally falls like every other mortal man."
"Telling the Archer something like that isn't going to make him want to get hitched in a hurry, Yulier." The tall blonde wrapped in a white cloak replied with an easy smile, "Quite the opposite actually, unless you have any further advice?"
Asuna wasn't entirely sure she wanted to acknowledge why the statuesque silver haired woman glanced at her with a throaty snicker.
"I'd probably tell you that if you started running right now, you might even get away." The beautiful woman replied with twinkling eyes as she threw his quote back at him, "Unfortunately, I get the impression that it's already a little too late, luck or no luck."
As the door closed behind Yulier's retreating back, Naruto gave Asuna a bewildered look, "What does that mean?"
"I'm not sure, and why are you talking to me like I've forgiven you?"
"Ah…"
****The Hunter****
"Well, that was pointless." Naruto mumbled grumpily, "I had two bags of peanuts with me at the time and it still couldn't last me the entire meeting."
The Strategy meeting had gone about as well as could be expected, which was to say that the Guilds had spent most of their time bickering about how to share the drops by letting them get the Last Hit, who would be the ones to volunteer their members as Scouts, how much Cole they needed to contribute to buy potions and any information they had on the Boss, which amounted to jack.
In other words, it had been pretty much pointless.
Kirito who was walking on his left blew out a tired sigh, "I would Solo that boss if I could."
"You can say that again, everybody wants to get the Last Drop, but nobody is willing to contribute more than necessary." Kline sighed from beside him. Siegfriend and Asuna had already left to brief their members on the outcome of the situation and the date of the next one.
"Can't really blame them. No one wants to face the unknown, though I'm seriously getting annoyed with Kruz and his pretentious group of Divine Earthworms. I can't believe that arrogant jackass had the gall to demand us to fall back once the Boss is nearly dead and let his Guild get the Last Hit."
"They're a new Guild," Kline said sourly, "If they can get the Last Hit, it'll boost their reputation and help them get more members."
Naruto harrumphed while Kirito chuckled, "Cannon fodder you mean. They'll recruit anyone that can hold a stick and shake it in the right direction."
The red head scratched his beard, "It's not like I can't understand his point of view but I'm glad that my guild only has 6 members."
"If every Guild had so few members like yours, we'd still be stuck in that damn meeting trying to get everyone to look straight and stop shouting." The dark haired sword user groused.
"Good point." Kline snorted, "Red tape in an online game. That it's a better alternative to the other option only makes it even more ironic." He glanced at his hunched over friend, "Where are you two going now?"
Naruto scratched his armpit like a gorilla as he tried to remember his schedule with a grunt, "Nothing much… though I need to meet a friend and place a few orders before I go back to HQ to get some stuff ready for tomorrow before I crash. What about you two?"
"Nothing really," Kirito shrugged with a cynical smile, "I don't have as many friends as the two of you to keep me up so I guess I'll go to bed early or something. Might as well get a head start for tomorrow's fiasco. I'll see you guys tomorrow."
"Fair enough," Naruto allowed as Kirito left them for his rented room on the 20th floor, "Kline?"
"I'm not that tired yet. Whose this associate you mentioned?"
"Ashley, you know her?"
"The Seamstress? The most beautiful woman in SAO?" Kline gaped breathlessly as Naruto chortled at the line of drool leaking from his mouth, "Who doesn't?! Wait, how do you even know her?" Kline demanded with a beady look.
His friend cricked his neck as he led the red head to a brighter part of CoB, "Egil put me in contact with her. She was one of the few people who took up Sewing at the time and I needed a steady supplier of good quality bow strings from someone since I couldn't afford to take up Sewing alongside everything else unless I was willing to park my ass in town permanently. She needed to level up her skill, and I needed bow strings so we made a deal. I would bring her the materials and she would make strings to level her Sewing skill up. That's how she got that title."
"Makes sense. Can I come?"
"Uh….." Naruto desperately looked around the empty clearing, "Do I have another option?"
"Nope."
Sighing, the blond shrugged, "Suit yourself. Fair warning though, I'm not going to pick up your pieces."
"What? Is she married?"
"Not exactly."
"So…. Does that mean you can get me a date?"
"I said I'd introduce you to her. I didn't say I would perform a miracle."
"Don't worry, I won't tell Asuna."
"I don't want to know why you think my meeting with Ashley needs to be certified by her." Naruto paused and winced, "On second thought, maybe you should come. At least you can be my witness that I wasn't slacking of somewhere again."
"You're really worried about her aren't you?"
"Not really," Naruto allowed, "I just feel bad making her run around looking for me the whole day."
"She seemed really upset and angry about it."
"I know, and that just makes me feel even guiltier." The blond grumbled as the two of them stepped into a small but neat shop on the first floor.
"Ashley! Are you still here?!"
"Naruto-kun? Is that you?" a busty woman bustled out from the back of the shop, dressed in elegant mauve robes that displayed her feminine curves. Lustrous brown waves hung down one shoulder as the tall woman, taller than either of them, embraced the slightly shorter blonde in a warm hug, "You should have told me you were coming." She scolded him, her deep blue eyes flashed with mock anger, "I would have worn something more appropriate."
The blond smiled weakly, "I was a little rushed today, Ashley, just came from a Strategy meeting in fact."
"25th? That was fast."
Naruto closed his eyes and prepared for the worst, "It was all thanks to my friend, Kline. He and his Guild found it despite all the traps," He gestured at the nearly catatonic man beside him, "One of the best Clearers on the front lines and a man I'm proud to call my friend."
He was fully aware that he was laying it on a little thick, but Kline deserved the credit. Now if only he could get out of this without having to carry Kline all the way back to his house.
The tall woman gasped and her eyes watered beautifully, "Kl-Kline? Is that you?"
The man blinked dumbly as her words registered in his brain. It seemed like the universe was about to finally give him a break and he was determined to grab it with both hands, "Uhmm… yeah? Have we…. met before?"
****The Hunter****
Kirito slowly walked to his room at a leisurely pace, kicking a few stones out of the way in an idle manner as his sharp eyes observed every movement in the small town. It was a quiet evening, though the near constant drizzle probably had something to do with the subdued atmosphere as well.
Giving up his evening stroll as a bad job, the raven haired boy was spun around and promptly bumped into someone.
Someone who hit the ground with a girlish yelp and a splash as she landed squarely in a puddle of mud.
"Oh! I'm sorry, are you alright?" Kirito hurriedly helped the girl up.
"Ye-Yeah, I'm fine, though I can't say the same for my pants." The girl replied with some dry humour as she thanked the swordsman.
Kirito chewed on his lips awkwardly, "I should probably pay for that."
"No, no, it's fine. I'm about to level and change my equipment anyway, so I won't be wearing these for long." She paused and smiled faintly, her full lips curving, "Then again, it's not I'm about to make you compensate me for a bunch of stained pixels."
"Oh…" Still feeling a little guilty, Kirito was thinking about another way he could compensate when a group of boys turned the corner at a dead run, looking around in worry for something.
"Sachi! You alright?"
****The Hunter****
"Naruto?"
"What?" The blond trudging beside a zombie-like Kline replied as soothingly as his bad mood would let him.
"Is that why he picked up the Sewing skill? Because I inspired him to be true to himself?"
"Pretty much, though I didn't know about that particular bit either." Naruto responded blearily, "Men couldn't wear Female equipment, so he decided to make his own. Sewing was rather similar to my Wood Carving in that it wasn't restricted to formulaic creations, just your own imaginations and a suitably levelled skill, so… yeah…."
"He said that he liked me."
"I heard."
"He…. Asked me out on a date."
"Yeah…. I heard that too… Naruto the Miracle Worker actually sounds pretty cool now that I think about it."
"I think…. I think I've realized something."
Naruto paused and grimaced as he prepared for the inevitable explosion, "Look, I'm sorry it didn't work out. There's plenty of other fis-"
"- I've discovered that all the love I need in this world can be discovered in men wearing skirts."
"….That's some wonderful logic you got there. On a completely unrelated note, I have some maid uniforms I need to burn with extreme prejudice."
****The Hunter****
Play Nier – Ashes to Dreams – Nuadhaich
Naruto let loose a gigantic yawn as he trudged up a flight of stairs, feeling deep weariness in his non-existent bones. Even though the sun had just barely set, because he had spent the entire day running around, the blond felt like he had spent the entire day training, and he was rather prejudiced against unnecessary exercise.
"Goshuujin-sama!"
He blinked dumbly, "Tamamo? Is something wrong? Why aren't you at home?" He asked with some concern.
The bouncing fox girl wrapped one arm around his as she fell in step beside him, not very subtly trying to steer him to the courtyard, "Why were you so late?"
"I was going to go home soon; I just needed to make sure I had all the data for tomorrow's meeting..." Naruto stopped short and froze, "I SOUND LIKE I'M WORKING! AND I'M NOT EVEN GETTING PAID!"
The startled girl on his elbow jumped at his sudden screech of pain and loss, "Go-Goshuujin-sama? What's wrong?"
The blond man seemed to snap out of his ranting and smiled faintly, "I'm alright. Just needed to release some stress." He cocked his head as the two of them passed under a familiar looking arch way, "Why are you leading me to courtyard?"
"To talk about something!"
Naruto cocked an eyebrow as he noticed Serah standing on the far side of the clearing, half hidden by the shadow of the cloisters, fidgeting noticeably as she cast her eyes around the not so empty clearing, "Naruto-nii!"
"Ah… can this wait, Serah?" Naruto asked plaintively as he pulled his elbow out of Tamamo's grip, "It's been a really long day and I think I don't think I can win a fight with my pillow at the moment, not that I would want to, after a bite to eat."
After dinner, but not before he did some grovelling for Asuna. A lot of grovelling, he added to himself mentally.
"N-No!" Nauto stopped abruptly as the girl blocked the exit with her arms spread eagled, "This is really important!"
The blonde sighed in resignation, "Alright, alright. How can I help you?"
"Well… not me exactly…" Naruto arched one eyebrow at her strangely high pitched voice.
"You're nervous." He observed, "Is there a trap somewhere here?"
Serah blinked and gaped at the blond, "Yes! I mean.. No! I mean… Why haven't you confessed to Lightning?!"
This time, it was his turn to blink stupidly as the pink haired girl went completely white at blurting it out accidentally, "I… what?"
"HYPOTHETHICALLY!"
"Okay….? Why haven't I hypothetically confessed to her? Is that what you wanted to ask?" Seeing Serah nod her head vigorously with a beaming smile, Naruto continued with another wary look around the courtyard, "Well… I don't really think we're that close yet. Not to mention, I doubt she is even remotely attracted me."
"Let's say she is at least, just a bit, a teeny weeny bit attracted to you, and let's say YOU are attracted to her as well," Seeing his eyebrow arch again, she hurriedly added, "Hypothetically of course, would you confess?"
"I suppose I would," Naruto agreed slowly, "But there really isn't any point to that now."
The stunned girl stared at him for a long searching moment, "Why not?"
"Because…." Naruto stared into the shadows of the cloisters ringing the courtyard again with a wary eye to see if he wasn't being set up, "I predict that the longest time we can stay in the game is 5 years at best. Beyond that, I simply do not see the government; much less our families paying through the nose to keep our comatose bodies cared for, so I rather deal with that before trying to romance somebody. Besides, a relationship based on fighting for your lives together generally isn't the best place to start. If we get out of here, then I certainly wouldn't mind trying to see if our hypothetical relationship would still work without a semi-permanent death sentence hanging above our heads."
"But… But you fight beside her. It's because you fight beside her, that you would trust her even without having to fight for your life, right? Hypothetically, that is."
Naruto sighed as he gently led to the younger girl to a bench where they could sit down, "It's not that simple. As far as I'm concerned, if we keep things between us neutral and friendly, I can protect her from being hurt. This hypothetical romance isn't going to work."
"Okay... that's the official reason," Serah remarked with a shrewd look, "What's the real one?"
The blond man seemed to struggle for a while and a look of utter conflict flashed across his face before he buried it in his palms, "She's like a queen to me." He finally groaned from between his fingers.
"Okay…. So why not? You think of her as a queen, that means you think there's no other girl that can match her right?"
He blond chuckled bitterly, "Like I said, it's not that simple. Lightning getting married is almost too mundane for me to imagine." Naruto said flatly, "I can't think of anybody who would be able to match her. Any simple man, especially one like me," He added, "would only slow her down and stop her from being able to do what she wants."
Naruto smiled vaguely as he suddenly had this image of the proud woman conquering the Parliament in a pair of pinstriped coat and slacks, "If Lightning were to be with someone, she deserves to be with someone who can stand up to her or someone that could help her go even higher. Hypothetically speaking of course."
"That's not very fair..." Serah mumbled under her breath, "That's just how you look at her. You're not even thinking of her feelings; you're just putting her on a pedestal like everyone else. She can get tired from being so strong all the time as well."
"Probably." The blonde admitted frankly, "If we lived for the rest of our life in SAO, I'm certainly not humble enough to say that I would not be able to equal her in time if physical skills were all that mattered, but we aren't going to live in SAO forever. We are going back to the real world where combat prowess is all that matters. Once there, she'll go back to being the heiress of a rich family or something while I go back to being the adopted orphan of a failing dojo. Something like that just isn't going to work in the long run." Naruto noted solemnly.
"Are you calling my sister a prostitute?" She suddenly said with a certain edge to her voice.
Naruto frantically shook his head, "Wha? Of course NOT!"
Cold blue eyes narrowed at him through wavy pink locks, and in that moment, Naruto knew that no one would be able to mistake Serah for anything else other than Lightning's sister, "Then why are you saying that she would care about your money?" Serah sniffed disdainfully, "Not only that, you seem strangely content to stay the 'adopted orphan of a failing dojo' as well."
Naruto sighed helplessly, "I know you're right. I don't know what will happen or what I'll do after we get out of here, but I cannot ask Lightning to wait," Assuming she is willing to wait after what I will do to her and everybody else, he noted to himself mentally, "until I can equal her. Nor will my pride let me ask for her hand before I have something backing my name other than adopted orphan."
"So this is all about your pride?" Her eyes flared passionately again, "You would let her suffer just because of your pride?"
The blonde winced at her incredulous tone, "I'm not sure why you're being so adamant about this. This whole discussion is just hypothetical anyway; I'm pretty damn sure Lightning doesn't actually have the requisite affection for me in order for this argument to become reality."
"Eclair." She said suddenly.
"What?"
"Don't call her Lightning. Her name is Eclair."
Naruto gave her a long look before nodding slowly, "I don't think she's going to be pleased that you told me her real name."
"Better than being a proud coward."
Naruto winced again at her pointed words.
"How old are you anyway? You sound a lot like you've planned all this out already."
He shrugged weakly, "I'm nineteen this year."
"Nineteen!?" Serah exclaimed loudly, "You're only one year older than Eclair!"
The blonde smiled vaguely, "I had a lot time to think about the kind of family I wanted, since everybody seemed determined to reject an orphan at the time, I figured the only way I was going to get a proper family was if I made one myself."
"Ah..."
Serah watched the blonde wander off again, shoulders sagging heavily, with a certain sense of pity that she knew would only offend him if she said anything about it.
****The Hunter****
She leaned back onto the comfortable bench after a lengthy silence and sighed loudly, "You heard what he said, Nee-chan. What are you going to do about it?"
There was a thud behind the door before it swung open to show Lightning standing there, rubbing her knee as if she had banged it on something, resolutely avoiding her little sister's gaze with flushed cheeks, "Wh-who said I have to do anything?"
Serah got up and clasped her hands together, "True." She agreed, "I guess it's not like you to respond to something pitiful like that. It was funny wasn't it? Hearing struggle him with his pride like that."
"Funny?!" Serah hid a smirk as her sister's temper flared, "So what if it was pitiful? There's nothing wrong with being simple and... straightforward... and...mumble... mumble..."
She trailed off and began mumbling something indistinct in the general vicinity of her boots.
"Of course not." Serah agreed again, and began skipping away, leaving her dumbfounded sister behind while she hummed a thoughtful tune to herself.
"Check. Your move, Nee-chan."
****The Hunter****
Kur0: I don't think I've ever heard my brother sound this snarky or work this fast. That pain killer must really be doing a number on him and his muse.