Tristen (chapter 10 reply): Its been done before, he's cried while under jinchuriki level 1, I've seen it. I think maybe during the retrieval arc or something. Also, if you haven't already, you'll quickly find out in Chapter 11 he ain't dead.

Chapter 16: Reconcile

"See you later...but probably not!" Mettaton latched his hand on the ledge strutting out from the news station building. It was a good several meters away from the field of ticking time bombs about to go off.

Naruto grabbed Mettaton's freshly polished legs just as he was taking off, making sure to steer clear away from his hazardous heels, he worked his way up the robotic body. "...! H-human?! What're you doing?! You're getting in my—"

*SMASH

Mettaton and Naruto crashed straight through the new station's window, then tumbled onto the now glass covered hardwood floor. "Why the hell do you keep on breaking everything I own?!" Naruto's caught Mettaton's flimsy punch. "'Cause you're an asshole!"

Naruto held Mettaton's angular shoulders. "Take this!" He swung his head forward and rammed into his forehead. Pieces of metal fell into Naruto's palm, he squeezed his hand together, grabbing Mettaton's suit collar with his other.

He briefly studied his face hashed tether a quick diagnosis. "...did I...kill you?" The words came out smoothly. His pink face drawing into an expression of fear. 'I didn't mean to hurt him too much..I..uh..huh...?' Contrary to what he initially pieced together, Mettaton's hand was patting down his chest, when he ended up on his face, he stopped.

"Instead of worrying about whether I died or not, you should be worrying about that ugly blemish on your 'BH&MFF' shirt." Naruto's head naturally bobbed down giving Mettaton the chance to flick his nose.

"GAH!"

"Haha! I can't believe you actually fell for that!" Mettaton entwined his fingers in the back of Naruto's shirt collar. "Don't get too comfy inside my office, you still have an exciting news story to report!" By the time Mettaton dragged Naruto to the shattered window, the bomb was already in the midst detonating.

The explosion colored the office a blood orange, its impact, so gigantic, even managed to highlight the black abyss creeping over the Underground's far edges.

"Whoa! That's so cool!" Naruto exclaimed, glued to the window.

As the room eventually drained back into its original hue, Mettaton forged himself a sigh. "There goes my special segment."

*crEEK

"And there goes my MTT-resort performance."

"What was that?" Naruto asked. Instead of answering, Mettaton shoved his head out the window so he could see for himself the final relapse of the explosion.

The explosion assimilated a large chunk off Level 3's towering elevator, Mettaton's only light at the end of the tunnel into finally reaching his resort and it was quickly dimming away. "...oh no...this isn't good..." As the last supports crumbled off, the elevator pulled off from the base and fell inside the magma. The tunnel was black.

If the first explosion didn't bring any monster's attention, the elevator's catastrophic demise definitely brought over the entirety of Hotland. Naruto snickered in spite as all the monsters gathered around. "You're gonna get in so much trouble!"

"Not if I talk my way out of it!" Mettaton sprinted from the news station with Naruto clumsily padding behind.

*beep

*beep

Naruto rummaged for his phone. "Yo, make it quick, I'm kind of in a—"

"That was soooo AWESOME! You guys definitely have to do that again!" Undyne yelled.

"We, uh, saw what happened to the elevator and everything, it's...okay...um...it'll take like a week to get everything running smoothly again."

"A WEEK?!"

"What, you act like a week is a bad thing..."

"...that's because it is! I can't wait that long!"

"Well GET USE TO IT!"

"F-Feel free to stop by the lab...if you like...you don't have to..." Alphys hung up before she could sound any more desperate.

[Call ended]

'I guess if the elevator's broken, then I won't be missing Kid, maybe Undyne will take me somewhere cool.' Naruto exited the building. Paying no mind to the horde of monsters ganging up on Mettaton, he attempted to make his way back to the lab.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going!" Mettaton's arm purged through the dense crowd, his hands, usually delicate were crude in clamping onto the human's hair.

"M-Mettaton?! What're you d-doing?!" Naruto flew off the ground and was shunt into the crowd.

Mettaton lifted the human up. "I know none of you are happy about what happened to L3 elevator, but I'm not the one entirely to blame, it was...it was...?" He took a second look at who he was holding and realized it was actually a scared shitless monster. 'That little...how the hell did he do THAT?!'

Naruto snicker as he treaded along the green construction beams piecing together Hotland's land masses. 'He-he! I sure got him good this time, I just wish I could've seen the look on his face!'

OoO

Naruto busied himself pulling at the loose fuzz strings from the couch cushion while Alphys and Undyne were huddled up together watching whatever anime they could find floating in the dump.

[Guy with black hair] Oops! Look like I accidentally spilled my very extremely hot tea onto your eyeballs! Looks you're gonna have to go to the E.R.!

[Girl with blue hair] That was my tea you asshole! You know how much money that cost me?!

[Girl with no noticeable traits, man what a bore] Onii-chan?! Hell?! Does anyone care about the fact that I'm blind now?!

[Girl & guy] Not really

'Uuuuugh, this is so booooring. There's nothing to do except sit and watch these weird cartoons all day!'

Naruto saw Undyne suddenly get up. "Alright guys, Pappy wants me to do something for him, so I'll be gone for a while. Don't worry, I'll be back before you know it!"

"O-ok...b-bye Undyne!" Alphys mustered up, Undyne smiled. She wanted to say something more, but her legs already decided to head to the door.

'This is what I've been waiting for!' Naruto hopped off the couch and followed Undyne. "Hey, hey! What kind of 'something' are we doing? Fighting bad guys or, or—"

"Uh, Kid..." Undyne knelt down. "Actually, I want you to stay here with Alphys, ok? I'm afraid the worst will happen with those high school kids still running around, but...I think she'll be safe since you're here. You're a strong kid, you know that? You did live through a fight against me after all!" She ruffled Naruto's hair. "Later."

She left the laboratory's proximities and walked into Hotland's outskirts where the shaky boat dwelled. With its more damp, dark atmosphere, Undyne felt right at home. She boarded the boat and relaxed to the of rushing water cruising past the boat, as well as the hooded figure's occasional song outburst. 'I wonder why Papyrus needs me, like, couldn't he of called his lazy brother or something? I guess it's something dangerous.'

When it stopped, she stepped off the boat and into Snowdin. 'Nice to be back here.' Now she could relax to the sound of the chilling wind trickling through the snow-tipped evergreen tree.

She went through a quick scan for Papyrus. Nothing. Ahead was the dull library just by the cluster of red roofed homes. 'He should stick out like a sore thumb in that oatmeal throw up.' Inside looked no better that the out, still dull, still shaded in this sickly sepia hue Undyne hated and still no Papyrus. 'I'll check the restaurant next, looks like somewhere he'd hangout a lot.'

"Excuse me mam," Undyne turned her head to the librarian. She looked strikingly similar to Alphys but instead of her scales in a golden yellow color it was sickly green, though, it complemented her nasally voice well. The librarian tapped her overgrown nails on the dusty counter. "If you're here for The spirit morph book club sign up I'm afraid all of our available books have been given out already."

"What, does it look like I'm here for a book club?!"

"Honestly mam, we don't discriminate. We've had all sorts of monsters come here, even Papyrus, in fact he's here right now if you just turn your head to the—"

"Pappy! What're you doing here?!" Undyne ran over to Papyrus who was sitting in a corner quietly flipping through a spaghetti-oriented cookbook.

"I didn't know when you would come so I decided to read a book to pass the time."

"Read a...I THOUGHT YOU WERE—"

Everyone scowled at Undyne then collectively shushed her.

She bergrudingly rephrased her sentence in a painfully more discrete tone. "—I thought you were in trouble or like something bad!"

"Well sort of. My house got robbed, well not really robbed robbed, more like someone stole all of the blankets and food so now it's just really uncomfortable."

"Someone robbed you?! Man, that friggin sucks."

"Actually, it's okay, but what's not okay is that they stole all my emergency spaghetti too...that's why I need your help because exquisite detectives such as myself always require an exquisite partner." He discarded the cook book and stood up. "Now let's get detective-ing!"

OoO

Oh, huh, you weren't kidding, they really did take your junk." Undyne said, staring inside Papyrus' bare-bone fridge. "If I went though the trouble of breaking into your house I would've at least stolen that really, really, really cool car bed!"

"ME TOO! What a predicament I'm in...hm...let's see...they clearly weren't generous in what they stole either, I propose it was a nanny from an orphanage!"

Undyne sat down on his couch. "There aren't any orphanages here, Pappy."

"Then it was Prisoners of war!"

"Dead by now if we ever had any."

"A band of circus clowns?"

"Since when did we have a circus here either in the underground?!"

"...you're right Undyne." He flopped on the couch beside Undyne. "What do we do now?"

"I dunno, I never really did all this boring detective stuff. I just got right to the point, but since we can't do that, all I can think about is this detective anime Alphys showed me."

"Anime?" Papyrus skeptically drew out. "You mean those weird cartoons with the big eyes...aren't those for like, small children?"

"IT IS NOT!"

"Kind of y-"

Undyne punched Papayrus in the ribs. His battle ready armor taking in none of the impact. "Like I was saying, it was an anime where they were detectives, in one episode in order to catch that bad guy I the act, they hid out in a dumpster for 72 hours straight."

"I get it! So we hide in a dumpster for twice that long! That's what I call entertainment!"

"I would definitely do that and all...except there's no dumpsters anywhere near here, but we can still do the stakeout part, what do you say?"

"I second on that notion!"

Undyne eased off the couch. "Yeah, stakeouts!"

"Yeah, whatever...those...are.."

XxxxXxx

-Hotland-

'Great way to start off the week. Watching those cartoons can't be the only thing she does, she lives in this huge place.' Naruto turned and walked back. "Hey, Alphys, whaddya do in this lab all day anyways?"

"I used to do a lot of experiments when the king actually funded me, but I u-usually just watch ani...history shows and you too a lot...not in a creepy way or anything...for research.

"Research?" Naruto asked, sitting on the couch.

"Mm hm. You're one of a kind human, I would totally run tests on you if I could..." 'Did I just say that...out loud..?!'

"Uh huh."

'He's barely paying attention to me...of course.' "Human, you like cool stuff, don't you?"

"Yeah, who wouldn't?"

'I can name a few.' "Here then, come follow me."

"Remember when you guys burnt my stove down, well, I decided to rebuild a brand new one!" The new stove was a fourth size of the original and sat uncomfortably on an oil stained counter. Alphys shuffled up to the cabinet right next to it, taking the first cup of ramen she saw, she turned on the faucet and filled the cup with water. "I've tried it out, it's really fast and a lot...safer."

"Ah, cool so you built a microwave! And you're using my favorite brand of ramen, you're gonna share, right?!"

"Anything for my f-friend...!" She ended her sentence with a crooked smile then jabbed the 'start' button on the microwave. 'That's out of the way, now I just need somewhere for us to...there.'

Alphys went over to her desk, she hastily sweeped the collection of anime figures and various coding notes off then presented it to Naruto. He started at it. "There's only one chair."

"...oh yeah, y-you can sit in that one, I'll find a chair for myself."

Naruto seated himself, after a while of waiting, he began picking at residue left behind from an old sticker still clinging onto the desk. 'So she lives alone too, I guess Mettaton's here too and all, but I doubt he's here a lot. I wouldn't call her a loser anything but she's...' His eyes lit up when Alphys finally set down his own bowl of hot, steamy, delicious ramen. "Alright food's here! Itadakimasu!"

He scarfed down his food while Alphys was inattentively picking at her noodles. It was like this for a good two minutes, the only sound other silence would be Naruto's occasionally obnoxious slurping. 'He's such a pure and innocent child, he's already been through so much these past six months I can't keep on lying to him like this.'

After Naruto set his bowl down, he noticed Alphys was merely twirling her chopstick in the broth. "Why haven't you ate already? It's super good!"

'That's it, he has to know the truth, the real truth!' Alphys squeezed her hands together. She let out a small sigh as the pressure exerted itself into her fist. "...I...I've been lying to you...about the microwave. I didn't exactly build it myself, at all, I found it in the dump...I..I just didn't want you to think any less of me than you already do. I'm sorry." That same crooked smile making another approach on her face once she finished.

"I don't really care...I kind of knew it from the start since I've seen it in a store before."

"Ah-ha-ha..oh..." 'That's embarrassing.'

"But, I still think you're pretty cool." He grinned the usual cheeky grin Alphys always adored seeing on the monitor. "Not as cool as me, but a close second!" But it was even better in real life.

"Well, I wouldn't say I'm that cool to be compared to someone like you."

"Hehe, yeah, I am pretty awesome huh? Hey so are you gonna eat that or what?"

"This? I was about to—"

"HUMAN!"

"M-mettaton?!"

"Mettaton." Naruto abrupt leaving made the ramen bowls spill all over the floor, he muttered something under his breath then headed towards Mettaton. "Whoa. What happened to you?"

"Long story short the crowd was very...displeased." From the looks of his mangled hair and clawed exterior the crowd was a little more than displeased. "Short story long, I kind of promised them they would have the elevator built in three days to keep my suit intact and that you and I would help out so I wouldn't lose my only other arm. We're starting tomorrow, Uzumaki, since that'll give Alphys enough time to make repairs. In the meantime, you should go to sleep."

"WHAT?! I don't wanna do all that stuff! Why'd you have to drag me into your mess?!"

"My mess?! You're the one who held onto my leg and decided not to defuse the bombs!"

"Why the hell would anyone want to defuse bombs?!"

"Becuase...uh..."

"And I'm still mad you blamed Tsundereplane's entire death on me! So what just let the other monsters go? Why'd you even do that, you know what happened!"

"Because...because you're a human! And maybe once you're dead you can finally be valuable to someone...anyone! I don't care if you're a jinchuriki, a ninja or some kind of God, you're still a human and you're still just wasting everyone's time!"

For the first time, Naruto was the one who was silent. The silence raged on until Naruto got the nerve to speak again. "...I already knew that..." Naruto's hands mechanically squeezed together. "And I don't need you, or anyone else to tell me what I already FUCKING KNOW!" His punch stopped on a dime and he showed his back instead. "I'm...going to go help fix the elevator...I just wanna get this the over with."

Naruto stopped in the middle of the hallway. "I used to think monsters down here were pretty alright, even though they tried to kill me they could at least call me a 'human'...heh, I couldn't get called that if I tried on the surface. But no matter where I go, or how many friends I make, I know I'll never truly be accepted here or...up there, but at least I have a chance there...here...that'll clearly never happen."

OoO

Naruto, Mettaton, and Alphys approached the obliterated elevator, not much work had been done on it since the few hours they've been gone, but a wood frame stood in the absence of everything else. "Nice to see something was accomplished, huh human, Alphys?"

"S-Sure!" She squeaked.

"..." Naruto jumped away to the construction without as much as a side glance, giving Mettaton more than enough fuel to let out a solemn sigh. "I'm trying Alphys, I really am."

"Just give it time...I...think?" 'I hope for the human's sake.'

/ /

"Hey-hey-hey, over here, anyone?!" Naruto yelled.

A burly looking monster, at least in Naruto's standards, dropped by him. They motioned to the water cartons sitting on the edge. "The only job I have for ya is to supply everyone with water." Their voice hot and heavy when they spoke.

"Wha-but—"

"But what?"

He stared at his feet. "I thought I was gonna do something, y'know...important."

"You? Ha, you'd probably blow the thing up all over again if we let you help. Now either get to work already or leave and try not to mess anything up."

Mettaton watched Naruto silently shuffle to the water cartons. 'Please let me get water boy duty too, please let me get water boy duty too, please let me get water boy duty too, please let me get water duty–'

"And you," They took care this time to lift some weights off their bulky voice. "You're going to be working with us!" They slapped Mettaton's suited back, and he replied with a weak 'great'. He stole another glance at Naruto while dragging his heels to the construction site. 'Heh, just like him to have more determination doing a job like that than the rest of us combined, he sure does live up to his name.'

'And...one more! Hehe, I'm going make this crappy job look like the funnest thing in the world! Then he'll have no choice but to give me something better to do!' Naruto bounced onto the very top of the scaffolding and waited for someone to call him.

Five minutes later...

"..."

"..."

'Damn it, doesn't anyone want water?!'

"Hey human, would you be a dear and hand yours truly a bottle of cool, refreshing water...Human? Human!" Naruto rolled onto his side to block out the unnecessary noise. 'Anyone else other than him?!'

"Huuuuuman! I know you hear me and my, my am I thirsty!"

He climbed down to the bottom where Alphys dwelled. Despite being in complete solitude, her GBA was more than enough to keep her company. "You don't want any water, do you? Mettaton's the only other one who what's water...and I'm not giving him any."

"I-I know it doesn't look like much, but...h-he's really trying you know...I-I mean'he's a robot, and I built him so that he doesn't require food or water. I guess this is his way of saying sorry after what happened..."

'What a lousy apology.'

"Darling, you wouldn't keep such—" A water bottle whacked Mettaton's forehead. Which marked an embarrassingly huge dent. 'Just what I needed...' "G-Great aim...human...!" '

"Wait a second, Alphys, these guys are all made of fire or at least something really hot, if I give them water they'll die won't they? Man, I can't believe the boss tricked me like that so easily."

"Well, uh, not necessarily. If it's h-human water, then yeah, but it's likely been infused with magic already."

'Magic water...' His curiosity unscrewed the cap and there he found himself already through with chugging down the water. "...I feel great! This stuff taste awesome!"

"Really, let me try some then..!"

/ /

Mettaton attempted to open his water bottle but it proved an impossible feat with only an arm to go by. 'Probably should've had my arm fixed up before doing this construction job...oh well, there's no going back now. Might as well ask for help...here, that lady looks competent.'

He scorched his glove after tapping on the monster's shoulder. It was a small price to pay. The monster turned around from previously hammering in some nails and answered in grunts.

"Do you mind opening this for me?"

The monsters snatched the water bottle away, she began grasping her sausage claws around the cap until Naruto's vivid yellow hair caught her attention instead. "Watch this."

"Don't be silly, I already am watching you."

"Ey, human c'mere, give me one of 'em waters!"

'Did she just...ignore me?!'

While Naruto quickly made his way to the top, (thanks to the water,) she ripped open the water bottle's cover, Mettaton winced from the sight. '...what is she trying to do now?'

Naruto planted his feet on the supporting beams in between them. "Here ya go!"

In one dirty move, the fire monster dumped Mettaton's water over Naruto's head then shoved Naruto off the support beams. Just before his entrails could splatter on the ground, Mettaton grabbed his foot so instead the only thing liquid staining the ground could be water.

"Ugh, honestly, could you give him a break?" Mettaton said.

"It ain't fair, we all know just tryna save him for yer show! Besides, he's just some dumb human, watch 'nother one just like him will come next week."

"...It's not about that, it was never for the show, ok well, some of it, but that's not the sole reason why I've been trying to kill him all this time. That human...he's the most important human the underground will ever have, that human is a ninja!"

"...!"

Naruto finished coughing up the last dirt chunks out of his throat. 'That's it! I'm just going back to lab, at least no one will try to kill me there!'

*THUMP-THUMP

The monster who dumped water on him was now blocking his path. She gripped her hammer then adjusted her goggles to get a clear view of the target. "Should'a told me you were a ninja too, would've gotten to the point already."

Naruto clenched his fist. "Get out of my way right now. Or I'll...I'll..."

'Oh no.'

A/N: (Updated on May 28, 2016) Well, I went back and fixed up the formatting for the chapter. Now it's back to normal, also, added dialogue.

Which, speaking of, now that I'm finally off school for summer, I'm going back to my regular weekly schedule. Might even be faster than that because as of now, I am 12 chapters off from where I'm supposed to be. Right now, you guys should've been getting chapter 28, already done with the Hotland arc and the finale and starting part 2. Time flies...

Also, this;

Undyne: "So for your birthday I got ya some spears! Like it?!"

Naruto: "Spears? Seriously?"

Undyne: "Yeah..."

Naruto: "I was in constant battle for my life in the waterfall area, in some cases, my life even ended. After nearly consuming the remains of my dead best friend while having my life on the brinks of death...being impaled with spears through every single part of my body was the highlight of the endless, horrifying experiences from fighting you. And despite having my body ripped to literal shreds and then forced to relive that hellish nightmare again, I was still scolded from monsters who have previously persecuted and brutally beaten me for a having reasonable hatred towards you. Spears are reminders of chains you forged from my own dying screams that kept me chained to the blood painted walls."

Naruto: "...I'm kind of not into spears anymore."