"Hey!"

"Hey, where'd you go?!"

Chapter 19: Reunited

"Hey...wait-what was her name again?" Naruto muttered to himself.

Naruto's eyes darted across the pitch-black corridor, one thing he could thank the academy for was the ability to become finely tuned to the darkness in a relatively short amount of time. He stopped walking and let his hands that were feverishly reaching for his pockets finally slip down into them. His pockets were where he kept his weapons, among other things—another thing he could thank the academy for.

"Muffet, right? That's your name, isn't it?" He flung a sparse amount of shuriken behind his back, then quickly jumped back. 'I think...I think I got her.'

"Huh, you're pretty good with names, I'll give you that~"

Naruto shuddered as her voice crawled up his back, he slowly cranked his neck around only to see Muffet smiling right back at him. "Don't look so beaten up, you were right to throw those things, my pet is right behind you after all ahuhuhuhu."

"Your...pet?"

*rumble

*Rumble

*RUMBLE

A chunk of the ominous shadow tore off and took shape into a large cupcake monster with spiny spider legs sprawling out of its wrapper. Muffet's 'pet' bulldozed towards Naruto the second it laid sight on his colorless face while Narutos bolted away from the carnivorous cupcake.

Luckily for Naruto he saw a sliver of jaded light etching around a sharp corner signifying this nightmare would come to an end. He dove straight through carved out hole at the end of the hall and rolled into a starlit stage, a surprising encounter, but he'd far gotten used to the surprises the Underground had to offer.

"Well that was unfulfilling," Muffet said, standing right beside him on the dimly lit stage.

Naruto sprang up and grabbed Muffet's frilly collar. "You're a major asshole, you know that?!" He yelled.

"Actually...that's one of the nicer things someone's said to me, quite the gentleman aren't you~" She cheekily remarked.

"You...GAH, whatever, stupid spider!"

His furious stomping came to an abrupt end when he heard the familiar sound of wall cracking down, he spun around and saw a large spider leg sticking out from the wall, then another, and then another. Naruto glanced at Muffet whose face wasn't curled up in glee from the spectacle of her own pet about to burst out of the wall.

"I guess this isn't a part of your sick show..." He slowly said.

"No of course not, rebuilding walls cost a lot of money and I'm frankly not much of a spender on public funds."

*CRASH

Naruto hopped off the stage just as the cupcake monster crashed through the wall and tore down the set. Muffet followed after her pet going through a mental checklist of how much all the damages would cost her. 'My, I'm not one for pets who don't listen to their masters, looks like I have to end this one sooner than expected.'

It took only a few minutes with the cupcake monster romping around for the theater to be completely trashed. Naruto had come to experience situations like this quite frequently in Hotland. He could only imagine how pissed Mettaton would be if he owned this place too—though he probably already did, so he felt almost inclined to throw the seats at the monsters, thought at this point he'd thrown nearly the entire stage at the monster to no avail.

'I really gotta think of something, nothing's working on this thing!'

Thankfully, before he could the monster stopped dead in its tracks and collapsed onto the stage wrapper up. Muffet sat on top of the confectionery creature with a slice of it in one hand, with another hand pouring a cup of tea into a teacup she was holding in yet another hand. "Would you be interested in a slice of this cupcake? It's only 9999G per slice, a steal if you ask me."

"Are you insane?! That thing tried to eat me like five seconds ago and now you're trying to sell it off?!"

"I'm just joking, sweetie...about you having to buy a slice, but since you are quite the charmer, for a scrooge at least, if you ever come back I promise I won't try to kill you. In fact, I'll even throw in a bargain, 9998G for a pastry, how about that?"

"You really are insane..."

OoO

Just past the theater stood an outlandishly tall and equally as glamorous hotel. MTT in a gold, sparkly letters branded the front and right below it was the door Naruto practically tripped over to get to. A smile sprawled across his face when he thought about finally getting to see Kid after so long as he entered into the MTT-brand lemon scented hotel.

The main center piece was a polished stone statue of Mettaton (in his calculator form) spurting water onto a pale red carpet that reached to the entrance and to an ominous door at the end of the room labeled 'CORE'. Naruto tried looking around for Kid, but the bright yellow tile floor and the flashing lights shining on the various concessions made it especially challenging to him, he'd never seen a place where it was so bright like this on the surface.

Naruto tried another method. "Hey kid!" He called out, no answer. He walked around for awhile calling out their name again and again, but there was no reply, some head turns from the curious monsters, but none of them were Kid by any stretch. Naruto finally stopped and sunk down into a corner by the reception center. 'He probably just isn't here yet I guess...it is pretty far away and I had a head start.'

"Excuse me, human, are you looking for someone?" The reception lady asked.

Naruto squeaked his head. "Yeah, he's like this short, yellow monster with a swollen face because he falls so much and these buck teeth...oh and he doesn't have any arms."

"I do remember a monster who fell a lot, you should check the entertainment area in the back to your left. There's a performance going on as well if you'd like to check it out."

"Ah-thanks!"

Naruto started down a long, dark hallway, a hall he would've strangely never noticed if she'd never said anything. He was almost to the entertainment area before he was rudely stopped by a green blob of a monster behind a counter. "I'm afraid you can't go on, your name isn't on the list of reservations." They hissed.

Naruto kept on going.

"If you go in there I'll have to kick you straight out of this building, I don't let monsters go in without reservations, why on earth would you think a human would fair any better?"

He paused and stood at the edge of the entrance clenching the velvet rope barrier. "MONSTER KID, ARE YOU IN THERE?! I'M HERE...I'M REALLY HERE! CAN I...can I see you again?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

*bam

'There he is!' Naruto saw a yellow blur forming in the distance and ran straight into the theater hall, completely dismissing the monster's warning. "Kid!" Naruto exclaimed, he and Kid came to a stop and they both smiled at each other like idiots.

Kid burrowed into Naruto's stomach and Naruto squeezed him back. "H-hey are you tryna kill me?!" Monster kid mustered up.

Naruto let go then rubbed the back of his head. "Heh, sorry, guess I kind was."

"Alright so now that you're here you gotta tell me everything that happened since I wasn't there to see it!"

"Oh yeah sure, so it's starts off—"

Everything went totally black, then suddenly, just like that he was back at the entrance. Naruto looked around, it felt almost unreal how he was gone and out in a flash. "That monster was right about kicking me out…DAMN IT!" Though his dismay was short lived as he found Kid pounding at the door, Naruto quickly scrambled to his feet and pulled the door open.

"Don't think you're getting out of telling me that easily!"

"Why don't we all talk over dinner?" Sans suggested, walking over to them, it was still an anomaly to Naruto just how silent he was.

"Yeah, have fun trying to get in," Naruto said. "I don't think they'll let me through even if I did make a reservation."

"Who needs reservations when you have a shortcut, come on, follow me."

Naruto and Kid exchanged tired glances before following after the mysterious skeleton.

OoO

"See what I'd tell you?"

"Well you're not wrong."

"Hey, your journey's almost over isn't it? Can't wait to go home to the surface, can you?" Sans said in such a manner Naruto couldn't tell if he was happy about it or sad.

Naruto shifted uncomfortably in his seat and started twisting the plastic MTT-brand tablecloth. "I mean...maybe?"

"Don't worry bud, I know the feeling...but for being such a low life on the surface, I'm surprised you wanna go back so badly."

"Huh? How do you…"

"You're a jinchuriki, right? That's all I really need to go off of, but seriously, you really think leaving your friends...your only friends is worth it?"

XxxXxxx

"...So can anyone tell me why the Hokage is so important to our village?"

Naruto slumped in his seat and stared out of the window, even watching the puffy, white clouds slowly roll by was more interesting than hearing Iruka's endless lectures.

"Yes, Sakura?"

"The Hokage protects the village and everyone in it from harm, our Hokage's the most important figure of Konoha."

"That's why I'm gonna be Hokage!" Naruto yelled out.

"Naruto! What'd I tell you about speaking out like that?! Sit down!"

The class snickered as Naruto returned to his seat and set his head on the desk, he wondered sometimes if they were all laughing because he got in trouble or the fact that he wanted to be Hokage. "Hey Kiba," Naruto muttered. "Wanna skip class?"

Kiba scratched his neck. "Yeah I'm totally skipping, but I think a screwup like you needs the extra lessons if you ever wanna be Hokage." He said with a smirk.

"Shut up Kiba or I'll—"

"Why don't you shut up for once, idiot," Sasuke said.

"And you're so great, huh, Sasuke?!" Naruto boomed, shooting up from his seat.

"NARUTO! I'm not repeating myself, sit down and be quiet!"

Naruto slammed down into his seat, glaring at the back of Sasuke's head for the rest of class. The class dragged on without a word from Naruto leaving Iruka scratching his head when class dismissed.

OoO

After class, Naruto sat alone by the pond circling around the edge of the village, he felt a certain pang of loneliness submerging him as we he watched people happily walk by completely dismissing his existence. Though it was a feeling he felt often, it was something he knew he could never get used to.

'That's it, I can't be moping around like this forever!' Naruto felt some stones hiding in the soft grass and plucked up one by one, he saw two boys walking by and waved over to them with a stone in hand.

"Hey-hey! Let's skip some stones!" He called out.

The boys nodded to each other and wales down the hill towering over the glistening pond. He handed the boys some stones and ran to the edge of the pond. "Ha I betcha guys aren't gonna beat me!"

Grinning, Naruto threw a stone with all his might but before he could see it land one of the boys pushed him into the water and dumped the stones in the water. "You really are an idiot if you think we'd actually wanna hang out with a freak like you!"

"Why would anyone even want the village's outcast to be Hokage?! What a dumbass."

"..."

Naruto stayed afloat in the water for a few seconds until his body was pulled out laid on the grass, he opened his eyes and saw Iruka half-heartedly smiling at him. "Are you ok?"

He nodded.

"That was an ugly thing those kids did to you, I'll have to talk to them about it later...hey, I know, in the meantime, how about we go get some ramen to cheer you up?"

"Alright, but you gotta pay for it!"

XxxXxxx

"..."

"The people there in my village, they treated me like a germ, I was so alone all the time because no one ever wanted to be by me...all I ever wanted to be was Hokage so they had no choice but to respect me and notice me! Now here I am in the Underground and the monsters want to kill me," Tears streamed down Naruto's face. "...and...and...even though my life's constantly in danger I've never been happier staying here every single day!"

"I want to help you guys more than anything, that's why I wanna leave, I wanna get stronger so I can do something...so I can find an answer. I'm going to get everyone out of here, I swear I will, I swear, I swear, I—"

"Whoa, calm down kiddo, just forget about it ok? Whatever you do, I'm behind you 100%."

"Yeah, as long as you come back, we'll all be ok down here!" Kid chimed in.

Sans shook his head. "Alright, I got something else to say as well. Here's me, a sentry in Snowdin forest, all I do is sit there and watch for humans, it's really boring actually, most of them drop dead so quickly. Well there's this huge locked door in the forest—"

"I've...been there." Naruto cut off.

"Really? Ever trade knock knock jokes there?"

"Huh?"

"No seriously, one day I go there to the door, I knock on it and say knock-knock, then I hear a voice, woman's voice, and she's asks…"

Naruto could hear Sans talking, but his mind was drifting elsewhere, memories of him sitting at that same door talking to Toriel spiraled back towards him, though she never responded and certainly not with any bad jokes of her own. He looked back up at Sans. "Has she ever talked about me?"

"Yeah, she told me one day 'if a human ever comes through this door...could you please, please promise me something? Watch over them and protect them, will you not?' Now I hate making promises and I didn't even know this lady's name but there's just a certain integrity to someone who makes bad jokes like that so I couldn't say no to her."

"You get it now don't you? If she hadn't said anything to me, well, buddy," San's pupils blacked out and his voice got drastically deeper. "You'd be dead where you stand."

Naruto's face grew as pale as Sans', his first instinct was to get the hell away from him but he had a bad feeling he wouldn't get too far. "Lighten up, bud, I'm just joking with ya," Sans said, soothing his nerves. "Beside that would break my promise, and I've already done a great job of protecting you so far."

"Oh yeah right! Where were you 'protecting me' when I was getting destroyed by Mettaton and Undyne or-or when I was in a burning building or when I was being chased by—"

"I see it less as me being your guardian angel and more as protecting you from myself, you got tough skin, anyways." Sans eased off his seat. "Well that's all I got for now anyways, don't die or anything, 'cause there's someone out there who really cares for you."

"Sans, wait."

"Yeah?"

"The lady you tell bad jokes to...her name's Toriel."

"Toriel, huh? Thanks kid."

Naruto looked at Kid then back at the waning candle stick. "Hey uh...I totally get how you feel about being alone and stuff," Kid said.

"What're you talking about?"

"Before Snowdrake's parents adopted me, I was an orphan, I was alone all the time because no one really wanted to hang out some sad kid with no arms. I usually sat around thinking about my parent's, and one day, Gerson told me they were killed by some really horrible humans. Since then I've hated humans...well...until I met you.

"I'm...I'm an orphan too," Naruto said with a weak smile. "And sometimes I think about what happened to them, but I don't think I'll ever find out."

"I know, whenever we both can be on the surface together, I can help you find out!"

"I'd...really like that."

"Hey! There you are Kid!" Snowdrake's dad called out, he flocked towards them. "Isn't that the human you talked on and on about?"

Kid blushed. "I don't talk about him that much…"

"Whatever you say," He scrunched his face to push up his glasses then eyed Naruto. "You aren't gonna try and take him away from me, are you? Because—"

'Looks like that's out of the question.' "N-no, actually I was just leaving,"

"Aw seriously?"

"I can't take much more of these awful ice puns Snowdrake's been saying all show anyways. Don't worry about it, I'll be back quick to tell you everything, so you don't gotta miss me or anything,"

"Promise you won't be gone for long?"

"Promise."

A/N: I'm sorry for the long hiatus, but I hope I'll be going back to a regular schedule again, I know I'll have chapter 20 done by Nov. 2 and after that, probably a bi-weekly release.

Oh and btw, from here I'm around 5-7 chapters from completely finishing the neutral route. I'm thinking of either ending the whole thing right on the neutral route with an ambiguous ending, going with the true ending, or completely retell the story in the genocide route. Well, you'll all know soon enough.