I do not own Naruto, Overlord (the game), or anything else that may or may not appear within the story. This story is for entertainment purposes only.Have we not long since established that?!
The one called the Overlord
Chapter Five: The Potion of Tongues
Lair, unknown lands
The raid was, in short, a success. The 'defenders' were dead with barely any resistance to remember them by; aside from their armor kin, the apparent warriors, the elven 'nobles' as he taken to calling them were caught off guard between a slave revolt and the demented eagerness of the minions. In the end the halls and rooms were sacked, their surprisingly large armory having been sacked by both slaves and minion reinforcements, but most importantly the Tower Heart had been retrieved. Any other loot the minions got their claws on were simply a bonus; what wasn't adorned by the minions or taken by the slaves went to Giblet's scrap pile; a minion's barracks, really a relatively large shack, was converted into a 'vault' half filled with gold and any other precious metal that Gnarl kept from Giblet's scrap pile; and now there was actual furniture and a better bed in his own shack!
... It wasn't all rainbows and sunshine however, as much as Gnarl loathed them. Actually he may have preferred the both of them at the same time from Naruto's point of view: while a few of them literally left through the front door, namely the humans and other creatures, the dark elves however... followed him, plain and simple. And here they were now in the Lair, squatting at the edge of their base of operations, as close to the exit as they could get without leaving the safety of their newfound camp. Thankfully however they were largely content with keeping to themselves for the time being. That and Gnarl was largely content with either glaring at them for their 'elfiness' and promptly ignoring them in favor of whatever task he could find at hand once the young overlord made it clear he wasn't going to... "evict them" as his advisor had suggested. As luck would have it anyway the Tower Heart needed his more experienced attention anyway. That and the young overlord's attention as well.
"Hm, yes. Looks like those posh flops didn't damage anything," Gnarl murmured aloud, though he was talking to no one in particular. Naruto in the meantime watched from the sidelines while Gnarl carefully circled around the giant sparkling cerulean orb which stood taller and wider than most adults. A jeweler's monocle was held to the minion's eye as the minion master inspected the Heart for any at all damages or wanton defects. As he made pass after pass around each curve during his inspection he was careful to avoid the almost constricting ring of hastily thrown together rocks that acted as a ceremonial barrier of sorts; the minions responsible for it had tried to make it as fancy as possible with hastily etched 'runes,' scribbles really, and small ugly figureheads but sadly they were not artists by any stretch of the imagination.
"I do believe we're ready, sire!"
Naruto's attention jerked to Gnarl as he stepped away, stowed the eye piece away in a hidden pocket beneath his robes and excitedly rub his claws as he drew closer to the overlord with a hefty grin on his face. "Now normally the Heart would respond to an overlord already by either some sense of a forceful will or by sheer proximity alone. However given its... rough handling so far it hasn't reacted to you just yet. But do not worry, master. It's nothing a good kick in the pants can't cure!" He turned to the heart with such haste that the crystal bobbed and bounced above him. "All it waits for is but a simple touch and a chance to bond and accept you like so many of your predecessors my lord! Oh it's almost like a family reunion," he sighed as he clapped his hands together. His face then scrunched up in thought. "Albeit one without flying limbs and some backroom backstabbing..."
"... my ancestor's?" Naruto hestitantly asked as her apprehensively looked to Naruto. The minion in turn looked over his shoulder with evident confusion on his face before he realized what was asked for him.
"Oh no, sire. Well... sometimes. Not as much compared to royalty and nobility however. Doesn't matter which land they're from but those can get quite messy without any of us to help!" he giggled as he looked back to the Tower Heart.
... Naruto wasn't sure whether or not to feel comforted by that...
"Oh how I miss Westeros sometimes," Gnarl wistfully sighed.
After decidedly ignoring him and forcibly keeping himself from entertaining as to what he was thinking about given what he surmised so far, Naruto strode forward in all haste with a hand outstretched to touch the giant orb. Once his hand skimmed its surface... he wasn't quite sure what had happened.
He was seeing without seeing. He saw the minions around him. He saw the lair. He saw the elves and what few vagabond humans that resided in the lair. He saw the rocks, the trees beyond the tunnel's mouth. The grass, the sky, the clouds and the sun without its blinding qualities... All the while he felt a thrum overtake his body in a tingling fashion that made his hairs stand on end as if an electric current was running through him without electrocuting him. Not only that but this strange feeling felt like it was... probing him. 'Seeing' him much like he saw the visions that swam before his eyes at an almost dizzying pace. Before long the thrum became stronger in its sensation, though not in a bad way. In fact the tingling became, in a word, relaxing as a strange wave bearing no name overtook him and nourished something. As to what it was 'nourishing' he didn't know. When the feeling began to gently recede like a tide he felt... energized, his vision clearing and brightening. Before he knew it he came to know the exact number of minions under his sway as well as how many he could directly command at a given time. He knew the value of the gold, the silver and other treasures his minions hoarded for him. He learned of the exact and minute details of the cavern that was his current abode from the angular corner terraces that was the uneven floor to the exact measurement of the cave. He even ended up spying an entrourage from the elven encampment making their way to a set of hastily constructed gates, four people in all. Before they could come near the gates they were headed off by Quaver who, in spite of the language barrier, greeted them as enthusiastically as he could.
"You did it master!"
Upon hearing Gnarl's voice he snapped out of it and instinctively drew his hand away, though more out of a lack of purpose than anything else. He was about to turn to the minion when something caught his eye. The orb was seemingly taller than he last remembered it. He stepped back to inspect how tall it had actually became when he noticed a new detail: from its resting spot on the ground it began to float over a meter from the ground and gently bob in place.
"I knew the Tower Heart would react to you! Oh how it warms my black heart to see this day come! All hail the Overlord!"
"HAIL!" the nearby minions gleefully chorused and cheered.
"Oh I can't wait to begin the lessons! Granted I may not be as versed in magic as, say, a wizard, but I'm more than certain you've been given a good old favorite: the fire ball spell! Oh! That reminds me! Turn around! Let me get a good look at you!"
Curious, he obliged him and raised a brow at his positively giddy expression that stayed with him as he addressed the minions that loosely surrounded them. "Quick! Find me a mirror you louts!"
The minions eagerly obeyed as they dove into nearby crates and their own shacks. As Naruto approached the minion, lips pursed in a inquisitive bent, a good few had managed to bring back a few shards once belonging to mirrors, some large, some barely any bigger than their claws. As if provided with an unheard command the minions hoisted up their respective mirrors for the young overlord to peruse at his liesure, regardless of the fact he wasn't sure what was going on. As a few more began to join the growing gathering of mirrors his eye quickly caught something that stood out from himself, his eyes, and not in the vain sense either.
His eyes were glowing, plain and simple.
Startled, he lurched forth and grabbed one of the larger mirror shards with both hands and held it up to better inspect this new phenomena. At first it looked like the whites of his eyes had been replaced with a dull yellow glow, leaving only his blue irises intact. Upon closer and more worried attention however he was quick to discover that they hadn't changed colors per se... more like a strange light was emanating from the very... 'skin' of his eyeballs that bathed them in a strange but dull yellow light.
"What's going on?!" he all but shouted as his grip shook between worry and some exertion to keep the mirror aloft.
"It's nothing to worry about sire," Gnarl offered sagely in the best placating manner he could provide as he rounded around the mirror to present himself in its reflection from behind the rogue shinobi. "In fact it's quite a common reaction amongst those who had their magical potential unlocked. It'll die out on its own accord in due time. Though, just so you are not alarmed, it's not unheard of for your eyes to change to a more permanent hue. In fact your ancestors encouraged such a change! You have to admit, glowing eyes look a lot more intimidating from underneath a dark helmet!" Gnarl cackled.
At Naruto's lack of a response he offered an afterthought. "Either way it's not unheard of to change your appearance by magical means, master. They can even be permanent, so long as the user wishes it of course. Either way it requires quite a bit of practice... and perhaps an exploding eyeball or two. Preferably your enemy's eyes of course. So shall we return to the practice field to begin your magic training? It's going to be very fun!"
"And burny!" a red from the side offered.
"With marshmallows!"
"YEEEAAAAH!"
"Quiet you!" Gnarl barked. His eye however did twinkle at the prospect of another marshmallow roast however even as he returned his attention back to Naruto whom had lowered the mirror into an awaiting minion's claws. "As I was saying, shall we begin your new training?"
"Sure—"
"Sire! Sire!"
From the side of the small clearing amongst the city of minion shacks Quaver scurried out with a dopey grin on his mug.
"Of for the love of—" Gnarl managed to grumble before he was washed out by Quaver's enthusiasm.
"Sire! It would seem those elves you rescued have sent a delegation! They even brought gifts to show their gratitude!
"Oh they can wait! If they're as grateful as you say then they'll be patient enough for our master to learn to burn their faces off if they get uppity."
As the two minions began to bicker, the overlord began to think about his current circumstances as they stood. He didn't understand a word any of the elves had said, and it was mutual vice versa as well. They didn't even understand Quaver who, like Gnarl, demonstrated knowledge of many a language when the minion master was at loathe to even try to talk to them by choice; it was tempting to order him to do it just because he could, but that seemed a little mean for the shinobi to do so. It was more than obvious they had something in mind if they came to him, but what? As for his magic training...
"... Eh. I could do that later." It wasn't like he had something better to do immediately anyway. Though even he had to admit it was sorely tempting to jump right to it.
"Hey Quaver, where are they now?"
XVX
Meanwhile, Konoha, Elemental Nations
It was one thing if there was a crack in the defenses that someone either made or took advantage of. Normally it would be played off as a shameful embarrassment to be washed away with the liberal use of sake when it was all said and done, situation or no. However with a missing jinchuriki, two presumed dead chunin, several dead anbu and several acres of forest land being nothing more than ash at this point, no amount of alcohol could even try to touch the sobering sight of a gaping hole of melted stone in Konoha's almost famous walls. As to how no one noticed it was there, rather why none of the sentries on duty sounded the alarm either when the tunnel was forcibly made or even simply discovering it in the morning light, there was a painfully simple answer: they were dead.
The entire retinue on duty at the time had been ambushed, though by what no one knows. Whatever got to them seemed to have been bestial by nature judging from the disturbingly deep claw marks and gouges on both the guards' bodies and the stonework itself. Worse yet they were as fast and proficient as they were brutal in making sure there were no witnesses or stragglers to warn Konoha proper of the assault.
Worse yet there hadn't been any news before or after the incident to even guess at who was pulling the strings or had performed the overall deed to begin with. Whomever was behind this was an unknown in the purest sense of the word with all but three clues as to their identity: the dead bodies of foreign men and women recovered from the depths of a previously unknown manmade cavern network belonging to an equally unknown faction that just as few confounding traces of themselves, the reports given by the survivng anbu members who fought int he excursion against an unknown creature, and a... creature caught in one of the Inuzuka clan's bear traps...
It presumably got in during the night of the infiltration. Judging from the claws and its teeth it was likely one of the culprits or perhaps the culprit that slaughtered the guards on the wall. Regardless, it was only found when Nara clansmen had enlisted those of the Inuzuka clan to investigate a mass slaughter of deer on their property. The creature in question was evidently hunting the deer and fell into the trap meant to kill the few bears, and the occasional tiger that snucked out of training ground forty-four, that resided within Konoha's walls. Needless to say it didn't survive, though it had done its damndest to get out of it despite its critical wounds and surprisingly acidic blood which ate away at the metal contraption.
As much as he hated to do so, with no news as to who was behind this, foreigners in their home and strange creatures of phenomenal power wreaking havoc on the slightest of whims, it was obvious that his only chance to find out the reasoning behind the attack is to leave the Elemental Nations for the world beyond. He had to venture deep into strange lands where his spy network's reach only extended to a fraction of the port cities that regularly did business with the Land of Fire at the utter most. As such he needed a team if he was to have any hope toward resolving this quickly, not the mention survive unprecedented dangers and situations that may crop up...
With any luck he would find Naruto as well while he was out there; like Iruka Umino and his fellow instructor Mizuki, Naruto was missing as well. With any hope he was alive, well, an unscathed if he was truly out there and not closer to home, a runaway during the attack if not a prisoner. If not... he could only wish that he only suffered a quick death as a worst case scenario regardless of the circumstance.
"Lord Jiraiya, are you ready?"
With a deep breath and a quiet sigh the white haired man closed his eyes as he faced the direction of the far off sea from Konoha's grand gate.
"Yeah. Let's get going."
XVX
Lair, unknown lands
Being the closest thing they had to either a throne room or a court room, it was only natural Naruto's shack was where they received the small delegation of elves which consisted of the elf from before, the one who tried to talk to him, a pair of others whom he had not met before... and the one who was blinded in the apparent master bedroom of the keep. All of whom had gotten rid of their once grungy clothing in exchange for the finer wear their once captors wore, albeit with far less ostentatious decorations; some of it looked to have been forcibly removed, leaving but patchwork from scrap cloth in its wake where a hole should be. While the two he was relatively unfamiliar with wore what looked to be dinner suits, the one he had met simply wore blue robes that had some of its gold filigree intact. As for the woman, underneath her bun-tied white hair she wore a fine black cloth to mask her missing eyes. Liken her companion, she wore a dress. A "ballroom dress" if he remembered correctly when he was passing by that "Western" clothing shop he occasionally passed by on his way back to his apartment from the academy. For all he knew it was just an overpriced dress the owner was just trying to hawk. Other than the diaphanous qualities of the dress that showed a faint shadow of her limbs, the only difference it had to those dresses was the frilly wide collar that tried to overcome the elf's head in both height and width. Either way it was beyond noticeable even if most of her head, bun-tied hair included, covered most of it.
At any rate however what truly caught and held the majority of his attention however was what almost reverently was held in the lead elf's cupped hands, a vial with a wide rounded base that tapered to a long neck. Within its glass exterior was a strange clear concoction that churned as if it is a carbonated drink. Even so, atop its long neck, atop a stopper barely concealed within the glass itself, was what appeared to be an upside down shot glass of all things snugly resting on top of the bottle. With curiosity he watched as the man meticulously whipped the shot glass off the stopper and pulled out the cork with the same hand that now held the miniature cup firmly between two fingers. Once it was uncorked he pour the contents into the glass till it was nearly full. Once it was full, near to the brim in fact, he carefully held out the 'drink', offering it with a bow whilst pointedly ignoring Gnarl's suspicious squinted gaze.
"Well, as obvious as it is, it seems they come bearing gifts, sire!"
"Now hold on a minute!" Gnarl interrupted before Naruto could even take a intrigued step forward. "Who's to say it isn't poisoned now? Or some kind of mind control serum for that matter!" he growled suspiciously as he glared at both the offer cup, the elf and his companions at mindful intervals. His attention soon shifted solely to the lead elf who stood straight in response, his brow furrowed in annoyance as if he had discerned the gist of what Gnarl had said in spite of the language barrier between them all.
Rather than verbally respond to him, most likely because it would've been lost on the three plus the minion guards that watched them, he instead turned to the minion with half a step and offered him the concoction instead whilst glaring at him with mild contempt which was responded to in kind by the minion master. After a minutes into their contest Gnarl broke away first with a grumble as he turned to and pointed at Quaver. "You drink it first!"
"What? Why?"
"Because I'm still your superior. Not only that but we need a taste tester anyway!"
"Even if that was the case, why not get let of the other minions have the honor? I'm not the punching bag any more you know!" Quaver bit back.
Immediately the two minions launched into a near indecipherable argument amongst themselves with one attempting to be louder than the other, thus trying to dominate the conflict in their favor short of resolving to violence. It was for not however as the Overlord took matters into his own hands by striding forth, effectively shutting the two up save for Gnarl's half formed sputterings in a bid to stop the blond from grabbing the shot glass, pulling down his scarf and chugging the contents in one go. Sadly he began to regret his impulsive decision even as Gnarl clasped his claws over his mouth in horror whilst Quaver gawped at the scene, his skin paling as Gnarl's paranoid opinions rang loudly in his mind.
For better or worse he paid no heed to the strange feeling of his mind being awash with strange new words seemingly borne from nowhere. No, it was the taste of rotten eggs, far gone berries and perhaps week old fish cooked into a sludgy stew that now swam down his throat in a straight path to his stomach that had his undivided attention. What made it worse was that, as much as he wanted to, his gag reflex and any other natural urge to expel the fluid was in fact gagging, choking or otherwise paralyzed until the very last droplets of the deceptive drink settled into his stomach. Thankfully however the after taste, though still horrible, was short lived as he handed back the shot glass with the same look belonging to someone who lived through a disaster on pure luck alone yet was too traumatized to celebrate such a feet.
Undoubtedly seeing this and perhaps knowing what befall him, the bald elf offered what consolidation he could with a gentle pat to the shoulder.
"Do you understand me now?" the elf suddenly asked as he withdrew his hand in time for the rogue shinobi to jilt his head up in obvious shock.
"Huh? Wha—wait I thought—..." At a loss for words Naruto fell silent as he tried to order his thoughts around this newfound breakthrough.
"What the..." Gnarl muttered as both he and Quaver looked on his apparent puzzlement, the former stroking his beard in thought. When the Overlord didn't speak up again the elf took it upon himself to break the silence that had ensued.
"The Potion of Tongues," the elf calmly announced.
"For what it's worth I apologize for the taste," he said with a brief bow. "While it is not the most... savory of options, there are times when it's more prudent to take a shortcut rather than endure what could take weeks to learn, if not years, don't you agree?"
Naruto didn't think twice in his response. "No I don't."
"Oh?" A curious if not imperious brow rose up.
"Yeah! I mean, if you took a short cut to get what you want then you really didn't earn it!" He was about to continue when Gnarl interrupted him out of the blue.
"Master, you do realize we can't understand you, do you?"
"Huh?" He turned to the minion master in his attracted confusion, missing the quarter smirk on the elf's face which was soon lost when he directed his gaze toward the minion.
At the grunt of puzzlement Gnarl spoke up once more. "I can understand if that... potion has miraculously given you the ability to understand them now, sire, assuming of course it isn't a side effect of being poisoned of course... but, in case you haven't realized it yet master, you're speaking their language as well!"
"What are you talking about?" Naruto asked him.
"See! Can't you hear it?"
"Uh... no?" Naruto replied while cocking his head to the side in confusion. In the meantime Gnarl squinted his eyes shut and palmed his face while muttering to himself. His, the Overlord's, attention was broken however when the same hand that patted him returned and measurably clapped itself on his shoulder to draw notice to the elf in question.
"It's something of a side effect of the potion, the inability to differentiate languages at first. Just take a moment to think about what you wish to say before saying it."
Taking his advice to heart the shinobi looked to Gnarl once more in time to see the minion squint a heated glare at the elf behind the young overlord. As much as he wanted to simply blurt out 'can you understand me now' he instead ran through what he wanted to say over and over in his mind to get an idea in the off chance that perhaps he wasn't getting something. Interestingly enough he did. It was a strange feeling to know the words he knew by heart by having spoken them his entire life, and then there were the words he 'knew' that had no such history at all beyond minutes prior. In fact it was almost confusing and mind jarring at once as he somehow manage to 'pluck' the words he wanted to apply from the words he didn't want to use.
"Can you understand me now?"
"Yes I can, master," Gnarl readily replied with a frown.
"Bleh! Oh that is most foul!"
Both heads snapped to Quaver as the minion dry heaved in lieu of attempting to spit out whatever he consumed. It took a moment before Naruto spotted a familiar shot glass clutched in the minion's claw.
"You know that time Giblet found those mushrooms on that one island? The one with the amazons and snakes? And then tossed them into the soup we were making at the time for supper? It tastes like that!"
The false heaving gave way to lolling his tongue out and running his free claw along it in an effort to 'wipe away' the taste. In the meantime however he half minded handed the shot glass back to the elf without looking. Effortlessly Helos took it from the minion's grasp.
"It's just really awful!" Quaver whined as the taste abated.
"And he's suddenly spouting jibberish as well..." Gnarl then heavily sighed. "Fine! You all win!" he suddenly declared as he begrudgingly trudged over to the elf and snatched the readied shot glass from the offered hand; he didn't particularly heed the narrowed eyes of the dark elf nor the indignation of his companions witness to the act. It was only made nominally worse when he tilted his head back and unabashedly chugged the shot in one go before shoving the glass back into the elf's hand as he unapologetically smacked his lips. Unlike the other two before him he didn't flinch or recoil in the slightest.
"Uh... Gnarl?"
"Burp!"
Smacking his lips once more, the old minion pounded on his chest in a light manner, coaxing another yet smaller belch from him to follow the first. "Right. We're all 'poisoned' now. Let's get this over with."
XVX
By rights the official meeting would have started earlier the moment the room was rearranged into a sort of meeting hall consisting of what was anything that wasn't a table, which was now lumped together to form a 'long table', and a chair had been pushed aside to make room. But it didn't. Once Helos spotted that blackboard Gnarl had been using earlier, which the minion hadn't bothered to move out of the room since the last time he used it, the elf wiped away the crude drawings with his sleeve and began to etched in finer depictions of a much smaller version of Gnarl's map. Or rather it was of an enlarged island now decorated with various dotes and names to go with them. Only two names stood above the others do to their bold lettering, Noircî and Renouvelé. Just when it seemed like he was done he paused, glaring at something on the board despite nothing written in the blank spot of his particular interest nor even scratched onto it. Whatever it was that concerned him ultimately ended without any note greater than his turning around to face them.
"If you would pardon our late introductions, I am Helos Edgewood," he said with a small bow. "Headmaster of the Chiselle Academy. Or at least former headmaster thanks to the raid on our home... Regardless, may I present to you," he held an arm out, palm facing up, to the sole woman of the group, "Adelia Majeau, Magistrate of Chiselle." Upon being announced the blinded elf turned in the direction of the overlord and his minions and nodded her head in a bow. Unfortunately for her, due to her lack of sight she nodded at a gap to Gnarl's left and Naruto's right. Still, in response Naruto raised a shy hand up in a wave. It was only halfway through the act that he remembered she couldn't see the gesture, and in his embarrassment he let loose a mutilated "hi" long before he could consciously control himself.
"Uh... I'm Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki!" he offered in return as he beamed a smile. It faltered into a grimace however do to his newfound awkwardness when he realized he was smiling at a blind woman. It regained a fraction of its former confidence though when the magistrate, former or not, smiled at him. Or rather at his general direction as he attention shifted over to what the overlord could only assume to be the space above his left shoulder.
A deliberate cough however not only caught everyone's attention and ruined the mood. With a pointed but silent glare Helos shifted a glance to the rather indignant pair of elves whom sat at either side of Adelia. "You're more than capable of introducing yourselves," he stated in a low matter-of-fact fashion.
At this the pair bristled.
"Introduce ourselves, to an outsider?!"
"Yes. An outsider who ultimately freed everyone. Unless of course either one of you had made a more... significant contribution rather than taking the less arduous path, again." He didn't dignify them with any further response. Instead he pointedly ignored them by turning around to 'inspect' the board for reasons kept to himself. In the meantime however the pair of elves fumed about their predicament, one of whom biting his lip and drumming his fingers whilst the other fidgeted slightly in his chair.
"This is not the time for egos."
All eyes went to the magistrate, her own 'gaze' neutrally looked forward in its natural setting so as to not favor anyone in this matter.
"But my lady—!"
Her sightless gaze turned to the one who spoke up. Even without the use of eyes her stern glare was piercing enough to cow the dark elf into submission. "Now is not the time for serve either of your egos, regardless of the circumstances." Her pointed 'glare' shifted to the other elf whom likewise shrank beneath it. She even sent a reprimanding 'glance' to the headmaster as he intently looked at the board. Even so, he uncomfortably shifted under the 'gaze.' When it was over her sight slowly returned to the overlord. Sadly however she was looking more at Quaver than Naruto in this instance. "I apologize for their squabbling. They've haven't been on the best of terms with one another even before... the raid on our home," she explained, her voice however faltered at the end as she tried to repress an all too visible shudder to no avail. Her hand even curled and lifted from its place of rest as if to make for the blindfold only to halt itself and nearly slam itself back into place.
"Yes, well, that's all well and 'good' but what exactly brings you here? If it's all just to say "thank you" then you could've left some gifts at the door and be off with yourselves! You're wasting both the master's time and training with this blithering," Gnarl loathingly drawled out, earning a glare from almost everybody in the room. The only ones who weren't staring at him were Quaver, who was generally unaffected beyond a slight scowl, and Naruto who screwed his eyes shut as he groaned; new as he was to... meetings, official functions, whatever, even he knew there was a bit more tact involved here!
"Gnarl..."
Of their newfound company the magistrate was the least reactive. If anything she became more silent as she stared in Gnarl's general direction.
"My apologies," she crisply offered with political neutrality. "I did not realize nor considered we were interrupting anything of importance." She turned her head in the overlord's direction. "As such allow me to get to the heart of the matter. We wish to hire you to be our escort to La Rochelle."
"Huh?"
"What are you going on about?" Gnarl grumbled, his eyes narrowed upon the blinded elf. Regardless, she shifted her attention to Helos' direction.
"Helos."
Unbidden, the headmaster turned with the intent of claiming their attention and claim it he did as he gestured to the island.
"Allow me to enlighten you to the history of the "Dark" Elves, Noircî as we prefer to be called, so you have a better understanding of what is happening as it stands."
"Joy..."
"Gnarl!"
A heated glare was cast at Gnarl who returned it with lukewarm irritation. Both abated somewhat when a fed Naruto finally took decisive action once more by bopping the minion on the head.
"I want to know what's going on!" Naruto huffed while the minion rubbed the sore spot on his head. As for Helos, having been satisfied, Quaver being amused on his part, returned to the board.
"To give a brief overview of our history, our people have been a long suffering society of the rejected, the damned, and the accused. In spite of our heritage we were ejected from our original homeland for our 'abnormalities' and were force to wander the world for a time. Both out of desire and spite our people had made several attempts to settle in various lands over the centuries that followed our banishment. Sadly however none of them worked thanks to our... 'neighbors' of each time; only a few lasted more than a couple of decades at best."
"Be it a grudge for our cousins, a malicious use of politics, slander or perhaps a genuine lack of abundant resources to share, we were driven out time and again from where we tried to call home at the time by other races and kingdoms. It wasn't until we took to the seas with a bleary hope of finding some uninhabited island that our situation had improved any. Yet even after establishing ourselves and making this land our home in preferred isolation we were set upon by our old problems, though mitigated somewhat by an ocean to deter the occasional 'ill informed' crusade, or worse yet slavers... but alas," he sighed, "were it just them then we would've been happy enough to set off to the other settlements of our brethren for refuge the moment we settled matters in the fort."
Adelia fidgeted rather uncomfortably at the mention of the fort. Helos, with his back turned, didn't notice it unlike the others. Even the pair of elves at her side shared a look of concern.
"No, our problem is much more domestic," Helos continued as he pointed at and tapped the space directly underneath "Renouvelé." He then took the chalk piece and began to draw straight lines from the dot related to the name to various other places. It took a moment for Naruto to realize Chissele was one of those connected dots.
"It was a while before anyone discovered the mana vents built into the land," the elf elaborated. "It took us even longer to trace them back to their point of origin..." He pursed his lips as he paused. He then shook his head. "Regardless. Hoping to regain some of our former glory, a great number had flocked to Bordeaux to absorb the rampant mana in its environment. And while some still do, that is another matter entirely. Generation after generation were born within the proximity of Bordeaux, each one being affected more and more by the mana present in Bordeaux and changing because of it. While yes they achieved what they had hoped to obtained, our now blue skinned... 'kin,' the newly named Renouvelé, whom in recent century declared themselves an autonomous state, are prisoners of their own designs..." He paused for a moment as if considering something. "In other words," he spoke up once more as he turned around to face them. On his face was a severe frown. "They would literally die if they are separated from a mana enriched environment for a prolonged period of time. Hence the need for specialized armor and the canisters filled with concentrated mana."
"Yes, yes, that's very interesting," Gnarl grumbled, again earning several glares that he shrugged off with annoyed indifference. "Let's just get down to the chase here. Why should we help you?" he growled. "We're busy enough as it is."
"Evidently so," one of the unnamed elves sarcastically snipped. A stern glance silenced him and his friend from commenting further however. She then carefully turned in the direction of Naruto as opposed to Gnarl. While her 'gaze' wasn't accurately on him, the solemnity of it was no less unnerving.
"I'll admit, the promise of payment is more of a formality than a necessity..."
"I knew it!" Naruto didn't even bother looking as he whacked the minion on the head. "Oof!"
She was silent for a moment before she continued. "I may not have witnessed it but I do know Farlen escaped from the fort. He was hardly quiet about it when you slain the lieutenants left behind to ensure the garrison performed its function as a watch post when the garrison deployed elsewhere. While I may not be sure as to whether or not he successfully fled to an encampment of his comrades, a patrol or even retreated back to Bordeaux itself, but I would be beside myself if I knowingly left you behind to suffer the possibility of a retaliatory strike." She seemed to deflate within her seat before bowing her head. "Please forgive me for attempting to bribe you. I only wished to help ensure your safety, even if there's no guarantee of danger."
At this Gnarl derisively scoffed. Though he did flinch when Naruto swiveled his squinted gaze upon him, that didn't stop him from talking however. "Even if they did find us, if those fancy tarts are the worst of it then we've got nothing to worry about. By the abyss, we might even scare them off if we fling dirt at them!" Gnarl managed to cackle.
"Even for elves they seemed rather squeamish to be honest," Quaver added with a wistful sigh. He then brought up an egg shaped orb of gold from underneath his end of the table. Encasing the 'egg' were four evenly spaces columns hugging the sides of the orb. Near the top of each curving column the bar peeled away and fanned out in the design of a leaf, veins, stem and all. There were even leaf filigrees were etched upon its open sides, each one attached to a stenciled vine which slowly climbed up to the top of the rounded point of the orb. "They do know to make beautiful trinkets however!" he sighed as he lovingly rubbed it. His claw was caressing it still when one of the unnamed pair began to sputter rather uncontrollably.
"Oh what's gotten into you this time?" the other one groaned to his companion.
Immediately the other elf jabbed an accusing finger at the egg in Quaver's possession much to everyone's confusion. "THAT WAS MY GRANDMOTHER'S!"
Paled faced at the accusation, the minion slowly lowered the item back under the table. "Uh... I found it?" he offered with a cheesy, if not shaky, grin.
"LIKE HELL!" the elf challenged as he shot up from his seat. A second later he was bound in ethereal chains seemingly made of dulled amethyst light. There was even a gag made from the same substance which now gagged him. To top it all off a set of chains reached up from the chair and ensnared the dark elf. With a yank they forcibly seated him back into the seat despite his muffled protests and wriggling.
"That is enough," Helos sternly commanded.
Amidst the mild shock of those present, Naruto and his minions was curious enough to look whilst the rest were concentrating on the bound elf. The headmaster's hand was outstretched, fingers splayed but his index finger was prominently pointed at the supposedly nameless Noircî. "Magic," he thought upon realization. Immediately his mind went to the Tower Heart, then to the mere idea of him holding a ball of fire in his hand. That idea then it morphed into him spewing that fire from the palm of his hand in a continuous blast! But was that all he could do with magic?
Now that he thought about it, he couldn't recall Gnarl saying there was a limit per se beyond how much mana a person could use at a time. If he could learn how to form a better clone then surely he could learn how to... shoot lightning out of his hand? He didn't know but the sheer magnitude of ideas now spawning in his head was almost making him dizzy on the spot as they continued to grow in number. Each and every one promising the possibility of using more awesome and fantastical feats! Then his eyes widened in realization in regards to the technique he learned from the previously forgotten Forbidden Scroll. Before he learned of the Shadow Clone technique he ended up skimming through at least a handful of jutsus he couldn't make heads or tales from. Surely those had to be imagined, experimented with and finally declared workable enough to be taught, right? The Shadow Clone technique was no doubt one such product, so the same could be said with magic too!
Hell, if he could do that, he can easily kick that red thing's ass!
Before he realized it he opened his mouth, not that he regretted it of course. "I'll do it!"
"Hm?"
Aside from the bound elf, and ignoring a mortified Gnarl's "oh no", everyone's attention diverted to Naruto as he pointed his finger out at a stoically curious Helos, his mouth continuing to jabber on without him thinking about it.
"I'll join you guys in going to that place! But I want one thing though!"
"And that is?" The elf's brow was pointedly raised almost like Iruka when he was calm but serious in the classroom.
"I want to learn how to use magic!" he brightly declared with a beaming smile. "I'll be kicking that demon's and his cronies' asses before you know it! Believe it!"
They all stared at him for a moment. The first one to break away was Helos whom looked to Adelia. Her own face was blank as if her own thoughts seemingly at a pace that what hints she could convey weren't able to form. Slowly but surely however a small gentle smile tugged at the corner of her lips.
"Very well then," he announced as he returned his attention to the overlord. "We'll begin as soon as you're ready."
Naruto was practically bouncing in his face while Gnarl turned away with a claw palming his face.
"Might I suggest though is that we begin after we make our exodus though, don't you agree."
"Sure!"
Gnarl's hard groan was largely ignored as plans were being discussed.
"It's the elf alliance all over again," he groused pitifully to himself.