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Thank you for reading and please enjoy
The Legend of Zelda: The Interloper of Time
-Chapter 25-
-Last Time-
Pissed was a severe understatement.
It took a night's rest and several hours of coaxing before Naruto finally opened up to her exactly what happened between him and Ruto while they were by themselves. The only thing preventing her from strangling the fish-girl for 'taking advantage' of Naruto was the fact they were currently descending a steep, narrow tunnel into what was very likely to be Queen Octorok's den.
But even as they emerged into a massive, roughly hewn chamber and the sleeping form of the dreaded beast came into view, there was only one though going through the ex-kokiri's mind. 'I'm going to kill her when we are done here!'
-And Now-
The five of them remained completely silent as Naruto, Saria, and Ruto gently settled on an outcropping that jutted out right in front of their quarry. Just as the Zora Princess had described, Queen Octorok was absolutely colossal, easily towering at least fifty feet above them. Eight massive tentacles drifted around the water lazily, covered in bone plates at least a foot thick with dozens of those jagged spears sticking out in various spots.
One dimly glowing yellow was partly visible behind it's closed eyelid while the other was completely swollen up and covered in a yellowish pus that slowly oozed into the surrounding water. A loud snoring echoed from the creature's nozzle like mouth sucked in and expelled large amounts of water.
Naruto and Saria were reaching for their hammer and sword respectively when Ruto stopped them. "Don't bother, you won't be able to swing properly while under the water. Besides, that bitch's armor and hide is too thick to attack directly, trust me I tried." She said quietly, pointing to the nearest tentacle. Taking a closer look, Naruto and Saria finally noticed the dozens of shallow gashes and scars littering the limbs armored surface. "Not to mention, even if we were to harm her much, she'd just flee like as scared guppy." She emphasized her point by pointing to the fractured wall beside Queen Octorok.
"Then what do we do? Run away?" Saria asked sarcastically as they ducked behind cover in case the monster woke up. "Because last I checked, that thing is the one responsible keeping your people literally on ice."
Instead of answering right away, Ruto pulled out the map of the temple and unfolded it before pointing to a large circular room. "We need to prevent it from being able to get away. This is where we are currently, the primary waste collection and drainage chamber or in plain hylian… the sewage tank." She stated, causing her four companions to freeze.
"Wait a second… doesn't that mean we're breathing…" Navi trailed off as a large blob of gooey brown stuff floated past them.
"…"
"…"
"…"
"BLEUGH!" x4
"Precisely," Ruto said as the human, ex-kokiri, and two fairies upchucked their meals, waiting till they finished vomiting to continue speaking. "As I was saying this is the main sewage tank for both the temple and Zora's domain. And like any good sewage tank, this one has a dumping system that empties it out in case it needs repaired or unclogged… mostly unclogged." She said idly while gesturing to two lines at the bottom of the image.
"The manual releases are here and here. If we hit them at the same time, the water levels will drop rapidly, within seconds that bitch will be trapped in here for good and completely open to attack." Ruto finished with a wide grin as she put the map away. "You guys go for the release switches, I'll stay here and act as decoy since that stupid bitch will no doubt immediately sense the water level dropping suddenly and wake up. Then, once the sewage is drained enough, we spread out and attack from as many different angles as we can and fuck shit up."
"…alright," Naruto said reluctantly, not liking the idea of just leaving the princess all alone against such a monster but not seeing any other options. As they started to swim off, he stopped and pulled both Saria and Ruto into a hug. "Be careful out there." He whispered into their ears, then taking off before either of them could respond.
The two women glanced at each-other in bafflement, then just as quickly butting heads with a glare before turning away with a huff and swimming off in opposite directions.
"Ugh, I'll be SOOOOOOOOOO glad when this vile fluid is gone." Navi groaned from inside Naruto's mask as the blonde carefully swam around several large chunks of literal crap and one of the tentacles.
"You said it." Naruto said, shivering when he messed up a turn and paid for it with his leg getting spattered with the foul brown sludge. Diving under another of the tentacles, he spotted his objective, a large trapdoor sticking out of the wall with an equally giant lever beside it. "But if all goes to plan, then we won't have to deal with it for long." He said optimistically as he zipped through the filthy water as quickly as he could.
Grabbing the slime covered piece of wood, Naruto set himself against the wall and started pushing with all of his strength.
*FWOOOOSH* Naruto instantly anchored himself into place with chakra as the water was violently sucked out in a vortex that threatened to pull him with it. Hearing a similar noise from across the chamber, he glanced outwards and just managed to see Saria. She was across from him with her arms and legs wrapped around her lever before his view was cut off by the rapid thrashing of a now awake and very furious Queen Octorok.
Its large head was thrashing around from side to side, clearly alarmed by the decreasing amount of water around it and was already starting to retreat when it was cut off by a large number of glowing spears of water impaling it in various places. "HEY BITCH! GUESS WHO'S BACK FOR A REMATCH?!" Ruto called out as the Zora princess shot through the water like a missile, slicing and stabbing at every exposed point she could reach before rushing back out of the beast's range.
While doing minimal damage, she succeeded in drawing Queen Octorok's attention and preventing it from trying escape. Roaring in anger, the giant squid sucked in a large amount of water and debris before rapidly expelling it in a large condensed ball that missed Ruto by inches. Instead, the attack hit the wall and exploded, causing the whole room to shake violently with a deafening *boom*.
"Looks like she could use some help!" Navi yelled over the roar of the vortex, getting a nod of agreement from Naruto. Grasping onto the walls of the chamber with chakra, the blonde carefully started slowly scaling up towards the battle.
Saria and Elia had a similar idea but were unable to do anything as the walls around them were too slick and the current too strong for the larger to greenette to swim against. Trying to think of a way to move out of there, their thoughts were cut off when something hard collided with the side of Saria's head. Briefly dazed, she quickly shook it off before grabbing the thing that hit her and holding it out for her to see with a grimace. It was a decaying arm, Zora in origin, with an odd clawed contraption held tightly in its grasp that Saria reluctantly pried free and took as her own.
"Poor soul," Elia said with a bowed head as her partner released the limb and let it get sucked away. "I hope you find peace in the afterlife."
"What is this thing?!" Saria asked over the rushing water, examining the device closely. It was gauntlet-like, made of dark brown leather and dull colored metal, and curved claws curled up on the top. A triggered handle on the inside that when she pushed it caused the claws to spring open with a soft clicking.
"I believe it's a clawshot! Zora's invented them to get to high places since their terrible climbers! It shoots a climbing claw on a long chain that can latch on to almost any surface and pull either you to it or vice versa!" Elia explained, "The owner must have used it to traverse in here effectively whenever the water was all gone! We can use it to get back to the others!"
"…well that's convenient." Saria mumbled. What were the odds that the very thing that she needed to help just happened to appear before her?
-Goddess Realm-
"Your welcome!" Din said happily as she and her sisters watched the battle through a seeing pool.
"You do know that they can't hear you, right sister?" Nayru asked rhetorically, getting a raspberry in response.
"I don't care! Do you know how hard it was to find a Zora spirit that wouldn't mind me using their arm for that on such short notice? Let me enjoy my brilliance a little!"
"I wouldn't get to excited just yet Din," Farore interrupted, her gaze locked on the pool or more specifically on her new blonde champion as he got far enough away from the currents and swam to the surface. "…I have a bad feeling." She muttered causing the goddesses of Power and Wisdom to tense up.
-Water Temple Sewage Chamber-
Deciding to test her new gadget, Saria pointed the clawshot at a cliff not far from her and released the trigger.
*Clthooom* *Chink* "WHOA!" She and Elia screamed as they were swiftly pulled to the ledge at high speed. Reacting just as fast, Saria twisted in mid-water and impacted feet first.
"Yep, definitely useful." The greenette said with a grin as she detached the claw from the rock and quickly pointed to a new target.
Meanwhile, Naruto burst through the surface of the water, which was now a fourth of the way down, and clambered onto an outcropping. Standing up and shaking the water and shit off of himself, Naruto drew his hammer and looked towards the exposed section of Queen Octorok's head. "Navi get out here, this is about to get hectic." He said, getting a nod from the blue fairy as she pulled herself out of the blonde's mask and landed on his shoulder.
"I got your back." She told Naruto, making him grin widely.
"Glad to hear." He said before suddenly spinning on his heel and running right up the wall. As the curvature of the room transitioned to the ceiling, Naruto began channeling chakra into the Megaton Hammer causing it to glow brightly. Reaching the top, he stopped completely and tensed his legs while Navi flew off his shoulder after realizing what he was going to do.
Looking down, Naruto was greeted with the sight of a now half empty chamber with Queen Octorok now full trapped inside with its tentacles thrashing around trying to smash Ruto as she skated around on the surface of the water using her magic and Saria who was zipping around the place with her new clawshot. The princess was attacking with large blades and spears of water while Saria hit it with a barrage of bomb arrows.
Grinning at the open shot he had, Naruto was just about to launch himself at the giant octopus when he suddenly froze up as a sense of utter dread shot through his being. A strong instinctual urge followed this, nagging at the blonde to look down again.
Listening to this feeling this feeling, Naruto looked around in confusion before his gaze locked onto Saria as she latched onto another crevice with her clawshot. Following her soon to be flight path, his pupils shrank to almost nothing as he saw the raised tentacle hidden from his best friend's sight…
…and poised to launch its bone spears the moment she landed.
-Five Minutes Earlier, Saria-
Saria whooped as she shot through the sewage, slashing Queen Octorok across its side as she passed, making it howl in pain and rage as it spat several condensed balls of crap wildly. Its assault was short lived though as Ruto popped up and blasted the beast with a drill of water followed by a barrage of razor sharp waves.
"We aren't doing enough damage, we might as… *Splash* …well be gnats to it!" Elia yelled as they landed and the water level dropped past them.
"Well then, let's try something else." Saria retorted while pulling out her bow and several arrows with bombs attached to the tips. Lighting the fuses on them, she swiftly lined up her shot and fired, peppering Queen Octorok with a multitude of explosions. Seeing it's attention turning to her again, Saria quickly reequipped her clawshot and grappled off towards another edge.
Just as she landed in her new position though, the greenette heard a soft whistling noise coming from above her. Looking up curiously, Saria had only enough time to register the fact that Naruto was falling right at her before her friend landed heavily next to her and bashed her away with his shoulder.
"Gah! What the heck Naruto!? What are you-" *KLURUKSH!*
…
…
-Play Tears of an Angel: by RyanDan
Saria could do nothing but lay on the ground, completely frozen in place from shock and horror as she stared at the sight before her. Naruto, her closest friend, the one who has been there for her ever since they first met, and the dearest person in her life, now stood over her protectively with his arms spread wide as several bone spears pierced though his chest.
"Looks *Cough* like I ju- *Cough* just made it." Naruto rasped out with a sad smile as blood slowly oozed down his lip. Dropping the large hammer held in his grasp, the blonde wobbled slightly as his eyes drooped. *Cough* "I… I'm glad, I could never *cough* never live with myself… if you… got… hur…" He couldn't finish as he succumbed to his injuries and collapsed, falling off the edge of the platform.
"NARUTO!?" Saria screamed as she finally snapped out of her trance, rushing to the edge just in time to see him disappear into the murky depths below. She was about to dive after him, but was swatted away by Queen Octorok and sent crashing into Ruto as the Zora princess was rushing over to help.
Pushing the fish woman away, Saria dove under the water and desperately searched for Naruto while avoiding being attacked. It wasn't until she swerved out of the way of another wave of bone spears that she spotted his limp form being sucked away by the drainage tunnel.
Saria swam as fast as she could, trying to reach the tunnel before it was too late, only for Queen Octorok to once again beat her to it. With a single swing, its tentacle completely obliterated the exit, causing it to cave in and destroying Saria's only means of reaching Naruto.
Despite this however, Saria kept going, arriving at the pile of broken rocks and futility attempting to pull the debris out of the way when a slender blue arm wrapped around her waist and forcefully pulled her away kicking and screaming.
"We have to go Saria! We can't stay here!" Ruto yelled as she held onto the struggling girl tightly while propelling them out of the water and onto a high ledge with her magic.
"NO! HE NEEDS ME! WE HAVE TO SAVE HIM! WE CAN'T LEAVE HIM DOWN THERE!" Saria screamed. Tears poured from her eyes as she managed to break free from the Zora's grip and tried to dive back in only for Ruto to grab her again and pull her back.
"There's nothing you can do." Ruto said, holding the ex-Kokiri tightly as she started to dry as well. "He's gone Saria…"
"…He's gone."
-End Chapter-
AN: Clawshot design from Twilight Princess
