A Maelstrom's Tale
Chapter 9: At What Cost?
Naruto, Frisk and Nikan stood silently in the rising elevator, still reeling from the news which has been dropped on them by Alphys before they had parted ways. As they drew close to the barrier, they had learnt that it requires both a human soul and a monster soul in order to cross…meaning that they would have to kill Asgore in order to attain a monster soul. It is without question the children and wolf pup aren't liking this in the least bit and had to learn of this when they were so close.
"Naruto, what are we going to do?" asked Frisk unsurely.
Naruto shook his head in response "I really don't know, Frisk-chan. I'm trying to come up with ways to bypass this issue but I'm getting any good ideas right now,"
"Oh…,"
"We'll just have to find a way to do something about this without killing anyone,"
The elevator soon reached its stop and opened the doors for the children and wolf pup to exit out of and found themselves in a gray corridor and everywhere was rather silent. There was a nearby SAVE Point for Naruto to access and heal from their recent battle against Mettaton. Continuing on their way, they were greeted with the view of a large city below them.
"This must be the New Home I read about back in the Snowdin Library," said Frisk.
"Yeah, though it feels kinda bleak, different from the other place we've been to. I can say Snowdin is the most cheerful place of all of them," said Naruto thoughtfully.
They continued along the path till reaching the end and stood before something which came as a surprise. Before them is a near perfect copy of Toriel's Home back in the Ruins, the only difference is that the house is colored grey just like the city they're in.
BGM start: Undertale OST; Undertale
"It looks just like Toriel's home!" said Frisk in shock.
"Yeah, I was expecting the king to live in a castle. I wonder why?" said Naruto, Nikan scampered over to the door and pawed at it before barking at them "Might as well go inside, we would learn more than out here,"
"Okay Naruto,"
They went inside and found that the interior was just as similar save for a small chain blocking the way to the basement and closer observation reveals that they need two keys in order to unlock it. Naruto and Frisk figured that they could start by checking the living room and kitchen. No sooner they entered that a pair of Froggits appeared but showed no sign of aggression but rather began to speak.
"A long time ago, a human fell into the RUINS. Injured by its fall, the human called out for help," then the monsters went away after speaking.
Confused, the group went on to the kitchen where they found a key and a note next to it which said;
[Howdy! Help yourself to anything you want!]
Albeit reluctantly, Frisk took the key and attacked it to her phone's keychain before they left the kitchen where they encountered a pair of Whimsun that spoke to them.
"Asriel, the king's son heard the human's call. He brought the human back to the castle,"
"What could they be talking about?" asked Frisk confusedly.
"I don't know for sure, but it could have something to do with what happened in the past before we came," Naruto speculated.
They went on to the children's room where they found a heart-shaped locket where the words 'Best Friends Forever' were inscribed at the back and a worn dagger. Despite wanting to them alone, something was pushing the children to take them along which they eventually did. Their next stop was the room but not before finding the second key on a table for Frisk to attack to her phone's keychain, then a trio of Moldsmal appeared to speak.
"Over time, Asriel and the human child became like siblings. The king and queen treated the human as their own and the Underground was full of hope,"
"That sounds so nice," said Frisk with a smile.
Naruto nodded in agreement but then frowned "But I get the feeling that something went wrong,"
Out of curiosity, the children went inside Asgore's and could tell that he lived a rather simple life and doesn't have that much belongings before leaving for the chain to unlock it and make their way down the stairs to traverse through the passage. Along the way, the monsters continued the story from earlier.
"Then…one day...the human became very ill and had only one request; to see the flowers from their village. But there was nothing we could do. The next day…the next day…the human died. Asriel, racked with grief, absorbed the human's SOUL and transformed into a being with incredible power. With the human soul, Asriel crossed through the barrier whilst carrying the human's body into the sunset. Back to the village of the humans. Asriel arrived at the village where he found a bed of golden flowers and carried the human onto it,"
"Golden flowers? Haven't we been seeing them every now and then on our way here?" asked Frisk.
"We have, we even landed on a bed of them. First was at the RUINS and second was when Undyne chased us on the bridge," said Naruto in affirmation.
"Suddenly, screams rang out. The villagers saw Asriel carrying the human's body and thought that he had killed the child. The humans attacked him with everything they had. He was struck with blow after blow. Asriel had the power to destroy them all. But…Asriel did not fight back. Clutching the human…Asriel smiled, and walked away,"
The children were stunned speechless from what they just heard, Naruto himself felt numb, a part of himself felt disgraced of being a human being…attacking straight out of assumption and paranoia? It just isn't the right way to do things! He steeled himself and tried to listen to the remainder of the story whilst keeping an eye on Frisk who was saddened greatly by this.
"Wounded, Asriel stumbled home, entering the castle and collapsed with his dust spread across the garden. The kingdom fell into despair, the king and queen had lost two children in one night. The humans had once again taken everything from us,"
Naruto and Frisk grimaced from the last sentence as if feeling guilty by association. At this point they had exited from the passage and went along an open pathway with a view of the city to their left.
"The king decided it was time to end our suffering, every human who falls down here must die. With enough souls, we can shatter the barrier forever,"
They tried to look away from the gazes of the monsters as they passed by, to not see the eyes of hope.
"It's not long now, King Asgore will let us go. King Asgore will give us hope. King Asgore will save us all. You should be smiling too. Aren't you excited? Aren't you happy? You're going to be free,"
Naruto, Frisk and Nikan were finally away from the monsters. Naruto took note that Frisk's shoulders were shaking.
"Frisk-chan, are you okay?" asked Naruto worriedly.
"Why…why did the humans have to do something so awful? Why couldn't they see or even ask? Just attack for now good reason at all!" Frisk could barely hold back the tears as she spoke.
Naruto wrapped an arm around Frisk and pulled her close to him, recalling his mom doing the same whenever he was feeling down so as to comfort him "Sometimes humans can be very smart and most at times very dumb, and this was one of their dumb moments. I feel ashamed to be a human at these times, but it takes a better portion of humans to overwrite this kind of stupidity. 'You need to do lots of good to make others think less of the bad' that's what my dad would say from time to time,"
Frisk sniffled a bit before smiling "Your dad must be a very nice person,"
"Yeah…he was," Naruto smiled sadly.
"Arf!" Nikan prodded at Naruto's leg with a paw to comfort him as well, getting a heard rub in return.
BGM End
The group reached the end of the path to come upon an elevator which was currently out of order, so they took the next route to their right. The children and wolf pup found themselves in a long corridor with a row of yellow stained glasses which the light shone through, giving the room a warm golden atmosphere. There was another SAVE Point for Naruto to access and were about to make their way to the other side when they heard footsteps and looked ahead to see someone appear from behind a pillar.
"Sans," said Frisk upon seeing who it is.
"So you both finally made it," said Sans stoically, making them feel a bit uncomfortable from the tone of his voice "The end of your journey is at hand. In a few moments, you will meet the king. Together…you will determine the fate of our world. That's then, but now you will be judged,"
"Judged, what do you mean by that?" asked Naruto confusedly.
"I mean exactly that, you will be judged for every action you took, judged for every EXP you've earned,"
"EXP? But I don't think we earned any of that," said Frisk.
"It seems like you don't what EXP really means, it's actually an acronym which stands for Execution Points. A way of quantifying the amount of pain you have inflicted on others,"
"If EXP stands for Execution Points…then what does LV stand for?" asked Naruto with growing worry.
"LOVE stands for Level Of Violence, a way of measuring someone's capacity to hurt. The more you kill, the easier it becomes to distance yourself. The more you distance yourself, the less you hurt. The more easily you bring yourself to hurt others,"
"If we had naively followed what Flowey said or succumbed to resorting to killing the monsters…my god," thought Naruto, feeling sick at the thought of killing all those monsters without any kind of consideration.
"If we had killed the monsters, we wouldn't have gotten the chance to know how nice they really are…Papyrus, Undyne, Toriel, Alphys…I'm so glad that we didn't listen to Flowey or fought back violently," thought Frisk in relief.
"…but you two," Sans spoke up, snapping them out of their thoughts "Neither of you gained any LOVE but it didn't mean you were innocent or naïve either. You kept a certain kindness and understanding in your hearts. No matter the hardships and struggles you had faced, you both strived to do the right thing and not hurt anyone. Even when you ran away, it wasn't out of fear. You never gained any LOVE but rather love, does that make any sense?"
Naruto tilted his head with both arms crossed "Sort of, provided that the last one isn't an acronym," the skeleton simply shrugged his shoulders.
"Now…you're about to face the greatest challenge of your entire journey. Your actions here will determine the fate of the entire world,"
"How so?" asked Frisk curiously.
"If you refuse to fight…Asgore will take your SOULs and destroy humanity. But if you kill Asgore, monsters will remained trapped Underground. What will you do?"
"…," Neither Naruto nor Frisk had an answer to that question, even Nikan simply sat down with his tail slumped on the ground and ears drooped.
"If I were you, I'd have thrown in the towel by now…but you didn't get this far by giving up, did you?" Sans smirked at the children and wolf pup "That's right, you both have something called 'Determination'. So as long as you hold on, so as long as you do what's in your heart…I believe you can do the right thing,"
Naruto smiled in response "Thanks Sans, I think we needed to hear those words,"
"Thank you, Sans," said Frisk in agreement.
"Alright then, we're all counting on you kiddos," said Sans before disappearing behind a pillar, leaving them alone in the corridor.
"…let's go Frisk-chan," said Naruto.
"…okay,"
"Arf,"
Moving on ahead, they left the corridor through the next hallway where there was the final SAVE Point before a doorway leading to the throneroom where the king awaits them. Steeling themselves for the encounter and attaining the final pieces to complete the puzzle, Naruto along with Frisk and Nikan went inside to find themselves in the throneroom which is mostly occupied with the golden flowers surrounding a throne and someone was gently tending to them while happily humming a tone.
The person was currently having his back turned to them but they could tell that it was the king, given the golden pauldrons, royal purple cape, and the large pair of goat horns sticking out from his head.
The king shifted upon hearing their footsteps "Oh, is someone there? Give me a moment while I finish watering these flowers," he completed doing just that before placing the watering can down and turning around "Howdy, how may I-,"
BGM start: Undertale OST; Small Shock
Asgore took a step back with a look of shock on his bearded face the moment he set his eyes on the two children and the wolf pup, he focused more on Frisk than Naruto before snapping back into focus as he looked away.
"Oh…," it wasn't difficult to see that Asgore was having great difficulty finding the right thing to say in this situation "I very badly want to say 'Would you like a nice cup of tea?' but…you know how it is,"
"Uh, we guess so," said Frisk, feeling rather awkward herself.
Asgore walked to the side and looked up to the skylight "Nice day we're having, huh? The birds are singing, the flowers are blooming…a perfect day for a nice game of catch,"
"…Asgore, we-," Naruto began to talk.
"You know what we must do, follow me to the next when you're ready," Asgore turned and left the throneroom through the other door day before Naruto could say anything more.
"He wasn't expecting us to appear, almost as if it was the first time," said Naruto with a frown.
"What do you mean? Surely, he would have met the other humans before us," said Frisk.
"That's what I thought, but his reaction just now speaks differently. There's also the fact we had been gathering the belonging of the other humans throughout the Underground, it means that they never made it to Asgore and simply had their SOULs gathered by him,"
"How do you know about this?"
"My mom always said that I had inherited dad's brains and I got her brawns and guts, dad also giving me some training contributed to it. What I can definitely say right now is that Asgore had never killed a human in spite of the rule he put up," said Naruto with a small frown.
"But Toriel thought he killed them," said Frisk.
"I don't think she knows the exact details and thought that way, let's go after him," Naruto went through the door with the others following after him to find Asgore waiting for them.
"My…how tense, think of it as going to the dentist," said Asgore with a small smile as he went through the hall before stopping at the doorway to look at them "Are you both ready? If not, I understand…I don't feel ready either," he stepped through the doorway, leaving them behind.
Naruto took note of the SAVE Point next to the doorway and knew what it meant, this is the last place to save and there are none beyond this point. He accessed the SAVE Point before standing before the doorway with Frisk and Nikan standing beside him. They took in a deep breath and letting it out before going in. they stood behind Asgore but could also see the barrier leading out to the surface towering ominously before them.
"This is the barrier, it is what traps us monsters Underground. If…if by any chance there is something you need to do, now is the time. If not, then we shall begin," said Asgore after a moment before snapping his fingers to make seven capsules appear before the children with six of them containing the human SOULs, Naruto and Frisk felt their own SOULs pulse in reaction to being close to them.
BGM Change: Undertale OST; Bergentrückung
A strange light fills the room as twilight shines through the barrier. They could feel that their journey is merely inches to an end, but they remained ever more Determined.
Asgore looked at the children and wolf pup with a sad smile on his face "Humans…it was nice to meet you," then he looked down to the ground so as not to face them "…goodbye," he brandished a crimson red trident and swung it to blow the wind into their faces as their SOULs emerged from their bodies to signal the beginning of the eventual battle.
BGM Change: Undertale OST; ASGORE
Naruto reluctantly tried to use Check to learn something about Asgore only to discover that he lacks one, he reached for his sheathed bokken but was finding it difficult to draw it out.
Frisk looked at Asgore pleadingly "Please Asgore, we don't want to fight you,"
Asgore's hands trembled slightly before swinging an arm, to launch a volley of fireballs with the children darting out of the way to avoid getting hit by them.
Again, Naruto gripped his bokken and still couldn't bring himself to do what needs to be done "Asgore, we're not your enemies. We don't need to fight,"
"…," Asgore's breath hitched for a moment before conjuring a ring of flames around Naruto and remotely controlling them to close in on him, Naruto looked around rapidly before taking a running start and jumped over the fiery ring before it engulfed him and landed safely from it.
"Stop this please! We don't want to fight you!" Frisk cried only for the king to stop for a moment before pointing his trident towards them yet again "Why won't you listen to us?"
"He…he's forcing himself to fight us," said Naruto sadly.
"But then, what do we do?"
"The one thing that we don't want to do either…we'll have to fight him,"
Frisk looked at Naruto in shock "You want us to fight him?"
"Only enough damage to stop him from fighting anymore, I'll need you to attack with the Worn Dagger while I maintain his attention on me," Naruto finally unsheathed the bokken and held it at the ready.
"But, why can't you do it? Surely you could do it too,"
"Because I…," Naruto looked down at his hands with an unreadable expression "…I don't trust myself to be able to do this,"
Frisk looked at Naruto for a moment before returning into her pocket and bringing out the Worn Dagger "Okay Naruto, let's do it,"
"I'm really sorry to do this to you, Frisk-chan," said Naruto regrettably, Frisk smiled in understanding before they turned to face Asgore. The blonde steeled himself as his left eye blazed with Determination to the point that his bokken glowed gently.
Asgore stabbed his trident to the ground before waving both hands to launch multiple large fireballs towards the children, Naruto stepped in front of Frisk and took on the stance of the Gale Form before quickly deflecting the incoming fireballs away from them till Asgore stopped attacking for Frisk to swiftly rush up to him and strike with the Worn Dagger before moving away to avoid any kind of retaliation.
The king groaned a bit in pain before sending waves of flames towards the children who took evasive actions to avoid getting burnt but were caught off guard when he appeared before them with his eyes flashing between orange and blue then swinging with his trident, Naruto took note that his trident was glowing like how his eyes changed colors. He saw the incoming attack as blue and stood still for it to phase but he was taken by surprise when it suddenly changed from blue to orange and ended up being sent flying from the powerful blow then crashing onto the ground.
"Naruto!" Frisk was about to run towards Naruto but Nikan quickly tackled her out of the way of a fireball attack from Asgore just barely.
"That really hurt," Naruto groaned out as he gets back to his feet "But I at least figured out how that attack works," he picked up his bokken and intercepted a stab from Asgore at Frisk for her to get a hit in before both moved away from the king.
"Are you okay?" asked Frisk.
"Still reeling from that attack, I'll be fine with a little pick-me-up," Naruto reached into his waistpack and brought out a Hot Dog to consume for healing "Okay, I'm good to go again," he went on to engage Asgore once more and this time took note of the sequence which the king's eyes flashed before he swung his trident, enabling him to be able to avoid the combo of blue and orange attacks before reaching to grab the shaft and tried to hold it down "Frisk, attack now!"
"O-Okay!" Frisk ran to strike but Asgore was about to break free, Nikan prevented that by leaping of Naruto's back and headbutting him in the face, giving her enough time to land a slash on him.
"Just a little more," Naruto muttered to himself, tightening the grip on his still glowing bokken as he watched Asgore get back to his feet then thrust his hand forward to conjure multiple fireballs then remotely launch them forward, Naruto and the others dodged them at first but quickly discovered that fiery projectiles are capable of turning around to pursue them "Gotta take them out to clear a path for Frisk," he shifted to the Storm Form dashed about as he slashed at the fireballs to dissipate them before calling "Go now!"
Frisk wasted no time to close in on Asgore and land the deciding blow which caused the king to drop his trident, dropping down on one knee and holding a hand to his side.
BGM Change: Undertale OST; The Choice
Naruto, Frisk and Nikan approached Asgore whose eyes are closed and let out a sigh of resignation before speaking "Ah…so that's how it is…,"
"What do you mean?" asked Frisk.
"I remember the day after my son died. The entire underground was devoid of hope, the future had once again been taken from us by the humans. In a fit of anger, I declared war. I said that I would destroy any human that came here, I would use their souls to become godlike and free us from this terrible prison. Then, I would destroy humanity and let monsters rule the surface in peace. Soon, the people's hopes returned," said Asgore.
"…," Neither Naruto nor Frisk said a word.
The king let out another sigh of sadness "My wife, however, became disgusted with my actions. She left this place, never to be seen again,"
"So that was why she was living in the Ruins, no one would think to look for her there," thought Naruto as he continued to listen to Asgore.
"Truthfully... I do not want power. I do not want to hurt anyone, I just wanted everyone to have hope...," Asgore's head bowed in sorrow "I cannot take this any longer, I just want to see my wife, I just want to see my child,"
Naruto and Frisk could now understand who Asgore really is, a kindhearted king who desires peace but is weighed down by his duty to his people to give them hope in spite of losing his entire family to actions of humanity. They're looking at a man who can't endure the burden for much longer.
"Please...young ones...," Asgore spoke up, gaining their attention "This war has gone on long enough. You have the power...take my soul and leave this cursed place,"
Naruto and Frisk were taken aback by this, he wanted to help them leave the Underground even if it costed his very life and the slim chance of freedom for the monsters imprisoned Underground. They looked at each other and nodded in unanimous agreement before turning to the king.
"Asgore…I'm sorry but we can't do that. We refuse to take your soul," said Naruto, sheathing his bokken and Frisk putting away the Worn Dagger.
Asgore looked at them in shock "…why?"
BGM change: Undertale OST; Memory
"Ever since we fell into this place, we had met so many monsters and learn a lot about them," Naruto explained.
Frisk continued "They also have dreams which they want to fulfill on the surface," she recalled Toriel wanting to be a teacher, Papyrus wanting to drive a fancy convertible on a highway, Mettaton wanting to be a superstar and so much more.
"You say that you were trying to give them hope, but to the monsters here…you are their hope. Killing you to take your soul would mean that we have destroyed the hope which had kept them going all these years,"
"But…don't you wish to go home? Surely that is the very reason why you came all this way," asked Asgore confusedly.
Naruto's mind flashed to his mother and could barely imagine just how worried she is. He closed his eyes and shook his head before turning to Asgore "I want to go…to return to my mom. I'm all she has left and the same goes for me. But the cost to do that is far too great, maybe we could find some other way to go through the barrier. Not to mention that I would be breaking a lot of promises if I kill you, and I always keep my promises no matter what,"
"We understand why you were doing this, I really wish that something so horrible hadn't happened to you and your family. You're a very kind monster," said Frisk with a sad smile.
Asgore looked down to the ground at their words "After everything I have done to hurt you... You would rather stay down here and suffer... Than live happily on the surface?" the king looked up to them with a warm smile "Humans...I promise you...for as long as you remain here...my wife and I will take care of you as best we can. We can sit in the living room, telling stories...eating butterscotch pie...we could be like...like a family...,"
Frisk smiled brightly at the thought of that and Naruto chuckled "That sounds nice, now let's help y-,"
BGM End
Something suddenly flew by the children and struck Asgore down much to their horror.
"ASGORE!"
Frisk screamed as Naruto rushed to aid the king, but nothing could be done and they could only watch helplessly as he turned into dust and his soul split in half before shattering into many pieces and fading into nothingness. There was the sound of snickering and they turned sharply to see Flowey sneering at them whilst the six human SOULs floated around him.
"Flowey, it was you! Why did you kill Asgore?" Frisk asked.
"After all this time, you're still not getting it…how idiotic," Flowey taunted.
Naruto was glaring at the flower when realization slammed into him like a train "You…you were waiting for this very moment. You knew that we would have no other choice but to fight Asgore and wear him down, weak enough for you to be able to kill him,"
Flowey sneered in response "At least one of you isn't that stupid. Like I told you the very first time we met; In this world...It's KILL or BE killed!" he cackled madly as he absorbed the SOULs into his body and unleashed a bright flash, forcing everyone to close their eyes.
…
…
…
…hm?
Naruto opened his eyes and saw they were standing within a void.
"Where are we?" asked Frisk uneasily.
"I don't know, no doubt that this is the work of Flowey," Naruto surmised.
BGM change: Undertale OST; You Idiot
"You're right!" Flowey appeared before them albeit his face was of a gigantic size as he sneered down at them "Howdy! It's me, Flowey, Flowey the flower! I owe you a HUGE thanks, you really did a number on that old fool. Without you, I NEVER could have gotten past him. But now, with your help...He's dead and i've got the human SOULs!"
"I always thought that you were up to no good, I just wasn't suspecting what exactly you were after," Naruto growled in frustration, thinking things would be different if he was more aware.
"Boy! I've been empty for so long...it feels great to have a SOUL inside me again. Mmmm, I can feel them wriggling..." Flowey hummed gleefully before looking at Naruto and Frisk "Awww, you're feeling left out, aren't you? Well, that's just perfect. After all, I only have six souls. I still need one more...though I wouldn't mind an extra before becoming something even more than a GOD. And then, with my newfound powers...Monsters...Humans…everyone. I'll show them all the REAL meaning of this world!"
"Not when we can stop you!" said Frisk bravely.
Flowey scoffed at her bravado "And how are you going to do that, fight me? And forget about escaping to your old SAVE FILE…It's gone FOREVER,"
"Darn it, not good," Naruto clenched his fist upon realizing what it meant, he can neither LOAD nor RESET the SAVE FILE and that they can be killed…permanently.
"But don't worry, your old friend Flowey has worked out a replacement for you! I'll SAVE over your own death so you can watch me tear you to bloody pieces...over, and over, and over...what?" Flowey saw that Naruto unsheathed his bokken and Frisk took out the Worn Dagger while Nikan snarled with his hackles raised "Do you really think you can stop me? Hee hee hee...You really are idiots,"
Flowey faded into the darkness but they could hear the sounds of squelching fleshing, creaking metal and creaking of wood as something approached and made itself visible to them. Needless to say, it was the most horrifying thing they had ever seen and won't be able to forget for a long time.
From Naruto's point of view, it was all aspects of flesh, technology and plantlife has been meshed into one freakish package, in the middle of the body is a contorted human face with antlike mandibles with a tv at the top, there were also six pipes with three on each side and a pair of human eyes are located in the middle pipes. More pipes were seen to be attached to two large cacti which appears to act as arms. The tv turned on and Flowey's face displayed from it as he let out an echoing cackle of insanity.
"N-Naruto, what do we do?" asked Frisk fearfully.
"…Stay alive no matter what," said Naruto with sweat dripping down his forehead.
BGM change: Undertale OST; Your Best Nightmare
[File 3 Saved]
Naruto blinked in confusion at the message before seeing the lower eyes fire white x-shaped bullets in wide arcs towards. Left eye blazing with Determination, Naruto positioned himself in front of Frisk and Nikan with the stance of the Gale Form and deflected a majority of the bullets heading their way until the barrage stopped. Lines pointed their way but didn't inflict any sort of damage, but their SOULs pulsed strongly as if to alert them of an incoming attack which got them to quickly move out of the way just in time as green vines shot out from Flowey in attempts to spear right through them.
"HAHAHAHAHA! Aren't you as much fun as I am!?" asked Flowey madly.
The lines changed into circles this time to surround them, the children had to get away from within these circles before white bullets would materialize and converge upon them with some of them nearly hitting Naruto and Frisk. Now the upper eyes were the ones to shot the x-shaped bullets like a shotgun, truly forcing pressure on them.
Suddenly the attacks ceased and a siren began blaring, they looked up to the TV screen to see it flashing red with a WARNING sign as well as the Light Blue Human SOUL before everything went into a television static for a moment before Naruto and Frisk noticed that Flowey was gone save for the TV which was still displaying the Light Blue SOUL.
"What's going on and where's Flowey?" asked Frisk.
"Don't know but stay on guard for anything," said Naruto.
Right as he said those words, large numerous knives appeared spinning towards them. The duo had to move narrowly between the gaps to avoid getting cut by them. Naruto gritted his teeth, being unable to find a way out of this situation but refused to give up. Then his SOUL pulsed like a heartbeat and something emerged from his waistpack; revealing to be the Manly Bandanna and Tough Gloves which were glowing. The TV screen flashed before the Light Blue SOUL changed to the Orange SOUL which transformed into green bandages which fused with the children's bodies, healing them of their injuries.
Naruto held out his hands for the items to settle onto them "Could these have belonged to the Orange SOUL?" he couldn't get time to think on it with Flowey returning with a sneer on his face.
"Still alive? GOOD! Cause I'd be disappointed if you die quickly!" said Flowey,
He had one of his cacti arms grow a Venus flytrap which began to suck in flies from out of nowhere and were rather harmful which Naruto found out when one of flies scratched his shoulder and left a wound on it. As if that wasn't enough, the crazed flower sent out circular cactus-like snakes to bite his targets. Naruto and Frisk took advantage of their lack of vision.
"Interesting, how about THIS!?"
Naruto's jaw dropped at what he's seeing right now "Are you kidding me!?" Flowey was literally dropping bombs down on them, the children scrambled out of the way of the bombs to avoid getting hit as well as the explosions afterwards. He saw the flower grow stem with finger guns on them before firing said fingers at them, the blonde shifted to his Storm Form to deflect them whilst staying on the move. Some of the 'fingers' were heading Frisk's way, causing her to close her eyes and crossing her arms to brace for impact when a red circular shield of energy appeared before her and blocked the attack then dissipating afterwards.
"Frisk-chan, how did you do that?" asked Naruto, running up to her.
"I-I don't know, I just didn't want to get hurt and it appeared," said Frisk confusedly.
"Maybe what happened to me is also happening to you too but you're using it differently,"
"Really? That's good, wish it happened earlier,"
They were snapped out of their conversation by the sound of a siren and looked to see the WARNING sign and now the Orange SOUL is on display before everywhere went static yet again. This time large gloved hands were targeting the children and wolf pup to try and grab them; Naruto was running with one of the hands closing in on him and had almost caught the blonde had he not dived out of the way and kept an eye out for any more targeting him.
"Oh, I wish there was a way we can escape from this," said Frisk worriedly her pocket began to glow "Huh, what is it?" she reached inside and took out the Ballet Shoes and Old Tutu, triggering a resonance in which the Orange SOUL was switched with the Dark Blue SOUL and transformed the gloved hands into green thumbs-ups.
"Quick, grab those so we can recover before they disappear!" said Naruto urgently, the children quickly grabbed as many as they could before they disappeared and Flowey reappeared before them.
"I have something interesting in mind, hope you can survive the experience!" said Flowey gleefully.
"What's he up to now?" said Naruto with a frown.
[File 2 Saved]
Naruto tensed at this before sensing an attack and dashing out of the way of vines aimed towards him and detected another barrage of vines heading and began to mo-
[File 2 Loaded]
He blinked and found himself in a previous spot, hardly getting the time to wonder what just happened when a barrage of vines slammed into him and was knocked down to the ground with a part of his clothes ripped and blooded.
"What just happened? I think I dodged that attack before so how?" said Naruto confusedly before realizing what's going on.
"Naruto, are you okay?" asked Frisk with worry.
"Be careful Frisk-chan, Flowey is using the power of SAVE and LOAD to catch us off guard and get us!"
Flowey smirked "Quite right…not that it would help you any!"
He continued to use SAVE and LOAD to disorient the duo whenever they successfully evade his attacks the first times, doing so randomly to confuse them and mess with their timing.
Naruto and Frisk did the best they could but were hard pressed to dodge these until they heard the siren once more and saw that it was the Dark Blue SOUL this time with the area momentarily going static. The duo found their movement slightly restricted by a boundary of stars above them and giant ballet shoes descended from above to try and stomp on them.
"He's using the powers of the SOULs he absorbed into himself!" said Naruto upon the pattern so far.
"Then is it why they seem to act up with the things we found in the Underground?" asked Frisk, darting away from a ballet shoe trying to crush her.
Naruto scooped up Nikan into his arms and dived away from another shoe stomping at him "Maybe it's because they belonged to them when they were alive," light glowed from his waistpack yet again for him to reach inside and bring out the Torn Notebook and Cloudy Glasses which he had bought from Gerson, triggering the resonance and the Deep Blue SOUL was replaced by the Purple SOUL. This in turn made the ballet shoes stop attacking and the stars changed into green musical notes for them to collect and heal themselves.
Flowey looked down at them and cackled at their bruised appearance "This is so much fun, me killing you and you trying not to get killed!"
"This is all just a game to you, isn't it?" asked Naruto with a glare.
"Duh, as if what I'm doing isn't obvious enough,"
He fired a barrage of X-shaped bullets with Naruto deflecting with his bokken and Frisk creating the red energy shield from before to protect herself and Nikan against the incoming projectiles before darting away from the bombs sent their way. Flowey then pulled off something new, he acting summoned a pair of flamethrowers which proceeded to fire several blasts of flames towards the children before following by growing more stems with finger guns to shoot at them. Naruto's left eye blazed intensely with Determination and the bokken now radiated a fiery white aura before swinging it rapidly with one hand to deflect the X-shaped bullets.
There was the now familiar sound of the siren with the Purple SOUL on display before finding themselves boxed in by two lines of books with each generating negative words towards them. Naruto, Frisk and Nikan had to watch out as they wouldn't which book generate an attack an end it their way.
"Okay, would the next soul lend a hand please? We could really use some help here," said Naruto as he jumped away from getting hit by a negative word from one of the books. Soon the waistpack began glowing again and he reached in to bring out the Burnt Pan and Stained Apron to trigger a resonance which made the Purple SOUL be replaced with the Green SOUL and the negative words were changed into green positive ones for them to recover their state of health before facing Flowey yet again.
"Wow, you two definitely aren't boring me in the least. Let's mix things up a bit!" said Flowey.
He proceeded to launch a barrage of X bullets as well as sending out vines towards the children, then he took to utilizing the power of SAVE and LOAD to disorient them and mess their timing of movements and defense.
"I really hate it when he does this," Naruto gingerly tended to a new wound on his side from a vine attack.
"Naruto, I'm getting tired," said Frisk, panting lightly.
"Same here," said Naruto, they may be able to recover a bit by absorbing the green magic but it didn't that their stamina was being restored as well, not to mention their fight with Asgore before all this.
Soon enough, there was the siren sound and the Green SOUL dragged them into another sequence where three giant frying pans hovered above Naruto and others, then they proceeded to flip multiple fireballs below at them.
"Darn it, I don't know how much more we can take this!" said Naruto anxiously, diving out of the way of a falling fireball even Nikan yelped when one of the fireballs singed the tip of his tail with a bit of fur burnt slightly.
Sure enough, his waistpack glowed yet again with Naruto reaching inside and bringing out the Cowboy Hat and Empty Gun to trigger the resonance and the frying pans proceeded to toss down green fried eggs to recover with.
"Still alive? Oh well, on with the fun!" said Flowey, he sends out more of the cactus-like snakes to attack them then followed up with his flamethrowers before growing two venus flytraps to suck in flies along with them although the children endured the rapid assault of attacks again and again.
The siren sounded with the final SOUL being the Yellow one making its appearance and dragging them into a sequence where a giant gun was actively aiming towards them and firing large bullets, thankfully they were able to sense the moment of its attacks by detecting red targets which would blink before the gun fires.
"Hauuu…so tired…huh?" Frisk noticed that her pocket began to glow and she reached in to bring out the Toy Knife and Faded Ribbon, triggering a resonance for the Yellow SOUL to be replaced by the Light Blue SOUL and the gun began to shoot green 4-leaf clovers to heal them but…
Naruto went down on one knee and was panting while Frisk dropped down on both knees and looked like she was about to faint from exhaustion.
"I'm almost at my limit," Naruto groaned, trying to get up but his body doesn't want to listen.
"I...can't move…anymore," Frisk moaned, even Nikan whined about exhaustion.
BGM change: Undertale OST; Finale
"At this rate, we'll be…," Naruto trialed off, not wanting to accept what would happen.
Suddenly they heard the sound of static and looked up to see something emerging from the TV, revealing to be all six of the human SOULs which floated to formed an orbiting ring around the confused children.
"W-What's going on?" asked Frisk, looking at the SOULs floating above them.
"I don't know…," Naruto responded, not knowing what's going on either.
The SOULs began pulsing strongly in rhythm and their SOULs started to pulse in rhythm as well, then they proceeded to drop their respective green magic items onto Naruto, Frisk and Nikan, healing them of their wounds as well as fueling them with power as seen in Naruto's bokken and Frisk's Worn Dagger glowing with white auras.
"The SOULs are helping us…," said Frisk in awe.
"Yeah, no doubt that they also want Flowey to be stopped," Naruto gripped his bokken tightly and rose to his feet with Frisk following suit and Nikan looked ready to go "Alright Frisk-chan, we'll use the same strategy like we did with Asgore; I'll prevent any attack from getting to you while you attack Flowey,"
Frisk nodded in affirmation and held up the glowing Worn Dagger "Okay Naruto!"
The SOULs faded away and soon Flowey appeared before them though quirking an eyebrow at their glowing weapons before scoffing.
"So you got one last trick up your sleeve, let's what good it will do for you!" said Flowey madly.
"Frisk-chan! Nikan! Let's go!" Naruto called out.
"Right!/Arf!"
The duo charged forward with Flowey firing the X bullets from his eyes but the projectiles were moving slowly compared to before, Naruto easily knocked them aside and give Frisk the opportunity to lunge and slash Flowey across the lower face with the Worn Dagger. For the first time since the beginning of the battle, Flowey actually felt pain much to his confusion but shrugged it off for the moment and continued with his attack by deploying the flamethrowers.
Naruto quickly regrouped with Frisk and Nikan as she conjured the red energy shield to defend them from the flames before they dissipated, Naruto dashed towards the flamethrowers and destroyed them in two swings of his bokken then Frisk struck once more to inflict damage. Angrily, Flowey launched a barrage of bombs at Frisk but Naruto intercepted but scooping her into his arms and took evasive action against the bombs and explosive aftermath before coming back around.
"Get him!" Naruto yelled out for Frisk to slash as he rushed by Flowey to land another hit on the monster. He skidded to a stop and placed Frisk on the ground before turning to face their opponent.
A rather irritated flower grew a venus flytrap from one of his cacti arms and was about to attack with it when there was a dark blur which tore it off, revealing to be Nikan holding the flytrap in his jaws before spitting it out and growling angrily.
"Okay, now you're making me mad!" said Flowey angrily.
"Like we care!" Naruto retorted.
Flowey now grew multiple stems to fire his finger guns at the children to overwhelm with numbers but Naruto and Frisk worked together a dome of red energy to shield themselves against the attacks coming from all angles and maintained it still when he fired a barrage of X-bullets at them till he stopped attacking which was when Frisk rushed at Flowey and slashed strongly with her Worn Dagger which appeared to be the deciding strike as the monster began to twitch and spasm with the TV head constantly glitching.
BGM End
"No... NO! This CAN'T be happening!" Flowey cried out in agony.
"Did we win?" asked Frisk anxiously.
"You...YOU...,"
Naruto began to relax a bit "I think we-,"
[File 3 Loaded]
"-won?" Naruto looked up with dread gripping his heart as Flowey looked down at them with a smug look on his face, completely unscathed as if everything from before had never happened to begin with.
"You…idiots,"
Before they could react, Flowey's second head shoots a large beam from its mouth which instantly shattered their SOULs into pieces and they collapsed to the ground unmoving.
[File 3 Loaded]
Naruto and Frisk were suddenly but hardly getting any chance to gather themselves when they were pierced by Flowey's vines, shattering their SOULs yet again.
[File 3 Loaded]
They came back and were blasted once more.
[File 3 Loaded]
Revived then pierced.
[File 3 Loaded]
Blasted.
[File 3 Loaded]
Pierced.
[File 3 Loaded]
Blasted.
[File 3 Loaded]
Pierced.
[File 3 Loaded]
The children and wolf pup were constantly revived and killed till Flowey had enough of his fun and brought them back while barely alive before surrounding them with his 'Friendliness Pellets.
BGM change: Undertale OST; You Idiot
"Hee hee hee. Did you REALLY think...You could defeat ME!? I am the GOD of this world!" Flowey declared arrogantly, he watched in amusement as Naruto crawled over to Frisk and Nikan then positioned himself in an attempt to protect them "Even now you still think you can face me…you're both HOPELESS! HOPELESS AND ALONE!"
"…," Naruto glared in defiance, feeling a hand on his knee and turned to see Frisk looking at him weakly while Nikan yelped painfully.
"Golly, that's right! Your WORTHLESS friends...can't save you now. Call for help, I dare you. Cry into the darkness! 'Mommy! Daddy!' 'Somebody help!' See what good it does you!" Flowey taunted arrogantly.
Frisk called out weakly "Somebody…help us…please…,"
…
…
…
…
"…But nobody came," Flowey sneered at them "Boy! What a shame! Nobody else...is gonna get to see you DIE!"
Flowey cackled madly as the bullets closed in on their targets, Naruto threw himself upon Frisk and Nikan so as to shield them from the incoming projectiles with all of them bracing for their inevitable end, one of the bullets made contact and…healed them completely whilst the others simply disappeared?
"What? How'd you...?" Flowey appeared to be confused with what just happened and he wasn't the only one, Naruto and the others to rise to their feet before examining themselves to see that all of their wounds are completely gone "Well, I'll just…," he accessed his power and-
[Load Failed]
"Wh...Where are my powers!?" Flowey was now getting worried…and a bit scared.
"What's going on?" asked Frisk.
"I don't know, but it's like something is stopping him from using the power of SAVE and LOAD," said Naruto with a small frown.
No sooner he said that, there was a bright flash of light which dissipated to reveal the six human SOULs hovering around Flowey and pulsing rather strongly, making the monster feel very nervous at how they seem to no longer be under his control.
"The souls...What are they doing?"
The human SOULs began to spin around the nervous Flowey and gradually increase in speed, he soon noticed that his powers were being drained from him much to his horror. Try as he might, he just couldn't stop the siphoning.
"NO! NO! YOU CAN'T DO THAT! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO OBEY ME!" ignoring the monster's protests, the SOULs rather increased the rate at which they were extracting with the surroundings growing brighter by the minute "STOP! STOP IT! STOOOOPPPP!" soon, it got too bright to the point that Naruto and the others had to cover their eyes to avoid being blinded.
Cautiously opening their eyes, the children and wolf pup saw that they're still standing in the dark but the SOULs were nowhere to seen. However, they came upon Flowey who had been forcefully reverted to his flower form albeit tattered all over with his back towards them.
He heard them approach and spoke up "Don't try to offer any mercy to me, killing me is the only way,"
"…," Naruto and Frisk didn't say a word, Nikan stared at the flower intently.
"If you let me live…," Flowey turned to look at them with a crazed smiled "I'll keep coming back to kill you and everyone you love!"
Naruto looked at the bokken in his hand, tightening his grip on it…then he let out a sigh and put it away in the sheathe "No…we won't kill you,"
"…?" Flowey blinked in confusion at the answer.
"He's right, we won't kill you,"
"…why? Why are you being...so nice to me?"
Naruto explained "Killing you doesn't have any kind of benefit; it won't bring Asgore back, it won't free the monsters from the Underground…," he shook his head "Killing is just pointless…I realized that a long time ago,"
Flowey shook his head "I can't understand all this!"
"It's not hard to understand, we're simply not the ones to decide who lives and why dies,"
Flowey shook his head and looked like he's about to break down "I just can't understand...," he sank into the ground and left them, never to return.
"*Sigh* We were able to stop Flowey but…," said Naruto but trailing off over what they had done.
Music Start: Undertale Neutral Song; Unaligned by Natewantstobattle
"Asgore's dead, the SOULs are gone, monster have lost their king and soon their hope. All those promises we had made to Papyrus and the others…," said Naruto sadly.
"But why? We did the right thing; we didn't kill anyone…so why did this happen? It's just not fair!" said Frisk.
"*Whine*," Nikan's ears drooped down and his tail laid slacked on the ground.
"Where could we have gone wrong, was there something we had missed? Just what was it?"
"Are we ever going to see Toriel and the others again?"
Naruto frowned in response "I don't really know, but I refuse to accept how this all ends for everyone!"
Frisk looked at Naruto confusedly "What do you mean by that?"
"Ever since I learnt what it meant to wield it, I decided to avoid relying on it so as to stop myself from becoming overdependent. But now, I'm going to have to use it…the power of SAVE and LOAD," said Naruto with his left eye glowing faintly.
"B-But I thought you can't use it anymore since Flowey took it and erased our SAVE File,"
"I thought so too but then I noticed something when we were facing him, Flowey could use that power because he had absorbed the six human SOULs which made him far stronger than us but now that he doesn't have them anymore…," Naruto held out a hand in front of him, causing a black dialogue box appeared before them with the options.
[LOAD] [RESET]
"…I can use it again,"
"But what about our SAVE File?" asked Frisk.
"Flowey didn't erase it, or rather he couldn't. he had always been saving on either File 2 or File 3 but never on File 1 which must be ours," Naruto explained.
Frisk's eyes widened in realization "Then that means…,"
"Yeah, we can go back and find a way to prevent something like this from happening again,"
"But how?"
"I don't really know, maybe we can find the answers from the monster themselves like Alphys. She might even have a clue about this power of ours," Naruto gestured to his glowing left eye.
"Okay Naruto, let's go!"
"Roger that," Naruto pressed a hand on the LOAD button, causing the area to light up in a bright flash of light…and the sound of a chain breaking was also heard echoing throughout the void.
BGM End
This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, this marks the end of the Neutral Route with Naruto and Frisk using the LOAD option to return to the point before everything happened and having unlocked new powers due to their Determination. For those wondering why Naruto doesn't attack, let's just say that something happened that caused him to be unable to attack but rather prefer to defend and his bandaged hands are linked to it. The next remaining chapters will show me having a different take on how from my perspective the True Pacifist Route should have ended. Before anyone complains about Naruto being smarter than his age, remember that he had some training from Minato which also included strategizing. Be sure to read and review like always.
This is Hussbek from Ghana.
Signing out and staying alive.