Hello there! Here again with another chapter for this story! I know that updates for my stories have gotten slow, well, considering that Shattering Lies has been my priority, but still. I won't be updating much in the coming two to three weeks since I am moving states due to a job. Apologizes for that.

Now, as for the pairings for this story. I think I am going to go with Naruto x C.C. because it makes sense. The two are 'broken' by normal human standards. C.C. is apathetic to everything. She doesn't care much for anything given her condition. Naruto, in this story, doesn't truly understand what it means to be human. The only thing that guides him are his memories of Hinata. And even still he doesn't know what he wants. The two could, in a sense, heal each other.

Lelouch will naturally want to use Naruto to his advantage, trying to find a way to manipulate him with Geass, but I have a surprise for that in the later chapters.

With all of that out of the way, enjoy the chapter!

Naruto liked the dark. It allowed him to hide in the shadows. It allowed him to hide away from the world. He had long come to realize that the world was an ugly place that hated him, despised him. He only ever had one source of light in his world, and he had snuffed it out.

"I'm sorry…" He repeated his mantra over and over again in his head. He was weak, powerless, and helpless to protect her. He failed her and for that, he'd never forgive himself. And now he found himself in a new world, one he knew very little about. He felt blind and lost. He had nothing. No goal, no dream, nothing. The last one he had he failed miserably at.

"By the Sage, live a little!" The Kyūbi shouted in his head. He paid little attention to it as he looked down at all the students going about their day. The day had just begun, and the sun had already risen.

"I do not know what that means," Naruto answered stoically. All he had ever done was fight, kill, train, back to his cell, and repeat. The Kyūbi grumbled at that. The boy was broken, emotionally speaking. But that was a given considering the Root broke down people to their mental basics and rebuilt to the Foundation needs. It was a cruel and brutal process designed to create Shinobi that felt nothing, were absolutely loyal, and would rather die than be captured.

"You're emotionally bankrupt. The only thing that makes you feel anything was that girl with Byakugan." The Kyūbi stated as Naruto stiffened, a whirlwind of emotions going through him, the greatest being self-loathing.

"I…I…" Naruto tried to say something, anything. But he couldn't. Words could not describe the pain he felt. The only person to ever show him kindness, and give him friendship, and he killed her.

"I can heal those scars you know." The Kyūbi offered. Initially, he had refused to heal his host's scarring around his eyes, but after gaining some freedom and understanding his host more, he felt pity for the boy. The young Shinobi was just as much a prisoner as he was. Naruto brought his hand up and again traced the mask where the eyes lay underneath. He had found himself doing that a lot during his solitude moments. Her Byakugan were not made for him. But the Root didn't care. Danzo didn't care. So long as the function remained, the scaring mattered little. But to Naruto...

"No," Naruto answered. He wanted it to be a reminder, a reminder of his failure.

"Well, whatever float's your boat." The Kyūbi did what amounted to a shrug as he yawned. He was still tired from what he had done and was going back to sleep. Naruto broke out of his stupor as he saw his asset heading into a different building. Wordlessly he vanished from his spot.

With Leloush:

"Great, a witch that's aloof with the powers she has given me, and an assassin that's a loose cannon at best. At least Kallen's suspicions about me have been averted." Lelouch thought to himself as he headed to his home. He was thankful that the headmaster had given him a delayed schedule on account of his sister's disabilities.

"With Kallen pacified, the meeting set with her terrorist cell, the board is set." He muttered to himself as he allowed a small grin over his face. Yes. With Clovis dead, even if not by his hands, he build-up his force and await the next Viceroy before carrying out his future operations. He wanted answers, he wanted to destroy Britannia. And he'd used any means necessary to achieve that.

"We made a deal, it's time for you to uphold it." He stiffened as he turned around to find the ever-watchful assassin, Sunflower, in the shadows. Lelouch nodded to himself. Yes, they made a deal.

"I aim to uphold my end of the bargain. I'd ask you to enroll in this school, but I doubt you'd be willing to lose the mask." Lelouch pointed out as Naruto shook his head.

"Out of the question." The assassin stated. No one would see his face, and he preferred it that way. Lelouch nodded before he frowned. The only place he could house him was his own dorm, but that meant exposing his sister to a dangerous assassin.

"I'll provide you with intelligence, even language lessons, but you have to restraint yourself," Lelouch demanded causing Naruto to narrow his eyes. Restraint himself?

"No," Naruto replied. He'd never disarm himself in such a way. Lelouch rolled his eyes.

"If you keep throwing your blades at everyone that approached you, you'd never get anywhere on your own." Lelouch pointed out as Naruto mulled over that. He was…right. He aimed to kill because that is what he was taught. Everyone was an enemy. Everyone but Root and the Foundation and even then Root Nin could become enemies.

"I'll…try." Naruto relented. He needed to remind himself that this wasn't a battlefield. He was a Root Nin anymore and he wasn't in the village. Lelouch sighed as he beckoned him to follow him. He hoped he wasn't making a mistake.

"Keep your friends close…keep your enemies even closer." Lelouch thought to himself. He wasn't sure what exactly Sunflower was. Friend or foe. It was clear that Sunflower acted out of his own accord, he didn't seem to have any agenda beyond what he had asked for.

"This is my dorm and I live here with my sister. For now, you can stay here, but keep a low profile. I'll get you books, articles, and everything in between." Lelouch offered. It was dangerous keeping a highly trained assassin in the same place as his sister, but it could prove useful in that his sister would be at least protected.

"Sister? That's right, he has a little sister. Maybe I can use that to my advantage." Naruto thought to himself. Finding weaknesses in your assets was important, it gave you leverage.

"For now, stay in my room," Lelouch instructed as Naruto nodded. Seeing that Sunflower was willing to be somewhat compliant, he entered his home first, seeing that neither his sister nor Sayoko were around, he beckoned the assassin to follow, which he did.

"You know I can just break into your room, right?" Naruto questioned him as Lelouch grunted in annoyance.

"I'd rather you not do that." Lelouch retorted as Naruto fell silent. As Lelouch led him to his room, he was making a mental map of the entire living area. Details such as how many windows, their placement, possible hidden weapons location, etc. It was all rather automatic. A result of years of brutal training. He was broken out of his thoughts when Lelouch opened the door to his room.

"You can stay here for now while I – hey wait, what are you doing here!" Lelouch shouted as he pointed at the witch that had given him his power, eating pizza, in his bed, with a bunch of magazines laying around with nothing but his bed sheets as clothing.

"Lelouch, is that you? Something wrong?" His eyes widened as he heard his sister's voice.

"Crap! Think fast!" He thought to himself as he quickly got behind Naruto and pushed the assassin inside his room before he closed it.

"Oh, Nunnally! I just got back home!" The muffled voice of Lelouch wandered off, completely ignorant of the fact that Naruto had drawn a Kunai, ready to sever the older boy's hands. But he relented and withdrew his weapon before he turned to the only other occupant of the room. The lime-hair-colored witch looked at him as he looked back at her passively.

"Oh ho? Not going to take off your tattered clothes?" C.C. teased as Naruto maintained his posture.

"No." He responded.

"Do you ever take that mask off around others?" She questioned.

"No." He responded, again.

"Do you know any other words other than no?" She questioned, amused.,

"Yes." He responded this time with a different answer. She sighed as she stood up, the sheets falling off of her leaving her body nude for him to see, but he didn't react, not even the slightest. But in his head…

"Holy crap Kit! A woman is practically nude in front of you, and you do nothing?!" Kyūbi shouted at him, but his host looked on in confusion.

"What exactly am I supposed to do?" Naruto questioned, not realizing that he had said it out loud for her to hear. She raised an eyebrow at that. Never had she seen someone react, or rather have less of a reaction, to her nude body. Both men and women in the past would become absolutely infatuated with her beauty.

"Do you play for the other team?" She questioned him with a teasing smirk as she made her way over to him, her hips slightly swaying, but he paid no mind.

"I don't know what that means." He answered, causing her to stop. At first, she thought he was joking, trying to deflect, and while his voice was stoic, she could hear the confusion. Could it be?

"Don't you know about the birds and the bees?" She questioned him but got no response. Maybe she should be more direct.

"What about sex?" She questioned him as he nodded at that. Of course, Root agents were taught what sex was. After all, it was a tool that could be used to get close to a target before an assassination.

"An act between two people that is required in order to procreate," Naruto said bluntly taking her by surprise. It wasn't that he didn't know, but rather how he said it. No emotions whatsoever. He wasn't embarrassed, flustered, or a shuttering mess by it that people were.

"Then you know that it can be used for…pleasure as well…" She gave him a sly grin, but Naruto tilted his head.

"Why?" He questioned. Why would anyone want such a thing for pleasure? For that matter, why would anyone want pleasure?

"You do know what pleasure is, right?" She questioned. The more she talked with him, the more baffled she was. He was ignorant, but knowledgeable at the same time. He lacked emotion when he talked. Everything he said was calculated and spoke with a purpose.

"I…no, not really." He answered. What was pleasure? Was it fun? What did it mean to have fun? Was it the same thing that he felt before being inducted into the Foundation? When he and Hinata had been friends before the Root agents took them in. Those memories felt so faded and came in slowly as if he was being drip fed.

"Why are you so… emotionless? Almost like a machine." She questioned him, her own question being as blunt as his. She could relate somewhat given her own history. She had become apathetic to everything. Nothing really mattered to her at this point but to fulfill her dream, her desire.

"Emotions are weakness. To become an effective Shinobi, one must discard all emotions. After all, the Hokage knows best, ours is to obey." His response was automatic as if he was reading a script. It took Naruto a while to realize what he just said. He if wanted to curse, he would have, but he didn't.

"Shinobi? Hokage?" She questioned with a tilt of her head. That…was not what she was expecting. She figured that he was an assassin, but what was a Hokage? It meant Fire Shadow. Some kind of codename? Title? She raked her brain, trying to find any knowledge given her long life, but came out null.

"Sunflower, what exactly are you?" She questioned as Naruto stiffened at that, once again his body and mind reacting automatically.

"I am a tool, a weapon in the service of the Hokage. I am…a hideous monster." He answered. Again, he responded without questioning why he was doing it. Was it because he was coming to terms that he was in a new world? Or was it something about this woman that made him so responsive? Either way, he didn't like it. He wanted to keep his secrets. They kept him safe. No, he felt safe that way.

C.C. frowned at that. Over her almost half a century of existence never had she come across someone so…broken. Someone who thought of themselves as so little. No, he felt nothing. Absolutely nothing.

"And I thought I was the messed up one." She thought to herself. It was clear to her that Sunflower had gone through some sort of training, training that had broken him down. He understood concepts but didn't truly grasp them. And to consider oneself as a tool…

"You have killed before, haven't you?" She questioned as Naruto nodded slightly.

"Many times." He answered.

"Now many?" She questioned as he seemed to ponder on that. How many had he killed? He didn't know, he never kept count.

"I don't know. I was merely given the targets, and I carried out the tasks. I do not ask, I merely obey." He answered as she gave him a hard look at that. He was but a mere child.

"Do you regret it?" She questioned him as she slowly walked over to him. He was definitely a child. She had to look down at him given the height difference. Naruto thought over that. Did he regret all the killing he had done? No, he didn't regret them, but he did regret one of them. The one person he never wanted to kill, that he cherished the most.

"Only one." He answered truthfully, his voice lashed with remorse and regret, something that C.C. picked up.

"So, you do have emotions." She spoke. Her voice was but a whisper as now she was tracing her fingers along his mask. Naruto's hand twitched at that. He wanted her to stop. A single Kunai could easily sever her hand, but…this was not a battlefield. He had to…restrain himself. She reached towards the end of his mask but stopped.

"Don't…" He spoke in a hushed tone, his voice low, but she could hear it in his voice; pain. It was small, but she heard it.

"Do you really find yourself that much of a hideous monster underneath that mask?" She questioned him, her voice softer, losing all of its teasing tones. He was damaged, broken. Even more than she was.

"Yes." He had always been told that. They had always told him that he was a monster, the Kyūbi incarnate. They told him his whiskers were proof of that. The mask he was given was something he kept on most of the time. He dared not take it off with others around him. He felt safer, secure. C.C. looked at him before she took a step back.

"He truly believes it…" She thought to herself. His voice was stoic, but she could still hear the conviction behind his words. He answered with no hesitation. She wondered just how broken of a person he was. How shattered was his mind? Turning around, she walked over to the bed and jumped into it as she rolled inside the sheets.

"I don't know what you look like underneath that mask of yours, but you don't look like a monster to me." She commented as Naruto simply stared at her. She looked back at him from her position, right at his blank white mask. He was as stiff as a board. No movement.

"Not a…monster?" He thought to himself as her words played out in his mind. Another memory came to his mind.

"Hinata-chan, do you…do you think I did anything wrong?" He asked his only friend shyly as she blinked at him. She had never known him to be shy. He was loud, energetic, full of color and life. She smiled at him.

"N-No, Naruto-kun." She answered as he smiled. A sad smile. His features drooped as he looked at the ground.

"Everyone just calls me a monster, a demon…" He muttered lowly. Had he done something to earn all the villager's contempt? All his life no one had ever shown him kindness, no one except the girl before him.

"I don't think you're a monster, Naruto-kun. A monster wouldn't have saved me from those bullies." Hinata stated with confidence that she did not know she possessed. Her only friend was not happy, and she didn't like that.

"Y-You think so?" He questioned her as she nodded at him.

"I know so." She reaffirmed as Naruto stared at her with wide eyes before he smiled, a real smile.

"Thank you, Hinata-chan." He thanked her.

"Hinata…" He thought absentmindedly, the guilt gnawing at him. In his heart, in his mind. She might have never hated him, even in her final moments, but he hated himself. He was weak, he was useless, he was…he was a –

"Listen, I need your help." He was broken out of his thoughts as he turned around to find Lelouch and he looked distraught. Naruto recomposed himself as he stared at him.

"What?" He questioned. Depending on the request, he might or might not help the older boy. Although he had no real reason to help anyone but himself. Lelouch sighed as he sat down on his computer chair.

"A…friend of mine is being used as a scapegoat by the military." Lelouch started as Naruto stiffened instantly again. From what he gathered the people he had killed, for the most part, we part of a military force of a nation called Britannia. If it involved dealing with them…

"No," Naruto said bluntly as Lelouch frowned.

"But you didn't even hear me out." Lelouch pointed out. Sunflower's skills and abilities were an unknown factor for him. All he knew was that Sunflower was trained.

"Anything involving the military is not my concern. I am trying to NOT gain more attention." Naruto said flatly. Lelouch's hands balled into fists.

"So that's it? You're just going to let them kill an innocent person?" Lelouch questioned him as Naruto said stared back at him.

"Do you know how many innocent people I have killed?" Naruto questioned him in turn causing Lelouch to stop and think.

"W-What?" Lelouch questioned, hesitant to know the answer to that.

"Innocence is subjective. Everyone I have killed was a target. It didn't matter if they were innocent or not. A target is a target. The mission comes first." Naruto explained. C.C. raised an eyebrow at that. Sunflower's code of morality was…well…no existent. Lelouch, however, had a look of horror.

"Is he that much of a cold-blooded killer?" Lelouch thought to himself before he shook his head. He would enlist Sunflower's help.

"Then how long are you going to live in the shadows? Do you think you can just run for your entire life? To live in the shadows?" Lelouch questioned him as Naruto thought over that. No, he couldn't. With no allies, he'd fall. No one stood alone. Even men like Danzo needed a whole organization that operated in the shadows to serve his vision.

"No." Naruto reasoned. He had no goal, no vision. He was no one. He had nothing. He knew nothing other than killing. It was the only thing he was good at.

"Then help me. Help me save a friend. Help me create a better world." Lelouch pressed his luck. Getting Sunflower to join his cause would be a massive boon for him.

"A…better world…" Naruto muttered. What did that mean? What did a better world mean?

"Hmm, a better world you say. And what is a better world than this?" C.C. questioned him as Naruto was keen on listening in answer. Lelouch looked down at the floor. Yes, a better world…

"A world where the strong don't prey on the weak. A world where the weak aren't cast aside. A world that is free of senseless conflict, suffering, and pain. A world that my sister can live freely and safely in…" Lelouch said passionately. All the war, all the pain. A world that cast aside the weak, a world that would cast aside his sister…He'd destroy that world. This world. He would destroy this world that his father had created, was creating. And from its ashes build a better one.

"And you'd wage war to see this new world though?" Naruto questioned him, his voice as stoic as ever. Lelouch nodded.

"Britannia cannot be changed. It is a corrupt entity that destroys everything in its path. It discriminates, corrupts, destroys, and cares little for the needs of others. I will obliterate this nation." Lelouch declared as the two other occupants looked at him.

"Do whatever you want. Just don't do dying so quickly." C.C. stated. She would have initially discouraged him from such a path. Stop him from doing what he was doing. She couldn't lose a contractor like that. But since meeting Sunflower she was intrigued. He seemed more promising than Lelouch was.

"Sunflower?" Lelouch questioned as Naruto looked at him, calculatingly. He had very few paths he could take and Lelouch's goal wasn't the worst he had known. And he only knew combat. Only knew battle.

"I will help," Naruto answered. He'd help, but not because of Lelouch, but for himself.

"I want to fight…but…I want to fight for a cause I chose." He added mentally. That was what he and Hinata had always wanted.

"Forge your own path, Naruto-Kun." Her voice rang in his head. She was a gentle soul. She would want this. To help someone save a friend.

"Thank you, Sunflower." Lelouch thanked him as Naruto simply gave him a nod. He would do this because this is what she would have wanted.

And done! So, what do you think? I know it might look like things are going fast, but you gotta understand that Naruto really doesn't know how to act as an individual thinking for himself. At this point he is like a weapon without a purpose or a cause. He doesn't have someone ordering him on what to do.

I hope you all liked the interactions with C.C. and Naruto. With Naruto not understanding her at all while C.C. being completely baffled by behavior. To her he is nothing like anyone she has come across.

With that said, I'll see you all next chapter! Bye!