A/N: An update was promised today, and an update you shall receive.

Hopefully this serves as a sign that the God of War stories are very much alive. They just need a lot more...work than others.

Lots of moving pieces, characters, scenes to set, plot lines to set up, that sort of thing.

In other news, depression's starting to hit real hard these days. Sometimes I wonder why I do anything at all. I can't claim to understand what's going wrong with my head. I don't even know why! One moment I'm fine, then my mood craters for a few hours, then I'm back again for a bit, and the cycle repeats. Its rather annoying; as though I've become a prisoner in my own mind sometimes. Sure, what's one more mental problem on the pile. Not like I don't have enough, what with already being this old. Feels like every day is a battle sometimes. My doctor is of no help at all.

*siiiigh* Don't mind the rambling of this geezer...

As my fifteen year anniversary on this site draws nearer, I find myself reflecting on the little things in life. What was once a lazy pastime meant for me and a few friends really grew and evolved over time. There are days when I look back on the last fifteen years here and I wonder if anyone will remember me; if I made an impact, despite never making a single cent on any of these stories. Some days were happier than others, and some stories I enjoyed writing WAY too much; to the point where I'd stay up all night working on them.

And of course, there are times when I look to the future and wonder what will become of things when I'm gone.

Of course, I try not to dwell on the latter overmuch; I'm still alive and still writing. In an ideal world, I'd like to keep doing so for as long as I can. But old age is catching up to me and these days, the world is filled with so much madness and death. The recent disaster in Hawaii serves as a terrible example. Even before that, so many friends and fellow writers I once knew are gone, now. Will I still be here in twenty years? Ten? Five? Its a chilling thought. But for now, I'm still here, still writing.

And speaking of writers, my esteemed co-writer Slifer joins us today with his own additions and work on this fic which as always is greatly appreciated. However, apparently he is currently troubleshooting a replacement computer as his current one is, as they say, "borked". So probably a few weeks till he joins us again.

No questions this time, only story. Its a doozy~!

As ever, I own no references, quotes, themes or memes. Not a wit or a one! Really, they're just tributes.. I'm just a humble author trying to make his way in this wild world, one word at a time. Time and feedback will determine if this remains a story. Simple as that.

In other words...this is up to YOU, the reader. Do let me know~!

Got a few more Norse words herein. They're simple enough.

"There is nothing quite so exciting as the thrill of the chase.

~?

Hunt Your Prey

Amid the myriad of locals that constituted the Nine Realms, Svartalfheim felt somewhat like the odd one out.

Asgard and Midgard, despite being the homes of Gods and Mortals respectively, had relatively similar appearances and climates, the only difference being the presence of the Bi-frost in the sky and the plethora of gods willing to change the weather on a whim. Muspelheim and Nifflheim were fire and ice respectively, Alfheim was a desert or a lake depending on who currently controlled the Light and Helheim was about as cold as the vacuum of space. The realm of the Giants was little but mountains that scraped the sky and Vanaheim was far more an earthly paradise than the earth itself.

But Svartalfheim? It was a mineral rich land where the dwarves had tunnelled and mined into every somewhat hard surface to the point an accurate map would set off trypophobia with a glance. It was also the middle of summer so the lone mountain of Nidivalir was barmy enough to walk around without the furrs that most Aesir preferred.

And yet for all of that, Naruto felt a shiver of pleasant coolness run over his bare chest at the sight of Skadi Thiazzidottir.

True to her Jotonar heritage, Skadi was tall, at least two inches taller than him. Her form was lithe and strong yet with no true bulk to it. Her skin was very pale with a touch of blue that one could only see on winter mornings while her hair was white as virgin snow. A pair of pupiless sky blue eyes glowed lightly in their sockets, framed by a pair of dark blue tribal tattoos that branched off from her right eye up into her hairline. She had plump, pouting lips that had been painted with cobalt coloured lipstick, currently set in a sultry smile. Lastly of note were the two small braids she wore on either side of her head, the rest of her hair tied back in a high ponytail. The daughter of Thiazzi wore a tight fitting blue tunic edged with wolf fur, her arms bound in leather vambraces and rune marked straps. Her long legs were clad in a pair of tight fitting dark blue leggings tucked into furred brown riding boots, a short pelt served as a sash around her waist and a furred cloak not unlike Thor's was pinned at her shoulders.

"Hey…." Naruto drawled out laconically, internally flip flopping on what he felt right now. On the one hand he was over the moon to see her again, on the other hand-

Broff guffawed. "Sweet Nanna's nethers! That has got to be the tightest pair of pants I ever saw, you're moose-knuckling down there missy."

Naruto's hand whipped out to cuff Brokk around his balding head with a smack that resounded through the mountains. "Oi! on hat's not how you talk to a lady."

"Fuck off!" Brokk rubbed the top of his head, giving Naruto a one fingered salute. "I know how to talk to ladies plenty well, you on the other hand, ya aesir lummox, prefer talking with your scrote."

Naruto cringed, seeing Skadi raise a snowy brow at the comment before sniffing the air. Her eyes widened in surprise which quickly morphed into territorial glee. She stalked forwards with feline grace, her footfalls producing nary a sound as she went until she was directly in front of Naruto. "Now that's a familiar scent, though I've never smelled it quite like the mix of an Aesir and something so…" she circled Naruto slowly before resting her chin on his shoulder and inhaled deeply, smirking at him seductively again, "...rare."

Naruto tingled at her touch but stepped away, only for Skadi to grab his wrist and twist him back around to face her. "Uh, Brok? now would be a good time to-"

Wump! Went the crass dwarf, the hint of a cackle on the air as he stepped between the realms and left Naruto to the mercies of the now grinning Skadi.

'Traitorous little rotter!' he thought before stifling a laugh of his own as Skadi advanced on him.

"Uh… So what brings you to Svartalfheim, Skadi...?"

"Game mostly," she said slowly advancing once again, her muse clearly set on the reincarnated Aesir before her. "Word has it that some rare foreign beasts have been making their way between realms for whatever reason, and after all, you can't keep a good hunt away from the Huntress now can you?"

Naruto hummed in thought, filing that bit of info away for later, first the Greek Goddess of Wisdom and War finds herself in Vanaheim and now unseen beasts? This bore a closer look. "I see, well I wish ya well on your hunt but I kind of have places to be-

Skadi's face grew more eager, tilting to the side to appraise him as if he were a piece of prime cut meat. "Running back to Asgard already, Baldur? Don't tempt a girl with a good time after another one has just poached on her patch."

So she knew, then. Bugger.

"Look," he heaved a sigh while tensing his legs, "Please don't fight."

"Fight, no." she licked her lips. "But I'm rather tempted to chase you to the realm tower and drag you back to my home in Jotunheim to put a collar on you."

His body shifted to the right. "As if I'd let you do that."

She matched him and let out a shrill peal of laughter, the spark of competition gleaming in her eye. "I am a proud woman, Baldur the Bright, in my hunt and with whom I claim. I respect the swift and the strong and those who are blessed with care in a harsh world. You healed my Father when none would not for some angle of the Lord of the Hanged but because it was an honestly good thing to do." her face dimpled in a smile; then and there he knew she wasn't about to let him go so easily." I am fond of you, but to hear word of your union with the Valkyrie and now to nearly walk in on your latest tryst," She rolled her shoulders, limbering up. "You're getting me in the mood for competition."

Naruto's face softened in whimsy, Immortals had such odd thought processes. So perhaps just this once, while he still had an excess of energy to burn, he could indulge this flaxen haired lady of the hunt. "I am not such easy game."

Skadi's face practically shone in anticipation. "Is that so? Then perhaps you'd care for a little wager."

She walked past him and bade him to follow until the both of them stood atop a tall spire of rock. From here he could Realm Tower, a distant twinkle of gold metal in the distance. It seemed to shine in the sun, a beacon of gleaming light nearly out of sight.

"A race," Naruto exclaimed levelly, drawing a nod from Skadi in return, the taller woman's pelt sash rustling in the wind.

"From here to the Realm Tower, on foot, no powers or authorities." she declared, thrusting a finger forward. "I shall start, you shall follow. If I arrive first then you come with me to Jotunheim, where you will stay with me for the rest of your days.

Odin wouldn't much like that. Then again, he really didn't give a flying fig for what the old man thought these days. Still, he didn't like the idea of leaving Gna and his family behind, nevermind Mom. No, as entertaining as it might be to give his old man an aneurysm, forsaking Asgard forever would inevitably cause too many problems in the long run.

He didn't fail to notice that Sakdi hadn't mentioned the reverse.

"And if I catch you before we get there?" he questioned, watching the giantess like a hawk. "What then?"

Skadi turned to face him head on and crossed her arms beneath her bust. "Then Asgard will sway to the sound of an Aesir and a Jotan in union once again."

Huh. A win-win.

"Somehow I think Gna is gonna have a problem with that." Naruto deadpanned.

"She's welcome to join us in bed, I'll be gentle with the both of you."

"What!?"

Too late did he realize that he had been led into a snare. Skadi slammed a palm into his solar plexus, sending him skidding backwards and momentarily knocking the wind from his lungs. It didn't stall him for long but by the time he looked to where Skadi had last been standing he saw the tips of her furred cloak vanishing over the edge of the cliff.

"Cheap shot!" he shouted, scrambling to the drop and launching himself into the air with a mighty leap. He was answered by a peel of laughter far below and quickly spotted Skadi sprinting across the landscape of smaller peaks, sparse greenery and rocky crags that made up the landscape. She was grace in motion, darting from peak to peak like a nimble mountain goat, her white hair shining in the afternoon sun.

Tucking in his arms and legs, Naruto dived towards the ground at terminal velocity, his glide ratio making up a third of the distance that Skadi had been able to open up ahead of him. As he fell he considered his options. Skadi was well known as the greatest cross country runner in the entire nine realms but her specialty was snow, not the rocky prairies of Svartalfheim. And her massive speed on the snow was yielded less by her prodigious speed and intuition but her Skis which couldn't be deployed here.

"Meaning I got a chance!" he said allowed, ploughing through a rocky hillock with a crash, spooking a cohort of dwarves who had been trying in vain to shift it. While Skadi had said they were not allowed to use anything beyond their bodies, it didn't mean Naruto was not going to abuse his biological talents. One that had persisted from one life to the next was hard head and hardier body, meaning he could go as the crow flies and smash through anything in his path.

Soon enough, scores of dwarves paused in their daily work and peaked from their tunnels to watch the chase across their homeland. The white and blue Joton pranced through the air and along the ground, a leaf caught on the breeze while the blonde Aesir thundered in pursuit. The gap between them would grow and shrink sporadically, and every time Naruto came within a hair's breadth of tackling the statuesque runner to the ground did she slip through his grasp and continue the race to the Realm Tower.

'Skadi. You keep running from me even though you want to be caught.' he wondered to himself. 'Is it victory over me that motivates you to prance and smile or the fact that the huntress is being hunted that thrills you?'

Soon enough, his waking thoughts bled away, washed into the sea by the flood of instinct, the melody and rhythm of the hunt. He vaulted a boulder and planted his feet against it, springboarding off it with enough force to fragment it. He careened through the air towards Skadi and attempted to make a grab but the young woman must have felt a change in the wind, sliding under a low hanging shelf of shale before rolling forwards in a front handspring that propelled her over a river, her pupiless eyes shining with mirth as she looked back at him.

Rearing back a fist, Naruto smashed through the Shale with a bang, grabbing a stray lump of rock as long as he was tall and throwing it at the river. The toss was perfect and it flew as straight as an arrow, hitting the water. Naruto did not break his stride and sprinted at the water. The moment his foot hit the shale plinth his momentum propelled it forwards, now both surfing across the river before pitching forwards when it hit the opposite bank and shooting Naruto into the air like a cannonball.

"You Aesir are all the same, brute forcing even in finesse!" Skadi hollered, amused at Naruto's choice in making up the gap in skill.

"Never met a problem I couldn't punch my way out of!" He answered, ironically kicking off an archway to get ahead of Skadi as the Realm Tower hoved into view. Skadi watched as he soared through the air at the bronze and gold tower, about to hit...until he used it to slingshot back the other way, flying at her from the front like a fallen star with his arms wide.

So close had she been to victory that she'd no time to react to his sudden reversal of fortune. Her eyes widened, lips parting in a gasp-and then the world became a blur. He collided with Skadi full tilt, arms locked around her waist and sending them both rolling one over the other into the brush, laughing the whole time until they finally came to a stop with Skadi resting atop him. Well, straddling him, really. Despite his victory she seemed rather smug, or perhaps in spit eof it...

"Gotcha," he smirked, idly running a hand over the soft pelt she used as a waist sash.

Skadi scoffed in reply, "And yet I'm the one sitting atop you…tough choice."

"I don't see you getting up."

"Why would I?" she touched a hand her shoulders, letting her cloak fall to the wayside. "You've caught me, Baldur." Her bodice soon joined it, freeing her heavenly bosom to his wanting eyes. She bared her upper torso to him without fear, snow-white skin gleaming in the waning light of the sun. "Claim your prize."

His throat went dry.

"There it is." she licked her lips. "That's the look I've been waiting for.

They shared that look, the golden light of the sunset capturing them both in a moment of time...

...until, with no prompting at all, Skadi planted a hand on his chest and leaned down to kiss him deeply.

It was no night in Asgard, that was for certain, but a Svartalfheim sunset was a fine consolation prize in this race.

(.0.0.0.)

Heimdall Odinson was nearing the end of his rope.

It had been a long time coming and perhaps - definitely! - deserved but his so called half brother Baldur had finally pushed him towards his wits end. The purple eyed aesir could not tally the total list of debasment he had faced at the hands of the blue eyed dolt but something inside him had snapped upon his latest visit to the wights of healing. Healing for most gods was a surprisingly simple process when it came to conventionally wounds, just a case of time, stamina and willpower and wounds that would cripple a mortal would be rendered back to blemishless skin.

Heimdal, blessed as he was as the God of foresight, had however never really gotten all that used to the sensation and truth be told he despised it because it implied that his abilities were not up to snuff. Ergo, whenever Baldur had given him a summary drobbing he had found his way to the Wights of Healing expedite the healing process, cussing his false half-brother out for every stitch. However, this last time had been different. In the last year, the majority of his abuse had been directed at his face, specifically his mouth and for whatever reason, possibly some curse by his Vanir harlot of a mother, his teeth had refused to grow back this time and he had been forced to be given a replacement.

"Allfather, that thing is out of control," Heimdall said, flashing his newly implanted gold teeth. His gums smarted with pain but he did not let it show on his face. "I will never properly heal from this, I have to subsist on these… tacky dentures!"

"Well at least you're finally put your money where your mouth is," Odin replied, not looking up from the reems of parchment scattered across his desk. "And I don't really see the issue, roughhousing amidst brothers is as natural to aesir as breathing, I was the same with Vili and Ve."

"He's cursed my teeth to never regrow!" Heimdall bleated, slamming a fist into Odin's desk and sending Hugin and Munin into the air, seeking shelter from the watchman's ornery wrath in the rafters. By the fire, Freki and Geri looked up from their rest before returning their heads to the furred rug, unimpressed.

Odin finally looked up from his writings, his electric blue eye equally unimpressed. "If you got cursed then you simply weren't fast enough to get out of the way. Now would ya sit down? Your teeth are really mussing up the atmosphere in here."

Hemdall let out a long suffering sigh before crumpling into the plush high backed chair opposite his father. Huh, father, he had always thought of Odin more as his king than his sire. "Get it over with." he said, picking out the building speech behind the aesir lord's wizened face.

Drumming his fingers on his desk, Odin fiddled with the rings on one of his hands before shuffling his papers into a neat pile, seeming to enjoy the annoyance it promoted in Heimdal. When he was finally finished he began to speak. "Everyone has their place in this family, and with it a role. Thor is my hammer and livens up victory parties. His kids to a lesser extent but still, suitable blunt instruments. Tyr is my explorer and poster child, the one who finds peoples and lets them get to know of asgard. Baldur is my tracker and closer, forming the bonds where Tyr finds them. The golden boy that will hopefully get so randy with the women of the Nine Realms that wars will be won as soon as they hear the name Baldurson."

"He. is. Not. one. Of. Us!" Heimdal enunciated, his eyes flashing with birfrost light to punctuate the sentence. "He would sooner rip your heart out and feed it to you then assure Asgard's dominance. He is an outsider, a cuckoo egg amidst your Ravens."

Odin pinched the bridge of his nose in consternation, his lips thinning, "Ymir's balls, you are like one of that dimwit Snorri's poems, endlessly repeating things I already know. I'm edging a sleeping dragon here and you are tickling his balls. So long as he has no reason to act on his regicide then he won't. Subjects do not rebel when they are happy, you get that ya gold toothed little shit?"

Heimdal gritted his teeth, nose wrinkling as his gums continued to throb.

Seeing he was not going to be interrupted, Odin returned to his speech. "Now Sif, she's our diplomat to make sure that the bridges that Tyr and Baldur build for us stay strong. A house divided against itself cannot stand so why not make the house bigger? Even now she's writing up a missive to that eagle brained thunder-head Zeus for me, letting know we have her and she is safe as well as an open invitation to a breaking of bread and dining on wine between our pantheons."

Ah, that little nugget. Yes, the blonde bearer of Gjallarhorn had been more than aware of the efluvial scum that he considered the thoughts about the foreign goddess of war and wisdom. Surprisingly she was lodging with Sif and Thor and had made quite the impression on the Valkyrie who lorded her dexterity with shield and spear.

How utterly repugnant. Asgard was for the Aesir, no one else.

Had Heimdall just a smidge more self consciousness and humility he may have considered the true reason for his dislike of Athena and it was not her barbed tongue. She was incredibly difficult to read. His ability to peer into the minds and intent of others was almost completely foolproof with regards to surface thoughts but for whatever reason he could not parse deeply into Athena's mind. All it would yield was a reverberating echo in his cranium that was almost unintelligible, like her physical body was a manifested thought and to peak into her mind would produce unpleasant feedback.

"And where do I fit into all this?" he eventually spat.

Odin looked at him as if he had grown a second head, "Baldur most have really given it to you this time, you know what you are in the plan. You're my Watchman, you keep a lookout for threats."

Heimdall ground his new teeth til blood began to spurt from the gums. Yet still, Odin didn't relent.

"You hold onto Gjallarhorn and come to Ragnarok, which gods forbid it never will, you will blow it and help lead the Einherrier to the fields of Gladdshine."

The younger god's hand tightened around the handle of his sword.

"You're my go to problem solver-"

"I AM SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT!" Heimdall roared, jumping to his feet and releasing a haze of prismatic bifrost energy from his body that reduced his seat to splinters. "I am Heimdall, the White God, the God of Foresight. I am he who illuminates the world and keeps Asgard safe. I am the son of Odin and the Nine Daughters of Nine Daughters of Ægir and Rán." He drew his sword from its sheath and held it aloft, thundering with that same bifrost light, "I am the wielder of Hofund! He who ushers in the end and will live beyond it. I have as many names as there are winds, as many titles as there are ways to die! I! AM! HEIMDALL! And I will be of use."

From his seat, Odin watched his son with neutral interest as he panted, getting ahold of his emotions. When he was sure that Heimdall was not about to commit his own attempt at Regicide he silently got to his feet and opened a draw in his desk. A few moments of rummaging passed before he withdrew what Heimdall recognised as Odin's perpetual muse, the broken wooden mask.

The Gallows God turned on his heel and strode towards the back of his office, unlocking the door and opening it.

Heimdall, having regained a handle on his emotions, felt a swell of unease at the pit of his stomach. "Allfather…"

"You coming or what?" Odin asked nonchalantly, looking over his shoulder before descending into the basement. Heimdall sheathed Hofund and soon found himself following Odin until they stood before the crack in the world. Its eerie green light illuminating both of them.

"You want to be of use?" Odin asked rhetorically before passing the half mask to Heimdall. "By all means, take a look."

Heimdall looked between the mask and the Allfather, not quite comprehending what he was being asked to do.

"Ah good grief," Odin took off his hat and tossed it at the desk before launching into an explanation. "What I want, as you have always known, is answers. And the closest I ever got was the glimpse I saw on the other side of this thing," he indicated the crack dismissively. "I had hoped to find the rest of that mask before taking another look but… its clear you want to help now. And you are the god of foresight, maybe you'll see something I didn't."

Was this a jest? A trick of some sort? It might be. And yet...

Heimdall held his king's gaze for a few moments more before turning to face the crack in reality, approaching it until the little sliver of green was right in front of him. He could see… he could not put it into words but there was something there. With a shadow of his old arrogance he lifted the half mask to his face and pressed it to his forehead, using his other hand to cover the other side of his face. His vision took on a green hew and he began to see trace streams of energy emerging from the crack before, with no preamble, his pressed his masked eye up against the crack and gazed into infinity.

For a few minutes he stood there in silence and looked, Odin pacing behind him impatiently, waiting for an answer.

And then it happened.

Heimdall recoiled as if he had been smacked, a stream of green light flowing from his masked eye. The mask dropped to the floor and clattered dully as the Watchman of the Aesir fell to his knees, pressing his hands over his face and shook. But before Odin had a chance to ask what his Watchman had seen, or for less important, if he was okay, Heimdall began to laugh.

It was a haunting thing, realization and true unadulterated mirth beyond measure yet carrying all the bad intent of an oncoming storm. When he pulled his hands away, revealing one green eye and the other purple, he laughed in knowledge of what he had seen even as his brain groaned in pain. For he finally had a tangible piece of information to level against his so called half brother.

And he would use this knowledge, oh yes.

That fool of a god. He had no idea. His days were numbered.

'You are not the only foreign soul in this land, Baldur. And I will be the one to find them!'

A/N: We've got another timeskip coming soon!

We're getting close to God of War...

Would you like this story to be upgraded to M?

Do you want this to remain a story? Yes? No? Maybe so? Make yourselves heard!

Once more, we're sticking with the "Embers" rule for this particular story, and others. If folks don't like this, it won't be continued. Meaning that if the story itself ain't popular? Well, it will remain, but I'll not be able to continue it. I'm working two jobs -might need a third soon!- so I barely have time to write; as such, I cannot afford to write something folks don't enjoy.

So by all means, speak up! Your voice matters! Make yourself heard! As ever, reviews are the fuel that sustain me. Without them I cannot write a single word. Simple as that. Working nearly all hours of the day keep me absurdly busy, and I can't bring myself to write something folks don't like.

Aaaand there we go. As ever, reviews keep me alive. Without them, I cannot write. So...in the Immortal Words of Atlas...

...Review...Would You Kindly?

No previews this time, Slifer and I have a rather hefty update for you all come September and we don't want to spoil anything.

That said, we do hope you enjoyed the chapter. A lot of work went into it.

Looking forward to chatting with you all when I get back from work~!

Warm regards,

~Nz.

R&R~!