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The Legend of Zelda: Unbound Paradox

-Chapter 2-

-Last Time-

"Alright, alright, I got it," Naruto said with a nod before summoning forth another chain as he spotted a different 'island' to grapple it to. "Well now that we know about the floating thing, let's try this again."

"Let's not and say we didn't…"

-And Now-

Within the mysterious reality defying realm that Naruto and Elia found themselves within said duo were cruising through the… emptiness for lack of better term. The former carefully dragged himself and his little green companion from one floating island of rubble to another with his chains, still following the mysterious trail of light that emanated periodically from his new necklace.

"Man, this place just keeps going," Elia muttered as Naruto landed on a ring of random debris that was spiraling around a particularly large black spot. It had been… honestly, she had no idea how long they'd been wandering this desolate place, hours? Days? Maybe just a few minutes? How was she supposed to know how much time passed when she couldn't even tell whether they were traveling forward, downwards, or even sideways? It had to have been a while though, evident by her now healed wings that she used to flutter down from her perch atop the blonde's head to his shoulder once he had his feet on 'solid' ground. "Or we've been going in circles, because I'm pretty sure we pass that ripped off roof five jumps ago."

"No we haven't, it's red and made of wood, the last one was purple and tile." Naruto said, ripping his chain out of a hunk of twisted metal it'd been anchored into and dispelling it with a flick.

Taking only a moment to get his bearings, the whiskered teen focused on the path of light passing through the ring before he walked to the edge of it. Rather than stopping at said edge though, the blonde walked right off it and onto the bottom, completely flipping a hundred eighty degrees like it was nothing to see the beam continuing into the abyss.

"Ugh," Elia's face turned a tad greener and she grabbed onto Naruto's shirt just a little tighter as she resisted the urge to vomit when everything suddenly flipped a hundred eighty degrees. It wasn't the sudden direction change that made her feel so uneasy though, rather the fact that she still felt right side up despite knowing she wasn't. Shaking off the vertigo the best she could, the fairy gave her ride an envious glance when he showed no signs of unease. "How are you so fine doing that? I swear my stomach tries to switch with my lungs every time."

"Really? Doesn't seem so bad to me," Naruto said with a shrug while stopping atop a pile of stone that used to be a statue, seemingly of a Knight based on the few relatively intact pieces. A quick look and he found another cluster along the path that he wasted no time casting a chain towards it, successfully latching onto a boulder embedded in it. "Actually, kind of reminds me of when I'm wall walking, only I don't have to focus on each step so much."

"How lucky of you…" Elia grumbled while tucking herself into the blonde's collar, bracing herself before they were once more dragged out across the expanse. As the strange sensation of weightlessness took a hold of them once more though she couldn't help but grimace. "But seriously Naruto, there's something about this place that makes me very uneasy."

"Oh really, you feel uneasy? Couldn't possibly be because we're stuck in a weird floaty goddess only knows what with no idea how or why, could it?" Naruto asked sarcastically, waving his free arm as he spoke to knock aside a piece of rubble that floated his way.

"Besides that you smartass," His snark only earned himself a smack on the cheek from the guardian fairy who glowered up at him in irritation. "I don't know how to describe it, I just know that something is telling me that we are seeing the bush without seeing the forest."

"You know I've never understood that metaphor, right?"

"Oh for the love of… Saria would you please-" Elia froze midsentence once she realized what she was saying, before her expression softened and she wrapped her arms around herself. Tears slowly welled up in the fairy's eyes while her gaze drifted over the vast array of ever-changing colors aimlessly. "Right… she's not… she's…"

"We'll find her, Elia," This time there was no trace of snark or sarcasm in Naruto's voice when he spoke, only quiet determination as he landed upon the new island. He only stayed for but a second this time though before firing another chain out and dragging himself off to another. "If we ended up here then her, Navi, and Fi are probably somewhere around here too. We just have to keep going till we find them, then we can figure a way out of wherever the hell here is together."

"…Right, you're right." Nodding then shaking her head, Elia wiped the tears from her eyes and took a deep breath to settle her nerves.

Silence fell over the pair after that, neither feeling like talking after all of that, so they just opted to keep focused on their tasks. Naruto continued to carry them from island to island following after the light while Elia kept an eye out for anything strange.

Well, anything stranger at least.

However, the further that they traveled the harder it got for either of them to keep the worry building up in them down. While he hadn't admitted it out loud, Naruto had to agree with Elia that there was more going on, although for different reasons.

For a while now there had been a recurring itch in the back of his mind, like something was literally clawing at his thoughts to get his attention. It was easy enough to push down and ignore until it stopped, but it just kept coming back over and over again.

'Probably those witches Nosos talked about trying to mess with us, this whole damn thing is no doubt some kind of trap that they concocted.' The blonde thought with a frown, clenching a fist when the pair that were no doubt responsible for their current situation came to mind.

Kotake and Koume, masters of dark magic and two of Ganondorf's most loyal followers. He'd never met them in person, at least as far as he knew, but he and Elia had seen their handiwork firsthand. They had put their tribe under a hypnotic spell that left them completely under Ganondorf's thrall when they tried to rebel against him. Then there was the punishment they had inflicted on those that led the rebellion, cursing most of them into ravenous cannibalistic redeads left to feast upon their remaining sisters.

He hoped those poor souls found peace after they had been put out of their misery.

Anyway, if they were willing to go that far against their own kin then he had no doubts that they would have no qualms with just about anything. If he were to hazard a guess they were using the old 'divide and conquer' strategy, separating them in this weird place and waiting for the opportune moment to strike while they were vulnerable.

Which just made it all the more important that he find the others sooner rather than-

"Incoming!"

"Huh- gah!?" Naruto was broken out of his thoughts by Elia's shout, before his gaze snapped to the side when he heard a loud snarling. Unfortunately, it was too little too late as the large fanged maw of a giant flying fish thing clamped down on his thigh.

Acting purely on reflex, the blonde lashed out with a punch that nailed the oddly airborne fish's bottom jaw, causing it to snap to the side with a *crack* as the monster flew off. The monster wiggled weakly a few times as it drifted off, giving a weak gargled cry that sent shattered teeth and blood adrift before going still.

"What the hell was that thing?" Now that it was dead, or at least she assumed it was dead, Elia was able to actually get a decent look at the monstrous fish. It was mostly blue but with a large grey helmet of bone that covered the top half of its face and large pale eyes that seemed to bore into the soul.

*Vzpoosh* Or at least they did before the whole monster suddenly burst into a cloud of purple sparks and red smoke that quickly dispersed into nothingness.

"I have no-" Naruto started to say while cupping his bloody leg, only to stop when that scratching in his mind flared again with a vengeance. Only there was more to it this time, a tingle of… something before various images flickered through his mind.

[Pages of a book, a vast sky, old worn sketches, something moving in a cloud, inscriptions in an old text.] "Cloud Piranha…"

"Huh, what was that?" Elia asked, causing the blonde to blink as the sensation faded away to nothing.

"What?"

"I said what did you-Look out!" The fairy cut herself off with a panicked shout as she pointed ahead, where three more flying fish were headed for them.

"Looks like the little bastard had friends." Naruto muttered while reaching into his pouch and pulled out the Megaton hammer, holding it as best he could with one hand as the weapon glowed.

Before he could start wailing on the flying fish though, they abruptly changed course and started circling around the blonde. They snapped their jaws threateningly as they spread out and surrounded him, yet intentionally stayed just out of reach of his swing.

"And they're smarter than they look, just great," Not wanting to just float around waiting to be fish food, Naruto cranked up the speed on his chain, rocketing across the void as the monsters quickly tailed after. "Brace yourself."

That was the only warning Elia got before the whiskered blonde used his grip on the golden links to flip himself around so he was flying towards their next destination feet first. At the same time he smacked his hammer into a passing chunk of wooden boards, flash freezing and shattering them into a thousand razor sharp shards that flew towards his assailants.

This managed to get one of them, peppering it with so many bits of ice that it looked like a flat pufferfish until it dispersed. The other two were more fortunate, being far enough back that they could simply 'swim' around the makeshift projectiles. At the very least it delayed them long enough for Naruto to reach the next island, his feet slamming into the ground hard enough to make the whole thing tremble, though thankfully it didn't break up.

The instant he was back on solid ground, the teen ripped his chain along the rock it had been hooked into out of the ground and started spinning it as fast as he could once it started floating. Meanwhile, the monsters went back to circling him, weary of joining their slain kin yet still obviously determined to feed.

Naruto and Elia could see the hunger in their eyes growing with each passing second, gradually growing bolder and closer with each spiral. And the blood still seeping from the blonde's thigh wasn't doing them any favors, no doubt acting like catnip to the vicious airborne sea life.

"You guys hungry? How about you try a bite of this!?" Sadly for the Cloud Piranhas, they would not get a chance at their next meal as Naruto suddenly whipped the ensnared boulder out in a large arc going the opposite direction they were.

Neither of the monsters even had a chance to react before a hundred pounds of chakra metal and stone slammed into them. In the blink of an eye, one had the entire front half of its body smashed in whilst the other was split in half at the mouth when it reflexively tried to chomp on the incoming chain. Blood and viscera filled the air in a macabre display of death until both corpses vanished like the rest, leaving only a few bits of teeth and scales.

"Well that was fun," Naruto dispersed his makeshift flail while flopping down and grabbed his leg, wincing a little as he clamped a hand over the bite mark to staunch the bleeding. "Dammit, little bastard got me good. Elia, you mind fixing me up before more of those Cloud Piranha show up?"

"Already on it," Said fairy zipped down from her perch, picking out a few broken teeth that were still lodged in the wound before working her magic to patch it up. However, as she worked, Elia's gaze kept flickering around nervously, keeping an eye out for any more deadly flying fishes. "So Cloud Piranha, huh? That what we're gonna call them?"

"…I guess, sounds fitting enough anyway." The blonde said with a shrug while also watching out for anymore surprise attacks. However, despite his efforts to play it off, Elia didn't miss the slight hesitation when Naruto responded.

"Fair enough, not every day you see fish that can fly," She didn't say anything about it though, opting to instead keep focused on her work as her magic washed over the bite wound. Fortunately, it didn't take long, or at least it didn't feel like it took very long, for her to finish patching things up as the wound was deep but thankfully narrow. "That should do it, but maybe we should… take…"

Elia trailed off with a sigh when Naruto hopped back to his feet the instant she said she was done, stomping a few times to test his leg before nodding in approval.

"Nice work," The whiskered teen stated his attention staying focused on a large group of floating islands that was along their path while his companion landed back atop his head. "And not a moment too soon by the looks of it."

Following his gaze, the tiny greenette was about to ask what he meant only to get her answer thanks to a familiar flash of purple and red coming from the center of the cluster. This was soon followed by four more of those Cloud Piranha flying out into the open before making a beeline right for them.

"Of course they had to be coming from the way we gotta go," The fairy muttered dryly, albeit with a not so small amount of fear mixed in, as she watched the monsters closing in on their position. "Let me guess, your plan is to fly out there and meet them head on in a super dangerous floating brawl."

"Fun as that sounds nope, I got a better idea… well if it works anyway."

"Knowing you, I'm scared to even ask."

"Then just watch and, hopefully, be amazed." As he spoke, Naruto dropped the Megaton Hammer and rolled his wrists while creating four chains instead of just one, two around each arm. The golden bindings dropped almost all the way to the ground before rising back up and coiling around his forearms in parallel spirals.

The blonde took a deep breath and slowly brought his arms back, his gaze flickering between the monsters and the cluster of islands they'd come from.

'Wait for it…' His brow furrowed in concentration, his fingers twitching every few seconds as he waited for the flying fishes to get closer. 'Wait for it… now!'

In a blink his arms snapped forward, sending all the chains soaring through the air at high velocity. They spun around each-other in two separate spirals that shot towards the incoming Cloud Piranha… and then right past them as they easily swerved around the attack.

"Oh wow… that was so amazing…" Elia just couldn't stop herself from muttering that sarcastic comment in the driest tone she could manage. "Seriously, that was your plan? You missed by a mile."

"Who said I was aiming for them?" The whiskered teen asked back, making the guardian fairy look at him with a brow cocked in confusion. Turning her attention back to the chains, she was just in time to see them colliding into one of outer masses of debris in the cluster, sinking deep into the material. "Gotcha, now hopefully this works."

"That what wor-whoa!?" Was all Elia managed to get out before she was cut off by Naruto abruptly waving his arms in circles with all his might, nearly shaking her off from the sudden movement. The tiny greenette clung onto the boy's hair for dear life as she watched the chains whip around until the golden links formed large spirals across the empty space, forcing the feral fishes to swerve and weave around the flailing chakra metal. Due to how focused she was on that though, she failed to notice the vibrant whitish blue glow forming around the bindings still around Naruto's arms.

"Here goes nothing! HAH!" Then with one last tug, the teen smacked his hands together with a loud *Clap* that echoed through the empty space loudly.

The glow shot down the chains as they started to collide as well, covering their entire length in the blink of an eye before they slammed into each-other in a blinding flash that forced both man and fairy to close their eyes. Barely a second later a roar of bone chilling wind blasted over them like a tsunami, causing frost to rapidly form all over Naruto's body. Yelping as said frost also started to cling to her as well, Elia instinctively ducked further into the blonde's hair for warmth while her 'ride' could do nothing but cover his face with his elbows and weather the cold.

It felt like an eternity until things calmed back down, allowing Naruto to lower his arms as he and Elia cautiously peeked open their eyes.

"Okay… I'm amazed."

There was not even a shred of sarcasm in the fairy's voice this time, only genuine awe as she stared wide eyed at the absolutely monstrously humongous chunk of ice now spanned out before them. It was easily three or four times wider than the blonde was tall that was mostly comprised of giant interlapping spirals that formed intermittent pathways and covered in giant icicles that stretched out in every direction. And to top it off, a thick fog was rolling off the ice and floating away in all directions, creating an eerie shroud over the newly creating iceberg.

Shaking off the lingering chill still hanging in the air, Elia cautiously flew from Naruto's head and into a tunnel made by the spirals.

"This is astounding," She muttered under her breath, idly wiping some of the condensation on the wall so she could see the hollow space where a chain used to be. "I get it now, you used the chain as a magic conductor like you would the hammer and with their larger size they could hold more-AAH!?"

The fairy yelped in terror when she moved further down the tunnel, lost in her amazement, only to be rudely snapped back to reality upon suddenly finding herself face to face with one of the monster fish. She was naught but a screaming green blur as she zipped straight backwards into the safety of Naruto's collar, shivering like crazy and not from the cold this time.

"Relax Elia," Naruto chuckled with a shake of his head while recovering his hammer and holstering it on his back before walking up the same tunnel that the poor greenette got spooked in. Once he got close to the Cloud Piranha, the teen nudged his quivering companion until she peeked her head back out and rapping his knuckles on the thick ice that said monster was incased inside. "I don't think the flying sushi here is going anywhere for a while."

"Oh… right… missed that part…" The fairy mumbled, scratching the back of her head with a sheepish look as she fluttered out of her cover and settled onto the blonde's shoulder once more. Now that she was looking for them, Elia could just see that the rest of the fish monsters were also frozen solid. She was curious about why they were not dispersing like the last ones, or at least she was until she saw their eyes moving still, glaring at her and Naruto angrily. "We should go before they thaw out."

"That's the plan." Naruto said while continuing along the frozen pathway, staying within the interior for cover just in case there were any more hungry pests about.

Meanwhile, Elia went back to admiring the blonde's handiwork, her gaze tracing along the various spiral formations they passed. The sheer size was nothing to scoff at as her companion could easily traverse along the icy paths with room to spare. "I said it already but this is impressive work, Naruto. And here we all thought you didn't have much of an affinity for magic."

Naruto's face scrunched up into a grimace as he spoke, shivering a little and hugging his arms to his chest. "Yeah well, I'd still say I don't either."

"Why would you… oh," The question died on Elia's lips the instant she looked down and got a look at the whiskered teen's arms. There was thick amounts of frost nearly completely covering them aside from hollow voids in the shape of his chains and his fingers were sickly pale with a hint of blue at the tips. At the same time she finally noticed that Naruto was breathing more than a little harder than normal, his forehead drenched in a fine sheen of sweat despite the cold. "Are you okay? You look… not okay."

"I'll be fine once I warm up a bit," Naruto gave his arms a firm shake as he spoke, causing most of the icy buildup to shatter to pieces that flew off into the empty space. Clenching and unclenching his hands a few times to help get the blood flowing, his lips quirked up a little as the color gradually started to return. "But to be on the safe side I'd better save that trick for emergencies only from now on though."

"Good idea." Elia mumbled while crawling back into Naruto's collar, this time for warmth as the cold mist was getting to her. Once she was all settled in, the greenette placed her hands against the whiskered teen's neck, her natural glow faintly pulsing across his body. Despite his reassurances she was still concerned about the state the blonde's latest stunt had left his hands in and didn't want to take any chances.

Whilst she was doing that, a fresh beam of light from Naruto's mysterious necklace brought said blonde's attention back to their prior goal. On the plus side the glowing trail followed the icy pathway so he didn't have to change course and there was no sign of any more of those Piranhas, though that didn't stop him from keeping a hand close to the Megaton hammer's handle just in case. 'Hopefully that'll be the last of the surprises for a while.'

-Exactly One Minute Later-

'Goddesses Dammit.' The whiskered teen swore mentally as he crouched behind a chunk of ice, cautiously peeking his head out with a scowl to see the cluster of islands he'd been heading for.

At first glance they didn't seem that much different than the hundred or so he'd already gone past, a couple huge clumps of grassy earth covered in random debris orbiting a black spot. There was a few minor things off though, such as the center spot having an ominous red hue around it and the occasional flicker of purple electricity. The biggest difference though was that unlike the prior islands, these ones were a lot more… occupied, and not with pleasant company.

At least two dozen creatures wandered across the floating islets, with the majority of them looked like humanoid foxes that had yellow or purple fur, whilst the rest were floating red spheres with glowing red eyes and metal spikes. Amongst the foxy monsters, the yellow ones wore ragged leather traveling clothes and carried large rusty daggers whereas their purple counterparts were adorned in much nicer matching purple clothing and fancy silver short swords. It seemed like some kind of ranking or status difference, proven further by the latter often commanding the former around whilst they worked.

Speaking of which, the creatures were clearly smarter than average monsters, enough to think of their own survival as they worked together to construct shelters, collect supplies, and set up makeshift bridges between the different islands they inhabited. There was even a few patrolling around the outskirts and investigating the glacier now connecting to one of their islands.

Any hope that they might have been friendly, or at the very least civil, was swiftly crushed by the severed head mounted on a pole outside their encampment. Thankfully it wasn't anyone Naruto or Elia knew, though that didn't stop them from giving a quiet prayer for the poor soul. Based on the blood still dripping from their neck not much time had passed since their demise which had clearly not been a pleasant one.

'How are we gonna-dammit!' Naruto bit the inside of his cheek in annoyance when the itch struck again, rapidly bubbling up in the back of his thoughts. He tried to push it down so he could focus on the problem at hand, but it just wouldn't-

[Open fields, a castle cast in darkness, pages with an old drawing of two fox creatures and notes, piles of bloody rupees, travelers being ambushed] Keatons…

[Caverns, notes on patrol routes, craters of ash and limbs, warnings to avoid, explosions] Bombarossa…

'Ugh, that is getting annoying…' The blonde shook his head, blinking several times as the visions faded away, though he could still recall every detail of them.

"Lovely, a monster den," Naruto was broken from his thoughts watching by Elia's voice while she watched a pair of yellow Keatons searching nearby, though thankfully they weren't doing a very good job of it. One was just poking at a chunk of ice with its dagger while the other was gnawing into some seared meat. Her gaze then shifted to the open, and more importantly empty, space around the cluster of islands. "I don't think we can sneak past them without getting spotted."

"Wouldn't be a good idea anyway, we already got who knows what ahead of us and the last thing we need is enemies to our back as well." The whiskered teen said, getting Elia to grimace before she reluctantly nodded in agreement.

"So do we have a plan or are you just gonna wing it again?"

"Actually,' Reaching into his wallet, Naruto pulled out a handful of green rupees with a thoughtful look. "I've got an idea."

-End Chapter-