Why the hell did she ever decide to sniff that day? As a matter of fact, why did she bother having a nose in the first place?
Trekking through the forest had been nothing to her. The trees were her friends in the sense that they didn't bother to annoy her with unwanted attention like most people did. And with the scent of the presence that had occupied her brain for the better part of the month guiding her, she made quick work of her journey.
Maybe a little too quick in retrospect.
A part of her wish she hadn't witnessed what she did. The sight of a blond teen talking to himself hadn't bothered her much at first. Especially as the very air surrounding him lit every sense of hers on fire. She was even tempted to go and talk to him.
Then that 'girl' showed up.
She hesitated to even call that thing a girl. Small girls like that didn't radiate enough power to put all the Satans to shame. Small little girls didn't appear out of portals that seemed to tear through the fabric of reality. Small little girls didn't casually talk about living in the gap between dimensions.
Yeah, that thing definitely wasn't just a girl.
She had been frozen on the edge of the clearing watching the two talk. Somehow, the boy seemed completely unaffected by the girl's presence. The two even shared a conversation! And, as if her disbelief wasn't large enough, Koneko watched as the duo walked through another portal that the girl had summoned, leaving her the lone occupant of the clearing.
"...I didn't even find out who he was."
"This is my home."
"...Eh, it's not what I expected."
When the little dragon god girl had told him about living in the dimensional gap, he hadn't quite known what to expect. Up until about five minutes ago he hadn't even known there was space between dimensions. Now, he was standing in it and…
Any expectations of his would've come up short.
Iridescent colors filled every inch of his vision. The place seemed to go on forever, speaking to the endlessness his new companion spoke of. Swirling masses of energy came into view only to dissipate into brilliant arcs of light and color.
"I can see why you wanna live here." His own voice seemed to carry through the space as he looked at the girl beside him. She peered back at him, completely unbothered by the chakra cloak he had donned as he entered the gap.
"...I was born here. I deserve to live here. Alone."
Looking around, it seemed like the dragon already had her wish. Though the vibrant colors of the gap definitely added a lot of flair to the space, he couldn't see any other occupant. Not a soul was on site.
"I get what you mean. I've been all around back home but I couldn't imagine living anywhere but Konoha." The boy closed his eyes as memories of his home played through his mind. Man, he really missed Konoha. It had been weeks and he could already feel a horrible sense of homesickness settling on him. He had to find his way home.
His thoughts made him miss the glance Ophis sent his way at his words.
"Well!" The boy clapped his hands together while looking around. "Who needs some sense knocked into them?"
A verbal response was not what Naruto got. Instead, without warning, the girl beside him let a mass of her energy explode out of he up into the air. The blast was strong enough to send the blond backwards a few feet.
"That would have really hurt if I didn't have my cloak." His muttering seemingly went unheard as he floated back to Ophis' side. The girl's attention wasn't on him. Instead, she seemed focused on a point in space that was miles away.
"...What are we waiting-"
"He's coming."
"What?"
"Stop talking and use your senses, boy."
Naruto choked down a snarky response in favor of listening to his partner. A quick attention shift to his outer senses told him everything that he needed to know. Something big and with a lot of energy was in the distance.
And was heading towards them.
Very quickly.
"Who exactly is he?" Naruto could feel his partner begin to synchronize their chakra as the words left his mouth. He looked over towards his dragon companion and was taken aback to see the first sign of actual emotion on her face.
She looked angry.
"Great Red." Ophis' words were punctuated by the beast's appearance. The dragon was still miles away but his sheer size made NOT noticing him almost possible. Gleaming red scales lined a body that was the size of five Hokage monuments put together. Its horn was the size of a centuries old tree. The beating of its wing produced a sound that would have drowned out nearly everything in existence. The only thing that rivaled the sound was the noise coming out of the dragon's mouth.
"Ophis! Are you challenging me? You tryna' to fight?"
Ah. The look on Ophis' face made sense now. He hadn't known the girl for long but he had a pretty good feeling that loud noises were not something she enjoyed. The giant red dragon that was closing in on them seemed to be the very definition of loud and flashy.
"Ophis!"
Yeah, it all made sense to him now.
"Remove him from here and I'll do anything for you within my power." If her tone wasn't enough, the look on Ophis' face told him she was dead serious.
"You think we could try asking him nicely?"
"You've brought someone else to help you? Doesn't matter, Ophis! I'm still going to kick your ass."
"I don't think he'll listen to you."
"Maybe he'll feel different after we kick his ass." With that, nine black orbs manifested around the blond. In the next second, he was nothing but a golden streak headed directly towards the loud-mouth dragon.
"Are you sure that's everything you saw, Koneko?
Internally, the redhead wanted to cry. Why did the Satans find it fit to pile so much crap on her plate? Wasn't her impending engagement a big enough trial to go through? Apparently, someone above her thought otherwise considering the information her rook had just shared with her.
"Yes, Rias."
A sigh didn't properly describe what happened to the redhead at this response. It was as if her whole body deflated. Every ounce of energy and vigor she had awoken with left her in an instant.
This sucked. Childish as the thought may seem, it was the only one Rias had in her mind at the moment. Herself and Sona were responsible for all the supernatural going-ons within Kuoh which meant this fell directly on her plate.
Her plate was not big enough for a male teen with enough chakra to put every yokai to shame and a girl that shared the last known description of a primordial dragon god.
"Can you go to Sona's office and bring her here? Let her know it's an emergency." Her rook shot her a quick nod before dashing out the room. Now alone, the girl found it within herself to deflate even more as she reached for her phone. It hurt her very soul to do what she was about to do but it needed to be done. As her fingers pressed the numbers on her phone, she could already feel the impending headache settling on her shoulder. The gentle ring of her phone only intensified the feeling.
"Hello, Grayfia. Can you put my brother on the phone?"
Dear Satans, what was she getting herself into?
What had he gotten himself into? How many giant mythical beasts was he going to fight in his lifetime?
"Sit still!"
That was a phrase Naruto had been hearing a lot in the past five minutes. Despite the massive size of the blast erupting from the giant red dragon's mouth, it was a breeze dodging the attack for someone as quick as him. The dragon was a classic 'fighting a big monster' experience. Lots of power, lots of strength, slow as hell. Unlike the Ten-Tails, Great Red had very little finesse to its moves.
"Stop dodging like a loser!"
The blond rolled his eyes. The red dragon's outburst had started out funny. It reminded him a lot of a younger version of himself. But the constant screaming and boasting got exhausting real quick.
"Was I ever this bad?"
"The real question is, are you still this bad?"
"Hey!" His response slipped out of his mouth, earning him another enraged blast from the dragon. It took only a thought and a quick flash of chakra for him to substitute with a random piece of debris that had been created by the dragon's previous attacks.
The final dodge must have been the last straw for the dragon. With a mighty flap of its wing, the dragon rose high into the air, well above the blond. At the apex of its ascension, Great Red threw its head high into the sky before releasing a deafening roar that shook the very air it came in contact with. The dragon's body began to glow a bright ruby red that lit up the dreary landscape with its brilliance.
"If you're just gonna dodge, I'll blow away the entire dimension!" With each word, the glow on the beast's body grew brighter. Within seconds, its body was nearly indistinguishable amongst the light pouring from its body.
"Die, you loser!" Just as its luminescence reached its peak, Great Red released one last shout. It threw its head back just moments before the entire dimensional gap seemed to be swallowed in its red light.
The attack was impressive. Truly, it was. The energy output coming from the dragon was something most supernatural creatures could ever comprehend.
Unfortunately for the dragon, Naruto was a little different than most creatures.
Madara and Tobi had been bad. Dealing with either of them was hell on the teenage ninja. When they got access to the Ten-tails, his fight against them escalated to the most difficult encounter he ever had. Kaguya had been even worse. Even with Sasuke by his side, even while being the most powerful he had ever been in his life, she pushed him further than any opponent had ever done before. Her combination of power, speed and intelligence made her an almost impossible foe.
The Big Red had power. The speed and intelligence part? Eh … not so much.
So, in the midst of charging up it's attack, the dragon never noticed the substitution the blond made with one of his clones. The dragon never noticed the ninja's buildup of chakra and the new form he entered. The dragon didn't notice the boy repositioning himself behind it's floating form until the boy's golden form grabbed a hold of it's tail.
"Ophis, you fa-" The dragon's statement came to a screeching halt as it's glowing body did a sharp 180 towards the ground, aided by the blond ninja grabbing onto it's tail. The dragon's head made a quick descent towards the ground, bouncing harshly off it's surface with it's body following shortly after. All the glow it had accumulated over the past dozens of seconds dissipated in a sad whimper as the dragon released an uncharacteristic pained grunt.
"What the hell?" The dragon had the opportunity to say his part before he found himself suddenly thrown back into the air. It managed to catch a glimpse of what looked to be dozens of his glowing opponents charging at it before the worst pain in its life fell upon it.
"Multi-Ultra-Super-Truth-Seeking-Big-Ball Rasengan!" Over three dozen spiraling spheres of chakra, each one standing over five meter tall, slammed into the dragon's front side. The screech of pain released by the beast was a sound that less than a handful of individuals had ever heard. And, judging by the smirk planted on the girl's face, Ophis seemed to enjoy it.
"You and your father both suck at naming stuff. I fear for your children." Naruto decided to ignore his partner's words in favor of inspecting his opponent. He had initially been fearful that his attack wouldn't do much to the dragon but, boy, was he wrong. As the dragon writhed on the ground, the teen could see the craters left in its body from his attack. The mixture of his own chakra, Kurama's chakra and the nature chakra he had stored up had done a number on his opponent.
"Y-You bastard. Asshole." The dragon's words came out slow and painful. Its attempt to pick itself off the dimension's floor was a sight to see. While Naruto found it a bit sad, the smile on Ophis' face made it clear she was enjoying every second of the situation.
"This isn't over!" The dragon released another screech as it's body began to glow anew. Naruto readied himself to attack once more but stopped when he noticed a difference in the dragon's action. Instead of growing in brightness, the glow around the dragon was dim and seemed to shrink in on itself. Within moments, the dragon's form shrank and shrank until it disappeared in a shower of red sparkles, leaving Naruto and Ophis alone in the dimensional gap.
"..."
"..."
"Did he run away?" Naruto questioned while looking over to his own dragon companion. The girl had floated over to his side in the process of Great Red's sudden disappearance.
"...I will have to do a thorough search of my home but I do not sense his rancid presence here anymore." The look on the girl's face said it all. She was happy. Actually smiling. A grin stretched from ear to ear. Honestly, the blond found it a bit disturbing but held his tongue on that opinion.
"That wasn't as tough as I thought it would be." He absentmindedly scratched at the back of his head. The dragon had been powerful but really slow. Coming from his world full of speedy ninjas who were capable of dealing massive damage, dealing with the lizard hadn't been too much of an issue.
"You have proven your worth." Ophis' words brought his attention back onto her. "I will keep my word."
The girl proceeded to close her eyes while holding up her arms. Just like the red dragon, Naruto felt an immense amount of energy begin to build-up from his unlikely partner. The energy continued to build and build, reaching a point that even had the blond taking a few long strides away from the dragon.
"Your energy during this would be helpful in pinpointing your dimension." The boy's retreat came to a screeching halt at Ophis' words. With a sheepish laugh, he made his way back over to the girl before settling his hand on her shoulder. The flinch and agitated glance from the dragon let him know that probably wasn't the best idea. Instead of giving the girl a chance to rebuke him, Naruto immediately began to pour his chakra into the girl.
If anyone had been present at that moment, they would've witnessed the greatest accumulations of energy ever experienced within the universe. The combined output of Naruto and Ophis would've put entire pantheons to shame. Within moments of the combination, a small golden portal began to form in front of the duo. The swirling mass of golden energy ballooned to a size of several meters within a few more moments. It took only a few seconds afterwards for the energy to stabilize, leaving an in-tact portal standing before the unlikely duo.
"You did it!" Naruto jumped for joy at the sight of the portal. He scooped the girl up into his arm for a brief hug before floating happily around the condensed gateway of energy.
"Thank you so much, Ophis." He stopped to look at the girl, only to be greeted by a shaky, blank stare from the dragon. His excitement tempered itself a bit as he settled next to the portal.
"Uh, is there anything else you need from me?" More silence greeted him. And, after that, even more silence. The dragon seemed content to just stare at him as he nervously stood by the portal.
"Just get out of here." Happy to take his partner's advice, Naruto shot the dragon girl a shaky smile and a salute before diving headfirst into the portal. The energy condensed within itself after his entry, collapsing into a brief shower of golden flickers, before disappearing all together.
If the teen had stayed just a moment longer, just a few more seconds, he would have witnessed a sight even rarer than a downed Great Red. A shudder ran through Ophis' body as the girl released a sigh that reeked of content. Her hands came up to her chest as a trail of tears rolled down her cheeks.
"His energy felt … interesting."
"Explain your presence or face extinction!"
He was not home. This place was not Konoha. Nothing was more apparent than that as a multi-winged man pointed a weapon that seemed to be made of pure light at his neck.
"Which lord do you serve?" The teen only had a moment to process his new surroundings before the man in front of him had appeared. The spacious auditorium he had found himself in seemed like a really cool place. It was unfortunate that the threat of being wiped from existence stole away his ability to enjoy the space.
"I'm just a little lost, y'know! No need for violence." The words tumbled out of his mouth as his hands remained above his head. Judging by the narrowing of the man's eyes, his answer wasn't very satisfying.
"No one gets lost and stumbles into the 8th level of Heaven. You have only your deceit to blame for your death."
Those were the last words Naruto heard before his sight was engulfed in a bright, yellow light.
AN: Sorry for the delay. Got busy. Here you go. Hope you enjoy. Happy MLK Day