As stated, this is from my drabble concept as I saw enough to give this a try too!
Was called A Wayward Kitsune and the Lonesome Heiress then, but I felt the title was a mouthful.
I feel this one is better, especially considering Sasuke has more impactful role in the story.
Now let's get into the first chapter, shall we!
He had to put everything in this… There was no choice. He had to put everything into this last attack.
…If he was ever gonna make him listen, he needed to break through one last time! He would take his hatred once and for all!
Giving you what I got left, kid!
Got it. Numbly holding out his right hand, chakra spiraled in his and condensed into a sphere starting much tinier than he used.
"Why won't you just let me cut you down!"
Scoffing at the response, cerulean blue eyes shimmered behind his rough and bruised exterior. "Heh, 'cause I ain't gonna give up that easy. …Someone's gotta knock some sense in you, ya know? And who better than your best friend."
"Shut up, Naruto!" His voice quivered as if he was unsure of himself, wincing as he pushed himself out of the cratered rock he had been smashed into previously. "No… This has to end this way! …I can't…"
"What's the matter, Sasuke?" Naruto cracked a sly grin, ignoring the strain in every muscle in his body, goading him on. "Fox got your tongue? Thought you were gonna try to impress upon me that your goal was more important than my dream… And ain't nothing more powerful than my dream!"
He needed him to falter and break. There was no other way to reach him.
With a gleam in his eyes, finding his confidence once more, lightning began to crackle in his left palm. He squinted both eyes before black flames condensed within the spark of electricity in his hand.
He's combining Kagutsuchi and the Chidori? He doesn't have much left in him.
Mah, we still gotta be careful. That's still more than enough to end this…
Agreed. Don't put everything into this last attack just yet… Wait until the last possible moment. He's using what he took from me, and I'm gonna take it back and try to weaken him!
Will do! Naruto weakly nodded, taking a trepid first step as Sasuke stumbled out of his crater.
They both leapt, their final attacks drawn back.
"Naruto!"
"Sasuke!"
A thrust forward. The Rasengan clashed with the black-flamed Chidori. Chakra, flames, and electricity scattered all about from the contact.
And an orb of light began to converge at the center of the mass.
Now!
With a roar from both warriors, a blinding sphere of light erupted and engulfed their battleground.
Then, without warning, it condensed into a dark black sphere.
And all everyone saw was a flash of light followed by an intense heat.
This couldn't be any more tedious… How did this still happen?
Join the military. Get away from her duties at home. Lead a life on her terms.
No longer having to deal with her father…
Exhaling in annoyance, gingerly lifting on the control stick as she stared through the cockpit's window in the clear blue skies, she scoffed at her thoughts. Hardly… How could I forget my father is still the main contributor to the military… There is no escaping him…
This airship. A product of her father's specifically designed for his needs and luxuries.
This assignment! Shipping high-demand Dust under the guise of using the military to protect their investment and, therefore, the entirety of Atlas!
Gnashing her teeth and snarling, Winter Schnee deeply inhaled in an attempt to relax. Instead, it only further irritated her! She would have been doing these things if she never left home!
Nothing changed… Her cold eyes shimmered as she leaned back in the comfortable pilot seat, staring into the wild blue yonder over the drab sands outside of Vacuo before exhaling again. "Everything I do leads me back to that man… Can I even take control of my destiny?"
Checking the gauge and having a good feel for the turbulence, she activated the auto-pilot, feeling it was safe enough, and leaned back in her chair. Closing her eyes while taking controlled, measured breaths, Winter opened her eyes and gazed into the heavens she soared above.
I pray Weiss can do what I have failed to do… And make a name for herself outside their father… And his tarnishing of our Grandfather's name. Winter closed her eyes again, allowing herself a minute of relaxation on this trip.
If only she could afford some while she was home…
A thunderous crack ripped her from her rest and jostled her out of her chair and into the controls before a sucking air pulled at the back of her neck.
Snapping her head back to take a measure, Winter's eyes shimmered as she withstood the vacuum of wind dragging her clothes. Something had pierced the hull?! Was someone using artillery against her all the way out here?
Disengaging autopilot as she slid back in her seat, she took control and cursed. There was barely enough control left. Whatever hit damaged the systems… There was only one option. She was going to have to guide the ship to crash landing.
Slipping on her headset while flicking several other knobs and various buttons, she activated the radio while tightly holding onto the yoke, attempting to guide the ship down. "Mayday! Mayday! Altitude dropping steeply! Requesting rescue for one passenger on Atlas Cargo Ship designated S-01! Coordinates are as follows: Latitude and Longitude approximately negative twelve, negative eight three. I repeat…"
"Mayday, mayday!"
Everything hurt so much… Especially his arm… That felt like it got blown off…
Still slightly better than the first time he used the Rasenshuriken without throwing it… That was an agony he never wanted to experience again.
Every fiber of his being ached. Drawing breath was a struggle.
He gasped and wheezed for breath as golden whisps dispersed around him. An intense heat sweltered and burned through his thick clothing. Ugh, did he get blasted into a desert? Yeah, this felt like Suna…
"Sasuke, you're a dick…" Naruto muttered, his eyes flickering as an intense brightness blinded him. "Swear to my ass, I'm gonna kick your mom…"
Kid, think your brain broke… And I might have to break it some more… That was the last thing I ever expected to happen…
Naruto winced at the volume of Kurama's voice. Why was it so loud? His head was throbbing already…
Okay, I'm not that loud, brat! You want me to get loud!
No! Naruto motionlessly panicked, only a grimace expressing on his features, his head failing to shake more than to lay limply into what felt like scorching sand. Gah, this sucks! Tell me I broke him as much as he did me! Gonna drag his ass home the moment I can get back on my feet! Give 'em an earful, too!
Job successful on that front, from what I could tell. He looked as bad as you did before… Well before the world imploded.
Naruto's eyes snapped open, ignoring the blistering and blinding light that burned his retinas as he stared directly up into the sun, hanging directly overhead, his entire body refusing to move in any other fashion. "What the fuck?! I need an explanation! Now!"
Not your entire world, mind you… Just a good chunk of it. That final clash you two had ripped a hole in the space/time continuum and…
"Speak plainly, Kurama!" Naruto spat before grimacing as the wad dribbled down his chin. "Ugh… So that's how that feels… Gross."
It's complicated to explain how to get more simplified that you broke your world open and punched each other across dimensions for both of your dumbasses to land here!
Naruto repeatedly blinked. "What?"
Dammit, boy!
"Mah, I got what you meant by that…" Naruto blanched at Kurama's voice, staring across the rolling dunes of the desert he had landed in. "What I'm questioning is how?!"
Given the power generated between the two of you and the literal fusion of your chakra in that clash, I'm surprised it didn't do more! We should have been obliterated with everything else! That it ripped open the door to another world, and we flung through it was sheer fucking luck!
"Fuck…" Naruto groaned, his head barely lifting from the sand as he attempted to lift himself. "When you put it like that… Guess we should consider ourselves lucky… Ugh, why is it so hard to move?"
Besides being exhausted to the point of chakra exhaustion, having fought for several days in a row, and having your arm splattered into thousands of pieces? Oh, I wonder why, brat! I was barely able to take any of my chakra back! Be grateful that I'm still awake to inform you of any of this!
"I get that I'm battered beyond recognition, but… What now?!" Naruto's eyes snapped over to the right side of his body before he let loose a string of swears. "Fuck me! Sasuke, you dick! I hope your arm ruptured too, you cunt!"
For what it's worth, it did.
"Good!" Naruto forcefully rolled over onto his stomach and, with great strain, every muscle aching against his movements, pushed himself off the blistering sand. "Ugh, gonna give him another beating for this… Maybe the lesson will sink in…"
Need to find him first… He went through the door too, but there is no telling where he went… Or where we are at, for that matter. I sense a positively negative energy generating from that smoke debris in the distance. A fire… Huh, that's a peculiar… Let's hurry over there and figure out what's going on. I don't think it's him, but if we find anyone, we can learn something.
"Guess I don't have much of a choice," Naruto muttered, squinting before an odd expression filled his face as something pressed and flattened on the top of his head. "What the…"
One more thing… This world seems to have a strange aura to it. Not sure what it is… But the moment we got here… You now have fox ears like mine.
"WHAT?!"
Why were there so many crawling over the desert?!
Her breath steadily increased as she sucked in oxygen, her eyes shifting from around the wreckage of her airship. There were too many around! Their numbers just kept growing! She was going to get overwhelmed if this continued!
Gritting her teeth, bolting through the sands in a blur, her rapier cut through her targets like butter, their black bodies dissolving into smoke. The creature encircled her as she held her blade close to her chest, a sigil forming before her. Several Grimm burning of crystalized energy erupted from the seal, charging toward the swarm of Grimm coming for her.
This day had gone from bad to worse. How did it come to this?!
Bitterly swallowing her spite, her eyes glowing vividly as she cut down the upcoming horde without wasting a motion, Winter calmly stood and waited for the next horde. Couldn't afford to spend any unnecessary energy… Even if she did survive this onslaught of Grimm, where they were at their most dangerous…
Surviving the desert of Vacuo was no simple task. She only hoped her crash coordinates were good enough…
Was that an orb of pure energy flying through the air in her general direction? No, toward the horde of Grimm… Was that visible wind generated around it?!
Was there a Maiden here?!
"Get the fuck out of here, damn demons!"
As the orb crashed into the ground next to several Grimm attempting to avoid it, the following detonation. It swallowed them whole as a slicing gale ripped around and severed all Grimm near the rupture.
Atomizing every Grimm caught within.
Barely able to withstand the rush of cutting wind, her feet slid while digging her heel. She could feel the wind cuts generating on her fair skin as it rushed all around her and pushed her back.
What in the world was this? Could possibly do such a…
"Coming in hot!" A voice echoed overhead.
Winter rapidly glanced up, watching a blonde Faunus, with what looked to be fox features, dropped from the heavens above to land…
Crash into a heap next to her.
"Son of a…!" Naruto bitterly repressed his choice of words, his leg giving out as he landed before growling as he attempted to pick himself back up. "Today has been a day, let me tell ya…"
Winter's lip quivered at his peculiar phrasing. Yet she couldn't help but agree with the sentiment. It had been a day.
At least someone was here to fight this battle with her.
"It has… You look like you have seen better days." Winter grimaced, noticing his condition and the crimson elixir staining the sands beneath him, gushing from the stump of his right arm. "Are you well enough to keep fighting."
"I was born for battle. This ain't gonna slow me down." Naruto snarled, his cerulean eyes flashing red momentarily, feeling Kurama's chakra flowing through his system while attempting to keep his body stable and give him enough for the fight.
A monumental task he was thankful for.
You better be! I'm gonna need a long nap after this! I don't have much chakra left, as I had to steal what I could back!
Naruto scoffed, but his eyes glimmered. Thanks, Kurama… Think I need this…
Yeah, yeah… Fair enough. Now go out and rip and tear these things to shreds!
Naruto only grinned. Yeah, he needed the distraction… Beating on these things for a bit… Would be cathartic.
"I'm in a bad mood too, so these guys are perfect for me…" Naruto added, his eyes flickering as he tightened his lone fist. "I hate to keep them waiting, my fair lady…"
"So let's get wild!"
This had never happened in all her eons of living in this domain. She had never once seen something like this.
A thunderous roar and a brutal impact struck her lands.
That wasn't anything new. She had seen meteors and shards of the moon crash and leave a much more devastating ruin. No, that wasn't the peculiar issue she was now dealing with.
It was the intense negative energy that radiated in its aftermath. It drew the Grimm that swarmed this domain to it like moths to the flame.
And they were extinguished just as simply as flame burnt a moth, a sword slicing through every one that approached.
Someone had infiltrated her Evernight? Intriguing.
Carefully observing this intruder to her domain, crimson voids took in every detail. Measuring his worth, drawn to him herself. To radiate such negative emotions?
Who are you, and where did you come from?
His rough appearance and injuries that would impede any ordinary man or woman. Yet, for him, he still moved with elegance and grace. He attacked more proficiently than any Huntsman and Huntresses she had ever seen before in such a horrid condition.
He was clearly a practiced warrior… But that wasn't the most exciting detail about him.
No, it was the look in his eyes.
Such hatred. Pain. Misery.
But confusion lay within. His expression read trepidation. A new belief of hope?
No, she couldn't have that. Not with such a perfect specimen being gifted to her. He would make an excellent tool to accomplish her grandest desires.
"Mistress Salem, should I… Take care of him." Her eyes shifted to the young woman that she brought to investigate. Perhaps pairing him with this dear child… Both shared the same burning eyes.
"No. Even in this condition, that would not fare well for you, my child." Salem addressed her pupil, a thin smile gracing her features. "Allow me to handle him. No matter how strong he is… One cannot overcome the inevitable and will cave to my will as he is."
"For I see a potential prophet in recruiting this lost child."
"I've never seen such incredible coincidences align! You two have some good luck!"
Scowling at the guardsman's statement, Winter ignored the rescue team's chatter. Good luck? Hardly. If she had good luck, she wouldn't have ended up in the situation she had been thrust into.
She would be running military operations more frequently than being her father's errand girl. Wouldn't have had to crash land from something colliding with her airship. Wouldn't have drawn the attention of every Grimm in the region.
Had a half-dead Faunus come to her aid and somehow fend more of the Grimm off than she did!
Squinting, she turned her gaze onto the said Faunus. He was receiving first aid and emergency treatment team that was dispatched, finally having fallen unconscious the moment they boarded the ship and left the siege.
She had never seen so many Grimm in a single area before. The Desert of Vacuo indeed held the title of the most dangerous place on Remnant.
However, it was what he did that caused her the most concern.
His fighting style, while the most unorthodox she had ever seen, was effective. He was fluid in his motions… Outside of his body memory betrayed him several times throughout the fight, forcing him to adapt to fighting without an arm.
But that first attack when he first came to her aid still bothered her. Hyper condensed wind sealed with aura to detonate in such a matter? Without any Dust on him that she was able to take note of.
Winter furrowed her brow. It was like he had used magic.
Observing his unconscious form with an unwavering and calculating gaze, she screwed her nose. Just who was this Faunus? Where did he come from?
And how could you use magic?
What was this? Why weren't these creatures relentlessly attacking like they had before? …Were they afraid?
Smirking at the thought before scoffing, he threw out the idea. No, he didn't give these creatures that benefit. They were far from mindless, but their sentience was lacking.
As was their self-preservation. Any fool would have known to fall back after the first wave had been struck down so easily. Yet they kept coming until now.
"Come on! What are you afraid of?!" Sasuke snarled, beckoning the creatures to continue their assault with haggard breath.
Every single breath was agony. His vision blurred and faded, but he refused to relent. He wouldn't, so I cannot give in here. I will see him again!
Pointing his blade directly ahead in his right, murderous intent glinted from his eyes. "Allow me to show you what true fear is!"
"By all means, please do. Show me what you can do."
His eyes narrowed upon hearing a woman's voice. These strange creatures parted and made a path. And a woman with a skin tone lighter than even the snake strode forward, the creatures almost reverently bowing before her.
A queen? Sasuke pondered, his half-lidded onyx gaze peering in her direction, coming up with the deduction from watching them.
And that her presence was similar to that of these creatures… But was far more vibrant.
She was a threat. And she was goading him to continue.
He snarled. So be it. Kill the queen; the rest would follow suit or flee.
"So be it!" Sasuke struck before smirking, his blade severing her head from her torso. "Such arrogance to think… What?"
His eyes wavered before they slitted after a staggering step away. His lips gnarled, and his jaw clenched. What was this?
Her head evaporated into a smoky mist of darkness. And that mist reformed around her head as she casually turned around, giving him a bemused expression. As if she expected this outcome.
He had dealt with regeneration before. Naruto, along with every significant threat he had fought these last few days, could heal from severe wounds. But the only thing he had seen recover from losing their heads…
Was the Impure World Resurrections.
Sasuke seethed, holding his blade firmly before him and at the pale woman. He would find a way to defeat her… Just as he always had.
"What are you?"
She simply smirked, her crimson and black gaze piercing into his, causing a cold shiver to travel down his spine. What was this sensation? What was…
"What I am, dear boy, is the embodiment of the end."
"I am inevitable."
If you made it this for, I appreciate you for taking the time out of your day to read this!
If you enjoyed it, let me know how you liked it!
This story is still in beta just like From Leaves to Ashes and Prince of Hearts, so the more I hear back the more it motivates me!
But for now, I hope you have a wonderful day or if your day is going bad, that this makes your day!
So for now,
Peace.