A/N: I return~!

As ever, we're sticking with the tried and true "Embers" Rule for this story. If folks don't like it...well, it won't be continued. So speak up! Make yourself heard! Your voice matters! That's no joke! I have very little time to write these days, so feedback plays a large part in this. Daily updates ensure that I'm constantly busy working on one project or another. I cannot afford to stop and write something that folks don't like; if only because I feel that would a cold disservice to those of who who have stuck with me for so long.

Now for your questions, comments, and concerns! Bit of a random bag this time around:

Q: At the risk of sounding like a broken record...update schedule?

A: Untraveled Road should be updated Sunday; I'll have most of the day to myself then, and I'll be needing it to finish that long chapter. Which makes Saturday a surprise update~!

You'll have your Genshin updates soon thereafter, don't you worry.

Q: Romance when?!

A: To be clear, both Naruto and Malenia know nothing about romance, courting, etc. Really wanted this chapter to reflect that.

It was a lot of fun watching/writing them bumble and stumble their way through this chapter.

Cackled like a madman through all the hijinks.

Q: Are you binging anything?

A: Went through and watched Invincible, Vox Machina, and now I'm working my way through the second season of Dota. Pretty good throughout. Got some request for them already, shelved most for the time being. As much as I would enjoy seeing Selemene get her shit kicked in, or helping Percy's family, or giving poor Mark a much needed friend...

*shakes head vigorously* No! Resist! If I let my imagination run wild I'll go nuts. Gotta stay in control

Q:...Mohg's a dead duck, isn't he?

A: He's in for a rough time when we finally get to him.

Alright, I've kept you long enough.

This'll most likely be a single pairing, but it may become a harem depending on feedback. It'll be a shorter story at that.

As ever, I own no quotes, references, themes or memes. Not a wit or a one! Seriously. I mean that.

Now away we go! Hope this puts a smile on your face in these times.

"And so dawns a new age!"

~?

To Be Bold

Malenia wouldn't let go of his hand.

Naruto found it adorable really, if only because he'd never held hands with a girl before. It felt...nice, all things considered. Her palm hand was only a little larger than his own, but her fingers fit seamlessly with his own as she tugged him along. In battle she'd proven herself a determined, relentless warrior-he'd learned that lesson the hard way- but outside of it she was an entirely different creature. She seldom spoke for one. Indeed she was quiet, almost subdued even, as she led him through the Haligtree. Where, he had no idea, but if she was taking him somewhere with a change of clothes, he was happy to oblige.

Thank goodness she'd found her spare armor. Woulda been awkward following a naked woman around, ya know?

Now if he could just find something to wear for himself; preferably before his trousers fell apart...

"This is a fool's bargain, Naruto."

He took the caustic remark in stride; literally now, as he stepped off a rotten root and followed Malenia up another stairwell.

'Maybe so, but that's never stopped us before, has it?'

"..."

'Alright, I'll bite. What's eating you?'

...gods cannot be trusted. Least of all this one." his gaze shifted to Malenia's scarred shoulders as his partner pondered the matter further. "She has the potential to become something worse than Kaguya. You know this. Best kill her before that happens."

"Nope."

Kurama bridled. "You cannot be serious."

"Sure am. I ain't killing her. Not gonna change my mind."

From the outside looking in, their partnership might be considered one-sided. Malenia stood to gain a fair bit from this arrangement already; a powerful ally, an enemy off the board and more but in truth, he received just as much. Really, he'd put an awful lot of thought into this. Helping her guaranteed him a guide, sure, but it also kept her focus off their rematch...and someone to help him pin down Sasuke when the time came. Maybe he could knock some sense into the surly Uchiha then, assuming they ever found him.

"You're cracked." Kurama blew out a sigh. "You heard her back there, plain as day. She's not even sane.

"Oi! If I can befriend someone like you, then I can make friends with just about anyone."

...cheeky brat."

Truth be told, Naruto felt proper pleased with himself. Malenia was hurting, and so he'd decided to help her. Nothing simpler. He never went back on his word. Come hell or high water, he'd help her find her brother. And if she was around to help him with Sasuke...well, all the better. It felt...nice to have someone he could rely on, in this rotten twisted world.

On a whim he squeezed her hand just so, fingers tightening around hers.

Malenia jolted, missed three steps, and walked right into a wall.

Naruto bit his lip. Hard. Even then he almost laughed.

Her golden eyes flitted his way. "Did you need something?"

"Nah." he smiled. "Just happy."

Her gaze flitted to their interlocked fingers. "This really is terribly forward of me."

Naruto tried not to snicker. He really did. He just couldn't help himself. "In what world?! How is any of this forward?!"

"You mean it isn't?" Heat speared across the demigoddess's face and she tilted her dented helm down to hide her eyes. "W-Well! Different worlds, different standards, I suppose." he didn't miss the way her hand tightened around his. "To each their own."

They walked on in comparative silence for a time, releasing one another only long enough to ascend a particularly long ladder. Naruto wisely chose to go first in that regard-much to Malenia's confusion. He wasn't about to tell her way. Even he knew better than to let a lady in a battledress climb a ladder before him. After all, he'd see right up her...you know.

Halfway up, he heard the low whinny of a horse.

"Oh, right." Naruto winced a little and clamored up. "Forgot about her."

"Told you we shouldn't have left her alive. She won't be happy to see us."

Malenia went still beneath him, gripping one rung until it creaked within her grasp. "Her...?"

"You'll see...

Sure enough, no sooner had they crested the ladder than they found themselves challenged. A slender figure in silver armor cantered their way as they stepped out into the plaza. Sat astride a great horse clad in gleaming plate, they looked ready to run them down and be done with it...

"Loretta?"

...until they saw Malenia beside him.

The knight yanked on her mount's reigns, rearing back with a start. Even then they came dangerously close to trampling them, halting only at the last instant.

"My lady!" a young voice rang out beneath the knight's gleaming helm, clear as a clarion call. "Stay back! That brute seeks thy life!"

Any amusement Naruto might've felt died an ugly death. Right. He'd forgotten how absolutely insufferable this one was.

"Oi! This brute beat ya once already. Care for round two?"

She snarled. "Anytime, heathen!"

"Hey!" indignation flashed through him, fiery and hot. "Is this the thanks I get for sparin' ya earlier?"

The knight's helm snapped away with a huff. "Silence! You won through trickery last time!"

"Really? Because I recall knocking you off that horse and onto yer ass."

He didn't need to see her face to feel the embarassment that burned through her. Loretta hissed and brandished her halberd. "Knave!"

"Peace, Loretta." Malenia stepped between them before they could come to blows. "He is an ally."

"Yup." he couldn't resist leaning around her to grin at his former fore. "You heard her."

Loretta glared at him. "But...but my lady...'tis a brute!"

His jaw twitched. "Oi! I have a name."

"A brute is a brute and nothing more." Loretta dismounted, took three steps forward, and smacked her helm against his forehead. "Treat Lady Malenia with the respect she deserves!"

Naruto flicked the goddess in question a glance. "Pretty sure I've been nothing but proper; although we did tussle a little-

It was the straw that broke the camel's back; or more likely, its pride; because Loretta hollered a war cry and struck out at him with her halberd. It wen about as well as one might expect; he saw it coming, parried, got ahold of her weapon, yanked her down. Her back struck the ground, leaving her sprawled there in an undignified heap. From there he planted a bare foot on her breastplate reached down, grabbed ahold of the crest upon her helmet, and...

Yoink.

"Wow. You really are a girl, huh?"

Green eyes glared back at him, set within a deathly pale face framed by long midnight black hair. "Filthy brute!" She kicked up at him with weak legs, to no avail. Return my helm and release me at once!"

Enough. Time to take a page from old man Yamato's book. "Call me a brute. One more time."

"I will not be cowed, you bruuuuuuunholycreaturewhatisthat?!

Her words dissolved into terrified gibberish as Kurama burst into existence above them. She was still screaming when he leaned down, pressed his snout to her forehead and howled in her face. Any defiance poor Loretta might've mustered guttered out in an instant; replaced by tiny sobs of fear.

Malenia blinked. She blinked hard. "That is a fox."

"Yup." Naruto preened a little, running one hand over his partner's ear. "Say hello, Kurama!"

...no."

"Don't mind him, he's just grumpy when it comes to gods."

Malenia opened her mouth. Closed it. Opened it again, but then thought better of it. At length, she shook her head with a rueful smile. "You truly are an unusual man...

"Lady, you don't know the half of it." Still smiling, he turned his gaze back to Loretta. "What's wrong? Your legs are trembling."

She whimpered, but it lacked the rancor of her rage. "They are not!

"I can hear your knees knocking together. Say it."

"Never!"

Kurama leaned closer, llicking his lips. "You know, I always wondered what an Albinauric tasted like...

Loretta cast him a wild glance. "You wouldn't! Cease this at once! Make him stop!"

Naruto shrugged. "Sorry, I really don't have any control over him when he gets like this."

The knight whimpered, looked to Malenia, and found no aid there. Here shoulders slumped. "...ield."

Kurama's grin grew, exposing row upon row of serrated teeth. "Come again?"

"I yield!" her wail pierced the air. "Please don't eat me! Mercy!"

"Good girl." the fox leaned back. "Know your place."

He'd only just begun to vanish when he heard it.

...elp."

"What?' Naruto's right ear twitched. "You say something?" Both women looked his way and shook their heads. His frowned deepened. "Then what did I just...?"

He craned his neck, searching for the source. No one else stood in the arena.

"Hurts," again, that little voice whispered in his ear. "Make...stop...

Where had that come from?

"Help." he could hear it, louder now. "It hurts, hurts, hurts...

There!

His eyes snapped down, regarding a root he'd nearly tripped over just now; a root that hadn't been there before, grasping at his left leg. Loretta's arena was full of such obstacles-he'd paid them little mind until this moment. He could feel something there, a consciousness poking at his mind, prodding him.

He knelt and laid a hand on a root...and the world opened up.

It was the Haligtree itself he realized; it was hurting, in pain, wishing to grow, longing to fulfill its purpose, yet unable to do so with red rot writhing within. Like a child in pain, so too did it cry out for help; no, that wasn't quite right; it had been pleading, begging for aid ad no one had heard it for centuries. Until him. His sixth sense -Kurama!- allowed him to sense such things, negative emotions, strong feelings...human or otherwise. As he looked on, the root reached up, twining around his wrist, clutching at him.

"Help...

Really, the solution was painfully obvious, even to him.

He flattened his good hand on its bark. "Its okay. You just need a bit of energy."

"Don't you dare."

"Daring."

Loretta bridled. "Whatever art thou doing, talking to a tree?"

"Shut. Up." he let Kurama speak through him anew. "Or I will eat you."

The knight whimpered.

A golden claw flowed forth from the stump of his arm and joined his human palm upon the bark. His body blazed gold; eldritch black markings scrawling over his skin. It wasn't difficult to push chakra into it; the Haligtree was an open conduit, ready and waiting for the will to direct it. And so it did.

Broke bark flowered beneath his touch; once withered roots burned as he flooded them with chakra.

Distantly he heard Malenia and Loretta gasp, but the sound was distant to him, muted somehow.

He guided the Haligtree with his mind, gave it shape and form, directing it upward and outward. Now it fed eagerly on his chakra and Kurama's alike, reminding him of a small infant with a bottle. Once upon a time that chakra had been toxic to all - a corrosion that devoured both mind and body alike. Now?

It was life.

And he had more than enough to spare.

'Easy, now.' he willed at it. 'Plenty to go around'.

Branches bloomed around him. He didn't see them. His attention was elsewhere. More and more it felt as if they were one; like a small part of this tree had taken root deep inside of him. It didn't hurt; again he was struck by the strange image of a child clinging to their parents. Memories flooded his mind, thoughts not its own, images unseen before. He saw a small sapling watered with blood. Watched it grow, falter then, as disease took it, as the Scarlet Rot festered within, breaking it down, day by day...

"Hurts...

His resolve firmed, and so too did its growth. Up, up, and up it grew, a great golden bough taking shape beneath. He shooed the poor souls off the tree with his roots and deposited them upon platforms. But many of those were rotten too, and so he stretched himself yet further. Golden roots reached out, ensnaring all in their path, burning away the rot in their bodies, their minds, their hearts.

He didn't stop there. How could he? There was still so much to fix.

Down into the pools of rot he delved with the Haligtree's roots, scouring them clean of their fetid filth. Those roots reached out, choking the mindless monsters that dwelled within; creatures that craved naught but death, consuming their lives and feeding them to the tree. An ulcerated tree spirit, rotten and twisted, burst from one such rotten pool. He ripped the rot out of it, healed its wounds, then moved on, barely noticing the gratitude f the poor creature sent his ray. On and on he went,

He wasn't sure ow much time passed after that. Minutes? Hours? Days?

It felt like the former, but could've been the latter for all he knew.

Finally he was spent; he could give no more.

With a gasp he broke the connection and pitched backward. His back struck something warm, softly, and infinitely yielding; it took him a moment to realize Malenia had caught him. His ears were ringing. He couldn't hear her, no, not at first. But he could hear singing, the sound of countless voices rising with trumpets in the distance.

"No pain!" the little voice came back with its broken words, stronger now, rising in chorus with the others. "Freedom! Joy! Happy!"

Water dripped down onto his face, breaking the link.

He looked up and found Malenia weeping over him, even as his chakra returned. No, that wasn't it. Crying, yes, but also laughing. Great heaving sounds tore out of her as she clutched him close. Confusion twisted at his thoughts, but in his exhaustion, he could barely bring himself to think straight.

"Did I do something wrong...?"

"No," she hiccuped softly. "You did something terribly right." still laughing, she reached up and wiped her golden eyes with one hand. "You finally completed my brother's work."

He blinked. "I don't get it."

"An Erdtree." she spoke the name with naked reverence. "You made a second Erdtree."

Loretta dropped to her knees, covering her mouth with both hands. "This could bring about a new age...how could he have done such a thing...?"

He looked up to see what all the fuss was about and balked. "I did that?"

Indeed, the Haligtree looked over the world still, but now it was much changed. Gold and gilded did it gleam, larger than anything he'd ever seen. He wouldn't be surprised if folks could see it halfway around the world. He had made this. Breathed life back into the dying, rotten tree, helped it realize its full potential. Blue eyes squinted against the light, struggling to make sense of it all.

In its current state the Haligtree felt right. Pure.

As it always should have been.

He grinned at his work.

And then something else touched his mind in that moment, like oil over water.

He didn't miss the way Malenia and Loretta flinched beside him.

"Usurpers!" a voice hissed in his ear with all the searing intensity of the sun, drawing a brief wince from him. "What have you done?! This trespass will not go unpunished!"

"Piss off."

...you dare defy the golden order?!"

"Golden-schmolden! I don't know you are and I don't give a damn. Now scram!

A ponderous pause. And then. "So be it. Your new age shall never come to pass. You will perish with the rest."

It retreated quickly, leaving him with nothing more than a migraine. "What was that?"

"That," Malenia made a face as she held him, "Was the Elden Beast. Or perhaps what remains of the Golden Will."

Elden Beast? Greater Will? Thoughts for later. "Doesn't matter. We'll take care of it. Together.

...you are very kind." She cupped his face in both hands, leaned in...and pressed her forehead to his." Thank you. It as you say. Together, then."

Her peace said, she held him tighter still. He didn't think she'd be letting go until he recovered.

Naruto tugged at his collar. Was it hot in here, or was it just him?

...right." he forced himself to croak out the words. "Gotta find your brother first, then we can worry about the rest."

"I...you're right." she granted him an anxious smile and looked away, in embarrassment or shame, he knew not. "I believe he was taken by a man called Mog. His half brother. The last I saw of him, he was calling himself the Lord of Blood. His servants are the war surgeons, the men in white masks-

"Masks, you say?" Loretta perked up, finally finding her words at last. "I slew such a man here, once." She dipped a hand into her pouch and withdrew a blood-red medallion, leaning against him to present it unto Malenia herself. "He had this in his possession...

Malenia leaned in, eyes blazing like twin suns. "You had such a device all along, and never thought to tell me?"

"I did not know its purpose!' the knight whined. "I had no desire to disturb you from your slumber!"

"Wait, wait." Naruto sat up, reaching for it. "Lemme see that...

The moment he touched the medallion something stirred.

And their world spun away.

A/N: Mohg next chapter.

Aaaaaand there we be! Hope you enjoyed it?

Well? Should this be a story? Yay or nay, what say you?

Not much else to say this time 'round. Reviews keep me writing, and without them, my inspiration falls flat. Ever bit of feedback helps. Surgery hurts. Surgery hurts a loooot. But silence from readers and reviewers? That hurts even more. As ever, reviews keep this old man alive during this dark and crazy time. I ain't joking.

Seriously, we're all locked away anyways these days, feedback is all that sustains me.

So in the Immortal Words of Atlas... Review...Would You Kindly?

And enjoy these previews! Remember those hints?

Yes? No? Hope you paid attention. Because!

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!

PLOT DETAILS AHOY!

YE BE WARNED!

Read at your own risk!

(Preview)

Malenia took one look at the cocoon and fell to her knees. "Brother, what has become of you...

The arm twitched, fell at their feet. Began to bleed.

And from that blood, a monster emerged.

"Welcome, honored guests! To the founding of our...oh." he paused. Saw who stood before him. "Oh dear."

A furious shriek rent the air.

"MOHG!"


The Greater Will seethed.

Trespasser...filthy usurper...this would not stand...!


The return to the Haligtree met with an unexpected snag.

They returned well enough, mind. But what they found waiting there...


Malenia was looking at a ring.

Madness. This was madness. She'd opened the box on a whim, but she'd not thought to find this! Still! Was she honestly considering-

"Hey, you alright down there?"

She slammed the tiny thing shut and hid it up her glove. "I'm quite fine, thank you!"

"Whatcha got there?"

...nothing."


"Let a new era be born! Let it burn the Golden Order to ash!"


Loretta huffed. "You stole my kill."

"Secured," came the cheeky response. "I secured it."


"How on earth did this happen?"

"You're asking me? She looks like you!"

Naruto and Malenia exchanged a baffled look.

Loretta keeled over in the background, making happy noises.

R&R~!