A/N: Had to get a swathe of skin on my side removed, doctors are checking for cancer...T_T
Just in case anyone didn't realize, the story title, "Put Some Dirty in Your Eye" is a reference to a certain scene/meme in Spiderman 3. I'm sure you all know why. Now, then!
Wow! This is going to hit 100 at this rate!
By all means keep it coming! I can promise an earlier update if this does make it to a triple digits!
...after all, folks asked for this.
Hopefully I don't regret posting this requested story.
If folks enjoy it, and it gets good feedback, it'll remain. If not, back in the plot bin it goes for good.
These days, long Covid's made me of 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. Feels like everyone's lost their minds sometimes. 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.
So here we go. The fate of this story depends on you, the reader. Your feedback determines the fate of this tale, and many others.
As ever, I own no quotes, references, memes or themes. Not a wit or a one. Baldur's Gate is amazing.
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...its up to YOU, the reader. Do let me know~!
Verbatim from Baldur's gate of course.
Goes without saying, that.
And SPOILERS!
"Anybody get the name of that jutsu? Knocked me right out...
...wait. Wait a second. Wait a hot minute!
Who put a worm in my head?!"
~?
What in the Hells
"WAKE UP ALREADY!"
Naruto jolted awoke with a gasp.
"Good, you're finally up. Just be calm."
Kurama? His world was on fire, everything in flames.
"You see, we have ourselves a little problem. Well, not so little...
Almost on cue, his skull began to ache abominably as something crawled within it.
"They put something in your head while we were out. I'm sorry; I wasn't conscious to stop them."
Dazed though he was, it didn't take long to put two and two together with the cold, cruel, creepy-crawly in his skull.
"More importantly! I'm fairly certain this ship is crashing. We should probably do something about that, soon."
Blue eyes burned gold, becoming annoyed slits now as he pried himself out of the pod and rose to his feet. "You gotta be kidding me...
(.0.0.0.)
The abomination approached.
Lae'zel saw him below, creeping about the crashing ship like some lost pup.
No matter. He would be dead soon enough, just like the other thralls she'd encountered.
She vaulted down from her perch and landed before him; her sword struck true, a sheet of steel set against the blond's neck. Abomination! This is your en-
"Be quiet."
His eyes met hers and something quailed in her very soul. In an instant she felt her tadpole, worm, or whatever it was wriggle in her head, crying out in fear. She damn near ripped out her own eye to get at it then and there-but no. Pained memories flashed through her mind, thoughts and emotions intertwined as one. She saw herself through his eyes, felt his emotions rip through her like a tide, then they were gone, leaving her to clutch at her head and reel.
This was no ghaik, no blood thrall or mindflayer to be. This was a monster of an entirely different variety and for an awful moment she felt like a gnat before the eye of a giant. He looked down her blade, staring blankly at his reflection within the bloody metal therein. Back up to her now. A tattered sleeve rose as he seized her blade, and yet he didn't bleed.
"Are you with the bastards who put a worm in my eye?
She recoiled with a hiss, losing her change to open his throat. "Never!
"Good. He smiled, and it was not a nice smile. "Threaten me like that again, and I'll knock you out."
Realization and relief filled her as she stowed her sword. "You are no thrall! Vlakith blesses me this day! Together we might survive!"
The blond's brow furrowed. "Survive what...?"
Did he not understand? "We carry mind flayer parasites!" she gestured at him with her blade, then thought better of it when she recalled his earlier declaration. "Listen well, istik. Unless we escape -unless we are cleansed- our bodies and minds will be tainted and twisted! Within days we will be ghaik! Mind flayers! Listen close, creature. I am your only chance of survival. We need to escape. That must be our one and only priority. First we exterminate the enemy, then we find the helm, and take control of the ship. Do you understand? Have I made myself clear?"
...crystal."
Without another word he turned and leaped away.
Lae'zel bridled, her pride stung by such a casual dismissal and hastened after him. "Wait for me, you fool!
(.0.0.0.)
The wild warrior woman was Lae'zel and he wasn't entirely sure he trusted her.
She had a brisk, brusque, blunt way of speaking that he found himself rather fond of, but did she have to be so rude?
.
..
...no, don't focus on her. He had more pressing concerns.
He could feel the tadpole swimming in his head, protected by...something.
Whatever it was, the worm had weakened him, somehow. His chakra reserves were relatively intact, the little wriggler couldn't mess with those, but his chakra control was shot to hell. He couldn't access the full brunt of his power without disastrous results.
He realized it the moment he accidentally eviscerated the first imp -was that what these things were called?- he encountered on the ship, devastating its body with a single punch. It proved quite the surprise. He hadn't expected it to pop in such a fashion, much less the blood that followed, spattering his face.
Dodging a bolt of flung fire, he caught another imp by the skull and battered it against a wall. Once. Twice. Thrice, until all he held was its head.
'They're monsters,' he rationalized. Demons. 'They want to kill me, so shouldn't I kill them as well?'
Thankfully it hadn't been able to affect Kurama.
"Be careful. Using too much of my chakra in your current state might prove fatal. You need to rest, soon."
He didn't have time to rest!
Disgusted with himself, he tossed the wretched little skull over his shoulder and moved on, growling under his breath. That settled it. While the tadpole had clearly taken his chakra control, it seemed to have affected his temper as well.
This was going to be a problem, wasn't it?
"Possibly." Kurama groaned in his head, sounding as hungover as he felt. "If you can't control your power...
He stomped on another imp and drove a rasengan through the last, scowling now as he lost control and atomized the bastard. Little miss warrior woman mumbled a bit of halfhearted praise as she trailed behind him. He could tell she was sulking; she'd hardly had a proper chance to swing that big sword of hers and wasn't happy about that. Tough. She'd tried to open his throat. He wasn't feeling generous right now. If that was her idea of making friends, then it left much to be desired.
...wait. The realization brought him up short as he stepped over another corpse. Had he always been this snarky? This impatient? This...angry?
'Alright,' he made a mental checklist as he climbed higher through the fleshy vessel, 'My self-control's shot. Physically, as well as mentally.'
Not for long, not if he had anything to say about it, but it was still a problem. He would recover; he'd get it back.
Which left the matter of the crashing ship. Should probably get on that.
On they fought, winding their way upward through more imps.
And then they found the pod.
"Help!"
He heard the woman within long before he saw her; poor girl was hollering her lungs out for help, crying out for aid. Her pleas spurred him forward and soon enough he found the owner of the voice; a cleric of sorts clad in light silvery armor with a strange crest across her chest. His gaze strayed up amidst her panicked movements and glimpsed her fair face and dark hair, eyes wide with panic.
She locked eyes with him and banged ever harder on the glass. "You!" her very voice piqued with distress. "Get me out of this damn thing!"
Lae'zel scoffed and kept walking. "Irrelevant. We have no time for stragglers."
He seized her by the wrist, incredulous. "We can't just leave her!"
"This ship is crashing, you fool. We must-
His temper sparked.
ENOUGH.
A swift yank of her arm hauled her forward, not into him...but his fist. Lae'zel never saw hit coming; she had time enough for a startled grunt of surprise, nothing more. Clenched knuckles barreled into her face at speed in vicious fashion. Sleep was swift; she went limp and dropped at his feet in an insensate heap.
He knelt to check her pulse and released a quick, shaky breath.
"Sorry about that," he turned what he hoped was a winning smile upon the occupant of the pod. "I'll have you out of there in a second.
"Try that contraption next to the pod," the fair maiden pleaded with him, no less desperate. "They did something to it when they sealed me in. Hurry! Please!"
No time for that.
Rather than resort to such technology, he reared back and kicked the pod itself. The lower half shattered under his boot, while the upper glass opened with a hiss, violently disgorging the young woman within. She pitched forward, eyes rolling back in her head as she slumped forward. He caught her by the shoulders before she could dash her head against the deck and settled her.
She blinked up at him, squinting. "What in Shar's name...?
His brow furrowed. "Shar?"
A flicker of primal panic pattered about her heart. "F-Forget what you just heard." to her credit, the stranger stammered but once as she pushed herself off him. "You have my thanks. I thought that damn thing was going to be my coffin.
Her words cut off into a gasp as her mind melded with his in a rush of heat unexpected and light.
'Not this again!'
He felt the girl's gratitude, her wariness, then confusion now as she beheld Lae'zel's prone form.
"You keep dangerous company." her lips quirked in a scowl when the stunned warrior made no move to rise. "I say we leave her here to burn. She would've done the same for me."
Temptation reared its ugly head in Naruto's heart. He didn't owe Lae'zel anything. She'd been nothing but rude, prickly, and abrasive to him. Worse, she'd been willing to leave this poor girl -he still didn't know her name- to die just because it was convenient. By rights he had no responsibility to look after her.
Kurama jabbed his weary conscience. Jabbed it good. Jabbed hard.
"Maybe," he sighed, "But we're better than the likes of her."
The girl grimaced. "She won't thank you for this."
"Not looking for gratitude, missy." he crouched lower and slung the insensate warrior over his shoulder as one might a sack of flour.
"Let me come with you." the fair maiden surprised him with the abruptness of her plea. "We can get off this ship and watch each other's backs along the way...?"
She trailed off, no doubt wanting his name. He gave it with a shrug. "Naruto."
"Shadowheart." she bowed her head, missing the brief flicker of disbelief -what kind of name was that?!- as she did. "One moment...
She darted back to her pod and retrieved something from within; he caught a flicker of metal and strange red spikes before it vanished into her pack. He thought about asking after it, then decided he didn't care enough to be bothered in the first place. Whatever bauble that was it, let it be here business, not his.
"Right, then. To the helm, I guess."
He crossed his fingers and flared his chakra and a dozen shadow clones appeared in a plume ofsmoke.
Shadowheart recoiled with a yelp.
Naruto cringed. "Oops?"
"Ooops?!"
"I only meant to make one and have him carry her." he gestured to Lae'zel's insensate form. "Not this many...
His control really was shot. He'd have to be very careful going forward. Hold himself back, ya know?
Still...waste not, want not, as the saying went.
He pointed toward the nearest entrance.
"CHARGE."
(.0.0.0.)
What was he?
The thought gnawed at Shadowheart as they fought their way to the helm.
Well, she said fought, but Naruto -or rather his doppelgangers- did most of the fighting. Nothing could stand before their fists. They were vicious, but he also seemed strangely regretful. More than once she caught him making a face as he killed a foe, as though he were somehow disappointed in himself. He mumbled to himself about needing to hold back, yet forged ahead.
What followed was a slaughter, plain and simple.
Neither devils nor mind flayers could stand before them; indeed, everything seemed to be going well...
.
..
...right up until they reached the nautiloid's helm.
And then things went sideways on them. Quite literally, as the ship lurched.
A great, looming shadow fell over her. She looked up.
Much to her horror, a red dragon gazed back.
She tried to shield her face with an arm.
Damnable dastardly dragons!
Fire.
(.0.0.0.)
The world shifted.
A flaming vessel fell from the stars.
With this, the journey of a lifetime began.
(.0.0.0.)
Jenevelle...
That voice...
Please...Jenevelle...
Where had she heard it before?
My dear daughter, you must remember us...
It sounded so familiar, so pained, so very sad. Unbidden, she found herself reaching for it, fingers straining in the dark. So close. She felt that part was important, even as she reached blindly into the black. If she could but touch it, wrap her hands around it, then she felt she would gain something truly precious. It was close. So close. Just a little further and she would-
"AWAKEN."
Someone or something yanked Shadowheart out of the dream with a vicious yank and she jolted awake, gasping for air. Her body thrashed her away upright, still reaching, shouting in vain. But the voice was gone; all that remained was the strangest sense of loss. The wound on her hand pulsed and she cringed, clutching.
...are you alright?"
The blond man from before -Naruto- stood hunched over her.
No, wait. Something was wrong with his face. What had happened...oh!
Belatedly, she beheld the burns on his now-exposed upper torso. Blackened and blistered skin wreathed the right side of his body and his face besides. They didn't look painful; they looked agonizing, his flesh scorched and raw. She could only think that he'd been exposed to a searingly hot flame or worse, took an explosion to the face.
"You're hurt!
"Naw, this!" he palmed at his burned visage. "Its just a scratch."
"How did you-
"Dragon, remember?" he shrugged one shoulder. "You almost got cooked alive back there.
Had she? When? She didn't remember...her mind linked with his -blasted tadpole!- and the memory came rushing back. She recalled one of them massive wyrms thrusting their head into the ship just as they reached the helm's alien transponder; recalled that ominous exhalation as that awful creature drew back, the realization that she was far too close and something awful was about to happen...until someone leaped into the path of the flames.
Then darkness.
"You protected me...why?"
He squinted at her with his good eye, confused. "Do I need a reason to save someone?"
Her approval of him skyrocketed in an instant. Not only had he freed her from that awful pod, but he'd taken a wound for her. No one had done that for her, not ever, not since...she reached for the memory, only for it to slip through her fingers. Her heart ached. It felt as though she'd forgotten something terribly important.
The sooner she fulfilled her mission and recovered her memories, the better. This was maddening.
Baffled, she glanced about, realizing they were stranded on a beach of some sort. All around them, the ruined hulk of the Nautiloid burned, a twisted and scarred wreck. By all rights they should've been dead; the impact alone should've broken their bodies and shattered their skulls. Yet here they were. No sign of the Githyanki woman, either. She could only hope she was dead. Unlikely with her luck.
"I'm alive." she murmured, awed. "You're alive. How is this possible?"
"Dunno." Naruto shrugged. You're asking the wrong guy...oh, and you dropped this." He held out the artifact to her. "Here."
A strangled noise fled from Shadowheart's throat. Panic, raw and bloody, obliterated her every thought. She hadn't even realized it was missing!
"Give me that!" She all but ripped the item in question from his grasp, smacking his hand aside in her haste to get at him. "That artifact is mine, not yours!"
The whiskered warrior granted her a small, tired smile that tugged at his burned face. "I was already giving it to you, ya know."
Shadowheart felt her approval of his deeds tick just a little higher still. Honest, this one. She'd been terribly rude, hasn't she?
...I see, she winced a little at just how tinny the words sounded coming from her mouth. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean-
"S'alright." he clamped down on his own temper and waved her worries away as he sat beside her, sprawling himself in the sand with a sigh. "Don't worry about it. Fear's a natural response. Long as your safe. That's what matters."
Now it was her turn to squint at him. "Don't those burns of yours hurt?
"Yup." he smacked his lips. "But I'll be fine. See? Kurama's already working on them.
As she looked on, he began to heal; those awful marks slowly bur surely receded into tan, healthy flesh. It was a painstaking process that took the better part of several minutes, one she found herself grateful for; if only because it gave her time to collect herself and get her own bearings. Another thought occurred to her, then, one that had nothing to do with the tadpoles in their heads.
"What, pray tell, is a Kurama?"
He winked her way, weary but smiling. "Secret~!"
The pale ghost of a smile touched her lips. "...and you're not going to ask about my artifact?"
"Nope." he heaved a sigh. "You have your secrets, I have mine; fair is fair and all that. Sound good?"
By the day dark lady, he was hitting all her switches.
She thought she felt a faint flicker of approval from him. It was hard to tell.
"Well!" he sat up abruptly, massaging his freshly healed face, "Its been fun be seeing ya."
Panic of a different sort blazed through her heart, small and childish.
"Wait!" She seized his arm. "We should travel together."
A blink. "Why?"
"Why-because the tadpoles weakened the both of us, clearly!" she fought to keep the quaver from her voice. "And there's strength in numbers. We need each other.
"Do we?" he looked back to her, the faintest edge surfacing in his voice. "Or do you need me?"
The words struck her like one of Mother Superior's harsh rebukes; cold and biting. For a moment she was a little girl again, cowering before her. Then she blinked and the moment was lost to her. More than that, he was looking at her. She didn't rightly know why but there was something in his eyes that made her wince.
Pity. Not pity. Anything but that.
"I'm a cleric," she babbled out. "A healer." She nearly winced despite herself. "I can help you.
He paused suddenly, as though listening to a voice only he could hear, the looked to her. "Are you...gong to fight me?"
"Not a chance!"
He'd kill her if it came to a fight. She knew it. Somehow, she just knew; best to make peace with him for now.
"First things first, I think we're due for a good rest." when he didn't protest, she released a quick breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "We can settle things come morning. We'll need some supplies to make camp in the meantime, of course...
"Sounds good."
Silence stretched between the two of them, broken only by crickets.
Her right eye twitched ever so slightly. "You have no idea how to make camp, do you?"
Naruto shook his head to and fro with a bemused smile, blond bangs swaying in the breeze. "None at all."
Shadowheart pinched the bridge of her nose to stave off a migraine; she did not succeed. "Lady Shar, grant me patience...
A/N: Barbarian!Naruto anyone? Kudos if you get the reference.
Worry not, Tav is around having her own adventures.
And there we have it. Hope you enjoyed this nice, long chapter.
Would you like weekly updates? Do let me know! Feedback is important~!
As ever, the Embers rule still persists. If folks don't like this story? Well...I'll not continue it. I can't bear to write something no one likes. That's no joke. So by all means, speak up! Raise your voice! Make yourself heard! Your reviews matter! Really, they do! I'm literally working every day now, so I have less and less time to write. Daily updates might...slow down in the interim, but I know that would upset a lot of people.
So, in the Immortal words of Atlas...
...review, would you kindly?
And of course, enjoy the previews! Rough, though they are...
(Previews)
"Get me down!"
Naruto stared up at her. "Say please."
Lae'zel glared at him from within her cage. "Never!"
Shadowheart smirked behind him and made a show of inspecting her fingernails. "I'm not above waiting, are you?"
By the log, the sass on this girl!
"Soldier~!"
"Aww, Scratch! Who's a good boy?!"
"A hand?" he watched the limb flail from within the portal, reaching in vain. "Anyone?!"
"I just...well, I need blood. Please?"
"Are you serious? No, you CANNOT be serious. Just look at us! This group is full of weirdos!"
Naruto raised a hand in question. "Doesn't that make you one of them?
"Quiet, you!" Astarion flung up his arms! "I'm having a rant!"
"What in the hells are you doing?!"
"Listening." he held up a hand. "Can't you hear it?"
"Hear what?"
...all the fucks I do not give."
He opened his eyes and grinned.
"Alright, alright, alright." to her horror, those once blue eyes gleamed gold with the wisdom of a sage. "Seems my Sage Mode's extra powerful here. Which means...
He surged forward, grabbed Kagha by the throat, and slammed her into the ground with an almighty crunch.
The grove went silent around him.
...I'm charge now."
Kagha flung up her hands. "I yield!"
"Neat trick," Mol tilted her head. "Can you teach me?"
Arabella's hand shot up. "Me next! I call dibs! All the dibs!"
It was the pebble that followed the avalanche; the little ones swarmed him.
Gale hid a laugh behind his hand as the children pestered him with questions. "Seems they're quite fond of you after that stunt."
Shadowheart clicked her tongue. "Impetuous little creatures, aren't they? Maybe we should-
He yanked her down to sit beside him. "If I have to tell them stories, so do you!"
EDIT: Hope you enjoyed! May your day be a good one and filled with lots of luck!
EDIT: Hope you enjoyed~!
R&R~!