The Nephalem Chronicles
Chapter 2: Fragments of a Legacy
"So…are you still seeing and/or hearing that voice? We've been walking for several miles right now," asked Kurama in a bored tone.
"Yeah I am and we seem to be getting close as I'm hearing the voice much clearer and the trail is getting brighter," Naruto responding, with the aforementioned voice encouraging him to continue onwards.
"It'd better not be a wild goose chase or a trap for that matter,"
"I'm sure it's neither of those,"
After a bit more of walking, the duo finally arrived at their mysterious destination which turned out to be some sort of ruins of a Grecian style temple which was built into a mountain but now looks like it was a victim of a bloody war. For Naruto, it reminded him of the aftermath when Pein attacked Konoha which still bothers him a bit till now.
"Whoa, what a dump…," Kurama muttered bluntly.
Naruto frowned at the kitsune on his shoulder "Kurama…,"
"Don't give me that look, you know I'm not one who put these kinds of things into consideration,"
"*Sigh* I know but try to tone down the harshness. This place must have been important to someone,"
"Sure sure, is the voice still talking?"
"Yeah, it's telling me to enter and seek out a crimson rune,"
"Well, no time like the present. Get a move on,"
"Hey, I'm the one using my legs to carry the both of us around, you ain't my jockey,"
Kurama rolled his eyes in response "I wish…,"
They went inside and found the interior to be no different from the outside; broken pillars, holes in the ceiling, shattered walls and numerous debris lying around making for a rather depressing atmosphere. Naruto looked around to try and get a clue about but so far was having little to no success.
However, he took note of the faded wall paintings depicting beings possessing a wing of an angel and another wing of a devil. Furthermore, they appeared to be defending themselves against the forces of angels and devils from different sides, giving him a clear idea of what has been going on.
"Hunted by both sides simply because of possessing both their powers…stinks of bias," said Naruto with a frown.
"Yeah, kinda like back home when everyone hated us," Kurama grumbled.
"I know…let's keep going,"
The trail led them down a small hallway, it was blocked with debris until Naruto dug his way through to the other side and emerging in a small circular chamber. He took a few steps forward when the central part of the floor started glowing brightly before dimming to reveal a glowing red rune with archaic designs on them.
"Now that we found the supposed rune, what next?" asked Kurama.
"I guess we should step onto it and see where it takes us," Naruto guessed while looking at the rune.
"As if this just doesn't scream trap,"
"I'm sure it will be fine,"
"Get ready for an 'I told you so' if it's the case,"
"Sure,"
They stepped into the rune and soon found themselves teleported away from the chamber and were now in another chamber which appears to have been built underground, given that there's a dimly lit tunnel leading out and Naruto is still seeing a light trail whilst hearing a voice.
"You're closer young Nephalem…closer to a fragment of our legacy," the voice spoke.
"Legacy, just what does she mean by that?" thought Naruto in confusion.
Regardless, the duo followed through the tunnel to the other side but then quickly noticed something very off about certain. Above their heads, the atmosphere was constantly changing as if space is distorting and ahead of them is some sort of cathedral which appears ancient but not degraded and destroyed like the temple that they were in before.
"I don't think we're in the Blood Patches anymore," said Naruto.
"Gee, ya think?" Kurama responded sarcastically.
Naruto was about to retort when the voice spoke up once more "Enter and prove yourself worthy of being one of us and capable of carrying on our legacy,"
"The voice seems to be telling me about going through a test of sorts to prove myself," Naruto explained.
"Sounds right up your alley, you're always good at doing that,"
"Sure, let's go inside,"
Upon stepping inside, the doors suddenly slammed shut and locked them inside with a powerful barrier which left Naruto and Kurama little choice but to press forward. They set to venturing through the rooms and large halls to find their way around, having to double back to previously locked doors after finding their specific keys. After some more exploration, the duo found themselves in a room on the upper level. Naruto was about to look around when the room was suddenly filled with a heavy magical pressure, surprising both him and Kurama.
"What the, what's going on?!" asked Naruto, looking around sharply.
Kurama frowned in response "I don't know, stay sharp!"
Naruto slowly backed towards a wall which had a large mirror behind him, but there was something very strange going on with it. The reflection wasn't having a reflection of Kurama on his shoulder and it actually turned round to face him with a blank look on his face. Feeling watched, Naruto spun round and was shocked to see that his reflection wasn't mimicking and began to walk forward to the point of actually emerging from the mirror to stand before him.
"This is all kinds of weird here," said Naruto, feeling like he's in a horror movie. He doesn't do so well with those, finds it hard to sleep after watching.
"This is the NetherRealm, weird must be the normal around here," Kurama shrugged.
The 'Naruto' before them began to emit a purple flaming aura around its body then underwent a transformation to reveal its true form. A humanoid being donning a heavy, olive green/jade green colored armor with blue pulsating lines running across it, and a purple cape. His helmet is engraved with a humanoid face with glowing orange eyes while having red-and-blue horns protruding from the top. Another noteworthy thing would be the large greatsword with various blue markings adorned on the blade in his hand.
"I think that I found my test," said Naruto.
The warrior snapped his fingers to make a pair of doors leading out to a balcony open up, he beckoned Naruto to follow before running out to the balcony and leaping over it.
"Guess he wants to fight where there's more room," said Kurama.
"Yeah, wish me luck cause I get the feeling I'm gonna need it," said Naruto
"I know,"
Rolling his eyes at the kitsune's response, Naruto rushed through the doors and vaulted over the balcony's rails to land in the middle of a courtyard and found the armored warrior waiting for him. The warrior took his greatsword and held it before him in a combative stance, Naruto reacted in kind with his shakujo in both hands.
Music Start: Devil May Cry OST; Ultra Violet
The warrior wasted no time by making the first move as he suddenly dashed forward at highspeed and swung his greatsword in a wide horizontal arc, Naruto quickly somersaulted into the air to evade the incoming attack and land behind the warrior then swung his shakujo at his back, but the warrior moved his greatsword to block without even turning to face him.
Leaping backwards to avoid potential retaliation, Naruto leapt backwards to build some distance "Divine Light!" he thrusted a hand forward to fire a ray of holy light, warrior raised his greatsword above his head and brought it down, splitting the beam of light in half much to the former blonde's shock which costed him as the warrior appeared before him and landed a slash on him.
"This guy's tough, he knows how to use that blade of his way too well. Kinda wish that I have a sword of my own right now, only reason why I can at least use the shakujo is because I remember how Tenten fought with hers," Naruto muttered lowly, glancing at the shakujo in his hands. He looked to see the warrior merely standing there as if waiting for him to make a move "Alright then, time to step things up a bit! Divine Light!" he fired his attack towards the ground, throwing up a cloud of dust for a makeshift smokescreen.
Something shot out of the dust cloud, revealing to be three clones of Naruto with one of them pulling ahead of the others to attack with his shakujo only for it to deflected to the side. The other clones were quick to join, attacking back-to-back from different angles with sparks flying from every angle. The clones all attacked simultaneously in a pincer attack when the warrior gripped his greatsword tightly and performed a spinning slash, sending them all flying away and dispelling in puffs of smoke. At that very moment, Naruto descended from above with a blue spiraling sphere of energy in hand "Rasengan!" but the warrior blocked the attack yet again only this time the blade was enshrouded in a dark blue aura.
As they struggled for dominance with each other, the ground suddenly burst open to reveal a Shadow Clone with his lengthened claws enshrouded in demonic energy "Claws of Nightmares!" he attacked with a cross slash when the warrior disappeared in a burst of blue fire then reappeared elsewhere all the while chuckling at him in amusement.
"Of course, this guy can also teleport, how much more can he be a pain in the butt?" said Naruto sarcastically
The warrior suddenly teleported again in a burst of flames to reappear behind Naruto with a free hand reared back before thrusting it forward to launch a fiery azure blast at point blank which exploded upon impact. The flames dissipated to reveal a burnt wooden log much to his confusion, then an arm construct of demonic energy grabbed the greatsword and yanked it out of his grip by Naruto who had used Dark Clutch to disarm his opponent. Naruto then lunged at the warrior with a flying punch but the warrior blocked it with a forearm shrouded in a flaming azure aura, he pushed him back before unleashing a barrage of punches and kicks then ending with a roundhouse kick to knock the young Nephalem away to the ground.
"I'm seriously starting to question how come the Nephalem are nearly extinct when they were this good," Naruto groaned as he got to his hands and knees.
The warrior chucked yet again and was about to attack once more when something wrapped around his leg and looked down to see that it was a golden chain with an arrow-shaped tip at the end, Naruto quickly shot his feet to yank on the chain sprouted from his hand for it to rip out of the ground and launch the warrior into the air overhead "Angel's Judgement!" he thrust a hand to the air to call forth a pillar of holy light to strike the warrior from above, slamming him to the ground and forming a crater as a result.
"Not so funny anymore, is it?" Naruto taunted with a smirk.
The warrior slowly rose to his feet with his back towards Naruto, the difference being that the helmet had been broken off then he turned around to face Naruto and revealed his true face which sports deathly pale white skin with blue veins and red pupil-less eyes. He stretched an arm out towards the greatsword which shuddered for a moment then quickly few into his hands. The warrior let out a loud roar ad his body began radiating even more azure aura than before with the power being applied to the greatsword then he faced Naruto with the greatsword being pointed towards him.
"Guess you're not holding back any more, then I'm going to respond in kind," said Naruto.
He concentrated on accessing Kurama's chakra to transformed into the first stage chakra mode as his body is coated in yellow chakra with his clothes undergoing the same thing and emanating like that of flickering flames. Two front spikes of his hair pointed upwards to resemble horns, six black magatama markings around the collar of his jacket with a prominent swirl design over the stomach, and various other archaic lines extending along his body.
Music Start: Devil May Cry OST; Super Ultra Violet
The warrior instantly teleported before Naruto in the middle of a horizontal slash but Naruto dashed backwards with a backflip whilst simultaneously launching a chakra arm from his chest for a punch but it was deflected via a spinning kick by the warrior.
Both combatants began clashing against each other at highspeed all over the courtyard, it would look like there's constant flashes of yellow light and bursts of azure flames from an outsider's perspective. They skidded backwards away from the last clash when Naruto dashed forward and began running circles around his opponent in preparation to attack from any angle. The warrior snapped his fingers to conjure multiple swords of blue ethereal energy which circled around him, keeping Naruto at bay.
"A new trick, let's see if I can't work a way around it," Naruto muttered lowly before breaking off from the circle to charge in from the left with several shadow clones attacking from other angles, the circle of swords immediately shot out and struck the clones to dispel them but Naruto dodged at the last second by leaping high into the air above the warrior for his next move, he performed a handsign as an arm made out of yellow chakra shot out of his back which waved in an arc and formed multiple Giant Ball Rasengan above his head before multiple chakra arms appeared to hold the spheres "Rasen-Rampage!" and thrust them towards the target, the spinning spheres rammed in from different angles.
Feeling a sharp tingle crawl up his spine, Naruto raised his shakujo above his head in time to block a cleaving strike from the warrior who had teleported from Naruto's attack at the last minute as well as to attack from his blind spot but Naruto was able to detect his thanks to his shared ability to detect negative intent. Naruto shifted to the defensive as he blocked an assault of one-handed slashes, punches and kicks with his shakujo before leaping backwards only for the warrior to fire an azure blast in pursuit.
Going purely by instinct, Naruto conjured a chakra arm from his shoulder to catch the blast, compressing it to a more controllable form "Have a taste of your own medicine!" he launched it back to its origins, exploding upon impact.
Rising back to his feet, the warrior waved his hand to summoning several ethereal swords at both sides before launching them forward like missiles. Naruto rapidly darted left and right to evade them when he noticed that the warrior had raised his hand to the sky and looked up to see even more of the ethereal blades looming above him before descending rapidly to stake him to the ground, the young Nephalem performing several spinning sidesteps to narrowly avoid them which caused his demonic energy to surge as seen in the form of smoky red aura emitting from his hands.
"Alright, this has gone on long enough. I'm putting an end to this!"
Naruto went into a three-point stance and concentrated before dashing forward, leaving a crater in his wake. The warrior held his greatsword in front of him to act as a shield but Naruto changed directions at the last minute and began moving about in different directions "Tailed Beast Flash Bullet!" Naruto shifted into high gear as he moved around the warrior leaving behind a long trail of yellow aura at high-speed all the while unleashing a combo of punches and kicks before ending the combo with a slide kick to knock his opponent to the ground. He didn't stop there by moving back a fair distance "Time to end this…," he held out his right hand to form a Rasengan the size of a basketball then three chakra arms appeared to form three smaller versions to orbit around the main one with all enshrouded in the red demonic aura.
He rapidly closed in with his boosted attack in hand "Planetary Rasengan!" he rammed the jutsu into the warrior's chest before extending a chakra arm to move him out of range as the jutsu blasted its target all the way into a wall.
Music End
Naruto let out a sigh, deactivating the Chakra Mode. Then he heard rumbling and looked to see the warrior exiting from the recent hole in the wall, his armor severely damaged especially around the chest area. He tensed as the warrior stumbled towards him until he was close enough but didn't raise the greatsword, instead stabbing it into the ground and bowing his head in acknowledgement.
"Uh okay…," Naruto bowed his head in response, watching the warrior crumble away in embers of blue flames and in his place was a pendant with a blue gem embedded within it, hovering in the air "Guess I passed the test,"
He took the pendant into his hands and observed it closely, he felt rumbling and look to see something rising from the ground revealing to be some kind of statue depicting a woman wearing a grey robe with wings of a demon and an angel spread open from her back, in her hands is an ornate double-edged sword, its guard is in a 'W' shape which resembles the horns of a demon, it has a handle that leads to four skulls on the pommel with a spike at the top.
Naruto slowly walked up to the statue and couldn't help but think that it was gesturing for him to take the sword. Then the voice from before spoke in his mind.
"Behold the Force Edge which was forged and wielded by the Dark Knight Sparda, do not be deceived by its current appearance for it represents the true power sealed within by the Dark Knight himself after he had separated the Human World from the NetherRealm. Sparda had bequeathed the sword to the Nephalem for safekeeping before disappearing where no one ever saw him since then. The power of the sword can only be unleashed once united with the Perfect Amulet which you currently possess a half of. Seek out the other and bring back the glory of the Nephalem,"
Naruto was in awe at the description "Whoa, this sword can be that powerful? It will definitely come in handy for the long road ahead,"
He grabbed the sword by the handle and pulled it out of the statue when his mind was suddenly assaulted with numerous visions. Within them, he saw three men with white hair whilst separately dressed in purple, red and blue outfits. Naruto watched as they wielded the Force Edge and felled numerous demons around them with amazing swordsmanship.
Most of Naruto's attention was on the men dressed in red and blue. The man in red faced down opposition with combat styles centered around certain factors; one was for handling firearms skillfully and effectively, second for pure defense and countering attacks, a third for utilizing the maximum potential of melee weapons, and the fourth based on speed and maneuverability.
For the man in blue, his techniques and style of combat may seem simplistic at first glance but a much closer look reveals that each and every motion came with purpose. Reminding Naruto of the swordsmen whom he had met during his missions in the Elemental Nations, particularly the samurai.
Naruto snapped back into reality and was in a momentary state of confusion until the realization finally set in as he glanced at the Force Edge in his hand, the sword humming lowly in resonance with him while the red pendant is in his other hand.
Kurama soon made his presence known to the young Nephalem by leaping onto his shoulder "What's with ya? Your eyes and body started glowing and stuff when you touched that sword?"
"Well, it goes like this…," Naruto went on to explain about the Force Edge and its history "…and that's about it,"
"Sounds to me like this sword is will of great use to us in the long run especially once we locate the remaining component needed to awaken its true power. But we have more concerning things right now," said Kurama.
"Like what?"
"How the heck do we get outta here?" No sooner did Kurama ask that question that a magical circle materialized at the end of the courtyard and was glowing softly, the kitsune spoke in a deadpanned tone "So, all I had to do was ask…,"
Naruto shrugged in response "Looks about right, let's get out of here and see what we can see at the other side,"
"Sure, we've seen enough over here anyways,"
Naruto then noticed that the Force Edge slipped off his hand and floated to latch itself onto his back without any assistance, he shrugged at this and placed the pendant inside his basically empty ninja pouch…kinda feels less of a ninja since he lacks the basic tools besides a newly acquired sword and a shakujo.
The duo stepped onto the magic circle to be teleported away from the cathedral in a flash of light and soon found themselves somewhere completely different, this more than told them that they weren't in the Blood Patches anymore.
The surroundings around them feels so…dead, numerous heaps of bones and skulls scattered all over, blue flames illuminating the area and archways representing the paths. A part of Naruto could have sworn that he heard screams echoing every now and then.
"What kind of place is this?" asked Naruto with discomfort.
"You're asking the wrong kitsune, and I doubt that the map we have right now is going to be of any help here," said Kurama.
Naruto let out sigh at this "Might as well pick a direction and hope for the best,"
"Try not to get us lost,"
"If you're gonna start complaining about my navigation skills, then be my guest and take up the role,"
"I'll pass on that,"
"Thought so,"
Picking a random direction, Naruto began walking through the place in search of anyone with a pulse in their bodies considering the surroundings are more akin to that of graveyards, mostly it's because of his childish fear that he wants to get out of there as soon as possible. He was snapped out of his thoughts upon hearing the sounds of wings flapping and footsteps approaching them.
The group comprised of Imps, Undead, Sludges, a Green Skull, Red Mage, Thief, Valkyrie and Clergy.
"We finally found you, rebels," the red imp declared much to the confusion of the Nephalem and kitsune.
"Rebels? Why are you calling us that?" asked Naruto curiously.
"We've been informed by our general that you're one of the rebels and are here to take you down," said a Valkyrie.
"I reckon that one of the soldiers we spared told their bosses about us," Kurama guessed.
"Do not attempt to fight us, for that would be a foolish decision," said the clergy calmly.
"Yeah, we were told that you could use both holy and demonic powers, something I find totally crazy," the Undead snorted in disbelief.
"That's right, we've received powers from the Demon General that exceeds our normal limits. You guys are nothing but insects to us," said an Imp arrogantly.
Naruto turned to Kurama with a grin "Did you hear that? They're saying that they're stronger than the last bunch we had faced,"
Kurama grinned in response "Loud and clear, let's have some fun,"
"Yup, plus I get to take this new sword I got for a spin!" Naruto eagerly took he Force Edge from his back to hold before him, he could feel the sword pulse as if excited to finally take part in battle and had a vision of the man in red smirking before a large group of demons before rushing towards them.
Music Start: Devil May Cry 3 OST; Taste the Blood
Naruto and Kurama split off to face their selected opponent s as some of the Lost Soldiers pursued them to attack response. The Imps swooped towards Naruto to attack him with a barrage of drop kicks but he stomped on the ground hard to launch himself into the air above them with a somersault to evade their attacks and made them crash to the ground.
"Let's see if I can't pull off some of the moves from that guy in red," Naruto reared the Force Edge as he felt it 'instruct' him on what to do "Stinger!" he performed a highspeed lunge towards one of the Imps and striking with a powerful thrust to send it flying then turned to the other Imp with both hands gripping the sword to unleash a swift 3-Slash combo upon it then knocked away with a straight punch to the chest.
"This thing sure packs a punch for being dormant," Naruto looked at the Force Edge in hand with a quirked eyebrow, Naruto's ears twitched as he turned to see some more of the Imps and a few Undead charging into attack him all at once, so he took in a deep breath whilst channeling Demonic energy in his belly "Nice try, but I know how to counter that strategy since I use it a lot. Demonic Howl!" Naruto opened his mouth to unleash a powerful roar which sent the demons tumbling away from him.
Meanwhile, Kurama was having a bit of fun, weaving out of the attacks of the demons using his current size and speed to run in between their legs and making them strike each other with their own attacks. Now feeling that playtime is now over, Kurama grew to the size of a wolf "Paw of the Beast King!" he swung one of his paws as it enlarged to a giant size in an arc to smack several demons away with minimum effort but some were able to evade his attack.
"Omega Fire!" the Red Mage casted a fire type spell with Kurama looking up to see a giant fireball heading his way.
Kurama quickly elongated his tails and had them wrap around him like a cocoon before the fireball made its impact with a blazing explosion. The flames soon died down to reveal the tails having been barely singed before unfurling to reveal the kitsune looking a bit unimpressed much to the shock of the Red Mage and others.
"But how?" asked the Red Mage in disbelief.
Kurama simply scoffed in response "Hmph, I've felt and breathed out hotter things than this. Here's a sample of what I mean, Roaring Cannon!" he opened his mouth to gather energy before firing a powerful beam which severely damaged the Red Mage but the Clergy quickly helped her by casting an Omega Heal "Tch, this is Déjà vu all over again,"
Back with Naruto, he was easily dealing with the Undead and Imps due to him growing more proficient with the Force Edge showing him the visions of its previous wielders and 'tutoring' him through the techniques and was currently performing one of them on an Undead "High Time!" he swung Force Edge into an uppercut to launch himself and the Undead into the air "Helm Splitter!" then he brought the blade down on its head, bringing them both back down to the ground.
He looked to the side to see the Clergy providing healing to the others from a safe distance "This fight's gonna take too long if she keeps healing the others," Naruto prepared to attack with a Stinger when a couple of Sludges plopped in his way to bar him from approaching.
"You won't go any further," said a Sludge with a gurgling voice.
Naruto snorted in response "Like your words would stop me," he swung his sword swiftly to slice off the tentaclelike whips which the sludges tried to use to attack him before rushing up to one of them and attacking with a diagonal slash, but then he noticed that the Sludge simply pulled itself back together with no sign of visible damage on it and had to quickly jump back to avoid retaliation "This might be troublesome…can't believe I'm using Shikamaru's line,"
One of the Sludges gurgled arrogantly "It's no use, your pathetic blade won't be able to hurt us!"
Naruto frowned at this "Maybe not, I'll just have to apply a different approach to dealing with you guys," he thrust a hand to the air "Angel's Judgement!" then called forth several pillars of holy light, taking the Sludges out due to their weakness in alignment much to the shock of the Lost Soldiers.
"Did he just use Holy power?!" said the Red Mage in shock.
"I thought those guys were simply talking crazy!" said the Valkyrie.
Naruto seized the opportunity to perform a Stinger on the Clergy while they were momentarily in shock, he was almost upon her when he got blindsided by a grey blur and looked to see that it was by the Thief.
"Thought we weren't paying attention, huh?" said the Thief wielding a pair of daggers.
Naruto shrugged in response "Can't blame a guy for trying," he noted a twitched in the Thief's eye and quickly dashed sideways to evade a spear thrust from behind by the Valkyrie "Almost had me there,"
"We'll see for how long," said the Valkyrie, pointing her spear at the Nephalem.
Back with Kurama, he was being annoyed by the Imps, Sludges and Red Mage who kept attacking him and being healed by the Clergy every time he inflicts damage on any of them and kept being disrupted whenever he tries to use the Roaring Cannon much to his growing annoyance.
"That Clergy is really getting on my nerves right now, I don't even care if it's because it's a battle strategy. If they intend to keep at this, then I'll just have to disrupt that annoying strategy," thought Kurama before channeling his inner energy "Predatory Strikes!" he felt his Attack power, Speed and Hit increase even more so since he didn't have a weapon equipped before moving at enhanced speeds to position himself within their midst before they could react "Wild Whirl!" he extended his tails whilst around to strike the surrounding enemies and taking them down then quickly attacked the Clergy while she's unprotected "Roaring Cannon!" he fired the beam to take her out of the fight "Finally, she was really annoying,"
Naruto was being slightly heckled by the Valkyrie and Thief who have shown to be the speedsters of the Lost Soldiers squad as they were constantly attacking back-to-back with Hit-and-run tactics so as to spread his focus out and preventing him from keeping a beat on either of them.
"These two are pretty good with teamwork, time to loosen up a bit more," Naruto backflipped several times to put up some distance between him and the duo before crouching slightly in a partial running stance "Trickster!" a red demonic aura flashed around his body for a moment and he felt much lighter, proven even more so when the Valkyrie tried to attack him.
"Sonic Smash!" the Valkyrie lunged forward at Mach speeds with her spear poised to pierce through Naruto when he suddenly blurred from view right as she was about to strike much to her shock before reappearing behind then unleashed a combo involving several radial slashes before ending with a diagonal slash with the Force Edge.
Sensing negative intent from his left, Naruto dashed backwards to avoid a sneak attack from the Thief before going for the counterattack techniques "Dark Clutch!" he thrust an arm forward to launch a dark ethereal arm to grab his target then pulled her towards him "Million Stab!" he unleashed a blinding whirlwind of stabs onehandedly before finishing with a powerful thrust attack to take her out.
Music End
"Were this to be a movie, I would say that it was an interesting action sequence," said Naruto as he placed the Force Edge at his back for it to latch on and looked around to see the Lost Soldiers scattered about and unconscious save for one imp whom he approached and picked off the ground by the scruff of his neck with Kurama soon joining him.
"And now we play the game of twenty questions," said Kurama.
"Yup," Naruto nodded in agreement before turning to the imp "Okay man, we both know what's about to happen here. Tell us what we need to know and nothing worse is gonna happen to ya,"
The imp blinked in confusion at the statement "Worse?"
"Yeah, I mean I beat you and your buddies which is bad enough already, so the penalty for not giving us good info would be a whole lot worse if you get what I mean," said Naruto, emitting both holy and demonic energy from his body, sending shivers down the imp's spine.
"Okay okay, I get it loud and clear!" said the imp, fearing for his life.
"Good, now why is the Lost Army in this place?"
"We're here under command of one of the Demon Generals to take over the place!"
"Who's this Demon General in particular?" asked Kurama.
"Her name is Majorita, she's also known as 'Witch Who Controls Death',"
Naruto and Kurama frowned at this, hearing this reminded them of the Edo Tensei kinjutsu which was created by the Second Hokage and caused major problems back in the Elemental Nations.
"I see…tell us more," Naruto pressed with the interrogation.
Elsewhere, we find a moderately short female humanoid demon with lilac long hair tied to curled pigtails by zombie skull ornaments and bows. She wears a small bikini-like purple top, a lined capelet decorated of orange trims with another one reaching up, which has at the center a lined gem with hanging materials and a purple collar. She has long sleeves with orange striped gloves of same trims, a short tutu and striped socks with purple pointed shoes cut at the middle.
The female demon held up a magic staff which has a zombie cat motif design over a defeated demon with a look of glee and was about to cast a spell on him when an Imp flew over to her with urgency.
"General Majorita, I bring urgent news!" said the Imp.
The now identified Majorita sighed in annoyance "What is it? As you can obviously see, I'm in the middle of a ritual to turn the so-called Overlord of Spirit Interment into my newest toy. By the way, have you found the girl yet?"
The imp shook his head in response "No we haven't found her yet, but we have received reports about a group whom we believe to be the rebels, one of our squads had been taken down…then were strapped to rockets and launched into the air as fireworks. What should we do?"
Majorita scoffed in response "Isn't it obvious? Just kill 'em already. Don't forget my motto; Kill and Recycle. By the way…are these rebels the same ones that appeared in Blood Patch?"
"Yes, reports confirm them to be the very same ones,"
"Hmmmm, in that case…I'll be the one to go and kill them personally. Anyone who rebels against Void Dark will be killed and recycled," Majorita giggled evilly "Alright then, you can go now,"
"….um, there's one more,"
At this point, Majorita was getting irritated and made it known by glaring at the Imp "What else is there?! Out with it!"
Sweating bullets, the imp spoke up timidly "…w-we've received reports about sightings of a silver-haired male demon with a nine-tailed fox riding atop his shoulder. We believe that it's the same demon who was rumored to use both demonic and angelic powers from Blood Patch,"
Majorita raised an eyebrow in interest "You mean he's here as well?" the imp nodded in affirmation, making her smile evilly. She had been rather skeptical when she heard the rumors of a demon using both powers without issue. And now opportunities have presented themselves to her. Not only can she get rid of the rebels, she can also find out if the rumors are actually true, she could make him her pet too.
"This won't be a dull day after all, but first things first," she turned to the defeated Overlord with a sneer "Time to make you my new pet~,"
Meanwhile, Killia and the others have just cleared out yet another squad of Lost Soldiers and it appears that they have a new member of the group. The demon goes by the name Christo and he claims to also go against Void Dark and his Lost Army but he wasn't exactly forthcoming about himself much to their mild annoyance.
"Like I said before, you two don't need to come if you're scared. You would just get in the way," said Killia sternly.
"You mistake the Red Magnus' trembling for fear instead of excitement, I eagerly look forward to an amazing battle with Bloodis!" the red Oni crossed his arms and laughed.
"There's no way I'm going to miss viewing your triumph over this supposed Demon General, Sir Killia," said Seraphina with a dreamy look in her eyes.
"…," Killia simply remained silent, not bothering to react to their excuses.
"You all are quite an amusing group to have as company," Christo chuckled at their antics "Let's see if they can be of use for my plans,"
They were suddenly snapped out of their thoughts when someone appeared before them and they looked to see that it was a short demon girl who appears to be as unassuming as they come.
"By any chance, are you the group of people who are rebelling against the might of Lord Void Dark?" asked Majorita.
"…," no one said anything due to being surprised by her sudden appearance.
"Of course you are, just look at the rebellious expressions on your faces. But it matters little for I; Majorita the Corpse Master Overlord and beautiful Demon General of Void Dark shall kill you as well as your friends and family then turn you all into zombies and become my playthings…," Majorita continued to ramble on without stopping.
"…Who is this kid?" asked Killia skeptically, causing Majorita to pause and look back in shock.
"Who cares? She needs to quit with the game of pretend and get out of our way so we care find Bloodis," said Seraphina nonchalantly, Majorita's eye twitched at the casual dismissal.
"This is certainly unprecedented," said Christo, pushing up his eyeglasses.
Majorita began to tremble in anger "Treating me like a kid, overlooking me to search for the new guy…that does it!" she unleashed a tremendous amount of magical energy which caused the very ground much to the shock of everyone save for Killia who only frowned.
Back with Naruto and Kurama, the duo was currently roaming the area in search of the Demon General in hopes of obtaining information so as to figure how to locate Void Dark and take him down. Although there was a bit of an oddity when fireworks suddenly appeared in the sky only for a moment before they continued on their way.
"Okay, we know that a Demon General is here. So, the question now is where do we find her?" asked Kurama.
Naruto was about to respond when they both felt a powerful pressure which practically spiked through the roof, causing them to look towards a single direction with deep frowns on their faces.
"I don't even need to ask if you felt that," said Naruto.
"No doubt that it belongs to that Majorita whom we just heard about,"
"Then let's head on over there and say hello,"
They both took off at highspeed whilst leaving behind large trails of dust in their wake towards the source of power.
Returning to Killia and co, the former still remained calm under pressure while the rest were on the edge of freaking out.
"Such power in a little girl, the Red Magnus is getting super excited for a fight with her!" said Red Magnus with a grin on his face.
"I'm afraid that I do not share your enthusiasm," Christo muttered "I need to get out of here, staying with this group would get me killed if they intend to face this girl with the gap in power being too great,"
"Oh, I almost forgot to ask," Majorita hummed in thought "Have any of you weaklings seen a little girl with a large yellow Prinny?"
"What are you talking about? We haven't seen anyone like that," Seraphina retorted.
"Tch, not here either. Fine then, do any of you know of a guy with a nine-tailed fox?"
The group were still confused, even more so when Killia "You speak of Naruto?"
"Wait, that plebian has a fox? How come didn't we see it?" asked Seraphina.
"Well, he did give us the super knockout before and Killia was conscious the whole time," said Red Magnus.
"Excuse me, but may I ask of who this Naruto is?" Christo inquired out of curiosity.
"So, his name is Naruto. At the very least I know his name, a pity that I still can't find that girl. Thanks for the info, you can die now," Majorita snapped her fingers to summon a large horde of animated corpses along with that of the Overlord of Spirit Interment "Have fun with my latest toy, keep in mind that it only possesses 1/10,000 of my power but should be more than enough to deal with you all,"
"So, that must be Overlord Geese, apparently, he was no match and is now her zombie puppet. A pity really," said Christo.
"Now Geese, reap their lives and bring their bodies afterwards. I can make better use of their bodies than they would," the witch girl turned around and began walking away.
Killia called out after her "What are you doing, turning tail and running away?"
"Running away?" Majorita scoffed "Don't flatter yourself, none of you are worth breaking a fingernail for,"
"We'll see about that as you're wide open!" Seraphina brought out her pistols and fired at her only for the zombies to intercept the incoming attacks by acting as Majorita's meat shield "Tch, how annoying but I can't deny a good battle tactic. I'm sure that my Prinnies would be honored to serve as my meat shield," the aforementioned Prinnies felt dread crawl up their spines for unknown reasons.
Majorita summoned a magic circle and prepared to teleport herself away from the realm when someone spoke up, gaining everyone's attention.
"Whoa, what a party turnout. Here's hoping that there's an open invite to all," a male voice spoke.
"Who's there? Show yourself this instant," Majorita demanded with a frown.
"Okay okay, take it easy. I was gonna do that anyway," the owner of the voice appeared amongst them in a blur and many recognized the person save for a few with one of them being Majorita.
"Who are you?"
Naruto smirked as he pointed a thumb at himself "The name's Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze," then he pointed at Kurama "And this is my buddy Kurama the Nine-Tailed Fox,"
"So, he's here too…," Seraphina grumbled at the sight of the former blonde, recalling her defeat at his hands back in Blood Patch.
"So, you're the Naruto whom I've been hearing about. Well, this is perfect as I was looking for you," said Majorita with a smirk.
Naruto shrugged his shoulders in response "The feeling's mutual since we were looking for you. Your little display of power practically screamed out where you were which made it easy for us to locate,"
"And color us surprised that it came from a little girl like you, but I've long since learnt not to judge by one's appearance. This guy right here proved that too many times," said Kurama.
Naruto glanced to see Killia and the others before waving at them "Hey guys, been a while since we saw each other and it looks like you've gotten a new member into your party,"
"Is this the Naruto whom you spoke of before?" asked Christo curiously.
Killia nodded in affirmation "The very same one,"
"I've heard rumors about you Naruto, that you wield both demon and angel powers. Honestly, I find that rather hard to believe," said Majorita.
Naruto crossed his arms in response "That's your own opinion, believe what you want to believe. You'll eventually find out whether or not the rumors are true,"
Majorita frowned his statement "It sounds like you're challenging me, it is quite bold and foolish to face a Demon General with such false confidence," she emitted her power to intimidate him.
Naruto and Kurama remained calm without so much as flinching from the aura radiated before the former spoke "You'll need to do more than emit power if you want to intimidate me,"
"Oh, I'll do more than that," Majorita snapped her fingers to summon a horde of zombies before her "I'll have you torn apart then put back together so many times that no one will be able to recognize you!"
"Excuse me, may I advise you in not challenging her by yourself as that is nothing more than suicide," Christo called out.
"I know, that would be for any run-of-the-mill demon," Naruto took off Force Edge and pointed it at Majorita "But Kurama and I are anything but regular,"
"On the other hand, you and others have bigger things to worry about," Kurama pointed a tail towards the zombified Geese and the horde.
"That fool, he must be delusional to believe that he could take on a Demon General in an attempt to impress me," Seraphina spoke in annoyance.
"Let's focus on our current situation before us then we'll assist him should things go south in his case," said Killia.
"Then Red Magnus is going to beat everyone super-fast!" said Red Magnus with gusto.
Naruto's eye twitched in irritation at the fact that they're still underestimating him, that Seraphina is seriously giving him pre-Sakura vibes.
"Alright Kurama, time to show everyone just why we're good at what we do," said Naruto.
Kurama grinned as he hopped off Naruto's shoulder to land on the ground next to him "Finally, time to show off my might,"
Music Start: Devil May Cry 3 OST; Divine Hate
"Tear them apart, my puppets!" Majorita declared, her zombie horde charging towards the duo to attack by her command.
Naruto smirked in response "Let's put that to the test," he charged right back at them before leaping high into the air then diving in with a spinning diagonal slash to bisect several of them. He rapidly hacked and slashed, alternating between targets and keeping up the pace to ensure that he isn't caught off guard by any attacks from his blind spot.
"Trick!" Naruto's body flashed with demonic energy as he utilized the Trickster style for a hit-and-run tactic to weave in and out of the zombie horde while at times stomping on their heads as stepping stones to get around "You guys are already dead, so I can freely go to town with you!" he cleaved a zombie from above with a Helm Breaker before turning towards the next batch with the Force Edge reared back "Stinger!" he lunged across the battlefield at highspeed to pierce through several zombies before gripping with both hands to swing around and slam into others as a makeshift flail "Million Stab!" a blinding whirlwind of stabs from Naruto left a group of zombies full of large gaping holes in their zombies.
Kurama suddenly called out to Naruto "Incoming from above!" the Nephalem wasted little time in disappearing in a blur then reappearing, perched atop the head of a zombie and looking at a large tombstone which had crashed onto where he was standing earlier.
Naruto looked towards Majorita who was simply grinning at him "Calling out to me would have been better than trying to squash me like a watermelon,"
"The latter option is much more fun than the former if you ask me, which you shouldn't bother doing," said Majorita nonchalantly.
"If you want to have a conversation with me so badly, hang on for a moment and I'll be right over,"
Naruto flipped off the zombie's head to land on the ground with a slight crouch and the Force Edge being held in a reverse grip. Recalling one of the techniques from the visions, Naruto channeled demonic energy into the Force Edge, causing the blade to glow red with lightning crackling along the blade "Drive!" he swung the sword to launch a red crescent wave of demon energy which easily sliced through most of the zombies and clearing open a path towards Majorita.
The Demon General only blink for a moment then she saw Naruto right in front of her with a fist shrouded in red energy and already in motion for a punch to the face, a panicked Majorita quickly moved out of the way to avoid the attack for it to crater the ground where she stood before retaliating with a magic spell "Mega Star!" she conjured a large white magic circle beneath Naruto as two shooting stars orbited around him before rising to the sky to fuse into a large energy of energy to shoot down towards Naruto and engulfed him in an explosion of light.
Majorita giggled with glee "That's what happens when you face someone as powerful as me! And now for the mutt!" she turned towards Kurama and became confused by his expression "What's so funny? I destroyed your master and yet you appear amused,"
"I find it funny that everyone thinks it's easy to take Naruto down, I'm starting to lose count on how many found out the hard way that he's extremely difficult to keep down for long as you're about to learn," said Kurama amusedly.
"What nonsense are you talking abo-," Majorita's questioning was disrupted when the ground underneath her feet suddenly burst open and a clenched fist shot out from it and slammed into her chin to launch the Demon General away via an uppercut then crashed back to the ground. The dust cloud dissipated to reveal Naruto who was currently patting the dirt off his clothes.
"You have no idea how much I've gotten used to people trying to blow me up," said Naruto as he finished getting most of the dirt off his clothes.
Majorita got up while rubbing her jaw to ease off the pain before glaring at Naruto angrily "You're going to pay for that,"
"Do you take IOUs?"
"That's it, Necro Wave!" Majorita waved her hands to conjured a dark purple pool around Naruto as swarms of decayed arms shot out to grab him.
Naruto leapt into the air to avoid the arms and tried to get away but the arms had no intention of letting him escape and pursued him in midair, the Nephalem remained ever determined and pulled off his next move "Sky Star!" he focused his demonic energy into a temporary mid-air platform then kicked off it to propel himself even further and faster to get out of range and landing safely, but he soon found himself being attacked by more zombies.
Over with Kurama, he was blitzing around the battlefield whilst slicing the zombies into pieces with his razor-sharp claws and sending others flying with his elongated tails, he was well aware of Naruto's dislike of taking lives but didn't need to fret considering that zombies are animated corpses hence don't possess souls so he can go buck wild on them. As at the moment, the zombies were attempting to pile themselves upon him to restrain his movements "Wild Whirl!" he performed a 350 spin with his tails extended to send the surrounding enemies flying much to his amusement "I really missed doing these kinds of things,"
"Zombieam!" one of the Zombies opened their mouths to fire a giant purple beam of energy towards Kurama who looked rather excited at the sight of this and quickly channeled energy into his mouth "Roaring Cannon!" he responded by firing a large beam which clashed with the zombie's attack but quickly overwhelmed it along with several more unfortunate enough to be close to it. Kurama then leapt into the air with a paw raised above his head "Get squashed under my might! Paw of the Beast King!" he enlarged his paw as he swung it down to destroy most of the zombies as well as unleashing a radial shockwave upon impact for additional damage.
"Demonic Howl!" Naruto unleashed a loud roar to unleash a radial shockwave for the same effect, but he's been rather heckled by Majorita's attacks in attempts to catch him off-guard "Roundtrip!" Naruto reared Force Edge back before throwing it across the field like a spinning buzzsaw and shredding through the enemy but it didn't mean that he remained standing "Claws of Nightmare!" he dashed swiftly towards the zombies all the while cutting them down with his lengthened claws enshrouded in demonic energy before recalling the Force Edge back into his hands.
"He fights quite well, even the fox is more than capable of holding its own in battle," said Killia, having been watching the duo fight every now then while he fends off the attacks from Geese.
"Red Magnus is in agreement, makes me want that rematch even sooner!" said Red Magnus excitedly.
Seraphina simply huffed "Hmph, he's just showing off and the Demon General hasn't gotten serious yet,"
"I must admit that he's quite skilled," said Christo "Although I've yet to see him do anything in accordance to the rumors that they've spoken of,"
"Why do you keep fighting? It's only a matter of time before you fall to my might," said Majorita arrogantly.
Naruto shrugged in response "Sorry Mar Mar, but I don't see myself losing anytime soon,"
Majorita stilled at his words "What did you just call me?"
"Mar Mar or do you prefer Mary? Either of them sounds rather fitting, don't you think?"
"Does he have a death wish?" asked Christo.
"Hmph, the fool has condemned himself," said Seraphina, not caring a single bit.
"…," Killia said nothing, waiting to see what happens next.
"Why you…DESTROY HIM!" Majorita summoned thrice the number of zombies to attack.
Naruto smirked at the dight of this "Looks like things are stepping, might as well even out the playing field. Shadow Clone jutsu!" he crossed the middle and index fingers of both hands together and channeled his chakra which conjured a large puff of smoke before dissipating to reveal about a dozen copies of himself before they charged towards the Zombies and proceeded to lay waste upon them in spite of the difference in numbers much to the shock of those witnessing this "I can be my own army when I want to,"
Majorita's jaw dropped at this, she's heard of spells capable of conjuring copies of the caster but never seen one of this magnitude along with the fact that said copies were cutting her zombies even faster than when he and the fox were doing so on their own. The longer she watched her zombies being decimated, the stronger her anger built up until it was well past its limit.
"This can't be happening; this shouldn't be happening! You're supposed to be a weakling and lose!" Majorita ranted whilst stomping her feet on in a childish tantrum.
Naruto quirked an eyebrow at her reaction "Last I checked, Demon Generals do have tantrums. You're kinda lowering your cred right now, Mar Mar-chan,"
"That does it!" Majorita's hands glowed with red energy as she raised them above her head "I'll destroy you here and now! Draugr King!" she summoned yet another purple pool of energy only this time, something very very large emerged from it, revealing to be a colossal zombie with its upper body protruding from the pool then Majorita floated over to perch on its bandaged hand "Destroy him!" the giant zombie began charging up energy in preparation for an attack.
"*Low Whistle* Looks like I really pissed her off, well I've had my fun. Hey Kurama, there's a new playmate here for ya!" Naruto called out to the kitsune.
Kurama looked over to Naruto only to become immediately excited the moment he saw the giant zombie "Oh that thing is just begging to be destroyed, time to bring out the big guns!" Kurama charged forward, launching himself off Naruto's shoulder to leap into the air then enlarged himself to his Tailed Beast size before landing on the ground and causing it to shake upon landing. Kurama opened his mouth to channeled a large sphere of dark purple energy which he then swallowed, forming craters beneath his feet.
"Let it rip, Kurama!" Naruto called out with a smirk.
"Tailed Beast Bomb!" he spat out the energy sphere right as the giant zombie launched a massive beam of energy, both attacks clashed in the middle and pushed back-and-forth for some time until the Tailed Beast Bomb won the struggle and pushed the beam all the way and striking the giant zombie although Majorita scrambled out of the way but the massive explosion blew everyone away save for Kurama who wrapped his tails around himself as a shield.
"What the hell?! That fox has that kind of power?!" said Seraphina, looking at the aftermath of the attack in disbelief.
"Red Magnus is truly impressed, over five times so far! That fox is fit to serve as my steed!" said Red Magnus excitedly.
"That technique isn't a magic spell but rather a jutsu used by Ninja and Kunoichi…could he have been trained by one?" thought Killia with narrowed eyes.
"What power…could he be an Overlord?" thought Christo.
Majorita got up to her feet, coughing from the dust and smoke around her. She was about to make a move when she felt something press against her stomach and looked down only to pale upon seeing Naruto in a crouch and his palm pressed against her stomach "Y-You…!"
"Hey there Mar Mar-chan, I seem to recall that you wanted to confirm the rumors being true right? Well…" Naruto smiles as his palm began to glow with pure white light and Majorita felt her dread worsen from sensing the holy energy from it "…here's your confirmation!"
"W-Wait!"
"Divine Light!" the holy energy surged forth as he fired an energy beam from his palm, blasting Majorita away into the air before crashing to the ground and forming a crater upon impact, the Nephalem dusted his hands and proceeded to walk over to the crater, seeing as he had beaten her enough with Kurama shrinking down to his default size and clambered up to his shoulder.
Music End
Naruto peered over the edge to see Majorita covered in burns and her outfit now sporting rips, tears and burns before whistling to catch her attention "I know it's redundant to ask but are you still alive down there?"
The duo heard a groan as the witch raised her head to glare at them "Damn you…,"
"And we have another satisfied customer of the Uzumaki Beatdown Service," said Kurama with a grin, not at all intimidated by the Demon General.
"Now then; care to tell us about your fellow Demon General and Void Dark, been very curious to learn about you guys for quite a while now," said Naruto, squatting to question.
Majorita scowled in response "Do you seriously expect me to tell you anything for simply downing me?"
"Considering that we made your butt kiss the ground several times already, you've got no excuse,"
"No…I won't accept that!" Majorita suddenly conjured a blue magic circle underneath her feet much to their surprise "Next time we meet, I'll make you regret humiliating me like this!"
"Wait!" Naruto attempted to intercept but was too late as she had already warped away, causing him to groan "Aw geez, we went through that fight and got nothing to show it,"
"Not a total loss, we fought and defeated a Demon General although I was expecting more from this one. Hope that the next one we encounter will be more impressive,"
"You got a point there, anyways let's get outta here," the Nephalem and kitsune turned to walk away when a voice called out to them.
"Please wait, let me have a moment of your time," they turned to see the blue haired demon quickly walking towards them with Killia and the others in tow "I must say that it was absolutely amazing and impressive that you and your companion were able to defeat a Demon General,"
Naruto crossed his arms "Uh thanks for the compliment, but who are you?"
"Oh, forgive my rudeness; my name is Christo and it's a pleasure to meet you both," Christo held out a hand for a handshake.
"Okay…," Naruto shook his hand but couldn't help but frown mentally "There's something weird about this guy, he may look like a demon but I'm sensing holy energy within him and no essence of demon energy. What could he be up to that he would mingle with demons?" he glanced past to see the zombified Overlord with them "Seems like you got that guy to join you,"
"Indeed, his addition would serve to benefit us far more than opposing it. As a matter of fact, I'd suggest the formation of the Rebel Army. We all share a common goal of taking down the Void Dark and the Lost Army. Together, we will be capable of defeating them and preventing any more realms from being taken over whilst restoring things back to the way they were before," Christo explained, Naruto couldn't deny the validity and idea of forming the army.
Killia had a different outlook towards the idea "How stupid and a complete waste of my time. you all can join this dumb club, I on the other hand am going to seek out Void Dark," he began walking away when several shots hit where to was about to step, causing he to look back and see Seraphina holding one of her handguns with smoke coming out of the muzzle.
"Now Sir Killia, surely you're not neglecting your duties as my knight, are you? A knight always accompanies his queen until his death, you're pretty much asking for your death by trying to walk away," said Seraphina as a matter-of-factly.
"Please, Mr. Killia, remaining with us will surely prove to be worth your time, effort and loyalty. I implore you to think it over," Christo added, mentally hoping that he doesn't leave.
"…," Killia looked at them for a few moments, then he let out a sigh before walking back to the group.
Christo turned back to Naruto "So, what do you say? Will you accept our invitation into our group?" he extended a hand out.
Naruto looked ready to accept the invitation given that he doesn't sense negativity or deceit from them but then he began to have second thoughts about this, he could tell that each and everyone of them has a personal motive plus he barely knows anything about them as well. There's also the fact that their structure reminds him all too much about Akatsuki which left him with a severely bitter taste in his mouth after everything it had put him and everyone else through back in the Elemental Nations and were the very reason for the Fourth Great Ninja War. Kurama remained silent, waiting for his partner's answer before putting in his own opinion.
After a minute of silence, Naruto spoke up "Thanks for the invite…but I can't join you guys,"
Hearing the response shocked everyone sans Killia who remained stoic. Christo decided to inquire the reason for the refusal "Um, may I ask for the reason?"
"Yeah, no doubt having you with us will make things super interesting!" Red Magnus added, feeling just as confused.
Seraphina huffed "So, you see yourself to be too good for us since you were able to defeat a Demon General all by yourself,"
Mentally rolling his eyes at the insult, Naruto responded "I could join you guys, but the reason why I didn't is because I don't know you all that well. I mean this is the second time we've met and I'm still in the dark about any of you, which includes you Christo,"
Christo blinked in confusion towards the statement "What do you mean?"
"What I mean is that you may have pulled a fast one on the others but you can't do the same for me with who you truly are and what you're really after," said Naruto with a frown.
The statement made Christo take a step back in shock and worry "Could it be…that he knows what I truly am? This could make things quite difficult for me,"
Naruto turned to the rest and spoke "I can't really join a group that might make me regret if I did. Until you prove that I can trust you, I won't be joining until then,"
"Why that arrogant little…," Agitated, Seraphina pulled out her pistols and started firing at Naruto who swiftly brought out his Shakujo and twirled it like a propeller to deflect the bullets.
"You do realize that you're proving my words by shooting at me," Naruto pointed out.
"Oh no, that's not even it. I wish to get back at you for what you did to me back at Blood Patch,"
Kurama deadpanned at this "So, you're still mad about that? All because you can't handle a loss? That's sad for someone who hasn't truly understood what it means to fight in a battlefield. This guy right here has been fighting with his life on the line since he was a kid, the him back then can still beat the you right now if you don't start shaping up,"
The fox's words made Seraphina's face burn red with anger and steam came out of her ears like a whistling kettle, being called weak was just as bad as being called ugly. She is an Overlord and that title DEMANDS respect! Naruto was just about to bid them farewell when a voice suddenly called out.
"Hold it right there!" then someone landed nearby in a cloud of dust before it settled down to reveal who it is.
It was a male demon with grey hair which has been tied into a ponytail to resemble that of a wolf's tail, the hair is held back by a black headband with a yellow zigzag line in the middle. He wears a black one-piece outfit with long sleeves, a high collar, and it was zipped down a bit to expose his chest, he also wears a black belt around his waist with a golden buckle resembling a roaring lion, and a pair of black boots with the pant legs tucked into them.
"A silver-eyed hungry wolf wanders the wasteland. The solitude loving Gale Force Overlord; Zeroken is here!" the demon then struck a pose, hitting Naruto with a sense of nostalgia "Now stand back, amateurs! It is my sworn duty to fight the Lost!"
…
…
…
Zeroken looked around and noticed something was rather off "Uh…where are all the Lost?"
Red Magnus then spoke "You're a little late there kid, we already super beat them up!"
The young demon took a step back in shock at the news "What? Y-You guys already beat up the Lost?!"
Seraphina puffed her chest pridefully "Yes, that's correct. My servants and I did. Do you have a problem with that?"
"I ain't your servant, lady," Naruto pointed out but was ignored.
"Wow, you guys must be pretty strong," Zeroken cleared his throat to regain his initial demeanor "I'll cut you guys some slack today, we'll meet again!" then he took off running at highspeed before anyone could say a word towards him.
Christo hummed in thought "He must have taken Remarkable Parting Shots 101. He said that he was an Overlord but reeks of being a small fry. Do such Overlords exists?"
"…I don't know, but whoever he is…it doesn't make any sense," said Killia nonchalantly.
"Anyways, Mr. Naruto I wish that you co-huh?" Christo turned to speak with Naruto only to see an orange dotted outline of said person blinking, revealing that he was gone "He left already? And we didn't sense him do so,"
"Well, good riddance. We don't need him anyway," said Seraphina.
Killia frowned in thought "This only further proves that he has ninja training under his belt to be able to leave without anyone noticing. Just who is he to be this powerful and yet no one heard of him till now?"
This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, Naruto and Kurama follow the mysterious voice and trail into a temple containing a bit of history relating to the Nephalem before being teleported via a magic circle out of Blood Patch to a cathedral in a pocket dimension. Inside, Naruto encountered a guardian whom he fought in a duel and was able to emerge victorious. He came into possession a sword called Force Edge whose true power remains dormant within it and requires a unified pendant which he has a half of as of now, the duo left the cathedral via a magic circle which teleported them to another realm different from where they were before and sure enough, they ran into several more Lost soldiers and took them down with Naruto imitating the techniques which the Force Edge was sending to him.
Naruto and Kurama learnt from one of the soldiers that a Demon General serving under Void Dark is here in the Spirit Interment, they were wondering how to locate the person when they sensed a great surge of power and immediately made their way over to come across Killia and his companions facing the general called Majorita which led to him and Kurama fighting her as they had placed a bounty on their heads. The fight got a bit tricky but Naruto was able to emerge on top with resentful Majorita retreating with a promise to defeat him next time.
Naruto and Kurama took a bit of time to meet Christo, the newest member of the group with the former noticing that he possesses holy energy within in spite of looking like a demon which rouses suspicion about who he really. The young Nephalem was invited to join the rebel army but chose to deny since he didn't know them all too well enough to join and left when a male demon suddenly showed up with intentions to fight the Lost army before realizing that he came far too late and left as well.
As noted, Naruto now possesses Force Edge along with Dante's red pendant and is well on his way to eventually unlocking The Sparda along with learning the four Styles of Dante which also means he'll be using firearms but that doesn't mean he'll neglect his roots as a shinobi and will still utilize ninja tools in the mix. Naruto will eventually join the group but for now, he and Kurama will be doing their own things whilst crossing with the group every now and then. As for the harem, it's a work in progress given the many characters in the series and so will take some time to process.
Be sure to read and review like always.
This is Hussbek from Ghana.
Signing out and staying alive.