A/N: Sorry for the delay! Work was hell.
Please read this little note, would you kindly? It would mean the world to me.!
As ever, reviews keep me writing. Without them, I lose all inspiration. So by all means, speak up!
Call that what you will, but I write for feedback; that, and the joy of chatting with you all. That's the long and short of it.
Feels like its all I have these days...
Now then, chapter focuses solely on Naruto. Why, you ask? Because its a bloody long one and he's got his work cut out for him. Sasuke and the rest are busy with their own disasters at the moment, and we'll see them next chapter as we go back to the usual format. We'll go back to the usual format next chapter.
Well, this chapter is probably my most powerful one yet.
Its certainly going to be an emotional one
Now onto your questions:
Q: Is Naruto keeping that little Nevermore? The one that Salem gave him? I know you old friend, you don't drop clues like that for nothing...
A: *whistles innocently*
Q: Update schedule please?
A: Partners in Crime and Just a Dust Shop Should be next. should be next. Also! Effective immediately, the updates for The Gods Must Be Crazy, Rags to Riches, and All things Must Die are being pushed back. They're not ready yet. Sorry for that, but I'm incredibly busy and I won't stand for short chapters anymore.
People bash the hell out of me for writing anything under 2,000 words, so I'm trying to avoid that...
Q: Wait! Salem's had all that time to prepare?! You never, EVER give someone who can use magic time to prepare! Magic is OP! Besides, how in the hell is Naruto going to win if he can't put her in the ground?!
A: Read and see. That's all I can say.
Q: How intense will this battle be?! Can Salem be saved?! Find out next time, on Dragonball Z!
A: Yes, yes, very cheeky.
Well, alright, then! I think I've kept you long enough. Gonna take a long nap after this.
As ever, I own no references, quotes, themes or memes. Not a wit or one~!
Speaking of references...!
"You say run? Never. I say stand.
~?
Reasons To Stand
Salem's tower certainly lived up to its name.
Naruto craned his neck upward to regard it as a curious tourist might some natural wonder; this towering spire of black crystal and blacker rock that never seemed to end. Really, it reminded him of certain tree he'd once seen back in the War but darker somehow, a great ghastly spear jutting up into the perpetual night of the Grimmlands in blatant defiance of gravity and all laws of physics. At first he thought its spire pierced the very clouds themselves; until he realized, those weren't clouds at all, but teeming swarms of Nevermore, beasts so numerous that they darkened the already bleak skyline.
He couldn't even see the top of the tower from here. And still no sign of Salem to be seen.
"We could always blast it apart." Kurama offered. "That would be sure to draw her out."
The blond thumbed his chin. Tempting, but no. They weren't here to cause wanton destruction...not yet, at any rat. No matter how enticing it might be.
Really, he wasn't sure what he'd expected.
Grimm milled about restlessly, prowling on the edges of his vision as he walked the last mile or so toward the towards. Dozens -no, hundreds of them!- were scattered about the wastes, some wandering with no real intent or objective, others protecting the tower itself. And yet for for all that, not one of those came near. He could hear them, feel their mindless hate, but for all that they were held in check by something. No. By someone. The lot of them were leashed by a powerful will; one that kept them from acting on their impulses and rending him to shreds.
"Two guesses who. First two don't count."
'You're awfully excited today.' he smiled at last. 'What's the occasion?'
"We get to put someone with a god complex in her place. How can I not be excited?"
For lack of any other options, Naruto approached the tower proper.
There was a dark ring welded to the main door, carved in the shape of a snarling dragon's head. Didn't surprise him. This seemed like something she would do. On a whim, he grabbed the brass handle, reared back, and slammed it against the door. Once. Twice. Thrice. The noise echoed hollowly through the foundation. A minute passed. Then two. Followed by three.
No one emerged from the tower.
"Well?" Naruto turned his gaze to the juvenile Nevermore perched upon his shoulder. "Any idea where your boss is? She told us to meet her here."
Beady red eyes gleamed at him as the fierce little fowl met his gaze. "Cawww." (Nope!)
"Right, right," his head bobbed, "I get it, but that doesn't help me."
It managed the avian equivalent of a shrug. "Caw."
"Don't get sassy with me, missy!"
"You can understand that thing?"
"More or less." Naruto shrugged right back. "Guess it comes with being a sage. Grimm or not, its still a bird for the most part-ow!" he hissed as a razor sharp beak stabbed into his arm. "Hey, don't peck me! You're a very impressive bird!"
Mollified by his words, the little grimmling settled back down onto his shoulder with a huff.
He had the strangest impression it was glaring at him.
"Skreeee!"
Alright, definitely glaring. It really was strange strange, having an intelligent Grimm with him. Salem might've made this one a little too smart. It understood his words and didn't seem all that aggressive compared to its larger cousins. Why, if he didn't know better, he could've swore it had a personality of its own.
Black wings buffeted his face, snapping him back to the present.
"Caw!"
"I'm not spacing out!" Now it was his turn to sulk. "Just trying to figure out what to do." A thought occurred to him then, and he regarded the bird anew. "Y'know, I still need a name for you. Doesn't feel right just calling you "it" or "thing" anymore. We're pals." he thumbed his chin, considering the matter for a moment. "How about Feathers?"
"Caaaaw!" it still managed to sound outraged despite lacking a human face to do so. Or perhaps those were the talons digging into his shoulder.
"Well, I can't call you Raven!" he glowered at the surly bird. "Pretty sure someone took that already...hrrm...how about Starscream! Sounds pretty cool, right?"
A nasty caw told him just what it thought of that.
"Luna?"
The pecking returned with a vengeance.
"Alright, your majesty!" he batted away the beak before it could find his eye. "Third time's the charm. How about Mavis?"
Just like that, the-now-named Grimm stilled on his shoulder. There was a moment of silence, followed by a content warble. Its peace said, the little Nevermore beat its wings once and settled back down onto again. From there it tucked its head into one wing, and didn't budge.
"Aha~!" Naruto's grin grew. "Like that, do you?" he dared to reach out and pat its tiny head and was reward with a faint trill. "Well, since your boss doesn't keen on showing up...
"Hold!"
With that word the main door crashed open, revealing the Queen of the Grimm in all her twisted glory. Naruto quirked a brow, yet nevertheless turned to face her.
What he found there surprised him. Clad in little more than a simple black gown, the bane of Remnant had nevertheless let her hair down; it softened what might have been an otherwise intimidating visage as she leaned against the door for support. She looked like she'd come running; a faint bead of sweat on her brow only confirmed his suspicions. Her feet were bare. And why was her hair damp...?
"Blast it," his keen ears heard her whisper. "You're early...
Kurama scoffed in the back of his head. "It seems we caught her off guard...I don't think she was ready for us."
Naruto wondered if he ought to feel sorry for her. He'd run here straight from Vale at full speed. It hadn't even taken an hour. Only sense that she was surprised, he supposed.
"Well, well." Salem opined, head tilting ninety degrees. "You look even better in person.
"Excuse me...?"
"Ahem!" his fearsome foe coughed into a fist, marshaled her composure, and straightened at last. "Hello again, Deceiver." her low voice stroked at his ego, but any effect those words might've had were shattered by her disheveled appearance. "Our long awaited meeting has come at last."
A low sigh escaped him. "Again with that name...
"It suits you." she smiled. "If I didn't know Ozma to be alive and well in Vale, I'd say you were him."
Naruto blinked. "Ozma-who-now?"
"You don't know...?" She granted him a slow blink. "Amazing. To have come so far, knowing so little. I envy you. Ignorance is bliss."
"Wow. Didn't expect that. I'm almost flattered."
"You should be. Its not often I entertain guests. Certainly not one of your...stature." She stepped aside and swept an arm before herself. "Won't you come inside? We have much to discuss."
It was a tempting offer. Reasonable, even. And yet a thorn of hesitation caught at his heart.
...I don't think that's a good idea."
"Come now, I won't bite." she cooed. "Let us have a bit of discourse before our battle. Its been so long since I spoke with someone."
His guard slammed into place. "Whatever you're plotting I want no part of it. Don't treat me like one of your pawns."
"You are no pawn, nor would I think to make you one." she stepped to him and laid a hand on his shoulder. "You are something more."
"Not something to be used by you." he countered quickly. "Whatever you're up to, whatever you're scheming, don't."
"Do I seem so shallow to you?"
Dangerous, more like. She was up to something, he knew it, but he couldn't sense a single negative thought from her. Her confidence was really. Bordering on arrogance. For reasons he couldn't fathom, she was confident in her victory here today. Why? Did she have a scheme up her sleeve? Some sinister plot that he wasn't aware of? No, he would've sense that...wouldn't he?
Salem must've seen the concern in his eyes too; because she sighed.
"To battle first, then. We can speak afterwards."
"Sure." Naruto lifted his chin in quiet defiance. "After I win."
"There it is." she smiled. "That's the look. You and your emotions. They'll doom you."
"And what would you know about that?"
"I have seen them personified." her rejoinder startled him with intensity. "Love, Hate, Fear. I've seen the former in the eyes of a man who thought he could change me. Save me. I've seen the moment when good men lost all reason and gave themselves over to fear. I've witnessed countless acts of vengeance, each were driven by fury."
She moved to circle him and he followed.
"And so I realized something." She smiled softly, concealing a peal of laughter behind a pale hand. "No, perhaps it would be more appropriate to say say I remembered something that I had forgotten. That I have personally experienced the irrationalism of humanity. I know what happens when emotions make someone unreasonable. I've been there. We've all been there. No matter how much we believe we've modernized, progressed, advanced, no matter what social constructions we pledge to live by, humans continue to be foolish creatures."
Naruto frowned. "Does this lecture have a point?"
"Patience, dear boy. Humanity think itself so advanced, but when pushed we still prioritize emotion over logic." A pale finger jabbed at his chest. "When a human being is overcome with hatred, or love, they'll keep fighting without concern for self interest or reason, regardless of what they might stand to gain or lose." she stepped away, smiling as a faint hum overtook the air. "So allow me to congratulate you, from one ruler to another."
She bowed then, deep and low at the waist.
"You are an exceptional human, Naruto Uzumaki."
Her gaze rose a heartbeat later, red eyes glowing like rubies in her skull.
"But you made one fatal mistake." her lips parted as the smile became a sneer. "You gave me time. Never, ever give an immortal time."
"Time for what?"
Salem raised her right hand.
And the heavens answered her call.
A bolt of jagged lighting forked down and was caught by her hand, sharpened and shaped into something else entirely. Light gave way to dark steel, a ghastly staff bearing a single crimson jewel as its focus. Just the sort of weapon one might expect from a mistress of magic.
Mavis took flight from Naruto's shoulder, winging away to safety.
"Time to get back into my prime. I admit I've been slacking as of late," the Queen of the Grim lowered her now sparking fingers, regarding them with quiet intent. "Years of misery and depression will do that to you. But you, oh, you." she curled her right hand into a fist and pointed it at him. "You made me curious."
"Did you think I was blind to your actions after you thwarted me?' her eyes slipped back to him, all but brimming with shadow. "I've watched you for some time now. Where does he go, I wondered? Why does he do the thing she does? Why stay in place and try to rule? And that was when I understood. You and I, we're not so different after all." her smile was almost fond, in a distant, broken way. "You seek to change the world. Perhaps in a different way than I did, but you seek change. Just as I did. We're alike."
His pride bridled at that. "We're nothing alike."
"No?" She cocked her head. "You have your family. I had mine...
Naruto stiffened as a rare spark of anger overtook him. "If you threaten them-
"Do you think me so heartless?!" her eyes flashed and for a moment he glimpsed the monster within. "I am many things, but there are lines that even I will not cross!" high above the clouds darkened anew. "I was a mother!" beneath her feet the earth ruptured, spewing black tar from which yet more Grimm were born. "I had daughters of my own!" wind howled, twining itself into terrible twisters at her side. "They were taken from me! To even suggest that I would be so crass as to do the same to another, to rip CHILDREN from their parents...!"
He raised an arm to defend himself, but the attack never came.
"No."
When next Salem spoke, the ghastly contralto of her voice faded...but the fire in her eyes did not die. It did not flicker, it did not fade, nor did it gutter out. Hell froze over. The flames of her wrath replaced by a different sort of fury. Cold, like a frozen mountain. Ancient and immovable. Inevitable. A hatred so deep, a history so long, that he could barely even begin to fathom it. And what had she said just now? Children?
Kurama bridled. "No. Don't even think about it...
"I have no interest in rousing your fury further." Salem's staff planted itself in the ruptured soil, banishing her summoned Grimm with a wave of the rod. "Your children, at least, will be safe...until they are of age. Which is more than could be said for mine."
...what happened to them?"
"Ozma happened." She turned her head aside and spat. "You think me your enemy, little fox? I am the victim in this! It was he who betrayed me! Time and time again! I, who suffered! I, who will right those wrongs!"
Enough talk.
"Right." he cracked his knuckles and turned his head from side to side, producing a horrid crack. "I'm going to pull you out of that darkness one way or another. We can swap stories afterward."
"Fool," she whispered, brandishing her scepter. "I cannot be saved.
"Its never too late."
Then he moved.
Salem's arm snapped down, alarmed to find him right up in her face.
"I'll bet this is the first time you took an attack head on like this." he grinned, forehead pressed to hers. "Hope you savor it! Now clench your teeth!"
Then his Rasengan hit her, hot and hard. Salem's world burst into white light. So did her body, shattering apart into a thousand motes of light. But she didn't scream. Oh no. She laughed at him. Even as she was torn to pieces, she simply reappeared at his side, her body grown anew in a rush of dark light.
Naruto's arm snapped up, blocking her scepter as it swept at his head.
This time, it was her forehead that crashed against his.
Salem smiled at him. "And so it begins!"
A/N: As ever, thanks for the feedback. Can't write this story without it.
Next chapter will be far, far longer, don't you worry.
Time for a brawl!
See, that's the thing about Salem. Naruto can nuke her all he wants, but in Hazel's own words, the longest she'll be gone is "a few hours". So unless he literally spends the entirety of his life nuking her the moment she regenerates, he won't get anything done.
As ever, reviews/feedback keep me writing them. Without them, I lose all hope.
So...in the Immortal Words of Atlas...
...Review...Would You Kindly!
SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER!
PLOT DETAILS AHOY!
YE BE WARNED!
(POTENTIAL PREVIEWS. Be sure and vote for what you want to see~!)
"My fists have a lot of names, Salem. And whole lotta thoughts backing 'em up! So! If you really want to test your strength! Stay right where you are! This is gonna hurt!"
Naruto reared back.
Salem mirrored him perfectly.
Light met dark. Twin forces collided.
Sasuke felt the ground quake.
"Even from here...? That chakra feels like...
Sakura slapped a hand to her forehead, hiding a rueful smile. "Who else could it be...?
Ozma, now Ozpin, felt it too.
"Surely not...!"
The entire studio shook.
Cordovin gulped "What...what was that?"
"That?" Kakashi smiled. "Was one of my students. A whole continent away."
Summer tilted her head. "Who's that?"
Maria pinched the brow of her nose. "I believe we're about to find out."
STAY TUNED! R&R! =D