Cid was looking at the 'reunion'… Quotation marks, because of course Alpha wasn't his real mother. But she played the role very good! Even he started doubting that they weren't related…
After their little talk they came out to the waiting Shades and explained the situation… And yes, there were a lot of sighs of relief. Anyway, once they finished with explanation, Alpha and Cid went to whatever room Naruto was in… Where the kid was already surrounded by a bunch of women that were bantering over which clothing style would suit him the best… Didn't they notice the chakra suit?
Right, so they shooed everyone away because what follows after is very super secret meeting… Yes, he said it in this way. It worked, and that's all that matters.
As to what happened on the super secret meeting?
"Sit down," Alpha said gently.
Kid did as he was told to.
Cid did the same and took a cool pose, which Naruto then tried to mimic. It looked very funny, but who is he to judge?
"Pfft…" Alpha! "Right, right, so…" she apparently didn't even know what to say.
"Listen well, Naruto," he decided to take the reins for the time being as kid's head turned back to him, "What you will hear here is of utmost importance…"
He made a moment of silence to make the moment look cooler.
"As you have heard before," he continued, "there are otherworldly enemies that seek out to devour essence of the worlds," Alpha stared at him dumbfounded, "I have fought one once… It was a battle well-fought," well, not quite; Cosmic Serpent only had power, but no skill, "However, there are too much. This is why you will take the banner in your world!" he pointed dramatically.
"M-Me?…"
"Yes, Naruto, you," Cid nodded sagely, "Unfortunately, after your graduation I will have to leave you…" he shook his head 'in sadness', "But I believe you can protect your world. Especially if you create your own organization that can help you," Cid raised his hand with a smile, "And once your world knows peace, nothing stops you from learning how to travel on your own… And, who knows, find me…? Find us?"
Naruto clenched his little fists.
"B-But I don't want to leave…"
"I understand your wish," Alpha took the initiative, still staring at Cid, "However, sometimes we have to make a choice that goes against our wishes…" she stopped herself to take a breath, "And up until that moment, we will provide you with everything. Training, knowledge, care… We will do everything to make sure you are ready for what is coming."
"A-Alright…" Naruto still looked like sad fox, especially with that new hoodie of his.
"Relax," Cid placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder, "We are not leaving your right now. However, you will still have to learn how to survive on your own… And that's where our knowledge and experience will come in handy."
"U-Um!"
"Alpha, think you can give out some good instructors?" he turned around.
"Yes, I do have someone in mind…" she nodded thoughtfully, chin on her hand.
"Neat, I am leaving this to you, then!"
And after their talk, Cid decided to go out and look how things will develop from there.
Well, Alpha certainly felt out of place with little kid trying to cling onto her, but slowly warmed up to him. In the end she even gifted him a candy! Yeah, operation 'Good family' is a go!
Certainly, after tutoring from a mysterious person behind the curtains and his organization this kid will become a top-level Protagonist! He even heard back in previous life a term for that thing… Grandpa in a ring, or something? Though Cid was not in a ring… Eh, doesn't matter.
He had another problem tugging at his coat, anyway. One brown-haired with purple eyes and an obsession with science problem.
"Master…" one Eta was standing right near him and trying to take his attention.
"Yes, Eta?" he took a profound look №17.
"Can I dissect him?…" at this moment Cid really wanted to fall down in a stupid way just to show how outrageous her proposal is.
"No, Eta, you can't dissect him," he stared at her. This is his Protagonist! Go seek another one!
"Bo-o-o…" she pouted, "He has… something interesting… on his stomach…"
"Oh, you noticed that, too?" he was pleasantly surprised.
"Not me…" she shook her head, "My detectors… Went crazy…"
"Apparently, this kid is host of a demon or something," Cid shrugged.
Eta's eyes beamed.
"Master… Just a little…" she pleaded.
"No is no, Eta."
"I will make it painless…"
"Nuh-uh."
"Yuh-uh…"
Naruto calmed down.
He calmed down long ago, but now he calmed down for sure. That's how calm he was!
After meeting his mom and learning about something bad lurking near his world Naruto fired up with determination. He will definitely make sure to do the task given to him!
Alpha — that's how his mom was called, — even nodded seriously and called some other women to prepare training and reading materials for him. He didn't like reading, if he is being honest, but mom said so…
And now it was his second day here.
It was nice, he was fed a lot of yummy food and given a lot of lessons… Some even showed cool techniques! But he needed to up his control first…
Creak.
He turned his head in curiosity and saw a girl peeking through it.
"Um, hi?" he decided to start the conversation.
"You are Naruto?" she immediately went to the point.
"That's me!" he nodded vigorously.
"I am Lilac, your big sister," she introduced herself proudly.
Though Naruto had one objection to that.
"Why are you big sister? I am big brother!" he even stood up to prove that… Only to realize the 'big sister' really was taller than him a full head.
Lilac smirked.
"I am also older!" she raised her finger and started shaking it, then suddenly she frowned and looked at his stomach, "Oh, what is that?"
"Where?" he looked down, too, but did not see anything out of ordinary.
She blinked a few times before nodding seriously and coming up closer. Naruto tensed up…
"…Gotcha!" she tapped on his forehead and laughed, running away, "Catch me if you can!"
Cyclops that looked like a Frankenstein's monster, created from different body parts, stared at the paralyzed humanoid creature in front of him.
"Plague of worlds…" his voice was a thunder that almost broke creature's mind, "What were you planning to do with that seed?"
Creature only growled back.
"What did I even expect…" his small mandibles twitched, "Of course you can't talk."
A wave of his hand, and the creature is slowly broken down into particles as he stares at the strange seed. This thing would drain the planet's entire energy, leaving but a shell behind… For what, even? What's the point of using something like this when you can just make contact with endless stars in the universe and learn how to attune with them? Seriously, the lengths most people will go for to obtain power… But this power would be borrowed. Not your own.
However…
Cyclops moved his fingers, and the seed slowly sprouted.
Yes, if he changes just a bit there, then this sprout will soon become new World Tree that would grant new life to long-dead planet… A good decision.
He nodded and allowed seed to disappear in spatial rift. Who knows where it will end up…
In the meantime…
His eye flashed.
Cyclops still can't find that strange person, whoever it was. A shame. Really.
Deviantt said that one of the worlds was interesting, but not that strong, so she decided to temporarily stop there. As of now, she still didn't leave.
Meanwhile, Abominationn was still searching diligently, to no avail.
But it's fine. Cyclops was patient. He waited for thousands of years. He can wait more.
And then…
Mutant grinned.
Then he will see if that person could give him a good conversation.
Cid sat down on his magnificent chair and looked down at his subordinates.
Ah, yes, one of the best feelings: realizing that your childhood dream has finally been fulfilled. He still can't get enough of it. Muh-ha-ha!
Anyway, he just announced that Naruto was his protege, and thus required a lot of care and training. Of course, a lot of people jumped at opportunity to be of use for their Divine Lord, and Cid, not wishing to bother with choosing them personally, asked Alpha and Gamma to make a list of those who could be of use for teaching… Yeah, he ain't beating the allegations about being lazy hamster. Especially considering he still planned to give the personalized training, well, personally.
After the choosing lucky instructors (no, really; judging by their expressions, it seemed like they just won the lottery and now wanted to brag, to dismay of not so lucky members) he gave another cool speech about unity and how there is an enemy lurking in… space. Yeah, space. No, you don't want to know what expression Eta made after realizing that space, in fact, can be explored. Let's just say, he owes some hours of doing magic research with her…
Ahem, back to the topic!
Naruto was escorted out of the meeting, and now it was just him, Shades, and closest to the Shades' circle like Nu, Lambda, Victoria… and a bunch of other people he didn't even know. Gotta fix that later, but for now that will do, too.
"Now, what do you think about it?" he was, of course, asking about otherworldly enemies (which he just made up, by the way).
"If we consider that gigantic Serpent you defeated back then…" Gamma, their businesswoman and moneymaker, started worriedly, "Then they might pose a lot of danger…"
"Don't think anything of that size will come out, though," Zeta's cat ear twitched.
"You don't think size is more important than skill, now do you?" shocked silence and reddening cheeks was his answer, "…Oh, that came out wrong…"
Alpha coughed, redirecting everyone's attention back to herself.
"If what Master Shadow says is true," it isn't; also why with the official talk again? "Then we have to prepare way faster, lest they catch us at the moment of vulnerability."
"I am still… trying to decipher Master's knowledge…" Eta pouted cutely. He had to headpat her to make her non-pouty.
"Yeah, I might have jumped onto way too high level," he rubbed his chin with another hand, half-listening to Eta's noises of happiness, "Spatial manipulation is something that requires a lot of calculations. How about you start with Elemental first instead?"
"Mhm…" she moaned, "Too much concentration… Learned, but did not use that much…."
Well, now that's alarming.
"My dearest Shades, remember what I told you about self-cultivation," he decided to give them some motivation, "To grow is to continue perfecting yourself; to move is to strive towards your goals. When you stop, you give up on your goals. When you become too satisfied with yourself, you start seeing yourself as being without a sin whose opinion outweighs even objective truth the world shows to you."
He paused, enjoying their looks of bewilderment. Yes, yes!
"This is why if you ever feel that something is too hard for you, just take a close field, but the one that is easier. Remember," he raised his finger, "All knowledge is connected, and what you learn at fields of arts may unexpectedly be useful in fields of maths. Do you understand?"
Eta's burning gaze said it all.
"Yes, Master… I now see… The Shadow Wisdom!…"
"Wonderful," he nodded sagely, "Then, I shall depart and prepare my part. Alpha, make sure everything is going as planned."
"By your wish, Shadow," she bowed.
He made a cool swing of his coat and disappeared in shadows.
Now, for the important parts…
He took out Eta's notebook about Pylons and started reading.
Uh-huh… Yah-hah…
You know, he might understand everything… But what the fuck is this?!
'Creation of unstable dimensional perpendicular against the plane of the world induces the space-time warp, Class N, which follows the advanced rune and gravity formula. By tweaking how strong does perpendicular grind against plane of the world it might be possible to make the anomaly stable, thus creating semi-permanent spatial rift that allows traveling between similar perpendiculars, or completely break it down, inducing a large space-time flare. The flare might affect all other perpendiculars, creating a chain reaction that leads to complete system annihilation and inflicts heavy damage to the material world, thus making it possible to be used as a weapon, given enough preparation time.'
'Space-time warps (not to be confused with curvature) are categorized by classes; while the usual sequence is that the closer to Z warp is categorized, the more dangerous it is, it doesn't mean that the effective radius grows the same way. For example, Class H only affects a rather small scale of material world, usually being limited to whatever object it is bound to; however, it has the unique property of being connected to other Class H warps, thus making a possibility of chain reaction that could destroy material world, should enough of them appear "near" each other. On the other hand, Class F, while being able to affect a large radius of the entire country, is short-lived and stabilizes near immediately after appearance, thus not making is as dangerous as Class H could possibly be; for more information, look for "Cosmic Serpent Scales"…'
'Black Rose is classified as Class N space-time warp: a stable two-way "tunnel" that allows to reach other worlds with inflicted Time Dilation. It can be connected to multiple worlds at once and is safe enough to be left without supervision: the only reason it is in Class N is because of possibility of being breached by otherworldly beings, since it is a two-way "tunnel", and the fact that it can affect the time flow in different worlds. By itself Black Rose is completely stable, and even in case of destabilization it is calculated the warp will simply collapse on itself, without damage to material worlds.'
'Not to be confused with space-time distortions: distortions are usually caused because of material world reaching a certain point where it starts bending the space and time, thus space-time being distorted by something; warps are situations where space itself starts behaving differently, not how it's supposed to work given the knowledge about material world, thus being warped. Warped space-time may exhibit qualities that are not supposed to exist, like connecting two faraway points, allowing to reach one from another in an instant…'
Cid closed the book and fell on the chair.
You know what? Let Hams decipher it. He ain't reading all that…
Cid watching how Eta starts explaining his abilities and creations in official scientific language: sad hampter looking up
And yes, Eta has a lot of notes about different stuff; no, I am NOT writing 30k words about Eta's notes on space-time and how to bend it… or do I?