Hello there!
It's great to see both my fics doing well and I am glad you guys seem to love them. Anyway, this chapter and probably the next will be an interlude before the journey to liyue. I know that the rite of descension is supposed to take place a few days after the stormterror incident but I am pushing it back a bit. I'll also add a fight scene for the hell of it. Anyway, hope you enjoy!
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
"Kurama/spirits/beasts talking"
It was a lovely morning in Mondstadt. The sun was coming just coming up and the people were going about as normal, while the knights acted relived. On this fine morning, Naruto was up on Dragonspine, exterminating the Fatui agents on the mountain. He blocked a swing from an Electro hammer Vanguard, jumped over a Cryo gunner and stuck a kunai into his gun, rendering it useless. Flipping around, he spied a Hydro gunner and pulled him closer with his Rinnegan before activating the explosive tag on the kunai's handle. The explosion blasted Cryo energy all over place and damaged the Hydro gunner's tank. Seizing the opportunity, Naruto turned off his Rinnegan and launched himself up with a powerful blast of Anemo, causing all the elements to swirl together and leave everyone either shocked or frozen. The airborne blond activated his Rinnegan and sent a ball of fire at the frozen agents. Once he landed, he watched the agents disappear before doing one last sweep of the area.
It had been two weeks since Naruto had duped Signora and stolen Venti's gnosis from her, and life was going well for Mondstadters, especially for the knights. After seeing a bunch of Fatui agents standing around the incapacitated Honorary Knight and a "helpless" bard with their weapons out, things did not look good for them. They were swiftly taken down by Jean and Kaeya, saving the "victims" of this "unprovoked attack". With Naruto and Diluc's help, they expelled all Fatui agents and diplomats from the city and territory of the Anemo archon. They then prepared to lay down heavy charges against the Fatui, scouring through claims and rumors and filing away every little detail they could find to build the best possible case. When a letter arrived from one of the Fatui harbingers, the second to be precise, demanding that Mondstadt let their "allies" back into the city, they hit back with all the information they gathered and followed it up with a statement claiming that all Fatui operations were forbidden in Mondstadt. Lacking anyway to disprove the claims, the Fatui backed down but continued their operations in the area, which were currently being dismantled by Diluc and Naruto.
After destroying most of the Fatui bases on Dragonspine, Naruto headed back to the winery to meet up with Diluc. Today was a big day to him after all. Today, he and Kaeya were going to tell Diluc about their involvement with the Abyss order. Naruto didn't know how Diluc was going to take the news, and for all he knew, he might just lose all of Diluc's trust. Hearing some familiar voices, he looked around, before realizing he was already at the Dawn winery. Coming out of his thoughts, he saw Kaeya standing outside the door and waving at him. Naruto ran up to the Cavalry captain and gave him a look. Both of them were nervous and scared of losing an integral part of their family, but neither could bare to keep Diluc in the dark any longer. So, with a resolute nod, both of them entered the winery.
Ten minutes later, Diluc was sitting in a locked room with Naruto and Kaeya looking quite uncomfortably at him. The two had walked into his room and said that they needed to speak to him privately, but hadn't elaborated any further. They had dragged him to Naruto's room, locked the door and Naruto got to work hanging up some paper slips while Diluc and Kaeya just looked at each other awkwardly. "Done!" Naruto's shout drew both their gazes to him. Feeling the stares, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Ok. Dad, we brought you here because we want to talk to you about something, quite important." Naruto paused and took another deep breath. "We have some information on the Abyss order we want to share with you." From how much the boy was dragging it out, Diluc could tell that it was a big thing for him to say. So, with a gentle smile and a small nod, Diluc tried to encourage the boy. It seemed to work as the boy calmed down. "WeareworkingwiththeAbyssorder!" Despite Naruto's effort, it looked like Diluc had heard him. Kaeya sighed. This was going to be a long day.
Jean was in her office doing paperwork. It truly was the bane of all leaders, something even the strongest Vision users couldn't hope to defeat. Even though it was a lot of work, Jean looked a lot happier and much less stressed than before. The reason was the expulsion of all Fatui agents and diplomats from Mondstadt. She had dreamt of the moment ever since she saw the very ill Sumerian girl that Amber befriended. While she wanted to do something about the Fatui, but nothing she nor anyone could have done at the time, would've permanently stopped the Fatui from doing any operations in the City of Freedom. What she ever did to deserve this stroke of luck must have been something big. She also swore to cherish the look on the face of the head Fatui agent when he realized that nothing he did would turn the situation around for them. It was Naruto's idea to capitalize on the situation by publicizing it, with Lumine and Venti's permission of course, and using it to put political pressure on the Fatui. For days they scoured through reports and complaints, all to try and gain the upper hand before an imaginary deadline. After all that work, she could finally relish in the absence of the Fatui, and maybe even share a drink with her friends. Once she gets all this paperwork paperwork done, that is.
Lumine was… intrigued. Her and Paimon were taking a walk around Springvale after completing a commission for a food delivery when they had met a young girl with rather, eccentric takes in food. After trying, and failing, to hunt some boar, they had to apologize to the village leader Draff because they had been scaring away all the boar. The girl, whose name was Xiangling, was then challenged by the best chef in the village and, right now, they were fighting a Cryo Regisvine to get an ingredient for her meal. With one last hit the monster finally fell and Xiangling gleefully gathered the ingredients, if you could call them that, from its remains and the meat of a long extinct boar that was renowned for its taste. "Great! This should be just what we need! Let's head back to the village and get that win!" It was hard not to smile because of how infectious the girl's cheery attitude was. With a nod, Lumine and Xiangling ran back to Springvale and both arrived just in time for the competition. Xiangling started working right away, while giving Lumine and Paimon instructions on how they can help her. Once they were done, they both presented their dishes to Draff, and Xiangling came out victorious. After some more conversation, Xiangling departed for Liyue, and Lumine and Paimon promised to visit her restaurant when they arrive at the city of contracts. As they parted ways, leaving Lumine with a few new recipes she couldn't wait to try, they suddenly remembered about the fee that they had to give to Sara. They rushed back to Mondstadt, lest they lose their food privileges. Once they arrived and handed the fee, they met up with Amber, who offered to treat them to the Sticky Honey roast she had promised them earlier. She had intended to treat them after the Stormterror crisis had been resolved, but since Naruto had gone and disappeared, they had to postpone the snack. So, at long last, Amber finally treated them to the local delicacy, and Lumine took the time to ask her some questions about a certain blond.
Hearing the traveler ask about her friend, her face perked up and she hurriedly swallowed her food. "You want to know about Naruto?" Lumine nodded. "Well, he came to Mondstadt around two years ago after he was adopted by Master Diluc. He didn't want to join the knights but often joined them when they are out on patrol to, 'get familiar with the land,' as he put it. His name sounds Inazuman but he acts like a natural Mondstadter. He even saved me once or twice. Maybe thrice." Amber averted her gaze from Lumine, but the latter kept her gaze locked on Amber. Eventually, Amber started to crack. "Ok fine, he's saved me from monsters at least 10 times. It's not only me! He helps out everyone, even Lisa. How he keeps his cool around her when she acts so clingy, I do not know." As the trio ate, they lost themselves in the conversation and by the end of it, Lumine and Paimon were laughing their faces off after hearing tales about Naruto's pranks.
Signora was not a happy camper. Not only had she lost the Anemo Gnosis from right under her nose, which made her the laughing stock of a certain ginger, but she had also lost access to Mondstadt. Normally, this would just be a minor setback, as they could just send some operatives to infiltrate the city in secret, but whenever they tried that, all the information they got from them were fake and led them to traps, making Mondstadt's case stronger and lowering their chances of winning this game of supersonic chess. Frustrated by everything going the other way, she decided to take matters into her own hands.
Since she couldn't pressure the Acting Grandmaster to give up the Gnosis, assuming the woman knew about it in the first place, she decided to seek out that insolent bard instead. After some searching, her Cicin mages reported that Venti liked to practice near the tree at Windrise. With that information, she was on her way to track down the bard and reclaim the Anemo Gnosis for the Tsaritsa. Nearing the great tree, she saw her target sitting on a small pillar and playing his lyre with his eyes closed and a small smile on his face. He looked so relaxed and carefree. Signora hated it. It was this same attitude that led to her lovers demise. If Barbatos cared even a bit about her people, he would've tried his best to protect him. She shook her head to rid herself of the thoughts and walked up to the bard. Said bard stopped playing his lyre and looked at her from the corner of his eye, but his face never lost its smile.
"Must you intrude on a bard's leisure time?" Venti asked cheerfully. Unfazed, Signora just walked closer, her potent Cryo energy building up within her gloves. Just as she fired off a stream of Cryo, Venti used the wind to send his lyre and him into the sky,. He circled around his lyre before grabbing it and winking at the witch.
This irritated Signora. "Get down here you insolent bard!" She fired off more Cryo energy at the flying bard but still missed while he just flew all around her while laughing. After a few minutes of this cat and mouse game, Signora finally snapped and started gathering a large amount of Cryo, ready to freeze this whole place along with the flying bard. Unfortunately for her, this was the moment Venti was waiting for. You see, Anemo is often called the weakest element because it only enhances other elemental effects rather than causing a powerful reaction like Melt or Overload. Despite lacking a destructive reaction, Anemo can still be dangerous when used right and this is what Venti was betting on. Just as Signora was about to release the gathered energy, an arrow made of pure Anemo energy hit the ball, Swirling the Cryo element and greatly increasing its effect up to a point where she couldn't keep her hold on it. The energy overflowed and started to freeze the surrounding area, but an Anemo barrier made by Venti kept the ice from spreading any further and Swirled the energy even more. Before it could freeze her to death, the bard undid the barrier and landed on the ground with his bow out.
"Ready to accept defeat~?" Venti's tone sounded no different, but she could feel the malice behind the voice and, despite her glare being pointed directly at him, that smile never left his face. This wasn't the helpless, weak, rodent of an archon that she had met at the cathedral. This? This was something else entirely. So, she decided to take this seriously.
"Never!" With a shout, she summoned a blizzard to disorient Venti, but a stronger wind dispersed her creation. Looking Venti in the eye, she imitated a whopper flower and sent a bunch of Cryo spikes towards the archon. Said archon just smiled and pulled back the string on his bow and sent another Anemo charge arrow at the spikes. This arrow split into three and Swirled the Cryo energy again, which a left a powdery coat of snow in a two meter radius.
"Come on Signora! Weren't you beating me and talking bad about me a week ago? What happened to that vigor? What happened to that power?" The way Venti worded that made her blood boil. She? Weak? Oh she was going to show this foolish god what a big mistake he made not running away. Just as she was about to launch another attack, a tornado picked her up and dragged her away while Venti just waved at her with a smile. Once she was gone, Venti dismissed his bow and summoned his lyre before sitting down under the tree and plucking the strings to make sure it didn't go out of tune in the fight. 'Naruto was right! These fatui really do make for good stress relievers. Shouldn't make it a habit though.' Venti thought absentmindedly. Pausing for a bit, he thought about making a song just about the Fatui, and not the good kind of song. With a smile, Venti shrugged his shoulders and got to work on his newest masterpiece.
"Is this some kind of cruel joke, because if it is, it's not funny." Naruto flinched at his adoptive father's words. He had hoped for this to go better, but obviously, that was for naught. Diluc just looked at Naruto with a stern face. He wasn't sure what to think. He was just told by his son that him and his uncle were part of the abyss order. "I'll give you a minute to explain this. Make it count."
Relief flooded Naruto's heart when he heard those words. He took a deep breath and looked his father in the eye. "I don't know if you already know this, but there are two parts in the Abyss order. The Greater abyss order is the one responsible for al the unwanted monster activity. They hate the archons and are busy trying to overthrow them and conquer Celestia. On the other hand, the Lesser abyss order is the opposite. We are mostly made up of monsters who kept their sanity and have no intention of doing anything to Teyvat. We want to make sure that the Greater order doesn't wreak havoc on the seven nations and trying to avoid another calamity. We also try to keep track of the fatui and halt their movements. Me and uncle Kaeya are two of the leaders of the Lesser abyss order and we felt like you should know this." Naruto's gaze went from Diluc's eyes and settled on the floor as he waited for a response.
Diluc stayed quiet. He looked calm, but he was conflicted on the inside. While he had known Naruto for only around 2 years, the blond had left a major impression on him, and to find out that the kid he considered his son was part of an organization that hated humans? Well that was a shocker. Either way, Diluc took a breath to calm down and decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. "Ok. I don't fully believe you, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. I feel like you're still hiding secrets from me. Once I've seen the whole side, then I'll decide. Deal?" Diluc held out his hand.
Naruto's eyes lit up when he heard those words. To be honest, he was worried that Diluc might just kick him and Kaeya out of the house. "Deal!" Naruto shook hands with Diluc. Looking from a corner, Kaeya clapped at the sight. If all went well, they won't have to keep any more secrets from family anymore.
2750 words. Kinda short but ok
I haven't fought signora yet, so I'm sorry if the fight was not very satisfying. Also Diluc is officially in on the secret. The next chapter will also be part of the interlude before the journey to Liyue. I'm glad you guys seem to like my fic and are leaving reviews. On that same note, how does my Naruto x hsr fic have more favs and follows than this without even half the number of chapters!? Either way, thanks for the support. I'll see you in the next one!
