A/N: Well, that's not much feedback. T_T
...seems my A03 account isn't all that popular, either.
Its under the same name as this account, for all the good that does me.
Crying shame, really. I was going to post my more mature stories (with lemons and other content) over there, among other things, but what's the point if no one reads them?
*sigh*
...someone also introduced me to "So I'm a Spider" on crunchyroll. Its given me ideas. Might do a crossover for it a few months from now.
Leg/back pain is kicking my ass, but I'm still here. Bit of a longer note this time around; got some news for you all~!
Once more, we're sticking with the "Embers" rule for this story, and others. Meaning folks don't like this, it won't be continued. If the story itself ain't popular/well-received...well, I won't be able to continue it. I'm working two jobs -taking on a third soon!- so I barely have time to write; as such, I cannot afford to write something folks don't enjoy. So by all means, speak up! Your voice matters! Make yourself heard! As ever, reviews are the fuel that sustain me. Without them I cannot write a single word. Simple as that. Working nearly all hours of the day keep me absurdly busy, and I can't bring myself to write something folks don't like.
Now for your questions, comments, and concerns. Feel free to skip these if you like~!
Sadly, this is the only way to answer some PM's and anonymous messages.
Q: Will you be updating more on A03 by chance?
A: Not bloody likely now; we're getting next to no feedback there, and to make things more annoying, that pesky troll followed us over there.
Q: Are we getting that timeskip now?
A: Read and see.
Q: We gonna involve Vyke in young Naruto's life?
A: Yuuuup. Lansseax loved him after all. Well, before he went batshit crazy. Time will tell if he remains sane here; the Frenzied Flame is a tempting force, but as we all know, Lan can be quite tempting herself.
Q: Please don't kill all the demigods!
A: As stated, the Dragons need the Great Runes. They're an integral part of their plan to usurp the Erdtree, and with it, the Greater Will. The lives of the Demigods are secondary to them really; but as we all know, Radahn and the rest are damn dangerous foes. Moreso here, because this is quite early in the Shattering and everyone is in their PRIME. Not the ruined wrecks we Tarnished faced down in the game, no, no, no. These are monsters, one and all.
Naruto, your soft heart might get you in trouble here.
Q: I've figured out the pairing! Its *SPOILER* because you've never used *SPOILER* in any meaningful capacity before to say nothing of *SPOILER* and *SPOILER* and let us not forget *SPOILER* Lets face it, SHE would fit perfectly here.
A: ...clever. Don't go spoiling it for the rest, eh? I'll redact your comment when the chapters comes out, just in case...
Alright, I've kept you waiting long enough. Here we go.
As ever, I own no references, quotes, memes or themes. Not a wit or a one. They're merely tributes to those far greater than I.
I'm just a humble author trying to make his way in this wild world, one word at a time.
Now then, let us see just how far our kind-hearted boy has come...
"Impressive. Most impressive. But you are not a dragon yet.
One thing yet remains for you to truly ascend.
...yes. You know what must be done.
You must act. Do not hesitate.
Show no mercy."
~?
Lonely no More
This would be the day!
Naruto knew it; he had a feeling about this one; felt it in his very bones. He'd been careful in his studies. So very careful. Now he was ready. He was certain of it. Really! He had to be! Seven years old meant he was more than old enough to practice without supervision, no matter what uncle Fortissax might say.
What could possibly go wrong? Nothing! That's what!
.
..
...Is what I'm thinking," he muttered, considering the crumbling wall before him, "But I'm kinda nervous, ya know? I don't wanna get hurt again.
"..." The wall had no answers for him.
"Bah, what do you know?" he flung a pebble at it. "Why am I even talking to you?!"
No response, of course. Only the wind whistling through the cracks in the wall.
Naruto winced a little. Maybe 'ol Placidussax was right. He was starved for human interaction. Dragons were nice and all, and sure, some of them could take human shape, but still! It wasn't the same. The beastmen here didn't talk worth a damn either...
A familiar sense of melancholy hung over him, causing his shoulders to droop.
"Ahhh," he hung his head a little. "Why did I think about that? I kinda want a friend now...
Shaking his head, he reared up and slapped his face with both hands to psych himself into action. The pain centered him. No doubt! Doubt was poison! Doubt was the enemy! Doubt would only poison him and that was the last thing he needed. He couldn't afford to doubt now. He owed his Family too much to fail here. If he managed to pull this off, he'd make them proud. Surely that was worth a little risk, right?
This was his moment and as such, he'd chosen his place well.
Crumbling Farum Azula lived up to its namesake; time, like gravity, meant little here. Indeed, there was as many places to train as there were to hide from prying eyes. He'd claimed one of the dilapidated temples as his training ground, tamed the beasts within and summarily sent them away, then made the place his home away from home. Here, there were no dragons to spy on him, no one to report a wayward boy practicing alone..
Well, there wasn't much to be gained from stalling...
"Alright!" Naruto clapped his hands. "I can do this. C'mon. Red lighting." he rubbed his palms together frantically. "Just a spark...
Nothing. Not even a sizzle.
"Seriously?"
His temper sparked. He stifled it and shifted his stance. Taking a deep breath, he placed his hands together fully, fingertip to fingertip, no so much as an inch between them. Slitted blue eyes slid shut. He opened himself to the current. A faint ringing rose in his ears. He listened for it. Felt the air around him still. And with it...!
"C'mon! Spark! That's all I need!"
He opened himself to the lightning, a veritable force of nature in its own right, and let it flow freely through him. It burned in his heart. Roared in his veins. Light surged in his hands. Scarlet scales tickled his cheeks, but he ignored it and kept himself focused. His teeth sharpened into fangs as his palms spread apart. There! There at last! He saw the lightning dancing between them. It bent to his will like an old iron rod, slowly but surely, forcing him to fight for ever inch.
"Stop, brat." an unfamiliar voice echoed deep within him. "You're not ready."
That damn fox again. "Pah! What do you know?!"
"Enough to see this is a bad idea."
A muscle jumped in his jaw. It wasn't that he disliked the Fox, but he just didn't trust him yet. How could he? He knew next to nothing about the foreign entity sealed in his stomach, and the Dragon's even less so. More than once he'd felt the creature's crimson chakra creep up on him whenever he was angry; it was precisely the reason Gramps didn't want him to train alone. There was a risk, he wouldn't deny that...but he'd be fine. So long as he kept his temper in check. He wouldn't lose control. This was his body. No one else's!
His eyes flashed. "I'm not losing my temper, ya know."
"Cheeky little shit. Fine. See what happens. Don't come trying to me when it blows up in your face!"
The resulting explosion devastated the wall Naruto had been aiming at, blasted him forth from his feet, and knocked him on his arse.
Hacking and coughing, he raised his head to grin at his handiwork. "Ha! Got it. Once more!"
His palms struck again, producing a sound akin to that of a rung bell.
Naruto didn't hear the second explosion; wasn't even aware there had been one until his ears stopped ringing and his vision cleared. By the time it did, he found himself lying in a pile of rubble, staring at the stormy sky of Farum Azula. Countless dragons wheeled overhead, crying out in alarm at the sudden storm overhead.
Strange...there had been a ceiling there a second ago. Where was the temple? Why could he see the sky?
'And why in blazes do my hands hurt so much...?'
He raised his head with a wheeze...then saw.
Or rather, the lack thereof; because He'd blown them clean off at the wrists. Naught but charred stumps remained, annihilated by his ill-fated practice.
A sane person would've screamed bloody red murder.
Naruto only sighed. "For crying out loud...
Righting himself using only his legs, the battered blond raised his arms and regarded the blackened ruin with a baleful look. Gramps was going to have his head if he saw him like this. Really, it was his own fault. He hadn't thought to reinforce his hands with scales before casting; as such, his body had paid a painful price...
.
..
...thankfully, it was one easily rectified.
An injury like this was nothing he wasn't used to. A bit more visceral than what he was used to perhaps, nothing more. With but a thought, he went to work. Power flowed through him, not the red lightning of before, but a gentle golden glow; an incantation to soothe the pain; something to speed along the healing. His wrists were itching abominably, yet he knew better than to do give in and scratch them. Not that they could by now. Scarlet scales flowed down the length of his arms, he could see his limbs already beginning to twitch as they reached his wrists and dug under. He knew better to look straight at them now; because this next part was really going to-
Pain turned his world red, finally tearing a cry of pain from him as he flopped down on his back.
He closed his eyes as he heard -felt!- something rip in his body.
Sky above, that hurt like a bitch!
A quick glance confirmed his hands had indeed been restored; even now he could see the scales fleeing from them, hooked claws gradually filing themselves down into human fingers once more. He flexed the bloodied digits and shook them out to clear the pins and needless, humming softly to himself.
"Gotta remember to thank uncle Fortissax for this...
Draconic regeneration was a rare trait, and one bestowed only recently upon.
Shame, really. Placidussax looked like he needed it more. Thoughts for later, he supposed...
A familiar boot entered his field of vision. "Practicing again are we?"
Naruto opened an eye where he lay. An equally familiar helm gazed down at him. He winced at the sight of it. "No...?"
"I'll take that as a yes." Vyke sighed, the sound muffled through his helmet. "What have I told you about using red lightning alone?"
Naruto squirmed, feeling every bit a naughty child with his hand caught in the proverbial cookie jar. "To no to...?"
"Precisely." the Dragon Knight sat down beside him and flicked his forehead. "You should know better by now. You've plenty of power, I won't deny that, but you lack the control to use it."
Which was why he was trying to practice in the first place! He sulked. "Awww but control is boring! I wanna make explosions!"
The knight knelt to tousle his hair. "You do seem most adept at that...
He thumbed his nose with a grin. "Right?"
"Nevertheless, lord Placidusax, that is to say your grandfather," he amended quickly at the blond's black look, "Put these rules in place for a reason. If you must practice, at least inform me beforehand, lest you lose yours." Some of his apprehension must've show through, because Vyke flicked up his visor. Stern eyes glared at him. "You already did, didn't you?"
"Maybe...?"
"And you uses scales to regrow them." Wasn't a question.
Naruto squirmed anew. "C'mon, Pops! They still look human...
"They won't be if you keep blasting them off and regrowing them like that."
.
..
...fine."
Some might have thought that strange, to consider dragons family. Naruto didn't. Mom was mom and dad was dad, just as Fortissax was his grumpy uncle and Placidusax his baffling grandpa. So what if he didn't look like them? Family went beyond blood. Come to think of it, his "family" was going to be awfully angry with him if they realized he was practicing without supervision again...
"Any chance you could keep this a secret from gramps?"
Vyke's smile was telling.
"Is that a no...?"
(.0.0.0.)
"We have not been fair to you, my heir."
Naruto tried not to cower under Placidusax's stare. He failed miserably. This was it. He was doomed. Any moment now he would shout him down and-wait, that hadn't been a reprimand just now. If anything he'd sounded strangely...sad. He creaked an eye open, but no rebuke came. The Dragonlord still loomed over him in his true form, but the expression etched into his twin heads proved inscrutable.
He'd feared the worst when the old wyrm brought him to the arena alone. But this...
.
..
...what the heck was this?!
"Um, gramps?" he tried to keep the quaver from his voice, to no avail. "Where's all this coming from?"
Sure, it was nice that the old lizard wasn't punishing him -or worse, siccing Mom on him!- but for him to apologize outright...?
"Day in and day out you have trained for our sake." the mighty dragon laid himself down before him, one of of his wings drooping to the right. "Without want. Without need. Without reward."
Naruto's heard twisted in his chest. Reward? As far as he was concerned, his reward was being with the Dragons, having a family. Placidussax had taken him in. Lansseax raised him. Fortissax mentored him, and Vyke was always there to protect him. He didn't need anything else. Sure it was lonely being the only kid around here, but it was a pain he'd learned to live with.
He said as much now. "I really don't need anything."
"Yes, you do." a mighty claw flicked his forehead. "And we have seen to it."
"Look, I'll be fine-
"Nonsense!" Placidusax's voice was thunder incarnate, silencing him in an instant. "I have peered long and hard into your memories. I know your loneliness." he squirmed a little again under those words. "The world you come from...confuses me, frankly, but You are not the first to visit our realm. Others have fallen into this place from time to time and we have learned from them in turn. From their worlds. From their techniques. We pooled our resources, myself, Fortissax, and Lansseax. And so...
He swept that drooping wing aside and belatedly, Naruto realized -saw!- what the old wyrm was hiding behind it. Who, rather.
A tiny slip of girl stepped out from behind his great bulk, clad in a boyish tunic of deepest blue.
So small!
As far as first impressions went, she made a memorable one; if only because she scarcely came up to his chest. Her pupils were were akin to those of a cat, eyes the deepest shade of slitted scarlet scarlet he'd ever seen, shining forth from a round face framed by blue-green hair bound in a loose braid over one shoulder. All in all she looked like a child. His sixth sense said otherwise. A child she may appear, but he could sense the power in her, strength shimmering just beneath the surface.
"This is Tomoe." Placidusax touched her back with a claw and nudged her forward. "A fragment forged from us all, and your chakra."
That would explain the red eyes. Some of the fox's chakra must've gone mixed up in there.
Still, Naruto tilted his head. "Tomoe...?" Where had he heard that name before...?
"We took the name from one of the worlds we saw." Placidusax said. "Supposedly it belonged to a famous warrior."
"Indeed!" The girl planted both hands on her little hips. "Nice ta meetcha, young master! Mind if I have a look at your memories?"
A blond brow rose. 'Young Master...? And memories, oi?! I don't want her rooting around in my head!'
She frowned. "Is that a no, then...?
"At the moment, yes!"
"Awww...
Even so, her grin remained decidedly impish. It flipped every switch in Naruto's head. This girl was dangerous yet in a different way; her smile promised mischief, eyes gleaming with mirth. Ordinarily he wouldn't be opposed to such, but something told him she was going to be handful...
"I should warn you," Placidussax cautioned, "this little fragment took on a number of curious traits from us. As such she's become rather...rambunctious for her age."
"Hey!" The girl -child?- huffed, stomped a foot, and favored the two-headed dragon with a growl. "What's that supposed to mean?!"
"It means what it means." the elder wyrm scoffed before turning his gaze back unto him. "She is our gift to you, my heir, a companion and dragon true...even if she doesn't seem it. Nevertheless, she shall grow as you do, age as you will in time. Train with her to your hearts content."
Naruto tilted his head. "Thanks, then...?"
A friend wasn't something he'd ever thought to ask for, but if they'd create her just to for him...how could he refuse?
Maybe he could get her to help him with a few pranks. Yeah, he liked the sound of that.
He offered his hand. "Nice to meetcha."
"Same!" She clasped it with a cheery grin. "Don't worry," the girl jerked a thumb against her chest. "I'll be sure to protect you."
Naruto frowned. Friend or not, he still had his pride, after all. "Ha? How the hell can you-bwack?!
He ate his words as Tomoe shifted her grip on his hand, planted her feet, and flipped him over her shoulder. Breath burst from his aching lungs as his back kissed the ground. He tried to sit up at once, only for the cheeky fragment to to plonk down on his chest, legs folded neatly beneath her. She was heavy! Heavier than she looked! Much heavier, indeed! Gritting his teeth he tried to rise, made it to his elbows, and promptly felt a clawed finger flick his jugular. Tch. Brat was grinning at him again.
Little Tomoe regarded him with a bemused expression, eyes half-lidded. In this moment, he could believe this fragment descended from dragons. "You were saying?"
Well, consider him a believer. If he'd realized she was that strong, he wouldn't have bothered to doubt her from the beginning. A strange feeling stirred in his chest. It almost felt like...respect? No, that wasn't quite it, but some other emotion he couldn't quite quantify. Something he wasn't able to put his finger on. Admiration? Was that it? Was that what this felt like? Curious indeed.
A rueful grin tugged at the corner of his mouth. "...I look forward to working with you."
"Mmhmm!" Tomoe chirruped happily, eyes sliding shut. "I as well, young master."
Laughter spilled into the sky of Farum Azula.
Theirs was a match made in hell.
Woe unto their foolish foes.
(.0.0.0.)
Time waits for neither man nor dragon.
It marches relentlessly onward.
Unto the future...
A/N: To be clear, Tomoe is a tasteful reference to Tsukimichi Moonlit Fantasy.
Veeeeeery entertaining dragon girl, that one, and a tasteful reference for our baggling blond.
Once more, we're sticking with the "Embers" rule for this particular story, and others. If folks don't like this, it won't be continued. Meaning that if the story itself ain't popular...well, I'll not be able to continue it. I'm working two jobs -taking on a third soon!- so I barely have time to write; as such, I cannot afford to write something folks don't enjoy.
So by all means, speak up! Your voice matters! Make yourself heard! As ever, reviews are the fuel that sustain me. Without them I cannot write a single word. Simple as that. Working nearly all hours of the day keep me absurdly busy, and I can't bring myself to write something folks don't like.
Aaaand there we go. As ever, reviews keep me alive. Without them, I cannot write. So...in the Immortal Words of Atlas...
...Review...Would You Kindly? And have some previews.
Warning! SPOILERS AHOY!
And they're rough.
Sorrrrrrryyyy~!
(Previews)
"You are ready."
"We come in peace!
"But we're prepared to leave you in pieces~!"
"Tomoe!"
"What?! Honesty is the best policy, young master~!
"So this is a great rune. Huh. Lighter than I thought it would be."
Someone approached their campfire. He felt their presence, even if he couldn't quite see them. No need to wake Tomoe for this.
"Don't be shy." he turned his gaze to the shadows. "Step into the light. We've food aplenty."
A slim figure approached. "Do you, now...?"
Her voice was faint, a soft melody.
Well, well! Who was this?"
"You coddle the boy, Lansseax."
She flashed her fangs at him. "You don't coddle him enough. He needs love and affection!"
R&R~!