Hello there!

I checked on the ship poll and wow… Acheron's winning. By a mile. Either way, I won't yap too much. Let's get straight into it! as always, the disclaimer is in the first chapter and you already know what the bolded letters mean.

For all the days he can remember, Caelus thought that the Stellaron was a curse that was placed in him by that mysterious woman who woke him up in the space station, but right now, he was starting to doubt that. While they were looking for a place to sleep for the night (a concept that still confused him to no end), he had found out that it was very hard for him to get fatigued unless his head hit a pillow, which he assumed was thanks to the golden orb that was somehow stuffed into his chest. When Mr Naruto had found out, he had asked him if he wanted to do some training if he couldn't sleep and Caelus had readily agreed. The group had checked into the Underworld's Gothe hotel, a still a bit weary from last time, but left Bronya, who had volunteered guard duty, outside. She had just finished talking to Oleg, who had shed a lot of light on the situation in the Underworld. March was worried for Bronya but the Overworlder assured her that she'll be fine.

When Caelus tried to sleep, he was hit with a vision of Cocolia grieving to the Stellaron about losing Bronya. Not wanting to see any more visions, he decided to abandon sleep and instead, send a message to Naruto, asking him if they could meet up for the training. A few seconds later, he replied with a thumbs up and told Caelus to meet him in front of the hotel. When he made his way there, he had met up with Bronya and the two had started talking. After a while, they had overheard some familiar voices and stumbled on Seele, and Natasha, who were in the middle of planning an operation to recover some supplies for the clinic. "We can help out." Bronya's words drew everyone's eyes to her. "We can help you gather the supplies. It's the least I can do after what has happened to the Underworld." The look of absolute resolve on her face spoke volumes of her determination to set things right.

On the other hand, Caelus wasn't too sure about joining her because he still had to meet up with Naruto. Fortunately for him, a familiar voice rang out. "Caelus! There you are! I was about to go back because I thought you decided to go to sleep. Huh, the whole gang's here. What were you talking about?" After they got Naruto up to speed on the mission to the Fragmentum, he gave it some thought. "Hmm… What do you say Caelus? I could explain how the training works and you can put it into practice with any Fragmentum monsters we find along the way. If you don't want to do that, we can always train some other time."

Caelus thought about it. "I'll help. I can't just sit back and let them do all the work now can I?"

Naruto smiled. "Good choice. So, are you alright if I joined in?"

Natasha smiled. "Of course, but one thing before you go. Seele already told me about her little scuffle with you yesterday, so I hope both of you will behave and try to get along this time." Naruto and Seele nodded. "Good. Now both of you shake hands and make up." Seele opened her mouth to protest but Natasha's gaze silenced her and she reluctantly held out a hand and mumbled an apology. The apology was accepted by Naruto who held out a fist, which Seele eagerly bumped.

After all was said and done, Caelus and Naruto trailed behind Seele and Bronya as they made their way to Rivet town for the supplies. On the way, Naruto talked with Caelus about possible uses of the Stellaron and even showed him the Ram sign. "Try to feel it in your chest and how its energy intertwines with your own. If all goes well, you should be able to release some of it slowly. Don't do it too fast or you'll make a whole new Fragmentum and we don't want that." That word drew the attention of the girls, but they kept silent. Caelus stopped walking and made a ram sign before doing as explained and, much to his surprise, he actually felt it. The energy of the Stellaron felt strange, like was smooth and erratic at the same time. "You feel it don't you? Now slowly draw it out. Don't rush. If you fail, I'm here." He nodded and focused on the Ram sign and closed his eyes, feeling the energy concentrate and pulse inside his chest. It felt like it was being contained but he'd dare not take it out of the containment. "That's it. Slowly now." Naruto's voice soothed him and he focused on moving the energy into his arms. He felt the erratic part energy creep into his arm and into his fingertips. The next second, he let out a shout as a spark of golden lightning arced between his fingers. Naruto quickly grabbed his hands and Caelus felt something warm, soothing his hand. "Woah there! Are you ok? Any pain? Any dizziness?"

Caelus shook his head. "No. I feel fine. No pain, no dizziness, no nothing."

Naruto nodded and gave him a smile. "Good. Then shall we keep going?" Thay turned to see Seele and Bronya looking at them expectantly and jogged to catch up with them.

After some more walking, they finally made it to Rivet town where they were going to gather supplies. On the way, Seele and Bronya had gotten curious about what they had been doing and Caelus decided to tell them the truth. To his surprise, they were quite supportive with Bronya even suggesting that he could act like a compass towards the problem Stellaron. Right now, they were standing on an arch over a blocked road (probably to keep the monsters out). "See that large house on the hill? That was the orphanage. Nat said that it was donated to her by an old businessman for the orphanage. Spent the better part of my life there. And over there, that large courtyard? That's the Rivet town market. Some of our supplies should be there. Watch out for monsters. They're everywhere."

The group nodded and they made their way deeper into the abandoned town. They did meet some monsters, but Bronya's gun and Seele's scythe took care of them. No one noticed the small dragonflies that flew further into the town. On the way, Seele showed them different places in the town that made up her childhood. When she mentioned these places, Bronya felt almost detached. While they were looking through the roads, Naruto's keen eyes spotted something unusual. "Hey Seele?" The girl gave a small hum. "How long has it been since this town was abandoned?"

Seele hummed in thought. "Some years ago. Why did you ask?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "Then why is everything so clean? You said that you go to the Fragmentum every now and then but this is a bit too clean for occasional visits. Besides, we've only met small monsters so far. What happened to the big ones?"

At his words, Seele looked around, and, sure enough, there wasn't much dust on anything. There was some, but not enough to equate for years of disuse. "Huh, you're right. Could people still be living here?" With the thought in the back of everyone's minds, they pressed forward.

While they were walking Naruto came up to Bronya. "Hey." She turned to face him. "Is something wrong? You've been looking quite out of it since we came into the town."

Bronya looked down at her feet. In reality, she had felt something familiar when she came to the town. "Yeah, it's just that everything here looks so familiar, like I've been here before."

Naruto hummed. "Maybe it's just Deja vu?"

Bronya tilted her head. "What's that?"

Naruto smiled. "Déjà vu is when you sewar you've seen it somewhere else but it never happened." Bronya nodded and accepted the explanation and Naruto moved back to Caelus and began to explain some more techniques to him.

*Smol Timskp*

After some more walking, they found no supplies which irked Seele to no end. "Ugh! There's no supplies here either! Are the monsters taking them or something?"

"Hey! Over here!" Naruto's voice drew their attention to him and they congregated around him to see what he found. "Look. It's a footprint. Quite small too." When they looked at it, there was really a footprint on the ground. Naruto put his hand on the footprint and closed his eyes. "Quite new too. If I remember this right, then… got it!" Suddenly, the footprint burned with a blue flame and a whole trail of the burning footprints appeared. "There we go!" When he looked at the others, everyone was staring at him. "What?"

Seele was the first to snap out of it. "What do you mean 'what'? You just burned that foot print and made a trail appear out of thin air. How did you do that? No, scratch that, what even was that?"

Naruto blinked and looked at his handiwork. "You mean this? It's a handy little trick I learned from a friend. I used it a lot when I was forced to play hide and seek by the kids near my home but I just wanted to rest." 'Of course the kids were actually giant beasts but they don't need to know that.' "You wouldn't say?" Naruto shook his head. "Anyway, let's follow the trail. With any luck, we should find our material thief." They agreed and followed the footprints which led them to a corner of the market. There, they saw a small boy who had managed to lock himself behind a gate.

By the look on her face, it was clear that Seele recognized the boy. "Eric? What are you doing here you little brat? Don't you know it's dangerous out here?"

"S-Seele? Y-You aren't the boss of me! I go wherever I want! I's none of your beeswax!" And by the looks of it, the kid knew her too.

Seele looked behind the boy and saw the materials they had come here to find. "So you collected the materials and hid them here. Not bad for a kid, but what were you going to do if we didn't show up and kill the monsters? Were you just going to stay here, shaking in your boots?" There was a certain level of smugness in her tone that led the others to believe that this boy had been somewhat of a pain to her.

"Who asked you to do anything? I was just about to escape. You coming in and killing the monsters just made things easier for me."

Seele grumbled and crossed her arms. "Still being stubborn huh? Well then, how were you going to take those big metal plates away from the monsters?" Yeah, she had it out for him alright.

The kid looked stumped. "Uhh… There's always a way!"

Before Seele could say anything else, Naruto held up his had to silence her and knelt down Infront of the boy and gave him a bright smile. "Hey there! Seele said your name was Eric, right?" Eric nodded. "Alright Eric, why don't you tell us why you need the metal plates?"

Eric looked down. "My daddy is sick and I need money to help him."

Seele scoffed. "Using your dad as an excuse again? What would he think if he heard this? Don't care about his lies. That's just one of his many excuses. Everyone in boulder town knows him as the thief he is."

Eric, however, just started sobbing. "No! It isn't like that this time! My daddy is really…" Just as he broke into even more sobs, Naruto put his hand on his head, making him look up at the taller man.

Naruto rubbed the kid's head. "Alright, alright, don't cry now. I don't have any money with me, so how about this? I'm a doctor myself and I have treated many patients in my lifetime, some of them in very bad condition. Here's the deal Eric; if you give us the metal plates and bandages and promise not to steal, then I'll heal your father. He'll be as good as new! What do you think?"

Eric looked up at him with wide, teary eyes. After thinking about the deal for a moment, he quickly wiped his eyes and nodded his head. "Deal! You can have all of them! I'll help you find even more! Please, just help my daddy!"

Naruto chuckled and rubbed his head again. "Don't worry. I'll help. You just need to keep your promise. Or else, when the silver haired lady here returns to the Overworld, she'll come down to catch you herself, ok?" He then stood up and walked over to Caelus before sticking his hand down his pocket. A second later, he pulled out a Tri pronged Kunai and handed it to Caelus. "Here. Keep this with you. You guys go ahead. I'll be right there when I'm done." Naruto turned to look at the boy. "So, shall we get going?"

Eric nodded and ran off after telling them to be weary of the house on the hill, leaving Naruto to follow him. The blond nodded at his team mates and ran off after the boy. Seele sighed and continued leading the way. While they were nearing the orphanage, Bronya spoke rather quietly. "Huh. These shops. These signs. They're all so familiar." Seele heard her, but chose to keep quiet.

*Meanwhile*

For all his flaws, Eric was certainly a fast runner. In roughly two minutes flat, they had made it to the kid's house and he had shown Narto his bed ridden father. After seeing the man up close, Naruto could tell why Eric was so worried. The man was heavily injured and one of his legs and one of his arms were broken. Naruto told Eric to leave the room and close the door, a request that the boy carried out after hugging his still smiling father. "Alright. Now, this treatment might be rather… painful, so I'll be sending you to sleep, alright?" The man nodded, slightly scared but willing to cooperate. "Good. Now, look into my eyes." When the man complies, sky blue irises turned bright red with three tomoe spinning around the pupil. "That's it. Just give in to the feeling. By the time you wake up, you'll be as good as new." He kept staring into his eyes for a few more seconds before he felt the sweet release of sleep. Seeing this, Naruto deactivated his Sharingan. 'Ok, time to get to work.' He shrunk his Shakujou into its vambrace form and ran his hand above the man's broken leg with a small diagnosis jutsu to locate the problem. After doing the same with his arm, Naruto stood up and closed his eyes before taking a deep breath. When he opened them, they were purple with concentric circles around the pupil. With one hand sign, a strange head with the same eyes appeared next to him and he picked up the man before throwing him into the being's mouth. The head closed its mouth, and, after a few seconds, re-opened it to show the man, fully healed. Naruto grabbed him out of the mouth and dismissed the King of Hell before laying him back down on the bed. Once he tucked him in, he dispelled the Genjutsu and walked outside to see Eric.

When the kid heard his footsteps, he came running and Naruto knelt down with a smile to pat his head. "Your father should be healed now. He's asleep, and the treatment was quite stressful, so make sure that he gets some rest, ok? Oh, and don't forget you promise." Eric nodded and Naruto stood up before reaching out to the dragonflies he'd sent to scout out in Rivet town. When he did, he saw the crew fighting a Fragmentum monster and sighed. 'They just can't catch a break now, can they?'

With that thought, he changed his Shakujou back and teleported to his Hiraishin Kunai, fully intent in helping out, but much to his confusion, he appeared a few meters away from the fight with his shakujou raised in a comically exaggerated pose and facing away from the monster. "Eh?" The second he appeared; the monster changed tactics and flew in the air before raining down icicles. Seeing the attack coming, the others jumped away, but Naruto was caught offguard. "GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME BRAT!" Kurama's voice woke him from his stupor and he quickly deflected most of the icicles with his Shakujou with a loud battle cry that drew everyone's attention. While they (and the monster) were staring at him swinging at the now non-existent icicles, Naruto made quick eye contact with Caelus before going back to swinging. Even then, that was enough for Caelus to get his message.

He closed his and breathed in and out, before opening them. 'Ok, I just have to do as he said. You can do this Caelus.' Caelus slowly snuck up behind the monster who had just about had enough of Naruto's shenanigans and roared to try and intimidate the blond. Caelus drew on the Stellaron's power and pumped it into his legs and right fist before dashing towards the monster and punching it in the head with a Stellaron enhanced fist. The second it made contact, the energy exploded outwards, disintegrating the monster and sending him flying.

Luckly for him, Naruto caught him by the leg and pulled him down before he could fly too far. "Nice work kid. That was awesome." Caelus nodded with a smile. "So how are you feeling? Any pain or discomfort?"

Caelus shook his head. "No. Not at all. I feel fine. Great even."

Naruto smiled and nodded. "That's good. Let's join the others, shall we?" Caelus also nodded and they made their way towards the girls. Seele was looking through some crates while Bronya looked like she was deep in thought.

While Seele was grumbling about not being able to find the supplies, Bronya started speaking to herself. "This house. This playground. This equipment. I've seen it all before!" Everyone looked at Bronya and this made Seele drop one of the boxes she was checking. Out of this box, a snow globe rolled out and stopped at Bronya's feet. The girl's eyes were glued to the globe as she picked it up. "This snow globe. It was mine. I-I've played with this before. I've lived here before. I'm an… Undergrounder!"

"Before you go having an existential crisis, would you mind explaining what you just said Princess?" Bronya looked at the purple haired girl who spoke those words before walking up to a place that overlooked the whole abandoned town and gazing at the snow globe in her hand.

"Every time a Supreme Guardian is chosen, the Architects do a certain test with all the children from both the Overworld and the Underworld. Whoever is deemed worthy, is adopted by the current Supreme Guardian to be taught their ways, so that they can become their successor. I must have been chosen when I was here and taken to the Overworld." Bronya's face looked conflicted when she looked t the faces of her teammates.

Out of all of them, Seele looked the most thoughtful. "Huh. Not all the kids stay in the orphanage, but I never would have thought that there was a future Supreme Guardian with us. Wait! Does Nat know about this? Is she keeping secrets?"

Bronya shook her head. "She probably doesn't. Even though I told you about this, the selection process is supposed to be done in complete secrecy. The child says goodbye to their past, just as I did to become the successor of the Supreme Guardian. In the end, I guess I just wasn't good enough." Her eyes looked distant as if reflecting on something as she looked out over the town. "Everyday, I sit and watch as Silvermane Guards are forced to give up their lives while I never even had the resolve to change my mother's mind. Madam Cocolia once told me, even if I am but a small glimmer of light, I must still try to shine bright for the sake of others. But the Underworld- You have been struggling for a decade and I-I haven't been able to do anything."

Hearing the speech, Seele sighed. "Are you done yet?" Everyone turned to look at her. "Wah wah wah. Is that all you can do?" That sent Bronya reeling. "What? Did you think I'd feel sorry for you after that? For you and your Overworld problems? You know what we worry about down here? We worry about having to eat the next day. Didn't you just say something about shining for the sake of others? If you're moping about not being able to protect everyone, then the best thing to do is to stop crying and get to it!" Bronya looked at the girl in shock.

In Naruto's head, Kurama whistled. "You know brat, maybe you should take her in as an apprentice. After all, she has that same silver tongue that you do." Naruto just responded by giving the fox an imaginary middle finger, causing the Biju to laugh.

Back in the outside, Bronya looked down and stayed quiet. When she finally looked back up, her eyes were hardened with resolve. "You're right. You're right. Wallowing in self-pity won't do anything to help me. Thank you, Seele. No one had ever tried to snap me out of my self-pity before."

Seele smiled. "I'm no good with talking but if you ever need a hard hit on the head, just let me know. Also, I can tell that you have a big burden to carry, but why do you force yourself to?"

Bronya sighed. "As the successor of the Supreme Guardian, I must always be vigilant of my behaviour and thoughts."

Seele huffed in amusement. "Lady Bronya, the future Supreme Guardian comes from the same orphanage as me. So, how about I show you around the orphanage a bit more? Unlike you, my memories of this place are a bit clearer."

Bronya nodded. "I'd like that."

"Ahem. Sorry to interrupt this heartfelt moment but before you guys go, can you tell us where to look for the supplies? That way Caelus and I can look for the materials while you do your own thing." Seele nodded at the idea and told them of some places to check for rubbing alcohol and painkillers while Bronya told them to check the expiry dates of the items before going back to her conversation with Seele.

"Come on Caelus. Let's leave them to catch up." The gray-haired boy nodded and followed Naruto as they walked around the orphanage and checked the places Seele mentioned.

They did find some rubbing alcohol, and only some were expired. They then headed down another section of the path and followed a narrow tunnel down, where they heard a girl's voice. "There it is! Thank you Perkins." A robotic voice answered the girl. "Don't mention it, Clara." Just as they rounded the corner, they saw the little girl, Clara with a robot that looked like a traffic signal.

When the robot noticed them, it started beeping. "Danger! Danger! Protect Clara! Defence mode initiated!" Naruto subtly changed the grip on his Shakujou, ready to hit the robot if it tried anything. "Wait! Perkins! Stop! The one in gray! I've seen him before. He's not a bad person right?" The robot heeded her words and Caelus let out a sigh of relief and explained that they were just here for the medicines. "Oh. I came here for the painkillers too. A lot of people are hurt in the vagrant camp, but I guess the miners are the same too. Things would be so much easier if they could just get along."

Seeing her expression, Naruto laid down his Shakujou on the floor and knelt in front of the girl. "How much do you need? Is there any extra we can take?" The girl thought about it and gave some to Naruto who checked it over. "Wait a minute. Clara, can I see the rest? This batch is expired and yours might be too. If that's the case, then it could be poisonous for the people you need it for." Clara's eyes widened and she handed over her share for him to check and Naruto quickly went through it. "It's all expired. Hmm… oh! Give me a second." Naruto walked back and picked up his Shakujou, which put Perkins on edge, before walking back and placing it on the boxes. Instantly, the slightly dark liquid cleared and Naruto returned Clara's share. "There we go. That should do it. Ask Mr Svarog if you don't believe me." With that, Naruto (somehow) put the painkillers in his pocket and walked back with Caelus trailing behind him. Once they got back, they saw that the girls were still talking and decided to occupy themselves with nothing.

They sat down on the steps and Caelus hesitantly looked at the older man. "Hey, Mr Naruto?" Naruto turned to look at Caelus. "Can I ask you something?" At his nod, Caelus began. "Why did you join the express?"

Naruto looked down and sighed. "I don't really know. I joined because of an old friend but I never really thought about my side. I guess I just got tired of staying on my home world and wanted to see what's out there ya'know? I wanted something new."

Caelus was a bit confused by the jumble of responses but before he could decipher it, he was distracted by a short laugh from Naruto. "But anyway, let's see if we can get the supplies back to Natasha shall we? I mean they look like they are done talking." Caelus nodded and they caught up with the two girls and they started making their way back to Boulder town. "So, are you confidant with using that punch?" Caelus gave a thumbs up and Naruto smiled. "Good to hear."

4300 words. Took a bit longer than expected.

So, as of the day this chapter was posted, there are 19 responses for the poll in a 14:5 ratio in Acheron's Favor. Also, I received only one review on my Genshin fic's latest chapter, so that's sad. Also, ZZZ is out! What do you think of it? As a casual gamer, I enjoy it. I was also thinking of starting an AO3 account for oneshots but I'll leave that up to you to decide. Oh yeah, I'm also entertaining the idea for a Naruto x ZZZ fanfic and its pros and cons in by head but I'm not sure if I should go for it. Either way, thanks for reading and leaving a review! Peace out!