Summary: He was just an average student. Nothing stood out too much. Naruto Uzumaki was always smiling, helping others, and doing what he could. But as it turned out, he was much more than that. He would become the unknown factor in the world of Spellswords.
"Naruto." Speech
'Naruto.' Think
Warning: My English isn't the best, but I try to write to the best of my abilities.
'So that's how it is,' thought Naruto. He raised his gaze from the last paper he got from the facility. He didn't know what was going on, and since he wanted to know what the hell was going on in the capitol, he stole almost every piece of information he could get from the underground facility. Many documents were written using code, which he had to learn first. But that wasn't the problem for him. After he understood the code, he could read everything without a problem in the world.
A few documents were even written in an ancient rune language not many knew about. Some documents were ancient, and therefore, it wasn't a surprise to learn this ancient language. As it turned out, the cult Zenon was talking about was called the Cult of Diablos. The Cult of Diablos had already existed for thousands of years.
Considered a little-known myth at best by the public, their existence was carefully concealed as they covertly operated throughout the world to manipulate global affairs under their regime from the shadows, seeking to maintain the society under their control while using demonic power that came from the essence of Diablos to gain immortality so that their perpetual rule would be eternal. The Cult had been controlled with absolute authority by the "Knights of Rounds" under the command of twelve members of the highest executive leadership collectively as the head of the ruling body holding supreme power who effectively led and governed the organization from time to time.
Throughout their entire history, the Cult of Diablos held dominion over nations as they had extended their members to reach many high-ranking positions across the world and manipulated history behind the scenes, having long distorted the truth about the Three Heroes and renamed the "Curse of Diablos" into Demon Possession.
Ever since the organization's foundation, The Cult, with their obsessive ambition, they sought to ultimately resurrect the demon Diablos to gain further power in developing the qualities of the Tears of Diablos, which were used to grant its leaders immortality and strength for continuing their reign, as well as abducting and experimenting on descendants of the Heroes to improve their research knowledge further.
During the long passage of time, the Cult of Diablos had managed to maintain its secrecy and operate without opposition for many years. Aside from the Templars, they successfully eliminated any potential threats that arose in order to ensure their dominance.
This dominance was unchallenged to this day… well, till yesterday when a new group appeared on the scene. Naruto didn't fight one member of Shadow Garden yet, but he knew at least a few things about them. He knew that the girl he cured five years ago was in a leading position within Shadow Garden. It was evident when he spoke with the four girls from Shadow Garden. Alpha had spoken with authority, and no one challenged her word and obeyed. He was happy that the little, fragile elf girl from 5 years ago had managed to find a purpose in her life and got good comrades.
He also read something about a group of "children" inside of the cult of diablos. The Children of Diablos were begun as orphans with no relatives or young citizens from poorer commoner families who possessed a high aptitude for magic affinity, even the smallest amount that was kidnapped by the Cult from their homes and brought to the unique facilities to be subjectively raised under the organization's eye, which was a general call term for those belonging to the Cult.
These children would proceed to undergo a brutal regimen of harsh training, educated with cruel brainwashing programs, and repeated administration of drugs for enhancement that killed most of them in order to become members of the Cult of Diablos with their combat abilities that had far surpassed any average knight.
It's written that fewer than 10 percent of them manage to "graduate" (survive) this process. Subsequently, these graduates were organized into rankings of Third, Second, and First.
Third Children: They were those unfortunate souls at the 10 percent who managed to survive the problematic process but were deemed worthless and labeled as failures among the graduates as they were unable to withstand the Cult's treatment. These individuals were considered nothing more than disposable pawns by the Cult, as their mind state had become too corrupted to the point where they could not speak properly and were unable to divulge any classified information under interrogation. Despite being mentally broken, these individuals possessed fighting prowess that was more powerful compared to the average knight. Thus, the Cult made use of its failures for their sinister purposes without any risk of intel leaking.
Second Children: They were those whose minds were mentally stable and retained their sanity. They also possessed substantial immense strength but were less potent than the First Children.
First Children: They were the strongest among the Children of Diablos and were said to be considered some of the most powerful warriors alive, possessing very significant power by the world's standards. As such, they were relatively few and reasonably limited in number compared to the Second and Third Children.
It appeared that the First and Second Children were allowed to appear in public but had to limit their powers and use of red pills, as they mostly held the organization's upper ranks in officers and leadership positions within the Cult's chain of command.
Among the Children of Diablos, those who had provided exceptional contributions to the Cult after showing their promise from their effort are granted a name by given two titles on the referred Named and their distinct feature characteristic. Most of the "Named Children" were First, but there were some Second who were being given names, although, if possible, it was not unheard of as they were rare.
Especially in general, the rank of the organization was exceptional for those who received the Named title since it was written that the position was already closest enough to enter the "Twelve Knights of Rounds." If any member were able to fulfill the requirements well, they would have the opportunity to be elected to fill in or replace a previous 'Seat' holder from the available twelve positions and make up the Cult's leadership.
Additionally, people who also joined as members after accepting the Cult's "offer" were determined in which category of Children of Diablos would be selected based on their respective capabilities. In fact, people with high magical power among the aristocratic families who had been in secret connection with the Cult for generations were also serving as Children.
Naruto stood up and went to his window. The sun was setting, and that meant he could relax for the rest of the day. He looked around in his little apartment and could see how dirty it was. 'I should clean everything up before I relax,' thought Naruto. He didn't have the time to clean his little apartment since he was busy with things like reading all those papers and documents, which had taken more than a few hours.
He looked at a specific piece of paper that was separate from the other. It was not like the other documents with general information about the cult. This specific piece of paper had information he never thought was a thing.
He would be doing himself a favor and hiding this information. Many innocent people could die as a result of this information would get into the wrong hands. He already had a plan for what to do with all of those documents. Since he knew everything now that was going on in the shadows, he wouldn't need those documents anymore. He would take them all to a place where no one beside him could go.
Naruto went to work, and after 30 minutes, his apartment was clean again. In his apartment was a single bed, a wardrobe, a desk with a chair in front of it, a hanging shelf, and a chest of drawers next to the bathroom.
After he was done, he went out of his apartment for a little walk. The sunset was always a pleasing sight, no matter how many times one would see the sunset. He would also need to get himself another sword sooner or later. His sword was shattered when he unleashed this massive magical attack that destroyed the entire facility and a few blocks of houses. Standard metal couldn't handle this enormous mana he used for the attack. After the usage, the sword would shatter into thousands of pieces, unusable at all.
He had a good friend in the province where he got all of his swords. He was still on the hunt for mithril because mithril was highly durable and had much better conductivity. Ordinary steel only had a 20-30% conductivity, but mithril, on the other hand, had a 35-50% conductivity. He was sure that a Mithril sword could handle his mana and wouldn't break.
'So… where to go?' Naruto thought a bit about the goal of his walk. 'Why not simply go towards the crater? Maybe something was interesting going on.' With a clear goal in mind, he walked toward the crater he created yesterday.
When he got near the crater, he could see that some knights were blocking the way to the crater. 'Well… I could have thought about this. It is dangerous for normal civilians to go near the crater,' thought Naruto. He shrugged his shoulders and turned around to go into a side alley. He looked around to make sure no one was watching and concentrated a bit of mana into his legs before he jumped onto the roof of the building to his right side. He landed on the roof without a problem and looked at the crater from his high position. He looked at the crater with the sunset in the distance for a while. Since he wasn't too tired, he watched the sunset until the sun wasn't visible any longer, and the darkness of the night took over slowly but surely.
His right ear twitched slightly when he heard something, even when it was only for a brief second and not too loud. He narrowed his eyes and turned in the direction the noise came from. He took a giant leap from his current position and flew over several houses before he landed in a side alley. His blond-gold hair changed into black, his blue eyes became blood red with a black slit, and his whisker marks became more feral looking.
In front of his feet was the corpse of a citizen from Midgar. It was a man in his 30s with brown hair and commoner clothes. He was in a pool of his blood, and over his body were several deep cuts. He saw a piece of paper that was lying inside of the pool of blood. He took the paper and read the message on it.
His eyes weren't visible because a shadow from his hair was hiding his eyes. The only thing someone could see was how his body began to tremble. When he raised his head, his eyes were glaring dangerously into the side alley. They were shimmering red and would frighten everyone that would see him.
"We are Shadow Garden," said a male voice. Naruto didn't move when he saw a male person with a black cloak and a steel sword in his hand. His face was hidden behind a black face mask. The eyes of the person were shimmering red as well, but more like the eyes would produce a red light, not like Naruto's, which were shimmering and not producing the red light itself.
The male person strolled towards Naruto and raised his sword for a stabbing attack. Naruto looked at the man and didn't say or move. He was waiting for the man to attack him. The man thrust his sword forward when he was in front of Naruto. Just before the sword could pierce Naruto's body, Naruto vanished for a brief second, appeared next to the sword, and took a grip of the sword. Naruto punched with his free hand the man in the face and ripped the sword out of his hand. The sword was still full of blood, and that was enough for Naruto to know that this man killed the innocent man behind Naruto.
"Who are you working for?" asked Naruto while he was holding the tip of the sword directly in front of the man's hidden face. The man said, "We are Shadow Garden." Before he jumped away from Naruto. Before the man could even touch the ground after he jumped away a bit, the tip of a sword came out of his chest. Naruto stood behind the man with his new sword pierced through the heart of the man. The man was dead the second the sword came out of his chest. Naruto pulled the sword out of the corpse of the man and looked at it without any emotions.
He saw the symbol of the cult of diablos on the black cloak. This symbol wasn't common knowledge. This knowledge stood on the one document that Naruto had separated from the other documents. Other information was also in the document, but that wasn't important right now.
'So, the cult tries to get the attention to Shadow Garden to remove any evidence of their existence. It's not too dumb when one would think about it. Shadow Garden is a completely new organization that only appeared once so far, and the time they did, they destroyed a few buildings in the capitol for seemingly no reason. Well… I know now that those were all facilities from the cult group, but others don't know that.' He sheathed the sword and looked behind him because someone was standing there.
"We see each other again earlier than I expected… Alpha," said Naruto while he turned around. Alpha stood there with her slime bodysuit. She wasn't hiding her face, and even when she would hide it with the hood, Naruto would know it was Alpha anyway.
"So, it seems," said Alpha. "What happened here?" She saw the corpse of the civilian and the corpse of another man with black clothing.
Naruto threw the piece of paper to her he found in the corpse of the innocent man. Alpha caught it and looked at the piece of paper. She saw this paper often enough, just in the last 20 hours. Someone tried to shift the blame onto Shadow Garten. Every member of Shadow Garden was searching for the culprits who dared to blame Shadow Garden.
"Care to explain?" asked Naruto. He knew already that the cult of diablos tried to blame Shadow Garden for those innocent victims, but he simply wanted to hear it from Alpha. He had to make sure that his assumption was really correct. It could well be that he was wrong, and Shadow Garden really was responsible for the death of that innocent man.
Alpha looked into the blood-red eyes of Naruto and said, "Someone is using our name to kill innocent citizens from Midgar. We are still researching the topic, and to this point, we couldn't find any culprit…" She looked at the man behind Naruto on the ground "… but it seems you already found the culprit who dared to use our name."
Naruto simply turned slightly to the side and looked at the corpse of the man he killed 2 minutes ago. "I heard something, and when I came here, the man over there was already dead. I found that document in his blood, and after that appeared, this man in front of me. All he said was, "We are Shadow Garden." I guess he was a Third Child from the cult. He said nothing else and didn't react when I killed him," said Naruto.
Alpha narrowed her eyes when she heard that piece of information. "So, you know about everything?" asked Alpha. Naruto looked at the corpse of the dead man and said, "Yes. I know everything when it comes to the cult of Diablos, the curse, and the three heroes." He looked at Alpha with his blood-red eyes after he turned around. "I will go now." He looked forth and wanted to walk away until Alpha said his name.
"Menma, wait!"
Naruto stopped and looked over his shoulder. "What do you want?"
"I wanted to thank you again for helping me five years ago. You left before I could thank you properly," said Alpha. Naruto nodded and said, "No problem. I must go now since I still have something to take care of."
Alpha looked after Naruto. There he went again, her savior and the unknown factor who created a bit of chaos inside Shadow Garden. Every Shade that was present when they encountered Naruto was a bit different than usual. Alpha was the only one who was the same since she knew Naruto already.
"Oh yeah, before I forget…" Naruto stopped and looked at Alpha. She looked into his blood-red eyes and saw how serious he was. "I don't know what you and Shadow Garden will do from now on, but I will say this to you because I trust in you to do the right thing. Even so…" He turned to her, and his figure became shadowed by darkness. "… should I ever hear or see how someone from Shadow Garden kills an innocent person… I will not hesitate to fight you." After that, Naruto vanished without a trace.
Alpha looked at the position where Naruto was and, after that, into the sky. 'I believe that we are on the side of justice… but sometimes I wonder what Shadow is planning. I can't understand him sometimes. He does the things we all would do, and sometimes his decisions are not… I hope he doesn't do something that Menma would enrage. Having Menma as an enemy would cause the entire plan to destroy the cult of Diablos to fail no matter what. No one besides Shadow would be strong enough to fight against Menma.' Alpha turned around and walked away with a little more information than before but also with concerns about the future.
She now knew that Menma protected the innocent and had no other motives. It was just like five years ago. He helped her and went on without any form of reparation. She also heard of some people in the surrounding area who had heard of a boy with spiky black hair rescuing them from a few robbers before he simply vanished. She searched for him and followed the rumors before she met Shadow and, from there on, joined his organization.
"Wait, what did you say?" asked Alexia. She was currently with her big sister in a room for a private conversation. She woke yesterday and just heard from her sister, who had rescued her. 'Have I imagined everything? I know that my sister would never lie to me about something like that. When Naruto wasn't the one who fought Zenon… then who was it? But I was sure it was Naruto, so what is going on here?' thought Alexia. She would not tell her older sister about Naruto and would go with what her older sister told her.
"The person had black spiky hair, blood-red eyes, and six whisker marks on his face. He said to me that he rescued you from Zenon Griffey. Is that right?" asked Iris.
"Oh, yeah. He came just when Zenon was about to take me away. I fought Zenon, but he was too strong for me…" said Alexia with a slightly depressed voice.
She told her sister everything that happened in the tunnels, just with the slight difference that she told it the way that Naruto was in his disguise and not himself. She told her about his supreme fighting style and his magic.
After an hour, Alexia was walking through the corridors of the academy. She thought about everything that happened and couldn't make out what she should think about that entire scenario. She was sure that Naruto was the one who rescued her, but from what her sister told her, it wasn't the case. She sighed and turned the corner and stopped when she saw no other than Naruto Uzumaki, her ex-boyfriend and… savior-not savior? She didn't know what to think right now.
"Naruto!" said Alexia.
Naruto stopped in his tracks and looked around for a second before he looked behind him. He smiled when he saw Alexia. He turned around and raised his hand while saying, "Hello, princess!"
She smiled slightly when he greeted her like usual. Full of energy and with that happy smile of his that placed smiles on other people's faces. He was really a positive person who helped everyone he could. But he also had his flaws when he once again didn't understand the situation directly. He was a bit of a knucklehead sometimes, but that was one of the things she liked about Naruto. He just had this thing about him that made people believe in him and like him. He did it not even on purpose. His words in certain situations were just perfect, and in the next moment, he was an idiot.
"How are you doing? I heard your sister saved you! She really is amazing in rescuing you from whoever kidnapped you," said Naruto while nodding to himself.
"You could say that. Do you have time right now? I wanted to talk to you about something," said Alexia.
"Sure. I don't have anything to do right now besides going home," answered Naruto with a smile.
A few minutes later, they were both on the roof, and Alexia told him everything that happened. "Well… that was everything."
"Wow! This guy must have been solid when he even defeated Zenon! I mean, we are speaking about Zenon! I want to meet this guy one day and thank him for rescuing you," said Naruto.
"When I meet him again, then I will tell him about you," said Alexia with a little smile. 'He is like always… he doesn't give me any hint that he was the one who rescued me. His surprise seems normal and not fake.'
"I also wanted to thank you," said Alexia.
"Huh? Why would you want to thank me? I didn't do anything," said Naruto, perplexed. He really had no idea why she thanked him right now.
"You know that I hated my and your way of fighting," said Alexia.
"Yes. You told me about how you hated it because it was just "mediocre" even when I told you that I liked your sword style," answered Naruto.
"Yes, about that… I changed my mind. I really like my fighting style and wanted to thank you for telling me that you liked him even, so I told you to shut up," said Alexia.
"Huh? No problem," said Naruto with a smile and a thumbs up. "But I am curious… why the sudden change? You were very confident of your opinion about your sword style."
"This amazing swordsman who rescued me showed me that my way isn't wrong and for nothing. I saw how strong I could get when I kept pushing my limits and training without doubts in my heart," said Alexia with a small smile.
"I see. I am glad that you have finally found a liking to your sword style," said Naruto with a smile. "I told you that you were amazing, and you shouldn't let the opinion of others weigh you down."
Alexia laughed a bit and nodded. "Yes, you said this already. Thank you for that; you really were a great fake boyfriend to me."
"That is all in the past, princess. I am just happy that you are alright, and you are finally like yourself, and don't let other's opinions matter to you," said Naruto.
"About that…" Alexia became a bit shy, put her hands together, and made some confusing movements with it as if she wasn't sure how she should say the following words.
"Princess?" asked Naruto, a bit confused. Alexia blushed a bit and smiled while she looked at him shyly.
"Since Zenon is dead… should we continue to be a couple and this time a real one?" asked Alexia while she looked at him with red cheeks. Naruto got wide eyes when she asked him that question.
"Uhm… wow. I don't know what to say," said Naruto while he raised his hand and rubbed the backside of his head, unsure of how to react to this. Alexia saw this and noted that he always did this when he was overwhelmed by the situation. This was one of his quirks that made Naruto, Naruto.
"I am sorry… but I can't be a real couple with you since I don't love you…," said Naruto. Alexia's smile faded while she still had her eyes closed. Her hand slowly but surely was closing to the tip of her sword.
"But we could be friends for sure!" said Naruto with a thumbs up before he saw how Alexia unsheathed her sword slowly. "Princess?" asked Naruto a bit carefully.
"I understand completely," said Alexia with a creepy smile.
"You frighten me, princess," said Naruto. In the next moment, a considerable amount of red liquid was on the wall of the academy, and a scream could be heard all over the campus.
When students came to the location of the scream, everyone thought at first that a considerable amount of blood was on the wall, but as it turned out, it was simply a drink and not blood. Someone had splattered his drink all over the wall.
A bit away stood Naruto with wide eyes and his body against a wall. 'She can be terrifying when she is angry… just like Sakura. Scary…' thought Naruto. She sliced her drink in 1000 pieces in front of Naruto and sheathed her sword again after that. She was now standing in front of Naruto with a standard smile again.
She held out her hand and said, "I would love to be your friend, Naruto-kun." Naruto slowly reached out and shook Alexia's hand with a nervous smile.
"I-I am glad, princess… hehe," said Naruto while sweat appeared on his forehead.