Hello! To start off, sorry for that little error on the last chapter. Never using copy- paste again (knowing me I probably will). I also edited some small parts of the chapters but nothing too major with the story, just a small tweak to Naruto's outfit and a nod to a certain line by Diluc. Anyways, I'm going to try for a long chapter with some filler content to try and get the pacing evened out. The disclaimer is in the previous chapters so you can read it from there. Also forgot to mention, Naruto will have multiple weapons and his signature will be the polearm, not the kubikiribocho. As for ships, I got some reviews and I'll answer them at the end of the chapter. Hope you enjoy!
P.S Idk where to put a trigger warning but there will be some blood in this chapter so if you are triggered by that, you have been warned.
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
"Kurama/spirits/beasts talking"
"Jutsu"
At dawn winery, everyone except a certain whiskered blond had already met up with two purified tears between them. Just as they were getting worried about his afety, Naruto walks up to them with a grin on his face.
"Hi everyone! Did I miss anything?" Naruto's cheerful voice asked like they weren't worried in the first place. There were 2 curious wet patches near his feet but no one paid it any mind.
"There you are! We thought you were dead." Jean was apparently still mad about the way he embarrassed her and Diluc in the tavern in front of Lumine and Venti. His pranks are probably another reason but she'd rather not talk about that.
"Aww~ Was mother Jean worried about little old me?" Naruto answered in a baby voice. It did it's job and got Jean riled up.
"Ahem!" Diluc's fake cough broke the banter between the two and drew everyone's attention. "I'll admit, while Jean being embarrassed is quite an entertaining sight," Que and indignant squeak from Jean and a snicker the others, "But I believe we have more pressing matters to deal with. Naruto, I'm assuming you got the tear?"
"Sure did! Speaking of which, Lumine catch!" Naruto threw the tear towards Lumine who somehow caught it and gave the boy a glare worthy of a certain killer sister of the church. For a second, Naruto wondered if the two met but quickly dismissed that thought.
"Why would you do that you idiot!" Lumine screamed while Naruto sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. "Say something you dumb oaf!" Naruto looked at Lumine, then at Venti, then at Paimon, back at Venti, and lastly back at Lumine and smirked.
"Ehe~" Lumine and Paimon jaw dropped. Venti blinked. Jean and Diluc face palmed.
"See?! This is why you don't have a girl yet!" Lumine shouted back. Naruto blinked.
'Dang, Aether wasn't lying when he said she was a hot head, and targets relationships when she's mad.' Kushina and Kurama were laughing in his head while Minato looked at his wife and looked as if he was empathizing with his son. "Ok then, if you are any better, are you still single?" Naruto's comeback left Lumine sputtering and speechless with no actual words. "Anyway~, I'll get this and these off your hands, and we should be ready to begin." Naruto took the now purified tear from Lumine and the other tears from Venti and began the process of reenergizing the lyre with the bard. "Did that do it?"
By now, everyone had recovered from their stupors and watched, as Naruto and Venti combined the lyre with purified the tears, restoring it to its original power. The lyre now glowed an ethereal golden while it's strings were coated with the color of anemo.
"This! Youthful glow!" Jean said in awe, causing Naruto to remember a certain Bushy Brows and his sensei and shudder.
Meanwhile in Konoha, Lee was trying to beat Sasuke in a breath holing contest, when a sneeze announced his defeat. Next to him, his sensei also lost the same contest to his longtime rival, a perverted cyclops.
Naruto could've sworn he heard two voices shout 'Damn you Kakashi/Sasuke' and winced for whoever was standing next to them. This is why he was glad to be away from konoha for now.
"Praising yourself? Really?" Paimon said in a deadpan tone, causing Naruto, Lumine, Venti and even Diluc to snicker, though the latter's was barely audible.
"I- I- I meant the holy lyre." Jean said with a slight stutter. She quickly composed herself with a cough and asked, "So what now? Do we just summon Dvalin?"
"Yes actually! ~" Venti answered cheerfully. "We can even summon him here!"
"Hold on bard." Diluc's voice cut his cheer short. "While I could have the winery rebuilt, I'd rather not. It would be very expensive to do that. So can we summon the dragon, somewhere else?"
"On that note, where will we summon him anyway?" Lumine asked thoughtfully. "We can't summon him near Mondstadt or the winery. We also need a place where he can hear us and actually come."
"We need a place where the wind will carry a bard's words far away. Like a beach or a cliff" Venti answered. "Does anyone know a place like that?"
"What about Starsnatch cliff?" Naruto asked. "I mean it's a cliff over the sea and there's always a good breeze up there. It could carry a bard's words." Everyone gave it some thought and agreed.
"Alright! Let's head there now!" Venti said enthusiastically before jogging off followed by everyone except Naruto, who stayed back with a distant look on his face.
'I hope your plan goes well Aether. I don't know how much more Dvalin can take.' With that thought, Naruto followed the others to Starsnatch cliff.
*Timeskip brought to you by Paimon roasting Venti!*
The 6 people reached the cliff and Lumine couldn't help but admire the view. From where they were standing, she could see the vast blue ocean and the beach where she first met Paimon.
"So, Venti? Are we ready?" Diluc asked the bard, who responded with a nod.
"Stand back, I'll summon Dvalin." With that, Venti starts to play a song on the lyre. It was a soft tune and Venti had his eyes closed. The song was immediately followed by a roar and the heavy flapping of leathery wings.
'Kurama! Get ready!' Naruto mentally warned the fox in his gut while activating his rinnegan.
"Already on it brat!" the fox started gathering chakra for him to use and stored it up. In his seal, ready to give it to him if he needed it.
With a blast of anemo, the dragon they came for, soared upwards from the cliff and eyed the group before settling on Venti.
"You have come! What is done cannot be undone!" Dvalin's voice sounded pained, but only Naruto, Lumine and Venti noticed it.
"Then why do I see sadness in your eyes! Eyes that speak of your yearning for this song?" Venti asked the dragon who only growled in response.
"They are communicating?" Jean asked herself and Naruto resisted the urge to add something sassy.
Suddenly, a blast of anemo went to hit the bard but was it blocked with kubikiribocho, which shattered into pieces, leaving only 1/8th the blade in the hands of a bewildered Naruto. The others were quick to follow and formed a shield around the bard and Naruto. The holy lyre had flown out of Venti's hand and lying on the ground.
"Do not be fooled by him, dear dragon. He left you alone to rot! Now, he attempts to trick you once more!" an abyss mage's voice rang out from behind the dragon while it floated menacingly towards his ear. Dvalin failed to see the pain on his old friend's face as he fell for the abyss mage's words.
"Barbatos! YOU WERE PLANNING THIS ALL ALONG! TO HAVE ME SLAIN BY THEM?"
"No! I'd never do that!" Venti's pleas went unheard as the abyss mage continued to speak to Dvalin from inside it's shield.
With a roar, the dragon flew away, leaving a laughing abyss mage behind. "The time has come, for the dragon to serve its true master! His ma-" A broken sword found its way through the abyss mage's head.
"Shut your mouth, worthless garbage! Venti, are you ok?" Naruto asked after the abyss mage disappeared behind him. He then re-summoned his, broken sword with a poof on his palm and dropped it to the floor. He then gave the holy lyre back to Venti. After assuring the bard was fine, he picked up his broken sword and examined it. With a 'tsk' the blond took off his right glove and stabbed his palm with a sharp point on his broken blade. While everyone except for Diluc was shocked at this, Naruto just held out his palm and focused some chakra in his heart and arm, making his blood flow out faster. While Lumine, Paimon, Venti and Jean looked worried, their eyes widened when they saw the blade slowly start to fix itself. After around a quarter of the blade had come back, Naruto stopped sending his chakra to his wound and deactivated his rinnegan because he felt everyone staring at him.
"What? Do I have something on my face?" his question snapped them out of their stupor and Jean rushed towards him before taking his hand and examining it. "What are you doing aunt Jean?"
"Shut up Naruto! You just cut yourself and expect me to be fine with it?" Jean asked. They may get into fights sometimes, but the kid was still the one who brought Diluc out of his depression and to that, she was grateful. She was also trying to get him with Barbara and knew the depth of their bond as friends. Speaking of which, "Go see Barbara after this or I'm telling her that you cut yourself!"
The colour drained from Naruto's face. "O-oii! You can't do that aunt Jean! I'd rather ask Amber, Sucrose, Noelle, Bennet even Klee and Lisa if you are doing that!" Naruto cried out.
"Who's this Barbara anyway, and what's so bad about her that's got whiskers crying out?" Paimon asked Diluc and Lumine and Venti also leaned into the conversation.
"Barbara is the deaconess of the church and Jean's little sister. She is quite famous in Mondstadt for her healing techniques and also her singing. Naruto and Barbara are good friends but she does seem to get quite, 'worked up' when Naruto gets injured on his commissions or patrols. Jean is also hell bent that Barbara likes Naruto and Naruto is hell bent that he can't marry his future aunt. Personally, I just want him to get with her for precisely that comment." Diluc's tone started out serious but got a little humorous towards the end.
In the background, Jean was still fussing over Naruto's hand which had already healed. As soon as Naruto pointed it out, he put his glove back on, but not before Jean spotted a curious white circle on his palm.
"Naruto?" Jean asked the kid who made a small noise of acknowledgement. "You have a tattoo?"
"Yeah, what about it?" Naruto asked back. Jean smirked at the boy. Even after fussing over him for a solid 10 minutes, she still won't forget the times he had either humiliated or pranked her for overworking and Lisa for flirting with him. How Kaeya took the ones meant for him with just a laugh, was almost as big of a mystery as how he managed to get in his office to set up elaborate pranks during work hours.
"You know Barbara doesn't like tattoos~" Jean said in a sing song voice. Ah the beauty of finally having the upper hand.
"You know I'm not interested in her right? And why are we even talking about this anyway? We were almost killed by a dragon and you are talking about me having a crush on your sister"
"Don't lie to yourself brat. You know you like her and want to marry her.~" Kurama joined in with a singsong voice.
"NOT THE TIME!" Naruto said aloud, much to the laughter of Kurama and the confusion of Jean. "Also where can I find some stray fatui? I need to some blood to repair my sword."
Jean and the traveler duo blinked twice while Diluc just sighed. "I think there are some up on Dragonspine. Just don't kill them." Diluc's response caused Jean to jaw drop and wonder if both father and son were insane.
"Anyways, what do we do now? The lyre won't work because Dvalin thinks that the drunk bard over here betrayed him." Naruto asked Diluc, who looked thoughtful for a second before turning around to look at everyone.
"Well, I'll try to find another mage and we can try to get some information out of them. I'll send you a message when I find one, but I need Kaeya and Jean to keep the Knights and the fatui out of me and my men's way. Naruto, try to find something on the abyss order's movements. Traveler, try to help him with that. And Venti, try to lay low and not draw attention to yourself. If the fatui know that Lord Barbatos is just posing as a drunk bard, that could be quite bad for you. Got it?" Diluc's answers were met with nods from the group. "Well then, wait for my message and don't try anything reckless. That last part was for you Naruto." With nods of agreement, they all went their separate ways (mostly).
*Somewhere else*
A blond-haired boy stood at the edge of a cliff, looking at the dragon flying overhead with his golden colored eyes. Behind him, a pair of cryo abyss mages flanked him. Another one soon appeared behind him, this time a hydro abyss mage, and knelt down.
"Lord Aether! Please forgive me! I wasn't able to reach the dragon on time! I went as fast as I could, but another one had already reached the dragon!" The abyss mage pleaded with Aether, who stayed silent and stared at the tower of old Mondstadt where Dvalin was resting.
"Don't worry about that. For now, try to find a way to undo those barriers." A new voice answered from behind. Turning around, the abyss mages knelt down to show their respect to the newcomer. "On second thoughts, try to find and place the light actuators that dactivate it near the terminals and have some churls guard them." Naruto's command was heeded immediately and the abyss mages disappeared. "So Aether, what's on your mind?" Aether let out a long sigh. "You are worried about Lumine aren't you?" Naruto asked. He couldn't blame the guy. Afterall, he'd feel the same if something were to happen to Konohamaru. "Tell you what? I'll meet you tomorrow and we can talk…
After a small pep talk, the two parted ways.
*The next day*
Naruto was back on Dragonspine, but this time, he was at the peak, looking at a curious tunnel blocked by the wind. "How are you not cold? Paimon is up freezing here!" Oh yeah. He almost forgot his companions. Turning around, Naruto quickly eyed the shivering Lumine and the child floating next to her, pausing at the traveler's exposed thighs, arms and shoulders before giving them a deadpan look.
"I thought you said you prepared! Did you not eat any warming food?" Naruto said while making his way to a small red crystal on the floor. He then stomped on it twice to break it into two appropriately sized pieces which he picked up and threw towards Lumine and Paimon. The girl caught both and gave the smaller shard to Paimon and found that the crystal was giving off some heat. Both let out a relieved sigh.
"What do you mean warming food?" Lumine asked curiously. She'd eat anything to get rid of the cold. Looking down at her crystal, she saw it disintegrating, much to her horror. Looking back up, she saw that Naruto had somehow started a fire. 'How did he do that? Didn't he have an anemo vision?'
"The fire's ready. Come and warm yourself." When Lumine and Paimon sat down, Naruto took off his jacket and put it over Lumine's shoulders and shoved Paimon into it, before giving them some chilies to eat so they could warm up.
Lumine blushed and mumbled a Thanks and warmed herself up by the fire. (A/N: Naruto is still as dense as a black hole). She was still weary of him after seeing him take out a Frost Sealed Lawachurl with a single punch and killing a fatui agent to restore his blade. "Aren't you cold though?" Lumine asked worriedly.
"Not really. And I can use my vision to keep warm." Naruto replied while sitting in front of her. 'If Aether saw us sitting together, he might go ballistic.'
The two were on an inspection mission to Dragonspine on the request of a researcher at the foot of the mountain. Naruto had planned to meet Aether after this, but because Lumine tagged along, he had to drop her off first. Underneath his jacket, Naruto wore a short sleeved grey shirt and his right forearm was covered in bandages. How he was not cold in this weather, Lumine could not imagine, even if he did tell her some seconds ago.
"Anyway, let's go back down, shall we? You look like you are going to become a statue. Though yapping fly looks more ready to be a popsicle than a statue." Naruto told them, ignoring the squeak from Paimon. He then stood up and held out his hand to the duo "Ok, grab on. We're gonna go fast so hold on" Lumine and Paimon looked at each other, before Lumine held his hand and grabbed Paimon inside the jacket. After a twisting sensation, Lumine found herself on the bottom of the mountain they were just at. Feeling dizzy, she inhales some warmer air and exhales. She quickly checks on Paimon and looks at Naruto to thank him, only he was not there. Lumine looked left, then right, behind, and even up and down. Naruto wasn't there.
*With Naruto*
"She actually said that!?" Aether asked in disbelief before laughing. He knew his sister preferred to insult relationships over coming up with humiliating nonsense like he would but for her to directly come out and say his best friend didn't have a girl? Well, he must have really pissed her off.
Right now, they were sitting in Aether's bedroom, with Aether sitting on his bed and Naruto on a chair, looking at him. "HA aaaaaahhh! I haven't laughed like that since you beat up that doppelganger's apprentice without even a transformation! He went full Foul legacy and you kicked him in the crotch while he was doing it!" Naruto smiled slightly before asking his brother in arms.
"Why do you call her a doppelganger anyway? I know she is strong but she can't change her looks right?" Naruto asked curiously. "Also, for your information, I only did that because he tried to jump me with his transformation." Naruto's face changed and he brought a hand to his chin. 'I wonder where that idiot is now? He was fun to fight, just not when he randomly appears demanding one.' He thought with a sweatdrop. Their last meeting happened when Naruto was on patrol around stone gate, near liyue and met up with Aether, who was disguised thanks to an engraved seal ring on his index finger he could activate with his thumb.
"Yeah right! You enjoyed seeing him squirm in pain." Both winced at the image before Aether asked a different question. "Tell me Naruto. Do you think Lumine is ready for this world? You know the horrors, the fatui, the rest of the abyss order and not to mention th-
"She'll be fine Aether." Naruto's solid tone was accompanied by his hands on Aether's shoulders. "She'll get her powers back. The elemental energy in her body is already making sure of that. Anyways, enough of that stuff. You still haven't told me why you call Skirk a doppelganger." Naruto tried to change the subject and get some answers from Aether at the same time.
With a deep breath, Aether regained his composure. "Well, when me and Lumine were still traveling through worlds, we met 5 warriors on a very large ship. They were quite powerful and one of them looked exactly like Skirk, minus the outfit." Aether's tone lacked the jovial undertone from before. Eventually, after eyeing the room for a while, Aether took a deep breath, looked at Naruto and asked him something. "Naruto, please promise me that you will take care of my sister. That you will watch over her while I can't. I can only trust you for this, so please. Can you do it for your friend? Please?" Aether's tone was slightly shaky towards the end.
Looking at him, Naruto only saw a distraught brother. Not a formidable foe, not the leader of the abyss order, not a person capable of fighting archons, but a distraught brother. A brother who longed to be with his sister again. A brother who longed to meet her again. It was something he'd seen mirrored in Lumine's eyes every time she got no leads on her brother after doing many sweeps, searches and asking around. It made no sense how or why they woke up in different times, or what they'd done to be sealed away in the first place. "I promise. I promise on my ninja way that I'll watch over your sister until you return my friend!" Aether regained his composureand smiled before bending down with his head in his arms as he let out some tears. With a deep breath, Naruto got up, sat down next to Aether and rubbed his back soothingly. "It's ok to cry ya'know." Naruto said with a soothing tone, but Aether shook his head. 'Mom, dad, can you help when I bring him inside? I don't know how to deal with this out here.' At their confirmation, Naruto grabbed Aether's hand and brought him to his mindscape. After Aether realized where he was, he was pulled into a motherly hug by Kushina, who tried her best to comfort her son's best friend. Minato ran his hand through Aether's hair while trying to assure him that they were all there for him, while Naruto patted him on the shoulder. Even the giant fox living in his friend's gut was quiet to give them a moment. Here, in the mind of his best friend, in the presence of his best friend and his family, the estranged brother finally let out the tears he had been holding in for centuries.
3600 words lesgoo!
So yeah, tried my hand at some angst, just a little, to see if I can do it. As for ships, I might go for either Noelle or Barbara, cause Idk about any other girls in the game. If the readers wish, I'll hold off the shipping till later, but Jean's teasing will still be there. In the next chapter, *spoiler alert* expect a konoha scene because why not? Also, the reason why I added Abyss Aether to this fic is because I wanted to try something new. I'd also like your opinion on a Naruto x HSR crossover fic as a bit of a side fic. This will still be the main fic btw and will still probably get weekly updates till near the end of the year, thanks to exams. Anyways, thanks for reading and see you in the next one!
Peace!