AN: Guess what time it is? Review time! "1," read up on Fate lore on origins and nature. "SPeCTeR-II7," it makes ABSOLUTELY no sense to add her. "insanemaelstorm," not as much as you would think. "Rawrking," trash review is trash. Naruto doesn't have chakra or a teacher for jutsu, so your point is mute. Also I know I'm an indecisive person for doing this, but after replaying Bladestorm and doing more research on the Fate version of Joan of Arc, I'm switching the Bladestorm one out for her…Scathatch won the poll, and because of a very good suggestion Lancer Artoria (the runner up) will be bound to the Emiya Estate, and unable to leave…But she can still interact with others… Anyways on with the chpt.

Speech

Thought

Higher Being (i.e. Demon, Grail, ect) speaking, Scene/POV change

Higher Being thinking

The Grail War Begins Pt 3: By your command

Naruto's Workshop: Five minutes before the end of the last chapter

The sounds of battle echoed through the small shed. At the moment the master of the household was holding his own, but he was slowly being pushed back by his three attackers. As this was occurring, something odd was happening.

The floor of the old shed, which was plain concrete, had glowing red lines slowly carving themselves into it. They moved relatively slowly, and at first it would seem like complete gibberish; but as it became more defined, it turned out to be a summoning circle…A trained magus would have recognized the design roughly as one for the Grail Wars; but it was bigger than any recorded example.

Stretching near the entire interior of the shed, it had begun to climb the walls of the shed. The summoning circle finally stopped forming when it reached the top of the small structure. With the summoning circle complete, it latched onto the nearest non-heroic spirit's prana network, and studied the magus.

They were, so it seemed to the quasi-consciousness connected to the Throne of Heroes that was involved whenever someone didn't use a catalyst, a born warrior. Everything about them screamed it; they had received some training, though they were still not fully formed. Further guidance would be needed to form the magus into what he could be.

Cycling through the untold trillions of beings in the throne, both those who had existed and those fictional…as well as versions from different timelines; the consciousness narrowed its selection. In seconds what had once been a massive list, was cut down to a million different beings.

Narrowing its search even more, it cast aside those whose skills would not be sufficient…those who would not be able to make bonds with the magus were discarded from the list…then it rejected those from the remaining group whose nature would cause conflicts within the team that the target would have as their allies.

Soon all that were left was a mere hundred choices. From those the Throne's selector studied each much closer, looking for the perfect selections. In the end, it found them…Nine Heroic Spirits. Some were selected due to skill alone, others due to being able to teach him life lessons he would need, or in a few cases learn some themselves; but they all had one thing in common…they could bond with the chosen summoner easier than some other, with as few problems as possible.

With the selections made, prana was leeched away from the summoner at a fairly rapid pace…If it was any other magus, the pace would have been much slower, but with the sheer amount of magical circuits and their insanely high capacity it didn't even make a real dent in the chosen one's reserves.

It had filled all but the last servant with more than enough prana, and given them everything a full summoning would have, when the summoner made contact with the circle by being launched into his workshop. This had the unfortunate side effect of setting off the summoning a few seconds too early, and the last servant would be bound to the Emiya estate as a guardian.

Metaphorically shrugging its shoulders, the being went back to sleep until the next time someone called upon the Throne of Heroes…Its task complete and not caring about what happened after the summoning.

Meanwhile, in the shed itself, Naruto had been picking himself back up, ready to go another round…Or dozen…With his attackers. But before he could continue fighting, as his battle clouded mind demanded, a bright flash of light and the presence of multiple non-hostiles snapped him out of it.

Shaking his head to clear his mind, he studied them briefly, just as they were studying him. There were nine in total, all female, and armored VERY differently from one and other. Ranging from a simple quasi armored purple body suit all the way up to and including a full suit of golden plate armor.

Before any of them could say anything, he felt a burning on his hands and arms…Looking down the Emiya heir saw a complex array grafting itself to his body, it was beautiful, but more importantly it confirmed him as a master in the current Grail War.

When he looked up he saw his new servants were a little pensive, but the blond was able to see when they sensed his attackers…And their decision to attack them. While he had no doubts they would drive his adversaries away, it would not sit well with him if he didn't give them some sort of aid.

With that in mind he spoke before they could leave the shed: "Before you go, the three enemy servants outside are Hector, the Prince of Troy; Cu Chulainn, the Hound of Ulster; and a longbowman by the name of John of Nottingham, he did not display any noble phantasms during our fight."

His new allies were startled. But swiftly the unhelmed swordswoman with blonde hair replied, a slight smile pulling at her lips: "I see, truly our master is quite helpful. We will return to discuss things after the attackers have been dealt with. Until then please remain here."

As they rapidly filed out, Naruto caught sight of the expression on the purple body suit wearing woman's face…it was a smile…But it was not a pleasant smile, it was a thing of malice disguised as a normal smile. This woman definitely had a history with at least one of the heroes out there.

After shaking himself out of his contemplation, the blond made his way to the door, just in time to hear the Archer say: "I shouldn't have opened my bloody mouth."

The atmosphere was tense. After that, but then a slight giggle filled the air, one that caused the blue haired spearman to take a step back in fear: "N-now teacher, I know this looks bad…"

The purple haired woman spoke in a deciptively serene tone: "Hm? Whatever do you mean Setana? Do you mean the part where you were hunting someone with no ties to the Grail War? Or the part where you needed help to fight one enemy? It seems someone's been slacking off…Something I will no doubt have to correct, my wayward student."

At that the lancer bravely took to his heels, and fled, chased by his cackling teacher. An awkward silence filled the air in the wake of their departure. But then a feminine laugh filled the air, the source was the golden armored woman...Followed swiftly by the silver and red armored one bursting out into laughter at the absurdity of what had just happened.

The blonde in the blue dress with silver armor gave them a disapproving glare out of the corner of her eye. Putting aside her annoyance she, and the others not letting out gales of laughter, advanced on the two remaining servants…slowly surrounding them.

The two warriors who had been left behind by Cu in his mad dash, slowly fought a fighting retreat to the exit of the compound. Against equal numbers, they might have stood a chance, but outnumbered as they were they had no opportunities to counter attack.

The longbowman spoke in a strained voice as he barely dodged a blood red sword: "A thought occurs to me, Prince Hector."

The Trojan grunted as he parried a blow from a silver blade: "That being?"

Firing off three arrows in quick succession, the Englishman rolled away from a lance thrust from a woman in full plate armor, he expounded on his thought: "There is a saying in the era I lived in, discretion is the better part of valor. I suggest we follow the example of our comrade in arms."

The prince threw himself away from three blades, swearing under his breath in ancient Greek: "Agreed. Astralize on three. Three."

Just like that the two warriors vanished. Just in time to miss an irritated spearwoman walk back in, grumbling under her breath while holding Rin under one arm…And dragging the Toshaka heiress' three servants behind her, all of which had a giant bruise on their head from getting whacked by the purplette's weapon.

Dumping them unceremoniously in front of Naruto and the eight other servants, the purple body suit wearer spoke in a laid back tone: "Yo, master. My wayward student escaped by astralizing, but on my way back I ran into these three trying to breach your residence. I thought you'd like to deal with them yourself."

Shaking his head in wry amusement, he gave his friend a slight smile: "Hey Rin, nice of you to drop by," fishing around in his pocket, the blond found her pendant: "by the way, thanks for using this earlier to jumpstart my regeneration."

Rin gave him a deadpan look, one of her eyes twitching, as she spoke: "You're welcome

Emiya, although I wish I knew you were going to become a master beforehand." Unspoken was that way she would have been able to negotiate better a more favorable alliance, for herself, from a position of strength.

Letting out a wry chuckle, the Emiya heir, over the protests of his new servants, invited them in; so they could sit and talk; silently promising himself that after this was over he would get to know his servants at least a little.

After seating his, guests would be the best term here, at the main table; Naruto went to the kitchen to make some tea. While he went about his endeavor he kept an ear on the situation in the dining room, ready to step in if his servants started anything.

Thankfully, despite the atmosphere being so tense he was pondering seeing if he could literally cut it, there were no incidents. Nor were there any as he set the tea out for serving. Now though came the tricky part, balancing Rin's "shield" personality against his servants, who would no doubt be annoyed if he was too generous in negotiations.

Before he could come up with a way to broach the subject without offending either party, Rin spoke in a calm tone: "Emiya, how much do you know about the Grail War?"

Naruto was puzzled for a second: "I only know as much as my old man told me, which wasn't much beyond the fact that the last one ended VERY badly…Resulting in the fire I was found in all those years ago."

If he wasn't busy trying to puzzle out why his friend would ask him that, the blond would have noticed two of his servants flinch from him mentioning the fire and result of the last Grail War. Both were blonde, one in a revealing red dress with transparent sections the other wore an armored blue and white dress.

The ravenette gained a small smile as she muttered under her breath: "Thank goodness for small mercies." Raising her voice she continued with her thought process: "I propose a deal Emiya, I tell you everything I know about the Grail War, and get you signed up for it so the Church doesn't send enforcers after you…In return you and your servants will let me and mine live."

Before Naruto could reply, the golden armored blonde spoke in an arrogant tone: "And why exactly should our master entertain your offer? Our master could easily have us dispose of your followers, and claim you as a concubine for trespassing on his lands."

Fighting down the urge to do a spit take at his servant's impolite and rash reply, he sensed several of his servants tensing, the ones he had pegged as "knights"...meaning they were concerned over what kind of morals he had. Come to think of it, this felt like a test from the golden armored woman more than anything.

Swallowing his tea, Emiya spoke: "While that may have been the thing to do in your time period, and some truly traditional magus families of this era might do it too; I see no reason to do so…Especially not to someone who has been a good friend of mine for several years."

Glancing at his servants, he saw approval in the eyes of most of them, though the purplette's spear woman appeared neutral as did the red dressed swordswoman…Surprisingly though the golden armored woman had a brief look of approval in them, before her red eyes returned to normal and shrugged: "If you say so, master."

At that point several loud rumbling noises broke upon the atmosphere. While most of those present tensed expecting some kind of attack, our protagonist merely looked at four of his servants…Who were looking rather sheepish.

With a dry tone he spoke: "I suppose you can tell me about the rules and what not of this war over dinner, Rin."

A disturbing glint appeared in the Toshaka's heiress' white haired servant's eyes: "If it would be acceptable, I would like to help; after all it would be a good way to show good will."

While the reasoning of the red clad servant was sound, Naruto had a suspicion there was something going on underneath this eagerness…Something slightly sinister…But not malicious…It was odd, but in the end he acquiesced.

As the two males made dinner, an air of competitiveness soon filled the room. It was inexplicable to the blond, he had never felt competitive outside of sparing…But soon enough he realized why. In and of itself, this was a fight, albeit a very different one than he was used to.

The two toiled away, the atmosphere pushing them to the limits of their chefing. More than once, one of the other servants popped their heads in to see what was going on…Only to be told to go back and wait.

It took a while, as they were competing for resources while competing to best the other…but in the end it proved worth it. Between the two of them, they had made a literal mountain of food, but, as the current inhabitants of the Emiya estate dug in, it became apparent that it might not have been enough. The servants were each demolishing huge portions with ease.

By the end of the culinary massacre, it was clear between the two who was the overall better chef…even if only slightly. As such, Naruto swallowed his pride, and asked for tips from Archer on how to improve. The white haired man was willing to trade tip for tip, after all he had been bested in some of the dishes.

While all this had been going on, Rin had an expression of disbelief on her face…one mirrored by the more serious servants now that the feast was over. Shaking her head, the Toshaka heiress spoke with a faux-calm tone: "Now that you've got that out of the way, can we get back to the original issue?"

The two men who had made the feast gained sheepish expressions before quickly apologizing. After the two sat back down, Rin proceeded to give a brief and overview of the rules of the Grail War, granted she wasn't able to cover much as with the larger roster of servants in the competition kind of invalidating most of the common sense things about the grail war…At the same time they offered a much larger tactical and strategic options.

But that was neither here nor there. In the end Rin was able to convince the Emiya scion and his servants to go to the local church to register with the overseer of the Grail War; much to Naruto's chagrin…As he knew EXACTLY who would live in a church and be the overseer of the war...A certain executioner that he and Rin BOTH were not big fans of.

CHAPTER COMPLETE!

NEXT TIME: The Grail Wars Begins Pt 4: Of a shifty priest, and children of Gods

Also, have an Omake.

When the summoning ritual was completed, Shirou Schwineorg, apprentice and adopted son of the infamous Wizard Marshal, felt like cursing his dead apostle teacher/guardian/adopted parent. In front of him were two servants.

Both were female, and blonde…Their physical proportions were very different; one seemed to be in their late teens, the other their early teens…and the two were dressed in winter attire, in fact the taller one seemed to have a blue Santa hat on. Taking a second look, he concluded that she did indeed have a Santa hat on.

While the older one's garb resembled a blue Santa outfit, the skirt was a little short for the weather…But it was still more practical than the younger one's, whose torso was basically completely exposed, except for a blue bra and a shoulder cape…She also had a small silver tiara on.

The older one spoke, her voice was hard, yet at the same time there was an underlying softness he was able to detect: "I am Saber Santa, with me is my helper, Santa Jeanne d' Arc Alter Lily, I thank you for summoning us master…Even if a bit late. Now we may proceed to spread gifts and joy to the world!"

Shirou only had a second to bite out one of the most common curses in the clock tower before he was dragged away to a massive sled pulled by nineteen reindeer, and filled to the brim with presents. "ZEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLRRRRRRREEEEEETTTTTCCCCCHHHHHH!"

Meanwhile, deep in the forests of Germany the aforementioned Dead Apostle grinned in satisfaction…A grin that absolutely terrified the Brunestud sisters, who he was meeting with for their quasi annual get together.

Anyways, review please.