A/N: Please read this note, would you kindly? Its important and contains my update schedule. Were it not for Dark, I wouldn't even be able to do this.
I'm well aware that this -and Scarlet Vow- are some of our less popular Elden Ring stories. Even so, I hope someone, somewhere enjoys them.
Being sick -and these infernal site glitches!- have decimated me for the time being. Apologies. I'll update what I can, when I can, but it may be touch and go for a bit. Apples and Atoms, Running to the Edge, Breath of Fresh Air, Long May He Reign, Elden Ring, Claws of a Lion, Gotta Adopt 'em All, and I Want it All are looking likely thus far.
I've not forgotten the others, Everything else needs time in the oven, and the week is still ongoing. Here's hoping I improve.
Every review truly does help, large or small, anything is better than nothing at all.
Every bit of feedback is the wind beneath my wings, so...please...?
I know its weak of me to ask, but it truly does lift my spirits...
Just wanted to say, I appreciate you all! More feedback means faster updates! It's especially important, in these, trying times, with the main site notifications down. Every word counts and i appreciate you all! All these reviews really keep me inspired! Looking forward to hearing from you~!
As ever, I own no references, quotes, themes or memes. They're tributes to legends far greater than little 'ol me.
I'm just a humble author trying to make his way in this wild world, one word at a time.
Time and feedback will determine if this remains a story. Simple as that.
In other words...its up to YOU, the reader. Do let me know~!
SPOILERS FOR SHADOWS OF THE ERDTREE AHEAD!
"Wait, wait, wait! You have how many what?!"
"Would believe me if I said four...?"
"HOW?!"
~?
Brace for Impact
The air in Caelid stank of rot and ruin.
Even with the wind howling through the craggy wastes, it did little to carry away the thick, festering scent that clung to everything. The remnants of the Ulcerated Tree Spirit they had fought still smoldered behind them, its foul essence seeping into the earth, adding yet another layer of corruption to an already cursed land. Here, even death did not bring an end—it simply lingered, feeding the festering sickness that made Caelid what it was.
Naruto hardly noticed anymore. He had slept in worse places, waded through fouler swamps, and fought things far uglier than the beasts lurking on the fringes of their camp. He had learned to live with it, the way one grew accustomed to the bite of cold steel or the ache of old wounds. But Millicent—Millicent was not used to company. That much had been obvious from the start.
And now? Now he understood why.
Because, oh wow, she wasn't kidding. That was a lot of siblings.
Naruto had expected one or two—maybe four, since that was the number Millicent had offhandedly mentioned—but he hadn't quite anticipated the full swarm of red-haired women who emerged from the ruins and crags of Caelid's blasted landscape. They were like specters in the dying light, their golden eyes catching the last slivers of sun as they stepped forth, wary yet unyielding. The battle with the Ulcerated Tree Spirit had left them weary, the stink of its burning corpse still thick in the air, but now they faced an entirely different kind of challenge.
The sisters.
Some stood tall and lean like Millicent, their movements measured and precise, honed by both battle and suffering. Others were shorter, stockier, their bodies bearing the unmistakable marks of hardship—scars running like veins across their skin, the affliction clinging to them like a shadow. Their hair varied in shade, from deep crimson to the burnt orange of an autumn sunset, but their eyes—golden, bright, and piercing—were the same.
Naruto exhaled through his nose, his fingers twitching toward the hilt of his sword out of habit. Not in fear, but readiness. It was a shinobi's instinct—assess, react. But the tension in Millicent's frame told him all he needed to know.
This was no joyful reunion.
"Sisters?" Naruto asked, casting her a sideways glance.
She gave a slight nod, her face guarded, unreadable. "It would seem so."
A beat of silence. Then, movement.
One of them—a slip of a girl, smaller than the others, younger perhaps—crossed the space between them in an instant. Before Naruto could react, she latched onto his arm. Not just grabbing, no, but clinging—limbs wrapped around him like he was some lifeline, her cheek pressed to his chest as if she had found the warmest place in all of Caelid.
Naruto stiffened. Not out of discomfort, but sheer surprise.
"You're warm," the girl murmured, her voice muffled against his tunic. "I like you."
Naruto blinked. "Uh… thanks?"
Another sister—taller, with a face like a weathered blade—snorted. "He's a bit slow, isn't he?"
Millicent sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "You have no idea."
"Hey, I'm right here," Naruto protested.
"You're warm," the girl murmured, voice muffled against his tunic. "I like you."
Naruto blinked. "Uh… thanks?"
Naruto wasn't sure whether that was a compliment or a really specific insult. Either way, he had a feeling this was going to be a long night.
The sisters tittered amongst themselves, exchanging glances thick with amusement and some unreadable emotion that made his instincts prickle. Even the knight among them, who had earlier thumped their chestplate in greeting, tilted their head ever so slightly, watching the scene unfold with what might have been mild interest—if they had a visible face behind that battered helm.
Millicent, however, was decidedly less amused.
Without a word, she turned on her heel and stalked off, her single hand clenched into a trembling fist at her side. Her spine was rigid, her steps sharp and purposeful, cutting a path through the broken landscape with the kind of determination that spoke more of flight than purpose. She did not look back.
Naruto watched her go, frowning.
"Did I… do something?"
One of the elder sisters clicked her tongue, arms folded as she examined him with an expression bordering on pity. "You really are dense, aren't you?"
Naruto bristled. "What's that supposed to mean?"
The girl still latched onto his chest hummed, nuzzling closer. "I like him."
With the same exasperated patience he had once reserved for particularly stubborn teammates, Naruto gently peeled her off and set her down, ruffling her hair in what he hoped was a reassuring manner. "Alright, that's enough of that. Let's not get too grabby, yeah?"
She pouted, golden eyes shining up at him, but she didn't protest.
The other sisters only snickered, their voices rising and falling in hushed murmurs, as though they were all in on some private joke he wasn't privy to. He didn't like that. Not because he feared them—he had fought gods and monsters and worse things than he cared to name—but because he didn't understand them. And he had learned long ago that things you didn't understand had a way of creeping up on you when you least expected.
Still, that wasn't the problem at hand.
His gaze remained fixed on Millicent's retreating form. Her strides were purposeful, her posture disciplined, but Naruto had spent too much of his life reading body language to miss the tension there—the way her shoulders were drawn just a little too tight, the way her pace quickened as if she were trying to outrun something.
And she was heading straight for Jerren.
The old warrior stood near the shattered battlements of Redmane Castle, arms folded, looking for all the world like a man who would rather be anywhere else. He had seen his fair share of warriors with burdens of their own, and Millicent was no exception.
When she approached, Jerren cast her a wary glance. "What's got you all prickly?"
"Nothing," she said, too quickly, too stiffly. "I merely wish to be of use."
The veteran warrior gave her a long, measuring look. Naruto had seen that look before—the kind an old soldier gave a younger one when they knew better than to press, yet also knew when something was gnawing at their guts.
Jerren shrugged. "Suit yourself. Got a mess of weapons to sort through. If you want to help, you can start there."
Millicent nodded sharply, moving with the kind of focus that suggested she was trying very hard to ignore everything else around her. She reached for a discarded sword among the pile of rusted weapons, her fingers curling tightly around the hilt. Too tightly.
Naruto exhaled through his nose.
Women were complicated.
(...Meanwhile, with Radahn...)
The battlefield still smoldered, the air thick with the acrid scent of scorched wood and charred rot. The remnants of the Ulcerated Tree Spirit's corpse festered where it had fallen, its foul essence seeping into the land like a final, spiteful curse. The ground was pockmarked with deep, blackened scars, the echoes of battle lingering in the distant groans of dying creatures and the whisper of embers still clinging to what little life the land could offer.
Through it all, Radahn had been still.
Hunched on all fours, his immense form cast a hulking shadow over the ruined field, like some slumbering colossus forgotten by time. His head tilted in slow, sluggish curiosity, golden eyes dim beneath the haze of madness. He had watched the battle unfold with the dull patience of a starving hound, not truly seeing—only sensing, a part of him still locked in that endless fog of hunger and rage.
But now, something shifted.
The air had changed. The distant cries had faded. The rot-smoke coiled around him like ghostly fingers, stirring something deep within his marrow. A spark, faint but unmistakable.
Radahn twitched. A low growl rumbled from the depths of his chest, raw and guttural, rattling the rusted plates of his ruined armor. He inhaled deeply, the scent of burned flesh and spilled blood awakening something primal—something he had long forgotten. His ears, torn and weathered by war, flicked at the faintest disturbance nearby.
And for a fleeting moment, through the endless night of madness, a flicker of clarity burned in his gaze.
With a slow, grinding creak, Radahn began to rise. His great bulk shifted, massive limbs pressing against the broken earth. His armor groaned under the strain, iron and cloth long since torn asunder by time and suffering, but he stood all the same. His breath came in heavy rasps through parched lips, the sound of a titan stirring after an age of restless slumber.
Something pressed against his back.
A weapon—massive and blunt—was poised against his spine, a challenge issued without words.
Radahn stilled.
A heartbeat passed.
Then another.
The brief ember of sanity flared, distant but fierce. The great general, the Red Lion of the battlefield, the undefeated son of Radagon and Rennala—he surfaced, if only for a moment.
And his voice was a growl of stone grinding against steel.
"Don't."
The air around him grew heavy.
"Touch."
The fist came from nowhere.
My sister."
A single, crushing blow.
The knight who had dared to test him was sent hurtling across the ground, skidding like a broken doll, their armor caved inward where Radahn's strike had landed. A dented breastplate. A cracked helm. Blood spattered the dirt. They did not rise again.
Radahn exhaled sharply, nostrils flaring, his breath coming in slow, heaving bursts. His clawed fingers curled and uncurled, testing their strength as though unsure whether they still belonged to him. He glanced down at them—hands that had once wielded stars, that had shaped the battlefield itself. Hands that had once held blades with purpose.
But now, they trembled.
The beast stirred again, restless, unrelenting. The clarity he had grasped for but a moment began to slip, like sand through the cracks of his mind. His golden eyes flickered, the ember dimming, overtaken by the creeping shadow of madness.
There was something there. A sliver of himself. A remnant of the warrior he had once been.
But for how long?
The growl returned, low and hungry.
And then, Radahn turned his gaze to the horizon, where the battle had ended but another awaited.
(.0.0.0.)
Later, as the fires burned low and the night stretched long, Naruto found himself seated near Millicent once more. The night air carried the lingering scent of scorched rot and damp earth, mixing with the faint, metallic tang of blood that never quite faded from Caelid's cursed soil.
Millicent had calmed. Somewhat.
Not entirely—her posture still held a tightness to it, a quiet coil of tension beneath the surface—but at least she was no longer gripping the hilt of her blade like it owed her a debt. The flames before them crackled softly, their light flickering against the ruin-strewn landscape, casting long, wavering shadows across her face.
Naruto studied her for a moment before speaking.
"I got a warning today." His voice was light, casual, as if he were discussing the weather. "For you."
Millicent's brow furrowed slightly, a flicker of curiosity breaking through the exhaustion in her eyes. "A warning?"
"About Miquella."
He hadn't expected much of a reaction—perhaps a questioning glance, or maybe a thoughtful hum—but what he got instead made his instincts bristle.
Millicent went still.
Not just a stiffening of the shoulders, not just a tightening of the jaw—but a complete, frozen stillness. The kind of stillness that spoke of something deep-rooted, something so carefully buried that even the mere mention of a name had unearthed it.
It was unnatural.
Wrong.
A prickle ran down Naruto's spine.
The fire crackled between them, throwing embers into the night air. He tilted his head, watching her closely. "You okay?"
No answer.
Seconds stretched, and still, she did not move.
Then—finally—she exhaled. Slow. Measured. Her hands, which had curled into fists over her knees, gradually uncoiled, though the tension in them remained. When she turned to face him, her golden eyes were unreadable, reflecting the firelight like polished metal.
"...I am fine."
Liar.
Naruto knew that tone well. It was the same tone he had used a thousand times before, when he was younger, when he told himself and everyone around him that he was fine—that nothing was wrong, that he wasn't hurting, that he didn't feel the ache of loneliness gnawing at his ribs.
And now, he was hearing it from her.
He let out a slow breath, running a hand through his hair. He could push—could press the issue, force the conversation to where it needed to go—but something told him this wasn't the time.
So, for now, he let it be.
But he wouldn't forget.
And neither, it seemed, would she.
Because even as they sat in silence, even as the night stretched on and the fire burned low, Naruto could see the weight of that name lingering in her eyes. A ghost of something unspoken. A shadow of something old, something deep.
A warning, indeed.
A/N: At long last, Milicent's sisters enter the scene~!
That's right, all four of them! Mary, Maureen, Amy and Polyanna!
To be clear! This pairing is exclusively NarutoxMilicent...with possibly Milicent's sisters as well.
Well? Did you like this story? Yes? No? Maybe? Speak out! Make yourselves heard! Your voice matters~!
Once more, we're sticking with the "Embers" rule for this story. If folks don't like this, it won't be continued. Meaning that if the story itself ain't popular? Well...I'll not continue it.
That's no joke.
I'm working two jobs these days -and been promoted atop that- 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.
Next chapter title: Long Live the Queen. *whistles innocently* gee, I wonder who that is...?
So in the Immortal Words of Atlas...Review, Wouldst Thou Kindly?
And have some previews. Some are quite off, but still...
(Previews)
...the knight lurched up behind them with a grunt. He knelt and thumped a fist against their breastplate, producing a hollow clank.
Naruto turned a baffled look on Milicent. "What's he want?"
"She, actually."
A blink. "How can you tell?"
That armor is far too slim for a man.
The knight bowed their head in agreement and Milicent heaved a sigh; it was as she feared, then. "I believe she wishes to serve you.
"Eeeeh? Look, I'm flattered, but I dunno about this...
x
"MAY CHAOS TAKE THE WORLD?!"
"How about no. I'm taking this world without your chaos."
"Heresy!"
x
"TOGETHA-
A giant golden fist smashed the snake down.
"No! Bad snake! I have had entirely enough of you!"
x
"Is that...an arm? Wherever did you find such a thing...?"
x
...I am Malenia, Blade of Miquella. And I have never known defeat."
Milicent flinched back despite herself. "Mother...?"
Malenia stalked ehr way. "I have no child."
CLONK!
Clenched knuckles crashed into her helm, leaving a decidedly fist-shaped impression behind. Back she went, landing on her rear. Another kick knocked her flat.
Down she went into the puddle.
Naruto planted a boot onto her bosom, pinned her there, leaned down, and smiled.
It was not a nice smile; his was all teeth, promising pain if she angered him.
"Say that shit about Milicent again. One more time...
R ~!