A/N: We live! Short chapter is short. Sorry. Being sick has affected my update schedule. If it weren't for Dark helping me, I wouldn't be able to write at all; he helped immeasurably with this.
Every review truly does help, large or small, anything is better than nothing at all.
That said, this cough is driving me crazy nearly three weeks later, and the doctors refuse to give me anything for it! Hopefully it's not bronchitis or pneumonia. No fun.
Can anyone see this chapter? Do let me know, I'm still wary after all those site crashes and glitches. Many thanks to newboy (a reviewer) for offering a great many ideas regarding the Iron Islands! As always, I wanted this chapter to feel like a proper Game of Thrones episode!
Hopefully I succeeded~!
Once more, I own no references, quotes, memes or themes. Not a wit or a one. Nope. They're simply tributes to legends far greater than I. Lastly, a reminder to one and all. Naruto's Westerosi name remains Nathaniel. Joanna -and now Rhaella!- prefer to call him Naruto, yet they're the only ones who truly do.
Timeline is obviously a little skewed here, but hey, that makes things...fun.
References and verbatim from Game of Thrones below. Hope you enjoy all this hard work.
Tywin really is a blast to write. Man's in his prime and he is TERRIFYING.
Away we go~!
"There I was! Watching that foul beastie rise from the deep!
And the Lion of Lannister faced it, lads!
He raised his fist, he did...
And so he spoke...!
~?
The Lion and The Serpent
The seas boiled.
A great churning of waves sent the ships rolling, their keels groaning like wounded beasts beneath the fury of the storm. Salt spray lashed the faces of sailors who dared to watch from their decks, their eyes wide with awe and terror. The air reeked of brine and sweat, of desperation and something darker—the scent of dread, thick and cloying.
Above, the sky had been clear mere moments before, but the heavens themselves recoiled at the presence of the thing beneath the waves. A howling wind tore through the fleet, bending masts and snapping banners like brittle twigs. Clouds black as a smith's forge churned overhead, drawn forth as if by some unseen hand, a cosmic herald to the beast that now rose from the abyss.
A leviathan.
A terror of the deep, spoken of in old sailor's songs and half-whispered tales around drunken hearths. A dragon, but not one of fire and sky. This was a dragon of the abyss, a being of water and shadow, monstrous in its girth and eldritch in its power.
Three colossal tails lashed through the churning sea, each one thick as the masts of a warship, sending geysers of seawater skyward like liquid pillars of doom. Its shell, the color of aged bronze, was encrusted with barnacles, pitted and scarred by countless battles fought in the blackened depths. Each crack, each jagged imperfection upon its hide, spoke of its long reign beneath the waves. Its maw, a yawning abyss lined with jagged tusks, gaped wide—glistening, gluttonous, the abyss given form. It loosed a roar that sent tremors through the air, rattling the bones of every man, drowning out the screams of sailors who clutched their weapons and prayed to gods who had long since turned their faces away.
And there, upon its armored back, clinging to the ridges of its spine like some defiant insect before a storm, stood Nathaniel Lannister.
The fleets of Stark and Lannister bobbed like driftwood in the maelstrom of the beast's fury. Soldiers and sailors alike stood frozen, their hands gripping ropes and rails with white-knuckled terror. Some muttered prayers—to the Seven, to the Old Gods, to anything that might hear them in this hour of madness. Others merely watched, their tongues locked in mute horror, their minds unable to grasp the insanity unfolding before them.
Even Euron Greyjoy, mad captain of the Silence, stood at the prow of his dread warship, his ever-present smirk wavering. His sea-blue eyes, filled with the hunger of a man who had courted death and danced with monsters, gleamed with something close to reverence.
He alone did not quail before the beast. No, he grinned, the way only a man utterly lost to reason could. He saw divinity where others saw doom.
And in the heart of the storm, moving with the reckless grace of a man who had long since cast aside fear, Naruto stood unbowed.
The leviathan bucked, twisting its immense form, sending torrents of seawater crashing in every direction. The heavens themselves recoiled from its might.
Yet he alone held fast.
His fingers, bloodied from the effort, clutched at the armored ridges of its shell, holding it back. His golden hair, slick with salt and spray, clung to his forehead, but his eyes burned with a fire that even the storm could not quench. His free hand reached forward—not for a weapon, not for a lifeline, but for the beast's eye.
A massive, crimson orb, the size of a cathedral bell.
It was not the eye of some mindless beast. It was ancient. Deep. A window into something vast and terrible. An intelligence that had slumbered for eons, waiting. Watching.
And in that moment, as that great, terrible eye locked onto him, the Lannister lord did not look away.
He met its gaze—unflinching, unafraid, a mortal staring into the abyss itself.
And the abyss stared back.
Something passed between them, unseen and unknowable to the men who clung to their ships, watching in breathless dread. It was not a thing of words or gestures, not even of thought, but something deeper—a current, not of water, but of will.
It was old. Older than the winds that screamed through the sails, older than the waves that had battered stone into sand. A vast and terrible memory, stretching beyond the reckoning of men, beyond the rise of kings and the fall of empires. The beast hesitated.
The titanic tails, which had battered against the sea with relentless fury, slowed. The water stilled. The storm itself seemed to waver, the winds faltering as if holding their breath. Its roar, once a call of defiance and wrath, became something lower, something searching.
Naruto's lips parted, and though no mortal could hear him over the howling gale, the dragon did.
I know you.
Not words. Not speech. Something greater. A recognition that spanned the depths of time.
The great beast exhaled, a warm mist rolling over the sea like the breath of a god. The rage in its massive crimson eye dimmed, shifting—changing. The mindless wrath of the abyss gave way to something far more terrible. Understanding.
Then, with a final, world-shaking surge, the leviathan plunged.
It twisted, a mountain of muscle and scale, crashing beneath the waves in a cataclysm of foam and fury, and as it went, it dragged Naruto Lannister down to the depths with it.
A cry went up from the fleet. A single, gasping exclamation of horror, then another, then more—shouts of disbelief and despair, voices straining against the deafening silence that followed.
For long, breathless moments, there was nothing.
No beast. No champion. Only the sea, wild and angry, churning with the remnants of what had been. Great whirlpools spun in the leviathan's wake, drinking the sky in their endless hunger. The waters thrashed, churned, whirled in a mighty maelstrom as the duo did battle beneath the waves.
And then... silence.
A silence so deep, so unnatural, that it seemed to press upon the world itself. Even the wind, once howling, now dared not speak.
Nymeria stared into the depths.
Watching. Waiting.
Praying.
(.0.0.0.)
Funny thing about holding your breath.
Its sounds easier in the stories.
Not so in practice.
Naruto realized it the moment he hit the water; he'd sucked in a reflexive breath when Isobu dragged him under, but he knew at once that it wouldn't be enough to last him; not in waters like this. Almost immediately the pressure of the depths ground at him, tore at him, threatened to rip him asunder; and that was ignoring the crushing vice of the reborn Sanbi itself; inexorably grinding the life out of him. He lost most of that air almost instantly.
Yet even so, he couldn't help but laugh.
The three-tailed turtle, reborn as a sea serpent. He should've seen it coming. Kurama would never let him live this down.
Channeling chakra to his eyes allowed him to see in the depths, but only just, and he realized his former friend's intentions. He was dragging him down to the depths; either to devour him or suffocate him. Neither were particularly appealing.
What would happen if he died again?
He didn't want to find out.
Even so, he sighed.
There could be no hiding this from the world; short of killing Isobu or driving him away, and he couldn't bear to do either. Frankly, he wasn't entire sure he could defeat him. Not down here in the depths of his domain. Fire was out. Wind next to useless. Earth? Where?! Nothing but water down here.
Wait. That was it. Water.
Gritting his teeth, he stopped struggling in Isobu's grasp, reared back and dragged his hands through it, chakra flaring. It was no bloodline, but it didn't have to be. He'd learned to do incredible things as Nathaniel, all to make up for his weakness.
Such as this.
The temperature plummeted around his fingertips, then his hands, hands he slammed down into the dragon's scales. Not enough. Isobu shuddered, but didn't slow.
Cold.
Colder!
COLDEST!
A torrent of ice erupted between him and the three-tails; the sea dragon snarled, forced to release him as its body spasmed. The moment he did he swam backward, only to find himself face to with the dragon as it came about with frightful speed.
So many teeth.
Giant jaws clamped down on him, ready to swallow him whole. His hands swept up, catching two of his teeth before they could. From there he used his innate chakra to reverse the temperature yet again, trusting in heat rather than cold. The Sanbi recoiled with a pained shriek, unprepared for the boiling water in its mouth nor its own blazing teeth.
Whipping him aside, he settled upon the seabed at last and used chakra to tether himself there, grimacing as the oceanic pressure squeezed him further still.
Only then did he truly behold the sheer size of his foe.
Isobu truly was massive, neither the size he'd been when he was first created, nor quite the length he'd been as a full grown bijuu, but somewhere between the two; big enough to dwarf him easily, and the ships above besides. He must've hatched ages ago, well before Kurama and the rest. Had he been wandering the seas since then? Growing larger as he fed upon the creatures of the deep-ack?!
Naruto doubled over and clutched at his chest. No more dwelling on the past; this would be a brief battle. Already his lungs were beginning to ache.
"Betrayer!" The Sanbi's very roar rattled the depths, the words were thunder in his head. "Your death will not be slow!"
Yeah, should've seen that coming.
Sweeping a hand forth, he conjured a rasengan into his right hand, only to grimace at the water ruined it.
Isobu had ways been the wild one, ever the unpredictable one; some might say mad. It was also one of the only Bijuu he'd had the pleasure of fighting twice; once trying to seal it with his comrades and again during the Fourth Shinobi war. He'd happily take those times over this. He'd been much stronger back then.
Now...
This might get a little rough.
Exhaling forcefully, he tried to expel some of his remaining oxygen into the water and wrap it around his head as a crude bubble of sorts. It was a good plan, a bold plan, sensible for a shinobi.
Which he hadn't been for quite some time.
Needless to say, he did not succeed.
Damnit.
Forcing fresh chakra into his lungs bought him precious moments, but not much; Isobu came for him again, jaws gaping wide; to which he twisted aside and slugged him, but the water weakened his punch; what would've been a powerful piston of a pummeling became a weak shove instead, barely redirecting the rampaging beast.
He took that split moment of inattention to draw on the natural energy around him -the sea had so much!- and channel it inward.
His eyes gleamed gold.
Gotcha.
Isobu lashed at him with his many tails in retaliation, forcing him to waste some of that in dodging aside. He caught one, whirled in the water and tossed him, for all the good it did; the sea serpent rounded on him in an instant, titanic jaws snapping just shy of his leg.
He expelled more air to shout at him. "Will you stop?!"
"No!" the Sanbi's voice was thunder incarnate, rattling his mind even in the depths. "You left us! Abandoned us! You died and we were scattered to the winds! Now you seek to use us again as weapons of war in your conquest of this world! NEVER AGAIN!"
He was well-prepared for the accusation and quick to counter it, establishing mental link between the two of them lest he drown by wasting what little air he had left. "I didn't abandon you. Neither did your siblings!"
"Lies!" And yet there could be no denying the undercurrent of hope in his voice. "You're trying to trick me; seeking to save yourself from a watery grave!"
"Why would I?" he shrugged a shoulder as stray bubble escaped his lips. "The only way I'm surviving this is with you. It would behoove me to be honest."
Isobu paused at that, rumbling in the deep, truly considering his words. "The others truly live, then?"
"Kurama and Shukaku and Matatabi, yes." he explained slowly, trying not to provoke him. "I'm sure the others are out there somewhere. I'm trying to find them, bring them all together, just as before."
"More sea serpents?"
...not as such. They're winged dragons, unlike you."
The sea dragon shuddered and warbled a mournful note. "Then I am alone indeed. Trapped in the depths."
Pity kicked at his heart. "You're not alone, Isobu. You never have been; I'm sorry I couldn't find you sooner."
The water dragon wavered, lashed all three of his tails against the seabed, but didn't direct the shockwave his way. "You only say this because you seek my aid."
"I could really use your help, yeah." honesty was the best policy when you were about to drown, he found. "There's a task I need help with, something only you can do. Not Kurama or any of your siblings." nearly choking on water, he held out a hand. "You're the only one I can count on, Isobu. Please. I need you."
...and what task do you need me for?"
"Here, let me show you."
He swam forward and touched a hand to the dragon's forehead, opening his mind to the great sea beast as he had to only a few others before.
Let there be light.
(.0.0.0.)
Without warning, the sea split.
Euron saw it all; and heard it too; with a sound like the sundering of the world, the ocean tore itself open.
A great, rushing column of water burst skyward, a tidal force so vast that the ships rocked like leaves upon a raging river. From the depths, it rose.
The leviathan returned.
But it did not thrash. It did not roar.
It obeyed.
The beast carried him, not as a prisoner, not as prey, but as a rider. Its monstrous tails no longer lashed in fury, but rolled with the rhythm of the waves. Its terrible bulk, once a harbinger of chaos and destruction, now moved with purpose.
And atop its armored spine, Naruto stood.
His golden hair was slick with salt, his body steady, his chest rising and falling in deep, measured breaths. The breaths of a man victorious.
His eyes, sharp as a blade's edge, burned with a fire untouched by the abyss. He looked over the trembling fleet, over the men who had whispered their prayers, over the gods who had turned their faces away.
And then, his gaze settled.
On the Silence.
On Euron Greyjoy.
The Crow's Eye, the man who had seen gods and mocked them, who had called the sea his kingdom, who had laughed at the madness of the deep—he did not laugh now. For the first time in all his cursed days, Euron Greyjoy was silent. His lips curled, not in amusement, but in something close to reverence.
For in the heart of the storm, before the might of gods and monsters, he had witnessed something greater than both.
Euron Greyjoy, who had seen the drowned gods of his people in fevered dreams, who had dared to claim the sea as his own, smiled.
"I believe we have a new ally," he murmured, his grin widening, his voice barely above a whisper. "Or a new god."
No man cheered. No voice rose in triumph.
The fleet did not roar their approval, did not lift their banners in celebration. They merely watched. Watched and remembered.
For what they had seen was not for mortal tongues to praise, nor for banners to claim. It was something old, something terrible, something divine.
The Stark bannermen, clad in storm-soaked grey and steel, stood frozen, their faces blank with shock. They had believed the storm was their doom, that the sea had turned against them, and yet here they stood—alive, untouched, spared by the will of a man they did not understand.
The Lannister soldiers, hardened men who had marched beneath the golden lion, whispered of miracles, of destiny, of a power that did not belong to any man of Westeros. Naruto was their own, but they saw him now with new eyes.
Even an Ironborn such as he, a wild man of the sea, wgo laughed at gods and feared nothing but the depths themselves, stood in awed silence. For if the abyss had a master, if the blackness of the sea had chosen a herald, then who were they to question it?
Upon the beast's back, Naruto exhaled—a slow, steady breath. His fingers rested lightly against the dragon's barnacle-crusted shell, feeling the immense, thunderous heartbeat beneath.
"You are not my beast," he murmured, his voice barely carried by the wind. "You're my friend."
So speaking, he pivoted atop the beast and bellowed at the stunned sailors.
"WITH ME NOW! FOR WRATH! FOR RUIN! TO THE IRON ISLANDS!"
The great dragon did not roar with its new master. It did not shake the heavens with its fury, nor cast judgment upon those who had doubted. It merely moved, a great and ancient force, its form cutting through the waves. It led the fleet forward—not as a foe, but as a guardian, guiding them toward their destination.
From the deck of the Silence, Euron laughed himself hoarse.
A rich, dark sound, filled with amusement and something deeper—something almost like joy.
"What a fine, fine beast you have there, little lion," he called, his voice carrying over the waves.
Naruto only smiled; not the smirk of a conqueror, nor the sneer of a king.
Something simpler. Something deeper.
His was the smile of a man who had gazed into the abyss and hadn't been found wanting.
The Iron Islands awaited -and with their demise, the dawn of a new age.
In the distance, the storm broke.
(.0.0.0.)
Far away, in the halls of Casterly Rock, Tywin Lannister sat in his solar, hard at work.
The room was quiet but for the faint scratching of a quill against parchment, the flicker of candlelight dancing over maps and missives of war. His expression was unreadable, his mind occupied with matters of kings and kingdoms, of coin and conquest.
But outside, unbeknownst to him, beyond the great golden gates of his stronghold, a shadow approached.
A rider, clad in black armor, moved steadily beneath a dragon banner, the standard fluttering in the crisp afternoon wind.
Silver hair gleamed beneath the sunlight, bright as a blade.
A face that should have been lost to the pages of history was there, real and undeniable, marked by time but unbroken by it.
Rhaegar Targaryen had finally arrived.
A/N: Oh, dear. He's here. Surely this can only end well?
Quick! Hide away the ladies! Stow the dragons!
Looking forward to any and all feedback!
So...in the immortal words of Atlas...
...Review...Would Ya Kindly?
(Previews)
Nymeria absolutely adored Isobu and lavished attention upon him.
The Sea Serpent noticed her delight, naturally.
Good. He could use a friend.
x
Tywin hid his grimace well. "...My prince. We weren't expecting you. To what do we owe the visit."
Rhaegar didn't realize the danger, his smile was jovial, almost merry even. "I had hoped to pay call upon your daughter."
Joanna inhaled reflexively.
x
"Hide!" Ellia bunded Lyanna into a wardrobe. "We cannot be seen here!"
"What about the dragons?!"
"They are clever creatures. They must fend for themselves!
x
Cersei raced down the steps to the stone garden.
Tyrion stumbled after her.
x
Shukaku perked up. "Well, that ain't good..
x
Balon Greyjoy looked up as a mighty shadow fell over him.
EDIT: Hey, you made it! I do hope this chapter lived up to your expectations. By all means, feel free to let me know what you think!
Looking forward to your feedback/chatting with you when I get back from work!
Hope you have a great day filled with lots of luck,
~Nz.
R&R~!
=D