Two days later
The day in Morris was quite uneventful for the most part. The most that some residents were preparing for was the journey to wipe out a small army of bandits that have banded together in retaliation to them wiping out entire bandit camps throughout the years. The new arrivals in the form of Miata, Clarice and Nina were being trained in the usage of chakra, the more experienced ones were still practicing chakra control, and was giving advice to the newcomers. And the Awakened Beings that arrived in Morris a few days prior, were now mingling with the locals, like the other hybrids and were getting themselves jobs to help out.
Though in one part of the citadel, shit was going down for a certain blond and two of his wives.
"YOU BASTARD!! YOU DID THIS TO ME!!!"
"AHH, PRISCILLA, YOU'RE CRUSHING MY HAND!"
"GOOD! FEEL MY PAIN A SECOND TIME!!!"
"SECOND, DON'T YOU MEAN THIRD!?"
"YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!!!"
To Naruto's right, Cynthia gave him a violent jerk as she screeched, "DON'T YOU DARE IGNORE ME, YOU SON OF A BITCH! HOW THE HELL COULD YOU MAKE ME GO THROUGH THIS AGAIN?!"
"AGAIN!? OUCH! CYNTHIA YOU WANTED THIS!!"
"WHEN I SAID I WANTED SEVERAL MORE KIDS, I MEANT ONE AT A TIME, YOU FUCKER!!!"
"I CAN'T HELP HOW MANY CHILDREN YOU HAVE AT ONCE!!! GAAAAAAAAAAAH!" There was a loud crunch as Cynthia's bone crushing grip made him regret his choices in life. "FUCK!!!" Cynthia and Priscilla were knocked out of their anger when they heard Kurama's voice mixing in with Naruto's. The blond looked at Cynthia with mad eyes, and the latter saw that his irises were red and slanted, "CYNTHIA, YOU BROKE MY FUCKING HAND!!!"
"I'm sorry…" Cynthia whimpered with a trembling lip as she finally let go of his hand. Priscilla likewise did the same out of fear she would end up doing the same.
Both Tsunade and Shizune pitied the blond as they helped Cynthia and Priscilla deliver their kids, respectively. Yeesh, they were temperamental - and they winced sympathetically when they heard the sickening crunch coming from Naruto's hand.
Holding his wrist as he whimpered in pain Naruto moved away from the bed and started pacing back and forth. "Ahhh… this is gonna hurt..," taking a deep breath, Naruto was suddenly enveloped by a bubbling crimson cloak and he grit his teeth as more crunches and pops radiated from his hand. The bones therein quickly reset themselves and healed. He bent his fingers repeatedly to test his hand out.
"Keep pushing, Priscilla," Shizune called out, "I can see the head."
"You too, Cynthia," Tsunade added encouragingly. "You're doing well. Keep it up!"
Walking between their beds, Naruto placed a hand on each girl's shoulder, the blonde giving him an apologetic look.
"I'm sorry!" Cynthia whimpered between breaths as she did her best to muscle through her labor pains.
"It's okay, honey," Naruto assured. "Now, push. You're almost there. You too Priscilla."
Priscilla wailed as she gave a mighty push. The wailing of a little babe echoing throughout the chamber.
"That's it!" Shizune exclaimed, she gave the brunette a look of encouragement, "Another hard push, Priscilla!"
"FUUUCK!!!" with a mighty roar, she gave just that and Shizune eased the baby out, wrapping the child in a warm blanket. She removed the cord from the baby and checked its gender.
"It's a boy!" Shizune announced.
"LUCKY BITCH!" Cynthia wailed, the pain getting to her once more. "HOW THE HELL DOES ONE WOMAN END UP WITH TWO SETS OF TWINS?!"
"Keep pushing," Tsunade urged. "I can see the first one's head."
"I AM PUSHING!" Cynthia snapped back, clenching the bed covers with all her might. "YOU TRY PUSHING OUT TWO! FUCKING! KIDS! AT THE SAME TIME!!! GRAAAH!!!"
Ignoring that, Tsunade kept urging. "Almost there! One more time!"
"FIIIIIIIINE!!!" and with a mighty roar of her own, Cynthia did just that and pushed with all her might. She was not spending another second in this amount of pain; not again! Two pairs of twins is enough for her! She didn't want another pair again. Ever. Tsunade eased the first child out, snipping the cord from the baby and wrapped it in a warm blanket. Shizune took the reigns and eased the other child out, she did the same thing and wrapped it in a blanket after the cord was severed.
"It's a boy," Tsunade announced.
"It's a girl here," Shizune added seconds after her mentor.
"Oh… yay…" Cynthia cheered underwhelmingly, as her head hit her pillow. "...a boy and a girl… I thought I had two daughters though?"
"Even doctors can make mistakes." Tsunade admitted with a shrug. And the one she made a while ago was partially wrong. "What are their names?" the former Kage asked.
"...Naruto, who was the name of your mentor?" Priscilla asked.
"Which one? I've had quite a few?" said blond asked.
"The one who was killed by a disciple of his," she clarified.
"...His name was Jiraiya." there was his dad as well, but Tabitha took that one.
"'Jiraiya, then," Priscilla croaked, lying back on the bed with a dramatic plop. "His name is Jiraiya."
"Mine are Robert and Rebecca," Cynthia added, looking like she had just died. Poor thing probably felt like it, too… she perked up a little when she felt Naruto giving her a kiss on the lips.
"You did good. Breaking my hand aside, you did good Cyn." he told her with pride. Then he looked at Priscilla and added, "You both did good."
Both women smiled tiredly at him. Then with a groan they closed their eyes and went to sleep; giving birth had taken a lot out of them. It was unsurprising, really.
"I'll take the children to their cribs and move them in here." Tsunade announced, "They need their rest, but after several days, they can move around again." the former Hokage looked at Naruto, "You may want to save a batch of… innards for Priscilla. She'll be hungry once she fully recovers."
"Got it. I'll… preserve a batch for her to eat later on." he replied.
----
"Sabaku Taisou!" With that growl, Gaara slammed his hands on the ground and several geysers of purple erupted from the sea of sand before him. Those damn creatures the populace were calling youma were a lot tougher than he'd initially anticipated, but he managed. One didn't become a Kage by being shit on the field, after all.
It certainly helped they didn't seem to be particularly intelligent, if he had to guess, their average was about the same as that of a human. They didn't have any strategy outside of 'blending in and eat as much people as they can' or 'disguise as human, ambush people on the highway'. Honestly, it was embarrassing. He saw and heard more complex planning from 13 year olds, and his friend was one of them, back in the day!
"These things are what the populace are having trouble with…?" Shukaku deadpanned as his head emerged from the goard. His star shaped pupils blinked as he looked around. "Purple blood too… you know, if they're such a menace, then why didn't these villages or towns develop methods to finding one themselves instead of hiring one of these 'silver eyed witches'? All they have to do is cut a person and see if they bleed purple."
"People develop fear for the unknown and what they do not understand," Gaara explained. "That tends to keep them from thinking rationally. It is, unfortunately, one of the traits we as humans all share."
Shukaku scoffed, "If they're going to panic, after something like this, then it's no wonder these youma are capable of infiltrating their ranks. Back home they would be snuffed out the second they're discovered."
"Back home, we have discovered chakra to skew things in our favor," Gaara pointed out. "These people don't even have that. Were I not able to use my sand techniques, this would have been significantly harder." Then, the redhead stomped his foot and the sand turned into a sheet of fairly smooth rock, so as to make traversing it easier.
"You still would have won in the end." the racoon pointed out to him as well, "Sand or not, you're stronger than these things. You may have been outnumbered, but, in the real world numbers do not win a battle."
"Numbers can be a deciding factor in any battle. Naruto proved that. I fear even I would have been overwhelmed eventually." Gaara said. "But enough of this. We have been significantly delayed and there is no telling how… messy things may get if this shipment takes much longer to deliver."
He looked over his shoulder and noted that Matsuri was none too happy about many a local, fair maiden blatantly ogling him. "That's the last of them," he hollered. "Let's move out. Uzumaki Naruto is waiting for us."
----
Meanwhile, in Staff.
"IN THE FUTURE, THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD WILL BAND TOGETHER TO DECLARE WAR UPON A HARMLESS PLANT AND LOSE! OBEY YOUR CORPORATE MASTERS AND FEAR THE DEVIL'S LETTUCE! FEAR IT, I TELL YOU!!!"
The entire room was quiet after that prediction of the future, as Sistina plopped back down on her bed and happily snoozed away.
"...Okay, now I have questions…" Noel said in disbelief.
"We all have questions." Sophia said in exasperation.
"You heard nothing yet." Miranda said with a sigh "I was around the longest, with Chloe, Licht and Lutecia coming second. And I unfortunately heard quite a bit of stuff from her. I just… hope I'm dead by the time some of them come to pass; from the sound of it the future is just… confusing and horrible."
"I'm still having nightmares of a clown and a king starting a world war over who makes the best sandwich," Cassandra muttered. "The body count bogles the mind…"
"...what the heck is a clown?" Chloe asked.
"Maybe some type of entertainer? Like a musician?" Licht suggested.
Cassandra shook her head from where she laid on her bed. "No. The clown is making a sandwich and is fighting a king over who makes the best one. So obviously it's not an entertainer. It must be… someone worse."
"...I'm just hoping we're not around when the world war breaks out." Lutecia shuddered. "I may be one of the strongest of my generation, but I can't fight an entire world by myself. That would be insane."
"So… Miranda, who is to be revived next again?" Neideen asked, for once not molesting the pigtailed blonde. Or anyone else for that matter.
Those poor twins, though...
Miranda sighed as she knew where this was going to go, "The ones that are going to be revived next are Elizabeth and Uranus-" cue Neideen sniggering at the last word, "-and once they're up, that will be everyone assembled." she added conclusively, acting as if Neideen wasn't sniggering and ignoring her completely. "After that I have no idea what we're going to do, outside of being sent to fight the Ladykiller."
"It would be safe to assume that we will undergo some manner of training," Roxanne pointed out. The woman in question may have been a bitch of the highest order, but she was a smart bitch. Even Cassandra had to admit that much. "If the Organization wants to be successful, in getting rid of the Uzumaki then they would want us to be as strong as possible. Furthermore, strength means little if you know nothing about your opponent. They would likely give us everything they know about him and base our training on the knowledge they've procured."
"We already know a little about him, thanks to the Divine Oracle. And we know he is training his little group in powers 'beyond our imagination'." Licht pointed out. "Though, the only way for us to get knowledge on our enemy is through her."
"As far as we are aware, yes," Roxanne replied. "However, it is reasonable to assume they are keeping an eye on him."
"A fair point." Chloe agreed from where she laid on her bed. "It seems they'd be risking far too many resources if that wasn't the case. Hell, even I wouldn't agree to this plan in Rimuto's shoes, had I no real way to acquire some understanding on the man we're being sent to fight."
"That would be another potential factor, now that you mention it," Noel chimed in from her corner of the room. "The guy we're fighting seems to be a human - an absurdly powerful, foreign one, mind you, but a human… so, I'm guessing they'd try and break our conditioning and get us used to fighting humans, so as to ensure that we don't hesitate."
"So, what do we know, so far?" Cassandra asked, "If we pile up our knowledge on the subject of our discussion we may gain more knowledge on him. It may be theoretical knowledge, but, any is better than none."
"He is human, as Noel pointed out," Miranda began. "And he seems to be similar to us in some ways; he has a powerful demon inside of him, and has the ability to make copies of himself that is capable of reaching into the thousands."
"His demon makes him powerful too." Roxanne added, "Him wiping Pieta off the map is proof of how strong he is."
"I did manage to find a report where the Numbers 5 and 3 fought him," Miranda added once more, "he went into a human sized form with… four tails I believe? They weren't able to hurt him. The Number 3 even tried to cut him in half from head to toe, but her claymore didn't even cut him."
Lutecia hummed thoughtfully, "Which means he is strong even in a weaker transformation. Do we know what he looks like in that form? Was it said?"
"The reports Numbers 5 and 3 gave had claimed he looked like he was coated in red energy, but still somewhat human-shaped," Miranda said. "His mouth looked more like a jagged line and his eyes were solid white. He had long, fox-like ears and four tails. This transformation seems to.be self-destructive, though. When he transformed back, he cried out in pain and had no skin."
"And this was a weaker transformation," Roxanne mused, the wheels in her head immediately starting to turn. "This may explain why we have yet to see him in that nine-tailed form, again. It stands to reason that these transformations take a lot out of him. So, we very well could just have to outlast him."
"Sistina claimed he is capable of turning into a form resembling golden flames," Cassandra reminded them, "and she implied he is capable of defeating us all when he is using that. And since Hysteria, who is the fastest among us here, is implied to be unable to keep up with him, it stands to show he is faster than her."
Roxanne nodded in agreement. "It also was implied that the Blade of Evil and Dust Eater technique were better suited for dealing with him, due to their unpredictability. What we need to do to succeed is learn how to work together as a unit and complement each other's skills. Teaching each other our techniques would also give us all an advantage."
"...I just remembered something." Miranda said, "The reports said the Ladykiller was able to move faster than the eye can see, without using yoki. He was even able to stop the swords belonging to Numbers 3 and 5, with but a single finger. Again, without using yoki."
"All the more reason to teach each other our techniques," Roxanne stated. "Combining Cassandra's Dust Eater with Hysteria's Elegance and Chloe's strength and having us all able to do so would allow us to, at least, have a good fighting chance against him. I hate to say it, but Neideen would likely be the most likely to beat him with those techniques, seeing as how she has the most raw power, already."
"Loathe as I am to admit it," Cassandra muttered. "You have a point. I'll see what I can do about teaching everyone my technique… but you will learn it last for good measure. I still don't trust you as far as I can throw you."
"Understandable, I don't blame you." Roxanne replied with a good natured shrug. The woman didn't want to antagonise anyone here, not after hearing Sistina's predictions on the matter. Lame as it sounded, it truly was better to be safe than sorry. Plus, she really wanted to at least meet the blond.
"...Now that I think about it, Roxanne knows more techniques than any of us." Miranda pointed out. "She has Neideen's yoki perception, Uranus-" cue Neideen snickering again, "Ahem… the Blade of Evil, as well as Elizabeth's Beautiful Sword technique. She can also hide her yoki, too. Out of everyone here, she is better equipped for fighting him."
"Precisely," Roxanne chirped. "And I for one am not feeling so… eager to be 'impaled upon his mighty spear,' so I will gladly teach everyone here my Yoki Veil technique, as well as everything else I've learned." she may be a backstabbing bitch of the highest order, but even she didn't want her 'comrades' to end up defeated by this mysterious warrior in such a humiliating manner… if only because preventing it from happening to them will also keep that shit from happening to her by extension.
Even the most charitable of acts could easily be motivated by selfish intentions, after all…
Sophia leaned up slightly as she looked at the others. "So... does this mean we're all in agreement to teach each other our own techniques? Because if we are… then, you're going to have to make some adjustments to those plans of yours." she pointed out to them. "No offense to Miranda of course, but, is she even capable of using the Dust Eater? Because Noel's technique requires one to be very athletic to use, and my technique isn't one that can be learned since my technique revolves around my strength, which is close to Chloe's."
Cassandra sighed. "It would require some flexibility and agility training, but anyone can learn it, I suppose. I actually invented it by learning how to dance."
Hearing this, Chloe chimed in. "Sound like we have some training to do, then," she said, then the woman looked to Sophia. "Also, my technique isn't purely physical. It's partially yoki-based. To be more specific, I channel a pulse of yoki through my limbs to amplify the force of my blows. It's tricky, but if you have good control over your yoki, I can teach it to you. If not, I'll see what I can do about sharpening your control."
That was news to Sophia, "Really? My strength isn't yoki based, it's purely physical." she was able to cut through solid stone with just her base strength alone, so to hear that the Infamous Heavy-Bladed Chloe's strength was partially yoki-based instead of it being pure physical power was quite the surprise to her.
"No offense, but that's probably why you weren't able to recreate my Strong Arm technique," Chloe pointed out. "It's impossible to mimic through physical means, alone. Believe me: I tried that avenue, first."
"My reflexes are actually very much the same, in that regard," Licht said. "I use my yoki to increase the speed of my strikes when using hand-to-hand. I never gave the technique itself a fancy name, though… It's more of a fighting style."
"My Agile Speed Attack is pure physical; after the process of turning into part-youma was complete, I noticed how naturally fast I became without using yoki… So I learned how to do cartwheels." Noel sheepishly said. "I tried cartwheeling without the use of my hands later on and added a claymore afterwards."
"Sounds a lot like my technique," Cassandra added. "I'm sure we could learn yours after we all know mine."
"You can, but unless you're naturally fast, then it won't be as effective. Yoki can be used to enhance it, though." Noel told her with a shrug.
"My Elegance is not easily taught, because it's equal parts yoki-based and physical," Hysteria added. "You will need speed training first, regardless, if I am to teach you my technique."
"I'm pretty sure Neideen's yoki perception can be learned… without having to remove one of your eyes." Roxanne pointed out to them. "It's how I learned it, after getting a few pointers from her."
"Yeah, self mutilation isn't a requirement," Neideen said with a chuckle. "Mine's probably the easiest to learn. If you were to use an eyepatch like mine, or even blindfold yourself, and focus on enhancing your other perceptions that way, then it can be done. It's more efficient that way."
"Noted…" Cassandra replied. Then, she addressed everyone in the room and asked, "so, I take it we start when the other two are revived then, and fill them in?"
"That will be preferable," Roxanne agreed. "That way we can all start at the same time."
"They are being revived today, correct?" Sophia asked as she looked at Miranda expectantly. The woman is Dae's impromptu assistant, after all, so logically, she would know about it.
"The revival should take place tonight," Miranda confirmed. "He was delayed after we caught wind of Numbers 9 and 4 disappearing, so we had to focus on creating a new batch of trainees."
"Disappearing?" Noel asked, "Do we know how?"
"No…" Miranda sighed. "All we know is that they were sent to deal with a large pack of youma and were never heard from again. We didn't even find any bodies. Oddly enough, their tracks just… stopped at one point and another seemed to appear out of nowhere. We assume it was the Ladykiller."
"Or a youma that can fly took them off their feet and killed them in midair." Cassandra pointed out. "Some youmas are capable of flying, after all."
"It's also possible that an awakened being snatched them up," Miranda agreed, but with the threat Naruto poses, the Organization has adopted an 'assume the worst' policy. He has shown the ability to just pop up out of nowhere, after all. Hence the report made by Numbers 3 and 5. And before Numbers 9 and 4 disappeared, a few days prior, Number 21 was sent to clear out a village that was infested by youma. She ended up disappearing in a similar fashion, though, a few warriors in the vicinity had felt a single, but frighteningly large spike of yoki coming from her direction, apparently right before she vanished."
"That could have been an awakened being, though." Noel pointed out to her as well. "It is common that a town infested with youma is cleared out by an awakened being who wanted to inhabit an abandoned town by itself. By the time Number 21 got there, the youma could have been already cleared out and she had to face an awakened being instead. It won't be the first time this had happened."
"That is rather likely, and there is evidence that there was an awakened being there, since there was a large fist sized crater in the road, along with several giant footprints… but, no corpse," Miranda said. "Either way, we have strict orders to be prepared to fight her, just in case the Ladykiller intervened. Her team was on good terms with him at the time, after all. Number 20, Camilla the Charmer, was sent to gather information on him for that reason. When a Handler asked her about it, yesterday, she stated that her comrades have not been detected in the area, but she's not known for her yoki sensory. They could have easily been hidden from her, seeing as how the Citadel of Morris is perched on a mountain rather far from the inn she's occupying."
Roxanne frowned at that. An ability to just pop up out of nowhere would make strategic formations virtually useless. "And now we have a theory that he can just appear wherever he wants out of nowhere. This talk is revealing more to us than the Organization ever did." the wavy-haired, pigtailed woman said.
"To be fair," Miranda chimed in, "Dae was going to bring us all into a meeting with the Elders after we were all revived. He said we'd be given all the information the Organization has on the Ladykiller, then. It makes sense. That way, we could all be told at once what we need to know and discuss some kind of strategy to deal with him."
"That is if they have any worthwhile information," Licht told her with a snort. "Do they even know who they're going up against?" she asked rhetorically, "Sistina said he was the type of person that never gives up, despite of the odds that tell him to do. And he has the power of 'Beasts of many Tails', with him. And she said 'Beasts', not 'Beast'. As in there is more than one."
"A handler that went to the Ladykillers homeland across the sea, did report that he had met a giant monster-like turtle with three tails." Miranda concurred with Licht's statement, "So there are more Beasts with many tails out there. But they're on the Ladykillers continent."
"We'll likely have to fight them afterwards," Roxanne said with a sigh. "As well as his wives… two of whom are Abyssal Ones, in addition to another awakened being that's stronger than them, and over twenty warriors. Possibly more awakened beings on top of all that. A frightening force, indeed..."
"...why is the Organization picking a fight with him, again?" Sophia duly asked, then she answered her own question before anyone else could. "Oh, right, because they have a death wish."
"He is inciting a rebellion against them and has shown malicious intent," Miranda clarified.
"Malicious intent, how?" Hilda asked, giving Miranda a light frown. "Do we have any confirmation that the Ladykiller has actually killed one of us?"
"No," Miranda said with a sigh. "However, he has turned them against the Organization and has killed some handlers. He also is fashioning them into some kind of army, according to Camilla's reports, and is in the process of training them to kill humans. According to her, he brought no less than ten warriors and five awakened beings, including the former Numbers 1 and 2 to 'take care' of a bandit problem in the area around Morris, just two days ago."
"So, he's basically making himself look like the good guy in this conflict," Roxanne said thoughtfully. "He's hiding his ill intentions behind well-crafted excuses."
"If he's all the way in Morris," Cassandra asked, "then how was it delivered so quickly?"
"Camilla's report was delivered by someone named 'Winged Anastasia'," Miranda replied. "She's apparently figured out some kind of flying technique which allowed her to get here so quickly."
"AAAAAAAH!!!!" Sistina yelled out without warning, startling the living shit out of everyone as she sat up with wide manic eyes. She hyperventilated as she held her left arm in a tight grip; her single eye snapped around the room in a cornered animal. "S-six r-purple ringed eyes… how did he face such a foe alone… let alone kill three of them?!"
"What?" Roxanne asked oddly.
"The one of perversity, full of self-loathing, mentor of the Ladykiller, fighting two of his former disciples… fighting six deceased men with purple eyes the one of perversity did. Managed to kill three, but they were brought back..." Sistina looked down at her left arm and stared owlishly at it. "A destroyed arm he suffered, a crushed throat he was dealt. Stabbed six times in the back. He perished, only to force himself back to life, to send a final message to his last student…."
"That student was the Ladykiller, I take it?" Roxanne asked.
"Yes. His godson." Sistina confirmed, finally coming back to her senses. She shook her head with a groan. "Much like Naruto, this former disciple was able to destroy an entire village in the blink of an eye. A massive one… twice the size of Rabona, and was able to defeat an entire military force with those six deceased bodies alone. The Ladykiller bested him, and he was weaker at the time than he is now."
That… scared the resurrected warriors.
"R-right," Sophia muttered. "I'm starting to like Roxanne's idea."
"It gives us a much better chance of survival," Sistina admitted. She knew they wouldn't win regardless, but she was also aware that the training would make them more appealing to Naruto. He liked strong women, so she kept it to herself.
"Just… what the fuck are we dealing with!?" Chloe hissed in a panic. "We're fighting against someone who managed to take down a former disciple of his godfather's; a man who was strong enough to stomp an entire military force with just six people, and then crush a village twice the size of Rabona; and he was stronger than the Ladykiller at the time!!"
"Which is why we must work together," Sistina said. "As a unit, we have the potential to be far more than the sum of our parts. No man is undefeatable."
"Yeah… even though he seems unstoppable." Noel shuddered. "He must be a genius of fighting if he was able to take down someone who was a lot stronger than him at the time."
"Naruto has fought in many great battles. A giant one tailed demon, before he was of age. A young boy, who inflicted many fatal injuries on him. A man who had many hearts; Pein, the former disciple of the perverted one. A man in a mask who was once former disciple of his father's. A man of purple eyes, the beasts of many tails feared. A beast of great power, capable of reshaping entire continents. A woman with horns resembling the ears of a rabbit… a force of nature, who once single-handedly took over and ruled the world, through sheer brute force, thousands of years ago." Sistina looked at everyone and said, "He is truely a genius of battle. To beat him, we must be aggressive. He is not a quick thinker, so going after him fast and hard would be the best course of action."
"Noted…" Roxanne mused aloud.
If anything they can use this information to prepare themselves for when the time came.
----
In the West, around the Dragonspire Mountains.
As the small detachment consisting of hybrids and awakened beings were several hundred miles out of Morris. The whiskered blond leading them was a clone, since the real one had to stay behind when Cynthia and Priscilla went into labour around the same time, a day ago. And as luck would have it, both women's waters broke within half an hour of each other, so the original was going to be rather busy.
The original, of course, had given the clone his father's kunai, and he was to use it once they were close to the bandit camp so he could take the place of his clone.
Accompanying the doppelganger in question were Alicia and Beth, obviously, as they needed their conditioning broken the most. True to their word, Zelda and Pamela were there as well. Flora had also joined in, conceding that Naruto and the others had a point.
Aside from them, Miria decided to join them, seeing as how she was the primary tactician. Ophelia was also eager to join, as was Team Evianna. Along with them were Dietrich, Irene, Clare, Helen, Deneve, Queenie, and Undine.
Contrary to Camilla and Anastasia's reports, there were a combined 19 warriors and Awakened accompanying the clone. Evianna, Irene, Dietrich, and Miria were masking their yoki, though, to make the group seem a bit smaller to any warriors passing by, as was the clone. The former Number 47 was serving as a second pair of eyes, just in case.
"How far is this camp?" Evianna asked the clone out of curiosity.
"I asked father Isaac, and he told me they were lurking around the Dragonspire Mountains," the clone replied, "Where they are exactly, though, he didn't say. However, the malicious intent I can feel is… big. Like a small army numbering in the hundreds… possibly a thousand or two."
"No pressure then." Miria muttered.
"Look on the bright side," Helen piped up cheerfully, "We're…" she trailed off as she tried to think of something to brighten their day.
"...going to use the techniques the boss and Team Samui have taught you?" the clone offered, with a bemused grin. "Don't underestimate how much of an advantage that is. It's actually a pretty common practice for villages in the Elemental Nations to have their genin units take on entire bandit camps at ages as young as twelve. So long as you don't get reckless, you should be perfectly capable of dealing with this."
"Yeah, what he said!" Helen added, sounding just as cheerful as she did before. "We can totally do this! We just have to kill a bunch of humans, is all."
"You're saying that as if it's a good thing." Deneve pointed out to her friend blandly.
Helen shrugged nonchalantly. "I'm trying to not think of the negatives. On one hand we're learning how to use the techniques of Naruto's homeland. On the other, if we do this, there is no going back. Besides, these guys are a threat to all the innocent villagers in the area. I'd rather not be to blame for some little kid losing his parents, because I backed down. If we don't deal with them, that's the least these fuckers will do."
"Indeed." the clone closed his eyes and focused on the malicious intent. They were staying in one place this time around. Seems they were learning from the past mistakes of the other camps that were wiped out. He opened his eyes and at the girls from over his shoulder, "Alright girls, it's time for you to put your training to the test: we are going to jump onto the trees and leap from branch to branch. Let's see if you can catch up, hmm?"
The girls all nodded with varying degrees of eagerness. The clone smiled at them before he chakra leapt onto a tree branch, and continued leaping from branch to branch. He looked over his shoulder and could feel pride welling up inside of him at the sight of the other girls keeping pace with him as they leapt from branch to branch.
It didn't take them long to narrow the gap between themselves and the bandits, since they were leaping over the majority of obstacles in their way. Once they were close enough, the clone stopped and tossed his kunai to the ground to signal the original that they were in position.
Not a second later and the original Naruto appeared next to the tri-kunai in a yellow flash. Looking up the original Naruto saw his clone give him a two fingered salute, before dispelling himself just as the girls landed on the branches around him.
He immediately knew where they are thanks to the clones memories and started to plan accordingly.
"Alright," Naruto said, as he picked the tri-kunai out from the ground and pocketing it. "First, we need to observe these guys and formulate a strategy. See what the best angle of attack would be, figure out if they have any prisoners and how to deal with these guys without the risk of hurting them… that kinda thing."
"We can use a combination of Kage Bunshin, Henge and Evianna's ability to fly to scout around," Miria recommended.
"We'd be giving ourselves away to any warrior that is in the area." Glissa pointed out. "Even a partial transformation from so many Kage Bunshin is enough to get the Organization curious. Never mind making the clones themselves."
"And we want to avoid another 'Pieta Campaign'," Pyrrha added.
"The Organization likely knows by now that we are dealing with the bandits," Miria pointed out, "We just gave them an… inaccurate number. Also, it gives us better revenue by attracting more villagers. More villagers, means more hands to help maintain the village. As for the Organization, it will tell them we're willing to kill them, now. Fear is a powerful weapon."
"Tell me about it," Naruto said to her concurringly. "I've seen what fear does when it's weaponised first hand." the blond sighed and leapt back onto the branch ahead of Miria and took a kneel, as he looked at the girls. "You make a good point though, Miria. But, henge can let you transform into anything. Including birds. You can easily cover ground by making a few dozen Kage Bunshin and Henge them into birds and fly around to gather intel."
Miria giggled at the praise. "So Evianna transforming is out; but having a few of us disguising our clones into birds can work just as well."
"Yup," Naruto said. "So, what is the most common species of bird in the area? Does anyone happen to know?"
"That would be the black thrush," Irene stated. Many a person in the group have her an odd look, prompting the silver-haired woman to sigh. "I was living in the woods in an area like this for several years, by myself. One tends to get bored under such circumstances and I've had plenty of time to study the wildlife here."
That made sense.
"Huh, kinda similar to me when I was with Pervy-Sage for nearly three years." Naruto said, and when he got looks from the others, he shrugged with a 'what can you do?' expression, "I mostly looked at the wildlife when I was on the move. We never did stay in one place too long. And it was mostly outside; so, I had plenty of opportunity to look."
"Fair enough," Miria muttered. "So, that do these black thrushes look like?"
Irene sighed. Was she really the only bird watcher in the group? Oh, well… She swiftly created a clone and then it transformed into a small, black bird with red eyes and a white, spotted underbelly. It was only about four inches long from the tip of the beak to the very end of its tail. The little bird then clone took to the air and perched onto Naruto's shoulder.
"Well aren't you a cute little thing," the blond said rubbing the disguised Irene's clone under her neck and beak. She seemed to enjoy that very much. He then looked to the group and said, "Miria, Evianna, Betty, Ophie, Flora, and the twins should do the scouting with Irene's clone, here. That way, everyone else can save their energy for the fight."
Giving the transformed clone an intense look, the aforementioned women then produced their own clones, before having them transform into little black thrushes. They took to the air and perched themselves onto Naruto's shoulder, head and arm.
"Black thrushes are pretty little birds." Naruto said, chuckling as he rubbed them under their necks and beaks one by one. They really seemed to enjoy that too.
Several girls in the group giggled at the display.
"All right you lot, take to the sky and scout around the North and West. That is where the malicious intent is coming from." the blond instructed the disguised clones. They gave him a single nod, before taking to the skies to scout around in the directions he gave them. "Interesting fact: you can make a clone right now, and dispel them a second later, and the clones that are still around will get their memory too."
"Very nice," Miria said. That opened up so many strategic windows…
"C'mon, let's keep moving!" Naruto said to them, before he leapt on over to the next branch, and the next, and the next. Miria leapt after him, as did the others.
----
Five hours later
Naruto, and the 19 women that were with him were overlooking the campsite that was more than just a campsite. It was a damned fortification. Palisades and a wall made entirely of wood and brick protected the tents and wooden fort on the inside. He couldn't see all that much from the outside, but what he could see was cause for concern.
There was a lot of armed bandits. And from what he could glimpse on the inside were several people doing military drills. At least that was what he thought he saw. There was straw dummies in there too.
Naruto looked to Irene, who was kneeling atop of a branch above him. It was a thick one, so he couldn't see her properly. Only the top of her feet. "Irene, make a clone and dispel it. I want your bird clone to tell us is on the inside."
"Got it." Naruto heard the silver-haired woman make a clone, and promptly dispel it not a second later. After a little while, a little, black thrush fluttered on over and perched itself onto a branch before the group. Then, one poof later, a second Irene was standing before them with a dire look on her face.
"It would appear that they are preparing for war," she said. "A particularly charismatic one among them is organizing them - a big, burly guy somewhere in his 40's or so with a beard and a scar over one eye."
"Seems what you said was true," Ophelia said from Naruto's left, "All it took was someone smart enough to organise them."
"Indeed," the clone added. "He seems to be former military from the way he carries himself. The other bandits also look up to him."
Naruto frowned. "Are there any prisoners?"
"Several," the clone said her frown deepening. "Mostly women, though there are a few smaller girls… at least two who are around the age of five."
"Alright…" Naruto scowled, this just turned from an annihilation to a rescue mission then. "Ladies, change of plans, we're going on a rescue mission." he told them, "I want you girls to transform into black thrushes as well; you're going to fly in, transform to normal and get the prisoners out. Evianna, instead of disguising yourself as a black thrush, you're going to transform into your awakened form and cause havoc at their flank gate."
"What about you?" Clare asked.
"I'm going to distract them at the front, of course," Naruto said with a chuckle. "But if any of you get a chance to kill someone off, then do it quietly, hide the body, and sneak away. We don't want them to know what's going on until after the prisoners are safe. Any of the women here who are experienced mothers should look after the kids, as well."
That meant the twins, Miria, Ophelia, Flora, Zelda, Clare and Undine. Said women nodded in acceptance, giving him varying looks of determination.
One or two of the others looked a bit envious, but kept it to themselves. Glissa was especially so. But she would have a brat of her own in due time.
"I'd also like to keep this camp as intact as possible," he added. "It would serve as a good outpost if we're able to create a functioning militia." It certainly sounded like a good idea. That way the villagers of Morris wouldn't have to rely entirely on him for keeping them safe. "Everyone know the plan?" he asked. They all nodded and he said, "good. Let's get going, then."
The women, excluding Evianna, all disguised themselves as black thrushes and flew over the bandit campsite. Evianna herself merely took off her frilly dress and transformed into a metallic harpy.
Instead of charging at the campsite outright, she looked at her lover. "Just tell me when to raise hell, love," she said with a smirk.
"I'll give you a whistle," he replied.
"Alright. Go get 'em, then~!"
Naruto nodded to her and hopped down to approach the front gate. Not even a minute later, the guards spotted him and one yelled, "Halt! Who goes there?"
"The guy who fucked your mother last night, that's who, bitch!" he shouted back, chucking a kunai at him. He only grazed the man's cheek as the weapon tumbled harmlessly to the ground.
"Fuck!" The bandit cried out. "You son of a bitch!" With that, he notched an arrow and shot back, only for Naruto to casually swat it out of the air and give him a one-finger salute.
"Oh, sorry about that. You missed." he said with a taunting smirk, "Try again, why don't you? You might actually be able to pull off a miracle with your god awful aim, and hit me this time."
The bandit responded with a growl and pulled three arrows from his quiver, rapidly loosing them in quick succession. Once again, Naruto casually swat them out of the air with the same taunting smirk.
"Really?" the blond asked, almost amused, "Do you really think loosing more arrows in quick succession will change how awful your aim is?"
"Motherfucker!"
"Yours wasn't complaining~!"
----
Off in the back of the palisade, a large, bald man with a cross-shaped scar on his head didn't know what hit him. All he was doing was guarding the tent where they kept the prisoners, then there was a poof and, before he had time to react, there was a sharp pain in his neck. The world started spinning and everything went black.
A passing woman among the bandits looked over her shoulder when she heard his head bounce and saw... nothing. Wasn't Ralf supposed to be at his post, this time of day? Where the hell did that oaf go?
Ugh, he was pleasuring himself, again, want' he? That dumbass couldn't keep it in his pants for one more hour? Seriously?! Times like this, she questioned her infatuation with him...
With a growl, she marched on up to the tent, only for a golden-clawed hand to rip her throat out before she could react. The bandit gurgled and fell forward, caught by Glissa as she surveyed the area. The coast was clear, for now.
Behind her, Clare and the twins looked rather blue in the face at how nonchalantly the awakened brunette had killed those two bandits.
"Less staring, more rescuing," Glissa hissed, her arm shifting back to normal. More little, black birds fluttered into the room and several poofs later, everyone was there and accounted for.
The prisoners understandably looked at the new arrivals warily as Miria cleared her throat to get their attention.
"Lord Naruto of Morris sent us to rescue you all," she said. "You have nothing to worry about, we will give our lives to ensure your safety."
While some still looked wary of her, others visibly calmed down. This woman knew what she was doing and their lives were better in her hands than those of the bandits.
"S-so, you're with the Ladykiller, then?" a young woman in her teens asked. She was a redhead with brown eyes and freckles.
Miria blushed a bit. "I always hated that nickname of his, but yes. I'm one of his wives, in fact. You have nothing to worry about, though." Taking a moment to word it carefully in front of the kids, so as not to harm their innocence any further, she elaborated. "He's only interested in women who show interest in him. If you don't want him to touch you, he won't."
There were two more poofs and the women noticed the corpses missing as Pyrrha rolled up and tucked away a scroll.
"Undine, would you be so kind?" Miria asked gesturing to the cages. "Pyrrha, set up a privacy seal so no one hears."
The redhead nodded while Undine smirked. Many a woman in the cages nearly jumped out of her skin as the dual wielding blonde bulked up in the blink of an eye. So focused were they on her that the women failed to notice the strange glyphs suddenly appearing on the sides of the tent. Then, in the very next moment, the doors were ripped off their hinges one by one, startling the hell out of the prisoners, though they were grateful for the save.
Once her job was done, Undine shrank back down to her base form and crossed her arms with a smug grin.
"How are we going to get out of here?" one of the women asked. "There's hundreds of them outside!"
"My husband is at the front gate, causing a ruckus," Miria explained. "We also have several warriors right here. We just need to deal with them quietly."
"Also, if you see some of us using 'strange powers', then don't be alarmed; the Ladykiller taught us them to fight more effectively." Flora informed them,
The redhead from before shrugged. "I've never met a so-called Claymore, before. I'd just assumed the Claymore Organization taught you how to turn into birds, when you popped up… mainly because of the 'Silver-Eyed Witch' moniker."
"That moniker is something given to us by you people," Undine said with a shrug, "It's not surprising you came to that conclusion - even though it's wrong." then she looked to Miria, "So we got the cages open, the next step is getting them out, so how do we do that?"
"Pyrrha and I will sneak out and clear a path for you and the others," Glissa volunteered.
"I'll come with you." Irene volunteered. "The more that is with you clearing the way, the less time they take to get out."
Pyrrha didn't mind having someone more experienced going with them. Glissa especially was glad for the extra hands. "Alright," the dark-haired awakened said in agreement, "having someone much more experienced than us coming along will help out. So having you with Pyrrha and I is appreciated."
"Alicia, Beth," Miria called out. "You go with them, too." Then, she looked to Pyrrha and said, "help them out with breaking their conditioning, will you? They're the ones who need it most, and you have the best personality for helping them through it."
The redhead nodded grimly. "I'll do everything I can," she said.
The dark-haired awakened looked to Irene and added, "Irene should take command of this group then. She has more experience than I do." Irene was a Number 2, then Number 3 back in her heyday. And while Glissa is no longer a hybrid, some conditioning from her time as the Organization's warrior had remained, namely letting someone with a higher rank than her take command. Seeing as how she was a former Number 45, though, that was likely for the best.
Miria nodded. "That would be reasonable."
The twins exchanged a worried glance, but joined the group, regardless.
----
Now swatting away the arrows of twenty bandits with hundreds of the projectiles strewn about or imbedded in the ground around him, Naruto yawned in complete and utter boredom. "Are you lot even trying to hit me?" he called out to them in a tone of utter boredom. "Really, I'm just one person."
"That is it!" one of the bandits yelled out in frustration. They were being mocked by this little prick! The bandit in question was a middle aged man, with a receding hairline and three scars on his face like someone tried to claw it off. "I'm going out there! Someone get the boss over here!"
"He is just one person!" shouted another.
"He is deflecting our arrows like we're amateurs!" the scarred man yelled out. "Get the boss! Now!"
Once the gate was open and the man Irene's clone had described earlier was seen on the other side, Naruto gave Evianna a sharp whistle. He disguised it as a taunt by giving the bandit king the middle finger, before deflecting several more arrows.
To his credit, the man addressed him with a cool head. "So, you're the one causing my comrades so much trouble," he said. Eyeballing the arrows at Naruto's feet, he then drew his sword, readying it in a wrath guard stance. "Let us see just how skilled you are, then, no?"
Meanwhile, Evianna took to the air and was careful to use the trees as cover as she circled around to engage and harass the bandits on the other side of the camp.
Naruto wasted no time charging forth, expertly dodging and deflecting arrows along the way as he closed the gap. His one-tail demon cloak bubbled to life as his nails lengthened into razor-sharp claws.
The bandit king swung down in a diagonal slash, but it was a feint. Just as Naruto was about to knock it aside, he was notably impressed to feel it give him a good whack in the side. Had it not been for the Kyuubi's yoki, that would have been a lethal blow. He grabbed the flat of the sword and gave the shocked bandit king a vicious grin, he was even more impressed to see that he was keeping his composure, though his shaking were a dead give away to his fear.
The bandits behind the bandit king were screaming their heads off when they were overcome by the pure malice that was now emitting from the blond. While it was nothing like the Version 2 he showed for the first time on his way to Pieta, it should be more than enough to scare the pants off these fuckers.
And, from the sound of their screaming and falling off the battlements of their wooden and brick walls, it more than did that.
The man, falling back on his training, quickly reigned in his fear and gave the blond a cautious glare. "What are you? A youma? Claymore?"
Naruto's grin widened and said one word that threw the man off guard. "Human."
The bandit king frowned. Well, if he was human, he could be killed. Stepping to the side and grabbing the portion of his blade behind Naruto's hand and turned the sword to bash the blond in the face with the crossguard.
Naruto hadn't expected the sword to be used in such a way and backed off as he blocked the blow. It was surprising and legitimately impressive.
"Heh heh heh," the blond chuckled, "I gotta ask: former military?"
The bandit king grinned, readying his sword in the ox guard stance as he asked, "isn't it obvious?"
"Then I guess I should put my military experience into use. Lesson 1: awareness."
The bearded man gave Naruto a quick jab with his sword, testing the waters and trying to apply some pressure while going in for another good whack.
The blond, though, easily sidestepped the thrust and following slash. The one tailed cloak around him slowly dispersed and once it was gone and his features went back to normal, he pulled out a book and started reading it right in the middle of the fight.
Now thoroughly irritated, the bandit king started gripping his longsword blade and going in close.
"Don't mind me, I'll just read a passage or two." the blond said nonchalantly.
Not missing a beat, the bandit king replied, "and I'm trying to kill you; please do be so kind as to die." He punctuated his request with a pommel strike to the head, followed by a slash to the neck when that failed.
"Well where is the fun in that?" the blond asked, before casually crouching down as the bandit king tried to behead him, "I want you to work for it. If you can make me take my attention away from my book, then I'll move on to the next lesson. That is if you're capable."
The bandit king snarled at him; then he instinctively looked behind him when he heard several of his men scream out in fear. Then he looked up in the direction they were looking. "What the..." nose diving towards the ground was Evianna, she spread her metallic wings and several feather-like spikes shot out from them.
She was at the back of the reinforced campsite, and while he couldn't see anything, they could hear the projectiles slamming into the ground. With several people, his men, screaming in agony.
The bandit king frowned deeply. He returned his attention to Naruto and started slashing away. "You!" he barked. "What the hell is that?!"
Naruto didn't bother taking his eyes away from his book, "No one you should worry about." then he did take his eyes away from the book to glance at the glaring bandit king. "Dead men shouldn't worry."
The bearded man frowned. "Indeed," he said. "You have nothing to worry about. I'll deal with your friend when I'm done with you."
At that, Naruto chuckled and went back to reading. "Come on then," he challenged. "Deal with me."
Seeing as how his blade wasn't working against the blond, the bandit king flipped his sword over and went in for a murder stroke to the head. When the first one missed, he followed up, using the momentum and redirected the blow into a second one, then a third.
Naruto ducked and weaved through his blows. He easily evaded them all, and what pissed the man off was that the kid in front of him wasn't even looking at him! That should have told the man that the blond was not a normal person, since he was able to avoid each and every slice, jab and whack he performed, all without taking his eyes away from his book.
"Lesson 2," Naruto declared, "ninjutsu."
There was a sickening crack as the pommel of the bandit king's sword made contact with Naruto's skull, only for the blond to go up in smoke, replaced by one of his comrades. "What the fuck?!" Never in his life had the man seen such a thing. Was it magic? Some kind of demonic power?
Evianna took to the sky again, turned around and started doing barrel rolls as she nose dived yet again, throwing projectiles from her wings. Several of them were launched at the bandit king himself, though to his credit, he dodged and deflected them quite readily.
Though impressed, Naruto had no intention of sparing the man. He could feel his malicious intent; he was full of greed. He probably thought he was deserving of everything he took. People like him do tend to think that way.
He sensed his girls were leaving the campsite. That was more than enough time for his girls to find out where the prisoners are caged, and break them out. Naruto closed his book with a sigh, and caught the edge of the sword with his bare hand, a thin veil of his chakra coating his limb and preventing the metal from breaking skin. "I think I distracted you long enough."
The bandit king blinked in surprise, then narrowed his eyes. "You're no human! No human can stop a blade with their bare hand! What are you!?"
Naruto chuckled. "I am human. I never said I was a normal one." he clarified. Then he made, seals for Tiger, Ox, Dog, Rabbit and Snake with his free hand, before bringing before yelling out, "Fūton: Daitoppa!"
Because Naruto had lost an arm, he had to relearn the seals for many a technique with just one hand. He became proficient at it.
A gust of wind shot from the blonds mouth, and it knocked the surprised bandit king off his feet, and sent him tumbling violently across the ground for ten yards. Naruto kept a firm grip on the sword belonging to the man; he looked it over, turned halfway to face the palisade, before throwing it to the wall. The sword was embedded deeply into the bark.
Naruto looked back to the bandit king when he heard him groaning, and was mildly surprised to see him getting back up. He was obviously hurting from the way he was carrying himself. A broken arm, or a dislocated shoulder it looked like. The blond blinked owlishly as the bandit king popped his shoulder back in place, but the arm, now that Naruto was able to see it better, was clearly broken and bleeding.
"…I'm impressed. I thought you'd be knocked out at least." he said, casually walking over to the man.
The bandit king growled at the blond. It would take more than a little wind to put him down. He's killed youma before, and had almost been killed by many of them in the past. This… this pain was nothing compared to the gashes they managed to inflict on him.
"Defiant too."
"You can't be human." after that, and the previous feat before it, the casual way he dismissed that flying youma… he couldn't possibly be human. He wasn't a Claymore either, he didn't have the silver eyes. He could either be one of those rare youmas, a voracious eater, or he was some type of youma that had never been seen before!
"I am human." Naruto sighed with a shrug. "Like I said before: I never said I was a normal one." He looked up upon hearing some light fluttering. A black thrush perched on his shoulder. He recognized it as Clare. He rubbed her under her neck and beak with a grin, "Coming to check up on me?"
There was a poof and Naruto found himself being hugged from behind. "Can you blame me?"
"No. Not really." he chuckled, then Naruto looked back at the bandit leader and found him looking at Clare with his eyes as wide as saucers. "How are the prisoners? Are they all out?"
"Indeed they are," she said, "Captain Miria made sure of that… A few in particular seem eager to meet the man responsible, even... though Miria's not happy about it at all."
Naruto chuckled at that. "How are the kids?"
"Fairly well, for the most part. They seem to be orphans, though. Not sure what to do with them…"
"Okay. And Alicia and Beth?" he was worried about them, since they were the ones who would be most affected by killing human beings.
"They... they froze after they got the blood of humans on their sword. They seem to be in shock and completely unresponsive. Irene, Glissa and Pyrrha are making sure nothing happens to them."
"Noted…" Naruto sighed. Then, he saw the bandit king being tended to by the few among his comrades who decided to grow a spine. How they managed to slip through escaped him. Then again they may have passed by while he was distracted by his wife. "So… will you do the honors?" the blond asked grimly.
Clare frowned, but nodded. She drew her sword and with a blink, her eyes turned gold with slit pupils. She stepped out from behind her husband and rushed the bandits. The sound of blade cutting through flesh and bone filled the air, and Clare was behind them. Her sword dirtied with their blood. The bandits, their boss included, spurt blood from multiple gashes as they literally fell to pieces - bloody chunks hitting the ground with a series of sickening plops. The former Number 47 shuddered, feeling sick to her stomach.
This just made her feel… dirty.
Naruto was by his woman's side in an instant, pulling her into a loving hug and rubbing her back. There was a loud clang as Clare dropped her sword and hugged him back.
"For some people, taking a life will never get easier," he said. "For others, it does."
"Does it get easier for you?"
"...No. It never does," Naruto admitted, hugging her tight. "I never liked killing. Fighting sure, but, having to kill always gave me a sick feeling. But, sometimes, it's necessary. I try to take comfort in the fact that I am protecting others from the people I have to deal with."
Clare nodded. "Thanks…" she whispered. Then, she sighed. "I think I'll be okay, but Alicia and Beth will need your attention. Pyrrha's trying her best to comfort them, last I saw, but you're the one they cling to."
"I'll go see them now, then" he said, with a sigh; Clare would have taken that as her cue to leave, but Naruto pulled her along with him, "what about the rest of the bandits?" he asked.
"They're mostly scattering," Clare said. "Others are barricading themselves into the more fortified buildings, likely trying to come up with a game plan or preparing to make a last stand."
"I see. Once I comfort the twins I'll see to taking out the rest of them." he pulled Clare into a comforting hug and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "You girls did good."
With that, he held Clare close and the two reappeared beside the twins, startling the hell out of Glissa and Pyrrha.
The former Number 47 groaned. "I don't think I'll ever get used to that," she muttered.
Naruto chuckled, giving Clare a peck on the forehead, before turning to address the twins. "So… what's this I hear about you two freezing up, hmm?" he asked, with small smile. The Uzumaki patriarch didn't give them time to respond, seeing as they're more likely to think he's disappointed in them if he did. No, instead, he sat down between them and pulled each twin into a one-armed hug. "It's okay," he assured, giving Alicia and then Beth a peck on the cheek. "Killing isn't easy for me, either."
They slowly looked at him and blinked. Naruto inwardly winced when he found they had reverted back to being emotionless. Back to when he first met them.
"Hey, I'm not disappointed in you." he gave them both another peck on the cheek and comfortingly rubbed their backs. "You both took a very big step. And the fact you committed to it, makes me feel really proud of you two."
Both Alicia and Beth smiled shyly as they clung onto their man. Naruto wrapped his arms around them, continuing to rub the twins' backs. He took note of a few ladies having taken a defensive formation around the twins. Aside from Pyrrha and Glissa, who'd taken on their awakened forms, Irene, Zelda, Helen, and Deneve had created a defensive ring around Alicia and Beth.
"So, Clare told me we still got a few more left in fortified buildings. I was planning on taking care of them myself, but seeing as you're all here, what is your plan?"
At that, Zelda gave her husband the most unsettling grin he'd ever seen. "I could smoke them out," she recommended. "And when they run out, Glissa and Pyrrha can cut them down. How's that sound?"
"It sounds good." he concurred with her plan of action; then Naruto looked to Helen and Irene. "Helen, Irene, you both can use water jutsu so you're on fire control. Make sure it doesn't spread to any of the other buildings. I'd like to use this camp as an outpost if possible."
"On it," Helen chirped with a playful salute. Irene gave him a silent, stoic nod of agreement.
"Zelda, Clare, burn them out," Naruto commanded. "Glissa, Pyrrha, get ready to cut them down." As he called their names, each girl perked up and nodded. "I'll standby to make sure everything goes smoothly. Deneve, you erect some walls to create a chokepoint for the bandits. I want them to be easy kills for Glissa and Pyrrha."
"Alright," Deneve replied, then she made the seals for Tiger, Hare, Boar and Dog before slamming her palms to the ground, shouting, "Doton: Doryūheki!"
Immediately, two walls of mud and rock shot up on both sides of the doorway, creating a narrow passage to their position. Then, a few more shot up to cover all the windows but one for good measure.
Immediately after seeing their comrade's job done, Zelda and Clare wasted no time blazing through a few handseals of their own.
"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"
"Fuuton: Daitoppa!"
The gust of wind merged with the fireball and it became a raging inferno, aimed straight at the unblocked window - setting the wooden obstructions covering it from the inside ablaze and blowing them inward to light up the building's interior. It didn't take long for smoke to start billowing out of the room, as several voices cried out for someone to put out the flames.
"Clare," Naruto called out, "blow some more wind in there to fuel the fire. Zelda, chuck a few more fireballs in there."
"You got it!" Zelda replied.
"Alright." Clare said.
Then they did just that, and the people inside began to panic as the interior of the building was getting filled up with smoke. There were several crashes and bangs from the sound of men and women scrambling to unseal the windows and doors, only to find that most of them have been blocked with a layer of earth.
"What the hell?!" One voice cried out.
"They're trying to smoke us out," another shouted. "Prepare for a fight!"
"Glissa, Pyrrha, get ready," Naruto calmly told them. "They're going to come out at any second."
Not a second later, the only door that was uncovered burst open with several armed people funneling out of the burning building. Pyrrha wasted no time, lashing out with her tongue and tossing the first man she saw several stories up into the air and leaving him to plummet to his death. Meanwhile, Glissa charged forth with a battlecry and her sword raised high in a roof guard. One poor sap logically tried raising his shield so while thrusting into her gut with a short spear. To his credit, that was precisely what he should have done, and had his opponent not been an awakened being, it would have dropped her like a brick.
But, alas, that was simply not the case. Glissa easily sidestepped his thrust and lopped his shield arm clean off with a horizontal slash. Following up with a downward slash, she cleaved the man in twain, before slicing another man's arm and head off with a diagonal false-edge cut. Pyrrha wrapped her tongue around another man and reeled him in, before leaping up and crushing his skull under her hooves with a sickening crunch.
A woman carrying a two handed sword tried to lop off Pyrrha's head, only for a tri-kunai to be thrown in the middle between the two. And Naruto appeared in a yellow flash, hand holding the grip of the kunai and a Rasengan in the other. The blond gave the brunette a glare dead in the eyes before driving the spiraling sphere into her gut. The woman let out an agonised cry as she felt the sphere of energy grind itself through her armour, skin and muscle before it expanded and sent her flying back into the building in a gory display.
He made a disgusted face when the woman's guts, skin, muscle and bone trailed all the way back to the building. At least she died quickly… he looked at the next bandit and tossed the kunai behind him, teleported behind the man and stabbed him in the back of the skull. The man slackened almost immediately and fell to the ground.
Naruto was gone as soon as he appeared, giving Pyrrha and Glissa room to keep going.
Sparing Naruto a grateful look, the former went back into the fray - albeit with more caution, this time around. Glissa, meanwhile, was happily chopping away, her sword cleaving through flesh, bone, leather, gambeson, and even chainmail with little effort, thanks to her demonic strength.
The other girls, even Pyrrha, were a bit unnerved by how much fun she seemed to be having. She was even cackling!
"...well...while some don't like it when they kill, others, take enjoyment out of it." Naruto said standing beside Helen and Irene. He scratched his cheek, chuckling nervously. "Glissa's clearly the latter. I don't mind nearly as much as I probably should, but I'm certainly glad she's on our side."
"You do draw some… unique people to you." Irene told him. "I suppose I should not be surprised you are capable of bringing people like her to your side."
"You know it!" he grinned cheerfully, and gave the silver-haired woman a playful spank. "And I wouldn't change it." he finished that statement by giving Helen a playful spank, and grabbing both women's asses.
'You relentless tease~!" Helen chuckled.
Not wanting to be shown up, Zelda took a deep, calming breath and slipped into the fray to back Pyrrha up, much to the girls' and Naruto's surprise. Her blazing claymore lit ablaze and coming down upon the head of one hapless bandit chick, the former Number 24 grimaced as the now-flaming corpse hitting the ground with a thud, but carried on, shifting into a more defensive stance.
"H-holy shit!"
"She caught on fire!"
"Dude, her sword is on fire! She's probably the one who set the building ablaze! Get her!"
"Oh, do come closer so we can slice and dice you!" Glissa giggled with a tint of madness in her eyes.
Zelda frowned as the bandits focused their attacks on her, she was quick to retaliate as the last man to speak charged her - impaling his head upon her claymore from under the chin with a quick jab. Glissa lopped the head off another and followed up with a second slash chopping the woman beside him in half. Pyrrha's tongue grabbed a man by the arm as he came in for an overhead swing and Zelda lopped him in half from groin to head with a false edge cut, before beheading the man behind him.
While the slaughter carried on, Naruto nearly jumped out of his skin and then chuckled as he felt Alicia and Beth clinging onto his arms. He needed that. The blond showed them his appreciation with a peck on either woman's forehead. They closed their eyes and smiled at the show of affection, before leaning in to rest their heads on his shoulders.
"...this is pretty hot. Eh - them fighting I mean." he quickly clarified for the others; he did not want them to think he was some kind of sicko that got off on watching people die. "They make one hell of a team."
Helen snickered while Deneve sighed, "You like strong women, we know." the latter said.
"'Strong' or 'weak', I would still like you." Naruto reminded her. "I'm not sure why, but I can't help but smile at how much Glissa's enjoying herself. Pyrrha's kinda cute, even in that form, and Zelda's determination is also pretty damn charming."
"You wanna fuck 'em?" Helen teased him with a wide smile.
"I certainly wouldn't mind fucking them," Naruto chuckled. Then, he muttered thoughtfully to himself, "Pyrrha's the only one here who hasn't really approached me, now that I think about it, I wonder how she feels about it..."
"She strikes me as the shy type," Clare chimed it. Then, she gave Naruto an impish giggle. "Give her time and I'm sure you'll get a piece of that 'cute' ass."
Naruto couldn't help but chuckle at that. "She does have a cute ass," the blond admitted with a grin. "Even in her awakened form she has a nice ass. Covered in fur as it is."
"What am I then? Chopped liver?" Helen asked in faux anger.
Naruto grinned and cupped pixie-haired woman's rear as he said, "From what I remember you have a nice ass." Then he gave it a firm squeeze and playfully added, "I might need to see it again, to make sure my memory is right~."
Helen giggled, shaking her booty for him. "We'll see, you stud~!"