FicWad

When they emerged from the tomb Naruto, Helen, Deneve and Flora looked back at the trap door. Then after a short moment of silence Naruto went over and closed it with a strained grunt. Helen went over and helped him close it after seeing him struggle to move it. Their combined strength allowed them both to close the door with some difficulty.

Rubbing his hands Naruto looked at Helen and Deneve and Flora and gestured them to lead on. They silently left the area together and went back to the mountains where the others are waiting.

"Looks like the ghost was telling the truth. That uneasy feeling is gone now." Flora said.

"Everyone else is going to feel it though if we manage to convince them to come here." said Helen as she interlocked her fingers behind her head.

"Yeah." Naruto let out a sigh and shoved his hands into the pockets of his trench coat.

"What were you and Dempsey talking about before we came along anyway?" Helen asked Naruto after several minutes of walking in comfortable silence. Flora and Deneve were curious themselves but kept quiet as Helen asked what they were unknowingly thinking.

"General stuff about my homeland and what experiences I got from there." Naruto told her; it wasn't anything new since he pretty much told her about his homeland. "I learned something interesting from him as well."

"What was it?" a curious Flora asked.

"It turns out that Dempsey knows me, from two to three thousand years ago." that answer got all three of them stop and look back at Naruto with wide stunned eyes, with an equally stunned look on their pretty faces.

"Wait, what? How the hell can that be possible?"

"I don't understand it myself." he said as they continued on their way back to the other hybrids. "But according to 'Tank' I fought side by side with Primis and got separated; we never saw each other again after that." he rubbed the back of his head with a thoughtful frown pulling at his lips. "It doesn't make sense though; I don't remember him or anyone else who were part of Primis."

"Are you sure you're the same person the ghost knew in the Old World?" Deneve questioned.

"He pretty much said he isn't." Helen pointed out.

"No, he only said he doesn't remember. That is two completely different things." Deneve corrected her best friend.

"I am sure Deneve." Naruto said. "I could be a reincarnation of the Naruto that Dempsey use to know all those centuries ago. But that's just speculation on my part. They never did find his body so his spirit could still be out there somewhere or something."

"Or you could be him." Deneve pointed out.

"But I'm not. I'm certain of that."

"I'm just saying, the possibility is there." to the pixie-haired woman it made a lot more sense as to why the Keeper was interested in him if Naruto was there in the past. While the logicalness of the idea is absurd, to her Naruto being in the past, fighting side by side with Primis and their allies just clicked. It answered some questions like why did the Keeper suddenly show up out of the blue a month ago, why the undead yoma kept on saying Primis when it was trying to kill him. Why one of the Keeper's ancient enemy just suddenly showed up.

"...True...that is...very true." he had to give it to her there. The possibility of him, and it being a very unlikely possibility, of coming from the past is there. Not to mention there is a gap in his memory, just before his parents started to treat him differently.

Could that have something to do with him possibly being from the past or was it just some strange accident? No one ever did tell him what had happened to give him amnesia.

With those thoughts lingering in his mind Naruto, Helen, Deneve and Flora walked back on to the path and followed the dirt path back to the mountains where Miria and the others are.

X.X.X.X

When they finally arrived Miria and the others were sitting around a camp fire and were eating some fruit they had found a little while ago. Seeing some apples bigger than her hand Helen immediately went over and took a couple for herself, Deneve and Flora and Naruto to eat.

"What took you?" Cynthia questioned with honest curiosity after swallowing the fruit in her mouth.

"We were caught up in something." Helen replied as she chucked three of the apples to her best friend, Flora and Naruto. They caught the apples and as Deneve and Flora took their seat amongst the others while Helen put an arm around Naruto's shoulder. "He was telling the truth Miria. About the unsettling feeling in the air. He was telling the truth."

Miria sighed and gave the hybrid a small frown; the others stared on in interest. "Helen as I told Naruto before there is nothing there. There is nothing unnatural in these mountains." she looked at Naruto and narrowed her eyes at him. "I don't know how you've convinced Helen but this is the last time I will tolerate a lie such as this."

"Helen and Naruto are not lying, Captain Miria. I was there, I can vouch for them." Flora said.

"I can vouch for them too. Naruto is not lying. We can take you there if you don't believe us." Deneve added and Miria looked between the four of them with a small look of annoyance on her face.

"Look it's obvious that Miria isn't going to believe us. I mean it's not like she's going to go and check it out because we found something interesting." The way Naruto said all of that made Miria look at him with a questioning expression.

"What are you talking about?" Miria asked with Cynthia, Yuma, Clare, Tabitha and Jean all quietly watching and listening to the conversation with interest.

"The thing we found? It dates all the way back to the Old World." Helen said with a nonchalant shrug.

That had really gotten their attention but none more than Miria for obvious reasons. Miria put down the fruit she was eating and looked between Naruto, Helen, Deneve and Flora with a very well concealed look of interest.

"Really? You found something that dates all the way back to the Old World?" Miria questioned them.

"Well it's more of a tomb. Had a statue of the man buried there and everything. But you're not gonna be interested in that kind of stuff anyway. You don't believe in 'supernatural nonsense' after all." Naruto said with a dismissive wave of his hand. He was doing his damned best at being vague and mysterious, and intentionally withholding the info from the long haired woman in an attempt to spark her interest.

Helen saw what Naruto was trying to do and truth be told she was all for it! Inwardly chortling Helen put up a façade of indifference and sighed. "The statue was particularly interesting. The armour the statue had on looks kinda similar to the Keeper now that I think about."

Naruto shook his head and said, "No. I think you're remembering the symbol on the statue's torso. It had a weird circular symbol on it." and it looked like something you would see engraved on to a tomb.

"Oh yeah...kinda like the Keeper now that I think about it." the short haired woman said with Naruto saying the last word with Helen at the same time.

Miria furrowed her brow as she frowned thoughtfully and went over their words analytically. The tombs statue had a strange circular symbol, sort of like the symbol on the Keeper's torso, and the tomb itself dated back to the Old World. Her brow crinkled even more as idea after idea went through her head.

Then the answer came to her like a large sack of bricks smashing the ground from a ten storey drop. "You found a tomb belonging to one of the Legendary Four." Naruto wasn't even surprised, having been with them for three weeks he figured out she was very observant and analystic about things.

He nodded his head in confirmation "Yes, I have. And more than that. Put it this way, there was a ghost from the past there." Literally in this case. And Miria was a smart woman, she should be able to figure that out on her own.

She squinted at the young man, staring at him with suspicious eyes with the others looking between the two with a high amount of interest. "Are you going to go back?" she eventually asked.

Naruto nodded his head. "Yes. Tomorrow. After we all get some rest."

Miria nodded in acceptance. Yes waiting until tomorrow would be the smart thing to do. Once they're well rested. Once everyone was finished eating, they went in the cave to turn themselves in for a long rest and embedded their claymore's into the ground before leaning back against it. Naruto went to his own spot and sat back against the cave wall.

Watching the others closing their eyes and going to sleep it didn't take Naruto long to follow after them. His eyes slowly closed, with his head lowering until it was hanging down; minutes later Naruto was fast asleep.

X.X.X.X

A thirteen year old Naruto sat in his room by himself. Laying on the floor face up to the ceiling the thirteen year old had his eyes closed; asleep and seemingly unaware of the world around him.

"Can't you see Minato!? There is something wrong with him!" Naruto twitched as he heard a faint, but familiar voice yell at someone. His mother. Why did she say that?

"There is nothing wrong with him Kushina. He's doing perfectly fine." Naruto twitched again and moved his head slightly upon hearing the familiar voice of his father; and like his mum, Naruto's dad sounded a younger.

"Fine? FINE?! He can't remember what happened between the ages seven to twelve Minato! He's lost nearly a decade of his life thanks to that bloody boulder!" Naruto softly grunted when he heard the faint shouting of his mum and the failings of his father to try and keep her calm.

"It'll pass Kushina, don't worry." was Minato's reassuring voice. "We're getting rid of it so no one else will share the same fate. Afterwards we'll try to see if Naruto can still do things other children can."

"And if he doesn't? What then?" Naruto slowly opened his eyes and looked towards the partially open bedroom door.

"If he doesn't, then it will be up to us to make sure he can." The way Minato said that with such confidence made the young Naruto frown. Why were they talking as if something was wrong with him? He may not remember the past several years, but that didn't mean nothing was wrong with him.

"There's nothing wrong with you." Naruto looked to his bed when he heard an old man speak to him in a kindly manner. White hair and a similar coloured beard, a receding hairline; clothes consisting of a dark green and red lined jacket with a blue buttoned shirt worn underneath, a pair of black fingerless gloves, black trousers and shoes.

"Ah ah ah, there's no need to speak little one. No one but you can hear me." the man said as Naruto opened his mouth to talk. Slowly nodding to show he understood Naruto closed his lips and sat up cross legged and turned around to look at the man.

The question he was projecting was easy to see: who are you?

"I go by many names. But you can call me Doctor Monty." the now named Doctor Monty answered.

Naruto cocked his head to the side; the question, 'why are you here?' was showing on his face.

Chortling to himself Doctor Monty groaned as he pushed himself off of the bed and walked to the window with his hands behind his back.

"You know you are not the first person to have lost their memory by touching that stone." Monty said as he stared at the large town on the opposite end of the window and knowing he had captured Naruto's attention he continued. "You most certainly will not be the last either. The side effects it has on its victims will linger." he suddenly turned around and gave Naruto a look full of pity. "Now don't worry the memory loss won't last. You will get your memory back. Eventually. But the side effects unfortunately will always be there. I am afraid your parents are fighting a lost cause."

Naruto got upset. But he didn't cry. Instead he hugged his legs and tightly closed his eyes. He snapped his eyes open and looked up when he felt Monty thread his hands in his hair and rub them. Like a grandfather would.

He had a grandfatherly smile on his face. "Don't worry. While you may have lost a lot of things you have improved in one thing. Trust in this old man when I say it will help you in the future. But...I'll get you figure out what you're good at for yourself. There'd be no fun in its discovery otherwise!"

And then just like that he was gone. Startled Naruto quickly got up and wildly looked around his room. The man is just vanished.

It was here that Minato and Kushina, his parents, entered the room and when Naruto looked at them he saw Minato was looking at him with a patent smile, while Kushina looked like she was straining to do the same. She was upset but was trying to hide it.

The father gave his son a patent smile and as he offered his hand, Minato said. "Naruto please come with us for a moment. We need to check something."

Not seeing anything wrong with that Naruto got up and walked over to his mum and dad. He took the larger hand of his father' and allowed him to guide him out of the room.

X.X.X.X

When Naruto awoke from his dream he quickly sat up; confused he looked around and found everyone was still asleep. With a furrowed brow he looked out towards the cave and found the sun was rising. Exhaling he got up, grabbed his CAR-15 and walked out.

He wasn't surprised to know his body wasn't stiff from sitting in one spot for hours. Quick Revive did help out a lot when it comes to recovering.

As he stared at the coloured sky Naruto pondered on his dream and what it meant. It was four years since he first encountered the strange old man. Four years since he last heard the man speak. To be completely honest he had completely forgotten about the old man.

He never did find out what he was good at. Well except for using guns, like the musket. Although how he managed to quickly adapt to them was a little otherworldly.

Walking over to a nearby stump Naruto sat in front of it and began the process of taking his assault rifle apart and putting it together again. A few minutes later Naruto looked to the cave when he hard someone walking out. Helen clad with her armour and sword was the first to walk into the open with her eyes closed and her hand covering her mouth as she yawned.

"Hey Helen." Naruto greeted her before going back to looking over the parts of his assault rifle.

Opening one eye Helen and saw Naruto was looking over the pieces of his weapon. Again. "Hey kid. You're looking over your weapon again?" she asked as she went over to join him.

"Yeah. I got to make sure it's functioning properly after all."

Sitting on the ground beside him Helen looked at the parts of the assault rifle with a bored look. "While I admit it's effective I still don't see the point in them when we have bows and arrows."

"Arrows you can see going through the air." Naruto then took out one of the bullets and showed Helen it to emphasise his next point. "Bullets that are this size and go faster than the speed of sound is very hard to defend against. Not to mention they're hard to see." he then put the bullet back in its magazine.

Helen didn't really have anything to say to counter that. Arrows can be heard whistling through the air and they can be seen as well. Bullets can be heard exiting the barrel of a gun but that's pretty much it. She was unable to hear or see the bullet three weeks and a few days ago.

As Naruto put his rifle back together the rest of the seven began to file out one by one. All of them were armoured and had their claymores on their backs as well. He was expecting them to begin training since it was all they ever did for the past three weeks. Instead they watched as Miria walked over to Helen and himself and stared at him.

"You're not training?" Naruto questioned Miria as he slung the assault rifle over his shoulder.

Miria crossed her arms and said in a no nonsense tone, "No. Instead we're going to see this tomb you went to yesterday."

A single eyebrow raised Naruto leaned slightly to the side in order to look at the other women behind her. They were quietly standing watching them.

Shrugging nonchalantly Naruto beckoned Miria to follow him as he said, "Alright. Follow me then."

As he walked Miria looked at the rest of her defector comrades' and beckoned them to follow her before following after Naruto.

As they walked down the dirt path Naruto kept a close eye on his surroundings, while Miria and the others were keeping their guard up. Using a small trace of their yoki to make sure there's no yoma around.

Half an hour later they came to a split path and like before Naruto went to the right, with the silver eyed women following him.

Another half an hour of walking it was then the others, excluding Naruto, Helen, Deneve and Flora felt it. The faint but noticeable feeling of dread. Miria quickly stopped and reached for the handle of her claymore, with the others affected doing the same thing.

Just what was this?! It was unlike anything they had felt before!

Stopping Naruto looked at Miria with a raised brow. "So you feel it huh?"

Miria looked at him with wide eyes. "What is this Naruto?!" she hissed demandingly.

Turning around to face her completely Naruto spread his arms and looked around momentarily. "That would be, y'know, the feeling of dread I was feeling when ever I came down here." Bringing his arms down and crossing them against his torso, he added with a hint of annoyance in his voice, "You know what I was trying to tell you for a while but brushed off."

"Maybe if you prey it away, it'll go away." Helen said unhelpfully with her hands in a mock prayer.

"She doesn't believe it. Maybe her unbelief will make it go away." Naruto added with Deneve shaking her head and sighing at the antics of her best friend and friend.

"Knock it off." Miria growled at them; she was glaring at her surroundings and looked a few seconds away from drawing her claymore. "Where do we go from here?"

Seeing as she was likely to lash out if he didn't take it seriously Naruto beckoned her to follow him and walked off the path. To Miria's disbelief when she followed him the feeling of dread increased instead of fading. Her eyes darting from left to right she grew downright suspicious when she saw Helen, Deneve and Flora were not affected at all by this.

Then again they were here before. Maybe they got use to it while they were around?

A few minutes later and the feeling of dread and unease increasing they found it. The door in the ground. Opening it with a grunt Naruto peered down the staircase, looked at Helen, Deneve and Flora for a moment before heading down. Helen didn't hesitate following him. Neither did Flora nor Deneve for that matter.

Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves Miria closed her eyes, opened them again, and followed after the four. One by one the other 5 followed in after them. After many turns they reached the end and came into a wide and open room. There was a single sarcophagus in the middle of it along with 'Tank' Dempsey's statue towering the sarcophagus.

"I'm back! As I said I would!" Naruto suddenly called out.

Confused Miria, along with the other five who were not here before, were wondering who he was talking too. Miria herself was about to ask him just what he was doing, up until someone she never heard before actually replied.

"So you did, kid." 'Tank' Dempsey replied before fading into opacity in front of his sarcophagus. He was surprised. Very, very surprised to see there was more people this time around in his own tomb. "And you brought some more friends too. All with the same coloured hair and eyes..."

"What're you getting at?"

"I'm wondering if they're related to each other is all."

"...Actually..." Naruto slowly looked to Miria, "I never did ask that. How come you all have the same coloured hair and eyes?"

Seeing the chance to mess with him and everyone else at the same time Helen immediately took it and exploited it to the best of her ability.

"We're sisters." she had a massive grin on her face as she put an arm around her best friend and pulled Deneve to her. "All of us are totally sisters." Miria, Clare, Flora, Jean, Deneve and Cynthia, Yuma and Tabitha all looked at Helen as if she had said something inane. Deneve palmed her face with a very exasperated look showing on it.

Naruto looked back and forth between Helen and the other women. Repeatedly. With a puzzled look on his face. Dempsey meanwhile merely rubbed his stubbled chin with a thoughtful frown.

"You don't look like sisters..." Dempsey trailed off with a suspicious frown.

"That's because some of us are cousins! Reaaaally distant cousins!" Helen added and that got Dempsey and Naruto to look at her as if she were stupid.

"So...you're sisters but you're also cousins...?" Naruto said questionably and with Helen's enthusiastic nod, he slowly nodded before asking. "How the hell does that work?"

"Yeah I'm with the kid on this one. The only way you can be sisters is if you all had the same mother or father." said Dempsey, and there's like nine of them here. There's no way they can have the same mother or father. "I can see you being distant cousins though."

"But they don't act like family."

Dempsey gave Naruto a look and crossed his arms to his chest. "Do you act like family with yours?"

That question gave Naruto a bitter look and with a heavy frown the seventeen year old glared at the ground as he muttered, "Considering they sold me and I got sent here, obviously it wasn't enough."

Naruto shook his head in the negative and looked back at 'Tank'. "Well there you go. Just because they don't act like family doesn't mean they're not."

"But-but they're not family."

"How would you know?"

"Because they're not."

"But how would you know?"

"Because- because they're not."

"But they could be."

"'Tank'...they're not family. Seriously now."

"But they could be."

"'Tank' no..."

"'Tank' yes!"

All the while Helen was sniggering in complete amusement at the conversation/argument/bantering she had wrought between Naruto and Dempsey. Deneve on the other hand was looking at her best friend from the corner of her eye with a look of mild embarrassment, though she did think the little banter Naruto and the spectre are having is a little funny. She would NEVER let anyone know that hoervrt.

Helen would find out though. She always does. Somehow.

The other women were watching the two males arguing with each other in bemusement. Cynthia was sniggering and Flora was Flora was smiling as her shoulders jumped in silent laughter. However all good things must come to an end as Miria decided to correct the misconception Helen had wrought.

"As amusing your argument of us being sisters, step-sisters and cousins, Naruto is in fact correct. We are not related in any way."

Naruto and Dempsey stopped their conversation/argument and looked at Miria, the former having a thankful look on his face being sent her way, while giving Helen a look of childish annoyance. The latter having a look of underwhelming surprise that became a look of indifference.

"Alright." Dempsey immediately brushed Miria off to her surprise and brought his attention to Naruto. He noticed the kid was looking a little off. He may have hidden it well but something was eating at him. "Something the matter kiddo? You look a little distracted."

"No. No nothings-" Naruto paused mid-speech and looked at the ground thoughtfully. "Actually...there is something you could help me with." he looked at the ghost with an hopeful expression on his face.

"I don't know if I can help, but I sure as hell can try. What's eaten at you?"

"It was a past memory of when I was twelve years old." he explained to give a bit of context. "Four years ago I met this man. This was shortly after...the incident that made me lose half a decade of my memories." All the while Dempsey was nodding attentively, patently listening to the young man, until he said the final part that shocked him. "There I met a man who called himself Doctor Monty- that look on your face. You know who he is."

Dempsey shook his head in the negative, surprising Naruto because he was sure the spectre knows the old man. "Not exactly." began the spectre. "I know OF him. You see Monty isn't the type of guy to show himself. I heard him speak before, but, I never saw him."

"Do you know who he is?"

Sighing Dempsey turned to look at his statue. He exhaled and said to the astonishment of the women and surprise of Naruto, "Monty is a Keeper. The leader of them to be exact." he grunted thoughtfully and curiously looked at Naruto from over his shoulder. "If you saw him, it must have been for a very good reason. Do you remember the reason why?"

Rubbing the back of his neck Naruto thinned his lips as he looked at the ground in thought. "Four years ago...I came across this stone. A boulder sized one. It was big and weird looking. Glowing. I touched it and...something happened."

"You lost your memory. Right, I remember you saying that yesterday." Dempsey said as he nodded to himself. "Was the colour of the rock orange?"

Naruto looked up with wide eyes. "Y-yeah! How'd you-"

"Know? I saw them before in my time." he said before looking at everyone seriously. And when they saw him straighten himself they reflexively straightened themselves as well. "Listen to me, if any of you find a glowing orange rock, destroy it. No matter what you have to destroy it. It's far too dangerous to keep around."

"What makes this rock so dangerous?" Miria questioned with a skeptical look.

"Oh boy. Where to begin. How about it can reanimate dead corpses?"

That had captured Helen and Deneve's attention, since the two of them plus Naruto had encountered a yoma that should have been by all rights dead. Alarmed the two friends exchanged looks before they quickly approached the spectre.

"It can bring the dead back to life? You're sure?" questioned Deneve; at Dempsey's confirmed nod the pixie-haired woman let out a curse and said, "Fuck! That makes a bit more sense now that I think about it!"

Helen looked at her best friend. "You think a glowing orange rock was around when we encountered that yoma?"

Deneve looked at Helen. "There had to be."

"Are you two talking about that one yoma who was a walking corpse?" Miria asked the two; since she and the others had been told of the circumstances of them meeting Naruto for the first time, during the three weeks they were hiding in the mountains.

Helen and Deneve looked back at their leader and nodded, with Helen saying. "Yeah. As you and Clare know we first met Naruto when he was being attacked by a dead yoma."

Miria nodded thinking back to the time they informed her and Jean of their companion they had picked up during their last assignment, and of the enemy they faced. The walking dead, an enemy humanity had not seen since the fall of the Old World.

Deneve then added, "It had a strange power as well. The ability to teleport."

"Teleportation eh..." Everyone looked at the ghost; Dempsey rubbed his chin with a thoughtful frown. Grunting he crossed his arms and said, "I don't know what a yoma is, I'm guessing it's an evolution thing...but the teleportation ability takes me back. I fought a few zombies that had the annoying power to teleport."

Everyone was looking at the ghost with wide eyes.

"Really?"

Dempsey nodded in confirmation; "Yeah. The first ones I encountered that could teleport were Hellhounds. Imagine large dogs partially enveloped by fire, red glowing eyes, and a large amount of skin torn off down to the bone and you have yourself a Hellhound."

"That's a disturbing thought." Yuma made a disgusted face at the mental image her imagination conjured up thanks to the description. What made it worse is the fact Helen, Deneve and Naruto already fought a teleporting zombie.

With everyone else invested in the conversation with the ancient ghost Naruto eased away from them and went to slipped away and went to the other side of the room. He took off his small back pack and took out the blood vial. It wasn't glowing anymore. Now it looks like an ordinary vial of blood.

While he was confused as to why it wasn't glowing orange anymore Naruto wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He attached it to the front part of his suspenders on the webbing set and put the small pack back on.

Then suddenly a sphere of lightning appeared in the room surprising everyone.

However the appearance of the sphere triggered a fragmented memory, a fragmented memory of a time that has long past.

Naruto's eyes grew wide as the scene changed before his very eyes. No longer was he inside of a tomb. He was outside and could see a city city made out of glass and metal. Parting the clouds above were meteors falling from the sky. They collided with the buildings creating massive and devastating explosions. Entire structures collapsed in a ball of fire and hot ash.

The dead rose out from the rubble minutes later and started attacking helpless civilians who were too stunned to react. Spheres of electricity appeared among the quickly gathering horde of zombies with four legged dogs – looking as if they came from hell itself running out of them and chasing down anyone in their path.

Distressed by what he saw, unknowing it was a delayed side effect of Element 115 he came in contact with four years ago, Naruto out of reflex held out his hand, Ancients Wrath manifesting in his palm and slashed at whatever was coming from the sphere with an enraged roar.

He stopped at the last second however, when it was the Keeper that came from the sphere. The cause for the illusion being triggered was held in its hand. A small fragment of Element 115.

The women all gasped in shock as Naruto held the Keeper hostage with his sword. And they all saw how distressed he looked. Miria however picked up the different mannerisms Naruto was displaying and knew this wasn't the same person they've come to know.

Dempsey's mouth slowly dropped open in both astonishment and disbelief. Shocked that Naruto was holding a fucking Keeper of all things at sword point!

"Oh shit..." he knew just how dangerous a Keeper was. Threatening one the way the kid is, it is a quick way to die.

However the Keeper didn't go hostile when it found itself in in its current predicament. Instead it did the exact opposite to the surprise of the ghost.

The Keeper slowly raised its clawed hands in a non-threatening manner. "Naruto...calm down. I am not an enemy..." hearing the Keeper talk to him Naruto briefly closed his eyes, and bared his teeth as he flinched. Eyes opened once again Naruto growled as he aggressively inhaled and exhaled; his sword arm shaking as he struggled to figure out what to do next.

However this did the exact opposite of what the Keeper wanted. Instead of calming Naruto the Keeper increased his aggressiveness.

Naruto aggressively bared his teeth as he glared at the Keeper, shocking everyone in the room at the personality switch. "How the fuck do you know my name?!" he demanded. Before the Keeper could answer Naruto groaned stressfully and closed his eyes and held the side of his scalp as his head hung down. This gave the Keeper time to float away from Naruto. "There's so much I have to do. Locate the beacon and activate it so Richtofen can find me." Naruto dropped the sword to the ground as he held his head with both hands and started shaking his head frantically. "Argh! No! I'm not there! I'm in the tomb! God dammit, I'm getting confused! Damn these 115-induced illusions!"

Slowly, cautiously, Dempsey made his way over to the stressed and confused teenager. Helen wanted to go over there as well to comfort him, but Deneve kept her from going over there. The others were watching on, confused and worried for the young man, while a few were suspicious of the Keeper. Naruto had been fine up until it reappeared the way it did. And only Miria was the one to notice the otherworldly being was holding something in its palm.

"Naruto? Are you okay?"

Taking slow deep breaths Naruto opened his eyes and slowly looked up. "I-I don't know." now shaking Naruto slowly lowered his arms to his sides and looked unsure at his surroundings. To everyone in the room it was as if he couldn't see them. "I'm...seeing and remembering things. Things that I KNOW I haven't seen before."

"What are you seeing right now?" questioned Dempsey.

He didn't answer. Instead his mannerism changed again. He was more calm. Confident. Almost cocky. Straightening himself Naruto surveyed his surroundings and frowned in confusion when he saw the silver eyed women staring at him.

He showed recognition upon seeing 'Tank' Dempsey.

Blinking Dempsey slowly eased forward; that look on his face showed he knew him. Could that mean...

"Kid? Is that you?"

Naruto thinned his lips and crossed his arms. "We get separated by those Apothicon bastards and the next thing I see is you wearing crusader armour." he said before giving the ghost a confident smirk.

Hearing those words Dempsey got wide eyed. It can't be.