FicWad

Several hours later, Naruto, Flora and Miria were a fair bit away from Lydd, because Miria wanted to see how he would fair against warriors of their caliber. It was a sparring session if one wanted to get technical. Despite what she’s been told by Flora, Miria was fairly confident that she would utterly trounce Naruto. He may have been as fast as a single digit without the use of yoki, but despite that he was still human.

Naruto stood opposite his girlfriend and Miria. While the former was shown to be calm on the surface, inside she was very excited - and nervous - to spar with her boyfriend. That technique he used to wipe out the bandit encampment over a month ago came to the forefront of her mind. While the woman was confident he would never resort to such a technique in order to win, she couldn’t help but feel… nervous… and for good reason.

“So, how are we going to do this?” Naruto asked Miria and Flora as he looked between the two of them. The former was the one who wanted this and Flora was going along with it. If anything it would be considerate of him to ask them what the rules of this spar session was.

Miria pulled her sword out from the slot on her back plate, and held it in a middle guard. “The first one to land the first five hits wins.”

Flora reached up and held the grip of her claymore but did not pull it out of the slot of her back plate. “I can see to that,” she said with an agreeable smile, then the wavy blonde looked to her boyfriend and asked, “what about you?”

Naruto chuckled and took out a couple of shivs, an improvised knife that was made out of wood, a sharp rock and fabric tying the two together. They looked flimsy, and ridiculous to the two women. Their claymores would cut through them like a hot knife cutting butter. But they didn't plan on underestimating him.

“Sounds like a plan.” Naruto grinned, of course, if they were going to leave openings then he was going to take advantage of it. Miria didn't state what kind of hits. “Okay, so, who’s going to initiate this engagement?”

Miria did by dashing forward and thrust her claymore at his torso. Naruto spun out of the way and counterattacked with a slash to the arm. Miria deflected it with the metal plate of her gauntlet before she attempted to drive her knee into his stomach. Naruto stopped that by chopping her knee, then pushed her away and jumping back to get some distance between them. He followed that up by throwing several shivs at Miria like they were throwing knives, and she deflected them all with the flat of her sword and they bounced harmlessly off the surface and landed on the floor.

Naruto landed and brandished his trench knives. He blocked a strike from Miria who dashed towards him again, and used the other to block Flora’s attack when she tried to get the drop on him. Naruto surprised Miria when he forced them both to back off with his own strength.

Then he smiled from under his mask, and his image flickered before vanishing before their eyes. It was only because of Naruto improving Flora’s reflexes, and her decade and a half worth of experience on the field, that the wavy blonde was able to react in time. Flora quickly brought her claymore up into a hanging guard, and the sound of metal hitting metal sounded throughout the area as a second later, Naruto appeared in front of her with his trench knives locked with Flora’s claymore.

Flora herself was surprised that she managed to do this so fast.

“My reflexes have improved after all…”

She had to make sure to thank him. Her survival rate against fast Awakened Beings had just gone up drastically thanks to what he was doing with her for the past three and so weeks.

The boyfriend and girlfriend were in a deadlock. Neither of them were willing to give way. Then Naruto surprised Flora when he abruptly broke the deadlock, only to dodge and weave away from Miria’s claymore who tried to hack and slash him. He did it effortlessly, and as he avoided her sword, and deflected it with his trench knife with professional efficiency, Naruto put the other knife knive back into its holder again. He reinforced his free hand with chakra and almost gave Flora and Miria heart attacks when he caught the sword of the latter with his bare hand. Naruto couldn’t help but smirk at the shocked look on the face of the woman in front of him.

Naruto couldn’t help but cheekily say. “What? It’s like you’ve never seen someone catch a sword with their bare hand before.”

“I…can’t really say I have,” she muttered. Miria was honestly freaked out by it, though she was doing a hell of a job keeping it hidden. Flora was in the same boat as her too.

“Not many people can,” he admitted with a nod. Then he forced Miria back with a shove and clenched and unclenched his fist while he rolled his shoulders. “Still, you’re both strong and skilled for someone who’s self-taught. If we had this spar if I was a few years younger, you would have been able to beat me fairly easily.” And he was being completely honest about that. Out of all of his peers, most of whom who had the backing of a clan, he was the only one who tried to teach himself how to fight because no one would want to bother teach him. Only Iruka wanted to help, but the damage had already been done.

His makeshift, self-taught training had worked. To a certain point. But then he finally graduated and learned just how bad he was in comparison to other ninjas. Comparing how he used to be to these women, they would have been able to beat the living tar out of his past self.

“You can tell we’re self taught?” Miria asked.

Naruto nodded as he slowly circled around Flora, and Miria who did the same. “Yeah. Before I found a teacher, I was self taught myself. I was more like a brawler when I fought way back then though, and I had less skill. Then I found a good teacher. He was the best teacher I could have ever asked for.”

“What happened to him?” The Number 6 asked.

“He was killed by one of his old disciples that turned bad.” Miria couldn’t hide the wince at the flat, dead tone in his voice. “I defeated him in turn when he came after me.” Then Naruto smiled and made a ‘come at me’ gesture to them. “Come on; we’re meant to spar, right?”

The two women nodded before they reengaged Naruto at the same time. Naruto dashed towards them and met the women halfway. He deflected Miria’s claymore with his knife just when he got within range of it and took out a shiv to throw at Flora to distract her. The wavy haired woman sliced it in half from top to bottom with a single, powerful chop and kept on going.

Naruto redirected Miria’s claymore with his trench knife, before turning to meet Flora’s and punched it with the hand protector. Flora let out a startled yelp when she unexpectedly took a step back from the amount of force put in the punch!

Then as she recovered, Naruto saw an opening, and he lashed out with his free hand. Flora let out a gasp when she felt Naruto’s hand grope her right breast and she looked at him in surprise. Did he just...?

“Don’t let yourself be open.” Naruto told her, then he shoved his girlfriend away after squeezing her breast. “That would have been an instant kill.”

Her heart was on the right side of her ribcage. If Naruto had been going with the intent to kill and he was armed, Flora would have been stabbed in the heart and would’ve been killed.

“N-noted,” she sputtered, still in mild shock at what had just happened. Flora then took the opportunity to leap back to try again.

Naruto dodged and weaved through her attacks, and used his trench knife to deflect a couple. He took a quick glance to his left when he felt Miria appear beside him, with her sword poised to take his head off. He leaned back and to the side, and grabbed Flora’s arm with his free hand when she over extended herself, ducked under Miria’s swipe, turned on the heel of his boots and used the momentum to toss Flora with a mighty grunt. Then Naruto turned his attention to Miria who kept going at it and he deflected, and weaved through many of her swipes.

Then the blond saw Miria had left an opening, so he took advantage of it, lashing out below the waistline with his free hand once more.

The woman let out an undignified squawk and nearly jumped out of her skin upon feeling him cup her sex. Understandably, she was pissed and shocked about that.

“An attack to the crotch would’ve hindered you and lowered your combat efficiency, had I been armed… It would have also hurt like a bitch,” Naruto pointed out, lecturing the red-faced woman. “Don’t leave openings for attacks like this.”

“R-right…” she grumbled, her eyebrow twitching violently. She took his advice to heart, despite her outrage and retreated as well. After taking a deep, calming breath, she tried again.

As she dashed at him, Naruto took a defensive stance and used his trench knife to block and deflect her strikes; he was impressed, she was pushing him back while he dodged and wove around her blows and even got a few blows in with his free hand when he saw an opening to do so, though most of them only grazed her. All-in-all, her defense was pretty damn solid, now as she kept a good eye on him, preventing Naruto from doing much initially.

But what was Flora doing?

“HAAAAAAAA!” the woman in question let out a battlecry as she dashed at him when he was completely preoccupied with Miria.

Oh, there she is! And Naruto promptly backflipped away from Miria, just as Flora came in with her sword hitting the ground where he was standing. Naruto punished Flora by driving his foot into her side, sending her stumbling into Miria.

“If you didn't cry out like that, I wouldn’t have noticed you until it was too late.” Naruto lectured his girlfriend with a disappointed shake of his head. Then he smiled, as the two women faced him in preparation, “Still, attacking me while I was distracted by Miria was a good idea.”

“I was trying to draw your attention to me so she could get a good swing in, too,” Flora pointed out.

That… actually made a lot of sense, given the situation.

“Not a bad plan, I’ll admit; but not all opponents will fall for that trick.”

“You’re one of those who wouldn’t, clearly,” Flora giggled. “I know that now.”

A couple of years ago, he would have fallen for it like a bird to a worm. But, he was a hell of a lot smarter now. However, he can still be tricked. He’s not arrogant enough to say he won’t fall for them anymore. If Flora happened to flash her tits at him for example, you can be damn sure he would be distracted long enough for Miria to take advantage of it!

Naruto shrugged with a nonchalant smile. “There are some tricks I can be distracted by. I’m not telling you what though. That would be dumb.”

“I see,” Miria muttered thoughtfully.

Naruto chuckled nervously, seeing the wheels in her head starting to turn. This woman was Shikamaru with tits, wasn’t she? He’d better keep an eye on her if that was the case. If she was, then she would be hell to fight once she gets a strategy going.

And he looked forward to that…

Naruto smiled brightly upon seeing Miria pull Flora aside and whisper into her ear, knowing that woman had quite the evil scheme in mind. Though deep down the blond was worried about what this potential scheme to defeat him could be about. Knowing Flora, she would go along with what Miria’s got planned if it has a high chance of succeeding.

“All is fair in love and war,” Flora giggled.

Naruto narrowed his eyes a bit. He both liked sound of that and... didn’t. This was going to get interesting, to say the least. Still he got himself ready to intercept them once they made their love.

The women wasted no time as they drew their claymores and then charged right at him, attempting a pincer move. The attempt was pretty simple: Flora came at him from the left, Miria following close behind before using her afterimage technique to circle around and come at him from the right. It was an impressive feint, but his reflexes were a bit too sharp for it work. Still, he was struggling to keep them both off or him, dividing his attention between the two of them. Then, Flora leaned forward and licked his cheek.

At the feel of her tongue dragging itself up his cheek a surprised Naruto froze at the unexpectedness of it. Then, she pressed on with a giggle as he staggered to deflect the blows that came his way. “When I get you on the ground, I’m going to make you stick your sword in my sheathe and ride you like a pony~!”

Naruto choked on his own spit and almost failed to deflect Miria’s attacks in time. He was distracted by Flora’s words and that slightly impaired his reaction time. Then, as she staggered back, the sandy brunette disappeared from his field of vision and he felt an arm around his torso. The next thing Naruto knew, his feet were in the air and everything went blue as he was hoisted onto his ass with a roar of exertion from Miria.

“Nigh!” Naruto felt his grip on his trench knife go as Flora appeared and knocked it out of his hand. As it skid across the ground he quickly reached for his other trench knife, only to pause when he felt the sharp end of Miria’s sword pressed against his neck.

“Yield.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Naruto chuckled nervously. He let out a sigh of relief when the woman took her sword away. “I take it having Flora distract me was your plan?”

“Indeed it was,” Miria replied with a giggle. It wasn’t often that she felt proud of herself, but this was one such case. “It seemed like the most logical way to go about it, after all; Flora’s perfectly willing to act rather… crude towards you, not that I can blame her, so having her try that out to distract you while I got around to pin you down seemed like a fairly solid backup plan.”

“I take it your first plan was to see if I fell for that initial feint?” Naruto smiled up at her, thoroughly impressed.

“Indeed it was,” Miria confirmed.

“And if neither worked?”

“We’d retreat and I’d try distracting you with my afterimage technique while Flora and I tried approaching you from different angles. I have a limit to how many times I can use it, though, so that was a last resort. If it didn’t work, I would have surrendered; I know when I’m beat.”

He smiled up at her even more at that.

While she was happy that they won, Flora knew better. If Naruto really wanted to, he could’ve beaten her and Miria in a matter of seconds. He is a determinator and would keep getting back up no matter how many times he’s been pushed down. If he wanted too he could have gotten away from Miria despite of her holding the edge of her sword to his neck.

The guts not give up and pain are what he inherited from his teacher and sibling student, after all.

Still smiling Naruto got up on his feet with a grunt, and as Miria and Flora put their swords back in the slots of their back plates, he went to collect his trench knife and the other makeshift shivs that weren’t made useless. Then he went back to them after he collected his stuff.

“Shall we head back to Lydd and rest?” Flora asked, looking to her boyfriend and Miria questioningly.

“I don’t see why not.” Naruto shrugged with an easy going smile. Miria shrugged and gave no objections. With that the three of them went back to the town. “You’re a pretty good planner, Miria. I wonder what would prevail in a prolonged spar: your strategy, or mine?”

“Oh?” That peaked Miria’s interest. “You make strategies too?”

“Not in the way you do. I make mine up on the fly, when I’m in the middle of fighting.” He clarified; and seeing the disbelieving look on Miria’s face he just shrugged. “It’s worked well for me since I first became a mercenary.”

“And when did you become a...mercenary?” Miria asked him with narrow eyes.

“Two years ago when I was 13.” At the surprised look on Miria’s face, Naruto just shrugged again and grinned rather carefreely. “To be fair I was trained to fight, and kill, ever since I was a little kid. I started my training when I was 7.”

He was a mercenary for longer than that actually. But for reasons unknown to him, Naruto had found his body had regressed a few years in age. He wasn’t complaining though.

“I...I see…” Miria trailed off. So, not only is the Youma Hunter capable of moving as fast as warriors, he is also a child soldier… she didn't know why she found that to be disturbing, she too is a child soldier - she was trained from a very young age to kill youma and Awakened Beings after all - but it didn't seem right.

He’s a good enough sort to hang around though.

Though, from the way he acted, Naruto reminded Miria a little bit of Number 22, Helen. She shuddered inwardly. The day those two meet will be the day hell freezes over. She could feel it in her bones.

----

One hour later…

Naruto snuck out of the tavern he, Miria, and Flora were staying in while they were busy talking to one another. They never noticed he had left the premises, such was his stealth. He walked to a nearby alley and after taking a quick look around to make sure no one was around, he made a single Shadow Clone.

“Head to the North. Something tells me this ‘activity’ over in Alphonse is more than meets the eye.” Naruto told his copy.

“On it, Boss!” The clone saluted his creator before turning on his heel and bolting off. With chakra enhanced running, the clone would get there in a matter of days. And since Mount Zakol is to the North West of Lydd, the clone just had to venture North.

The original Naruto watched on and only turned around to head back to the tavern the Single Digits were in when he could no longer spot his clone. He had an idea on where to go next: Mount Zakol. If people are going missing there, claymores included, then it needed investigating. It was probably a former digit warrior that was responsible.

He’ll head over there with Flora tomorrow morning.

----

One day later…

The very next day, Naruto and Flora ventured forth, hand in hand, as they headed North West to Mount Zakol. From the bedroom she shared with the two Miria limped on up to the window to see them leaving town. A blush and smile on her face, she sighed happily at the memories of what Naruto did to say goodbye. Oh, that woman of his was so lucky!

When she saw him look up and wave her goodbye, Miria blew him a kiss, before heading back to her bed. She needed to recuperate for now, and then she’ll be back on the road, herself, heading North to check up on Eva’s status after dealing with a youma infestation she’d been assigned.along the way.

This was going to be a busy week for her, but Miria didn’t mind nearly as much, thanks to that stud…

----

Speaking of Eva, though…. The woman had a grim expression upon her face as her team showed up. Her silver eyes counted them… and found they were still a person short. They won’t be able to do much until she gets there, and the youki she sensed was getting closer.

It had to be a former single-digit… possibly of the Lost Generation, if its sheer potency was anything to go by. Still, she had a good team for the job. If nothing else, that was reason to be cautiously optimistic...

“We’re a person short.” one of the women said as she looked around for their last member.

“Not a surprise,” Eva muttered. “I was informed that Number 12 might be late, given that she was pulled from a mission to Rabona at the last second. We’ll wait one more day.”

“No need,” Eva and the other two women perked up a bit when they heard the woman in question speak up. They looked in the direction the voice came from and found Lucia walking up to them. “because I’m already here.” she had a frown pulling at her lips. “That’s a lot of yoki I’m sensing… Do we know the cause?”

“A possible Single Digit from the Lost Generation.” Eva answered with a sigh. “Hard to tell from this distance. We’re not here to engage, just to scout. Once we confirmed exactly what it is, we are to disengage and report back to the Organization with our findings. But first, let’s get introductions out of the way; I am Eva, Number 7, better known as Eva Longblade, I’m sure.”

The woman in question had long, layered, light blonde hair with short bangs bordering her hairline. The length, meanwhile reached halfway down her back. She has a modest bust, and a toned, athletic physique and child-bearing hips.

“I’m Lucia, Number 12.” She looked nervous and was clearly the youngest one here, despite her mature physique.

“I am Kate, Number 16.” The woman who spoke was rather strong-looking, having a rather muscular physique. Her long, silver hair was parted in the side and pulled back into a low-hanging ponytail. She has a rather small bosom, big enough to fit in a palm accompanied by wide, flaring hips much like Lucia’s.

“M-my name is Mila, Number 33,” the last one said shyly. She was a rather timid, little thing, only a few inches taller than Lucia. Her hair was a messy, long mop of gold, sticking up all over the place. Her bust was rather modest and her build was a slender, willowy one. She had soft features and large, round eyes that made her appear rather doll-like.

Eva nodded as everyone introduced themselves one by one.

“Now that is out of the way, does anyone have any questions?” The Number 7 asked.

“Yes. Is it possible if we were to have a rest first before going out to see what this thing is? Many of us have been walking here for days on end, and it would help immensely if we all well rested.” Lucia asked; it was a legitimate concern she had personally. She’s been moving constantly to Alphonse with no break and was fairly close to dropping dead right then and there. She took an hours break before reaching here to be perfectly honest and the woman still felt like her knees were about to give out from under her!

“So I’ve heard...” Eva sighed. “We can rest for a few hours, but we don’t have long before… whatever that is gets too close to the town.”

Lucia sighed as well. It was better than nothing, at least.

----

Meanwhile, in Wem...

Elda leaned down with her hands on her knees as she smiled at the little boy before her. “Thank you for the information,” she chirped, before heading to that inn he’d mentioned. Apparently, the Youma Hunter had left Wem a while ago. He was staying in a rather nice tavern and had… she simply couldn’t believe what the boy had told her.

Granted, he was still far too young and innocent to know what the implications were, having told Elda that her quarry kept waking people up by ‘making the silver-eyed ladies grunt and moan’ all night.

This Youma Hunter… he was actually mating with the warriors?! Sure, she’d heard that he was in a romantic relationship with one, but that was still quite the surprise. She’d ask around some more before moving on. Even if he was traveling at about the same speed as a hybrid, this young man couldn’t have gone too far. She’d catch up to him eventually…

Yes… she would catch up to him and his little claymore pet eventually and deal with them both accordingly.