FicWad

Ten days later

Alphonse, a region that is a mountainous, boreal land. Everywhere you look snow met your gaze. On the trees, on the mountains, on the rocks, the snow covered almost everything. One place where the claymores were meeting is a town near the Northern Border of Toulouse…

"The town of the beginning, Pieta…" Jean muttered as she, Clare, Naruto, and Flora made their way into the settlement. "I haven't been here since I left, all those years ago…" she added reminiscently.

Naruto tilt his head to the side, "I can sense 21 other claymores further up ahead… and…" he frowned heavily under his mask and looked off in the distance. "Huh… There's 27 Awakened Beings nearby."

Of course, for the claymores that was excluding the team he'd rescued as he can sense two of them further in, keeping their yoki suppressed... and only two. That meant the other two his clones pulled out of the fire died in the end after all, didn't it? He frowned and gave the two a silent prayer.

He'll go check just to make sure, but hoped the Pure Lands will take care of them, if that was the case. And as for the Awakened Beings, he can sense 27 of them... but there was another three who were more powerful than they let on. Though they were keeping their yoki suppressed; one of them reminded him of Riful, while the most powerful yoki presence there easily surpassed that girl. It was hard to get an accurate reading on those three, but he knew they were stronger than they were letting on.

That little bombshell got Flora and the other two to look at him with wide, shocked eyes. "Twenty-Seven?! You're sure?" She felt a pit in her stomach when her boyfriend nodded. Why were there so many Awakened Beings gathered in one place?!

Clare bit on her bottom lip. "...That's definitely not good." That was an understatement of the century. Will they even last long enough against those odds?!

Still frowning Naruto looked at his girlfriend and his companions. "I'll need to go for a bit. There's something I need to check on." he told them.

"What?"

Naruto just gave his girlfriend a smile. They could see it even from under his mask. "It's nothing for you to worry about; I won't leave town if that's what you're thinking." Then his image flickered before he vanished entirely. He had a certain Number 12 and Number 7 to check up on first.

//

A few minutes later, Naruto found himself in front of the entrance to a relatively out-of-the-way inn's high-end suite. It was here he sensed the obscure yoki signatures belonging whatever remained of Eva's team. Naruto still didn't sense the other two when he was on his way here though. He had to give them props though, they were keeping their yoki so damn suppressed unless you were Galatea or exceptionally gifted in locating yoki they would be under the radar.

Naruto knocked on the door and waited. It didn't take long for him to get an answer. "We don't want any!"

Naruto let out a dramatic gasp. "Lucia! I'm hurt you don't want to see me!"

That was followed by the rapid thud of her feet hitting hardwood as the door flung open and the blond found himself glomped by an over-enthusiastic Lucia. "You're alive!" she squealed happily. Then she pulled back, and her ecstatic expression fell to an enraged scowl. Then Lucia whacked him over the head. "Where the hell have you been?! After your... copies brought back Mila and Kate, you just vanished! I was worried sick!"

"I was busy dealing with the Abyssal One of the West." Naruto said in a flat deadpan. "I might have to deal with her again, too… she's most likely pissed I knocked her ass out. But I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. How are those other two girls… Mila and Kate, was it?"

"Dead." Eva answered grimly as she stepped to the doorway. She was still missing her left arm and looked like utter hell, the poor thing. "They lost too much blood and their wounds were severe. They passed on shortly after your… copies brought them to safety."

Naruto frowned and sighed. "Sorry to hear that… I wish I got there sooner. How are you?"

Eva shrugged, "As good as someone missing an arm can be. My dominant one, too… Pretty sure my career as a warrior is over, now."

"You're about to have another fight coming up soon." Naruto told them. "There's 27 Awakened Beings outside of Pieta right now. And I'd bet my left leg the small group you were unlucky to run into came from that platoon." Upon seeing their expressions, Naruto continued. "I can evacuate you two if you're not feeling up to it, though."

Lucia's gaze dropped in shame as she replied. "I… I'm not. I can't, not again…"

"I would love to stay and fight to protect this town, but with my dominant arm gone I am more of a liability than an asset." Eva sighed.

Naruto nodded in understanding. "I don't blame you," he said. He had no idea when those Awakened Beings are going to attack, but he'll bet it's going to be a day from now. "I'll have some clones set up a camp for you girls in the mountains, well out of the way, then. You'll be perfectly safe there, even if the warriors here fall. Seeing as how my girlfriend's one of them, though, I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that I'm not letting that happen."

"And… what are you going to do?"

Naruto flashed them both an eye-smile and gave the wounded women a thumbs up. "I'm gonna take out as many of those Awakened Beings as I can, of course."

"How exactly are you going to do that? Awakened Beings aren't your common youma. They're tougher, stronger and more difficult to kill." Eva pointed out.

"I know a couple of ways…" He answered mysteriously. Then Naruto gave them both a look. "If you got nothing to pack, I can make a clone and he'll take you out of here? The Organization thinks you're dead, so as long as you don't bring attention to yourself they'll keep thinking that way."

"Got it." Eva nodded.

Lucia added on to it. "And no, we have nothing to pack."

Naruto nodded and, one poof later, created a clone for the girls. "Just grab hold and he'll move faster than the eye can see. You'll be out of Pieta in a matter of seconds."

The girls looked at him oddly and both nodded. As they did, each one grabbed a hand of the clone and they were gone, all three vanishing as the clone flickered off to safety.

//

Meanwhile, in Pieta's town square, there was a bit of ruckus as an acquaintance of Clare's leaped at her, sword drawn, with a cry of 'Yahoo!"

Clare deflected the playful blow quite readily and her 'assailant' leapt back. Jean was then on her ass like white on rice, only for another woman to get between them, holding a sword to the neck of the single digit warrior.

"No need to interfere," the woman said. "This is just a bit of playfulness between friends."

"Bit of an odd one, if you ask me," Flora commented.

The woman was then visibly startled as Jean expertly knocked her sword away before she even knew what happened.

"I agree," the Number 9 concurred, cautiously eyeballing both of the new arrivals.

"Damn, Clare," the more rowdy woman chirped, letting out a playful chuckle. "You've been making a few friends, I see. Of course they'd be sticks in the mud like you." Then she turned to face the eyebrowless woman, "Oi! I'm Helen, Number 22, and my friend, here's Deneve, Number 15." she gestured to the short haired woman who probably just saved her dignity. "What're your names and numbers?"

"I am Jean." was the reply, "I am ranked Number 9."

"I am Flora, I am ranked Number 8."

Helen nearly jumped out of her skin at that. "Are you serious? Both of you are single-digits?! What are you doing tagging along with Number 47?!" She turned to look at Jean, all wide-eyed, "A-and why are you treating her like a superior?!"

"She saved my life," Jean replied as if she were talking about the weather. "Rank has nothing to do with that."

"I'm just keeping an eye on these two, myself," Flora added.

"Huh… and here I thought most single-digits were stuck up and unapproachable," Deneve commented. "Glad to see I'm wrong." She turned to Jean. "Sorry for being so hasty, earlier."

"Think nothing of it," Jean replied with a smile. "I'm sorry for getting in the way of a reunion between friends."

The two of them looked to Helen who suddenly felt rather awkward. "Yeah, I'm sorry, too," she said with a sheepish grin. "I didn't exactly make my intentions clear, after all."

"I wonder if he's going to be coming back…" Flora mused aloud. There were a lot of Awakened Beings lurking outside of Pieta right now.

"He said he was checking on something. I am sure he will be returning any second now." Jean reassured the woman.

Helen blinked owlishly between the two, feeling like she was missing something big here. "Uh… who are you talking about?" then, as if she had a realization, Helen leered at Clare and asked, "Is the 'he' referring to your little boy toy?"

Helen was a little surprised when Clare shook her head. "No. It's not Raki. It's someone else."

Well colour her curious! Helen had an intrigued look on her face as she asked, "Oh? Who?"

Flora just gave Helen and Deneve a mysterious smile. "Oh… just someone I know. You'll probably see him soon enough. He's around… somewhere."

Helen got a flat look on her face and she slumped over. "That's not mysterious at all…"

Suddenly Jean started walking drawing their attention as she said. "We should probably find out who the leader of this task force is."

"Sounds like a plan," Flora chimed in.

At that, Clare gave them an odd look. "So, neither of you would be leading us?"

"In cases where multiple single-digits are present," Jean explained, "the one with the lower number is the leader of the group. It's rare that such a thing happens, but that's the standard procedure."

"And seeing as there are 24 of us, that would mean it is possible someone with a lower rank than Jean and myself is here as well. The role of leader would go to her by default." Flora added.

Clare took that information in with a thoughtful look. It seems she's learning more things every day. Soon enough the five of them all found the rest of the task force and in the case of four of them, they were pleasantly surprised to see a familiar face at the very front.

"Thank you all for coming, I am Number 6, Phantom Miria. And I am your leader for this mission."

Helen brightened up at the sight of her old friend. "Oi! Big Sis! Long time, no see!"

Miria blinked in surprise at being addressed as such, but gave Helen a pleased smile when she saw some familiar faces. Then she took a deep, cleansing breath as she called out a few more names and numbers, "Number 8, Flora, Number 9, Jean, Number 11, Undine, and Number 13, Veronica," she declared, "please step forward."

All the women in question did just that. The latter two being a burly woman with long hair and two swords, and a fairly small woman with her hair tied back in a ponytail.

With that said and done, Miria addressed the crowd. "Thank you all for coming." she said. Then her expression turned dire as she went straight to business. "Around fifteen days ago, a large group of Awakened Beings have been spotted to the North of this Village. They've killed Number 7, Eva and her hunting party, so we have been tasked with eliminating them, before they travel any further."

Almost immediately, a roar of murmurs erupted from the crowd.

"A large group!?" one girl exclaimed in hear hysterics.

"B-but, they're Awakened Beings! They've never formed groups before!" another declared.

"How many could there be? Are we even equipped to handle a 'large group' of them?!"

"I was told there was 27 of them in total." Jean spoke up, making everyone go dead silent as they, except for Clare and Flora, all looked at her in shock. "That is what we are up against."

"WHAT?!"

As Jean's answer made almost everyone explode in panic, there was a large gust of wind as Flora used her Windcutter to blast every damn flake of snow out of the immediate area. What unnerved the crowd, even more, was that she hadn't visibly moved.

"I do believe our commander wasn't done talking." Flora pointedly looked at the panicky warriors. The message was clear: Shut up or I'll make you.

"Thank you, Flora," Miria told her before addressing the group. "That said, I have decided to split this group up into smaller, more manageable teams. We will be treating this as a normal hunt and adapt to the situation as needed." Then she stepped forward, in front of the four she'd called out. "Number 14, Cynthia. Number 22, Helen. Number 35, Pamela, and Number 14, Matilda. You four are with Veronica." the woman gestured to the one with the ponytail.

In the crowd, Helen scowed at not being teamed up with Deneve but she shrugged it off with a disappointed sigh.

"Number 15, Deneve. Number 24, Zelda. Number 36, Claudia, and Number 43, Juliana, you're with Undine." Miria gestured towards the muscular woman with the two swords. "Number 17, Eliza. Number 27, Emilia. Number 37, Natalie, and Number 44, Diana, you're with Jean. Number 18, Lily, Number 30 Wendy, Nuber 39, Carla and Number 47 Clare, you're with Flora. That leaves Numbers 20, Queenie, Number 31, Tabitha and Number 40, Yuma with me." She sighed. "Are there any questions?"

"Yeah, I got one." Undine turned to look at Jean with a heavy frown. "Who the hell told you there are 27 Awakened Beings?"

"I did."

"GYA!" Miria screamed out in absolute shock, and almost jumped right out of her own skin when she heard Naruto answer directly beside her. She wasn't one to scare easily, but damn, that startled her!

"The Youma Hunter!" Lily pointed at him with her eyes wide in surprise.

Naruto chuckled in mild amusement as he heard a thunder of whispers coming from all the beautiful, warriors. "You can call me Naruto," he said. "I find that nickname to be kinda lame, actually." He sighed and walked down the steps, "Now I have something to do."

"And that is?" Miria asked.

Naruto stopped and looked back at her. "Taking care of your Awakened Being problem." While Naruto wasn't usually one to hold grudges, he was feeling particularly vindictive after seeing the mental state poor Lucia was in. She was a tough cookie, but he could tell that the experience had shaken her far more than she'd let on. "You got 27 of them to deal with; I'm going to try and halve that."

"You cannot be serious." It was Veronica who said that, drawing Naruto's gaze to her. "These are not your common youma! They come in all shapes and sizes! They'll rip you to pieces before you can get a hit on them!"

"Maybe so." Naruto surprised Veronica when he agreed with her. Then he shrugged, "But I have a few tricks up my-" Naruto cut himself off and looked to his right with a heavy frown. "Huh… it seems three Awakened Beings are separating themselves and are heading over here right now."

"What?!" Miria was wide eyed at that. Were they attacking early?!

"Naruto, do you know how long they'll take to get here?" Flora asked him.

The blond in question cocked his head to the side. "They're moving slow. If they keep that pace up, I'd give it a day." answered Naruto. "They're probably scouts. I might as well deal with them first."

"Now this is something I have got to see." Helen snarked. By this point in time Naruto's alias as 'The Youma Hunter' was well known to some of them. Many a warrior thought he was a fraud and that Naruto merely got lucky, or he took credit for the kills a warrior had done. Helen belonged to the latter category.

"No offense, but it's too dangerous for you," Naruto whispered into her ear, right after appearing right next to the woman and startling the holy hell out of her. Many a warrior present nearly jumped out of her skin as a result. The only one who'd actually expected him to do that was Flora. Even Jean and Clare were surprised, though less so than the others.

"Naruto, honey, we were made for this sort of thing." an amused Flora reminded him.

"Not for fighting more than one or two Awakened Beings, though," Naruto countered. "You're dealing with 27 of them; there is a dozen times as many out there than you girls are ready to handle, which is precisely why I intend to thin their numbers a bit. I don't want you in particular to get hurt. Or worse."

Flora blushed heavily, feeling her heart flutter at that. It was so sweet. She could do without all the odd looks from her peers, though.

Helen cleared her throat and said, "If there's only three of them, then our five teams can take them on." then she smirked at him, crossing her arms against her bosom, "After all, if they happen to start kicking your ass then we can come out of the sidelines and pull it out of the fire."

Naruto smirked at her though the woman couldn't see it because of his mask. "Alright. You have a point. It would be nice to have someone watch me from the sidelines, just in case." It would help with morale if they saw what he is capable of. A lot of these girls were putting up a good front, but they were scared. The only one here who knows exactly what he is capable of is Flora. Jean and Clare have some idea, but all they really know is that he is strong enough to beat Riful and her consort.

"Are you going to confront them right now?" Flora asked.

"No. Unlike you lot, I'm not immune to the cold." That's one of the things he's actually jealous of if he's perfectly honest. "...I'll most likely head on up to of one of the roofs and keep an eye on them from there." he added as an afterthought while looking at the roofs in question.

"At least until around noon, when it's not as cold. I'll probably head on over to them when that time comes. Can't afford to have these enemy forces gain too much intel."

"I can direct you to a place that sells fur coats if the weather starts bothering you," one girl offered. She seemed rather young, though that might be because she was a bit on the short side… and the pigtails. Those made her look rather young, too.

Naruto gave the girl an eye smile. "It's fine, don't worry about it." then he looked to one of the roofs directly to his right. "That's a good place for me to use…" then he walked out in front of Helen, bent his knees and got everyone to let out a started gasp of yelp when he leapt on up to the roof and landed on the tiles with a light thud.

As he swiped the snow off with his foot Naruto could feel all 24 eyes on him. He ignored that however and took a seat on the now cleared tile like he was meditating.

"...Holy shit." Helen's mouth was dropped open and her eyes were open-wide. That was from across the damn courtyard! Even she couldn't make a jump like that from this distance from a standing position. Hell, she probably couldn't pull that off with a running start! And she didn't feel yoki being used either!

"Holy shit is right…" Deneve was staring at the blond with wide eyes herself. "He can move so fast it's like Miria's Phantom technique, without the after-images. And he can leap at a far distance just from standing. He can sense yoki, but he doesn't need to use it… just what is he?"

"A mystery that I am still trying to find out to this day," Flora answered with a heavy sigh, drawing everyone's attention to her once more. "I was with him the longest and there is so much about him I haven't learned yet, let alone how he is capable of identifying who is a youma and who isn't. He told me there are other ways of finding out but hasn't elaborated on it."

"Very interesting," Miria mused aloud.

"What do you know about him?" Undine asked the woman without taking her eyes off her boyfriend.

"I know quite a bit: he has a minor transformation of some sort, that increases his sensing powass drastically. It's how we found Lydd - it turns out he can sense other humans in that form. I do not know what else he is capable of in it because I never got the chance to see him use it in a fight." Flora paused to let that sink in while she tried to think of what else she learned. "Naruto sees all of us as human beings and treats us like we're normal people. He even knows what happens to us if we go past our limit. Also, those rumors about us being in a romantic relationship are true." She turned to give a short-haired girl off to the side an impish grin, "I heard you whispering to your friends about it, so I felt the need to clear that up. He's also powerful enough to wipe out a fortified encampment of bandits in less than a minute. I only saw him use that technique once though."

"Technique?" one of the girls asked.

Flora shrugged. "I never told my Handler the true version of this, but, Naruto wiped out a fortified bandit camp with water and fire. It literally felt like there was an earthquake. Only their charred carcasses remained by the time he was finished with them." At their disbelieving looks, the Number 8 shrugged. "It's unbelievable but true. Even I have trouble believing it and I was there."

"So, I take it the rumors about the Abyssal One of the West…" Miria trailed off.

"He beat her and her consort singlehandedly," Jean chimed in. "Hopefully she doesn't come here. Naruto left her… displeased, to say the least."

"The Abyssal Ones won't leave their territory, lest one of the other two try and take it from her," Veronica said.

"I... wouldn't be so sure about that," Miria muttered. "Riful of the West has a reputation for being particularly vengeful. We should keep an eye out for her, just in case." She had no idea if that one would be vengeful enough to leave Lautrec, and while Veronica did bring up a good point - because never in all the history of the Organization did an Abyssal One leave their territory to their knowledge - it wouldn't hurt to be cautious all the same.

"NO ONE IS COMING FROM LAUTREC!" They jumped when they heard Naruto calling to them from where he sat on the roof. "SO YOU HAVE NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT!"

Little did they know, Naruto was currently in Sage Mode. The blond wanted to have a little oomph when it came to sensing. He hasn't detected anyone coming from the West. Nor was there any yoki in the vicinity… well… other than the 27 lurking to the North. There was another two further behind them, along with… a human?

How curious.

Naruto frowned a little when he sensed someone else. Again there was a feeling of familiarity to it. But, unlike the last time, there was no Sage Chakra… but normal chakra. And it was close as well. A little more than a mile away from Pieta to be exact. The person didn't seem to be getting any closer or further away though. He will keep an eye on that one, though. Maybe the familiar chakra belongs to someone he knows?

"I'LL HAVE ONE OF THE TEAMS KEEP AN EYE OUT JUST IN CASE," Miria yelled back in response. "IT'S BETTER TO BE SAFE THAN SORRY."

Naruto gave the woman a thumbs up. "GOOD POINT. I'LL LET YOU KNOW IF THEY'RE GETTING CLOSE OR NOT, SO YOU LOT CAN DO YOUR OWN THING FOR THE TIME BEING." And with that Naruto went back to keeping a lookout. The other 24 Awakened Beings were staying in one place, so the three coming down being a scouting party is more and more likely.

Miria nodded then looked to the rest of the task force. "As of right now, we should rest and get to know your team. We'll get started first thing in the morning."

With that said and done, everyone went to their groups and went their separate ways.

//

A few minutes later, in the hotel room, her team shared a warrior with long, straight hair and short bangs parted in the middle nervously approached her new captain, Flora.

If memory served, this woman's name was Karla? The Number 8 gave her a curious look. She recognized her as the friend that short-haired one was talking to… Pamela, was it? There were so many names to remember in such a short amount of time that it was hard to keep track.

Karla seemed rather hesitant, fidgeting shyly. "Um..." she began. "I-if it's not too intrusive to ask, w-what's it like being in a romantic relationship?"

The Number 8 chortled as she smiled. "It's not intrusive at all. Being in a romantic relationship is… It's indescribable really." her smile grew. "It feels nice… very much so. He even goes so far as to make me feel like the only woman in the world that matters, despite a couple... encounters with other warriors."

"He's been teasing poor Jean for a while now, too," Clare pointed out, sounding rather jealous.

"Never knew she could get so flustered. It's rather cute, actually." Flora giggled in amusement. "But yes, being in a relationship like that feels nice. I feel like a normal woman. I enjoy the cuddling… and the sex."

That little bombshell got almost everyone in her team to choke on their own spit. Even Clare looked surprised.

"You're having sex?!" A young woman with long hair almost shouted with disbelief showing on her pretty face. She is Number 18, Lily.

"Of course." Flora was just able to keep herself from grinning at the shocked looks she was getting from her teammates. "He's saw my stigma and isn't disturbed by it. He doesn't even think it's a big deal. He even saw Jean's and that didn't distract him from teasing her."

Upon hearing that, the last member of her team - a short-haired, young-looking girl named Wendy - spoke up. Her cheeks flared at the naughty thoughts going through her head. "So… he has permission to… to do it with other women?"

Flora gave her a knowing look. "Well, as my boyfriend said a while ago: we're only human, and we're so neglected." she grinned widely at that. The woman did say she wouldn't object if other hybrids wanted a piece of him, after all. "However, Naruto is loyal to me. If you're planning to make a move on him by yourself, he is probably going to refuse. The last two times he was fucking someone other than me, I had to goad him on into doing it."

All four of her teammates looked at her curiously, clearly wondering who those two women were.

Flora saw their curiosity and decided to get that thought out of the way. "The first one was Lucia… who was a member of Eva's team." All four of them winced at that since their death was what led them here in the first place. "The second one, was, funnily enough, our commander Phantom Miria. And let me tell you he fucked her good~"

That was more than a little shocking to hear.

"O-oh, my…" Karla gasped.

"Y-you cannot be serious…" Clare muttered.

"I am very serious." Flora giggled. "However, as I said before, I had to be there and goad him into doing it. Some innuendos here, a little teasing there, and he was raring to go. By the time he was finished with either, Miria and Lucia were both walking with a limp."

All four of the other women could feel their cheeks starting to burn as they averted their gazes shyly.

"Of course, he is a bit of an ass man. If he sees it without your fauld or cape in the way he's likely going to compliment it." Flora added thoughtfully. "He certainly complimented mine… and Lucia's… and Miria's. And he's a bit of a tits man too… Hmmm." She could see the wheels in Wendy's head starting to turn. "Now that I think about it, he seems to like a lot of things… aggressive women in particular, but he also finds the shy, timid ones to be adorable."

Now that she thought about it, he never fucked Jean when all she had covering her nudity was that cloak Clare lent her. Though, to be fair, he probably would have - with her encouragement of course - had it not been for the threat of Riful waking up and wreaking bloody vengeance upon them.

"I…" Wendy cleared her throat. "I see…"

Flora expertly hid her impish grin upon hearing that. Clare excluded, Naruto is bound to get some attention from these girls soon enough, she thinks…