FicWad

Hours later Miria, Helen, and Deneve were in a call that was near the outskirts of town. A campfire was in the middle to lighten up the interior. All three women were only in their jumpsuits, with their claymores laid nearby and within arms reach. They heard plated metal clank against the rocky surface and looked to the entryway.

Clare had arrived.

"Yo." Helen greeted her with a smirk. "I hope you weren't followed. Just like you and the others gathered here, I am rather bad when it comes to getting along with other people… which is why I wasn't interested in where the others went." Clare had a neutral look on her face while she listened to Helen's explanation. Then Helen chuckled and Clare raised her eyebrows when the former grasped on the grip of her sword and raised it. "Well, let's commemorate our reunion."

Miria smiled at that, Deneve while startled had the corners of her lips curve slightly upwards, and Clare herself had a small smile. Deneve and Miria stood up with Helen and the former two, along with Clare drew out their swords and placed them on top of Helen's. After a brief moment all four withdrew their swords and put them aside, then Miria, Helen, and Deneve all took their seats again with Clare joining in.

"I am glad to see you all alive and well," Miria said with a happy relieved smile with Clare and Deneve returning it.

Helen looked towards Miria as she said, "Our position probably wasn't as dangerous as yours anyway. How it's been going?"

Sighing Miria leaned forward and rested her arms on her legs. "Well… using basically every trick in the book, I somehow managed-" she paused, alarmed when herself, Helen, and Deneve all heard another set of footsteps approaching the cave.

Helen stood up, hand grasping the grip of her sword. "Who's there? Show yourself!" she yelled demandingly.

"I'm sorry," Jean said, revealing herself. "I didn't want to interrupt a reunion between friends, but I believe I'm in a similar position with the rest of you."

"Oh, really," Miria asked, raising an eyebrow, she looked between Clare and Jean. "would you care to elaborate?"

Clare and Jean exchanged looks, then the former regaled everything from finding the dying hybrid in the city of Hanel she was passing through, to her encounter with Riful and her consort, to Galatea saving her and then finding Jean fully awakened but still retaining her human mind, and then being able to revert Jean back to her current state with the woman in question helping.

Then she went to describe what happened when Flora came...


//


A few minutes later, as Clare finished her tale with Jean adding in a few parts, Miria and the others sat in disbelief at what they'd heard. Miria who was staring intently into the campfire broke the silence that dominated the place.

"Recovery from a completely Awakened body… I can't believe it." The Number 6 looked at Jean with an expression that was akin to awe. "Most likely a result of extraordinary willpower. I doubt it's something we could do as well…"

The Number 9 shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal. "I had help."

"Indeed." Miria looked at Clare with respect. "Never had I thought yoki synchronization could be used in such a way."

Deneve saw her friend, Helen, with a wide open and gaping mouth. "Hmm? What's with the face?"

Helen's mouth closed and opened several times. "I...it's… I'm trying to wrap my head around everything we were told. Just… holy shit! That kid's what? 15, 16? And he took on Riful of the freaking West by himself and won?!"

"It surprised me too. He wasn't even winded." Clare said with a shake of her head. "He even said it was easier than he thought it would be when he caught up with us."

"I knew that young man had frightening potential when I saw him, but this is quite the shock, nonetheless," Miria thought aloud, crossing her arms and expertly hiding how turned on she was. "We should keep tabs on him, as Naruto is clearly a powerful ally to have."

"...I have to ask you something Miria." Clare started, looking said woman dead in the eye with such intensity it honestly took her and everyone else by surprise.

The Number 6 furrowed her brow a little. "Which is…?"

"Did you fuck Naruto when you first met him and Flora in Lydd?" She bluntly asked.

For what felt like a good thirty damn minutes, one could hear a pin drop, even with the crackling of their campfire. Then, Miria cleared her throat, shifting uncomfortably. "I… have no need to explain myself," she deadpanned.

That reaction came as quite the shock for the other three women.

Clare nodded. "So Flora was telling the truth." The corners of her lips twitched; she was going to milk this opportunity. "Then I suppose it's true that he had to be goaded into doing it by Flora herself, first. I also heard from the woman that he fucked you so good you were limping. And that he fucked you again and again and again before leaving for Mount Zakol."

Poor Miria slowly turned a deeper shade of red with each syllable. "I would appreciate it if you kept your nose out of my love life."

Clare had a mask of childlike innocence that was so, very unlike her. "Why, I have no idea what you're talking about. I wasn't the one who asked Flora these questions. Wendy did. Flora even went into detail on how he complimented your ass and breasts. I just overheard what was being said."

Poor Jean started shifting uncomfortably as well.

"Clare…" Miria warned her. Only once in her life had the woman been so damn tempted to hit someone.

"I also heard from Flora that he is a bit of an ass man, and tits man too. From what she said, Naruto is more likely to compliment your butt once he sees it not covered by our faulds or cape." The Number 47 shrugged and crossed her legs in a ladylike manner. "Of course, he won't actually have sex with you… because he's loyal to Flora. My captain even said she had to goad him into doing it. That doesn't mean he won't flirt though."

"Oh, he'll flirt, alright," Jean muttered shyly.

Helen smirked at the thought of one of her teammates. "If he's an ass man, then he'll like Cynthia. She's got one hell of an ass on her, I'll tell you that." she sniggered with a wide, close-eyed grin.

"Would it kill you to show some tact?" Deneve sighed.

"Possibly," Helen replied teasingly.

Miria decided to get back on track before they all get even more distracted. She cleared her throat and addressed Clare. "I already noticed it earlier, but your right is… is different. The arm of someone really powerful, who's was it?" she respectfully asked.

Blinking Helen looked rapidly between Clare and Miria. "H-huh? Right arm? Wha-?"

"I'm sorry, but I can't tell you that," Clare answered, but did go on to say. "But I can say this much: I did lose my own right arm in battle. And the right arm you all are seeing right now belongs to someone else. I'm merely borrowing it."

Miria shifted around on her makeshift seat. "Nevermind about the arm, then; your general situation doesn't seem to be looking too good. A while ago, I heard you were on the run from the Organization."

Clare just shrugged at that. "But that's not just me." she pointed out to her and then elaborated upon seeing their confused looks. "It's something that can be said about you four. No, about all of the 24 who have gathered here as well. Am I correct?"

"What you do mean?" Helen asked as she narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

Ignoring Helen's question, Clare then proceeded to ask. "Miria, how would you assess this operation's whole chances of succeeding?"

Miria closed her eyes, interlocked her fingers in front of her mouth and rested her elbows on her legs. Then in a no-nonsense tone, she answered. "For this operation… if Naruto wasn't here, then the chances of success would be zero."

Dead silence reigned in the interior of the cave.

Out of everyone, only Helen voiced what was on everyone's mind.

"What do you mean?"

Miria opened her eyes and went on to elaborate her reasoning why their mission here would have originally, ultimately end in failure for everyone. "If it were just about a multitude of Awakened Beings, we could somehow pull through. Or rather: even if our chances were slim, it wouldn't be impossible for us to succeed." she paused a moment to let her words sink in and to take a breath. "But with the presence of the one behind them, whatever careful tactics and strategies, whatever reinforcements and what else we may try… it would have ended up becoming ultimately futile."

Miria looked at them one by one. "Even if we were to defeat the army here, we would then have to deal with the man behind them: Isley, the Abyssal One of the North."

That sent shivers up the women's spines.

"S-so you're saying we're gonna die?!" Helen demanded, looking understandably frantic.

"Not necessarily anymore." Miria corrected the woman. "We have Naruto, a young man who defeated an Abyssal One who was barely trying. With him on our side, our chances of living have gone up. Not drastically but it has gone up."

"By how much?" Helen demanded.

"I don't know enough about him to make an accurate judgment, and the Lost Generation was said to be stronger than us." Miria sighed as she closed her eyes once more. "But I believe our chances have gone up by 30%. Again, I must stress that this is not an accurate judgment. It could be more or lesser than that. But seeing as he fought the Abyssal One of the West and her partner and has defeated them both, I'd say our chances of pulling through this is good at best."

"Better than nothing, I suppose," Deneve commented.

"I don't know about you girls," Helen added, "but I'm feeling the need to provide him with more incentive to help out."

"Flirt with him and he'll flirt with you back. He seems to do it to any woman he finds pretty." Clare told the woman. "Just don't expect him to fuck you without Flora there to egg him on."

"Won't stop me from trying," Helen chuckled.

"Of course not," Deneve added with a roll of her eyes.

Shaking her head Miria stood up and grabbed her claymore. "We better get back to town before our teams try to find out where we are." The other four exchanged looks before they did the same.


//


Naruto was keeping a vigilant eye on the three Awakened Beings from his place on the rooftop in Sage Mode. He noticed they were being slow in their approach; it seems they were being vigilant. That, or they were going to wait for when their guard is down. He was getting a little bored waiting and watching, and he would have been cold had the blond not applied some seals on his clothes to generate heat. He was lukewarm now. Not cold, but not warm either.

Of course, he sensed Helen, Deneve, Miria, Clare, and Jean all going to a secluded place in the mountains nearby but didn't do anything about it.

A few minutes later though and Naruto furrowed his brow a little.

"Hmm… they're picking up the pace a little bit." He was talking about the Awakened Beings, not the five 'silver eyed witches'. They were coming back now actually and would likely be back in the next… ten minutes or so.

The familiar-like chakra he could sense was getting closer as well. Whoever that person is they're still keeping themselves hidden from him. Naruto hoped that person would actually show themself sooner rather than later.

Ten minutes later, and the five women were now back in town. Naruto didn't so much as look at them since he wanted to let them think he didn't notice… That and he wanted to keep his focus on the Awakened Beings who were still making their way to the settlement at a sedated pace. But then, he sensed two of the five women making a beeline for him. These two weren't Jean, Clare or Miria, either. That… caught his attention. What did these women want?

Naruto still didn't look in their direction though.

"Hmm… this'll be interesting." He muttered to himself with a small smile.

A few minutes later, Helen and Deneve quickly found themselves on the roof and standing behind the young man, one showing far more mischievous intent than the other.

"So, care to tell me what the five of you were doing out in the mountains?" Naruto asked them both, surprising them immensely.

"You knew?" Deneve asked.

Naruto scoffed though it was in goodnature. "If I could sense 27 Awakened Beings, did you seriously think I wouldn't be able to sense you?" He still didn't turn to look at them when speaking though, because his attention was still on the Awakened Beings.

"Just having a little reunion," Helen replied with a shrug. She had nothing to hide. "Clare and Miria are friends of ours, and Jean seems to have joined our little club."

"Oh! That's good to hear." Naruto really meant that. Anyone in their position could use a friend or two. This time, Naruto did turn to look at them. "So, what brings you cuties up here? It can't be because of little ol' me can it?"

"Oh, it most certainly is," Helen cooed, practically appearing right on up in his business, squatting and with an arm wrapped around him. "Word on the street is that 'little' Naruto's a deadly weapon; I just had to come and see for myself what kinda sword you're packing~!"

"Please do excuse my friend," Deneve chimed in, rolling her eyes. "Helen here doesn't know the meaning of the word subtlety."

"It's...uh… it's fine?" Naruto was confused...though he did know what Helen was saying. After being around Flora for so long, there are some innuendos that he's now quite… intimately familiar with. "I take it you're the forward type, then?"

"Admittedly," Helen chirped.

"I tend to reign her in as much as I can. Lest she embarrasses herself." Deneve added before she went and sat down on his other side.

Naruto nodded slowly. "I see. So we have the playful, forward woman and the responsible level-headed woman." It was like something out of a comedy, amusingly.

"Yeah, pretty much," Helen replied with a chuckle. "So, what age are you kid?" He sounded pretty young to her and she wanted to know if he was older than he sounded.

"I'm 15." he answered.

"Really? You're not that much older from Clare's companion." Colour her surprised; he's acting a lot more mature than a lot of teenagers that age usually are.

"I was told about him by Clare herself actually," Naruto said with a tilt of his head. "She's looking for him. It's actually the main reason why she's here, apart from being pardoned. Her Handler said a group of slavers took him here. Though with the Awakened Beings here it's most likely he's dead." Though there was still that one, lone human he sensed earlier hanging out with two very strong Awakened Beings. He's not getting his hopes up, but that could be the kid in question.

"That's grim," Deneve said in a bland tone.

"That's reality." Naruto countered. "Enough of these grim thoughts though, you certainly don't need it. So, what you joked earlier notwithstanding, what is it you want to talk about? It can be anything, within reason or unless I'm uncomfortable about it."

"Yeah, I got a question: what's with your eyes?" Helen asked, pointing to her own. "The iris is yellow and...frog-like, with a pigmentation around them?" How odd. She felt no yoki coming from him yet those eyes were very different from what she was used to seeing. He's clearly no youma, or Awakened Being.

Naruto brought his hand up to rub under his eye. "It's an... empowered state called 'Sage Mode'. It's a power up that gives me a boost in pretty much everything."

"Oh?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah. Examples would be my durability, I could fall off this roof and land on my head and I would be completely fine. Another is my reflexes, I can react much faster than normal people. I can also sense other people in this state for several miles, yoki notwithstanding."

"Can anyone learn it?" Deneve asked.

"It has specific requirements, but I can't tell you what those are," Naruto answered with a shrug. Not that they're able to learn it anyway. None of the people here have a chakra network to even learn how to mix nature chakra. "I can tell you that the process to learn Sage Mode is very difficult and not just anyone can go under training to master it. If you're unable to balance the energy you take in, then it slowly turns you to stone and kills you."

"I'm tempted to try," Helen commented, cocking her head in childish wonder.

"Of course you are," Deneve muttered with a sigh.

Naruto chuckled as an amusing thought came to him. "It would certainly be a first: a claymore with the power of a Sage at her beck and call." The image of Fukasaku whacking Helen over the head with a stick to purge the sage chakra from her almost made him snort.

"Helen having her reflexes and durability boosted would be a nightmare to deal with. She's already troublesome as is."

The blonde in question cackled mischievously.

"She doesn't seem that bad," Naruto told the woman, while pulling the now grinning Helen to him. "She's an angel! She certainly has the looks of one."

"Awww, you flatterer~!" The Number 22 leaned in and gave Naruto a peck on the cheek. "Keep that up and I'll give you a nice reward~" she purred.

Naruto chuckled nervously at that. This one's going to be a bit of a handful, isn't she? He could feel it in his bones. So he tried to think of something else to talk about. That was when Naruto noticed a difference to her uniform: the woman had a black, leather like fabric on her arms and legs. There was even a clamp that held the two pieces of fabric in place. That was very different.

"Never seen someone with black sleeves and leggings on their uniform before." He went to pull at the sleeve and was surprised to see it was elastic-like, despite it having the texture of leather. How curious. "Well, that's unique. Elastic leather. Two things I never thought to be possible."

Helen smirked and sat down on the roof tile beside him. "It's a special leather that's stretchable. I can stretch my limbs, and if I was wearing a normal uniform, like Deneve's, then the sleeves and leggings would tear at the seams and I would have to get a new one every time I did that. The Organization gave me this special leather so that wouldn't happen."

"That's cool! Heh, you can scratch that elusive itch by yourself and everything. Not to mention you can give a surprise sucker punch from like, a yard away." Then he looked to Deneve who was looking off into the distance, the blond could tell the woman was still listening though. "What about you? What can you do?"

"I heal fast." Was the woman's answer. "If someone was to cut my arm off, I can grow it back in a few minutes."

"A healing factor, eh? And a pretty strong one too from the sounds of it." He has a pretty strong healing factor but it's not good enough to regrow an entire arm… at least to his knowledge. He had been able to regrow entire organs once upon a time. Not so much anymore.

"You don't sound surprised." Helen pointed out.

At that Naruto just gave the woman a shrug. "It's because I'm not. I've seen too many things by this point to not be surprised by something like that anymore. Regrowing an entire arm is pretty handy… no pun intended."

The corners of Deneve's lips twitched upwards. "None taken."

"Still very interesting, though," Naruto commented with a smile.

"I'm Helen, by the way." The Number 22 introduced herself. "My friend sitting beside you is Deneve."

"Naruto," the blond replied with a smile, stretching his hand out to shake. "Naruto Uzumaki."

Helen graciously accepted it and shook his hand with a wide grin. "Y'know, you're not bad kid. When I first heard of you, I thought you were a fraud and stole the glory belonging to someone else. I am actually glad to be wrong for once."

"It happens," Naruto told her with a shrug. Then he looked off in the distance and stayed quiet for a moment. "We still have around five to six hours before the three Awakened Beings get here," He told them; then Naruto looked between the two friends. "So, until then, is there anything you cute ladies want to talk about?"

When he saw the mischievous grin on Helen's face, Naruto had a feeling he may have opened the gates to something that will totally embarrass him.

"Well…"


//


He was fairly lucky the cold didn't affect him in any way. His companions had to reverse summon themselves a few days after he entered this biome because the cold was getting to them. He didn't mind though. He's a good tracker and sensor, and while Sage Mode does give his sensing a massive boost he was no slouch without it. He could still keep an eye on Naruto without it.

It certainly helped he had the Transparent Escape Technique that made him invisible. So no one was able to see him. He followed Naruto to this town and kept himself on the outskirts, around an hour away from the settlement. As much as it ashamed him to admit, he wasn't ready to see Naruto again. Not yet. Besides...there was something going on here. Something bad. He didn't know what it was but it gave him a sense of foreboding.

So he moved position, still keeping himself on the outskirts but giving himself a better view of what was going on. And low and behold, when he got to an advantageous position to the North of the settlement, a few hours later, he saw Naruto sitting atop of one of the buildings keeping a lookout. He was too far away to get a good look at him. But he could see the blond was wearing new clothes instead of the orange and black jumpsuit he would wear. He was pretty sure the kid was wearing a coat very similar to the one his father would wear. Only the colours were reversed.

Not only that, he had two women sitting beside him! And they were quite the lookers from where he stood! The man was suddenly filled with inspiration; if only he could write in his notepad…

So, he stood. He watched. And he observed. Hours must've passed when something caught Naruto's attention because the blond looked in his general direction. But not directly at him. It was past him… he frowned and turned his head and the invisible man saw three figures in the distance making their way to the settlement.

Something about them rubbed him the wrong way. The invisible man didn't see Naruto or the two women standing up. He didn't see them getting off the rooftop. And he most certainly didn't see the two girls going to get the rest of the task force assigned to defend the town, while Naruto himself was preparing to meet them. However, there was one thing the man did know: something big was about to go down. And if Naruto's going to be in trouble, you can bet he'll be there to pull him out of the fire. Or else, his name is not Jiraiya!


//


As he walked through the streets Naruto could sense the familiar chakra nearby. Whoever it belonged to, they were a lot closer now. As for Helen and Deneve, they had succeeded in getting everyone to scramble. Many of them wanted to see just what he can do and some of the more hard headed ones, like Undine, wanted to see him get his ass kicked just so they could force him to sit on the sidelines.

That would never happen though, and by the time he was making his way a little way out of Pieta to the North, the entire task force had gotten their equipment back on and was now catching up so they could safely watch him from the sidelines.

Of course, Naruto was going to let the Awakened Beings come to him. He wanted to give the Task Force a front row seat to the ass kicking he was going to deliver to the scouting party. He could tell from their murderous intent that it was only a matter of time before the one in front…

From the distance, several spiked, chain-like tentacles made of bone segments shot forth and planted themselves in a nearby building. He was coming. And Naruto, he was ready for him. The man transformed himself into an eight-feet-tall humanoid that is covered by a bony-like exoskeleton with his joints being unprotected for better maneuverability. The tentacles he'd launched pulled him in towards the town; of course, he was intercepted before he could reach the town itself.

Naruto saw what the giant humanoid was going to do and he launched himself towards the creature, his arm drawn back as the Awakened Being dragged himself to the town. The Awakened Being was rushing into town headfirst without a care in the world because he wanted to kill some townspeople for fun. Because why wouldn't he?! They were mere cattle for him! All they're good for is being food and-

WHAM!

"GYAAH!"

He never expected to have Naruto meet him halfway, and deliver a devastating haymaker that knocked him back several feet, unhooking the tendrils from the buildings and causing the rubble to come crashing down to the ground. The Awakened Being himself smashed into the earth, sending snow and dirt everywhere as he slid across the ground, making a trench in the snow and earth that went for several feet. After he stopped, the Awakened Being pulled himself out of the ground and touched his face where he got punched with a grunt of discomfort, and was shocked to feel a dent in his bony exoskeleton. There was an actual dent! On his face!

"What…?" He was in disbelief and that disbelief then turned to anger, as he stood to his full towering, eight-feet tall height and looked for the one who did this to him with searching eyes. He found the one responsible, staring up at him with those odd-looking eyes of his.

"You bastard!" He growled, his mouth twisting into an enraged snarl, how dare this insignificant little pest interrupt his fun! Then, the snarl turned to a menacing grin. He'll have his fun with the odd-eyed human first; he'll torture him and rip his arms and legs off before feasting on his innards!

Naruto merely looked up into the Awakened Beings eyes. He wasn't intimidated by him in the slightest. The monster in front of him thought he was going to steamroll over him, before killing as many townspeople as he wants. Unfortunately for him, there was snow around them, and where there's snow there is water. And where there is water, there's fuel for his attacks. But first…

Naruto bent his knees and dashed forth in a shinobi run, back hunched over with his arms behind him. His speed had taken the Awakened Being by complete surprise since a human moving so fast was unheard of! His right leg almost gave out from under him when Naruto punched the shin and leaving behind a small dent on the exoskeleton. This was followed up by Naruto jumping up and roundhouse kicking him on the hip, and the sheer force of the kick left behind another dent on the Awakened Being.

"Ngh!"

The humanoid was forced to take a knee from the amount of pain he was in and tried to attack the deceptively strong human with his bone-like tendrils. But to his dismay, astonishment, and annoyance, the human proved too agile for him as he dodged and weaved through his attacks mid-fall. When Naruto landed, he bent his knees to absorb the impact before leaping back up again and delivered a devastating uppercut to the monster's chin, making his head snap back and outright lifting him off his feet and land on his back.

Naruto wasn't finished there though. He flipped midair, and as he faced the downed Awakened Being, made six hand seals in rapid succession before his cheeks bloated out. To the surprise of the three Awakened Beings, and the task force, a huge flame bullet shot out of Naruto's mouth and enveloped the humanoid below and several dozen yards of ground around him. The Awakened Being let out a cry of pain. The fire merely licked the bone exoskeleton protecting him, so that was mostly protecting him. It was the fleshy underside that was unprotected. And the fire was burning away at that, but it was slow going. However, it wasn't meant to hurt him, because it was meant to melt the snow surrounding him and turn it into water.

As the fire dispersed Naruto put a distance between himself and the Awakened Being when he landed and made seven rapid hand seals. The water around the eight-feet tall humanoid came to live and utterly enveloped it in a dome of water like a title wave in less than a second! Then Naruto dashed forward and leaped on in, and propelled himself through the water prison like a missile, leaving behind several hundred explosive tags in his wake. Then he leaped out from the top and clenched his hand with his fore and middle fingers straightened.

As his feet met the ground, the explosive tags went off by the dozens like dominos, rocketing the water prison, as the shockwaves from the thousands of explosions made the dome ripple unstably and expand upwards and outwards, before it became a Massive dome of fire and heat that could be seen for miles. The snow covering the earth melted in less than a second and the ground was shaking by the shockwaves from the several thousand explosions going off! What kept the fire from spreading out in all directions was the water prison containing it. Naruto was standing with his back facing it, arms crossed confidently while glancing at it from partially over the shoulder. The wind bellowed against his back, the hem of his coat fluttering against the back of his legs.

The women that are watching on the sidelines shielded their faces when they felt the bellowing wind assaulting them. Their capes ruffled with the violent winds. It took everything the onlookers had to not lose their footing because of the ground shaking. It was like a damn earthquake!

"WHAT THE ABSOLUTE FUCK IS THAT?!" Miria demanded as she struggled to stay on her feet.

She and several of the women were startled to their cores at Naruto's spectacle. Never in their lives had they seen anything of the like, save for Flora.

"That," The Number 8 calmly yelled over the violent winds, "is the very same technique Naruto had used to wipe out a bandit encampment!" There was a tone akin to admiration in her voice.

"Holy shit…!" Through squint eyes, Helen stared on with her mouth agape. The Number 22 couldn't believe what she was seeing! That kind of power is insane!

"He was capable of doing that all this time…?" Jean couldn't keep the surprise from showing on her face and in her voice. She now fully believed their chances of getting out of this mostly intact had increased.

"Not that I want to distract you all or anything, but The Youma Hunter's still got two more Awakened Beings to deal with!" One of Miria's teammates, the Number 20, Queenie yelled out remindfully. Then, after what felt like an eternity the dome of fire dispersed and the ground finally stopped shaking from the aftershocks of the explosion. The charred corpse of the Awakened Being and scorched ground was all that remained when the dome of fire went away. No longer feeling the violent wind bellowing against them all 24 Claymores uncovered their faces, and that was when they sensed the yoki belonging to the other two Awakened Beings spike. It seems they were finally going to join the fray.

The first was a giant, mutated, spiky armadillo-lizard thing, brown in colour and about the side of a wagon. The second was a metallic insect with no less than ten limbs and a crescent-shaped body. This one had no eyes and stood three times as tall thanks to its limbs but was only about half the size.

Naruto still had his back to them, even as they leaped forth and landed behind the charred corpse of their fallen comrade. Though calling him their comrade would be a bit of a stretch. After seeing that display the two of them came to an unspoken agreement that this thing before them - because no human, Claymore or Awakened Being is capable of doing such a thing - had to be taken care of first and foremost because he was a much bigger threat to them than anyone else.

Then Naruto turned around to give them his full undivided attention, and still kept his arms crossed against his chest. Huh… that armadillo-thing had a dumb-looking face now that he looked at it. It must've had lost a few brain cells. Or a few hundred.

"Hmm. Two against one, eh?" Naruto popped his neck and rolled his shoulders as his arms unfolded. "Maybe you can make me put some effort into fighting you. If this is the standard of Awakened Beings then I'm sorely disappointed. Killing that thing was too easy." He taunted for the sake of pissing them off. It worked.

"You bastard!" With a vicious glare from the armadillo-lizard thing, his armored back parted open, before several spikes extended outwards and shot towards Naruto in an attempt to impale him. The blond just smirked and easily sidestepped each spikes while he casually walked up to the Awakened Beings like he was taking a stroll in a park.

When Naruto was within arms length, the mutant-lizard Awakened Being tried to take a bite out of him... only for the blond to retaliate by leaning back, before casually backhanding the dumb-looking creature across the face and throwing him back several feet. He then turned his attention to the insect-like Awakened Being, who was in the motion of trying to impale him with his many bladed limbs. Naruto didn't even try to move to avoid it, even as he stared death in the eyes.

"RAAAGH!"

He didn't need to. Because of Sage Mode, Naruto could feel the familiar chakra that's been following him for weeks, maybe a month rushing to him. Naruto wasn't surprised to see a Giant Rasengan grinding against those bladed limbs. But he was surprised to see that the Rasengan belonged to someone who was supposed to be dead!

The person in question was a tall and well-built man far into adulthood with fair skin. He had waist-length, spiky white hair tied back into a ponytail, with two shoulder-length bangs framing his face. His attire consisted of a green short shirt kimono and matching pants, with mesh armour worn underneath that is visible at his wrists and ankles. He also had on a pair of handguards, a black belt, traditional Japanese wooden sandals, and a red haori with two yellow circles on each side.

"Wha-what?!" The insect Awakened Being was understandably taken by surprise. This man just showed up out of thin air!

"Get! Away! From my, STUDENT! RAAAAAGH!" Jiraiya roared with ferocity in his voice. The Toad Sage's Giant Rasengan expanded even more in size, forcing the bladed limbs back. The Awakened Being could feel his limbs straining against whatever that thing was, and decided a brief retreat and take in this new variable was in order. With a vicious growl, he retreated with a flap of his wings. With the thing being forced back, for the time being, Jiraiya let the spiraling sphere dissipate.

Throughout all that Naruto was looking at the man's back with an expression that was akin to childish wonder. "P-pervy Sage?" he timidly called out.

"The one and only!" Jiraiya replied as he turned around with a wide grin. He hated being called that, to be honest, but he'd make an exception, here.

Naruto stared up at him in wide-eyed disbelief; the man's face was marred by cracks, and the sclera of his eyes were black instead of white. The horned forehead protector, a carbon copy of his own, that he wore had a large crack on it too. He was an Impure World Resurrection - an immortal, self-healing zombie that has virtually limitless chakra. But, despite that, he was Jiraiya of the Sannin.

Realizing this, Naruto's eyes began to tear up, but with a sniff, he rubbed the tears away before they could fall. Then he threw himself at the man and wrapped his arm around him in a hug, shaking with joy at having his beloved sensei back.

And he couldn't be any happier.