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As happy as he was to have Jiraiya back, Naruto knew he couldn't keep hugging the man forever. Those Awakened Beings were still around after all.

"Owww… I'm going to kill that fucking brat!"

And from the sounds of it, that freak of a mutant armadillo-lizard thing had recovered. Naruto pulled away from the older man and brought his attention to the Awakened Beings, with Jiraiya doing the same.

"So, care to tell me what those things are?" Jiraiya asked his godson as he and Naruto stared the Awakened Beings down.

"They're called Awakened Beings. They're a type of demon that eat the guts of humans and were half-humans once upon a time. Think of them as a Jinchuuriki that went berserk…but lost their humanity and are now unable to regain it." Naruto explained to the best of his ability. He wasn't good with the explanation bits, Flora would be more suited to tell him.

"I see…" Jiraiya looked between the two Awakened Beings before glancing at his godson. "Which one do you want to take on?"

"I'll take on the dumb faced Armadillo!" The blond answered as he eagerly drove his fist into his palm.

"Which leaves me with the bug." The man grinned confidently. Then in perfect synchronization, the two Sages dashed forth across the battlefield towards the Awakened Beings.

//

As they watched on, many women were utterly baffled by the appearance of this "Pervy Sage", wondering where the hell he came from.

"So, someone from Naruto's home followed him here," Flora mused aloud. "Very interesting..."

"You know who that man is?" Miria looked at her inquisitively, her gaze demanding answers.

"I know of him. He's one of Naruto's mentors," Flora explained. Then she looked at the long, white-haired man with squinty eyes. "I was under the impression that he was dead, though…"

"Clearly he's not." Clare deadpanned.

"He just… appeared out of nowhere! How the hell did he do that?!" Helen was very animated with her arms. Waving them up and down frantically as she tried to figure out just what the hell was going on.

"If the Youma Hunter is capable of moving just as fast as we are, then it's entirely reasonable that this man is capable of the same feat." Deneve reasoned. She was keeping a very close eye on both of them. And she had to admit, the older man was dressed oddly. It was different and didn't seem like something you would wear in the cold.

Unfortunately, their conversation was interrupted as a few of the girls suddenly fell to their knees and started to tremble. Miria looked at them, visibly concerned. Numbers 41, Matilda, 40, Yuma, 35, Pamela, and 24, Zelda all looked like they were in excruciating pain.

"O-oi! What's going on?" Helen was quick to see to her teammates, Matilda and Pamela in particular. "Are you girls alright?"

"S-something's… wrong!" Matilda whimpered out through her bared teeth.

"My… my yoki is…" Pamela struggled to say more before she snapped her eyes wide open as her yoki spiked against her will. The same thing happened to Matilda, Yuma and Zelda to the horror of everyone else. "I… I can't… con-trol myself! It's like someones… taking my yoki out of my control!" The poor woman bared her teeth and cried out in fear as she looked at her captain, and her commander with a desperate expression on her face. "H-help me!"

"Gah!" Zelda yelped as she shot up to her feet, sword drawn as she took a swipe at Helen. Had it not been for Miria coming to her aid, the concerned blonde would have been beheaded on the spot. The loud clang drew Naruto's attention and before he knew it, the women came at him. Prisoners in their own bodies, the women were utterly helpless as they were controlled like puppets on strings.

Naruto frowned, sensing their panic and confusion. To make matters worse, Helen and Miria dropped to their knees and started shaking as these girls charged. As he ducked and wove around the claymores, Naruto shouted to Jiraiya. "Pervy Sage! One of these two is somehow controlling them!"

"The warriors closer to the four-legged one are the ones being affected," Miria shouted, struggling to keep herself from moving. "It's most likely him!"

'Got it!" Naruto shouted back at her. Then he proceeded to glare at the armadillo who was grinning menacingly at him, he was able to sense the women trying to attack him and therefore was still able to duck and weave around their attacks.

Naruto had his suspicions that the dumb looking lizard was the one controlling them like puppets.

"GWAHAHAHHAA!" the Awakened Being laughed tauntingly. "I'll make them fight you and wear you down!"

And the moronic looking thing just had to go and say it. The blond narrowed his eyes and formed a cross seal. A single Shadow Clone, a physical copy of himself, appeared in front of him in a puff of smoke. Then that clone's image flickered before vanishing… only to reappear in front of the mutant armadillo-lizard thing, with a Giant Rasengan that is being orbited by three normal sized Rasengans in a similar manner to a moon with a planet.

The Planetary Rasengan.

So shocked was the Awakened Being, that he was unable to react in time when the clone smashed it into his face. The Rasengans collided against each other and formed into a massive and turbulent wave-like vortex!

As the Awakened Being was thrown back by the sheer velocity of the powerful attack, he was shocked to find that his armoured head and backplate was actually failing to withstand it. It was grinding through his armour!

"ARRGGGGH!" The Awakened Being let out an agonised roar of pain when the armour was unable to hold out against the grinding power of the Planetary Rasengan. And it hurt! It hurt so much!

When it dissipated, it left a large trench in the ground, and the Awakened Being was still alive. Alive, but grievously injured, purple blood was spewing profusely from its wounds and mouth. A large portion of armour and skin on his head and face looked like it was torn off, leaving much of his jaw, eye and skull exposed to the elements. The first two of his back plating had a massive crater-like dent, looking as if someone had taken a massive drill and tried to grind through it by sheer force. Purple blood was pouring out of the gap like a stream.

Groaning in pain the Awakened Being tried to get up...only for it to fall back down again. Whatever that attack was, it hurt. It hurt to move. It hurt to breathe! His healing factor was even struggling to repair the damage! He could barely move his limbs. He didn't have enough strength to let up! The armadillo-like Awakened Being could feel his front two limbs throbbing in agony, and wouldn't be surprised if his muscles were torn and the bones were broken.

For the first time in a very long time, the Awakened Being felt fear for his life. That attack almost did him in! He growled while wheezing heavily, glaring at the Shadow Clone and its creator before directing his gaze to the Claymores close to the blond who were on their hands and knees, shaking and panting. They weren't being controlled to try and kill the real one anymore, due to his concentration being broken thanks to that attack. But, if he was going to die here, then he will take as many Claymores as he can down with him! He'll force them to Awaken and make the others kill them! He will get the last laugh if he had anything to say about it!

The women he'd shackled all cried out as they felt their yoki surge against their will. Their eyes started to glow a demonic gold as their faces and then their bodies started to warp and their uniforms threatened to tear as it strained to cover their warping bodies.

"Shit!" Naruto cried out knowing damn well what this bastard was trying to do. The clone, on the other hand, was already on the move, as he too knew full well what the Awakened Being was trying to do. The clone formed anther Rasengan, though unlike the Planetary Rasengan, or the one Jiraiya used this one had four sharp white edges formed around it like a shuriken as a loud screech echoed through the air and off the mountains.

The clone had made a Rasenshuriken.

Instead of throwing it though, the clone dashed head first towards the Awakened Being and used it as a normal Rasengan by slamming the Rasenshuriken into its head. As a result, the Rasenshuriken detonated and expanded in size and width, enveloping both the clone and Awakened being within the dome vortex it created while destroying the very ground around it. The clone dispelled almost immediately, the mutant armadillo-lizard thing, on the other hand, had to suffer billions upon billions of microscopic wind blades cutting through its armour, skin, muscle, nerves on a microscopic level.

The Awakened Being, while his body was intact, was dead by the time the vortex dissipated. His body couldn't handle the punishment of two high-level techniques of that calibre. And thus, his shackle on the women was cut off before they were forced over their limit.

"Son of a bitch!" The insectoid Awakened leapt back in an attempt to retreat upon seeing his colleague taken down so thoroughly. Seeing as his opponent was Jiraiya, the immortal self-regenerating zombie was on him like a frog to a bug.

"You're not getting away!" the man declared. He blazed through several hand seals and cast his technique before the creature could react, and a stream of fire shot forth from his mouth, aimed for the insectoid wings.

Fire Style: Flame Bomb, a technique that allows the user to shoot out several, flame bullets or to make a stream of fire that was akin to a flamethrower. What Jiraiya used was the latter. The snow melted and turned to water from the heat and the stream of fire spread out, covering a wide range that would have made it difficult for an ordinary person to escape from.

Of course, the insectoid took to the air with a mighty flap of his wings… only for Naruto - the real one - to intercept him via appearing behind the Awakened, and drive his foot into the Awakened Being's back. He was sent crashing down into the stream of fire with a cry of surprise and pain. Naruto added to it by blazing through several hand seals of his own, took a deep breath and exhaling out a huge gust of wind that added more fuel to the fire.

When Naruto's feet touched the ground, Jiraiya leapt on over beside him and stared into the fire with intense eyes. "Did we get him?" he asked; whatever these things were he wasn't going to let his guard down.

Naruto's eyes narrowed a slight tinge. "We got him; he's still moving in the fire, though-"

"RAAAWGH!" Naruto and Jiraiya's train of thought was interrupted as one of the warriors that had nearly awakened found herself feeling particularly vindictive. Number 24, Zelda charged forth with a mighty battle-cry, aiming to behead the remaining Awakened while he was still down. Of course, said Awakened was still in the fire… so she wasn't going to have much luck with that.

"Woah, there," Naruto quickly yet carefully intercepted the woman before she could get herself hurt. "We'll handle him, okay?"

"I. Want. His. Head!" The woman viciously hissed, shaking with rage. She couldn't kill the other fucker that almost caused her to awaken so she will make due with the third one. And she could tell he was still alive in there.

"Oi! There's a time and place to be all lovey-dovey you two, but this is not it!" Jiraiya called out. He hadn't moved from his spot and never heard what Naruto told her. It certainly didn't help that his godson was holding the woman by the waist, trying and succeeding to keep her in place. So it certainly painted the image of Naruto hugging the woman in comfort.

Naruto immediately corrected his mentor lest he gets the wrong idea. "Oi! I ain't being lovey dovey with her you perverted hermit! I'm trying to stop her from hurting herself! Gah!" Naruto yelped as he scooped Zelda up in a fireman's carry and leapt out of the way of a flaming bug claw that shot forth at him from within the inferno.

The insectoid would have gone to attack them, if he hadn't found himself suddenly immobilized by Jiraiya's hair that grew in length and wrapped around his torso.

If the insectoid had eyes they would be full of perplexity right about now. "What the-" He grunted in surprise when the hair, in a defiance of logic and gravity, lifted him off the ground and slammed him back down again. Repeatedly. Using him like a whack-a-mole mallet. It was actually pretty funny.

Zelda, Naruto, and the rest of the 23 claymores followed the hair and only Naruto was unsurprised to see Jiraiya on all fours. The man's hair was moving by itself, like it had a mind of its own!

Jiraiya smirked and made his hair uncoil from around the Awakened Being, dropping him into the snow and it strunk to normal size, only for the man to make his hair extend around his body, and shoot a barrage of needles made of hardened hair at the Awakened Being. The hardened hair needles are strong enough to pierce through and destroy boulders. It was no surprise they did some damage to the insectoid Awakened Being. The needles actually pierced through the insectoid's armour and drew blood, but didn't go all the way through.

"Ngh… Arg… Nugh...!" The Awakened Being couldn't believe this; the barrage of hair needles actually hurt. They were actually tough enough to pierce his armour! Those two, they're not ordinary humans! They can't be! No human is capable of the feats they're able to do!

It doesn't make sense! It doesn't make sense! It doesn't make sense! It doesn't make sense!

"Don't hog him all to yourself!" Zelda shouted as she charged once more, her eyes aglow. Channeling her yoki through her legs she dashed forth and slashed at the insectoid's limbs as it tried to get up, lopping them off at the joints.

"Hell hath no fury, as the old saying goes," Jiraiya chuckled as the Awakened Being cried out in pain. "Guess I'll leave you to that, then." The bug wasn't going anywhere, after all, and this chick needed to let off some steam.

Zelda needed no further prompting as her cathartic butchery carried on from there.

Doing his best to ignore that, Naruto approached his old mentor who's hair had strunk back to normal and was now standing up and wiping the snow off his hands and clothes. Jiraiya looked at his godson and felt nervous, but kept it well hidden. What was he going to do now that the threats were taken care of?

"Hey, Pervy-Sage," Naruto greeted awkwardly. He could see clear as day that his man had been resurrected through Edo Tensei.

"Hey yourself, kiddo." The man replied just as awkwardly. Then he looked around for a moment before looking down at the blond with a smirk, "So…you found yourself in one hell of a mess, eh?"

The former shinobi grinned sheepishly. "You know me: I don't go looking for trouble, trouble finds me."

"You and I both, kid," Jiraiya chuckled. "Glad to see you're still okay, at least." Then, he flashed Naruto a grin the young man was all too familiar with. "So, what's this I hear about bagging yourself a local hottie?"

Naruto rolled his eyes though he had a fond look on his face. "I can introduce you. She's right over there." He pointed his thumb at the other 23 claymores who were either watching the two of them talking, or Zelda who was now cackling maniacally as she hacked and slashed the bug-like Awakened Being to pieces. With that, he gestured for Jiraiya to follow and approached the group.

"I have to admit, the architecture of the buildings is a lot different here than it is back home." Jiraiya said in an attempt to make some small talk with his godson.

"Yeah, they are. They're still familiar enough, though." Naruto agreed with the man; then he proceeded to go on and add. "No one's capable of using chakra here, though a certain group of people are capable of using a type of power called 'yoki'. It's vastly different to chakra though."

"I take it those Awakened Being things are among those that can use it?" The Toad Sage asked gesturing to the two corpses behind them.

"Yeah. Women with silver eyes and pale blonde, platinum or sandy-brown hair, like the ones in front of us, are able to use it as well. And there are demons here called youma that are able to use it too." Naruto explained to his mentor just in case he didn't know. He didn't really need to explain since Jiraiya's most likely been here a while - if not as long as he was - and would most likely know about youma and the 'silver eyed witches'.

That was confirmed when Jiraiya said. "I heard of them, the youma and 'claymores' I mean. And how they were made. I was actually expecting the latter to be something completely different."

"From how they were described, I thought that too. I'm very glad to have been proven wrong though," Naruto said with a small smile. "The way they're treated is very similar to how Jinchuuriki were treated back home, so don't be surprised if quite a bit of them are aloof and plain emotionless."

"I see…" Jiraiya mused thoughtfully.

Then, after a moment of contemplation he pulled down his mask and let the nature chakra slip back to the environment, letting his pupils go back to normal and the pigmentation around his eyes to fade away; it was about time that the other women, aside from Flora, got to see his face, he'd decided.

Though many of them had seen a hotter guy or two in their lifetimes, none of the ladies present thought he looked particularly bad. And many of them were quite pleased to see his face, since that mask he wore just made him annoyingly mysterious. While they would never admit it out loud, the whisker marks on his cheeks reminded them a little of a fox... or a cat and were tempted to rub them and see if they were real. Flora giggled and marched on up to her boyfriend as he approached. She then wrapped her arms around him and planted a kiss right on his lips.

Jiraiya let out an impressed whistle as he eyed her up and down. "That's her I take it?" He had to admit she was one hell of a woman!

Naruto pulled away with his girlfriend's lips and hooked an arm around her waist. "Yeah, she's the 'local hottie', though she's the one who bagged me actually." he admitted with a sheepish grin. The blond grunted when Flora lightly shoved her elbow into his side.

"So… you're the infamous 'Pervy Sage' I heard so much about." Flora said, before snapping her head to Naruto and gave him a wide-eyed, thin-lipped look. "I thought he was dead. Or was that a lie?" Her gaze demanded answers.

"Nope, he's dead," Naruto replied.

"How can he be dead?!" Flora demanded, "He's right there!"

"It's complicated, but my home has this technique that reanimates people who are dead, and are able to do everything they were able to do when they were alive. That's why the part of his eyes that should be white are black, and why he has a bunch of cracks on him. He's immortal, now, and I mean that literally." Naruto looked to Jiraiya and asked, "So, any idea who brought you back or why?"

Jiraiya shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine. The last thing I remember was sinking to the bottom of the ocean. The next thing I knew, I woke up in some kind of facility and had both of my arms back. I busted my way out and found myself in a forest. I never got to ask any questions on where I was since that place was abandoned. I kept to myself, learned as much as I can and then, after...two months, I guess, I caught word you were wandering around. There's no way in hell this 'Youma Hunter' could have possibly been anyone else, after all."

"Damn. I thought I was being subtle." The blond joked.

Jiraiya let out a loud, boisterous laugh at that and gave the blond a wide grin. "Haha! It was hard tracking you down. You've gotten good at covering your tracks, brat!"

Naruto humbly rubbed the back of his head at that. "Eh-heh, well, I was trained by the best."

Jiraiya smiled brightly at that.

"As much as I hate to disrupt this heartwarming reunion," Miria said, bringing Naruto's, Jiraiya's and Flora's attention to her as she approached the three of them with a grim expression on her pretty face. "We need to devise a new course of action; now that the scout-party has been dealt with, the possibility the rest of the Awakened Beings are going to attack en masse is high."

"And what do you propose the plan to be?" Undine demanded, drawing everyone's eyes to her. "We may have the same numbers as the Awakened Beings now, but we're still outmatched. And if they have other Awakened Beings like that lizard-thing, then I don't fancy our chances."

Miria opened her mouth to answer.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that."

But it wasn't her who talked. Everyone brought their eyes to Naruto who was looking off to the North. He had his back to them, and the hem of his coat lightly fluttered with the wind.

"What do you mean?" Zelda asked, who was noticeably much calmer and happier now that she had gotten her pound of flesh from the insectoid Awakened Being… not that she looked like that was the case with her being utterly covered in purple gore. His corpse was lying in the snow, in pieces.

"It was a scout party. Which means they were probably sent here to test you all. That also means the rest of the Awakened Being 'army' was most likely watching from a distance. And my first attack could be seen for miles." Naruto told them.

"I think I understand," Jiraiya said; he rubbed his chin with a thoughtful frown. "Seeing as they saw that attack, they're most likely going to try and find out and kill the person capable of doing that."

"If I was in their shoes," Miria chimed in, "I'd assume it was the Youma Hunter and send in some particularly fetching Awakened females to try and seduce him. Take him out while his guard is down. Be on the lookout for that."

"Not a bad idea," Jiraiya pointed out, "And if I was in their shoes, I would try and take out the leaders stationed here. Get rid of the leadership and the rest will become disorganized, and panic. They'll be easy pickings for the rest."

"In their shoes, I would send in the strongest Awakened Being I have, in that case." Naruto added. "Maybe someone fast enough to take you all by surprise, and kill you before you can react. He would have to be strong enough to take on multiple warriors at the same time as well." The blond looked at Miria and asked. "Do you have any ideas on who fits that description?"

"One who fits both would be the Silver-Eyed Lion King, Rigardo," Miria replied. "He was the Number 2 of the Lost Generation. And is rumored to have been as fast as Hysteria the Elegant."

"No idea who Hysteria is."

Miria sighed. "She was a Number One who could move so fast that she could make herself appear to phase through people like a ghost."

Naruto and Jiraiya blinked at that. Then they exchanged looks. "That sounds kinda similar to the Flying Raijin Jutsu, isn't it?" said the former.

Jiraiya nodded. "Yeah. That should be no problem though. Still, for someone to pull that effect off with pure speed is certainly dangerous in a number of ways. Be careful if you find yourself fighting him."

"This is me we're talking about!"

"I know. That's why I said be careful." the man told him in a deadpan. "You're always finding yourself knee deep in trouble, somehow."

"Oi! That was…" the blond paused and to the disbelief of the women, they saw Naruto counting his fingers and were thrown into even more disbelief when he went into the double digits. "...at least 15 times. And most of them weren't even my fault!" he declared as if none of those things were even his fault.

"You're proving my point, brat."

"Oh yeah? At least I ain't a pervert!"

"Hey! I'm a Super Pervert! There's a difference!"

"Yeah." Naruto said with a roll of his eyes. "By peeping at women, you dirty old man."

"Oi! I don't peep! I admire from a distance!" Jiraiya defended.

"From behind a fence." the blond corrected.

Jiraiya raised his hand and opened his mouth multiple times as he tried to think of a comeback. "...Oh yeah? Well, who spent the past month training your sorry ass for the second half of the Chunin Exams, hmm? Me. Out of the goodness of my heart."

"I had to bribe you for that to happen!" Naruto immediately countered.

As Naruto and Jiraiya bantered back and forth a bewildered Helen leaned to her best friend who was equally bewildered.

"Deneve…"

The woman in question leaned back. "Yeah?"

"What's going on?"

"I have no idea." Deneve replied, though she could feel the corners of her lips twitch upwards. The mentor and disciple were literally butting heads by this point, and were pushing against each other. It was pretty funny.

"Huh…" Helen grinned, "...it's pretty funny though." and Deneve nodded in complete agreement with her.

"Pervert!"

"Slacker!"

Thwack!

"Ow!" Naruto blinked when he felt someone whack him across the back of the head and pulled away to give an innocent smiling Flora a super exaggerated betrayed look. "Why?"

"Because you're being a child." She politely told him.

After a moment, Naruto and Jiraiya both looked at one another and they both sported a wide faced grin each.

"That was fun." Naruto said, and Jiraiya nodded in agreement.

"It was just like when you were younger." Naruto practically beamed up at the man when he ruffled his hair. The blond could feel himself being all bubbly and warm.

Miria cleared her throat and gave the two of them flat looks when they looked at her. How can someone capable of causing such destruction be so childish? "You two done?"

"For now, at least," Jiraiya chuckled.

Naruto cleared his throat and got back to being serious. "If this 'Rigardo' guy's gonna come, then you'd better make up some kind of plan to give yourselves the least amount of casualties as possible."

"I don't have many options, but I will come up with something." Miria said. While their chances of getting out of this wasn't as high as she'd like, despite of the display she had seen from the two of them, the woman wasn't going to put their survival solely on their shoulders. To do so would be irresponsible. No, the Task Force needed to have a backup plan just in case something goes wrong, something that will guarantee their survival.

Naruto nodded in acceptance and turned his eyes to the North of Pieta. "You'd best do that then." As for him, well if Rigardo does come, then he'll be ready for the Awakened Being. He is a bigger threat to the other Awakened Beings than the claymores, and Jiraiya is an even bigger one since he's a reincarnated zombie.

As for the female Awakened Beings - if there was any in this platoon - if the scenario Miria gave did happen to come true, then he'll take care of them as well.