FicWad

While the scouts were fighting.

Several miles North of Pieta the small platoon of 24 Awakened Beings under the command of Rigardo the Sliver-Eyed Lion King and Isley of the North were 'watching on' as the one-sided slaughter went underway. Behind them watching Pieta from a hill was the Abyssal One of the North himself and his second in command. Their yoki was suppressed to the point it was difficult for anyone to sense them, and that suited them just fine.

Rigardo, was a young, dark-haired man that looked to be in his early 20s and silver eyes. He wore a brown, long sleeved tunic with leather padding, grey medieval breeches, an iron plate on his right thigh fastened with a buckle, with a pair of brown boots completing the ensemble.

Isley on the other hand had a youthful, pretty boy look to him with long, silver hair. His attire consists of a pair of white medieval breeches held up with a dark silver belt and buckle, a dark long-sleeved tunic, a pair of dark grey boots and a light blue feathery cloak with metal padding on the shoulders.

"Interesting." Isley said with his head quirked to the side. "They're fighting someone, but none of the warriors defending Pieta are the ones doing it. They are sitting on the sidelines."

Not a moment later, the man's eyes grew wide in genuine shock when he and nearly everyone else on their side saw a huge dome of fire appear just outside of the settlement. And not a second later, one of the yoki signatures was snuffed out.

"To kill an Awakened with that… whoever was the cause of it has to be powerful…" While Rigardo was concerned about the person behind it, he could also feel a sense of excitement welling up inside of him. To be able to face someone so powerful in battle was getting his blood pumped in anticipation.

"Surprising, yes, but they will die all the same." In spite of his surprise Isley waved the man's concerns away. Then the man turned to the silver eyed man and said, "I want you to find the one responsible and kill them. Removing that person as an obstacle in our campaign is now a priority."

The dark haired man let out a huff and crossed his arms. "How do you want it done?" he asked with interest.

The silver haired man shrugged uncaringly. "Face that person in battle yourself. Send one or more of the more fetching female Awakens to seduce and kill them once their guard is down. I don't care. As long as the result ends with that unwelcome variable dead."

Rigardo snorted but nodded nonetheless as he went to make preparations. "I hope it's the so called 'Youma Hunter'. Maybe he'll give me a decent challenge."

Isley smiled bemusedly. "If it is him, then you may get your challenge."

Unseen by either men, a young brown-eyed, shoulder-length haired brunette was watching them. She wore an olive coloured dress, brown fingerless arm-length gloves, a pair of dark grey and brown boots, and a reddish-brown cloak with light-grey fur on the hood. She was listening in on their conversation with interest. She found that explosion to be so pretty and for a reason unknown to her, a deep part of her wants to go and find the person that caused it and…she didn't know what she wanted but something told her it was to see him for something.

Maybe that boy with the familiar smell she found can help her out?

//

After the fight was over, Miria had gotten everyone to help evacuate the population of Pieta to a town in the South so they would be out of the way of the upcoming fight. Jiraiya meanwhile had Naruto taken to a building. The building they were in was an outpost for the Organizations warriors. It was stocked up on replacement armour and uniforms and there were several bedrooms they could use to sleep or just rest.

The building in question had a main hall and is where Miria is at trying to devise some sort of plan to get them all through this suicide mission with as many survivors as possible. The other 23 were elsewhere; either comforting each other, and in the case of some of the women that almost Awakened, getting replacements for their uniforms just in case the fabric really was tearing at the seams. Others were helping with the evacuation of the civilians so that the town of Pieta would be near abandoned by the time the main army would arrive.

As for Naruto, he was in one of the bedrooms, shirtless and lying down on a bed. He was making a seal to channel his chakra, so that the seal on his abdomen was visible for Jiraiya to look over.

It had to have been years since he died, so it was understandable for the man to look it over and see if it was still functioning correctly.

"Are you sure this is needed?" Naruto asked.

"If I am completely honest, it's not." Jiraiya answered with a shrug. "But it can't hurt to see if it's still functional, and if necessary, strengthen the seal."

"I understand. So what's the verdict?" The blond asked leaning his head up to look down at the man.

"It's functionally fine. Everything is working as it's meant to and looks even stronger than the last one. But the seal itself is locked up real tight." At that Jiraiya gave him godson a firm look and asked, "Is there a reason to that?"

Naruto took a deep breath and as he dropped his head on the pillow exhaled. "Yeah. There is. It's because the fox isn't in there anymore." Then the blond winced in preparation for the explosion that was to come.

He was not disappointed.

"WHAT?!" Almost immediately Jiraiya began to frantically look at the seal again and did his damned best to make sure that there was nothing wrong. "WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN!?" He cried out with understandable panic in his eyes.

Naruto dampened his lips and gathered his thoughts on where to start. "It happened when I found myself here in this world. I didn't have the fox in the seal anymore, but I still had its chakra. A tail's worth of it actually. That chakra was what was keeping me alive initially. So I tightened the seal so I couldn't use it. I didn't want to use it all up accidentally and die. It was a safety measure on my end." He honestly didn't know what would happen if he tried to 'feed' the chakra nature energy to replenish it or if it would even work because Kurama wasn't there to take it in. For all he knew he would make it worse! Naruto was not going to take any chances.

Hearing that Jiraiya slumped against his chair and buried his face into his hands "Oh, by the Sage…" he groaned into his palms. "Well, at least you were smart enough to make sure you didn't use it by accident."

"Heh… Yeah. Lucky me, I guess."

Suddenly there was a knock on the door and the master and student both looked at it as they heard a girl timidly call out, "Is… is everything okay in there?"

"We're fine!" Naruto called out reassuringly. "Pervy Sage just had a scare is all."

"Oi! Don't call me that, you brat!" Barked the man in question.

"O-okay." the girl said through the door.

Naruto got up off the bed and quickly put on his mesh shirt before heading on over to the door. When he opened it he found the young woman on the other side wearing the same attire as all the other Silver-Eyed Witches; this girl wasn't anyone he was familiar with though. She had long, straight hair with one strand falling in front of her face. She had her hair hidden underneath the cloak itself. She had an oval, feminine face and had a shy, uncertainish demeanor about her. She was rather plane-looking, but still cute.

Naruto recognised her though. "You're one of the girls that retarded looking lizard tried to awaken!" he said in realization, then he frowned in concern as he asked, "How are you holding up? Are you okay?"

She looked at him in surprise. It took a moment for her to recover and once she did, the girl smiled. "I… I am fine. Thank you for asking." then she took a deep breath and formally introduced herself. "I am Yuma, Number 40."

"Naruto, the 'Youma Hunter'. Though I'm pretty sure I don't need to remind you that." Naruto chuckled sheepishly. He then offered Yuma his hand, and after a moment of staring she took it and shook hand his hand. "So, Number 40 eh?"

"Y-yeah. I am 7 ranks away from being theDead Last." Yuma didn't sound proud of that and would like to avoid being reminded of it very, very much. Suffice to say, a lot of people except those who are lower in rank than her didn't show the girl a lot of respect.

"Dead Last, eh? That sounds… familiar." Naruto mused reminiscently. Then he asked the young woman. "I take it you get a lot of people to look down on you because of it, then?" When she slowly nodded and looked at him with a curious, almost confused look Naruto smiled. "I know how that feels. Let me give you a little advice: rank means nothing in the real world. People think you're a load? Prove them wrong. People think you're too weak, train your ass off non-stop and get stronger."

"The kid knows what he's talking about." Jiraiya added from where he saw. "You're looking at the Dead Last of his generation." that look Yuma by surprise as she looked at the blond with wide eyes. "Trust me when I say training every single day will see you improve by leaps and bounds."

"I see." Yuma was thinking on their words with a deep contemplation. Then she looked at the reincarnated shinobi and Naruto with a small smile. "Thank you for the advice."

"You're welcome." Naruto told her back with a smile of his own. With that Yuma turned and walked away with a noticeable spring in her step.

"Oh!" She stopped and turned back to look at Naruto, "I almost forgot: Captain Miria wanted me to let you know that she's having a meeting with the rest of the Task Force in a few minutes in the main hall and wants you and your mentor to be there."

"Got it. Thanks for letting me know beforehand." Naruto gave her a thumbs up at that and once that was said and done the blond slipped back into his room, and Yuma went back to her Captain.

When the door was closed the Toad Sage watched as his godson began to pace back and forth with a contemplative look on his face.

"You're not going to go, are you?" Jiraiya had a knowing look on his face.

"I...don't know." Naruto was conflicted. On one hand he wanted to go there and see what plan Miria came up with; on the other hand he wanted to go out there and bring the fight to the Awakened Beings and lay the smackdown on them before they reached the Task Force.

"If I were in your shoes, I'd go. The Awakened Beings can wait for a little bit." The man advised.

"The Awakened Beings could be coming right this second, though." Naruto countered, he paused and looked towards the window before letting out a stressful sigh. "No. They are coming. I can sense all 24 of them approaching in force. They would be here in an hour or two."

Naruto was a fighter not a thinker, but if there was a fight he could solve without his fists he would take it. And Jiraiya knew that.

"That's still enough time for you to learn what kind of plan that Miria woman has." The reincarnated Toad Sage pointed out.

After a moment of contemplating, with Jiraiya being quiet in order to let his godson think, Naruto finally came to a decision. "Alright. I'll go see what plan Miria has cooked up. I'll take part in the meeting the shinobi way."

Jiraiya smiled, happy that he didn't have to try and convince his student to go.

//

Several minutes later, Naruto and Jiraiya both were in the main hall where the rest of the Task Face assembled. No one noticed when the Toad Sages entered the room, thanks to their ninja skills. The student and master both blended in with the shadows, and Naruto even wall-walked up to a support beam and laid down on it while he listened in to what Miria had planned. Jiraiya merely leaned up against a wall away from everyone else and no one was the wiser.

While they were evenly numbered now with the Awakened Beings, they were still outmatched by them, and despite him and Jiraiya being there as a buffer the two of them can still be defeated. And Miria knew she couldn't rely on them to bail everyone out; so she needed to have a backup plan that would give the Task Force the best chances of survival.

Thankfully, she had managed to smuggle in something to help do precisely that. She placed a little round capsule, something that caught the interest of both Naruto and Jiraiya, before her on the desk and cut it with her sword.

"All of us will take one of these before the fight," The sandy-brunette said, as she took her sword off the desk.

That captured the women's attention, piquing the curiosity of many a warrior, as well as two shinobi.

"Half a suppression tablet?" Cynthia asked with intrigue.

"Yes." The commander confirmed with a nod. "Due to the smaller dosage of the supressent tablet, we won't have to worry about our yoki being sealed off just yet. We will be able to fight as normal, but, should we lose consciousness the medicine will then kick in, resulting in our signature being hidden."

After hearing that, Naruto and Jiraiya were able to deduce what the plan was: she wanted to play dead. If they were knocked out, then they would for all intents and purposes, be dead for the Awakened Beings.

Seeing the uncertain looks that were being exchanged, Miria let out a dejected sigh. "I… I'm sorry I couldn't come up with anything better. The Organization put us all here as a bulwark to buy time. Even if the Youma Hunter and his master being here does give us a chance of somehow pulling through, there is simply little guarantee that we will get out of this alive."

"Don't sell yourself short," Helen told Miria with a reassuring tone. "This plan is better than anything most of us could come up with, I'm sure."

"It is a good plan, considering the circumstances." Naruto voiced his thoughts, taking many a women by surprise.

"Yeah." Jiraiya added concurring with his godson. "There's simply to many unknowns here. Playing dead is a good way to see at least some of you survive the battle." As long as they don't get eaten that is, but the man didn't voice that.

"W-where are you?" Jean asked as she actively looked around for them.

"Around." Naruto replied, elusively. "Keep talking. Don't mind us."

Undine cleared her throat. "Eh-hem, the plan is completely fair." she pointed out. As much as the Number 11 didn't want to admit it, this was a good plan to get out of an utterly fucked situation. "Be you strong or weak, you have an equal chance of surviving this mess we all found ourselves in."

"Do we know when they're coming?" One of the girls, a girl with braided pigtails, asked. She is Number 43, Juliana and is a member of Team Undine.

Naruto was the one who answered her question. "Two hours at most. An hour at the least… and there's one presence that dwarfs them all. I'm suspecting it's this 'Rigardo the Silver-Eyed Lion King' you warned me about."

"What makes you so sure?" Miria asked as her eyes slowly looked around to see if she could spot him. How was he doing that? He's hearing a red coat for crying out loud!

"Because there's one other yoki presence that's beyond even the one I mentioned. Though that one is further North and is not moving with the other 24." The blond answered.

"You're going to take him on, aren't you?" Jiraiya asked with a knowing tone. Having trained his godson personally for three years, the man knew exactly how Naruto thought.

"If he's as fast and strong as Miria said he is, then the guy will kill many of them before they have a chance to react. It's best to take him out before that happens. If Flora is killed, then I will be very pissed." And if he can't kill this Rigardo fellow, then he'll cripple him and give these girls a fighting chance against him when he does attack them.

"Noted," Jiraiya replied. That was perfectly understandable. Though he never managed to get as far with Tsunade as Naruto did with Flora, and being unable to win her heart was at the top of his list of failures, the undead sage knew he'd feel the same way if something happened to his old love interest. "Just be careful, brat; we don't know everything he's capable of. Treat him as a Kage-level opponent for good measure."

"Got it."

"Uh… I feel a little out of the loop here. What's a 'Kage-level opponent'?" The Number 20, Queenie, a stern-looking woman with short pale-blonde hair tucked behind her pointed, elf-like ears.

"A Kage-level opponent is someone incredibly dangerous, someone who can take on an army and win, someone who can reshape entire landscapes, create valleys and destroy mountains. To put it into perspective, it's someone who's stronger than the Abyssal Ones, basically," Naruto told them.

"Uh.. right," Miria said, doing a good job of masking her nervousness. The thought of someone being stronger than the Abyssal Ones at all sent shivers up her spine… but for it to be common enough to merit a damn protocol was terrifying!

"...You and your mentor are Kage-level aren't you?" Flora deadpanned, recalling the memories she had gotten from Naruto after they bumped fists - the enemies her boyfriend faced, and the renown his mentor had.

"Yes, we are." Naruto answered.

"Still better to be safe than sorry, though" Jiraiya pointed out, crossing his arms with a sagely nod. Not that anyone saw, since he was still hidden from them. "Even the strongest warriors can be bested by a novice if they get too full of themselves."

There was a flinch from Clare as those very words brought up some very unwanted memories. That was very similar to how the woman she admired the most was killed, but instead of being full of herself she had let her guard down.

Then Naruto turned and rolled off the support beam and landed between a startled Zelda and Natalie, who jumped in surprise when he literally dropped in on them. Naruto stood up and wiped the imaginary dust off his sleeves before he crossed his arms. "I'd better go out there now and 'greet them' before they get here and cause all sorts of chaos."

"Want me to act as backup?" Jiraiya asked from his hiding spot.

"I'm thinking it would be better if you supported these girls here, actually," Naruto replied after a moment of contemplation. He looked at the women and said, "I'm not insulting your abilities or anything, but you're going to need all the help you can get."

"Fair enough," Jiraiya replied. He could see this being part of a two-part plan. Naruto would be the offense, sent to delay and wear out as many of these Awakened Beings as possible, and he would be the defense.

After that, Naruto covered the lower-half of his face with his mask, and before he left the room and the building altogether the blond gave the women a salute. Just as he was about to leave through the doorway, he stopped and looked back halfway from over the shoulder and said.

"You better live through this."

"...You better live through it too, I'll never forgive you if you die on me!" Flora told him as he walked out of the room.

//

It didn't take long for Naruto to leave the premises of the building, and almost immediately he dashed out of the settlement and headed North towards the platoon of Awakened Beings. He could tell that they were getting close to Pieta. Close to killing the 24 warriors that were within. He could sense their commander was trailing behind to keep an eye on the situation, most likely to intervene if things don't go their way..

He came to a running stop a fair distance away out of the settlement. Approximately 50 yards or so; then again, it could be more than that, Naruto was never good at measuring distances. Nor was he the thinking type. And in the distance he can hear several dozen footsteps that only grew louder with each passing minute. Then Naruto slowly looked up as he sees them. He had to hold back the smirk when he saw that three of them were had deep crater-like dents in their armour; he remembered that now - his two clones started beating the shit out of them while Lucia and Eva retreated, with two clones grabbing the then-still-alive Kate and Mila.

The Awakened Beings all came to a stop a yard away from Naruto, and they stared down at him and he up at them.

"You..." said a feminine voice; one of the few female Awakens had spoke. Naruto was pretty sure it was the one with the three heads and tentacles that spoke, since the voice came from her direction. The blond could almost hear the anticipation and a little dosage of fear, in her voice.

"Me." Naruto confirmed with a nod. "If you're going to attack Pieta, you're going to have to get through me first. And I seriously… seriously hope you're a better challenge than that little scout group you sent out."

"You little pest!"

Naruto jumped and flipped out of the way of a fist that smashed into the place he once stood, throwing up snow and bits of dirt everywhere. As he spun mid-air, the blond was able to see that the fist belonged to was a giant humanoid-like Awakened Being who was protected with a bone-like exoskeleton - though he had a shit ton of tentacles coming from his mouth.

As gravity took hold, Naruto formed a Rasengan on his right hand, reared his arm back and drove the spiralling sphere into the Awakened One's hand. The male Awakened One grunted in discomfort as he felt the Rasengan grinding away at his plated hand, and yanked it out of there with a pained hiss. He just barely kept the shocked gasp from getting out when he saw the small crater and trench on the back of his hand. Purple blood was seeping from the wound like a river.

As for Naruto he leapt away as soon as his feet touched the ground and keep a close eye on them. He looked almost bored. Then they saw the colour of his irises change from baby blue, to yellow with the pupil becoming toad-like while his eyes gained an orange pigmentation. It was a near, instant change, and the Awakened Ones barely had enough time to react when Naruto bent his knees and leapt to the one that tried to crush him under his fist.

He reared his fist face and gave the Awakened Being a nasty right hook that knocked him flat on his side with a cry. A huge dent was on his face, with a fist-sized imprint right in the epicentre of it. Then he followed that up by seemingly pushing off the air itself, and launched himself right at the Awakened One with his fist reared back.

Luckily for the Awakened Being, he was faster than his size would let you think, and was able to get out of the way just in the nick of time. Though he was still disoriented from the savage right hook.

And when Naruto's fist collided with the ground, where the Awakened One's head was, there was a huge explosion of dust, snow and dirt. The Awakened Beings who were the closest all jumped back out of surprise because of how unexpected it was! They could feel the vibrations in the ground from the impact! As for the Awakened Being Naruto was aiming for, the tentacles hanging from his mouth twitched nervously. That… he wasn't so sure just what he was packing, if but he was able to kill three Awakened Ones by himself, then it wouldn't be to hard of a guess to say that punch may have killed him had he not dodged in time.

Then, several copies of Naruto dashed out of the smoke cloud, all of them were armed with one or two trench knives that had their cutting power enhanced by their wind chakra. While they were surprised many of them reacted in the nick of time and used their size and speed to their advantage to dispel the clones with a single, solid hit that would have killed an ordinary human.

Three Awakened Beings were unable to react in time however, and reduced to large, bloody chunks before the clones that killed them were dispelled by many a tentacle and bladed arm that ran them through the stomach.

"What the hell is he?!" the three-headed female cried out in panic as she batted the last remaining clones aside. Being a former Number 3, she was no slouch and mopped them up quite effectively. They were dispelled when they hit the ground.

"Human." Naruto answered, the smoke and dust cloud dispersed into the air to reveal...he was there. Staring at them with bored eyes. He never moved.

"Impossible! No human can do what you just did!" One of the other few female Awakened Ones cried out in denial.

Naruto looked at her. She looked like a mutant rhinoceros beetle with no less than six scythes for arms and a semi-humanoid, clearly female torso - she kinda reminded him of Chomei to be honest. She was trying to buy time for one of the others to get around and blindside him, but he'll play along.

"And what makes you so sure?" He asked with his head tilted to the side.

"Because if there was then everyone would know about it!"

Then Naruto turned and grabbed the bladed arm that a male Awakened One tried to run him through with, from under the arm. Then he twisted his waist, and with a mighty cry Naruto threw the Awakened One to the others. They merely leaned out of the way and allowed his body to fly past. He landed in a heap nearly ten yards away, and made a trench in the earth for another ten.

"That's true. I will give you that. But I am 100 percent human." Naruto said, acting as if he hadn't thrown someone ten times his size across the clearing. "Besides, if I managed to keep myself under the radar for so long…" suddenly, his image flickered and suddenly Naruto was standing between the heads of the three headed Awakened One. She went stiff out of shock and fear when she felt him leaning against her middle head. Then Naruto leaned down to whisper into her ear, "...then what makes you think my people can't do the same?"

"P-point taken," she squeaked in utter terror.

Then Naruto dropped down to the ground and was pleased to note no one was trying to attack him. The three headed one was almost shaking even. "I can sense someone who is far stronger than all of you. And I can feel the bloodlust coming from him. If he wants to fight me, he can."

"That would be our captain, Rigardo," the three-headed woman pointed out after taking a deep, calming breath. "Shall I take it that you wish to challenge him in single combat?"

He shrugged and said. "Sure. As long as no one else here tries to murder me, that is." He could tell that she was in no mood to try, though a few others seemed more… eager. He'll have to keep an eye on them lest they try when his back is turned.

With a nod the female Awakened Being stepped back a few steps before turning and heading towards Rigardo.

"So…" Naruto eyed the giant sized Awakened Beings. They were completely bewildered when he gave them an eye smile and clasped his hands behind his back, "I'm going to go on a guess and say the Abyssal One of the North strong armed you into joining his army. From what I know, Awakened Beings hardly - if ever - form groups this large."

He wasn't disappointed or surprised when neither of them talked. But he could tell from their body language that he hit right on the mark. Several of them, both male and female, flinched at the accusation, while others scowled or glared at him for it.

"So, I was right." He mused aloud, as he nodded to himself. Then he focused his eyes on them and asked, "How'd he do it? Did he kick your asses, did he threaten you?"

"That's…" Naruto turned to a mutant gorilla-like Awakened Being who growled at him. "...none of your business." the Awakened One relented with a huff.

Naruto shrugged, "Alright." Then he perked up and the blond looks past them with an expectant look on his face. "Well, well, it seems Rigardo is coming." He let out a rather, gleeful chuckle while cracking his knuckles. What can he say? He likes to fight and he really hopes the Lion King is as fast and strong as Miria claims him to be.

Rigardo practically appeared right in front of him, a shockwave following in his wake as he glared at Naruto. The man was still in his human form but Naruto saw his pupils being narrow slits much like a feline's.

"Rigardo, I presume?" Naruto calmly asked, and that made the man glare at him harder. The Youma Hunter wasn't afraid of him. And that just pissed him off.

His eyes started glowing demonically as spoke. "I am, Youma Hunter."

Naruto hopped over to one side as four massive gashes formed in the ground where he once stood. The claws of Rigardo's right hand formed and lashed out before reverting all before anyone watching could even register the movement.

"You're fast." Naruto complimented, and he had to hop to the other wide as four more massive gashes formed on the ground where he once stood. Then he finally got Rigardo to show surprise when the powerful Awakened One found his transformed hand grappling with Naruto's. While Naruto's arm was shaking, the blond in question looked like he was barely registering it. Then Naruto casually shoved the man back. But for Rigardo he felt his boots making a trench in the snow as he was pushed back nearly ten feet away!

"Heh heh heh heh heh heh… You might actually force me to get serious for once." Naruto was grinning under his mask. He could feel his blood pumping in his veins. This was going to be good!