4 Claymores Assemble(18+)

Four days later, in the frozen North, the locals of a quaint town named Pieta looked on in concern as several "Claymores" gathered in the town square. Many of them didn't even know this many silver-eyed witches existed!

As she entered the town, Clare let out a tired sigh. Jean gave her a concerned look. "Are you okay?" the older one asked.

"Yeah," Clare replied. "Guess we'd better see who the leader…" Her train of thought was promptly interrupted by a cry of "YAHOO!"

Both women drew their swords immediately upon sensing the incoming danger. Effortlessly, Clare deflected the downward slash and realized who her "assailant" was. "Helen!"

The woman in question was an impish looking one with a neck-length bob cut and a psychotic grin. "Been a long time, 47! I'm surprised you've survived for so long!"

Then, she yelped as Jean went on the offensive by trusting at her face. Fortunately, another woman butted in, before Helen could discover what it was like to get schooled by a single-digit.

Jean scowled lightly upon feeling a sword at her neck.

"Just a reunion among friends," the new arrival explained. "No need to…" She was interrupted by the ground as Jean sent her crashing down.

"How undignified for a greeting," the Organization's Number Nine commented. "Even between old friends, I'd expect something like that to be more… refined."

Both of the new women blinked owlishly at her show of skill. That was unexpected.

Then, Helen chuckled. "What's this, Clare? Stuck with some stuffy old bitch, again?" She crossed her arms. "Oi! I'm Helen, Number 22 and my friend, here's Deneve, Number 15." She gestured to the short-haired woman who'd probably just saved her dignity. "What's your name and number?"

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

Helen nearly jumped out of her skin at that. "Are you serious? A single-digit?! What are you doing tagging along with Number 47?! A-and why are you treating her like a superior?!"

"She saved my life," Jean calmly pointed out. "Our ranks mean nothing in this situation."

Helen was a complete loss for words. The newly-named Deneve, however, let out a chuckle of her own, before putting her sword away. "And here I thought single-digits were mostly impossible to get along with. Apparently, that's not the case. Sorry about that… But, rest assured that Helen has no ill intentions."

Jean blinked, having not expected the woman to be so polite. Then, she shrugged. "It's nothing. Sorry about that. It was not my intention to cause a fuss between friends."

Helen let out a sheepish chuckle. "Uh, no worries. I'm sorry, too. Damn, this feels awkward..."

"You were born to cause trouble," Deneve muttered.

With that out of the way, the more rambunctious one of the lot decided to break the ice, only for a woman with long, curly hair to interrupt.

"Excuse me," she said softly, "we are meeting in the centre of the town square. Would you please come with me?"

----

Meanwhile, about three days' south of Pieta, Naruto and his more… questionable companions ventured forth.

It had been quiet for the most part. Apart from the conversations initiated by Ophelia and Riful, nothing had happened. Then the two awakened beings started to get hungry. And it wasn't the spunk kind of hungry either.

"...Do you really have to eat human guts?" Naruto asked as he looked between the two with a small, nearly unnoticeable frown.

"We can't help it, Naruto-Sama," Riful told him with a nonchalant shrug. "It's literally ingrained into us. We can eat raw meat, but that can only last for so long."

Naruto sighed, wondering what he could do for them. "Well… maybe there's a bandit camp nearby or something." if anything he can spare the towns from their hunger. Bandits, on the other hand, are fair game.

Rafaela, on the other hand, was understandably horrified. "You seriously cannot be considering this!" she was looking at Naruto while saying that.

Riful raised an eyebrow. "Would you prefer that we eat the locals?"

When he saw Rafaela was about to reply Naruto was quick to add his input. "This IS the lesser of two evils, Rafaela." the blond pointed out to her. "By killing bandits, Riful and Ophelia would be doing the world a service."

"And how is that?" the one-eyed woman challenged.

"Well, for one, bandits are the scum of the earth. Two: they're a bunch of rapists. Three: they like to cause misery anywhere they go. Four: they like stealing and killing." he answered her, before sighing. "Honestly, if you were to think about it, they're no better than the youma you women were made to fight."

"The youma are much worse!" Rafaela protested.

"How? Both sides don't discriminate in who they kill. Sure, youma's eat human guts but I've seen far more fucked up things than that." seeing as Rafaela, Ophelia and Riful didn't believe him, Naruto decided to give her some examples of his past opponents. "I've fought against someone who liked to bury people alive, someTHING who killed to eat dead people, a person who could flatten an entire city in the blink of an eye AND someone who was untouchable."

"Flatten…? As in literally flatten? Like clay?" Ophelia asked to make sure he wasn't joking around.

Naruto nodded confirmedly.

"That's… there's no way that's possible." a disbelieving Riful said.

Naruto looked at the loli. "You saw what I can do, Riful. And that was barely a dent in my powers." he looked at Rafaela. "Your youma and awakened beings - no offence to you, Riful and Ophelia - are just… pathetic in comparison."

"I would be offended by that; but, considering you tossed my former consort clean out of the castle, with your bare hands while he was transformed… and made a massive crater outside of it… well… none took."

Ophelia shrugged. "You handed my ass to me while I was in my awakened form. I can believe that."

"It was a nice ass." Naruto complimented impishly.

Ophelia waved him off with a sly grin. "Oh, hush you."

Chuckling the blond closed his eyes and focused his senses. Huh. Looks like there's a small gathering of people around ten miles to the east of their location. And his negative emotion-sensing confirmed it too. There's a small gathering over there. Might be bandits for them to feed on.

Hmm… and to the North, there's a smaller group. But there's a lot of negativity boiling there. And even further north there's another batch of negative emotions, that was in a much greater amount.

Naruto, of course, didn't tell them… about the two Northern groups.

"There's a small group ten miles to the east of here. That might be your meal," he informed the two awakened beings.

"Great!" both Riful and Ophelia were excited at finally being able to eat again. "What about you though?" the former asked.

Naruto looked ahead and said. "I'm going to keep on heading north." he then looked at Riful and Ophelia. "If you want, I can make a Kage Bunshin for you?"

Riful and Ophelia shook their heads. "We'll be fine, Naruto-Sama. We'll see you later!"

With that, the two took off running to the east. Naruto watched as their backs faded away in the distance. Not a bad speed rate for a non-shinobi. He saw and fought faster though. But they could take on greenhorn genins and experienced chunins quite cheerfully. Possibly some jounins, even… Riful, especially. If she were to stop holding back like he knows she's been doing when around him, the loli could possibly take on a kage or two by herself.

The loli did say the Abyssal Ones were former Number 1's, who - from what he garnered but not confirm - are comparable to kages. But until he can fight a Number One properly, it'll stay as speculation.

As for Rafaela, she was conflicted. On one hand, it was her duty to observe this man. On the other, he just sent a pair of awakened beings - one of whom is the Abyssal One of the West - to slaughter a small group of humans!

As much as she wanted to leave after witnessing this, she dreaded to know what would happen to her if she decided to do so. The punishments for defying the handler's orders were often severe. Unless you had a damn good reason for disobeying.

Unfortunately, she had a feeling that telling them she left because of two awakened beings - even if one is the Abyssal One of the West - being allowed to kill humans wouldn't go so well. Fortunately, them learning he managed to fucking tame the Abyssal One of the West and the former Number 4 would balance it out.

So they would be displeased and be pleased with the same time.

Unfortunately, or fortunately - depending on the perspective - Rafaela ultimately decided to keep on following and observing the blond. But she made it damn clear she wasn't happy.

"So… Naruto what happens now?" she asked stiffly.

Naruto gazed ahead of him with a deep frown, unseen to Rafaela. "Now… we go north."

Without another word, Naruto and Rafaela continue onwards. Knowingly, and unknowingly, heading towards another group of awakened beings laying in wait.

----

Meanwhile, back in Pieta, a woman with long, bristly hair stood before a large group of no less than 23 warriors. She held a commanding presence, an air of authority, as she gazed upon the women who'd been gathered under her command.

This woman was Phantom Miria, Warrior Number Six of the Organization. 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."

The curly-haired woman from before did just that alongside Jean, as well as a burly woman with long hair and two swords and a fairly small one with her hair 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. "About 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've been tasked with eliminating them before they travel any further."

Immediately, a roar of murmurs erupted from the crowd.

"A large group?!" one girl exclaimed.

"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?!"

Then, there was a large gust of wind as the curly-haired woman… did something to blast every damn flake of snow out of the immediate area. What only unnerved the crowd, even more, was that she hadn't visibly moved. "I do believe our commander wasn't done talking," she said softly.

Miria cleared her throat. "Thank you, Flora," she said.

The now-identified woman nodded her head respectfully.

With that, the commander continued. "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 41, Matilda. You four are with Veronica." She gestured towards the one with the ponytail.

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

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

A timid-looking girl with long hair spoke up. She was identified as Number 40, Yuma. "U-um… so… when do we start?"

"Tomorrow, first thing in the morning," Miria replied. "Until then, I advise you to get some rest and get yourselves acquainted with your teammates and their skills. Anything else?"

"U-um, No," Yuma replied.

No one else had anything to say, either.

With that said and done, everyone went to their groups and went their separate ways. Nothing major would have happened, until five hours later; seemingly out of nowhere a very big surge of yoki appeared several miles south of Pieta.

Everyone quickly assembled outside in a panic, except for two. They knew damn well who that was. They were still surprised though, because of the sheer amount of it he was letting out!

"What the hell is that?!" a wide-eyed Helen shouted with her teeth bare and gritting. "That amount of yoki is insane!"

A frantic girl with her hair in a mushroom top cut ran about like a headless chicken. This girl was Number 44, Diana. "C-commander," she shrieked, hyperventilating, "I… I can't find m-my captain. W-what do I do?" Poor thing looked like she was about to piss herself.

Said captain, Jean, casually grabbed Diana by her shoulder plate and pulled her close. That seemed to calm her down, though not by much as she was shaking like a leaf.

Miria narrowed her eyes analytically. Was it a new threat heading their way? Did their chances of survival in this operation just decrease!? She looked at Clare and Jean and found they were barely reacting; if she didn't know any better, the woman would have thought they knew the being emitting this yoki.

This begged to ask later on.

Miria had no idea she had got it right on the mark.

----

A day and a half away from Pieta

Moments before…

Rafaela narrowed her eye dangerously with her weapon drawn. There was a total of five towering Awakened Beings in front of her and Naruto. Said blond, on the other hand, was completely calm.

"Well… what do we have here?" Naruto nonchalantly asked aloud.

Rafaela pulled her lips back into a snarl as she growled out. "Awakened Beings! In the upper double digits, I'd wager!"

"Noted," Naruto muttered as he approached with his hands in his pockets.

Rafaela strayed back a little. She felt how strong the blond was, and she didn't want to get in his way if he had to fight. Though from the looks of it, that is the most probable outcome of this encounter.

"Well, well," a particularly fat-looking one chuckled, "What do we have, here?"

It was a male with a massive, spiked hook for an arm, a potbelly and the face of a boar - tusks and all, though he were absurdly large and exaggerated.

"Oh, just a wanderer and his sexy companion; heading to the North." Naruto gave the boar-based Awakened a wide smirk and inclined at him. "And you are?"

"I am Noah, a former Number 15 of my generation!" the newly named Noah introduced himself with a cruel, hungry and drooling smirk. "The rest are Numbers 16 to 19!"

Instead of Naruto being intimidated like they were expecting the blond smirked wider. "Heh, so you're most likely here to keep the ones in the North from retreating South?"

"State your business here!"

Naruto began to casually pace left and right, never taking his blue eyes off the assembled group before him. "Oh, y'know; just wandering around. Heading to the North. Two of my silver-eyed friends are over there you see. I wanted to check on them… see how they're doing… stuff like that. Because I heard the Abyssal One of the North is up to something."

"He's our leader!" declared an awakened being that resembled an overgrown, disfigured mutated ape; with massive claw-like hands, overly large muscles, and an insane grin. "He's the one who sent us here to prevent anyone from getting any further!"

Naruto stopped his pacing and faced them all. "Ah. And let me guess: you have orders to kill us?" he asked, gesturing to himself and Rafaela behind him.

"Sorry, kid," Noah said with nary a shred of sincerity, "nothing personal."

The blond shrugged nonchalantly. "Instead of blindly following orders, why don't you try thinking for yourself?"

Noah seemed to contemplate on his words. "For… myself…?" it seemed to be working, and Rafaela seemed hopeful they would get out of this confrontation without a fight. Then suddenly Naruto stepped casually to the side when the ground he was standing on was suddenly impaled by an overly large tusk. Courtesy of Noah, who was regrowing a new one. "If any of us disobey then the Silver King will kill us. Again, sorry kid."

"Pity." Sighing the blonde slowly took his hands out of his pockets and stared up at the male Awakened Beings. "Then…" Naruto's eyes turned orange with demonic slits for pupils. "I am sorry… as weLL…!" His voice had changed as well, now a low, unholy roar.

Before anyone could react, the boy's skin started peeling off to reveal black and red, viscous blood-like energy beneath. Then, he was engulfed by a massive sphere of yoki as the earth itself seemed to tremble in fear. The air was thick, every animal for miles fled in all directions away from the boy, and then, an ungodly shriek pierced the air as a black and red silhouette of demonic energies with white, glowing eyes replaced the boy. It was similar to him in stature, but had fox-like ears atop its head, four tails sprouting from its ears and a jagged line for a mouth, resembling that of a piranha.

"WHAT THE ABSOLUTE FUCK?!" Rafaela shrieked in utter shock and horror as she fell on her ass, suddenly overwhelmed by Naruto's newly demonic presence.

"Easy, Rafaela. I'm still in control." Naruto told the woman without taking his eyes away from the equally terrified Awakened Beings who were rapidly backing away from the monster in front of them. Then he started walking on his own two feet, similarly to a predator stalking its prey. "Heh heh heh, it's been a long time since I used Version 2. Alright, you all wanted a fight. You got one!"

Despite Naruto's assurance, Rafaela trembled, like a terrified child, leaning back against the tree behind her. This… foul, overpowering Yoki triggered something in her… a primal instinct to run away.

The four tailed, version state 2 Naruto scoffed when he saw them turn their heads and run away with their tails between their legs. Cowards. "If you are not going to fight, then I am going to finish this quickly."

With that, several little, black orbs of yoki started to form in front of Naruto. Then, they combined into one and shrank into a small bead. The force of the yoki condensing resulted in a massive crater forming at Naruto's feet. Then, he opened wide and chomped down on the little ball.

Rafaela broke out in a cold sweat as she felt something building up within the demonic blond. And then…

A deafening blast pierced the air as Naruto's Bijuudama ripped through the forest, vaporizing the small group of Awakened where they were in an instant, before a second explosion tore through the countryside. The resulting mushroom cloud could be seen for miles.

The poor one-eyed witness sat stock still, not even breathing. Then, she fell to the side and fainted with an undignified thud.

Naruto quickly looked behind him and became wide-eyed when he saw Rafaela laying on her side unconscious. "OH CRAP!" the transformed blond quickly ran over to her and began to panic.

"Oh, what do I do?! WHAT DO I DO?! ...WHAT DID I DO?!?"

The sight of a monstrous being Naruto had become, panicking and fidgeting over the unconscious Rafaela, it was a very humorous sight to behold. The blond quickly exited his Four Tails Version 2 state; revealing his clothes had not been burnt off - surprisingly enough the blond kept clothing that was somehow resistant to the corrosive chakra - and barely resisted himself from yelling out in pain from his exposed muscles.

He waited a moment for his skin to regrow before waiting a bit more for the woman to wake up.

Up until he used Suiton: Mizurappa on her... nearly 10 minutes later that is.

----

Back in Pieta, the group of warriors had sensed the massive yoki spike. They felt the tremors coming from the blast. Hell, some of them even saw the mushroom cloud just over the horizon.

Poor Diana was curled up into a ball, trembling and crying; Yuma now lay flat on her ass, having fainted upon feeling the tremor; and Clare was… blushing?! So was Jean for that matter…They tried to hide it but failed miserably upon seeing the mushroom cloud.

Needless to say, a few of their colleagues noticed and had some awkward questions in mind for them - not the least of whom was their commander, Miria.

"H-How long do you think that thing will take to get here?" asked a chest-length haired woman, identified as Number 39 Karla. She was looking at her assigned captain, Flora for an answer.

Said woman looked at her momentarily before gazing at the mushroom cloud on the horizon. "...I do not know." she squinted at it. "If it truly is coming here, it'll arrive in three days. Maybe more, if we're lucky."

Veronica looked to Miria for guidance, visibly shaken. Undine, true to her personality, did one hell of a job hiding her fear. But she too was at a loss and did the same.

"So, what now, commander?" the latter asked, her tone dire.

Miria closed her eyes, took a deep steady, soothing breath and exhaled. "...I… don't know," she admitted. What could any of them do if that… the thing truly was coming here? "To be truthful with someone having yoki capable of pulling that-" she pointed at the mushroom cloud. "-off, I fear none of us will be capable of stopping it. Even if we were to converge on it all at once."

Then, she looked suspiciously at Jean. Something was off about her and Clare. Out of everyone here, their reactions were the most... seemingly random. "Jean," she called out. "I would like to have a word with you and Clare."

When all eyes were on them, everyone saw how… unconcerned they were. Both women exchanged looks, uncertain about how to react. Then, in unison, they sighed and approached their commander.

Miria glanced between the two with a suspicious look. "...You know what that was." The declarative tone made it clear that she was certain of this.

"What?!" Helen shouted in bewilderment. "There's no way!"

What only surprised the loudmouth more was the embarrassed blushes Jean and Clare now sported.

"Y-You actually know what that was?" An equally bewildered Deneve asked them.

"Tell me, Miria," Clare began a bit timidly. "Have you heard what happened to Riful's consort, Dauf?"

Riful? As in Riful of the West?! Said woman's eyes went wide. "I -"

"He happened," Jean interrupted, gesturing to the mushroom cloud.

Everyone looked at the mushroom cloud again, then back at Clare and Jean, then back to the mushroom cloud and then back to them.

"...He..." said one woman, identified as Emelia.

"...Happened?" whimpered another, identified as Natalie.

Miria wanted to know one thing though. "Is he friendly?"

"Oh, you have no idea," Jean whispered dreamily. Then, her eyes nearly popped out of her skull as she realized she'd said that out loud. Everyone present swore they saw steam rising from her face as she blushed brightly enough to give off light. "Uh… y-you didn't hear that."

Too late…

Miria's eye twitched. Well… that was an unexpected turn of events.

Then Clare spoke up. "Though the… the technique he used to kill Dauf was a much weaker one than… well… that," she gestured to the mushroom cloud once more. "It still left a crater in the ground. And as for Dauf? There was nothing left of him. Not even blood."

Off to the left Natalie's knees started to tremble at that. Several others started to shiver as well, hoping beyond hope that they didn't find themselves pissing this guy off. Hell, even Undine couldn't help but let some of her worry slip.

Several years ago, she and an old friend of hers encountered the Awakened Being, Dauf. It did not end well for them. That said, she knew first-hand what he was capable of and for this guy of theirs to... obliterate him in such a manner left her gobsmacked.

"But… h-he is friendly, right?" Yuma nervously asked, having woken up in time to hear Clare explaining what had happened to Dauf. The mere idea of them going against someone of that magnitude nearly made her soil herself.

"When I met him. Yes." Clare told the nervous girl.

That made everyone relax a little. But they still couldn't help but feel intimidated by what they saw and felt. Miria, on the other hand, was not entirely convinced; Clare said when she met him. So for all they knew, he could be an enemy now.

Still... she could ask Clare for more information about him later. If her suspicion on him becoming an enemy proves to be true, then she'll need all the information she can get in order to find a way to put him down.

But, those were thoughts for another time.

Clearing her throat to get everyone's attention, Miria said, "as interesting as this subject matter is, I believe we've dwelled upon it long enough. We have a closer threat to worry about, after all. Everyone return to your assigned groups and get ready for tomorrow."

----

Hours later Miria, Helen and Deneve were in a cave that was near the outskirts of the walled town. A campfire was in the middle to lighten up the interior. All three women were only in their jumpsuits, and when they heard plated metal clank against the rocky surface, they 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 brow when the former raised her sword. "Well, let's commemorate our reunion."

Miria smiled at that, Deneve while startled had the corners of her lips curve slightly upwards, and Clare had a small smile. All three drew out their swords and placed them on top of Helen's.

All four withdrew their swords and put them aside, then Miria, Deneve and Helen 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. "Anyways our position probably wasn't as dangerous as yours. How has it 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 glared at the entryway. "Who's there? Show yourself!" she yelled demandingly.

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

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

Both women exchanged looks once again, then the former regaled everything from finding that dying hybrid walking into town she was passing through to her encountering Riful and her late 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 her helping.

By the end of it Miria, Helen and Deneve were speechless.

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…" she 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…"

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

Helen didn't answer her. Instead, she asked her own set of questions. "Wait for a second, what is all this Clare?! How on earth did you get away from a hopeless situation like that?! Riful? Galatea? Abyssal Ones?! What the hell!?" apparently, she forgot they were rescued by a certain blond who then proceeded to kill Dauf.

Miria, however, did not. "...That's where he came in, isn't it? The one who caused that mushroom cloud."

There was no point in hiding it. "Yes. But by the time I had returned to the ground floor with Jean, he had everything handled." Clare leaned back and crossed her arms against her bosom. "Riful's consort who had fully transformed and was twenty times his size had been thrown clear across the room and through the wall."

Helen stared at Clare with wide eyes before uttering a flat, "...What?"

"That was more or less my reaction when I saw it," Jean pointed out. "I still can't believe it, even though I saw it happen before my very eyes."

Clare scoffed. "You know what's even more ridiculous? He stopped Dauf's oversized fist with his bare hand. As in, he hadn't transformed, at all." she shook her head exasperatedly. "Then he went and did something we all thought was impossible…"

"Which was?" Miria questioned.

"He healed our stigma," Jean answered. "Completely closed it."

"N-no way," Helen muttered.

Deneve shook her head in denial. "Impossible. The Organization tried everything they could to get our stigma closed. Nothing worked."

At that, Jean crossed her arms and lifted her top to show that she was telling the truth. All three breathed in sharply at seeing Jean's unblemished skin. Ho-ly shit! Someone is capable of healing their un-healable scar!

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

Blinking Helen rapidly looked 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 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. "Never mind 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 shrugged. "But that's not just me." she pointed out 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?" Helen narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

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

Miria interlocked her fingers in front of her mouth and rested her elbow on her legs. And in a no-nonsense tone, she answered. "For this operation… the chances of success are zero."

No one was surprised by this revelation, except for Helen who was the only one there to voice it.

Jean and Clare exchanged a worried glance.

Miria went on to elaborate her reasoning why their mission here would ultimately fail 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 take in a deep breath. "But with the presence of the one behind them, whatever careful tactics and strategies, whatever reinforcements and what else we may try… it will all end up becoming ultimately futile."

"...Maybe not." Clare suddenly announced.

The other women perked up at that.

Jean's eyes lit up in remembrance. "...That's right, he gave us that, didn't he? And it works too!" she said, looking at Clare.

Clare nodded. "And he did tell us to use it when we need him. I'd say this counts."

Her mind made up, Jean immediately started focusing her yoki into her wrist.

Miria gave her a questioning look. "What are you -"

"You called?"

Three out of the five women nearly jumped out of their skin at the sound of a sly, distinctly masculine voice saying that, as a pair of arms lovingly wrapped around Jean. Miria, Helen and Deneve all looked on nervously, as they could tell this was the man. His yoki was a direct match to the one they'd sensed from miles away.

"We need your help, Naruto," Clare said to him from her seat.

"Really?"

That was then they saw him as he unwrapped his arms from around Jean and stepped out from behind her. Miria, Helen and Deneve couldn't believe their eyes. He was a kid, at least in their eyes; he couldn't be older than 17!

Vibrant blue eyes, sun-kissed blond hair, three distinct whisker-like marks on each cheek. His attire was of civilian garb: a pair of linen pants; leather shoes; a thick leather unbuttoned, sleeveless tunic; and a matching grey, rolled up long-sleeved shirt underneath. Though underneath said shirt they could see some kind of leather armour that reached to his wrists.

Naruto looked back out at the entrance. "Huh. You weren't kidding when you said you were heading to the North. It's a lot different when compared to the West."

"Indeed," Jean replied. "As it turns out, there's an army of Awakened Beings approaching from farther north. Their leader is too strong for us to handle, though."

"Hmm… how strong a force are we talking here? 1000? 2000?" Naruto questioned them.

Poor Miria looked like she was about ready to have a seizure. Two-thousand?! There weren't even that many in existence… or at least she hoped that was the case! "Uh… thankfully, no," she muttered. "Our odds are hopeless, but that would... just... be ridiculous…" She took a calming breath.

Naruto looked at her owlishly. "R-Really? Then how many are we talking about, here? 500?"

Miria's eye twitched. "About 27," she said. "Against our 24."

Naruto gave her a very, dull stare. "...Are you serious? That's not an army, that's a small platoon."

"As far as Awakened are concerned," Miria responded, "it is an army. Just one could potentially level a city."

"Where I come from my enemies could flatten cities and reshape entire landscapes in the blink of an eye." which was not untrue - Nagato completely flattened Konoha with a single technique, and Kurama is a colossal sized being that can literally reshape landscapes.

Miria twitched, again. "Then I'm glad we don't live there," she muttered. Then, she cleared her throat and composed herself. "Be that as it may, these things are powerful. It usually takes four of us to take on one, and as I said, we only have 24."

Naruto sighed. "Your definition of powerful could be classed as weak for me." he shrugged. "Nevertheless, I'm here. When are you expecting this… 'army' to arrive?"

As if on cue, a bloodcurdling scream pierced the night air.

"Right about now," Deneve muttered, unamused.

"I'll fetch the others, then," Naruto replied. Then, he has Jean on Clare kisses on the cheek. "Try to stay out of trouble until I get back. I'll just be a minute." Then, he vanished as quickly as he'd appeared.

----

The villagers had no idea what the hell just happened. One second, everything was fine and dandy, then, next, these metal tentacle-things slammed into a building out of nowhere and dragged an eight-foot monster into the town square.

Thankfully, the warriors present were far more calm about it. Miria was there in the blink of an eye, barking orders to her comrades. "Jean Team, take out the one on the rooftop over there! Flora Team, your target's on the tower! My team will take on the one in the courtyard, and everyone else is in reserve! Give them hell!"

Atop the roof of a small inn, a bald man with a blindfold hummed thoughtfully. "They're surprisingly well-coordinated."

Flora dashed up towards the man in a hood who'd perched himself atop a tower. 'I probably can't rely on anyone higher than 30,' she thought. 'It'd be best if I ended this swiftly.'

Her target chuckled as she leapt up behind him and tried to cut him down right there. Faster than the eye could see, her blade came down in a flurry of rapid slashes, chopping to bits everything… but her target. The woman's eyes widened in shock. "What?"

Then, one of her comrades came at her, the sword is drawn. The girl was Number 30, Wendy, and she had a horrified look in her eye as her body moved on its own to attack her captain. Then, much to both the short-haired girl's relief and chagrin, Clare leapt on up and kicked her away from Flora.

The woman who'd just saved her then shouted, "he can control your body by manipulating your yoki!"

Flora promptly took note of this and unleashed herself to 10 percent. Her eyes glowed an unholy golden shade and her pupils narrowed to demonic slits as she used her signature technique, the Windcutter, to try again at chopping this hooded fucker to tiny bits… only for said fucker to be conspicuously absent among the remains of his now-shredded garb.

She clicked her tongue in annoyance at the sound of maniacal laughter coming from above. Then, Flora flinched at the sound of another male voice standing right next to her.

"Well, aren't you an ugly motherfucker," Naruto commented nonchalantly, staring up and the naked man above. Then he smirked. "And poorly-equipt. I almost feel sorry for you."

Mistaking him for a civilian, too absorbed by the heat of battle to question how he got up here, Flora yelled, "get out of here! It's dangerous!"

"Oh, don't worry about me," he replied with a charming grin, "I'm just making sure Clare's okay. She's precious to me."

Off to the side a bit, said woman blushed at that.

Then, Flora, Clare, and Naruto narrowly dodged as the "poorly-equipt" man came crashing down upon them… and was no longer a man. In his place was a giant, spikey lizard-thing. "We'll see who's ugly when I'm done with you, little man."

Naruto chortled. "You're calling me little? That's rich."

The lizard-thing extended and launched several spikes from his back at the blond, only for his target to suddenly vanish.

Much as it was fun to fuck with this one, Naruto could tell Jean was in trouble and decided to see what was going on real quick.

Said woman had seen better days, though she'd also seen worse. Now dishevelled and panting as her comrades kneeled around her in similar condition, Jean glared at the metal bug-looking Awakened atop the roof before her.

Then, the damn thing was sent flying as a blur of motion clocked him in the head and vanished from sight, causing her to blink in surprise, before blushing at a very familiar voice to her left.

"Damn, Jean, you should be more careful," Naruto said in concern.

The warrior in question scowled lightly as she stood up beside her man. "I appreciate the help, but I can take care of myself."

Said man frowned. "True, but you're not the only one I'm worried about."

He could practically see the question mark floating above Jean's head as she asked. "What do you mean by that?"

Naruto chuckled sheepishly. "Uh… yeah, in hindsight, it would be too early for you to tell…"

"What do you mean by that?!" Jean repeated, now looking a bit concerned.

Naruto quickly looked around and seeing the wary eyes of Jean's team, he quickly leaned over and whispered into her ear. "You're pregnant."

Jean… stared. Then she blinked and stared some more before her sword hit the ground with a clang and her eyes rolled back.

"Captain!" Diana cried out in concern, as her team's leader did a wonderful impersonation of felled lumber, only to be caught by the blond stranger. Then, the poor girl froze in shock as her comrades felt a wave of malice that nearly made them all piss themselves.

"Why do I feel a sense of impending doom?" Naruto wondered aloud.

"Because the next one is mine or I will fucking murder you," Riful hissed having read his lips. She'd fucked him first, damn it! That just wasn't fair!

"Duly noted." The blond chuckled nervously. "I was wondering where you ran off to," he said.

"You're the one who ran off after you plucked us up from that bandit camp," the loli pointed out with an exasperated sigh. "So, what's the plan of attack?"

Naruto scooped Jean on up into a bridal carry, before answering. "There's three of these fuckers floating about. I want there to be zero… hell, I wanted to say there was two, but that one I clobbered forgot to die. It was kind of impressive, actually."

Off in the distance, the metallic bug-looking Awakened groaned in pain and irritation from within the building he'd just renovated… with his face. "Fuck you, too, asshole…"

Naruto somehow heard him and yelled, "Go fuck yourself! I'm straight!"

Riful rolled her eyes, unable to help but be amused by her mate's childishness. She then sighed and said, "I'll take out the trash, you take her to a nice inn. Book a room with two beds - one for her, one for us."

"On it." With that, the blond vanished from sight, again.

"I've got to figure out how he does that," the loli muttered in envy. Then she noticed the cowering Diana, Natalie, Emelia, and Eliza and frowned at them. "What?"

Back with Flora, she and her team were all hunched over, unable to move, except for Karla… or not. She was moving, but visibly not of her own accord, as the lizard-looking fucker cackled. "Now, you all die, by your own comrade's blade!"

Then, out of nowhere, several-dozen metallic, purple ribbons ensnared him, making the Awakened lose concentration, as he was plucked off the rooftop and shredded to bits before Team Flora's eyes.

Throughout Pieta, every… still-conscious warrior but one was paralyzed by a massive surge of yoki flooding the town. Then, a giant mass of metallic, purple ribbons slithered up into the air and combined to form a feminine visage with glowing, pink eyes.

Riful of the West giggled, amused by the looks of horror she received from the warriors about the town. Then, she plucked the bug-looking fucker from where he'd landed and the large humanoid one from the courtyard. Before the warriors knew what was going on, she quickly chopped them to tiny pieces just like she had the lizard, and vanished.

While understandably terrified that there's a fucking Abyssal One walking amongst them, all teams, except for one person were utterly confused as to why she hadn't killed any of them. Or even attempted to.

Naruto reappeared once more, having placed Jean inside of an inn to recover from the shock of a lifetime. He surveyed his surroundings, his senses sharp and on the lookout for the last Awakened Being.

There was nothing. Seems like he died.

The blond frowned, speaking of Awakened Beings, where's Ophelia? She should be around somewhere… hopefully not causing any unneeded trouble for the defenders. His train of thought was promptly interrupted as the very blonde he'd been thinking about glomped him from behind with a giggle.

Naruto, completely unprepared for this, unceremoniously faces planted with a loud, startled yelp that caught the attention of every single silver-eyed woman in the area.

"...I'm okay!" came Naruto's slightly muffled voice. He leaned up and looked over his shoulder at the glomping Ophelia. "As much as I like this, can you let me up, please? The floor is uncomfortable."

"Hmmm… Fine." Shrugging the Former Number 4 allowed Naruto to stand back up, and found he was under the eyes of all 24- no wait, 23 claymores currently accounted for.

"...Uhhh… hi?" Naruto awkwardly greeted them.

There was the sound of metal boots approaching as Rafaela looked at the spectacle before her. The one-eyed woman twitched. "That boy gets himself into all sorts of trouble," she muttered to herself.

Her muttering was heard by quite a few of them and when they realised they were amongst another single digit, someone stronger than Miria they were surprised.

Said commander was especially so. "N-Number 5, Rafaela," she uttered in shock. "What are you doing here?"

"I've been assigned by the Organization to keep an eye on this hellion."

Said hellion waved rather cheerfully at her with an equally cheerful grin. "Love you too, Rafaela!"

Said woman blushed, crossing her arms with a huff.

"There you are!" Riful exclaimed, walking over to Naruto while everyone gave the Abyssal One of the West a wide berth. "Where the hell were you? I checked out the inn and you weren't there!"

"I was checking on the situation out here," Naruto explained, "making sure everything had calmed down, and then… well, this happened."

Riful was standing in front of her mate now and was looking up at him with her hands on her hips. "Why would you need to check out the situation? Everything was taken care of."

"You'd be surprised at how underhanded the attackers can be in war," Naruto replied and looked at the building the bug-like Awakened Being had once been on top of. "If I had to guess, these three were merely scouts. The real bulk of this platoon is standing by. They're still a good distance away, but I wanted to make sure."

Riful frowned, seeing the logic behind his actions. "Fine... I'll let you off, this time. But, you seriously need to learn how important communication is in a relationship."

Naruto chuckled sheepishly. "I'll keep that in mind." He then patted the Abyssal loli on the head, resulting in her blushing and coming in for a hug.

Not one of the women observing could believe what they were seeing. Hell, even Ophelia and Rafaela were at least mildly surprised by how… civilized and loving Riful of the motherfucking West was acting towards this man.

One person - Helen - said what was on nearly everyone's mind as she watched this happening.

"...What the fuck?"

"I get that a lot," Naruto chuckled.

"S-So… you did kill her previous consort?" a wide-eyed Juliana asked him. "And you were the one that caused that massive mushroom cloud earlier?"

Naruto chuckled sheepishly. "Scared the living hell outta poor Rafaela in the process." Then he nodded. "But, yeah. There was a small party of Awakened waiting just a bit down south to ambush anyone who retreated when the bulk of Isley's force came down here. So, I figured 'I should get 'em outta the way' while sending a message to their friends." The sadistic way he said that sent shivers up the spines of many a woman present.

Ophelia licked her lips. "You have no idea how much I wanna mount you, right here and now!"

The blond chuckled, again - this time in amusement. "You'll get your fun, soon, Ophi."

At this, several women turned beet red. Flora, in particular, was especially flustered. "Not in front of us, please."

"Speak for yourself," Helen muttered under her breath, only to be smacked upside the head by Deneve.

Naruto looked at the assembled women. "So, who's the leader here exactly? I want to ask her something."

"That would be me," Miria announced, "under typical circumstances, the one present with the lowest rank is the leader. I'm Number 6. Rafaela's Number 5, but she has her task to handle, and Ophelia..." Miria looked at the woman in question and noted the different eye colour. "...is Number 4, but seems to be doing her own thing, as well."

In fact, she was so surprised the bitch hadn't tried anything. Knowing her, she thought Ophelia would have picked a fight with anyone who so much as looked at her wrong. But here she's more… calm. Peaceful, even. She was acting so out of character it left Miria utterly baffled.

Naruto slowly got Riful to stop hugging him and for Ophelia to stop leaning against him. "Right. Well, the reason I asked, is because I want to test everyone here and see what kinda people I need to keep from getting themselves killed."

Miria was taken aback by this. "What? Why?"

"If you're comparing a group of 24 Awakened Beings to an army, then I need to see just what I'm dealing with when it comes to you. Because, lady, 24 people - monsters or not - is nothing remotely close to an army of anything, where I'm from."

"What do you mean?" Undine grunted in annoyance.

"Alright, I'll give you all an example. Where I came from, there was this enemy who could basically disguise itself as a human."

Undine scoffed. "Yoma basically."

Naruto chuckled. "Oh, you would think that. But here's the scary thing: a little bit of yoki from Riful and it can disguise itself as her, down to the last detail. That means powers, memories, abilities, strengths and weaknesses; anything you can think of it can do it flawlessly."

Miria paled at the thought. How does one fight an enemy like that?!

"You know what's even worse? There were tens of thousands of them. So imagine having to fight tens of thousands of Riful's. Or worse, yourself." he directed that last bit at Undine who was decidedly pale. "Not so confident now, are you?" Naruto shrugged. "Either way, an army is generally 1000-strong at least, where I'm from. So yeah, I want to see just how capable you all are, both individually and as a unit." he paused and looked back to Miria again. "That is if you agree."

"Why…?"

Naruto blinked and looked to the person who asked that. Claudia, Number 36.

"Why, what? You're gonna have to be more specific," he said to her.

"Why do you want to do this?"

Naruto shrugged. "I know a suicide mission when I see one," he said. "I'd hate to see so many beauties bite the dust like that." This caused no shortage of reddening cheeks. "Also, I've got two reasons to go after Isley. Their names are Clare and Ophelia. His Consort is this One-Horned Monster who's caused them to suffer, and I take it personally when someone does that to my loved ones." Ophelia suddenly felt a bit sheepish upon hearing that but kept it to herself. "I'd also hate to see the locals here lose their homes in the battle. In short, I have a lot of reasons."

Miria looked at her comrades then back to Naruto. "If any of you want to back out, now would be the time to do so." Miria felt pride welling up in her chest when none of them tried backing out. "So… what's first?" she proceeded to ask him.

"First off: willpower. When you're facing against a much superior opponent, keeping your nerves together can mean the difference between life and death. In other words: will you freeze when you're struck by utter terror?" Naruto brought up his right hand and stared at it. "Let's find out, shall we?"

Suddenly Naruto's eyes turned orange with demonic slits for pupils. His skin started peeling off to reveal black and red, viscous blood-like energy beneath. Then, he was engulfed by a massive sphere of yoki as the earth itself seemed to tremble in fear beneath his feet. The air was thick, almost suffocating around the boy, and then, a black and red silhouette of demonic energies with white, glowing eyes replaced the boy. It was similar to him in stature, but had fox-like ears atop its head, four tails sprouting from its ears and a jagged line for a mouth, resembling that of a piranha.

Clare was the only one among her peers not shaken… she was still shaking, mind you, but not in fear, as her face turned beet red. The feel of being so close to such power was… intoxicating!

Aside from her, everyone above the rank of 30 passed out on the spot. Naruto's yoki simply proved too overwhelming for them. As for Number 30, herself, Wendy's knees buckled as she trembled like a leaf in pure, unadulterated terror.

Emelia wasn't any better off than Wendy. Zelda and Helen were, but not by much. True to their personalities, did they did their damnedest to shake it off… to fight through it, but simply couldn't.

A bloodcurdling scream was ripped from Queenie as she backed away on trembling knees. Lily and Eliza subconsciously backed away, as well, too terrified to control themselves.

Naruto saw that Deneve was impressively trying to fight the urge to flee, but was ultimately failing. Cynthia was doing a much better job and Veronica, likely feeling the weight of her role as a team leader, somehow managed to muscle through her fright and give him a defiant glare.

'I like that one,' Naruto thought. Then, he looked at Undine and was beyond impressed when he saw what had to be the most impressive poker face he'd encountered in years. Her body betrayed her, though: stiff as a board as she crossed arms did their damnedest to hide her trembling hands.

Flora was more honest. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she bit her lip, clenched her fists and tried to bear it. She was so overwhelmed. How was it possible to have this much yoki?

Miria stood upon trembling knees, visibly startled and struggling in the wake of this young man's transformation. Her whole body was shaking. Every fibre of her being screamed at her to flee, but she held firm.

As for Rafaela, she still trembled like a leaf, despite having felt this overwhelming presence before. Finally, similar to Clare, Riful and Ophelia looked about ready to hop on the meat stick and ride him like a pony.

Then, just as quickly as it came, the transformation and immense yoki dissipated. Naruto bared his teeth as he tried to keep the pained screams in. His skin was gone, leaving his muscles exposed to the air.

Then, white steam rose from his body with a hiss as his skin grew back before everyone's eyes.

"Gah! Even after all these years, Version 2 still hurts like a bitch!" Naruto growled through his bared teeth. He took a deep breath and looked at everyone; he saw how many were unconscious, nine of them, and how many were still awake, which totalled in 14. "I'll... wait for the nine to wake back up. Then I'll tell you my verdict."

Luckily the ones who fainted on him didn't take long to resuscitate. They quickly filed back in place though they were looking at him with more fear than they ever did before.

Naruto breathed out and rubbed the back of his neck. "Well apart from Clare who didn't seem to be affected at all… if you didn't faint, you either froze completely or - in a few cases - tried to back away out of pure terror. Quite a few of you put up one heck of resistance though, and in one or two cases it was a damn impressive one." He eyeballed Veronica and Undine in particular out the corner of his eye. "But in the end: you all died."

"I… can't disagree with that," Miria admitted, as loathe as it was.

Helen was quick to ask once she had gotten herself composed. "What was that? I never saw or felt anything like it!"

"What you all just saw is one of my weaker transformations," Naruto told her. "I got like, five or six more, but using them would be overkill since you can't handle what's basically my 20 percent form."

"T-twenty percent?!" Helen screeched, "Are you serious?! That felt like it had to be like... 80 percent or something, at least!"

"I am completely serious. My other transformations are more powerful, and far more deadly." the blond sighed and crossed his arms. "But I did learn one thing though."

"And what would that be?" Veronica was the one to ask.

"Basically if you were to go against four tails and over, then you're gonna get this reaction again. Until you're used to it of course." Naruto looked up at the sky. "But we're on limited time before the next attack; so the chances of getting your nerves steeled to that extent are slim at best."

Riful and Ophelia both looked at him. "Why don't you use that technique you showed us?" the former asked.

Naruto looked at her, wondering what she was talking about. "You know? That… um… Kage Bushuin? Boshin?"

"It's Kage 'Bunshin', Riful. And you bring up a good point."

Unable to help but let her curiosity get the better of her, Miria asked, "what's Kage Bunshin?"

"It's one of the most unfair techniques I've ever seen." Rafaela drawled out with a lot of jealousy in her voice. "It can make copies of himself, all of whom have all of his techniques; and anything they learn, he learns en masse. He can learn what normal people would take years to do, in mere hours."

Helen looked at Naruto with her mouth dropped open. "The hell?! That's broken!" she shouted.

"Admittedly," Naruto chuckled, then he shrugged. "But, then again, I'm a mercenary. Fighting dirty has been my job since I was twelve. That aside, I don't need to actively sustain the technique so the clones I make can last as long as they have enough chakra to sustain themselves."

Miria blinked owlishly. "Chakra?"

"It's what I use when I'm not using yoki," Naruto explained. "A blend of physical and spiritual energies manifested into a type of energy that I can use." he paused a moment and looked between the women. "I'm pretty sure you all can use it, too. But from what it looks like, your bodies are generating yoki instead, which from what I can tell could by physical energy. But I won't actually know how until I double-check."

"D-Double-check, what do you mean by that?" Yuma instinctively crossed her arms in front of herself protectively.

"Naruto can heal our stigma. Giving us greater control over our yoki as a result." Rafaela flatly answered.

With that, nineteen of the twenty-three women present found themselves staring at the man in either hope or disbelief, depending on the individual. Seeing the uncertainty among the women in the crowd, Rafaela lifted her top. "There's my proof he did it, and is not telling lies as many of you are sure to be thinking," she said, showing them her unmarred stomach. Then as she lowered her top the woman looked at the blond who'd healed her. "You're welcome."

Naruto sighed, and when he found himself under the gleaming eyes of twenty 22 women, he subconsciously backed away. He brought his hand to his mouth and cleared his throat. "A lot less subtle than I would have liked. But telling them directly is at times better than trying to be discreet about it."

"How exactly are you able to… heal our stigma?" Miria asked.

Naruto brought up his right hand once more, and before their very eyes, it was coated in bubbling, crimson yoki.

"Your yoki?" Veronica warily asked him; she could still feel the terror welling up within her at the feel of it, as many of the others did as well. But this time, it was a lot more bearable compared to the sheer amount he used several minutes ago.

Naruto nodded. "Yep, it can heal just about anything - short of decapitation though. Once I even saved a guy who was disintegrating, and one time regrown an entire eye with it." he frowned and scratched the side of his head. "There was that one time where I practically shared my 'yoki' with other people as well… Lots of 'em at once. Not sure what would happen if I were to do that with you though." he added offhandedly. "As for healing your stigmas, I'll need to see what I'm doing to do so properly. Don't wanna run the risk of something going wrong or healing it incompletely."

Rafaela couldn't help herself. "For those who are too pure-minded: you need to strip down to be healed," she told bluntly told everyone.

Needless to say, more than a few women were looking a bit wary of the man.

"Even I'm not that blunt…" Naruto muttered, giving the one-eyed woman a flat look. "You have an axe to grind against me, don't you?"

"Why I have no idea what you're talking about." the one-eyed woman replied with a sickeningly sweet tone. She wasn't doing this because of him fucking the Abyssal One of the West for the past four fucking days. Oh, no.

Naruto had a dull look now on his face as he looked at the woman. He didn't believe her for a second.

"Uh-huh. So you're saying you want me to go after your sister, then?" he looked at the assembled women in front of him.

"I just realised something…!" Riful suddenly said, stopping Rafaela from replying and making everyone look at her.

"And that is?" Naruto asked her, though he had an idea on what she was going to reveal to everyone.

Riful pointed at him - rather dramatically at that - and said. "You just made yourself a target to the Awakened Beings!"

"What?" a surprised Helen started, then looked at Naruto questionably. "How did he make himself a target? All he did was use... his… yoki..." she trailed off in realisation.

Naruto exhaled. "Well, it took you all long enough to realise it. Yes, I made myself a target. Testing you was just one reason I did it. The other was to either attract their attention towards me or scare 'em off. Hopefully the latter. Again, I know a suicide mission when I see one."

Clare looked at him with admiration. "You like to think of everything don't you?"

Naruto chuckled. "When I can; though I still tend to be a bit of a doofus from time to time… old habits do die hard, after all."

Naruto looked at Queenie when she said. "Y-You said you can 'share' your yoki with others. What do you mean by that?" she was still scared of him, though her terror and nervousness were mostly gone by now.

Naruto looked at them all one by one. "As I said, I don't know what it'll do if I try it with one of you... but it was perfectly safe for regular humans." He shrugged. "Maybe if one of you doesn't mind volunteering, I can show you. Much easier than trying to explain it."

A woman with an asymmetrical bob cut and a fringe over her left eye stepped forward.

"Okay, then," Naruto said. He saw the determined look in her eye and couldn't help but smile. "You were one of the ones who were holding her ground against Version 2. What's your name?"

"Zelda," she replied. "Number 24."

Naruto smiled. "Alright, this should be interesting."

The blond placed his yoki enveloped hand on Zelda's arm, and watched as a bubbling red cloak, with a single tail and a pair of fox ears formed around her.

Zelda shook her head and blinked a couple of times - discombobulated at first by the sudden rush of energy she felt. It was… rather pleasant, really - a far cry from what she was expecting. She looked at her hands and clenched her fists a couple of times. She felt stronger. Much stronger… "I kind of like it…" she muttered absently.

"...Zelda?" Undine, the captain of her team, asked. " ...How do you feel?"

"Powerful," she replied. "It's hard to describe, but I feel like I could fight for days at a time."

"Well, that's because you can," Naruto told her.

Zelda gave him a bewildered look. Somehow, she believed that. Hell, she felt she could do a whole lot more with this… cloak of yoki around her.

Naruto looked around. "Which one of you was the one who asked me about that mushroom cloud earlier?"

"I was," Juliana answered with a raised hand.

"Thank you…?"

"Juliana, Number 43."

"Thank you, Juliana." Naruto inclined at her. "Well to describe how powerful that cloak is: it's strong enough to endure that explosion. Or deflect it entirely."

Again this was not untrue. The Hyuuga clan was able to deflect a Bijuudama, thanks to his cloak enhancing their ability. If these women had a technique made for deflecting they probably do it too. As for enduring it, again it's not untrue; for the Bijuudama to be deflected, the Hyuuga had to endure it first.

"Somehow, I believe that, too," Zelda muttered.

Then Naruto snapped his fingers in remembrance. "Oh, before I forget: what you're seeing here, is the weakest version of my transformation I showed you earlier. So that's 5 percent."

Only Clare and Riful weren't unnerved by that statement. They had briefly seen it, back when he tossed Dauf through the castle.

Rafaela rubbed her forehead with the bottom of her palm. "With all of this, I still find it hard to believe that you were comparable to Number 47 a few years ago."

Taking it in stride, Naruto gave her an impish grin. "Never underestimate the underdog," he replied. "You never know what kinda bullshit they can pull off."

Now THAT had gotten more than a few people's interests. Especially the women who were above Number 30.

"R-Really? How'd you get so strong?" Yuma asked.

Naruto looked at her. "And what is your name?" he politely asked.

"Y-Yuma, Number 40."

"Well, Yuma, you'd be surprised at what a little training can do - especially if you're stubborn enough. It also helped that there was a girl I liked who I was trying to impress at the time. It didn't work out in the end, but I still got something out of it, at least."

Then Naruto got dull looks from Rafaela, Riful and Ophelia.

"...Oh?"

"And what about that technique you have, that practically gave you years worth of training in a few hours?"

Naruto gave them a flat look of his own. "I already told you, I didn't know about that part of the technique for two and a half years!"

"You mainly used it for fighting and distraction, we know that. But what we don't know is how you didn't remember them fighting." Rafaela said.

Naruto's dull look got even duller somehow. Then he looked away with a childish pout. "...I wasn't the smartest tool in the shed." Then he whirled to her. "Plus, it wasn't my fault! There weren't any instructions on what it did, other than how to do it!"

"But how did you not know you got memories?" Riful asked him,

"Probably because I was in the thick of fighting with them." he blinked when he saw the looks he was given by Riful, Ophelia and Rafaela. "What? I didn't tell you that?"

"No, you didn't." all three of them answered in unison.

"Well, there you go," he added with a shrug. Then, he looked at the other women and noted their confusion. He can practically see the question marks above their heads. Sighing the blond rubbed the bridge of his nose before bringing his hands into a cross-hand seal. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu."

A poof of smoke appeared beside the blond and everyone was surprised as hell when they saw another Naruto standing beside him.

Naruto crossed his arms and inclined his head to his clone. "Kage Bunshin. A solid clone, made from chakra, that has half my power and all of my abilities. Anything they learn, I learn upon dispelling." The clone waved and then vanished in another poof of smoke. "That's the technique we were talking about."

Helen was unamused. "That still sounds broken," she muttered.

Naruto gave Helen a flat look of his own. "You want to talk about horribly broken? How about a technique that makes you completely intangible? Damn, that fucker was annoying to fight..." he told her.

Miria's left eye twitched. "Just how many people like this did you fight?!" she shouted, to the surprise of many women.

"Too many to count. And many having abilities just as broken as that one. Had to keep up with 'em somehow."

"Um…" a Kyuubi cloaked Zelda brought attention back to herself. "...are these enemies of yours dead by any chance? Because… if they somehow find a way here, I fear none of us is capable of stopping them."

"The ones who matter are," Naruto nodded, crossing his arms. "I managed to befriend a few of them, though." he looked at Ophelia. "The second enemy-turned friend I made was similar to you."

Miria's eye twitched at the thought of another Ophelia roaming about somewhere. Clare was equally unnerved by the implication.

As for said awakened, she was pretty curious herself. "Oh? And how was that person similar to me?"

"He was… actually a little worse off than you, now that I think about it - a full-on nutcase. The first time we met, he tried to kill me to 'prove his existence' or some crazy shit like that." he revealed. "Though how he became like that wasn't entirely his fault."

"How so?"

"His asshole of a father got my friend's uncle - someone he loved and trusted the most - to try and kill his own son. Then when that failed, said uncle straight up said he hated him when it was the other way around. Because of orders" Naruto etched and scowled. "That really fucked my friend up. And what was worse? Said father sent fucking assassins after him days before and after that went down. In the end, it was his own uncle trying to kill him, and saying he hated him that sent my friend over the edge."

"How did you become friends with such a person?" Zelda asked him.

"By kicking his ass, oddly enough," he chuckled with a wide grin. Then he rubbed his chin. "Huh. Now that I think of it, I made a lot of friends by kicking their asses. Don't ask how; even I'm a bit confused."

Ophelia blinked owlishly. "Hey! Isn't that what you basically did to me?"

"Huh. Yeah, it is, more or less." Naruto could feel the expressions of shock and awe, even without seeing them. He looked at them then and was now able to see they're awed and shocked expressions. "So, who else wants to try out my yoki cloak?"

----

One day away from Pieta…

A giant, cat-like Awakened female with two tails and two mouths sniffed about a massive crater left in the wake of that explosion which made the whole damn continent shit its collective pants a few days ago. Even now, the lingering aura left in its wake was exquisitely thick. It was so pleasant to feel it around her… arousing, even, to bathe in.

She made damn sure to memorize its signature, to ingrain in her mind, to do the same with its owner's notably male scent. She shuddered to shake her hips and slightly raising her tails as she basked in it. The things she'd do once she finally got her hands on him would be legendary!

She'd make the owner of this aura her consort if it was the last thing she did! Nothing and no one was going to stop her! ...Except, maybe her sister. But what were the chances of her being with this fine male specimen?

Not too long ago, the aura popped up again a bit farther north, she noted. With her destination in mind, Luciela of the South set her sights in that direction with a mighty leap.

She would never venture out of her territory under normal circumstances. Never this far out anyhow. She had to briefly venture into that harlot's territory for a bit, and now the owner of this yoki she's following was deep in the North. Within the Silver King's territory.

"Once I'm close, I'll have to transform back. Can't have anyone get suspicious of me before I collect my… soon-to-be consort." Luciela went into a fit of sinister giggles.