DISCLAIMER: (See Prologue)

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(Unedited; Unbeta'd)

Chapter II

The bright blue waters of the river which sat by the temple of the Golden Pavilion reflected a few beams of light had Naruto shielding his eyes lest he risk of going temporarily blind, even if it was only for a few seconds.

Looking away from the reflecting lights from the river, he contemplated on what his plan of action should be. He knew that he had to tread carefully. There was certain danger in the air that seemed eerily familiar to him though he just couldn't pinpoint it.

He had smelt it from a mile away, before he had even arrived at the temple. He was assaulted by an earthy smell, similar to the smell of wrought copper or that odor he smells whenever he was visiting blacksmiths to repair some of his weapons when he was nearing the temple premises. It was an odd metallic stench that he was very familiar with, considering his choice of companion.

He trudged towards the entrance of the Inner Capital. If his memory served him correctly, he was only a minutes walk away now.

As he went nearer, the coppery smell only got stronger, not that he minded the smell since he was used to it but it was tad bit too pungent, more so than usual. He'd hazard that there was probably a lot of it. Definitely fresh as well.

He raised a single hand readily, a spiral symbol appearing on the back of his hand. He was readying a spell in preparation for the worst. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that.

He looked down at the floor and saw traces of dark, crimson liquid. As he moved closer towards the entrance, the traces of the red liquid started to grow in volume, coming in puddles and then to ponds. The orange glow of the spiral symbol on his hand grew brighter.

Then he stopped dead on his tracks.

Naruto narrowed his eyes as he zoomed in towards the pile of bloody bodies—corpses that bathed in rivers of blood, no doubt spewing from their cold, lifeless bodies. They were humans, at least he thought they were. He really couldn't distinguish their faces due to the amount of blood that splat on their faces but judging from their lack of unique appendages he guessed it must be true.

He scanned the pavilion for any hostile presences but couldn't find any peculiarities, he didn't let up his guard though. Instead, another spiral symbol appeared on his other hand.

The eerie scene in front of him bothered him. There weren't any signs of battle, aside from of the obvious abundance of blood, no, in fact there wasn't even any signs of struggle. It looked like they were all just standing there in their places, probably assigned for some menial task, when they suddenly just dropped dead. Then there was the fact that he did not feel any presence when he tried searching for it. Whoever or whatever did this was dangerous, probably amongst the most dangerous ones he fought as of yet.

He just knew it.

"I know what you're thinking," Naruto suddenly tensed on his place. His entire body suddenly coming to a complete halt as his mind raced about what measures he should take, actions he should do. He knew, just by the fact that he had managed to past his detection, that the person was considerably skilled.

"You're probably thinking along the lines of 'How did he past me?' or 'What the hell is he?' aren't you?"

Naruto shook his head, "You would have been right if you had ask me a few seconds later," He turned around to his back, only to quickly dodge a large scorching ball of flame hurdling towards him with a quick boost from a wind spell.

"That was too close for comfort," He whispered to himself. "You should really be careful with where you toss around those fireballs of yours, 'ya know. Never know who you might accidentally incinerate."

Naruto stepped back as his attacker suddenly appeared in front of him. His attacker was fast, although he wasn't sure who was the faster between the two of them. He wasn't too keen on finding out anytime soon though, Seraphim was still waiting for him on the other front.

A spiral symbol quickly appeared on his hand and thrusted it forward towards his attacker. His attacker, which he identified as a male with orange (orange!) hair, felt the air in front of him suddenly compressing before he was forced flying backward by a powerful torrent of wind. The man, with a remarkable feat of acrobatics, landed on the ground, seemingly unharmed.

"Timeout! Timeout!" Naruto quickly called out, his hands making a 'T' sign as he did.

His attacker paused on his tracks and observed him. He shivered slightly as he felt his attacker's red slitted eyes surveying him. He narrowed his eyes when he saw the orange haired guys eyes freeze, as though he had seen a ghost for a split second before reverting back to a more calm expression.

"You have thirty seconds to explain why you are here on my territory or else," The attacker said before moving his hands towards his neck, motioning it as if he had a knife and slicing it. Naruto gulped.

Naruto calmed his mind and remembered the lessons his father taught him when dealing with people who you shouldn't to fight with fists or magic. Even at his current strength, he wasn't sure if he could take the person in front of him. Another important lesson his father imparted to him.

Always overestimate your opponent when your dealing with an unknown.

He observed the man in front of him. He seemed familiar, he wasn't sure if he had read about him on a book before or something but he felt really familiar, like he should know who the person was.

Let's see: Creepy, dark red eyes. Slightly long orange hair. Orange fox-like ears. Nine orange tails swishing behind him...Then it clicked to him. If he was the person Naruto thinks he is then he would be in for a show. A rather bloody one that is.

"I came here to investigate the huge gathering of magical energy here," His attacker gave him a blank look. "And another location. The energies were vastly different from Youkai energy, youki as you may have called it." Naruto paused as he directed his eyes towards the Youkai in front of him. "Coincidentally, the other location I was talking about was the location I was supposed to meet someone, the leader of the local Youkai faction." Naruto eyed him carefully as he talked, waiting for any reaction that might confirm his assumptions.

"Could you imagine my surprise when I arrived that the huge gathering of magic here suddenly vanished? I don't suppose you know who had done this?"

A small hoarse laugh echoed in the rather messy clearing which soon turned into fits of hysterics. Naruto's eyes twitched ever so slightly. The man wasn't taking him seriously!

The man suddenly stopped his laughter, suddenly shifting into a more serious look. "If I were to say that I was the one responsible," The man paused as he looked at Naruto's eyes directly, "What would you do?"

Naruto stayed still on his place, thinking of his reply. His eyes darted away from the intense gaze of the person in front of him was giving him. He had already gotten the information he needed from the person's reply, all he needed to do now was to somehow get out of the situation without the wasteful and, in spite of himself, if his assumptions were truly correct, one-sided fighting.

"I would thank you, probably, just for the fact that you saved me the time and the energy that I would have used in dealing with them." He managed to say confidently.

"Heh," The man laughed, an amused look adorning his face as he did. "Close enough, I suppose." The man turned his back against Naruto who raised an eyebrow at the action. Did that mean he 'passed' the man's 'test'?

"What's your name kid?" His eyes twitched at the obvious jab. He was twenty-three years old dammit!

"Naruto," He uttered in a low voice. "Namikaze Naruto."

The man turned back to him, eyeing his face as if he was studying a newly found treasure or an ancient specimen. It unnerved him a bit but otherwise kept his cool.

"Well then Fishcake," Naruto's eyes twitched at that. He had been doing that a lot lately. "You will help me get my wife and daughter back."

"It's Maelstrom," He grumbled.

"Whatever you say Fishcake,"

Naruto huffed at that, grumbling about smug bastards and their cocky attitudes. Not that he could anything, he was pretty cocky himself at times.

He paused on his steps and took a look at the orange-haired man in front of him. There was still a few lingering questions that was floating in his mind regarding the Fox Youkai. He decided that now was a great opportunity to settle one of the questions and asked, "Before we go, what should I call you?"

The man paused at the question before glancing at him with only one side of the Youkai's face visible to him. A small, barely noticeable smirk appeared at the man's face. "Call me Kurama."

"Can I ask you something Fishcake,"

Naruto turned his head at the nine-tailed Youkai, still a bit irked at how the man calls him, chose to simply raise a single eyebrow in response.

"I'm going to take that as a yes," The Kitsune told himself. "I'm going to be blunt, do you use chakra or am I wrong in my presumption?"

His eyes made a sharp yet tiny movement towards the nine-tailed Youkai as the question was made. No one knew, apart from his closest connections, about his ability to use chakra or rather his ability to manipulate chakra the way he did.

"I don't think certain people I know would be happy if I just gave away information like that,"

The fox-man glanced at him with an appraising look. "Can't say that I'm blame you, everybody's entitled of their own secrets after all."

Naruto made a mental note on the tone that the Kyuubi used in his reply. That made him certain that the Youkai would ask him more questions later, and he wasn't even in the know of the contents of the letter that he was tasked to give probably to the orange-haired man gliding in front of him. For all he knew, it might contain data about his abilities.

"We're getting closer. Get ready, there's a lot of them." He nodded at Kurama's warning. He had felt it as well, before he and Seraphim separated. He had a bad feeling that he knew who those were and his instincts were screaming at him that he would be in for a fight.

"Hey," Naruto called out. "I think I have an idea on who we're gonna face,"

Kurama chose to stay quiet at his statement and allowed him continue. "Do you have any knowledge about the Khaos Brigade?"

"Yeah, they're dead men walking. That's all I know."

I was actually starting to wonder why he hadn't displayed much emotions, The blonde thought to himself before heaving a soft sigh.

"Guess I'll have to explain," He mumbled to himself. "The Khaos Brigade is made up of a bunch of different and distinct groups that follow a single entity, you probably know her as the Infinite Dragon." Naruto noticed Kurama giving him a sharp look at the mention of the Ouroboros Dragon. "While they do follow the Infinite Dragon, they have their own goals separate from what Ophis wants or so she says."

Kurama had a pensive look on his face with the information he had given him. "And how do you know that?"

A small frown etched Naruto's face at the question as he and Kurama hopped off another roof. "They've been trying to recruit me the past year. First time they approached me I actually spoke with Ophis herself."

"Hmm, I see."

They fell to a brief silence as they saw the distant figure of the Nijou Castle. They could hear the echoes of the battling, the sounds of sword and magic reverberating through the air.

Naruto glanced towards Kurama's form. He could feel his presence expanding, and it would have been oppressing —suffocating even— if he had not chosen to coat himself with his own energy.

Just as I thought. He really is restraining himself from going on a rampage. The blonde thought to himself. He couldn't blame the man for his anger, if his sister or mother or even Seraphim had been the one who was abducted, he would be livid himself.

Taking his attention away from the Youkai, he decided to focus at the problem at hand. He already knew from their conversation beforehand that Kurama's wife and daughter had been kidnapped, and if his guess was correct, they were taken by the Khaos Brigade. He wasn't sure which faction it was but he guessed they were quite powerful if they had been able to stall Seraphim and a Youkai whose power could rival those what the devils called an Ultimate-class.

He snapped himself out of his thoughts when he saw Kurama suddenly rushing towards the still far battlefield. The Kitsune was extremely fast even in the air, he was almost like a blur but he could keep up with it with a little application of chakra. He felt the sudden rush of wind blowing against his body as he raced towards what looked like a...dragon?

"What the hell is that doing in Kyoto?" He whispered to himself as he stopped abruptly midair, his mind trying to figure as to why a dragon of all things was there and why it was circling around Seraphim of all people.

He made a small gesture with his glowing hands as the winds suddenly started swirling violently around him. He felt his body lighten up, as if he was floating on water, and flew towards Kurama's direction. He also idly noted Kurama's body glowing with an angry red slightly ahead of him, floating in midair as well.

"Whatever it is, I have a feeling that it isn't friendly." As he said that, both of his hands glowed with a bright orange and thrusted himself forward with a strong gust of wind. His hands glowed again with another pair of spirals and breathed in a miniscule amount of air and formed a small, circular shape with a single hand around his mouth.

His midsection expanded slightly before it deflated a second later. A small cinder came out of his mouth which then quickly exploded to a huge burning ball of dark orange flames hurdling downwards to the dragon. At least that was his intent. "Get out of the way Kurama!"

Kurama forced himself to drop a few meters downwards hearing the blonde's shout. He was surprised when he saw a huge ball of fire race past him towards the dragon-like figure below them and took a quick glimpse at Naruto who was holding out his palms at the general direction of the fireball.

"Impressive. To be able to collaborate multiple elements by himself takes a great deal of talent especially with the power he chooses to use," Kurama said to no one in particular. "But then again, it's Naruto that I'm talking about here."

Naruto, meanwhile, was staring intently from afar at the dragon battling Seraphim. The hot ball of flames he had sent hurtling towards the dragon had managed to hurt it, hopefully enough for Seraphim to push it back, if slightly. He could feel that Seraphim was thanking him for that.

He noted Kurama gazing at the other side of the battlefield with imposing rage, the fox Youkai's aura becoming very visible. His eyes darted towards the other side, to see what was making Kurama mad.

What he saw made his blood boil.

"To think that you would sink that low, Cao Cao." He murmured quietly to himself, with noticeable hints of anger. "I knew that he didn't like supernatural beings all that much but to think that he would hostage a child,"

Kurama, he noticed, was barely able to restrain himself. He surmised that the only thing holding the Youkai back from blowing up the lot of them was the man's wife, who from what he could see was still fighting —and struggling— to get the young Kitsune back and of course the young Kitsune herself. He had an inkling that Cao Cao's Sacred Gear has a huge role at somehow making the other Kyuubi go on the defense.

"Kurama, I'll handle him. You just go save your daughter and wife and, if you can, please help Seras-chan as well." It wasn't the best plan, he knew that, but it was the safest, for both Kurama's family and the city of Kyoto itself if he were to believe the stories he heard about the man.

"I'll go first, then you swoop in after I gather their attention." Kurama nodded, though reluctantly, and chose to calm himself. Naruto smiled slightly at that before nodding as well. The wind around him that kept him afloat gather towards his back before he blasted himself towards his old 'friend'.

Seraphim had never been more grateful towards her master's often dramatic timing than she was now. Of course, she would have preferred it, if he could have been here much earlier. Still, she could do nothing about it, even if she wanted to.

As the torrent of flames tried to engulf the Sacred Gear of her opponent, Seraphim concentrated an immense amount of her magical energy towards her blade. She felt her energy seeping towards her verdant blade, with a slight glowing of bloody red surrounding it. She focused herself, clearing her mind of any cluttering thoughts, and stared at her two—three if you counted the Dragon-shaped Sacred Gear— opponents.

The woman, Jeanne, was obviously startled by the attack that was trying to consume the Balance Breaker form of her Sacred Gear. Heracles himself was the same, oblivious to the two new heavy presence that was enveloping the field. Seraphim could recognize one of them as it was obviously Naruto whom just previously sent the fireball towards the dragon-of-swords. The other one she wasn't sure but it felt more pronounced, more angry. She hoped that it was friendly.

As her opponents were still distracted, Seraphim took that as an opportunity to try and tip the scales of battle towards her favor. She raised her hands, glowing sword clasped, at the level of her head's top and concentrated the power that was seeped into her blade. Her blood red eyes trailed towards the pseudo-dragon's hollow socket eyes, bearing down her presence on it —something she learned from her master' s previous encounters—, calculating her next move. She visualized the three spots she would strike and held her stance more firmly. The glow of her sword pulsed with power then, with an unbidden cry, she moved.

Hiken: Tsubamegaeshi.

She dived forward with inhuman speeds and stroke her blade three times with the strength and magical power worthy of a vampire. One to the head, another to the body, and the last to the legs. A second later, Seraphim stood imposingly in front of the Stake Victim Dragon whose body of lethal weapons of holy power and steel crumbled and laid broken, sliced cleanly to three pieces, unmoving and powerless.

The wielder of Blade Blacksmith looked on in shock, with an ugly expression etched on her face. She had not predicted this to happen, it didn't even pass her mind that she would be beaten by the girl in front of her, especially with the advantages that she had over the vampire. She dropped the smile on her face, replacing it with one that of anger and rage; Seraphim could even see a hint of self-disgust on her face which made the vampire smirk slightly.

"You underestimated me, descendant of the Maiden of Orleans. Despite me being a vampire who are inherently weak against light, I trained myself everyday till night to be able combat people who are naturally attuned to using light as a weapon." Seraphim looked at Jeanne and saw her eyes trying to bear down at her with contempt and anger. She could see the blonde's hands twitching slightly at her words which caused her to put her guard up.

"Shut up!" As Jeanne shouted, Seraphim saw the broken pieces of the Stake Victim Dragon suddenly shimmering faintly before vanishing altogether seconds later. The vampire narrowed her eyes as Jeanne launched towards her with the Blade Blacksmith magically clasped on her hands. The blonde gripped her sword tightly as she prepared to swing it at the Seraphim's direction with an intention to draw blood. Lots of it.

"Die!"

Seraphim narrowed her eyes at the approaching form of Jeanne and held her sword towards the blondes direction weakly, the fatigue from both the length of the fight and having been forced to use one of her more taxing techniques taking a hit on her.

Their swords clashed, with Seraphim having to play defensive from the angry blonde's wild slashes. The vampire jumped, ducked, and slashed away all of the attempts of Jeanne to kill her. It was tiresome but she had no choice. She had to save up her barely little remaining energy for the right opening to strike back.

Jeanne kept slashing, her swings getting more rough and choppy as they went, but more importantly it was also becoming weaker. Seraphim knew her opportunity was going to come soon and started channeling bit by bit her remaining magical energy. She'll finish the fight with one clean swing.

The blonde female sent her sword down at her form with a straight overhead strike. Seraphim moved to her side as fast as she could, dodging the incoming blade before lunging towards Jeanne with the bloody-glowing verdant sword pointed towards the blonde. As she was about to stab her blade at Jeanne's chest, she suddenly felt an insurmountable amount of pain coming from her side as she launched in the air before landing heavily at the ground. She looked at the source of the pain blearily and saw the huge form of Heracles staring down at her.

"Haha, sorry vampire lady. But your fun times over, we have to go. Gods knows why when the battle was just getting started." Seraphim glared at the brute, who had a huge grin on his face as he took the weakened Jeanne's body with a hand before running off.

Seraphim tried to stand but ended up stumbling back at the ground as she gritted her teeth in pain. She saw Heracles standing with his companions and noticed that the fading form of the descendant of Greece's greatest hero was sporting a long bloody gush over his chest. A few seconds later, which felt a lot longer for Seraphim, the Hero Faction led by Cao Cao disappeared.

"Seras-chan!" She heard her master's voice echoing in her ears before the golden mop of Naruto's hair made itself visible to her.

Seraphim tried to stand-up, and successfully did albeit a bit slowly as she held the side of her body where Heracles smashed her. Naruto approached her slowly as he carefully slumped her on his shoulders. Seraphim smiled gratefully at him which Naruto gladly returned with a bright smile of his own.

"Good job," Naruto told her with low, soft tone. "You should rest for now."

Seraphim nodded tiredly, the pains and fatigue taking it's toll as her eyelids were pokily closing. She forced herself to keep her eyes open as they slowly but steadily walked towards the direction of three figures. The two blonde Kyuubi's she recognized, but the third one with orange hair she did not.

She felt her vision flickering as she looked onward on the three powerful Youkai. The surroundings were becoming blurry, and she felt her consciousness ebbing. She felt her body becoming heavier and, consequently, her arms slipped away from her master's as she dropped unconscious onto the ground.

"Seras-chan!"

Naruto looked at the sleeping woman on the bed in front of him and heaved a gentle sigh. "When I said you could rest, I didn't mean for you to actually drop on the ground and sleep." He said with a light laugh to himself.

"You shouldn't stress yourself too much. She's going to recover just fine, trust me on that." He looked at the door and saw the orange-haired Youkai standing in front of the door.

"Hey, Kurama." Naruto greeted the Kitsune with a small smile.

"So how's your back? The bastard manage to hit you hard on your back back there."

Naruto shook his head at the question, his eyes not leaving his Seraphim's sight. "I told you earlier, I'm a fast healer, it'll heal soon. And I think you should worry more about your wife and daughter rather than me and Seras-chan here."

"They're both fast asleep. They're recovering quite nicely, Kunou didn't sustain much damage compared to Yasaka and your friend over there. Besides, while we're in here Kyoto, my wife's healing factor is amplified to it's absolute best. I can't say much for your lady friend over there, aside from a being a vampire and all."

"Seras-chan wasn't as injured as you think she is. That Heracles guy was lucky that she was really tired from using Tsubamegaeshi cause I have no doubt that she would have kicked her ass."

Kurama shrugged at the statement. "If you say so," The Kyuubi's tails sprouted from his back as it floated around the orange-haired man's person. Naruto suddenly remembered that he still had the letter that he guessed he was suppose to give to Kurama.

His arms shined with an orange hue as the letter materialized with a slight white glow on his hands. "I think I have something for you." He extended his arms towards Kurama, who took it without hesitation and looked at it before ripping it open.

The fox Youkai read the letter silently as Naruto took a quick glance at the sleeping Seraphim before looking back at Kurama. "What does it say?" He asked in a brisk yet cautious tone.

"A peace treaty. One between the three factions. And we're to play hosts."

Naruto stood frozen on his place, shocked from what the Kitsune had told him. For all the animosity and tension the three factions had had with each other the past few hundred years, even with the armistice, he seriously couldn't think of any reason on why the three factions were going to have a Peace Treaty. Was that even possible for them?

"Are you kidding?" He questioned a little too loud for his own liking although it was still laced with seriousness.

Kurama shook his head in response, making him question himself on what could have happened that would warrant the three factions to do something as huge as to propose a Peace Treaty.

"Apparently, the Kokabiel brat attacked Kuoh Academy where the sisters of the current Lucifer and Leviathan are studying to provoke and start a war. Stupid if you ask me to be honest." Naruto tuned out the rest of Kurama's talking as his eyes widened at the earlier information. His younger sister studied at Kuoh! Thoughts of worry and unease came to him at the mere thought of something bad happening to his dear sister.

Kurama noticed his worried expression but said nothing on it. The Youkai instead opted to leave the room, but not before leaving a final message to Naruto.

"We're leaving for Kuoh as soon as your friend there recovers. I'm going to make preparations so that what happened to Yasaka and Kunou won't happen again." Kurama noticed that spaced-out expression that the blonde still had on his face before sighing. "By the way, the letter also mentioned that there's going to be classroom visits for family members of the students happening next week, along with the meeting of the leaders of the three factions."

Author's Note:

Okay, the chapter was much shorter than what I've planned but I guess it was due anyway. The quality of the chapter was inconsistent, I think. I'll go on to that later as I edit the first few chapters. Aside from that I don't have much to say here, any inquiries about the story can be asked at my forum for my stories. Check up my profile for the link.

P.S. Yes, Seraphim's Tsubamegaeshi was shamelessly taken from Assassin from the Fate series and modified to suit Seraphim's strengths and weakness. I don't own that as well by the way. Although Seraphim was a bit of a Tsubamegaeshi-nut in Kore wa.