Hey-o! Qwriter here with another chapter of In a World of Lies, only took me... uhh.
Anyway I'll keep this AN short because there already is a large AN in the middle of the story which I'll try to avoid doing in the future. Sorry it took so long, among all chapters this is one I'm most worried about to date and I recently had an idea for a triple xover between Naruto, Game of thrones and weirdly enough HyperDimension Neptunia (how I'll pull that off I don't know).
Now please, enjoy.
17 December, 11,1944
Kyoto Prefecture, Kyoto
15:47
Kyoto.
Once upon a time this ruined city served as a seat of power to the island nation of Japan. At a certain point for reasons still unclear the humans at the time moved the seat of government to another settlement east of the city.
Numerous structures that appear to be places of worship are scattered throughout the city, structures called 'shrines'. These structures share practically the same design with the-
"What are you reading there?" taking his eyes of the holographic screen of his gauntlet blue eyes stared at the figure of his partner for one month. YoRHa No.14 Type B or just 14B for short. Like her fellow YoRHa androids she has grayish blonde hair that went up to her back, her eyes hidden underneath a black blindfold. Her attire,unlike the majority of YoRHa units, is a black frilly kimono with flower patterns held up by a white obi. Unlike other YoRHa androids she has her weapon strapped to her side. Her weapon is a three-foot odachi sheathed inside a grey scabbard.
"Just reading up on this Kyoto city."
14B raised a brow behind the blindfold and looked over his shoulder "You've been reading that thing for about an hour now."
Naruto gave 14B an annoyed look "Don't you mean YOU'VE been reading this for about an hour?" he is even sure that 14B had no need to read the book since she probably already knew what was in the book.
14B didn't say anything and knelt down beside him "So... what did you find out?"
"You only just gave it to me!" Naruto screamed. He knew, oh, he knew that 14B is messing with him and is doing a good job at it. For an android that's part of unit that is a hundred and ten percent serious and zero percent fun, with some few exceptions, 14B has a bit of a mischievous side.
"Not much is known about Kyoto city. The article you are reading was written by Resistance forces sometime after the alien invasion. The information on its layout is practically useless now." a robotic voice said to him.
"I can see that Sev." he said as he looked at the desolate landscape that was once Kyoto. A majority of the old capital of Japan is nothing but ruined buildings with large craters dotting the city, only the Imperial Palace and the area surrounding it remained more or less intact.
Floating to his right 'Sev', or by its official designation Pod 785, is a tactical support unit like 9S's Pod 153 and 2B's Pod 042. Pod 785 however is 14B's Pod and is in his opinion more awesome than Pods 042 and 153.
Why? Because Pod 785 is orange!
Pod 785 is 14B's tactical s"upport pod and the logical person- er, pod in the group which both human and android are both grateful for since both have a tendency to stray from whatever it is they're doing.
"Remember when that YoRHa commander introduced you to each other?" Kurama said as he fondly remembered that day.
'Who wouldn't?' he couldn't stop his eye from twitching when he remembered that day.
Flashback
Three months ago
Resistance Camp
"Eh?"
"Do I have to repeat myself Uzumaki?" the Commander asked in a stern voice.
Naruto quickly shook his head "No ma'am, it's just... surprising that you'd assign me a partner all things considered."
The YoRHa commander nodded her head "I see your point but think of it as a precaution, while I have full confidence in your ability to take care of yourself I'd feel much better knowing that someone's there in case the unthinkable should happen to you."
That's fair he guessed. For the last three months on every mission he was assigned on the threat level from the machines in the area where he is deployed would double. Just his horrendous luck when it comes to missions at work.
"So, who am I partnering with? Is it 2B? Or maybe 9S" he asked with a bit of excitement leaking into his voice. After all aside from the twins he mostly spent time with those two be it for missions or just hanging out when they were planetside. He mostly hung out with 9S though due to him being on Earth the most than 2B.
"The two of them did cross my mind but no, they are currently on a mission and 9S messaged in earlier that the mission may take longer than expected. Not to mention because of your gauntlet you can perform the same duties as a Scanner model so it would be a poor decision on my part to partner you with 9S and I've already paired the two of them up." well that's a bit of a bummer "I am surprised though, given how the three of you first met each other back then I thought that the three of you would never have gotten along with each other." the Commander ended with a small smile on her face.
Poke.
Naruto sheepishly smiled as he rubbed the back if his head. True, he didn't have the best first meeting with the two androids. With 9S the two of them almost killed each other a few times and 2B...
Flashback's Flashback
"How did I get into this situation again?"
"Well if some people weren't so stab happy then we wouldn't BE in this situation!"
"You started flinging those knives so me trying to stab you is completely justified!"
"You almost chopped off my head before I eve started flinging those K-U-N-A-I at you!"
"Well-"
"Shut up."
"Whatever./Fine."
2B sighed as she stood over the tied up Naruto and 9S. Reason for them being tied up is because during their argument things got a little heated when the subject changed from knives and who stabbed first to something else, she didn't remember what the something else was nor does she care. Her orders were to apprehend the unknown and that is what she did.
"Why am I tied up as well anyway?" 9S said as he tried to get loose.
"..."
"Well?"
"Disciplinary action."
"What for?"
"Insubordination."
"Someone's been a naughty boy." Naruto chimed in.
"Pod."
"Shutting up."
2B nodded in satisfaction which earned an eye roll from the tied up shinobi. Getting tied up would normally not be a problem for him but this situation is different compared to the other times he's been tied up. First off, he couldn't cut through the rope with his kunai, damn thing is tough as hell. Second, when he tried the shadow clone substitution approach he ended up getting shocked by electricity. And finally, he did think about using Sage mode but he'd really rather not antagonize the androids anymore than he did.
Not really having much to do due to being tied up he tried making conversation with the two androids.
Poke.
"So, what're your names?"
2B turned to him head tilted "Hmm?"
"Your name? Mines Naruto, I like ramen, my precious people and my pal Kurama my dislikes are waiting for ramen to be cooked, jerks and a certain madwoman my dream is... well it's on hold for now. You?"
2B took a few seconds to respond "2B, I don't like much of anything, I don't dislike much of anything and I don't really have a dream."
Naruto looked at her with a stoic face while 9S let out an awkward chuckle 'Well isn't she just a ball of sunshine?/Almost like an Uchiha./That's not how it goes.' are the thoughts of Naruto, Kurama and 9S respectively.
And of course Naruto had to say something that would result in him getting hit.
"What crawled up your butt?"
SMACK!
"KYAAAAAAAAA!" a few hours after this Naruto will ask 2B what possessed her to kick in that place and 2B would deny harming him in any way.
Flashback's Flashback End
... Yeah, not the best first meeting.
"We eventually made up." Naruto said with a strained smile.
"She kicked you good." the female android earned Kurama's respect that day and that's a feat all on its own. Her kick was much harder to heal than the Chidori Naruto received from Sasuke. A Chidori which went through his chest mind you.
"And I'm glad that you did. In any case, head towards the ruined overpass leading towards the abandoned factory, your assigned partner will meet with you there. Upon arrival, you'll be briefed by 6O on your mission." said the YoRHa commander before the screen died out and Naruto sighed sadly.
"And here I thought I'd be able to take a break." Naruto said as he walked away from the console and back to his room.
"Oh? And here I thought you'd be glad to go on a mission." Kurama said feeling amused at the un-Naruto like comment.
'Well sure but between waking up in this world, meeting the twins, 9S, 2B, YoRHa, the Resistance, the whole fiasco at the desert and getting an earful from Devola for unnecessarily worrying them I just want to find a soft bed and get some sleep.' Kurama concurred with him on the bed part, you'd think that three months would be enough time for someone to rest and unwind but things kept happening after the other that there really was no time to relax.
Especially when they heard about a major operation happening three months from now. Details about that are scarce, they only got to know about it because the Resistance leader, Anemone, mentioned it in passing. Naruto wanted to ask Commander White but figured that she would tell him about it when she feels that he needs to know about it. And at the moment it seems she feels that he doesn't need to know about it yet.
"Hey Whiskers!" Naruto groaned at the nickname given to him, in his time here only two androids ever called him by that term. And the tone is too energetic for it to be the other one so...
"Yes Devola?" he didn't even need to turn around to know that the redheaded android is grinning at him so he just continued with his walk.
Not even a second passed when said redhead slung her arm over his shoulder "What's got you down in the dumps."
"..."
Frowning at his silence Devola nudged the blond trying to get him to talk "Hey!"
"..."
"C'mon tell me what's wrong."
"Like you don't know..." Naruto grumbled.
Palm meeting face Devola groaned as she now knew why Naruto is giving her the silent treatment "Is this about those noodles of yours I spilled?"
Naruto stopped walking and looked at Devola with an irate expression on his face that made the android smile nervously knowing where this was going "'Noodles'? 'Noodles'!? THOSE WEREN'T JUST ANY NOODLES DEVOLA!"
Poke.
As Naruto kept on ranting could do nothing but listen. Naruto wasn't angry at the fact that she accidentally knocked a bowl of ramen off of his hands two days ago. No, accidents do happen after all. What made him angry is that it took him a week at the very least to find all the proper ingredients when Popola made it known to him that the first batch of ingredients he found more or less consisted of mostly poisonous stuff so when he FINALLY managed to get all the proper ingredients and got Popola to help with preparing the ramen only for it to meet the cold, grainy stone floor. All those hours of finding proper ingredients, down the drain they went! And maybe he actually is angry at Devola but the point is he didn't get to eat the ramen!
"All right, stop your whining you big baby. I mean Popola told you we'd help you find more ingredients for it right?"
"No YOU'RE helping me get more ingredients, Popola's only coming along so you don't slack off."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Devola said, hands on her hips and giving him the look that women gave men when they've said or done something stupid.
"Nothing." Naruto grumbled as Devola nodded in satisfaction.
"I thought so. I knew you learned your lesson the first time."
Naruto frowned at what Devola said as it reminded him of the strange occurrence that happened that same day.
You see when Naruto led Devola and Popola away from the battlefield three months ago the strangest thing happened with the clones he sent with the twins. According to Popola thirty minutes after the clones left with them the clones carrying them were surrounded by a large number of machine lifeforms and had no choice but to get them on a deer, which took some time due to Devola having a mini meltdown, and ride away from the battlefield while the remaining clones held off the machine.
And there lies the problem, what happened next he should know because the clones most likely, definitely, dispelled thus sending the memories of the event back to him but that's just it. He received no memory of any kind from the clones with Devola and Popola. In fact, the only reason he knows some of the stuff that happened is because the twins told him. He immediately crossed out the area itself possibly affecting the technique because he later came back with the twins to the site and used the shadow clone technique there and the memory feedback was just fine.
"Don't overthink yourself about it brat."
'But don't you find it weird that I never received the memories?'
"Of course I do but the only way you'll find out how that happened is if whoever or whatever attacked the clones manage to attack you directly or you yourself find them or it."
'You don't think it's-'
"Doubtful, we would've felt her abnormally large chakra then. Anyway, if I were you I'd be out of here because that redhead look ready to hit you."
Eyes widening comically he vanished from the mindscape leaving an amused Kurama.
Now out of the mindscape Naruto opened his eyes just in time to see Devola's fist flying at his face "Not the face!"
Devola pulled back her fist and crossed her arms as she stared at him disapprovingly "You do know it's not polite to doze off when someone's talking to you right?"
"Sorry..."
"Right, anyway c'mon, Popola's already waiting for us by the entrance." Devola didn't give him anytime to respond as she grabbed hold of his hand and pulled him towards where Popola was.
Naruto half-heartedly tried getting Devola to let him go as his attention was somewhere else, his attention is directed towards the other androids around them, it was only for a moment, not even lasting a few seconds, but when Devola grabbed his hand he saw in their eyes the same thing he saw in eyes of Konoha's villagers during his childhood; anger, loathing and hatred.
Poke.
He may have been unable to use Kurama's Negative Emotions Sensor because the thing they're sensing has to have chakra or at the very least a living being but like someone said back then 'the eyes are the windows to the soul'. And he saw in the eyes of the androids around them those dark emotions he saw in the villagers during his childhood, it was honestly a bit amazing and scary how the humans in this world managed to make something so lifelike that even Sasori would be envious of them.
"What I want to know is when we're gonna be able to talk to this 'Council of Humanity', it's been three months already."
Naruto mentally agreed with Kurama as he and Devola just met up with Popola at the Resistance camps entrance 'Yeah, you would think that we'd hear from them immediately when they were told that a human is still down here.'
Kurama grunted at his partners words "We'll talk about it later, the nice one is trying to get your attention."
Naruto mentally raised a brow in amusement 'Sounds like someone's picking favorites.'
"Whatever."
HALT for a moment! The chapter hasn't ended yet and I normally don't do this but I just wanted to say something before you read this next scene which I'm fairly certain I might get some flak from(or maybe I'm just being paranoid, I dunno)... now this next scene is something I've been debating for quite a while as to whether or not to show you or let fade into nothingness and as you can see it is the former because I thought that without this scene explaining a few things that happened during the three month time skip people might get confused because chp 5, fucking chapter 5, had a few events that I never included.
Honestly, I thought that maybe I should just plain out not put this here due to some things I've read when I was going through Nier/Nier Automata lore but I already wrote it in an it's what I'm gonna roll with.
That's all please continue.
Same time (After transmission)
Earth orbit
The Bunker
The Bunker, this structure sitting in space above the Earth is the beating heart of all YoRHa operations. The bunker serves as a front line base for the androids in the war against the machines. The first and final defense for the 'humans' that reside on the moon.
In the middle of the station sat the Bunkers operations center manned by YoRHa's Operator type androids. Unlike other YoRHa androids they have blonde hair instead of silvery white, and instead of blindfolds the Operators wear facemasks that cover the lower part of their faces, and of course everything their wearing is black.
Though one android stood out from the rest. Standing in the middle of the room wearing a tight fitted white dress is the Commander of YoRHa. Like the Operators she has blonde hair and instead of blue she has green eyes.
And currently one of the few in YoRHa that is in the know about the last living human. Apart from the Commander the other Androids in YoRHa that know about Naruto are the surviving androids from the operation three months ago which are 2B, 14B and 9S and 6O because she is Naruto's designated Operator when he is outside of the Resistance Camp.
Aside from them the a few members of the Resistance group that is led by Anemone are also in the know due to Naruto staying there.
Though getting them to keep quiet about it was a bit hard due to them wanting to spread the word about the living human on Earth. And she couldn't blame them because if she was in their position then she'd likely want to do the same thing. After all, despite High Command's best efforts to keep up the lie of humanity never going extinct and that they are living on the moon due to the alien invasion there were androids that didn't buy the lie.
But even then the number of androids who knows the truth can be counted on two hands, and that is not counting the ones that instigated the lie, with all of them keeping quiet about it so as to not affect android morale and for fear that they'll be sought out by the Execution-type androids should they talk about it. After all, High Command will go to any lengths to ensure that the truth of humanity's fate is kept secret.
Then there's the Independist android faction to think about but they really aren't much of a threat.
Though she did wonder, if the punishment High Command has for an android who has accessed highly classified information is termination what would be the punishment if a human instead managed to access said information?
The Commander snorted 'Like there'd even be a punishment, they don't even know there's a living, breathing human on Earth right now.' shaking her head the YoRHa commander, or White, brought up a data pad and tapped the report sent by 2B's Pod 042 when she and 9S made contact with the blond human three months ago.
["Initial scans have detected unknown energy in Unknown similar to magic weapons from the Old World. Furthermore, data exchange with Pod 153 have revealed that Unknown is capable of using said energy to make corporeal copies of itself and blue spheres of various sizes capable of easily taking down a Goliath-class machine lifeform.
Further, scans have shown that unknown is not mechanical in any way but rather biological. Further scans were made in case the Machine Lifeforms have started production of units similar to androids however deep scans have detected organic tissue as opposed to artificial tissue.
Conclusion: Unknown is either a new breed of Machine Lifeform or is human.
Report end."]
Poke.
Closing the file and storing it in an encrypted folder the hand holding the data pad drops to her side as she looks ahead at the large screen in front of her displaying the YoRHa insignia. If High Command learns of this she is most certain that they'll call for the termination of not just her, 2B, 14B, 9S and 6O but possibly also the entirety of the Resistance in the Tokyo region.
The Commander pinched the bridge of her nose as she sighed 'Maybe he was onto something when he rebelled.'
In any case, she and Anemone came to the agreement that Naruto's cover is that he is part of the Resistance working full-time with YoRHa be it on solo missions or joint missions, of which the only androids he works with are either 2B or 9S, but due concerns on both sides they decided to assign him a partner. Speaking of which...
Walking towards the console to her right she addressed the Operator manning it "6O, what's the status of 14B?"
6O, one of the more energetic androids in YoRHa. She shares the same appearance as her fellow Operators but one distinguishing factor that makes her different is her appearance, she is the only Operator that has braids in her hair.
"Ma'am, 14B has recently finished her mission and has been notified of her new orders. She'll be at the meeting point in exactly five minutes."
"Good, how about Naruto?"
"He's... way off."
"Where?"
"He's near the bridge leading to the abandoned factory."
"*sigh* Contact him and tell him to move towards the rendezvous point."
"Yes ma'am. Um, Commander?"
"Yes?"
"When are you going to tell him that there really isn't a Council of Humanity or that he's the only human left alive."
Letting out a sigh the Commander answered "Soon."
"When though? I know I'm speaking out of turn here Commander and I'm obviously not an expert on humans but don't you think that the more you keep him in the dark the worse it'll be when you tell him or god forbid he finds out himself."
"... You have your orders Operator."
"Ma'am."
SCHINK! THUD!
The upper half of the machine lifeform fell as it got cut into two by a chakra enhanced kunai.
The perpetrator released a breath "Whew, how many does that make?"
"That's enough Whiskers!" shouted Devola, she looked at the pile of machine lifeforms next to her twin that were also cut in two "Way more than enough actually."
Popola directed a bright smile to Naruto "Thanks for helping again Naruto!"
Naruto gave her a close eyed grin in return 'I still don't get how it went from an ingredient search to a scavenging hunt.'
"Popola asked you."
'Oh, right.'
BeepBeep. BeepBeep.
Bringing up his gauntlet he opened up the communications screen and is greeted by the face of 6O. Speaking of his Gauntlet during their last meeting two weeks ago 9S was kind enough to update the Gauntlet. Although he did wonder why the map is just a bunch of grey low resolution cubes... he preferred his former map.
"Hey 6O, what's up?
"'What's up?' Naruto you were supposed to be at the rendezvous point 31.83 seconds ago!"
"Uhh, I'm only a few seconds late-"
"That's not the point! As an 'android' under YoRHa command you're supposed to follow orders to the letter! And can you please hurry!? I can feel the Commander giving me the evil eye!"
"Hai, hai I'm going." Naruto answered, feeling amused by his Operators plight.
6O sighs in relief "Good, I'll contact you if anything else comes up."
And with that 6O cut off the connection leaving Naruto who rubbed the back of his head with a sigh.
"Who was that?"
Turning around he saw Devola with a hand on her hip with Popola standing behind her.
"Just 6O, she was reminding me of the mission I have and to rendezvous with my partner."
"Oh, okay then." Devola carelessly said making Naruto facefault.
"Gee, I really feel the love." Naruto said though it came out muffled with his face on the ground.
Popola meanwhile gave her twin a look which made said twin huff and look away "What? Not like there's anything out there that can give him trouble."
Holding out a hand to him she helped him up and she gave him a smile and said "Well don't let us keep you, we can get back to the camp from here."
"You sure?"
She nodded.
"Alright, see you later you two!"
"Take care!" She called out as he sped off.
When he was out of sight Devola spoke "And there he goes."
"Yeah..."
Putting an arm around her arms Devola reassured her sister "Hey, it's like I said earlier, with the stuff we've seen him do I doubt anything those aliens throw at him is enough to stop him."
"I know," Popola sighed "I just can't help but worry considering..."
"Yeah." Devola looked down as she said that. Even after three months they were still uncertain as to how a human is still alive but they were still grateful. It felt as if they were being given a second chance, that they might redeem themselves to humanity in spite of the massive failure that is Project Gestalt.
Poke.
Long story short he later met up with 14B at the Abandoned Factory who almost flattened him with a Goliath and-Poke.
Abrupt Flashback End
Poke. Poke. Po-
"WHAT!?" Naruto screamed, irritated at the constant poking.
"What're you doing?" 14B asked.
"Guess." Naruto grit out.
He is met with a few seconds that ended when 14B answered with pink tinted cheeks "Pervert."
"WHAT ARE YOU THINKING!?" Naruto shouted with his cheeks burned red.
14B's lips twitched upwards, entertained by Naruto's reaction.
A beep from Pod 785 grabbed their attention and the atmosphere between the two went from relaxed to serious.
"Notification: Command has ordered all forces to ready for assault. Alert: Incoming Transmission from Bunker. Patching through."
Pod 785 produces a holographic screen for the video feed and the two gave the commander a salute when she appeared.
"I'll keep this short, there's been a change of plans. Enemy numbers are larger than first anticipated and we've confirmed enemy reinforcement are on their way already. We and the rest of our forces have received no order to retreat thus are continuing with the assault on the Kyoto server. The two of you are to infiltrate the enemy stronghold and destroy the server room while the rest distracts the enemy. Questions?"
Naruto spoke up "Can we expect reinforcements or are we entirely on our own?"
"..."
"..."
"Unless allied forces can push through to your position then yes, you are effectively on your own."
Naruto dragged his hand over his face. If it was just himself he's confident that he'd make it but 14B...
Feeling his gaze on her she gave him a smile and she pat his shoulder a few times "I'll be fine."
She just remembered that Naruto doesn't know that YoRHa androids don't necessarily 'die' when their bodies are destroyed. She reminded herself to get Pod 785 to back up her data before they head off to battle.
Looking to the Commander she asked "When do we move out?"
"Now."
AAAAANNNNDDD CUT!
Hope you guys enjoyed reading this one, I know didn't like writing it due to the headache it gave me. Also, until this fic and one -two if I do release a NarutoxGoTxNeptunia fic- other are finished all my attention will be on these two -or three-.
Hopefully though it won't take me eight months to update next time.
And as always please leave a fave, follow or review. This is Qrious, signing out.