Review Responses:

First of all, I would like to say that I've changed the parameter of Luck stat as the previous one got lots of negative feedback. At first I was not going to change it to higher rank, but then thought why not? Something as fickle as luck is never going to be defined or explained properly so I went ahead and changed it. After all, despite how high Saber's luck was, she was still the one who was getting battered left and right the most.

Guest: I can see where you are coming from when saying Naruto isn't for formalities. But hey, Gilgamesh, the guy with an ego the size of the whole world, was fine with calling Tokiomi master, why not Naruto?

And about the supercontinent Pangea, and the issue with Naruto coming from before Gilgamesh's age, I have a plausible theory. You see, canon Naruto takes lots of cues from Hindu mythology – Indra, Ashura, Samsara, various paths of Rinnegan etc. And in that mythology, which is all about cycle of life and death, even eras are cycled. You get it. There is just not one modern era, instead a modern era is just a particular stage in time, which will again cycle back.

The souless knight: Naruto doesn't have presence concealment. If he was summoned as an Assassin class, he would have it. But not as a Rider class. It doesn't matter if in life they can do something or not. Class restriction works like that.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Epiphany

"Hey master!" Rider shouted over the swiftly blowing winds. "Did it ever to occur to you that your grandfather was kind of an asshole?"

He was rewarded with a flat gaze from his master.

Ignoring her look, he continued his tirade. "Because if my memory hasn't failed me, I clearly remember you telling me that that the old worm had told you before summoning me that I was going to be the first servant to be summoned."

"Yes, you were summoned almost a month before the official war started," Sakura nodded.

"Yeah, a month! Then why is it that just after a week of getting summoned, the freaking Berserker is trying to make a paste out of us!" he said with a tick mark on his forehead. And just then, an inhuman roar that shattered all the glass panes of the nearby buildings he was dashing past with his master on his back let him know their adversary was still hounding them.

Meanwhile on his back, Sakura couldn't help but marvel at how Rider seemed to effortlessly cruise though all the obstacles and hurdles that the city skyscrapers provided. With peerless precision and grace, every step he took was meant to propel them forward in the most efficient of ways possible, not wasting any movement with excessive twist and fancy turns. And don't even get her started on how breath-taking it was when he had started to run up the side of the buildings.

Another unholy roar from the extremely vexed Berserker made her look back to see that the mad as hell giant smashing his way towards him, seemingly growing furious with each passing second.

"The fault lies upon you," she said simply. "You were the one who thought it would be a good idea to pinch the cheeks of that albino girl."

"But she was so cute! I didn't expect her to suddenly exclaim Kill them, Berserker!" Rider protested weakly.

"And she probably got flustered by your action. After all nobody expects a stranger to suddenly pick them up and swing them round and round."

Her servant had the decency to adopt a sheepish look at that. Then he brightened up when he saw that they were finally out in the clearing, far from the crowded area of the Fuyuki city. "Alright, ready to see what your servant can do master?" he grinned as he asked.

"I am. But please be careful," unlike the largely carefree Rider, Sakura was feeling cautious. Berserker class servants, with their Mad Enhancement were arguably the most powerful class after the coveted Saber. Their single-minded pursuit of destruction, coupled with their capability to simply shrug off otherwise debilitating blow and keep going was exceptionally hard to overcome. Although it can be said that their single-mindedness can be used against them, however, even if they somehow were able to get around it, the resilience of Berserker will allow it to just withstand any onslaught they will launch back.

She was derailed from her thoughts when Rider flicked her on her forehead. "You worry too much. Have faith in your servant, ok," he said, reassuringly. With that said, in a burst of smoke a clone formed by their side, took hold of Sakura, and then, dashed away from them to keep her away from harm.

As for Rider, he abruptly stopped in what appeared to be some kind of park. Turning towards where the bronze coloured giant of destruction was coming at him, a playful smirk adorned his face as he cracked his finger. "Alright, let's see what you've got now, shall we," saying this, he blasted towards Berserker and buried his fist in the stomach of the hulking brute with all the force he could muster, promptly stopping his mad rush. "Servant Rider at your service," he flippantly stated.

In response, Berserker gave another one of his inhuman roar, which was cut short by the courtesy of a roundhouse kick to his face.

But Berserker was hardly fazed by it and roared even louder in anger. With an agility that belied its size, it tried to hack at Rider with his sword, which was nothing more than a slab of stone cut out in the shape of a sword.

Each swing, capable of turning the stone into rubble, as shown by the demolished ground beneath them just from the force of a swing, was launched towards the blonde in a flurry.

However, not a single swing was able to hit the nimble servant. Berserker was unable to hit him. With superior speed and agility, Rider was casually twisting and turning out of earth shattering slashes.

Enraged by his inability to hit the Servant of the Mount, Berserker snarled viciously, redoubling his effort to hit his foe.

"Didn't you know?" But Rider invaded Berserker's personal space with a casual ease, and to the amazement of his master who had been watching the battle through his eyes, and astonishment of currently hiding mad giant's master, he caught the sword made of stone in his hand. Then planting his feet on the chest of his opponent, he let out a grunt of effort and ripped the sword out of its owner's hand. "Screaming louder doesn't equate to increased strength," saying that he lopped the head off his opponent with the borrowed sword.

A sudden silence befell upon them.

"What!?" a girlish cry pierced through the night of Fuyuki.

Rider evenly watched as a preteen girl of porcelain complexion, with long snow white hair and wearing purple winter clothes, revealed herself at the edge of the park with a look of utter surprise etched on her face. He raised his eyebrows when he saw the surprise rapidly bleed into calmness as she composed herself. 'Well, that was quick,' he thought.

'Rider, something's off,' the voice of Sakura filtered into his mind through the link shared by servant and master.

Immediately, he forced his body to jump backwards as his danger senses honed from decades of being a shinobi screamed at him of coming danger. And good thing that he did as the moment he had vacated the place that he had been standing upon, it was completely torn asunder by Berserker's fist.

'What the hell!?' Rider looked at his completely recovered foe incredulously. 'Did he just regrew his head?'

He threw himself to his left to avoid a lunge from Berserker. 'No matter, I'll just behead him again.' Rolling on the ground, he stood up without losing his momentum and rotated his body on the heel of his foot as he brought down his enemy's sword at its owner's nape.

But the result was different this time. Unlike last time, Berserker's head was not separated from his body as Rider had wanted. Instead, the stone sword shattered into thousands of pieces when it came into contact with the bronze giant's skin.

'Huh,' his jaw dropped as he stared at the piece of stone that was all left of the sword in his hand. He was stumped.

And that momentary lapse of concentration nearly cost him.

Berserker wasted no time in throwing a straight punch at him, which would have blown a hole through his stomach if not for him hastily drawing up a guard with both hands.

He winced as he skidded back on the ground. 'Damn, he can hit as hard as Bushy-brow sensei.' He was sure he felt his bones creak under the tremendous pressure.

Next, he had to swerve away from a ferocious onslaught of kicks and punches. Despite losing his sword, Berserker was no less dangerous as having that sword had made him a bit easier to figure out as all he had to worry about was that sword. Now he had become more unpredictable.

"Is that all that you are going to do?" Berserker's master sneered. "Running around like a coward. Instead of fighting like a true hero that you are supposed to be." There was a mocking glint in her ruby red eyes.

"Trust me, you don't want boss to get serious." The tiny master of the mad giant felt her feet go cold when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Wh-what~? H-how~?" her mind scrambled to get her thoughts together.

"Please calm down. We have no intention of hurting you." She whirled around when she heard the voice of Rider's master. "G-get away from me!" she shouted, panicking. Berserker, feeling his master's distress, immediately tried to get to her.

However, just when he was about to reach her, thick woody vines burst forth the ground beneath him and began to rapidly ensnare him. It wasn't enough to stop the rampaging servant though. He was snarling in fury as he ferociously wrecked the vines tangling him. But to his increasing anger, and to dismay of his master, the vines began to grow thicker and stronger as it coiled around him tighter than before.

And to make the matter worse for him, waves of sand exploded out of the ground all around him and locked him in a place by encasing him in a shape of cocoon.

Having captured the rampaging giant, Rider went near the cocoon and pumped chakra through his vines. "Sleep," he intoned as the vines began to glow soft green. And just like that, Illyasviel von Einzbern, master of the Berserker of the fifth Holy Grail War, watched as her servant started to droop slightly than after a moment, dozed off.

For the second time that day, silence befell upon them.

The clone by Illyasviel's side smirked as he spoke, "Like I told you, you don't want boss to get ser…" but before he could finish gloating, he burst out of existence when in a flash, Rider came and punched his clone square in the face. "You idiot!" he yelled. "Didn't I tell you to not bring Sakura anywhere near the battle."

Seeing the antics of her servant, Sakura shook her head in mild bemusement.

As for Illyasviel, if she was panicking before, now she was downright terrified. Seeing how effortlessly the Servant of the Mount had dispatched her servant, who was considered one of the toughest, if not the toughest servant of the Holy Grail War, she felt her life flashing before her eyes.

"You are Illyasviel von Einzbern, aren't you?" She nearly jumped when she heard the raven haired girl speak.

"Don't think you have won this!" She tried to put up a brave front, despite how shaken she was by the turn of events. Never had she imagined that tides will turn against her in this way, and this fast. "And how do you know my name?" she retorted.

Sakura could clearly see that the tiny representative of Einzbern was extremely distrustful of them, not letting her guard down at all. 'Well, I suppose this was bound to happen when Rider incapacitated her servant that easily,' she wryly thought, feeling surprisingly calm despite the situation. Or maybe it was just because of her mind being numb from seeing her servant display his remarkable battle prowess. She had an inkling as to powerful he was, but this powerful, she had not expected it.

"Hey! I asked you how you know my name!" Apparently, Illyasviel was not fond of getting ignored.

"My apologies," Sakura said plainly. "I was formerly associated with the Makiri family, or Matou as they are known these days. They are one of the founding member of this war, as you might already know."

"So you got information on me with the help of this family of yours?"

"Yes, in a way."

"Not very forthcoming, are you?" Illyasviel rhetorically asked in an annoyed tone, all the while racking her brains on trying to find a way out of this situation that she was in. But few seconds later, she sighed in defeat, most probably finding no rational way out of this. "Alright, I know when I'm defeated. So what do you want from me then? You said you don't intend to hurt me."

"There was some information that we wanted to validate from you. So we sought you out as soon as you stepped in this city."

"Huh, what kind of information?"

"Tell me this, does the name Kiritsugu Emiya rings any bell to you?"

At once, ruby red eyes turned frigid.

As it turned out, Rider was exceptionally good in gathering information. Like he had claimed, his shadow clone technique was incredibly useful. With more than hundreds of clones scouring the city and beyond in each crook and cranny, he had gathered voluminous amount of intelligence in a short amount of time. And amongst all those collected information, a certain name had stuck out prominently to her – Kiritsugu Emiya, who was apparently considered as the bogeyman of the moonlit world i.e. the hidden world of the magus.

But it was not the fact that her crush's dad was the infamous Magus Killer that grabbed her attention. But what had turned her head was the fact that he was a Master in the previous Holy Grail War, and a powerful one at that as he had reportedly summoned Saber and was one of the last two standing.

She had at first contemplated asking her sempai about him considering he was his son, but then decided against it. No offense to the endearing upperclassman of her, but he was incredibly naïve and of honourable nature to be associated with the world of magus. She had no doubt that all of this will come as a surprise to him if she had decided to go to him. So with nothing to gain from, that particular avenue was closed to her.

But all was not lost though. Apparently, Kiritsugu Emiya had not participated as an independent master. Instead, he was employed by one of the founding members of the Holy Grail War, the Einzberns of Germany. And in what appeared to be a stroke of luck, she found out that a representative of Einzbern was coming to Fuyuki today.

"I don't know anyone by the name of Kiritsugu Emiya," Illyasviel said in an icy tone.

The raven haired former Matou stared with an unreadable gaze for few seconds. "Are you sure?" she then asked.

"Yes! Why would I lie?" the tiny master pointedly looked at the taller girl.

"Why indeed?" Sakura rhetorically asked.

"Is that all?"

"Yes, for now."

After that, Sakura allowed Illyasviel and her servant to leave. While skeptical, the white haired girl was not going to look a gift horse in mouth so she promptly left.

And as soon as she did, Sakura collapsed against her servant. Rider, seeing how she was turning pale and clammy, held her upright gently as she tried to recompose herself. Her whole body was shaking. "Was it too much for the first time?" Rider asked softly, understanding her plight.

For Sakura, as brief as it was, experiencing the battle through the eyes of Rider had certainly been an eye-opening experience. The dizzying rush of battle of was both exhilarating, as well as frightening.

It was said that to be a magus, is to walk alongside death. The mysterious and unpredictable nature of all things associated with magecraft made it impossible to live a normal life. Constantly surrounded by unknown variables of possibly fatal nature ensured that a magus will always tread along a fine line that separated life and death. Therefore, a child who was to be raised as a magus was persistently reminded of this doctrine that basically says you could die at any moment.

And although Sakura knew this, and had endured horrors that would break even the most inhuman of magus, she had never felt the sensations associated with a battle, like those of blood pumping and pulsing through her veins so fast that she felt like her heart will burst. And she had certainly never experienced what being subjected to an absurdly oppressive amounts of killer intent washing over her in rolling waves.

"… Yes," Sakura winced at how weak she sounded.

"Why the long face, master. You did well," he appraised her. "I'm proud of how you stood your ground and put a brave front despite the nerves of first battle. Others would have probably fainted on their spot in front of someone like Berserker."

Sakura smiled, appreciating his effort to lift her mood up. "Thank you," she said in a grateful tone.

Truth was, from the moment the confrontation had started, she had gone blank. She had heard about the magnificence that was the battle between servants, but to see it with her own eyes – it was something else, no matter how brief it was. Moreover, the terrifying aura that seemed to liberally emanate from Berserker was equally mystifying and petrifying. Just his presence was enough to make her mind conjure up unbidden images of her violent death.

She was not going to lie. By herself, she would have probably stiffened still in fear and became an easy target for the Berserker to strike down. However, fortunately for her, Rider was there for her. Not only was he simply magnificent, he also constantly let out a comforting aura that continuously enveloped her, making her feel very safe. And thus, she was able to remain calm and collected in spite of her stumped mind.

Rider clicked his tongue. "Now, now… That just won't do. You see, if you want to thank me, you have to do it like this," saying that, he held up his fist.

Sakura at first was puzzled by his action, but she quickly understood his gesture and bumped her fist against his.

The Servant of the Mount beamed. "Now, isn't this much better?" he asked rhetorically.

Sakura couldn't agree more.

A/N: Looks like Sakura is interested in Kiritsugu Emiya. Who can guess why?

If it isn't already noticeable, this story is going to be Sakura centric. Everything that happens or occurs will be the interpretation of how she views them. So that basically means not everything thought or said will be concrete fact.

As for my absence, I'll just say this – I lost my muse. Don't know where I dropped it. Searched a lot in many deleted Word pages and retconned sentences, but couldn't find it. And now it's back without any prompt. Strange huh.