[A/N] Good day to you my glorious and loyal readers. I hope everyone is having a great set of holidays here at the end of the year. Whatever it is you celebrate this time of year, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, whatever it may be, here is a little of my gift to you for this season.

I also hope this announcement shows that I read every review and I take what you say to heart. You'll know who you are in a moment. So tell me your thoughts. Without a beta, you, my wonderful readers, are my guiding line.

So, I'm going to start editing past chapters to start adding Naruto's age whenever the place in the timeline changes. For now, until I make those edits, just operate under the impression that everything happening in rapture is going linearly unless otherwise stated. Same thing for anything going on in the Elemental Nations. Unless otherwise stated, whatever happens in the EN and with its characters takes place after Naruto's return to that realm.

I'll also, at some point, be adding in attempts from Kushina to keep the peace, convincing Ryan to do things he otherwise would not have done.

Like I said, I'm going to make these edits later, but for now, chapter 6, woohoo. I won't be adding that edit in for the moment, cause I am really tired.

I don't have the self control to go to sleep early, so how did I get my sleep pattern fixed in time for dealing with family? I took an entire week to make my schedule progressively worse until it was so bad, it was on time.

My eyes hurt.

Anyways, I hope you all enjoy this long awaited and stupidly overdue chapter.

New Year's Eve, December 31st, 1962

Naruto leaned against the bar as he waited for his order, a cake he wanted for the New Year's party in Hephaestus. His eyes moved to the clock, realizing his mother would be leaving work soon if she did at all tonight. He let out a small sigh, knowing that she only worked the hours she did for his sake. The knowledge only made him feel guilty that she was trying to cure something he no longer wanted cured.

When his order finally arrived, he stood to leave. His ears perked up as he heard someone speaking to his left. He knew, one day, that he would be forced to admit he had a bad habit of eavesdropping, but today wouldn't be that day.

He turned to see a woman as she spoke into a recorder.

"-you're stuck in Hephaestus, working. Imagine my surprise," she said. "Agh, I guess I'll have another drink. Here's a toast to Diane McClintock, silliest girl in Rapture. Silly enough to fall in love with Andrew Ryan."

Naruto cleared his throat. "It's not his fault, you know?" he said, taking the seat across from her.

Diane looked at the boy. "What would you know?"

Naruto bowed his head a bit. "Naruto Uzumaki, at your service. And what I know is that things aren't as simple as they always seem. For instance, one of the areas in Hephaestus flooded today, part of the control center for the power grid." Naruto's words put a worried look on Diane's face. "Some areas over there where the magma flows have a bad habit of nature trying to reclaim her own. Things always need to be maintained, so while he oversees the pumping and resealing of one of our power cores, we are able to be down here celebrating." He looked down at the box in his hands. "I know how you feel. The people we need can't always be there for us."

Diane looked down at the recorder, turning it off as she thought about what he said. "I hadn't really thought about that."

Screams grabbed their attention. They turned to see masked splicers coming down the stairs, weapons in hand. There was an explosion from within the Atlas statue. Naruto grabbed Diane's arm, pulling her in front of himself, putting his back to the explosion. Fires tore across his back and people were sent flying past him.

As the smoke and dust cleared, he stood up straight, feeling what was left of his shirt falling off. His body glowed an unnatural gold, skin and tissue regrowing on his back. He looked over his shoulder at the glass wall, releasing a sigh of relief that it was unharmed.

Sitting Diane down, he turned his attention to the gunmen killing those who survived the explosion. They pointed their guns at him, opening fire. The air around him shifted, dust floating as the bullets stopped in place a foot in front of him.

As each of the attackers ran out of ammo, they lowered their weapons and stared in awe at the floating sheet of bullets. "That's impossible. Telekinesis can't stop bullets," one of them said. "I don't believe it."

"Feel free to believe whatever you wish," Naruto said, letting out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. "It may comfort you while I give you your property back."

Without him moving, the bullets were sent flying back, ripping apart their bodies and creating a haze of blood.

Naruto took a few steps as one of the men looked up at him. "Are you even human?" the man asked.

"Of course I am," Naruto said with a grin. His Kusarigama appeared in his hands. "But, to be fair, I wouldn't be able to do this is my body wasn't filled to overflowing with ADAM." Seemingly without moving, Naruto cleaved the man in half.

His head shot up and he ducked as a grenade went screaming over him. It blew on impact with the glass, shrapnel flying as a web of cracks formed. His jaw dropped as he shot an ice spike at the woman who fired the grenage. Holding out his other hand, he sprayed a wave of ice over the cracks, sealing it over.

Naruto let out a sigh of relief, turning to Diane and giving her a thumbs up. His smile faded and blood ran cold as a dark presence formed behind him.

"Naruto Namikaze, you had better have a good reason for having plasmids, and you had better have it now."

Naruto slowly looked behind him into a molten glare. "Hey, mom. You got off work early."

Kushina stormed into Ryan's office, Naruto and Diane trailing not far behind. "What's going on Ryan," she asked.

Ryan moved towards them with guards at his sides, some of the guards injecting EVE into their arms. "Kushina, I'm glad you're here. Some woman somehow brought Fontaine's Department Store out of the trench," he said. "We're being attacked by Atlas and his followers."

She nodded. "Have your men secure all bathysphere docks." Her attention turned to the guards. "Get some people down to the Welcome Center and take any survivors to the Medical Pavilion. And if I find out that bastard, Steinman, was allowed anywhere near those people, so help me, Atlas will be the least of your problems. Get everyone in Fort Frolic and and the Farmer's Market into their homes. We don't need unnecessary civilian deaths piling up and creating more unrest. Ryan, do you trust these splicers to keep their heads?"

"Of course. I trust them all."

Kushina unsealed a katana. "Good, because if any of them can't, I'll kill them myself. Go." She turned to Naruto as the group walked past them, Diane leaving with Ryan. "Explain yourself."

"Mom, look, I couldn't just sit around doing nothing. With the slug, it's not like splicing up could deform me like them."

"And what happens when I find a way to take the slug out?"

"I don't want it out!" Naruto snapped. "Ever since it happened, you've worked yourself to the bone to fix it, but I don't want it fixed."

"Why would you want that disgusting thing inside you, Naruto. Look what it turns those Little Sisters into."

"It's because of those Little Sisters. I wasn't strong enough to save Eleanor, and I don't want to be- I can't be that weak again."

Kushina grabbed his arm, pulling him to the side as she got in his face. "You're the one who broke out Sophia, aren't you," she hissed.

Naruto's eyes widened slightly before he gave a small nod. "I couldn't let Eleanor stay enslaved like that."

She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Naruto, if Ryan found out, do you have any idea what would happen?"

"He won't do anything, because even if he finds out, he won't challenge you."

"I only have so much power in this city without bringing it all down on top of us."

"It's already coming down on top of us, because of Atlas. You're the one holding this city together. Fontaine threw the city into chaos, and Ryan lost the trust of his own advisers because he turned on his ideals to save the city. But they still trust you. You're the solid link keeping the Great Chain together. We can save Rapture, mom."

Kushina sighed. "Head to the Medical Pavilion. Try to keep order down there. Some of those people respect you like they respect me. Keep an eye on Steinman. And we'll talk more about this when everything calms down. You are not off the hook for this, young man. You might need those plasmids, but if you have no other choice, use your chakra."

Without warning, and before Naruto could respond, the air ripped open behind him. A chill of dread went up Kushina's spine as Naruto grabbed his head in pain and the tear moved to swallow him.

"What the f-" was all Naruto managed before it closed.

Naruto slowly opened his eyes as the pain lifted. His mind cleared, stood up straight, taking in his surroundings. A Little Sister ran up and grabbed his hand.

"Big Brother," she said, pulling him along. He looked ahead at a woman leaning against the glass wall, blood pouring down her head.

"Here, big brother," she said, giving him a barely filled ADAM syringe.

He smiled and took it, quickly drinking what little there was. Memories coursed through him and flashed before his eyes. As his vision cleared and the headache subsided, he approached the woman, coming to recognize her as he wiped away the blood.

"Elizabeth. What happened to you?" he asked, pulling out a medical pack. He slid her down, laying her flat on the flood. His hands became covered in a deep green as he used what little medical jutsu he had to keep her alive as he worked. As her breathing became normal, he looked down on his work and the Little Sister's syringe and a thought occurred to him. "Don't die on me yet. Not til I know for sure."

[A/N] I know this was a little short for how long it took me to get this to you guys, but I hope you like it. I've been trying to knuckle down on my own original work and it's leaving me very little time to work on this.

Not only that, I've been playing Darksiders 3, for the beautiful, albeit, deeply flawed, mess that it is.

That's not me saying don't play it. It's just very clear that it needs some patches to cover up the bugs. But other than those bugs, it's a great game.

As always, I'm still looking for a beta reader if anyone wants to volunteer. I should have another chapter of Something New out sometime over the weekend and the Price of Your Betrayal: The Rewrite next week. We shall see. Until next time.