Wednesday, 25 December 2019

8:30 PM AEST – Australian Eastern Standard Time GMT+10

A Naruto and Assassin's Creed Crossover

Disclaimer: "Naruto" is a property of Masashi Kishimoto, Shueisha, and Studio Pierrot; "Assassin's Creed" Series belongs to Ubisoft Entertainment.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Reader discretion is advised.

A/N: Thanks for liking the first chapter.

Genres: Action, Adventure, Romance, Historical Fiction

Warnings: Violence, Strong Language, Sexual Content, SOME CHARACTERS WILL BE OOC

Tags: Whatever applies here, applies here.

Universe: Animeverse/Mangaverse/Gameverse

Series: The Chronicles of the Eternal Sage - Naruto Uzumaki

"Jutsus/Time change/Place change"

"Heavenly Beings/Isu Talking"

"Heavenly Beings/Isu Thinking"

'Flashback'

"Talking"

"Thinking/Telepathy speaking/News/Messages/Videos/Different Languages"

"Things are… rarely as they seem."

- Naruto Uzumaki

Volume 1 - Beginnings

Chapter 3 - So it Begins

Things are rarely as they seem…

Kassandra sat inside her house in silence as she meditated on Naruto's words for the reason of his absence, she asked many a question under the morning sun, yet receive the same singular answer. Not yet, but one day.

It irked her very much so, but she conceded she'll not get a proper answer from him, not today at least. She had more important matters that needed attendance, specifically the one that sent Phoibe to her.

"A drachmae for your thoughts?"

She turned lazily towards him and saw him leaned back on a wall of her house, which she ignored but replied soon after.

"I have to go to Markos, who now owns a vineyard, and still owes me drachmae."

Naruto raised an eyebrow before he shrugged and said. "Mind if I join you? I've nothing to do now."

"… sure, why not, then maybe you can explain to me one day, why did you vanish before that night."

Kassandra sighed and stood up; she then slung her bow over her shoulders then lifted a leather waterskin. "You hungry?"

"Me?" asked Naruto, he shook his head. "No, but if you are, I have some delicious food here."

He then took a pouch from his side and tossed it to Kassandra who caught it easily and gave it an inquisitive look.

"What's in this?"

"Some food on the way, don't worry, they're good," he replied, and she opened it and saw some strange wrappings within.

"What are these?"

"Rations," Naruto said and walked out of the house, then Kassandra opened one of the wrapped bars and saw a strange coloured bar, then she took a bite and was surprised at the sweet flavour.

"Come on," urged the blond. "Lead the way, Kass."

Kass?

She stopped for a moment, and a small smile formed on her face, then she walked out of her house and walked side by side Naruto who had that strange smile on his face.

Then they walked and she took a bit from the strange food Naruto gave her and its rich flavour was tantalizing, it awakened her tastebuds and surprisingly satiated her hunger, then she took more as they walked.

"This is good," she said.

"I know, I made them myself."

The two casually talked as they headed south and followed a sun-beaten track that hugged the coastal bluffs for a while before it bent inland. The heat grew strong as noon approached, but it didn't bother them as they cut across a meadow freckled with violas, and there, the air was rich with the scent of oregano and wild lemon groves.

The long grass stroked her calves as butterflies flitted across their path in flashes of many colours, cicadas chirruped in the heat and for all the world the war and her past couldn't have been more distant until they bypassed and overlook Sami.

The port town of Sami was an unwalled warren of shacks and simple, white-painted homes that surrounded a raised mound of marble villas where rich men chatted and sipped wine on the roofs and verandas. Below them were horses and bare-chested, sweat-slicked workers who toiled in the tight lanes and bustling market.

In there, they hauled olive crops and pine logs towards the docks where transport vessels jostled for space at the pale stone wharf where materials are to be conveyed for the Athenian military shipyards and warehouses.

"Town seems busy," mused Naruto as they heard bells pealed, whips snapped, and lyre music rose from the town as the scent of smoke from the temple entered their noses.

"Mhm. I only entered that town when I needed to - for food or supplies that I can't obtain in other ways," she explained but she withheld herself from continuing.

"And carry out jobs?" added Naruto.

"How did you - how long have you been watching me?"

"A year, my birds gather all sorts of information from around," he explained with honesty and Kassandra was surprised as Naruto continued. "They call you a misthios from what I heard."

"Hmm, yeah. Markos lined up jobs for me since I came here. Carry messages, escort shipments… things few could do…" she trailed on as she remembered the most recent job she did - to a dockside den where a group of notorious bandits made their lair.

Leonidas' spear guided her as she tore through them with such finesse that night and it was stained red, and the air fouled by the smell of tore guts. Every life she took was like a prickly seed that took root deep within, but for her, nothing she had done for Markos compared to that night that changed her life forever.

"Kass," Naruto called her, then she shook her head, thoughts driven deep in her mind. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, it's just Markos had yet again wriggled out of paying me when I last returned to report my success at my last job. I forgot how much he owes me now," she felt her hackles rose. "He's a scumbag, a crook, a filthy…"

Her thoughts faded as Sami fell into the distance behind them, then Naruto tossed a small pouch at her, and it was hefty as Kassandra mused.

"I have many businesses across Hellas, so, take it. But don't forget to fork out that money this Markos owes you."

The two came by a fork in the track, then turned to the route that led towards Mount Ainos, and upon those rocky heights, an imperious, sun-bleached statue of Zeus stood, crouched on one knee, with a thunderbolt in his raised hand. The soils that ringed the lower slopes were enriched with minerals washed down during the rains and so terraced vineyards decorated the base of the mountain, each lined with green vines, silvery stone storehouses and small red-tiled villas.

They saw the nearest estate and Kassandra noted that it has always been there, but then, she saw a figure clad in a green-and-white cloak.

"Markos?" she whispered.

Naruto took an inquisitive look as Kassandra stole past two workers who pruned the crop on the lowest terrace, and they did not even notice her approach, then she saw Phoibe by the vines, but she went straight for Markos, who bickered with a worker who seemed to know better.

"We," he started, then paused as he stifled a hiccup, "we will grow grapes as big as melons."

"You'll kill the vine, Master Markos," the worker reasoned as he tilted his broad-brimmed sun hat. "We can't allow the fruit to grow this year or the next, or the stems will bend and snap. The third year will be the time for the first harvest."

"Years?" Markos sputtered. "How in Hades am I supposed to pay back…"

He fell silent when Kassandra entered his line of sight, followed by a man he never met before, but he focused back to Kassandra and beamed, in which he threw his arms open wide and nearly backhanded the well-meaning worker.

"Ah, Kassandra."

But she was not amused. "You bought a vineyard, Markos? A vineyard?!"

"Why not? I like wine, you like wine. Everybody likes wine. Everybody buys wine! Why not from me?"

Kassandra rolled her eyes and said, "Because you don't know how to grow grapes or make wine?"

"I'm a fast learner! You grow grapes on the vine, then you get some wine! So, only the finest wines for us from now on, my girl," he purred and spun on the spot and gestured all around.

Meanwhile, Phoibe darted in and out of the vines while Naruto felt negative emotions from behind him as Ikaros screeched, agitated, but Kassandra's mind was on other things.

"I don't want your grapes or your wine, Markos," she insisted. "I need food, clothing, bedding, and most importantly, I want the drachmae you owe me."

The man shrank a little then and fiddled with the mouth of his wineskin. "Ah, ever the misthios."

Kassandra's eyebrows rose when he chuckled nervously.

"Well, you see, there will be a short delay in getting those coins to you."

"A short three years, by the sounds of it," she said flatly. Kassandra then shot a look in the sky, at the circling Ikaros as a sense of unease nagged at her.

"When the grapes become wine," Markos interrupted her thoughts, "I will have money aplenty, my dear. First, I must make sure I pay back my loan for this place. I'm, er, slightly behind on my payments you see."

"Hmph, quite true," said the nearby worker as he absently returned to his job, "and the Cyclops doesn't like late payments."

Markos shot a wild look at the man's back as Kassandra looked at him with shock.

"You borrowed from the Cyclops?" Kassandra gasped.

"This," she gestured around her, "was funded by that man?"

"Quite correct," a gruff voice said from behind them.

Kassandra swung round to the vines where two strangers stood by, ugly grins stretched across their faces. One of them held a fear frozen Phoibe, with a hand over her mouth and another hand on a dagger to her throat. Naruto stood silent as he prepared his move while Kassandra recognised the two.

"Ikaros, why didn't I listen to you?" she chided herself as the eagle continued circling above them.

"Try anything, and the girl's throat will be opened," said the second man as he patted a short sword with against the palm of his free hand, his brow jutted like a cliff and cast his eyes in shadow.

"Markos has run quite a debt, but so have you, misthios," the man continued as Kassandra tensed.

"You've holed one of my master's boats, and you've killed a convoy of his men - friends of mine. So how's about you come along with us, eh? Settle matters to my master's satisfaction."

Kassandra felt her blood in her veins freeze. She knew that would mean death, and to resist might mean death as well, but then, she saw Naruto as a tense moment passed.

Then Naruto struck.

A strange curved, single-edged blade with a circular guard and a long grip in hand, seemingly struck the air and returned to its sheath in that single moment, and she heard him whisper in an unknown language.

Kenjutsu-Musou Ken-Zen-Ichinyo…

Then poured out blood like a fountain from where the heads of the two men were supposed to be. Markos couldn't notice anything but the heads that rolled down on the dusty ground, and the blood that followed.

"By the balls of Zeus," wailed Markos as he wrung his hands through his greasy curls and fell to his knees as he gaped at the two corpses. "The Cyclops will kill me for certain now."

Kassandra took the weeping Phoibe to her arms and kissed the top of her head as Naruto watched in silence and then, Markos turned to him.

"Why did you do that?"

"Reflex," he replied as he walked over the bodies. "I'll bury the bodies. Nobody will know what became of them."

"But he will find out," groaned Markos as he looked at him. "You're not from here, you don't know the Cyclops - today you cut two heads from the beast, but four will sprout to take their places. And the Cyclops' rage will be tripled. Like any tyrant, you must either obey him utterly… or destroy him completely."

Naruto gained a thoughtful look as Kassandra consoled Phoibe, then he turned to Markos.

"It's not the first time I've dealt with someone like that, ask Kassandra," Naruto said before he hefted one body and walked away. Markos turned to Kassandra and he got a small nod.

-Later that day-

After Naruto dealt with the bodies and the blood, he sent three clones to scour Kephallonia and then he returned to Markos' vineyard and saw Kassandra and Markos in an argument.

"You need to find a way to pay him back," Kassandra said as Markos' eyes searched the ether before him, his face gradually slackened in despair, then, it was as if he was struck by lightning. He jolted and rose to his feet and seized Kassandra by the shoulders.

"That's it; there is a way."

The misthios shrugged him off. "A way to earn a sackful of silver on this island? I doubt it."

"Not silver," Markos said as his eyes tapered. "Obsidian."

Kassandra just stared at him blankly.

"Think! What does the Cyclops value most? His land, his ships? No. His obsidian eye." Markos tapped madly under one of own eyes.

"Get to the point Markos," she tiredly said.

"Oh fine," he grumbled, "we're going to steal it."

"Are you crazy?" Kassandra exploded. "You borrow his drachmae, then you steal his eye?"

"Having it means we win. Then, it goes to market. We kill two birds with one obsidian eye!" Markos yelped, delighted at having found an altruistic rationale at least, but Kassandra was not amused.

"What? He never wears it. It's too valuable, it's even veined in gold. He keeps it in his home."

Kassandra gave him a dry look.

"His home is like a fort," she said dryly as she thought of the den on a small peninsula that sprouted from the west of the island, then Naruto interrupted them.

"Oh, a heist? Count me in."

Then Kassandra suddenly gained a hopeful look, because somehow, she knew the odds suddenly turned to her side.

A/N: Hello there, sorry for the long wait, it's just too busy for me, and will be even more busy next year as I finally broke my break and go to the university.

If you have any questions, or if you want to play some video games with me, contact me in any of these accounts:

Discord: Ex-Durandal 24#9066

Steam: Pope Pius XIII (Profile pic is the Flag of the Vatican City State)

The Elder Scrolls Online: NarutoUzumaki24 - Megaserver: PC-North America

Blizzard (Overwatch): ExDurandal24#1315 - Server: Americas

GOG Galaxy: Jello242

Uplay: bfigu

Xbox: JelloUzumaki24

Fate/Grand Order (NA - English): Bonjello, 267,838,861 - Main Account

Fate/Grand Order (NA): Pius XIII, 517,360,382 - Second Account with Musashi-chan

Fate/Grand Order (JP - Japanese): Augustus, 960,768,286 - Beginner Account

Fate/Grand Order (JP): Claudius, 453,568,669 - Endgame Account

Merry Christmas and may God bless you all, see you next year.