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Luciela of the South had dominated the land of Mucha for the better part of two centuries, proving ruthless and cunning in protecting her territory. Neither Yoma nor Claymore posed a threat to her, and even the lesser Awakened Beings were little more than a mild annoyance. Riful and Isley, the only genuine threats to her territory, each possessed their own domains and by wordless agreement none of them strayed beyond their boundaries.

Thus, for Luciela, pain had become merely an abstract concept – until a mysterious man had decided to punch her.

The impact of the blow had sent her flying out of the ruined village and through the forest, leaving shattered tree's in her wake, before finally hitting the ground with such unbelievable force that she gouged a two mile long trench. Upon finally coming to a stop, Luciela was firmly entrenched in a human sized hole in the ground with a brief sea of pain danced across all of her senses.

Eventually Luciela untangled her limbs, and despite her body's protest, carefully extracted herself from the crater, staggering slightly as she did so. Upright once more, her recovery sped up upon realizing the ruinous state of her dress. Growling in irritation at the discovery, Luciela began reconsidering the level of vengeance she should visit upon her attacker. Before she could give the thought too much effort, something in her peripheral vision caught her attention.

A second later, she discovered an orange and yellow blur hurtling at her from the tree branches of a section of the surviving forest. Snarling at the hapless fool, her tails lashed out piercing him through the torso - only for him to disappear in a puff of smoke. Luciela blinked in surprise at the discovery that she now faced a being capable of creating such a convincing golem.

Registering another blur of orange and yellow charging from the right, her tails lashed out yet again, intent on crushing him, but found only air. Undaunted Luciela continued her assault, increasing the speed of each attack and yet frustratingly her attacker continued to weave his way through her assault. Alarmingly the blond finally came close enough to punch her yet again, but this time Luciela managed to dodge the incoming blow and lash out with her own.

Her moment of satisfaction proved short-lived however, as the blond promptly exploded into yet another cloud of smoke. Snarling in anger, Luciela tried to wave away the lingering cloud that had begun to obscure her vision, when a shout from overhead drew her attention. Looking up she registered yet another copy of her attacker descending toward her, this time brandishing a strange knife.

Side stepping the attack, she responded with a near negligent flick of her tails slashing this latest golem in half…only to be thrown off her feet as instead of turning into smoke the golem exploded violently. Swearing, Luciela scrambled upright once more to only belatedly discover yet another golem shoving a massive sphere of wildly spinning yoki at her face. Instinctively Luciela brought her hands up to protect against the strange form of attack, even as her tails belatedly attempted to strike her opponent down.

However, as her hands met the sphere of yoki, the world transformed into an existence of pain and light.

Claymore and Naruto: Children of Destiny
Scene 05: Titanomachy, Pt. 1
by Geor-sama

Naruto recovered first, kicking his way back to his feet with a grunt, and shook his hand out - he had never hit anything that caused a Rasengan to explode. Well, technically it had been a backlash from his 'Senjutsu: Chou Odama Rasengan' striking something extremely durable. But still, he had never had it happen before - turning his attention away from his hand, he noted the rather impressive crater which now scarred the landscape, and then to ruined forest beyond its far edge.

"Of course it couldn't be that easy." Naruto muttered, his enhanced chakra sensing abilities granted by Sage Mode revealing that despite being unable to see or hear her, Luciela still lived.

Gathering his resolve, he started making his way around the crater, debating on his next course of action. He could have rushed head long into battle, with her chakra capacity and his own sensing abilities she had no chance of evading him. The problem with such a course of action lay in the fact that he faced a being equal in strength to a Bijū, and from experience, Naruto knew that any such being needed be treated cautiously.

Coming to a stop on the other side of the crater, directly in line with where Luciela lurked hidden in the forest, Naruto crossed his arms.

"I don't buy that took you down for one minute!"

"Very well." Luciela intoned as she emerged from the forest, her nude figure hypnotic as she stopped short of him and made no effort to hide her body she gave him a very predator grin. "You did not give me the chance earlier, but please allow me to introduce myself. I am Luciela the Devourer, and I bid you welcome to my land."

Naruto forcibly kept his gaze locked on her face, because monster or not, she was hot and standing before him without any hint of shame. "Your land?"

"Mine and mine alone." Luciela confirmed, spreading her arms wide in a sweeping gesture of their surroundings. "All of Mucha is my domain, from the Lallans in the far south to the river Easg on the border of Toulouse. From the Durisdeer Hills in the west, to the eastern Plains of Ayr."

Naruto simply stared at her, taken aback at just how human she sounded – every single Yoma he had previously encountered had been exactly how one would picture people eating monsters. Not even one Yoma had seemed to have a concept beyond their obsession with eating people and they certainly had never been so eloquent. It made him reconsider what he knew about these beings and left him wondering how exactly he should proceed from here.

"You are clearly no lackey of the Organization, nor are you a Yoma." Luciela continued solicitously. "A being capable of creating golems, and externalizing his yoki in such a manner. Yes, I would dearly love to know whom you art."

"Me?" Naruto asked, before placing a hand against his chest. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, Supreme Ramen Consor, and Konoha's Orange Hokage!"

"Ho...kage?" Luciela repeated, sounding out the strange word with a frown.

"Where I'm from, it's what the strongest warrior is called." Naruto said and then sensing someone else arriving in secret, added almost absently. "You could also say I'm a prototype of all you warriors."

Luciela's eyes widened and then narrowed. "It does not matter if you are the first or the latest experiment, or even one of the God's themselves. Mucha belongs to me! I have nurtured and roamed these majestic mountains and lush vineyards for longer than any in my domain have been alive."

"What about the people living in 'your lands'?" Naruto asked, heat creeping into his voice. "You keep ranting about the land, but what of the people?!"

"What of them? They are clumsy little vermin, that at best they provide amusement but truthfully they are little more than food. Still, they are mine the same as the land, and I will not allow you to take what is mine."

Naruto responded to that statement, not with words, but rather with violence.

Chakra surging in reaction to his temper, he rocketed across the small distance between them, and delivered a lightning-fast uppercut into her torso, followed by an elbow to her face and then a sharp head butt that sent her flying. Luciela abruptly changed directions in mid-air thanks to her tails and flew back at him with a kick that he blocked by crossing his arms, though the force behind the kick still sent him skidding backwards.

In the flurry of battle that followed, Naruto began to learn far more about Luciela than he ever could have with words. The most important fact that he discovered was that beneath her anger and possessiveness, there was fear...it seemed to consume her and drive her every action. This made a certain amount of sense, as she was rational, logical and understood abstract concepts. But nearly as important as the discovery of her fear was the fact that Luciela had a great deal of experience with actual battle: A typical Yoma fought in a very linear manner, without any concept of blocking or evasion, while Luciela dodged, blocked and used her surroundings.

Unluckily for her Naruto had spent the majority of his life fighting a constant uphill battle against overwhelming opponents.

Trapping one tail under each arm, he yanked Luciela off her feet while spinning around, before releasing her sending her airborne once more. Only this time, before she had a chance to hit a tree or recover, he reappeared above her in a blur of speed and planted a round-kick to her back sending her hurtling vertical through the air. A second later, just as she reached the peak of her arc he reappeared ahead of her yet again, this time in mid-summersault and drove the heel of his foot into her sternum, sending her crashing back to the ground.

He drifted for a brief moment and then flung his arm out, launching a kunai to the side. Finding its target in a nearby tree, the attached metal wire went taut and abruptly shifted his descent into a curved arc that carried him around the tree before depositing him at the base of it. By then Luciela, had climbed out of the crater she had created upon impact, and staring at him with bared teeth.

"So," Naruto said after a moment, grinning at her "had enough Lucy?"

"My name," Luciela breathed out sharply, her chakra spiking sharply in response to her emotions. "is Luciela!"

The silence was colossal and Galatea drifted, temporarily consumed by the power rushing through her body - she rarely used so much in such rapid succession and now she had done just that. First in her ill-fated confrontation against Luciela and then to heal the catastrophic injuries she had sustained. Which resulted in having very little time to clear her mind of its influence and so as her yoki pulsed replacing pain with euphoria and pleasure, it whispered to her in something beyond words.

Promising that if she would just embrace it the limits of her body would become a thing of the past.

So tempting, so very tempting... and yet she still managed to drag herself back from the precipice and forced her yoki down. Its influence faded into dormancy with a seemingly inaudible sigh, leaving Galatea with a deep sense of loss. In the wake of its suppression, she remained motionless, briefly mesmerized by empty air before snapping back to reality and sat back on her heels before slowly staggering upright, wiping away the sweat dripping down the sides of her face.

The buildings of the market area had fared poorly, as had those who survived the confrontation between Luciela and the warriors.

Several people were slowly picking themselves out, some running to help others, a few frantically trying to dig others from beneath collapsed buildings and the rest fleeing. However, what truly captured her attention was a child cowering against a damaged building, staring at the world as if in a nightmare. A rumbling, catastrophic roar abruptly filled the air causing the frenzy around her to freeze...and her body moved without conscious thought, darting across the space hauling the girl out of the way as the wall fell.

"Momma!" The child cried a second later and Galatea released her, watching the two reunite.

Clutching her hurt child tightly, the woman turned her focus briefly to Galatea. "Thank you."

"It's fine." Galatea said, absently noting the mothers' bruised face and the cruel gash at the temple. No sooner had she acknowledged the woman's thanks than mother and child were unsteadily making their way from the ruined market. Galatea was distracted from the retreating pair by the air suddenly filling the countless fleeing birds, reminding her of both what had cause this devastation and the fact that her current ally had punched it in the face.

Galatea really did not know how to process the fact that not only had Naruto been serious about punching the Abyssal One, but that it had worked!

Shaking her head in disbelief, Galatea took a steadying breath before remembering that she and Naruto had been far from the first to confront Luciela; head snapping around she spotted the first of her fallen comrades and moved to check on them. Unfortunately, Lucia had long since succumbed to her injuries, but thankfully Hilda still clung to life, though with how wildly her yoki was fluctuating that meant very little as it would do no good for Hilda to survive only to awaken.

Kneeling beside Hilda, Galatea hesitated, aware that as the strongest warrior present she should move to provide whatever aid to Naruto she could. But upon further reflection she conceded that Naruto most likely did not need her aid and Hilda's fate was a far more pressing matter. Tentatively she then placed her hands on Hilda and careful aligned their yoki, stabilizing the wildly fluctuating power and focusing it exclusively on the fatal injuries.

Satisfied that she now had things with Hilda under control, Galatea cautiously turned her attention to outside world to get a clearer picture of the exact situation they faced: Furthest away but rapidly approaching she noted Apolline and Pamela. However, what she really focused on was the battle between Luciela and Naruto – the sheer amount of yoki Luciela possessed and the fact that Naruto did not seem to draw on his own made it extremely difficult to see the flow of battle, but Galatea had the distinct impression that Naruto continued to hold his own.

Good, that meant she had time to consider her options and given the state of her own body that would be critical. She could not engage in direct combat against Luciela, if she had learned nothing else, Galatea had realized just how wide the gulf was between her and the Abyssal One. One day in the future, she would be up to the task but right now, it would be wiser for her to allow Naruto to take the lead in fighting Luciela.

A hand suddenly grabbing her forearm disrupted her thoughts, and looking down she found Hilda staring up at her.

"Relax, while your injuries are severe it has proven a simple matter to help guide your yoki in healing them." Galatea said with a reassuring smile.

"Ugn...g-go..."

"It is not necessary, The Seraph is more than capable-"

"Go!" Hilda hissed, her face contorting in pain. "Kill that bitch."

Galatea hesitated, blinking. "Are you sure?"

"Go."

"Very well." Galatea said, taking care to ensure the yoki remained stable as she pulled away. Getting to her feet, Galatea retrieved her sword and then paused, reaching out briefly with her senses before addressing Hilda once more. "Apolline and Pamela will arrive soon."

Then, without waiting for acknowledgement, Galatea departed the village at top speed.

A judicious surge of her yoki allowed Galatea to gather speed quickly reducing the forest to little more than blur of green and brown. Of course, at this rate it would not take her very long to reach the two clashing forces, though she still had no idea how to approach this battle. One thing was clear however, given how much effort it took for her to maintain her speed, charging directly into the battle would be suicidal and thus she adjusted her path to bring her in at a more oblique angle.

Which still left her with the question of how exactly was Galatea going to be of any help in such a battle, as even at full power they both dwarfed her. Her best option would be to remain hidden from the battle and when the opening came, serve as a surprise attack. Nevertheless, she would only a single shot, and if she missed Luciela would not doubt swat her aside as one would a fly – she broke off further consideration of her failure as she finally reached the periphery of the battle and caught a snippet of conversation.

"-I'm a prototype of all you warriors."

Galatea blinked in surprise at not only having him so casually confirm her theory that he was a male warrior, but even more shocking seemed to be the fact that he insinuated that he pre-dated even the first generation of male warriors. His age would have to be astronomical, no wonder he had such refined yoki and could handle himself so well against such an impossibly powerful foe. But even as she mulled over all that, there was no missing the fact that this new information only raised more questions not the least of which being how the Organization had ever lost track of him.

Shaking her head, Galatea refocused on the two.

"What about the people living in 'your lands'? You keep ranting about the land, but what of the people?!" Naruto asked angrily, and Galatea detected a slight spike in his yoki.

"What of them? They are clumsy little vermin, that at best they provide amusement but truthfully they are little more than food. Still, they are mine the same as the land, and I will not allow you to take what is mine."

Galatea grimaced in disgust at Luciela's words, but Naruto's reaction was both visceral and swift: With a surge of some unknown power, he tore into the ill-prepared Luciela and for the next several minutes treated one of the most feared beings as his own personal punching bag. The Abyssal One recovered soon enough and the two began exchanging series of blows that left Galatea wincing at each impact and second-guessing the necessity of her presence.

The confrontation soon came to a head as he trapped a tail under each arm and spun around yanking Luciela off her feet before throwing her through the air. He followed this up with a flurry of attacks that sent her crashing back to the ground with enough force to topple several trees. Unfortunately by the time he landed from his assault, Luciela had regained her feet and stood there seething, her yoki pulsing in response to her anger.

And what he did next made Galatea want to smack her forehead and smile at the same time.

"So," Naruto said with an infuriating grin "had enough Lucy?"

"My name is Luciela!"

Leaping to the side as one of her tails wiped around at his feet, and gouged the earth when it missed, Naruto made a mental note to stop giving women nicknames. Luciela had gone on the offensive with such viciousness that not only surprised him but also left him struggling to keep pace with her. Her second tail nearly blindsided him and he only his Sage enhanced reflexes that kept his head on his shoulders. Recovering from his impromptu back-roll, he retrieved and hurled his Fumma shuriken with such force that he actually managed to pin the attacking appendage to the side of a tree.

He paused for a moment as she screamed in pain (or perhaps righteous fury?), and wondered at the sudden change – her blows when they started had not caused him much harm, but now her blows were threatening to leave bruises. Unfortunately, he took too long in pondering this change and her second tail snagged his leg, yanking him off his feet and violently whipped him around with such force that surroundings trees exploded upon impact.

Several minutes later he came to a stop, held aloft upside down, as Luciela glared up at him.

"You are quite durable."

"Thanks." Naruto managed, trying to divide his attention between being dizzy and noticing an almost rhythmic series of pain along his leg and waist. Dangling helplessly in the air made it hard, especially as the second tail had encircled his waist, but he lifted his upper body slightly and what he saw made him blanch. Where the tails had wound there way around his body, a series of mouths each filled with jagged teeth had spouted on the tail.

Thank the toads for Sage Mode.

"Are you...are you trying to eat me!?" Naruto asked incredulously, flopping back to stare at Luciela in open disbelief.

"Trying, yes. Clearly I will have to tenderize you some more before devouring you." Luciela admitted with a frown. "I do hope you forgive me, but I am a horrible eater."

"Yeah, good luck with that."

A second later, he tossed a kunai at her face, and unsurprisingly she easily caught the bladed weapon, clearly annoyed with his attack. Naruto however was far from putt off, as a second later, the attached tag exploded with such force that it cratered the ground. While it did not have enough power to hurt her, it did have enough force that the explosion caused her tails to loosen their hold and he managed to free himself.

Dropping to the ground with a flip, Naruto landed in a crouch in preparation for attacking the still unbalanced Luciela, but checked his motion when he registered a blur of motion entering the battle.

In the ensuing melee that followed his calling her Lucy, he had forgotten about Galatea being present, and clearly, Luciela had never noticed her arrival. In a matter of seconds, the female warrior reached striking distance and her sword arced out, aimed at the Abyssal One's throat. Luciela stumbled back with a strangled choke and a spray of blood, hand clutching her throat, and Galatea retreated quickly to his side.

"Téa, you all right?" Naruto asked, trying to process the abrupt turn of events.

Galatea simply stared back at him.

"What?"

"Nothing." Galatea said. "There art three combat type classifications for us Warriors: "defensive", "offensive" and "special". I'm a defensive type, while not as physically strong as offensive fighters defensive types possess higher self-healing abilities than offensive types."

"Ok...so basically you heal really fast?"

"...Yes."

"Great!" Naruto exclaimed, ignoring her look of annoyance much as he had when Shikamaru explained something, instead settling on observing a still bleeding Luciela. It was too bad she had managed to move at the last second, a wounded enemy was always twenty times more dangerous. "So, uh, follow me?"

"Very well."

Gathering chakra to his hand, Naruto charged the wounded Luciela and activated the seal on his hand leaving him holding a slender, elegant double-edged blade with a curving metal cross-guard and a three-pronged pommel in his grasp. Startled she retreated and raised a tail in a defensive gesture, but Naruto slashed at her with all his strength and as the blade touched her arm the surface shifted transforming into toothy mouth that snapped at the offending blade.

Only, instead of seizing the blade or halting the attack, his blade sliced through the offending flesh, and part of her tail hit the ground with an oddly hollow, yet still sickeningly wet thud. Luciela choked out a pained gurgle and lashed out with her second tail, bowling him over sending him crashing into Galatea. Recovering quickly Naruto rose to a half-crouch, taking in the scene, knowing that he should press their advantage but hesitated because of how pathetic Luciela now looked.

"How did thou manage such a feat?" Galatea asked from behind him.

"Luck?" Naruto half-asked with an absent shrug. "She changes her body to make those mouths appear...I guess basically she's sacrificing muscles and stuff for to use those mouths."

"You art cleverer than by half."

"Eh, just experience. I've face plenty of people with odd abilities." Naruto said, then registering her comment, gave her an irritated look and opened his mouth to comment when Luciela interrupted.

"Enough!"

"I'm an idiot!" Naruto swore, flinching at the raw power unleashed as her chakra exploded into a towering pillar of dark-light that obscured the woman completely from sight. Luciela was already releasing more power than he had ever felt from a full transformed Gaara and it was only growing stronger.

"Perhaps it would be best to withdraw?" Galatea asked with a steady voice, but to his Sage sense's her chakra screamed with fear.

Before he could respond a shockwave of power rippled out from the pillar of chakra, shattering the remaining trees and splitting the ground. Galatea was knocked off her feet and sent tumbling away, and even with his nature chakra holding him place Naruto had to lean into the blast to keep his feet. Damn it, he should not have hesitated, why had he not pressed their advantage when he had the damn chance?

Not a mistake he would make again, and besides, at least now he had a good idea of how powerful Luciela actually was – if he had to compare the amount of chakra now present, he would say she clearly stood on par with Utakata the host for Saiken. Not that he could truly appreciate that knowledge now, as the looming fight was going to suck in some truly magnificent ways not the least of which was the fact that he saw her body contorting and shifting. Realizing what could mean, he did not even consider attacking her and instead quickly retreated, snagging a stunned Galatea and put as much distance between him and Luciela as he could.

Coming to a stop as felt another chakra shockwave, he deposited Galatea on a nearby boulder and turned back to stare at his opponent. Once he realized that she was transforming he had expected something large and had made a rough estimate. For once in his life, his calculations had proven up to the task, but still, what he now faced would easily dwarf Gamabunta and honestly nothing should be that big while crouching.

Luciela had become some kind of bipedal feline, with a leanly muscled but very obviously female body, with thick ruddy fur covering every inch of her. Instead of a single mouth filled with razor sharp teeth she had two, one atop the other, and two massive tails with fanged mouths along their length that swayed behind her in an oddly hypnotic way. The oddest features though, were the occasional tufts of fur that sprouted into razor like blades and the pair of tattered bat like wings that protruded from her back.

A strange dual roar unlike anything he had ever heard before filled the air as she leaned back onto her hind legs, muscular arms spread wide revealing four-fingered hands that ended in wicked talons that curved gracefully for nearly four feet.

Naruto simply stared in silence at the sight for several long minutes, before asking the most obvious question ever conceived of. "Why me?"

{It's a gift.}

At the familiar dry mental voice, Naruto experienced a mixture of sheer relief and annoyance; because of course, the stupid fox would pick now to wake up from its nap...but hey, his friend had finally recovered from whatever had happened.

{You had me worried there Kurama.}

{We'll take later brat, right now I think you have more pressing issues.}

"Do not try to flee now," Luciela said, her glowing almond-shaped eyes focused on him despite the distance separating them. "Come back so I can devour you."

"Uh, how about I go with no." Naruto shouted back at her and thankfully, Kurama shared his sentiment as the warmth of the fox's chakra began to flow through him. The world actually took on a hyper-reality, and if he focused on anything too intently, he would swear that he saw wisps of chakra. As his body began to flicker with golden chakra flames, he remembered that he was not alone and turned to find Galatea staring at him with a strangely hungry look.

"Uh, Téa, I...really would have liked to get to know you and the others better before I pulled a stunt like this."

"What are you-" Galatea started to say, but was cut off as his entire body was consumed by golden flames.

A second later, he exploded across the distance and with a flying kick actually sent the towering Luciela stumbling back, he avoided her follow up attack and skidded to a halt, golden chakra tails lashing out to bat her own aside before striking her in the mouth once more. Righting herself, Luciela paused and glared down at him.

{So, any suggestions?} Naruto asked Kurama as he settled into a serious stance.

{Don't get hit?} Kurama offered dismissively {For all her power, this rodent is beneath our attention.}

{Riiiight.}

"Tch, what kind of monster are you?" Luciela asked, monstrous feline face twisted into a snarl of fear and hate.

Now there were numerous ways Naruto could respond to that question, certainly a lot that would keep from further antagonizing her. So naturally, he curled a finger in 'come here' motion and flashed a trickster grin at her.

"Here, kitty kitty..."

Author's Note:

So, that only took me...two or three years?

I weep for the days when I could knock out chapters without taking such an agonizing long time, oh for the days when I updated regularly every month. As I said in the AN for the last 'Naruto: Eleven' chapter, I am sorry for the long wait between chapters. I am a fan as well, and I hate it when stories I'm reading don't update, so I understand the flames and pleading and don't blame you. I won't even blame you if you simply drop my stories, or won't believe me when I tell you I'm sorry.

There's no singular reason as to why I've taken so long to update, or now struggle to write anything. Besides the same old health and finances issues that I've mentioned before, there is the fact that no matter how much I might want to simply sit down and write, whenever I do get the chance I tend to end up struggling to produce a single paragraph.

That said, a big thanks goes to all of my fans leaving me reviews and pms letting me know that you remained interested in this (and other stories). Also, a large thanks goes to Dylan Millwood for all his help. I had portions of this chapter written for years, but there was so much I didn't have until he offered to write some ideas for how things should play out, and in so doing he gave me an inspiration/direction to work from/toward.

Anyway, I'll see you guys in two years for the next chapter?

...or I could try to update in a month or two?

Sincerely,
Geor-sama