祖たるもの –The Progenitor–

Chapter Fifteen: The Awakening「目覚めもの」

The first thing he saw was a huge – and by huge, he meant a really really huge – ceiling of a sewer.

No seriously, he was literally wading on ankle-high sewer water, which, oddly enough, didn't smell that bad or even feel that bad at all. If anything, it smell more like somebody put way too much iron in the water and now it smells like blood.

Well, a rather watered down smell of blood.

Sitting up, he found himself to be surrounded by a wall of cages. HUGE cages. Ones meant to keep in wild beasts.

Hah! He called us wild beasts!

Eyes widening in shock, he stood up, looking to see where the voice came from.

Calm yourself, Naruto…

Kinda hard to calm down when there are literally voices in his head talking to him! Is he… gulp, going insane…?

Well, I didn't want to say anything…

Silence, you idiot!

Great, now they're talking to each other… worst, they're arguing…

Ignore the two at the moment.

Oh, now there's a fifth voice… Dammit, he really is going insane… Godda-…

Excruciating pain entered his head as the blonde fell to the water, gripping his head as if it was on fire. He writhed about, swinging his feet up and down as he tried very hard not to succumb into the searing pain. Panting as said pain subsided, the blonde heaved as he sat up with a tremble.

What.

The.

Fuck.

Was.

THAT!?

Ouch, we aren't even Devils and even I felt that…

Oohoohoohoo, do it again, do it agaaaaaaaaain!

You want to give him a concussion!? What if he loses even more brain cells along the way!?

Well, it's not like he'll get even stupider than before.

HEY! He takes offence to that!

Enough chatter…

A ninth voice called out, directing itself at Naruto.

Regardless, he's awaken and now the powers that has been locked inside of him will be released once again.

…

…

S-so,the voice that belonged to the fourth, or was it the fifth, voice rang, W-which one will he unlock f-first?

First of all, he'll have to relearn how to use Chakra again.

Chakra… that word has been in his dreams for as long as he could remember. It was supposed to be the manifestation of… something…

Hmph, at least he remembers that from his previous life…

Previous life?

Several voices grumbled as the second voice that talked to him responded with, Whatever it is that you must relearn, remember that we are always with you, Naruto-kun.

Naruto… that's his name. How did they…?

Forget about that, you're about to wake up now.

Wake up? But, isn't he already…

Oh, the room now seems distant as the voices grew weaker. The presence from behind the cages grew weaker and weaker as the second voice called out,

Remember us, Naruto-kun! The time will come when you will have to use this power again! The "us" outside shall teach you! Remember!

Remember!

Rem…ber…!

Re…!

…!

The first thing Naruto saw was the ceiling of his room. Groaning as he closed his eyes to block the light from the sun, he grunted and brought up his left arm to cover his face.

"What the hell was that…?" He wondered, thinking about his dream. "That was so weird… and those voices… they sound so familiar…"

A moan caught his attention as Naruto finally took notice of something weighting his right arm down. Looking down to see a familiar mass of red hair resting on top of his right pecks, Naruto marveled at Rias' beautiful face. Noticing her face scrunched up in worry and exhaustion, Naruto tried to think back at what happened last night.

"That time… I… died, right…? I should have died… so, how am I…?"

Not getting answers within his mind, Naruto tried to think about another thing that was there that night.

"Fallen angel… does he mean those angels that fell from Heaven? They're real?"

With so many questions and so little answers, Naruto groaned as his head landed on his pillow. Not getting any answers anytime soon, Naruto decided to wake up his lover instead.

"Hey, Rias. Wake up, its morning and we gotta get to school."

Nudging her once, twice, three times, Naruto shuffles through his bed so that he now hugged Rias back. Facing her, the blonde kisses her once and stared on as Rias opened her eyes. Seeing the tears streaming down her face, Naruto tried to find out what was wrong.

"R-Rias!? Why're you crying!? You ok!? Did something happen!?"

Biting her lower lip, Rias said nothing as she hugged Naruto tighter, sobbing into his chest. Feeling the girl shiver under the pressure of her cries, Naruto simply hugged her. Patting her red hair that he oh so loved, he continued to whisper into her ears.

"Sssh, it's alright… everything'll be alright…"

"It's not…"

Naruto blinked, hearing Rias for the first time this morning.

"Nothing's alright… if anything, everything went horribly…"

"Rias…?"

Rias sniffed as she hugged tighter. "It's nothing."

Sighing, the whiskered student tried to have the girl let go so that they could get ready for school. For once, the blonde was shocked to find that Rias didn't want to go to school. After much pleading and promises to have heavy petting later today, the redhead finally agreed. As he tried to get up, Rias simply tightened her grip.

"Hey, Rias-…"

"Please… please let me stay like this a little longer…"

Sighing heavily, Naruto simply smiled and slipped back under his sheets. Shuffling so that he could hug the shorter girl back, he let Rias into his embrace and warmth.

"Alright, we'll stay like this a bit longer."

Rias simply smiled and snuggled into the boy. As Naruto felt Rias begin to calm down under the covers, he whispers again,

"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere…"

"So… he's 'awaken'…"

Matatabi nodded through her projection as the rest of the Beasts stood in a circle in front of the accursed statue that was once their host many many years ago. Kurama was silent as the rest of his brethren began murmuring and chattering needless words. Besides the others quietly speaking, Shukaku and Chōmei both began celebrating.

"Alright! I was getting sick of waiting for that brat to get his powers back!"

"Kekekeh, now things are starting to turn aroooooouuuund!"

"I wouldn't say that…" Son Gokū interrupted the two. "If everything we've learned in the past few hours is correct, then Naruto's gonna have to relearn how to use Chakra again, right?"

"Exactly. And given his age now, even with his coils, it's going to be difficult," Gyūki agreed as the One-Tailed and Seven-Tailed groaned.

"So what do we do now?" Saiken asks from her position.

Everyone gazed as Kurama to see what the unofficial guardian of one Uzumaki Naruto had to say about the blonde's reawakening.

Opening his slit eyes, Kurama answered, "For now… we do nothing."

"WHAAAAT!? Screw you, you stupid fox!" Shukaku screamed, pointing at his brother. "Like hell I'll sit back and watch blondie work his way back to the top!"

"If you let me finish, then you'll understand what I'm saying, stupid mutt…" Kurama growled through his teeth. Ignoring the cries from the insane tanuki, he continued, "Anyway, what I was going to say before I was interrupted…" He glares at Shukaku who glares back. "Is that we should stay back and help train Naruto while we look for Sasuke. We won't interrupt his battles nor will we fight his battles for him. Now that Naruto's awakened, I will not let him be babied or spoiled."

"Kurama…" Gyūki mumbled. "You…"

"And until the day Naruto returns to his former glory, we won't let anyone hurt him again. Am I understood?"

A few grumbled but most agreed to the fox's saying. In other words, train Naruto so that he could get back to his former strength, but don't pamper him to the point he gets either cocky or arrogant with his powers. Oh, and don't let anyone kill him. Plain and simple.

"Tch… fine."

"Very well."

"L-let's all help N-naruto…"

"Alright, let's do this!"

"Yeah…!"

"I agree."

"Kekekekekekekekekekeh…"

"So, when do we start?"

After so many years of watching the nine-tailed fox plan and protect the statue, the Beasts were slightly surprised to see Kurama smirking brightly. The last time he smirked like this was back during the first years of their life, when he still had that charismatic and happiness feeling around him during their first century alive.

"Now."

A/N:

First of all, and first things first, I would like to apologize for my A/N last chapter...

It was immature, stupid and I had NO excuse for doing that.

I'll admit, I never noticed how idiotic it was for me to do that until AFTER I posted. But soon after, my computer crashed, so I had to wait for it to come back from the shop... Luckily, I got everything backed up unlike last time. Thank goodness for that...

Anyway, getting back on track, I apologize to anyone I offended. I had no intention in doing so, but it was still inexcusable...

...

So yeah, sorry.

Getting back to the story, things are now getting heated up!

Naruto's, well, kinda back in action, and will now be working on getting his powers back!

HOORAY!

Secondly, I will have no qualms to people who don't want Issei included in the story. I'm gonna keep him, and so I'm gonna keep him.

Thirdly, the Piece I used on Naruto is NOT the Pawn Piece. Get your eyes right! Read correctly, and you'll see that the Piece I used is something else entirely! Read the fine print, dammit!

And lastly, this story is a secondary project for me. It's not even my priority, so obviously the chapters are gonna be short and the updates are gonna be long! I'm sorry if you guys want more, but this is so that I can clear my mind a bit more.

Heck, I might even make another story just cause!

Anyway, I'm using my sis' computer to put this on, and hopefully my computer will be back. Until then, see ya later!

P.S.: the I'm Not! story will be updated soon, just not today... or tomorrow... or the next day...