I could bore you all with notes, but after being gone for so long, I'll let you guys just get straight to it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor do I own Magic: The Gathering

Naruto ducked back in time for a ball of flame to fly past, springing back to his hand and spinning, launching two kicks into Chandra's ribs. Gasping more in shock than pain, the girl backpedaled, losing all the momentum she had thought she had gained. Naruto immediately had her on the defensive with a Taijutsu assault, forcing the girl to bob and weave through a vicious wave of punches and kicks. With a battle-cry, her hair was alight with her flames, and her sparring partner was forced to disengage, a wall of heat knocking him back.

There was no time for him to retaliate as the girl acted immediately, barreling into him, tackling him to the ground. He was actually fairly impressed at her improving reaction time, as well as how she managed to flip back from the tackle to her feet. He wasn't down for long, rushing Chandra straight from the ground. Plowing into her, she was thrown back and fell straight on her butt. She noticed too late the ethereal green glow of mana clutched in his outstretched hand as the roots of the trees on the edge of their clearing burst from the ground to ensnare her. Luckily for her, however, wood burns. Her entire form erupted with her fire, which Chandra pulled into her hands as she freed herself calling up a massive fireball.

Naruto, in response, called upon as much white mana as he could, throwing up a shimmering dome of light around himself as the fire Chandra had collected unleashed outward in a devastating explosion. When the smoke and dust cleared, the only untouched patch of grass in their training spot was in a circle at Naruto's feet. The surrounding trees hadn't taken as much damage - due in no small part to how quickly the flames had passed - but the bark was still smoldering slightly. Both combatants were breathing heavily.

"You're getting better..." Naruto complimented through ragged breaths. They had been at their sparring session for an hour and a half now, only pausing for water breaks and a quick lunch. Chandra's power and stamina was growing rapidly by the day, and Naruto himself was starting to find drawing on mana becoming easier and easier. As such, he could cast more and more magic spells without tiring. Unlike Chakra, which he had a natural abundance of, he had to draw mana from outside sources. At first, doing so took an abundance of concentration. It had seemed that there was a block of sorts on his ability to do so. But now, the further they went from Ghirapur and its city-scape, the more he could feel the mana teeming within the land itself.

"We should head back to the village," he continued. "We don't want to scorch too much of the plant-life around here. Last thing we need is a roaming thopter to spot one of our training sessions." The girl nodded, still beaming from the compliment as she walked up to Naruto. Taking his hand, the duo moved through the foliage back in the direction of the town they had taken temporary residence in. But as they neared it, they each received an ominous feeling. Naruto, without understanding how or what he was doing, was sensing a large number of people moving toward the village. Chandra, however, was sensing something else. The heat of a raging fire.

Walking from the treeline, the two stood frozen at the sight of the town erupted in flames. Naruto was the first to snap out of it, summoning a group of shadow clones. "Find anyone who could be trapped and get them out," he ordered. "Chandra and I will try and put the fires out as best as we can." As his clones dispersed, he looked to see Chandra already working to do so. Hands raised, he noticed the sweat on her brow as the flames began to siphon off the nearest building and seemingly absorbing into the palms of her hand. It wasn't from the heat. The girl was already exhausted from their training. She grit her teeth as she struggled to pull the fire under her control, but because she hadn't created the flames herself, it was a battle.

"Find my parents!" she managed to yell to the blonde. "I've got this." Despite having the distinct feeling that she did not, indeed, 'have it,' Naruto nodded and made to run into town. Before he could take more than three steps, he was blindsided by the feeling of his clones being dispelled, and something heavy and metallic slamming into his chest. The item locked around his body and knocked him back onto the ground. As the stars faded from his vision, he noticed Chandra likewise bound in an identical device. The flames in her hair dissipated almost immediately, and he saw her struggling to fight back. No flames emerged however, instead the device spitting out a deluge of steam. He tried to draw on mana himself and the received the same effect.

He instead decided to use his chakra, but his eyes widened in panic when once again, nothing came of the effort but more steam. As Consul forces surround he and Chandra, he forced himself to calm down. This was just like that business in the Land of Snow. He silently asked the Kyuubi within him to help, to try and overload the device as they did before. And while he received no verbal response, he felt the Nine-tails chakra begin to swell within him, causing more steam to billow from the device. A few of the soldiers chuckled at his apparently futile struggling, before they began to part. Naruto and Chandra were forced upward to their knees and their hands were bound together before them. Their eyes narrowed and Naruto actually growled, his eyes shifting red for a split second as Baral sauntered up to them, practically dragging a bound and injured Kiran with him.

"Father!" Chandra cried, scrambling on her hands and knees to his side. "Where's mom?"

"We were separated during the attack," he grunted. "I'm not certain what's happened to her." Before another word could be spoken, a piece of long, soft cloth fell over the two, courtesy of one of the soldiers. Chandra and Kiran immediately recognized it. Pia's scarf. If they had that...

"You'll be reunited momentarily," Baral coldly stated. Unable to do anything, Naruto and Chandra could only watch in terror as Kiran was pulled back to his knees, and a blade shoved through his back, emerging from his chest.

"No!" Naruto screamed, his eyes flashing red again as once more the Fox's chakra surged with his rage. Amid the crackling of flames, nobody heard the metal device he was wearing groan and creak as steam flushed from it. Between her father's lethal injury and the realization that her mother was also in all likelihood dead at this point, Chandra had all-but shut down, catatonic. "You BASTARD!"

Wrenching himself from the grasp of the consul soldiers - much to their surprise - he slammed his shoulder into their commanding officer. Even through his armor, Baral felt the air be ripped from his lungs as he was sent hurtling backward into one of the burning walls of the nearby homes. He managed to rise with a grunt, but he knew that something was wrong, By all rights, the young boy should not have had the strength to even move the larger man, and yet Baral instinctively knew that despite his armor, his stomach would sport a nasty bruise later, as would his back from the force of the hit. The steam belching from the vent pack Naruto wore was coming rapidly, and Baral began to rush forward seeing the cracks forming on the device.

"He's overloading it!" He shouted to his subordinates. "Restrain him, now!" The barked order came a moment too late however, and time seemed to slow to a crawl as the broken pieces of the magic-dampening device fell uselessly to the ground, scattering into the dirt. Baral could see the blonde's blue eyes had gone red. For a brief moment, the Consul captain saw his death, the numerous ways he might be ripped to pieces by the beast before him which was somehow masquerading as a boy. His soldiers weren't faring much better.

Chandra, though gripped by fear as well, was not nearly so afraid as Naruto's rage was not being directed at her. The soldier holding her down however was not faring near as well, and the entirety of the situation had snapped Chandra from her stupor and now found her desperately crawling toward her father. Despite his wound, the slight movement of his chest showed her that Kiran was clinging to life, if only barely. "Please, no," she begged, and allowed her tears to fall, pride forgotten as she did her best to raise her father's head, despite her restraints. "Hang on, Dad. Naruto will fix you up. He knows a healing spell or two."

Naruto's head snapped to Chandra. While she was right, he did know a basic healing spell - the very spell he'd used to heal her broken ankle back in Ghirapur - he didn't know if it was good enough. When he healed Chandra's ankle, he had basically poured raw white mana into her leg, and she was still limping for a bit after. However, he wouldn't forgive himself if he didn't at least try. But he needed to do it fast and he couldn't be distracted. For the first time since leaving Ghirapur, Naruto placed his hands into a familiar seal and the soldiers, still reeling from the Kyuubi-infused Killing Intent he had been given off, were met with a thousand copies of the pissed off blonde.

The original was next to Chandra and Kiran in a blink of the eye, while his clones surrounded them, pulling out kunai and shuriken while taking guarded stances. Some more ambitious clones darted out and swiftly knocked out and restrained the soldiers. Sadly, Baral was not with them. The man had seemingly vanished during the moment Naruto had been in thought. Several clones rushed away to look for him, but the original had to focus on saving his friend's life. Here outside the city, he could feel the mana flow far easier, but still, they were in a village in a forest. Not the rolling planes which were the source of the white mana that might heal the man. He forced himself to reach out beyond himself, reach further and pull harder than he ever had previously, and Chandra gripped her father's hand tight as she watched the aura like white flame begin to come off Naruto's hands. Naruto's eyes, first blue, then red, were now shining with the channeled mana so brightly that Chandra could no longer see them. It was instead as if someone had plucked the eyes from their sockets and replaced them with orbs of pure light.

He placed his hands down upon the blood-soaked chest of Kiran, and every part of him willed the mana to flow through the man, to mend what was broken, repair what was damaged. Kiran's face twisted into a grimace and he coughed up blood. Despite that, Naruto saw it as a good sign. At least the man was still alive. Despite the light, Naruto saw the wound begin to knit together, but his gathered Mana was already nearly spent.

"Focus on his insides," a deep, rumbling voice seemed to say to him. "Direct the mana, focus it to heal the internal damage. Better to heal the vital parts completely than to half-finish the entirety." Naruto recognized the one speaking as the Fox inside him. It wasn't the first time he'd heard the voice, after all. But now it was giving him advice. Good advice at that, Naruto thought as he did as he was told. The skin stopped healing as he forced the mana to heal the stabbed man from the center out. It was harder to direct the mana to specific places than it was to simply push it through him.

Eventually the mana was spent, and while Kiran was still bleeding, it had lessened greatly. His breathing was visible now in the steady rising and falling of his chest. He was unconscious, and the grimace he still wore told them both he was in pain, but he was alive. Naruto's eyes snapped up to Chandra, and the girl looked to him and frowned. Naruto was drenched in sweat now, breathing heavily. To heal such a deadly wound, especially after making so many clones immediately prior, had exhausted Naruto, who shakily got to his feet. "We need to leave. Have to find a place to hide. Kiran's alive, but I can't be sure how well I actually did." He was no medic and now wished he had had the patience back home - or the chakra control for that matter - to learn at least a medical diagnostic technique. He was certain Tsunade would have taught him if he'd just been willing to ask.

"But he's going to be ok, right?" Chandra asked shakily, standing herself and letting one of the steadily decreasing number of clones use his kunai to cut the bindings on her hands. They would forgo getting the Vent-pack off of her until they were in a safer location. Naruto sighed.

"He's alive," he stated again. "But I was letting the mana do nearly all the work. He needs a healer who actually knows what they're doing. Help me get him up." Together, the two hefted the larger man up onto their shoulders, while two of his clones grabbed the man's legs, lifting those off the ground. "My clones will keep the soldiers pinned down and cover our tracks. I don't know where the glorious Captain Baral went, and that makes me nervous, so be ready to run fast and far. Chandra nodded. She could do this. She wasn't some weak child anymore. That training with the blonde was about to be put to the test. She jerked a bit when she felt something slip around her neck, looking down to her mother's scarf, and casting a thankful eye to the clone who had draped it over her shoulders.

"Let's get moving." Naruto said, and while he had to go at a pace the girl could keep up with, they took off fairly quickly back into the forest.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

The two children had made a makeshift shelter in a cave. They had been running with minimal stops for nearly three hours, but Naruto decided they needed to stop, or Chandra would need a medic too. Not that he was faring better. The amount of chakra both he and the Nine-tails had to shove through him to break that device, coupled with making so many clones, and then trying to save Kiran...He was doing all he could to keep from wheezing in front of Chandra. With everything that had just happened, he didn't want her to be worried about him as well. As he finished binding Kiran's still open wounds with torn bits of the man's tunic, he went out to gather wood for a fire.

"She is here," spoke the beast within him with a growl. Before Naruto could ask, he felt what the Fox felt. That cold, dark feeling, ebbing into his mind.

"Well, that was certainly a day," came Liliana's silky voice as she slunk out from behind one of the larger trees. "You know, that man doesn't need a fire, especially with his pyromancer daughter. He needs a healer."

"You offering?" Naruto suggested hopefully, but there was an edge to his voice that Liliana easily picked up on. Likewise, Naruto noticed her smile falter. Perhaps only for a fleeting moment, but it was there.

"Tried my hand at healing once," she replied. "It...didn't go so well."

Naruto knew there was a story there, but based on her look, he also knew she didn't wish to talk about it. She continued. "And going to any other villages is surely out. The last thing you need is more soldiers coming at you. Based on how you look, anyway."

"Is there a point here, Lili?" he asked tersely, giving her the 'friendly' nickname she had suggested previously. She merely shot him that predatory smirk.

"You know, you could be a little grateful. Here I am, checking up on you even though I don't need to, offering a helpful suggestion, and you treat me like an enemy?" Naruto wanted to retort, but bit his tongue. If she had something helpful to say, then despite himself - and the Tailed Beast within - he wanted to hear what that was.

"Sorry," he said after a moment. "Like you said, it's been a bad day."

Liliana's grin grew wider as she leaned in and planted a light kiss upon his cheek, causing the blonde to shudder. "All is forgiven, my dear." Her eyes darted to one of the trees behind Naruto and she frowned. "Well, are you going to come out and introduce yourself?" Naruto turned around in time for the air to shimmer and reveal Jace, hood up and eyes glowing, glaring at the woman.

"Liliana Vess, the Angel Killer," he stated as fact, and Liliana's smile returned.

"Angel Killer?" She questioned. "I have an official title now? Exciting." Naruto growled. The boy had zero sense of appropriate timing, apparently.

"You're gonna do this now?" Naruto asked, exasperated. "I have a wounded man I have to find a healer for. Especially in case I screwed anything up when I has working on him. If you're gonna take her, can you at least do it after she gives me the information I need?"

"She's going to tell you to find Ajani. A Leonin planeswalker that she seems fairly certain is on Bant."

Liliana's eyes widened, having not even noticed the cloaked young man penetrating her mental defenses. She would have to craft stronger ones. However, she returned to her more casual smile. "My, my...Quite the telepath, aren't we? Tell me, what am I thinking now?"

Naruto wasn't sure what was going on between the two, but even shadowed by his hood, Jace's face had clearly gone red and...was his nose bleeding? "A pervert too? Man, you are just the trifecta of annoying, aren't you?" He turned back to Liliana.

"What do you know about this Ajani guy?"

"Well, like he said, he's a Leonin, so you'll be looking for a large lion-like being. He's fairly renowned for his healing prowess on Bant, one of the five shards of the plane of Alara, as well as Naya, another of those shards. Someone there is bound to have some idea of where you can find him. He's a Planeswalker like us, so you'll be able to bring him back here with you, but that said, he could even now be traveling to any of the Planes in the multiverse. Bant is just where he's most likely to be."

Naruto nodded, and despite the Kyuubi's distrust, he met Liliana's gaze. "I appreciate the help. But I don't know how to Planeswalk." Liliana just laughed in response.

"All Planeswalkers, even the new ones, know how to Planeswalk. It's an instinct. It's in your soul," She instructed, taking care to cross her arms beneath her bosom, pushing her breasts up slightly while shooting a wink to the still recovering Jace. "Just remember what you felt when you traveled to Kaladesh in the first place, but focus hard on traveling to Bant. Your focus determines your destination."

"And my friends?" Naruto asked. "If I can't take them with...and I don't know if a clone would stay if I go off to a new Plane...How can I know they'll be safe while I'm gone?"

"Well, the telepath there can help you find your healer more quickly, but I on the other hand might be willing to sit in with your little family..."

"If?" Naruto urged, knowing Liliana wanted something. He didn't trust her as far as he could throw her, but he didn't have many options. He was just beginning to argue against the Fox in his mind, when Jace put his hand on his shoulder, his eyes still glowing.

"She's telling the truth. She wants me to give her a head start once we get back, but I can't seem to glean why," He said, leaving the question hanging, but the dark-haired beauty waved him off. "She's working to keep me out, it seems."

"Well, obviously because getting caught is no fun...but me, being chased by a such a handsome young man? What woman in all the multiverse wouldn't want something so romantic?" Now expecting her teasing, Jace forced himself to keep a straight face, and Liliana chuckled.

"I think we're going to have lots of fun in the future, my little mind-mage," she said, stroking his cheek before cupping his chin in her hand, pulling his face up so he could see her suggestive wink. Jace, still flustered, was unable to comprehend the older woman's advances, real or fake.

"If we're gonna do this thing, let's go tell Chandra the plan. I'd rather not have her worry if I don't come back and you show up," Naruto announced, grabbing his bundle of collected firewood. "No offense, Lili, but you're giving off some serious 'scary lady' vibes."

The walk back to the cave was silent. Naruto walking along-side Liliana, with Jace following closely behind his gaze shifting back and forth between the two. He could tell the Liliana was being honest. She would sit with the girl and her father and protect them. But there had to be another reason why besides the one she gave him. Yet now that she knew he could try and pierce her mind, she was actively working to hold her mental barriers in place.

Turning her head to look over her shoulder at the cloaked young man, Liliana smirked, slowing her walking a bit and instead began more a sensual glide, drawing Jace's attention to her shapely rear. He quickly looked away, trying to hide his blush, but it was clear. Oh, if only the boy knew just what kind of effort it took to look so good, Liliana thought, her smile growing smaller as she thought back to just what she had to do for her youthful good looks.

They soon entered the cave. Chandra quirked an eyebrow at the newcomers, but didn't ask the many questions bubbling up into her mind. In her hand, she held a tiny ball of flame, but with her own exhaustion she was barely keeping it alive. With the firewood dropped before her, the girl gratefully ignited the wood. Now having fuel, the flames grew and Chandra relaxed.

The cave was soon filled with warmth and light from the flames. Off to the side, Kiran coughed in his sleep, hacking up a particularly disgusting combination of phlegm and blood, which his daughter dutifully wiped from his face.

"Chandra," Naruto said, getting the redhead's attention. "Jace and I are going to try and find a healer and bring them back to finish what I started. Liliana here is going to stay with the both of you and make sure you're safe." Chandra frowned a bit.

"I can take care of myself, and my father," she argued. "You've been training me specifically for this." She also didn't want to separate from the blonde, especially after losing her mother and nearly her father, but she wasn't about to appear weak in front of Naruto. He was right after all, her dad needed a healer, and the last thing he needed was to be worrying about how she was holding up.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, your job is to keep an eye on Liliana as well. If she tries anything, you can roast her." Off to the side, Liliana feigned offense at that, turning to Jace with a hand on her heart as though wounded.

Naruto was about to turn to leave, but Chandra leapt at him wrapping her arms around him and holding tight. "You come back," she demanded, burying her head in his chest. "Even if you can't find the healer, you come back here safely. I can't lose you too." Naruto patted her on the back. He wasn't sure what else to do. Pulling out of her grip, Naruto gave her a reassuring nod, before moving back toward Jace.

"I'll come back, don't worry. You can't get rid of me so easily, Matchstick." Chandra smiled at the nickname, feeling a little less worried hearing the sheer conviction in his words. He then shot a hard look at Liliana. "No funny business, Lili" Again, that icy tone on her nickname. A vast difference from the warmth in which he regarded the little pyromancer. She could tell the two were perhaps growing to be more than friends. She had been alive long enough to spot the blossoming of young love. She stared at the redhead as Jace took Naruto's hand and the two vanished with a slight cracking sound and a pulse of air that cause the fire to dance wildly.

Liliana hoped the girl's parents had given her 'the talk,' because she surely wasn't going to give it to her. However, if they had, the girl would understand the teasing Liliana was already now planning to dish out. Liliana smiled. Maybe this little babysitting favor would be fun after all...

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

A slight burst of displaced air saw the two planeswalkers step out of forest very unlike the ones on Kaladesh. The trees here were vastly taller, and much wider around. "Let's go," Jace said simply, beginning to move with purpose toward the edge of the treeline. "There is a village nearby. But we'll want to keep a low profile. Full disclosure, most people are like you were until very recently. The knowledge of other planes of existence is rare these days. The common folk generally don't know unless they personally know a planeswalker or are one themselves." Naruto nodded.

"Let's get to this village, find our healer, and get the hell out of here," Naruto replied. "I know you say you sensed she was telling the truth, but I don't trust Liliana." Jace sighed.

"This could take a while. We're probably not going to find a random Planeswalker in the first village we go to. It took me weeks just to find someone who had even seen the Angel Killer..." he turned to Naruto. "Nobody is that lucky." As he began to walk again, Naruto grunted before muttering something under his breath.

"I usually am."

Chapter End

No notes here either. I just really needed to get something out. Been driving me crazy.

Peace to all my Fans

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