A/N: A MAN LIVES!

A MAN RETURNS FROM SURGERY!

A MAN KEEPS HIS PROMISES TO THE FANS!

I'm still not feeling my best, and two jobs have been keeping me absurdly busy.

Other updates are coming "Son of the Stag" and "A Most Unlikely Berserker" chief amongst them. Worry not, these updates are absolutely massive and are well worth the wait. Others are longer still and thus take longer to write, but I want them to be good, thus I preserve.

So here's a quick little interlude to keep the torches and pitchforks at bay while I go back to work again. Gotta keep the lights on and food on the table somehow...

Once more, I feel I should also point out that "Not My Grail" is only loosely affiliated with the "A Most Unlikely" Grail War series I have going on at present. Each and every Servant you see here is a separate entity from those in my other stories. Confused? A reviewer known as the Sith'ari asked as much.

"Given how your Naruto/Fate stories are loosely connected in one way or form, I wonder if the Atalanta that Kariya had summoned will be the one that fought alongside Berserker!Naruto. If so, I wonder if she'll recognize him, despite him not being on of his Servant Incarnations."

To answer:

Yes and no. They may die, but thanks to Naruto's meddling, their memories remain. Any given meeting is immediately carved into the Throne for posterity. A prime example of this would indeed be Atalanta. She's not the same in "Berserker" obviously.These stories are occurring at the same time, so this Atalanta wouldn't know Naruto. Perhaps if her counterpart in "Berserker" had died before summoning she would, but as she has not...

Now, if Vlad the Third were to be summoned, he'd find Naruto familiar and recognize his appearance. Why? Because Vlad was already slain and returned to the Throne.

"Not My Grail" Naruto is a separate one from "Not My Chaldea", who is merely a chaos-loving deity simply looking to relieve his boredom. He's recorded in the Throne of Heroes, but cannot be summoned. Open and shut. Case closed. Every Servant iteration of him is aware of him peripherally aware of who he is and his meddling, just as they're aware of each other. Rider!Naruto says as much at one point in "A Most Unlikely Rider."

Thus far, there have been many Servant stories on my part. The classes that have yet be filled are Ruler Naruto, Lancer Naruto, Saber Naruto, as well as Archer Naruto. There's more still if you go into the other classes such as Faker, Saver, Beast, and the like. Of course, each Naruto is aware of the other in a sense that they're aware of other classes, but they haven't met...yet. That'll happen later down the line in a grand merging of stories, but much, much, MUCH later. The title and premise are already written and will be known as "A Most Unlikely Grail War."

As ever, I own no material, references, lines, or dialogue from Fate Grand Order or anything else. Nope! Not at all!

This one's dedicated to a Servant who really doesn't get enough attention.

Remember, this is meant to make you all SMILE.

Try not to take it TOO seriously~!

Sorry if its short!

"You really want that wish, don't you...?"

~?

A Titan's Wish (True Interlude)

Destruction.

This was Altera's purpose.

It was all that she'd ever known.

She was born to destroy, to rip and tear and cleave until nothing else remained. She'd been so good at it in her living days that she'd eventually ascended to the Throne of Heroes. Hers was a cold fury, one she took no pleasure in, but resigned herself to nevertheless. With the sword of Mars in her hand, she could only ever be a Saber. Nothing more. Nothing less. No other class suited her. She was cold. Like a machine. Summoned in a Grail War, it was her duty to obey her given Master and lay waste to his enemies, as a Servant should. Her task was to grant her summoner the grail. Nothing else. She mustn't think. Mustn't feel.

Yet she didn't understand her Master.

In any given Grail War, a magus could only ever summon one Servant. This was the ironclad rule of the Holy Grail and the Fate system as a whole. There were exceptions of course; sometimes a flawed Servant might be split between their past and present, or a duo summoned in a weakened state, or even a Servant stolen from another Master, but each was exceedingly rare.

Yet in less than a fortnight, those rigid rules had been broken; shattered so utterly that they could never be repaired.

Instead of a singular bond with her contractor she found herself forced to contend with two Sabers-one of whom felt oddly familiar-in a war that hadn't even truly begun. Whatever strange phenomenon had birthed this farce had spread to the other Masters as well; she could feel the Servants in the distance, yet had been forbidden from attacking them for the time being. He'd even gone so far as using a Command Spell to reinforce the order when she thought to disobey.

Rather than fight, her Master went about forging alliances and talking, talking, talking! Always talking! Never acting! It drove her mad!

With every moment wasted she chafed, her wish eating at her. Even as she tried to maintain her stoic facade she felt her self-control eroding as the days passed.

Nero and Mordred were of no help whatsoever in this regard, they seemed quite content to wait on their Master's order. Well, at least Mordred did. She'd become quite fond of using her newfound strength to bully the blue Saber of Kiritsugu for reasons Altera did not understand. Was there some sort of familial bond there? Resentment? She couldn't comprehend it. When she was alive, family was something to be treasured. But this was not family, only cold, relentless, tireless duty.

She could only wait.

For a destroyer created for naught but death and despair, Altera nevertheless cradled a silent, earnest desire in her heart, one that was not of destruction but of something else. It was this wish that kept her by her Master throughout the long days, even as he refused to let her take the field. He'd promised her. Given her his word. If he could grant her that wish-no. She mustn't allow herself to be distracted. To hope. The more she dwelt on it the worse it would be when they-he!-inevitably let her down...

So here she waited on the hill, gazing out at the city below.

...so why was she still here?

Fuyuki remained silent beneath, a calm portend of the storm to come. Faint lights danced in the dark, and she thought she glimpses black figures among them, distant battles being waged from afar. Were those sparks? A conflict, perhaps? She couldn't be sure. Her keen sight revealed much, but a Servant's vision was not omniscient and certainty was not a gift she knew these days. Least of all her own.

"Nice night, innit?"

Her first instinct was to attack him for sneaking up on her without warning.

Her second was to ignore her Master entirely, and the least violent of the two choices.

In the end, the answer was obvious, no matter how tempting the former of them might have been.

"Come to summon more Servants, have you?" she clicked her tongue in mild admonishment as the culprit appeared on the hill behind her, a flicker of emotion breaking through her stony facade as he arrived in a shower of golden dust. "Are the three of us and the assassin girl not enough? Must you have more? Does your greed know no bounds?"

"Easy, there." Her Master merely raised his hands in peace. "I didn't mean to do that. To be fair, I may have pissed off the Grail and might have-

A muscle jumped in her jaw. "Might?"

"You're angry, I get that-

"I do not get angry. I can't think. I can't feel. Only fight and kill." Saber declared coldly, sensing his gaze settling between her tan shoulder. "That is my purpose."

"So you're a machine, then." came the instant rejoinder. "I don't buy it."

She turned away when he tried to move to her side.

"Hmm? I'm like a machine, you say?" biting back her initial blinding urge to lash out at him in spite of her hatred for destruction, the maiden in white chose to feign cold, glacial disdain instead. "Yes. I believe that is the correct comparison. Thinking. Feeling. I leave that to you. I kill. Like a silent, thoughtless machine. That is what I am. Direct me at your enemies Master, and I will destroy them."

"That's it?" a hand closed around her shoulder. "There's nothing you want? What about that wish of yours?"

She swatted his arm away. "I have nothing more to say."

"What is your wish, anyway?"

Her mouth clicked shut in defiance.

"Not going to tell me, eh? Fine." she glimpsed a flicker of movement in her peripherals. "I could read your mind of course, but I won't. Can I guess? I'm a good guesser."

She shook her head, sending her veil swaying. "Cease thy drivel. Even if you were to choose wisely, I wouldn't answer you. Why bother?"

His smile broke her heart. "Because for all your acting, your not a bad person, Sefar."

Her very soul screamed against that name and static consumed her thoughts. Every fiber of her being clamped down as one and she fought the urge to hiss. Every single cell that comprised her spiritual body denied the existence of that thing. No. Not her. Never ever her. She couldn't think of it. Mustn't think of it. To do so would be to acknowledge its existence, a shadow that had marred her being since her summoning. That her Master had called her by that name felt like a betrayal and she mistook his actions for malice.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

"Don't call me that." a tiny being deep inside her core quailed as she clutched at her face. "I'm not the White Titan. I don't want to be."

"It doesn't have a cute ring to it?" Naruto beamed.

Altera twitched.

"You're trying to provoke me." when he didn't retort, she knew it to be true. "To make me show emotion. It won't work. This is pointless-

"What's pointless is this farce of yours!"

Altera squeaked as strong hands seized her from behind and spun her around to face their owner. Wild blue eyes blazed back at her like falling stars, brighter even than the twin crimson horns jutting from his head. That lazy, guileless smile was nowhere to be seen; in its place was the face of a warrior, stern and unyielding. Anyone else would've found themselves stunned thoughtless by the sight of it. And Altera was. Briefly. Not by his charisma or any such thing, but the sheer intensity of his snarl.

But hers was a Servant's strength and she soon fought one arm free. "Unhand me!"

A small smile twitched at his lips. "Not until you're honest with yourself."

Wild red eyes flared with the light of a thousand suns.

"LET! GO!"

Tanned knuckles cracked across the blond's whiskered visage before he could even remotely comprehend the danger. In her sudden fit of fear Altera hadn't held back; she'd struck her Master with all the force of a great typhoon, fist plowing into the right side of his face to take a tooth and send him tumbling him down the mountainside in a shower of dirt and dusty debris. Horror warred with silent shame as she watched the rest of the mountain crumbling, a fierce flush of sinful satisfaction that warmed her dark cheeks as her raging emotions were finally given the outlet she craved.

He was standing by the time she righted herself.

His short-lived fall created an avalanche in his wake, but rather than panic the self-proclaimed deity calmly arrested his fall and raised a hand toward the tumbling flood. A silent pulse of energy answered and she saw him deflect the shower of falling rocks with a wave of the hand. No, Altera realized. He hadn't deflected them at all. He'd shattered them into pebbles, pebbles that he flung back at her. They skittered away harmlessly at her feet, falling well short of their goal. His words, however, did not.

"You'll have to do better than that, Saber~!" his voice sang up at her.

Something snapped in her and she leaped after him with a sharp cry before he could speak further.

"Shut up shut up shut up! Why can't you just leave me alone?!"

So she struck him again and this time, to the Saber's great dismay and confusion Naruto's head flew clean off his shoulders. The rest of him collapsed like a broken puppet in the dirt, blood pooling from the stump that had once been his neck. Just like that. Horrified, Altera cried out and shrank back from the corpse in confusion. She had seen him; witnessed his durability firsthand and overestimated him. She hadn't meant to strike him that hard, nor had she intended to kill him. She'd just been so terribly angry...

All she did was break everything.

"Don't you see?! I just destroy!" the words tore out of her on a high, wrenching sob as she pulled back and dragged her sword with her. "I can't do anything else! Yet, with these hands that bring about destruction, I can't help but think of embracing something! There! What more do you want from me?! Are you happy now that I've killed you?!"

"Yeah, about that...

Altera's gaze snapped back to Naruto's corpse as it swayed upright.

As she looked on in mute disbelief the blond's body-still leaking like a cracked sieve-flailed comically in confusion for a moment before bending down to retrieve his dismembered head. A head that was clearly grinning at her. With a sharp twist this crimson cadaver clumsily sketched a low bow. Unfortunately in doing so, it dropped the very head it had been holding. Which in turn tumbled to a halt at Saber's foot. Incredulous, the mighty warrior gazed down at the smiling expression levered up at her.

"Do you mind?" he blinked back at her.

Her foot shot out without thinking, viciously punting him over the horizon...

"Thank you~!"

...rather, she would have if his body hadn't chosen that moment to leap up and snatch his skull back at the last moment. With a sharp twitch it summarily reattached his the next instant. What little remained of the wound vanished to the winds as the restored shinobi rolled his shoulders to work out the kinks. Altera wasn't sure whether she should laugh or sob. Be relieved that she hadn't killed her Master, or mortified that she'd managed to get so worked up in the first place. Regardless, the choice was soon taken from her.

"Right, then." bemused blue eyes rounded on her. "What have we learned?"

In the silence that followed she could only sniffle.

"I...you...how...

This time when he approached, Altera didn't resist. She did not advance. Nor did she retreat. Even had she been of the mind to do either the strength had gone out of her limbs. Her once proud and stern facade now lay broken and splintered around her, leaving her emotions exposed, a naked and raw wound for all to see. Her frustration with the lack of progress in the war coupled with her own vulnerability threatened to tear open old wounds she wasn't even aware she had, prodding at shadows she couldn't remember.

"Oh, you poor thing. C'mere."

When those broad arms wrapped around her the last brick in Altera's faltering wall of her resolve crumbled completely and she was lost. The tears came and she didn't resist them. She suddenly felt very small despite her towering stature-again came that strange nostalgia-and turned her head, burying it in his chest. Like a child. When the tears came she didn't fight them, either. Her pent up emotions burst forth like the rivers of a stopped dam and she lost herself in them as an eerie peace settled over her.

"That...that was mean...you tricked me...

"God, remember?" the blond chirped happily as he massaged the small of her back. "If a something like a little beheading could kill me I would've stayed dead a long time ago. And I had to do that. For your sake. I really wish I could help you work out the rest of your issues, ya know." he sighed, pushing a hand through the pale curtain of her hair as he patted her head. "But that's not my job. As things stand, I'm just "borrowing" you for this war. I can't make you change any more than you can make me sever our contract. Best I can do here is to give you hope. But as for the saving...

His lips quirked in a small smile.

...I'll be leaving that to my Rider counterpart and his little squirrel."

Altera tilted her head in response, baffled by this seemingly strange statement.

"I know no such Rider. And a squirrel?" she felt her lips purse in a frown. "Of whom do you speak?"

"Oh," Those wild blue eyes creased as he smiled. "You haven't met them yet. But you will. Someday. Soon. On the moon."

"The moon." Saber's once deadpan expression became flatter still. "The moon? Surely you jest. I had not taken you for a madman."

"Nah, I'm definitely mad," the blond hummed, jamming both hands into his pockets. "Just not in the way you think I am. You haven't met "them" or been to the Moon Cell yet. So...here."

"Master...?"

Something in his tone caused the Hun to turn and face him; when she did, she found the crimson light of a Command Spell waiting for her upon his outstretched hand. Something came undone deep inside of her spiritual core and she realized with a start that he'd rescinded his previous order. As she looked one of the many symbols etched into the back of his palm vanished before her very eyes. She tensed, half-expecting another callous command in its place, another order to stay the course, to back down and be a good little monster, to do as she'd been told...

...until he didn't.

"By the power of my Command Spell I demand that you be true to yourself, Saber." the sudden declaration rocked her world as much as that suddenly familiar smile. "Find the nearest Servant and kill them, if that makes you feel better. Fight to your heart's content. Find a good civilization. Destroy a bad one. Or don't. Do what you want. Go. Get your wish. Be happy. Be free." It could barely be considered an order, a command only in the loosest sense of the word. And yet it freed her. He did not force her to transform into her counterpart, nor did he sever her contract. She could've gone anywhere. Done anything within her power.

Atlera made no move to flee.

Nor did she wriggle out of Naruto's arms.

...although if its all the same to you...please don't move right now."

Much to her bemusement, that remark actually floored her stalwart Master.

"Well. Shit." he murmured, blinked rapidly. "What about your wish? Don't you want-

The soft response that followed was almost too faint for human ears. Even those of a higher origin.

Much to her chagrin, Naruto tilted his head. "Sorry...didn't quite catch that. Wanna run that bit by me again?"

The Hun's face darkened considerably as she buried her head in the warmth of the blond's chest. She dared not speak the words aloud. No. Not again. She didn't trust her nerve to hold a second time. If she spoke now she would be wholly, utterly undone. So she tightened her arms round his waist despite his protest and held fast refusing all attempts to communicate further. Naruto wouldn't be released until she mastered herself...nearly an hour later.

Altera didn't mind his confusion one bit.

She had her peace right here.

In his arms.

A/N: Incredibly cheesy and I don't caaaaaaaaare!

A happy Altera is a good civilization, I say!

Really, the poor girl just needs a hug.

So. Very. Tired. By the time you read this I'll likely be headed to work. Alas, I won't be back till later tonight. Seems all I do is work these days, but that just makes these rare moments of writing all the sweeter. I only have a few hours to myself these days. Looking forward to hearing from you all!

So in the Immortal Words of Atlas...

...Review, Would You Kindly?

And enjoy the previews!

Mind you, many are ROUGH, but still!

REJOICE~!

(Previews)

Those eyes widened. Then they narrowed.

He looked almost...happy to see him. "We meet again, Berserker! Have at you!"

That should've been the first warning. "How many times do I have to tell you, that wasn't me! I am NOT-howthehellareyouthisstrong?!"

"This Grail War isn't chaotic enough. Let's...spice it up a bit! Burn them all, baby!"

"Not so tough now, are you?!"

"Funny thing about being a god. I cheat. Say hello to King Protea!"

Kayneth had only just opened his mouth to retort when the shadow fell over him.

Death fell from above in the form of a giant hand many, many, MANY times the size of his skyscraper.

R&R~!

=D