Sweet merciful crap it has been a LONG time since I had time to touch this story, and coming back to it is a labor of love and hate in equal measure which is something all writers should feel at times. But seeing as it has been so long since this story was updated, allow me to make some form of explanation on its inactivity. The roadblocks that stood before getting back into this story can grouped into three main categories:

Real life: It smashed into me like an eighteen-wheeler and backed up over me when I attempted to get back up, seriously, every time I attempted to give this story some love and attention, life conspired against me. Crappy job shifts, helping out with my parents, car troubles, social life, video games and that's long before COVID decided to stick it to the world.

Muse: I'm not the first writer to get mobbed by plot bunnies and I won't be the last, but the little blight still comes and terrorizes me anyway. I spent so long away from this story being exposed to entirely new genres and fictional universes that my muse for this story went on life support. With that being said, I have been intending to revisit it for some time but found that compared with my other stories, this one had more cons to complete than the others. Until now that is, so I'm going to plant my feet and hopefully work on this whenever I get the time outside of my main stories. I'm sticking to my guns on this one, so for those of you who doubt this, worry not.

Marvel: God damn it Jonathan Hickman, why do you have to be such a hard worker? A major problem with this fic's planning was that Marvel is a fickle mistress with the sheer amount of events and storylines that they will dump in quick succession of one another, meaning that picking a place to definitively end is hard as all hell. The decision also of what to take out and actually cover was another thing that was abjectly herculean because the knock-on effect of even the slightest removal could screw later plot points. Luckily, Jonathan Hickman has pulled the X-men's heads out of their ass with his House/Powers/Dawn of X initiative, giving me a far better idea on how to proceed with this fic.

If you notice a dramatic shift in quality about two thirds of the way through, then that's because the first 14k of this chapter has been sitting unfinished on my computer for nearly two years now. I do plan on going back to the Prologue and rewriting it to fit with what's presented here to ensure that the atmosphere and tone is far more aligned.

Now, for those of you as to which comic arc I am currently building up, it is the "Curse of the Mutants" crossover event that had the X-Men contend with the Vampires of Marvel. I say this to ensure that everyone knows why certain parts of this chapter are included to get people up to speed.

Chapter 1 – Curse of the Mutants Part 1: What A Wonderful World

Naruto groggily opened his eyes with some trouble looked to the sky above him, nothing greeting him but cloudy skies with snow falling down on top of him.

He blinked groggily as his senses slowly returned to him and synapses fired sporadically throughout his body in an attempt to get him up to speed. He felt like he had just gone twelve rounds with Madara. Thoughts of the misguided Uchiha and his Rinnegan eyes sparked a deluge of memory in the blonde that did not abate his headache. The moon-fall crisis, the puppet attack on Konoha, Hanabi's kidnapping, traveling to the moon, Hinata's false eloping with Toneri, the wedding, the fight and the shaggy-haired bastard's proclamation of shutting the passage between the Earth and the moon.

Though it would appear that the descendant of Hamura had been rather fervent on that last one as Naruto's last clear memory was the portal collapsing around him as he pushed Hinata to safety.

"Well, this sucks... we get back down from the moon, and we get scattered." He arched his back slowly to rise up and see where the hell they landed at; however, his heart skipped a beat when he saw that he wasn't in the wintery forests of the Land of Fire. Not anymore…

In front of him stood the seemingly endless glaciers of a former battlefield, one he knew well for at the top of a nearby glacier, was the icy castle that resided in one of Kaguya's dimensions, "You've gotta be fucking kidding me." How the hell did the collapsing portal strand him here of all places, a place that despite multiple attempts from Konoha R&D deeming it impossible to reach? The only one who could've known, or at the very least had a clue would be Kurama, "Hey! Kurama!"

His request was met with silence.

A chill went up Naruto's spine that had nothing to do with the frigid conditions.

"Nononono… don't tell me I've lost you." A fist clenched reflexivity as Naruto shivered in desperation, alerting him to the cold weather. He needed to calm down and think rationally, what did he know? He was stranded in a hostile dimension that for all intents and purposes was abandoned, he was unsure of the reason for him being here and apart from the Summoning Jutsu he had access to no Spacetime Ninjutsu. He knew that wouldn't work as the range of Reverse Summoning stopped at the dimensional barrier, according to Sasuke.

For a fleeting moment, Naruto considered the possibility of tapping deep into his vestiges of the Six Paths Yang Power to brute force a reverse summoning, after all, Hagoromo had been able to bring all of them back last time right? 'No... that was different, and he had the help of seventeen Kage to give him extra power for the summoning, some of which had powers that could rival Tailed Beasts.' He thought, remembering what he had witnessed of the old Kage, namely the first Hokage and Third Raikage who had been able to fight Gyuuki to a standstill while alive.

A look around the moonlit tundra and glacial landscape reminded Naruto that his total time in this particular dimension was perhaps an hour. This made it an unknown local for the most part, which was a Shinobi's anathema.

'Naruto, I know you can shrug off the cold more than anyone, but you have to learn this stuff if you ever lead people into an icy area.'Tsunade had said to him when he started complaining about what at the time he had called useless training. 'Snow and ice make for bad working areas, not just because of the cold and problems it brings but because you can easily become disorientated. Wind shifts settled snow and build entirely new landmarks in a matter of hours, so it's best to pick shelter in a place you know won't be shifted by the wind.'

He needed to get to shelter now, with the only place being the castle. "Maybe… maybe there's something up there that can help me." Kaguya might have been paranoid bordering on insanity, but maybe he could take advantage of that and find something hidden there. He trekked up the mountain towards the castle gates, to which he noticed were adorned with several statues, not all that dissimilar looking from the mad princess that tried to kill them all two years ago. They were lined up opposite one another as if they were positioned in a way that guided him to the main doors, looming high above him.

"Creepy alien gods…" He muttered under his breath, observing the statues closer.

Each statue depicted a male or female Otsutsuki with their characteristic horns, but each one had an oddity. While all pointed one of their arms towards the door, in warning or welcome he knew not, the other hand would cover their eyes, their mouth, or their ear. Whatever the reason was, he could care less for. Making use of his monstrous strength to open the doors easily, despite how massive they were, Naruto saw that the interior of the entrance hall was ice all throughout the structure, with snow dropping down from openings in the roof.

The castle had deteriorated no doubt from no one living in it for millennia. Naruto walked through the hallways until he smelt something, fruity…? He followed the scent until he came to a door that was frozen over; kicking it down, he saw a bowl placed on an ornate pedestal with an odd pale fruit in it, odder still the room was surrounded by mirrors, with many of them broken or cracked, while only one was left intact.

Clutching his stomach, Naruto could only attempt to squash down the need to eat, having not eaten a morsel since leaving Konoha a week ago. Every single survival instinct was screaming at him to devour the fruit, pulling on the fact that if it was poison, his healing factor would simply break it down, "Screw it. Just gotta bite the shuriken and risk it." He reached out to grasp one of the fruits and bit into it, finding that it tasted bland, "Ecch!" Just trying to swallow it was a chore in of itself. Naruto coughed for a bit as he subconsciously walked over towards the mirror that wasn't broken, and placed his bandaged hand upon the reflective object, unaware of what was happening to him inside his body.

Naruto wiped his mouth of anything that may have been left behind from the fruit, "Good idea, Naruto, eat a thousand-year-old fruit, but… I didn't have anything else to eat." Naruto leaned against the mirror for a time to try and get his bearings because regardless of his infamous dense reputation, he was in fact quite pragmatic. He was stranded in a location that he knew was far beyond the reach of the village's spacetime development. Kurama had gone silent on him, and he was alone in a place with very little food...come to think of it he could be the only living thing in this entire dimension. That was a problem, a big one at that.

The blonde was a hardy individual, so robust that he could withstand the vacuum of space, backhand moon bisecting lasers of golden light, fight at relativistic speeds and all of that had been in the last three hours alone. However, he was still a living being, one that had needs to fulfil to live and the main one that he did require was food and water. Looking around the frosty room, Naruto had little doubt he would be short on water given he could melt ice to make it, but food was an entirely different kettle of fish. 'I can use my chakra to hold off malnourishment for a good long while, but if that stretches out into months, then I'm boned.' Naruto thought to himself, his stomach already starting to grow needy again.

"Maybe I should look around the rest of the castle?" He asked aloud, words echoing off the empty room causing his cheeks to darken in embarrassment, while he was no stranger to talking to himself he had got oddly used to Kurama responding to him in these last two years since they had become true partners at the climax of the war. Ridding himself of those thoughts with a shake of his head, Naruto chose to keep speaking aloud, after all, who was going to stop him? "If they gotta pantry or something, maybe the food has kept like that fruit? Reminds me of when I had to not eat bugs during Senjutsu traini—" His words came to a shuddering halt.

Senjutsu, of course! He could use it to sense out any animals that might be hiding out in the snow and ice, "The air is breathable, there's a day and night and plenty of water even if it is frozen, it's worth a shot." Naruto said with minor excitement, his path now metaphorically clear. He grew still to begin the tried and tested method of taking in the energy of nature itself and mixing it with his own chakra for Senjutsu chakra synthesis, although in this case, he was only interested in the sensing that he gained from dropping into Sage Mode.

The blonde had expected for the extrasensory perception to wash over his body and mind like a stream of warm water as it usually did, but instead, he let out a gasp when his stomach exploded into agony. It was a pain that was both familiar and entirely alien to Naruto, the closest thing he could compare it to would be when he had taken in Kurama's unrefined chakra to the fourth tail. On instinct he went to pull his hand from the mirror to clutch at his stomach but found his hand frozen to the reflective surface, the palm feeling as if it had been seared to the glass itself on the molecular level.

Naruto looked up at the tall mirror with confused eyes that grew wider after seeing what was occurring to the formerly clear mirror. Encroaching in from the four corners of the mirror were numerous waves of iridescent color that he could sense as much as see, shifting through myriad shades that he recognized and many more that he didn't, all of them moving towards his hand. He watched in terrified wonder as the fractals of light made contact with his hand and let out a gasp when those very lights began to drag themselves through his arm, throwing his veins, arteries and chakra coils into sharp kaleidoscopic relief.

"What the hell is this—hrjk!" His frenzied question was cut off by the glob of blood welling up in his throat, spitting it onto the mirror on reflex. Whatever this energy was, it felt like cold fire tearing through his body and playing havoc with his system, it was doing something to him that while he did not know the specifics, it was painful as all hell. However, his mind was more preoccupied with the mirror right now, for the contact of his sanguine lifeblood with its shifting surface had brought about a radical change. Where before it had maintained it's clear reflection with pulses of nameless, silent power swimming over its surface, now it all but exploded into an infinite number of pulsing fractals forming into bending yet rigid shapes that hurt his eyes to even look at.

"Wha—what the hell is this crap?!" Naruto tried to wrestle control of his arm, though in hindsight he just made things worse. Then again, most will do anything without thinking to get out of something that looks even remotely dangerous. The mirror began to degrade inwards from its frame, technicolor motes of light feeling for the unwitting fool that had disturbed it and clinging to his body parts. The more he struggled, the faster the mirror enveloped him…

The luminescent shards of not-mirror began to spark against one another in the air around the Uzumaki scion with crackles of colorless lightning jumping between them in wumps of muted infrasound. The more that they sparked, the more the mirror degraded into shards that joined their sparking brethren around Naruto and the process went on unbroken, each cycle growing fiercer than the last. All Naruto could do was rage impotently as it wrapped around his body, only to silence him… his form vanishing in a technicolor crack; as he was finally pulled through, the mirror shattered…

The only thing Naruto could see around him was darkness… infinite darkness… no, that's not strictly true, for darkness is the lack of light and this place lacked… everything. No dark or light, up or down. It simply was, an infinite nowhere with no reference points in any conceivable direction and it was in this place that Naruto Uzumaki screamed in agony as his body was torn to shreds and reassembled by a silent dance of freezing fire dancing in his veins. Time was a foreign concept in this place just as any other earthly idea was, so he was unsure as to how long he burned from the inside-out, or if it was happening at all, but after some time, the pain abruptly stopped.

He tried to grasp onto something, something that he couldn't see, anything that could get him out of here if it was possible, "Who am I kidding, there's nothing here." He said, getting not even an echo in response.

As time passed, somehow, in some way, Naruto perceived that he was laying down, with desperation in his mind, "Is this it? Is there where my life ends? Everything that I've done, and I die like this? Alone in the black wherever the hell I am…?" Just as he began to slip down a depressive whirlpool of negative thoughts, his eyes caught something: a small fiery bird pecking the 'ground'.

He reached out to touch it, causing the bird to turn its attention towards him. As his hand inched closer, he could literally feel the heat and the power this little bird had in it, astounding him to no end, "What are you, you little—" The bird suddenly grew to ten times its own size, as it spread its wings wide as the light it emitted blinded him within an instant, "—crap!"

Naruto shielded himself from the light, covering them until he felt the heat die down, he lowered his arms only to see that he was a world of nothing but white now, "What the hell?! Where'd you take me, you stupid yakitori!?" He shook his hands above him, thinking it was somewhere above him, though it was more of a moot point now. Perhaps it was the last vestiges of sense attempting to latch onto the emotion of rage to make sense of this very alien place, that to would soon also be made a moot point.

Closing his eyes, he could all but slip back to his desperation, only he felt a voice in his head. The words came to him, but he couldn't hear a voice, "And what is it that the Beyonders send me today? Something new I hope."

He turned his head every which way to try and find the source, but he couldn't, "Who the hell are you? Where am I?"

For a time there was not but silence in this white room that he currently called home, it's reference points as lacking as the black void he had been occupied before, but unlike last time Naruto could perceive something. He was being observed, evaluated, scrutinized with the gaze that one might look at a rare insect or foreign treasure.

"No… you don't bear their hallmarks of cold progress if anything you are life made manifest, and you are changing to something even newer. I am curious if your presence will make ripples within a single realm." The voice finally settled on a bemused interest, "Go forth, one from beyond. From one incarnation of life to another, I wish you good fortune."

This was just confusing, and so damn exhausting for him. All he was doing was trying to get a straight answer right now; as he slowly breathed in and out, the Uzumaki felt a hand on his back pushing him into something, then he was flying...no that's not right, 'I'm falling.' He realized glibly as his carcass smashed into the dirt at supersonic speeds.

-Now-

Naruto felt a hand on his shoulder, gently shaking him, "Hey, Naruto. Are you ok?" He turned to see that Hope seemed a little concerned for him. The ninja just nodded his head, though deep in his mind a part of him told him to be on guard "Y-Yeah… I'm good." Hope didn't look too convinced of it though, as she gave him that look that he recognized in Sakura whenever she'd patch him up or talk to Naruto about something that disturbed him.

Hope just looked around to see that the other X-Men that were with them since Magik took the rest back to Utopia were preoccupied with their own things, with Scott and Logan were piloting the stolen Blackbird, though she did have a feeling that Laura was keeping the pair of them in her peripheral vision.

"We can talk to each other…" Hope began, "…you're not a prisoner or anything like that." She turned towards the front, raising her voice slightly, "Right, Scott?"

Her technically speaking adopted grandfather turned in his seat to look at the both of them, the band of Ruby Quartz reflecting their visages before he spoke, "We just need to see if there's anything out of the ordinary with you, and… your friend."

Hope knew that they were more than likely heading to the Baxter Building, where Reed Richards had examined her not long after Bastion tried to kill all the Mutants left in the world. The guy seemed to have an instrument for every possible scan, procedure, or whatever the hell kind of test he wanted to run.

She felt Naruto's shoulder tense up, as somehow, she got that sense of unease around him, "You don't feel alright."

He didn't know why, but the images of a guy in a lab coat surrounded by machines that did Kami knows what made him uneasy. The memories of the snake Sanin came to mind, and oddly enough, Hope herself shivered in cohesion with him, "I… let's just say that literally every single scientist I've ever known was a genocidal maniac with a complete disregard for human life…"

She shifted in her flight seat next to Naruto, "Yeah, I kinda got that, from whatever I just felt." Both of them blinked.

Then blinked again.

Next thing they knew, they spoke in sync, "How the hell did you/I know that?" Pointing to one another, as their eyes were wide in comical disbelief.

Naruto and Hope shut their mouths as they glanced at one another, both obviously feeling uncomfortable about the synchronization they suddenly gained with one another. Naruto just placed his hands on his temples to massage the incoming headache, "Honestly, I just want to figure out where I am, who you guys are, what the hell this thing is…" Gesturing around in the Blackbird, "…and how I can get back home."

His words held an underlying unease and skittishness that one would see in a zoo animal, freshly integrated and unsure of its surroundings.

Hope crossed her arms before she tried to explain a bit to Naruto, "Well, if we're heading to where I think we are, then maybe he has the answers. I mean, the guy's one of the smartest men on the planet." Naruto's eyes began to sting once more, prompting him to rub them to try and make the irritation go away, "Maybe he's got painkillers on him."

"That'd be nice." As Naruto opened his eyes to adjust his vision again, Hope noticed that his eyes appeared to be caught in some transition between the strange pattern she saw earlier, and just a pair of normal blue eyes. Maybe that was causing the irritation?

She felt the Blackbird set down, no doubt they arrived at their destination, "Looks like we're here." Hope turned back to Naruto, but for some reason, she felt that a fist bump would make Naruto more comfortable, "You ready?"

Whatever she was attempting to do to uproot his unease, it was not working nearly as well as she thought. In fact, despite being a showing of goodwill, he felt creeped out that she had perceived it was something he tended to do. Either way, she was the only one currently that didn't look at him with some level of suspicion, "Alright, let's get this over with."

-Somewhere in Greece-

While the western hemisphere was being graced by Sol's light, this side was covered under the curtain of night, a crescent moon hanging over the sky. On this island hidden from the world, except by those who know, sects of Homines Nocturnae gather, convening on status within the growing world and bring grievances to the table. They stood upon the ruins of an old coliseum where blood was spilt for the amusement of human, vampire or god alike, so it made the ideal place for their centennial meetings. They kept to their own cliques and covens garbed in various clothes and customs that separated them yet all bore the shared trait of red eyes that saw perfectly despite the cloak of darkness. At the zenith of the stands a single figure stood out.

'My name is Janus. I am the son of Dracula.' He thought, monologuing was a habit of his brought on by too much theatre, but it was a vice far less destructive than his fellow vampires indulged in. He scratched his chin in thought before returning his hand to his pocket.

'Here we are again on this deserted Greek island, founded so soon after Atlantis went down. A century passes surprisingly fast they tell me. I wouldn't know. This is my first time to the once-a-century gathering of the world's vampires. You can feel the history, the weight of centuries in the soil underfoot, in the bones of the ruins.' He looked up to see a dull grey helicopter pass over them to land in the distance, another late guest no doubt.

'Mystikos sect is last to arrive, as usual. Probably had their laptops open the whole trip. If it were up to them, we'd have the meeting at the Ritz Carlton.' there was minor distaste in Janus' thoughts at that, bringing up the lapels of his overcoat in annoyance at the materialist frivolity that plagued most of the American Vampire.

They had come from the four corners of the Earth. Hawks and doves. Recluses and assimilationists. Nosferatu, Charniputra, Purebloods, Trykes, Anchorites, Krieger and Claw sects shifted against one another in preparation of the incoming arrival, centuries of grudges and pettiness bubbling to the surface with each sideways glance and growl. Soon the footsteps of several members of Mystikos arrived in the ruins, Janus recognized several faces, save for one.

"Sorry we're late, Janus. Air traffic over Athens was backed up like a Tijuana toilet." Stephen of the Mystikos sect said as he approached Janus with an open handshake. Ever a creature of habit that one would expect of a businessman, Stephen was sure to butter up potential business partners and opportunities with cheesy jokes and humor dryer than the Sahara. Part of Janus wanted to simply spit at the businessman's feet and kick his teeth in, but alas, the son of Dracula was expected to have some decorum and thus shook the American Vampire's hand.

"Just in time, Stephen." He greeted amicably, but he can't help but wonder who the second man is, his head down not even gauging who he will be dealing with, "Who's the new guy."

"My new number two man, Brad. his electronics firm made a major breakthrough. I'm wondering if your brother has it on the agenda for the meeting." Janus' temple twitched in minor aggravation; his younger brother had always been one for schemes.

And speak of the devil…

"I see father is waiting to make a dramatic last-minute entrance." Came the haughty cockshaw voice of Janus' younger brother Xarus as he strode in through the crumbling arch of the ruins, a hauntingly beautiful woman clinging to his side. Whereas Janus wore a conservative pair of slacks, white shirt and business overcoat sans tie, Xarus wore a gaudy gold and black marriage of armor and tailcoat with black fingerless gloves. Unlike Janus' slightly curly black hair, the younger spawn of the Impaler had slicked back spikes of golden blonde hair.

"Oh, behave, Xarus. You never told me your brother was so handsome. Serious, but handsome." Came the sultry reply of his plus-one, the vampire that leads the Siren sect, Alyssa. The same height as Xarus, Alyssa was a cruelly beautiful woman of deathly pale skin and silky blonde hair that framed her elven features in waves down to her mid-back. The female blonde wore a short strapless dress made of red leather that cut off at mid-thigh with matching knee-high boots and opera gloves with a skull necklace.

"Charming as always, Alyssa." Janus greeted, taking the siren's hand in his own and kissing her gloved hand as high society dictated, drawing an amused smile from the woman that would cause most mortal men's pants to tighten. 'I'd expect no less from the head of the Siren sect. An entire sect of female seductresses. Whores, father would call them.'

Meetings and greetings out of the way, Xarus and Alyssa continue onwards down below to the meeting hall, Janus bringing up the rear watched the pair like a hawk, unable to stop the feelings of unease about tonight's gathering.

"There's something in the air tonight, brother, can't you feel it?" Xarus spoke with a flair of mystery surrounding his words. It was clear that he enjoyed his little intrigues. Janus hoped that he was just being mysterious for his own amusement.

-Naruto-

Well, if there was one thing Naruto could say about this place, was that he could barely make heads nor tails of half the stuff passing through his gaze, "Yeah, I had that same expression when I first came here." Hope smirked at Naruto's expression of disquiet awe of New York City. Skyscrapers that stood taller than anything he had ever seen before, aircraft that flew above the clouds, machines that scurried along the black roads down below as if they were like thousands of ants.

Naruto felt a tap on his shoulder coming behind him, turning to see Laura gesturing behind her to where Cyclops was talking to some guy in a monochrome outfit by the door. Hope glanced at the ninja beside her, "You don't have anything to be afraid, you know?" From her perspective, he was hesitant bordering on fear though she could be wrong about him.

Naruto squinted his eyes at the redhead, "I'm not afraid of some guy in a unitard." He deadpanned despite maintaining some level of guarded anxiety, Hope had been trying her best to alleviate that anxiety in their time waiting, but there was only so much you could do without making things worse. In the end, she resorted to one of the oldest tricks in the book in an effort to calm him down, sticking her tongue out and blowing a raspberry in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"Are the two of you going to do this the whole time?" Laura asked monotonously, though if one picked up enough on how she spoke, namely if you hung around her enough on Utopia or heard the supposed stories, you could tell that Hope's antics were beginning to grate on her.

Anyone on Utopia knew better than to get on the wrong side of one of the Wolverines, Hope chose to shut up at that point with an innocent smile on her face, although Naruto… "Maybe I'll just—" He felt Hope jabbed him in the ribs to shut him up. After years of taking hooks to the face from Sakura, Naruto took it as a sign to just shut the hell up at this point. Though he did raise an eyebrow when Hope immediately began to rub her elbow in discomfort as if it had hurt to hit him.

But then again, he was kinda curious about the black-haired, green-eyed young woman currently giving him and Hope a measured look.

"And if I did?" He asked, not particularly fun of being told he wasn't allowed to speak, especially by someone he had met literally less than an hour ago.

His answer came in the form of 'snikt' from her hands, as she brought one up and let Naruto's imagination fill in the blanks. Now while one would expect to be afraid of long metal claws coming out of someone's knuckles, mainly Logan and Laura, Naruto on the other hand…

"Huh, neat." Naruto seemed more interested with the claws popping out, as opposed to getting scared like most other people. She would be the fifth person he had met that could expel some kind of bone or metal from her body after Kimimaro, Pein/Nagato, Madara and Kaguya. In a flash Naruto's hand was around Laura's wrist and bringing the hand closer to examine the metal despite Hope's silently protesting eyes; however, Laura let it happen as she too was curious of the blonde that her senses were reacting strangely also. Gently tracing his fingers along Laura's claws, Naruto felt that the metal was unlike any other that he ever encountered. The closest thing he could compare it to were those annoying rods that anyone with Rinnegan made, and their inconvenient ability to lock people down.

Although he was unaware that his grip on her wrist was approaching uncomfortable levels for the ravenette, "Uhm… are you going to let go of my hand?" Laura asked, usually she would have just wrenched her arm free, but she was trying to work on her social skills as of late.

Naruto pulled away before he sent the wrong message, "Whoops, sorry 'bout that." He rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment, although he seemed ignorant of the fact that Hope was covering her mouth to stifle a giggle.

He just gave her the stink eye once he heard her, "Why you—"

An older voice cut in, "So this is the young man you told me about on the way here…" Naruto turned to see that it was the man in the monochrome suit with the number 4 on his chest? He didn't seem to notice Naruto's disquieted look as he turned to Hope next, "…and it's good to see you again, Hope. I trust you're doing well since you first came here?"

Hope nodded back though she was confident that he had been told about their latest visit. She turned to Naruto for the introductions, "Naruto, this is Reed Richards. He's the world's smartest man, and he's probably the only guy who can help you out." So, he was supposed to help out then?

Hope neglected to mention that there were quite a few more scientists around the world with expertise in areas beyond regular science but given that she perceived that Naruto wasn't overly fond of scientists…

Naruto watched Reed extend his arm for a handshake, though the blonde was hesitant to take it since he was unsure if he could trust the guy, being delivered to the 'world's smartest man' hours after arriving in this place was a little disquieting. But then again, Hope seemed pretty familiar with him, and right now she was the person whom he trusted somewhat, though he had no idea why. Such an unnatural shift in his emotions was dubious to say the least… but right now Naruto really just wanted to go home, and if this monochromatic man could get him there, then he was willing to take a leap of faith.

"Oh, uhm… nice to meet you." He shook the older man's hand, the stinging in his eyes returned, prompting him to let go to try and rub the irritation away again, "Sorry 'bout that. My eyes've been stinging since I got… wherever the hell I am."

Reed made a mental note to observe the young man's eye as part of the examination for him later on, "You're not my first extraterrestrial or extradimensional visitor, but I will help in whatever way I can, but first I need to take a look at you to make sure Earth's climate doesn't have any adverse effects on your health. Let's step inside and see what we can do about that." Reed showed them the way inside the building to hopefully get the answers Naruto was looking for.

-The Table of Sects; Greece-

The table that the elite's of the Vampire world found themselves sitting around was comparatively simple compared with some of their number's flashy clothing and methods of arrival, just rough oak hammered into a rectangle. The seats were, in the same way, a far cry from luxury, just simple high back wooden chairs bereft of armrests or cushioning of any kind. The only exception was a single gothic throne hewn from granite sitting at the end of the table from which their lord watched them file in.

The entourage of each Sect remained upstairs while the leaders took their seats to get down to business. Already the other sects were discussing certain subjects to bring up to Dracula in hushed tones: Adze; vampires from Africa who have an unusual knack for surviving death for up to several minutes. Ancients; vampires from Italy that have lived so long that they have unnatural advantages over other sects in terms of speed and healing factors. Yuki-Onna; mostly confused with the Snow Fairy's from Japanese legends, they turn into ice storms as opposed to mist like the rest of their kin. And last but not least are the Aqueos; Atlanteans that've been turned into us.

Compared to this menagerie of the fallen and depraved, Janus appeared almost too normal to belong, but none would dare voice the idea of him being left out.

The Anchorite sect leader, a tall man of a heavyset build wearing dungarees and a farmer's shirt, began with the problems he and his group were facing once again, "I think I need to bring up the problem of human encroachment again. Their population has exploded in the last century. The Anchorite sect retreats nearly every decade to avoid them and live alone in peace, but they breed like rabbits."

The legate from Krieger sect scoffed at Anchorite as he crossed his arms, threaded golden epaulettes swaying, "Maybe you shouldn't retreat so damn much. Try standing your ground. You're too much like those sheep you herd." Janus noticed the legate was just smirking at his counterpart the whole time. No doubt due to pride as a warrior with hardly any equal save for those in the Claw sect, who hasn't said a single word the entire time the congregation have been here.

No surprise there.

The Anchorite narrowed his eyes at Krieger, "Not all of us have the luxury of an unassailable mountain fortress, legate."

Aqueos arches over while baring his lipless teeth towards legate, "The problem is not just the Anchorites'. There is no longer certain safety below the sea as the humans fish, explore and drill for oil. They are becoming ubiquitous." So, they too were experiencing the same difficulties as the Anchorites? Well, that explained why he was so quick to speak back at the legate. "And I trust you do not consider the Atlanteans sheep, legate."

The legate "hmphed" dismissively before leaning back into the chair, too proud to verbally concede the point. It was a known fact that Atlanteans were now gathering over in San Francisco with the Mutants that idiot Osborn had engaged a few months ago. While their combined number barely equaled a small town, the power they could bring to bear with a word whispered in Namor's ear was no joke. The legate merely grunted in response, not saying anything else.

Stephen twirled a fountain pen around his hand in a bored manner, now trying to help out the dilemma the sects were facing, "Okay, well, let's work the problem. Brainstorm. What is it you're looking for that you think might alleviate the situation?" Aqueos spoke with one word that sent the meeting onto an entirely different subject.

"Leadership." The word reverberated around the room of undead like the tolling of the evening bell signaling the death that many of them were trying to avoid, and upon hearing this singular world Janus could only think of a single response.

'Oh, shit…'

Vampires don't feel the cold the same way everyone in the world does. Their bodies simply don't give off any body heat. But nonetheless, everyone felt the air became still, and the temperature dropped as a single figure leaned forwards in his throne.

"Enlighten us, Aqueos. What exactly did you have in mind in the way of leadership? Tell us by all means." Dracula. The successor to Varnae, Lord Impaler of Wallachia, Devil to the Ottomans and so many other titles that fell short of capturing the horror he constituted.

His form sat relaxed within his throne, assuaged in red armor plate and black cloak, silken silver hair pulled back into a ponytail that left his cruel features on full display with a single pale eyebrow raised in minor interest. He was calm and composed, cheek resting lackadaisical in a gauntleted hand.

"The Lord of Vampires is always open to constructive criticism."

-The Baxter Building-

Hospital and doctors were so not his thing, and scientists even more so. He hated it all. But right now, he had very little choice in the matter if he wanted answers. "Fascinating."

Naruto heard the lab coat -Reed he remembered- looking over the numerous strings of data just muttering to himself while he looked at the screens of the seemingly endless number of machines that had been used to scan the blonde. After being introduced to the man, Naruto and Hope were guided to his lab where tools that Naruto couldn't make head nor tails of covered the walls, floors, and screens hanging down from the ceiling. However, he quickly found some weird helmet thing on his head that also included his eyes, only to be introduced to a strange light that was piercing his eyes.

None of Reed's batch of tests had been in any way invasive like the medicals he was used to if anything the detached scanning and hum of machinery was almost sterile by comparison. He had leveled a minor glare at the Richards patriarch when he had gone to take a mouth swab without asking the blonde, but the immediate apology and promise that the test results wouldn't be used for anything nefarious had been enough to let the test be done.

"You said that your eyes started to feel irritated after coming here?" Reed asked with interest, overlooking the scans of what Naruto was at least able to recognize as his own skull, zooming in on the pair of ocular organs. Naruto wasn't overly concerned about the condition his body was in, he just wanted a way home as fast as possible so if it made the unitard scientist happy he'd answer the questions.

Naruto shook his head, "Kinda, I guess. I'm more concerned about how Hope was able to get in my head, I know I'm not speaking my native tongue right now just like how I knew her name was Hope seconds after we touched." He pointed next to him where Hope herself had similar headgear on sans eye apparatus, their examination tables beside one another.

Hope shrugged when he finished talking, "I think that…. Maybe it was when I touched you, and then…"

"…some weird-ass mini-explosion happened, then you knew my name…"

"…I knew yours, and then there were some images…"

"…and now we're here."

Reed listened intently, as did Scott and Logan while Laura merely kept her focus on their new guest. To him, this seemed to be more like a sort of psychic transference between two minds. It was not the first time that Reed had dealt with a situation like this, in fact, he could name at least six races off the top of his head that made use of techniques like this to commune information between one another. The key difference here was that the young man, Naruto as he was known, had something bizarre going on in his body.

The more in-depth structural scans were yet to come and what had been obtained so far was more raw data than information, but there was certainly something odd about the blonde's eyes.

His instruments had registered that Naruto's eyes were fluctuating with an odd form of energy trying to manifest itself through them. However, the composition of that power was the cause of both interest and concern because it bore similarities to something Reed was interested in, akin to that of a Cosmic Cube. But there were other extenuating factors at work here, namely that the power was in flux and mutating. Reed had taken the readings he needed from their heads, but now he needed the rest, along with a few other things that he required to see what exactly made this boy tick, and how this had, in turn, affected Hope.

Reed clicked a switch that undid the headgear, "Hmm, well so far things are… interesting, to say the least." Looking over the data, he began his hypothesis and would continue to alter or add on to it, "Though I can't say for certain until I've gathered everything." Reed prepped the Cosmic MRI room from his tablet.

Scott spoke up after remaining silent for some time now, though it seemed Laura thought it best to keep her mouth shut since some of what Reed said would fly over her head, "So what's the consensus on Hope so far, Reed?" he said in a minorly concerned voice. He felt for Naruto's apparent plight but at this point in time, he was a minor concern compared with the wellbeing of the Mutant Messiah.

Pulling up the scans he had on the tablet, Reed began to explain, "Well as far as I can tell the energy that this young man here possesses has infiltrated Hope's body, it's acting as a form of mutagen that now is well, 'swimming' inside Hope here." Scott nodded as he filed this away.

Hope noticed that he didn't say anything else and had a feeling that she would be getting a lecture from him later when they got back to Utopia.

A younger voice cut in suddenly as the two 'patients' got off the table, "But we do still need some blood and urine!" Naruto turned right next to him expecting an orderly or nurse, only to see a little girl that looked younger than even Konohamaru if he was right when he first met Old Man Sarutobi's grandson. She wore the same monochromatic one-piece suit as Reed only with the number 6 over her chest, a pretty face characterized by bright, intelligent blue eyes and a head of blonde hair that traveled to her upper back. She was sitting backwards on a revolving chair, the back of which she leant over to get a closer look at him.

Arching an eyebrow, he could only wonder just what the hell was up with this kid, "Uh, who're you?" He asked with a tilt of the head like a confused dog, two years after Pein and scrutinizing interest was still new to him.

The little girl could only reach up to shake his hand, while acting like she was taking over the whole thing, "Valeria Richards, at your service Mr. Whiskers."

Naruto almost tripped over himself at the name she assigned him, an achievement given he was sat upon an exam table. If it had been any other time then he would just bonk her on the head for such a blatant insult, but then again, he was technically a guest here. He more or less just let her do her little thing as she kept on, "Not only that, but we also need more info on where you came from, what're your likes and dislikes, etc."

'Why does what I like and dislike have to come into it? I just want to go home as fast as possible.' he thought dispassionately. Nine times out of ten Naruto would have been all too happy to make friends with everyone he came across, but his recent experience had left him in a state of borderline denial of the entire situation.

Hope could only giggle with one of the kids in the lab now, whereas Franklin had snuck in to keep her company. But that got him in trouble, which right now… "Valeria, I think we've talked about this before when it comes to situations like this." Next thing Naruto knew, Reed's neck stretched to what he recalled Orochimaru was able to do. He sweatdropped at the view of this little scolding.

'Why do all the science guys have weird powers?'

The six-year-old genius held her arms behind her back, "I know, I know: 'No interference with doctor-patient visits unless emergencies require it.'" She glanced back at Naruto and pointed at him, "But he looks really interesting… uh… uhm… subject!" Reed didn't look convinced, while Hope whispered in Naruto's ear.

"Looks like someone's got a little crush."

Now she didn't know why, but somehow Naruto's face turned chalky white, and he shivered in some form of dread at the statement before indignation burned its way to the surface of his mind, "I've only been here for forty minutes?!"

Reed ignored the indignant blonde and continued on with his youngest, "Subject? Really? Is there any other reason you might be wanting to take part in the scans?" Valeria tried to put on her best smile to try and shoehorn her way into the process, but Reed had seen it many times before, "Nope! Not at all! But you may want to start with the other procedures."

Valeria was hoping that she could help out, especially with this… specimen she could probably accurately call Naruto without saying anything else about her intentions. Reed stared right at her but could only see that she was intrigued by the young man, Naruto. And if the past taught him anything, she was going to eventually sneak around his back to help out or do something drastic. So, the best thing could hope for right now was…

"Alright. You can help out with our guests." Valeria jumped in the air with her arms raised high, "YES!" That is until Reed stopped that little joyful jig with a stretchy 'n' raised finger, "But! You'll need to proceed very carefully, along with listening to and doing everything as I say. I don't think anyone needs a trip to the actual hospital."

Valeria gave a slight salute, as Reed led the way to another room.

-The Table of Sects; Greece-

Silence reigned upon the lord of the Vampire's declaration with even the ghoulish forms of Nosferatu and Aqueos shrinking back into the shadows of their seats, seeking refuge from the interest of Dracula. Janus waited for the inevitable break in tension that would come because if there was one thing that Dracula actively despised -beyond the mutant Apocalypse anyway- it was people testing his patience; and if his patience ran out? Well, then this would not be the first time a sect meeting had been punctuated by an impromptu impaling courtesy of his father.

Xarus was the one to finally break the soundless hell when he stood from his chair, holding up a placating hand when Dracula's gaze fell upon him instead. "I'm sure our cousin from Atlantis doesn't mean any disrespect, father." He said with his voice laid back, "And yet he does raise a larger point, an issue we can all appreciate." He walked behind each of the sect leaders as he continued on, "I can think of no two sects more different than our peaceful Anchorite friends and the mighty Aqueos. Yet as has clearly been demonstrated, they share a similar concern. A problem we all share." He rounded the table once, all eyes following his rotation around the room as he came to stand beside his father once more.

"No matter what our differences, we are joined in this. Humanity hates and fears us. The other races on this planet have been facing similar situations. Mutants have been put on the brink of extinction after M-day, and the bigots that hate them, hunt them down one by one until no more of them are left." The air shifted imperceptibly at mention of mutants, one, in particular, having always been Dracula's bane.

"The Inhumans were smart enough to leave the planet, but somehow, I doubt the rest of the galaxy will like science-experiments-gone-wrong reigning over a major galactic power." Xarus continued as if giving a seminar on why an animal species was endangered, "The Atlanteans under Namor's rule made the right choice in allying with the X-Men off the coast of San Francisco. The Eternals, the Asgardians, the Skrulls, all running and hiding from the big bad human race."

Janus regarded his half-brother and found that what he said was not wrong. He had to give him points there for the argument being made now. Humans have been spreading more and more throughout the world, forcing other races to either consolidate with one another or leave their homes entirely. But how this applied to the Vampire's still eluded him, they've always been able to hide in plain sight within the night, and this wouldn't be even the ninth time they had survived a purge.

Xarus would have continued had there not been a shuffling heard at the back of the room, occupied by a lone delegate, perched there as if not affected by the goings-on around them. A frail old man, with a bandage wrapped around his eyes; Moksha sect. A strange breed. They go as long as possible without feeding, only the blood of a mouse or bird every now and then.

Janus had been told that their starved condition gives them visions. He didn't put much stock into visions of the future, but he wouldn't be surprised if it was true. The Moksha's mouth moved with the words that many paid attention to, "I have had a vision in recent days, one most disturbing." His voice croaked.

Xarus' nose wrinkled upon the interruption of his obviously practiced speech, annoyed by the Moksha, "What is it, you old bag?"

Dracula waved a hand towards Janus' little brother to hold his tongue, "Be silent Xarus, speak your vision to us."

"A warrior, garbed in armor the color of sunrise standing over the corpses of many sects, his eyes like a pitiless void, he has known loss, but that did not stop him, for he sits atop a mountain of our kin's corpses, like the Kazikli Bey of old." The Moksha placed a hand on his temples to massage it, no doubt feeling fatigued from such a thing.

Dracula's response was something most rarely seen him do, many more would not think it possible. He laughed.

"HA! Hah hah…" Dracula guffawed for some time, 'visions of the future' were amusing to a man that had lived so long. "That was enjoyable. But something to ponder upon later."

Xarus took control back of the argument, as the congregation gave their attention back to the younger brother, "As I was saying before that little interruption." He looked to his father again as his hands slipped behind his back, "Perhaps now is finally the time for us to discuss—"

Dracula stopped him from going any further; most likely to steer the meeting towards a different subject.

"Humanity hates us because it hates that fear in itself, hates its own weakness." The great dragon interlocked his fingers, resting his angular chin atop their templed state, "All of their lore tells them to beware of the night, for the darkness is where we rule. Humanity has their world, and we have ours. It's that simple."

Xarus stepped closer to his father, who did not even deign to look at. "Maybe you're right, father." Xarus' hand slipped within his armored cuff, "Or maybe there will come a day when things will change." A shuffle of movement was all it took to turn the Vampire world on its head…

"AND THAT DAY IS SOONER THAN YOU THINK!" He pulled a wooden stake out from his cuff, and before Dracula could bring his mighty strength to bear, plunged it deep into his unbeating heart.

"AARRGH!?"

-The Baxter Building-

"OW! What was that for?"

The little blonde girl looked up at the taller blonde young man with a decidedly miffed at his complaint, her eyebrows knitting together in annoyance at Naruto rubbing the arm she had just drawn blood from.

"We need to see what kind of blood type you have, just in case you have any diseases that you carried over to our reality, or if your susceptible to any diseases of this one" She informed while looking at the multiple diamond-tipped needles that had been blunted upon attempting to enter Naruto's Cephalic Vein, having to use a Vibranium tipped one in the end.

Hope had been taken down to a room for something Valeria had called the Cosmic MRI, while Naruto had to wait for his turn to ascertain where he had come from, though he didn't think he'd be getting stuck with a needle by a smart-ass kid and under watch by the chick with metal claws. Laura didn't say much, but then again, he highly doubted that she needed to. He was an unknown factor, and she was doing her job in keeping an eye on him, a post he would take if the situation had been reversed.

Laura watched in fascination when wisps of steam began to rise from the pinprick wound that the needle had inflicted before sealing itself shut, indicating that the blonde had some kind of healing factor. She and Logan's healing factors' didn't do that at all, their wounds simply recrew the missing flesh and bone without anything beyond some slightly disturbing noises. She didn't doubt that Valeria saw it, but Laura had keen eyes for these kinds of things, and within her mind, Naruto's threat level went up by a whole notch.

Valeria had decided that a blood sample would be needed to see what was going on at the cellular level, as her father said that something was amiss with his eyes, so it made sense to check over the rest of his body.

She placed the blood under the Extreme Resolution Electron Microscope that her father created some time ago and viewed the cellular activity along with anything else that Naruto had within him. Although Valeria should have remained silent while working, she did have this to say, "Wow, your cells are stupid messed up." She tapped a few keystrokes and brought up data from various other species of the planet next to what Naruto would assume his own cells, but he was clueless about what was going on right now. The only knowledge of cells he had was when Tsunade had explained to him what the Rasenshuriken did on the molecular level.

"That's nice and all but how does this affect me going home?" Bringing his hands up in frustration, he wanted to strangle someone, but that would most likely get him thrown out, "I mean, I just want to get this out of the way and go home."

Laura could only feel a bit of pity for the blonde as she shook her head, once Richards and his brood got talking science there was very little that could be done to stop them.

Valeria turned back to Naruto to clarify what she meant, "Your cells have some kind of innate energy system that you are probably already aware of, but this secondary energy is engrossing into the cell causing them to mutate into something else entirely from what they used to be, so it's not just your eyes that are changing. but…" She brought up a piece of data with all types of weird symbols and numbers he didn't recognize.

"You're from a different reality according to dad." She pulled the different DNA strands from other species from Earth right up next to Naruto's. She tried to dumb things down for him, seeing very quickly that he was not the brightest person, "I've compared your DNA, to those of the humans from our planet, along with some other major players: Mutants, Inhumans, Atlanteans, Eternals, even beings like Vampires, and honestly, your DNA is exhibiting traits that makes your developmental potential head and shoulders above them."

She tapped a few more keys and brought up highlighted traits within the strain that was Naruto's in blue, while she highlighted the other parts of the multiple species strands in red, "Many of the deficiencies in other species, you don't have. Your body doesn't produce fatigue toxins anywhere near as much as others do, your bones are lighter, but at the same time, they're far denser in a multifaceted latticework bolstered by this energy. Add in a natural healing factor, and your senses appear to be enhanced even greater than that of other species baseline, like your sense of smell for instance." Shrugging her shoulders, Valeria continued on, "Either way, in short; you're a transhuman sub-species. Congrats, I dub thee Homo Perfectus."

Naruto blinked.

Then he blinked again.

"What?" Valeria dropped her head in depression. 'Maybe he needs more info on how his future kids will be like to get the message to him?' She just told him that he was the perfectly evolved being... or at least had the potential to be one, such a prospect would make any scientist salivate over the potential raw data he could provide! She couldn't understand why he was staring at her with a deadpan stare, failing to realize that Naruto was not a scientist and just wanted to go home.

Hope stepped into the room carrying a hospital gown over her shoulder that she threw to Naruto, "Alright Whiskers, time to swap places." She smiled, finding his glare at her amusing before scrutinizing the medical gown, not understanding just how out of it Naruto currently was.

A coil was being wound tighter within the blond with each passing moment, and lord help them all if he snapped.

-Greece-

In a heartbeat, the world Janus had always known is ripped away. He was frozen in his seat to watch the stake puncture his father's heart. The heart is everything for a vampire, and if it is pierced, it spells the end for the child of the night. However, the Lord of Vampires refused to go down quietly.

"TRAITOROUS DOG!" Dracula roared in anger before backhanding his progeny.

Xarus tumbled across the table as Dracula attempted to pull out the stake from his heart, already feeling his strength sapping away. Xarus had often spoken of his frustration with his father, but this?

"Hurry you idiots! Before he pulls the stake out!" Xarus pointed straight at his father, his allies springing into action at the drop of a hat.

Nosferatu pulled his stake from the inside of his cassock.

Charniputra ripped the wooden object from within the confines of his own flesh.

Aqueos pulled his own from the tattered wrappings that constituted his pants.

This was not some spur of the moment coup that Xarus was using to make a statement, no, this had been in the works for some time it seemed. The delegates rushed towards the Lord Impaler with stakes of their own, all in favor of Xarus taking over. Dracula struggled on like some wounded titan, grabbing Nosferatu by the throat and tossing him like a ragdoll before delivering a brutal kick to the Atlantean Vampire's jaw that sent teeth flying. And for a second, it looked like he'll prevail, like the world can't possibly stand for this madness. But Charniputra managed to stake him from behind and in scant moments they swarmed him. Like piranhas, taking him apart a piece at a time. Until finally, in the sudden sick silence, it ends.

Dracula collapsed backwards over the wooden table with no less than four stakes jutting from his front and back dripping blood, blood that now paints his throne along with half the table, Xarus gets back up on his feet and calmly walked over to his father's corpse. Charniputra held a blade in the event that Dracula jumps up to try and kill them, but Xarus has a different idea, "Give me that blade."

"This is to demonstrate our commitment." He took the iron broadsword into both hands and raised the sword high above his head, causing all to stand in shock at the prospect of what Xarus was about to do. "This shows there's no going back!" Xarus proclaimed before bringing the sword down upon his father's neck, sending the aged vampire's head rolling in a clean decapitation. No vampire, not even Dracula was capable of surviving such a thing. No matter how powerful they are.

Very quickly, the other Vampires got over their shock, rage taking its place. The different sects began to rise up for a fight with their fangs bared at the traitors, but Janus was still reeling from the shock of what had just taken place. Though his brother quickly saw that he could very well be outnumbered and gets ahead of the situation before more blood is spilled tonight.

"WAIT!" He manages to stop the claws and fangs bearing down on him, "Listen. All of you listen to me!"

Krieger's legate steps up with his fist raised in fury, "Listen to you? What can you possibly say to justify this?"

Xarus waves it off as if his joint patricide and regicide were for good reasons, "What happened here was the only way to get out from under the weight of ancient myth." He jumped off the table to set foot on solid ground next to his supporters, continuing on with his reasoning, "For centuries—centuries—we've been told we are damned! That we must live our lives in the dark, the world's dirty secret. That we are the corrupt shadows of humanity, undeserving of our place in the light. And you…" He pointed towards the table, "…like my father over there… have accepted."

He stabbed the bloodied sword in front of him as he glares at everyone, including myself, "Well I do not." Raising his arms, he continued on like a priest raising his voice as he came to the climax of a sermon, "I say, by our own might, by the force of our will, we are redeemed! Together united, we will reintroduce vampirekind to the world." Xarus lowered his arms as he clenched his fist like some cartoon villain, "And the world will tremble."

But Krieger didn't buy what Janus' brother was selling. He pointed at Xarus accusingly, "United? After your cowardly actions? You have no honor!"

Xarus pulled the sword from the floor and leveled the blade at Krieger across the room, attempting to make an argument, "And just what exactly is honorable about plodding along in the ways, ways that have kept us down for centuries? I didn't enjoy what I had to do today, but our people must move forward!"

As they continued to shout, Janus' eyes were drawn back to the Moksha delegate, perched there like nothing that just happened in the last few minutes.

Unsurprisingly, the Krieger sect leaves the table defiant of Xarus' coup, "If you think my sect will be part of your new world order, then you're truly deluded." Getting away from the rest of the congregation, he stomped out of the meeting hall and spoke one last time before disappearing, "I'll be back to pick up the pieces after you fail."

The Krieger sect cherishes hierarchy, chain of command. Xarus would have guessed he'd lose their support. No surprise there. But what happened next could not have been predicted.

The Claw sect is leaving.

The Arabic vampire got up from his seat and quietly exited the room. Words were not needed because everyone can see that he too wants no part of this. Just like that, the two big dogs in the room are gone. Winning support from one or the other would have cemented Xarus' position, but neither?

Janus could see it in Xarus' eyes. Some piece of his scheme hasn't fallen into place. Just like that, his coup becomes a thing so fragile it might as well be built on matchsticks. He watched as the Claw sect left; turning his back to everyone else, he pointed the blade at those who would've torn him limb from limb for what he has done tonight. And so, the younger son of Dracula does the only thing he can do under the circumstances.

"You must all decide. You may think yourselves safe, hidden away or passing for Human, but deep in your hearts you all know the fear, the constant worry that one day you will be discovered."

He falls back to regroup.

"We will reconvene in twenty-four hours. I expect to hear that you'll be joining me for the progress of our people. Consider carefully." Xarus and his supporters exit the room, leaving the rest of them alone in the blood-stained murder scene, while he takes his father's head and corpse. "Father's body will be placed in the crypt. And this—" He said, handing over father's head to Aqeuos, "—take it away. Be discreet. I don't want father's devotees simply sweeping up his ashes and bringing him back like last time."

"Of course."

Xarus scans for Janus and they lock eyes. He felt him willing to understand, to take his side, but all Janus had for him were questions. He left the hall along with his supporters, leaving Janus and the others in shock of what happened. The elder brother massaged his head to try and get a grip on reality.

He was dead. His father. At the hands of his brother. They had never been a close family; still, it's like something cold and hard and laden has crawled into his belly. There's one thing Janus needed to do right now…

A few of the other sect leaders had also left, save for Stephen from Mystikos and the Anchorite. The former starts talking, and the worry in his eyes was plain to see, "Twenty-four hours? Is he out of his mind? I say we get the fuck out of here."

Anchorite became worried for a different reason altogether, "Do we really want to leave and have no say on how this plays out?"

Janus walked past them to speak with his brother, but Anchorite continued his pondering, "Or maybe we should just go with it. My sect stays in hiding. Xarus or Dracula—what's the difference?"

Janus turned back to them and explained his view, "Look, something's gone wrong. I know Xarus. The twenty-four hours aren't for us. Something's gone wrong with his plan and he's trying to manage it. I need to talk to him before he does something even more stupid."

"Well hurry back. Our asses are hanging out in the wind here, and I don't like it." Stephen's words chimed in, not wrong in the slightest. If Xarus was able to make his coup complete, then anyone who doesn't join him will be killed.

The ravenette vampire headed straight to Xarus' quarters on the island, but along the way, he ran into someone he wasn't expecting…

"Janus." The sultry voice greeted, it's red leather-clad owner stepping forth from the shadows.

"Alyssa, what are you doing here?" Janus asked briskly, the femme fatale was always a hard one to read in terms of sect politics, so it was hard to say which camp she would side with. Though she'd ever been one to play games regardless.

"Waiting for you, of course." She answered huskily, adjusting Janus' shirt collar before continuing, "Your brother's position is weak, you know what I'm saying is true."

"Maybe. Why tell me?" Janus replied brusquely, the Siren's power of allure is something even purebloods such as he were susceptible to, but the elder son of the dragon remained firm.

"Xarus makes a powerful case. Our people can no longer cling to the old ways—only a bold stroke can move us forward—but that doesn't make him the new Lord of Vampires. The Siren sect is open to other candidates." She puts an emphasis on those last two words that even a deaf man would be able to perceive.

Janus brushed past her towards his brother's chambers, bringing the encounter to an end, "And could I expect the same loyalty from the Siren sect that my brother enjoys?"

The pair both glance over their shoulders as their eyes make contact one last time before Janus reaches the crossroads, and Alyssa reaches hers, "Xarus is botching it. Think about it, Janus. We could pick up the pieces. Together."

Alyssa's power is strong. Janus almost fell for it, wanted to fall for it, and could actually see himself as Lord of the Vampires in those scant moments of contact. Finally, he came to his brother's room and opened the door only to see the blonde pouring blood into a pair of wine glasses, "Spare me your feigned grief. You know as well as I do that father's old school ways were holding us back. You just didn't have the balls to take the necessary steps." Xarus pours the second glass and hands it off to his brother as he continued, "The real question big brother, is what are you going to do?" He asked, fishing for an answer to which way Janus was going in this coup, "Do you have the guts to help me bring our people out of the darkness?"

Xarus turns his back to him as he makes his way over to the table with a briefcase on it, though the elder brother felt it pertinent to point out a fatal flaw in his plan, "No Krieger sect, no Claw sect—your coup is without teeth."

Xarus shrugged, seemingly not at all that bothered by it, "Merely a setback. I'm disappointed in your lack of faith, brother."

Xarus pulled the briefcase closer as he set it down to undo the latches, "Right now the problem is uncertainty. Some of the sects are indecisive. They don't know if I'm the one to provide strong leadership. A show of force will convince them."

"Threatening the sects won't make them follow you. They'll fight or simply go into hiding." Even their father knew better than to wipe out the sects. You couldn't have a kingdom of shadows, without those to aid one in concealing the empire. But it seemed Xarus had a different idea.

"Not all sects." Xarus turned to his elder brother, confident in his words, "Just one. An example. Even now, my forces are on their way to their stronghold."

The Krieger sect most likely, they were the most vocal against Xarus, and he knew that they would be his target. However, Janus gazed at the clock hanging above the tapestry hanging next to them of Dracula's first conquest before becoming the lord of vampires, "Now? It's almost dawn."

Xarus smirked, one Janus recognized was only used when he knew he was certain things played out in his favor, "About that." He popped both latches on the briefcase and showcased the amulets within it, "It took Brad forever to get them this small. I believe you met him earlier—he's the senior engineer at one of the world's top electronics firms. They even rival Stark Enterprises."

His interest peaked, Janus picked up one of the amulets, feeling the weight of it and to get a better look of the item, but he could only wonder what the hell Xarus was thinking with this, "Your secret weapon is costume jewelry?"

"Not exactly,'' The blonde vampire responded with a modicum of mystery to his tone, it appeared that he had inherited some of his shared father's sense of theatrics. "What would you say if I told you there'd come a day our people could walk in the sunlight?"

Janus swirled the glass of blood in his hand, face not at all amused by this joke, "I'd say you had a short memory. Every few decades somebody comes up with a spell or a potion, but in the end, rule number one holds true: stay in the dark or die in the fire."

Xarus took the amulet and dangled it from his hand, "This is a gamechanger." He handed it back to Janus as he explained his apparent masterstroke, "Light is really a rather complex thing. Waves and particles. An entire spectrum—well, I won't bore you with a science lesson. Let's just say it can be bent. Oh, the tech boys put in overtime on this one. A compact electronic device. It emits a field which bends a narrow part of the spectrum—the harmful part—around the vampire wearing it."

The armor-clad vampire embraced the mundane elder brother, arms around his shoulders in a show of familial merriment that Janus did not reciprocate.

"This brings us into the daylight, Janus." He proclaimed boldly as he watched the implications dawn on his brother, not just for their sect, but for their entire race, "Not ancient hocus-pocus, not any of that nonsense the old guard like my father clung to. This. Science." Janus shook his head. He knew well the boon these devices could do for them all, but if just to walk in the daylight as humans, then…

"Then why this upheaval? The Mystikos sect alone would swear undying loyalty if you provided these devices. Anchorite sect, Purebloods, we could all walk undetected among the humans." He asked, causing Xarus' face to turn sour.

"No…" Xarus sounded sure of that. Janus raised a brow at his half-brother, he should've been able to see that if he had brought this up with their father at the meeting, then even he would have to see the benefits of the devices and Xarus' points, "…the light-bending technology is not the answer. It is just a tool."

Red eyes narrowed in confusion, "What do you mean?"

"I have the will and determination to use such a tool. Even if it means getting our own house in order before dealing with humanity." Xarus always had a long-winded speech, "As we speak, a small strike force of Nosferatu and Charniputra vampires, armed with the light-bending technology, is paying a visit to our friends in the Krieger sect. They think themselves safe and isolated in the Urals. Catching the Krieger sect in their caskets should negate their superior combat skills." He took a sip of blood before continuing on, "I warned my forces that it would seem easy, but not to be fooled.

"They would have the element of surprise. At first, the Krieger sect would rally. Their warrior's code knows not of surrender. The fighting will be fierce. Some losses are naturally to be expected. Fortunately, a fair fight was not what I had in mind. Disciplined, yes, and skilled. But what always struck me as the Krieger sect's defining quality was their vanity. Imagine sleeping in a hall full of huge windows simply because it had been the home of ancient kings. With the Krieger sect's leadership decimated, we can install a puppet to bring the rank and file into line."

He sat down in his chair as he finished the explanation, and now addressing the current status of one of the big dog sects that could've turned things back in father's favor, "Of course, it will take time for the dust to settle, but at least Krieger sect is off the chessboard… for now." Janus had by now finished his own glass and gave it back to his brother, "I hope you're a little more confident in my abilities now, brother."

Well, he's certainly given himself the upper edge in this coup, "You've given me a lot to consider… brother."

"Don't take too long, Janus. The clock is ticking."

Whatever happens will play out in the next few hours. Xarus has drawn a line in the sand and wants to see who crosses it.

-The Baxter Building-

Just how long did these tests run? "I'm pretty sure my legs are numb at this point. Can't even feel 'em." Well, the room was pretty big, but then again, the machine took up half the damn place. The Cosmic MRI only had his body covered up leaving his head exposed, as he laid on his back, looking at the ceiling the whole… boring... time…

"Naruto? Try not to talk if you can. It can interfere with the readings." Reed was up in a large observation deck that overlooked the room, though Naruto noticed in his peripherals that the white-clad man was stretched out looking over the various monitors inside. They had been at this for about an hour now, and it seemed like it would be an hour longer if the machine's monotonous cycle was anything to go by.

Although it seemed like he would be getting some company if the shadow crossing his face was any indicator, "Hey." A little boy that looked about seven or eight in pajamas, with similar traits that Valeria herself had signifying that he was the older brother was whispering to him.

Probably because he didn't want his dad to scold him.

Well, he seemed like a good kid, but given Naruto's current mood he could be forgiven for overlooking character traits, though he could've sworn he felt something inside the kid, "Uhm, hey. You sure you should be in here?" The younger blonde was trying to hide behind the machine Naruto was currently laying down in only turning his head a bit to keep talking with the ninja.

The kid was about to say something, that is until his dad cut in on the speaker system, "Franklin? Have you snuck in again?"

The look that Naruto saw on the now named boy's face was something he was familiar with a lot back in the academy days: Busted.

So, this wasn't the first time he did this?

"I just wanted to see who Hope brought with her this time since she was by herself the last time." Ah, he just wanted to make more friends then. If it had been any other time, then Naruto would have done his best to alleviate the kid's loneliness, but much as Naruto's conscience screamed at him to be nice, he just wanted these tests over and done with.

"You're a very sweet young man, but also a very grounded young man. Not only that, shouldn't you be getting ready for bed right now?"

Franklin shook his head while he rubbed his eyes, "I'm not tired." Naruto smirked when Franklin just puffed his cheeks while crossing his arms. But then he yawned like any kid his age would when it got close to bedtime, "Well since you're still up, you can keep our guest company, but don't touch anything."

Franklin opened his mouth to respond back but found that he couldn't as his sister came over the speaker, "Don't say it, Franklin. You always want to touch the stuff."

Franklin started talking after that caution from Reed in a level tone, "My family can be kinda bossy sometimes. What about yours?" They say the kids can be the cruelest of them all, since sometimes they would ask or say things that would strike at a person's ego or heart, thus dealing emotional pain or flat out embarrassment.

Naruto, of course, knew this well enough, as he did it quite often in his younger days. Though he mostly just embarrassed people in public or knocked pervs out with his Sexy Jutsu. Either way, Franklin's question was just an innocent one, but it did hurt him a bit.

"My family's dead." His response was blunt and lacking in tact, an indicator of his ever-deteriorating mood, though thoughts of his parents reminded Naruto just how little he truly knew of them.

He was only able to meet his parents a couple of times that amounted to two hours total after their death, and he only had Pervy- no… Jiraiya for almost three years in his life. Franklin's feature appeared apologetic, "Oh. I'm… I'm sorry about that." The poor kid didn't mean to upset his possible new friend, but Naruto didn't pay it much heed.

Silence permeated the air until Naruto spoke up, "So, is everything weird around this place?"

Franklin nodded excitedly, "Yeah, it usually is. Say, do you like bikes?" Naruto furrowed his brows at the question. He never needed to ride a bike for any reason since he had speed on his side.

"Why would I want a bike when I can just run faster than one across areas it can't go?"

Franklin shrugged a little, "That makes sense, I guess. You like Xbox?" Now that was something Naruto had never heard of. Upon seeing Naruto shake his head in negative recognition came over Franklin's face, "Ahh, okay. You're one of those kinds of people. Like Hope."

Wait, Hope was like him? "Huh?"

Franklin seemed to think on his words, trying to find the right thing to explain what he believed to the older blonde, eventually nodding to himself. "Yeah, you're in a situation you never thought you'd be in and your life is probably gonna change for something out of your control."

He got the gist of what the young boy was trying to tell him, that his arrival be it by happenstance or design was probably going to change the way he looked at things. Franklin nodded, "It's a pretty amazing world out there. Who knows, you might like it."

Honestly, Naruto had no interest in this world. All he wanted to do was just find a way back home. He couldn't have cared less about the people here, or what bullshit problems they had. By his very nature, Naruto would endeavor to help those he encountered, but a lesson he had learned at the Waterfall of Truth stuck with him. Don't pretend that negative emotions or apathy don't exist in his heart because right now indifference was all he felt for this place. These guys, even Hope, the only thing he could do was say thanks for the help, but he's got to go. "That's nice and all, but I just want to go back to my world. My home. That's all I'm focusing on right now, any chance I can get back is a chance I'll take." His brow creased at his own harsh words, Naruto didn't want to sound like a dick to the kid, but it still kind of came out that way.

However, Franklin didn't seem all that put off by his response, "Well, maybe you can visit sometime." He had a little smile, as he turned around to leave the room, where the Cosmic MRI powered down along with Reed's voice coming over the intercom speaker, "Alright, Naruto. It looks like we've got everything we needed."

Naruto let out an exasperated sigh in relief, "Thank God! I'm pretty sure everything below the waist is numb and my arms were starting to go with them!"

It wasn't long after finishing that up that he felt the unignorable call of nature, asking for the location of the nearest bathroom, Valeria being all too happy to supply the information. On the other hand, this being the Baxter Building meant that…

"Shit, I'm lost…"

Yup.

From the way the layout looked, this building was more of a maze than anything else owing to the fact that it was continually being redesigned, refurbished, and renovated. Naruto decided to try and see just what was behind door number one, though what he found was a set of staircases that interwound with one another before they spiraled out into different directions, "Ok, bathroom is not here."

He would've gone right to door number two off to the right, however, his senses went into overdrive all of a sudden, prompting Naruto to swing a fist behind him only for it to stop right in front of someone's face, "Woah! Hey! Easy there, Blondie." A pair of hands shot up in surrender, trying to ease the ninja's ire. Naruto was slightly perplexed at what the man was wearing. It was a full body and skin-tight white bodysuit that thankfully hid his more intimate areas, two long black bars going down either side of his body from just under the armpit to the tip of his pinky toe. Two insectoid eyes formed of matte black lenses stared back at him while the center of the man's chest bore two Hexagons similar to the ones he had seen Dr Richards and Valeria wear yet were separated by eight segmented black lines which expanded across the man's chest. If Naruto were being honest with himself, the symbol kind of looked like a geometric spider.

Not just that, he could feel this guy's senses going off as well, it felt like feedback coming from a broken speaker so extreme that by the time Naruto hearing unclouded the spider covered man was talking again. "—anyway, Reed sent me to find you, kid. Though it looks like you got lost along the way to the bathroom." Naruto only nodded, not sure what to make of the guy. He squinted his eyes at the man whom he could tell through that mask was grinning like the Cheshire cat, although…

"…where is the bathroom, by the way?"

The man pointed out a door three down from the current one Naruto stood before, "Right there actually, the name's Spidey by the way." Naruto looked towards the door and could only guess his luck was on the down today, and that had he opened it he probably would've been led to a room where dogs were playing cards or something of the like after that last room.

-Greece-

Save for the slight crackle of oil-soaked braziers and torches illuminating the tomblike halls of the ruins, Janus' footsteps were the only thing to alleviate the oppressive silence that seemed to permeate the place. His conversation with Xarus played on a loop in his mind over an hour after it had ended, endlessly coming over the idiosyncrasies and nuances of his brother's words with only a single conclusion presenting itself in his mind.

Xarus was insane.

His reasoning and apparent goal were sound but reading between the lines told the elder son of Dracula that his brother was about to lead their race into the abattoir with a smile on his face.

He would not let that come to pass; this Janus swore to himself. Unfortunately, he had minimal means to stop his younger half-brother from carrying out his intent, he lacked the manpower.

"So, have you saved us all from your brother's evil clutches? Or shall we all get used to the new world order?" Alyssa asks, still stood where Janus had left her hours prior, a coy look playing across her crimson eyes.

Janus strode past her briskly, not even bothering to look at her when he replied, "He never would listen to me. If you have any better ideas, you're welcome to try."

Tucking a strand of her flaxen hair behind her elven ears, Alyssa's turned upwards in a smirk that Janus could feel was vulpine without seeing it, uttering one last coy remark, "My plan is already in motion. I put my best girls on the job."

'So that was it? Have a few of her seductresses woo Xarus into ease while they slit his throat in bed? That won't work on him.' Janus concluded, continuing his brisk pace through the labyrinthine corridors. 'I can see it now, three, maybe four women of different ethnicities to make sure at least one allures Xarus, sashaying into his room with thigh-highs and leather… they'll be dead before they get past foreplay.'

Xarus always was never one to pass up sex, but if he had inherited one thing from their shared father, it was having contingencies. He reconvened with the others with the news now that Xarus has dealt with Krieger, "Xarus has subdued the Krieger sect."

The others appeared surprised at the news, shocked even, but then again, after what happened just a few hours ago, they aren't, "Damn." Anchorite's calloused hands formed into fists as his own anger began to rise.

"I've been asking around." Stephen began, "Anarchy sect never sends a delegation. The Purebloods, Ancients, and the rest are sitting this one out, and we already know where Nosferatu, Aqueos, and Charniputra sects stand. Siren sect too, I guess."

Stephen let out a huff at how little they knew of the numbers involved, Alyssa ambiguous loyalty weighing heavily on his mind, "She was practically glued to Xarus when they walked into the summit." Janus chose not to respond to the business-oriented vampire's point. Fact is, he couldn't read Alyssa and can't entirely trust her; she was simply too unpredictable a prospect.

"Maybe the practical thing to do would be to just play ball. If Xarus wants to be the Lord Vampire, then let him." Stephen continued, arms wide in a show of potential acquiescence.

Stephen was always one to avoid conflict and prefer to let bygones be bygones to keep the status quo stable, but Anchorite's anger only increased, "To hell with that! He can declare himself Lord Vampire, but I won't follow him." Anchorite was willing to fight Xarus to his last breath, though Stephen may not, given his previous words.

Though his next set claimed otherwise if things were kept as they were before when Dracula was in charge, "Hey, I don't like it either, but I'm not game to go up against a bunch of crazy Nosferatu and Charniputra. It'd be different if we had the Krieger sect backing us up, but we don't. If anyone has an ace to play, I'm all ears."

While the two of them were bickering over things, Janus was trying to form a plan of his own to try and dethrone his brother and place father back at the top. And with Stephen bringing up muscle, he supposed now would be a good time even if it's a risky gamble, "Claw sect."

They turned to me with skepticism written all over their faces, "Geez, Janus. I don't know. Claw sect?"

Stephen was right to be worried. The Arabian vampire's reputation is a well-earned one amongst the vampire sects, but Janus tried to assure them, "It's the only move we have."

"I'm all for it. But the Claw sect...?" Anchorite was also worried for good reason, "Hell, they might take our heads just for bothering them." The Claw sect is prone to killing people, even their own members for small reasons like interrupting meditation or snatching previously targeted prey they wanted.

The three men could not have looked more different in terms of dress, but they were joined in the silence of pondering, until Stephen pointed towards the corner where the Moshka sect delegate was sitting, "Hey, man. Let's ask the Moshka sect. Maybe we can get a prediction. Can't hurt."

Janus hadn't even noticed the shriveling old ghoul was sitting there. He contemplated just continuing to ignore the shriveled old coot had this been a typical day, though it was anything but ordinary at this point. When sense goes so readily out the window, maybe a vision is just what they need right now. Who knows?

"You were listening?" Janus approached him asking aloud.

"Yes."

"What do you know?" He bent down to listen to the croaking voice while the elder cradled his head to see clearly.

"I know many things. Things that are hidden. Events that have yet to transpire. I see the doors of the Claw sect stronghold. They know you, son of Dracula. The doors open. They will see you, but what happens after that is… well… unclear."

'Well, I suppose now would be a good time to head out. Funny how such twists in life can happen so suddenly when we least expect it to people who simply want normality.' The ravenette thought with morbid mirth, wondering if there was some kindred spirit out there going through the same radical shift as he.

-Half an hour later; onboard a private jet-

Stephen's money and contacts cleared the group through Athens airport and customs in record time. It will still be daytime when they would touch down in Istanbul, plenty of time for Janus to ponder if he's making the worst mistake of his decidedly long life. Steve's jet had been modified for vampire usage with the pilots -his own familiars- while the windows have been gutted and welded to prevent sunlight from entering the compartments save for the cockpit, monitors taking their places linked to cameras that showcased outside the jet.

Stephen and Janus sat next to one another while his number two Brad worked away at the computer, "Are you sure about going in alone? Sounds like a bad idea." Stephen's worried that if the sane son of Dracula were to die, then the rest of them who preferred his father over Xarus will go along with him, or that Claw sect has already made their decision and this is an exercise in futility.

He took a swig of the blood-tainted alcohol, one of the few things they can drink without any terrible side effects before explaining, "The old one said they would admit me only. I have some history with Claw sect. Besides, if it weren't for bad ideas, we wouldn't have any plan at all."

Janus had watched a movie in the last year that put him in mind of the current situation, 'This is the best bad idea we have.' All he needed to do now once they land was to wait for nightfall and head to the Claw sect's sanctuary.

-The Baxter Building-

After taking the slight detour to the bathroom and being shown the way back to the others, Naruto followed the 'Spidey' guy while wondering who the hell would wear something so stupid looking? He ignored the fact that for the first seventeen years of his life he had considered a baggy orange jumpsuit high fashion.

"I found him, Reed. But he got lost on the way and had to take his time on the throne." Naruto grew a tickmark on his forehead while he huffed in annoyance. Did this guy have a side career in the joke department?

Reed & Valeria stood next to one another while Scott & Logan were talking with Hope, most likely a little reprimanding from what Naruto could tell from their body language, Laura standing off to the side to keep an eye on him and Hope more or less pouting with her hands behind her back, "Thank you, Spider-Man." Reed thanked him, eyes on the strings of data while he continued on, "Now, I'd like to go over the scan results we pulled from the two of you." The others in the room brought their attention while Naruto subconsciously drew closer to Hope as Reed tapped the tablet and a screen sprang up in front of them.

The first thing that came up was a representation of Naruto's eyes, "Naruto, from what I was able to interpret after going over the results of what your body is going through right now, it's being affected by some form of energy-based mutagen." A body outline with his vitals appeared on the screen, along with what he remembered was his chakra network that Sakura always chastised him to remember, "The mutagen itself seems to be running along this third circulatory system running concurrently with your veins and arteries, as well as other parts of the body. But, I'm unfamiliar with this system, so I can't say much about how that's being affected."

Naruto figured this was his cue to explain a bit to Reed. And hopefully know if this mutating crap was bad for him or not, "That system's part me, I mean everyone, and everything has it. You guys don't?"

Reed shook his head, "No, this actually the first time I've seen anything like it." His highlighted chakra network came up from the screen almost as if he could touch it, "The energy that's flowing through your system is incredibly malleable being able to become just about whatever it wants, but it has no real guidance. If I were to compare it to things I have encountered then it is a blend of Daniel Rand's bioelectrical Chi…" Reed said with a rolling of the eyes at such an archaic term, "…and raw psionic power at least that was before this extenuating factor entered you."

Valeria was the next to speak up, "Looking at what this stuff is doing to your body, you're mutating into something, but what it is we don't know." She said, shrugging her shoulders, not quite sure how else to put things. Naruto slowly took this in and silently went over the possible causes for this, eventually realizing that it was probably because he took a bite of that fruit back in Kaguya's dimension, but he kept that to himself. Hope's body language next to him spoke of discontent at his silence, face scrunching up in annoyance and barely biting down on the 'You should've said more' speech but decided to stay quiet. He was as in the dark as the rest of them.

"So… do you know what's mutating me?" He tried to sound ok, but his underlying tone said otherwise, a combination of jaded disinterest and ever-growing annoyance.

"Well…" Valeria started, "…it's an odd power, quite potent in fact that is elusive in makeup, but… it's something more akin to a middle step between the Power Cosmic and a Cosmic Cube's energy."

The words drew few reactions from the denizens of the room beyond the Richards duo who looked between the readouts and Naruto with interest. Wolverine and Cyclops' neck muscles began to tense in apprehension, Hope looked between Naruto and the two X-Men with worry for it was a term that her father had brought up in his seemingly endless list of 'What has brought the future to an end'. Laura's eyes narrowed in proportion to Naruto's threat level going up, and Spider-Man looked at Naruto with something akin to empathy, it was hard to tell with the mask.

"Yeah, I dunno what that thing is." Naruto quipped monotonously; met with words he didn't understand from a world he didn't want to be in.

"Basically, it's like cosmic energy in your body. That help?" Valeria replied, hoping to be helpful.

Naruto shrugged in response since 'cosmic energy' wasn't something he knew about. The others, however, could only just wonder how ignorant the ninja was at that news. Scott seemed to want to get things moving along as he filed this away, and kept an eye on the goal, "So what about Hope, Reed? How was she affected?"

"From what I could tell…" A diagram of Hope popped up next to Naruto on the screen, "…Hope has somehow assimilated our friend's energy -the native one as opposed to the cosmic- and now it's slowly adapting to her body, likely a symptom of her empathetic power share." The same energy that showed itself in Naruto was now flowing partially within Hope. The way it acted, on the other hand, was different for where Naruto had a chakra system and tenketsu to channel it, it merely seemed to seep into Hope's body like a sponge taking on water.

Hope's eyes widened slightly as did Naruto's though for differing reasons. To Hope, this was what most likely the answer to how they both seemed to each other's names, for if Naruto's chakra contained aspects of Psionic energy, then information could be absorbed from it. As for Naruto, to him, this seemed impossible since odds are it should've killed her. When the village ran the experiments to use Hashirama's cells, his previous transmigrate, the cells wound up killing everyone save for Yamato for unknown reasons. Tsunade theorized that it was due to being an incarnation of Ashura, was why her grandfather's cells killed people as opposed to bolstering them, and so by the logic, his own cells and chakra, his energy so to speak, should've killed Hope.

And yet, here she still appeared healthy.

"Is that good or bad?" Hope asked Reed, "I mean, I don't think either one of us knew too much, but then…" Hope gestured in front of her to the screen, "…this stuff got into me, which we both knew each other's names and Whiskers here kinda seemed surprised he could talk like us—"

Hope would've continued before Scott interrupted her train of thought, "Will it be detrimental for this energy to be in Hope, Reed?" Scott just wanted to make sure she was alright, along with knowing the long-term effects of this new condition she was in.

Valeria chimed in before Reed could say anything, "I highly doubt it, otherwise we'd already be seeing some negative side effects by now." Punching up a close up of Hope's scans with the energy seemingly melding with her organs in an interesting manner, "The energy seems to be bolstering Hope's immune system while also improving some other parts of her body, though only time will tell." Valeria gave an excited shake at the prospect.

"Cool, thanks for the upgrade," Hope said as she turned to Naruto. As far as Naruto was concerned, this wasn't a great concern to him if there were positives, but this wasn't what he wanted to know…

"Yeah, uh… this is great and all, but can anyone tell me how the hell I can just go home?" He didn't want to sound impatient, but he was more focused on that aspect. Whatever was going on with his body, Tsunade would be able to do more than these people, partially because he actually trusted her but mostly that she was the most gifted Medic he knew.

"Well, Naruto…" Reed spoke as he brought some more impenetrable science statistics up for them, "…that's a more difficult thing to explain." Reed brought up a hologram of the world, this world to be exact and placed an identical world next to it.

"Are you familiar with the concept of alternate realities?" Reed asked. Naruto shook his head, not really knowing what he meant, allowing Reed to give a slight overview of it, "Well, the idea behind it is that at times, history can take a different turning point, leading to something either very similar or very different from what we know of. Every now and then, there are times when someone from one of those worlds will find their way into ours, be it due to an ability or some other being, they arrive due to an unknown cause or accident. From what you described is that your experience is of the latter, and unfortunately, trying to track down their specific Earth is very difficult." Reed said with a slightly somber tone.

Pulling up some more data, Naruto began to feel uncomfortable with the conclusion Reed's words starting to encroach on, "In essence with accidental travel between realities, there's no true way of being able to track your Earth." As Reed continued, his tone turned to one of apology, "I'm sorry, but you're stuck here until we can find it."

Those words hit like a brick through a plate-glass window. For Naruto, it shattered his world.

He was stranded far away from home, and no way to go back.

Naruto took a deep breath as he placed his head into his hands. Taking a deep breath,

Naruto exhaled and looked to Reed briefly, "Is there anywhere I can be alone right now?"

Reed nodded, "Down the hall, two doors on your right." He had an idea that he was feeling something very much how Ben did after first becoming the Thing.

"Thanks."

Naruto got up from his seat and brushed past Logan and Laura, the former of whom could smell the anger rolling off the ninja, though he understood to leave people be when they wanted to be alone.

As Naruto went off to be on his own, Hope looked at his back with a trace of worry, before she turned to Valeria and Reed, "You guys said he had some mutagen in him, and that it was changing him, right?" Both scientists nodded in response, "Then technically he's a mutant by proxy, right?"

Reed placed a hand under his chin in thought of what Hope was implying, as Valeria looked over the data, she had collected over Naruto himself, "Well, technically yes and no." she brought up Naruto's genetic structure for everyone to see, "Naruto is a whole new species of human, like Mutants, he's evolved. How much? Who can say without seeing another set of DNA from his own race?" Bringing up the various DNA strands of each of the humanoid species that resided on Earth and set them next to Naruto's own, "Essentially, Naruto has the potential to evolve to a genetic state higher than his current self, to a level we don't yet understand, in a sense, even if he's not aware of it. The energy inside you, Hope, is changing you, whereas the cosmic energy in him is making him something else entirely."

Hope flexed her fingers as she took a deep breath in to try and get a feel for the energy that Naruto unintentionally gave her, she closed her eyes to focus on it, only to receive a vague picture of Naruto himself… younger? And kicking someone's ass? Well, whatever occurred just quickly vanished from her mind as she opened her eyes. Either way, now Hope had a reason…

"We can take care of him," Hope said with a firm voice as she turned to Scott.

Scott arched an eyebrow as he stared at Hope with a bit of incredulousness, "And why do you say we, Hope? You've only met him a few hours ago and know nothing of him."

Hope got up from her seat while Laura and Logan merely watched on next to one another for the show to begin, sharing a knowing look.

"Here we go again." Wolverine said as he crossed his arms.

"They argue a lot," Laura responded as she mirrored her genetic donor.

"Hmm."

"Hmm."

She really was a Summers.

Hope stood her ground to Scott as she looked him straight in the eye, "Look, I don't know how I know, maybe this new little thing in me is the reason why, but somehow I know that he needs us. He needs someone to help him through what he's going through." Hope placed a hand over her chest as she continued on, "I can work with him. Naruto needs something to help get him into the swing of things, and I want him on my team. If this stuff in me is good, then he can help me get used to it. Maybe the same thing happened to him, and it's how he knew my name before I could even tell him?" Crossing her arms, Hope stood resolute before Scott, "No matter what, I'm not budging on this. There's nothing you can say or do that'll make me think otherwise."

Scott peered into Hope's eyes that were filled with the same fire that she had when she confronted him about her team after Tokyo to get Kenji, in that the redhead wasn't going to stop regardless of what she did. He had set some boundaries with Hope and the Lights to ensure that they could go on missions, albeit with some oversight for their own safety in the form of a liaison, which at first was Rogue, only for him to take her off and ask Kitty to take her place. At first, Scott wasn't sure what to think of Naruto along with not trusting him, despite his benign presence from what he had observed and heard from him, though upon seeing him listen to Reeds words on being unable to return home he saw a young man deeply hurt by that set of news.

He laid out the facts pragmatically in his head to come to a correct decision, whatever the kid was he wasn't a mutant in the truest sense of the word and potentially could cause some problems with the UN. Then again it wouldn't be the first time Utopia had hosted non-mutants, the majority of the Atlantean population lived beneath them in agreement with Namor. The blonde was an unknown factor with a skillset they knew barely anything about beyond regeneration and the Power Cosmic which could open an omnidimensional can of worms.

He thought that perhaps Reed would offer to look after him, though once Hope began speaking in favor of bringing Naruto back with them, any chance of the former occurring went out the window. The redhead was the deciding factor because some way or another the pair were linked, potentially in a similar way to Hope and the Lights which meant that she might have some level of sway over the blonde.

Scott rubbed his temples as he kept staring at Hope for a good minute or two before he relented, "Well, considering the facts we have and how if I say no you'd smuggle him onto Utopia anyway, I guess we might as well get used to this new addition."

Hope gave a slight fist pump in her victory "Yes!"

"But…" Well, maybe that victory was short-lived, "…you're taking responsibility for him, he's obviously in a bad place right now so if he lashes out then that's on you." Scott wasn't going to let Hope have a victory without some lesson coming from it.

The young redhead's expression shifted to seriousness as she knew full well what she would have to take up, "I know that already, and I'm ready for it."

Time for Scott to rain on her parade, "Good, now you're going to have two new people for your team."

"Two?" Hope was confused by what Scott just said.

Scott nodded in response, "Two. Naruto is your first, and the second being someone that will help keep an eye on him." Even if Naruto appeared to be benign to them, Scott wasn't going to allow a virtual unknown to get close to Hope without some measure of protection for her.

Hope opened her mouth to protest but shut it quickly as she knew this was nonnegotiable, "Ok, fine. But I want someone I can work with from past experience and not another liaison."

"We'll discuss that when we get back to Utopia," Scott responded.

As the two were discussing things, Reed was compiling all of the data recorded for the X-Club, Utopia's science section to look over, though as for the new resident of the world…

-Naruto-

Naruto had entered the room not long after Reed had directed him there, and was now struggling to try to come to terms with what he had just been told with only one subject in his mind…

He was stranded.

He couldn't go home.

He found himself looking around the large room he was in numbly, ignoring the majority of furniture or machinery that seemed to be organized in a system he did not care to understand. Unbeknownst to Naruto, this was one of the many storage rooms that Reed, his family and the rest of the Future Foundation used to store half-completed projects ranging from doodles to forgotten school dioramas. Naruto let out a breath in an agitated burst of annoyance, aggravation and anger bubbling beneath the surface of his waking wind. He attempted to regulate his breathing to bring some comfort to his mind but was left wanting for some kind of catharsis.

He found none.

Pinching the bridge of his nose to alleviate his slowly rising ire, the Uzumaki found his eyes looking over the room once again, the sight of so many nicknacks and creature-comforts a welcome distraction from his own thoughts. However, one such item brought his mind to a grinding halt despite its mundane appearance, a simple black scarf knitted from wool hanging from a coat peg on the far wall of the room. His eyes looked upon that scarf, the article of clothing sending his thoughts into a spinning train of memories that grew murderous with each passing second.

His mother's scarf, the one that Konohamaru had found for him in the Third's storeroom, was lost to him now, tucked away under the bed of his apartment that he couldn't return to. The only physical object that remained of his mother and it was gone, all because of Toneri. The image of the shaggy-haired distant relation swam before Naruto's eyes, the rest of the world dropping away. 'It's his fault, all of it..." He thought, nostrils flaring in anger. 'He dropped a meteorite on Konoha, kidnapped Hanabi, ripped out her eyes, kidnapped Hinata, ripped all of my chakra out and CUT THE FUCKING MOON IN HALF!'

Naruto walked deeper into the room unseeing of his surroundings, his mind now little more than a melting pot of annoyance that had been building slowly in the last week, 'And after I kicked his ass and promised to change his ways, what does the shaggy-haired bastard do!? Closes the gate on me when I'm halfway through and sends me to Kaguya's dimension.' He thought, coming to a stop before the room's support pillar, "And now I'm stuck here."

Naruto could only ball up his fists and shake in anger at how fate seemed to always screw him over in some form or fashion. No matter what he did to try and obtain that peaceful life he wanted so badly, it was taken away from him, "Dammit… dammit… dammit!" Lashing out in anger at his predicament without thinking, Naruto swung a fist at the nearby support column and shattered a large portion of it to dust. Though had he been looking, he would've noticed the spark that came from the action, an energy that was both chakra and not, part of the floor he stood on had cracked as well.

"After everything, I've done, and some white-haired crybaby decides I can't get back home…" Naruto was too wrapped up in anger to notice the broken parts of the room began to repair themselves. But he was not too angry to notice that someone entered the room as he heard the door open and close behind them. Oddly enough, he didn't need to turn and see who it was due to the newly formed connection he held with her. Nor did he notice the room's door sliding open and a certain redhead peeking in.

"Hey, are you okay?" Hope made her way over to Naruto to try and tell him the good news she had for him, "Listen I was able to—"

"You said they could help me get home!" The blonde quickly snapped at the redhead as he lightly glared at her, a series of spiderweb cracks radiating out from where his feet touched the ground.

She closed her eyes knowing what she told him sounded more like a promise than anything else, "I know, and I'm sorry for making it sound like I promised you a way back, but we need time." Hope was trying to placate Naruto in that everything needed time to work. Her old man had taught her enough that being patient will always yield the best result, though she'd be a hypocrite if she said she always waited patiently, instead of being a firebrand from time to time, "But until we can get you there, you're stuck here like Reed said."

If that information was meant to reassure the shinobi, then it failed miserably.

"And what the hell am I gonna do?!" Naruto's worst burst forth as he spread his arms out in exclamation, "I've got nothing here! Nothing to do! Nowhere to go until then!" Usually, Naruto would take time to himself to take stock of the situation, but as he had proved when he had decked his father in the stomach, he was just as much a firebrand as Hope.

The redhead took a step forward as she placed her hands on Naruto's arms to try and calm him down as best she could. If they shared some empathetic connection with one another, then right now she needed to try and use it to calm him down, "That's what I came to tell you! You can stay on Utopia with me! The X-Men can take you in!" She managed to bring his arms down to his sides, though she dared not let go on the off chance that his temper rose back up, it seemed that maybe their connection had a calming effect on him.

But it seemed that his demeanor hadn't changed based on his next few words, "I barely even know you, and you're offering me a place to stay with you?" Naruto's tone sounded incredulous, bordering on irritation.

Sensing that he didn't believe her, Hope decided to just lay out the facts for him, "It's like you said. You've got no place to go, but now you do. With us, on Utopia. You'll like it, trust me." She decided on going through each of the points that he had drawn out, "And honestly, it's better than nothing. I told Scott that I want you on my team, and really it gives you something to do until then since you said you don't have anything to do at all here. I'll explain things when we get there." Seeing that Naruto still wasn't too sure of her, she needed just a bit more to show the hand she was holding out for him, "Not only that, I'm the only person here who has any idea what you're feeling right now. I can help you, just like you can help me."

"Reed said that whatever you've got is affecting me, then you can help me learn how to use it. I can help you learn more about the world and live in it until you go back home…" She felt like she had eaten something sour with those last few words, not liking the idea of being parted from someone who… what was he to her, their connection felt like one of the Lights, "…and besides, you'd do the same thing if our places were swapped."

For once, despite his royally bad mood, Naruto couldn't rebuke her. Hope had conceded to his points, but she was able to offer solutions to each of them, even going so far as to show that she did on some level care about him, even if it was due to the new connection they shared with one another. So far his pickings were slim to none, and so he felt it best to accept her offer, "I guess there's not much of a choice is there…?" He grunted, shoulders slumping in defeat.

Hope took a step back as she smiled at him, "Don't worry, I won't let you down, Naruto."

Holding out her fist for a bump, she tried to ease his discomfort and pain of this terrible situation, only for Naruto to gaze at it briefly before walking past her, "I don't trust you yet. Not fully, but I'm willing to give you a chance, so don't fuck it up." Making his way back out of the room, Hope dipped her head in disappointment, but she didn't let this deter her one bit.

Turning back around, she caught up with Naruto eager to try and learn more about the whiskered blonde and make him feel at ease with his situation. It was the beginning of a long and winding road, but she would make sure he didn't walk it alone.

Holy crap was that long as hell. Granted it's not the longest chapter I've written, like in my Fate story, but it felt so damned long, and initially, it was going to be twice as long, but I felt it best to cut it in half to get this chapter out as soon as possible.

Anyways, to explain Naruto here is that he is financially feeling the weight of the events of The Last compounded with being stranded in a new world he knows nothing about. He's entering into the five stages of grief for a while at the beginning here, and I hope that this paints him in a more realistic light than in previous works.

So, continue to read, review, favorite and follow this story as well as my others on my profile. tell me what you guys liked and/or disliked about the new chapter.

The next story I plan to update will be my Bleach story, "Wandering Nirvana" in which that to is a revamp of sorts, or slightly more of a complete rewrite as I wasn't too happy with the original story either.