The Seventh Path: Path of Swords

This is my attempt at a crossover between Fate Stay Night and Naruto. This was adopted from A Dyslexic Writer.

For those who have read the original, you will find much difference as I decided to add my own twist to it. Why send two when it takes three to form a standard Konoha Genin team.

Shirou, Rin and Sakura are from a mix of the Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven's Feel Route. My knowledge on Type-Moon lore is flimsy at best so any mistakes, put it down to difference in universes.

I also might use ideas from other stories, so if any of the authors of those stories take offense, I apologize.

Edited 9 May 2020. Corrected some grammatical errors a reviewer pointed out to me. The perils of having no Beta and not using any writing apps.

Rewritten 22 May 2020. I changed some things that were pointed out to me by reviewers. Any more inconsistencies you can put down to this being an AU.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Prologue

'This is a bad idea,' thought Shirou as he watched Rin finish drawing the symbols that made up whatever she was doing. He didn't know, he was still hopeless at anything regarding magecraft that wasn't Reinforcement or Projection.

His name was Emiya Shirou, apprentice mage to one Tohsaka Rin and 25 years old. He was 187 cm tall and weighed in at 78 kg. Dressed in a black skin-tight body armour that showed off his muscular arms along with a red coat, a Holy Shroud, gifted to him by Caren Hortensia after helping the Holy Church on an Apostle hunt along with armour plated boots. His auburn hair had streaks of white in them from overusing his projection abilities. His skin was still quite fair, but it was getting darker with every passing year. His eyes, once golden brown now had hints of grey in them.

He looked just like Archer did, except he still had most of his auburn hair and light skin tone. The fact that he was looking more and more like Counter Guardian EMIYA was something that secretly worried his two friends a lot.

Standing next to him watching Rin double check that she did everything right, was Matou Sakura, his fellow apprentice and Rin's younger sister. She hasn't changed all too much from their high school days, Shirou notes. Standing at 160 cm tall and weighing 48 kilograms with a figure many girls could only hope for, she had grown a little since then. The 24 years old young woman had violet hair, exotic natural hair colours a common feature among mages, soft purple eyes and E-cup breasts, something that still annoyed Rin. She was dressed in a simple white dress and shoes, giving her an angelic appearance.

Shirou felt a pang of guilt go through him as he looked at Sakura. After the Fifth Holy Grail War, Rin and he had discovered what Matou Zouken had done to her along with Shinji, his once friend and Sakura's adopted brother after she was given to the Matou family as an heir since neither of Zouken's descendants had magic circuits.

Rin had been devastated, her image of her father destroyed with this one discovery of what he subjected her little sister, his own daughter too. There was no way he didn't know of what Sakura would go through once she was given over to the Matou family, the way crest worms worked and Zouken's nature being somewhat common knowledge among magus families that knew of him. There was a reason he had to flee Russia five centuries ago, and that was because the Tsar had found out and he had sent his own mages after him and his entire family. The Makiri line ended there and the Matou line was born in Fuyuki, Japan.

After finding out what had become of her, the two of them went on a two-man crusade against the Matou household. Normally storming a magus home and workshop was suicide, the magus family having had decades or centuries to build up defences and traps. And Zouken was hard to kill, having achieved a form of immortality using his crest worms. Unfortunately for him, he was contending against one of the brightest magi of her generation and a one trick pony with one hell of a trick.

His Reality Marble, Unlimited Blade Works, was an unknown factor to almost everyone among the magus community. Humans who had Reality Marbles were rare to the point of non-existence, with 6, now 7 known. If it was ever discovered that he harboured a Reality Marble, he would have had a Sealing Designation slapped on him faster than he could say 'trace'. There were only three people who knew about it, Rin, Sakura and Zelretch. Zelretch because he knew about it before he even did. Apparently, Emiya Shirou possessing a Reality Marble was a fixed point among their branch of the Kaleidoscope.

It was already developing by the time he joined the War with Saber, meeting Archer merely accelerated it, the soul resonance from both future and present-self causing him to be able to complete and manifest it after their clash of future vs. present, just in time for him to confront Gilgamesh.

With the countless blades in his arsenal, from regular ones to Noble Phantasms, along with Rin's intelligence and the Jewelled Sword of Zelretch that he helped her complete, they managed to destroy every, last one of Zouken's crest worms and penetrate his mansions defence. Not even Shinji was spared when Rin found out about his history of raping Sakura when he boasted about it when they confronted him in the mansion. Shirou stayed silent as Rin killed him without a shred of remorse, having already decided that he never really knew Shinji at all. Besides, they had bigger fish to fry.

Having saved Sakura from Zouken's clutches, they discovered her body filled with the worms, some of them embedded within her organs and one right where her heart was. Neither of them could do anything about it, none of Shirou's blades could help and Rin meagre knowledge of healing magic not enough to do anything regarding this. So, she did the next best thing, she put Sakura in a stasis of sorts, putting her and the worms in a form of coma.

After that, she left for the Clock Tower in London to seek help from the very person who introduced her family to the Moon-lit World, Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg, the Second Magician. Shirou on the other hand, stood guard over Sakura's frozen form, fending off questions from Taiga with a liberal use of hypnosis, something that Rin managed to teach him.

The details on how she managed to get Zelretch's help remain unknown to him, Rin being remarkably tight lipped about it and Zelretch would just laugh when he asked, having a face splitting grin every time, but that didn't matter to him. Zelretch returned with Rin to Fuyuki, opening a portal to him while he was in the shower. Man, that was embarrassing, and Rin couldn't look at him for weeks without blushing.

What Zelretch did that day to free Sakura from those worms was beyond his comprehension, though Rin seemed to have been able to partially follow it. Long story short, Sakura was now worm free and he got a handy new dagger in his Reality Marble that apparently healed anyone he stabbed with it. But that was only the start of a long journey of healing for the last Matou.

Zelretch only healed the physical damage, the mental damage was up to them, not to mention the fact that she now had to relearn how to do magecraft now that she was free from the worms. It took her two weeks to open-up to him and Rin and let all the hurt she had stored over the years out. Never had he ever contemplated bringing Shinji back to life and killing him all over again. Rin looked as if she was considering it when he voiced it out. Though there were some lingering effects from her ordeal, she was healing.

So here they were now, eight years after the Fifth Holy Grail War and apprentices to one Tohsaka Rin. Rin herself was apprenticed to Zelretch, having impressed him by being the first in a long time to complete the Jewelled Sword of Zelretch. Which was what led them to now.

"Nee-san, are you sure that this is safe?" Sakura asked as Rin put the last few touches to the ritual circle that she had written in chalk.

"Of course, it's safe! Don't worry your pretty little head Sakura. Nee-san knows what she is doing." Rin reassured.

Tohsaka Rin at 25 years old was Zelretch's youngest apprentice to date. She was the same height as her sister, 160 cm and weighed 47 kilograms. She had long straight black hair she kept in a ponytail, having forgone her twin tails since they were in her words 'too childish'. Her blue eyes were like sapphires, and she had a modest B-cup breasts, much to her ire. Her outfit was a red long-sleeved blouse and black mini skirt along with black leggings and brown women's boots. She was a vision of beauty to many during their high school days, and remained so as well in the Clock Tower, rivalled by her nemesis Luviagelita Edelfelt. Many a young student competed for their affections and Shirou was envied by many for effortlessly getting it, not that the oblivious man knew or care.

"Really now?" Shirou drawls. "I distinctively remember hearing something similar that lead to the Mary Poppins incident a few months..." He ducked from a Gandr spell she shot at him in irritation.

"We do not talk about that!" Rin yelled, face red at the embarrassing memory. It was all Luvia's fault, and she was sticking to it!

Sakura giggled at that. Shirou loved to tease Rin about her mishaps throughout their time in the Clock Tower. Her rivalry with Luvia was a gold mine of embarrassing stories. Though she liked the Finnish heiress, she was rather haughty and fuelled the fire of their rivalry constantly. Sakura thinks it's because she was lonely and wanted attention from the only group of people who weren't interested in her family name and resources. Though she did feel uncomfortable when she flirted with Shirou and tried to get him to work for her.

"Anyway!" Rin said, "This ritual circle combined with Zelretch's Jewelled Sword should allow me to open a window into the Kaleidoscope and project myself across hundreds of worlds at the same time, since the Sword draws powers from a different dimension. The ritual circle should stay open long enough for me to get a glimpse of the Root, and Shirou is going to be my anchor to make sure I can get back here."

"When did I agree to this?" Shirou asked, not at all surprised at getting roped into one of Rin's experiments. When he wasn't on missions with the Enforcers either hunting Sealing Designates or Dead Apostles, he was Rin's guinea pig since she didn't have the heart to make Sakura one. At least she hasn't put him through anything lethal, yet.

"Silence apprentice!" Rin shouted. "And you volunteered when you didn't bring me anything from the last hunt you went on in the Himalayas! I heard that the designate there had some interesting ingredients he used."

Shirou rolled his eyes. Sorry, he was too busy avoiding getting crushed by giant mutated apes. That guy was way too into the Abominable Snowman myths and was apparently the source of sightings among the mundane population for the past few years.

"Alright, here we go." Rin took a deep breath as Shirou handed her the Jewelled Sword.

The sword was placed directly in the middle of the ritual circle. Rin created a magic rope, tying her to Shirou as she prepares to start the ritual.

Almost immediately, everything went wrong.

Rin's theoretical work on the ritual to open a window into the Kaleidoscope was spot on. She just underestimated how strong the pull would be. She was pulled in by a strong force, disappearing into the portal in an instant.

Shirou wasted no time in trying to pull her back, but the force was too strong. Sakura cried as she was picked up by the force as well, saved from falling into the portal by Shirou's quick reflexes. Shirou traced Rider's chain and daggers, using it as a makeshift anchor as he threw the dagger part of it through the wall with enough force for it to emerge on the other side.

Shirou felt as if he was the rope in a tug of war. Rin and the magical rope that attached her to him trying to pull him into the portal. The chain that kept him here was as straight as an arrow as he kept hold of it with his left arm, the right holding onto the rope connecting him to Rin as Sakura hanged on for dear life around his shoulders. If he hadn't Reinforced his arms, they would have been ripped off by now!

Unfortunately, something had to give, and in this case, it was the wall. The wall broke and now there was nothing anchoring them to this world. Shirou and Sakura were pulled in as well, joining Rin in whatever world she had managed to open a portal to.

Shirou's last thoughts before he entered the portal were 'I knew this was a bad idea!'

*Line Break*

Zelretch noticed something was wrong the moment Rin managed to open the portal. He sighed, "So impatient that one. Shame too, she was the most promising one in centuries. Well, her and her counterparts at least."

Zelretch shifted into the Kaleidoscope with an ease that spoke of complete mastery. There was a reason that the Second Magic only had one master, him. It was fickle, had twists and turns in it that required an unorthodox mindset. This was the part that usually caused his former apprentices to have a mental breakdown. Well, if they had managed to endure all his pranks up to this point at least. By jumping the gun, the Tohsaka had risked the lives of herself and her two companions as well.

In the Kaleidoscope, Zelretch quickly found three bright glowing cores of light. They were the souls and identities of Tohsaka Rin, Emiya Shirou and Matou Sakura. Their physical selves gone but their souls and identity intact through sheer stubbornness and luck. Apparently, Rin failed to take precautions for keeping their physical bodies intact for transition, the Kaleidoscope was no place for mortal men after all.

"There you are. Now what to do with the three of you?"

Zelretch contemplated his options. He genuinely liked the three, they were a breath of fresh air from the usual sycophants that begged to be his students. When he first met Tohsaka Rin of his dimension, she didn't come begging to be made his apprentice, she came begging for his help.

He of course knew about what Sakura went through in the Matou Mansion. Nine times out of ten, Tohsaka Sakura would be sold to Matou Zouken to be the heir of the Matou family. The torture she went through under the guise of 'training', how anyone could justify that was beyond disgusting. He would have done something about it, but he was jaded by his centuries of life and travels throughout the Kaleidoscope. If he went about helping one poor soul, he would have to do the same throughout all the worlds he travelled.

Did that make him a bastard, maybe. But you tried living for centuries, seeing the same evils repeatedly throughout time and multiple worlds. Perfect worlds didn't exist, upsetting the delicate balance that kept the multiverse spinning. It wasn't all bad, for every evil, there was good. For every dragon there would be a knight to slay it. It was a cycle that Alaya used to keep humanity strong and surviving. He wasn't about to mess with that anytime soon. He was strong, one of the most dangerous beings in the multiverse if he was being humble but facing the Will of Humanity to Survive was not on his schedule anytime soon.

That day, watching an 18-year-old girl beg him to help her sister, pleading anything, she could give him, from money to servitude, to save a victim of their father's decision. That intrigued him. Prideful Tohsaka Rin humbling herself for the sake of her sister, it was not unbelievable, but quite rare.

So, he decided to help the young woman, his price that she be his apprentice and sort of assistant managing his assets in her world. The fact that she succeeded in making a copy of his Jewelled Sword already guaranteed she would catch his attention, despite having help from that boyfriend of hers. He never specified that they couldn't ask for help after all. He even threw in a nifty tool he found on his travels for her boy toy. Never knew when you would need to stab your wounds away after all and his apprentice's boy toy was one of those selfless types that couldn't stay out of trouble no matter what.

So here he was, wondering how to get his apprentice and her apprentices back home intact. Or should he?

"They would have to watch out for that damnable Otsutsuki clan, but otherwise it would be a good learning experience on other forms of magic and magecraft. And maybe teach her a lesson about taking on more than she can handle. It will be good for the other two as well."

Having decided, Zelretch sent the three souls on to reincarnate into a new world with their memories, abilities and sense of self intact. They would be reborn into a world of chakra and shinobi, of death and war, of clans and villages.

"Hahaha! Oh, I hope you are ready for them Otsutsuki Hagomoro, they will shake the shinobi world as only they can. Maybe deal with those pesky relatives of yours as well."

*Line Break*

In Konohagakure no Sato, the Village Hidden in the Leaves, three new souls would be born that year in the same month and mere days from each other.

In the Hyuga clan, a black-haired girl would be born of the Main House. The heiress of the Hyuga clan arrived in this new world screaming and crying. The clan celebrated the birth of a strong and healthy heir.

In the Nara clan, a purple haired and eyed girl would be the delight of her young parents. Her father was the clan heads younger brother and her mother was a purple haired kunoichi. Both rejoiced as a healthy young girl with her mother's colouring was born.

In a blacksmith's family, a pink haired boy with golden eyes was born. His father was a blacksmith who made the weapons that the shinobi wielded on their missions while his mother was a housewife. He was a child that would grow be a terror to his enemies and a great friend to those who he held dear. But for now, he was a light of joy for a family that had been trying for a child for some time.

The birth of these three would normally be an auspicious sign to the three families, but a year after their birth, on the Tenth of October, the Kyuubi was freed from his prison and controlled by a madman.

Two of the three would be made orphans as this signalled the beginning of hard times as Konohas Fourth Hokage sacrificed himself to seal the demon into a blond-haired boy, his own new-born son.

It was a terrible day, but all heroes experience tragedy sometime in their path. These three just experienced it earlier than most and with more to come.

Next Update: 15 May 2020