The Gran Pulse Sage

Sunleth Waterscape

-x-

The beauty of nature greeted Vanille, Sazh and Konan as they walked through the area, with Vanille happily skipping, giggling along the way. Sazh and Konan merely followed at a more reserved pace, not anywhere near as energetically as Vanille was. Konan looked around the area, which for some odd reason reminded her of the forests around Konoha in a strange way. She shook her head, trying to put her last moments in her real world behind her, seeing Nagato practically commit suicide to send Naruto and herself to this new world. Vanille sighed happily as she stretched her arms, not paying much attention much else but the beautiful scenery.

"Fresh air. Nice." Vanille grinned as she took in the surroundings.

"So? Where are we headed?" Sazh asked Vanille, with a look of expectation over his features.

"Don't know." Only to be completely disappointed, and Sazh wasn't the only one, judging by the appalled expression on Konan's face. "I thought you had somewhere in mind, the way you took off."

"I followed the smell." Vanille grinned happily, much to their disbelief.

"What?" Sazh and Konan blurted out together, not sure what to really make of Vanille's answer. To this, Vanille simply walked over to some flowers to sniff them.

"It smells nice. All naturey." Vanille smiled happily at the older duo. Sazh and Konan merely shared a look of disbelief, before Sazh proceeded to sniff around as well, wondering just what Vanille had picked up that was so appealing.

"Just smells damp." Sazh gave her verdict. "And I think something bit me." Sazh added after a moment of thought. Konan quickly looked towards the sky.

"Hide!" Konan hissed, as they trio of companions hide within the woodwork. They watched as a few air ships flew over, heading the way that they had just come.

"Skyfleet," Sazh realized just what they were. "Closest city that way is Palumpolum. That is not good. I wonder if those three were caught in the net."

"They should be fine, regardless of the odds. Naruto Uzumaki always seems to find a way to do the impossible." Konan frowned slightly though.

"What do we do?" Vanille asked, sounding concerned about what they should do next.

"What do we do? Right now, what can we do?" Sazh found himself lost. He didn't know what could be done to make things better than they already were. They needed to have at least some sort of plan or at least some kind of destination in mind.

"What is the closest town, location from here Sazh?" Konan asked Sazh, causing the only man of the group to look at Konan with a puzzled look on his face. "We can't go the direction that we came from, regardless of how much we want to. So the only choice that we really have is to go the other direction."

"Right!" Vanille seemed happy that Konan had some sort of plan in mind. Sazh had to think for a moment.

"Which would be – to Nautilus," Sazh told them, looking distant, like something was on his mind. Slowly, he started making his way towards the location that he had mentioned. He almost seemed like he was in a daze.

Konan had to wonder if there was something about the place that was concerning to him, or even something that brought back some bad memories.

"If we want to get to Nautilus, our road's through here. First things first, we need to clear these woods." Sazh told his companions, before jumping over a gap that happened to be in the way. Though he didn't get very far, for when Konan and Vanille had jumped over, he had a look of annoyance over his features. "Now there's a sight I didn't want to see." What Sazh was talking about had an oozy like body, which gave off the impression of a spoiled tomato, mainly because of its stem-like top and yellow liquefied bottom.

"Libra," Konan wasted no time in trying to see what it was called and what its weakness was. She really didn't want to be stuck here any longer than necessary. "They're called Flandragora, they have a weakness to Fire type attacks." The trio looked at each other.

In a matter of seconds, the two Flandragora were screaming as they died, due to the numerous fire spells that had him them at the same time. It wasn't a pleasant way to go, but they would have attacked the group of l'Cie otherwise. After making another few jumps, Sazh groaned.

"All this dampness is damp." Sazh felt the need to complain about the area that they were walking around in, even though it was his idea in the first place. Konan frowned.

"Could you please stop complaining so much about trivia things? We're trying to stay alive. I would rather avoid being detected because you had to moan about something." Konan felt the need to get this off of her chest, and it had stunned Sazh into silence, never expecting the blue haired woman to have a reason to be annoyed with his complaining. They ended up finding some Hedge Frogs blocking their way, only to be destroyed by Fire, Wind and Thunder spells, it was barely any effort really. The creatures didn't even pose a threat to the trio.

"Well, I guess this is better than homicidal scorpion robots and mountains of trash." Sazh admitted, to which Vanille and Konan both agreed to, it was much more pleasant than the scrap yard that they had found themselves in when they were with Lightning, Hope and Naruto. "You know, this place would make a nice picnic spot – minus all the uninvited guests." Sazh mused, as they came across a group of Hedge Frogs and a Flandragora, who instantly tried to chase them in order to kill them, only to be destroyed themselves.

As they group of l'Cie continued on, Sazh made another comment.

"Ah, where's the weed killer when you need it?" Though Vanille and Konan cracked a smile at that one, while Konan's was noticeably smaller than Vanille's it was still there. Though the good mood was almost ruined when four Hedge Frogs came jumping down, the key word being almost, since they were hit in mid air by fire spells from Konan and Vanille, leaving Sazh looking somewhat surprised by the sheer skill that he had witnessed from the two.

"What's wrong Sazh? You're not feeling your age are you?" Vanille felt the need to make a crack at his age, which brought his attention back. Sazh chuckled, before he pulled out his guns and shot a Flandragora with flamestrikes, after it had been attempting to sneak on the two women. Konan didn't seem to look any different, while Vanille looked behind her in surprise, seeing the Flandragora die before her eyes.

"What was that about my age?" Sazh raised an eyebrow. Now he had a reason to be amused about the situation, though Konan didn't seem too surprised by what he had done, it was almost as if she could sense the Flandragora behind her or something.

She probably could, since she was a ninja that was almost as powerful as Jiraiya, her teacher, who was regarded as one of the most powerful ninja in the world of the Elemental Nations. Not that Sazh or Vanille would ever know that, it was just coincidence that they happened to be travelling with them and that she happened to be marked as Pulse l'Cie at the same time as they were.

"Never mind," Vanille just decided to avoid the joke any longer and continue to go down the path that would lead them to Nautilus, their destination. It was clear that to anyone who knew what was ahead of them, that they were going to be in for a rough time.

"Now don't you go blaming it on me when you wander off and get lost." Sazh called out to Vanille as she went on ahead. "Try to be a little quiet for a minute, okay? For all we know, there could be soldiers nearby." He proceeded to shot two Flandragora with Flamestrikes, causing Konan to give him a look. Vanille had fired fire spells as well to add to the damage.

Tell them not to make some noise, yet you go ahead and fire your guns? Doesn't sound like keeping quiet, does it? Konan wasn't impressed. Still, it wasn't like he had left his girlfriend on a platform where she was snatched away from him before his very eyes. That would be plain stupid. Who was that stupid anyway?

-x-

Elsewhere, Snow sneezed violently.

"You alright mate?" Fang asked her fellow l'Cie.

"I... don't know." Snow frowned, before he shook his head, perhaps he was over thinking things again, but for some odd reason he had been sneezing a lot lately.

"Well, if you've got a cold, stay away from me, alright? I don't want no germs, you hear?" Fang made her opinion on the matter clear.

"Gotcha," Snow looked thoughtful. "But I don't think I have a cold."

-x-

Having to run away from an army of Flandragora was not how the group of l'Cie had predicted was going to be happening. Yet that was what was happening, for they seemed to be lingering around a couple of logs which for some reason was growing fruit. It seemed that for some odd reason the creatures were guarding the fruit, so the l'Cie decided that they weren't going to try messing with them, only for the group of Flandragora to chase them off anyway. It gave them some exercise at least.

Still, they ended up encountering a bunch of Gremlins spinning about happily, minding their own business. However, as soon as they spotted the group of l'Cie, they seemed to become upset for some odd reason.

In the end though, it didn't take long for the five Gremlins to be taken down, a pair of well-placed Fira and Aerora did the trick. Even if they had not wanted to take the Gremlins out, the choice was taken away from them when the little creatures started aiming fire spells at them. Not that it really mattered too much in the end.

As the trio of l'Cie jumped over yet another gap, they were greeted to a wonderful sight. It would make anyone who loved nature feel warm inside. The view that they were able to have, seeing all of the trees and the sea, made it look like a wonderful work of art, something that was meant to be cherished, it made Konan smile to herself as she thought about it.

"There should be a dock on the other side of those trees." Sazh told the two women as they approached the cliff edge, which presented them with the wonderful view of the nature below. The three of them were taking their time now, not really needing to rush any further. Vanille suddenly broke the silence.

"Hey Sazh, tell me about yourself." She asked a question that might have caught anyone off guard if they weren't prepared for it.

"Huh?" It was perfectly understandable just why he was surprised.

"Any family?" Vanille pushed, out of curiosity more than anything else.

"I have a little boy." Konan paused, looking at the older man. She knew that he was telling the truth, though she didn't really expect to hear about if he had any children so easily. Vanille turned around to look at him as well, though she looked far more excited.

"Oh! So you're married!" Vanille sounded excited by the prospect.

"I was, yeah." Sazh admitted, not able to get the slight hesitation out of his voice. Vanille turned and started walking.

"We're got to get you home. Your son needs you!" Sazh paused, having followed Vanille for a few moments, only for the girl to turn around and face him again. He looked down, before walking past Vanille once more to look over the cliff edge once more. "Come on, we'll make it!" Vanille tried encouraging him.

Sazh sighed however. "It's too late." He seemed to be having mixed emotions over the idea so soon after mentioning his son.

"Is it the l'Cie thing?" Vanille asked, causing Sazh to turn in surprise.

"How'd you–"

"You might be a l'Cie, but you're still a daddy." Vanille smiled at Sazh, while Konan looked on, not too sure what to do.

"You're right." Sazh admitted, realizing that he Vanille was trying to help him.

"So, what's his name?" Vanille asked the man, who looked over the cliff edge once more, a look of remembrance over his features. Konan frowned as she looked on his expression. She had seen it on Nagato's face before as well, now that she thought about it, she saw it when he didn't think she could see it.

'Did something happen to his son?' Konan thought, she looked at Vanille, who looked concerned for the oldest member of the group.

"Sazh?" The young woman tried to get his attention, causing his look of remembrance to disappear in a flash, before he turned to her. "You alright?"

"Oh. Yeah." Sazh answered, slightly shaken by his thoughts. Vanille suddenly had a determined look on her face.

"Come on, pops! You've really got to keep it together, okay?" Vanille encouraged Sazh. Konan merely looked down the cliff to scout the area, which was made much easier thanks to their location. "Now – let's go?" Vanille asked questioningly, almost as if asking if he was okay to continue on ahead. Sazh gave an amused sigh.

"Now I've got kids looking out for me. Some dad I am." Sazh could only feel somewhat amused by how it Vanille seemed to be looking out for him more than the other way round, though at least Konan didn't have that problem.

"What are those?" Konan asked suddenly, drawing Sazh and Vanille's attention to her. They looked towards the direction she was and spotted what had caught her eye. It was a rock-like creature that appeared to be covered in scales made of pure rock, and was walking around slowly on four claw-covered feet.

"That's a scalebeast." Sazh told her, with fear lining his tone, much to Konan's surprise. If there was anything that she had been expecting, Sazh to be concerned by the appearance of a single creature was not one of them.

"We need to avoid it." Vanille didn't seem as chirpy as she had been merely moments before, the sight of the creature seemed to have spooked her too it seemed. If there was cautious, if not scared, by this creature, then it seemed that she needed to give it some breathing room too, even if she could probably defeat it by herself.

It didn't change the fact that this creature could cause problems in the future if one of the scalebeasts were to get close enough to them to actually be able to attack them.

At least the view that they were enjoying was rather nice.

-x-

It was around this point that Naruto was scouting out the route to Palumpolum, hoping to find a way within without causing too many distressing situations for those who lived within the city itself.

Of course that was almost impossible with the make of the L'Cie baring on both Lightning and Hope, as well as the fact that there were wanted posters with their faces on them, but for Naruto, it merely gave him some more ideas as to how he would be able to get through the barricade that was the Guardian Corps and the PSICOM units. After all, if he could get away with it, then there wouldn't be any unnecessary deaths that would make him feel guilty about not being able to do more about it.

So Naruto thought of an idea, one that had both Lightning and Hope feeling rather cautious about their very identities.

"Are you sure that this will work and that we will be able to change back once this is done?" Lightning might be a battle-harden leader, a warrior who was not able killing in order to survive, but that didn't mean that she was something who knew how many risks could be taken before it backfired on her in a bad way.

"Of course you will, I've done it numerous times before. Hell, I've changed into a woman before and I had no after-effects once I was done, because I was aware of who I was and what I wanted to do. If people do not recognise us, then it will help us in the long run. It is pretty much the perfect way to get in if we don't want people to know who we are and what we are able to do." Naruto explained to his companions, who still seemed rather sceptical about his idea, however that didn't mean that they really had much of a choice in the meantime, since it was either go in heavily disguised looking like another person, or go in as they were, with a huge risk of being spotted and surrounded with ease.

It really was a simple decision to make when one thought of it.

-x-

I'm doing it again.

I'm going to be completely honest with you now. I lost motivation to continue trying to write this story because I can't stand the sight of it. I also hate writing it as well and it's because of this that I'm going to cancel it.

To me, if I don't enjoy writing it then I can't write to the best of my abilities and looking back at this story, I can't help but feel that this is easily one of, if not the worst stories I've ever written. I think the worst I ever wrote was the original "A Vampire's Lover" or one of my other deleted stories "My Mum's A Keyblade Master!', and trust me, those were really bad.

I haven't updated this story properly for over four years and I felt that if I'm going to get rid of this story, I might as well try to add another mini-chapter before I say goodbye to it for good. The question here is this, why did I end up hating this story so much? What exactly went wrong with it?

One, it's really, really badly written and planned out, I was following the game and not adding anything to it. Wow, 2010 was not a good year for me, even if I'm getting rid of two of my most popular stories (the most viewed ones no less), I can't help but feel ashamed at what I've written for those two stories, since I didn't add anything to them. For most part, Naruto: The New Trainer was just Naruto added to the anime, while this was just Naruto and Konan added to Final Fantasy XIII. I didn't add anything to the stories and they were also poorly planned out as well.

Two, Naruto was too accepting of the current situation he found himself in. Yes, I know that I made his grieve about the loss of his friends and family (to which someone called Nulu came out with this quote:- "A man never cry. So this is a Yuri Fic because Naruto is a girl in my eyes."), I honestly should have made Naruto more emotional about the situation (it's what he tends to be after all), less forgiving towards Konan, something that I couldn't do when they initially landed in Cocoon. Still, I should have made him confront Konan at one point about the whole thing. Konan herself shouldn't have been so friendly either, so that's annoying.

Three, the Naruto and Lightning scenes in the first couple of chapters... what the hell was I thinking when I wrote those? They're just terrible.

Four, Konan travelled with the group. I honestly felt that I could have made her a villain of the story, and with that made Itachi's inclusion meaningless and pointless. Hell, I think that only reason that Itachi even appeared in the story was because of the fact that I needed someone to counter Naruto and Konan, and even then I'm not sure how that would have worked. Still, I feel that Konan could have been a good counter for Naruto by herself, with her experience and all that. Well... I could have avoided sending her with him in the first place, but Nagato did try to save her from their world by sending her to Cocoon with Naruto (good job there hero).

Five, I didn't try to do anything original when I had the chance. I could have create something original during the story, but at no point did I even attempt to do so.

Six, some of the pairings were not needed and were just flat-out unnecessary.

Let's just say that I've made a lot of mistakes in writing this story and in the future, when I attempt to write another story in the future, I'll make sure to learn from my mistakes and try to avoid making them once again.

Honestly, I want to start in the first 13 days and not in the actual Final Fantasy XIII chapters, so I could build up some relationships and try to get some character development in there.

I hope that you understand this decision I've decided to make here, for it was either keep quiet about this or just be open about the current situation with this story.

Besides, I was either going to cancel the story, or just delete outright, but I feel that having this story here reminds of my past mistakes and what I will do to improve upon it. Though admittedly, I might still delete this story anyway if I end up calling the future story The Gran Pulse Sage: Recrystallisation Version or something cheesy like that.

After all, I could do something that might change the Final Fantasy XIII story completely. I mean, what would have happened if Serah never got given the l'Cie mark in the first place? Would anything change? It was the Pulse fal'Cie Anima being discovered in the Vestige that caused the Purge to happen after all.

Until next time, goodbye and goodnight.