186Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Naruto, SoulsBorne or Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
Writing/Singing
"Foreign Language/Flashback"
-Scene Shift-
Chapter 1: Welcome to Planetos
The ocean was slightly bathed by the partial, twilight sky with it's soft yellows and oranges as it shined against its surface. The waves rocked back and forth with the decent breeze pushing forward a ship with enough force to speed things along, yet not enough to make it's occupants uneasy.
Said ship was of relative size with a lean hull to promise durable speed. Not small for a personal vessel but it was big enough for a full crew for a long voyage as long as it was properly stocked. On most days when the wind was halted, at least sixty oars were stationed to help move things along. And it's masts were tall in order to carry several large, orange sails baring a golden spear piercing a red sun upon them.
Standing on the deck, a man breathed in the salty air coming from the Summer Sea. He had features of a salty Dornishman in his mid forties; with his smooth olive skin, thin beard that fitted along his jawline and around his mouth and well kept black hair that was cut short. He used to prefer having it long -like in his youth- but after years traveling the world and having many fighting experiences, he needed his hair short so his combatants won't grab onto his hair all that easily… or not having it caught onto tree branches for instance.
His black eyes stared into the distance and saw the immediate barrier between the sun setting-sky to a solid wall of thick, smokey clouds darkening everything underneath.
'Seems we've finally hit the heart of the Smoking Sea… and the Valyrian Peninsula.' Were the Dornishman's thoughts with a small frown as he gazed down and saw a growing landmass in the distance. 'Gods, how this place unsettles me.'
During his years traveling all over the world, the Dornishman had always avoided this place out of worry. He was brave enough, but was precarious due to what rumors he kept hearing about Valyria since it's downfall over four hundred years ago. Of monsters and demons rising from the ashes of the once great city of the world.
Asides from that rumor, the orange-red glow hanging from the clouds above because of the chain of volcanoes -the Fourteen Flames- were visible long before reaching the broken lands of the fallen freehold. This made the tainted land that is Valyria never got really dark, nor did it ever get bright. For the volcano chain and magma rivers running over the shattered landscape casted almost everything in a permanent orange-reddish glow that reflected back from the dark clouds above. Combined with the intensely toxic miasma of dark emotion choking the region, the rumored monsters and demons running around, the sweltering heat and the reported acidic rain… the place had a definite 'Hell on Earth' sort of feel to it.
Regardless with how impressive it is, the sight will always unsettle even the bravest of people. Yet many have ventured toward the ruined land -since it's downfall- in hopes of glory and riches with everything there is up for the taking.
But any that've been reported in entering it's boundaries for such things have never returned. For instance, Tommen II of House Lannister had ventured to the lands in hopes of increasing their riches and standing among the many kings of Westeros with Brightroar -their prized Valyrian Steel sword- in hand. Yet he was never heard or seen from ever again ever since making one last dock at Lys for supplies.
Thinking of this harsh blow to the House of Lions' pride made the Dornishman let out a chuckle.
"Prince Oberyn." Spoke a voice, breaking the salty Dornishman from his thoughts. "We're nearing Valyria."
"I know that, Addam." Said the mentioned prince without having to look back. "I can clearly see it before my eyes."
Addam, the sailor, shifted his feet out of small embarrassment. "I'm sorry. I-"
"It's no problem. You're new to the crew ever since we picked you up from Lys."
"Which I'm really thankful for you taking me on." Addam said out of outright appreciation. "I had nothing and I needed the work-"
"Like I said, it's no problem." Oberyn interrupted with a simple wave. "You'll get the full hang of things soon enough. Just keep doing your duties and things will be fine." He then turned his head around to barely see the newcomer. "But I understand you needed to inform me due to the captain's orders."
"For safety reasons, of course."
It was very understandable for any sailor out there -whether they be nobles to sell sails to pirates- for them to be weary of crossing these borders. Going through the Smoking Sea was the quickest path towards their destination instead from going around it. When doing so, everyone had to be on their guard for anything. If it was being ambushed by pirates, anything of natural causes… or worse.
Without saying anything else, the Dornish prince made his way across the deck and towards his cabin. Wasn't long on this small task before descending the small set of stairs before opening the door to his quarters.
The section of the ship he was currently in would originally be all for the ship's captain, but it was adjusted to be halved with a wall splitting down the entire space. And in his designated room is filled with necessities for his voyage alongside his beloved paramour.
Speaking of, his dark eyes landed at his bed where a feminine body laid within it's silked sheets.
She is quite the beautiful woman in her late thirties with her ravenous black hair reaching her lower back. Her olive skin tone helped boost her attractive and eye-catching appearance with her light brown eyes and thin lips. And on top of her smoothed, shapely body was an orange-yellow dress with some pieces of snake-themed jewelry on her ears and around both her neck and wrists.
This woman here is Ellaria Sand, the Dornish Prince's paramour and mother to four of his seven beloved, bastard children.
As if sensing her beloved's presence, Ellaria shifted over the bed as her eyes met that of his. "Hello, Oberyn, my love.
"Hello, Ellaria." He said, coming up to her and giving her a chaste kiss. "How was your nap?"
"It was rather nice," she answered, "but I wished I could've had someone with me here as I woke."
"Once we're in Meereen, we'll find a man and a woman for us to enjoy."
The two were very similar in many ways from what many have noted. Ellaria is quite adventurous and shares the same tastes as Oberyn in terms of finding others to enjoy varying pleasures with. Especially for playing both sides of the board in terms of their sexuality.
Ellaria smirked. "Good to know." Sitting up on the bed, she saw her love's expression. "Is something wrong?"
"Nothing really. We're getting closer to Old Valyria as we speak."
"Oh, I see."
Ellaria somewhat didn't want to go to Mereen on this getaway trip of theirs from Dorne. She was originally fine with the idea as she never been there before in her life. She'd been to the other Free Cities in Essos to Sothoros even going to Yi Ti, all thanks for her beloved. Yet she never gotten to any of the cities in Slaver's Bay, which Oberyn wanted to take care of with the best of the three being in Meereen.
Asides from the small company of just Oberyn and the rented bedmates on this trip, she does feel saddened on them being without their children. Both of them rarely go out to these trips since both want to be sure they can help take care of them, even though four of Oberyn's seven children are adults with her first from him barely a teenager.
And on this little journey to Meereen, which has been about a couple of weeks so far; they've stopped by Lys, the Orange Shore, and Voltanis to restock their supplies along the way.
"We could've gone around it, Oberyn."
"I know, but it's just a small shortcut and would save us some days of travel."
Suddenly, they both heard a very faint boom of thunder from within the cabin.
"The hells?" Elliara muttered with a quirked brow before taking a peek through the nearest window with her beloved right next to her. There they saw the skies darkening a whole lot more as a storm quickly raged all over.
And before either knew it, the cabin rocked hard. The paramour had to quickly steady herself -with Oberyn's assistance- so she wouldn't fall down and possibly hurt herself.
"Are you okay?" Oberyn asked out of concern.
"Yes, I-"
*BOOOOOOOOM*
The prince/paramour pair heard the booming of thunder outside. Telling how loud it was, the bolts from the heavens were coming extremely close. And it wasn't just that, but the sound was rather repetitive at a fast rate.
*SCREEEEEEE-*
If that wasn't enough, the sound of something screeching was seemingly overpowering the thunder in the air.
Curiosity got the better of them, rushing out of the cabin in order to see what was going on. Barely ignoring the rocking and the screaming of the ship's crew as they were keeping things alright, Ellaria and Oberyn looked towards the storming sky and searched for the sound's source.
And saw something… red burst through the clouds.
Well not really bursting through the clouds as a pure black hole seemingly tore right through the sky with cracks around its edges. Right after red colored star flew out of it, the hole seemingly closed up to leave no further trace of it. And this strange occurrence was quickly forgotten as the heavenly object streaked across the sky with something ethereal of the same color tailing right behind it… before it came right at them!
Quickly fearing on what might happen, Oberyn covered Ellaria with his body in order to protect her with his life. Yet this selfless act wasn't needed as the reddish-orange star from the heavens flew over them and towards the nearby island that's apart of Old Valyria.
Oberyn thought he -along with Elliara and the ship's crew- would've heard a loud bang or explosion soon after as the heavenly object crashed into the nearby land. Yet -to their surprise- there was nothing, nothing at all!
Some figured the reddish star could've landed much farther than they would've expected in not hearing it. Others thought the star thrown down from the heavens by the gods must of burned up and died before it even landed.
A thought crossed the Red Viper's mind as a decision was made. But he'd act upon it once everything was settled on his ship from the brief moments of chaos with the storm around them slowly dying.
-On the island-
*DONG*
"Kami… My head…" Groaned out a blonde haired teenager as he slowly grasped his head. It throbbed in pain along with the rest of his body. But the sound of the bell toll ringing loudly in his ears seemed to make things worse.
*DONG*
He slowly opened his blue eyes to see a smoke colored sky above him that had a hint of red in the mix. Feeling the need to get up, he slowly stood up, feeling branches snapping and the rough rocks underneath him. The blue eyed blonde stumbled in his step feeling much of his energy was gone -though it'll return once fully rested- but he willed himself to stand. Several moments passed as he steadied himself up by using a nearby tree for leverage.
*DONG*
"Where the hell am I?" He gazed at his surroundings and saw a small dirt path alongside a broken creek. The blonde teenager hobbled closer to the water so he could check if it was possibly usable. With his roughed out voice, he realized he was quite thirsty and needed to properly check for any injuries that he couldn't see.
*DONG*
The blonde sighed. "Well this feels slightly good." He then splashed himself in the face and used a clean part of his orange jumpsuit sleeve to wipe off the grime. He even had to pull off the metal plated forehead protector to properly clean off his face. Once he was done, he saw exhaustion on his whiskered visage. Gazing further down on his reflection, the blonde saw a hole in his jumpsuit that went straight through his black t-shirt and mesh shirt to see the flesh over his heart.
The blonde wondered how this happened before remembering recent events that led him to… wherever he was currently at.
First off, he was Naruto Uzumaki -Genin and future Hokage of Konoha- and earlier today he was assigned a mission with his friends to detain and return his former friend and rival: Sasuke Uchiha.
Things started out like any other day for the blonde Uzumaki as he slept in-in his rundown apartment… until Shikamaru came knocking at his door. And Naruto didn't know what was going on until his old academy friend dropped the bomb: Sasuke left the village. The Nara was asked by Granny Tsunade to gather a recovery team to drag the Teme's ass back. The blonde accepted the mission, quickly changed and got stocked up with every bit of equipment he had in his possession just in case of anything.
Once leaving his apartment, the two gathered Choji, Kiba and his nin-dog Akamaru, and Neji to complete the team. Naruto hoped both Shino and Lee could've come along, but Shino was on a family assignment out of the village while Lee was still recovering from Granny's operation on his left arm and leg. Despite the little set back, the group was about to head on out and stop Sasuke from leaving the border when Sakura stopped them at the gates.
His female teammate begged him to bring Sasuke back, stating that she tried to stop him last night, but failed in the process. In response, Naruto promised her that he'll bring him back no matter what. And with that, the group set out to bring Sasuke back.
It was quite easy with the team to reach those that took Sasuke since Naruto and his friends pushed themselves to the limit to do so. Coming in contact with the Sound Four; the recovery team learned that the Sound Nins' mission was bringing the Teme back to Orochimaru to in order to make him strong enough to not only be the Pervy Snake's next vessel, but also strong enough to kill Sasuke's older brother -Itachi- for the murder of his clan.
There were no strategies used. Rather both groups dropped off one by one as the Sound team kept handing Sasuke's container off one by one to distance themselves.
Naruto didn't know what happened to each of his retrieval teammates as he saw each of them off while he kept pressing forward. He wished that they'd be okay. And just when he was about to finally snag Sasuke's container, some bone guy that was apparently the leader of the Sound 'Four' showed up and snagged him away; making Naruto give chase once again. In an open field, Naruto fought against the arrival and was losing ground until Sasuke broke out of his container… changed for the worse.
Naruto tried to give chase, but the bone guy kept stopping him… until Rock Lee arrived!
The Uzumaki was surprised in seeing his friend and wanted to know what happened. In an enthusiastic manner, Lee explained that Tsunade helped speed up the recovery -with his Flames of Youth helping out- and along the way over here saw the others were fine for the most part. As Lee kept the bone guy busy, Naruto went off after Sasuke.
Eventually making it to the Valley of the End, the final battle site between Hashirama Senju, the First Hokage and co-founder of Konoha, and Madara Uchiha, former leader of Uchiha clan and co-founder of Konoha. Once there, Naruto was shocked to see Sasuke's curse mark progressed so much before they confronted each other for the fight of their lives. They brawled and gave it their all as they traded punches and kicks, jutsu and techniques and neither one faltered.
As this went on, Sasuke explained further on what he must do before meeting up with Orochimaru. The duck-butt Teme told Naruto that he must gain a greater power and finally avenge his family to kill his older brother in the end. The price for gaining the Mangekyo Sharingan -the ultimate piece of arsenal in his family's arsenal- is to lose something very precious to him.
And for Sasuke -oddly enough- is killing Naruto with his own hands.
Far too long into the fight, Naruto was beaten up like a used training dummy as Sasuke's curse mark gave him so much power. He was so distracted in the fight that he didn't get the chance to unseal his stored weapons and possibly even summon some Toads for help. So Naruto subconsciously drew in much of the Kyuubi's power and used it to fight back. But even that wasn't enough after the beat down the blonde laid onto the dark haired asshole. Somehow the Uchiha got the upperhand and defeated Naruto.
That was until the blonde Uzumaki fully gave into the Kyuubi to have the fight be on even ground.
-Flashback Start-
'I need to beat him!' Naruto growled as he struggled getting back up, but couldn't as he kept floating in the Valley's river. He felt so weak after using up his reserves!
"Little runt... You are so... damn... weak!" A dark voice growled out inside of the blonde's head. "Be grateful for letting me do what comes next." The Kyuubi soon filled Naruto's reserves with the fox's own chakra, seeing it wrap around the teenager like a cocoon. "After all... I'd rather see the damn Uchiha finally die by the end of this fight instead of you."
As this went on, Sasuke had his back turned from his fallen friend. Thinking that he already won, the Uchiha was about to depart so he can get to the Snake Sannin much sooner. All of a sudden, the duck-butt Teme stopped in his tracks, sensing something foul and dark from the river. Turning back, he saw his former teammate rise from the water with a reddish-orange cloak helping him up.
Without warning, Naruto punched Sasuke across the face; sending him across the river and slamming against the rockwall hard. The Uchiha held his face in pain as he heard Naruto roar out in pain with the reddish-orange chakra slowly burning him.
Back onto his feet, Sasuke looked and saw what has become of the Uzumaki.
'He truly does look like a fox now.' Sasuke thought as he inspected his former friend's change. Asides from the odd slitted red eyes and darker whisker marks, the reddish-orange chakra formed around the blonde and formed a pair of ears and a singular tail to help add into the vulpine appearance. 'Where the hell is this power coming from?'
Things soon went by so fast as Naruto leapt from his position and slammed against Sasuke before making him feel like a ragdoll. Flinging the Uchiha across the river several times and slashing against the teme with elongated claws. Even attacking with the ethereal chakra appendages to make things seem one sided.
"I'm bringing you back!" Naruto roared out with fury in his eyes. "Even if it's on a fucking stretcher for all I care!"
The beatdown lasted several more minutes until Sasuke felt he had no choice but to tap further into his curse mark, changing his appearance into his 'stage 2' form. With his hair turning greyish blue as it reached towards his lower back, lips turning purple with fangs poking out, and a black star-like tattoo right onto his darkened face. Once things settled after his transformation, Sasuke felt truly incredible, resulting in him madly laughing.
"Such power! It feels so great!" Sasuke yelled out as he darkly smiled at the vulpine blonde. "Now I can't wait to feel a whole lot stronger once I kill you and gain the Mangekyo Sharingan!"
"You won't feel so special once I'm finished with you!"
The Teme chuckled darkly. "Then I'd like to see you try, Naruto! Since there's no way I can lose now!"
Dashing towards each other with clawed hands aimed against the other, they soon clashed. Naruto seemed to have the upperhand as he shoved Sasuke into one of the stoned feet of the valley. When the dust cleared, the vulpine blonde was surprised to see an odd bat-like wing defending the Uchiha… since it was Sasuke's wing that was formed from his back. Naruto realized too late as he was knocked back dozens of feet away by Sasuke's new appendage before another grew out of his back.
'This is taking too long. I need to finish this.' Was the Uchiha's thoughts as he felt his reserves quickly burning out all of a sudden. 'After all, this is too new and I don't have proper restraint just yet.'
With Naruto, he got up from his position from the valley wall and soon felt his left arm pretty numb. He tried to move it with his right hand, but flinched on the pain. 'I probably sprained or broke it in that last hit.' He thought with a harsh growl. 'Come on, you stupid fox! Help me and fix this!'
"That power of yours!" Naruto snapped out of his thoughts and eyed Sasuke across the way. "By using it, you're taking a big risk… Aren't you?!" No response was given, so the Uchiha decided to speak more. "You know, I find this setting quite fitting as the name applies: The Valley of the End! For we shall end things here and now between us! And only one of us will leave here alive!"
Quickly forming hand seals, Sasuke poured so much of his chakra into this last attack that he's sure that he'll kill Naruto and finally gain the power that is rightfully his. Once that was done, he grasped his left hand as the attack came forth and covered most of his upper arm with the blue turned greyish black electricity. All due to the vial curse mark he was using. He looked towards his opponent as he readied himself for what's to come with the sound of a thousand birds crying out all at once.
As for Naruto, he felt the fox fully heal his left arm with the bones snapping back into place and the stinging sensation soon after. Holding out his right hand, Naruto concentrated and formed his signature technique. Though as he eyed it -while pouring what reserves he has from both his regular chakra and the fox's- it changed from a bright blue to a purplish black sphere of chakra.
Neither of these changes confused either combatant as they waited for the right time to strike. Both stared each other down as they were so focused that everything else seemed to drown out. Even the roaring waterfall right beside them was drowned out as Sasuke stood on Madara's stony foot and Naruto on Hashirama's.
With an unspoken word, an unannounced call rang inside of them, causing the two to leap at each other in the air. Their respective attacks were reared back so at the very last moment they bring forth their powered hands to hopefully land their desired hit. Both roared with fury as they drew closer and closer until they came so close at the very center of the valley.
"CHIDORI!"/"RASENGAN!"
The two powers clashed and everything seemed to go white for a brief moment until a kaleidoscope of colors emanate from the combined contact. Their chakras seemed to merge, creating a large sphere of dark purple chakra until it went completely black as the far reaches of space itself. Everything seemed to warp inside of the blackened sphere as the two teenagers kept up with their attack, pumping more and more power into it to gain dominance over the other.
"NARUTO!"/"SASUKE!"
With one final push, Sasuke was able to pierce Naruto's chest and seemingly grazed his heart. He smiled at this before he gasped out in pain as Naruto's clawed hand slashed at the Uchiha's neck, pouring out so much blood that it sprayed against the blonde's face and much entered his throat. Not wanting to lose and to let Orochimaru gaining Sasuke's eyes; Naruto swung his left arm and slashed at the Sharingan eyes, causing them to burst.
As this occurred, an explosion of pure power detonated from within the sphere; sending Sasuke out and impaled against an extremely sharp piece of earth. A result from the confrontation earlier. The 'last' Uchiha gasped out in absolute pain as he was now dying with his goal forever gone. With one last struggled breath, Sasuke cursed Naruto for what he's done before he left this plane of existence as his body turned back to normal.
Back inside of the sphere, things started to twist and turn as Naruto screamed out in pain with energies pulling him practically everywhere yet nowhere all at once. He didn't know what was happening to him, but he felt every fiber of his being burn red hot like Tenten's weapon furnace… No, it was much worse than that.
There was only one thing that came across his mind as everything in his vision went dark.
'I'm sorry Sakura… I broke my promise… but at least Sasuke won't be in that pervy snake's clutches.' He thought as everything around him seemed to collapse. 'I just hope you can forgive me on that.'
-Flashback End-
Shaking his head from his small bit of harsh reminicance, Naruto soon realized that once checking the water and his surroundings, he was in some sort of deep crevice. The Uzumaki he wasn't going to do any proper 'reflective checking' at this time, until he could find a brighter area to do so.
Before going any further, Naruto checked his weapons pack to see how much he had left in his arsenal and inventory.
'Okay… So I've got my all of my storage scrolls intact, so that's surprisingly good. A handful of smoke bombs, ration and food pills, my notebook, Gama-Chan and my ID with me… but no money.' The blonde sighed in frustration. 'Shouldn't have emptied my wallet before leaving… Then there's my 'Gutsy Ninja' book… and Pervy Sage's copies of Icha Icha.' With the last one, he groaned out as he realized Jiraiya must've slipped in that trilogy set without him looking the other day. 'Eh~ I could maybe sell it to someone for some coin.'
Shaking his head, he went back through his inventory. 'Hmm… About… Several dozen kunai, senbon and shuriken each, a good dozen or so of exploding tags and several dozen feet of wire. So that means I'll need to either buy more or have to make some once I'm home.' He listed off before looking around once more as a dark vibe radiated in the air. 'I'll need to use those sparingly. But for now…'
After popping in a food pill to refill some of his reserves, Naruto pulled out one particular scroll that was labeled 'weapons' and unfurled it a little to reveal his first weapon in his little collection. Biting his thumb a little to draw out some blood, he smeared it slightly with a resulting *poof* to reveal his first earned sword: the Kubikiribocho.
Naruto smiled a little when seeing this as he lifted it up slightly so he can put away the scroll before hoisting it up onto his shoulder.
When Team 7 were heading back to Konoha that morning after the mission at Wave was done, Naruto got up extra early so he could head over to Zabuza and Haku's grave markers. He did this to pay his respects, especially since he didn't know when he'd return to do this again.
Before leaving, Naruto heard a faint whisper in his ear… literally sending a chill down his spine. It was very familiar to him as he heard it once again as it seemed a little louder. He didn't know if it was real or not, but he definitely heard Zabuza -the Demon of Kirigakure- telling the blonde to take his sword. Not wanting to be rude, Naruto took it with little hesitation… and a bit of effort with how bloody heavy it was before sealing it in a spare storage scroll.
After that day, the blonde did what he could to practice with the Kiri sword as it was great weight training, but kept it a secret from the rest of his team and the rest of his village. He would've yelled out in glee that he got such a badass, legendary weapon… but that would've disrespected Zabuza's and Haku's memories if he did.
Though why he never used it on previous missions and in the Chunin Exams, he'd never know… Possibly felt that he wasn't ready to use it quite yet. Yeah that was probably it.
'I wonder how they're doing now in the pure lands above.' Naruto thought as he looked up the thick, cloudy sky. Shaking his head, the blonde sighed. "Welp… Time to get moving."
At a steady pace -as he was in no rush- Naruto went about to find higher ground so he could try and navigate his way back home. Though as minutes passed, he felt creeped out in seeing varying grave markers lying about. Made him wonder if he woke up in a rundown cemetery while questioning himself on how he got there to begin with.
All thoughts halted as the blonde saw a cloaked man coming into view. Being a bit precarious, Naruto slowly went up to the man and called out to him. "Umm… Excuse me!"
Hearing the boy's voice, the cloaked man wiped his head around to reveal his stony face. The man loudly hissed as he lunged towards the blonde genin. Alarmed at this point, Naruto dodged as the man tried to get closer, but a well placed kick knocked the man away. The blonde's instincts yelled out to strike the man down and he did. Swinging the decapitating knife, he knocked the man down with a deep gash into his arm.
"What the hell are you?" The shinobi asked as the man stood back up and tried to get in close, but failed as Naruto swung once more and this time sliced the man's head right off. As the body tumbled onto the ground, the teenager checked the man to see a peculiar site. What was stony skin was quite right as it appeared to be scales(?) covering his entire being. "How did this happen?"
Footsteps were soon heard, causing Naruto to look towards the side seeing several other stone men coming his way.
Seeing their companion dead on the ground, they hissed at the newcomer and pulled out some weapons: knives/daggers and crossbows. The blade wielders ran towards Naruto while the crossbow wielders took aim. Not wanting to be harmed, Naruto swung at the blade wielders to take care of them before picking up a pair of daggers and threw them at the crossbow wielders.
With them now dead, Naruto checked on their corpses to see if there was anything of value for him. Unfortunately, all that he got out of this little moment were some knives/daggers, a crossbow and a handful of arrows. Not wanting to waste some valuable resources, he took them with him before moving onwards.
-Elsewhere-
The sounds of hisses and groans were silenced as stone men were slain left and right by the end of a bladed spear. It spun in the air as it's owner took care of several opposition all at once. Quickly getting back into a reared position, the spearman thrusted his weapon forward to quickly severed the head from a final stone man standing in his way.
'Quite the amount there is here.' Oberyn thought as he brought his spear down to flick off some blood off his weapon. 'Then again, this place being a dumping grounds for these people is quite understandable.
After everything was settled at his ship, the Red Viper had decided he'd go see this fallen star that landed in Old Valyria as his curiosity got the better of him. He thought that if he could acquire the heavenly object, the Dornish prince could have a blacksmith reshape it into a weapon that could be similar to House Dayne's infamous Dawn. His paramour protested in him going, but Oberyn assured her that he'll be alright and be very careful when stepping foot upon the cursed land.
He wasn't a fool, like many in the past that weren't prepared for such a thing. Then again, Old Valyria will always make one unprepared regardless on one's experience.
After getting suited up and taking a small boat, Oberyn quickly rowed himself ashore while the crew had to fix up the ship as it seemed the freak storm from earlier caused some problems that wasn't seen right away. And hopefully by the time he tracked down the 'star' and headed on back, much of the repairs would be done before resuming their journey to Meereen.
The Red Viper was lightly armored with greaves, vamprances, gorget, spaulder, and had a steel codpiece. Elsewise Oberyn was clad in supple leather for added protection from both the stone men and anything else he might encounter. Over his byrnie, he wore his scales of gleaming copper but mail and scale, but mail and scale together wouldn't give him a quarter of protection against some very hitters if they wore heavy armor. And at his side was a round steel shield that was brightly polished and showed the sun and spear sigil of his house in the imprinted and raised design. As for his weapons, he has a snake handled dagger with a matching one for a short sword and a spear which was currently held in his more dominant hand.
Along the way towards his little goal, he came across several stone men and dealt with them accordingly. It saddened him slightly on doing this, but these men were infected with Gray Scale and it would've been better to kill them off than for him and others to suffer this fate. Though it came to one point he quickly found where the 'star' landed -with the crash zone seemingly a bit shallow- but it appeared to have moved.
Figuring the stone men had taken it somewhere, Oberyn picked up the trail as he'll catch his prey sooner or later.
-Back with Naruto-
"Where the hell do these guys keep coming from?!"
Naruto kept swinging his Kiri sword several times as he took care of the little horde of stone men. He was finally able to get to higher ground, which soon overlooked the ocean on one side and a large mountain range on the other. The blonde admitted it was quite the site to behold as he gazed at the odd ruins that seemed to blend with the mountains. Of course it seemed to piss him off that he possibly ended up on a deserted island of all places.
Asides from this fantastic sight before him, there seemed to be something… off about this place. He couldn't quite place it, but the Uzumaki thought this place was evil in some way.
Now despite his opinions on good and evil, felt this land was tainted in some way, shape and form. It wasn't the toppled and broken buildings, the shattered earth, the magma flows or even the perpetual stench of sulfur and freshly-lit matches.
No, it was the feel of it.
Cruelty, malice, suffering and despair hung in the air so thick that he could almost taste it. And he didn't know why, but he also felt the Kyuubi would've liked this place in some way. Not just that, but the feeling rolling off the land would've made him really uneasy if he didn't deal with what crap he was dealt with growing up.
But it wasn't just that, but the Uzumaki thought that if he didn't leave this place soon and properly found a way back to civilization, this place might poison his soul one way or another.
While passing through additional ruins, he kept coming across these men and kept taking care of them. It seemed to be no end of them. At least he kept getting more and more stuff because of it. And with the daggers and knives he kept getting, he could either melt them down to resupply himself on ammo or sell them once finding civilization.
Getting tired from using his sword, he carefully placed it on his back with a strap he made before pulling out a pair of daggers he pilfered earlier. They weren't all that great appearance wise, but his eyes could tell they can work quite well until they needed to be sharpened later on.
Moving forward, Naruto caught sight of some stone men guarding something down a certain pathway. He tried to get their attention, but no avail as they seemed ignorant of him.
"Come on… Get over here assholes." Naruto muttered as he tried, yet failed, to get those men to move from their spots. "Okay… If you wanna to be bitches and guard things, I can definitely deal with you."
Pouring chakra into his feet, he walked up the stone wall to get high enough for a dive bomb attack. Positioning himself correctly, he stopped the chakra flow to fall from up high with daggers on hand. In swift motions, he slammed the blades into the men's skulls before kicking the third man away. Pulling the blades back out, Naruto dashed towards the final stone man and punched the man in the gut before kicking him off of the cliff and into the waters below.
"Now let's see what you guys were guarding."
Stepping over the dead bodies, Naruto soon reached what the men were guarding: a rotting looking chest. Stabbing a dagger into the lock, it easily broke to let the shinobi be able to open the lid to reveal…. "Holy Shit! GOLD COINS! YATTA!"
The blonde never seen so much gold in his life as he had the widest grin on his face. "Man oh man, I can't wait to cash this in! Oh I can only imagine how much Ichiraku ramen this'll get me and I can finally move out of that stinkin apartment!"
Pulling out a storage scroll, he opened it up and carefully drew a seal that'll store the rotten chest. Though he needed to summon a clone to help lift it up so it can be placed on the drying seal.
But while he waited, he checked the coins… and saw that he didn't recognize the markings.
'Must be some foreign currency… or something really old.' He muttered in thought as he inspected some of them. 'Though what's up with dragons(?) being the main design.' Wanting to deal with this later, he and his clone placed the chest onto the seal marker and sealed it up before moving forward.
After going around several corners, Naruto came across a ruined archway that seemed mostly intact. Though once he gazed through the opening, he saw a peculiar site several dozen feet away from him. The genin went down the stoney steps with curiosity filling his very being. He wanted to see what the oddity was.
Once coming close enough, he saw it seemed to be an odd metallic statue with ordinated cloth around it's waist, appearing to be kneeling a good dozen feet from a large pair of doors. Naruto guessed that it was 9 or so feet tall if it would've stood upward. Near it laid a giant halberd with an extremely long pole that could've been the same length as the statue if it stood. But an odd feature of the statue was the coiled sword sticking out of its chest.
His curiosity soon got the best of him as his hand was being pulled by an unseen force, making the blonde reached out towards the weapon. Naruto didn't know why he was doing it. Even as the Kyuubi's voice soon yelled out into his head.
"Don't touch it!"
But it was too late as the moment his fingers grazed against the pommel, the weapon turned to ash.
"The hell?" He asked as he soon felt the air filling up with malice. His eyes soon landed upon the statue as it started to rumble and metallic creaking soon followed. Without warning, it's right arm shot towards the halberd and grasped it before the other arm shot out, causing Naruto to fly into the air before skidding on the wet ground.
-Insert Dark Souls 3 OST: Iudex Gundyr-
"Dammit, that hurt!" Naruto growled out as he looked towards the statue.
It quickly rose up before pulling it's weapon out of the ground as it slowly made its way towards him. Feeling quite worried now, he pulled his butcher sword off his back for this fight.
Seeing it's opponent now armed, it stalked forward until it swung it's weapon to cover a vast range. Having no time to dodge, Naruto brought his sword up to block the swing, but it was too strong of a blow. He tried to hold his ground, but the following swing sent him flying to the side. Not wanting to fall off the edge of the cliff, Naruto slammed the blade into the ground to keep himself on the battlefield.
"Kami… I need to bloody move away from that guy."
Getting back onto the ground, Naruto quickly pulled the sword out and started to run with the statue following not far behind. It kept slamming the halberd down too fast for comfort, making the blonde fall onto the ground several times. When it tried to get in close, the genin rolled out of the way to avoid being chopped by it's blade.
Feeling annoyed by this now, Naruto ran in close and started slashing the statue several times, but it didn't do much when it the Kubikiribocho blade bounced off of it's armor. It did slash through the opening around it's waist, showing that it's possibly it's weak spot. Naruto attempted one more strike, but he was backhanded away from the armored golem.
"GAH!" Naruto yelled out as he soon impacted the nearby wall. Falling to the ground, he saw the statue coming closer with it's ax held high. "Well crap… Seems you'll be finishing off what Sasuke-teme couldn't."
Just when the halberd was about to come down -as he didn't have time to perform a substitution or form a clone- someone yelled out and gained the statue's attention as a spear sailed through the air and pierced the golem's neck. Turning towards the source, both Naruto and the statue saw a man in unique armor with a shield in one hand and another spear in the other.
The man hotly glared at the giant before he ran towards it, leaped and struck the being in the opening in its arm.
"RRRRAAAAAAAWWWW!" The golem bellowed out as it's available arm pulled out the spear in its 'injured' arm and tossed it to the side before trying to pull out the one in its neck.
Coming up to Naruto's side, the Dornish man went to see if the blonde was alright. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah I am and thanks for the little save."
"What the hell are you doing here boy?!" He questioned as he gazed to the side as the golem tried to pull out the second spear the Dornish man acquired earlier from one of the stone men. "This place is not meant for the likes of you!"
"Well sorry if I so happened to show up here without knowing how I got here in the first place!"
"Excuse me?!"
Naruto was about to respond when his eyes widened and pushed the man out of the way as the halberd came crashing down onto the ground. The two rolled in their respective directions before coming to a stop. As the Dornish man got back up to defend himself -and hopefully save the boy- the armored golem was already close by.
"Damn… And here I thought the Mountain was taller, but you take the fucking cake." Oberyn muttered as the moving statue literally towered over him. He was ready to take the strike with his shield firmly held when the armored golem lurched forward before sailing and falling to the ground some feet away.
"Get away from him asshole!" Naruto yelled out as he saw his Rasengan didn't dent the armor somehow. He then formed a hand sign and summoned several clones beside him.
"By the Seven…" The spear/shield wielder muttered in surprise as he saw the copies appear from smoke before leaping at the golem. Striking it with daggers on hand as each copy tried to pierce its armor to no avail. It swung several times, causing them to seemingly die as they literally went up in smoke.
"Hey ugly!" The real Naruto called out as he held up his large sword with both hands with a cheeky smirk. "Think you can catch me?!"
Taking the bait, the golem jumped into the air as it tried to crush the blonde. But he dashed out of the way as he pumped his legs with a lot of chakra. It kept on swinging, but Naruto dodged every time.
"Oh calm down ugly!" Naruto taunted before dodging yet another strike. When the halberd came crashing down, the Uzumaki kicked it away before swinging Kubikiribocho at it's upper chest. "Oh look at you and your big swings! Yet you can't hit me at all!"
The Red Viper could only watch in slight awe as the boy was quickly moving away from the larger being as he performed odd acrobatic moves each time. The whiskered boy even got on top of the golem's weapon before delivering a chakra empowered kick across the head. And that was before it formed some etheral blue sphere in his free hand before slamming it down, causing the armored golem to slam into the ground. With it detracted, the blonde slashed at what openings it had. Hell, the man could only wonder how the boy was holding such a big bladed weapon that even he would have a hard time wielding.
Though not wanting to be left out, the Dornishman looked towards the side to see his spear. Running towards it, he grasped it and ran at the golem as he delivered quick strikes against the openings. Both man and teen worked in tandem to try and take down the golem until it soon bellowed out an unholy sound.
"▄▅▄▅▂▂▃▃▄▄▅!"
The two humans got away and gained a surprised, yet worried look on their faces as something seemed to burst out of the golem's left arm and helmet. Sending both armor pieces away as gallons upon gallons of black substance leaked out and formed something from possibly one's nightmares. Part of the substance attached itself against a nearby tree and pulled it out of its roots before it formed into a claw-like appendage to replace its lost limb. By the time it finished leaking, the two saw what appeared to be an inky snake with glowing blood red eyes.
"Oh hell no!" The shinobi yelled out. "Not another giant snake! Why do I have to deal with those almost every damn time!"
Not wanting to comment on that, Oberyn quickly moved out of the way from the monster's gaping jaw as it tried to take a bite out of him. With the unsuccessful attack, the ink-like monster swung its mighty tail around, causing Naruto to block it with his sword before having to jump out of the way from the tree claw coming his way. With no time for evasive maneuvers, Naruto swung his blade hard, impacting against the hardened trunk and branches to at least hold it off.
The spear/shield wielder went towards the monster's side and started to slash and bash with his weapon. Little could be done in terms of damage now as the inky, lizard/snake-like monster seemed to regenerate at a fast pace. Before anything else could be done, the monster bellowed out a roar once again in pain as it was shot across the battlefield, courtesy of Naruto's Rasengan.
"At least that gives us a little bit of space." Naruto muttered before looking at the man fighting alongside him. "So are you doing alright on your part?"
"I think so." The Dornish prince grunted out as he tried to think of a way to defeat this monstrosity before looking back at the blonde boy. "Though I've got to ask. How in the seven hells are you doing all of that?"
Looking at him oddly, while hearing the monster roar in the background, Naruto soon gave him a cheeky smirk. All the while as the blonde pulled out several knives with exploding tags attached. "With chakra, that's what."
Seeing the monster run closer, Naruto poured chakra into the tags to ignite them before throwing the knives at the beast. Once impacting it's face, they detonated, causing it to bellow out a painful cry. With it distracted a little more, the genin summoned more clones before they leaped at the beast.
"I don't know about this chakra you're speaking about boy, but can you order your… copies… to get that halberd out if it's grasp? I might have an idea on how to finish it off… and I'd like to skewer the beast with it's own weapon." The man said, getting Naruto to nod in response before yelling out the order.
Nodding in tandem, the clones continued their assault with chakra empowered physical blows to knock the beast around. Naruto ran with his sword coated with chakra while the Dornish man soon followed. The blonde slid in close and upwardly slashed at the small opening in the arm to get the armored arm free from the beast.
Dropping his spear and shield, Oberyn rushed towards the falling weapon and grasped it in both hands before swinging with all his might to injure the beast several times. It roared in pain as the cuts went deep on its face before Naruto leaped into the air and swung his sword down in a decapitating motion. The attack landed it's mark, but the blade was stuck at the monster's neck.
"Will you just die already?!" Naruto roared while forming a Rasengan before slamming it down onto the blade. Upon impact, the Kubikiribocho started to move deeper and deeper as cracks appeared on the blade. Both humans exerted in this last moment as Naruto pushed his Rasengan deeper while the halberd went up through the mouth to finally kill the beast.
"▄▅▄▅▂▂….."
With it's final roar, the monster's form seemed to fall apart before the inky substance burned away. Naruto landed on the ground, with his heavily cracked sword, next to the tired man as he dropped the metallic halberd. With a resulting *CLANG*, the two men saw the rest of the armor fall onto the ground with all of its pieces still intact.
"Man… That was one hell of a fight." Naruto chuckled in mild bemusement as the Dornish man responded in a similar fashion.
"That it was boy. That it has." He said as he felt somewhat relieved after defeating the monstrosity. Throughout the fight, Oberyn kept replacing the beast with the man who killed his sister and her children. Not a good replacement, but with how big the monster was, it was hard not to visualize it being someone else. "Though I didn't expect to actually encounter an Old Valyrian beast today."
"...A what now?"
"You don't know what that was boy? From the old tales that depict on what possibly remains here?"
"No…. I"m pretty lost on what your talking about."
The man could only sigh a little on this. The boy could either be playing around, be very ignorant, or be telling the truth. But the later could be very unlikely. "How about we make some introductions, boy. After all, we did fight that ferocious beast together."
"Yeah, that would make sense." The blonde muttered before holding out his hand towards the man. "Name's Naruto Uzumaki, future Hokage of Konohagakure."
The man only blinked on the little title there since he has no idea where this Konohagakure is at all. Even the boy's name sounded odd, even though it seemed similar to those from Yi Ti, a region in western Essos. He'll probably get some information from the blonde when the time's right.
But for now, he doesn't want to be rude at the present moment as he grasped the boy's hand and shook it.
"And my name is Oberyn Nymeros Martell of House Nymeros Martell and Prince of Dorne."
-End Chapter-
AN:
Well… here's the rewrite everybody. Would've gotten it out sooner, but work took up a lot of my time alongside family and catching a cold quite recently.
Like I said before in my previous notice on 'A Nobody', this story is gonna be reworked in order to do better developments, fill in specific details I didn't think of before and to hopefully make it flow better. Previous version seemed fine at first, but when getting into the later chapters things seemed either rushed or somewhat didn't make sense. So I'll need to clear things up along the way for many of you readers since Got/ASoIaF tends to be a bit confusing on most topics along with me using stuff from 'From Software's' game series.
I mean I had gotten a lot of reviews and PM's with people pissed off on going into other series that didn't meet with what I originally intended, but I wasn't as people didn't know more details in Dark Souls like with the Hollows being not limited to Bleach in terms of enemy names for instance. But if I do use elements from other series outside from what I originally tend for my story, I'm doing so to be as close to the current story's feel.
Now there's one thing I decided to add here just so you know on what I originally intended and what I found buried in my notes. And other details will come up later.
With Zabuza's sword, sure the idea of a sword grave marker is cool and all but what if someone nefarious decided to take it and use it for his/her own goals. In most customs, it's considered very disrespectful in doing so unless you've gotten permission beforehand from the dying person or doing something else to honor the fallen warrior by taking up his/her weapon. And of course -in canon- Suigetsu took it back in Shippuden. So in my story here, I wanted Naruto to at least take it for story events.
Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!
R&R
