A young man of about sixteen stared out at a destroyed battlefield. He had raven colored hair and onyx eyes. He wore blue battle armor that contained the essence of fire. To his enemies he was known as Cerulean Flare, but to his friends and the other Knights he was known as Uchiha Sasuke. Next to him stood his good friends, and fellow Knights, Rock Lee, Hyuuga Neji, and the Sorcerer Nara Shikamaru. They had just won yet another battle against the Demons that plagued their land.
Rock Lee had emerald green armor that contained part of the essence of youth. His master, Mighto Gai, held the other part. Lee was known as Emerald Wind. The most distinguishing thing about Lee and Gai were their enormous eyebrows and bowl cut hair.
Hyuuga Neji had deep purple armor with the essence of regeneration sealed within. He was known as Hydra. Neji’s most distinguishable feature was his white eyes; all Hyuuga’s had them.
Nara Shikamaru was the Sorcerer for this group of Knights. He had a jet-black cloak with archaic symbols all over in gold. He was known as Death’s Shadow. His specialty was Shadow Arc Magic, and he was one of the strongest Shadow Keepers on the planet. This meant he had access to Oblivion, could summon the Four Divine Shadow Beasts, and could draw energy from others shadows. He also had a number of other abilities, which he found ‘too troublesome to use and/or mention’.
--(Brief History lesson)--
The Knights were once part of King Ladinatios’s ‘Special Forces’. The Sorcerers were another branch entirely. Some considered the Sorcerer’s stronger because they could summon and draw strength from their Shadow Beasts, and the Knights only had their bodies and/or weapons to draw strength from. No one really knew which were stronger and no one cared. All they knew was that the Knights and Sorcerer’s were on their side.
The Knights were formed ages ago to fight the Demons that had once been the allies of the Humes. The Demons turned on the Humes and they said that the Humes brought it upon themselves. Ever since the Great Battle of Rabentras 657 years ago, the Humes have been on shaky terms with the Demons. They constantly killed each other for 100 years until King Ladinatios founded the Order of Knights. The greatest of the group were the designated leaders. There is also a council of the older generation of Knights; they chose who the greatest of each generation is and choose who shall be trained as a knight.
The four stages of Knighthood are: knave (This is the lowest level, and those that just became nights.), page (These are only slightly stronger than the last level), Squire (second strongest), and Knight (these are the strongest of the group.) Not all Knights are male; a few of them are female. One in particular, Tsunade, is the current leader of the Knights of Konoha.
Once the Knights and Sorcerers were part of a single organization, but eventually they split apart into five groups called Orders. Konoha is the Order of Fire. There are also the Orders’ of Wind, Water, Lightning, and Earth. There are numerous other Orders’ but those are the most well known. The leader of each Order is called the Grand Knight, otherwise known as a Kage.
The Sorcerers work with the Knights, but they answer to one supreme leader, Anima. The Sorcerers respond to the leader of whichever Order they were assigned to, but if Anima gives them an order that goes against the Knights, then they are to carry out Anima’s orders.
--(Back to normal)--
“We should get back. I have to report this to Anima.” Shikamaru mumbled.
“Yes… but there’s something that’s bugging me.” Neji stared at the battlefield.
“You mean how easy it was to beat the Demons this time? Usually they push us to at least releasing part of our essences, but not today.” Lee speculated.
“Yes, it’s almost like they wanted us to win…” Neji started.
“That’s ridiculous! Why would they want us to win?” Sasuke scoffed.
“To decimate our forces while we looked away!” Shikamaru yelled. The other’s turned around and gaped at what had happened to their warriors. They had brought 20 Squires and 126 militiamen. All of them were now dead, and in the middle of the corpses stood a lone figure with various weapons sticking out of him.
“Momochi Zabuza. Demon of the Hidden Mist, master of silent killing.” Neji stated.
“So many peoples’ Youth destroyed…” Lee shook his head briefly.
“Well, at least he’s dead now.” Sasuke stated in his usual cold hearted way. “Let’s at least take his body back to Tsunade as compensation.”
“It sickens me to think he was at one time a Hume. I wonder why he turned to their side?” Neji wondered.
“Probably the same reason Kiba turned.” Shikamaru said. Inuzuka Kiba had been one of their greatest Knights, but he turned on them and joined the Demons’ side.
“Ah, Kiba-kun was a splendid Knight!” Lee started reminising. The group of survivors walked down to Zabuza’s body.
“Enough about Kiba. We have to get back now!” Neji shouted. “The enemy has regrouped on the other side of river two miles south. If we don’t get out of here now, then we will be boxed in and probably killed.” Neji had a 360 degree field of vision.
“Hn.” Sasuke wasn’t very sociable after masacers. Actually he wasn’t very sociable at all.
--()--
Tsunade, leader of Konoha’s Order of Knights, was sitting at her desk going through various piles of paperwork when she was disturbed by our four survivors. When she noticed the solemn looks on their faces and Zabuza’s corpse, she assumed the worst. “So, they’re all dead?”
“Yes, Tsunade-sama. The lesser Demons(1) destracted us in order for him to decimate our forces.” Neji reported.
“Also, there is a large encampment gathered on the south riverbank.” Shikamarua noted. “I must be going now, Anima doesn’t like it when I don’t report things to him early.”
“Very well, tell him he has my thanks.” Tsunade waved him off. “Shizune! Sakura!” She called her two assistnents in. “Perform an autopsy on Zabuza here, so we may get something from this loss.”
“Hai, Tsunade-sama.” The two responded. Shizune wasn’t a field Knight, but she was second in command of the MedCorps. Sakura, however, was the Knight who gaurded strength, passed down from her master Tsunade. Her armor was light pink, like her hair. She was known as Cherry Punch. If you think that sounds weak, so much as mention Cherries and every pervert in a twelve mile radius will clear out within five seconds.
“I don’t think so. Zabuza may have been killed, but he’ll not greive my Comander any longer.” A voice eminated from the shadows. Had Shikamaru been there he would have notified the others, but he was not and Neji was weary from the extensive use of his perceptive abilities.
“What?” Sasuke turned, but a fist collieded with his face sending him into the wall of Tsunade’s office.
“What buisness have thee Demon?” Neji spoke, his voice dripping with malice.
“I am hear to negotiate a temporary truce.” The man who had spoken had spiky blond hair that reached to his shoulders and his tips and roots were a rich orange. He had blue eyes with slits instead of pupils. He had fox ears, claws, fangs, and three whiskers on each side of his face. “My Comander’s brother, Shukaku, has turned on us and allied with the Gruados of the North to wage war against all of us. Kyuubi believes in the old adage, ‘The enemy of mine enemy is mine ally.’ This being the reason he sent me, his second in command; Uzumaki Naruto.”
Tsunade and Shizune gasped. The others glared at him. Sasuke had gotten up and was getting ready to attack Naruto.
“I used to be a member of this village, but your Fourth Grand Knight, or Yondaime Hokage, sold me to Kyuubi to keep the village safe.”
“What? Then why are Kyuubi’s forces still attacking us?!” Neji yelled. Lee had left to go find Gai as soon as they had arrived back home.
“Because the one called Orochimaru, former Hume now Demon, attacked us. And he used to be part of this order so now we’re at war.” Naruto stared icily at Sasuke.
“Half-Demon!” Sakura said to the fox boy.
“What, Hume?” He glared at her.
“You, being raised by the great Kyuubi, must know why the Demons turned on us?”
“Actually I do. Ever hear of the Great Battle of Rabentras?” Everyone nodded. “Who do you think started it?”
“The Demons, duh.” Sasuke scoffed.
“Wrong. It was actually you Humes, who instigated it. You see the Demons protected the Humes, and the planet. You Humes got gready and decided to take more than what was yours, and when the Demons tried to stop you, you all retaliated by using force. Thus leading to the countless wars that followed.” Naruto said.
Everyone was silent a minute. “Shall I take your silence as a no to our agreement?”
“No! No, can you give me some more time?” Tsunade asked him.
“Yes, but should someone from the village attack me, I’ll take that as a declaration of war.” Naruto walked towards the door. “I must return to my home now. I shall return by the end of Luna’s Cycle.” He walked through it and proptly ran off at top speed, using the back allys to get out of the village unseen.
“Luna’s Cycle? Who the fuck is Luna?” Sasuke asked.
“The moon. The Demon’s reveere the moon as a goddess, and Luna’s Cycle is equal to a month.” Sakura answered.
“How do you know that?” Sasuke asked her.
“I actually payed attention when Iruka-sensei was teaching us about Demons. You, like most everyone else, simply wanted to know how to kill them.” She said.
“Anyways, that means we have a month to figure out what to do right?” Neji asked.
“Actually it means we have a week, the month ends in that time.” Tsunade said.
--()--
“Filthy Humes.” Naruto cursed as he made his way back to Kyuubi Keep. The srtonghold that the great Nine-Tailed Demon had claimed his own five hundred years before. It’s location was lost to the Humes in the wars that followed Rabentras, which was a very good thing seeing as they were situated merely one hundred miles away form the village. Kyuubi had been Konoha’s Guardian Demon(2), before things went wrong.
“Brother Fox?” A young Demon called out to him. Naruto looked down. Next to him stood Paco, a smallish porcupine half-demon with unaturally spikey hair.
“Hey kid.” Naruto said as he picked the kid up. Paco was a Half-Demon like him. Half-Demon’s had had a vary hard life before Naruto came and proved he was as strong, if not stronger, as most of the Greater Demon’s(3).
“Is it true that you went to the Hume Village?” He asked. The were outside the fortress in the large village that surrounded it. Even if the Humes knew where to look, they would never find it. It had a massive concealment jutsu on it.
“Yes, I did.”
“Was it… Was it as bad as they say? Do they really slaughter innocent animals just for food?” Paco asked. Contrary to what most people think, the Demons don’t actually eat meat, unless it was from an animal that had given them consent to eat it, but that only happened when one was starving in the forest and needed the food. And the damn birds. (shakes fist in anger.) The animals were quite understanding. They never killed the young though, nor the females. The Demons were very respective of the Sacred Feminine. Escept fish. They hated fish. Stinking bastards. (Again, shakes fist in anger.)
“It wasn’t that bad, I mean yes the smell of death reeked everywhere, but it was actually quite peaceful.” Naruto said.
“Naruto! Yo!” A voice called out behind him.
“Hey Paco, go tell the guards at the Keep that I’m back okay?” Naruto put the kid down and said kid proptly ran off. “Kiba! How you been dog-breath?”
“I been good. Been scouting the southern border. Rumors of some Knights snooping around.” Kiba said. After his cananine companion had gotten hurt, he turned to the only people who could help him: The Demons. Akamaru had recovered quickly after he had been injected with Wolf Demon cells. Kiba had undergone the process as well because he knew that Akamaru would never be accepted back home, and he decided to stay with his friend.
“Come on.” Naruto jerked his head towards the nearby bar. “You can tell me all about it.”
“Allright, but I’m not paying your tab.” Kiba joked. His brown hair, which had been unruley as a pure Hume, was now very well kept and slicked back. He used to were black armor as a Knight, but now he wore black pants and an open black jacket that allowed you to see his well toned chest. Contrary to what most people think, Demons are actually very civilized. Many scholars argue that they are more civilized than we are. They also have very well kept coats and hair.
“So what’d you find?” Naruto asked after they had each downed at least five kars(4).
“I found three knights. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be my old sensei and teammates when I was a Page and Squire.” Kiba shook his head. “Shino de-“
“The bug guy? Wasn’t he on the raiding party to Suna?” Naruto asked. Suna was the order of wind, but they had formed a temporary treaty with the Demons because some insurgents didn’t like how things were run. And, of course that led to another battle, though they averted all out war.
“Yeah. Well anyways his bugs picked me up quickly. He alerted the others and Akamaru and I had to fall back.” Kiba finished.
“Hey, where is the big lug anyways?” Naruto looked around.
“He got another splinter in his paw and had to go get it out at the hospital.” Kiba chuckled. The Demons had a very large village, it was also slightly larger than Konoha. They had many things there: Malls, McDonalds, Macy’s, Walmart, GameStop, Condos, and even their own movie studio. Disney was also considering opening a park there. The Demons were not only more civilized than Humes, but also far more advanced technologically.
“When you say splinter, you mean he stepped on one of those Hume throwing thingies, don’t you?” Naruto said. They also had vast armories and some of the best smiths in the world; second only to the Dwarves, but nobody could beat Dwarves when it came to smithing.
“Yep. So anyways, I was thinking… you ‘n me? Come on! We can take them, or at least lead them away from the village.” Kiba said as he got up and payed for his drinks.
“Alright, I could use some action.” Naruto smiled. “But I have to stop by Amal’s Weaponry. Kyuubi didn’t let me take any weapons on my ‘peaceful’ mission.”
“Yeah, I need a new weapon.” Kiba said sheepishly. Akamaru had destroyed his Hume weapons.
“I still say you should stop using those Knights tools. Or at least stop using that Hume crafted crap.” Naruto said.
“It’s all I have left of my family.” Kiba said as they walked down the street.
“Hn. Family. What’s it like?” Naruto asked his friend.
“It’s… It’s like you and the other Half-Demons.” Kiba said.
“Hn.” Naruto smiled a sad smile. They walked the rest of the way in silence.
The bell jingled as they opened the door. “Naruto! Hey! What’s up? Need a new spear? Or perhaps you want to try a sword? Hm?” Amal shouted at them from behind the counter.
“Just a spear, thanks.” Naruto laughed at the old man’s antics. Amal was merely one hundred and thirty years old, yet he looked as if he were about five hundred and fifty. He was the best swith in the village.
“Kiba! Are you ready to try a finely crafted piece of art?” Amal twirled around him.
“Yeah… I figure it’s time to move on.” Kiba said.
“Okay! Come here!” Amal lead him to the sword display. “Let’s see, let’s see, Ah-ha! Here we go! Just need to take some measurements.” Amal brought out a very ferocious looking… thingy. He proceeded to poke Kiba in various places, many of which made Kiba shirk away. “Let’s see what we got here!”
“I feel so violated.” Kiba muttered to Naruto.
“Ah-ha!” Amal said again. He went to the display and pulled out a very fine Katana. It had a very intracately crafted handle covered with archaic sybolls. “This is Kogarasumaru. I crafted it from the claws of the great wolf-demon, Koga, who beheaded the second Great Knight of Konoha’s order. That valiant hero lost his life in the process.”
“I heard about him back when I was a Hume. They called him a monster.” Kiba said absently.
“Monster?! I should think not!” Amal huffed, and lead the way to the counter so Kiba could pay for the sowrd. “The Humes, they, my friends, are the true monsters. Killing our woodland brethern merely to satiate their hunger!”
“But, you guys do that with fish don’t you? And some species of birds?” Kiba asked. He had been in the Demon village for about two years, but he still had much to learn.
“Yes, well that’s different. The fish waged war against us and the birds were their allies! Needless to say, they lost. Then they entered an agreement with us. You don’t need to know all the details, but one of those was that we could eat fish and fowl whenever we pleased, so long as we respected them and gave them the proper funeral survice.” The Demons were very spirutual, and whenever they killed, they performed the proper funeral for whatever it was that they killed. “Now! Naruto! About that spear!” Amal went into the back
“How come he didn’t have to stick you with that torture device?” Kiba whined to Naruto as he pulled out his walet and counted out the money needed to pay for the sword.
“He got my measurements years ago!” Naruto shivered, remembering what it felt like to be stuck by the instrument.
“Here we go! Try this! This is the Dragon Whisker! It should fit you well.” Amal laughed. He handed Naruto an orange and blue spear with a tip that looked similar to a Dragons head.
“Well, here’s the money.” Naruto handed over the amount necessary and walked out the door.
“O-Oi! Wait up!” Kiba quickly handed over the money and followed his friend. “Naruto!”
“Now, which way did you say the Humes were at?” Naruto turned, nearly bumping into Kiba.
“Southern Border,” said Kiba.
“Ah! Okay, lets get going then.” Naruto said as he strapped his spear onto the harness on his back.
The took off at break-neck speeds through the Southern Forest. They ran for two hours, non-stop until they reached the end of the forest.
“Where to now?” Naruto asked Kiba as they skidded to a stop.
“River.” Kiba replied and ran east, followed closely by Naruto. The river was in their sights when Naruto stopped, hackles raised. Kiba looked at him closely before asking what was wrong.
“Illusion.” Naruto growled, his eys turning red. That was the only danger sign you got from Naruto before he went ballistic. When his eyes changed color, or the pupil appeared as a dot it meant he was drawing on demonic or human blood respectively.
“Crap!” Kiba hissed. Illusion’s had never been his strongest point, ironically it was his former master’s stongest point. “How do we get out of it?” He growled.
“Just, sniff out the center of concentration and…” he sniffed towards their left, drawing his spear as he went, “STRIKE IT!” He slashed, breaking the illision.
“It seems like you Demons aren’t as stupid as you look.” A voice called from their right.
“Sensei…” Kiba whispered, just loud enough for Naruto to hear. In front of them stood a tall, dark haired woman with red eyes (I wonder who?).
“Demons! Why were you attempting to ambush us? We are on a peaceful mission with the response from Tsunade-sama.” She said in a commanding tone. Were she a demoness, Naruto imagined she would have been a lion demon.
“Oh? And what’s the old lady’s answer?” Naruto asked.
“She agrees to the truce. Now, tell me! Who are you?” She asked them.
“Who are you to ask for our names?” Naruto responded, Kiba stayed silent.
“My name is of no importence.” She responded.
“Ya know, when a Demon, who has trained directly under Kyuubi-sama, asks you a question, it’s not a good idea to tick him off.” Naruto walked over to her, his eyes returning to blue. “I could kill you, and the other two in the time it takes you to blink,” He went right up to her face, he could see the fear in her eyes, smell it in her sweat, “But I won’t.”
“Oh? Why not? And why’s your partner not saying anything?” She responded after he backed down.
“First, I’m not his partner, just his… associate. Second, Kiba still in conflict about whether or not to fight his old friends.” Naruto heard everyone gasp.
“The word humility doesn’t exist in your vocabulary, does it?” Kiba growled at Naruto.
“What’s humility mean?” Naruto asked causing Kiba and his sensei to lose their balance temporarily and fall down.
“You cannot possibly be as moronic as you appear to be.” An ominous voice called from the shadows. From it came the figure of a tall individual with sunglasses and armor that reminded Naruto of bugs.
“What’s moronic mean?” Naruto asked with a deer struck in headlight look.
“It means REALLY stupid.” Kiba hissed.
“Oh.” Naruto blinked twice. “HEY!”
”Kiba, when I heard of your turning to the dark side, I assumed you would have chosen a smarter person to allie yourself with.” The bug guy said.
“Yeah, I tried to, too.” Kiba sighed as he sheathed his blade. “So how have you been, Shino? Kurenai-sensei?”
“You do realise I could kill all of you in the blink of an eye, right?” Naruto asked them as Kiba’s sensei lead them to camp.
“Yeah, whatever.” Kiba waved him off. “Hey, where’s Hinata?”
“Hunting.” Shino replied.
Kiba cringed. “Now, Naruto don’t…” But Naruto was already gone. “This cannot end well.” He sighed.
--(Bit of a clifhanger, huh? Well, thats all for now folks!)--
(1) Lesser Demon- a demon that is not particullarly strong, and or not purebred. Most half demons are considered Lesser, though some, Naruto and Kiba for instance, fall in the g=Great Demon category.
(2)Guardian Demon- a greater demon that was assigned a Hume(human) settlement before the Great Battle of Rabentras
(3) Greater Demon- a demon that was either born into a pure family without any mixed breeding or is a war hero who slaughtered many Humes, or who killed a greater demon.
(4) Kars- a popular sake-like drink, available at most bars, resturants, stores, and vending machine. Exists only in the Demons community. Available to any and all demons, considering their increadibly high tolerence for any form of toxin.
[Reviews - 1]
Table of Contents
- Text Size +
Chapter notes: Hi! This is the first(and so far only) fic I'm uploading here. Well, I got the idea for this while my brother was playing Final Fantasy XII and I was watching Naruto on my computer. Well Here it is, oh, and before we begin here are some notes that might make it easier to understand:
Rabentras is based off of Rabanaster( the city Vaan starts off in), and the weapons in this are weapons you can get in the game, with some slight variations. There will also be many refrences to monsters and setting in FF12.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Final Fantasy. Any similarities between this story and anything else, fictional or otherwise, is purely coincidental. I make no money off of this.