Caliburn Initiative Chapter 1

Ninja Meets Mage

Disclaimer: Don't own anything. Nanoha is owned by Seven Arcs and Naruto is owned by Kishimoto.

Glad tidings to everyone.

Kishi has agreed after I skilfully persuaded (read: blackmailed) him to help me write this crossover if he didn't want me to tell everyone that he hated (read: scared shitless) the magical girl genre. No you don't get to know why he hates (read: scared shitless) the genre. After sending him the framework I wanted, my dear beloved big brother managed to write this while he sat tanning himself somewhere in Tasmania's hills. Though that might just be because there's nothing to DO down there.

In the middle of effing summer no less.

I'll never understand boys.

By the way, I have absolutely no clue what school Nanoha and co attends, so I'm making it up.

Soundtrack List

John Dreamer – Beginning of a Legend

****Caliburn Initiative****

"Sir!" a rather breathless young cadet that had been assigned to sentinel duty sloppily saluted with a nervous look on his face. Understandable, considering that he was currently talking to one Midget Crowbel. Despite her soft spoken attitude and motherly smile, taking her warm disposition for granted and angering her needlessly was generally regarded as one of the best ways of committing suicide short of gutting yourself with a blunt knife amongst the staff of TSAB.

"At ease, cadet." The purple haired woman nodded with an easy smile, "Do you know why you are here today?"

"Ye-Yes ma-am." The young man swallowed nervously, "I am to report my observations regarding the unknown object that I discovered floating in deep dimension space, coordinate G-003, during active sentinel duty."

"Good." She smiled again, "What can you tell me about the unidentified object?"

The nervous cadet immediately began to prattle away every single detail. Crowbel simply listened with half an ear, almost everything was already detailed in the preliminary reports, the chief of staff simply wanted to hear about the incident from the person himself.

Sentinel duty or more commonly known as dead man's end because the chances of anything ever reaching the Time and Space Administration Bureau in deep dimension space considered little next to none. Therefore the duty was widely regarded as more of a petty joke amongst the higher ranked officers and served as a useful way to officially instil discipline, or unofficially haze new cadets such as the young man before her. However the fact remained that an inert object had manage to float its way into TSAB Headquarters' secure little pocket and had been found by the young man on the way back from his lonely 17 hour long space patrol.

When he had contacted Headquarters for instructions, more than one person figured that the young cadet had been driven to insanity due to his loneliness.

Then again, he wouldn't be the first or the last cadet to start seeing things during sentinel duty.

Much to his and everyone else's surprise, he was not in fact hallucinating and the very real object in question had been a frozen and desiccated body of what appeared to be a wounded young man.

Body wasn't really the best adjective to describe the young man with; Crowbel chastised herself mentally, though no one could really blame her for it.

After half heatedly applying emergency defrosting to the body in order to find out how the young man had found himself drifting in dimensional space, more out of protocol rather than any regard for the young man's safety mostly because everyone thought that he was more than likely already dead, TSAB's entire Science Department had been understandably shocked stupid by the fact that the blonde was actually alive despite the horrendous amount of injuries he had somehow gathered before being thrown into dimensional space and drifting in the volatile environment for an unknown amount of time, but just barely.

Needless to say, entire groups of trained soldiers ran about like headless chickens while the young man, of about 10 years of age looked to be still in a coma was put under heavy quarantine. The problem was kicked upstairs until it reached Crowbel's hands, one step short of the Council themselves.

And if she had anything to say about it, the obviously traumatized and very interesting young man whose preliminary medical reports were showing some very strange but interesting things; including an undiscovered magic system that was probably from an unexplored dimension and a ridiculously huge Linker Core, was not about to become research fodder for the old brains jars.

Assuming his mental state was stable enough, the boy could prove to be a very valuable asset to the TSAB.

The question then was, how could she get him to join willingly?

A quiet tinkle from her personal interface alerted the old woman to a new report detailing the most recent, one of many in fact, reappearance of another Lost Logia, the Book of Darkness.

Midget Crowbel smiled.

****Caliburn Initiative****

Nanoha's eyebrow twitched. The green haired admiral had ambushed her and Fate while they were recuperating from a rather magnificent defeat with an unknown enemy, so she could be forgiven for feeling a little irritable.

"And there you have it, while Naruto-san is recuperating, Chief Crowbel thought it would be good for him to reintegrate into society with the help of someone of his age. Unfortunately, none of our translators are able to understand what he is saying so for the moment, communication with him is limited to a few words and hand signs while he acclimatizes while we reprogram our systems to accept his language."

Her fist clenched and Nanoha nearly screeched, causing Fate to give her soon to be adoptive mother, Lindy Harlown an apologetic smile as she laid one calming palm on Nanoha's shoulder, "Baby-sitting duty?!"

The blonde haired boy cast his dull blue eyes on her, before silently returning to his kindergarten level book with a shuffle that somehow managed to convey how irritating he thought she was.

If anything, being brushed off so easily only made the 9 year old even more upset, she was already busy enough trying to deal with a new Lost Logia and now they foisted babysitting duty on her of all things?

"I refuse!"

Lindy Harlaown sweat dropped, she was getting the impression that her next bit of news was going to be just as welcome, "Did I mention he's also going to be staying with us on Earth while the Arthra undergoes repairs?"

This time Fate was the one to blanch.

****Caliburn Initiative****

Admiral Lindy, Chrono, Fate, Amy and a rather blank faced Naruto stood outside their new home, watching as Lindy directed the movers carrying the furniture into their new temporary home. At their feet was a small brown furred puppy and a green eyed ferret rested on Naruto's shoulder. Surprisingly, the blonde had not commented at all when the two animals had shown him their true forms as human and familiar, nor had he objected to the Yuuno turned ferret sticking to him at all times. At least, not vocally, although Yuuno would later complain about the blonde's tendency to walk into walls, somehow accidentally using the ferret as a cushion. The genuinely nice ferret of course thought it was a sincere accident and just thought that Naruto-san's muscle control was still wonky from being frozen for so long.

The smirk on the blonde's face told an entirely different story.

"Naruto? Fate? Can you come with me to introduce ourselves to the neighbours?" the green haired woman called from the door step as she gestured for Chrono to start setting up their instruments in the house.

The blonde mutely tilted his head with a confused expression, as if he didn't understand what she was saying, causing Lindy to chuckle at the resemblance the boy's confused expression bore to a cute fox, "Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot that you can't understand me yet."

In the middle of the street, she began miming taking a walk to the blonde. When that didn't seem to work, she smiled in slight resignation and gently took his hand and tugged him along gently, a blushing Fate's almost tiny palm in her other hand.

Naruto Uzumaki pursed his lips, withholding the urge to roll his eyes as Lindy Harlaown bowed politely to Nanoha's parents. She was either just that innocent or just that good at acting. There was no way she could've failed to notice the group of drooling young men standing slightly behind them. Within minutes of introducing herself, the dignified and beautiful green haired lady that was posing as their youthful mother had somehow managed to get herself a gaggle of admirers.

Even the ferret had noticed.

"Admiral Lindy is really popular isn't she?" Yuuno seemed to mutter to himself.

"Damn right. It's almost a crime that she's single."

Yuuno blinked and his tiny ferret jaw dropped as he boggled at the human whose shoulder he was riding on, "You can talk?!"

Naruto returned the look of surprise with a blank one complete with dull eyes.

"But... Huh?"

Naruto promptly walked into another wall.

Rolling his eyes at the ferret's swirly ones, the blonde quietly moved to a corner of the cafe and observed Lindy talking to Nanoha's parents while Nanoha herself was introducing Fate to two of her classmates, a brown haired girl with a noticeably proud bearing and a polite purple haired girl.

"Oh my, are you interested in that?"

Naruto blinked, he hadn't noticed the older brown haired girl approach him from the side, nor did he understand what she was referring to. Seeing his blank look, the older girl gestured at the small basket filled with knitting implements that he was standing beside. He blinked again.

Smiling gently, the older girl picked up a set and pressed it into his hands, "Here, you can have it. Think of it as a gift, neighbour."

The heck was he supposed to do with some needles and a ball of yarn?

Shrugging, he pocketed them and nodded in thanks, causing the girl to laugh, "I'm Miyuki. You and your sister are rather shy aren'tcha?"

Oh right, Fate was supposed to be his sister wasn't she?

He nodded slowly and promptly tuned out the girl's chatter until it was time to leave.

"What do you think of them?" a smiling Kyoya asked his sister as the Harlaown family left their small cafe.

"They're nice... especially the mother. She seemed really easy to get along with and Nanoha was really good friends with their daughter."

"Oh? What about the son? I noticed you talking to him."

A curious Nanoha edged closer to eavesdrop on her older sister and brother.

"I'm not sure..." Miyuki fiddled with her hem thoughtfully, "He seemed rather aloof and standoffish but I guess that's just normal for someone who just shifted. I noticed that his hands are scarred though, as if he fought a lot."

"Oh? Is he a good fighter?" Kyouya asked with some interest, perhaps the boy would be a good partner for some spars.

Miyuki shook her head lightly, "The scarring was along the back of his hands and the tips of his fingers. If anything, I'll bet he fights with fists instead of swords, though I could tell that he was definitely experienced."

Nanoha's older brother shrugged and made a mental reminder to ask for a spar anyway, Miyuki's judgement was almost always on the mark and everybody in the Takamachi family knew it, including a curious Nanoha.

****Caliburn Initiative****

"Ano... Admi... Lindy-san wanted me to ask you if you had any preferences for dinner tonight." The rather soft spoken Fate timidly asked the blonde boy who was sitting on the window sill of their new house. Having just moved in, the young blonde girl had taken it upon herself to make her new... family as comfortable as possible, and she was determined to do the same for the silent young boy. Looking around, she took in the plain and empty room with only a single bed, table and dresser.

Though that was probably more because the boy had nothing to call his own rather than a conscious decision, something the old Fate could somewhat commiserate with. Before the moving in, Admir... Lindy-san had provided them with the boy's dossier. It was frightfully thin and contained nothing but his preliminary scans and stated that the boy had been recovered while wounded, frozen and adrift in dimensional space. Physically, the boy seemed fine, but at the bottom of the dossier was a red warning, alerting the reader to the blonde's likely unstable state of mind.

Dull blue eyes came to rest on red eyes before he slowly shook his head and indicated the book in his hands with a slight wave.

Fate bowed politely before speaking softly, "I hope that your studies go well. Admi... Lindy-san has said that if you can catch up, we can go to school together." The blonde girl timidly smiled, "I would like that very much."

When the newcomer just continued to stare at her blankly, she hesitated before trying again, although she was unsure how much of her words that the stranger could understand, but she felt like trying anyway, "Please doesn't be angry with Nanoha for reacting badly. She was feeling rather down at the time. Our companions, Bardiche and Raising Heart were also hurt very badly."

To her pleasant surprise, his crystal blue eyes gained a slightly mirthful glint and he opened his mouth to speak haltingly, "I... understand. Friends... hurt. Uncomfortable."

Lindy-san would be very pleased that the blonde finally spoke. Maybe he wasn't so unstabl-

The smile turned distinctly predatory, "Want me... hurt back?"

Never mind.

****Caliburn Initiative****

The next week passed easily without much incident except the fact that the strange blonde had finally started talking in full sentences much to Lindy's happiness and the Harlaown household slowly fell into a comfortable pattern.

Chrono, whom Naruto had apparently taken to calling 'Uke', much to the TSAB officer's ire would scan the area for any abnormal activities and plot for eventualities along with Amy 'flat chest' at home. With their Device still in traction, Nanoha, which the blonde had apparently designated as 'Pigtails' to her annoyance, took to spending all her nervous energy by visiting every day, bringing over school materials for the two blondes in order to help them get ready for school while Yuuno 'ferret boy' and Arf 'Puppy' would help as much as they could while Lindy took to doing her job as a mother with obvious delight. In fact, the only two people the strange blonde actually called by name were Lindy and Fate.

After reporting in at the TSAB headquarters in person each morning, Naruto would then spend the day either reading, knitting for some unfathomable reason or just plain harassing anybody in sight with the clear exception of Lindy and Fate.

Case in point.

"Flat chest, can you pass me the soya?"

Amy growled, "Will you stop calling me that?" She gestured at the bountiful mounds on her chest, causing Chrono who was sitting opposite of her to get a very nice eyeful, "Are you freaking blind?!"

Naruto stared at her blankly and replied with a flat, "... No and no."

"Why!?" the brown haired girl demanded.

"Because it's funny."

"Rarragh!"

Despite that little spat during dinner, Naruto was honestly surprised to find that he didn't resent the strange family dynamics that he had found himself in, which was admittedly a far cry from his past. That and screwing with the uptight Chrono was a surprisingly fun hobby.

Which was why when the alert that signified that one of Chrono and Amy's traps had bore fruit started blaring; the fidgeting blonde found himself watching Fate and Pigtails fighting three strangers on a floating screen with a tiny amount of apprehension burrowing in his chest.

Just a little bit.

****Caliburn Initiative****

"Hai, settle down everyone." The brown haired woman that was Nanoha's homeroom teacher clapped her hands loudly to gain her students' attention. Once the hustle had quieted down, she smiled and beckoned at the open door, allowing two blondes, one with clear blue eyes and the other with crimson pupils, both of them were dressed in the Uminari grade school uniform, "It's a little late, but everyone please welcome Naruto and Fate Harlaown. They just moved into town, that's why they're joining our classes so late."

The male blonde who wore an orange scarf around his neck looked distinctly uncomfortable in his white shorts fidgeted a little while his apparent sister bowed politely and spoke in her usual soft and measured manner, "Good to meet you. I'm Fate, and this is my brother, Naruto. His Japanese isn't very good yet, so please excuse us if we make any mistakes."

Predictably, the boys rushed towards an obviously uncomfortable Naruto while Fate was surrounded by the girls. Growling slightly, the highly uneasy blonde brusquely pushed his way out of the loudly yelling group of boys and stopped in front of the teacher with a rather unpleasant scowl, "Seat. Where?"

Unused to being addressed so curtly by a nine year old, the teacher could only gape for a moment before pointing towards the very back of the class.

Fate gently excused herself from her friends and took her seat beside him, whispering quietly under her breath, "Is something wrong, Naruto? You've been out of sorts all day."

He shook his head slightly before replying, "I... did not like to see you and Nanoha fighting. You weren't hurt this time, but I know that you and Nanoha were hospitalized because of them barely a week ago."

"Ah..." She had no idea how to respond to something like that.

Come to think of it, no one had ever said something like that to her or Nanoha. They had just sort of accepted that they had to fight...

Sighing, she sat back into her seat and resolved to talk to Lindy about the blonde's concerns. That and the fact that he had been relegated to the backseat while they were fighting was obviously chaffing at the blonde.

****Caliburn Initiative****

"Oi, pigtails. You alright?" The blonde casually drawled out, dropping into the seat beside her, "You didn't seem very pleased about the floating eyeball getting upgraded last night." He remarked quietly.

Nanoha glanced at the easy going blonde who had leaned back on the seat and threw his legs onto the desk in a carefree manner, "We're not supposed to be talking about something like this in school." She stiffly replied, the way he always seemed so callously easy going annoyed the 9 year old girl to no end.

The young alien shrugged, "It's not like there's anyone around anyway. Thanks for earlier by the way."

"Hmmm?"

"Those boys. I could have handled them. But thanks." The blonde replied shortly, referring to the group of boys that had been so receptive of his attendance, yet surrounded him during lunch break with some rather unpleasant motives. Apparently his brushing them off had injured their pride, and they had decided to induct the new guy into the ranks through force when a broom toting Nanoha had smacked her way through all of them before yelling at them for picking on one person in a group.

Needless to say, they ran away with their tails between their legs.

The auburn haired girl stared at the boy for a few moments before giggling, "That's the first time you said something nice to me."

"Don't get used to it." He commented dryly.

Nanoha giggled harder for a bit longer before sobering up, "Raising Heart knew the risks and took it. It's already too late to do anything about it" The girl on his left sighed, "It's just... Raising Heart has been with me for so long... Feeling that she has to go through a dangerous upgrade just because I can't keep up in a fight almost feels... wrong." She glanced at the boy who almost seemed like he was napping, "Besides, you have no right to talk. Why don't you have your own Device anyway? You're already physically cleared for field work aren't you?"

The blonde boy started, telling Nanoha that he had indeed fallen asleep, before chuckling dryly, "I will once they manage to find something that works. The Science Department had a collective fit when every single Device they put in my hands overloaded and fizzled. They're still trying to repair that hole in the wall when Fate loaned me Bardiche for a while."

The two of them laughed at the memories of a roomful of white robed researchers boggling at the hole in the wall that was the result of the blue eyed blonde trying to cast... a tiny E-rank spell. Well hole was something of an understatement, considering the fact that the entire west wall was now missing.

The blonde boy with an orange scarf around his neck, if only because the school absolutely refused to let him dye the school uniform an eye blindingly bright orange and rightfully so as far as Fate and Nanoha were concerned, cracked his neck before standing up, satisfied that his job was done now that Nanoha was smiling again.

He made to leave, "Scold the annoying eyeball for not asking your permission, punch each other if you have to. Then make up. Once that's done, kick their ass and get it done with. My ramen doesn't taste half as good whenever you and Fate are all brooding or bleeding all over the damned carpet."

Nanoha half smiled, half grimaced at the back handed words of comfort, "I see your bedside manners haven't improved." She grinned slyly at the blonde boy who was always seemed to be there whenever she or Fate were injured, poking fun at them with caustic words, and spoke teasingly, "Fate won't like it if you don't say it more sweetly you know. She's very shy."

The blonde gave her a wry grin before standing up. He threw something at her over his shoulder on his way to the door, causing the auburn haired girl to yelp lightly as she tried to juggle whatever it was that the blonde had thrown at her.

Once she was confident that it wouldn't drop out, she opened her fingers and giggled lightly at the item.

It was a tiny handmade puppet of a fox.

****Caliburn Initiative****

"Baba." Every single commissioned officer in the room felt the blood drain from their faces at the disrespectful label as the blonde that had spoken rudely flopped onto the offered chair; his entire pose reflected his carefree and somewhat annoyed attitude.

If they were to be honest with themselves, quite a few of them were already planning his funeral.

Then when the old lady in question only chuckled at her newesttitle, they began wondering if there had been something wrong with their lunch, "Brat. Good to see that you're still alive, I was worried your mouth might get you into more trouble than your ass can handle."

"Cut the crap, what did you want to see me for?"

One of her assistants, a brown haired young man growled and stepped forward to chastise the slovenly blonde, "You will not speak to th-"

"Enough." Crowbel cut in before curtly ordering her staff to leave, "Leave us, Uzumaki and I need to talk."

More than one person walked out of the room, planning on launching an investigation into the Requisitions Department for bad mushrooms. When the last of them had left with one left warning glare at the boorish blonde, Crowbel sighed and rubbed her temples, "Must you antagonize my staff every time you come in?"

"I wasn't antagonizing anyone," He smirked at the Crowbel's pose and words which was extremely similar to another old lady. He was starting to think that he had a gift with older women, "I was simply disabusing them of the notion that I care about what they think about me."

Crowbel nodded, fully aware that quite a few of her subordinates held the opinion that she was going senile. She leaned forward and placed her chin on folded hands, "You can't blame them. For the moment, you are officially considered a living, breathing Lost Logia. Quite a few people would do anything to get their hands on your body for further experimentation. Ostensibly putting the responsibility of monitoring you in the hands of a couple of nine year olds probably didn't help either."

He shrugged, "I can't quite care. Thanks to your stupid dimension time warp thingy, I may look like I'm ten, but inside, I'm an eighteen year old mercenary and assassin. My last memories before waking up in fairy land were of a desperate war. After that, a bunch of glaring military toadies sure as hell isn't going to scare me," He paused, "But even I can see how careless allowing me to run around freely is." He allowed before leaning forward with a gleam in his eyes, "Which is why I'm doing this."

Crowbel smiled approvingly as she observed the laid back blonde silently.

To date, reports from the boy's watchers had noted that the blonde had begun to fit in... somewhat... after learning to communicate at a surprising rate and although prone to moments of extreme sarcasm was a surprisingly caring person in private. There was also a simple note from Fate T. Harlown, commenting on his distinct lack of regard for a person's safety. Given, with everything the blonde had shown, she wouldn't entirely put it past the blonde simply playing mind games in an attempt to unsettle everybody and/or push their buttons.

She leaned back and decided to join the game the blonde was playing, "You resent being figuratively chained by the TSAB, so you're testing how far you can push us and to see why I'm letting a massive wild card like you run free or somewhat free anyway."

He raised an eyebrow, "You're not going to pretend otherwise, but you're not going to tell me why either." The blonde noted.

She smirked, "Well, not entirely. But I can tell you that recently, Lost Logias have been reappearing everywhere at an unprecedented rate. At this very moment, we have 16 separate outbreaks all over the galaxy. You are but one of them. Our investigators are getting a little nervous, and I tend to agree with their gut instincts, I wasn't always a desk jockey you know. Something big is coming and I'd rather not have an asset like you sleeping in a bloody jar while things blow up."

The blonde laughed, "Well, now you're talking my language. It must really suck when all your kids think the sun shines out of your ass and you have to act all polite in front of them."

Despite the crass metaphor, the purple haired lady could only reluctantly smile at the admittedly refreshing attitude.

Naruto grinned in anticipation, "I'll stick with Pigtails and Fate for now. Though that asset part is somewhat debatable, your stupid protocols don't allow agents to do fieldwork unequipped and your tech boys are still too busy shitting bricks to make me one." He paused and grin, "Though, judging by the fights I've seen so far, I don't really need one."

One lavender eyebrow rose slightly at the rather optimistic judgement, "Oh?" She asked with a pointed look, "Do I want to know?"

The blonde shrugged carelessly, "I might have broken into the Training Division once or twice." He grinned unrepentantly, "By accident of course."

"Of course." Crowbel nodded neutrally as she made a mental note to grill whoever was responsible for security, "Continue."

"Nothing much to say, I just observed some fights and drills, jotted down some notes, stole a barrier jacket or two as target practice... You know, to help me get back into shape. I have to say though, your cadets are pretty damn sad."

The pointed look was getting more and more severe, not that it affected him, "Explain."

"There was this one kid who had 100% accurac-"

"I don't see how that's a bad thing."

"I haven't finished, he had 100% accuracy as long as he was aiming in a completely unrelated direction..." TSAB's chief of Staff couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed. The blonde simply leaned back with a bored look, "Kids nowadays. Give them a lightshow and a stick to wave and they think they're professionals. Tsk." He scratched his head and crinkled his nose thoughtfully, "Still haven't figured out how to fly though. That might come in handy."

Crowbel let loose a loud laugh before sobering up, "It's not that they can't make one, your Magical System is simply too different. Currently, all spells are employed by drawing magic from a mage's Linker Core before being moulded through formulas by an experienced mage or a Device into a spell. The same goes for Barrier Jackets, both of them are fed from the Linker Core. You on the other hand not only have a completely different type of self sustained magical system that seems to lean more towards efficient element conversion compared to the Mid-Childan system's shaping of pure magic but it also doesn't seem to need complex formulas or rituals for deployment. Not to mention your stupidly huge Linker Core just overloads anything that tries to connect to it."

Even Bardiche, which had been tentatively loaned to the boy by Fate as an experiment had commented that it had almost broken down under the strain of the blonde's Linker Core. The only reason it had been able to complete that particular mission was because of its recent upgrades to handle sudden surges in magical load.

Naruto smirked, "You realize that everything you just said could be summarized in two words?"

"Oh?"

"I'm. Awesome."

Crowbel glared at him and decided to pop his rapidly swelling ego, "Of course, by definition, that also means that you are unable to employ some of the really destructive large scale spells that our mages can, Easy formulas means smaller spells. So until we can custom craft something that can handle your capacity, your ass is staying where it is right now. On the sidelines." She finished smugly.

One blonde eyebrow rose slowly as the blonde grinned, almost viciously. For now, he would allow the woman to keep thinking he was only capable of small scale spells.

He would look forward to seeing her face when he proved her wrong.

Misinterpreting the weird smile on the blonde's face, Crowbel grinned sneakily, "What's with that stupid smile? Don't tell me that you're thinking about Lindy at a time like this? Kukuku, I heard that you had a crush on Admiral Lindy?"

He paled, "Gyah! That's none of your business BABA!"

"Oya, oya, come and tell this old lady, I might be able to help you, I know better than most how lonely being a widow is. You have good eyes, aiming for someone like her. Bwahahaha."

"This is all Yuuno's fault isn't it?! That stupid blabbermouth ferret boy, all I said was that she looked hot! Why does everyone pick on me instead of him anyway!?"

"Well... because he's obviously better looking than you... and they just think of him as a pet?" Crowbel offered with a half grin, she would never admit it but she loved listening to gos- err... collecting information. It was her duty as one of the leaders of TSAB after all.

"By the way, you might want to watch out for Chrono. He's going to want your head on a silver platter and his spell repertoire is rather nasty for such an innocent little boy."

"That's it. Ferret boy is dead."

****Caliburn Initiative****

Play John Dreamer – Beginning of a Legend

"Fuck. I really should've learnt how to fly." Naruto muttered as he scaled up a building with nothing but his hands and chakra. So inconvenient, especially when a poor innocent little boy like him needed to go out on a little unauthorized night time trip or two.

He doubted Lindy would agree.

Reaching the top of the building, he hurriedly wrapped his scarf around his neck and pushed his chakra out a little, ensuring that the wind blew just right so that it billowed out behind him before placing a blank white mask on his face.

Hey, first impressions were important.

"You know, attacking TSAB officers aren't exactly the best way to make friends around here." He commented in the tone of someone who was simply observing the weather.

The four people who were perched on the rooftop below him immediately whirled around with weapons at the ready. Three females and one male, the blonde silently noted, the people who had fought against Nanoha and Fate.

"Who are you?!"

Signum's blade blocked Zafira from advancing, "That white mask, are you with those people who helped us?" she quietly asked the figure sitting on the ledge above them, silhouetted by the moonlight.

The rather... short but shadowy figure leapt into the air, causing all four of them to tense warily as he easily back flipped onto the edge of the roof, blocking their exit, "Nope. In fact, you could say I'm with the TSAB. Reluctantly."

They tensed at his words.

He burst forwards with a knife strike at the ready.

And promptly smashed his face into a wall which collapsed on him.

A muffled, "Ow..." floated from the pile of rubble.

The four Cloud Knights stared at the cursing boy who was slowly climbing out of the pile of rubble like he was insane. They weren't really that far off.

"God damn it. Of all the screwed up things you could do, you made me 10 years old again!? Even thirty years old would've been better, but noooo, you had to make me a damned midget again!" He shook a fist at the sky, "FUCK YOU!"

Vita nudged Shamal, "You're the best with healing magic, is he... okay?"

The blonde support mage of the group sweat dropped as the boy continued cursing at the sky, "Define okay."

Taking a few ragged breaths, the boy with the scarf finally seemed to calm down as he muttered to himself, "Note to self; enough power to dash while I'm 15 equals enough power for me to break a wall with my face when I'm 10." He slapped his cheeks a few times, "Yosh!"

While he was busy muttering to himself, the one he presumed to be the leader, the flame haired woman with the sword stepped forward challengingly, "Enough, we do not want to fight you." Her eyes narrowed at the figure, "Not only are you completely outnumbered and out powered, you don't have a Device, or even any armour. Even a single hit from any of us will kill you."

"Good point. That's not really my problem though. Besides, I don't really care about getting hurt." He settled himself into an offensive stance with one hand curled into a fist, and the other flat out, "What I DO care about however, are people getting hurt. Specifically, people I might ACTUALLY learn to like somewhere down the road."

He blurred and reappeared under a shocked Zafira, "And I have very few of those nowadays." The figure leaned to the side, easily avoiding a knee strike from the only male of the group before his upwards palm blow caught the man on the chin, blasting the guardian beast into the air before the figure blurred and reappeared above his body, a powerful axe kick buried his head in the ground. Gently landing on the prone man's back like a bird of flight, he moved into the same stance again.

"Like I said. Not my problem if you can't hit me." He commented casually.

"ZAFIRA!" The shortest one of the group screamed before glaring the masked boy with a glare, Graf Eisen, Cartridge Load."

[Roger.] The hammer in her arms pumped in a shell as its master shouted another order, "Missile HAMMER!"

"Vita, NO!" Someone who could put down a fully armoured Zafira with two simple blows was not someone Vita could handle alone. However, Signum could only grind her teeth together as the youngest of her group exploded forwards with no regard for herself or Signum's orders. And she couldn't blame Vita. She dearly wanted to attack the blonde boy just as bad. The four of them were highly protective of each other, especially before Hayate came into their lives. Through the centuries, the only people they could count on were each other.

The situation was made worse by the fact that the unfazed blonde simply cocked his head and lifted a single finger, catching Graf Eisen's missile point and stopping its attack cold, stunning the smallest Cloud Knight. The boy clad in a midnight blue outfit shifted his position and almost seemed to flow forwards, landing multiple rapid flicks that looked feather light on a surprised Vita's torso before she could pull the hammer back and finishing the combo off with a powerful palm strike that blasted a gasping, Vita skidding backwards beside Shamal.

"Are you alright?" the blonde woman asked worriedly.

"I'm alright, something like that can't pierce my ar-" with an almost surprised look on her face, blood spurted out of her mouth before pitching forward in a dead faint.

"VITA!"

"Huh... so I was right." The figure murmured softly, "Your armour can only block magic attacks or direct blows." He paused and glanced at the girl who was bleeding and jerking spastically in Shamal's arms, "You might want to get her to a doctor. I might have accidentally ruptured something important. A few somethings..." He commented with a slight tinge of regret.

With no choice left, the red haired woman gave her Device an order; "Laevantine, Snake form!" roaring with rage, she flicked the chain whip in her hands, surrounding Shamal and herself in a protective storm of flame and steel as the elongated tip of her blade surged at the figure like a snake strike.

Eyes widening, Naruto back flipped out of the sharp strike before putting on a spurt of speed as he ran around the rooftop to avoid the blade that was following him, driven by its user's rage. In the middle of the rooftop slash battlefield was a tornado, with the four Wolkenritter safe in the eye of the flaming tornado. There was no way she was going to allow their attacker to get anywhere near them until she could figure out how he was fighting.

Furious red eyes gleamed at him from between the chain links. Those same eyes widened as the figure skidded a stop and ducked under the blades chasing him, before he began running straight at the tornado in what looked like an apparent suicide attack.

He thrust one arm out, for a split second, Signum noticed some sort of palm sized blue orb in his hand. His arm was shredded to pieces but it did it's job, the tiny orb somehow managed to blow open a hole in Signum's defence. Darting into the storm of steel and fire, he lunged forward to finish the attack with a powerful punch.

Acting like the seasoned warrior she was, Signum counterattacked with her off hand, their fists clashing in a class cross counter.

Unfortunately for the boy, he had misjudged the length of his arm; his fist only managed to glance of her breast plate while Signum's fire encased fist landed a direct hit on his cheek, shattering the mask on his face and sending him rocketing into a wall where he was embedded a foot into the brick and mortar.

Despite having immense difficulties breathing, Signum took the change in the battle's momentum to wrap their assailant in her chain sword with a flick of Laevantein. She jerked on her blade, causing the separated links to cut into his dark blue suit, "Before I kill you, what style are you using? I have never seen a non magic user stand up to us like you have. I will honour you for your defeat."

The figure, whose face was enshrouded in shadows laughed lowly without any humour, "Style? Fists that were designed to kill do not deserve the honour of being named."

She stared at the boy emotionlessly, "So be it. Cartridge Load."

The chain links lit on fire, engulfing the figure.

****Caliburn Initiative****