[FFML] [Naruto][Fic] Overkill, Chapter 1: A Simple Wish, Part One

[aleh at aol.com]

And Chapter One is ready. Many thanks to MageOhki for helping me flesh 
out the details.

That said, I still need a decent prereader for this. I'm fairly certain 
that a number of things slipped through the cracks.

-----------

    Millions of people live beneath the expansive sky of a world that its 
inhabitants call "Earth", and they all harbor a variety of wishes and 
feelings. Those feelings sometimes touch and collide... but within some 
of those people are deeper ties that connect them together so that 
those feelings can be passed along. What's about to start is a story 
full of those contacts and encounters.

    A tale of spectacular overkill begins now.

-----------

    Overkill,

    A Naruto Fanfiction,

    By Aleh

    Chapter One: A Simple Wish, Part One

-----------

    Disclaimer: I own neither Naruto nor Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha.

-----------

    In the twilight hours of the night a young boy stood panting from 
exhaustion as he faced off against a formless creature. Pulling a red 
marble from his pocket as his short blond hair was swept back by a 
sudden wind, he thrust the marble forward. A spell-circle formed in 
front of the marble as the blue-eyed youth held it forth as a 
protective talisman against the being, the boy's concentration forcing 
the circle to narrow and approach his hand.

    "Ethereal echo," he chanted as the monster charged him, "become light! 
Forbidden monster, enter this sealing circle! Jewel seed, seal!"

    Blood flew as the creature approached the circle.

    In the end, the monster managed to escape and the boy, injured, 
collapsed to the ground.

    "Someone," he whispered, lacking the strength to stand and losing the 
battle to retain his consciousness, "please hear my voice... lend me 
your strength... your magical power..."

    As the boy passed out his body was enveloped by light, his form fading 
and being replaced by that of a small brown ferret. Released from his 
hand, the marble hit the ground with a thud and came to rest next to 
the boy's body.

-----------

    An alarm clock sounded in a somewhat bare room, causing Naruto to snap 
awake. Realizing where he was, he yawned, stretched, and turned off the 
alarm. "That was a strange dream," he muttered as he pushed aside his 
covers and started his day.

    As Naruto started his morning routine, he took a few moments to 
reflect on how his life had changed in just a few short weeks. They 
felt like longer, even if they'd passed in what felt like an instant. 
Naruto wasn't normally the sort to engage in philosophy, but it was a 
paradox that he found interesting enough to occupy his mind as he got 
dressed.

    While Naruto still remembered the few lessons he'd had in the Academy, 
if vaguely, he wasn't Uzumaki Naruto, student in the Konoha Shinobi 
Academy, anymore. In Naruto's shock, he hadn't been very surprised to 
discover that the strange woman who sent him to meet Nanoha had 
provided him with identification and enrolled him in Nanoha's school. 
It had, however, been a shock to discover that all of the documentation 
referred to him by the name of Namikaze instead of Uzumaki.

    "Good morning," Naruto called out to his surrogate parents as he 
entered the kitchen of the house that he was beginning to think of as 
his home.

    "Ah, Naruto-kun," Nanoha's mother replied, "good morning."

    "Good morning," Nanoha's father said, lowering his newspaper to smile 
at Naruto.

    "Here," Nanoha's mother told him as he approached where she was 
cooking, handing him a tray with six cups full of hot tea, "could you 
take this to the table for me?"

    "Sure," Naruto cheerfully agreed, taking the tray.

    "Good morning," came another voice as Nanoha came into the room.

    As the family again exchanged greetings and Naruto took the tray to 
the table, Naruto reflected on how grateful he was to have them in his 
life.

    "Both of you managed to get up on your own today," Nanoha's father 
commented as he folded his newspaper and took a cup of tea from the 
tray. "That's impressive."

    Nanoha's father, Takamachi Shiro, was the owner of the Takamachi's 
coffee shop, Midoriya, and the central pillar of the their family. 
Beyond that Shiro had gone out of his way to make Naruto feel welcome 
among the Takamachi family, going so far as to tell Naruto to address 
him as an uncle when they first met.

    "Breakfast will me ready any minute now," Nanoha's mother cheerfully 
stated.

    Nanoha's mother, Takamachi Momoko, was the person in charge of the 
sweets at Midoriya... and apparently Hell-bent on ensuring that Naruto 
tried all of them. Beyond that, however, she was the person who'd taken 
the time, day after day, to teach Naruto the things that most people 
took for granted... like etiquette. She'd spent several days' worth of 
lessons instructing him on that, calmly, gently, and patiently teaching 
him things like why you weren't supposed to leave your chopsticks 
standing in a bowl of rice.

    On the other hand, she'd taken issue with Naruto addressing her as an 
aunt. Saying that it made her feel old, she'd told him to call her 
"mom." Naruto had been taken aback by that, but had quickly adjusted. 
She was both beautiful and kind... and a person that Naruto was quickly 
coming to view as his true mother instead of as a surrogate.

    "About Oniichan and Oneechan," Nanoha asked.

    "Ah," Shiro replied, "aren't they still in the dojo?"

    Nanoha grabbed a towel on her way to get them, knowing that her sister 
would probably be sweaty after her morning practice.

    Nanoha's older brother, Takamachi Kyouya, was a freshman in college. 
Having succeeded Shiro as the master of the Mikami Fuwa Ryuu, the 
family's kenjutsu style, he'd taken over his sister's training. While 
Naruto hadn't learned much of the Academy's taijutsu style, Kyouya had 
taken his form as something near a personal insult... and responded by 
helping Naruto to improve and refine it. Between Kyouya's busy schedule 
and Naruto's they hadn't been able to get much training in... but 
Naruto felt that Kyouya was a far better teacher than any of the people 
he'd learned from in the Academy.

    Nanoha's older sister, Takamachi Miyuki, was a second-year high school 
student. While her schedule kept her far busier than Kyouya, Miyuki had 
taken the time to help Naruto catch up on his academics. While history 
was, perhaps understandably, by far his worst subject, Naruto was 
behind his classmates in a variety of areas. Miyuki, however, was a 
patient teacher, taking the time to answer Naruto's questions and help 
him truly understand the material. Between attending both school and 
juku with Nanoha, Miyuki's lessons, and a great deal of old-fashioned 
hard work, Naruto was rapidly catching up with the rest of his class.

    All in all Naruto felt that the Takamachis were a truly wonderful 
family to be part of... even if the way Shiro and Momoko still acted 
like newlyweds sometimes made Naruto's teeth ache.

    Most importantly, though, there was Nanoha. Naruto hadn't even known 
her for a full month, but he already found it difficult to imagine his 
life without her. More than anyone else, Nanoha had helped him feel at 
home in the strange world he'd arrived in. She had even confessed to 
him that she had felt like she had been the odd person out in her 
family, in part because of the strong bonds between her parents and 
between her siblings, and that Naruto already felt like the little 
brother that she'd always wanted.

    After breakfast, Naruto and Nanoha boarded the bus to Seishou 
Auxiliary Elementary School. It had been a surprise to Nanoha when 
Naruto was enrolled in the same class as her but after the way he'd 
entered her life it was far less of one than it could have been. As 
they got on, a purple-haired girl in the back seat called out to the 
two of them. "Nanoha-chan, Naruto-kun!"

    "Ah, Nanoha, Naruto-kun, over here!" the blonde girl sitting next to 
her greeted, waving.

    "Suzuka-chan, Alisa-chan," Nanoha cheerfully acknowledged.

    "Good morning," Naruto greeted.

    After the obligatory "good mornings" were exchanged Suzuka and Alisa 
moved to let Nanoha and Naruto sit between them and spent the ride to 
school engaged in pleasant chatter.

    Nanoha's friends, Alisa Bannings and Tsukimura Suzuka, had also made 
an effort to make Naruto feel welcome. While Naruto still felt somewhat 
like the odd person out, he had to admit that the feeling was largely 
because he was the only boy in a group that was otherwise composed 
entirely of girls. The fact that Alisa, Suzuka, and Nanoha had been 
friends since the first grade hadn't prevented them from accepting a 
newcomer into their group. It was, in Naruto's opinion, great to have 
friends like them, especially since they were not only in the same 
class at school but also attended juku with him. Spending more time 
with his friends was always a good thing to Naruto.

    It had surprised him that Nanoha had already told Alisa and Suzuka 
about him when they first met, given that neither of them lived very 
close to Nanoha's house, but Nanoha's explanation of her cell phone 
helped to make his surprise brief. Exactly how protective his new 
friends had quickly become of him, however, was something that 
continued to move him... when it wasn't just plain confusing him. When 
a boy in their class had started to tease him about spending so much 
time with girls, for instance, Alisa had promptly dragged him out of 
the room. Naruto didn't know what they talked about, but when the boy 
came back in a few minutes later, he profusely apologized. The boy 
hadn't bothered Naruto after that... and had actually moved to stop 
other kids from causing trouble for Naruto on several occasions.

    In short, life was good for Naruto... although part of him kept 
waiting for the other shoe to drop. Perhaps the contrast with his old 
life was too great, perhaps it was just that the sort of happiness he 
felt was completely foreign to him, but Naruto couldn't help wondering 
if his new life was just a dream.

    If it was, he never wanted to wake up.

-----------

    As class progressed and Naruto and Nanoha's teacher debriefed their 
class on a recent assignment, Nanoha couldn't help but think about her 
newest friend. Naruto might have been appallingly ignorant of many 
things, but his enthusiasm and sincerity shone through in everything he 
did. She could understand his ignorance and lack of manners driving off 
some potential friends, but her mother's lessons were addressing that 
issue at a rate that Nanoha found decidedly impressive, casting a 
rather ominous light on Naruto's lack of social skills.

    It was hardly the first time an ominous light had been cast on 
Naruto's experiences before he met Nanoha. While Naruto rarely spoke 
about his time in Konoha beyond superficial details, he did 
occasionally say things that were... disturbing, especially since 
Naruto apparently didn't realize that he'd said anything unusual.

    Nanoha's family provided her with even more cues that helped her to 
reach the conclusion that something had been spectacularly /wrong/ with 
Naruto's treatment there. She had found her mother trembling in rage on 
more than one occasion after she'd spent a while teaching Naruto, and 
Nanoha knew Momoko's reactions well enough to know that the anger 
wasn't directed at Naruto. In fact, she'd noticed similar reactions 
from her brother and sister after /their/ lessons.

    The real eye-opener, however, had been when Nanoha, concerned for her 
friend and wanting to know if there was anything she could do, spoke to 
one of her teachers about her suspicions. Yamakawa-sensei had gotten a 
strange look on her face for a moment before sighing and placing a hand 
on Nanoha's shoulder.

    "Nanoha-chan," she had explained, "we were told a few things about 
Naruto-kun when he came here. I wouldn't normally tell you this since 
we were asked to keep quiet about it, but I think that it would be 
better if you knew..."

    Nanoha had eagerly nodded in response, but while what she had 
discovered had answered a few of her questions, it mostly served to 
further arouse her ire. To think that Naruto-kun -- /her friend/ -- had 
been denied his heritage...

    Nanoha might have been from a fairly modern family in many ways, but 
she was still Japanese. As she defined herself in terms of her 
relationships with others, her family was an integral part of her. To 
deny someone their heritage -- their /family/ -- was to rob them of a 
key part of /who they were/. It was a nearly unspeakable crime, the 
committing of which would stain a family's honor for generations... 
assuming that they didn't all kill themselves out of the shame.

    As bad as that was, the crime against Naruto's birth family was 
actually /worse/ by traditional systems of honor. As far as they were 
concerned, denying someone their heritage was pretty much killing them 
in the most dishonorable manner imaginable... and if Naruto was the 
last of his family, doing so was not only equivalent to killing /him/ 
but equivalent to killing his /clan/.

    Nanoha's anger over that, however, was a pale shadow next to the other 
parts that she'd heard. The thought of Naruto being caught between a 
faction that wanted to use him as a weapon and a faction that wanted 
him dead....

    Nanoha forced herself away from that train of thought. He would /not/ 
be going back to that place. She wouldn't allow it.

    The matter did, however, answer why Naruto had been sent to her 
family. While they didn't talk about it much, Nanoha knew that her 
parents had once been... troubleshooters... for the Japanese 
government, and Nanoha knew that her brother would probably follow in 
their footsteps.

    But... that still left her wondering how she could help. When she'd 
spoken to her father about it, he'd promptly told her that she had the 
most important role to play out of all of them.

    Nanoha would revisit that thought as she and her friends headed to 
their juku. "Teach him the meaning of friendship, huh?"

-----------

    As Nanoha and her friends traveled to their juku Nanoha's thoughts 
were decidedly absent from their conversation. "Something that only I 
can do," she thought, "... but how?"

    "Hey, Nanoha," Suzuka inquired, "you've been pretty spaced out... is 
something on your mind?"

    "Yeah," Nanoha replied, "but it's not something I can really talk 
about."

    Suzuka nodded sympathetically, noticing Nanoha's brief glance at 
Naruto as they passed an young woman who was walking her dog. "Is there 
anything that we can do to help?"

    After a brief interruption consisting of the young woman's dog barking 
at Naruto and Alisa shouting back at the dog with English instructions 
to be quiet, Naruto decided to offer his own input. "Nanoha-chan, 
whatever it is, if there's anything we can do..."

    Alisa nodded emphatically, agreeing with her friends' sentiments. "You 
can count on us!"

    "Everyone," Nanoha fondly whispered before raising her voice to reply 
properly. "Thank you very much."

    Nanoha's proclamation was met by a few moments of embarrassed silence 
before Alisa suddenly ran ahead of the group. "Ah," she said, pointing 
to a path through a nearby wooded area, "over here! This is a shortcut 
to juku."

    "Really?" Suzuka asked.

    "Although the path's a bit worn-down," Alisa continued.

    With that, the group started walking down the path. After a few 
minutes of walking, however, Naruto tensed and moved in front of his 
friends.

    "What's wrong?" Suzuka asked.

    "Naruto-kun?"

    As her friends expressed their concern to Naruto, however, Nanoha's 
eyes widened in realization as she recognized where they were. "This is 
the place I saw last night in that dream...," she thought as her mind 
flashed back to the strange boy's fight.

    Alisa was even more concerned by Nanoha's reaction. "Nanoha?"

    "Ah, it's nothing," she remarked. "Sorry."

    "Are you alright?" Suzuka asked.

    "Yeah," Nanoha confirmed.

    "Then let's go," Alisa stated. "Naruto-kun?"

    Naruto nodded in agreement, but all three of them noticed that he 
seemed a bit tense. It was Suzuka who made the connection first, 
however -- between the way he was glancing into the woods and how he'd 
positioned himself...

    "Naruto-kun?"

    "Yes, Suzuka-chan?"

    "Are you expecting someone to attack us?"

    Naruto suddenly relaxed and scratched the back of his head. "I just 
had a strange dream last night..."

    Nanoha blinked. "You too? With that boy fighting a strange monster?"

    Naruto nodded. "Yeah... and this place..."

    "Is exactly like the place in the dream!"

    Naruto and Nanoha both suddenly blinked in unison. "Eeeh?"

    Their surprise, however, was interrupted by a sudden voice. "Help," it 
called out, as if in desperation.

    Alisa and Suzuka were startled as both of their friends suddenly 
looked to each other. "You heard that?" Nanoha asked.

    "Yeah."

    "Nanoha? Naruto-kun?"

    "A voice," Naruto explained, "someone calling for help."

    "Cut it out, you two," Alisa warned them. "It's not..."

    Alisa's statement was cut off by Naruto and Nanoha running off as the 
voice sounded again.

    "It came from this way," Naruto stated as he ran ahead at a pace that 
Nanoha was hard pressed to follow... but stopped before he got too far.

    "A ferret?" Nanoha asked, looking at the creature that was lying in 
the center of the road.

    "Under his head," Naruto warned.

    Nanoha kneeled down to get a closer look as the ferret's ears twitched 
and it looked up, meeting Nanoha's gaze.

    "Just like in the dream," Naruto muttered.

    With that, Alisa and Suzuka finally caught up with them.

    "What's wrong with you two?" Alisa asked. "Suddenly running off like 
that..."

    "Ah, look!" Suzuka told her.

    "An animal? It looks hurt..."

    "Yeah," Nanoha confirmed. "What should we do?"

    "Take it to a hospital?" Naruto suggested.

    "Not a hospital, a vet," Suzuka corrected.

    "I meant a hospital," Naruto stated. "Remember the dream, Nanoha-chan?"

    Nanoha blinked. "You mean that this animal is really..."

    "Yeah."

    "Cut it out, you two!" Alisa shouted. "There's no way that..."

    "I've seen stranger," Naruto pointed out. "Transformation is a basic 
technique that's taught in the Academy in Konoha."

    "There's no way...," Alisa insisted.

    Naruto simply placed his hands into a seal and was promptly surrounded 
by a blue glow. Alisa was stunned speechless.

    "M... maybe," Suzuka asked, "but even so, wouldn't it be suspicious 
taking an animal to a hospital?"

    "Umm," Nanoha interjected, "is there a vet somewhere near here?"

    "Ah... I think there's one somewhere around," Alisa hesitantly 
commented, still stunned by Naruto's display. She'd known that he was 
stronger and faster than most people, but this... no wonder those... 
things... had been trying to brainwash him into some kind of 
super-assassin.

    "Wait a second," Suzuka suggested, "I'll call my house and ask."

    With that, the ferret lied down in Nanoha's arms and lost 
consciousness, the red marble it wore around its neck like a pendant 
pressing into her wrist.

-----------

    "Well," the head veterinarian of the clinic Nanoha and company had 
taken the ferret to reported a while later, "its wound isn't all that 
deep, but it does look pretty weak. It's probably been on its own for a 
while."

    "Thank you very much," Nanoha stated, bowing. Nanoha's friends bowed a 
moment later, also thanking the vet.

    "Not at all," the vet, a rather young woman with light brown hair, 
replied, "you're welcome."

    "Sensei," Alisa asked, looking at where the light brown ferret was 
sleeping, its bandages covering its wounds, "this is a ferret, right?"

    "It might be a ferret, but it's certainly unique... and also," the 
doctor explained, pointing to the ferret's neck, "about this item on 
its collar, it looks like some sort of jewel..."

    With that, the ferret awoke and raised its head to meet the doctor's 
hand.

    "Ah," Suzuka observed, "it woke up!"

    Glancing around, the ferret's gaze took sight of the people in the 
room before it eventually settled on Nanoha. Staring at her with a 
mixture of gratitude and pleading, the ferret tried to convey its 
feelings to the girl.

    "Nanoha," Alisa commented, "you're being stared at."

    "Ah, yeah, umm... uh...," Nanoha embarassedly sputtered, not really 
knowing what to say, before slowly reaching out to the ferret, holding 
a single finger close to its nose. As she held her finger in place, the 
ferret gave her finger a couple of sniffs and promptly licked it.

    Naruto relaxed considerably at that while Nanoha sighed and smiled 
brightly, a notable blush adorning her face. Naruto found the scene 
quite cute.

    All moments end, however, and the ferret promptly flopped back into a 
resting position, curled around the red stone on its collar. As the 
four friends' expressions changed to ones of concern, the vet decided 
to speak up.

    "It would be best to let it rest, so why don't I watch over it until 
tomorrow?"

    "Yes," the four of them chimed in unison, "please do!"

    As the friends were leaving, the vet had some last words. "If you'd 
like, why don't you come and see how it's doing tomorrow?"

    "Okay!" the friends replied.

    "Ah," Suzuka remarked in sudden panic as she glanced at her watch, "oh 
no! It's time for juku!"

    "You're right," Alisa observed.

    "Well then, Doctor," Nanoha said, "thank you very much! We'll be back 
tomorrow!"

    With that the four friends headed to their juku as the clinic's head 
veterinarian smiled at them and waved goodbye.

-----------

    During juku, Nanoha and her friends passed a note back and forth, 
trying to work out where the ferret (or ferret changeling, as Naruto 
called him) could stay. Although Nanoha's family ran a food business, 
they felt that her family was their best bet as Alisa had dogs and 
Suzuka had cats. With that in mind, Nanoha and Naruto told the story to 
their family as they got ready to eat dinner.

    "So...," Nanoha finished, "I was wondering if maybe we could take in 
that ferret..."

    "Hmm," Shiro slowly said, crossing his arms, "a ferret changeling, 
huh?"

    "Yeah," Naruto agreed.

    "Well, we have seen stranger, haven't we, dear?" Momoko commented, 
lifting a tray of food and carrying it towards the table.

    Shiro nodded and leaned forward. "While we're on the subject, just 
what is a ferret?"

    Everyone at the table suddenly lost a good bit of tension as they 
became rather nonplussed. Naruto even managed to lose his balance on 
his chair, nearly falling off of it.

    "Naruto-kun, are you okay?" Nanoha asked in concern.

    Naruto grinned sheepishly. "Yeah, I'm fine."

    "It's a bit like a weasel, Dad," Kyouya explained.

    "They were really popular as pets a while back," Mayuki added.

    Shiro nodded again. "Naruto-kun, you mentioned that they taught a 
transformation technique at your... last school..., right? Do you think 
that he might be from Konoha?"

    Nanoha started at her father's question, not having thought of that 
possibility.

    Naruto shook his head seriously. "I might not know the technique, but 
I know that you can't maintain a transformation when you're 
unconscious. There might be a more advanced version, but whatever he 
did in that dream looked completely different."

    "Ferrets are pretty small, right?" Momoko asked, placing a tray of 
food on the table as she smoothly interrupted the forming discussion.

    Shiro was rather nonplussed at that. "You know what a ferret is?"

    "Umm," Nanoha said, holding her hands a bit apart, "it's about this 
big."

    "Taking care of him shouldn't be much of a problem, then," Momoko 
gently explained as she finished passing out the dishes, "but if he's 
really a transformed person, we need to know a bit more about him 
before we let him stay in our home. Kyouya, Miyuki, what do you say?"

    "I have to agree," Kyouya stated.

    "Same here," Miyuki agreed.

    "Well, there you go," Shiro explained.

    "Yeah," Nanoha said, somewhat pensive as she reflected on the rather 
important detail that she'd somehow managed to overlook.

    "I don't think he's an enemy," Momoko told her youngest daughter in a 
kindly voice, "but we can't be too careful, alright?"

    "Yes," Nanoha responded, her tone losing its pensive quality.

    "Now, then, let's all eat up before the food gets cold."

    "Okay!"

-----------

    Later that night, Naruto lay in bed, pondering the issue of the ferret 
changeling they'd found. While the whole transformation thing was 
suspicious, his techniques didn't seem like ninjutsu so it was unlikely 
that the boy was from a shinobi village... and other than the 
transformation he hadn't done anything to make him suspicious....

    In fact, he seemed to genuinely need help. Perhaps he was a 
hengeyoukai or something? Naruto had never heard of a ferret-youkai, 
but he supposed that it was /possible/.

    As he decided to simply wait and see, however, Naruto's ponderings 
were interrupted by a voice intruding into his thoughts.

    "Can you hear me? Can you hear my voice?" it called, causing Naruto to 
jump to his feet. "Please listen... You, who can hear my voice, please! 
Please... lend me a little of your strength!"

    "That ferret's voice...," Naruto observed.

    "Please, come to where I am...," the voice urgently pleaded. "The 
time... danger... already!"

    Hesitating briefly, Naruto threw on some more casual clothes and 
started running to the clinic. He didn't get very far before he ran 
into Nanoha, who had also gotten dressed and headed out.

    "You heard it, too?" he asked.

    "Yeah," Nanoha replied, still running.

    Naruto simply matched his pace to hers. Even if he could have made it 
to the clinic ahead of her, he didn't want to leave her alone on the 
streets at night.

    Nanoha was quite winded by the time that they arrived at the clinic. 
Naruto wasn't fazed by that, but something kept him on edge.

    "Careful," he warned, "something doesn't feel right..."

    Nanoha suddenly leaned forward and clutched her ears as a sudden wind 
blew through the area. "This sound again..."

    "Nanoha-chan! Are you alright?" Naruto asked, reaching to support his 
friend as the area was covered in a strange, reddish light. They stood 
watching for a moment before a beastly howl sounded.

    "Nanoha-chan," Naruto warned, "run!"

    Before she could move, however, the ferret they'd rescued earlier ran 
by them. Nanoha gasped.

    "That's..."

    Looking back as it heard Nanoha's words, the ferret barely managed to 
jump into a tree before the formless monster from Nanoha and Naruto's 
dream struck the space the rodent had just occupied. Unfortunately for 
the ferret, however, the monster continued its charge after impact, 
hitting the tree hard enough to break its trunk. As the tree fell, the 
ferret jumped off of the falling trunk, landing in Nanoha's arms with 
enough force to knock her over.

    "W-what's going on? What is that?" she asked, protectively sheltering 
the ferret with her arms as the monster that had attacked it struggled 
to remove itself from underneath the trunk of the tree that it had just 
knocked over.

    "You... came for me," the ferret observed, speaking out loud in the 
same voice it had used for its earlier calls.

    "It spoke!" Nanoha exclaimed.

    "Nanoha-chan," Naruto again warned, stepping between his friend and 
the monster, "RUN!"

    Naruto's warning was just in time, as the monster finally managed to 
throw off the remains of the tree and turned to face them, its violet 
eyes widening as it took an unmistakably agressive posture.

    "Umm," Nanoha said as she ran down the street, cradling the ferret to 
her chest as Naruto kept pace slightly behind her, "I don't really 
understand what's going on, but what is that thing? What's going on?"

    Naruto felt that he couldn't have phrased it better himself.

    "You're of the proper nature," the ferret stated. "Won't you lend me 
some of your strength?"

    "Proper nature?" Naruto asked.

    "I've come here from another world in search of something," the ferret 
continued, "but I might not have the power to handle the weight of 
doing so alone. That's why... I understand that it'd be a problem for 
you, but I want those with the proper nature to cooperate with me." The 
ferret jumped out of Nanoha's arms and, landing on the ground in front 
of her, turned to face Naruto's friend. "I'll repay you! I promise I 
will! I want you to use the power that I possess. Use my power... 
magical power..."

    "Magic...?" Nanoha replied as several clouds swirled and assumed the 
form of the monster that had been attacking them. Nanoha turned to face 
the monster with a gasp before being suddenly pushed to the side as the 
monster made a downwards charge, landing in the space she'd just 
vacated with enough force to embed its face in the pavement.

    Nanoha landed against a telephone pole and stared at Naruto, who'd 
taken a crouching stance and was facing the creature as it lifted 
itself from the pavement and turned to attack again. As it moved to 
jump, Naruto leapt at it, punching its amorphous body as hard as he 
could. While the creature was forced back slightly, it was otherwise 
unfazed.

    "Nanoha-chan," he told his friend as he dodged a swing of one of its 
flagella-like antennae, "please... run. I'll hold it off, so..."

    Nanoha moved back, her eyes widening as she saw her friend's dance 
inevitably fail. "I have to help him," she muttered. "but how?"

    "Take this," the ferret instructed, using its mouth to hold the round 
red sphere that had been around its neck out to her.

    "It's warm," Nanoha observed as she took the gem before shaking her 
head as Naruto inevitably missed one of his dodges and was sent into a 
nearby wall with enough force to crack the pavement. "But we don't have 
time for that!"

    "Hold that in your hand, close your eyes, and focus your mind," the 
strange rodent firmly insisted, "and then repeat what I say."

    Nanoha nodded, closing her hand around the marble-like object and 
followed his instructions as best she could.

    "I, who have accepted this mission," they chanted, "upon the ancient 
contract, command you to release your power. Wind in the sky... stars 
in the heavens... and a resolute heart within my chest! Magic within 
this hand, Raising Heart, set up!"

    "Stand by, ready," the gem responded in a somewhat mechanical voice as 
a beam of light pierced the sky, "set up."

    "Nanoha-chan," Naruto panted as he forced himself to stand and again 
face the monster. Clutching his side where the monster had struck, he 
took a moment to wipe a trail of blood that had dribbled down his lip. 
Idly noting that the light from the marble that Nanoha had taken to 
holding towards the sky as she chanted seemed to be repelling the 
creature, Naruto once again moved to attack.

    "What incredible magical power," the ferret muttered to itself, taken 
aback, before moving to instruct the girl. "Calm down and image -- that 
which allows you to use magic, the form of your magical staff... and 
that which will protect your body, a strong armor!"

    Determined, Nanoha closed her eyes and went with the first thing that 
came to mind. She was promptly bathed in light as her clothes vanished 
and Raising Heart expanded, becoming a sphere slightly larger than 
Nanoha's hand. An open ring of metal formed around the sphere, the 
segment that would have fully closed it protruding at an angle as two 
cyllindrical objects attached to the bottom of the ring. A pink and 
white staff attached to the area between and slightly below them, 
completing the rather stylized weapon. As Nanoha reached to grab it, 
her clothes were replaced piece by piece with an outfit that bore a 
rather strong resemblance to Nanoha's school uniform, ableit stylized 
and crossed with a stereotypical magical girl outfit.

    "It's a success," the ferret remarked.

    Seeing the transformation out of the corner of his eye, Naruto once 
again pulled himself to his feet, ignoring the pain that the creature 
had caused him when one of its antennae had sent him crashing into a 
wall for the second time that night. Naruto coughed up blood, 
desperately wishing he'd brought a weapon of some sort with him. 
Feeling a surge of strength within him, Naruto once again moved to 
attack the creature, hoping to at least distract it from his first and 
most precious friend.

    Naruto's fist clashed with one of the creature's antennae and, for one 
moment, the two seemed nearly equal in power. Had Nanoha been paying 
attention to the details of her friend's appearance, she would have 
noticed that his eyes, normally the color of a brilliant sapphire, had 
changed to a ruby shade and his pupils had turned to slits as he poured 
everything he had into one desperate attack.

-----------

    A.N.: For those of you wondering, answers will be coming... later in 
the story. Much later, actually.