[Hope in Ruination] Chapter 3 -  Ifrit

Carrying specialised hextech lamps, two dozen people started descending into the coal mine one after another. 

“How does this work, anyway?” Naruto asked the scout curiously. 

“Lighting the way with torches can be dangerous. His Majesty wishes to ensure the safety of his subjects when working in the mine, so he also bought hextech lamps for the workers.”

“Yeah, cool, nice of him. But how does this lamp actually work?” 

“That. . . I do not know, sorry. I am not an engineer.”

A sigh came from Vayne, who was nearby and happened to hear their conversation. 

“You don’t have to be an engineer to know how a damn lamp works,” she said, rolling her eyes. “It runs on Hextech crystals. Think of them as magic stones. But I very much doubt that the king bought enough of these lamps for all the workers. Anything hextech-related goes for exorbitant prices.”

“So these are probably just for him to show off to us?” said Naruto in amusement.

The scout’s embarrassment was almost palpable when the other mercenaries started laughing too. 

‘Freaking barbarians,’ he inwardly cussed. 

But that was all he did. The scout knew better than to kick up a ruckus because, at the end of the day, they were mercenaries; they had no loyalty to his king or to any king for that matter. That’s how most mercenaries, monster hunters, and sellswords in Runeterra were: they went wherever the job took them and did whatever their employer asked for money. 

Time passed, and soon they were more than 1 kilometre underground. By now, all the mercenaries started sweating and breathing a bit heavily. It was not only because of their heavy equipment, armour, and their quick pace; it was also because the deeper they went into the mine, the hotter it became. 

‘Is it because of the demon?’ Naruto wondered. The scout had informed them that they were going to battle a fire demon. 

“Unlikely. I don’t sense that demon anywhere near us,” Kyuubi unexpectedly replied. “I think it’s just that the closer you get to the core of the planet, the hotter it gets.”

‘Get out of my head, asshole.’

“Maybe you should just think quietly instead of talking to yourself.”

‘What?! How the hell do I think quietly?!’

“Why do you ask me? Figure it out yourself, idiot.”

And, just like that, man and fox started an argument that lasted nearly half an hour. They were bickering worse than an old married couple. They only stopped when it looked like they reached their destination.

“This is as far I can go with you,” said the scout, stopping at the end of a tunnel, at the mouth of a wide and deep cavern. “If you could give me the lamps for safekeeping, please? I will wait for you in the mine, a fair distance away, to safety.”

The group of mercenaries didn’t object to his request and handed him their lamps because they could see a bright light at the end of the tunnel; they wouldn’t need them where they were going. 

“By Targon. . .” one of them said in a whisper when he approached the end of the tunnel and looked into the cavern below. 

His exclamation drew the others’ curiosity, and they also came closer to the cavern’s entrance. Their approach, however, alerted the demon’s attention, and he let out a bellow that shook the cavern and the tunnel, nearly deafening them. 

That mere roar was enough to make them take several steps back in terror. Naruto could sense that fear gripped the hearts of the men and women next to him. But he could not blame them for it. The creature roaring below them truly deserved its name. 

It was an enormous minotaur-like demon made of lava and rocks. His presence alone was enough to send running even the bravest of men. 

“I can hear you, rats, hiding in the tunnel. Come out and face Ifrit! You came into my realm, you’ll stay here forever!” the demon screamed.

Nobody understood his demonic tongue, but they could all guess the meaning of his words judging from his posture: the demon was resting his hands on the pommel of a broadsword as long as he was tall and glaring at them in disdain. 

“Fuck that! That’s not what you told us!” one of the mercenaries shouted at the scout. 

“What exactly is different from what I told you? I told you that you would be facing a fire demon who wields a broadsword. I even told you its attack patterns and what magic spells he used against us last time.”

“You forgot to mention it’s over 10 fucking metres tall!” another one among the mercenaries shouted. “You never said it was made of lava either. What the hell are bullets and swords supposed to do against that? Are you kidding me right now?”

More than half of the mercenaries turned on their heels and started running back the way they came from, rushing towards the surface. 

“That’s why I wanted to do this job alone. I knew the rabble would drag me down,” said Vayne in disdain.

While the remaining mercenaries were at an impasse, not sure about whether to go on with the mission or retreat and run for their lives, Naruto grabbed the handle of his polearm and jumped down into the cavern below.

Vayne also grabbed the huge crossbow strapped to her back (the small arm-mounted crossbow would be of no use against such a large demon) and jumped after him too. 

Seeing the two of them going ahead made the mercenaries clench their teeth in frustration.

“Damn it, I’m probably going to regret this tomorrow,” said a rough-looking, muscular man with stubble on his face and a bandana around his head. He grabbed his cannon-like weapon (for it couldn’t really be called a rifle) and hopped off from the tunnel too, dropping down into the cavern. 

Alas, he was one of the braver ones. Half of the remaining ones chose instead to run away, like the first wave of mercenaries. Out of the 25 or so members at the start, only 5 remained, Vayne and Naruto included. 

The fire demon roared in delight at the sight of his prey and pulled his broadsword out of the ground. He swang his large weapon a few times excitedly, sending waves of flames all around him. 

A silver bolt punctured the wall of flames he conjured and nailed the demon in the throat, abruptly cutting off his celebration. It was not the first time Ifrit had been attacked by arrows (the king’s warriors had pelted him with their arrows), but it was the first time he felt actual pain from them. 

Vayne’s projectiles were all made of silver, which was a common weakness for most demons. The demon’s hand sizzled and burned, a burn different from his own lava, as he pulled the 4-foot-long silver arrow out of his neck. Although silver was his weakness, it would take far more than just a single arrow to defeat him. 

The demon screamed, and, despite his enormous body, he jumped several good metres in the air as he lunged at Vayne, swinging his large broadsword with both hands. 

A deafening boom was heard as the man with the cannon-like rifle fired a round at the demon, nailing him straight in the temple. Unfortunately, it was not a silver bullet, so it could not penetrate his skull. It was no different from a blunt, albeit powerful hit, but it did make the demon wobble back, stopping his charge before he could reach the crossbow-wielding woman. 

At that moment, Naruto also sprang into action and leapt above the demon, his poleaxe raised above his head. Blue water engulfed his weapon, and he hacked at the demon’s cow-like head with his entire strength. 

Ifrit let out a scream of pain as the Suiton-infused poleaxe left a deep wound in his skull, and he swung his broadsword in front of him wildly, forcing Naruto to jump back before he could deal the finishing blow. 

“Insect! You dare?!” he screamed while gripping his hand over his forehead, trying to stop the lava pouring out of the gaping wound in his skull. 

“Tsk. He’s tough,” Naruto clicked his tongue in annoyance. It had been a hit with his entire strength and with Water-release chakra coating his weapon, the counter for the demon’s lava-like body but it was still not fatal.

“Maybe don’t go for the head next time, moron. Is it not common knowledge that the head is the toughest part of any creature with horns? Shouldn’t shinobi go for their enemy's weakness?” Kyuubi ridiculed him. 

While Kyuubi started mocking Naruto, the other two mercenaries who had been waiting for their turn to attack until then made their move. 

A woman holding a staff with a blue gem encrusted at its tip unexpectedly conjured a long lance of ice out of thin air. It appeared that her staying behind had not been mere foolishness. She was an ice mage. 

As for the remaining person, it was a young man wearing plate armour and wielding a large and heavy warhammer. His steps left heavy footprints on the rocky floor as he ran at the demon and swung his warhammer ferociously at Ifrit's ankles. 

Unfortunately, despite how violent and strong he looked, his strike only chipped some small pieces of rock off the demon’s foot. Not only that his hit did not injure Ifrit that much, but the young man’s war hammer was melted off at the contact with the demon’s lava skin too. 

Ifrit brought his enormous broadsword in front of him like a shield, blocking the female mage’s ice lance and then swung his weapon at the one who had attacked his ankles.

The young man died a gruesome death, his body cleaved in half, vertically. 

At that moment, Vayne fired another silver bolt from her giant crossbow, striking the demon straight in the eye. An inhuman roar of agony burst from the demon’s chest, so loud that the entire cavern started shaking like during an earthquake. 

“He’s going to collapse the whole place! Run up the tunnel we came through!” Naruto shouted as large chunks of rocks and boulders started breaking off and falling from the ceiling.

The cannon-rifle wielder fired another round at the demon’s head, aiming for his remaining eye, but Ifrit blocked the bullet with his hand and threw his broadsword at the attacker. 

Naruto appeared in front of the rifleman with a body-flicker movement and swung his poleaxe at the massive broadsword, smashing it to the side. 

“T-Thank you!” the rough-looking man stammered his thanks before breaking into a sprint towards the exit of the cavern. 

The female mage was quick to run after the rifleman, but before disappearing into the tunnel, she turned to look at the demon one more time and aimed her staff at him:

“Frostbolt!” she shouted, casting the strongest spell she was capable of. 

Vayne fired one more silver bolt from her large crossbow too before running into the tunnel as well. 

With a silver arrow sticking out of his eye and one stabbed deeply into his knee, and with the frost bolt having rendered his left arm immobile, the demon screamed in agony and rage. 

“Ifrit will kill you all!” 

A sphere of fire gathered in front of his bovine snout, and the bright colour of his lava-skin decreased in intensity the more magic he put into his attack. 

“Haha! Look at him! It’s almost like a bijuudama!” Kyuubi laughed in schadenfreude from inside Naruto’s seal. 

Naruto ran towards the tunnel too, all the while screaming inwardly at the fox:

‘How about you help me for once instead of laughing at me, asshole?’

“Hmpf! Dream on! I told you not to come to me asking for help anymore!”

‘If I die, you’ll die too. Are you really okay with that?!’ Naruto shouted, trying to reason with him. 

But the bijuu terminated their mental connection. 

“Don’t stop running!” Naruto yelled at Vayne, the rifleman, and the female mage when he caught up to them. “It’s about to cast a big fire attack! If he fires that underground, we’re all toasted!”

The four of them ran as if the devil was on their tail, but they just weren’t fast enough. The end of the tunnel was lit up by a blinding, deep-red colour and an intense heat came from their back, almost setting their hair on fire. 

Before the massive vortex of fire could engulf all of them, Naruto turned around and placed his massive poleaxe in front of him, infusing as much Suiton chakra into it as he could. Simultaneously, a cloak of crimson-red energy visible to the naked eye engulfed his body. His nails turned into claws, his eyes became slit and red, and a fox-like tail of energy appeared at his back. That was the maximum amount of chakra he could snatch from Kyuubi against his will. 

Despite the chakra cloak protecting his body, the demon’s massive fire attack was not that easily repelled. His clothes were set on fire, and so was his mask too, revealing the dark, thick whisker-like marks on his face. The intense heat also burned off his bamboo hat and scorched his eyebrows and forehead.

However, he endured. Despite the agonising pain, he stood his ground and clenched his teeth as he poured his entire chakra into his weapon, using it to block off the brunt of the attack.

He was not doing it for the people behind him (after all, they had only just met; they were only strangers), but because he knew that if he had not turned around to block the attack with his entire strength, he would have died together with them. 

Eventually, the vortex of fire lost its strength, and the spell came to an end, leaving behind a thoroughly scorched and ablaze tunnel. 

Vayne, the rifleman, and the female mage could not help stopping and staring in disbelief at Naruto, who had saved their lives. 

Although a great amount of steam had filled the tunnel from the contact between the demon’s fire attack and Naruto’s Suiton-covered weapon, Vayne could still distinguish his appearance. 

“You saved our lives again,” the rough-looking rifleman said in gratitude, and the female mage also rushed towards Naruto to check up on his wounds and make sure that he was still alive. 

However, before the ice mage could get to the kneeling Naruto, Vayne notched a bolt into the small crossbow mounted on her right forearm and fired!

Naruto let out a moan of pain as the silver bolt stabbed deeply into his back, almost puncturing one of his lungs. 

“What the hell are you doing, you crazy bitch?!” the rifleman screamed at Vayne and grabbed his huge cannon-like rifle, aiming it at her. 

Naruto himself was also stunned, in disbelief, never having expected, not even in his wildest dreams, that the people whose lives he had just saved would try to kill him. 

“Step aside from him if you don’t want to die!” Vayne spat at the female mage who had placed herself between Naruto and Vayne, protecting him with her body. 

“Are you out of your mind?! He just saved our lives!”

In spite of the fact that the mage and the riflemen were aiming their weapons at her, Vayne was not intimidated or impressed in the least. 

“Just look at him. Does that thing look like a human to you?" Vayne shouted, her voice filled with hatred. "I know a demon when I see one; I’ve hunted dozens of them. And that is a demon.”

The other two looked at Naruto just in time to see how the burned flesh on his face and arm started healing like a miracle, with even his scorched hair growing back. They did not miss the 3 pairs of whisker-like birthmarks on his cheeks either. 

“That doesn’t say anything!” the female mage shouted in anger, and five icicles appeared in front of her. “He could very well be a vastaya! And even if he were a demon, so what? He saved our lives! He saved your damn life too, you crazy witch!”

While they were arguing, Naruto’s wounds finished healing up, so he stood up to his feet and turned towards them. He grabbed the handle of his scorched and battered poleaxe, and a strong gust of wind blew in the tunnel as he launched himself at Vayne, immediately closing the distance between them. 

The woman fired her small crossbow at him once again, but Naruto blocked the arrow with his poleaxe and threw a savage front kick into her chest. Blood and spittle flew from Vayne’s mouth and a sound like that of bones snapping was heard as she was smashed back violently, like a cannonball. 

He quickly ran after her but, inexplicably, upon arriving at the spot where her body was supposed to have crashed, the monster hunter was nowhere to be seen. 

“God damn it!” Naruto cursed. “Invisibility again? Does everyone and their grandma turn invisible on this fucking continent?!”

He put his weapon down for a moment and grunted as he ripped the bolt sticking out of his back.

“Are you alright, sir?” asked the rifleman. He was nearly twice Naruto’s age, but the strength that the blond had displayed made him unconsciously talk to him with respect. 

“I’m fine,” said Naruto as he hoisted the big poleaxe on his shoulder and started walking back towards the cavern. “I’m going to finish off that demon.”

“Are you sure about that??” asked the female mage in a mixture of worry and disbelief. 

“Your ice magic and that psycho's silver bots dealt some serious damage. I also split his head open with my axe. I’m sure the demon is on his last legs after firing that powerful attack.” 

The rifleman and the mage glanced at each other. 

“You’ve saved our lives, and I’m grateful for it. Truly. But I’m sorry, I can’t follow you back to that demon,” said the rifleman, glancing down at his feet, unable to meet his eyes. 

Naruto smiled. “Don’t worry, old man. I got this. Could you keep an eye on my backpack until I return? Shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes.”

“Good luck,” the ice mage muttered quietly, embarrassed at the fact that she was not brave enough to continue fighting. The last attack that the demon had fired had put the fear of death into her as well. “Don’t worry, we’ll wait for you a bit higher up. And we’ll also keep an eye on the tunnel so that crazy bitch doesn’t come back.”

Leaving the two behind him, Naruto broke into a run towards the cavern where the demon resided. 

Dropping down into the cavern below, he smirked when he took in the sight of the demon, who had seeming turned into a grotesque statue. 

“As I thought.”

It appeared as though Ifrit had used his own lifeblood of sorts to fire that attack. Most of the lava his body used to consist of was gone, leaving only a smouldering formation of rocks in the shape of a giant minotaur. 

“How. . . are you still. . . alive?” the demon asked with difficulty. 

Naruto didn’t bother giving him an answer. Now that the lava covering Ifrit’s body was gone and only rocks remained, he infused his poleaxe with Raiton chakra, the element that countered earth, and leapt towards the demon. 

Petrified and devoid of strength, Ifrit could not even raise his arms to defend himself. Naruto’s polearm sliced through his neck effortlessly, beheading him in one go. 


⁂


One month and a half later, Naruto found himself on the other end of the Valoran continent, all the way to Piltover, which was also known as the industrial heart of Runeterra. 

Whereas the vast majority of people in Runeterra lived in modest houses or huts, rode horses, and walked on dirt roads, Piltover looked like a city out of a dream with its clean and well-maintained paved roads, beautiful plazas, flying ships, countless orderly buildings with colourful roofs, and enormous towers that pierced the skies.

The “City of Progress” was a sight to behold, and Naruto had been rather impressed the first time he visited the city too. Of all the places he had been to in Runeterra, only the Great City of Demacia with its pure white buildings, majestic architecture, and fantastic sculptures could be considered more beautiful.

Nevertheless, this time he had not come to Piltover for sightseeing but for business. He came for the sake of having his arm looked at. 

‘I don’t know whether this arm was a blessing or a curse,’ he thought in chagrin as he looked down at his metallic left arm, closing and opening his fist a few times. 

It was fascinating what humans on this side of the world came up with. He could never imagine someone back on the continent of the Elemental Nations possessing that sort of technology.

Having gotten a hextech arm had brought some sense of normalcy back into his life. He could eat, wash his clothes, and do other miscellaneous, daily tasks without suffering from being a cripple. 

“How are the sensory receptors now?” asked Heimerdinger. 

He was a tiny, furry being with blonde hair, long, pointy ears, and a big white moustache. He was a Yordle, one of the many new creatures that Naruto had never seen before coming to Valoran. 

Yordles were people just like him, and some of them were even smarter. Heimerdinger, in particular, was a world-renowned tinkerer and a pioneer in the field of hextech technology. Thanks to ridding him of the infernal demon, Ifrit, the King of Admavar had kept his promise and introduced Naruto to one of the best inventors in the field for the sake of making a hextech arm for him. 

“There’s still a small delay between my thoughts and the arm’s movement,” said Naruto. 

“Hmm, I’m afraid that this is the best I can do with this particular model. It’s the limitation of the hardware. If you wish to purchase a newer hextech prosthetic, you could-”

“I can’t afford something like that just yet. I’m just a sellsword,” he said, chuckling. 

“A mere sellsword wouldn’t behead a demon as powerful as Ifrit in one strike,” the Yordle said with a smile. “But I would advise you to avoid using the hextech arm in combat as much as possible. Your model is not suited for withstanding powerful shocks.”

True to his words, it was Naruto’s second time coming to Piltover for the sake of having his hextech arm fixed. And while the king of Admavar had given Naruto the funds and the connections for the sake of manufacturing the arm, the cost of maintaining it was something he had to cover by himself. 

Heimerdinger was a fantastic engineer and tinkerer, but on the flip side, a person of his skills could not be hired for peanuts. Coming to him two times to get his hextech arm repaired had left a sizeable hole in Naruto’s finances. 


⁂


Initially part of the same city, Piltover and Zaun were currently divided by a sea strait, one of their own making. It resulted after they bombed the narrow strip of land connecting the Valoran and Shurima continents, thus creating a strait that led to a revolutionary change in the routes taken by the merchants who travelled by sea. 

This change skyrocketed Piltover into becoming the prosperous city-state of today. However, while Piltover was known as the “City of Progress”, its counterpart and immediate neighbour, Zaun, became known in time as the “City of Iron and Glass”. Unlike Piltover’s clean, bright, and beautiful ambience, Zaun was more like a large industrial area perpetually covered in fog and steam. 

To make a long story short, Zaun could be likened to the slum of Piltover, the place where all the poor people, outlaws, and seedy characters gathered. And that was also where Naruto went to look for a new bounty. After all, such places were normally not found in the good districts of a city. They were always in the seedier parts of a town, more often than not in the slums. 

The moment he stepped through the dingy pub, he felt more than a dozen eyes training on him. However, when they noticed his hextech arm and the immense polearm strapped at his back, those gazes left his silhouette right away. 

Channelling his chakra into his ears, he could make out the things they were whispering amongst themselves. 

“That hextech arm must’ve cost a fortune. How about we-”

“Don’t even think about it. Do you have any idea who that guy is? 

“The hextech arm, the massive polearm, the bamboo hat, and the mask on his face. . . Don’t tell me!”

“Holy shit, is that Ifrit? What's a big shot like him doing here?”

Over the past year since he arrived in Valoran, Naruto had slowly but steadily made a name for himself as a powerful and reliable sellsword, as a man who never went back on his word. 

However, ever since he carried the fire demon’s enormous bullhead to the King of Admavar’s palace as proof of his subjugation of Ifrit, word of his deeds spread out like wildfire. While his fame could still not be compared to that of people such as Garen, the Might of Demacia, Irelia, the hero of Navori, or Darius, the Hand of Noxus, he still became very well-known among his fellow mercs and monster hunters. 

Naruto did not dislike it. He was proud of the reputation he had built as a result of his hard work. Furthermore, having made a name for himself, most of the scoundrels avoided causing him problems nowadays. 

Ordering a big mug of ale from the barkeeper, he went to the request board and took a look over the missions pinned on it. 

‘This city is really filled with psychos.’

None of the missions up on the board attracted his attention, for they were all about either assassination or robbery, and most of them were related to drugs, gangs, and hextech in one way or another. 

Going back to his table, Naruto drank his mug of ale in peace, ignoring the drunkards who started throwing hands at each other in the back of the pub. It was a common occurrence not only here, in Runeterra, but on the continent of the Elemental Nations too. He had long since gotten used to such sights. 

He was just about done with his drink when the pub’s door was opened and two children stepped inside timidly.

Their clothes were dirty and patched all over, their feet were bare, and their faces were dark with the fumes coming from the coal factories ever present in every district of Zaun. 

“Bugger off brats, we ain’t accepting beggars here!” the barkeeper screamed when he saw them. 

One of the children recoiled at the shout, but the other glared at the barkeeper defiantly. 

“We aren’t here to beg!”

"Oh, really now? Then pray tell, what sort of business would dirty, snot-nosed kids like you have in my pub?”

The rest of the patrons in the pub cackled with laughter at the kids, who now looked like they were on the verge of crying. 

“We came here to put up a job!”

The drunkards started laughing even harder, beating their tables with their fists. 

“And pay them what? Bwahaha! Unless you plan on selling your organs?”

“I have money! Look! Here!” the girl said and showed them a small pouch with a couple of Golden Hexes in it. 

“Hmm, you brats actually got coin?” one of the men sitting at a nearby table said as he stood up and walked to them. “Let me see—hey,  don’t be like that; I’ll just check to make sure they are real.”

Not leaving the girl any chance to protest, he snatched the bag of coins from her hands. He grabbed a coin and bit on it. 

“Yeah, no, these coins aren’t real. Imma keep ‘em so you little shits don’t try to scam another poor and honest soul in the future.”

The girl’s face flushed with anger. 

“Give me back my money!” she yelled. “Ugly skinhead, why would you steal them? We worked in the factory for months to get this!”

“Oy, oy, Razam, I knew you were scummy but not stealing-money-from-homeless-kids kind of scummy,” one of the drunkards said, making everyone burst into laughter once more. It may have seemed like he was admonishing him but it was anything but that. Nobody was making any move to defend the kids. 

“Give us back our money!” the younger boy who had been hiding behind the girl’s back until then also shouted. “We need that money to see our parents!”

In his naivete, the boy ran up to the bald man and tried to kick him in the shin, but a nasty backhand across the face sent him flying back like a broken kite. 

“Ain’t your parents dead? You look like orphans to me. I know your sort. You don’t need money to see them. Come, I’ll send you to them for free,” the bald and skinny man said as he drew a curved dagger from his waist. 

It was at that moment that Naruto stood up from his table, the noise of his chair dragging against the floor loudly making quite a few heads turn at him. He grabbed the immense weapon from where it was leaning against the table and walked towards the entrance of the pub, where the bald man and the kids were. 

“W-What, you want a piece of me too? Huh?” the baldie tried to sound tough, but his body language betrayed how terrified he became with every step Naruto took closer to him. 

“Give the kids back their money,” he said calmly. 

“Who died and made you boss? Fuck outta here, you-”

His words were cut off as Naruto’s hextech arm suddenly grabbed him by the face and lifted him in the air. 

Half a dozen customers in the pub abruptly stood up, their hands going to their daggers, guns, and machetes. 

“Try me,” Naruto said, chuckling coldly.

His large polearm was suddenly covered in powerful red flames. 

He became known among other mercenaries as “Ifrit” not just because he was the one to kill the demon but also because of his ability to infuse his weapon with fire. 

Nobody dared make a move even as they watched their comrade struggling and screaming like a dying pig in the hextech hand’s vice-like grip. 

“I-I’ll give ‘em the money. Here, take it! Just don’t kill me!” the bald man said in a panic, throwing the small bag of coins to the floor. 

Naruto let go of him, and he dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes. 

“Go on, kid, take your money,” he told the two children, who were terrified after watching him ignite his poleaxe.

The girl quickly picked up her bag of coins from the floor, took her younger brother’s hand, and ran away from the pub. 

Walking outside after them, he noticed that they were waiting for him. 

“What are you two still doing here? I won’t be around to save your hide again. You should know better than to spend your time around this part of the town.”

The girl looked up at him, her eyes not shying away from his. 

“We can’t leave until we get an escort. We need someone to help us meet our parents.”

Naruto let out a sigh. He wasn’t good with children. 

“Who do you think is going to take a bunch of kids seriously? They’ll just steal your money and leave you behind crying, or worse, just like before.”

The girl could not refuse his words. She didn’t know what to say for a while. 

“Help us,” the timid-looking boy unexpectedly spoke up. “We’ll pay you. We’ll give you everything we have! If this money is not enough, we also have some parts we salvaged from the junkyard. They could make you some money on the black market, I promise!”

Their pleading faces and their big, watery eyes struck a chord in him. 

‘I was just like them a few years ago.’

He could not help seeing himself in their image. He was only 12 years old when he ran away from Konohagakure no Sato after stealing the Scroll of Seals. He knew nothing about the towns around Konoha, let alone about the geography of the continent. 

‘If it wasn’t for Kurama, I wouldn’t have made it this far. . .’

With Konoha’s black ops operatives on his trail and an international organisation of terrorists gunning after his head too, it was nothing short of a miracle that he had survived for so long. 

‘I had some help. . . but they don’t have anybody.’

In spite of his better judgment, he found it impossible to turn his back on them. 

“. . .What exactly do you want me to do?” he asked eventually. 

Momentarily, the children were in a stupor. It was as if they couldn’t believe their ears. 

“You- You’ll help us?! Truly??”

“I’ll need to hear what you need help with first.”

“We have to go to Ionia!” the little girl said, clenching her small fists in a mixture of excitement and anxiety. “We can meet our parents there!”

Naruto glanced at the few Golden Hexes in the girl’s bag and then at their hopeful faces. That money was not enough to even travel to Piltover, which was just across the strait, to speak nothing of sailing across the sea, all the way to Ionia. 

Another long, drawn-out sigh came from his chest. 

⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂

AN: Think of the demon as a bigger, broadsword-wielding version of the Balrog from the Lord of the Rings.

AN2: it was foreshadowed in the previous chapter that Vayne would do something insane. And it's entirely in tune with her lore in the canon. She is so obsessed with vengeance that she even killed her adoptive mother, without as much as blinking, when she realised that she was a demon (despite the fact that her adoptive mother had saved her life multiple times and had raised and trained her for years).

I have attached some pictures for people who are not very familiar with League of Legends to better visualize the characters in the story.

1. Vayne

2. Evenlynn, demon form (from the previous chapter)

3. Heimerdinger