Atlas

by ZAFO

Summary: A mid-air scuffle lands their rheairds awry; Zelos and Genis crash into Wind Country, and try not to kill each other before the others come save them. Friendship fic. Naruto crossover.

A/N: No, I have not abandoned any of my other stories... but when inspiration hits, you just gotta write! :)

—

Chapter One: Two Redheads and a Half-elf

Genis never bothered to hide the fact that Zelos annoyed him, and in turn, Zelos often proclaimed that Genis was a spoiled brat. At first, the animosity between them stemmed from conflicting personalities; over time, however, somehow the animosity between them became centered on Lloyd.

Genis couldn't pinpoint when it had happened. One day, he was the swordsman's best best friend—the next, he was watching Lloyd and Zelos have a quiet heart-to-heart on the balcony in Flanoir, feeling hurt and jealous after being so casually turned down just moments before. It wasn't fair.

Zelos Wilder was an arrogant pervert. Sure, he was older than him and funnier than him and faster than him and...and stronger than him too, but just because he couldn't physically keep up with Lloyd in battle, didn't mean that those six years of friendship in Iselia meant nothing. Right? The swordsman had known Zelos for a grand total of three months, maybe four. There was just no way...

Lloyd, for the most part, was blissfully unaware of their rising hostility—though truth be told, the half-elf didn't want him to know.

For a full-blooded human, Lloyd was painfully earnest. Genis didn't want to hear the very likely answer that he loved them both equally. What would the words "best friend" mean then?

Nonetheless, just because Lloyd was oblivious didn't mean that everyone else was.

Genis glared at the redhead as he 'accidentally' bumped their rheairds again—conveniently displacing him from Lloyd's side in the process. His temper flared.

"ZELOS! Stop cutting me off!"

The chosen scowled, long hair whipping furiously around his face in the wind.

"It was an ACCIDENT, you twerp!"

"Not this again." Sheena groaned.

Lloyd grimaced. This time, the tension was too thick not to notice.

"Oh c'mon, guys..."

"No!" Argued Zelos, gesturing angrily at their youngest group member. "This kid's always on my case! He's looking for a fight, I swear to Spiritua!"

"Stop calling me a kid!" Genis seethed. "Who killed that ogre back near the mountains? Me!"

"And who healed your sorry butt when it was all over?"

"You think you're so great!" The half-elf howled. "I never asked you to! Besides, Raine's healing is 10x better!"

"That's enough!" Raine interjected irritably. "Don't drag me into this! Both of you are acting ridiculous!"

"It is getting rather redundant." Regal agreed.

"This is inefficient." Persia added sternly. "You are slowing us down."

Genis couldn't help but flinch at the tone in her voice, looking to her with hurt in his eyes.

"But, Presea—"

"—awww," Zelos cooed mockingly. "Is the wittle schoolboy feeling RE-JECT-ED?"

"Zelos!" Colette gasped.

"SHUT UP, STUPID!" Genis yelled.

"ENOUGH!" Shouted Raine. "Both of you, stop bickering!"

"HE STARTED IT!" They snapped simultaneously.

"Alright." Lloyd moaned. They were fast approaching the Flanoir renegade base now. "You guys have been arguing whole way here. Can you stop?"

Sheena rolled her eyes.

"You know they're not gonna. I have a better idea—just send 'em to the back. That way they can kill each other without slowing the rest of us down."

"That's unnecessary!" Zelos protested.

"Wait, n-no!" The half-elf stuttered.

Raine maneuvered her rheaird in front of Genis with great exasperation.

"Sheena's on to something." She huffed. "I second that notion!"

Presea nodded. "I agree."

The pinkette moved in to cut off Zelos as well. The chosen looked bewildered.

Regal sighed, following her lead.

"It will be for the best." He murmured.

Genis gaped at his backside.

"Umm...ahh...I think so too." Colette said hesitantly.

She cut them both off, keeping her eyes on the skies.

"LLOYD!" Genis called desperately.

"BUD!" Zelos wailed.

Still at the front of their formation, the swordsman merely shook his head before turning back to the upcoming dimensional warp.

"No." He said resolutely. "I agree with Sheena. I dunno what's up with you guys, but this is serious. We need to get going!"

Having been grossly outvoted, Genis felt a morose sort of irritation at being dumped to the back. Lloyd, as their de-facto leader, always rode in front. It was a silly, dramatic thought, but the half-elf felt as if being sent to the back was like a death sentence for their friendship. He just wanted to be close to Lloyd...

These days, their group was always busy fighting. In air, however, their rheaird flights presented the only interludes of peace viable for complete conversation.

Genis narrowed his eyes.

This. Was. All. Zelos's. Fault.

Apparently, the chosen was having similar thoughts. Zelos revved his engine menacingly at the mage before flying closer and hissing at him:

"I'll get you for this, you little brat!"

Genis shot a quick glance at his sister (who was, thankfully, ignoring them both) before snarling right back at Zelos.

"Call me that again, and I'll—"

"—you'll what?" Zelos snorted. "Beat me up?"

As they bickered, one by one their group had been disappearing into the mana sphere above the renegade base. There was just the two of them now.

Now, however, without the collective disapproval of his friends hovering over them, Genis felt a sudden surge of unholy vehemence. Upon noticing the murderous look on the boy's face, Zelos hurriedly unsheathed his sword as Genis drew out his kendama. Their exspheres flashed red.

"AQUA EDGE!" Genis screamed, as three globs of water shot towards the redhead.

"DEMON FANG!" Zelos countered, deflecting them easily.

The consequences of their scuffle were explosive. The powerful spike of energy from Zelos, combined with the dense masses of water from Genis, hit the projection mount below the dimensional transfer portal with a deafening bang!

The warp glitched.

Having still been in motion, Genis and Zelos went through it anyway.

—

"KATSU!"

Another bird detonated, and Deidara smirked in grim satisfaction as Gaara's claws of sand burst apart. Like a general commanding his army, Deidara simply sent another flock of the deadly creatures flying over, watching as the redhead attempted to shield himself against them.

They exploded without result. In only an instant, Gaara had managed to surround himself with a thick, protective shell of sand. The egg-like sphere hovered before him in challenge.

Well, good. Deidara liked a target who could fight back.

On cue, a mammoth claw of sand budded from the sphere and sprang at him; the hole it left behind exposing Gaara's stoic face from inside. Deidara dodged deftly, but the Kazekage was more skilled than he'd given him credit for. Alarm barely registered as the claw split in two, extended, then engulfed the missing-nin's left arm like a boa constrictor.

But he wouldn't let him take it just like that.

Gaara would pay. Deidara just had to bide his time for it. So the bomber shut his eyes, then willed his left hand into performing one last hurrah before feeling the limb burst into blood and bone and sand.

To his credit, Deidara only snarled. The pain was almost overwhelming, but he wasn't in the Akatsuki for nothing. High on adrenaline, the missing-nin grit his teeth and used his remaining hand top drop another bird, then willed the fingers into another detonation seal.

The sculpture, which had flown over and perched itself atop Gaara's ball of sand, exploded forcefully. Another hole cracked open in Gaara's "Ultimate Defense."

Startled, the Kazekage's focus wavered, and the sand mass surrounding Deidara's arm dropped, then receded slowly back to the sphere. Deidara fell too, though his biggest bird—his favorite model for transportation—caught him gently.

The terrorist felt a laugh bubbling through him as he lay atop his creation.

"...you're good, yeah!"

Deidara looked up, his one visible eye shining with wild determination. Gaara's calm, jewel-tone eyes narrowed at him though the gap in his shield.

Bloody, the sand that attacked Deidara melded back into the sphere, although the damage didn't repair itself completely—not yet. It seemed as though Gaara wanted to keep watch.

His mistake.

'Heh' Thought Deidara, analyzing the sight. 'I've only got a bit of clay left... but I know, now, that the sand he uses to protect himself is different. That he only carries a set amount on him forged from old chakra...'

The implications whirled through his mind rapidly.

'The first hole was left because he used a portion of that shield to attack me. Sloppy work. This is the end for you, Kazekage!'

Deidara rummaged through his thigh pouch for what remained of his sculptures, giddy with anticipation of things to come.

'All I have left to take you is this homing bird, and my precious #18...'

—

The battle was so high up that Baki and Kankuro could barely make out what was happening. Seeing as how Gaara had erected his infamous "Ultimate Defense," however, his former teammates knew it was grim. Nowadays, Gaara primarily used that technique as a last resort...

Kankuro clenched his fists.

'Those bastards.'

Gaara had once been a monster, sure, but now he was Sunagakure's Kazekage—and a damn good one at that. The puppeteer had no doubt that his little brother would do his best to protect the village, but they all knew next-to-nothing about his assailant, and Kankuro was growing increasingly anxious for Gaara's safety.

The recent jounin gazed back up at the skies, determined to follow any movement he could.

Then, another anomaly began to manifest itself a short distance away from the conflict.

Like a mirage, a segment of the air seemed to waver, then stretch grotesquely, until the space tore outright, not unlike a worn cloth. There was a brief glimpse into the pure white abyss that lay beyond, before two bird-like machines shot out of the tear—one mounted by a small white-headed figure, and the other mounted by a tall red-headed figure.

The newcomer's machinery emitted an immense amount of chakra, apparent to him even from the safe distance on ground-level. Kankuro hoped to every holy deity that these things weren't explosives either. Having also noticed the sudden tear in the sky, Baki exhaled roughly. His ex-sensei's face was filled with dread.

"It seems as if...more Akatsuki members have arrived."

—

Zelos sensed that there was something wrong almost immediately upon entering the portal. Usually, the warp between Sylvarant and Tethe'alla was smooth and painless; this time, however, there was an odd lurching pressure in the pit of his stomach as they pierced the floating mana sphere.

The rheairds flew through, and failed to enter the dying world of Sylvarant.

"What the—" Zelos stopped as he absorbed his surroundings. "—what the hell?!"

White. A white expanse of nothingness as far as the eye could see. It was like they had entered purgatory.

Genis was in a similar state of bewilderment, panic slowly beginning to tinge his elfish features. The mage glanced around himself frantically.

"Where are we?!" He exclaimed.

Zelos had a faint idea.

Being a double agent for both Cruxis and the Renegades awarded many small privileges, such as—oh, occasionally being allowed to hover around the workroom engineers. He'd always held a casual interest in the sciences (cultivated from his stint at the Imperial Research Academy) and so being able to learn, if only in bits and pieces, how magitechnology worked was rather fun for him. He just hoped that Genis wouldn't ask too many questions if he got them out of this.

"We're in a glitch." Zelos decided, and Genis raised a brow.

"A what?"

"A glitch," The chosen said slowly, without any trace of humor in his voice. "Basically, an in-between between the worlds. Thanks to your little tantrum back there—" Zelos ignored the furious red beginning to overtake Genis's face, "—we ended up damaging the identification device below the dimensional warp."

Genis looked sullen.

"Identification device...?"

"Yep. You already know that we can travel between worlds via the mana links, but what you don't know is that there are many. The ones guarded by the summon spirits in Flanoir and Triet are the biggest, but there are a lot of smaller off-shoots that the identification devices maneuver around when we warp."

"So you're saying that when we accidentally broke it, the rheairds weren't able to direct us through the main mana links?"

Zelos nodded.

"That's right; that's why we ended up here. My guess is that to get out of this, we've gotta identify another mana link ourselves."

"And how do we do that?"

"My my my," The redhead sighed. "and Beautiful Miss Raine boasts you were a top student in Iselia? The standards in Sylvarant must be so tragic..."

The half-elf felt a vein pulse at his temple.

"You do know that you're insulting her too, right?"

His older companion shrugged.

"No, Raine's naturally brilliant. It's not her fault she grew up in the boonies."

"ZELOS!"

"Alright alright!" The chosen snickered. "Anyway, back to business kid. Identifying a mana link here will mostly be up to you." Zelos unconsciously rubbed a spot on his arm. "I'm a magic user too, but...it's artificial. I'm better at sword skills. You, on the other hand—you're a full-fledged mage. You depend completely on nature mana. You must have noticed, you must have sensed, that the mana in the air feels different everywhere we go."

Genis looked thoughtful, reflecting back on their travels.

"You're right..." he admitted. "I never thought about it much, but every place has it's own unique feel."

The redhead nodded again.

"Exactly. So focus now: try to sense it. A familiar channel of mana somewhere in this space..."

Genis leaned back into the seat of his rheaird and closed his eyes. 'Sensing' a location's mana imprint was more instinctual than anything. To find something specific, he'd have to concentrate. Letting himself falling into a trance, Genis felt the last vestiges of his irritation towards the Chosen fade away. In the darkness of his mindscape, Genis reached out for any sliver of familiarity.

Minutes later, he found it.

Ice-blue eyes snapped open excitedly.

"Over there!" Genis blurted, pointing at a distant area of nothingness to his right.

Zelos rode over immediately.

"HERE?" He shouted, stopping when Genis held his hands up.

The half-elf followed quickly, his engine skidding to a stop next to the swordsman.

"That's right!" He answered. The mana channel wasn't visible, but without a doubt, Genis could feel it. "This area here... it feels similar to the mana imprint around Mizuho!"

Zelos gave a happy sigh.

"Oh, how lucky am I! To land so early in the day in a village full of cute, exotic little hunnies..."

"Pervert." Genis muttered, though this time, it was entirely without heat. "Anyway, let's get going!"

"You got it."

The duo revved up their engines, then stomped down simultaneously on their accelerators. Their rheairds blasted through the mana channel and vanished into the world that lay beyond...

...which, unfortunately, was neither Sylvarant nor Tethe'alla.

—

The first thing that Genis and Zelos heard upon tearing open a portal to Wind Country was:

"THAT'S IT YEAH, I'm going to destroy this town! To have interference from below would put me in a bad mood... that, and I'm sick of that expressionless face of yours!"

—

There was a sudden burst of chakra in the air, but Deidara paid it no mind. He wasn't about to stop the momentum now—not when the tide of battle had so greatly turned to his favor. Similarly, Gaara had no time to worry about anything other than the immediate terror before him.

Deidara flung his #18 specialty model—filled to the brim with the highest exploding power he was capable of—down to the village below. It fell with an alarming speed, glowing with deadly C3 chakra level, and Kankuro no Sabaku could hear panicked screams erupting as his people began to scatter.

"This is bad!" He heard Baki yell. "Kankuro, move it!"

—

Inside his sand shield, Gaara watched with growing horror as the obviously strong bomb descended. He didn't even hesitate, didn't even think before sending a tsunami of sand over the whole of Sunagakure. He had to protect his home.

—

Bewildered, Genis and Zelos covered their faces as the monstrous wave of sand caught Deidara's #18 bomb in time. Having the misfortune of being directly above the barrier instead of under it, the resulting explosion nearly burst their eardrums.

It was the same for Gaara. The jinchuuriki winced as the boom resonated throughout the desert.

—

"Okay yeah, now I'm in shooting range!"

Almost cackling, Deidara sent off his last homing bird to Gaara's defense, and the little clay creature fluttered over to the edge of the gap. Gaara, though exhausted, didn't fail to notice the bomb as it chirped ominously under his nose. Green eyes glanced out briefly at a victorious Deidara, before he quickly willed his sand over the hole.

The bomb went off; the sand shield protected him.

Inside, the Kazekage remained unscathed, but by now he was bent and panting, and he could hear Deidara's laughs growing louder outside.

"As expected," the blond almost sang. "Your guard sure is fast... but it's too late for you!"

Suddenly, Gaara became aware of the heavy, metallic scent of fresh blood in his defense. No. It was the blood from Deidara's arm; it was a mistake to have reformed that sand back—the Akatsuki member had used the opportunity to infuse his damn clay in it. This...really could be the end.

The fledgling Kazekage was a calm man, but even he felt panic now as the walls around him began to shift and rumble.

"KATSU!"

—

Genis watched with wide eyes as the latest explosion erupted. This detonation was muffled, but the noise was still fearsome, and pounded their senses even from afar. Miraculously, the strange sphere of sand—now riddled with cracks—remained afloat.

"Wha...what's going on?!" He cried.

Zelos grimaced. Though they had only just stumbled onto the scene, it was obvious that this was a battle, and a fairly serious one at that. The chosen was also certain that the blond man was the "bad guy." After all, if the teen in the sphere had not erected that wave of sand, the village below them would have suffered a fate similar to that of Ozette's...

"The one in black was trying to destroy that village." Zelos murmured. "The one in the egg-thing protected it, but I think..."

They watched in horror as the ball of sand disintegrated, and the protective wave below them receded. In the midst of it all, the redheaded teen was left hanging limply, unconscious. The man on the bird flew to him and grabbed his body.

"Heh!" The blond man snickered, "A typical Kazekage, to go down protecting his village. It would have been easier just to let it blow up... you fool!"

Genis and Zelos widened their eyes at that.

"WE HAVE TO GO SAVE HIM!" Genis exclaimed, unthinking.

—

Deidara felt his ears prick at the young voice shouting through air.

'Save him?'

Right. He had almost forgotten. That massive flare of chakra that appeared before he had dropped #18... so it was still there. So it was the Kazekage's rescue party, huh?

The Akatsuki bomber allowed himself a small glance over to Genis and Zelos, confident that he could take them on too.

—

The man's azure blue eyes turned to them, almost taunting.

Zelos might have acted like an airhead, but the swordsman was no slouch. He was a shrewd strategist when need be, and he knew that this battle was not one worth running into headfirst. He didn't have Lloyd's dumb luck in situations like that.

But he was an angel, and at least his sight was spectacular. Though they were both still stationed afar, Zelos could see that the teen's chest was still moving. There was some life left in him after all. Zelos realized then that the village had not been the target, but the distraction. This was some kind of kidnapping attempt.

Before meeting Lloyd, Zelos would have just let things be, rationalizing that it was none of his business. Now, however, he was becoming a bleeding heart... he couldn't just do nothing. Zelos could so clearly imagine Lloyd's disappointed face that it hurt.

Nonetheless, it was hard to predict what the blond man as capable of, and the unconscious teen was badly injured. Although playing the hero was nice, saving the damsel in distress took top priority...

Still, the man didn't know what they were capable of either.

Right then.

"Genis, Cyclone, NOW!" Zelos hissed.

The little mage chanted furiously.

—

"Gentle winds, gather before me and transform into blades of air... CYCLONE!"

It was unbelievable. Deidara had long thought himself powerful, but his skills were nothing compared to the sudden, titanic vortex of wind that engulfed him seemingly out of nowhere. He was caught off guard; he fell off his clay fowl, and Gaara's body slipped off his shoulder.

Like a bullet, one of the strange metal birds immediately shot through the cyclone, and a strong arm reached out to grab Gaara's cloak. The flash of red Deidara could make out through the wind blades ironically reminded him of Sasori.

The other vehicle sped by and caught up to the first. By the time the freak act of nature subsided, the newcomers were long gone.

Surprised but not undeterred, Deidara quickly summoned his bird to catch his fall, then settled himself into a suitable riding position. He clutched at his crushed arm with a small wince. This was nothing; Pein was going to have his head if he let them get away like this.

Luckily, the vehicles had left behind a faint chakra trail through the skies. Deidara flew after them.

—

Baki and Kankuro watched as the newcomers hijacked Deidara's target. It was obvious now that they weren't with the Akatsuki—but, that was even worse, because now the Sand-nin had no idea who they were.

Kankuro was still with shock. His little brother...

"THE KAZEKAGE'S BEEN KIDNAPPED!" barked Baki. "ALERT THE COUNCIL! GET THE SEARCH TEAMS READY! SEND A MESSAGE TO KONOHA! GO, GO, GO!"

—

(to be continued...)

A/N: Uh-oh, seems Genis and Zelos accidentally kidnapped the Kazekage...