Aurum the Blaze

Prologue: Defection

For those who haven't played Dirge of Cerberus – Final Fantasy VII –, either rent/buy/borrow it, or find a strategy guide that's overflowing with spoilers, since otherwise, a lot of the story won't make sense. You could also go to the Final Fantasy Wiki, but it means you'd have to look at a hell of a lot of pages, most notably Vincent, Shelke, Shalua, Weiss, Nero, Genesis, and Deepground. It would also be beneficial to research Reeve, the other Tsviets (Azul and Rosso)… possibly even Hojo and Lucrecia. You know what? Either play the game, find a spoilerific guide, or just look up the entire damned FFVII universe on an as-needed basis.

'It hasn't stormed like this since before Meteorfall', the young woman thought. Turning back to her book, she continued enjoying one of her precious few moments of spare time. Normally, she'd have been asleep long before, but had the next day off, so she was planning to sleep in anyway.

And spare time, along with vacation days, were two very convenient things that, between fighting and her scientific research, Shalua Rui had very little of.

Just as she was preparing to turn the page, she heard a semi-weak pounding at the door. Raising an eyebrow, asked herself, 'Who the hell…?' before putting down the novel and walking getting up.

Shalua opened the door as far as the security chain allowed before asking, "You do know it's almost three in the morning, don't you?"

It was too dark to tell who her sudden visitor was, but she reached for her gun when a pair of eyes opened in the ebony night. The only way she could observe the action was due to one very simple fact: the iris glowed like smoldering embers from a recent bonfire.

She subconsciously muttered, "Mako…?" before demanding, "I don't know who you are, but you'd better have a damned good reason for coming here in the middle of the night during one of the worst storms in recent history. Talk quickly, or I'll blast your brains all over the street."

The owner of the crimson-gold eyes chuckled for a moment, before replying, "Before you attempt to carry out your threat, I must admit I'm not entirely sure that I have the right house. Are you Shalua Rui, of the WRO?"

At that, Shalua glared with her one eye in response, before inquiring, "Who wants to know?"

From the voice, she discerned that this… character was male, and judging by depth, most likely mid-way through adolescence. Still, she didn't trust anyone until they'd earned it, which took some doing indeed.

The mako-enhanced stranger blinked for a second, before murmuring, "I'll take that as a yes." Then, he closed his eyes for a few moments more, before opening them once again and making a very short statement that rocked the WRO soldier/scientist's world.

"Your sister and I would like to come in, please."

At the mention of her sister, Shalua was petrified with shock for a few seconds, before refocusing her cycloptic glare upon the intruder, daring to hope that she'd heard correctly. In a whisper, mostly due to the shock, she asked, "What did you just say?"

Shalua somehow felt like the stranger had raised an eyebrow, which was confirmed with his reply: "I believe I spoke clearly and concisely, but I'll repeat it nonetheless. Your sister and I would like to come in, please," he quoted himself verbatim. Then, for extra effect, he added, "As you so kindly pointed out to us earlier, it is rather wet out here, after all."

The man's dry wit (or attempt thereof) briefly returned the WRO scientist to her senses, and undid the security chain, before allowing him in while he half-carried another, smaller figure.

The second figure quietly asked, "Are we… in… Aurum?"

He replied, "I told you not to call me that anymore, but yes. At least for the time being, we've got a safe house."

The girl murmured, "So… tired…" as she went back to sleep. The stranger, evidently called Aurum, extricated his associate from the overlarge coat she'd been in, presumably in a vain attempt to keep dry, thus revealing a nine-year old girl with brick-red hair and wearing a close-fitting uniform, which had neon-blue lines running through it – weak energy pulses that Shalua recognized also to be mako. (1)

Shalua Rui recognized her sister instantly, because even though ten years had passed, Shelke literally hadn't aged a day. Just as the scientist was about to rush to her side, her visitor raised a hand to stop her and softly said, "Not yet, Doctor Rui. I understand that you want to catch up with her and everything, but neither Shelke nor myself have eaten, slept, or really even stopped running for the last two days. Let her rest, and until she wakes up, I'll answer whatever questions you have."

Shalua sighed and nodded; the man made sense, even though she seriously wanted to find out what had happened. Something told her, though, that the man who'd brought Shelke would be able to answer that.

"Just who are you, anyway?" she asked.

The man removed his hood, allowing a clear view of his face as the amber glow in his eyes disappeared, revealing a sky-blue iris. The young man looked to be about fifteen or sixteen, and was a few inches shorter than Shalua was. Due to his coat and attire, she couldn't determine his build, though the heavy-looking sword on his back indicated he was probably far from weak. Shalua also had to admit that this blonde had the spikiest hair she'd ever seen, second only to Cloud Strife. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Naruto Uzumaki, but you're probably more familiar with the alias I've been trapped using for the last decade. They called me Aurum the Blaze, of the Tsviets. The fact that I'm therefore a Deepground soldier should go without saying. Now before you bombard me with questions, I make a very serious inquiry of my own. How might I defect to the WRO?"

Shalua instantly froze from shock and surprise. How likely was it that one of her organization's most powerful enemies suddenly wanted to join forces, and had brought her sister with him to boot?

"I'm sorry, but between a Tsviet asking to join the WRO and you bringing my sister back to me, I can't really think straight at the moment. Maybe we should talk in the morning? Shelke's clearly tired, so am I, somewhat, and if you've gone through as much as you said in the last few days, then you could use some rest too."

Aurum – or, as he'd said his real name was, Naruto – looked as if he were about to protest, but after thinking it over for a few seconds, acquiesced. "That's fair enough. Better that everyone have a clear head."

(1): A really bad attempt to describe Shelke's Deepground uniform. You're probably better off just going to the FFWiki like I suggested in the AN at the top.

Also, the original pairing was going to be Naruto/Shelke, but after playing Dirge of Cerberus again, I figured that Shalua would be a better fit. Now, I'm thinking of making his girlfriend an OC Tsviet, or maybe even just a DG Elite – you know, one of those soldiers that are stronger than the grunts, and have a Shield Materia which makes them impervious to gunfire… I've got so many plausible scenarios to choose from that I just can't decide. Also, bear in mind that all of the Tsviets are generally at the same power level as SOLDIER First Class, particularly Weiss, Nero, Rosso, and Azul, since they've been spliced with Genesis's genes. Also, in this fic, so have Naruto/Aurum and Ochre the Swift, if I include her. Remember that Deepground is really a subunit of SOLDIER, when you think about it.

Here's brief data on the OC options:

Tsviet:

Name: Ochre the Swift

Meaning: "Ochre" is a synonym for "yellow", thus keeping the theme of colored names

Age: 14 (mental); 12 (physical)

Appearance: Eh… kind of like Naminé from the Kingdom Hearts universe, I guess, but in different attire. I'll decide what later. A little shorter than her base influence. Eye color is normally brown, but will glow neon blue at certain times.

Special ability/trait: the only Tsviets faster than her are Weiss (because of Omega) and Nero, because he can teleport.

Weapon: TBD, but probably a handgun or two… like Elena.

Personality: sort of a cross between Hinata and Isaribi, I suppose.

Power level: Stronger than Shelke (who, despite being nine years old, is capable of defeating pretty much everyone in Deepground except the other Tsviets) but weaker than Azul, Rosso, and Nero.

DG Elite:

Name: TBD

Age: late teens/early twenties

Appearance: TBD

Weapon: katana, rifle, and handgun

Power level: among the most skilled soldiers in all of Deepground, but still no match for any of the Tsviets.

Thus, I'll make it a poll:

Naruto's girlfriend can be either:

Shalua Rui

Ochre the Swift (OC Tsviet)

OC Deepground Elite