Saint Naruto (CH 3) (Patreon)

A/N: This story is rated M for mature content not suitable for children.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Chapter 3: The Golden Cage

The luxury Bondola lift rose steadily into the dense white fog surrounding the upper cliffs of the Red Line.

Inside the glass-paneled carriage, the air grew colder by the second. The heavy iron cables groaned under the immense weight of the platform, pulling it six thousand meters above the blue waters of the Grand Line.

Kuina stood in the corner of the carriage, her back pressed against the cold steel framework. Her hands were still locked in heavy iron manacles, the iron chain hanging down between her knees and clinking softly with every tremor of the lift. Sweat mixed with dried dirt ran down her neck, stinging the fresh rope burns on her collarbones.

Across the carriage, Naruto stood with his hands resting in the pockets of his dark coat. He didn't look at her. He kept his eyes turned toward the glass panel, watching the lower world disappear behind a thick shroud of gray clouds.

Kuina stared at his side profile. His jawline was sharp, his golden hair slightly messy from the sea wind, and his expression entirely blank. He didn't look like a monster. He didn't have the grotesquely deformed face of Saint Charlos, nor did he wear a ridiculous glass bubble over his head.

He just looked like a young man. A young man who had casually dropped a billion berries on her as if he were buying a sack of grain at a market, and who had brought her to her knees with a single burst of blue lightning without even lifting his hands.

Her wrists throbbed beneath the iron cuffs. The skin was raw, bleeding slightly onto the cold metal.

"Where are you taking me?" Kuina asked, her voice raspy from hours of breathing in salt air and dust.

Naruto didn't turn his head. "Up."

"I know we're going up, you idiot," Kuina snapped, her Shimotsuki pride flaring through her exhaustion. "What is this place?"

Captain Vane, standing near the control lever of the Bondola, instantly reached for the hilt of his heavy executioner sword, his face darkening. "Watch your tongue, girl! You are speaking to...."

"Let her talk, Vane," Naruto interrupted casually. He turned his head slowly, his cold blue eyes meeting hers through the dim light of the carriage. "She's spent her whole life in a backwater village where the biggest news of the year was a rogue bear coming down from the mountains. She has no idea what the world actually looks like."

Kuina clenched her fists inside the manacles. "My father taught me about the world! He taught me about the Grand Line! He taught me....."

"Your father taught you nothing," Naruto said flatly. "Your father is a village schoolmaster who got scared the moment real power showed up on his doorstep. He handed you over to slave traders and told your neighbors you fell down a flight of stairs so he wouldn't have to look like a coward."

The words cut deeper than a steel blade. Kuina’s chest heaved, her breath coming in short, furious hitches. "You don't know anything about my father!"

"I know he gave up," Naruto replied. His voice was dead, devoid of heat or sympathy. "I know he looked at the World Government, realized he was weak, and decided it was easier to lie than to fight. He chose comfort over blood. Just like every other weakling in this miserable world."

Naruto turned back to the glass window as the Bondola broke through the top of the cloud bank.

Bright, blinding sunlight flooded the carriage.

Kuina gasped softly, her eyes widening despite herself.

Stretched out before them was the summit of the Red Line. Massive white marble plazas, lined with gold-trimmed pillars and manicured emerald gardens, stretched as far as the eye could see. Giant palaces built from black volcanic stone and white granite rose into the clear sky like towering monuments. Fountains shot clear water fifty feet into the air, and wide brick avenues were lined with immaculate silk banners fluttering in the high-altitude mountain breeze.

Mariejois. The Holy Land.

It looked nothing like the rough, dirt-road villages of the East Blue. It looked like the kingdom of gods, built on top of a mountain that reached above the clouds themselves.

"Welcome to the cage," Naruto said softly, a dark smirk touching his lips as he watched the reflection of her wide, stunned eyes in the glass. "This is where the people who own the sea live. And this is where you're going to spend the rest of your life."

The Bondola locked into the central terminal with a heavy mechanical CLANG.

A dozen servants dressed in pristine black velvet coats were already waiting on the marble platform. The moment the carriage door slid open, every single servant dropped to their hands and knees, pressing their foreheads flat against the polished white stone floor.

"Welcome back, Saint Naruto," the chief butler said, his forehead resting an inch from Naruto's boots.

Naruto walked past them without stopping, his coat snapping behind him. "Bring her to the main training pavilion. Send the blacksmith to cut those iron manacles off her wrists."

The butler raised his head slightly, confusion crossing his aged face. "Cut the restraints, my Lord? Is she not to be fitted with a standard explosive collar for your security?"

"A man who needs an explosive collar to keep a girl in line shouldn't be holding a sword," Naruto said cold, not even slowing his stride. "Do as I ordered."

"At once, Saint Naruto!"

Kuina dragged her feet as Captain Vane nudged her shoulder, forcing her to follow Naruto down the wide marble avenue.

Every person they passed, servants, lower-ranking navy guards, even high-class merchants carrying trade documents, immediately dropped to the ground the moment they caught sight of the dark blue banners of House Aurelius. Nobody looked Naruto in the eye. Nobody dared to stand upright while he walked past.

Kuina looked down at her own feet. Her tattered linen trousers were stained with mud from the Sabaody auction house floor, leaving small dirty smudges on the spotless white marble.

She had spent her whole life dreaming of becoming the greatest swordswoman in the world. She had trained until her hands bled, sparring with Zoro until her arms were numb, refusing to accept that her body as a woman would ever hold her back.

And now, here she was. Walking through the heart of the world, wearing iron manacles, dragged along as a prize by a young man who looked down on everyone as if they were insects crawling in the dirt.

They arrived at the gates of the Aurelius compound.

The estate was a fortress. Massive black stone walls surrounded a sprawling complex of open-air courtyards, weapons armories, and high-ceilinged marble halls. In the center of the main courtyard sat a massive circular training pavilion made of dense, shock-absorbent volcanic tile, surrounded by weapon racks filled with steel spears, heavy broadswords, and iron shields.

Naruto walked into the center of the pavilion and stopped. He turned around, resting his hands on his hips, and pointed at the floor in front of him.

"Stand there," he commanded.

Kuina dragged her feet across the stone, stopping five paces away from him. She kept her chin raised, her dark eyes glaring into his with unyielding defiance.

A heavy set blacksmith wearing a leather apron rushed into the courtyard, carrying a pair of heavy steel shears and a iron anvil block. He bowed frantically to Naruto before kneeling beside Kuina.

"Hold still, girl," the blacksmith muttered, placing her iron manacles against the anvil block.

CRACK.

With two heavy blows from a hardened steel hammer, the iron chain snapped. The heavy cuffs fell away from her wrists, crashing onto the volcanic stone floor with a loud metallic clatter.

Kuina slowly pulled her arms back. The air felt unnaturally light against her wrists. The skin beneath the cuffs was raw, purple, and caked with dried blood, but her hands were finally free.

She rubbed her left wrist, flexing her fingers. The blood began to flow back into her hands, bringing a sharp, prickling warmth to her fingers.

The blacksmith gathered his tools and scrambled out of the pavilion as fast as his legs could carry him, leaving Kuina and Naruto alone in the center of the ring.

"Why did you take them off?" Kuina asked, her voice cold as steel. "You know what I am. You saw what I did in Sabaody. The second I get a blade in my hand, I'm going to try to cut your head off."

Naruto let out a short, quiet laugh. It wasn't a mean laugh; it was entirely devoid of emotion, like a man listening to a child threaten a thunderstorm.

"Go ahead," Naruto said.

He stepped over to a weapon rack at the edge of the pavilion, pulled a blunt steel training sword from the wood, and tossed it through the air.

The heavy steel sword spun through the sunlight, landing with a loud CLANG right at Kuina's feet.

Kuina froze. She looked down at the blunt steel blade lying on the stone floor, then looked back up at Naruto.

He hadn't drawn a weapon. He hadn't called for his guards. He was standing twenty feet away from her with his arms folded loosely over his chest, his eyes lazy and indifferent.

"You said you're a swordswoman of the Shimotsuki clan," Naruto said quietly. "You said you're not a pet, and you're not a slave. The blade is at your feet, girl. Pick it up and cut me down."

Kuina’s heart hammered against her ribs like a trapped bird.

Her mind screamed at her that it was a trap. He had devil fruit powers. He had lightning. He had the strength to crush a man's bones with a single blow.

But her pride, the fierce, unyielding pride that had driven her to beat every boy in Shimotsuki Village a two thousand times, would not let her back down. If she backed down now, if she refused to fight when a sword was placed right in front of her, then everything her father had said about her was true.

Kuina dropped to one knee, grabbed the grip of the blunt steel sword, and stood up in a single fluid motion.

The weight of the steel felt right in her hand. The balance was crude compared to her father’s fine blades, but it was metal. It was a weapon.

She dropped into a low, classic Shimotsuki stance. Her left foot slid back, her weight balanced evenly over her hips, the blunt point of the blade aimed directly at Naruto's throat.

"I won't hold back," Kuina warned, her voice trembling slightly with raw adrenaline. "I don't care if you bought me. I don't care if you're a World Noble. If you stand in my way, I'll cut you."

"Less talking," Naruto said coldly. "Move."

Kuina exploded forward.

Her footwork was immaculate. Years of relentless, grueling practice in the East Blue showed in the way her body moved, sharp, efficient, and blindingly fast for a girl her age. She closed the twenty-foot gap in less than a second, sliding across the volcanic tile, her body turning as she executed a high-speed diagonal slash aimed straight for the left side of Naruto's neck.

It was the absolute finest technique of the Shimotsuki style, a strike designed to sever the collarbone and throat in a single motion.

Naruto didn't even lift a sword to block it.

He simply raised his right hand, pointing his index and middle fingers straight at the incoming steel blade.

As the blunt sword cut through the air, Naruto's fingers turned pitch-black. A slick, metallic shine covered his skin as he coated his fingers in dense Armament Haki.

SNAP.

The steel blade slammed directly between Naruto's two black fingers.

The impact didn't move his hand an inch. The shockwave of the hit traveled straight back down the blade, jarring Kuina's wrists so violently that the skin on her raw palms split open, spilling fresh red blood over the leather grip.

Kuina’s eyes went wide as saucers. She pulled with all her strength, trying to wrench the blade free, but Naruto’s two fingers held the steel like a hydraulic vice. It didn't budge a millimeter.

"Is this the great Shimotsuki style?" Naruto asked softly.

He flexed his two fingers slightly.

CRACK.

The heavy steel training sword shattered into a dozen jagged shards, raining broken metal down onto the stone floor.

Before Kuina could even process the sight of her sword breaking, Naruto's left hand shot forward. He grabbed her by the front of her tattered tunic, lifted her entire body off the ground with one arm, and slammed her back-first against the nearest stone pillar with a deafening THUD.

The wind was driven out of her lungs in a harsh gasp. Her vision went black for a second, sharp needles of pain shooting up her spine.

Naruto leaned in close, his face inches from hers.

His eyes were glowing with a terrifying, electric blue hue, and a tiny thread of black lightning crackled across his collarbone, filling the space between them with the sharp, metallic smell of ozone.

"You don't understand where you are, do you?" Naruto whispered, his voice cold enough to freeze blood. "You think swordsmanship is about forms and stances. You think swinging a piece of metal faster than the next person makes you strong."

He pressed her harder against the stone pillar, his grip on her collar tightening until she could barely pull air into her chest.

"Out here in the Grand Line, real swordsmen don't cut things because their steel is sharp," Naruto said, his voice ringing inside her head like a hammer against an anvil. "They cut steel, they cut fire, and they split mountains because they flow their absolute will through their blades. They use Haki. And you... you don't even know what the word means."

Kuina clawed at his wrist with her bleeding hands, trying to loosen his grip, but her fingers felt like they were scraping against solid granite.

"You're a child playing with toys," Naruto sneered, looking down at her struggling form. "Your father knew it. That's why he never taught you real power. He kept you in that stupid little village, feeding you fairy tales about pride and honor, because he knew the moment you stepped out into the real world, someone like me would crush you like a bug."

"I'm... not... weak..." Kuina choked out through her locked teeth, her dark eyes glaring into his with pure, unadulterated venom.

"You are weak," Naruto corrected her flatly. "You're weak because you have no power. You're weak because you relied on a father who abandoned you. And you're weak because you think your pride means something when you're pinned against a wall."

He let go of her collar.

Kuina slid down the stone pillar, crashing onto her hands and knees on the floor. She clutched her throat, coughing violently, her body shaking as she pulled air back into her lungs.

Naruto stepped back, standing over her like an ancient statue.

"I didn't buy you to be my maid," Naruto said, his voice returning to a calm, commanding tone. "I bought you because I saw something in your eyes back at Sabaody. A spark of real hunger. A willingness to bite and tear even when you were wearing chains."

He pointed down at her.

"I am giving you a choice right now, Kuina. You can stay on this floor, cry about your father, and die a nobody in Mariejois. I'll have the servants throw your body over the Red Line for the Sea Kings to eat."

He leaned down slightly, his blue eyes narrowing.

"Or you can stand up, throw away your foolish childhood dreams, and let me forge you into my blade. I will teach you Haki. I will give you weapons that can cut through ships. I will make you strong enough to walk back into the East Blue, stand in front of your father, and show him how pathetic he really is."

Kuina lay on the stone floor, her chest rising and falling in ragged gasps.

Blood dripped from her palms onto the white marble, pooling near the broken shards of the training sword. Her whole body ached. Her ribs felt bruised, her throat burned, and her wrists throbbed with a dull, sickening pain.

Every tradition she had ever known told her to refuse. He was a World Noble. He was an arrogant monster who treated human lives like cheap trinkets.

But as she looked at the broken steel on the floor, his words echoed in her mind with terrifying clarity.

He lied to everyone. He told them you died on a flight of stairs.

Her father had given up on her. He had decided that because she was a girl, because she was weak, her life was over the moment the slavers came.

If she died here, her father was right.

If she served this monster... if she survived his training and took everything he had to offer... she would become stronger than her father ever was. She would become stronger than anyone in the East Blue.

Kuina bit her lower lip so hard the skin broke, the taste of salt and iron filling her mouth.

She dug her fingers into the volcanic tile, forcing her bruised legs to straighten. She dragged herself up, using the stone pillar for support, until she was standing on her own two feet once again.

She didn't bow. She didn't drop to her knees.

She stood tall, wiping the blood from her chin with the back of her raw hand, her dark eyes burning with a dark, dangerous fire.

"Teach me," Kuina said, her voice steady and hard as cold iron. "Teach me how to cut steel. Teach me how to use this Haki."

She took a step closer to him, stopping three inches from his chest, looking up into his face without flinching.

"I will be your blade," she whispered, her teeth bared in a fierce sneer. "I will cut whoever you tell me to cut. But the second you get soft... the second you show me a weakness... I will use everything you taught me to carve your throat open."

Naruto stared down at her for a long second.

Then, a genuine, dark smile spread across his face, sharp, ruthless, and filled with supreme confidence.

"Fair enough," Naruto said softly. "Try it whenever you want. But if you fail... I'll make sure you regret surviving today."

An hour later, the sun began to sink below the horizon, casting long golden light across the high balconies of the Aurelius estate.

Inside the grand bathhouse of the private quarters, warm steam rose from a massive circular pool carved out of solid white onyx. Scented oils, jasmine, cedar, and rare herbs from the South Blue, floated on the surface of the clear water, filling the hall with a rich aroma.

Kuina sat on the marble edge of the bath, her feet submerged in the warm water.

Four female attendants dressed in simple linen dresses worked silently around her. They had washed the days of dirt, sweat, and dried blood from her hair and skin, carefully applying soothing green salve to the raw rope burns on her wrists and ankles.

Kuina didn't speak to them. She sat still as a statue, staring at her reflection in the tall silver mirror standing against the far wall.

The girl in the mirror didn't look like the girl who had left Shimotsuki Village.

Her short dark hair was clean and damp, framing a pale, sharp face. The tattered rags she had worn in the slave cage were gone, replaced by a soft, high-collared dark silk robe tied tightly at her waist with a gold sash. The bruises on her skin were visible beneath the silk, but her dark eyes no longer held the confusion of a trapped victim.

They looked like cold iron.

The heavy oak doors of the bathhouse slid open with a soft rustle of wood.

The four attendants instantly stopped their work, dropping to their knees on the wet marble floor, their heads bowed low.

Naruto walked into the steam-filled room. He had changed out of his heavy travelling coat, wearing a loose black shirt open at the collar and dark trousers. His golden hair was slightly damp, and his blue eyes scanned the room before settling on Kuina.

"Leave us," Naruto ordered the attendants.

The four women bowed again and quickly scuttled out of the room, closing the heavy doors behind them with a quiet click.

Kuina didn't move. She remained seated on the edge of the bath, her hands resting on her knees, watching his reflection in the mirror as he walked up behind her.

"The salve will heal your wrists in two days," Naruto said, stopping a foot behind her. "House Aurelius doesn't keep damaged tools."

Kuina looked at his reflection in the silver glass. "When does the training start?"

"At dawn," Naruto replied. "You'll run thirty miles around the estate perimeter carrying fifty-pound iron weights. Then you'll swing a heavy lead sword five thousand times before breakfast. If you stop before the count is finished, you don't eat."

Kuina’s jaw tightened, but she didn't complain. "And the Haki?"

"You aren't ready for Haki," Naruto said, leaning down slightly so his face was level with hers in the mirror. "Haki is willpower made physical. Right now, your will is a mess of anger and childish revenge. Until you learn how to control your breath and lock your mind onto a single target, trying to use Haki will just tear your own muscles apart."

He reached out, his long fingers gently touching the side of her neck, right over the dark purple bruise where he had pinned her against the stone pillar earlier.

Kuina stiffened at his touch, her breath catching in her throat. His fingers were surprisingly warm, sending a sharp, tingling electrical impulse through her skin that made her heart race.

She wanted to pull away. She wanted to slap his hand back and tell him not to touch her.

But she didn't move. She forced herself to sit still, her dark eyes locking onto his in the mirror's reflection.

"You're fast," Naruto murmured, his thumb trailing slowly along her jawline, tilting her head up slightly. "Your instincts are good. But you fight like an animal in a pit. When you step onto a battlefield with real monsters, anger just makes you predictable."

"I'm not angry," Kuina lied, her voice low and raspy.

"You're furious," Naruto corrected her, a faint smirk touching his lips. "You hate your father. You hate the slavers. And most of all, you hate me because I showed you how small you really are."

He leaned closer, his breath warm against her ear.

"Keep that hatred," Naruto whispered. "Feed it. Burn it down until there's nothing left but cold, focused steel. Because if you lose that fire, you're useless to me."

Kuina turned her head slowly, breaking her gaze from the mirror to look directly into his eyes.

She was three inches away from him. She could feel the subtle, pulsing heat of his Raijin fruit radiating off his skin, the faint smell of ozone mixing with the jasmine oil in the steam.

"I won't lose it," Kuina said, her voice barely above a breath, but hard enough to shatter glass. "I will grow strong enough to cut your thunder in half."

Naruto looked at her for a long second, his thumb resting against her chin, feeling the steady, fierce pulse of her neck beneath his fingers.

"Good," Naruto said softly.

He let go of her chin and stepped back, turning toward the bathhouse exit.

"Get some rest, Kuina. Tomorrow, your old life is completely dead. And I'm going to see if you have what it takes to survive the new one."

The heavy oak doors opened and closed behind him, leaving her alone in the quiet, steam-filled room.

Kuina sat on the marble edge of the pool, looking down at her hands resting on the dark silk of her robe. Her wrists were still sore, her body still bruised, but for the first time since she had been dragged out of the East Blue in chains, she felt a cold, sharp purpose settling deep in her bones.

She wasn't a dead girl from Shimotsuki Village anymore.

She was Saint Naruto's blade. And she was going to make the whole world bleed until she reached the top.

Chapter End

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

A/N: I appreciate all the support! Just a reminder that I'm accepting paid commissions for anyone who has a story idea or wants to update an existing story beyond the usual polls. Talk to you later!