Fearful Symmetry

by Act 3

Both angel and human, both delinquent and hero, both tiger and lamb. Duality is defined as possessing the quality of being dual. An existence consisting of two parts, of two elements. Trapped somewhere between those elements, a young blonde seeks the truth. He is caught in duality, forced to draw lines, to pick sides, as he becomes further entangled within life's fearful symmetry.

2. Come Clarity

And what shoulder, and what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? And what dread feet?

~.~.~

Chapter Two: Come Clarity

~.~.~

As she set foot on the moist, rain-soaked earth, Rias Gremory couldn't help but grimace at the amalgamation of emotions that swelled within her.

On one hand, vim and vigor practically wafted off her form, cleansing her mind like the waters of a cooling summer shower. She always felt this way after rainfall, always felt as rejuvenated as the parched land, its thirst finally sated. The effect was made doubly potent under the serene beauty that was the moon's soft glow, which leaked out from behind the last few passing clouds of the faded squall. All was quiet, all was cool, and, for a rare moment in her young life, Rias could feel at peace.

Yet, as she stood there in the brisk mist, ruby tresses waltzing in the night's breeze, the young Devil could not help but shake the sense of danger that gripped her. Lingering within the refreshing evening air was the unyielding presence of an unnerving metallic scent. It wafted all around her, carried by the gust it haunted, and it only took but a moment for the young woman to place a name to the ominous fragrance—it was the stench of blood, freshly spilt. Turning to observe her surroundings, however, Rias found that the scent of blood drifted from her mind as it focused on another disturbing quality of the area around her.

The entirety of the small park she stood in, every single inch of it, felt as though it was sacred land. It was as though Saint Peter himself had walked across these fields, as if the blood of the dragon slain by Saint George had nourished the flora. Holiness ruled over this territory with absolute sovereignty, with unquestioned authority.

Rias utterly abhorred every second of it.

The holiness roared at her presence, raging against her demonic nature. It commanded her to repent, bid her to renounce herself and bathe in holy fire, for her screams of anguish would be the only forgiveness that the Lord would accept. And yet, while one side of this infuriating divinity snarled its decrees, there existed another side—softer, gentler, yet all the more disturbing. It whispered in her ears, full of compassion and love. It told her of how beautiful the Kingdom of Heaven was, murmured that she would find eternal bliss should she just cleanse herself and go to God. It asked her, in the same kind tone a mother would use to address her own child, to impale herself upon a holy blade, to drown herself in blessed waters, to bow before the church and accept crucifixion.

Rias quivered, her skin crawling as she stepped forward, 'With this…unpleasant feeling in the air, an Angel must have been here—a powerful one, at that.'

She felt alienated, vulnerable, surrounded on all sides by terrifying manifestations that existed only within her darkest subconscious. The quicker she satisfied the contractor, the quicker she could leave. With that sentiment in heart, Rias glanced around, searching for the one who summoned her to this dreadful park.

It didn't take long to find him.

He lay there, in a pool of his own blood, under the fluorescent glow of a nearby streetlamp. Her crystal-like blue eyes widened for only a fraction of a second, surprise showing on her beautiful, heart-shaped face before she wiped it off. Rias steeled herself; the morbid reality of the scene did not escape her.

As she drew closer to the cadaver, Rias noted with grim curiosity that she recognized the fallen youth.

'That blonde hair…' Rias frowned, 'Isn't that Namikaze-san?'

Rias wasn't one for gossip—it just wasn't in her nature to care too much about what nasty lies people spread about one another behinds each other's backs. Besides, she had been far too busy and stressed these past few months fretting over her rapidly approaching marriage to afford to pay attention to the insignificant daily word of mouth. Even she, however, knew who Namikaze Naruto was—everyone in Kuoh Academy did. He had made quite the splash with his sudden appearance, after all.

Oh yes, she had heard the rumors surrounding Namikaze Naruto. He was a walking magnet for trouble—gangs all over the city were apparently lining up to get smacked down by the blonde and he was all too happy to oblige. Sona had her hands full just dealing with all the complaints that flooded into the Student Council daily and often Rias had found herself discussing some of the more interesting complaints as her friend vented over tea.

'So Namikaze-san was killed by an Angel? Why?' Rias questioned.

She'd never heard of a case where an Angel, the embodiment of the virtues, outright murdered a human being, the very lives they were tasked with protecting. Just the thought of it seemed almost too foreign, too out there, for Rias to fully accept.

Then again, nothing about Naruto seemed to be ordinary. She had heard of his oddities and grown curious to the point that Rias had asked her trusted Knight, Yuuto Kiba, to keep an eye on him. As if the delinquent was making a hobby out of surprising her, he actually managed to build an honest friendship with the swordsman. The redhead could tell that Kiba valued the time he spent with his fellow blonde from the subtle changes to his attitude she observed. Whenever Kiba would report back to her about the delinquent, his ever-present smile would stretch just a bit wider and the underlying anger that gripped many of his actions seemed to dull.

Ironically, hanging out with a brutish brawler had made Kiba calmer than she had ever seen him. She'd be lying if she said it didn't make her immensely curious as to just what kind of person Naruto actually was. Rias had been planning on introducing herself to him one day, when she had the time to talk.

Now, staring down at the prone body before her and the soft smile spread across the Naruto's face, Rias couldn't help but feel a sadness grip her heart, 'I…I just wish we had met under better circumstances.'

She had heard his final wish through her seal's magic. The words—his final words, his final regret—echoed in Rias' mind as she retrieved a small chess piece from her pocket, a pawn.

"…I…wish…I had the ch-chance…to l-learn the truth about Dad…"

A man's final wish—his last chance to hope, his last opportunity to want. Many men would've wished for money or power. They might have asked for women, for youth. Some would simply pray that they would not die. Yet, as Naruto had lain dying, he had used his final breath to ask to learn about his father. It was a simple desire and an honest one, one not driven by greed or lust or wrath. It was that pureness that compelled her, that enthralled her.

"I'm sorry…but this is the only way I can offer you the chance to learn the truth," she stared down at the gaping hole in Naruto's chest, clenching the chest piece in her hand. Kneeling down, Rias reached out to hold the pawn piece above the blonde, "I suppose I should start with a pawn and work my way up if a stronger piece is nee—kyah!"

With all the grace and speed of a striking serpent, light erupted out of Naruto's fatal wound, shooting upwards to smack the pawn out of Rias' hand. Caught off guard, Rias could do little else other than release a surprised shriek and fall back onto the wet pavement. She stared, frozen like a deer caught in the headlights of a car, at the luminescent tendril that had sprung from the corpse. It almost resembled a cobra, rising up from a basket at the command of its charmer. It held the very same sense of danger, the very same awareness of an incredibly perilous and volatile beast, only vaguely contained by the incomprehensible rules that governed its mind.

The youthful devil shifted her gaze for a split-second, quickly scanning the immediate area for her fallen piece. She acted on instinct, caught in an unprecedented situation and confined within boundaries she could not see—Rias sought the only reassurance she could find, the feeling of the oaken chess pawn in her grasp. She caught sight of it, lying a foot away where the pavement met the damp grass. With a trembling hand, Rias moved for the piece, for the comfort of its familiarity.

She hadn't even noticed when the vine-like brilliance had moved, hadn't so much as seen it twitch beyond its initial lashing. It now halted her hand, however, having extended down and placed itself between her nimble fingers and the pawn in the blink of an eye. It hung there, guarding the chess piece, keeping her from it with all the determination of a snake protecting its egg.

'W-What is this!?' Rias wondered, shivering as she was bathed in the potent sacredness that wafted off of the tendril, 'It's…conscious?!'

It stood stalk still, pointed at her as if it was observing her every move, eying the slightest twitch of her fingers and the rise and fall of her chest as she breathed. It dared her to move her hand, dared her to reach for the piece. Rias, however, was far too stunned to consider moving, far too astounded to contemplate retracting her hand. She had seen holy Light before, seen the angelic and the fallen alike bend the element to their command, but it was nothing like this. Nothing so primal, nothing so completely animalistic as what hung before her.

'Was Namikaze-san a Fallen Angel?' Rias frowned, glaring at the Light, 'No…there's no way that Kiba wouldn't have noticed that Namikaze-san wasn't human.'

"Fantastic! Utterly brilliant!"

As the voice reached her ears, Rias resisted her initial instinct to whirl around and see who had stumbled across this scene—she dare not make any more sudden movements while so close to the holy appendage. Instead, she opted to slowly inch backwards, away from the threat of the apparently self-aware holy Light. It was only when she felt that she had placed a safe enough distance between herself and it that she stood and turned to see the newcomer. By that time, the stranger had already waltzed right up to Naruto's corpse, standing next to her and eying it as though it were a toy.

It was a tall man, taller than both her brother and father, with evenly tanned skin and piercing violet eyes that gleamed with interest. Though the majority of his body was hidden from her view, veiled by a long, dark trench coat, Rias' keen gaze still caught the details of a lean, toned form. As he ran a hand through his dark hair, he laughed joyously, his pearly teeth gleaming under the streetlight.

"To think that the Light is so potent, so concentrated, that it can move instinctually, separate from the mind of its wielder!" the man raved stroking his goatee, "Such a wondrous defense mechanism. He truly is a specimen worthy of observation, is he not?"

"Who are you?" Rias scowled, her gaze heated and filled with suspicion. No normal human would react to such a macabre sight in such a manner and she would have been very much aware of any other Devils populating the nearby area—that left two possibilities as to the man's identity and neither seemed particularly pleasing to Rias. She backed away from the stranger, mentally preparing for the possibility of battle, "Why are you here!?"

The man chuckled, "Fear not, little Devil. I haven't come seeking a fight. Rather, I am here in the interest of knowledge."

"This goes well beyond a healthy interest, wouldn't you say?" Rias glared, "Now who are you!?"

He smirked, for once turning his gaze from the corpse before him to look at Rias, "I am the only one capable of saving this boy's life."

"Save his life? Namikaze-san is already dead," Rias gestured to the pawn on the ground, still blocked by the tendril of Light, "Right now, that pawn is his only hope of seeing tomorrow. Reincarnation is the only means of truly reviving the dead…but you already know that, don't you, Fallen-san?"

"My, the heir of House Gremory is certainly observant, isn't she? And quite feisty as well," the stranger laughed, "But I'm afraid you're also quite wrong, Gremory-san. This boy, Namikaze as you call him, is certainly not beyond other means of aid, just as he is certainly not dead yet."

Rias' gaze went from suspicious to bemused, literally in the blink of an eye. She glanced down to Naruto, his unbreathing form, the gaping cavity in his chest, the congealing puddle of his blood that stained the walkway, before switching her focus back to the newcomer, a flat look on her face, "Not dead?"

"…Allow me to rephrase that," the man pointed to the radiance emerging from the blonde, "While the boy's body has indeed died, currently his Light still lives—that Light, though it seems to have developed a certain amount of awareness, is still a part of him. In other words, a small part of that boy still lives. Think of it as the spirit outliving the body—he is certainly beyond the help of the mundane, but I should be more than enough to save his life."

Rias looked back to the Light, "But why is it there at all? From all accounts, Namikaze-san should be nothing but a regular human."

"I have my own suspicions about that…" a twinkle returned to the man's gaze and, once again, he appeared as though he was a child receiving a rare toy, "Well, my own theories aside, you won't be able to get close to him as he is now anyway. That Light of his will attack any foreign body that it senses to be a threat to its existence. Even if you could get the Evil Piece into him, I'm certain that his body would reject it. Sorry to say, Gremory-san, but this is person is incapable of joining your Peerage."

"You expect me to believe the word of a Fallen?" Rias crossed her arms over her considerable chest.

"Not at all—you're free to try, if you wish. By all means, don't hold back," the stranger's smirk widened, "I just wouldn't let that Light touch you. To be able to manifest itself into form without the will of its user, that Light must be incredibly potent. For one weak to holy Light such as you Devils, it is quite a formidable foe. Prolonged physical contact would almost certainly result in the loss of whatever unfortunate body part it happened to touch."

Rias stiffened, her eyes wide as she stared down at the radiant glow. It was waiting, biding its time to see what would happen, ready to attack on a moment's notice. As much as she hated to admit it, the man was correct—it wouldn't let her get close to Naruto, not without a fight at least. If it should come down to a fight, however, her opponent was a subconscious serpent of pure energy and the only thing keeping the boy she wanted to save alive apparently. Even if she wanted to risk attacking it, the damage destroying it could do to Naruto was potentially more harmful than helpful for the delinquent.

For the first time in a long time, Rias Gremory found herself in checkmate.

It wasn't a pleasant experience. She never did like losing—no Devil did—but it always irked her all the more when Rias felt as though she was being looked down up, as though she was being treated as a child. Maybe it was his confident tone or maybe it was the impossibly infuriating smirk that rested on the stranger's face, but Rias could not help but abandon her illusion of tolerance in favor of frustration.

Growling, she turned back to the man, "And you think you can get any closer than I can?"

"I believe so, yes," violet eyes leveled on the Naruto's body once more. He held up his hand, palm facing the skies, and allowed a spark of illumination to form upon it, "This is merely a hypothesis, but I suspect that, while my own Light may not be as holy, it should ward off the boy's natural defenses. It may even prevent triggering his Light's aggression completely."

"A hypothesis?" Rias muttered, "You're risking your well-being on a guess!?"

"Of course I am. It is the very nature of the pursuit of knowledge that necessary risks must be taken and risking myself is a gamble I have taken many times before," he nodded, stepping over to the blonde, "Now, if you'll excuse me. I've allowed myself too many distractions while the boy's life hangs in the balance."

"And let's suppose your hypothesis is correct," Rias argued, moving to stand between the stranger and Naruto, "Are you going to tell me that your intentions for helping Namikaze-san are pure?"

"My intentions? I already told you, Gremory-san, that I am here for the sake of knowledge," he shrugged, "Do my intentions truly matter though? I am, after all, the lad's only hope of survival…or would you have me leave him here to rot, simply because you cannot trust me?"

Rias watched the man move forward, past her and the tendril of Light, flaring a touch of his own power as he did so—the tendril never so much as glanced in his direction, instead opting to ensure that she could not reach her pawn by standing guard on it. Kneeling down, he deftly lifted the blonde, the holy vine retreating into Naruto's body as he did so, and placed his dead form upon his shoulders. Unable to do anything for the delinquent, Rias simply stood there, silent until the stranger turned to leave.

"W-Wait!" she called out, halting the man with her words, "Tell me…is he at least going to be okay?"

The Fallen Angel's smirk bloomed into a grin as he turned back to give her one final look, "I can give the boy his life back, but that is it. Whether or not he will be okay and where he goes from here…well, that depends entirely upon his actions and his alone."

And just like that, he was gone. Rias had blinked and he had vanished, leaving only a few black feathers drifting in the night's breeze. She was alone, standing on the path next to a puddle of blood and a lone pawn piece. She finally retrieved it, sighing as she gripped its oak-carved body in the palm of her hand. Beneath her feet, her own seal appeared, crimson as her hair, crimson as Naruto's blood. Without another word, Rias Gremory vanished as well, leaving the park behind her.

~.~.~

His first breath after death was the most unpleasant sensation Naruto had ever experienced in his life. More intense than the immense pain he had felt when his powers had been awakened, more startling than glancing down and discovering a cavernous pit in his sternum. It felt as though he had awoken underwater, as if he had been slumbering in the briny depths of some dark sea, gasping for fresh air only for a flood to fill his wanting lungs.

For this reason, Naruto's eyes snapped open, wild and alarmed, shortly after his first breath. He coughed and sputtered, attempting to sit up only to find his body held down by a strenuous grip. In the haze of his mind, in the muddled being of having awoken after his own demise, the blonde had almost believed that he had been buried alive. The fear of suffocating in his own grave gripped Naruto's heart, panic hammering away at his senses as he struggled to sit up.

"Oh, you're awake. Well, that's fine, I suppose. The gritty parts of the operation are complete after all."

A calm voice drew Naruto from his hysteria, allowing the blonde to tether himself back to reality. Glancing around, however, he quickly found that, currently, reality wasn't the best place to be in. The room he found himself in was too dark to make out, the corners and walls having sunken into the inky shadows. To make matters worse, a blinding light shined down on him from above, obscuring his vision even further. What he could see, though, only served to worry him further.

Strapped to a metal table by a series of leather bands and garbed only in his boxers, Naruto found himself staring down the very image of a mad scientist, his lab coat and medical gloves dripping with blood to complete the imagery. He stood at the foot of the metallic slab Naruto was trapped on, looking over a small tray of what looked like surgical tools.

The clearly insane man looked at him, smiling cheerfully beneath his surgical mask, "Good morning."

"Holy shit!" Naruto screamed, redoubling his efforts to break free of his bonds, 'What the hell's going on!? I died, didn't I? I definitely did! Was last night a dream or something!? Why am I here looking like I'm about to lose my damn kidney!?'

Seeing his patient struggling to free himself, the stranger sighed, "That leather won't break, so spare yourself the trouble. They're strong enough that they could hold down a rampaging elephant."

"Who the fuck are you!?" Naruto growled, ignoring the man's advice and continuing his efforts to get loose, "Where am I and what the hell are you doing to me!?"

"Really now, must you continue to struggle? I already told you the leather won't break. You're in no danger, anyway. I did just finish saving your life, after all. It'd all be rather pointless if I was just going to kill you again," the man replied coolly, "If you really must know, my name is Azazel, you are in my home or, more specifically, my lab, and I am about to make it so that the Angels will no longer be able to detect your presence from Heaven."

Naruto ceased his struggling, "You...saved me? So then last night wasn't just a dream?"

"I did and I assure you that your encounter with that Angel was no mere nightmare," the man, Azazel, smirked, "But if you don't believe me, why don't you activate your Light and see for yourself?"

"That's right. My Light…" Naruto craned his neck to stare down at his arms. Silently, he willed the Light to spark to life, to burn as bright it had burnt the night before, and sure enough, it heeded his call. His arms blossomed with blinding illumination, capturing Naruto's wonderment as they did, "Whoa…it never gets old, does it?"

"Certainly not," Azazel hummed in agreement, snatching a small iron ring from his surgical tools.

"Okay, Azazel. I'm Naruto," Naruto drew his gaze from his glowing limbs, turning off his Light as he eyed his supposed savior, "And I still have questions."

"And you will receive the answers to those questions in just a moment," Azazel nodded, moving to stand over Naruto, "But first, I have to make sure you're protected from the Angels or else all my hard work would've been for naught."

Naruto glanced at the ring in Azazel's grasp, "What? Wearing that ring is gonna protect me from them, then?"

"It will," Azazel smiled, "But it isn't worn like a traditional ring."

"Huh? Then how's it wo—gah!" Naruto gasped, breath hitched in his throat as he watched Azazel plunge his ring-bearing hand deep into his chest in one fluid motion. His hand dove into Naruto like his chest was made of water, never breaking the skin and never harming him. The blonde turned as white as a sheet, unable to say a word as he watched Azazel rummage around within his body for a few moments. When Azazel finally removed his hand, the ring was noticeably missing from his possession.

"I have just placed that ring around the superior vena cava of your heart—don't worry, it won't cause any harm to you. It is a signet ring, one with the Seal of Solomon transcribed upon it," Azazel explained, removing his surgical mask and gloves, "While traditionally known for sealing demons, its actual purposes can extended to sealing anything supernatural completely. The one inscribed on that ring is not powerful enough to seal your powers away, of course, but it should at the very least cloak your Light's presence from any savvy eyes."

As Azazel undid the straps that held Naruto down on the table, Naruto continued to stare at his unblemished chest, his eyes wide and horrified, "Don't ever do…that…again."

"Of course," Azazel grinned, "Now, why don't we go to the kitchen and discuss things over breakfast? I might as well see if I have anything in your size while I'm at it—we can't have you walking around half-naked all day, now can we?"

Azazel led Naruto out of the dark room and not a moment too soon—the blonde was certain that he glimpsed something slimy slithering around in the shadows of the "lab" and he was certainly not looking forward to being introduced to it. Fifteen minutes and one flight of stairs later, Naruto found himself dressed in a simple pair of dark pants and a white shirt, sitting at a table sipping a cup of coffee. Azazel sat across from him, busying himself by observing Naruto's actions, detailing each and every move the blonde made on a notepad. The blonde didn't really care, being far too relieved to be out of the foreboding laboratory of his rescuer. Compared to it, the simple kitchen he sat in might as well have been a utopia, with warmth and gentleness practically radiating from the walls.

"Is drinking coffee really worth documenting?" Naruto questioned, a flat look falling across his features.

"Of course it is, Naruto-kun. How else will I remember that you take your coffee black? I've never had the chance to observe a Nephilim up-close before and there is no such thing as insignificant knowledge," Azazel muttered, triumphantly dotting the end of his sentence with a period, "But you said you had questions. By all means, ask away."

"Okay," Naruto frowned, setting his mug on the oak before him, "First off, how did you save me?"

"It was simple, really. It would seem that the Throne underestimated your will to live—or, at least, your Light's will to survive. It is what saved you, you know. By outliving your body, it was able to keep your soul intact," Azazel explained briskly, "It was simply a matter of replacing your lost flesh and organs and reattaching the soul your Light protected to the rest of your physical body. Quite a challenge for the less initiated, but it was child's play for one such as me."

"Replacing my flesh?" Naruto grimaced. The image conjuring in his mind was stomach-turning.

"There's no need to fret, Naruto-kun," Azazel's smile was all too cheerful, his voice all too chipper, "The donors won't be missing them. After all, you don't really need the left half of your liver when you…Naruto-kun, are you alright?"

"…Peachy," Naruto mumbled weakly, having slammed his head down against the oaken table. Azazel sighed in relief.

"Oh thank goodness," Azazel spoke, "I was afraid the coffee was bad."

'…He saved my life. I shouldn't hate him as much as I do right now,' Naruto groaned mentally, lifting his head and resting it against his palm, "O-Okay then, moving on. Who are you exactly? And don't say you already told me. I don't want your name; I want to know who you really are."

Azazel paused, humming in thought and clicking his tongue as though he was tasting wine, as though tasting the idea of explaining to Naruto his actual identity. He nodded after a few moments of silent deliberation, more to himself than to Naruto, "Very well. I am the one they call Azazel of Grigori, he who presides over the Fallen Angels."

"Fallen Angels?" Naruto blinked.

"Angels who have fallen from grace," Azazel expanded with a flourished wave of his hand, "Those of us who dare to break the laws set in place by God himself cannot remain as Angels. We are thrown out of Heaven and plummet to earth, our wings cursed and blackened by our sins. In other words, we're the family black sheep to our holy brothers and sisters."

'Fallen from grace…' the blonde had heard the phrase before and its familiarity brought him no comfort. His murderer, the Angel who declared itself as Throne, had uttered it last night, when it was denouncing his father as a traitor, as a manipulator who used Kushina as a shield to avoid punishment. Naruto scowled, "If you're the leader of the Fallen Angels, then can you tell me about one that was called Zadkiel?"

"Zadkiel? That's a name I haven't heard in quite some time," Azazel remarked, running a hand through his hair. He lifted his head to stare off into the distance, to stare off at the ghost of a man that had almost faded from his memory, "Why are you interested?"

It was a good question, one that Naruto didn't have an answer to. Why was he so interested? He knew that what the Angel had said last night was most likely true. It had no reason to lie, no obvious earthly or spiritual benefits to gain from deceiving someone who it was seconds away from ending. Wasn't the presence of his Light proof enough that the Angel had been truthful? What good would it do to go searching for an answer he already knew? What could he gain from chasing a story when he already knew its conclusion?

"I just…" Naruto turned his gaze down at his own hands, glaring at them. Azazel watched the boy, eying the blonde as he struggled to bring the words to his lips. As he did, Azazel swiftly jotted down another note. It was a simple observation, an obvious one really, but one that the man was sure that many, including himself, would at times forget in the future—that the Nephilim he had found, the young man he had saved, was still young and an undeniable part of him was still human.

'It's amazing he's coping as well as he is, being this young and getting thrust into all of this without warning. The fact that he wasn't astounded when I announced that I am the leader of Grigori just shows how little he knows of our world and its politics. The word "Faction" doesn't carry any weight for him, doesn't hold any significant meaning…' Azazel noted, setting his notes on the table and folding his hands, "Naruto-kun, I have a proposition for you."

Naruto looked to Azazel, but remained silent.

"You seem to be grappling with what happened to you last night. I don't know if you're simply overwhelmed or if you're unable to accept this, but it doesn't matter," Azazel's expression was unreadable, his tone both distant and comforting, "What matters is that you don't need to accept anything if you do not wish to."

Naruto frowned, "What are you saying?"

"I am saying that it is well within my powers to erase your memory of last night's events. With my magic, I can make it so that when you wake up tomorrow, it will be as if none of this ever happened," Azazel explained, "You won't remember your encounter with the Angel and, with the ring still in you, you will likely never meet another one. Without any awareness of your powers, it is highly unlikely that you will be able to use them to their fullest extent. It would be the closest you could ever come to living some semblance of a normal life again."

Naruto thought to shoot down Azazel's proposal immediately, jumping at the chance to reject such an offer. He wasn't so weak that he needed to run away, wasn't so cowardly that he couldn't come to terms with what had happened. The very idea, the mere notion, insulted the blonde and he was more than prepared to voice his discontent. The blonde opened his mouth, ready to give his answer.

His words died before they even reached his lips.

At that moment, it was not Naruto's pride that filled his mind. It wasn't his sense of honor, or courage, or even perseverance. All that stood at the forefront of Naruto's thoughts was the picture that sat on his desk at home, the grinning faces of the four people that stood in that park, and how he could never look at those smiles and feel the same sense of love and comfort. It was the memories of his mother's smile, of his father's laughter, and the despair he felt at knowing those tarnished treasures would never be the same again.

No, now that he knew about his father, there was no way he could picture things in the same light.

'But…' Naruto hated the fact that his will was wavering, despised that temptation was gripping him, 'If I were to forget…'

If he were to forget, it would effectively be as if last night had never happened. He wouldn't know about his powers, he wouldn't remember about the existence of Angels, he wouldn't be aware that he had died, he wouldn't be savvy to the fact that his father had lied to his family and used them as shields against God. His life, his shattered, twisted life, would be restored to what it had been, what it could be again.

"I understand that it's a rather large decision to make," Azazel interjected and stood from the table as Naruto's resolve began to crumble, "Why don't you hurry along to school and give it some thought? You can always come back if you decide you want to take me up on my offer."

Naruto watched, conflicted, as Azazel flipped to a new page in his notepad and began to scribble something down. A few seconds later, he tore the page from the pad and handed the slip of paper to Naruto. Looking down at the paper, Naruto found it to be an address that he vaguely recognized. It was the address to an old, abandoned building that rested on the outskirts of town, notable only for the utterly absurd amount of urban legends and rumors that circulated about its infamous reputation as both an active haunting sight and a past murder scene.

"What's this for?" Naruto muttered, frowning, "Some kind of test of courage?"

"After school, I want you to head over to that address and meet with someone there," Azazel explained, pointing to the paper as he did, "I believe doing so will help you make up your mind."

Naruto stared up at the man, "I don't understand why you're doing all of this for me."

"…I will admit that it would be a shame if you decided to have your memories erased—I would miss out on an astounding research opportunity," Azazel shrugged, stepping over to the table and grabbing Naruto's mug. He placed it in the sink, turning on the water to wash the cup clean, "But, unlike certain peers of mine, I realize the importance of choice. Well, I suppose I should say I was made to realize the importance of choice by a certain person. If they hadn't given me a choice, I wouldn't be standing here today, after all."

Naruto stood from the table and headed for the front door, still disgusted with himself for being unable to reject Azazel's offer. It was an odd conflict within his mind, in which he knew that forgetting would mean betraying everything he had stood by for the past decade of his life—to not give in, to not run away, to not compromise himself. Yet there was a part of him, small but immensely strong, that made it so that he just couldn't bring himself to refuse.

"Naruto-kun."

Naruto turned back to look at Azazel, his hand gripping the doorknob.

Azazel smiled, "Whatever choice you make, I'm certain it will be the right one."

"Yeah…" Naruto gave a thin smile before opening the door and stepping out into the morning light, "Yeah, I am too. Thanks for everything, Azazel."

Azazel waved him off as the blonde shut the door behind him. Now finding himself alone, the Fallen Angel proceeded to grab a clean mug and pour his own cup of coffee. With his beverage in hand, he took a seat at the table and just sat there for the rest of the morning, quietly sipping his coffee while going over old memories, a pained yet reminiscent look upon his face.

'Zadkiel…I had almost forgotten what you looked like. Even seeing Naruto, who looks so much like you, didn't stir any memories in me until he used your name,' Azazel sighed, sipping his drink, 'To think that your son would appear before me of all people…'

It had taken place ages ago and the memory was rightfully hazy, yet the details still shined brightly. Azazel hadn't been the first Angel to fall from God's grace, but he was the first to successfully flee with his life, though just barely. Lightning had rained down upon him from the Heavens and fire and brimstone erupted up at him from the earth. The very boundaries of space and time collided all around his weak, mangled form and the ravaged screams of millions flooded his head relentlessly, never giving him a moment's peace.

God's fury had been boundless when he had taken the guise of a human, when he had cowered under humanity and mingled with them to escape his wrath. The Father's anger only grew when other Fallen Angels began to imitate Azazel's methods of escape. For whom else but Azazel, the cleverest of the Angels, could ever hope to outwit God? Many of the fallen who utilize his ways had praised Azazel's slyness, glorified his cowardice. However, Azazel was no fool, no drunk high on the illusion of his own success. He was well aware that his was borrowed time.

Omnipotence was the Lord's greatest strength—Azazel knew this. He knew he would be discovered eventually and had prepared for the worst. When God's servant had finally come for him, he had anticipated a fight against Michael's infinite strength or Gabriel's unending wisdom. What Azazel had not been expecting, however, was for Zadkiel to stand before him and challenge him to battle.

Zadkiel, the Righteousness of God, the Archangel of Mercy. In his shock, Azazel had let his arrogance get the better of him. He had laughed at Zadkiel's challenge, believing himself to be far superior to what many referred to as the 'Forgotten Archangel.' For what power could one who ruled over mercy hold? What authority could Zadkiel possess in those times of brewing war and conflict? With confidence, Azazel accepted Zadkiel's duel.

It was with utter embarrassment and confusion that he lost. In his hubris, he had forgotten that Zadkiel's speed was praised even by God himself. When Abraham had been mere seconds away from slaying Isaac, it was none other than Zadkiel that God trusted to spirit down from Heaven and intervene. To add to his utter humiliation, Zadkiel displayed in battle a wit and ingenuity that easily matched Azazel's, perhaps even surpassing the Fallen Angel's slyness.

With these two factors in hand, it was only a matter of time before Zadkiel came to stand over the beaten form of Azazel. Azazel had urged the Angel to quicken the final blow, to put an end to the shame he felt. It was when Zadkiel had said nothing in response that Azazel had looked up at him and noticed for the first time that Zadkiel was on the verge of tears, grief and torment wracking his visage. Stunned, Azazel could say nothing as Zadkiel's lips parted and the Angel spoke.

"We are brothers," he had whispered, pained by wounds invisible to the eye, "Why must we fight?"

His words struck Azazel's heart—not "we were brothers," but "we are brothers." There was no judgment in his tone, no sense of superiority to give Azazel the impression that, as a Fallen Angel, he was now beneath Zadkiel. Even after his betrayal, even after his acts of cowardice, even after he had laughed at him, even after they had tried to kill one another, Zadkiel still believed him to be a brother. For the first time since God's mighty strikes had collided with his fleeing form, tears leaked from the corners of Azazel's eyes.

The shame he had felt then had been limitless.

Perhaps Zadkiel's embodiment of mercy overtook him. Maybe Azazel's tears had moved his gentle spirit. Azazel will now never know the reason; it shall haunt him and plague his conscious forever as the one piece of knowledge that is absolutely unobtainable to him. Whether Azazel understands why or not, however, doesn't change the fact that Zadkiel had kneeled down next to his broken body and offered him a choice.

One simple choice.

One not preordained by God, one not bound to the laws of Heaven, but an honest, true, free choice.

"Brother, I give to you a proposition. I have won this battle and your life is now in my hands," Zadkiel's voice was remorseful, as if bemoaning that the battle had not ended in another outcome, "You may stay here and die by my hand or you can flee now and mark this as your final act of cowardice."

Despite his shame, despite himself, Azazel clung to life and chose to flee.

When Zadkiel had received his answer, as if to show his unshaken faith in his brother, he had stood, turned, and remained as still as a statue. His back was proudly on display before Azazel, his guard dropped and his weakness standing before his enemy's eyes. It would have been so easy for Azazel to summon forth a bolt of Light and strike Zadkiel then, so simple for Azazel to claim the Angel's head and victory with it.

Azazel turned and flew away on black wings, leaving Zadkiel standing there untouched.

True to his word, Azazel stopped running from God that day. He gathered his fellow Fallen Angels and founded the third Faction, Grigori. Throughout the entirety of the Great War, there was not a day Azazel fled from the battlefield. His bravery and mettle had raised Grigori's morale from their formation to the very end of the war. It was only when God's body collapsed upon the ground, only when Azazel had seen the eyes of his long-time hunter, seen the pain of a father so disappointed in his son, yet so proud and loving as well, that Azazel turned and left the battlefield.

There were two reasons why Azazel had not rallied his troops and crushed the weakened and leaderless Angels and Devils on that war-torn day. Firstly, there would have been no greater act of cowardice that Azazel could have committed than winning the war after seeing God killed by another's hand, and secondly, there could be no greater insult to the father who had looked at him with such eyes even after being betrayed so thoroughly by an unworthy son.

Azazel would always take comfort in the fact that on that day, despite the deep sadness that weighed upon his soul, he felt no shame.

Finishing his coffee, Azazel hummed in thought, 'I can only hope that I've repaid my debt, Zadkiel. Despite Sirzechs' desperate attempt to save his sister, I have ensured that your son will have a choice. If he is anything like you, brother, I am certain he will make the right one.'

~.~.~

'This sucks,' Naruto decided with a groan, running a hand through his hair as he meandered down the road to school. Shortly after leaving Azazel's home, the blonde had quickly been able to recognize his surroundings and start on the path to his classes at roughly the same time as he normally left for school. He had resolved to push the matter of purposely erasing his memory to the back of his mind for now. After all, he could tackle the decision when he went to the supposedly haunted house after school today and met with whoever Azazel wanted him to meet with. For now, he had other problems that he had to deal with.

'Like the fact that Sona's gonna scream my ear off for not wearing my uniform,' Naruto grimaced, glancing down at the clothes he had borrowed while he waited for a crosswalk light to change. It wasn't really his fault that one of his few uniforms got destroyed by an Angel last night, now was it? Sure, he could've ran home to grab a spare, but that would mean walking into his no doubt murderous mother after having not come home at all last night. Naruto paused to consider what that meant for him.

'Yeah, definitely gonna avoid that disaster in the making,' Naruto shivered, sweating as he pictured the sheer fury that was waiting for him at home, 'I've been murdered enough times in my life, thank you very much.'

"Oi, Namikaze!"

'I've also done this song and dance enough times,' Naruto turned to glance over his shoulder. Unsurprisingly, he found a group of six or seven young men standing there, with the one who had addressed him standing at the forefront of the posse. He was a good foot or two taller than Naruto and probably a few years older than him as well. Though he shared the blonde's hair color, Naruto was sure that, unlike his own wild hair, the stranger's flattop haircut wasn't naturally blonde. Naruto eyed the gold lettering embroidered onto his fellow blonde's blazer, 'Bad Company.'

The stranger didn't seem happy to see him, jutting an accusing finger out at the unimpressed blonde, "You're a dead man, Namikaze."

'Well, I was one, anyway,' Naruto frowned, "Look, gentlemen, I had a rough night. Can we do this some other time?"

"Believe me, I know all about your nights," the man growled, "Name's Nijimura Keicho of 'Bad Company.' You wanna know who had a real rough night? My brother, Nijimura Okuyasu, when you jumped him and beat the shit out of him a couple days ago, that's who."

"Doesn't ring a bell," Naruto shrugged.

"Is that right?" Keicho reached into his trouser pocket and retrieve a small knife, "Don't worry. I don't think you'll have any trouble remembering his name after I carve it onto your damn face!"

"Well, in that case, might as well take care of some pent-up aggression, right?" cracking his knuckles, Naruto nodded his head to the gang, "Ready when you are, gentlemen."

"I'm gonna slice that smirk off your face, bastard! I'll kill you!" Keicho shouted, flipping the blade of his knife out and charging forward. For whatever reason, Naruto noticed that his crew hung back, not following their boss into the fray. Idly moving his focus from the goons of 'Bad Company' to their leader, who was quickly approaching striking distance, Naruto readied himself by allowing the faint glow of his Light to overtake his hands. Keicho grinned as he threw his arm back, griping his blade tightly, "Die, you son of a bitch!"

'I can at least use this to see what this Light of mine can do,' Naruto brought his Light-charged hand up as the knife was slashed outwards, perfectly poised to carve a line right through his face. He caught the blade, much to Keicho's surprise, squeezing the sharpened edge against his bare palm. The blonde paused, taking advantage of Keicho's shock to take a moment to assess the damage that had been done to his hand.

"Nice knife," even as he gripped the edge of the blade, Naruto felt no pain. The blonde could feel no cut made by the knife; he could see and feel no blood flowing over his fingers from any wound that might have been inflicted upon him. Naruto grinned, 'Okay, it looks like I got a boost to my defense. What about my damage?'

Naruto pulled his free hand back into a fist, allowing enough Light to flow into it for the glow to become plainly visible.

Keicho eyed all of this in utter confusion, "W-What the fu—gruh!"

Naruto threw his fist forward, slamming it squarely into Keicho's face. As Naruto put his weight behind the blow, he felt the familiar sensation of a nose cracking beneath the might of his fist, saw the blood fly out of his opponent's nostril and the tears pour from his dark eyes. Keicho did not fall back from the force of the attack—he flew. Into the air the young man went, sailing down the block, past his stunned comrades.

He finally landed two blocks away, his crumbled form lying still on the sidewalk.

The members of 'Bad Company' stared at their fallen boss in abject horror, turning to look at a grinning Naruto only when he cleared his throat.

"As you can plainly see, boys, I'm a changed man," Naruto spread his arms, smirking at his trembling foes, "I'm a brand new me, just for you guys. I think this is gonna be the start of a wonderful new relationship between me and all you punks."

Five or ten minutes later, Naruto was dusting himself off, standing at the center of a field of unconscious delinquents. He glanced down at them, spending one last bit of effort to make sure that they were all indeed out cold and would not be chasing him down or bothering him for quite a while. When he was absolutely certain that he wouldn't be bothered by 'Bad Company' any further, Naruto turned to leave.

"Oh my…"

As he turned to face the road that would take him to school, Naruto found that he was being watched by a familiar beauty. Himejima Akeno was amongst the most beautiful girls in all of Kuoh Academy. Given the amazingly lovely young women that walked its halls, that was quite the feat. There wasn't a male in the entirety of Kuoh that wouldn't have recognized the heavenly girl at first glance. Even Naruto found himself compelled to take a moment to stop and admire his sisterly upperclassman as she stood on the road before him, surveying the carnage that he had just finished creating with an odd twinkle in her eyes.

Considering his reputation and less than friendly disposition, it was rather needless to say that Naruto had never actually talked to Akeno before. He had caught glimpses of her in the halls before, mostly when there were a few cracks in the crowds of adoring fans, both male and female, which seemed to follow her everywhere. He hadn't honestly thought that the day would come, however, that he would actually be meeting with her face to face, with her standing there…clutching a uniform?

'Weird, but I guess it's none of my business,' Naruto shrugged, starting down the road. If Akeno was afraid of him, if she was worried or terrified about the fact that he was moving closer to her, she certainly didn't show it—she was too busy staring at the downed delinquents, absolutely transfixed on their bruised and bloody bodies.

"Those guys are gonna wake up eventually," Naruto mentioned as he moved past her, hands roughly shoved into his pockets, "They're gonna be pissed when they do, too. I wouldn't stick around much longer if I were you."

"You can't simply leave them like this."

"Of course I can. They tried to jump me," Naruto shot back, not turning to look at the girl, "Life's short enough, but if they want it to be shorter, who am I to stop them?"

"Ara, ara. No, I didn't mean you shouldn't have hurt them," Akeno's voice took on a breathy undertone, much to Naruto's confusion, "I'm saying you should hurt them more."

"…I'm sorry, I don't think I heard you properly," this time, Naruto did turn to face Akeno, now slightly fearful of leaving his back turned to her, "I thought you said I should hurt them more."

Akeno shot him an exquisite smile that sent a chill down his spine, her eyes slightly glazed over as she looked at him, "I did say that, Namikaze-san. You must punish them much more thoroughly if you want to get your message across~!"

'…I have never needed a smoke more than I do right now,' Naruto was suddenly very, very much aware that there was a much more insidious side to Himejima Akeno that her followers never saw or, at the very least, never noticed. A few moments ago, Akeno had seemed to be just like any other girl at Kuoh—remarkably breath-taking, mind you, but still just a girl. Now, he suddenly was under the grave impression that he was standing before a predator the likes of which he had never seen and never hoped to meet.

'Shit—she's waiting for an answer,' Naruto realized when her gleaming eyes tore themselves away from the delinquents and latched themselves onto him, "Uh…w-well, I mean, what would be the point, ya know? They're all knocked out. They wouldn't feel a thing, even if I did bat them around a little longer."

Akeno stared at Naruto silently, causing the young blonde to wonder if he had somehow insulted her with his statement. Shortly afterwards, though, she glanced towards the blue morning sky, humming in thought, "Ara, ara. Yes, I suppose you're right, Namikaze-san…"

Naruto breathed a sigh of relief, 'Well, at least something's gone my way toda—'

"Next time, then, you'll have to make sure to punish them more effectively," Akeno smiled cheerfully, "And you will also have to be sure that I am there to see it."

'Of course,' Naruto groaned mentally, "Look, I can't exactly promise that you'll be there to…"

Naruto trailed off as he noticed Akeno's sharp violet eyes staring directly into his, her cheerful smile never fading, never faltering. The pair stood there a moment, simply staring at one another. Naruto blinked and looked away. Akeno did not.

"F-Fine, I'll make sure you're there," Naruto relented, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

Akeno's face positively bloomed with joy, "Excellent. I'll be looking forward to it, then. In the meantime, please take this, Namikaze-san."

The raven-haired beauty handed Naruto the uniform she was carrying and the blonde realized for the first time that not only was it a male Kuoh Academy uniform, but it was also exactly his size. Naruto shot Akeno a questioning glance, earning a giggle from the young woman, "And this is for…?"

"It's a uniform to wear to class today," Akeno replied, "You can't go around making Sona-chan angry every day, Namikaze-san."

Naruto blinked, "But how did you—"

"A friend thought you might need it and told me to bring one just in case," Akeno interrupted, waving off the blonde's question. Naruto looked unconvinced, but shrugged and accepted the answer for what it was, figuring he wasn't going to be getting a better one out of the girl. Instead, he chose to push the uniform back into her hands.

"These things aren't exactly cheap," Naruto commented as he refused the gift, "Tell your friend to get a refund or something. Anger is the only emotion Sona knows how to express anyway, so why take it away from her?"

"Ara, ara. Really now, Namikaze-san, you should know better than to reject the gift of a young maiden," Akeno shook her head in disappointment, pushing the set of clothes back into the blonde's calloused hands, "If you're that worried about the cost, then simply swing by the Occult Research Club after school today and I'm sure my friend will be more than satisfied."

"If she wants to meet me so bad, she should just talk to me herself," Naruto sighed, seeing that Akeno was adamant on him taking the gift. He took the clothes, tucking them under his arm before turning and continuing down the road, "Fine. If I ever feel like sticking around for the entire school day, I'll stop by."

"Now, now, Namikaze-san, skipping class isn't good for your grades, you know," Akeno's smile widened, "Plus, if you always cut school, you'd never get the chance to come to the Occult Research Club. That won't do at all. Oh, but I'm sure if I told Sona-chan about your hiding spot on the roof, she'd be sure to set you on the right path."

Naruto froze, stiffening as soon as those damnable words left Akeno's lips. Slowly, he wheeled around to face her, his annoyance made clear by the flat stare he was sending to the alluring maiden before him. Her melodious giggle did nothing to lessen his frustrations.

"…What would your fans say if they knew you just blackmailed me?" Naruto wondered aloud.

"Ara, ara," Akeno placed a hand to her cheek, her warm smile never faltering under Naruto's gaze, "I'm sure they'd survive. Now come on, Namikaze-san, we have another fun day at school ahead of us."

As if she had no greater goal that morning than to make sure Naruto made it to school, Akeno stuck by his side as they walked down the sidewalk in the direction of Kuoh Academy, humming the tune of an unknown song with every step she took. Naruto chose to ignore most of the odd looks he was receiving by passersby, only growling slightly when he would overhear their whispers about how he must have been blackmailing the poor girl.

'It's the other way around, dammit! I'm the fucking victim here!' Naruto wanted to shout at them. Instead, he would just occasionally glance at Akeno from the corner of his eye, watching to see that the happy smile never left her face even once as they strolled down the road, 'Himejima Akeno, huh?'

~.~.~

"Hellish" didn't even begin to describe it. He was sure that there were no fitting words he could find in the dictionary to accurately illustrate it. It was as if Satan himself had reached up to snatch him away to the deepest bowels of Hell to be tortured for Old Scratch's amusement, as though he had been dropped into a fresh purgatory, all alone with nothing to do but wait for eternity to one day pass. He could spend that eternity listing the countless acts and deeds he'd rather be doing at the moment, with scratching his own eyes out to alleviate the numbing boredom ranking rather high on the archive. For this was not simply torture, this was no mere unbearable pain being whipped across his shoulders—this was a transgression against all of humanity, a pox eclipsing every sin mankind has proved itself capable of.

This was a seven hour school day.

The bell had rung—a magnificent, harmonious resonance in the blonde's humbled opinion—only twenty minutes ago, signifying his release from the nightmare that was concentrated boredom. He was currently wandering the halls, thousand-yard stare in his eyes as he searched for any clue as to where the Occult Research Club met.

'How am I even supposed to find this chick?' Naruto questioned. He'd waited for about ten to fifteen minutes in his classroom once school had let out, thinking that Akeno or someone from the Occult Research Club would come by and show him where they met for activities. When no one had shown up and when he had gotten tired of the stares of his classmates, who were both amazed and horrified that he had lasted an entire day, he had stood and left to go looking for the club himself.

'As if today hasn't been annoying enough,' Naruto scowled, 'First I get that lovely wake-up call from Azazel, then I get blackmailed into staying in this hellhole for a whole day, and next thing I know, Hyoudou is shoving the fact that he got a girlfriend down my throat and I have to stay here even longer just to find this fucking place. Seriously, what's up with my luck these past few days?'

"Ah, Naruto-san!"

"Hm?" Naruto turned to find Kiba approaching him with a small smile on his face, relief evident in his eyes, "Oh, Kiba. What's up? You look tired."

Kiba laughed weakly, brushing off Naruto's concerns, "It's nothing, really. I just finished confirming a few things with my club about tonight. Anyway, I'm glad I ran into you—I'm supposed to take you to the Occult Research Club."

Naruto blinked, "Wait, you're in the Occult Research Club?"

"You didn't know? I could've sworn I mentioned it before," Kiba shrugged, "Anyway, we should go—our club president is very eager to meet you, Naruto-san."

"I don't know why," Naruto snorted, but didn't resist as he followed Kiba over to the stairwell, "I'm not going to be joining any clubs. I'm going to pop in, thank her for the uniform, and then I'm out. I've been here long enough."

Kiba just chuckled, "Don't be so quick to judge, Naruto-san. I think you'll find that there isn't a club quite like ours anywhere else in the whole school."

Kiba led Naruto down the stairs and out the front door of the main building, much to Naruto's confusion. With the changing of Kuoh Academy from a single-sex education to a co-ed school, a new school building had been erected to replace the old one, adding more classrooms, more clubrooms, and just more space in general to hold the flood of new students that would be pouring in. Naruto knew for a fact that all of the clubs in Kuoh either met in the new school building or out at the many gym facilities for their activities.

'So why are we going into the old school building?' Naruto frowned, "Oi, Kiba, just where is this place?"

"Oh, it's not too much further," Kiba replied as they neared a dusty stairwell, "Sorry about all this—our president enjoys her privacy."

"I can see that…" Naruto sighed, moving up the stairs after his fellow blonde, "But I didn't think that anyone was allowed to use this building anymore."

"We got special permission," Kiba explained with a knowing smile, "You'd be surprised at the connections our club has."

He probably would. Naruto was surprised enough that Yuuto Kiba had actually joined a club. He would think that any club the young man joined would've been absolutely swarmed by every female in the school like a pack of hyenas fighting over a piece of meat, all of them just jumping at the chance to join and spend time with their crush-turned-obsession. How in the world did they manage to keep this under wraps?

"Well, we're here," Kiba announced, coming to a stop right outside the first door on the second floor. He opened the door, swinging it outward and using his free hand to gesture Naruto into the room ahead of him. Naruto fixed Kiba a wary stare, one that the handsome youth replied to with a disarming smile. Without another word, Naruto stalked into the room, stopping only a few steps inward to observe it as Kiba entered and shut the door behind him.

It was dark, too dark to really make out anything that wasn't caught in the few rays of sun that managed to pierce through the curtains that attempted to smother every window in the room. As his eyes adjusted to the blackness of the shadows, Naruto slowly began to make out certain details of the room.

The first thing he noticed and undoubtedly the oddest object in the room was the presence of a shower and tub in the far corner. Coming in a close second was the fireplace that jutted out of the left wall, making Naruto wonder just how the thing was hooked up to the school's gas and when it was installed. Just a few feet away from the hearth, however, was a small oaken coffee table, atop which rested a plate of chocolate cookies. Clustered around that table was a group of couches and chairs, upon which sat a familiar face, her hand extended to snatch a cookie from the plate.

It was the same snow-white haired girl from yesterday, the one who had sat up on the roof with him and told him off for smoking.

She drew her amber eyes to him as he entered, meeting his blue with a nod of acknowledgement. Naruto returned the gesture with a nod of his own, masking his surprise at running into the girl here of all places. The rather stiff greeting the pair exchanged drew a giggle from further back in the room.

"My, my, they're actually quite alike, aren't they?" Akeno hummed. In her hands she held a tray holding several cups and a steaming teapot. Expertly balancing the tray on one hand, the raven-haired beauty deftly grabbed a cup and placed it on the spacious wooden desktop next to her before grasping the teapot and pouring a steady stream of warm tea into the teacup. A hand, both delicate and feminine, reached out to seize the drink.

"In certain aspects, I suppose," the young woman behind the desk spoke, "Greetings, Namikaze-san. I take it the uniform proved useful?"

Rias Gremory.

The only girl in the entire school and likely the entire city thought to be even more stunningly gorgeous than Akeno. If Akeno had a crowd following her daily, than Rias had a mob that practically hounded her every second they could. She had all the makings of a foreign belle—captivating and flawless pale skin, a curvaceous and luscious body, and striking red hair and pale blue eyes. On top of being a vision of allure and grace, she also had a rare intelligence matched only by her charm and poise and continued to rank at the very top of the student body with flawless exam scores.

In short, she was the girl that every girl in Kuoh Academy wanted to be and the girl that every guy in school wanted to be with.

'So Gremory is the president of the Occult Research Club? Huh. Strange hobby for a girl like her,' Naruto met her gaze, "Do I even want to know how you got my measurements?"

"Some things are best left to the imagination," Rias teasingly stated with a smirk, gesturing to the couch, "Please, have a seat."

"I'll stand," Naruto replied immediately, "I just came by to thank you for the uniform. I don't have the money to pay you for it, so if you want it back, I'll wash and return it tomorrow. That's all I have to say, so if you'll excuse me, I'll be going now."

Naruto pivoted on his heel, already reaching for where he knew where the doorknob would be, only to find Kiba standing in his way, blocking the only exit. Naruto raised a questioning eyebrow at his friend, only to receive an apologetic smile in return. His questioning look turned to a glare of betrayal when Naruto heard Rias call out to him.

"Actually, Namikaze-san, there are a few things I'd like to discuss with you, if you wouldn't mind," Rias smiled, "It won't take long. If you stay, I won't even ask for anything in return for the uniform."

"I have places to be," Naruto growled, "Move, Kiba."

Again, Kiba smiled apologetically, "Sorry, Naruto-san, but it is in your best interest to hear Buchou out."

"I'll be the one to decide what's best for me," Naruto muttered, "Kiba, we're friends, but if you don't move now, I swear I'll—"

"Please refrain from threatening members of my club in front of me, Namikaze-san," Rias spoke up again, her tone taking on a dangerous tint, "He is acting both under my orders and out of concern for your wellbeing. It's not every day a friend dies only to be up and walking about the next day, after all."

The look of shame that flashed across Kiba's face was matched by the startled look of surprise that danced across Naruto's. The blonde delinquent whipped around, fury and suspicion filling his glare as he all but snarled at Rias, "And how the hell do you know about that!?"

"Please calm down, Namikaze-san," Rias' tone was now soothing, her pacifying eyes staring back at him, "I am more than willing to explain everything to you, but you must understand that something happened last night that we have never seen before. We don't know what to make of it and, like you, we want answers. There is no reason we can't cooperate and no reason that we have to be enemies. Now, please have a seat—I'll make this as painless as possible, I assure you."

Naruto paused to consider his options, squashing any sensation of indignation that may have clouded his judgment with a single deep breath. He could still easily just turn around and leave—an entire gang of young adults wasn't enough to hold him back, so Yuuto Kiba of all people wasn't going to be keeping him from any door he really wanted to get to. Of course, if he chose that option, he wouldn't get any answers as to how this club knew about the Angels and, presumably, Fallen Angels.

"…I'll stand," Naruto repeated with a reluctant grunt.

"Very well then," if Rias was perturbed by his anger, she certainly didn't show it, "Since we are the ones keeping you here, I suppose it's only fair that you receive your answers first. Although I'm sure you are already aware, there are certain beings in this world whose abilities go beyond the norm as far ordinary humans are concerned. For the most part, they belong to one of three races: Devil, Fallen Angel, and—"

"Angel," Naruto finished. Rias nodded, apparently not the least bit annoyed at having been interrupted.

"Correct. I believe you have already had your first encounters with both the Angels and the Fallen Angels," Rias casually spoke, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear, "Then I hope we leave a good first impression as the first Devils you've ever met, Namikaze-san."

As she said those words, a pair of batwings, dark as the night's sky, unfolded themselves. Everyone in the room—everyone but Naruto, that is—was sporting a pair on their backs, looking at him to gauge his reaction to the sudden revelation. Just to be certain, Naruto tossed a glance over his shoulder to find that Kiba was indeed displaying his own pair of wings. Looking back to Rias, Naruto just shrugged, "Well, you haven't shot me yet, so I guess I like you guys better than the Angels. If you really want to make a good first impression, though, I would recommend not trying to keep me here against my will."

Rias blinked, "You…You aren't surprised?"

Naruto gave a flat stare, "Lady, in the past twenty-four hours, I have been arrested, killed by an Angel, and operated on by a mad scientist. Is it weird to find out my only friend in this place is also literally the spawn of Satan? Yeah, a bit, but I'm far past the point of caring, to be honest."

Facing Rias, Naruto really couldn't tell that Kiba's stare was trained on his back. The handsome young man's eyes were wide with shock, his mind stunned into submission by Naruto's casual dismissal of his status as a Devil. In truth, he had always wondered how Naruto would react to learning that the Yuuto Kiba he knew was actually a Devil masquerading as a regular human student. He had expected the delinquent to be angry at the very least, perhaps even saddened that he hadn't been informed of this earlier.

To just nonchalantly brush the announcement aside, however…Kiba had to chuckle—now, looking back, he honestly wasn't sure why he was expecting anything different from his friend, 'Only you, Naruto-san, could treat something as large as this like it was nothing at all.'

Rias joined him in his laugher, releasing a quiet giggle, "I see. Well, in any case, these three species, by their very nature, stood in disagreement with each other ever since their first encounters. This eventually led to the formation of the Three Great Factions—a series of organized militia, each composed of thousands upon thousands of their own members and led by their strongest. The Three Factions launched a series of battles and skirmishes that raged for centuries, only ending a few generations ago with one climatic final battle, in which the leaders of the Devils, the Four Maou, were slain by the biblical God. This is what we of the three species refer to as the Great War."

"So you Devils lost?" Naruto raised a brow. Rias shook her head.

"If we'd had lost, they would have left none of us alive. No, despite losing our leaders, the Devils had managed to inflict just as much damage upon the Angels and Fall Angels, in both casualties and morale. In the end, all of the Factions were too weakened to continue fighting and the war came to end in a stalemate. We've enjoyed a ceasefire since then, but tensions have always been rather high."

"And you're concerned about why an Angel was here last night, is that it?" Naruto frowned, "Afraid that it might be up to no good?"

"Not in so many words, but that is the gist of why we called you here," Rias smiled, "There is also another reason, however."

"And that reason would be?" Naruto watched in mild bemusement as Rias opened a drawer at her desk. Reaching into the desk, she retrieved a small oaken chess piece—a pawn, Naruto noted—and placed it on the top of the desk for the blonde to see. For whatever reason, Naruto despised just looking at the chess piece. It was as if it was mocking him with its mere presence, as though a certain part of him considered the pawn an insult to his very existence. He averted his eyes, instead opting to match gazes with Rias, "A game of chess? I'll be honest, I don't really play."

"No, I am not asking you to play chess with me, Namikaze-san, though I would be more than happy to play you if you wish," Rias gestured to the pawn, "As I said, all three Factions were ravaged quite badly at the end of the war. In order to regrow our numbers, we Devils developed what we call the Rating Game system and the Evil Pieces. Using Evil Pieces like this pawn, Devils are able to form what are called Peerages by converting other beings into Devils. With a Peerage under their command, any Devil can participate in the Rating Games and earn honor and prestige by triumphing over other Devils' Peerages."

Unbeknownst to Naruto, Rias was taking a rather large gamble. After last night, she had no idea if Naruto even could be reincarnated into a Devil, much less what explosive effects might occur from trying to mold an Evil Piece into his body. If she wanted that powerful, conscious Light on her side in time for her planned match against Riser Phenex, however, this was Rias' only chance. Despite how the Light had reacted to the pawn piece before, perhaps now that its wielder was conscious and able to make his own choices it would be a bit more agreeable.

"So, is that what the Occult Research Club is then? Just a front for your Peerage?" Naruto questioned, shoving his hands into his pockets. He reached for where his lighter and cigarettes would've normally been, only to grasp air, 'Damn. Forgot these weren't my usual pants.'

"You catch on quickly," Rias complimented, smiling approvingly, "Yes, the members of the Occult Research Club are my Peerage."

"I was wondering why I never heard of this club," Naruto sighed, severely wishing he had remembered to grab his cigarettes from his other pants before leaving Azazel's home, "After all, between you, Akeno, and Kiba, I'd have thought your respective fan clubs would've poured in by the dozens. Hell, more than half the school would probably want to join."

Rias giggled, "Yes, well, we are rather selective of our members—a Devil can only have so many Peerage members, so one must be sure to choose those with good potential. That's why I'd like to offer you a spot on my Peerage, Namikaze-san. There are certain benefits to being a Devil that you may be interested in, including a longer life and a healthier body as well as the opportunity to amass wealth and status relatively quickly."

Naruto hummed quietly, "I suppose my awakening to my Light the other day has nothing to do with this?"

The blonde smirked when he noticed Rias flinch—not only had he hit the nail on the head, apparently, but he had also finally gotten through that calm and collected exterior of hers. Rias coughed into her hand, quickly regaining her composure, "I'd be lying if I said that wasn't what drew my recent interest in having you join us, but in truth, I have been keeping an eye on you for a while, Namikaze-san."

"Hand-picked by Rias-senpai herself—I guess I should be honored," Naruto snorted, "I refuse."

The atmosphere changed in the room. The snow-haired girl, who until now was far more focused on her cookies than the conversation, stopped eating in favor of glancing between the tensing form of Rias and the defiant Naruto. Akeno, though remaining silent, felt her ever-present smile become just a bit more strained as he casually rejected Rias' offer. Naruto felt a hand grip his shoulder and turned to find Kiba staring at him, concern evident in his eyes.

"Hold on a second, Naruto-san," Kiba spoke, "Being reincarnated into a Devil will place you under Rias' protection! Once that Angel finds out that you are still alive, it will come back to finish the job! I don't know why it wants to kill you, but it won't risk rekindling the war to do it—the only way it won't touch you is if you join a Peerage!"

"You got a smoke, Kiba?" Naruto questioned in response.

"I…what?" Kiba blinked, staring at his friend as if he was insane. Naruto seemed nonplused with the knowledge that his killer would be returning to hunt him down, that he could very well die again any day now. Frustration began to set in for Kiba, fueled by Naruto's apparent ignorance at just how much danger the delinquent was in, "Stop joking around, Naruto-san! You could seriously die! Don't you understand that!?"

"So that's a negative then? Damn," Naruto shrugged before thumping his fist against his chest, directly over his heart, "I don't have to worry about anymore Angels, understand? I'm fine."

"What?" Kiba shook the blonde's shoulder, trying to emphasize his words, "Don't have to worry anymore!? You died! What you think is going to happen when—"

"Kiba."

The distraught youth turned to his master. Rias' visage was as stony as they came; eying Naruto as though she had some reason to completely reassess the delinquent.

"Namikaze-san has made his choice," Rias spoke with finality laced within her words, "If he has reason to believe that he won't be targeted again, we are inclined to believe him."

Kiba could do little else then shoot his friend a pleading look as he reluctantly let go of the delinquent. It was as he did so that Rias immediately noticed Kiba's mistake, one that Naruto was about to take advantage of—the Knight had stepped away from the door to reason with his fellow blonde. There was currently no one guarding the door, no one stopping Naruto from just walking out right now. Before she could open her mouth, Naruto was already gripping the doorknob, smirking at her as he did so.

"Well, I got my answers," Naruto announced, "It's been fun, but like I said, I have places to go, people to meet—I'm sure you understand."

"Wait!" Rias stood from her desk, reaching a hand out to the blonde, "I have questions of my own!"

"Yeah, about that, Princess," Naruto stepped through the door, waving his middle finger over his shoulder as he left, "I got mine."

The door closed behind him, leaving the room in silence. Rias sighed, slumping dejectedly back in her chair as she massaged her temples. Besides her, Akeno hummed in thought and while Kiba began to apologize profusely, both for leaving the door unattended and for his friend's less than polite behavior, Koneko muttered a quiet, "That didn't go well…"

"Ara, ara," Akeno murmured, bringing a hand to her cheek. Having been friends with the girl for years, Akeno was able to see the faults in whom many considered to be a flawless maiden. As gracious, generous, and loving as she was, Rias was still a very privileged and extremely beloved young girl. The redhead simply wasn't used to being rejected, to not having things go her way. She wasn't spoilt by any means, but she could be impatient at times, particularly when a crucial juncture was occurring. She had a very powerful personality, so rather than bide her time, she tended to push forward. Unfortunately for her, she had pushed forward into Namikaze Naruto, someone who also possessed a strong personality.

The end results of their meeting might as well have been destined.

"What a day…" Rias groaned at her desk.

"Should we go after Namikaze-san?" Akeno questioned, eying her mentally exhausted friend. Rias shook her head.

"We'll put Namikaze-san and his mysterious powers on the backburner for now—convincing him will have to be an objective for another day. Besides, any attempt to go after him now would just create a bigger rift between us," Rias replied, "Right now, we have to put our focus on tonight. The Fallen Angels are making their move on Hyoudou-san and that has to be our top priority."

Rias snatched the pawn from her desk, allowing her gaze to linger on its oak-carved form. Finally, she opened the drawer and put her Evil Piece in its proper spot. Closing it and refocusing her mind, she allowed the thoughts of a particularly rude blonde delinquent to fade from her mind.

~.~.~

It certainly looked like it would be haunted. Laid against the cloudy night sky, the two-story home looked like it was cut straight from the most cliché horror movie that theaters had to offer. The dark paint that covered the outside was peeling off, like skin falling from a decomposing corpse, with dirt and spiders making their homes in the splintered and rotten wood. The blonde couldn't see a single window that wasn't cracked or just flat out broken, dust obscuring the jagged shards of glass that remained. Graffiti was scattered across the walls, screaming warnings at him and cursing his name.

"Well, this is it, I guess," Naruto eyed the building before him, checking the address Azazel had given him one last time to be sure. With a reluctant sigh, Naruto made his way up to the weathered door, "Figures it has to be here of all places. I hate all this supernatural crap."

Seeing as the house was obviously abandoned, Naruto didn't bother with knocking and just walked through the unlocked door. The door was in such poor condition that Naruto was sure that any attempt he made at knocking on it would've knocked it down anyway. The moment he walked through the door, his nose was immediately assaulted by the foulest smell Naruto had ever had the displeasure of experience.

'Gah! What the fuck is that!?' Naruto gagged, clenching his nose, 'Smells like something crawled in here and died!'

Glancing left and right, the blonde searched for possible sources of the horrible stench. The inside of the house wasn't in any better quality than the outside. Piles of trash were strewn about the hallways, as was even more crude graffiti. Floorboards had given way to rot and the drywall had collapsed in certain areas of the wall, revealing rusted and leaking pipes and a colony of rat nests. Despite his better judgment, Naruto moved inward.

"Hello?" Naruto called out, grimacing as he lowered his hand and attempted to ignore the rotten odor, "I'm, uh…I'm supposed to be meeting someone here. You there?"

Silence.

Naruto scowled, "Damn it. They didn't already leave, did they?"

"Upstairs…"

Naruto turned to glance in the direction of the stairs as a voice drifted down the steps, carried on a slight breeze running through the drafty home. He wasn't sure whether to feel relieved that he apparently hadn't missed his mysterious contact or thoroughly creeped out at just how much this was starting to seem like a scene ripped straight from a ghost story.

"Upstairs…"

As faint as a spirit and as cool as the wind, the voice called for him again.

"I get it, I get it," Naruto grumbled, starting up the creaky stairs, "Can't you say it in a way that's less absolutely horrifying?"

The blonde was honestly shocked that the rotting steps managed to support his weight as he climbed them. Reaching the top, he found himself facing a long hallway, a series of doorways spanning either side of the corridor. As if sensing his presence, the voice spoke up again.

"Last door…on the left…"

'Azazel said he's the one who revived me, so he wouldn't bother trying to kill me. He said this person would help me reach a decision. I shouldn't have anything to worry about,' Naruto frowned, glaring into the darkness of the hallway as he moved down it, 'So why am I getting a really bad feeling about all this?'

Still, this did not dissuade the blonde from moving further and further down the hall, eyes burning as he did so—the foul stench was only growing stronger and stronger the further he moved within the home. It was only when he was just a few steps from the farthest door on the left that the reek became too overpowering, and Naruto was forced to halt.

"Closer…"

Naruto gasped, his lungs begging for fresh, clean air, "How the hell aren't you bothered by this smell at all!?"

"Come closer..."

"I have a better idea," Naruto growled, "How about you move your lazy ass outside so we can talk like normal people!?"

"Come closer!"

In the past twenty-four hours, Naruto had been arrested. He'd had his entire childhood shattered when his father, the man he idolized above all others, was revealed to be nothing more than a traitor and a liar. Immediately afterwards, he'd been killed. He'd awoken in an unknown location, being held down by an unknown man that had his hand in his chest before that man dropped the most pressure the blonde had ever felt upon his shoulders. He'd then been attacked and dragged to school to sit through the most boring seven hours of his life. Following that, he'd been forced into a conversation more or less against his will by a group of Devils that expected him to join them.

To say Naruto's patience had worn thin was a vast understatement.

"Fucking make me!" Naruto roared back, frustration gripping his form. A hushed quiet fell upon the house, with Naruto awaiting a response from its other occupant. As the blonde listened carefully, he could hear the heavy shuffling of footsteps in the room beside him, the telltale rugged sounds of something dragging along the floor as the steps sounded. Then, without any warning, the sounds stopped.

"Very well."

A dark form flew out of the doorway, causing Naruto to jump back in alarm. The figure slammed flush against the wall before dropping down the filthy floor where it rested, still as a statue, without so much as a twitch. The maddening smell was back again, full-force and absolutely unbearable as Naruto stared at the figure with wide, horrified eyes.

What had come hurdling out of the darkness of the doorway were the dismembered remains of a torso. It was falling apart at the seams, rotten flesh straining to hang onto decaying and peeling skin. Oozing muscles could be seen beneath the flayed skin, maggots and insects crawling and curling over each other as they fled, terrified that the carcass they inhabited had been shook about. They turned and dug deeper into the corpse, burrowing away into the gouged flesh and deep bite marks that littered its form.

Naruto's stomach twisted and turned as he stared at it, his complexion growing pale. It was all he could do not to vomit at the sight. He did not have to stare at the horror long, however, for it was only seconds later that a new terror came for him. She stomped through the doorway, giant form only barely squeezing through the wooden frame.

Naruto found himself face to face with a living paradox. Her upper body was that of an entrancing young woman, her chest bountiful and her form curvaceous. Hers was a long, flaxen hair that shined as brilliantly as gold, as though woven by the Gods themselves. Her dark eyes, large and enticing, stared at him, her full lips peeling back into a smirk, revealing pearly teeth, as delicate as her soft, heart-shaped face.

Her lower half, however, seemed to belong to a completely different being all together. It was the body of a large, dark lioness, dried blood and bits of flesh staining and clumping the black fur of the beast. The upper body—that of the beautiful woman—was attached to the beast's body at the neck of the lion-like form, connecting the her softest features with the powerful sets of forepaws and hind legs. Despite the clearly muscled arms and legs of the beast, the monster's torso still revealed its bony ribcage hiding just beneath the fur, as though she had been starved and stood on the brink of death. Behind her, a snake churned in the air in place of a tail, hissing out the soft, quiet voice that he had heard coming up the stairs.

"W-What the fuck are you!?" Naruto shouted out, taken aback by the thing in front of him.

"It's been quite some time since prey has wandered into my domain without my luring them here. Such a delicious scent as well," the woman spoke lustfully, voice brimming with malicious intent, "I suppose that at the very least I can tell you my name, as thanks for presenting me with such an easy meal. I am Viser, a Devil."

Naruto grit his teeth as he heard her speak of him as dinner, backing up a few steps, "You sure as hell don't look like any Devil I've seen."

Seeing his discomfort, Viser smirked and stepped forward, "I've taken on this beautiful form through my meals. You'd be surprised at the power human blood can grant a Devil…"

"Beautiful? Lady, you've got one fucked up definition of beauty," Naruto muttered, calling forth his Light. Viser eyed his arms, curiosity mixed with the arrogance that shone in her eyes.

"Oh? You seem to actually have some power, don't you?" Viser chuckled, "No matter. The thrill of the fight always makes the meat taste all the more succulent."

"Okay, that's it. Lady, I was gonna cut you some slack, on account of how life kinda screwed you in the looks department," Naruto slammed his knuckles together, sparks of Light shooting off them in the motion, "But now you're just plain pissing me off and creeping me out."

Naruto moved to step forward, packing as much Light as he could in his left hand, only to find himself halted. Stumbling in surprise at his immobility, Naruto glanced down at his ankle to find that the serpent that was his opponent's tail had extended, slithered over to him and wrapped itself around his leg without his notice. It now had him in a crushing grip, unable to escape as the thunderous footsteps of Viser's lower body rapidly fell upon him. Quickly looking to his foe, he found that, on her human hands, her crimson nails had extended nine inches, gleaming like daggers in the dark.

"Son of a—grah!" Naruto cursed as the Devil raked her nails across the right side of his face, cutting into his cheek with her dagger-like knives and leaving three fresh, bleeding cuts in her wake.

Viser laughed, howling in pleasure at the blonde's pain as she swung her other hand down at the young delinquent. Bringing his hand up to block her attack at the wrist, Naruto pulled back his free hand, ready to throw his fist forward and strike the monster. Before he could land his blow, however, Viser raised up on her hind legs, jabbing out at his chest with her two front paws. Naruto cringed as he felt the two powerful strikes hit his chest, launching him backwards down the hallway.

He came to a crashing stop on the floor, moaning in pain as the rotting wood cracked under the force of his fall, 'Damn. Even with my powers, that really fucking hurt…'

"Yes, yes, yes!" Viser cried out in ecstasy, running her hands over her body as she stared at her prey, "Feel more and more pain! Let me see you flinch and scream!"

'I can't fight her here—it's too narrow,' pushing himself up, he glared at his opponent, 'I've got to get her outside or at least somewhere I can maneuver around her and that damn snake of hers.'

Turning, Naruto made a break for the staircase, confident that he could outrun the bloodthirsty behemoth behind him. At least, he was confident until something long and white sailed by his ear and embedded itself into the wall. The blonde, shaken but not deterred, kept running, only shooting the projectile a sideways glance as he passed by it—a javelin. Viser laughed.

"You think you can escape me, boy!?" she cackled as a rib pushed itself out from her monstrous form. Grasping it, she tugged it free from her body, making a make-shift javelin of bone from her straightened rib, identical to the one she had just thrown, "You are in my domain! No one escapes me!"

Naruto ducked down the stairs, just in time to avoid another bone that was set to pierce the back of his head. Scrambling down the steps, he swiftly made it to the front door, his hand reaching for the knob as the house shook under the weight of Viser's footsteps. Naruto turned the brass sphere, roughly shoving on the door.

It didn't budge.

'C'mon, c'mon!' Naruto growled as he continued to turn the knob to no avail, 'Open, you piece of shit!'

Frustration overtaking him, Naruto attempted to kick the door down, slamming into it with as much force as he could. The door didn't even shake in the slightest. Naruto stared at it in abject confusion. It had been falling apart when he had first entered, barely hanging onto its own hinges. That had been maybe ten minutes ago and now it was holding steadfast, as though it was reinforced with steel.

A javelin lodged itself in Naruto's shoulder without warning, earning a scream from the youth as pain flooded over him. Grasping it, Naruto turned to glare up at Viser, who stood at the top of the stairs, leering down at her prey with mocking eyes.

"I already told you, fool," Viser licked her lips, "This is my domain—all the doors and windows are being sealed by my magic. No one leaves here without my permission."

"Sorry if I don't feel like sticking around," Naruto muttered, wrenching the bone from his body, "But you're not exactly the prettiest girl I've ever seen and you're way too clingy for my tastes."

Viser grinned sinisterly, "You're trying to hide your fear from me, talking as though you have nothing to worry about. I can see right through you—you're afraid. Afraid of fighting me, afraid of dying and becoming my next meal! I can practically feel the fear dripping off you and it smells absolutely delicious!"

"…Crazy bitch," Naruto growled out.

He couldn't deny that what she said was more true than false, however. As long as he was trapped in this house, he had no way of getting around her to her more vulnerable sides. He was forced to face her head on, in territory that she knew like the back of her hand, territory that she apparently held some degree of control over. He had the disadvantage and he seriously doubted he'd be getting a third chance at life if Viser got him into her gullet.

His plan had been to get her outside, to lure her to an open space where he could outmaneuver her giant form. With that plan gone, there was only one course of action that the blonde could foresee. Taking hold of the javelin that had stabbed into his shoulder, he threw it with all his might up at Viser. The Devil wasn't caught off guard—she reached out and smacked the weapon away with one mighty swing of her paws.

"Ha!" she laughed, "Did you honestly think I would be slain by my own…"

Viser trailed off as she realized she was no longer talking to anyone. Naruto was gone. When her gaze had switched focus from him to the bone he had thrown at her, he had taken the opportunity to do the only thing he could think of—he ran, leaving a trail of blood in his hurry. Further inside of the house, in a small and half-demolished kitchen, Naruto heard the frustrated shriek of his attacker.

'She's noticed I'm gone. I've only got a couple seconds to figure something out,' he quickly glanced around the room, searching for anything he could use to his advantage. All that was in the room were empty cupboards and cabinets, all hanging open to reveal their empty contents, and the destroyed and splintered remains of a table and a few chairs.

"You won't escape me, boy!"

Naruto cursed as he heard her scream, heard her footsteps charging down the hallway and drawing ever closer. With nothing else coming to mind, the blonde made a last-ditch effort at hiding, quickly running for the pantry door and stowing away inside. Viser came running into the room only moments later.

"Where are you!?" Viser growled, furious that her prey had slipped away. She glanced down at the trail of blood that she had followed, fresh from the wound she had inflicted upon the boy's shoulder. Following it with her eyes, she found that it ended at the pantry. Vise gave a wide, victorious smirk, "Hiding will do you no good, coward. Now…die!"

Reaching out and grabbing the knob, Viser viciously tore the door from its hinges, tossing it aside. Licking her lips in anticipation, she peered into the dark room.

She found no one inside—it was completely empty.

"What!?" Viser screamed, glancing about the small pantry wildly. No matter how hard she looked, however, she could find no sign of the blonde aside from the blood he had left behind. What she found instead, however, had frustration and outrage boiling within her mind. At the back of the pantry rested a rather large hole in the wall, with more than enough space for a human being to escape through. Reaching her hand through, Viser also found that the space between the walls was indeed thick enough for a person to slide along as well.

Naruto had escaped her, he was hiding within the walls of the home, and, in the time it had taken her to realize this, he could've potentially slid to any number of locations that the wall reached. Viser howled in rage, moving out of the pantry and pulling another javelin from her ribcage. She began to wildly and ferociously stab it into the walls, hoping to randomly pierce her prey, "Show yourself, you pathetic fool! Come out and face me!"

Meanwhile, Naruto continued to slide along the narrow pathway within the wall that was typically reserved for plumbing and insulation, 'I guess I should feel lucky that most of that has fallen apart like the rest of this shitty place.'

Once he was in a relatively far location, the blonde stopped to catch his breath and consider his next move. He could hear her attacking the walls and howling her curses at him—it was only a matter of time before she either got lucky and found him or brought the entire room down around them.

'This blows,' Naruto groaned mentally, 'I've got nothing. I can't get close to her and I can't get out of here…shit!'

With the Angel, things had been different. Naruto hadn't had time to truly feel fear, to truly ponder his situation—his complete and utter shock at what was occurring had morphed into outrage at what it had said about his father. Then, before he knew it, it was over and he was on the ground, dying without any pain. This was a completely different situation all together. He hadn't had the chance to truly feel fear.

"Stop hiding, coward!"

This time, Naruto knew of the paranormal—the shock, while still there after seeing Viser's introduction, had worn off quickly. In biding his time and escaping, he also had ample time to realize the hopelessness of his predicament. He had time to contemplate the terror that gripped his heart, time to consider the realities of death.

He was certain that, unlike the Angel, Viser wouldn't spare him any pain.

'Am I…am I really going to die again?' Naruto paled, his skin growing heated and flushed with nerve-wracking dread. Sweat dripped down his forehead as he trembled, his heart thumping in his chest, 'This is it. T-This time, it's for real, isn't it? No coming back…'

"Come out now!"

Regrets suddenly filled his mind. He had never gotten to say goodbye to his mother, never gotten to give her one last hug or thank her for doing her best for his sake. He wished he had the chance to speak with Kiba or even Issei for one last time, to just sit down and have a conversation with them. He wanted to go to Ichiraku's for one final bowl of ramen and exchange pleasantries with Teuchi and Ayame and bid them goodbye.

His hands trembling, Naruto reached up and grabbed his hands as he slumped to the floor, his numb body suddenly weighted down with emotions.

"I will kill you!"

'…What?' Naruto raised his head, staring off in the direction Viser's voice had rung out from.

"When I find you I will kill you, you sniveling weakling!"

It was odd. Those words, to anyone else, would've inspired a sensation of horror and defeat. For Naruto, however, that was not so. As Viser said those words, a sense of familiarity washed over Naruto. Despite the dark tone of those words, he had heard them uttered so many times in his life that they were actually…comforting. He heard those words practically every day, from nearly every punk that stepped up to get put down by the blonde delinquent.

Naruto couldn't help himself.

He started to laugh.

He had been so stupid as to think this situation was any different than those other times those words had been screamed at him, so foolish to treat these circumstances as though it had been his first experience with them that he had to laugh at himself. True, there were some key differences, such as Viser being a Devil and the fact that he was trapped in a house with her, but the principle of the matter was the same—he was cornered by odds that anyone would find impossible to overcome, be it due to being incredibly outnumbered or being under assault by the paranormal.

He just had his back pressed against the wall on this occasion a little more than the others, both literally and figuratively. Maybe he was wrong to think so, maybe he had gone insane and was clinging to that idea to avoid grasping the true danger before him, but suddenly Naruto found himself brimming with confidence. Naruto smirked, 'Okay, it's time for round two.'

Outside the walls, Viser could hear the laughter of her prey. His position within the dividers made his cackling seem as though it was echoing throughout the entire house, surrounding her and coming from all directions. It infuriated her to no end.

She redoubled her efforts, stabbing away at the walls with even greater intensity, "Don't you laugh at me, boy!"

"Sorry, sorry. It's just that I realized how pathetic you are."

"Silence!" Viser roared. Not only did his laughter echo, but his voice did as well. His laughter filled her ears again.

"Take this goddamn house for example. You're so terrified of leaving it that you'd rather starve and wait for dumbasses to walk into your nest than go out and eat."

Viser screamed in fury, "Shut up!"

"And you were calling me a coward!? Ha!"

"Be quiet!" she ordered, backing away from the walls and trying to locate the source of the voice. The echo made it nigh impossible, however.

"The truth hurts, doesn't it? I can't believe I was ever afraid of you. You're like a bad joke."

"I'll teach you to insult me!" Viser growled, eying the walls. There was nothing about this situation that didn't infuriate her, nothing about it that didn't make her want to see the blonde suffer for his transgressions against her glory.

"Like I said, a bad joke—real bad, but what the hell? I'll laugh anyway."

His laughter resumed echoing all around Viser, who turned to and fro as she tried to find where it was coming from, backing further and further into the kitchen. Growling, she roared, "I will finish you, you hear me!? I'm going to put an end to you, boy!"

Her serpentine tail hissed loudly as a weight dropped onto her back. Shocked and rigid, Viser turned her head to find Naruto smirking at her as he straddled her back. In her quest to find the source of Naruto's laughter, she had been so furious that she hadn't noticed that she had backed up to the pantry again. Naruto had doubled back to the hole in the wall he had initially crept into and taken advantage of her distracted state to get atop her.

"I spent the most boring seven hours of my life coming up with different attacks to use with my Light," Naruto muttered to the shocked Devil, "You get to have the honor of being my Guinea pig!"

Channeling Light into his hands, Naruto pulled both back before letting them fly forward and slam into the monstrous female's back. The blows came one after another in succession, never stopping, never slowing down, and each felt as though a sledgehammer was colliding full-force with Viser's body. Each knuckle that dug into her skin earned a new scream of pain from the Devil, every blow a hammer driving a maddening nail into her mind.

This was the power of the holy element striking out against its oldest foe, the demonic. Her pale, perfect complexion began to shrivel and burn under the assault, her skin decaying simply by coming into contact with the Light. Viser was absolutely stunned, shocked and unable to move beneath the onslaught of fists. She couldn't even block them if she wanted to—Naruto's fists had become a blur, just streaks of white Light that lit up the darkness as though it were a guiding light.

"I call this one…" Naruto grinned, not letting up on his assault in the least, "Breakdown!"

It was a simple concept, really. The Light had improved Naruto's strength and, as he would later test out, his speed. Ordinarily, throwing punches in rapid succession without taking any time to build up strength and ready your muscles results in a weaker punch. With the Light infused into his fists, however, Naruto found that he could launch as many punches as he wanted as fast as he wanted and still pack quite a bit of power behind them through use of the Light's boosted strength and speed.

Viser grit her teeth, willing her power to manifest and protect her from the attack. Her ears became elongated, sharpened like knives, and her eyes, once large and dark with allure, narrowed, her pupils slitting and veins webbing out like cracks in a sheet of glass. Pearly, flawless teeth splinted and cracked, rising up to become inch-long, needle-like razors as she ran her forked tongue across every individual tooth. Curves turned to thin, undefined bone as her arms stretched, increasing the range of her dagger-like nails.

Mustering her newfound strength even under the relentless rainfall of strikes, Viser reared back and attempted to throw Naruto off her backside. Reaching down, the blonde quickly grabbed a hold of her fur with one hand to steady himself while continuing to attack with the other hand.

"G-Get off of me, you insolent little brat!" Viser roared as she tried to fling Naruto off her, bucking around like a wild bull. Naruto held fast, however.

"Alright, time to end this!" the blonde declared as he began to build up more and more Light energy into his left hand. Hearing those words, Viser snapped.

"No…No! I refuse to be killed by a mere child!" she shrieked. Bending her powerful legs, she leapt back, slamming herself and Naruto into the nearby wall. The rotting support couldn't hold either the force of her leap or the weight of her massive body. It crumbled as she hurled both of them through it as if it were a window. The pair landed in the hallway next to the kitchen, having fallen clean through the torn wall to the other side, covered in bits of drywall and dust.

Viser was the first to rise to her feet, quickly scanning through the dust and debris to find the groaning form of Naruto, who had been unfortunate enough to land underneath her gigantic body, his body half hidden under the broken wood and plasterboard. She wasted no time in raising a single powerful paw and extending its honed claws before slamming it mercilessly onto the blonde's chest.

"G-Grah!" Naruto cried out in pain as the dagger-like claws cut into his flesh and the unbearable pressure and weight of Viser's paw crushed down on his torso. As she felt the bones crack underfoot, Viser's mad, lustful smile returned to her face, her eyes wide and screaming with pleasure at the sight of Naruto's pain.

"Yes, yes! Scream for me!" she cooed, forcing more pressure onto the blonde, "I want to hear you suffer, boy! I want to see every cut and bruise I give you play out on your pitiful expression!"

"B-Bitch!" Naruto grunted out, his mind overridden with pain and face contorted from his suffering.

"Where is that mouth of yours now!? The mouth that called me a coward, the mouth that dared to say I was pathetic!" Viser raved, leering down at her captured prey, "Laugh! I want to hear you laugh as you die beneath my feet like the insect that you are! Laugh!"

To her great surprise, Naruto did.

The blonde chuckled, "Y-You…y-you're j-j-just like e-everyone else…"

Viser snarled, "What was that, boy!?"

"Y-You always talk…in-instead of f-f-finishing the job!" Naruto lifted his left hand, which had been hidden under the debris Viser had created by smashing through the wall. His hand glowed a fierce golden radiance, shining brilliantly in the dark hallway and blinding Viser the second she so much as glanced to it. Naruto grinned, blood dribbling from the side of his mouth, "Death Magnetic!"

Reaching out, he touched his left hand to the blinded Viser, laying his palm against the dark fur of her front leg. Viser, unable to see, was unsure of what was happening to her, but she felt an unpleasant stinging sensation fall upon her leg where Naruto had grasped her. As the world slowly began to bleed back into her view, the Devil looked downwards to see what the blonde had done.

Her leg, once proud and powerful with defined musculature, was now nothing more than bone and fur. It looked as though she had aged a thousand years all at once, all in a single moment. It shook against her will, a spasm overtaking the limb. Slowly, its hair began to fall away and dried skin began to join it soon afterwards—the leg was decaying before its owner's eyes.

She screamed out in fear, backing away from the blonde as her limb turned to dust. Suddenly, that same stinging sensation resounded in her other front leg and both her hind legs. The dull stab filled both her animal torso and her human body, working its way up and up along her insides until she could finally feel it everywhere on her form. She watched, eyes tearing up from fear and frustration, as her body slowly lost its features, as the proud form she had once exalted withered away before her very eyes.

"W-What have you done to me!?" Viser cried out, dread gripping her heart as she realized that the rest of her body would soon share the same fate as her lost limb.

"Like it?" Naruto grinned mockingly up at her, "I call it Death Magnetic. I figured that if I packed enough Light into my hand and used your body as a conductor for it, it would have a pretty nice effect. After all, I didn't think a Devil like you would get along too well with something called holy Light. It took a while to charge up enough power, but it was well worth it if you ask me—you've never looked better, Viser."

It was an idea Naruto had come up with while sneaking up on Viser, one that he had hoped would end the fight. Sirzechs had told him the other night that the Light took on the form chosen by its wielder. Taking a gamble and putting his faith in the man's words, Naruto decided to see if he could channel his Light energy into other living beings, namely Viser. As he watched her fade away before his very eyes, the blonde decided that his idea had been a smashing success.

"You…you bastard!" Viser screamed, struggling to reach out to Naruto, wishing that she were just a bit closer so that she could strangle the delinquent, "I'll kill you! I'll tear you apart!"

"Take your best shot," Naruto smirked, standing up and holding out his arms, "I'm right here—come and get me."

She couldn't move. She simply didn't have the strength to stand, much less lift herself up to lash out against her victorious prey. Death was swiftly approaching—it was now only a matter of time for the Devil Viser. So, casting one last glance at the domain she had ruled over for so long, Viser lifted her head to the Heavens and howled out one last cry, as if cursing God himself. Naruto watched as she fell shortly afterwards, now a mere pile of dust and bones scattered amongst the dirt and garbage that littered the abandoned home.

Glancing down at the puncture wounds on his chest and shoulder, Naruto grimaced, "Well, I ruined another uniform. At least this one's not mine, I guess."

He left Viser's remains and the abandoned home behind him, now distant memories as he headed for the last destination he had to visit before finally returning home. Azazel was awaiting his answer and, despite the hell he had gone through, the man had been right—meeting Viser had cemented the blonde's decision. With his mind settled, Naruto limped off towards Azazel's home.

~.~.~

"If I wasn't absolutely fucking exhausted right now, I would so beat your ass into the ground."

Azazel blinked, "…Well, good evening to you as well, Naruto-kun. Please, do come in."

As the clock had struck midnight, Azazel had heard his doorbell ring. Then it rang again…and again…and again. Whoever was at his door was pressing the button over and over again, relentlessly sending the chime of the bell throughout the house until the leader of the Fallen Angels finally reached the door and opened it. The wise commander found a battered and bruised Namikaze Naruto standing on his doorstep, glaring at him with enough heat and intensity to light a campfire.

Shutting the door behind him, Azazel watched as Naruto kicked off his shoes and stalked over to his living room before plopping down on the couch, letting out a long, relieved sigh. Chuckling, Azazel quickly joined him in the room, taking a seat opposite of the blonde, "I trust you found your meeting to be enlightening?"

"Fuck you," Naruto groaned, "You could've at least warned me I was walking into the home of a psycho bitch that had an appetite for people. What was up with her, anyway? None of the Devils I've seen have looked anything like her."

"I could've warned you, but that would've defeated the purpose of your encounter with Viser. You needed to realize that not only were your powers strong enough to survive in this paranormal environment, but also that there is great evil in the world, the likes of which only people like you can stop. Had you had ample time to prepare in advance, the effect would be nowhere near as sobering," Azazel explained, "Besides, I wouldn't have sent you if I didn't think you couldn't handle a measly Stray Devil."

"A…Stray Devil?" Naruto frowned.

"You go to school with Rias Gremory, correct?" Azazel questioned. Seeing Naruto's nod, he continued, "Then you must know by now about Peerages. Well, a Stray Devil is a Devil that has broken the contract of Peerage by betraying their master. This, as you have seen, can lead to some interesting mutations should the Devil be of weak mind and allow their powers to grow out of control. Trust me when I say there are far more terrifying strays out there than Viser could've ever hoped to be."

A Stray Devil more powerful than Viser? Naruto grimaced—he certainly didn't want to run into one of those for a while, not at least until he got a better grip on his powers. Naruto sighed, "Well, whatever. I'll deck you later, but for now, I'm too tired to get into it."

"I see," Azazel hummed, smiling slightly at the youth's attitude, "But you aren't simply here to ask me about Stray Devils, are you? I trust you have come to a conclusion?"

"Yeah, I have," Naruto sat up, "Before that, though, do you still have my smokes and lighter?"

Azazel blinked, reaching into his pockets, "As a matter of fact, I do. I figured you might want them back when we next met."

Azazel handed the delinquent his pack of cigarettes and his lighter, which the blonde took appreciatively. Pulling one cigarette from the pack, Naruto pocketed the rest and took a moment to gather his thoughts before speaking.

"The other night…my life really got twisted up, ya know? I got these weird powers, I was thrown into this world where Angels and Devils are the norm, someone I believed in and looked up to my whole life turned out to be nothing but a liar…and at first I thought it had all been pointless. Like everything I had tried to do up until now was meaningless. I couldn't do right by my dad and my mom and I were living lies that we were tricked into believing," Naruto muttered, gripping his lighter, "When you asked me if I wanted to lose my memory of those things…I can't lie. It sounded really good to me, to just have things go back to the way they were before."

Naruto lifted his head to meet Azazel's gaze.

"But things can't go back to the way they were. What's happened has happened and I can't run away from that," Naruto declared, "The only thing I can do now is make the best of a bad situation and move on with my life. If that means using these powers to put down Stray Devils, fine. If that means having to put up with Angels, Devils, and Fallen Angels and all their baggage, okay. If that means accepting my father for what he was…then I guess I don't have a choice, but I have to know the truth. I know I can't change the story's ending, but I still need to read the book if I ever want to close it."

Azazel listened to the young man's impassioned words, felt the conviction in his stare, and smiled, "I think you've made a fine choice, Naruto-kun."

"I do too," Naruto returned Azazel's smile with one of his own, flipping on his lighter to finally smoke the cigarette he'd been craving all day, "So, Azazel-san, let's talk about Zadkiel. I want to know everything you have to tell me about my dad."

"I'm not sure if what I know will be of much use. Zadkiel never did join my organization, so I can't tell you much about his fall and what happened afterwards," Azazel nodded, "But I will tell you everything I know about your father before the Great War."

Azazel and Naruto sat there, on those couches, talking well into the early hours of the morning. After getting his wounds cleaned and bandaged, the Fallen Angel had seen Naruto off before finally retiring for bed. Stepping out onto the streets, Naruto breathed in the fresh morning air, with one great weight lifted from his shoulders and another set upon it.

Despite it all, Naruto held a serene smile on his face the entire walk home, 'I said it earlier, didn't I? A new me…well, I guess it's time to see what this new me can do.'

~.~.~

What the hammer? What the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp!

~.~.~

Naruto's Light Techniques:

Breakdown: Naruto channels Light into his fists and arms, increasing his punching speed and power to tremendous levels and allowing him to slaughter opponents with an onslaught of rapid-fire punches. While still considerably damaging, it does not do the same amount of damage as Death Magnetic, but is far easier to pull off, as it also stuns his opponents under the heavy blows. Range: None.

Death Magnetic: Naruto stores and channels a tremendous amount of Light energy directly from his palm into the body of an opponent. A devastating way to deal pure Light damage to a foe, flawed only by the considerable time it takes to charge and the fact that it has absolutely no ranged capabilities, as Naruto must have his hand upon the opponent. Depending on the amount of Light in the attack and the opponent's weakness to Light, the attack's results can range from simple burns to completely dissolving body parts. Range: None.

---

Oh ye of little faith. You don't know how many reviews and messages I got from people concerned that Naruto was going to be turned into a Devil. Surprise! He isn't. Hopefully you guys liked how I handled that or, at the very least, like that he isn't a Devil.

That said, oh good Lord are my eyes tired and my hands sore. Over twenty thousand words, people. This chapter is over twenty thousand words. I normally write in web layout, but in print layout, you are currently reading page forty-four. I have a hard enough time writing twelve pages for my courses, and I can just sit back and crank out a forty-four page chapter in a little over two weeks. Life's not fair. That said, please remember that not all chapters will be this long. I think I'd have to shoot myself if that were the case, because I hate editing what I've written. It's not as much fun reading a story if you know exactly what happens.

With that out of the way, let's respond to some of the concerns you guys raised, shall we? If I seem a bit grumpy when answering these concerns, I apologize in advance. It's 2:10 A.M. and I just got done with my first week of classes, including three three-hour classes all scheduled at night.

Naruto's smoking: I'm actually kind of surprised that people had an issue with this. I just didn't think that many of you would really notice it too much. Most of you seemed to assume that I did it because I thought it was "badass" or because it reinforced the delinquent status I was giving Naruto. Now, before you guys go commenting against my decision to have Naruto smoke, I want you to know that I didn't have him smoke for no reason. It will tie into the story later and his relationship with Minato. Will other characters tell him he's stupid for smoking? Yeah, Koneko being the prime example, but that's not to say it will just stop, because he has a reason to do it.

Naruto's an OC: This is not a reply to those of you who commented that Naruto was, understandably, a bit out of character given that he is raised in a different environment. This is a reply to the single person who thought I had completely created my own original character and was just calling him Naruto. I honestly can't believe I actually have to address this, but I did get one comment about it so let's address it before I get more like it. No, Naruto is not an OC. The person who commented this seemed to think that because there is no Kyuubi in this story, I have clearly created an OC…really? Does Naruto's character not extend past the fox? Is that all it takes to capture Naruto's character, his essence—just slap as many fox-related things onto him as possible and have him like ramen? Is that how far our appreciation of a character as fans can go? Because if it is, I honestly don't know what to say about the fandom anymore. It doesn't matter that I kept the fact that he hates school and likes to slack off, it doesn't matter that I kept his relationships with Teuchi and Ayame, it doesn't matter that I kept his hobby of gardening, it doesn't matter that Kushina is there and has a similar relationship to what we've seen they would have in a lot of "what-if" pictures by Kishimoto, it doesn't matter that he is still for the most part alienated from his peers and people in general—as long as he doesn't have the fox, it's just not Naruto apparently.

Naruto becoming a part of a Peerage: Not likely or planned by me at all, at least not permanently. So, unless one of you kills me and assumes direct control, don't worry about it, guys.

Sirzechs is a dick: Yeah, yeah, he is. Before I go any further on this point, I should correct some of you who seem to think that Sirzechs was the one who arranged Rias' marriage and that he has any say in stopping it. Not only was Lord Gremory, Rias' and Sirzechs' father, the one to arrange the marriage, Sirzechs is no longer a part of the Gremory clan after having assumed the title of Lucifer. Sirzechs stepping in and denying the marriage would be like Obama stepping in and preventing my sister from marrying her fiancé—it would cause a goddamn shit-storm of titanic proportions.

I will tell you guys what I told one reviewer who messaged me about Sirzechs' actions. He does it for his family, but he is an asshole and it was one giant dick move. I didn't choose the name for my story on a whim, nor did I pick the poem that is in the story by chance. "Fearful symmetry" is a famous line in William Blake's poem, The Tyger. The line describes the tiger as a wild, violent creature that also conveys a sense of order and control due to its striped design appearing symmetrical. Sirzechs is a tiger. He is powerful and fear-inducing, but there is an order to his violence and wisdom to his instinct. Of course he could've struck a bargain with Naruto, of course he could've reasoned with the blonde. But why be a negotiator when you can be an arbiter? Sirzechs is a Devil, a concerned brother, and a military leader that led his troops to victory. He understands the importance of control and that holding all the cards is better than splitting them. Does that excuse his actions? No, of course not. But it makes him a wiser leader and a more interesting character, in my humble opinion, that he still makes the choice anyway.

Naruto is stupid: Now this is one I really didn't see coming, but one person thought that I had made Naruto too dumb. Granted, he certainly isn't book-smart by any means—he always cuts class and hates school. But he's also observant and can pick up on keen details and he is good at thinking on his feet, as I've hopefully shown with this chapter a bit more. Is he by any means a genius? No, of course not, but I wouldn't go as far as to call him stupid.

I think that's everything. Sorry if I overloaded you guys at the end there with my replies to your concerns/reviews, but I just want to make sure you guys know why I choose to do certain things. So, please review and tell me how I did, because if I was unsure about the last chapter, I am really unsure about this chapter.

How do you guys like the concept of Naruto's Light powers and the first two moves he has? How do you guys like Azazel's backstory and what you've learned so far about Zadkiel? Did you enjoy Naruto's interactions with Azazel, with Akeno, and with Rias? Did you guys like the fight between Naruto and Viser? I know, a fight scene with Viser where she doesn't just immediately gets bodied—I think that may be a first for all of DxD history. How was my grammar/writing? Most importantly, are you guys enjoying the story? Because if you aren't, tell me. There's no point in my writing it if you guys aren't enjoying it.

Finally, I just wanted to say that with school starting back up, updates may take a little while longer. I'm kind of a slow writer as it is and I doubt school will help with that. Well, I'm going to go collapse before waking up to edit this twenty-thousand word chapter.

As always, thanks for stopping by guys and have a good one.