I just want you all to know, I think this is the longest chapter I ever wrote for anything. It really got away from me. Anyway I kind of rushed checking through it, but it seems mostly fine. I did think I had a Beta but turned out to be a misunderstanding. Chapter three focuses largely on the past, I hope you all enjoy it.
Chapter 3
Meet the Peerage
It had been four months since Naruto had gained his new power. Suddenly a six year old child had become the most feared being in the entire town. With four months of training Naruto still hadn't gained full control of his abilities. Because of that his black ball still tended to act according to his instincts. This had led to the unfortunate death of three separate devils, only one of which had meant him any actual harm. Naruto himself didn't really know what to think about that. He'd been so alone for so long, and death had always been a rather redundant subject matter on a street like this. No one here had much hope for the future and many of them were just waiting to die anyway. Naruto had gotten more than used to the sight of corpses and the smell of death. Blood didn't bother him either, and witnessing people being killed wasn't that rare. But now Naruto was the one killing. And that was different. He really didn't know what to think about it. It was such an obvious thing to do. Because it was what everyone else was bought up to do? Here in the town of Astoll Murder was a common thing and everyone, including Naruto considered it a normal everyday fact of life. So why then, when his ball of black nothing and something had taken that lady's head of, and gone straight through that old guys heart did his stomach twist in on itself so much. Why did he want to vomit so much that the only thing stopping him was that he had nothing to vomit. For Naruto actually killing himself suddenly held an inherent wrongness to it. He hadn't noticed so much the first time, when he had killed that first man, far too shocked and happy, HAPPY, that he wasn't dead himself. But now he was beginning to doubt himself, two innocent deaths, two people who had never done anything wrong (to him at least) and another devil who got his kicks out of playing with little boys. He didn't feel as bad about that last one but his stomach had still knotted and he'd still been appalled. But now he was a bit better with it. He could deactivate it at will and move it around as well. Before it would just pop up if he got scared and lash out, but now that he could activate and deactivate it at his choosing the ball of darkness no longer popped up out of nowhere and attack whatever had startled him. Although it still would if he had it out before hand, and he hadn't been able to figure out how to change its shape again either. But he could move it around as much as he wished, and he could move it all the way to the other side of the street before it would seem to fizzle out. He also found out he could touch and even hold the ball. He'd accidently tripped once and fell on top of it. He'd been so scared he'd just killed himself with his own ability, but he had remained unscathed. The ball had sunk into the street though and the ground around him had disintegrated and left a crater around him. Which led him to another discovery. The disintegration wasn't endless. He didn't know if he could stop the disintegration prematurely but it seemed to stop by itself after a while. Good to know he hadn't accidently made the entire underworld disappear.
But with all of these discoveries he had finally decided to leave the comfort of Astoll behind him. He had managed to pickpocket enough money to buy a loaf of mouldy bread from a rundown shop, which in his childish and naïve mind would be enough to sustain him over the next few days of his journey. And in the last four months he's made sure to listen to people around him talk, and had learned a lot of new words, even if he didn't know what most of them meant. He knew that most people around the town called him 'Monster' or 'Shadow Sporn' or the occasional one called him 'Child'. From the tone the first two were spoke in he got the feeling they weren't very good things to be called, but the last one was usually spoke rather blandly, and didn't seem to be spoke in any tone at all. He had tried to tell a few people his name was Naruto, but he didn't really know how to say 'My name is'. But he had eventually managed 'I am'. Although this didn't really get him anywhere since no one seemed to care what his name was.
None the less, now armed with his loaf of bread and enhanced vocabulary and an actually shirt four sizes two big he'd managed to find somewhere Naruto felt ready to begin his journey and search for a better life. He didn't really know what this better life was. He didn't know what it would look like. He didn't know if it would smell better. He just knew it would be better. Maybe there was a place out there where he could live under a roof! Like in the shops. A place where the rain couldn't get him. Or maybe he could find a fruit tree. He'd heard about them. Big tall things with food that grows on them like hair. If he found one he would never go hungry again! He'd have all the food he would want. He wondered what kind of food grew on them. Maybe it would be more bread.
But he was getting ahead of himself. First of all he had to stop standing here daydreaming about leaving and actually leave. He breathed a little heavier now, doubt niggling at his subconscious. What if this was as good as it got? What if he went out there, away from the village and there wasn't anything there. What if Astoll was all there was? But no. There had to be something. Something more than what was here. Something more than sitting in an alley and waiting to die. And so Naruto took his first step outside the boarders of the village of Astoll.
He didn't really know what he expected to happen. Maybe some kind of light would shine down on him or the world around him would shift and change. But nothing happened. He looked behind him and there was Astoll, same as it always was. He took another step. And then another. The village didn't really seem much further away. Had he really left it?
Naruto shook his head and continued walking. He would get somewhere soon. He just had to follow the road. Road's always led somewhere. Or at least the roads in the street did. Well most of them just led to more road, but he figured those roads have to end somewhere. And so he walked.
Naruto walked for hours. His little malnourished legs protested profusely to this, but he ignored them. His feet didn't seem to like it much either. They'd begun to bleed, and he'd managed to get a few cuts on the bottom of his feet. But that was okay, he didn't mind the pain too much. He didn't really like it either though. It was the tiredness of his muscles that was really getting to him. He'd never walked around this much before. Never really had anywhere to walk too. But he carried on walking all the same. There was nothing around him, just endless miles of red sand, and the single road he was walking on. If he looked behind him he could just make out Astoll, but he didn't want to look behind him. He didn't want to go back.
His stomach made a noise of protest and he finally stopped. He quickly slumped down onto his rear, glad to be of his feet, and took out his cloth that he'd tied around his shoulder to keep his bread in. He quickly tore of a piece to munch on, groaning happily as he ate the hard moulded bread that most would refuse to go near. He didn't eat much. He couldn't, and he didn't have any desire to anyway. His stomach had, for a lack of better word shrivelled. Naruto had long suspected he was half dead already, and he wasn't far of the mark. A few crummy bites was all he could manage before an overpowering sense of vertigo overcame him and a sudden need to vomit what he just ate came upon him. But he clamped his mouth shut, covering it with his hand and swallowed deeply, doing his best to keep everything down. He needed his strength, and he wasn't going to be wasting his bread.
After a minute or so, where he kept absolutely still the vertigo seemed to recede, and Naruto slumped forward, taking in big gulps of air. Now as full as he could get, Naruto worked his way onto his feet, wincing as his blooded heels came into contact with the pavement, having more or less forgotten about them. But they weren't important, and he began to walk once more. His throat felt dry, but he ignored that too. He couldn't take any water with him. He had nothing to keep it in and nowhere to get it from anyway. He'd have to wait for it to rain before he could get something to drink. Not for the first time he wondered where that old man had gotten his water from.
Several more hours passed, and Naruto's legs were wobbling. He began to realise than willpower might only be half the battle here. He wasn't just walking through the pain anymore, it was a struggle now just to take each step. And every step he took left him feeling like he would topple over. He wasn't hungry yet though. He simply didn't have any way of instantly fixing his legs. But he wasn't going to stop here. The winds had begun to pick up, and sand was blowing into his eyes and getting in his mouth, He knew for a fact that he couldn't eat the sand and it tasted really gritty anyway. But luckily he could make out what looked like a bunch of dull grey walls. At the very least they would protect him from the sands.
It took him another half an hour of hobbling along to reach the ruins he'd spotted. As soon as he got close his legs finally gave up and he collapsed. Unwilling to stop though, Naruto decided instead to crawl. Fingers scrambled over concrete and sand, looking for a purchase he could use to pull himself along the floor. And that's what he did, one hand in front of the other until eventually he was propping himself up on the other side of the wall, surprised but happy about a corner piece which served as a shelter and protected him from anything coming over the wall. And so smiling to himself, Naruto slowly felt his eyelids begin to close, and finally giving in to his exhaustion he allowed the darkness to overtake him.
A nudge to his ribs was what caused Naruto to jolt back into consciousness. He groaned as he came round, and the world seemed to blur into focus. The first thing he noticed was the pain in his legs. It seemed even worse than when he fell to sleep. The second thing he noticed was the second jab to his ribs, which seemed much sharper than the last one. He flinched in response and gave a quick groan of pain.
"Ah, it's alive."
The voice was new. Quiet and little scratchy and said in a strange emotionless monotone but almost definitely a girl. He blinked and reached up to rub the sleep out of his eyes and looked to his right where he was met with the sight of a very young girl. Although she was still clearly older than him, her appearance seemed around 10 to 12 years old. She had snow white hair which seemed to curl around her head. Blue eyes looked at him, and despite the dead look on her face they still seemed to shine with some otherworldly power. Her mouth was small and cute, and so was her nose, and the only thing which seemed to mar her otherwise perfect face was a row of stitching running up her left cheek to a couple inches below her eye, and a scar which went over her right. And even then the scars just seemed to add something new and unique to her cuteness. Her state of dress wasn't much better than his. He could see a white vest underneath a large torn brown shirt with sleeves that seemed to cover up her hands.
"It looks like it taste's nice," said the girl, and a little drool came out of her mouth.
Naruto gave a blink seeming to not comprehend what she said. And he really didn't.
"Should we eat it?" the girl said to herself, very Gollum like. Which was completely at odds with the cute tilt of her head that she gave.
"Eat?" asked Naruto, not really getting what she was saying. He usually was able to tell what people wanted by their body language and his unique ability to sense a person's intentions so long as they were up close. He didn't really understand words much. Did she want some of his bread?
Naruto quickly slung of his sack and opened it up. But when he looked back to the girl she'd taken several steps back and had pulled put a knife from somewhere and was holding it in front of her defensively. Not just some ordinary knife either, but some lethal looking thing nearly as long as the girls arm, pitch black in the centre, silver around the edge and serrated on the reverse.
Not really getting what she was up too, Naruto pulled of a portion of the bread and held it up to her.
"Eat?" he asked, holding up the bread for her.
The girl gave a quizzical look at the offered bread before letting go of the knife and letting it fall towards the ground. Once she did it seemed to simply fade out of existence, which caused Naruto's eyes to widen a bit. Her knife must be like his ball. Some kind of special power.
"It wants us to eat that?"
She came closer to Naruto and got on her hands and knees. Leaning closer she gave the piece of bread a sniff. She seemed to consider it for a moment, before she leaned forward, opened her mouth wide and bit down.
Naruto gave out a strangled yelp as she bit through both the bread and a chunk of his fingers that were holding it. Quickly he pulled his hand out, leaving a chunk of skin behind in the girl's gnashes. The girl herself didn't seem to care, instead she seemed to chew with a small amount of bliss, uncaring for driblets of blood that dripped of her chin. Apparently liking the combined taste of devil blood and old mouldy bread the girl gave a delighted moan.
"It does taste good," she said in a sort of happy monotone.
Naruto gave a sniffle, looking at his newly mangled fingers. A normal child would cry, an instinctive cry for help that all children have, but experience had taught Naruto early on that any attention crying attracted was normally bad attention, and such instincts had been lost because of it. Still hurt more than anything else he'd felt in a long time though. The pain only increased when a burning sensation seemed to come over his fingers, and before his very eyes his skin seemed to start to regrow. And the regrowing hurt! Naruto gave a cry of pain that startled the girl out of her meal, looking quite alarmed at the sounds Naruto was suddenly making.
"Ah, we should kill it first, then eat," she said to herself, before pulling out her knife from nowhere.
Blinking through the pain, Naruto saw the girl approaching and the she swung at him. Noticing the glint of steel in his hand, Naruto gave a yelp, and his little dark ball appeared.
The girl gave Naruto a very confused look, noticing that his throat wasn't cut like she'd intended. And there was a little floating ball in front of him that definitely wasn't there before. And when she looked down at her precious knife she noticed half of it was missing. And more of it was starting to disappear. She didn't like that.
"You hurt her," the girl sniffled. Before allowing the knife to disappear. And then it came back again, whole once more. Luckily for her, the knives weren't physical constructs, they did have a physical incarnation, but they acted as blue prints. As long as these blue prints weren't damaged she could re-forge the knives as she liked.
"This time we kill it," she said to herself with a nod. But apparently going for the neck didn't work. Taking this into consideration, she tried to stab him in the heart instead. But the orb shifted and the girl watched in fascination as her knife sank deep into the orb, and when she pulled it away nothing came out. Once again she released her knife and created another one. She looked at Naruto who was looking back at her in fear. Nothing new there. And then the orb moved. She had already figured out that being touched by it was not going to be a good thing. She leaned backwards bending at a sharp angle at the waist just in time, the orb shooting through the spot her face had just occupied, cartwheeling backwards with an unnatural amount of grace that belied her size and age.
"Back," squeaked Naruto. He hadn't quite meant to do that with his orb. He just wanted her to back away. For some reason she was trying to kill him, and he suspected she wanted to eat him too. The girl looked at him with those big puzzled eyes, and once again he found her rather confusing. There had been absolutely no hostility in those eyes when she'd been trying to kill him. Not even the barest trace of ill will, something he'd always been able to instinctively feel, even if he himself didn't realise it. It was like she looked at him, and saw a thing. But now that was gone, as she came to the (incorrect) realisation that he tried to kill her, the air around her completely changed. Her face scrunched up into a snarl, and her eyes flashed yellow.
"It tried to kill us," she hissed. "It tried to get rid of us. It tried to reject us. We'll kill it. We'll kill it for Mama!"
And then she pounced.
Naruto gave a yelp and ducked. At the same time his ball of black shot at her once again. The girl twisted round it though, contorting her upper body to dodge the ball. She moved quickly, and her knife flashed, just as Naruto ducked. The girl gave a hiss, upset that she failed to cut anything other than a few locks of his hair. She moved quickly, avoiding the ball as it returned to Naruto. The ball went through the wall, creating a hole which swiftly became a bigger hole. Naruto quickly found himself crawling through the hole and back out onto the road. He quickly scrambled onto his feet and began to run back onto the road he was on originally. The wind had died down but there was still the odd sharp rock which cut into the new skin he hadn't noticed had grown over. He ignored them though and carried on running, uncaring of the biting pain or anything else. The pitter patter of running feet behind him let him know that the girl was hot on his trail, swiftly hunting him down. A quick look behind him let him know that she was swiftly catching up. A sharp stinging pain in his back let him know that she'd just thrown her knife at him and struck true. Naruto felt the blood welling up in his throat, eyes cloudy with tears from the pain of the knife which had stuck itself deep into his back causing him to fall to his knees.
"Ah we killed it," came the voice of the girl as she slowed down to a walk. Naruto's hands clawed at his back, looking for what was causing him so much pain. His tiny fingers found the handle of what was cutting into him, and a cold burning sensation came over his hand. Ignoring it Naruto pulled the dagger from his back. The second the knife came free a black smoke began to rise from the wound. Naruto felt the now familiar burning sensation as the wound began to close itself. He grit his teeth and pushed back his tears, even as his body began to spasm from the pain.
"Our knife," came the voice of the girl, before she plucked it from Naruto's hands. Naruto gave a groan of pain as the girl stood over him.
"And now we kill it," said the girl simply raising her knife above her head.
Naruto gave a whimper even as he tried to call his dark ball into existence. But he couldn't. Instead a new wave of pain came over him and he let out a silent cry of pain.
But before the girl could bring down her knife she was distracted by a loud squawking. Turning her head quickly to look into the sky, her eyes widened before she chucked herself to the side, just as a large creature swooped to snatch at where she'd just been a moment before. The girl brought down her knife and cut the creature's wing before it could fly off again. The creature gave a squawk of pain as green blood peppered the road from the creatures injured wing. Naruto for the first time noticed the creature writhing in front of him. It seemed like a cross between a vulture and a wyvern. Two huge wings spanning twenty feet on either side of its body, the scaly webbed look which wouldn't seem out of place on a bat, but the backside of the wings were covered in inky black feathers. Its body was a plethora of different sized pinkish scales. A long lizard like tail grew from its back end. The neck was long and scaled and ended in a snake like head. It had no arms but muscled legs which became bird like and ended in talons. The final thing of note was the mane of white fur around its neck that seemed to stretch a bit further down its back. The creature gave a clack of its jaws, revealing a row of sharp teeth. It flapped and beat its wings trying to take off into the sky, even as the dark smoke poured from the wound in its wing. Naruto had no idea what the creature was.
"Veatril's," said the girl, and there was a little fear in her otherwise emotionless voice. This large dragon like bird acted like the underworlds version of vultures, scavenging what they could and picking of any unfortunate soul that finds themselves alone and vulnerable in the open. Alone they weren't much of a problem for her. But she could clearly see another four of them circling the pair from above. Her knife was special, and held a special corrosive property. Or at least this one did. That wound on the Veatril's wing would fester quickly, and soon it wouldn't be able to fly any more. But even flightless they were dangerous.
Soon another Veatril dived, but at Naruto this time. The boy gave a cry of alarm and darted out the way, leaving the creatures talons to scrape at the concrete floor he'd just vacated. The talons proved even sharper than they seemed, gouging through the concrete road like it would through snow. The girl saw that she was no longer the birds target and decided to run while they're attention wasn't on her. But she didn't make it far before she was spotted and another of the Veatril made a move for her. Seeing the giant bird she materialised another of her knives and threw it. The bird recognised the threat and promptly spun out the way and began to circle the prey warily as the same knife appeared in her hand. The girl turned with the bird making sure to keep her eyes on it before suddenly back flipping into the air, over another of the Veatril's which tried to strike her when her back was turned. Sadly this left her vulnerable to the one who was circling her, who struck with the fluidity of a viper. The girl swung her knife, clashing it with the creature's talons, before two black devil wings sprung from her lower back. She lifted herself into the air and away from the creature trying to kill her.
Naruto meanwhile was entertaining the other three Veatril's. His back having finally healed and no longer in an agonising amount of pain, he was able to duck and scramble around their attempts to get him seemingly surviving most of the onslaught by pure luck, mostly when the birds would crash into each other in their haste to get him. His attempt to flee was ended when one of the Veatril, the one who's wing the girl had cut into earlier crashed down in front of him. Working its way to its legs it let of a mix between a roar and a squawk. The creature eyed him hungrily before lunging forward just as Naruto dived to the side. He crashed onto his side painfully just as another of the birds descended onto him with its razor like talons. Acting on instinct Naruto was finally able to call out his dark ball and brought it to bear. The Veatril's clawed foot crashed into it and suddenly all three of its talons flew in separate directions. The Veatril let out a cry of agony, as it landed on its other foot and began to hop around. It didn't take it long to notice that its leg was disintegrating and in a move that shocked Naruto, it bent down and clamped its teeth onto its own leg before ripping the limb clean of. Then with a flick of its neck it launched the leg into the sky where it was caught by the other Veatril which hadn't yet attacked. The bird landed not too far away where it began to devour the leg that had been thrown to it. The Veatril Naruto was facing seemed uncaring of this as it gave Naruto a look of pure utter loathing, enough so that the boy had no doubts exactly what the bird wanted to eat.
Nauto's ball of black hovered in front of him, keeping the Veatril at bay, although he noticed the other once with the injured wing slinking around him. Now that they were standing Naruto could see the creatures were roughly four times his size, although the one whose leg he just took off seemed to be the biggest. Naruto knew that the other one was going to attack once it was behind him. A coordinated effort between the two. He only had one ball, he couldn't deal with a two pronged attack. But there was other things he could do. Just as the two creatures were either side of him Naruto jumped and grabbed onto his ball, really happy to know that it wouldn't hurt him. The Veatril pounced and Naruto's ball shot into the sky taking Naruto with it and leaving the two creatures to collide beneath him. Not wanting to take any chances Naruto let go of the ball and allowed it to zoom down toward the predators. A second later he realised the mistake he made. A screech from his right let him know the third Veatril was done feeding and was now looking for more. It came belting towards him, as Naruto realised he had left himself defenceless. He saw his ball had made contact with one of the other Veatrils, the one with the injured wing, and was now careening back up to him, leaving the bird to turn to dust. But he could already tell it wasn't moving fast enough. He thought briefly about using his wings. He couldn't fly very well, or at all really. He could hover about ten meters and that was it. Really bringing out his wings would just make him an even more stationary target than he was. At least since he was falling and his ball was rising he would meet it quicker. And that's when a light went off in his brain. All he had to do was fall quicker. But how could he do that. It's not like a six year old had an understanding of gravity. But he could guess. Right now he was being buffeted by air because his body was spread out. That air was making him fall slower. That was what he understood once he thought about it. And if anyone had been able to see inside Naruto's head they would have been amazed he could figure all that out when he was six, but even more so that he could think about it when he was a few seconds away from death. Naruto's theory was simply, straighten up and let his feet be the only thing meeting the air. Aky diving but the wrong way round. It's not like he knew how to sky dive. And he did fall just that tiny bit quicker. Quicker enough to reach the ball and force the other Veatril to swerve out the way. He grabbed onto the ball before he fell to the ground. Then he let go allowing him to sprint off. The remaining two Veatrils weren't too keen on letting him go though, the largest one rising into the air, uncaring of the copious amount of blood that it was leaving in its wake. It soon became apparent to Naruto that the reason the Veatril finished eating so quick was because the leg had been disintegrating as it ate. The heavy beat of wings let Naruto know the two giant birds were still after him, but a heavy beating of wings caused him to fall forward. The two came from opposite sides and he knew they wouldn't fall for the same trick as before. A glint of something shiny caught Naruto's attention. It was the larger ones talon, the only one that had stuck with the leg when he'd hit it with the ball. It must have been bitten of before it disintegrated.
Naruto acted quick, grabbing the talon and ignoring the sharp cut he gained on his palm for doing so he sent his ball of black in one direction towards where he could feel one of the giant birds was coming from before he spun around with the talon in his hand. Naruto was a six year old who had spent his entire life in the most awful place in hell. Literally. He was a child, and like all children he was observant. And what he observed every day was a dog eat dog world. A place of violence and murder to the extreme. He had seen things which no child or anyone for that matter should ever see and they had become normal to him. Is it any surprise then that he knew how to gamble with his life? Because that's what he was doing. He took a chance and spun talon in hand to see the tongue and teeth of the bigger of the two Veatril. The tip of its jar was almost pointed but he still wasn't able to get out of the way completely. The jaws clamped down on his leg just as Naruto's hand came down. Naruto cried for the first time in years, and he screamed at the pain he was feeling as the Veatril very nearly tore his leg of. But he wasn't the only one. The Veatril was forced to let his leg go so it could let out its own scream of pain as its own Talon dug deep into its own amber eye. Naruto bit into his own lip in an attempt clear his own head, survival instincts overriding everything else for the moment. Hands still firmly on the talon, he pulled on it and scooped out the Veatril's eyeball with it. The creature screeched and hissed in pain, falling to its side, no longer able to balance on its one leg. Naruto fell to the ground and landed not just on his chest but the talon as well, pushing the curved tip deep into his shoulder. He bit his lip harder even as the tears fell from his eyes. This was probably the most pain he had ever been in, in his entire life. He blinked through the tears and looked down at his mangle leg. The bird had chomped down to the bone, but already there was a burning sensation, and Naruto could see some steam rising from the wound. It would take a few minutes but it would heal.
He looked away to the other Veatril and noticed with some relief that its corpse was already mostly disintegrated, and that his ball of black was on its way back. He was going to make it kill the other Veatril but a cry of pain caught his attention.
The girl had not been quite as lucky as Naruto. Lacking an unstoppable form of offense and defense there was only so much she could do against these large birds. She had tried to fly away, but the Veatril were faster and one of them had managed to comp one of her wings of. She had little doubt without an experienced healer it wouldn't grow back. This had also left her to fall fifty feet to her probable death. Or at least if one of the other Veatril hadn't caught her. One its talons went through her shoulder and its hind talon went through the left side of her stomach. The Girl let out a minor whimper from the pain before raising her knife and cutting at its toe in an attempt to cut it off. The creature gave a squawk of indignation before it through her, the pain of having its talons ripped out of her caused her to scream out in pain, and her vision itself began to blur. She rose up into the air and then she began to descend. The other Veatril had landed beneath her now and had its jaws opened wide just waiting for her to fall in. The other one had circled around and was intending to snatch her out of the air for itself before that happened. The girl closed her eyes and resigned herself to her fate.
"AHHHHHHHH."
The cry which was a mix between a cry of terror and war caused her eyes to snap open just in time to see a ball of black to bludgeon straight through the Veatrils head, which was followed a second later by her being tackled in mid-air. She fell a few more feet with something holding onto her before suddenly her descent seemed to decline to a snail's pace. The girl blinked her eyes before noticing her saviour. It was the blond haired thing she's wanted to eat. But why did it save her? Then she saw its wings and she blinked. She'd wandered around a lot and she'd seen a lot of wings, but none quite like those. At first glance they seemed like the wings of any other devil. From the front at least. But creeping over the top and covering the back of the wings was short golden fur, a very similar colour to its hair.
All of this though came second to what she was feeling. The boy was bleeding all over her but she didn't really care, because wrapped in his arms and covered in his blood, she felt warm. And cosy. A feeling she hadn't felt since…
Naruto could not fly, not for the life of his. But as he'd found out earlier, his ball could. He didn't know why he was going to save the girl that had not even an hour before been trying to kill him, only that he was. He grabbed onto his ball of black and felt it shoot of like a bullet, Before long he released it and watched it shoot right through the Veatril that was about to eat the girl. Naruto himself unleashed his wings in an effort to control his flight. He caught the girl in mid-air before trying to beat his wings and stabilize them. The girl he realized was quite injured, but before his eyes the injuries were steaming and healing, much like his own. She looked up too him, yellow eyes bleeding back into blue with a look of utter surprise on her face.
"Why did it help us?" she asks, and Naruto simply doesn't understand the question. Instead he sees they're not too far from the ground now and throws her out the way. He gives a single beat of his wings to move himself backwards just as a set of jaws clamp down on where he just was. But Naruto wasn't out of the woods yet, unable to dodge when its tail came round a smacked harshly against his chest. The boy was sent plummeting the remaining ten feet into the ground where he luckily land in the relatively soft sand.
The girl who saw this actually feels something akin to dread well up inside her when she saw this. It hurt it. No it hurt him!
The girl cried out then. Not a cry of pain but of pure rage. How dare it. How dare it hurt him!
The Veatril who had landed near the downed boy and was preparing for its meal was not expecting the other prey to jump onto his back and grabbed a fist full of its white main to keep herself locked firmly on it. Straight away it started to buck around, even as the prey screeched into its ear words it could not understand. The girl pulled out her knife, one she hadn't used before. It was tinged in something dark and green. She plunged it down, ripping open the side of its neck. The creature gave a cry of pain ad began flailing even harder, desperate to un-lodge its unwanted passenger.
To no avail.
Again and again she brought down the knife cutting and tearing at its neck in a blade steeped in acid. Before long the creature gave out one last cry of anguish before it fell forward to the floor, dead.
Quick as she could the girl hopped of the dead creature and ran to the unconscious boy. She held him in her arms and began to shake him, tears in her eyes and begging him to wake up.
And slowly Naruto did. Ribs still aching and head still pounding Naruto was very surprised to still be alive. If the giant chicken didn't eat him then he thought for sure the girl would. But no, she was right their crying but happy to see him awake again.
"You're awake," she said through her tears, although Naruto had no clue what she was saying. "Mama."
Okay even Naruto knew what that meant, and he could honestly say he'd never been called that before
But before he could try to correct her, a sound he'd really been hoping not to hear again caught his ears. He managed to turn his head and see the biggest of the Veatril somehow still alive. What's more it's gaping wound from its missing leg and somehow scabbed over, and so had its eye. He felt his head fall when the girl let go of him and stood before him, fixing the Veatril with an angry glare.
"Leave Mama alone!" she cried out, and the Veatril cried back at her, crying out its anger of her lost limbs and lost flock.
"If it tries to hurt Mama we will kill it," the girl said and two daggers materialized in her hand. The Veatril gave a war cry and charged at her. The girl did the same. The girl jumped and the two clashed. The girl landed hard on her shoulder. And the Veatril slumped to the floor with a knife stuck in its brain.
Without another word the girl got up and rushed back to Naruto. She grabbed his hand and put it on her head, obviously asking him to pet her.
"Did we do good Mama," she asked with a childish happiness.
In response Naruto just blinked before giving in to what she obviously wanted and began to rub her head, much to her glee.
"Unn."
Class today we'll be having two new students with us.
Koneko blinked as the two students came into view. She recognised both of them. One stood just under 5 feet tall. Her hair was a silvery white and curled around her head to just below her chin. Two sapphire blue eyes seemed to shine from beneath the shadows of her hair and seemed to be almost bottomless in their depth. The most curious thing about her were her two scars, one going down over her left eye and one which went up her right cheek but also had stitched over it. She had an emotionless look on her face. The other stood slightly taller, about 5'2. Her hair seemed black with a tint of red to it and came down to just above her shoulders. Her eyes were silver and she seemed like the happy type. She had a red hood over her uniform for some reason.
"These two are Jack Uzumaki and Ruby Rose", she said and everyone, including the teacher rose an eyebrow at the snowy haired girls masculine sounding name. "Would you two like to introduce yourselves?"
"Sure," chirped Ruby. "Umm my names Ruby. I like cookies and kung-fu movies. I don't like wearing high heels. I really hope we can all be friends."
Ruby seemed quite bashful as she finished her introduction, getting more shy about it the longer she talked. After that Jack stepped forward and began her presentation.
"Our… my name is Jack," she said, taking a moment to pause. "We… I… We like Naruto and our family. We don't like anyone who tries to hurt Naruto."
She did try to correct her speech. Everyone in the classroom got that, but she soon gave up it seemed. The girl didn't really give of the impression that she cared much about her failure though. She probably didn't. In fact Koneko knew that she didn't. At the very least she didn't call Naruto Mama. Koneko always felt a shiver go up her spine whenever she slipped up and did that. Ruby she knew after meeting her the other night when she went home with Naruto, was some kind of weapon maniac. No doubt she'd been told not to say that. Jack however was a girl who was stuck with the mentality of a child. She didn't care about anyone except Naruto, and maybe the other members of his peerage. She tended to view anyone else as objects or sometimes even food. Apparently she used to only view males this way, and would kill them for the slightest thing, or sometimes for no reason at all. But that changed after she met Naruto. Now she hates everyone equally but doesn't kill anyone anymore. At least not that often anyway. Koneko was still very wary of her though.
Both the girls were taller than her, since she was only 4'6. Her ears twitched as she picked up the whispering of the boys who were pleased about having a cute girl like Ruby in their class but didn't know what to make of jack. Then again who could possibly comprehend having the notorious jack the ripper in their class at school… or that Jack the ripper was a cute little girl?
"Okay if you two want to find some seats please," the teacher said, and the two nodded. Jack immediately went for the seat that was at the back of the class, whereas Ruby settled for an open seat on the right of the class about midway down.
"Well if we're all settled in we'll begin the days lesson," said the teacher, and like that Koneko resolved to ignore her new classmates until lunch
"Koooooneeeeekooooo chaaaaaaaaannnnn!" came a sudden voice, startling Koneko out of her thoughts. She quickly came back around to the world of the living and noticed that all the students were whispering to each other about how the new girl already knew her. She also noticed Jack had walked over.
"Onii-san is visiting Rias at the Occult clubroom today, we're going to head over there now. Do you want to come?"
Koneko bobbed her head. Of course she wanted to go see Naruto. Wordlessly she collected her things and stood up.
"Okay, follow meeee!" said Ruby cheerfully before she spun on her heel and began to head off, the two white headed loli's following closely behind her.
Issei Hyoudo really couldn't believe it. He was really here, inside the Occult Research Clubroom with the two most beautiful ladies on campus, Rias Gremory and Akeno Himejima. The two great ladies. What a shame it was that pretty boy bastard Yuuto Kiba was there as well. And soon the school Mascot Koneko Toujo was going to turn up as well! He started to drool at the mere thought of it.
Just a few days ago he had woken up after what had turned out to be the most frightening data (as well as only date) of his entire life. The morning after had been infinitely better. Rias Gremory, the girl of every guys (and some girls) dreams was lying next to him NAKED and using his shoulder as a pillow. Best. View. Ever.
Then he realised that Rias Gremory was lying down next to him and had a Minnie freak out before falling out the bed. Not his best moment. And the noise woke Rias up too. After she got dressed she explained she couldn't sleep unless she was naked before making the big reveal. She was a devil. An actual bonefied devil. And she wanted him to become a devil too. A servant who served under her. She'd caressed his cheek with a finger and leaned in close, letting him inhale her scent. She whispered storied in her ears. Stories of power. Of immortality. Of harems!
He'd relented quickly and before they went down for breakfast the next morning Rias had used all eight of her pawns to turn him into her newest devil servant. So far he was not regretting it.
The door behind him opened. He was expecting Koneko. Who he got instead was simply baffling. Souna Shitori and the rest of the student council marched into the room.
"Sona," said Rias with a smile "Glad you could make it."
Sona pushed her glasses up and gave a serious look.
"I thought it prudent to attend. It's best my peerage learn of the newest devil at our school."
"Wait a second," burst out Issei. "The student president is a devil too?"
Sona fixed him with a glare.
"How rude of you. You should train your servants better Rias."
"Apologies," said Rias, letting out a small giggle. "He's new. Issei, the person standing before you is a high class devil like myself named Sona Sitri. Souna Shitori is merely a cover name."
"Ah that reminds me," stated Sona, before beckoning to her side. The only boy among the group, who had a mop of blond hair stepped forward. "This is Genshirou Saji. My newest Pawn."
"It is an honour to meet you lady Rias," said Genshirou with a bow. "It's sad that our first impression of you had to be ruined by this feeble monkey."
Here Genshirou gave a mocking look towards Issei.
"Hey who are you calling a monkey," raged Issei, shaking his fist at Genshirou.
"Hmm, a simpleton pawn like yourself should just flounder in the dirt. Be in awe monkey, I was worth four pawns."
"What was that you said about training my servant Sona?" asked Rias with an amused grin.
"Like you said he's new," replied Sona. "And he will be punished later."
Genshirou instantly paled and began stuttering an apology.
"Also Genshirou you should be aware that Issei there was worth eight pawns."
Genshirou's eyes seemed to bulge as this information registered with him. His jaw hung open and he stared at Issei as if he was something simply impossible to understand.
"No way!" he cried out, "Why would a perverted monkey like that be worth eight pawns while someone like me would only be worth four?"
"He seems to have an untapped sacred gear," Rias answered for him, "but we're getting of topic. That's not why we're all here."
"You're correct," said Sona, a subtle glance at Genshirou telling him to get back in line, which he did. "So tell me Rias, where is-"
"Sorry I'm late everyone."
The door opened once again. This time four new people came through the doorway. Issei recognised three of them.
"You're those new students," exclaimed Issei, pointing at the group. "Don't tell me you're all devils too!"
"That's right," said the blond with the whiskers who came through first. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki. These three beside me are all members of my peerage, and two more should be here soon. Issei you should recognise two of them, but for the sake of those who don't could you three introduce yourselves please."
None of them seemed to move for a moments before the most serious looking of the group stepped forward. He had rusty red hair that was cropped around his head, and black rings around his green eyes created a very sleep deprived appearance. He wasn't very tall though, only looking to be around 5 foot 5, making him just a couple inches shorter than Issei himself.
"My name is Gaara. No last. I'm a rook."
Seemingly done with his introduction, the other boy Issei recognized stepped forward. He didn't look anywhere near as imposing as Gaara. He had standard Japanese dark hair which framed his face and grey eyes, and a generally kind look on his face. The only thing even slightly off about him was the white medical eye patch he wore over his left eye.
"My name is Ken Kaneki. I'm Naruto Kun's Knight. It's a pleasure to meet you all."
His speech was polite but otherwise straight forward and suited him perfectly. Finally the last one Issei recognised stepped forward, and despite what Naruto thought this was the only one whose name he actually remembered, because the last one was a she.
She was a beauty, no one could deny it. She had black hair which curled around her head and stopped just below her chin and piercing black eyes, with an athletic body. She stood at 5 ft 7, being the second tallest among them after Naruto. She also wore a red scarf with her uniform. She looked like a no nonsense sort.
"My name is Mikasa Ackerman. I am Naruto Sama's Pawn."
Naruto's easy smile suddenly turned a little strained before returning to its easy going manner it was before. Finally the last of the group stepped forward. She had chestnut coloured brown hair and dark grey eyes and a perpetual smile on her face. She wore the middle schooler's uniform showing she was the youngest of the group so far. She stood at 5'2 making her rather short and seemed to be lacking in the breast department. And for whatever reason Issei was incapable of lusting after this girl. Her entire demeanour to him seemed to scream 'Little Sister.'
"Hi! My name is Morgan Validar. I'm a pawn too. The reason we were late is because Naruto had to come get me, so sorry for that."
With the introductions now out of the way the group took another step back.
"Well that makes things simple for everyone," said Naruto stepping forwards and clapping his hands together. "Now of course I already know all about Rias's peerage, including Issei. But I'm afraid I don't know about any of Sona's peerage members aside from Tsubaki-chan. If it's not too much trouble would you guys mind introducing yourselves?"
There was a slight clamor before the individual members of Sona's peerage introduced themselves as Genshirou, Tsubasa, Tomoe, Momo, Reya and Rrurka with Tsubaki reintroducing herself for the benefit of Naruto's peerage and Issei.
"Excellent," said Naruto happily. "Now that that's out the way we can-"
"See I told you I'd get us there!"
Naruto was interrupted by a familiar shouting from the hallway, causing him to raise an eyebrow in amusement. Not too long afterwards the door banged opened to reveal a slightly out of breath girl with black hair with a red tint to it and two white haired Lolli's behind her.
"I already knew the way," came Koneko's monotone voice, before she strode straight past the others in the door way and made a beeline for Naruto. And with nary a word she wrapped her two little arm around his waist and cuddled into his side. Naruto just gave her a gentle smile and patted her head. From across the room Sona just gave an annoyed sigh.
"Hello you three. We're doing introductions," said Naruto, making a gesture with his hand for them to introduce themselves.
"Ooooh me first!" said Ruby with childish enthusiasm. "My name is Ruby Rose, I like cookies and seeing all different kinds of weapons. I think meeting seeing new weapons is like meeting new people, only like, better because Weapons can't be rude to you and say mean things. My favourite colour is red and my dream as a devil is to create the ultimate magical weapon! Also I don't like fancy clothes and heels since I can't run around in them too well. Naruto made me a Knight."
As she finished her introduction she put her closed fists on her hips and stuck her chest out proudly. Beside her Jack stepped up to the plate.
"We never had a real name, but people started calling us Jack a while ago," she whispered out. "So call us Jack Uzumaki. We're a mutated Pawn."
The mutation bit of her introduction was new for a lot of people. Issei himself didn't understand the significance of it but everyone else in the room did, and for them it told them something very important. This little girl was not to be underestimated.
"Everyone else has already introduced themselves so you'll have to meet them later. Consider it your punishment for being late," Naruto scolded the two lightly.
"Mou, but the clubroom was really hard to find," said Ruby with a pout.
"I knew how to get here, you just ignored me," Koneko reminded her without any bite to it. She knew the girl didn't do it on purpose, she was just scatter brained.
"I thought you had a full peerage," interrupted Rias. Not to mention that there were a few others she'd met before who were not there.
"I do. But many of my peerage are simply too old for school and too young to be teachers. And my Queen really wouldn't have any interest in anything but the library anyway and I don't want her starting an interest."
Ah yes. Naruto's Queen. Neither Rias nor Sona had ever met the woman in person but they'd heard… stories. Stories of a monster who even Grafia hesitated against. It was known throughout the underworld that Naruto's peerage was a scary one by anyone's standards. But among those scary individuals were three who were just plain terrifying, not including Naruto himself. Thankfully it would seem that none of those three were coming to Kuoh although Rias could admit to herself to being somewhat disappointed, because she was curious about what they were like. She'd met one of them a few years ago. He'd been rather pleasant if not a little stiff. The other two though were kept far away from her, so naturally she really wanted to meet them.
"She would come if you told her too Naruto sama," said Mikasa, causing Naruto to look at her like she was crazy.
"That's beside the point. If she came to school I'm pretty sure Kuoh would become famous for having the highest suicide rate among its students in the world. And she'd be giving me a smug look just letting me know it's my fault for telling her to be there the entire time. So no, she isn't coming."
It didn't escape neither Rias's nor Sona's notice that both Naruto and Mikasa had avoided using his queens name. However not everyone in the room was so bright.
"Who are you guys talking about?" asked Issei, looking slightly fearful.
"Speak of the devil and he shall appear," stated Ruby with an uncharacteristic shiver. "I don't think we should risk it."
"We're all devils ruby," said Kaneki, trying to sound comforting. "But you're probably right."
Unseen by everyone in the room Koneko rolled her eyes. She knew perfectly well that no one in Naruto's peerage was scared of Naruto's queen. This was more like an in joke, where they built up some kind of reputation for her as a terrible monstrosity. That's not to say the woman wasn't terrifying, because she was. But she was perfectly accommodating to members of Naruto's peerage. It's everyone else who has to be scared.
"Anyway I think we should move on from my absent members," said Naruto, trying to draw everyone's attention. "I'm sure since we're staying here you'll meet them all eventually. Instead lets focus on my little group here. Because like you guys we need our own club. And then we need to run it by the student council. So that being said-"
Here Naruto stopped talking and turned to his group.
"Suggestions anyone."
The majority of the room felt like face faulting.
"Oooh, Ooh, I know!" said Ruby, waving her hand in the air. "How about the-"
"No weapons Ruby," interrupted Naruto.
"Err Cookie club?" Ruby finished weakly.
"Anyone else," said Naruto, clapping his hands together.
"Chess Club," chirruped Morgan happily.
"Already established," said Sona.
"The peeping club," offered Issei.
"Think I'll give that one a miss," answered Naruto without batting an eyelash.
"Sewing Club," said Mikasa, and everyone looked at her. "What?"
"Again already established," answered Sona, although she too was surprised by the sporty looking girl's suggestion.
"Obsessive Cuisine club," said Jack, garnering everyone's attention.
"Obsessive Cuisine," said Genshirou, looking at the girl strangely. "I don't know if that's-"
"Bitch we'll eat you."
Jack sudden interruption left Sona's peerage speechless. Everyone else who knew the girl wasn't so surprised though.
"Naruto loves Ramen… a lot," continued Jack. She almost sounded Jealous. "Ruby loves cookies. Kaneki… like coffee."
The boy gave her a thankful smile when she said that.
"We like… things we're not allowed to say. And Morgan loves cake. Gaara keeps his secret."
Her piece finished Jack fell back into silence.
"I like it," said Naruto after a minute. "A place where all us junkies can get together and talk about our fix. And the name sounds fancy. Great job Jack."
Naruto began to pet her head and Jack closed her eyes in bliss and leaned into his touch, surprising a lot of people there who weren't used to such a thing.
"Umm, I think I'll join the chess club if it's all the same to you," interrupted Morgan.
"Knock yourself out," said Naruto with a nod. "It's your life, and our actual peerage meetings can be done at home anyway. So Sona the Obsessive Cuisine club comprising of Kaneki Ken, Jack Uzumaki, Gaara and Ruby rose, headed by Naruto Uzumaki would like permission to establish their club in this school."
Sona gave him a smouldering glare, to which he only smiled.
"Fine," said Sona with a sigh. "I'll get the paper work sorted and find you a classroom."
"Great," said Naruto, striding forward regardless of Koneko who was still latched onto him and engulfed the be-speckled girl in a hug. "You're the best Sona. Don't know what I'd do without you."
"Hey," squawked Genshirou, pointing a wavering finger at Naruto. "You can't do that! You can't just hug the President like that, who do you think you are!"
"Shush Genshirou," came Sona's muffled voice from where she was being pressed into Naruto's chest.
"I'm her fiancée," chirruped Naruto cheerfully, in reply to Genshirou and causing both him and Sona's peerage (with the exception of Tsubaki) to freeze up in shock.
"P-president… y..y...your engaged!" cried out Genshirou, completely horrified.
Finally managed to extradite herself from Naruto's chest and doing her damn best to push down the blush on her face Sona turned to answer her pawn.
"It was something decided by my Parents. Naruto has one of, if not the most sought after abilities in the entire underworld."
Rias gave a snourt.
"You make it sound like you're against the engagement," said Rias with a smirk.
"It's not that I'm really against it," said Sona, trying desperately to clear her face of redness. "It's a union that's very important to our families. But it was set up by our Parents rather than me and Naruto. Although Naruto is not a member of the Gremory family by blood he has been adopted into the Gremory household so this marriage acts as a union of our families."
"He's my little brother," said Rias smugly.
"Big Brother," Naruto corrected.
"Prove you're older. Until then you my itty bitty brother," Rias countered.
"Anyway our parents wanted to unite our houses and a marriage between me and Naruto is how they decided to go about doing it," Sona explained. Of course there was quite a bit more to it than that, but it could wait until later.
"So you have some kind of special power and now everyone wants your babies?" asked Issei. "Is it like my sacred gear?"
Issei had yet to awaken his sacred gear. He only knew he had one, but he really wanted to find out what it was. He couldn't wait, he just knew it was going to be something awesome.
"Yes and no Issei," reposnded Naruto. "I have a power that's unique to me, but it's not a sacred gear. There's speculation that the power will pass on to any children I have but that's all it is really."
"We can worry about your speculations later," Genshirou growled out. "You don't deserve to marry the president. You're not even faithful to her, you have that loli hanging of your hip like she's your paid escort for the night."
In response to that Koneko narrowed her eyes at Genshirou and growled. She was about to release Naruto and pounce on the bastard who insulted her, but before she could Naruto grabbed her shoulder. She looked up to him and saw a rare frown on his face.
Sona also realised Genshirou had gone too far, and marched right up to him.
Recognising the angry look on his king's face, Genshirou backed up a bit but Sona suddenly latched on to his ear like a vice. She yanked him down, hard so he was eye level.
"You will apologise this instant Saji," she snarled out. Genshirou gulped at her tone.
"S-sorry. I went too far," he said, doing his best to keep his voice in check in the face of his angry king.
"Good," said Sona, letting him go. "Don't think this is over though. Once we're done here you'll get ten thousand spankings."
Genshirou looked like an actual ghost, and he actually collapsed to his knees.
"Wow," said Ruby from where she was watching the spectacle. "Ten thousand spankings. Can his butt even survive that?"
"We'll find out," Sona Answered.
"Genshirou Saji was it," asked Naruto politely.
Upon recognising that he was being talked too, Saji perked up and face Naruto.
"Y-yes."
"Let me explain, me and Koneko chan have been close for a long time now. I've known her just as long as I've known Sona chan. For whatever reason Koneko chan is very fond of me, and I don't think she's ever going to willingly give up on pursuing a relationship with me," Naruto explained. He had no doubts on the girl's feelings for him, she'd made them abundantly clear even if she struggled to say them. "Sona chan knows this and accepts it and the two of them have talked it out. Aside from our engagement not being set in stone as it were, it's not really rare for a devil to have more than a single spouse. And despite what people think this can go for both genders, although I admit it's much more common among the males."
The thought of having more than a single wife hadn't really sat well with Naruto at first, but this was something that Sona and Koneko had decided between themselves.
"I need you to understand Saji san that I'm not unfaithful. Both Sona and myself are still exploring exactly what our engagement means and how we feel about each other. But I don't do anything behind her back and I make sure I'm always up front and honest with her. Do you understand Saji san?"
"Yes," said Genshirou now feeling rather uncomfortable. He already knew most of that. He hadn't snapped over that anyway, it was because he had a crush on his king and finding out she was engaged had dashed his dreams of marrying her.
"That being said Saji san," Naruto continued, causing Genshirou to perk up as Naruto addressed him once more. His eyes soon widened in horror as the room went dark and Naruto's eyes seemed to turn a deep shining red and his entire body seemed to gain a dark red outline. "You ever make another remark like that or ever imply anything about Koneko other than how she is the beautiful young girl that she is, I'll pull your tongue out through your ass and use your ribs as the keys for a new Xylophone."
And then the light was back, Naruto's eyes were blue and he looked happy again.
"Okay?"
Genshirou gave a very slow nod of his head, more terrified than he had ever been in his life.
"What the hell was that?" spoke Issei with a mixture of awe and fear.
"One of Naruto kuns party tricks," said Akeno, eyeing Naruto lustfully and licking her lips. Somehow able to sense what Akeno was doing, Koneko turned and glared at her, causing Akeno to raise her hands up in mock surrender. Other than his occasional bursts of anger Naruto wasn't much her type anyway.
"Well this had all been great," said Naruto, and his peerage members all stood up from wherever they were seated or leaning and came to stand by Naruto.
"You were quiet," said Naruto to Gaara, causing the red head to raise an eyebrow.
"I saw no occasion that required me to speak. Other than to state that I don't have a food fetish like the rest of you. But in the end I decided it was irrelevant."
Naruto nodded his head. Gaara wasn't a man of many words but if you spoke to him he'd give you full answers.
"Anyway, I think we all need to head out now. Actually get some lunch you know. Since I don't think any of us have actually eaten."
There was a murmur of agreements coming from all around the room.
"Great. So we'll head off. I assume you're coming Koneko chan?"
The white haired loli gave a nod of her head.
"Okay, Sona I'll come see you after class, get my club sorted. And we can have a nice chat you know. Maybe arrange to go somewhere, spend some time together."
Having said this Naruto turned around and started for the door before stopping and speaking to Ruby
"Umm Ruby, you can't have cookies. Soo that's a thing."
"Awww why not?"
"Promised you sister I'd look after you and that includes healthy living."
"Hypocrit," murmured Ruby with a pout.
"I'm a devil, I'm allowed to be."
"Soooo that's it. We're of. By guys."
"There was a chorus of goodbyes as the new devil group left."
Once they left Rias turned to Sona.
"Well then. Looks like things are going to-"
"Don't say it," Sona cut her off.
"What?" said Rias with a frown.
"You were going to say 'looks like things are going to get more interesting around here'. I've been reading a lot of novels recently and for some reason that phrase gets said a lot. In almost every single one in fact."
"Oh. Okay then. Whatever."
That 'things are going to get more interesting line is a pet peeve of mine and I wanted to express it. It's in like 80% of the fanfictions I read, especially the crossovers.
So let me list what we got from that chapter. In case you didn't catch in Naruto's blood has regenerative properties. Naruto was adopted by the Gremory family but he didn't advance immediately to High class, he worked his way up. The how and why that happened will be revealed later.
I didn't have a lot of room for the present bit of the fic, so that will be a bigger focus in the next chapter.
Peace out
Naruto's peerage.
King – Naruto – Naruto
Queen - ?
Bishop - ?
Bishop - ?
Knight – Kaneki – Tokyo ghoul
Knight Ruby – Rwby
Rook – Gaara – Naruto
Rook - ?
Pawn – Mikasa – Attack on Titan
Pawn – Assasin of Black, Jack – Fate/ Apocrypha
Pawn – Morgan (fem) – Fire Emblem (Awakening)
Pawn - ?
Character File
Jack Uzumaki
Character: Assasin of Black (Jack the Ripper)
Light Novel source: Fate/ Apocrypha
Height: 150cm
Weight: 45kg
Three sizes: B69/W49/H71
Home Country: London, Victorian England
Bio
The true face of Jack the Ripper, she is a half devil with a sacred gear called 'Demise Knives.' Her ability allows her to summon one of four Knives, each with a different ability and name.
Maria: Can absorb the blood of her victims to heal the wielder.
Meredith: Contains a lethal toxin, even to devils.
Mary: Can vibrate at a high frequency to cut through almost anything.
Marline: Coated in an acidic substance which stops wounds from healing naturally and instead causes them to worsen over time. (Unless the target has a high regeneration factor, in which case the regeneration will be slowed.)
Jack's balance breaker can only be activated if she's not directly in sunlight. It allows her to insti kill her opponent so long as it's a woman and she can't survive having her heart impaled. Her Balance breaker takes the form of an attack which manifests her four knives inside of the opponent, dissecting them from the inside.
Jack can also summon a mist which effect only her enemies. The more evil people she kills the more toxic her mist becomes.
Jack grew up on the smog covered streets of London and wondered around looking for her mama. She would often mistake wondering prostitutes for her mother, and when they rejected her she would kill the woman and cut out an organ and rub it against her face, reminding herself of the warmth of her mother's womb.
Because of her warped sacred gear, Jack can devour people's darkness (either directly from their soul or even by eating the flesh). Once she finds herself in the underworld, she finds that devils have a natural darkness that she finds delicious. For those aware of this, it raises alarm bells for what the true purpose of demise knives could have been.
After meeting Naruto Jack's murderous tendencies largely die down, but they will flare up again if any talks badly of or hurts Naruto. She responds to kindness with either kindness or indifference, but she will respond badly, often violently to rudeness or hostility. After meeting Naruto Jack begins seeking his praise and approval, seeing him as a parental figure even though he is two centuries her junior. Another curiosity is that Jack has never grown up, which may be another side effect of demise knives.
