Author's Note: Thanks again as always guys! 800+ Favourites, 1000+ Follows (WOW!) and 150+ Reviews! I don't even know what to say, you guys are amazing! :D

Some characters may seem a bit out of character in this chapter, that's simply to help with the plot of the story. Also this chapter is a bit shorter than usual, explanation for this is at the bottom.

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Naruto, High School DxD, or any of the other manga/animes that may be referenced over the course of this story.

The Second Son – Chapter 3 (N-Naruto…?)

A handsome man who appeared to be in his early twenties is currently walking through a grand hallway in a large castle. Although the man's appearance looked young, he had an air about him that gave off a very mature and 'grown up' vibe. This is slightly ironic considering how he usually acts. But not today. Today he has his serious face on. Today he is extremely angry.

Sirzechs Lucifer, formally known as Sirzechs Gremory, has grown into a handsome looking man with shoulder length crimson hair and blue-green eyes, similar to those of his little sister. He is currently wearing a professional looking business suit and walking at a brisk pace with a serious look on his face.

The reason for said expression is because he is on his way to a meeting with his father, Lord Gremory, the current head of the Gremory family. Upon arriving, he knocks on the door to his father's main study and waits to be called inside.

"Come in." A voice that he recognized as his fathers called from inside the room.

Entering the room, Sirzechs saw that Lord Gremory is sitting behind the main desk with official paperwork in front of him. Lord Gremory is a middle-ages looking man with long crimson red hair and some slight stubble on his chin.

The only other person in the room is a beautiful young woman looking to be the same age as Sirzechs. She has long silver hair and is currently wearing a maid's attire. This woman is Grayfia Lucifuge, Sirzechs' Queen, wife, and also the head maid to the house of Gremory.

Usually Grayfia would be by Sirzechs' side at all times, but today she had been summoned earlier by Lord Gremory to cater to their meeting. That is why she is currently walking around the desk pouring cups of tea for the two crimson haired devils.

Sirzechs smiles towards his wife while entering the room fully and closing the door behind him. Being the strict and proper woman that she is, Grayfia simply nodded in reply. Whilst on duty, she took her job extremely seriously, and refused to take advantage of the fact that she is Sirzechs' wife.

"What is the meaning of this meeting?" Sirzechs asked in a calm voice, although on the inside he was seething due to having a pretty good idea towards the purpose of today's discussion.

"I just wanted to let you know that the schedule around Rias' engagement is being brought forward." Lord Gremory answered in an equally calm voice.

Grayfia has now finished what she was doing and has moved to stand behind her husband, to observe the conversation taking place. She couldn't deny the fact that she was surprised with her husband's behavior. Usually he acts like a child and she has to reprimand him because of his behaviour, but at the moment he has an air of seriousness around him that she isn't used to seeing. Don't get her wrong, she has seen a Sirzechs in his serious mode plenty of times, but these days it's less and less often.

"Why? You promised her that she had until she finished university in the human world." Sirzechs replied with annoyance in his tone.

"As true as that may be, we don't see the point in waiting that long anymore. It makes no difference whether it happens in a few years' time of a few days." Lord Gremory stated calmly.

"You know that Rias will never forgive you if you force this on to her." Sirzechs stated with some anger finding its way into his voice.

"This is for her own go-" Lord Gremory started before…

*Slam*

Lord Gremory flinched at what just happened while Grayfia jumped slightly in surprise. Sirzechs just stood up from his chair and slammed his hands down on the desk in from of him, causing a loud 'slam' sound and interrupting Lord Gremory mid-sentence.

"Don't you dare say that this is for her own good..." Sirzechs said in a cold tone.

Lord Gremory leant back into his chair with a sigh, knowing that this was going to happen. In the meantime, Grayfia stood forward with the intention of reprimanding her husband for his inappropriate behaviour. She was about to pull his ear painfully and remind him to be more respectfully, when she was stopped in her tracks.

"Stand down Grayfia." Sirzechs said in an equally cold tone as the one he just used to address his father.

Grayfia froze in her tracks, recognizing that voice. It wasn't the voice he used when he was asking her to do something. It was the voice he used when he was ordering her to do something. The voice was that of a King giving an order that cannot be disobeyed.

It is extremely rare for Sirzechs to use that voice, even more rare for him to use it towards her. So with that, she lowered her hand and stood back to continue observing the scene in front of her.

"Sirzechs… We've been over this multiple times." Lord Gremory said in a solemn voice.

"I don't care." Sirzechs snapped in reply, further surprising Grayfia. "No matter how many times we go over this situation, I will never accept it."

"This marriage contract has been in effect since before you were both born… For over five centuries we have been waiting for an opportunity to join the houses of Gremory and Phenex, and this is the first actual chance that we've had. I'm sorry that you can't bring yourself to accept it, but Rias and Riser will be joined." Lord Gremory told him in a voice that said there was no room for further discussion.

Sirzechs ignored the tone in his father's voice and continued to debate the situation.

"I will not let you force Rias into that family." Sirzechs said with venom clear in his voice.

"You shouldn't hold such biased opinions, especially in your position as Maou." Lord Gremory replied, his voice rising a bit in volume for the first time.

"What about what they did to him?" Sirzechs growled vehemently.

Grayfia was once again surprised with the tone coming from Sirzechs. She didn't know what exactly was going on, but she was taken aback by her husband's attitude. She knew that he was overprotective of his little sister. And she knew that he was not a fan of the marriage contract, but she didn't know that he would go so far to protest it. Also she was very curious as to who he was referring to in his last statement.

Lord Gremory's features instantly softened and he let out a sigh. "Sirzechs... That happened a long time ago… Besides, there was never any proof that what you said actually happened."

At hearing this Sirzechs' face darkened and his eyes were hidden behind his hair.

"After you told us what happened to Naruto, we went straight to the Phenex household to investigate. Lord Phenex denied yours and Serafall's claims and it's not like we could ask Naruto himself." He finished with a frown.

"OF COURSE HE DENIED IT!" Sirzechs yelled, making Lord Gremory flinch once again. "AND DID YOU HONESTLY EXPECT NARUTO TO RETURN TO THE MAN THAT TRIED TO MURDER HIM?"

"..."

"..."

"I'm sorry… But there just wasn't enough for us to go off. If Naruto stayed around so that we could hear his side of the story then maybe we could have done something. But it was the word of two children against the word of the Phenex clan…" Lord Gremory stated with sorrow in his voice.

Sirzechs took a deep breath to calm himself down before continuing. "No… It was the word of your own son against the word of that arrogant pure blood elitist."

Lord Gremory let out another sigh. "There is nothing that can be done about the situation. Everything is already sorted and Grayfia will meet with Rias in few days' time to inform her of the situation."

With those words, Sirzechs spun around and headed for the door, he opened it and was about to leave when he stopped and turned his head back towards the room.

"If you go through with this, Rias will no longer be your daughter and I will no longer be your son. You will be throwing away Rias' happiness and you will lose all of the respect that I have for you, not only as a father, but also as a person." He said in a blank tone with his face void of emotion.

With that he left the room, slamming the door behind him.

After leaving the Gremory castle, Sirzechs took some time to calm down before deciding what to do next.

He hated the situation so much. He is the most powerful devil in the underworld, he is one of the four leaders to devil kind and he is known as a hero from the previous wars. Yet even with so many titles, one of the most important oned to him was that of being a brother.

After the Great War and the Civil War, Sirzechs took a long time to recover mentally. He wore a mask that depicted a careless child, but it was just that, a mask. On the inside he felt broken. He felt empty.

Grayfia played a major role in fixing those problems. But even with her love and support, there was still something missing. That all changed when his little sister was born.

The first time he held Rias in his arms, his baby sister, he felt whole again. The innocence in her eyes, the way she cutely tried to grab his finger with her tiny hands, the way she giggled when he ticked her. These things filled that void that had been plaguing him for so long.

It was the absence of innocence.

She gave him something to protect, something to fight for, her innocence and her freedom. And from the very first time he held her in his arms, he promised her that he would do everything within his power to protect her.

That was why this situation infuriated him so much. Since becoming the Lucifer Maou, he had to swear indifference to the 72 pillars. This was for them to protect themselves against favouritism and while it made sense and he could agree with it, he hated the fact that it was now stopping him from stepping in to help Rias.

When he was summoned by his father, he decided to try one final time to change his mind. While it is true that Lord Gremory was very fond of Naruto, the fact is that there was never any proof behind Sirzechs' claims. There was only the word of Sirzechs and Serafall. You'd think that Lord Gremory would accept Sirzechs' word, but growing up Sirzechs showed an active dislike towards the Phenex family for their treatment towards Naruto when the rest of devil society wasn't around to see it. So Lord Phenex just accused Sirzechs of trying to cause him trouble, and Lord Gremory reluctantly had to agree with his old friend.

Unfortunately back when they were teenagers, Sirzechs' and Serafall's words didn't mean as much as they do now, and even if they tried to bring what happened to Naruto back up, it wouldn't make much difference. Hardly anyone even knows who Naruto is any more. Especially with the Phenex family actively denying his existence.

That is why Sirzechs is now arriving in the Occult Research Club's clubroom at Kuoh Academy. He promised that he would always protect his little sister so, reputation as a Maou be damned, he had to try and do something.

At the same time on the other side of the Kuoh Academy, Naruto was headed towards the Student Council room.

It has been a few days since the church incident and Naruto has been maintaining a low profile.

As soon as the business in the abandoned church was wrapped up, Rias tried to interrogate him.

Naruto let out a sigh at memory. Rias tried to demand answers from him. He brushed it off and ignored her questions, but he felt bad about doing so. She wanted to know how a devil could easily catch and then destroy a spear of light. She wanted to know what the black flames he used against Dohnaseek were and she wanted to know about the weapon he used on Raynare.

After refusing to answer every one of her questions, she demanded for him to tell her who he really was and what his intentions in Kuoh were, she then followed up by demanding to know how he knew her brother and what the nature of the relationship was.

After refusing to answer those questions as well, he wished them good luck with their newest member and teleported away. Hence why he had been keeping a low profile, to avoid any further questioning from Rias or her peerage.

That is why he was now heading towards the Student Council room. He wanted to talk to Sona and get to know her a little bit. Since their first meeting, she seemed so much different to how he remembered Serafall, in fact she reminded him more of Lady Sitri more than anyone else.

If he was being completely honest with himself, he actually just missed Serafall, so in the meantime he decided to visit her little sister in an attempt to fill that void.

Classes had finished for the day, so the corridors of the main school building were practically empty with only a few other students wandering around. When he arrived at the Student Council room, he knocked on the door a few times, and waited to be invited in. When he heard a feminine voice call out, he opened the door and entered the room.

Upon entering, he noticed that Sona was the only person in the room. She was sitting behind a desk with a lot of paperwork in front of her. She looked up when he closed the door behind him and watched him curiously as he approached her position.

"Sitri-san, good afternoon." He greeted politely with a respectful bow.

"Uzumaki-san? What can I do for you?" She asked curiously.

"Nothing in particular, I just thought I'd come and see what you were up to. I hope that I'm not interrupting anything?" Naruto asked with a smile while gesturing to the chair in front of him.

""No it's fine." She answered with a nod, letting him know that he could sit down and join her.

"What are you up to?" He asked her while looking at the piles of paperwork covering her desk.

"I am preparing for the Young Devils Gathering. It may still be quite a while away, but I want to be as prepared as possible." She answered simply while moving papers into different piles.

"Oh? That's where you declare your future ambitions, correct?" He clarified. Ajuka mentioned something about it when they last spoke, but he didn't go into great detail.

"Indeed, that is correct." Sona replied. She had finished moving the papers around and while using a hand to adjust her glasses, she looked up at him.

"What is your ambition?" He asked her, curious as to what her answer would be.

Sona hesitated for a moment. Naruto is pretty much a stranger to her, so usually she wouldn't open up about her future goals. But there was just something about him that she couldn't quite put her finger on. Something about his presence made her want to talk to him, and from her talk the other day with Rias, she felt the same way.

So for some unknown reason, she took a deep breath, and began explaining her dream to Naruto.

"I want to open a school in the underworld to teach devils about Rating Games." Sona told him.

"Isn't there already a place like that though?" Naruto asked her in confusion.

"There is… However it is only available to high class devils…" She explained. "My dream is to open a school that is available to all classes of devil. That way it won't just be high class devils that have the knowledge, but reincarnated devils as well."

Naruto nodded along attentively, hearing the conviction in her voice, he couldn't help but let a small smile appear on his face.

"The way I see it is, if reincarnated devils have a place where they can learn about the history of Rating Games, along with strategy and tactics, they will be more useful to their King, because they would be able to help devise plans." She continued. "It has always been a passion of mine; it is even the reason why I came to Kuoh. I wanted to experience a place like this so that I knew what it was like to attend a normal school."

She paused for a moment and Naruto saw a slight frown cross over her face.

"But… I don't know if I will be able to achieve my goals." She admitted with a bit of sadness entering her voice.

"What makes you say that?" Naruto asked her. One minute she was confident and full on conviction, the next she seemed like it was a lost cause.

"I just know that many devils will look down on my dream… A lot of devil society, especially the elders, look down on reincarnated devils. They are afraid that with more and more reincarnated devils being brought into the underworld, they will soon lose their positions of power." Sona replied dejectedly.

Naruto sighed at hearing this. He knew all too well about the prejudices that were held by devil elitists. He was raised surrounded by it after all. Even though he isn't a reincarnated devil, it was the same principal. To those who were obsessed with maintaining a pure blooded devil society, anyone who is different, is a threat, and will most likely face discrimination.

"I believe your dream to be admirable." Naruto stated, causing Sona to look up at him. "I also believe that if you stick to your dream, you will be overcome any obstacle in your way to achieve it."

Sona couldn't help but smile slightly at his words. He sounded so genuine that she even believed it herself. If he could so confidently say that she could achieve her dreams, then she would believe it too.

"What is your dream, Uzumaki-san?" Sona asked, curious as to what it may be.

Naruto was quiet for a moment, considering how to answer her question.

"My dream is to live a peaceful and happy life with the people that I care about." He finally answered with a smile.

Hearing his dream, Sona couldn't help but smile once again. To her, it didn't seem all that ambitious, but it was still a nice dream to have.

What she didn't know though, were all the things Naruto had to do before he could achieve his dream. The main thing being, dealing with his past.

Back to the Occult Research Club room.

Rias Gremory is currently looking out the window towards the cloudless sky. She is alone in the clubroom because the members of her peerage, except for Akeno, are all out fulfilling contracts. Akeno herself was trying to track down Naruto so that they could ask him more questions about the night at the abandoned church.

Her thoughts were all revolving around a certain mysterious blonde devil when she saw a bright red light appear behind her.

Turning around, she smiled to herself, recognizing the light as her brother's magic circle, and sure enough, when the bright light disappeared, there was Sirzechs standing before. Although his usual happy smile was missing, in its place was a bitter frown.

"Onii-sama? What's wrong?" She asked with concern, not liking the expression on his face.

"Sit down Rias… We need to talk…" He said calmly, only making her concern grow. Instead of his usual overly affectionate antics, and his pet name for her, Ria-tan, he was now acting completely serious.

Following his orders silently, she sat down on one of the couches to which he sat opposite her. She felt extremely nervous about the whole situation. For her brother to be here and looking so serious, something had to be wrong…

She wanted to ask him what was going on, but knew that he would tell her eventually, so instead of asking, she simply sat there in silence, waiting for him to begin.

Sirzechs let out a sigh as he looked up at his sister and his features softened. As angry as he was at the situation, he just couldn't stay in a foul mood in Rias' presence.

"It's been a while Rias, It's good to see you." He said genuinely with a slightly strained smile.

"It's good to see you too, Onii-sama." Rias replied, still confused by his sudden appearance and by the serious aura he was giving off.

"I wish that my visit could be on better terms… But…" He began before trailing off and frowning.

"W-What's going on…?" Rias asked, concern growing even more in her voice.

"In a few days' time, Grayfia will be visiting to deliver some… bad news…" He told her cryptically.

"What kind of… bad news?" Rias asked nervously.

Sirzechs let out another sigh before deciding to just get straight to the point. "Your marriage to Riser is being brought forward…"

Open hearing those words, Rias' body went numb. Her mind went blank. And her face adopted a look of utter betrayal. Seeing that expression on his little sisters face was like a dagger to Sirzechs' heart.

"N-No…" Rias whispered desperately, tears appearing in the corners of her eyes. "T-They promised! They said I had until I finished schooling in the human world!" Her voice started as a hurt whisper, but finished as a furious shout.

"I know…" Sirzechs replied quietly, looking down from her betrayed expression.

"They can't do this to me!" Rias shouted. "You can't let them do this to me…" Her voice reverted back to a whisper as the tears started flowing down her cheeks.

Hearing those words just crushed Sirzechs even further. Seeing Rias in the state she was in, he got up and moved around the table, sitting down beside his sister and holding her in his arms. Not in the playful 'siscon' way that he usually does, but in the way of a protective older brother holding his hurt little sister.

They sat in silence for a while, Sirzechs just sat there rubbing her back reassuringly while she cried into his hug. After a few minutes, Rias sat back and looked up at her big brother with sad eyes.

"Please don't let them do this to me. I don't want to be stuck with Riser for the rest of my life…" She pleaded desperately.

"I won't let that happen…" He told her trying to force a comforting smile onto his face. "There is no way I would leave you in the care of that family."

"What will we do…?" Rias asked while rubbing the tears from her cheeks.

"I don't know… But we'll think of so-"

*Knock Knock*

Their attention turned towards the door as the knocking sound interrupted Sirzechs' words.

"Come in…" Rias called out, while quickly drying her face.

The door opened to reveal Akeno, who entered the room, closing the door behind her. She was about to speak when she realized that Rias wasn't alone.

"Lucifer-sama." She greeted politely with a respectful bow. Then her gaze went to her King and she adopted a concerned expression at seeing Rias with red eyes and a sad look on her face.

"Hello Akeno." Sirzechs greeted with a smile, although it was a bit forced considering the reasoning behind his visit.

"What's going on, Rias?" Akeno asked with concern in her voice.

"I'll tell you about it later." Rias replied dismissively, trying to regain her composure, before asking. "Have you found him yet?"

"It took a while, but eventually I found him entering a meeting with Sona." Akeno answered.

"Hmm… If I didn't know any better I would say that Naruto has been avoiding us…" Rias said with a sigh, she was going to continue but her voice trailed off when she saw her brother's eyes widen.

"Did you just say… Naruto…?" Sirzechs asked with a shaky voice.

Rias and Akeno were both confused by Sirzechs' reaction to hearing that name, but then Rias remembered Naruto telling her and Sona that he was an old friend of her brothers.

"Onii-sama, does the name Naruto Uzumaki mean anything to you…?" Rias asked, turning her attention towards Sirzechs.

Sirzechs surprised the two younger devils by grabbing Rias' shoulders and looking straight into her eyes.

"Rias… Where did you hear that name…?" Sirzehcs asked her seriously.

"H-He came to Kuoh earlier this week…" Rias answered carefully, taken aback by Sirzechs change in attitude. She wasn't quite sure what to call it, maybe a mix between nervous and excited?

Before she could even question him on the sudden change in behaviour, Sirzechs stood up and disappeared with a bright red flash from his magic circle.

Later That Night

After Naruto's talk with Sona, he decided to visit the rest of his peerage to see how they were doing. He also wanted to find out when his Queen was going to return to Kuoh, but when he arrived, she was already gone. Seeing as he would see her later, he decided to just hang around for a bit and check up on things.

He was happy with how his two new Knights were settling in. They both seemed to be adjusting well to life as devils, and due to their circumstances before being reincarnated, they are both already quite powerful.

When it got later into the night, Naruto decided that it was time to head back to Kuoh.

Using a magic circle, he teleported straight into the bedroom of his and his Queen's apartment and as soon as he arrived, he was on guard. He could sense a very strong devil close by, and although the presence felt oddly familiar, it still had him slightly on edge.

Even though the unknown devil was suppressing their power, Naruto could still sense that it was way too high to belong to any of the devils from Kuoh, which meant that the being in question had to come from somewhere else.

Naruto slowly moved out of the room, keeping on his guard as he sneaked towards the lounge room. When he got to the corner just before the door he could hear a female's voice. He instantly recognized it as the voice that belonged to his Queen and realized that she was talking to the unknown devil.

"Claire-chan?" He called out carefully as he entered the room, his eyes darting around to find the powerful yet slightly familiar presence that he was detecting.

He saw the beautiful green haired Queen sitting in a chair facing his direction. She had a serious expression on her face, but it didn't look like the expression of someone who was in danger. In seeing her safe and seemingly relaxed, he let out a sigh of relief.

Looking towards the couch closer to him, Naruto could see the back of a person's head. At first he thought it was Rias. The crimson red hair was the trademark colour of the Gremory family, but he quickly realized that it wasn't long enough. Even if it was, he could sense way too much power coming from within this devil for it to be Rias.

The red head sitting in front of him, facing Naruto's Queen, saw her gaze move to behind him. He stood up and turned around revealing a handsome young man with blue-green eyes and shoulder length crimson hair.

As soon as they locked eyes, Naruto realized who it was. His body froze and his eyes widened.

"Sirzechs…" Naruto said in shock with a small smile finding its way to his face.

Sirzechs was looking straight at him in just as much shock. "N-Naruto…?" He stuttered before...

*PUNCH*

Author's Note: I'm not too sure how I feel about this chapter. It was a bit rushed, a bit shorter than I wanted it to be and it was mostly just to set up for the next chapter. But I was sick for most of this week and wanted to at least get something up for you guys.

On the upside, Sirzechs now knows that Naruto is back, and next chapter we get a visit from Riser and Ravel, yay!

BTW, I'm not exactly great at coming up with names for characters. As the majority of people have already figured out, Naruto's Queen is C.C from Code Geass, and as far as I know, her actual name is never revealed, so I decided to make it Claire (I just googled 'Random Female Name Generator' and cycled through until I got one starting with C. Don't judge me haha!) When Naruto talks to her he addresses her as 'Claire-chan' which represents the name C.C. Also if people are wondering why/how she is his Queen, and what the nature of their relationship is, it will be explained in a future chapter.

All feedback is greatly appreciated so please leave a review or even PM me if you'd prefer.

Thanks for reading!