A/N: Been awhile since I updated, eh?

Also, Tokyou Ghoul ended.

Soooo...yeah.

0_0

Oddly enough, I felt like Rize didn't get her just due. In any case, here we are again, and I can finally devote my attention to the "Not Going Home" series as a whole. Of course it helps that all the "stories" are interlinked. Confusing? Try to think of it like this; every adventure is happening simultaneously to the others in a sense. When you're a god you can simply clone your consciousness and shoot it across the cosmos.

Naruto...might have gone a tad overboard in that regard.

As for Rize? She's just the sort not to care about something like that. She lives for pleasure and food after all; anything else is merely a secondary concern for her. If you get in her way she'll happily run roughshod over you without a second though and lord help you if you become her enemy because she'll absolutely eat you alive.

So here's an interlude for our favorite adventure.

Sorry if its short!

Bit of self-deprecating humor in here, too.

Here, take this, I'm tired and sick but I'm trying to update daily so here you go~!

Also playing Bloodborne when I'm not puking my guts out and I cannot sodding kill Micolash somebody put me outta my miserrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry!

"What did you do?"

...you'll never take me alive!"

~Rize and Naruto!

...Trouble Looks For Me

It really does.

Don't believe me, journal?

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

As a wise woman once said, the universe doesn't like its peas mixed with its porridge. Let's say you save someone. Someone who was meant to die. In doing so, somewhere, somewhen, somehow, you've killed someone. Be they good or evil, kind or cruel, male or female. Its an indisputable fact of life. To save someone is to NOT save someone else. A god has limits. Even me. I discovered that truth long ago and resolved myself by then that I'd spit in its face. To be bogged down by it defeats the purpose. You can only forge forward. Rule, or serve.

When you try to bend those rules, however, the universe resists. When you break them it snaps back. Hard.

For example!

Would believe that, from the first breath I took into Tokyo Ghoul, its been rejecting me? Yup! The entire universe itself, trying to erase me. On a subconscious level this world despises me and all I'm trying to do, so much so that its pulling a Nasuverse and trying to eradicate me solely for breathing. If I weren't a deity, I wouldn't exist anymore. Now, if someone were to actively focus on such a crippling thought...well! They might just drive themselves utterly insane. So yes, best to live and let live. After all, what better way to enjoy life than by doing that?

Nothing better!

If you dwell on the past, it will only bog you down until you can't breathe; leave you second-guessing your every decision. If you focus on the future overmuch, you lose sight of the here and now. Conversely, to dwell too much on the present blinds you to alternatives. In the end its all about balance. Find yourself a happy medium and cling to it for all its worth.

Ah, but I digress.

Sometimes it seems that for every good deed done there must be a bad one.

After that little debacle we met Touka. Finally!

Rize wandered off as was her wont and I was inclined to let her do as she pleased in the interim. After all what could possibly go wrong? Its not as though the sky was raining blood or anything. Oh. Wait. My machine did that. Oops. Guess there's something to be said about being too trusting. Still! It should've been simple say hello, meet a few new faces, apologize for fucking up cannon and all the other bollocks I brought with me.

Simple, right?

Weeeeell about that...

...honestly, I'm not sure who to blame for this one.

I'm beginning to think this universe genuinely has it out for me...

...that, or Rise genuinely can't control her hunger anymore, I don't even know...

(...0o0o0...)

Touka did not believe in god.

Oh, she understood that there was a higher power at work somewhere in the cosmos mind you-she simply didn't worship it. In that, she was a cynic. By her reckoning, if there was such a being he'd abandoned them long ago, leaving ghouls and humans alike to fend for themselves as he turned his attention to other creations. Like a petulant child who'd snatched the best of his toys and left the sandbox behind, filled with broken things. As though he'd simply abandoned them to focus on something new and shiny. The alternative...well. Either he had a twisted sense of humor.

But this?

She certainly hadn't expected him to masquerade as a wayward horned blond with a penchant for all things orange.

Much less one who'd made the sky rain blood.

Uzumaki Naruto had-quite literally-come from nowhere to insert himself into her life like a long lost friend. In truth, Touka wasn't sure what to make of him. Anyone who claimed to be capable of wielding power on a nigh-cosmic level was someone to be avoided with all dispatch, not associated with, much less brought back to Anteiku...

...it didn't help that he'd brought her alongwith him.

She was tempted to kill him just for that alone.

"You're staring again." he hummed.

...screw you."

"Oh ho!"

Well aware that she'd been caught out, the bluenette shot the blond's back a withering glare as he slipped down a side street and stepped into darkness. After a moment's hesitation she followed, fingers twitching restless at her sides. Should she kill him? Could she kill him? Would a deity die if she lopped off their head and tore out their heart? It worked for nearly everyone else, but then again he could well be lying to her. It would be short and sharp and simple, but could she do it before he killed her? Fear alone stayed her hand.

"Relax, its not like I'm going to kill-

Naruto paused abruptly.

Inhaled quickly.

Sharply.

Angrily.

"Oh." he managed eloquently.

A familiar scent reached him as they rounded the bend, but even then he almost didn't want to believe what his nose was telling him. Surely not. He'd left Rize out of his sight for five minutes. Five minutes! Three hundred seconds! How much trouble could only girl-ghoul!-get into in such a short amount of time?! When he bolted Touka followed him, well aware of the pungent scent coming from just ahead.

In the end he had his answer, and it began with blood.

Naruto felt his right eye begin to twitch as he stood outside Anteiku.

Violently.

"What did you do."

"Alright," Rize began, swallowing nervously, "But you can't be angry. I did it for a reason!"

She fidgeted restlessly in place as he looked on, seeming to wilt beneath his gaze. That should have been when he realized what was going on; Rize NEVER fidgeted, never balked, never backed down. Ever. That she was doing so now only intensified the gravity of what she might-or-might-not have done. The blood on her face certainly didn't make matters any better, no not in the least.

"What. Did. You. DO?!"

In response she stepped aside...

...exposing the alley.

"Surprise!"

Touka nearly spat as the slim ghoul stepped aside.

"Shitty Rize! What the hell is this?!"

When he saw what they were looking at, Naruto's twitch became an outright spasm. It wasn't just a corpse. A corpse he could have handled. Maybe even a dozen. That was neither here nor there.

"Oh for the love of...

He was looking at a small mountain of Doves.

A/N: Felt good to get this out there, and I'm sorry for the shortness of it all.

I was barely able to write due to being sick, but I managed...

...now excuse me while I puke my guts out.

So...in the immortal words of Atlas...

...Review, Would You Kindly? OR RIZE-CHAN'S GONNA EAT YA! And of course, enjoy the preview! 'Tis a bit of funny and serious all at once!

(Previews)

Eto purred.

"Why, hello there!"

...noooooooooooooooooope!"

"Catch me if you can!"

"Its a shame really, looking back, I accidentally denied you something precious. Of course, I didn't know it at the time, but still...

Touka blinked.

"Ha?"

"So here you go! Take Kaneki-kun with my blessing! Long life and happy family to you!"

What insanity is to come?! Stay tuned to find out! R&R~! =D