Unwavering Sky Chapter 9

Laughs and Bluffs

Disclaimer: Don't own anything. All source material belongs to their respective creator and I'm illegally using them without explicit permission...

Feels like a strangely long time since we updated hasn't it? At any rate, special double update for our birthday. Come to think of it, we did something like this last year didn't we? Heh. Don't expect anything for a long time because of how busy we've been. Two jobs on top of studying isn't easy. Go to class, go to work…. And come home to crash.

Soundtrack List

Takanashi Yasu – Kizuna

Immediate Music – Serenata

Asami Seto – Soshite Ima

Red – Let it Burn

****Unwavering Sky****

Play Takanashi Yasuharu – Kizuna

"Oi, will you stop jumping in the back of the car?" the driver of the grey station wagon complained as he tried to steer the car properly, "You're going to bust the springs."

"It's not like you wouldn't deserve it. Ever since that stupid, embarrassing, stunt you pulled in school, our reputations hit the drain." The thirteen year old boy muttered under his breath before grinning smugly, "That's why you get to take us to the beach instead of wasting your time lazing around the house!"

"I'm as happy as you are, but try to calm down will you? You're going to puke all over the place." A similarly annoyed Takehito grunted at his best friend, "Again, if I might add."

Seo sighed in a long suffering manner as he settled back into the seats, "Can you not be such a massive killjoy? I can get why Naruto-jii chan is like that since he's a doddery old man and all (Oi!), but c'mon Takehito, live a little. "

The grey haired boy leaned back into his seat and smiled in resignation, "I get it, but let's just wait till we get there shall we?" He fidgeted a little to find a more comfortable spot on the old leather seats, "How long till we get there anyway?"

In the driver's seat, Naruto's lips quirked in a tiny smile. Despite how hard Takehito tried to act the cool part, he was just as excited, "Just a minute….. and we're there." The blonde replied coolly as the grey station wagon passed a curve and the beach was displayed in all its glory for the two excited boys in the back.

Seo smashed his face against the glass, practically vibrating as he got his first look at the sea, "Wooooh! Look at it!" He pointed at a corner of the beach excitedly where a number of colorful tents were grouped together around a Ferris wheel, "There's a fair of some sort as well!"

"Don't get too excited. The deal was for the beach and the beach alone. I don't want to stay at the beach any longer than I have to." Naruto retorted wryly, much to Seo's disappointed, "Eeeehh…"

"Yeah, that's nice and all," Takehito's bit out in a muffled voice, "But do you mind getting off me?"

"Oops, ahahah," The dark haired boy laughed sheepishly as she scrambled away from a decidedly squished looking grey haired boy, "Sorry about that."

Takehito sighed in exasperation and waved the apology off. Cocking his head, he silently stared at the expanse of glittering blue water laid out before him, "It's beautiful."

"Yeah. It's not bad." Naruto smiled from the driver's seat, "Look at it carefully and etch it into your memories. The ocean can be considered where everything starts and where everything ends. Every drop of water that falls from the heavens pools and gathers into rivers like humans gather experience, slowly growing and flowing through life. Like each river that flows into the ocean, the sum of that collective experience is what shapes them into the people they are and the people they can become."

"What the hell are you talking about jii-chan?" Seo grunted in annoyance while his brother remained silent with a thoughtful expression.

The blonde chuckled lowly as the car came to a stop in the parking lot, "Ah… maybe it's too early for you to understand after all."

As the three of them bundled out with a bunch of bags and a large umbrella Naruto called out dryly at the two younger boys who began dashing towards the sea without any regard, "Oi…. Slow down. At least change into your swimsuits first."

The two of them skidded to a halt and scrambled back towards the waiting man with adorable pouts as they took their swimsuits from him. Running towards the changing rooms, Takehito paused and turned around, "Tou-san, why aren't you changing too?!"

"Ahh….." the old man took a thumbs-up pose with no embarrassment whatsoever, "Because I'm already wearing it underneath!"

"Who's the one that's excited here?" Takehito muttered with a sweat drop.

With one smooth move, he pulled off his shirt and shorts to reveal a bright orange, body length, skin tight swimsuit.

Seo who had been impatiently kicking at the sand instantly went as grey as week old porridge, "WHY?! IT'S SO ORANGE, MY EYES! IT BURNS!"

"RUN DAMMIT, RUN! DON'T LOOK AT IT DIRECTLY!"

"TAKEHITO, HELP ME! I CAN FEEL THE ORANGE ETCHED ONTO TO MY RETINA!"

"No…. go on ahead, save yourself…. I'm done for…" Takehito weakly slumped down onto the sand.

"HANG ONTO HIS LEGS, THAT'LL SLOW HIM DOWN WHILE I SAVE MYSELF!"

"You're a real friend aren't you?" The grey haired boy muttered laconically.

"Honestly," A decidedly disgruntled and vaguely offended Naruto muttered as he plucked at the suit that covered every inch of his body save his hands, feet and face, "The two of you are overreacting. There's nothing wrong with orange at all."

"Do you not have any sense of shame at all?!" Takehito demanded with wild eyes.

"What's that? Does it taste good?" the man replied with a grin.

His adopted son actually began sobbing into the sand while Seo patted his back sympathetically, "It's alright. It's like the sun; it's not too bad if you don't look directly at him. Actually, let's just pretend that we don't know him."

The two of them glanced over to where the blonde was supposed to be setting up the umbrella and the beach towel.

Takehito, sounding sufficiently mystified only scratched his head, "How on Earth does he get all those girls to flock around him when he's wearing that orange monstrosity? We've only been here for 10 minutes or so…. Why did it work for him and not me?"

His best friend fell to all fours beside Takehito, "Is that…. Our teacher?" the boy began crying tears of blood as he pounded the sand with his fists, "WHY HUMANITY? WHY?!"

Brushing off the gaggle of star struck women, the blonde man made his way towards the young boys with a wry smile plastered to his face as he poked them with a toe, "What are you two doing down there? I don't think I need to remind you that daylight is burning do I?"

A despondent Seo snorted, "That's because you're a cheapskate. We had to blackmail you before you would agree to this as payment for screwing up our Culture Festival."

"Yeah, yeah. Just don't overdo it." Naruto grunted, "If either of you get sick because you played too much, I'm just going to chuck you in the toilet and leave it at that."

****A few hours later****

"Aaahh…. I'm so tired!" A grey haired boy collapsed into the sand beside his best friend, slightly behind them, sprawled out on the beach towel and snoozing lightly was the blonde and his orange swim suit that still sent shudders down his shoulder every time he looked in the man's general direction.

His best friend snorted derisively as he stared up at the darkening sky, "Already? Don't forget that we haven't even been to the fair yet."

"But Tou-san said that we can't go…"

"Oh yeah…" Seo's disappointment was almost palpable as he glanced over at the group of stalls whose business had really begun to pick up with the setting of the sun. The boy in the red trunks sighed bitterly as he got up, "C'mon. Let's pack everything up you lazy bum. The old man will grumble if we're not done before he wakes up."

Takaheito sighed as he joined his friend, "At least I'm better than Tou-san. He's already sleeping, even though all he did was splash a little water."

"Eh? Wait, didn't he only get tired after going for lunch with that girl…?"

"Don't think about it. Just don't, you'll better off." Takehito muttered sagely as he closed the large umbrella, feeling slightly reinvigorated as he looked around the slowly emptying beach. Most of the visitors were slowly making their way to the group of brightly lit tents. Dusting his hands on his trunks, the grey haired boy gave a satisfied huff, "All done. Let's wake the old man up before we leave."

Seo shot him a mischievous look, "Should we get some revenge?"

His friend hesitated for the briefest moment before grinning.

Giggling quietly, the two of them filled a pail with salt water and quietly tip toed over to the snoring man.

"Pour that on me, and the two of you can walk home." Just as they were about tip the pail over, the supposedly sleeping man grunted grouchily without even bothering to open his eyes.

"Ack!"

One blue eye glinting with amusement peeked out from behind his eyelid to glance at the two shocked boys who had accidentally emptied their pail all over themselves in their shock. Pulling himself upright with a heavy grunt, the man with greying streaks in his blonde hair casually threw a jacket and a towel to the two spluttering boys, "Dry yourselves and put those on. It's going to get cold."

"Eh?"

"You brats wanted to go to the festival didn't you?" the blonde commented dryly.

The two boys shared a surprised look before letting out a joyful whoop each and charging at the tall blonde. Naruto simply let out a dry chuckle as the two boys clambered up onto his shoulder. With relative ease, the man hefted the packed bags and umbrella before making his way towards the colorful festival with two enthusiastic boys perched on his shoulders.

This did absolutely nothing to reduce the amount of starry eyed females staring at the suave, scarred older man.

****Unwavering Sky****

"Will you stop that?" a beautiful raven haired woman grunted quietly as she batted the annoyance away from her face.

Akitsu who was sitting under a tree looked up at Kaho's distinctly annoyed tone, her brows lifting just enough to make it look questioning, "… What?"

"That floating thing bouncing around… it's distracting!" a grumpy Kaho gestured at the floating ball of snow which had taken to following Akitsu around everywhere, expressing what she presumed to be the snow woman's subconscious thoughts. Unlike herself who was unable to burn away the energy directly except through exercise, the little ball seemed to be Akitsu's outlet.

Unfortunately for the emotionally stunted Sekirei, it didn't just bleed out excess energy.

The expressionless woman glanced aside at the tiny ball. It pulsed a little before shaping itself into a miniature Kaho made of snow and began bouncing its head on the tree, "…. Can't help it."

One eyebrow slowly rose at the mini Kaho, "Is that your way of telling me to mind my own business?"

Akitsu shook her head slowly.

Mini Kaho nodded vigorously until its head fell off with a plop.

"Maaa…." Their Ashikabi gently soothed her as shuffled behind her to massage her back, causing the black haired woman under him to moan softly, "Let her be. I personally find it rather amusing, besides I don't think she can control it yet."

"You… find everything… amusing." Kaho retorted breathlessly.

"Not everything." Naruto leaned down to gently suck at Kaho's slender neck, prompting another soft moan from her, "Watch this." The blonde glanced at where Akitsu was watching the two of them with unblinking eyes, "Akitsu."

"…Hmm?" the small ball of snow transformed into a question mark.

"When I kiss you, where does it feel best?" the blonde questioned with a bland smile.

Akitsu's face refused to budge despite the heat suffusing her cheeks. The redness reached her neck when she realized that her little floating ball of snow was being decidedly indiscrete. Just before it could finish transforming into something vaguely clam shaped, the snow user grabbed the small ball and crushed it into powder.

"See? Amusing." The blonde commented with a grin.

Kaho smirked and shifted away from Naruto, "Akitsu, why don't you come here and try it? Naruto-sama's fingers feel really good."

At the black haired woman's sultry tone, the small ball of snow instantly reformed, changing into a sculpture of a tiny Akitsu hugging a tiny white Naruto while stripping him.

It was promptly destroyed by a blushing Akitsu before it could go anywhere near third base.

The normally expressionless ice user's lower lip wobbled a little, making it look like she was going to cry from embarrassment until she felt Kaho affectionately embracing her with a wide grin, "I'm sorry for teasing you. I'm just really sore and grumpy…" She poked a grinning Naruto with her toe, "You apologize too. You started it."

Chuckling lowly, Naruto pulled both of them onto his lap, "Alright, alright. I'm sorry." He gently pecked their cheeks. The little ball of snow slowly turned a light pink and bobbed around the three of them as if it was drunk.

"By the way, you were right. That floating ball is amusing." Kaho observed with a grin, causing Akitsu to poke her with a pout while Naruto chuckled heartily.

"It's pretty strange though. You said the two of you would've been fine after expending everything through a Norito didn't you? Why didn't it work?" Naruto said as he gently ran a soothing hand up and down their backs.

Kaho sighed dramatically, "That's what's supposed to happen. All it did was make me feellike a fat bloated dolphin instead of a fat bloated whale… Why did we have to get such a weirdo for an Ashikabi…"

"You sure it wasn't because you stuff your face at din- URK!" the blonde's words were cut off by Kaho planting her elbow into his gut.

"It's not polite to talk about a woman's eating habits." Kaho replied sweetly with just a hint of flushed cheeks. The blonde laughed softly before kissing the woman's neck, "Alright, alright. No more teasing the pregnant whal-ACK!"

"I can't tell if you're seriously just that stupid or if you're just a masochist." Kaho mumbled lowly, much to Naruto's amusement.

"Weeell… I might know of another way that can help both of you." The blonde they were sitting on commented with a small smile, "It'll even get rid of your soreness if I'm right." Naruto added to an interested Kaho.

Akitsu who had her face nestled in the crook of his neck looked up, "… How?"

"By playing a little game." Ignoring the questioning looks, Naruto gently helped them up before walking to a point a few yards away from them, "I'm going to walk from here, to that tree. All both of you have to do is touch me using whatever methods you can think off."

Kaho shielded her eyes against the late afternoon sun and squinted at the blonde man standing in the middle of the empty field, "Touch you? What do you mean?

"I mean just that. Do anything you want. Poke me, scratch me, freeze me, as long as I don't reach that tree before you can." He gestured to the tree they had been lazing under for the better part of the day. Well, he had been lazy, his two Sekirei were simply feeling somewhat lethargic, sort of like snakes that ate too much.

"…. I don't want to hurt Naruto-sama…" Akitsu quietly intoned as she pointed at a small young tree with a grimace. Instead, the entire area erupted in sparkling ice crystals as a crystalline spire pierced the skies. Akitsu frowned minutely; she had been intending to freeze only the tree, not 10 meters around said tree.

"And I don't have my naginata with me." Kaho pointed out with a flick of her long hair.

Naruto pursed his lips and reached behind him to slowly pull out a bladed staff before throwing it to a shocked Kaho, "Wa-wai-wait! How did you get this?! How did you even hide it? It's LONGER than you!"

"I stored it in a pocket dimension hidden in a seal on my back." Naruto deadpanned.

"If you didn't want to tell me, you didn't have to make up some weird story like that." Kaho mumbled despondently.

Naruto simply grinned knowingly, "Now you have no excuses, Kaho. Akitsu, you too. If you don't practice, you're never going to be able to control it." The blonde paused with one hand on his hip, "First one to touch me gets dessert?"

The pale haired woman worried at her lip, one hand rising hesitantly while her ball of snow seemed to pulse uncertainly, as if it couldn't decide what shape it wanted to take.

"Alright…. First person to touch me gets to sleep with me tonight." Naruto began with a smirk, "Loser sleeps in the hall-."

Play Immediate Music - Serenata

The blonde man narrowly avoided getting decapitated by an ice spear. The projectile whistled by his ear before hitting the ground behind him with all the force of a meteor, digging a trench that pierced at least half way through the entire valley with a massive boom.

"Wha- I said touch! TOUCH! You're supposed to practice precision, not 'let's pulverize him'!" Naruto yelled out when he felt a shadow fall on him. Looking up, he paled as he realized his other Sekirei had taken advantage of his inattention to leap up into the sky.

There was a massive explosion of dust and air as the black haired woman landed blade first, crushing everything under her into pulp as the ground shattered. Brushing the dust cloud out of way with a swing of her naginata, Kaho glanced around the empty crater with a huff. Although she had known her Ashikabi to be a little more powerful than the average person, it still surprised her every time she saw it.

"I suppose that's one way of doing it." She heard someone half heartedly mutter to himself.

She whirled around to see the blonde man, dressed in simple jeans and shirt, standing on the edge of the crater directly behind her as he casually avoided multiple spears of ice with the smallest of movements. Peering down, the man waved at her before abruptly setting off at a slow pace towards the tree, whistling a jaunty, insulting little tune.

Carefully leaping out of the crater, Kaho made sure to stay out of Akitsu's range as the ground around and behind the whistling blonde was beginning to look like the crater of the moon if it had ice towers sprouting out of the ground.

Gently side stepping yet another massive ice tower that blasted out of the ground, Naruto carefully plucked one spear out of mid air and redirected it at Akitsu.

Her gentle brown eyes instantly widened as she threw up a huge wall of ice that shuddered and cracked when the spear crashed against it. The wall dropped again to reveal the blonde contending with Kaho, weathering her blows with the air of someone simply taking a walk in a strong wind.

"You won't be able to stop me from reaching that tree if the two of you operate independently you know." The scarred blonde commented before he easily swept Kaho's feet out from under her and flicked her forehead in mid air, sending her crashing to the ground a few meters away with a yelp.

The man scowled at his finger, "Just 3 meters? I'm getting a little out of practice."

Heaving a sigh at his words, the black haired woman stood up again and dusted off her red hakama with an annoyed expression. Naruto's lips quirked a little as he watched the two of them share a look before nodding. Surging forward, Akitsu flourished her hands; summoning a flock of floating ice spears that glinted dangerously in the setting sun while Kaho watched with a critical eye.

The pale haired woman seemed to grit her teeth and flicked her wrist. Almost immediately, the blonde had to weave his way through a barrage of ice spears when he realized Akitsu had used the spears as distraction for her to freeze the ground beneath him. The blonde lost all traction beneath his feet as he slipped a little and barely had time to roll away from one of the largest spears yet, only to find that Kaho had cut of his escape route by slashing the ground with her naginata, hard enough to create a miniature crevice.

The blonde smiled widely and flipped onto his hands, feeling the wind blow against yellow bangs as the naginata blade scythed past him to hit the ground with a resounding boom before abruptly spinning towards him. Maintaining his handstand, the blonde nimbly deflected the flurry of strikes with his legs alone until he felt the flow of air around him getting colder.

When Kaho suddenly leapt away again, blue eyes blinked as he realized that Kaho was simply acting as a diversion for Akitsu to fill the air around with enough ice needles to surround him in every direction.

The blonde smiled approvingly, fast, elegant and precise.

The ice woman snapped her fingers once and the needles began to rain on him like an unstoppable wall. Time seemed to stop for the blonde as his eyes rapidly flicked around the area, picking out the fastest route to safety.

To the two Sekirei, the blonde simply seemed like he was simply taking an evening stroll, the needles and spears avoiding him instead of the opposite. Narrowing her eyes, Akitsu carefully crafted a spear of ice and let it fly in an unerringly straight path when she finally understood what he was doing; by shifting his center of gravity in the smallest, most efficient way possible, the man simply made it seem as if her aim was completely off when in reality he was simply dodging them.

The smile on Akitsu's face became more pronounced as she summoned a wall of ice with a wave of her hands, barring the blonde's progress while Kaho darted at him from behind.

Behind the wall, Naruto knocked on the wall with a somewhat amused expression when he felt someone approaching him from behind. Leaping upwards, the blonde somersaulted over a surprised Kaho, landing directly behind her before putting on a spurt of speed. At the peak of his momentum, his elbow lashed out, planting itself on the wall of ice, directly beside the raven haired woman whose hair was blown away by the sheer force of a simple elbow strike as the wall itself crumbled into dust.

Snapping out of her fugue, Kaho shifted her stance and was about to hit the blonde whose face was barely inches away from her own, his cerulean eyes alight with a strange feral joy, gently laid one hand on hers, lowering the naginata, "That's enough."

"What do you mean? We haven't touched you yet." The black eyed woman countered, feeling strangely exhilarated.

'We're done. The two of you feel better don't you?" the whiskered blonde commented with a small smile.

Kaho blinked and realized that her movements felt significantly smoother compared to this morning as Akitsu let out a tiny sigh of relief when she noticed the annoying floating ball had dissipated into little snow crystals.

"Bu-but…."

"Don't worry, the two of you still won." He gestured at his trousers where its edges were slightly frosted over and at his sleeve where there was a tiny cut, "Both of you win."

"So…. Who gets to stay with you tonight?" the raven haired woman argued as the blonde man linked his arms through theirs, leading them back towards the doctor's house.

"Both of you." Naruto replied simply.

"…. No different." Akitsu pointed out in a monotone.

"Yeap. No different from usual." This time the blonde sounded slyly amused.

Kaho growled as she finally realized they had been tricked, "Then we didn't really win anything, did we?"

"Nope." Before his two companions could hit him, the blonde halted, "Oh wait, I forgot to fix the field. Not good, Jack'll chew me out again if I don't." The three of them looked behind them, prompting Kaho to sweat drop at the iced over and destroyed field filled with craters, with one lonely tree sitting right in the middle.

"… Sorry?" The reserved ice user apologized with a slight flush of embarrassment.

"Don't worry about it." Kneeling down, the blonde slammed one palm on the ground, sending a powerful quake radiating out from underneath him. Yelping as the two of them clung onto each other to regain their footing, the two slack jawed women watched the majestic towers of ice crack and slough off with an earth shaking roar before completely shattering with a loud tinkle while the craters were filled up in a somewhat explosive manner.

The blonde rubbed at his jaw line as he gazed on the little valley which was at least somewhat even again, "I'll have to do something about the plants before we leave." He muttered in a slightly absent minded tone.

Shrugging, the blonde got up and began to walk again when he realized his little flock wasn't following him. Turning around, he called out to them in a cheerful tone, "What's wrong you two? If you two don't hurry it up, we won't have time for dinner before we have to catch our flight!"

Kaho picked her jaw up again and rubbed her temple, "Why am I even surprised?" She asked the empty sky in a mournful tone.

Akitsu, patted her shoulder in a rather pitying manner before gracefully walking over to the waiting blonde, leaving Kaho to roll her eyes, "Wait up!"

As Naruto walked ahead of his two Sekireis, the blonde man frowned to himself. While he had been warned about the feedback from the connection he shared with Akitsu and Kaho, he hadn't actually expected it to throw his self-control off to this degree.

Unclenching the fist, Naruto shrugged with an expression best summed up with the term, 'Meh. I'll deal with it somehow.'

****Unwavering Sky****

The black and white haired man placed his removed his stethoscope and carefully placed it into its velvet bed as he took a seat across from the two women sitting on the same bed, "Physically, they're fine. All their vitals have returned to normal parameters. Then again, I haven't devised a way to measure or even detect their internal energies, so take that with a pinch of salt if you will."

"Osu," The blonde man reclining on a free bed waved at him lazily, "That's good enough."

The doctor peered at him over his glasses, "Should I remove them?"

"Nah, leave them in." The blonde replied as he pulled himself upright, "Worst comes to worse, I can remove them myself."

"How long has it been since you've performed a legitimate surgery anyway?" the man in the lab coat inquired snidely, "Besides, why would you wait?"

"Unlike you, I still have my license…. I just have to find it first." Naruto admitted before addressing his other question, "And I'm waiting for a better time. Doing something like that right now will only make it seem like I'm declaring open war on the nut job since they'll know that I know about their chips. Just blackmailing someone to fudge the tracking function for two days was hard enough that I really rather they not make an even bigger effort to interfere with my plans."

The bi-coloured man nodded slowly, "So you'll let them have information on your status and position, but in return, you can operate in their territory without any further fuss."

Naruto smiled vaguely, "That's one way to look at it."

The doctor's eyebrow slowly rose, "I'm curious but I rather not get a headache before dinner. Incidentally, should I start pitying them yet?"

"You overestimate me, ol buddy. I'm just a simple man with no job or prospects," Naruto spread his arms expansively with a self-depreciating smile, "What can a poor hermit like me possibly do to a mega corporation?"

"Right…. Now when was the last time I heard that?" The doctor commented acidly, "Oh right, shortly before you accidentally caused another global Financial Crisis."

"Hey, I was only targeting one man. As far as I'm concerned, it's not my fault almost everyone else was being corrupt and greedy when I decided to leak some sensitive documents out." The blonde pointed out with a childish pout, "Besides, you didn't like him either."

"I didn't." Jack admitted, "But I still think bankrupting his business, seducing his mother, his wife and five daughters away from him then framing him for 9 parking tickets before gradually driving him insane just because he spat on you was a little excessive."

The man's eyebrow rose again at the dreamy, almost euphoric look on the scarred man's face, "The look on his face when he realized the beggar he spat on was the one that ripped everything away from him just before the last of his sanity slipped away, that expression as he cursed me with his last sane thoughts…." The deranged blonde licked his lips hungrily, "Just thinking about it sends shivers down my back even now."

The doctor pursed his lips and glanced at the two curious women with an amused glint in his eyes, "You two really sure you want to stay with this nut case?"

"We can't really ask for a refund." Kaho commented with a grin, "The warranty expired a long time ago."

Akitsu agreed with a dignified nod, "…. Our nut case."

"Should feel happy about her possessiveness, or sad that she didn't even hesitate to agree about me being a nut case?"

"Don't worry. Everybody that knows you also knows that you're so far gone that it's almost a national landmark by now." The old doctor retorted sarcastically before grinning faintly at the blonde's childish scowl as they headed to the dining room, "Let's just go for dinner, bullying you is too much fun and I don't want to miss dinner. Pinoko's been busy cooking the whole day so I'm sure it's something to look forward to."

"Akitsu, Kaho, don't stuff your fac-DWAH!"

Pinoko looked up from the table at the sound of Naruto's yelp as she set the last of dishes and smiled sweetly, "Awww…. The three of you look so sweet together…"

The blonde calmly removed Akitsu's fist from his cheek in response, "Your sickness is acting up again, Pi-chan."

"Oh hush you, just because I can see things that you can't doesn't mean I'm sick," She beckoned to them to join her and her children at the table, "Now come and sit down. I pulled out all the stops, got to feed all of you before you go off running around the world again."

Purposefully giving the puzzled blonde man a sly smirk, she pulled Akitsu and Kaho to sit beside her and promptly plunked two red haired children on their laps. Almost automatically, the two women seemed to instantly succumb to Makoto and Tezuka's big brown eyes and began stroking their hair with little croons, Akitsu included.

"You might want to start running." The doctor commented with a sly smile as the two men sat on the other side of the table.

Naruto gave his friend a nonplussed look, "Run? Why?"

"I'm under the impression that Pinoko is covertly trying to subvert your two friends into having babies as soon as possible now that you've gotten over your issues with them."

If at all possible, the blonde got even more confused if slightly apprehensive, "What issues are you talking about here?"

"I told her that you had Erectile Dysfunction." Jack replied blithely, completely unaware of the blonde simmering look of chagrin, "Which was why you were unable to settle down properly until you came to me for help and advice. She seems to have taken it upon herself to impress the importance of children into Akitsu-san and Kaho-san."

"I can guarantee right here, right now, that you're going to die a very painful death." Naruto instantly replied in a completely conversational tone.

"I'm sure I will." Jack calmly responded as he sipped some tea, "Incidentally, try not to do anything too drastic."

"Hai, hai, will the two of you stop antagonizing each other and eat already?" Pinoko interrupted them from her side of the table.

Giving each other one last dry glare, the two men began to dig in.

"I noticed that you didn't instantly deny the possibility of children," the other man commented quietly as he cut a potato into equal squares.

"Can we not talk about that?" Naruto grunted gruffly under his breath as he glanced at the rosy cheeked Pinoko, "Why in the world is she so happy anyway?"

"Remember how you kept going around with all those girls? And not once have you ever brought one back?" the doctor questioned dryly, "She seemed to think you were this tragic figure who was prevented from finding a true love by your inability to uh…. conceive. So when you brought those two here, seemingly looking for a cure, Pinoko was incredibly happy that you were finally out of options so to speak. If one or two rooms were to be destroyed in your, and I quote; displays of true love through Rough and Kinky Japanese Sex, then so be it."

"I've never known embarrassment to be this painful." Naruto petulantly muttered to himself.

The man's dry technical tone as he described his wife's opinion regarding the blonde's sex life and supposed inability to perform arguably only made everything sound even worse by a thousand times,

"You've never let anyone in far enough for it to matter." Jack pointed out with a smile, "Is it so wrong to be a little vulnerable and less self-assured for once?" He smirked, "Though I would like to ask you refrain from any more Rough and Kinky Japanese Sex. Repairing the rooms can get rather expensive."

"Die, bitch."

"If it's any consolation, now that she thinks you had ED, she also thinks that the reason you kept flirting around was because you were overcompensating."

"How the heck is that a consolation!?"

****Unwavering Sky****

Takami's mouth hung open as she stared at the alert blaring on the screen, unaware that the cigarette in her mouth was slowly burning down.

"ACK! HOT HOT!" everyone who wasn't already staring at the large screens began staring at the white haired woman who was dancing around in an undignified manner, patting her burned lips and stomping on the offending cigarette butt, until she gave them an intimidating glare, "I don't remember hiring you to stare at me."

Every single one of them instantly returned to whatever they were doing, but owing to her current state of mind, she failed to notice that one of the men in a white lab coat discreetly left the laboratory with a quick wary glance to ensure that none of his colleagues had seen him leaving with a tightly held tablet.

Satisfied that that her subordinates were sufficiently cowed, the woman quickly transferred the file onto her tablet and stomped along the whitewashed hallways towards the elevator, lighting yet another cigarette on the way there.

Takami's heels impatiently tapped on the floor of the elevator even as he finger repeatedly jabbed uselessly at the penthouse button, fully aware that doing so would not make the elevator go any faster.

When the cramped metal box finally slowed to a stop with an ironic little ding, the woman immediately stormed through the slowly widening gap as soon as she could and burst through the large wooden doors at the end of a short hall that she knew was filled to the brim with invisible security lasers with a shout, "MINAKA!"

The white haire man whose hair looked like a porcupine looked up from his clipboard, sporting a strange, spaced out expression, as if he was unsure of whether to smile, cry or scowl.

The one eyed woman instantly slowed down warily, having never seen the man look so strange before, and coming from her, that was saying something, "I take it you've heard?"

"I have." The man smiled widely, "Although I for one would argue about the benefits of giving Number 7 more power versus an ability to disregard whatever rules I could set, it certainly is a very interesting development, especially with Number 87 along for the ride."

"It's not just that," Takami bit out through grinding teeth, "Whoever this man is, he winged them OUTSIDE of New Tokyo. How did this happen, Minaka? How did they leave without us realizing anything?"

Minaka waved off her demands easily, "Technically we did realize. Haihane came back drenched the other day and submitted a report about how she had tried to stop someone with two Sekireis leaving the city before that same someone dropped her off the bridge. It was so impossible that I simply thought she was sleeping on the job and gave her the week off for such a creative excuse." Minaka admitted somewhat sheepishly, "It looks like we've been proven wrong."

"She probably slipped, you know how clumsy she is," Takami countered, instantly dismissing the possibility of someone being able to drop the Blue Sekirei of a bridge, "But it doesn't change the fact that someone left New Tokyo without us realizing. Even if Haihane failed, we didn't spend millions of dollars to have a chip implanted in each Sekirei for nothing! The damned things didn't even activate UNTIL HE WAS HALF WAY ACROSS THE WORLD!"

"I'm actually more interested in how he managed to wing Number 7." Minaka muttered, seemingly to himself as he ignored Takami's screeching, "He managed to do something I couldn't…."

"Why do I get the feeling you're sorer about that part rather than someone dancing through a billion dollar security net?"

Minaka ignored her rhetorical question with a whimsical wave, "No matter, he'll be coming back soon."

Takami narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously, "There's no reason for him to come back and I know I didn't say anything about where's he's headed at the moment. You know something I don't, don't you?"

"Of course I do." The mad man smiled glibly, "That man is Asama Takehito's father."

The woman paled significantly, "You mean…?"

Minaka nodded slowly, "Takami, would you please call Karasuba for me? I think it's time for Uzumaki-san to stop avoiding me."

****Unwavering Sky****

"Izumi, I'm coming in." A well-dressed man politely knocked on the door to the penthouse apartment before entering, the sounds of his leather shoes clicking loudly in the silent, sparsely decorated abode, and heading straight for the bedroom.

"It's not like you to come in so early." The topless man in bed muttered as he glanced at the night sky peeking through the thick curtains that completely covered one entire wall. The two women in bed with him groaned tiredly, "Higa-san? What's going on?"

"Nothing to do with you. Go back to sleep." The man cut off his Sekirei shortly while Kakizaki clicked his tongue with some annoyance at the disturbance and readjusted his spectacles, "I just received some urgent news from Kochou. I thought you would find it interesting."

"Oh…? What might be so important that you have to wake me up at 3.a.m in the morning?" the man on the bed lazily drawled.

"A Sekirei was winged a about half an hour ago. Number 7 to be exact. She was winged shortly before Number 87, by the same person no less."

For a moment, the brown haired man on the bed struggled to think of why his secretary found this Sekirei to be important enough to wake him up so early in the morning when he stiffened, "If I recall correctly…. wasn't she trash?"

The dark haired man standing stiffly at the door nodded, "Unwingable and supposedly highly dangerous to be precise. Kochou was nearly catatonic with shock when she realized."

Higa sat up, suddenly feeling a lot more alert, "And who's the Ashikabi?"

Kakizaki coughed politely, feeling a little disappointed in his Sekirei, "That's the thing. Kochou was unable to find any data on him save his name, Uzumaki Naruto, 42 years old this year."

The man on the bed chuckled, "I guess that's the limit of rubbish. No matter, I assume she at least managed to find out where this Uzumaki-san lives?"

"That's the other thing….." Kakizaki drew a deep uncertain breath, "When she was winged, the trackers pegged her and Number 87 to be half way on the other side of the world. Our spies in MBI have no idea how he managed it without throwing up a fuss." Seeing the pensive look on his employer's face, the man in the suit continued, "If I may, hiring this person may be beneficial to our goals, if this man was able to evade MBI's security so easily, he may have some information we do not. If we want to take MBI down, this information may prove crucial. That he has a unique Sekirei like Number 7 and 87 on his side only makes it even more urgent that we get to him before Minaka does."

The naked man nodded, "Find out all you can first. No point in allowing a possible asset to waste away idly. At least I can put it to use. I wonder what that man is doing right now….."

****Unwavering Sky****

Play Asami Seto – Soshite Ima

"Miya, are you there?" A silver haired man called out as he headed towards the kitchen. Pulling open the paper screen, the words in his mouth died and he instantly paled, "Ack, MIYA!"

The landlady who was slowly stirring a large boiling pot with a ladle in one hand and a bottle in the other gave him a lazy, half lidded look as if she was trying to remember who he was, "….Homura? Is something wrong?"

A thoroughly disconcerted Homura gently steered the confused woman away from tonight's dinner, "Yeah… Seo is looking for you. I left him in the parlor. Why don't you… uh…. go talk to him and leave dinner to me?"

"Oh…. Alright." As his landlady left the kitchen with a rather halfhearted mutter and a tray of hot water for tea, Homura glanced at the bottle of detergent that he had liberated from Miya three seconds before she emptied it into the boiling pot.

Dipping one finger into the boiling pot, he licked the disturbingly red liquid gingerly and shuddered. Rolling up his sleeves, the man proceeded to empty the pot down the drain.

The silver haired man had a strange feeling that he had just managed to stop a massacre in time.

Out on the hall, a noticeably irritated Miya chewed on her lips as she made her way towards the patio where she found a timid Kusano hiding under the stairs, hugging her little puppet to her chest tightly like a shield, "What's wrong Ku-chan?"

The little blonde girl shook her head rapidly with a cute little, "Muu!" and jerked her head at the doors leading to the patio.

Miya smiled kindly and gestured for the girl to follow her, "Don't worry; I won't let him hurt you. Why don't you come with me?"

Nodding shyly, the small girl grabbed onto Miya's hakama and followed the purple haired lady.

Balancing the hot water on one hand, Miya pulled open the paper screen none too gently, "What do you want…. Seo? Is that you?"

A clean shaven man looked up at her with a bored expression. Gone was the rat nest hair and dirty white muscle shirt, gone was the tattered jeans and socks, resulting in a ruggedly handsome man dressed neatly in simple slacks and casual shirt, "Does this really surprise you that much?" Seo inquired snidely, feeling a little annoyed at how stunned the woman was.

The kettle of hot water slipped through Miya's slack fingers, splashing its contents right onto an unfortunate Seo.

"HOT HOT HOT! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?!" Seo jumped around the room patting at the hot liquid as little Kusano collapsed into helpless giggles at the man's indignant expression.

A flushed and embarrassed Miya simply huffed at him defensively as she wiped the spilt water with a rag, "Pity your personality hasn't changed at all."

"Can I at least change into something not soaked with hot water before you start sniping at me?" the dark haired man grumbled with a discontented expression.

Miya sighed in a long suffering manner, "Fine. Just stay here so that you don't drip all over the place."

"You know…. You could at least be a little more polite considering this is your fault."

The woman simply ignored him as she left with Kusano to find something suitable

A few minutes later, Miya and Kusano returned with a brown kimono that he instantly knew belonged to Naruto, "Sorry, I couldn't find anything more casual but Naruto's clothes are the largest ones in the house. You wouldn't fit into anything belonging to Minato-san or Takehito-san." The woman apologized briefly.

"I know." The man's dark eyes dimmed a little as he received the kimono, "You've never see him wearing something simple have you? He's always wearing something that covers as much skin as it can." Seo shrugged carelessly as he headed for the toilet to change, leaving Miya to ponder his words. Now that she thought about it, he was always wearing loose, voluminous kimonos or long sleeved shirts. Goofy orange boxers aside, even when she had accidentally caught him in the bathroom, she had not seen a single shred of skin.

When the man returned wearing the kimono, he retrieved some cups and tea leaves from the cupboard before taking a seat at the low table. With a long suffering sigh as he began mixing some tea with newly boiled water. One thin eyebrow delicately rose at the man's surprisingly cultured movements and formal posture. The way he gently shook the tea leaves into the clay kettle and poured hot water into it was slightly rusty and unsure, as if he thought he had forgotten it but something of past lessons remained, and it showed.

"Stop staring at me like that." Seo jabbed with irritation at the questioning look, his eyes darting around the house uneasily, "Just because I don't like to do this doesn't mean I can't, not after the old man drilled it into us before we even turned ten."

"He's not home you know. You can relax." Miya pointed out softly.

"Oh I know he's not home. He's never home on Sundays. Which is why I came today." Seo retorted, "It's just…." His eyes flicked around the house again, "…Never mind, forget it." Seo pushed one cup of green tea over Miya and a smaller one to a hesitant Kusano, "I just wanted to know why he's here again, without so much as a message or letter."

"You'll have to ask him yourself." The lavender haired woman replied as she lightly sipped from the cup, smiling slightly as Kusano took a gulp from her own cup and immediately spat the bitter brew out with a cute, disgruntled pout, "All I know is that he simply appeared on the doorstep and decided to stay for a while, but he did mention that he was only passing by before circumstances changed."

"By circumstance, you mean the little ice girl and the shrine maiden that latched onto him don't you?"

"You could say that." The woman smiled faintly before frowning, "And yet, with the exception of Musubi, Hibiki, Hikari and Akitsu, after being physically assaulted by every Sekirei he came across, he wasn't even fazed one bit."

"Strange…" the clean shaven man murmured as he mentally noted the little slip about being assaulted by Sekireis.

Placing her empty mug down on the low table gently, Miya tilted her head, "He's the walking embodiment of strange." She mumbled under her breath.

"No argument there. But I'm still surprised he didn't do anything permanent to the girls." The man explained, his nose scrunched up in thought, "As a general rule, as long as you're not doing something stupid to him or right in front of him, he'll leave you alone but the old man tends to get a little overenthusiastic with his attempts to punish and humiliate. I didn't really expect him to just let them go without a spank or ten."

"Maybe he's going insane? It certainly seems like it with how annoying he is always is." Miya countered with a halfhearted smile.

Seo made a harsh bark-like laugh that caused Kusano to scurry behind Miya again, "Really? Even if he appears to be completely unpredictable, it's more of a self-defense thing. If he really wasn't sure about you, the first thing he'd do is try to confuse you. Once that happens, someone who doesn'tknow how to react to that will generally revert to their base personalities, and become far easier to figure out."

But he wasn't… the man had said it himself that he was simply being himself rather than actively trying to annoy anybody.

Miya sighed as she set the thought aside, "I'm actually still trying to wrap my mind around it when I found out that you and Takehito-san were raised by him." She admitted grudgingly.

"Raised my foot, it's almost a miracle that we grew up relatively sane." Miya bit her lip in amusement as Seo wept into his cup of tea.

Composing himself a little, Seo sighed with a wry smile as a gentle breeze blew in from the garden, "I was angry that he wasn't there for us, but looking back, I can't deny that growing up with him had its good points. While we grew up, we watched the rest of the world meander around, lost, confused. Embroiled in their own conflict. Tortured by uncertainty, feeling worthless and unwanted, afraid of confessing, hiding their feelings for shame or embarrassment to the point where friendships were destroyed and relationships were ripped apart just because they were scared…."

The clean shaven man breathed deeply with a small smile, his eyes softening as he stared deeply into his cup, "We never had those problems…. No matter how insensitive, how distant he was, we knew we were wanted. We learned early on, if we had a goal, then we'd break through no matter what obstacles were in our way…. And we'd better make it there because if we didn't, Naruto-jii chan was almost guaranteed to get there first and SCREW it up beautifully for us….. Sure we got lost here and there, but even when he wasn't there, without us knowing, he'd already given us the tools we needed to be strong men who could stand on our own…."

Perhaps it was a child's intuition or innocence, but whatever it was, it made Kusano leave the safety of Miya's back and toddled her way to the formerly scary looking man and place one absolutely tiny hand on his cheek.

"Heh. Thanks brat." He glanced downwards at where her other hand was tightly holding on to the small kitten. Seo's eyes widened and he smiled briefly, "You're another one that Naruto-jii chan picked up huh? I used to have one of those too. That sort of makes you my little sister you know."

Kusano smiled widely.

"Have one too?" Miya questioned with a careful look at the stationary carving as a sinking feeling made itself known in her gut, "You mean that wooden statue?"

"Yeah. Both me and Takehito had one, mine was a statue of a tiger, Takehito's was a crane. Naruto-jii chan always said to keep it with us but we lost them a long time ago." Seo replied blandly as he played with the small girl and her cat which Miya noticed was being absolutely still, "Hmm… that reminds me…."

Miya quirked one eyebrow as the dark haired man stood up and began poking around the corners of the little patio that overlooked the gardens, tapping one knuckle on one of the wooden beams holding up the eaves with a concentrated expression, "Jii-chan used to play this game with us; he told us that he hid five statues around the Inn. Whoever found all five would get a present but we ever only found two. I wonder if they're still around." Seo muttered more to himself rather than Miya. Wedging his nail into an almost invisible indent in the wooden pillar, the clean shaven man popped out a fake covering, coughing as he waved away the dust to reveal a tiny alcove hidden in its depths, "Ah, there it is. This is the first one we found."

Inside the little cuboid shaped alcove sat a disturbingly life like carving of a palm sized beast that looked like a cross between a spiked tortoise and a snake, "This is the North one." Seo declared proudly, "The other one we found is in the kitchen, hidden behind a secret compartment in the southernmost wall. We assumed that there would be one in the East, West and the Centre of the house, but we never found them."

Miya gracefully strode over to the little alcove with narrowed eyes. When Seo had popped open the secret alcove there had been a large amount of dust, proving that no one had opened it in years and yet the inside of the alcove was strangely neat and clean.

The soft spoken lady gently ran one finger over the snarling snake's head. A shiver that confirmed her suspicions ran down her spine as she sensed a warm pulsing energy radiating from within the statue, the same energy that Kusano's little kitten and the Crane over her husband's grave had.

"How… did Takehito-san lose his statue?" she quietly asked the man standing beside her.

"Huh?" Seo scratched his head in confusion at the sudden tense hostility radiating from Miya, "It was just a little trinket. You couldn't really expect us to keep track of those little things or how we lost them could you?"

"I see…." Miya covered her eyes and sighed heavily, "I'm sorry but I'm not feeling very well. Would you…?"

"Uhh…. Yeah, sure." A rather bewildered Seo who had never seen the purple haired woman look so genuinely down trodden made his exit rather hastily as Miya none too gracefully fell into a seat again, pulling a nonplussed Kusano onto her lap and holding the small child like a comforter.

Snuggling into the embrace, Kusano could only silently watch the shaking lady with a quizzical stare until Mkya finally looked up with gleaming eyes.

"You can hear me can't you?" the landlady softly asked with a sharp gaze at the statue of the turtle.

"Ku?" Kusano asked with a cute tilt of the head, causing the older Sekirei to smile half-heartedly as she shook her head and patted Kusano reassuringly.

The spacious room was silent, eerily so, save for the sound of leaves rustling in the wind and Kusano's and her own breathing as the landlady expectantly waited for an answer, feeling more and more foolish with each passing second.

"What am I doing?" the lavender haired woman chuckled to herself, feeling extremely stupid as she did so. Seeing the small blonde girl still looking up at her with concern in her bright green eyes, Miya could only smile faintly, "Ku-chan. Why don't we go and finish hanging up the laundry?"

"Un!"

Smiling wistfully, Miya gave the empty room that was opened out into the garden one last glance and was about to leave the patio when she heard the door bell ringing. The little blonde girl tugged at Miya's hand before she ran off to answer the door with tinkling laughter, "Wait for me, Ku-chan." The purple haired woman called out before hurrying after the energetic little girl.

****Unwavering Sky****

The patio was quiet again save the quiet chirps of insects in summer, until a tiny sneeze reverberated around the walls, "Damned humansss. Didn't even have the courtesssy to shut the door."

The little wooden kitten that had been left behind stirred a little, before its small head lifted to stare at the speaker with glittering black eyes, "Myaa?"

"What are you looking at brat? Come back when you learn how to talk. Ssshoo!"

"Stop your grumbling, Genbu." Another dry voice chided, this one sounding significantly less gruff and much more feminine, "The little one is barely a month old. We weren't much better at her age. Give her some time and she'll be a wonderful Guardian."

The first voice snorted derisively but did not deny it as he shut himself back into his little alcove with a muffled puff of air.

****Unwavering Sky****

"Who is it, Ku-chan?" Miya called out as she headed for the door where she could hear the small girl squealing happily.

As soon as she turned the corner, the landlady came to an abrupt stop,

The severely drenched blonde man standing in the door way, holding out one hand to stop Kusano from climbing all over him while simultaneously carrying several large bags smiled thinly, "Tadaima, Miya."

The lavender haired woman nodded slowly as she took a cursory glance at the three of them to see if they were alright. Her violet eyes widened when she realized the pale woman's forehead was no longer marked. Although the raven haired woman and the reserved ice user looked distinctly sleepy and tired, they also glowed with a healthy inner glow. She frowned as she hurried the man and the four Sekireis into the house, "Why…. are you so wet?"

An amused Naruto motioned at a sheepish looking Musubi, setting down two large carry bags before ruffling her hair with one large palm, "I found a naughty girl playing with water in the yard, and she splashed me without realizing it. Where's Minato anyway?"

"Uuu…. Gomen, Naruto-sama….." Musubi cutely shuffled her feet while Miya smiled, "He's working but it's almost time for him to come home anyway."

"That's alright." Naruto smiled wickedly as he set the bags down with a sigh of relief, "But you still have to be punished for not paying attention to your surroundings. Minus one puff."

"…Minus… one puff?" Musubi gasped as she sent the older man a stricken look of utter betrayal.

Naruto's will held firm and he nodded resolutely, "Minus one puff. And you don't get to see your presents until after dinner."

Big brown eyes watered adorably, "Uguuu….. Musubi promises she won't do it again….."

"That's good Musubi, knowing that you're wrong and apologizing for it. You get your puff back."

"Hehehe…." Grinning widely, the brown haired girl nuzzled the large palm stroking her head.

Miya would have said something about the way Naruto was treating Musubi, but to be perfectly honest, she couldn't bring herself to argue, "Musubi, why don't you help Kaho and Akitsu to their rooms while Uzumaki-san takes a bath?" She glanced at the scarred man who had his dripping hair pulled back out of his eyes, "The bath is already warm, so please take your time."

As the older women made their way up the stairs, Naruto knelt down beside a sulking Kusano, carefully making sure not to drip all over the varnished wood floor while he affectionately rubbed her cheek, "Sorry for ignoring you, Ku-chan. Do you want to come bath me up? We can open up your presents afterwards."

"Un! Let's go!" Tugging on his fingers, the little child enthusiastically pulled the much larger blonde to the bathroom where a grinning Naruto helped her out of her little airy white dress. Naruto plopped the small girl on his knees before lowering themselves into the wide bath with a singularly relieved sigh of satisfaction.

The small girl on his lap turned around to pout at him, "Miya-nee says we're not supposed to go into the bath tub without washing up first."

Naruto chuckled lightly, "I'm a little lazy at the moment; let's keep this a secret between us alright?" The blonde man said as he offered her his pinkie.

Kusano's bright green eyes sparkled as she wrapped her tiny pinkie around his much larger one and they shook on it, "Muuu! Hi~mi~Tsu~ Ku got a secret~"

****Unwavering Sky****

"Did the two of you enjoy your vacation?" Miya asked warmly as she helped Musubi unroll two futons for a sleepy Kaho and Akitsu.

Akitsu who looked on the verge of falling asleep on her feet rubbed at her eyes cutely and nodded slowly, "It was…. Fun." She smiled distantly, "Naruto-sama winged both of us."

Musubi squealed happily as she abandoned the futons and dashed over to her elder sister, "Really? Can I see your marks?"

"Musubi," Miya reprimanded the excitable girl, "They're tired. Let's leave the questions for tomorrow alright?"

"We're not really that tired…. And it's still early in the evening…" The raven haired girl beside Akitsu protested despite her half lidded eyes struggling to stay open, "We just need to rest for a while. Naruto-sama took us a lot of beautiful places before we came back, that's all."

"Unn…. " Akitsu plopped forward without further ado and began snoring quietly into her pillow.

Chuckling lowly, Miya tucked Kaho into the futon beside Akitsu and gently ran one hand through her glossy long hair, "Feels different doesn't it? I don't just mean that the two of you have been winged," The purple haired woman spoke softly as she remembered the words her husband had said to her a long time ago; "You've gone out. You've seen many things on our trip. Like a simple drop of water, every drop gathers and flows into rivers, slowly getting bigger and bigger." There was a wise, lulling quality in her voice as she spoke, "Bit by bit, all your experience come together, widening your horizons, just like how each river flows into a large beautiful ocean. You are no longer stagnating in the simple pond called New Tokyo, no longer the two simple girls who have only one goal."

Seeing the girl had already fallen asleep with a peaceful smile, Miya steered an almost vibrating Musubi out of the room with an equally warm smile, "They're fine Musubi-chan, its just jetlag. You can play with them tomorrow. For now…" Miya hesitated momentarily but continued, "Why don't you go take a bath with Uzumaki-san and Ku-chan?"

As the two of them left the room, they did not notice that the two Sekireis had fallen asleep hand in hand.

"Eh! Can I really?" The brown eyed girl asked excitedly, "Minato-sama always says that we can't but is it really okay?"

"Just don't let Uzumaki-san touch you in inappropriate places." Miya added dryly.

"He won't! Naruto-sama is really nice!" Musubi reaffirmed with a carefree pump of her fists.

As the brown haired pattered down the stairs energetically, Miya sighed to herself with a halfhearted smile and followed her at a slightly slower pace.

Pulling open the paper screen, Miya glanced at the three shadows playing behind the frosted glass that led to the bathtub before calling out, "Uzumaki-san, Ku-chan, Musubi-chan, I'll leave a new change of clothes in the basket alright?"

"Arigato, Miya-nee~" She heard all three of them replying simultaneously in a sing song tone before laughing happily.

"Homura says that dinner is almost ready as well, so don't play too long." The largest shadow waved at her, acknowledging her words before it sat down behind the smaller ones and began to wash their hair for them.

Leaning against the wall, Miya hummed quietly to herself, "Your trip was pretty successful I take it."

"Pretty much. There were some hiccups, but overall, I guess they enjoyed it. That's what's important I suppose." The man behind the screen snorted in amusement, "It didn't really take too long yet they're already so worn out. How hard can climbing a couple of mountains be? I mean it was just a few jumps…"

"Heeeh…." The soft spoken landlady played with a strand of her hair, "I noticed that Akitsu was winged. How did you do it?"

"Let's just say I have some pretty good friends and leave it at that." The shadows seemed to switch places as a giggling Musubi and Kusano vied against each other in an attempt to wash the blonde's hair for him, "Kaho is happy but Akitsu changed the most."

The blonde sweat dropped, shortly after getting winged, the snow user had been continuously messing with her hair in order to proudly display her newly unmarked forehead and if he had not objected strenuously by pointing out that it would have severely traumatized the little red head nestled in her lap, Akitsu would have started wearing nothing but an apron in order to show off the new mark on the back of her nape as well.

"You didn't take advantage of their gratitude did you?" The nauseatingly polite, conversational tone from behind the sliding screen did absolutely nothing to hide the threat in her words.

"It depends. What are you going to do about it?" the blonde's voice was distinctly amused, almost like a boy anticipating a new toy.

Miya, unaware that the lavender strand of hair in her fingers had been frayed by her constant worrying, sighed and decided not to play his mind games, "Just…. Just don't overdo it. I rather not see them hurt."

The door screen opened to reveal the naked blonde standing there with a deadpan expression, Musubi stacked on his shoulder and Kusano stacked on her shoulders, "I'm inclined to take that as an insult to my integrity but I'll let it pass since you don't seem to know any better."

Miya slowly turned a vivid red and dashed out of the doors without another word.

"What's wrong with Miya-nee? Why didn't she come in and play with us?" the small blonde girl at the very top questioned with a cute, innocent expression.

"She has something unpleasant stuck up somewhere really uncomfortable. That's why she can't play with us." Naruto replied in a wise, sagely tone.

"Ohh…." Kusano drooped sadly, "Naruto-nii chan can't heal her?"

The blonde started turning a strange shade of blue, mostly from the effort of maintaining a straight face as he reached up to ruffle her hair affectionately, "Not unless she asks me first. You wouldn't want someone trying to take away your food unless you share it with them first right?"

The two oh so innocent little girls nodded frantically, "Besides, I suspect that pulling that unpleasant thing out of her might involve some rather complicated rituals, I'm not sure if I'm good enough." Gently, he lowered the two giggling girls, "Now hurry up and change or you'll get sick."

"Why don't you change?"

"Idiots don't catch colds, and I'm a really big idiot." The blonde replied with puffed up cheeks and an exaggerated expression, prompting the two girls to giggle even louder as they scampered to the baskets containing their clothes.

Naruto laughed to himself quietly as the two girls ran out of the bathroom.

"Miyaaa-neee," The blonde heard Musubi call out loudly in a curious fashion, "Naruto-sama said you had something stuck up somewhere uncomfortable, can we see it?!"

The blonde's laughter instantly died.

"Oh he did, did he?" Chills began dancing the tango up and down his back at the sickeningly sweet tone.

Naruto took a swan dive out the nearest window.

****Unwavering Sky****

"Naruto! Where are you!?" A silver haired man called out as he entered a small empty clearing.

Some shrubs shook as a blonde head poked out warily, "Shhh… not so loud! Over here quick." Naruto hurriedly beckoned an exasperated Kagari over, "Did you bring it?"

The silver haired man sighed tiredly as he chucked a set of clothes to the blonde man who was hiding behind a tree. A few moments later, a sufficiently dressed Naruto stepped out wearing a simple jacket and a pair of jeans with a towel thrown over one shoulder, "Thanks for that. I forgot to grab my clothes when I uh…. left. But couldn't you have grabbed something orange?" the scarred man asked plaintively.

"Orange my foot. Just getting those was hard enough." Kagari grunted, "Miya wouldn't stop staring at me. I think she knew. Now she's going to take it out at me as soon as I go back."

"She's uh…. Still upset?" The blonde asked tentatively with a sheepish smile.

"Upset would be like saying the sea is wet," the fire user grunted as he leaned against a tree feeling disproportionately exhausted, "I have no idea what you did to rile her up so much but when I left, she was still patrolling the house with her Katana just in case you had the balls to show your face again. Thanks to you, I haven't eaten dinner either."

A growl echoed around the clearing at the mere mention of dinner, much to Naruto's embarrassment, "Ah…. I haven't eaten anything either. Wanna go grab something to eat?"

Kagari heaved another heavy sigh again, "Just something simple. I don't think I'm going to make it to work anyway."

As the two men began walking, Naruto froze with a helpless grin, "Aah… your treat? I forgot my wallet."

Kagari face palmed and stared accusingly up at the rising moon, "Do you have something against me?!"

"Ano…. Who are you talking to?"

"No one." The fire user muttered curtly, "Just move it. I'm still far from payday, so we're just going to get some bread."

An hour later, the blonde found himself leaping atop the sky line of New Toyko, chewing on a stale piece of bread with a rather disgruntled expression, "We couldn't even find a place to sit while we ate?"

Kagari grunted, "If we're going to just slack around doing nothing, we might as well patrol the area."

"But moving around while eating is bad for you." Naruto whined childishly.

"Just… stop talking and focus on making sure no one is getting attacked." His companion bit out, "I'm a little too annoyed to humor you at the moment."

It was silent for approximately 5 minutes and 39 seconds before the blonde opened his mouth again, "How far have you gotten?"

"Didn't you hear me?!" the host cursed under his breath as he struggled to restrain his temper, "I haven't gotten anywhere, I wish you were never here!"

"Never here huh?" the blonde man smiled though it failed to reach his eyes, "Would you really prefer that?"

"Look, I'm just not in the mood for chatter. Why must you be so annoying?" Kagari lashed out as his temper erupted, "I don't intend on playing with-Urk…."

The silver haired man's eyes shrunk down to pinpricks as he felt a familiar throbbing in his chest and he dropped to his knees. Naruto's eyes widened as he hurried to the fire user's side, "What's wrong?"

"Get… Get away from me!" Kagari choked out amidst heavy gasps as he scrabbled at his chest, trying desperately to get some air into his lungs as little specks of flame began to lick the air around him, "P-please, I do-don't want to hurt you!"

Just as he felt the last of his control slipping away along with his consciousness, the weakened Sekirei heard a strangely calm but forceful voice whispering in his ear.

"You are not weak, Homura."

Emboldened and somehow strengthened, the silver haired man screamed. With a brilliant flash, the flames flared around him one last time before being absorbed back into the panting man's body. Breathlessly, he patted his smoking clothes, "I... I'm fine?"

He heard a low chuckle, "That you are."

"Naruto!" The man whirled around to see the blonde lying on his back a few feet away with his face a little burnt and his clothes somewhat charred by the last blast.

"I'm alright." The blonde waved off his concern as he slowly got up, "I can't really say the same for my clothes though."

Homura began to laugh weakly, "You get blasted by my fire, and your worried about is your clothes?"

"Well… yea," The blonde retorted dryly as he tugged at the blackened pieces of cloth, "I really rather not walk around naked. At least they will hold for now."

Crumpling on to his back beside the blonde, Kagari whispered, "I'm sorry… it's just been a long day."

"Forget it." The blonde muttered in reply as both of them stared up at the dark sky.

Kagari grinned weakly as he held up a hand, five small tiny balls of white fire appeared on the tips of each finger.

"Not bad." The blonde beside him noted, "Can you switch them around yet?"

"Nope." The silver haired man replied, sounding almost happy for some reason, "With some practice maybe. For now, I can only switch one of them around without losing control. It's almost like trying to look in two directions at the same time; I focus on one, and the other four fizzle out or go out of control. Did you have that problem, Shisho?"

Naruto chuckled at the sudden change in the way the boy addressed him, "Yeah, quite a few times actually. That's generally when I lose a finger or two, and that's if I'm luc-."

A huge tower of water appeared out of nowhere, the gushing wave of water sent them rolling away from each other, coughing and spluttering, "What the hell?!"

"Tsukiumi!? What was that for?!" The drenched fire user complained loudly.

"I felt your distress." A new, distinctly haughty voice unfamiliar to Naruto sounded out from the building next to them.

"I had it under control!" Kagari's shouted in an undignified manner from the other side of the roof they were on, "That was completely unnecessary!"

The woman stood on the edge of the roof high above the two men, her hair furling out magnificently in the strong wind, "It's that the limit of your gratefulness? How boorish. I expected better from you, Homura."

The silver haired man sighed as he brushed his wet hair out of his eyes, full aware that nothing he could have said would have satisfied the prideful blonde woman who was staring down at him with her head held high.

Wait blonde?

"Naruto! You alright?" Kagari weakly stood up as he briefly scanned the roof top, before his eyes fell on to a dirty pile of something covered by wet clothes.

The wet pile moved a little before flashing him a peace sign, "Perfectly fine and dandy." His housemate retorted dryly, "This was all according to my plans of course. Lying on top of a windy, chilly roof top while I'm drenched to the bone that is."

"Hmm? Who is that you are speaking to, Homura?" Tsukiumi smiled viciously as her blue eyes searched the wet rooftop below her, "Is that your Ashikabi I hear?"

"I'm over here, white panties," Naruto waved at her cheerfully, "You know; if you're going to flash everybody, you might as well wear black lacy ones."

The moment she laid her eyes on the prone man lying on the other side of the roof, her pupils dilated in an almost feral manner.

The blonde man barely had time to roll out of the way of a blast of water that cratered the spot he had been lying on, "Getting attacked by a crazy woman is a perfect way to round off this wonderful day." The sarcasm was almost dripping off his voice, "Yep. Totally according to plan."

Wearily, pulling himself to his feet, he noticed the blonde woman in the strange black and white dress hurtling towards him with a snarl etched on her pretty face. Contrary to the fire user's expectations and his mounting horror, instead of dodging or countering the feral blonde woman, Naruto allowed Tsukiumi to barrel into him like a train.

"Naruto! What are you doing?!"

"Experimenting." Naruto answered casually as the almost salivating woman held him down with both her hands with bared teeth as she straddled him, "I've actually been rather curious to see why Sekireis keep attacking me. Letting one succeed seemed like the fastest way."

"Can you not sound like you're taking a walk in the park?" Homura panted out as he limped over to where Tsukiumi was pinning his housemate to the ground.

"I'm actually getting rather turned on with the way she keeps growling and snapping at my neck." Naruto commented with a faint smile, "Would you rather hear what I sound like when I'm horny?"

"Oh gross, I didn't need to know about your preferences…." The fire user paused and stared at the blonde man incredulously, "Can you NOT molest her while she's trying to BITE your head off?!"

"Good point. I don't think Kaho and Akitsu would be rather pleased if I came back with a few extra hickeys that don't belong to them." Naruto muttered to himself absent mindedly as he threw Tsukiumi off him with ease.

"Oh god…."

"Are you alright?" The blonde asked conversationally as Tsukiumi sailed through the air before landing on her back and skidding to a stop, "You're turning rather pale."

The woman in the rather short skirt instantly righted herself and frantically hunted around the roof top for any trace of the missing blonde man, only to emit a soft sigh as said blonde man appeared behind her and silently chopped her neck. Carefully catching the woman before she could fall on her face, Naruto sent the grey faced Homura a victory sign, "Incidentally, she's EE-cup."

Kagari cried tears of shame as he turned his eyes to the heavens, "Why? Why did I get saddled with this idiot?!"

"God is rather busy at the moment. Please leave a message and we'll try to get back to you within the next century or so." Naruto commented teasingly as he plopped a cutely snoring down beside the fire Sekirei, "What should we do about her?" the blonde asked as he examined the unconscious woman to see if she was injured.

"We can just leave her here can't we? I don't think anyone is around to disturb her…." There was a hopeful glint in his eyes as the blonde stared at him dryly.

"You just don't want to be around when she wakes up, don't you?" The whiskered man chuckled, "Sorry, but I prefer we not leave defenseless women lying around, even if she does pack a punch."

"You have the weirdest sense of honor." Homura sighed and fell down on his butt tiredly, "You seem to have absolutely no problem molesting women in broad daylight, and yet you refused to leave girls lying around unconscious."

"Uzume told you about the pink haired one I suppose?" The blonde man inquired as he took a seat on Tsukiumi's other side.

"There was Kaho as well and now Tsukiumi." His housemate pointed out.

"So she's called Tsukiumi eh?" The blonde glanced at the sleeping woman, "Number Nine if I'm not wrong."

Kagari narrowed his eyes at the half asleep blonde man, "You know her?"

"I know of her."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning?" The blonde stared at him as if he was crazy, "Meaning, I did what any idiot with a half a brain, or at least a teaspoon's worth of common sense, would do when they find out that they've unwillingly roped into an illegal tournament. I found myself a list of all the contestants so I at least know I won't get stabbed in the back while I'm taking a piss in a park somewhere."

"Oh…." Kagari said somewhat lamely, "Wait, where did you find this list?!"

"I asked Minaka-san for it." The blonde smiled sweetly, "He was rather generous. Even offered me a cigar and a drink while we were chatting."

"You WHAT?!" Kagari desperately wanted to believe that the blonde was lying, but the man's tone and sparkling eyes said he wasn't.

"Oh look, she's waking up. Good luck~"

"Wait, what!? Huh?!" Poor, confused, naïve little Kagari was left staring at an empty space as the blonde high tailed it out of there before the stirring Tsukiumi could see him.

"Ho-Homura?" The waking woman muttered in a daze, "Wh-what happened? And why do my boobs hurt?"

Kagari pursed his lips, he couldn't exactly say that they had been squeezed could he?

"You fell down some stairs."

"Stairs…?" She shot up abruptly, "Wait. Where's that bastard?!"

"No-Now, that's not very nice." The fire Sekirei almost winced as he heard how much fake he sounded, "I saved you and you call me a bastard?"

"Not you!" Tsukiumi got up with gritted teeth as she grabbed hold of the debilitated Homura and shook him violently, "I remember someone attacking me! Someone with blonde hair!"

"Th-The only one here with blonde hair is you!" Kagari protested loudly as he wriggled out of her grasp.

"Re-really? You really saved me?"

The dripping man inadvertently averted his eyes, "Ye-Yeah."

Ocean blue eyes narrowed suspiciously and she glanced in the same direction Kagari was looking at, just in time to see a flash of yellow ducking behind a shed, "There you are! You perverted monkey! How dare you try to wing ME?!"

"Tsukiumi, wait!" disregarding the other man's cries, the blonde woman swiftly took off with a powerful leap as she chased the head full of yellow hair.

"Stop chasing me!"

"Then stop running, and let me punish you for your mistakes!" Tsukiumi demanded in her strangely archaic manner of speaking, a red haze of sheer anger, severely reducing her ability to reason and notice the fact that the supposed monkey she was chasing was somehow keeping ahead of her with superhuman feats of agility and strength.

Likewise, in any other circumstances, the blonde she was chasing would have found it amusing, reassuring or even familiar.

Safe to say, he wasn't feeling anything like that at the moment.

"Like hell! I don't even want to be anywhere NEAR you, and I sure as HELL didn't try and kiss you!" Naruto yelled back as he landed on one skyscraper and vaulted onto another. A few seconds later, a huffing Tsukiumi landed on the same spot and continued after the agile man, "Lies! I remember seeing your face before I fainted! You must have used some underhanded trick to defeat me until Homura stopped you!"

"I'll make you sorry for ever being born a perverted monkey!" A blast of high pressure water sliced the water tank he had just landed on, sending the blonde tumbling downwards with a curse until he attached himself to a wall and back flipped out of the way of another water blade.

"I didn't do anything. Just leave me ALONE! I already have my own Sekireis to take care off!"

"I just want you to die!

Play Red – Let It Burn

"This conversation is feeling VERY one sided." Naruto noted sourly as he hit the pavement running and ducked into an alley.

The blonde woman grinned triumphantly as her prey seemed to run into a dead end, "I've got you now."

Summoning as much water as she could, she blockaded the exit with a thick wall of water, "You've finally admitted that you're no match for me I see."

As she stepped through the dirty and empty alley, she got angrier and angrier at the noticeable lack of anybody to blast until the sound of something rustling in the alley reached her ears. Smiling widely, she let loose at a dumpster, blasting it apart with a high powered jet of water.

The smile remained plastered to her face as she strode towards the pile of shivering plastic bags and gingerly kicked them off with one toe. The smile instantly disappeared.

"I-I-I'm sorry Nee-san. Don't kill me." A young boy of barely 11 peered up at her through watery blue eyes, "I didn't mean to try and kiss you…." The boy stuttered innocently, "You were just so beautiful."

Tsukiumi hesitated as the blade of water bubbled uncertainly, "I feel no reaction to you…."

"Ca-can I go now?" the scared little boy asked hopefully.

The water blade sharpened again as her eyes narrowed at him, "Already so depraved at such a young age, no doubt because you were born a monkey. Maybe you'll be luckier if you were reborn as something else rather than a wretched monkey. Be happy that I am ending your life before you get to the chance to become even more depraved."

She swung the blade at the little boy and cut him in half.

The little blonde boy's opened wide in horror, before they crinkled up and the bisected boy began giggling uncontrollably, "You would kill a little boy for touching you huh?"

The boy disappeared into simple mist with a leer, "Murderer."

"What manner of trickery is this?!" Tsukiumi demanded as she whirled around, slashing her blade at the emptiness, "Come out you depraved monkey!"

"Monkey?" A doddering old man limped out of the darkness, "You would kill me without hesitation? An old, helpless, monkey like me?"

He was answered by a blade through the chest.

The old man grinned toothily, stretching the scars on his cheek, "You call us monkey because we try to touch you?"

"What else would you be?" Tsukiumi countered haughtily as the old man slowly melted off her blade.

The voice laughed at the note of uncertainty and fear hidden in her voice, "Then what would you be? How are you any better? We simply want to touch you because you were beautiful. We admired you." A twisted voice echoed in the alley, "But you KILLED us because of that. You're even WORSE than a monkey."

A blonde man, the one she had been chasing the entire time appeared at the end of the valley, "What does make you? A murderous ape? A pitiful gorilla?"

"I'm BETTER than you!" Tsukiumi screamed as she slashed at him, again and again without any noticeable difference as the blade simply passed through him, "I'm glad I'm a monkey. At least I haven't fallen to your level, murderer."

One by one, clones of the first man, the child and the old man appeared, filling up the valley with their chants of "MURDERER."

The blonde woman's pupils dilated in fear as she screamed, hacking away at the endless river of bodies, pushing through the grasping hands, as they spat on her. She burst out of the alley, screaming madly as she clutched at her chest, a disgusting empty emotion burning inside her.

The silence dragged on for a few moments until a blonde man cheerfully stepped out of the alley with a whistle and leapt up onto the roof of the building where a truly hacked off Kagari was waiting with a fierce expression.

"Was that truly necessary?"

Naruto scratched his head with a perplexed expression, "What did I do?"

"You opened your mouth." Homura acidly stated from beside him. "And every time you do, chances are, someone's worldview just broke into tiny little irreparable bits."

"Was that a compliment or an insult?"

"It's an observation." Kagari stated flatly.

"Fair enough," Naruto shrugged carelessly.

The silver haired man sighed in frustration as he tried to voice his doubts, all the while maintaining a certain distance from the blonde, "Sometimes, you seem like you actually, genuinely, care for people, yet you've made it no secret that you dislike dealing with humans in general. Then you try to and help us become better people, but at the same time you treat Tsukiumi like an experiment? What the f….."

"Like I said, she was simply an experiment." The blonde's tone was whimsical, "If she is weak, my words will turn her into a murdering psychopath at which point I will end her, and if she is strong, then she will take them to heart and improve herself. Either way is fine really."

"Ex-experiment?!" Kagari flapped his jaw at him for a few silent seconds before sighing tiredly, "I…. I just don't understand you."

"What is there to understand?" The blonde countered with an amused smile, "I'm fully aware that no one person can be fully shoehorned into a single category, everybody has their reasons, their own circumstances. I simply can't bring myself to care enough to find that reason because quite frankly I'm bored of digging out everybody's Daddy issues. So they get one chance to prove they aren't pathetic little flesh bags and if they fail…. Well… One missing person out of four billion doesn't really count for much. You say that you don't understand, but that's not quite right, is it, Homura?"

"Wha-"

Naruto cut him off easily, "I can see you thinking quite clearly, 'The way he broke Tsukiumi, what if he does it to someone else? What if he does it to me?'"

The smile Naruto sent him was chillingly void of any humor.

Kagari took a step or two back, causing the blonde to wave at him offhandedly, "Oh don't worry.I'm not about to do anything to you unless you honestly attack me. The reason why is quite simple. After I defeated you the first time, or even any of the other Sekireis so far, none of you decided to go after me after that. You acceded, you accepted it even if you didn't like it. She didn't. That was all."

Kagari stared him, completely stunned at the seemingly simplistic logic.

"You Sekireis are so much more amusing compared to simple humans because the same convention does not apply to you. That's all there is to it. Unfettered by humanity's limit, the question here is the outcome. You are stronger, smarter, faster, BETTER, but will that be enough? Or will you simply fade into society quietly? Or will there be an all-out massacre once they inevitably turn on you?" The blonde threw his hands up in an all embracing gesture; the large full moon shadowed his expression.

"Ultimately, I do not care as long as something changes. I don't even care if the world burns itself out in the process as long as it is interesting. Probabilities, wonderful, wonderful possibilities."

Homura could no longer see any of the man's features save his sparkling blue eyes and the glint of fangs in his wide twisted smirk.

The fire user was about to explode at the callousness of the blonde man's words as he reached out to grab the man's lapels.

Toys? There they just toys to him? Was he no better than the mad man Minaka?

Kagari suddenly froze as his gaze landed on his outstretched fists, much to the blonde's silent surprise.

He let go of the blonde and stared at his hand as something seemed to occur to the fire user.

Then the silver haired man began chuckling.

"Shishou…. No wonder Matsu is terrified of you. What did you even do to her?"

Naruto grinned, "See? Amusing."

****Unwavering Sky****

I forgot to mention exactly what we were flipping the coin for didn't I? Hehehe...