Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or DxD, and I make no profit writing fanfics about them.
(AN): Not sure how I feel about the change in art styles for the DxD anime…
The weight of his sparkling new hitai-ate seemed to burn across Naruto's forehead, squeezing tight like an infernal brand. For his entire career as a shinobi he'd proudly proclaimed his allegiance to Konoha and his willingness to fight for her, but for some reason it just felt wrong now. As if despite his childhood he really didn't have any business with them anymore.
Frowning at his aged face in the mirror, Naruto ran a considering thumb across the swirl engraved in the dull steel. "I wonder..." he murmured, slipping it off and tossing Sakura's latest gift in the corner of the room where it landed with a clatter. "What do you think?"
Valerie looked up from the purple scarf she was knitting, tilting her head in consideration before giving a soft smile. "I think you look perfectly handsome either way, so it's up to you."
That was a non-answer if Naruto ever heard one, but he let the vague compliment wash over him anyway. He could use a bit of ego stroking in times like this.
"Okay." Naruto declared, rubbing at the bridge of his nose awkwardly. "I'm just gonna head out now. I don't wanna tell you that you have to do anything, but eh, you know…"
"It's alright. Koneko and I both know that it's best if we stay out of sight in the rooms so that questions aren't asked. You're not going to upset me just by reminding me of it." The dhampir trailed her sympathetic crimson gaze over the stiff new flak jacket her king had been stuffed into. "I'm more worried about you."
Averting his eyes, Naruto coughed a few vague excuses into his fist before slipping from the room. Valerie meant well, but he just didn't really want to talk about something like his feelings. He barely understood them himself, feeling like he was drowning a little deeper every day in some ink-dark ocean. How could he even start to put them into words and actually tell someone about them?
No. It was best to focus on the concrete and ignore the rest for now. Otherwise he'd just end up curled up in a ball somewhere.
Samurai saluted Naruto as he passed through the halls, greeting him as if he were some kind of war hero. It made Naruto curl his lips in a wordless sneer. Maybe he'd ended the war when he killed Killer B and forced Kumo and Iwa to the negotiation table, but that didn't make him a hero. It just made him someone willing to kill people he called his comrades.
"Put a smile on your ugly face, or people will assume you don't want to be here." Sasuke advised, slipping out of the dim shadows that lurked behind the huge pillars holding up the roof. Unlike Naruto the Uchiha didn't seem overly bothered by their sudden summons to a summit in the Land of Iron.
Funny, Naruto would have thought that the bad memories of tearing through the building after Danzo like a psychopath would bother Sasuke a bit more. It certainly made his spine itch, but maybe that had less to do with memories and more to do with their present circumstances.
"Better here than marching around out there, I suppose." Naruto admitted, forcing his face into a grimace that sort of looked like a smile. Normally he had a bit more skill at playing nice with assholes, but he was just too damned tired to pretend. And besides, they were all expecting Uzumaki Naruto anyway. Naruto Gremory's noble polish wasn't relevant. "Are they in there?"
A mocking lilt coloured Sasuke's voice. "Shockingly, you're the first to arrive. But then there's a first time for everything, isn't there?"
The familiar banter with the only man Naruto would call his brother was enough to soften the sharp edges of his mouth into a more natural smile, and after cursing Sasuke out below his breath, Naruto threw back his shoulders and entered the meeting room.
It looked almost identical to the day that Sasuke had assaulted the five Kage, with banners proclaiming the five so-called Great Shinobi countries hanging over a semi-circle table. The only real difference was that the MIzukage's seat was moved to the middle as the most supposedly neutral village, even though in the closing days before the armistice Kiri had launched an all-out attack on a crippled Kumo.
Opportunistic bastards.
There was no place for Naruto to sit, and he wondered if he was expected to stand around like a gormless asshole while the Kage argued over stupid bullshit. If they didn't want him to sit with them, why was he even here in the first place?
Eventually Naruto just gave a huff, deciding to lean against the wall beneath the Konoha banner with folded arms and a scowl. Whatever. Let them come. He could deal with a little bit of lurking in the background if it meant that everything would get sorted out.
Tension hung so tightly in the air that Sasuke wondered why it hadn't snapped yet. Everyone in the room was pretending at being casual, but they were doing it so poorly that Sasuke could tell with a lazy glance every single one of them was ready to draw blades and shed blood.
It made him nostalgic for his years in Otogakure. Death had never been very far, and no one was to be trusted.
"I would think it's not a surprise to any of us that at minimum you're be expected to completely vacate the lands surrounding Konoha." Sakura pointed out mildly, her emerald eyes glittering coldly like shards of ice. "We don't care what ridiculous new name you've tried to give it. It belongs to us and every single one of your colonists will go back where they've come from."
The white-blond hairs of Darui's mustache twitched as the new Raikage sighed, settling his elbows on the table and pinning Sakura with a frank look. "It's not as simple as ordering them to stop patrolling. We're talking about dozens if not hundreds of families. They're not occupiers. Konoha is their home. Many of them were even born there. They don't know anything else."
Unlike A, Darui had the level head needed for rubbing elbows and playing politics. In purely pragmatic terms, Sasuke supposed it was actually a good thing he'd killed A, since while the old Raikage had been respected he'd been too much of a hothead to surrender with any kind of grace.
Gaara considered Naruto with an unfathomable gaze before turning to his fellow Kage and frowning. "That's an excuse, not a justification for the continued occupation. The shinobi of the Leaf have their own traditions and their own culture. Just because a handful of your warriors were born in the ruin of their homeland doesn't mean Konoha belongs to them. Konoha belongs to Konoha, and no one else."
"Precisely." Chojuro agreed, propping himself up on one elbow as he stared at Darui and Kurotsuchi with a lidded gaze. The Rokudaime Mizukage wasn't a staunch Konoha ally by any means, but he no doubt understood the value of a strong and independent Leaf to the balance of power.
Not to mention that no one sensible wanted to make an enemy out of a village with walking superweapons.
Scarlet tipped nails rasped against the tabletop as Kurotsuchi leaned back, the corner of her mouth quirking up mockingly. "Just because the government changes doesn't mean the people have to. Just give everyone a choice about if they want to stay in Konoha or be expelled. It would be a lot more ethical than throwing them out of their homes just because of what their grandfathers did."
"And have a fifth column inside the gates for the next fifty years? Do you take us for idiots?" Sakura pursed her lips. "They will all go, and that's our final word on the matter. Unless you want to settle this on the battlefield."
Very deliberately, Gaara shifted his stare towards Naruto, holding his mismatched eyes on the aged blond for a few seconds before looking back at Darui.
The naked threat visibly irritated the other Kage, but there was little they could do but concede with a grumble. In the end all the power in the negotiations was held by the southerners, since no one could beat Naruto or Sasuke in the field.
In the end, the entire discussion seemed to play out that way. Gaara or Sakura would suggest something in a very mild and reasonable tone of voice. Then Kurotsuchi or Darui would disagree, and then Gaara or Sakura would make some veiled reference to Naruto or Sasuke. After that Kurotsuchi would huff and puff while Darui sighed, and they'd concede.
It was vaguely amusing to Sasuke in a schadenfreude sort of way, but Naruto seemed to just get more irritated as time went on.
Sasuke watched Naruto move from careful neutrality to disbelief to a burning rage. Bright blue eyes darkened to indigo with a hateful flame, and the faint white scars along Naruto's jawline rippled as the blond clenched his teeth. Naruto had never been all that great at keeping quiet when he was irritated, and Sasuke knew that sooner or later something was going to give.
"No." Sakura bit out sharply, all shards of gravel in her throat as she slapped a palm down and glared heatedly as Kurotsuchi. "Kusa might have been a buffer state but it was our buffer state. You won't be getting a single fucking ryo out of them, much less have any influence on selecting their Head Jounin."
The building tension had slowly stripped away the Raikage's veneer of civility, and he seemed to give up being polite as a lost cause. Instead of polite smile a venomous sneer twisted Darui's mouth, and he held his hands out in sarcastic supplication. "Well what do you expect us to do? We can't just give you the pre-war order. It was a very different world back then. You barely have the numbers to occupy Konoha. Trying to control all the minor countries is just going to create rebellion and lead to the next world war. Try thinking with your head rather than your guts."
"We are not thinking with our guts, so to speak." Garra murmured, Kazekage robes swishing as he leaned forward and pinned Darui with the lavender eye he'd taken from Sasuke's true body. "It's only in the long term that we would even need to consider compromising. In the short term we certainly have the power to control the smaller villages."
The naked implication that was they expected to turn Naruto into a guard dog, moving from village to village and striking terror in the peoples' hearts to uphold their hegemony. And that was the straw that broke the camel's back.
The boiling heat in Naruto's eyes froze over, and the blond strode forward with liquid lethal grace. "That is enough." He declared, his voice deceptively mild in comparison to the frigid pressure of his killing intent bearing down on everyone in the room.
Kurotsuchi jerked back in her seat, lips bloodless while Sakura's eyebrows climbed to her hairline.
Over the years Sasuke had become intimately familiar with all the shades of Naruto's anger. In general, Naruto's rage was like a firecracker; all flash and light and gone in an instant. Naruto was quick to burn but quick to forgive. But at a certain point the fire went cold, and all that was left was ice and poison.
"I didn't come here to be your trump card, Sakura." Out of everyone in the room it was Sakura that Naruto would have expected to keep the faith, and the string of that betrayal had cut him deeply. "I certainly didn't come here to stand around twiddling my thumbs while you morons recreated the Treaty of Versailles."
That reference visibly confused most of the people in the room, but Sasuke knew all about the other world, so he knew exactly what Naruto was worried about.
After all, what was the point of a peace treaty so lopsided it forced another war?
Naruto's missing right arm throbbed with a sharp ache, the phantom pain throbbing in time with his heartbeat. It reminds him of his own life, half torn to shit and gone, but he could still feel the loss like it was freshly bleeding.
There was a twisted metaphor in that line of thought, somewhere, but Naruto didn't care to pursue it. He'd bowed and scraped and struggled and wept and raged against the world, and he'd gotten nothing to show for it. As far as he was concerned he was fucking done with keeping his tongue behind his teeth and placing faith in other people.
If there was anyone in the world that Naruto would have expected to never turn their backs on him, it was Sakura and Gaara. Sakura had been by his side on Team Seven for years, preserving loyally through fire and blood until they finally birthed peace and brought Sasuke home. Gaara had been his dark mirror, sinking down in hatred until they'd fought and Naruto brought the redhead back to the light like a diver pulled up pearls from the seabed.
Both of them had experienced more than their share of misfortune and bitterness, but he'd had faith in them and they'd had faith in him. Sure, Naruto had expected some haggling and anger, because they were all only human, but he'd believed in their fundamental goodness. In their understanding and in their loyalty.
Instead they'd tried to treat Naruto like their personal attack dog, showing him off and making threats because they just wanted to take and take and take without any regard for how it would hurt other people.
Fine. If they wanted to turn their backs on him then Naruto would turn his back on them. Fuck the lot of them.
"So this is what's going to happen." Naruto stated serenely, stepping into the middle of the half-circle formed by the table so he could meet their eyes one by one with a slit purple gaze. He never once let up on his raging killing intent, because it was the only way he could release the tangled mess of ice and venom mingling in his chest. "Since you incompetent baboons are incapable of making sensible decisions on your own, I'll make them for you."
Naruto drew nobility around him like a cloak, calling on every lesson Sirzechs and Grayfia had given him. He'd tried to rediscover the boy that had been Uzumaki Naruto, hoping that self-sacrifice and good nature would be enough to heal the world of shinobi. But it hadn't been, and he was starting to think it never could have been.
In the corner of his vision Naruto saw Sasuke's hand drop to rest over the hilt of his chokuto, and he knew that the Uchiha had his back.
"Naruto." Gaara began, perhaps hoping that the right word would be enough to calm the frozen fury flowing in the blond's veins. Or maybe the redhead had started to realize his mistakes. No one would ever know, because Naruto pinned him with blazing malicious red eyes.
"I did not give you permission to speak. Interrupt me again and I'll cut out your tongue." The threat was given in such an airy reasonable tone that Naruto could have been commenting on the weather if not for the utterly violent spike in his killing intent.
"Now here's what I'll do. Since you idiots cannot have separate countries without marching to war and murdering each other for stupid reasons, you won't have them. From now on everyone living on this continent is going to answer to one government. All decisions will be made by the same governing authority, determined solely by majority vote."
Kurotsuchi's mouth dropped open, and Naruto sneered at the sight. "You might want to close your mouth in case something flies in." he suggested in a sarcastic sugary voice, giving the Kage time to absorb his declaration.
Sasuke just looked amused, the bastard.
"Secondly, since I obviously can't trust any of you to look after your own people without trying to kill everyone else's, you won't. Sakura will govern from Kiri. Gaara will govern from Iwa. Chojuro will govern from Kumo. Darui can govern Suna. Kurotsuchi will govern from Konoha. Hopefully the knowledge that if you govern someone else's people badly they might do the same to yours keeps you on the straight and narrow."
"Thirdly, since I know that I couldn't trust any of you to cook lunch on time if I asked much less work together in good faith, I'll have Sasuke bind you all together with blood seals. If one of you kicks the bucket you all will. So you had best learn to work together and do your damn jobs right, and you had best handpick successors that can work together to keep everything stable when you all die at the same time."
If the five Kage had looked baffled before, they were looking positively aghast now. The terms he'd put together were especially harsh considering he was forcing people that hated each other to literally live and die by their alliance, but he was so irritated he didn't give a damn. Naruto had half a mind to say fuck it all, hunt down Kaguya, and let her gobble up all their chakra.
"Fourth, Gaara here is going to hand that Rinnegan over. We'll find someone to bring Sasuke back with it, and then he'll use it to send the bijuu off to their own private dimension so you morons can't put them in cages anymore."
Maybe it was the possibility of having to contend with both a living Naruto and a living Sasuke that sparked green lightning in Sakura's eyes, or maybe she'd just reached then end of her tether with his biting insults. "You can't seriously think we're just going to agree to that, do you?"
Orange sparks began to flutter in the air as Naruto pulled up his chakra, lurking just a hair away from calling on all of Kurama's power. "Yes, you will. Or none of you will be leaving this room alive."
(AN): Another 3000 before I head off to sleep before my nightshift.
In regards to this story as depressing and emotionally painful, I agree. But that's a natural consequence of compressing the arc. We get all plot all the time. I think everyone including myself wants to get back to Gehenna as soon as possible, so what suffers? Battle scenes. Light-hearted fluff. Extra character filler scenes. I cut all that out, so things move very quickly and very tightly.
I had originally projected this arc to run 100,000 words when I started it, and I've cut to the point I'm now projecting 60,000 words for it. What's left is generally pretty heavy stuff, but it won't always be that way. We will eventually hit the fluff stride and give these tormented characters some space to breathe and happiness.