Author's Note
And I'm back. Man, I did not see a year long hiatus coming. I mean sure, there's writers block, and then there's this. I could try and give excuses about writer's block, exams, and other projects, but frankly, they don't add up to a year long absence. Hell, I wrote half this chapter in the past month with writer's block, so yeah no excuses from me. Hopefully I'll stick to a better update schedule from now on. Enjoy.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or High School DxD. If I did, I wouldn't get away with one year hiatuses."Hello." talking
'Hello.' thinking
"Hello." Kyuubi talking
'Hello.' Kyuubi thinking
*Knock* Sound effects
"Bunshin no Jutsu" Jutsu
Chapter 13: Past Meetings
"What do we do now, Sarutobi?" asked Danzou.
"There's not much we can do, is there." replied Sarutobi.
Sarutobi and Danzou were currently inside Sarutobi's office, joined by Sarutobi's advisors, Koharu and Homura. There was no one else in the room. Not even the guards. All four person present had a grave look on their faces.
"You don't expect us to do nothing, do you Sarutobi?" said Homura, visibly outraged.
"Exactly." said Koharu, supporting Homura. "If we don't do anything, we'll be sitting ducks as the Uchiha go along with their coup d'état."
"And what do you want me to do, exactly?" Sarutobi retorted, his temper rising. "I've already tried to settle the things by conversing to them through Itachi. That didn't work out. So what else is there to do?"
"We could try killing the one's supporting the coup." suggested Danzou.
"No. That won't work." replied Sarutobi. "Almost all of them support the coup. Killing them all would just be a bloody massacre, and will only worsen our situation. And we can't lose so many capable shinobi. It would drastically reduce our might."
"But we can't just do nothing." Homura protested, but was silenced by Sarutobi's glare.
"That is the only option we have left." Sarutobi said, taking out his pipe from his desk. "Now if you folks will excuse me, I still have work to do."
With that, Sarutobi got up, making the other three get up too. Sarutobi watched as the trio walked out of his office, before he approached the window in his office. He looked out at the village, illuminated by the setting sun, as he took a long puff from his pipe. He exhaled the smoke slowly, relishing in it.
'It seems that I've failed miserably in protecting this village, huh Minato, Hashirama-sensei, Tobirama-sensei.'
"What do we now?' grumbled Homura. "That old coot isn't going to do anything at all."
"If this keeps up, the Uchiha are going to successfully execute the coup." growled Koharu.
"There's no need to worry." Danzou said, earning puzzled looks from the other two. "It is time for me to talk to Itachi personally."
Misaki looked on as her mother's dead body lay before her in a pool of blood. Itachi stood beside the body, holding her father up with one hand, while the other held the kodachi that impaled him. Itachi pulled the kodachi out, letting the body crumple at his feet, as he looked at Misaki with emotionless, cold eyes.
"I am really sorry." Itachi said, readying his kodachi. "I did not want to do this." He said, disappearing from Misaki's sight.
And all Misaki saw afterwards was darkness.
Misaki woke up with a start. Her eyes snapped open as she sat up, but was blinded immediately by the light shining on her, forcing her to shield them with her left hand. As her eyes slowly adjusted to the light, she found the source to be an open window just beside the bed.
She got up, quite stiff, and pulled the heavy curtains over the window, blocking out the sunlight. She then turned around to face the room, surveying it as her gaze passed over the furniture in the room, which to be frank, was rather sparse. Besides the bed that she was lying on, which was to her right, there was only a desk and a wardrobe to her left. Except for these three things, there was absolutely nothing in the room. One thing was for certain. This definitely was not her room.
Misaki was baffled, to say the least. For one thing, how did she end up from her house to somewhere entirely different puzzled her greatly, especially since she didn't recognize the place at all?
Just as she was about to rush out of the room she noticed a picture frame lying face down on the table, something that she had failed to notice earlier. Curious, she flipped it over, to see the picture on an old man ruffling the hair of a kid. The old man Misaki recognized immediately as the third Hokage. The young boy was a different matter altogether,
His distinguishable features were his spiky blonde hair and blue eyes, but the weirdest thing about him was the whisker marks that adorned his cheeks, which were crinkled by his huge grin. He was wearing a white t-shirt and blue shorts. Misaki could not remember seeing the boy before, and could not recognize him.
As she was mulling over the boy's identity a noise broke her concentration. She turned around, locating the origin of the sound to be from outside the room. She slowly approached the door, which she noticed to be open, a sliver of light shining through the thin crack from the door's edge. She opened the door and found herself in another, slightly larger room.
Misaki quickly examined the room, and realized that the room was used for two purposes. The dining table along with a couple of chairs stood on the top left corner, while a couple more chairs along with a low table to her right served as a living room. Exactly opposite to her stood a door ajar, while another was to her left, shut tight. There were clattering noise coming from the open door; the sound of metal hitting metal. She approached the door slowly, craning her neck as she went, trying to get a glimpse of the source of the noise. On her way, she accidentally knocked over a chair, causing the sound to stop. Momentarily afterwards, a spiky blonde head peaked from the door.
At first she doesn't recognize him, but soon realizes that he's the boy from the picture due to the whisker marks on his cheeks.
"Oh!" the boy exclaimed. "You're awake."
The moment he spoke, something clicked in Misaki's mind.
"You. You're the boy I met yesterday, didn't I?" She asked, remembering her encounter with him the day before.
"Technically, it was the day before yesterday." He bobbed his head. "But, that's me." He said with a grin, offering his hands for a handshake. "Uzumaki Naruto, at your service."
"Oh, you have it wrong. I remember it clearly, it was yesterday that you attempted to be a hero and save me from ruffians, when it was clear as day that I could handle myself just fine." Misaki scoffed. Before Naruto could refute her, Misaki spoke again. "So this must be your house, then. Why am I here?"
Naruto closed his half opened mouth, taken aback by what Misaki said. "You don't remember?" he asked, somewhat intrigued.
"Remember what, exactly?" Misaki asked, having no idea what Naruto was talking about.
"Hmm…." Naruto placed one hand across his chest, and raised the other to his chin. "I suppose it does happen at times. First time shock I guess." he mumbled to himself.
"What am I not remembering?" Misaki asked, suddenly fearing the worst. She grabbed Naruto by the collar, and shook him violently. "What did you do to me?"
"I didn't do anything to you." Naruto said, raising his hands defensively.
Misaki scoffed, not believing him. "Then what happened last night?"
"Itachi massacred your entire clan." replied Naruto.
Misaki looked at him incredulously, before remembering the dream that she just had, and realization dawned upon her. "No way."
"Danzou. What did you tell Itachi to do?" asked Sarutobi, enraged.
"What are you talking about?" Danzou asked in reply.
"Don't act ignorant." Sarutobi growled. "You know exactly what I'm talking about."
"You misunderstand, Sarutobi." said Danzou, nonchalant. "I didn't tell him to do anything. I just told him our options and he picked one himself."
"Ugh…"
"Are you telling me that last night wasn't a dream?" Misaki asked incredulously.
"Yes." Naruto nodded.
"And that Itachi murdered my entire clan in one night?" she asked, still not believing it.
"Uh huh." Naruto replied.
"And I was also dead, but you somehow happened to find me and revived me?" She asked, skeptical.
"Yup." Naruto nodded his head rather vigorously.
"I don't believe it." She muttered as she sat down on a chair.
"Well, it can be quite hard to come to terms with your family's death." Naruto said sympathetically.
"No, you don't understand." Misaki shook her head. "What I don't believe is that you just found me and then somehow resurrected me." She grumbled, catching Naruto off guard. "Itachi killing my family was something that's pretty believable, especially since they didn't see eye to eye."
Naruto hesitated a couple of times, trying to say something, before he finally managed to do so. "I may have… been looking for you?" He mumbled, unsure.
"Why is that a question?" asked Misaki, raising one eyebrow.
"No, I mean, I was looking for you especially, since you were the only Uchiha I knew." Naruto sputtered. "I mean, you are the only Uchiha I know… I mean… you know what I mean." He finished lamely.
"While I can get that you were looking for me," Misaki conceded. "How did you bring me back to life?"
"Well, that is a very good question." Naruto chuckled nervously as he sat down on a chair opposite her. "Do you know about devils?"
"You mean the one's that appear in children's fairy tales?" Misaki asked, dubious.
"You could say that, but they are not the same." Naruto said, before looking at Misaki's puzzled expression at giving a sigh. "I suppose showing you would be better, huh?"
Misaki looked at him, perplexed by his statement, as he stood back up again before turning around. And then, to her amazement, a pair of bat-like wings unfurled from his back.
"You… but… how…" Misaki sputtered.
Naruto turned around to face Misaki, his wings folding back in. "It was similar to you situation."
"Similar to mine… so you died and were resurrected as a devil?" Misaki asked, to which Naruto nodded.
"So basically, because I am a devil, I had the power to bring back people from the dead." Naruto explained. "But there's a catch; the people that I bring back turn into devils."
"What?"
Two men stood atop a tree, looking upon at Konoha.
"So… I hear that Sasuke was not the only one to survive the massacre." muttered one of the two, an old man wearing a white coat.
"There is a lot of hear telling going on lately." replied the other, an orange spiraling mask covered his face, with only one hole for his eyes. "And it's true, albeit she didn't survive naturally."
"Is it what I think it is?" asked the old man. "Because if it is, I would really like to experiment on her."
"Do what you will with her." answered the masked man. "I have no use of her."
"With pleasure."
"So, you turned me into a devil to bring me back to life?" Misaki asked, just to be sure.
"Yes." Naruto replied.
"And I'm the only Uchiha you managed to save?" Misaki wondered.
"Well, it seems that Sasuke wasn't killed, but yes, you're the only one I saved." Naruto answered.
"But why me? Why not some other Uchiha?" Misaki questioned.
"Let me be honest with you." Naruto replied, his expression turning serious. "I'm not going to say that I saved you for some high and mighty reason. Because I didn't. I saved you for purely selfish reasons, on a whim, and the rest of the Uchiha can just rot in hell for all I care."
"Why you…" Misaki began speaking, pretty angry, but was stopped by a raised finger from Naruto.
"I'm a devil, Misaki. We devils are governed by desire and greed. We feed on what humans called sins. And when I'm allowed to only save a limited amount of people, I will always save those who will help me attain my goals. Especially when I can only have those people become my servants." Naruto said.
"Wait, hang on a minute." Misaki said. "What is this thing about servants?"
"Ah, I forgot to explain." Naruto said. "We devils can only command those that we use an evil piece on, and it's the same thing that also allows us to revive people."
"So basically you're just making your own army." Misaki pointed out.
"Well, you could say that." Naruto smiled.
"Then, what's in it for people like me." Misaki asked. "Do I have no free will at all?"
"Oh, that's not the case at all." Naruto explained, his smile getting wider. "You're also a devil, after all."
"Then that means…" Misaki conjectured.
"You will get the same perks, eventually." Naruto answered.
"Eventually?" Misaki asked.
"You're going to have to work your way up to where I am now." Naruto replied. "You are currently a low class devil, you make your way to high class devil, and then you get your evil pieces."
"So basically I have to help you get your goal in order to get mine." Misaki asked.
"That's the gist of it." Naruto nodded.
"But that could take ages, depending on your goal." Misaki said, exasperated.
"And ages we have." Naruto replied.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Misaki asked, puzzled.
"It means exactly what it means." Naruto answered. "You'll be living a long, long time. At least a couple of thousand years."
"What!"
"So, Danzou. It seems that you have managed to get the Uchiha massacred." said a woman.
"A man can try." said Danzou, smiling slightly. "What brings the great Madoka to my office I wonder?"
"I'm here to give you a little message." answered Madoka, a smile on her lips too.
"And you couldn't send it through a messenger?" asked Danzou.
"I wanted to tell this to you personally." replied Madoka, emphasizing on 'personally'.
"Oh. And what might the message be?" Danzou asked, slightly miffed.
"Leave the boy and the girl alone. They are my prey." Madoka said, a hint of hostility in her tone.
Danzou thought for a moment, before nodding in agreement, which caused Madoka to smile again. "Good." she said, before disappearing into a glowing magic circle.
Looking on at the place where Madoka disappeared, Danzou shook his head. 'One day I will triumph over you devils. Mark my words.' he thought to himself.
'I do feel bad for them though. I'm yet to see any of Madoka's prey live to tell the tale.'
"So, let me get this straight." Said Misaki. "In order to fulfill whatever goal I have, I must improve my rank in the devil world?"
"Well, more or less." Naruto replied.
"What do you mean more or less?" Misaki asked, to which Naruto answered with a shrug. "Is it more or is it less?"
"Depends on your goal, to be fair." Naruto replied. "If it's an easy goal like becoming a king, it's easily manageable."
"Right." Misaki nodded her head in understanding, before noticing a discrepancy. "Wait a minute. How the hell is becoming a king an easy goal?"
"Well, all you need to do is a little manipulation and a couple of murders." Naruto replied. "Which is easy compared to some of the other things that people decide as goals. For instance, learning all the jutsu in the world would take a hell of a long time since there's so many of them."
"Right…" Misaki muttered. "What about revenge on a certain man?"
"That depends on the man, doesn't it?" Naruto replied with a grin. "But knowing your situation, I'll tell you one thing. Killing the man you are thinking about won't be that hard, but are you absolutely sure he is the one that you need to kill?"
'What's that supposed to mean?" Misaki was flabbergasted. "You're the one who told me about him."
"And you believe me?" Naruto asked, causing Misaki to narrow her eyes. "Aw... you really believed me didn't you?"
"And what if I did?" Misaki asked.
"Well. You'd then be both right and wrong." said Naruto, causing Misaki to stare at him quizzically. "You'd be right because Itachi did kill them, but that's not all there is to it."
"Huh?" Misaki was puzzled.
Somewhere in the Netherworld
"So, I hear the brat managed to get his first servant." said Ajuka Beelzebub. He was sitting on a rather large tree root jutting out of the ground, looking upon a rather large clearing in the middle of an even bigger forest. In the clearing, was another man, performing vertical pushups with just one hand. His lithe form was covered by rather tight fitting clothes, his lean yet ripping muscles could be seen clearly through them. Hearing Ajuka talk, he pushed off the ground with his hand, landing safely on his feet. Ajuka picked up a towel from a bag near him and offered it.
"Yes. I've heard." he said, taking the towel offered by Ajuka, wiping off the glistening sweat from his face.
"Didn't expect it to happen so quickly, did you?" asked Ajuka, smiling playfully.
"Actually, I'm still not sure that the servant will last." said the other man.
"What do you mean?" asked Ajuka, curious.
"Considering what I saw, he won't be able to control her." he said. "Which means we'll have to hunt down a stray devil."
"Don't be so sure about it." said Ajuka.
"Why shouldn't I be?" countered the man. "The brat's not smart, isn't good at handling situations, and is definitely incapable of properly conversing with humans."
"And that doesn't remind you of a certain someone?" said Ajuka, looking pointedly at him.
The man only grumbled at this.
The next day in Konoha, at an unused training ground
Misaki's mind was in a turmoil. And frankly, no one would blame her for being confused. After all, she had just been killed during her family's massacre, before brought back to life as a devil. That was bound to muddle anyone's brain. Now she was following a blonde boy who had identified himself as the devil who had brought her back to life, along with being, for the lack of a better term, her master. And for some reason, the person responsible for her family's (and hers) death was not Itachi, even though he was clearly the one who had killed them. Her day really couldn't get any weirder.
She was brought out of her musings when Naruto cleared his throat. Misaki looked up, to find herself in the middle of a clearing, with Konoha's famous tree line surrounding it. She looked at Naruto expectantly, wondering what he had to say.
"Remember how I told you about pieces that allow me to bring people back to life?" asked Naruto, to which Misaki could only nod. "These pieces are designed after the pieces used in chess. Each of these pieces have their own special powers, and depending on the powers of the person being revived, only certain pieces can be used, since each piece has a valuation system. The Pawn, for example, is the weakest of pieces, valued as only one. But don't let this fool you. Pawn pieces can be used together to revive the same person, increasing their strength. Pawns also have the capability to promote themselves to a stronger unit in enemy territory, making them one of the most versatile pieces."
Misaki was getting interested at this point. Having special powers would certainly help in her quest for finding out what the hell happened the night before.
"Next comes the Knight. These pieces are worth three pawns, and their strength is extreme speed and agility. Knights are known for their extremely fast attacks, but they tend to be very fragile in terms of defense. If they lose their legs, they become completely useless." This got Misaki's attention. Greater speed clearly is a great advantage, while the bad defense could be a problem.
"There's also the Bishop, who are also worth three pawns. Their main strength is in their magical capabilities, casting magic much more efficiently than most of the other pieces. Although if they use too much power, they'll have to wait a long while to regenerate their energy. Think of them as Jutsu spamming ninja who could very well burn their chakra supply very quickly with large scale jutsu. Of course, you'd still have greater reserves than a regular ninja." This sounded rather cool to Misaki. There wasn't much difference between Bishop's and ninja. Albeit this conclusion for some reason caused her to feel slightly insulted.
"Then there's the Rook. Worth five pawns, these guys tend to be tanks, capable of absorbing plenty of physical damage, along with the ability to dish out just as much pain. Like tanks however, they tend to be slow, making them very easy targets for fast enemies." So basically Rooks were physical behemoths. That was good to know.
"Finally, there's the Queen. Worth nine pawns, they are the strongest and most balanced of all the Evil Pieces, with the physical strength and defense from rooks, magical proficiency from the bishop, and the speed from the knight. And that is exactly what you are Misaki. A Queen." Safe to say that Misaki would never question the amount of surprises a single day could throw at a person.
Madoka was sitting at her rather sparsely decorated office. Opposite her table sat an old man wearing a white lab coat. The man had this really irritating smile on his face, making Madoka almost refuse his offer.
Almost was the keyword. One does not refuse when a favor is called by someone clearly stronger than you. It also helped that it would act as a test for that new devil that had shown up smack dab in the middle of her territory. And if they couldn't even overcome this obstacle, they wouldn't be worth her time.
"You will have your target within the day.
"So… what are we going to do now?" Misaki asked tentatively, still wrapping her mind around the fact that she was supposedly reincarnated with the strongest piece possible.
"We are going to train you in using your new strengths properly." said Naruto, with an odd glint in his eyes. "The sooner we start, the better."
Misaki really didn't like the smirk that Naruto was giving him. It seemed to be the smirk that Naruto had just before pranking someone. Still, she took the risk and asked the question that was brewing in her mind. "What kind of training?"
"The kind where I get to beat you up." said Naruto, his smirk becoming a toothy grin. Before Misaki could even say anything more, she found the air from her lungs expelled forcefully, as right straight caught her right in the solar plexus.
Almost immediately, she found herself lifted off her feet by a left uppercut, sending her flying. Before she even reached the apex of her climb, Naruto appeared right above her, his wings unfurled to its full glory. Moments later, Misaki found herself at the receiving end of a twisting heel kick, sending her hurtling towards the ground. Just as she was about to hit the ground, Naruto appeared right beside her, before punting her in the stomach, sending her crashing into a tree.
"We are going to have a long day today." said Naruto, as he cracked his neck muscles. Misaki groaned as she pushed herself out of the mini crater created in the tree trunk. A long day indeed.
An hour later, Misaki found herself on the ground, spread eagle, panting heavily from the rather strenuous exercise (She didn't want to call it a beating. That would hurt her pride.) she was put through. The first thirty minutes she spent as a human ball, being kicked and punched around the entire training ground. As time went on, her reactions got better, until she was able to dodge a random blow. This went on for fifteen more minutes. The last fifteen minutes was where she truly shined. She had been able to dodge a whole total of 5 blows in a row before Naruto stopped the training. She hadn't been able to even get into position to get a hit in, and that was truly frustrating.
She found Naruto looming over her, his look telling her that the break was over. She pushed herself off the ground into a sitting position, before looking at Naruto.
"Your taijutsu is pretty good, you know." said Naruto, too which Misaki scoffed.
"Then how come I didn't hit you." she grumbled.
"You weren't meant to." replied Naruto, allowing a small smile to form on his lips. "A new devil needs some time to get used to their new body after all."
This earned a sarcastic chuckle from Misaki. "So… what next?"
"Next is magic training." said Naruto, and Misaki perked up a bit. "But before we go into the super cool techniques, you first need to learn how to draw your maryouku. And the best way to do this is to create a magic bullet."
Naruto raised his hand towards one of the trees, before a small ball of magic formed in his hands. "This is actually the simplest of techniques. You first need to feel your aura around you, before collecting it into a ball. Your aura… is basically a sheet of chakra surrounding you. Once you can form the ball, the rest is easy. All you have to do is will it towards a target, and bam." he said, releasing the ball at an unsuspecting tree. The bullet hit the tree with some force, exploding on impact. The tree toppled over, having been destroyed in half.
Naruto turned to Misaki. "You'll have to continue this on your own. I need to meet up with the Hokage. There are… some things I need to clear up."
"Alright." Misaki nodded, and watched Naruto leave the clearing, before concentrating on collecting her aura into her hand. Whatever that meant.
Sarutobi sat in his office, having just finished a meeting with the village council. Hopefully they would finally start settling down after the initial bout of panic had set in the moment the news about the Uchiha massacre broke. It was pure chaos the day after said event, only coming second to the Kyuubi attack. As his mind began to delve deeper into the problems that lay ahead of him, he was brought out of his musings by the sound of soft knocking. He looked up to find one Uzumaki Naruto jumping into the room through the window.
"Yo, old man. How are things around here?" Naruto asked as he took a seat in one of the chairs facing the table.
"Exactly like it would be after the massacre of a prominent clan in the village." said the Sandaime Hokage with a deadpan. "Can't you use the door like a normal person?"
"Now where's the fun in that." Naruto snorted, before giving a cheeky smile. "Plus I'm not exactly normal, so the point is moot regardless."
Case in point; he was a devil whose day job was that of a ninja. Sarutobi had absolutely no rebuttal to his statement, and thought to himself the most common thought that goes through anyone's mind when Naruto ran his mouth. 'Smartass.'
"I hope you aren't here just to shove your uniqueness in my face, and actually have something to talk about"
"Oh I do, actually." said Naruto as he bace serious. "I want to talk about Itachi going coo coo and murdering his entire clan save his little brother."
The wizened Hokage could only flinch at how bluntly Naruto had put his words together. He really didn't like to beat around the bush when he was serious. "So, what do you want to know about."
"I need to know why you let Danzou manipulate Itachi like that." Sarutobi's features hardened almost immediately at Naruto's words. "How do you know about that?" he asked.
"I have my sources." replied Naruto in a dismissive tone. It was clear that he wasn't going to give any further details than that. "You haven't answered my question yet."
Sarutobi gave a long hard look at Naruto, who returned his gaze with just as much determination. Releasing a sigh of resignation, the wizened Hokage spoke. "It's not like I told Danzou to do this. But it was still my fault that he managed to get to Itachi like he did." the Sandaime gave a guilty smile. "Danzou merely used the blind eye that I turn towards him to his advantage. And frankly, I cannot do anything to him directly without completely curtailing the village's strength. I know well of his methods, as well as his personal army. But along with all the questionable things that he does, he also does just as many good things for the village, and I cannot let go of something like that. I take full responsibility my actions, and I will take this burden to my grave."
Naruto turned his face downward, his hair covering his eyes, blocking Sarutobi's view. To his surprise, when Naruto finally looked up, he had a smile on his lips, while a ghost of a look of understanding lingered in his eyes. "Meh. I don't understand too much of politics and how you handle them. Frankly, now that I know better, I can't believe why I ever wanted to be the Hokage. It seems too much complicated for someone like me."
Well that was new. You don't see Naruto questioning his own goals too often. Under Sarutobi's questioning look, Naruto's lip spread wide in his trademark foxy grin. "I have a new goal now. I am going to be the champion of the rating games, and prove to the world that I am the best devil slash ninja there is." he said, getting up from his seat and thrusting his hand forward in a victory sign.
'And he's back again.' thought Sarutobi. He really couldn't see Naruto as something other than a loveable idiot, no matter how well he had matured since his apparent death and subsequent rebirth. Hopefully he'd never lose his happy go lucky attitude.
Naruto had already reached the window and was about to jump out when he seemed to remember something. "Oh, that's right. I forgot to tell you. Misaki Uchiha is now under my peerage. I revived her to be my servant, and if anyone bothers her, they will have to deal with me."
'So he had finally gotten his first member of his peerage. An Uchiha would certainly be a great devil, especially with all the illusions that they are capable of.' Sarutobi thought to himself. Just as Naruto put his feet on the window ledge, it hit him. 'Did he just say servant.'
"I wonder if I can get her to recreate some scenes from 'Icha Icha: S&M Dungeon." said Naruto. He then jumped out of the room as Sarutobi fell face first into the pool of blood that formed on the table as he bled profusely through his nose. There were a couple of thuds, as two hidden ANBU fell from their perches into a similar pool of blood.
Misaki's face screwed up in concentration, as she tried to create the magic bullet. A very minuscule ball of energy was in her hand, which slowly but surely was gaining in size. As she became hopeful that she was getting somewhere with the stupid exercise, the ball disintegrated on its own, much to her dismay.
"Oh come on!" whined Misaki, not at all happy that she was failing at what seemed staple for a devil. "That must be the umpteenth time that it failed."
Hell, she was even getting positively exhausted. If she continued to train any harder she would probably drop unconscious. 'Where was Naruto anyway?' She shook her head to clear her mind, and then continued her efforts, trying to ignore the haze that was forming around her.
'Wait. What haze?' Misaki immediately stopped her training, to find herself in the midst of lots of and lots of smoke. A couple of seconds in, and she could already feel herself drifting towards losing consciousness. 'The smoke must be infused with sleeping gas.' she thought, panic setting in. As she collapsed to the ground, Misaki faintly saw the silhouette of a man standing over her, her last passing thought was to call to someone.
'Naruto.'
"Here you go." said Madoka, dropping the bundle she was carrying on to the ground. She watched in mild irritation as the old man walked up to the bundle, before removing a part of it to look at what was inside. He then stood up, facing Madoka, and sneered.
"It seems that you've done your part of the deal." he said, before nodding to one of the lackeys that stood behind him. The guy walked up to Madoka, and handed a bag over to her, which Madoka didn't even bother looking inside. "That means you now can have a favor from him."
"I look forward to it." replied Madoka, a haughty smile on her lips.
As Misaki slowly came to, she realized that her limbs were completely immobilized, clasped onto a slanted observation table. The only movement she retained was of her head, which she could only move around a bit. As she surveyed her surroundings (as much of it that she could see, that is), she noticed that she was inside a building with only one room, possibly a warehouse. The room was pretty big, and its slanted roofs positioning as well as the wooden pillars and beams supporting the roof led to her conclusion of the building having one room, and several large sacks and barrels piled to the roof to her right suggested that it was a warehouse.
The noise of glass colliding against each other brought Misaki's attention to her left, on the edge of her visible range. She strained herself, pushing off the table as far as her restraints allowed. She saw an old man, possibly in his fifties, wearing a white lab coat that was discolored beyond belief due to the prolonged exposures to who knows how many chemicals, tinkering with a couple of test tubes. His hair was grey, with several streaks of black and white running through his hair, which was long enough to fall unkemptly onto the collar of his coat.
Hearing Misaki's attempts at getting a better view of him, the man turned around, inadvertently letting her see him properly. He placed the test tube in his hand on the workbench beside him before approaching her.
"Ah, it seems that you are awake." the man said in a raspy voice, as he stood beside Misaki, looking down on her. Misaki tugged at the bindings that held her to the table, causing her captor to click his tongue. "Don't even try it. These restraints are made with materials that have a light attribute, effective sealing the powers of devils. You stand no chance of breaking them."
"Who are you?" Misaki asked, as she continued to tug away at her restraints. Just because the person who imprisoned her said something she wasn't going to believe him straight out. "And why have you imprisoned me?"
"That's right. Where are my manners?" the man said, mock bowing as he introduced himself. "Kiyoshi Suguwara, scientist and researcher extraordinaire, at your service. And to answer your second question, isn't it obvious? You are here as my little devil guinea pig."
Kiyoshi's words caused MIsaki to widen her eyes in surprise. She tugged at her bindings with renewed vigor, proclaiming her defiance. "You won't get away with this."
Amused greatly by Misaki's words, the deranged scientist breaks out into a mad cackle. "And who exactly is going to make me pay, huh? You are stuck in that table, unable to do anything. Your master was stupid enough to leave you alone in a chaotic environment, and probably does not care about your well being at all. So that leaves only the humans, who frankly would never help a devil such as you even if they could. They couldn't even stop the massacre of fellow humans such as the Uchiha." Kiyoshi sneered, getting a visible flinch out of Misaki.
Misaki stopped struggling, Kiyoshi's words having struck deep. It was true that she couldn't really get out of her restraints, and no one would come after someone who was supposedly dead. The only person who seemingly knew of her situation was Naruto, and she really didn't trust the blonde devil. The youth had claimed himself of using Misaki to his own end, and she really didn't know him at all. If Naruto forsake her, then there was nothing that could save her from this situation. She was scared.
Seeing MIsaki quiet down, a small smile found itself on Kiyoshi's lips. 'That's right. Believe that there is no hope for you in this situation. The seed of doubt has been planted in her mind, and it will grow into discord and chaos soon enough. And I will be there to take advantage of it.'
"Shit!" Naruto cursed as he ran through the clearing, searching left and right for Misaki. "Where the fuck did she disappear to?"
"Brat." the Kyuubi spoke from within him. "I can sense some strong sleeping gas residue in the vicinity."
"Which bastard thought it'd be nice to kidnap my servant?" Naruto growled, his face becoming more feral as the Kyuubi's chakra began to leak into his system. His eyes took on a red tint, and his nails elongated. With one swift, fluid motion, he unfurled his wings and flew straight up.
"Let's find this piece of shit, shall we?" said Naruto, raising his hand in front of him. A magic circle with an arrow appeared below him, spinning every which way, before coming to a stop, pointing in a specific direction.
"Found you."
"Make sure no one get's in." said a guard.
"Yeah, yeah. Sure." replied the other guard yawning. " 'S not like anyone's gonna come to this 'bandoned warehouse in the middle of nowhere at such an odd hour."
"It's the boss' orders, so shut up and do your work." Their leader barked.
"All right, all right. Shut your yapping, would ya." grumbled the guard. He got up from his seat, and began patrolling the front gate, his gaze wandering. After several passes, he stopped abruptly.
"Wha' is that?" he asked, pointing to the north sky.
"Is that a bird?" the other guard commented, as a black dot slowly started to enlarge and began to take shape.
"No, you blithering idiots." their superior cried. "That's not a bird you buffoons, that's a …" he never did finish his sentence as the unidentified flying object flew straight into him with a large bang.
Naruto plowed into the unsuspecting leader of the guards, sending him crashing into the door that they were supposed to be guarding. Before the other two guards could even break out of their stupor, he landed double haymakers on them sending them crashing into their leader, the force enough to blow the door open. The ruckus caused the rest of the guards to run towards the front door, and were almost immediately greeted with the sight of a feral Naruto growling, his blood red eyes trained on them.
The guards raised their respective weapons, getting ready for the assault that was sure to come. But when it did, they were unable to see it, as the blonde devil blurred out of view, their eyes unable to keep up with his inhuman speeds. When Naruto finally reappeared, he was already behind the entire group of mercenaries, who collapsed to the ground at the same time, having being knocked unconscious.
Misaki's eyes widened when she heard the loud crashing noise coming from the outside, followed immediately by the shouts of the mercenaries as they all charged towards the front door. 'Could it be?'
"Tch." Kiyoshi clicked his tongue once he saw the glimmer of hope that appeared in Misaki's eyes, but then smiled. 'That just makes my job that much sweeter.' he thought to himself. 'I will break this hope of yours and show you true despair.'
At that exact moment, the door to the room broke clean out of its hinges and came flying towards Kiyoshi, who side stepped it nonchalantly, as Naruto stalked through the now open doorway, a strange red aura emitting from him. He spared one glance towards the tied up Misaki, before turning towards Kiyoshi.
"Are you the one who was impudent enough to kidnap my servant?" he growled in a deep voice, one which caused your hair to stand on end. Kiyoshi merely smiled, not to be put off by a clearly angry Naruto. "And so what if I am?"
No further words were spoken as Naruto shot off from the ground, leaving a deep crater from where he had kicked off of the ground. But before he could reach Kiyoshi, he collided with an invisible barrier in mid air, the force of the collision was so great that the entire warehouse shook. Naruto was sent flying back into the wall as the majority of his momentum was transferred back to him. He pushed himself out of the crater before launching himself at the barrier, with the exact same result.
Kiyoshi moved from his table and placed himself between Naruto and Misaki, before forming a single hand seal which turned the invisible barrier into a transparent blue barrier, which can now be seen. "It's a devil repelling barrier. Quite handy don't you think?"
Naruto growled to himself as he stood up again. This was not going his way at all. He pulled a kunai from his pouch which was strapped to his knee, before throwing it at the crazed scientist. To his surprise - which he hid pretty well - the kunai actually passed right through the barrier. It didn't hit Kiyoshi however, as he simply tilted his head to the side, letting it flying past. So the barrier stopped him directly, but did not stop ranged projectiles. He could work with that.
Forming a quick series of hand seals, Naruto gathered a large amount chakra into his lungs, before a ball of compressed air shot out from his mouth. "Fuuton: Renkudan".The air bullet drilled right into the barrier, before exploding without dealing any substantial damage to the barrier, surprising Naruto.
"Yeah, that isn't going to work." said Kiyoshi, getting a raised brow in response from Naruto. "Chakra has its roots deep into the world of supernatural, and is inherently similar to the magic that devils use. Which means that they can be blocked by this barrier just as well. It's quite a nifty feature actually. You cannot break it from the outside."
If Kiyoshi's words were true, there really wasn't much that Naruto could do about this situation. But he wasn't known as unpredictable for nothing. He pulled out several shuriken out from his pouch, and began peppering the old man, who for his age and profession dodged the projectiles extremely well. That is, until he noticed the glint coming from ninja wires attached to the shuriken. Kiyoshi's eyes widened in horror as a smile came upon Naruto's lips, before he tugged on the wire with his fingers. The shuriken swerved sharply in the air, wrapping the hapless scientist up in ninja wire.
"You know, you could have helped." said Naruto, to which Kiyoshi turned around, and found Misaki free of her bindings. Wondering how she got out, he noticed the first kunai Naruto had thrown, the one which he had dodged, in Misaki's hand, with a stab mark right beside where her hand was supposed to be. All the frontal attack in itself was a distraction.
"You didn't need it." replied Misaki. as she walked out of the one way barrier. Naruto pulled on his wires, dragging Kiyoshi out of the barrier too. He walked up to the tied up scientist, who was now visibly scared at what was going to happen next. "Hmm… what to do with you?" wondered Naruto allowed.
"Maybe you should just kill him." offered Misaki. She was not at all happy that Kiyoshi had pretty much treated her as a lab rat.
Kiyoshi whimpered at Misaki's suggestion. While he may have worked under scary people, nothing was scarier than a woman with justifiable anger. No hell like a woman's scorn indeed. "I can give you information." He squeaked out, trying his best to lengthen his survival.
"In that case." said Naruto, as a mischievous glint appeared in his eyes. It scared Kiyoshi even further. "You may have some use alive after all."
Omake
Andrew: It feels so good to be back writing again.
Naruto: It feels that much better to be written about. You realize that your hiatus was so long that my original manga is almost over.
Andrew: You should be happy. You can now be with your beloved Hinata for the rest of time, except in fan fictions of course.
Naruto (chokes on his own spit): What hell are you talking about?
Andrew: Oh don't be shy. From the looks of it, you guys end up having kids. So, how was it?
Naruto: How was what?
Andrew: Oh don't act clueless. How was the sex? (wiggles eyebrows suggestively)
Naruto: Oh, God. Why are you asking me that? Why are you even acting this perverted?
Andrew: Because we must continue the legacy of the legendary Jiraiya. Muahaha... *bang* (collapses to the ground unconscious)
Naruto: Dammit, stop acting like Jiraiya. (turns towards the audience) In any case, I hope you liked the chapter. See ya next time, which should hopefully be much sooner than this one. Bye.