Disclaimer: I own neither Naruto nor Highschool DxD, and make no profit writing about them.
(AN): Predicting a slowdown. Got an assignment and have to work more now, but I'll see if this one gets done before the new year.
Sweat beaded across Naruto's forehead, shining wet and slick under the California sun. The Gremory heir was dressed in cargo shorts, sneakers, and a thin blue t-shirt, but it did little to mitigate the sheer heat of Los Angeles in the height of summer. The clan lands back in Gehenna were much more temperate, and the sudden warmth was making his armpits all gross and sticky.
"You sure this is the right place?" the redhead asked for the third time, blue eyes tracking over the urban landscape to stare at Sairaorg. Against the wishes of their peerages, the two had decided that the first outing would be conducted by just the two of them. If things went poorly, at least it would only be the two of them getting raked over hot coals for it.
"We're just where we need to be Cuz, good ol' Boyle Heights. Unless you mean to tell me you don't trust your girlfriend." Sairaorg grinned, the older devil never taking his gaze away from the midday weekend crowd. The Bael heir waved at a few young staring Hispanic girls, sending the middle schoolers into giggling blushes.
Naruto couldn't blame them. Sairaorg was over six feet tall, all rippling muscles with a jaw that could cut steel. Standing next to his older cousin made the redhead feel much shorter and uglier than he was, if only because his second body hadn't outgrown puberty yet.
It was almost enough to give a man a complex.
"She's not my girlfriend."
"True. She's your fiancé and you luuuve her." Sairaorg mocked, handsome features twisting into a kissy face. "Ohh Ravel, ohh you've given me a tiny stiffy!"
"Eat shit, ya bastard." Rolling azure eyes as the taller devil wrapped his arms around himself and began to make kissing noises, Naruto shoved on by and began trekking down the street.
He left Sairaorg to get it back together and stop fucking around while he kept his ears pricked for information. The devil's 'language' ability instantly translated the rolling Spanish chatter into more recognizable syllables in Naruto's brain. Ninety-nine percent of what he'd pick up was going to be useless, but if he could just catch the first crumb of a lead, he'd have something to go on.
Ravel had been able to pinpoint a dozen urban and suburban neighbourhoods all across the United States that were densely populated by Mexican immigrants. Considering they were the modern-day descendants of the original Aztec peoples, if anyone was likely to have returned to the worship of the Mictlanese; it was them.
Latin America as a whole may be generally Roman Catholic, but the nationalist movements that had formed during decolonization had their interest in the traditional religions of their ancestors. The faith brought by European settlers was being rejected as alien, and they hoped to reclaim the traditional mythologies of their people.
The Mexicayotl movement was one such attempt, having formed during the 1950s and slowly growing since. In a way Naruto could respect their spirit, but he also recognized that it was… inconvenient, to say the least.
Perhaps in a better world the Gremory heir could have taken the time to learn more about them.
But Naruto wasn't in a better world. He was in this one, and he didn't want to humanize them. The more he humanized them, the more difficult it would be to kill them all.
A hand wrapped around Naruto's wrist, jerking the fourteen-year-old to a halt and forcing him to look up. Sairaorg's steel grip tightened in conjunction with the hardening of Sairaorg's gaze. "You're shaking, kid." The Bael heir noted, sharp frown tugging at his lips.
He was.
Tremors twitched through Naruto's limbs. They began in his fingers, shaking like a rattlesnake and intensifying as they slowly built up along his arms and into the muscles of his chest. It was almost like the world was greying on him a little bit, peeling away color by color as the sensation of imbalance rushed through his skull. Naruto was a child of violence, he was a fighter and a killer, but he had never been a butcher, and he –
"You should head home. I'll carry this burden, Naruto."
And he bit down on his lip. The taste of copper exploded over Naruto's taste buds, running hot and wet and bringing the whole world crashing back in. "No." the redhead denied, frantically throwing his mind back to forgotten childhood lessons in another world.
Breath slowly, relax all the muscles, and crush back the anxiety.
The pulse of his heart hammered in Naruto's chest, slowly pacing back down to normal levels. "I said I was ready to do this. I wasn't bullshitting you. Just need to psyche myself up a little bit is all."
"If you say so." Sairaorg murmured, releasing his hold and stepping back. A concerned light still shone in the dark-haired devil's eyes. Despite all the good-natured teasing, Sairiaorg had wanted to go the mission alone. Naruto might be old enough by the standards of Gehenna to fight and kill for their country, but Sairaorg had a soft spot for the young. He didn't have the right to stand in Naruto's way, but he still wanted to.
"Let's just get this done with." Naruto growled harshly, the sound tearing over his vocal chords. "There'll be time to get all emotional like a sissy when we're back home." Turning his back to his cousin, Naruto glared back out over the streets of Los Angeles.
"Don't let yourself get too hard, short stuff. I've seen some hard men in my day, and let me tell you it might make them strong, but it makes them brittle. You have to remember to bend."
Pretty words, but they were said by someone who didn't know Uzumaki Naruto. He hadn't changed the shinobi world by twisting around when things got tough. He hadn't saved Sasuke from an eternity of loneliness in the shadows by being easy to bend. He'd done it by being the most stubborn bastard around.
Naruto had sworn to change Gehenna, and he'd make himself as hard as he needed to be to do it.
Cool blue lightning arced wildly, forking in a dozen separate streams that flew in a dozen separate directions. The electrical storm widened before seeming to come to a sudden straining halt. A moment later, the sound of chirping birds quieted, and then the whole thundershower rapidly converged on a single point.
Thick bolts of electricity hammered into an elongated needle. The current travelled down the length of the spike in a split second, dissuaded by a thick pommel of rubber before it turned to rush across the length of a chain and into through a second steel barb into the dirt.
"Told you."
Yuuto flipped Sasuke the bird. "I hate you. So much." The blond Knight complained, unable to entirely repress the grin of exultation pulling at his mouth.
A week had been what Rias had convinced him to give up, and while it had taken nearly to the end of that time frame, that week was all Yuuto had to spend. In exchange, his Sacred Gear had evolved.
"What do you suppose I should name it?" Yuuto admired the specialized demonc sword for a moment. His Lightning-Grounding Sword looked like a giant knitting needle. There was no blade on the thing. It just came to an enormous shining point that acted like a lightning rod. Protecting his hands were a thick rubber hilt and round rubber crossguard. A chain dangled from about a quarter of the way up the spike, trailing down to a second much smaller needle that would ground any current he caught with the sword.
"Don't care."
Rias sighed, eying her Pawn with a scolding teal gaze. "And you were making such progress too." The Ruin Princess teased. "I'd almost thought we would be able to rehabilitate you with society at large."
Huffing through his nostrils, Sasuke eyed the other two devils before considering the newly created 'sword'. "Volt Redirect?" the Uchiha hazarded. It seemed to fit Yuuto's naming scheme. Keep everything short and to the point.
"Fair enough." Yuuto shrugged, dismissing his Sacred Gear with a thought and making the various conjured demonic swords scattered over the field vanish. "So, can I take a breather? Or do you have more wise ideas for me, oh great sensei?"
Rias waved her Knight off before Sasuke could offer an opinion. "It's fine. Go and rest, Yuuto. Sasuke has some training of his own to get up to."
Sasuke watched Yuuto rapidly vanish into the manor house. Then he turned coal dark orbs on his unflinching mistress. "What?" he cocked an eyebrow as the redhead silently stared back. "Do you have something on your mind?"
"I had a thought." Rias hummed distantly, dropping her focus to consider Sasuke's strong pale fingers. "You consider your Chidori to be something of a signature don't you? The Chidori itself, the Chidori Eisou, Chidori Nagashi, Chidori Senbon, Chidorigatana – outside of the common magic shared by all devils, all of your attacks are derived from it."
"What of it?" Sasuke demanded, forcing back the urge of defensiveness. Unlike Naruto he hadn't been gifted with nearly unending wells of magical energy, and he'd spent many years fumbling through the arts of sorcery. There had been a lot to unlearn.
As far as he was concerned, recreating his favourite jutsu from his shinobi days was a bit of an achievement. Training until he could omit the crutch of casting through glyphs and form all the magic internally was just the cherry on top.
"It's a strong technique, and very versatile." Rias reassured her Pawn, bringing her hands palm up to waist level. "But don't you think it's time to diversify?" To emphasize, she summoned up a small ball of mingled red and black Power of Destruction in one hand. In the other, she cradled an orb of lurid blood red fire. "Relying on only one element is a weakness."
Sasuke had to admit she had a point.
When he'd been a shinobi he'd never allowed himself to grow overly dependent on a single type of technique. While he'd used Chidori frequently, he trained in various Katon jutsu as well. And once he'd attained the Mangekyou Sharingan, he'd never allowed himself to grow rusty with any other jutsu despite relying on his doujutsu powers much of the time.
"That's easier to say than actually do." The dark-haired devil pointed out.
Crushing both conjured spheres of enchantment by clenching her fists, Rias lifted her chin and smirked. "I will teach you, so you have no excuse to avoid this. Learn to take your medicine like a good boy." While the stance was imperious, the whole effect was a bit ruined by the fact that Rias was about half a foot shorter than Sasuke.
Against his will, the Uchiha found himself smirking back. "Fine then, since you're so eager about it."
Naruto hit the church doors like a bullet train, crashing through cheap spruce gates and into the chapel in a flurry of splinters. The sound of Sairaorg's concerned shout just barely passed through the wind whistling by his ears, but the Gremory heir couldn't stop.
He wouldn't stop.
If he stopped, he might have a chance to reconsider.
The fact that there was no holy sting raging through his body confirmed his suspicions even before he saw the tiny sigils etched into the marble skin of the church's Christ statue. If the building had been consecrated once in the name of the God of the Bible, it was no longer. And the only thing that could de-consecrate land was to re-consecrate it to a different god.
The tiny chantry was under new management, which meant everyone inside was fair game.
Cries of surprise echoed through the air as half a dozen men lurched to their feet. Five of them looked like normal everyday salarymen, wearing simple slacks and button up shirts.
Only the last looked like the stereotypical nationalist thug, tribal tattoos winding up the thick curls of his arms.
Naruto went after him first.
Blurring across the room in a streak of blue and crimson, Naruto yanked the pocket knife he'd bought from a street vendor from his pocket. They'd all agreed that when the deed was done, no magic would be involved. Murders that looked like they were done by simple humans were more likely to be overlooked than those that had the stink of magic in the air.
In the end, it probably wouldn't make much of a difference. Sooner or later, they'd get caught, and then Gehenna would disavow them. The Thirteen Heavens would pretend to believe it hadn't been a government sanctioned suicide squad to avoid the conflict of open war with the entire Biblical faction, Naruto and his comrades would be probably executed, and the Aztecs would keep a closer eye on their flock.
All being careful did was make sure the death toll would be higher in the end. It made Naruto feel like a fucking serial killer, and when hot sticky blood splashed over his hand as he sliced through the throat of the tattooed middle aged biker, he felt even more like a disgusting murderer.
"I'm sorry." He ineffectually apologized to the dying man as red life spurted from the ruins of the man's throat.
Then he was moving again, a flash of steel in the flickering candlelight of the chapel. Again and again he cut short their innocent lives, whispering 'sorry' after each body hit the ground.
The pocketknife broke in the throat of the last man, leaving the wrinkled grandfather to choke to death instead of being granted the peace of a quick death. "I'm sorry, but I have to do this." Naruto almost begged those accusing brown eyes before they glazed over with death.
"Fuck."
Sairaorg's curse shattered the morbid silence like a gunshot. The Bael heir took one look at his younger cousin's gore splattered appearance and felt his stomach turn to lead.
He knew he should have made the kid stay behind.
Snapping his fingers in front of dazed blue eyes, Sairaorg roused the redhead with a sharp bark of his name. "Naruto!"
"You're slow." Snickering under his breath, Naruto refocused his attention on his cousin with such intensity that Sairaorg had to recoil from the mingled ice and desolation in the fourteen-year-old's face. "That's six-to-nil for me." The taunt fell flat in the heavy air.
"Sure." Sairaorg muttered guardedly, settling a heavy hand over Naruto's shoulder and carefully steering the younger man out of the mess of bodies.
They were lucky it was evening, or they'd never get away with Naruto looking like he personally bathed in the blood of innocents.
There was no telling how long it would take humans to stumble on the murder scene, and they needed to get out and get home quick. Both so he could try to figure out what to do with his rattled cousin, and to make sure they avoided any attention - supernatural or otherwise.
"Let's just head on back and get cleaned up, yeah?"
Naruto hummed his wordless agreement.
Ravel was just about to snap at Kuisha for fretting for the billionth time when Sairaorg poked his head through the library doors.
"Saiarorg!" the older blonde instantly brightened, rushing across the library and hovering around her King like an orbiting moon. The Queen was so obviously in love with the man that it reminded Ravel of her own distinct lack of a love life.
Slamming her book shut with a grumble, the Phenex girl shoved it back into one of the bookshelves before stalking on over to the Bael heir. "About time you got back." Ravel complained stridently.
The rest of Sairaorg's peerage had been sent elsewhere hours ago – it wasn't good to have a bunch of them gathered around if they didn't want the attention.
Which had left Ravel with the increasingly worried Abbadon girl. The Queen was smart enough, but she'd become increasingly intolerable the more worked up she got.
"I was just about to tie this one up and…" Trailing off at the utterly serious expression on the dark-haired devil's face, Ravel swallowed back a sudden frisson of fear. "Where's Naruto? She demanded, mind racing. Had he been captured? Did someone or something give him away? Had the redhead somehow been killed?
"Well, he's… it's probably best if you come see for yourself." Sairaorg muttered, opening the door wider and standing stiffly. "Kuisha, you head on home. I'll just be here for a bit."
"But-"
"Now."
The two nobles watched as Kuisha glumly teleported away.
Tension thick enough to be cut with a knife built as Sairaorg grimly led Ravel through the maze of corridors in the Gremory estate. The mansion seemed deserted, what with most of the older devils gone out to direct the war effort, and the isolation did nothing to calm Ravel's worry.
"Can you just tell me?" Ravel growled when the stress became unbearable.
Sairaorg shook his head slowly. "It's best if you just see it for yourself. We succeeded, but he did all the killing himself. And it got to him."
Exhaling slowly, Ravel considered the implications of that revelation. Digging back through her memories, she tried to piece together the few snippets of psychology she had bothered to study. The study of the human mind had some similarities, but they were a different species from devils.
Like all of their kind, Naruto had been raised to kill. But the Gremory clan seemed closer to humans than many other devil clans, so her fiancé was likely strangling himself with guilt over what he'd done. She just hoped she wouldn't be walking in to see him having a psychotic break.
"This is where I leave you." Sairaorg stopped in front of a door halfway down one of the hallways. "I couldn't get through to him, but maybe you'll have a better shot at it." He offered uncertainly, moving aside. "Good luck."
Ravel straightened her back and nodded before plodding on into the room. It was one of many bedrooms scattered about the enormous mansion, clean and kept in order by a legion of maids. Swiftly she scanned the room, only to find it empty.
Hiss.
The blonde gazed nervously at a small door in the opposite corner of the room. She could hear the faint sound of running water, which meant Naruto was in the shower. Her fiancé was in the shower, steam wreathing his naked form. Maybe he was even running a bar of soap over the young but muscled planes of his stomach.
Heat suffused the Bishop's face. Bad Ravel.
It was not the time to be exploring perverse thoughts. The Gremory heir wasn't in the shower wet and ready for a romp. He was depressed at having murdered a handful of humans. It was more likely he was drowning himself in the tub.
Her face went pale, and Ravel lurched across the bedroom to hover anxiously in front of the white painted door. Pressing a hand against the surface, the blonde gently pushed at it and let the slab of wood swing inward a few inches. "Naruto?"
After a long beat, her fiance's voice echoed through the marble washroom. "Hey, spitfire." The was so much agonized defeat in his tone that before she could stop herself she was slipping into the fog filled bathroom.
Ignoring the wet heat, she cautiously crossed over until she was standing next to the shower stall. Carefully facing away from the curtain, the Bishop mustered up her courage before stuttering out a greeting. "H-hey. I heard you weren't doing the greatest."
The blood rushing into her head was going to make her faint. She knew it. Ravel was going to hit the ground and end up making a complete and utter fool of herself like a ditzy bimbo out of one of Rias' anime.
Naruto's drew in a long breath before giving a bitter chuckle. "So they tell me."
Ravel folded her arms over her chest, gripping so tightly to her biceps that her nails began to dig through the pink satin of her dress. "I won't pretend to know how you feel." she chewed the inside of her cheek. "But I do know you did the right thing."
"Bullshit."
Clenching her jaw so tightly she was surprised she didn't crack a tooth, Ravel steeled herself. Then she spun around on her heel, one manicured hand coming out to catch the shower curtain and tear the sheet of cloth right off its bar.
Well, he wasn't naked.
Droplets of water began to almost instantly sprinkle over her face and chest, but Ravel ignored it.
Naruto was sitting with his knees up to his chest on the bottom of the tub. The shower rained down on the redhead, soaking his red strands until they were as dark as the blood she could see slowly rinsing out of his blue t-shirt and running down the drain.
Brushing off the way Naruto gave her a wide-eyed look of shock, Ravel stepped into the spray and knelt in front of him so she could meet him eye to eye. Her airy prepared curls quickly came undone as her blonde hair was soaked through, pouring down her back in a tumbled mess.
At least her dress was pink and thick rather than white or thin. She hadn't come to give Naruto a show. This time anyway.
"Listen to me." She ordered, bringing her hands up to cup over Naruto's pale cheeks. The sharp points of her thumbnails were scant millimeters away from prodding into the redhead's eyelids, but neither devil paid any mind to them. "There are millions of lives depending on you. Will you have to do things that you don't want to do? Things that you hate? Yes. And I know you'll do them, because I know you, Naruto. You're a good man, and you'd never turn your back on this country when it needs you."
"What makes you so sure?"
"Hmm, let's see." The Bishop decided to sprinkle her example with the truth. "Did you know that because of our healing ability, the Phenex clan prefers corporal punishment? Ever since I was a little girl, if I misbehave my grandfather would beat me until he broke a bone or two."
"What?" Naruto roared, shooting to his feet like a rocket, dragging the blonde up with him. "That fucking bastard! I'll pull his brain out through his fucking asshole! I'll break every god damn bone in his body and see how he likes it!"
Soft laughter burst from Ravel's mouth, and she let her hands drop from her fiance's face to rest on his shoulders. "It's because of that. I know you're a good man, because if I say something like that you instantly forget about your own problems in favour of mine. You are always putting other people before yourself. How could someone like that ever be a bad person?"
Naruto's jaw dropped open as he took in Ravel's impish smile. "But that – but you – huh?" Shaking the frazzled shock from his brain, he glared at the 'trick' before letting his expression soften into a tired grin. "You're a real bitch, you know that?"
"Are you just figuring this out now? Come on, boy. Keep up."
"That was a pretty dirty thing to lie about, you have to admit."
"Well, it wasn't that much of a lie. Whoopsie…"
"Excuse me?"
"When exactly did I agree to this?"
"Probably around the time you told Koneko-chan the quickest way to improve was fear of pain, and began to throw your Chidori Senbon at her to get her to move quicker?"
"…Shit."
Akeno winked with sense of sadistic amusement. Then she called up twin glowing yellow runic circles and began to launch volleys of golden lightning at Sasuke. "Less dodging and more casting, Sasu-chi." The Queen sing-songed, floating after the Uchiha's dodging figure and throwing more bolts of electricity at him.
Ducking under a zigzagging crackle of sorcery, Sasuke gave a huff of annoyance and glared at Rias. Truthfully he wasn't enough of a hypocrite to get upset of her dishing out the same tactics he'd used during the few kenjutsu lessons he'd been able to give her before their styles had to diverge, but that didn't make it any more enjoyable.
Rias only favoured her Pawn with an apologetic shrug. "Don't make me come over there. Dodge less or I'll have to help Akeno throw more at you."
Grunting at the warning, Sasuke skid to a stop in the dirt and turned to face Akeno. Dark eyes glittered with resolve as the Uchiha's focus went inward. Deeper, to the flow of supernatural energy running through his demonic flesh. Deeper, to the creative emotional sea that he had unwillingly nurtured since being reborn in Gehenna.
It was not, in the end, that he was incapable of wielding fire. There were very general spells that were commonly taught to all devils, and the ability to throw up a circle glyph and use it to convert magic to a burst of flame or water wasn't overly difficult. The hard part came in converting that very basic foundation into something more powerful and unique. The Chidori itself was powerful because it omitted the constraints of runes and relied only on raw electrical magic folded on itself over and over.
Akeno's elemental magic was so ferocious because she'd bred the devil enchantment with the Shinto hexes that her mother had passed down to her. When the half-fallen-angel was in earnest – rather than just trying to give Sasuke a bit of a sting – her attacks were ten times more forceful than the weak empty flames Sasuke was able to throw back by relying on 'common magic'.
Amber lightning flashed by Sasuke's cheek, almost caressing the skin as it left a stinging welt along the pale flesh of the Uchiha's face. He paid it no mind, circling round and round the course of his thoughts. As long as he stayed still, Akeno's aim would be more than good enough to keep the spells painful but nondamaging.
"Why did you stop?" the Queen questioned, letting a careful lash of her magic flow into the muscle of Sasuke's thigh. Under her stare her friend's leg twitched at the current, but stayed strong and unmoving. "Did you give up? Or maybe…" she lifted a hand to her cheek and gave a slow sigh. "Maybe you decided you're a good little masochist?"
No reply.
Sasuke's black orbs remained silent and sharp as a viper as he weighed the Thunder Priestess. Every pulse of his heart seemed slower, expression going colder and more focused. "Don't stop." he ordered dully, making the faces of the girls grow tighter with concern.
When Sasuke had trained under Orochimaru, one lesson that had been hammered into him time and again was the importance of meditation. The rebel scientist had waxed on and on about the importance of clearing the mind to devote all energy to the pursuit of knowledge. If the mind was as still and sharp edged as a shard of ice, it would pierce the fog of ignorance through the power of reasoning.
The Uchiha had never taken to it like his instructor had. Orochimaru could fall into meditation anywhere at anytime. The sennin could look into the heartbeat of a candle, fall into the wash of chatter in a crowd, give up himself to the flow of the wind. Compared to the scientist, Sasuke had been a fidgeting child, unable to stop focusing on the thirst for vengeance in the quiet moments when left alone with his thoughts.
There were only two ways to meditate Sasuke had ever mastered. The first was standing beneath the crash of a waterfall. Beauty and force combined were able to beat some sensation of serenity into the Uchiha's mind.
The second was what a sadistically amused Orochimaru had called 'the obliterator'. Unrelenting, unadulterated pain. The gleaming edge of agony sliced through the fog of extraneous thought, forcing the body to release a cocktail of hormones in the instinct to fight or flee. Everything was forced back to one purpose, the mind seeking truth like an unerring compass.
It was the second method of meditation Sasuke turned to now, letting the strikes of an increasingly frazzled Akeno roll across the flesh of his body. Lightning was much flashier compared to the venom Orochimaru had preferred, but it did the job. "Don't stop." He demanded again, sinking into the pain.
Everything coalesced into a single crystal purpose: fire.
The electricity of the Chidori was in a way a cold flame. When he had been a shinobi, that similarity between the Katon of his youth and the Raiton of his adolescence had seemed to almost mimic Sasuke himself. Hot fire and cold lightning both twisted unceasingly, looking for outlets to flow through and into the universe.
That was the way of energy.
When lightning magic moved, it did so with relentless icy intent. It ran from his heart to his hand, and out into the air in a flickering storm that sought the way of least resistance. Shaping the Chidori was all about introducing resistance, providing walls shaped of magic that would either contain the electricity outright or direct it.
Fire didn't seek the shortest and most efficient route. Fire burned. It fed on itself and everything around it, raging as it required a constant stream of fuel to survive. The mere existence of a path to travel along was not enough, that path had to be littered with a trail of sacrifices to destroy.
If strong lightning magic required leashing all passions into a common purpose and driving on unerringly towards the end, strong fire magic required freeing all passions and letting them seek what they would. Lightning was a sorcery of the mind. Fire was an enchantment of the heart.
Devils were creatures of passion.
Give in.
Sasuke drew a deep breath, riding the slow inflation of his lungs. Dark eyes fell half lidded, tracking from one devil girl to the other. "Stop worrying." He told them, stepping forward as the last feeble trickle of Akeno's spells cut out entirely.
"I know what I'm doing." The Uchiha informed Rias before turning to a frowning Akeno and letting off a nostalgic chuckle. "You look like my mother."
"What?" the Thunder Priestess blinked in confusion as Sasuke drew nearer.
"She had a similar look when she was worried." Sasuke stopped in front of the befuddled Queen, lifting up his hand to poke her between the eyebrows. "Just like you, she'd get all scrunched up right there. But she never wore her hair like you."
Silence hung as the two women gaped at his sudden flight of fancy.
Shrugging, Sasuke reached up and snapped the hair tie that bound Akeno's midnight tresses up into a ponytail. "The hair is longer, but otherwise you could be her twin." He sighed wistfully, drawing back.
"You don't need to get so worked up." He smirked at Rias when the Ruin Princess made an abortive motion to reach for his forehead. "It didn't scatter my brain. I'm just following the advice you gave me."
"What advice?"
"'Devils are creatures of emotion'. That's what you told me. Anger, hate, love, lust – 'the greater the strength of your desires, the greater your spells with become'." Dropping his gaze to give a contemplative stare to the empty palm of his hand, Sasuke reached.
He reached for the quiet happiness he gained from teasing Koneko and Yuuto. He reached for the utter rage he'd felt when the tengu struck Rias down. He reached for the despair he'd acknowledged when he had decided he couldn't stand by Naruto's side this time. He reached for the shame and desire he'd had, all those months ago in the bath.
Sasuke reached for his magic.
And his magic reached back.
"Koujin".
Fire crackled into existence, filling the cup of his right hand and glowing a mingled yellow and red. Sasuke needed no runic structure to rely on or tool as a crutch.
The only thing he needed was passion.
(AN): 5300 words. Much faster than I thought. There might be a couple more errors than usual since I'm going to post this before work. I'll keep working at it. Enjoy.
The only thing I wanted to point out was one reviewer commented about how Naruto doesn't really wow us despite everyone talking about how strong he is for his age. Remember he hasn't really been in any real fights. The one with Rias was about him not wanting to hurt her, and then instantly ending it when he decided to. Every fight after that was essentially him one/two-shot killing the enemy. Kind of hard to go all out when the power difference is that big.