The Legacy of the Most Unpredictable Ninja

by RekkingPride

After checking up on a strange rift in space and time, Naruto ended up in a foreign land where new allies and enemies await. However, his wish to bring peace to his home still resonated...so he will do everything he can to return home, no matter what! 3 Crossovers mixed right, with a 4th on the way. A new narrative with believable characters! Strong!Naruto and mostly in-character!

34. Chapter 34

AN: I give up on the 'don't write such large chapters' thing. I just couldn't make this smaller. It all was necessary at this point in time. Actually, I cut out a little bit in here, as I wanted to expand on what was going on in the Underworld since last time, but alas, too much. I agree with BentShuriken, this site needs a bookmark system...

Oh well, enough rambling. Long chapter ahead, beware! :P

---

"Oh come on...! Can't you let us get some pictures? It will only take a minute! The public is dying to know about-"

"I apologize ma'am, but this area is off-limits to public eyes, mostly because a careful investigation is underway, so please be patient."

The female reporter huffed as her attempt at getting inside the small forest was rebuffed by the stoic police officer. This was her big break...she needed to get this story before anyone else!

She was determined to get in!

Hazel eyes watched as the reporter continued to heckle the police man in order to get inside, obviously believing that she could try and charm her way in.

Good. She had time then.

Koneko was right outside of the small forest that surrounded the abandoned church, which has obviously gained quite a bit of attention recently. Prepared to enter it and search for clues to find her lost family member.

Her eyes quickly flitted behind her, at the same direction of Kuoh Academy, a small frown growing on her face.

By this point everyone should have noticed that she was gone by now...

She hoped that she didn't worry everyone too much, she simply did not have the patience to wait while everyone gathered up to go out all at once.

When Naruse Mio came in to the ORC club room to tell everyone about what she heard from the news, the rook already realized that the information was time-sensitive.

To put it simply, they had to check the church quickly so that the trail that their fellow devil left behind doesn't go cold.

And she was sure that he was involved in this.

So, while everyone was distracted in having a question-and-answer session, the young girl took the chance to sneak out, completely undetected.

Hopefully Buchou would forgive her for her unconventional actions later.

But, as they say; it's better to ask for forgiveness than for permission.

With this logic in hand, she quickly used her superior speed as a devil to run past the humans guarding the forest undetected, moving deeper into the area for the first real clue of Yuuto's location.

As she made her way through, she noticed just how...battered the small forest actually was, as the damage wasn't obvious when looking from the outside.

There were small craters all over the place, as well as the dead bark of uprooted trees that littered the area. All supplemented by small barren wastelands where the healthy soil was obliterated, leaving just the harder ground in it's wake.

An environmentalist's nightmare, really.

She had no idea how badly damaged the area actually was until now, it was kind of strange to see it like this after what happened the last time she was here...

Koneko's eyes narrowed slightly as she remembered the large barrier that surrounded the forest, the one that the fallen angels built up when they had a presence in Kuoh Town.

It was Naruto-sempai who dealt with them, and it was the first time that the Gremory team truly entrusted him with something important.

She was at the place where the foundation of their current relationship began.

Did Yuuto think about that when he entered the area? What was going through his head now?

"...I've never seen anything like this. Have you sir?"

Koneko skidded to a sudden stop and hid behind a broken tree, peeking around it to see a few men scattered about in front of her.

Hazel eyes took in the scene of what looked like several police officers that were milling around the abandoned church, probably talking about the damage done to the building and the area.

"No. Never. I have never seen anything like this before...to be honest, I'm genuinely not too sure about what could have caused this. The damage seems to be too intensive for normal hooligans..."

The rook frowned at what she was hearing, taking the chance to actually check up on the building itself now that she was in viewing distance to it.

What she saw shocked her, especially since this was the first one that she actually saw the building that was the focus of two separate conflicts now...

The building was a complete wreck, it's ceiling was thoroughly caved in and rubble was all that was left of it's walls.

But that wasn't what was so...'notable' about it, not by a long shot.

What stood out about it was the fact that several ice spikes were jutting out from the ground, there were small fires that were burning what remained of the wooden stalls, as well as large columns of earth replacing the concrete columns that once held the ceiling aloft.

The reincarnated devil leaned closer, her heart beating faster as she clenched her fist.

This was it...Yuuto was definitely involved with this.

The young teen snapped her head back to focus on the police officers and investigators that were meticulously studying the supernatural residue, she needed to knock them out in order to-

Hazel eyes widened, then moved upwards, her lungs breathless.

Something has shifted...

She felt it...as if she suddenly changed locations.

No...as if the location itself had changed.

"...Barrier." Koneko determined conclusively, as her eyes took in the change in the sky.

Then that meant that Buchou had caught up to her...

"Hey...guys...do you feel a little...?" she heard one of the human officers mumble out, before she heard the tell-tale sounds of people falling onto the ground.

*thud*

*thud*

*thud*

Koneko peeked out from her hiding spot, seeing the unconscious forms of the human investigators that littered the area.

...She didn't have much time left, but at least her main obstacles were out of the way.

Taking the chance that was provided to her, the devil quickly closed the distance between herself and the dilapidated building, entering it once she reached the shattered doorway.

As expected, the floor was littered with small craters, likely created via supernatural forces, as well as the residue demonic energy that was left behind from the elemental based attacks.

Koneko twitched when she moved closer to the ruins, a shiver going down her spine as the residue of another energy source became obvious to her.

Light.

"...Fallen angels?" the rook couldn't help but wonder, remembering their presence the last time that she neared the area.

But...this place was emptied out by Naruto-sempai...right?

Did that mean that fallen angels were trying to reestablish this church as a base?

More importantly...where did all of the hypothetical combatants go...?

One thing was for certain, the only way to find an answer was to search the area for clues, to find a trail of sorts.

So Koneko did just that, walking steadily and sometimes climbing over rubble in order to find some sort of elusive hint to her friend's location.

After a brief check, she very quickly determined that there was nothing obvious that could lead her to Yuuto's trail, which meant...

"...Time to dig." she muttered, clenching her small fists and raising them over her head...

Then sending them towards the ground, breaking and shattering all that was in it's way.

Maybe there was nothing above the ruins, but there just might be something that was buried underneath it. Lost in the confusion of battle.

She would leave no stone unturned.

Gritting her teeth, Koneko began to repeatedly hit the broken pieces that once consisted of the church's ceiling and walls, effectively digging through it like a makeshift sledgehammer.

Hazel eyes were firm and focused, despite the turmoil that laid within her heart.

She wouldn't give up on this, she couldn't, not now and not ever.

She wouldn't lose a second family. No matter what.

---

"I just can't believe it! How could she be so reckless!? For all we know, there could have been an ambush waiting for us when we entered the forest! There was a reason that we moved out as a group! I just don't-!"

"Rias. Calm down."

The Gremory heiress ended her tirade prematurely after she was rebuked by Sona, forcing herself to stop and take a deep breath in order to calm down.

Mio watched her fellow red-head warily, knowing that she must have been really pushed to the edge in order to lose her composure so thoroughly.

The small group of devils just left behind most of Sona's Peerage in order to take to the sky, leaving them behind to moniter the barrier that was just put into place around the abandoned church and the forest surrounding it.

Well...what was left of the forest anyways.

More than that, all the humans that were trapped inside the barrier were quickly put to sleep, and the Sitri group had the unfortunate task of modifying everyone's memories of everything they've seen here. Essentially making sure that the only conclusion that any reporter could reach about the perpetrator's of the church's damages is through the mundane, rather than the supernatural.

Probably regular human hoodlums, or something of the sort.

The task of everyone else? Find Koneko and find Yuuto.

Everything else comes later.

So what was left of the Gremory group as well as the king and queen of the Sitri group were flying straight towards the church.

...Then again, what Mio meant by 'what was left' pretty much meant just Rias-sempai and Akeno-sempai by this point.

Since Rias-sempai's only pawn was currently...

Her train of thought was suddenly cut off when she saw the telltale signs of a building enter her view.

"...I see it!" Mio called out the second that the church came into view, alerting everyone else.

As expected, the remains of the small church came into view as the group of devils quickly reached the center of the battered forest, with several noticing something...'off' about it's appearance.

"...Are those ice spikes sticking out of the ground? As well as small fires?" Akeno voiced out, asking the question that everyone was thinking about.

Indeed, through the collapsed ceiling, many of the devils could see the sharp glint of ice inside the building, along with the bright glare of small fires burning inside.

"I'd say so." Sona stated, voice neutral, but her eyes calculating. "It seems that there was quite the battle here. Let's hope that we can gain some valuable insight through the wreckage...as well as your Peerage members, Rias."

The red-head was far too frustrated to respond properly, so she decided not to respond at all, focusing her energy on calming down her simmering anger.

It didn't take them long to finally reach the church and land in it's front door, prepared for a fight if necessary.

But Rias didn't even bother to wait, instead choosing to stroll right inside, features tense as she quickly scanned the area for her lost family members.

Mio took a step forward, trying to grab the older teen's arm in order to encourage her to calm down and be more cautious.

But there was no need, since the Gremory heiress herself stopped moving in order to stare at something.

Pink eyes followed her gaze once Mio caught up, taking in the crouched form of the white-haired young girl that ran off ahead of all of them.

"Well...there's one." Sona noted, walking up to them and surveying the building. "...I sense light energy here..."

If Rias was paying attention, she didn't verbalize it, as she quickly stormed up to her rook an angry lecture at the tip of her tongue-

"I found it." Koneko's quiet voice echoed in the small abandoned church.

Blue-green eyes focused momentarily onto what the younger teen was focusing on, confusion in their depths.

Then they widened, realizing what exactly she was looking at.

Mio moved closer to the two silent females, curious to what exactly caught their attention, peeking over the loli's head to see...

What the half-devil saw surprised her; an extraordinarily damaged and yet still functional set of stairs that led to...well...somewhere underground probably.

Mio moved her gaze back to Koneko, about to question her on how she found this obviously hidden secret of the building.

"I dug through the rubble." the rook stated bluntly, as if she somehow knew Mio's question before she even asked it. "I found it by accident while I was searching for clues. It was already open...just caved in."

Unwittingly, pink eyes traveled to the devil's fists when she mentioned them, her pupils growing fractionally bigger when the scratches on her knuckles became clear.

...She must've been trying to find clues to the missing knight's location using those fists of hers for a while now...

"Koneko-chan, we will definitely be having a discussion about your actions later on." Rias began, giving the younger female a reprimanding look. "But for now...we should take this chance to search this underground area...especially considering the little blood trail."

The rook nodded solemnly, bowing her head slightly. "...Sorry."

Blue-green eyes remained focused on the white-haired girl for a split-second, then moved to the stairway underground.. "Let's go."

With that, the high-class devil began walking down the steps carefully, gazing into the darkness below.

Koneko demurely followed after her, wisely deciding that she pushed her king far enough today.

Mio took a step forward, prepared to follow after the two teens.

Then she paused, remembering her sempai saying something strange...

"...Blood trail?" Mio echoed quietly, eyes moving downwards to see what the older female was talking about-

Oh.

Blood.

On the floor.

Little blood stains were trailing down from the base of the stairway to deeper inside, a trail of blood...

Someone must have gotten hurt and retreated inside to recuperate, at least that was Mio's first guess...

"Come on Mio-chan, we can't leave Buchou and Koneko behind you know~?" Akeno spoke up, tapping her shoulder lightly with a amused smile.

Feeling her cheeks redden faintly, the red-head nodded and quickly shuffled after the two devils, keeping a wary eye out for any traps that might have been placed for any nosy trespassers along the way.

---

"Hello? Is there anyone home?" Asia called out softly, peeking through the crack that she made by opening the door.

Emerald eyes tried to pierce through the darkness of the room, but they couldn't manage that, so the nun decided to simply enter the room to make doubly sure that there was no one present.

But the young blond couldn't help but sigh as she slowly walked inside the ORC club building, feeling down that everyone was helping out and doing something important...except her.

She knew that it wasn't anything personal, it was just the simple fact that she couldn't keep up with the fast-paced devils due to their strong bodies.

When everyone was focused on chasing down a speed-focused fighter like Kiba-san...well, it was obvious that they needed to be as fast as they could be as a group.

...It still made the nun a little depressed though, since she couldn't do her part to help because of her relatively weak body. Even if she was improving in other fields.

That train of thought ceased the same second that she actually entered the main room and saw...something.

A crouched form right in front of the Gremory team's king's desk, shaking faintly.

Asia watched the form warily, wishing that she could see in the dark so that she could get a better look, but seeing that that wasn't exactly an option, she opted to take a step forward and call out to it. "H-Hello...?"

The form's head snapped to her, freezing her in place as all of it's attention was placed onto her.

Then without warning, the form jumped up from the ground and dashed towards her, far too fast for her to react in time.

Asia reflexively closed her eyes shut, tensing as she felt a pair of arms warp themselves around her.

"A-Asia...!" the young man cried out, words heavily slurred.

The female human's eyes reopened when the voice that came out of the man's mouth registered in her ears, recognizing it.

"...Issei-san?" the nun questioned softly, patting the teen's back as the tension in her frame quickly bled out.

Hyoudou Issei lifted his head up, waterfall tears trailing down his face as a depressive air engulfed his very essence. "...I was left behind Asia."

The young female tilted her head cutely. "What do you mean? Where is everyone? Why are you here by yourself?"

The pawn's lip quivered faintly as the questions that were launched against him forced him to face reality. "...I can't..."

Asia leaned in, honestly befuddled. "You can't...?"

If possible, the depressive air that already surrounded his form became more bleaker, crushing his spirit indefinitely.

"...I can't fly." he muttered, self-pity obvious.

The nun stared at the young man, trying to comprehend the significance of his words, but failing to see it.

Seeing her blank stare, Issei tried to muster whatever dignity he had left in order to straighten his body and puff his chest out. Determined despite the flow of waterfall tears down his cheeks.

"I...can't fly!" he declared, raising his fist into the air for the sake of his only audience.

The young female couldn't really respond, far too shocked to do so.

Issei did his best to retain his dignity with this 'mission' that Buchou gave him, but he was having a rally hard time at doing that with how pathetic it was...

He knew why of course, he would slow down everyone else who would take to the sky due to their rush to the abandoned church.

But still...being assigned to 'protect' the ORC club building...?

He could already feel his small bit of pride he had left crumble.

It was at this point of concentration to such internal issues, that he felt a faint tickle at the bag of his throat...

*Achoo!*

Asia placed her small hand onto Issei's forehead, concerned. "Issei-san, are you getting sick?"

The pawn grunted, eye twitching when he remembered that he hasn't been getting a lot of sleep after his training. So maybe something like that would have gotten him sick.

...But he still had his job to do, despite how ridiculous it was.

"Hey Asia-san? Care to kill some time with me?" the brown-haired teen asked with a tired grin, quirking an eyebrow at her.

The still-human nun beamed, glad to see some semblance of positivity return to her friend's face.

"Of course!"

*Achoo!*

"...But maybe we should get some medicine for you, Issei-san..."

---

"...Looks like the cave-in was a bit more extensive then we thought."

Hums of agreement echoed in the small stairway as the small group reached an obstacle in their path.

The final stretch of the journey deep underground was impossible to undertake now, all thanks to the large amount of boulders that have clumped together to close off a large amount of the stairs.

At least that would have been the case if they were normal humans anyways.

"Ok, so if we try and completely destroy the rock pile in front of us, we might accidentally destroy the only thing that is supporting this part of the ceiling." Sona explained, analyzing the issue and seeking a work-around for it. "Perhaps it might be best that we create a new pillar of earth with our demonic energy to support-"

The high-class devil suddenly stopped speaking when a bright red light lit in front of her, all coming from her fellow pure-blood devil.

Rias took a step forward, blue-green eyes stormy, her demonic energy flaring to the point that her hair was defying gravity and floating in the air.

Specifically, her demonic energy was taking form in the visage of a crimson magic circle in front of her, a small and precise one.

"What...!? Wait!" Mio cried out, stretching her hand out. "The kaichou just said-!"

If the Gremory heard her attempt at a plea, she didn't acknowledge it, releasing the pent up energy in her magical construct without hesitation.

All of the devils inside the stairway covered their faces as dust flew up into the air, buffeting their bodies with pebbles and a blast of air.

Mio coughed as she swiped at the space in front of her, trying to get rid of the dust that was making her choke, doing her best to see through it. "R-Rias-sempai?"

In front of the blockaded area, Rias remained upright and firm, hand outstretched as it explored the crevices of the crumpled rocks. Studying it.

"...It's firm." the red-head noted with approval, tapping it with her knuckle. "Good enough to pass through without worry."

As the dust cleared and settled, everyone could finally see what exactly the heiress of the Gremory clan was talking about.

A hole right in the middle of the clump of rocks, small enough to allow the sides of the clump to remain, yet big enough to allow them access.

Almost as soon as Mio made that silent observation about the rock formation, her elder crouched down low and moved inside the hole she made, silent and intensely focused.

"...Ara ara, it seems that Buchou has lost all of her patience now...I'd say that Koneko's and Kiba-kun's rear ends are in danger at this rate, wouldn't you?" Akeno chirped, sliding a knowing gaze to the rook beside her.

Koneko shivered subconsciously, hands snaking to cover her behind in an attempt to stop the very real possibility of her king's 'punishment'.

She couldn't sit down without wincing for a few days after last time...

Mio gave the two reincarnated devils an incredulous look, unsure if she wanted to know what her fellow red-head would do to her Peerage members when she was so upset.

Sona moved past her as she was staring at the two devils, sighing in exasperation as she ducked to move through the hole as well. "Well...she did make sure to keep the rocks on the sides intact, keeping the stairway ceiling from falling down...so that's something I suppose."

The half-devil twisted her body to face the high-class devil's back, pointing at Rias-sempai's queen. "Wait, is...what Akeno-sempai said true? Does Rias-sempai really punish her Peerage members like that?"

She supposed that it made some sort of sense, but it didn't really fit in with her mental image of the Gremory heiress' personality at all.

Not even bothering to stop, Sona responded. "Yes, it is."

Mio coughed, faintly embarrassed that she got an affirmation. "That...well...I don't really have a comment for that actually."

The Sitri heiress tilted her head to the side to look at the red-head for a moment, a very faint smirk reaching her lips. "Is it really so surprising? You do realize that I've done it too, yes?"

This time the half-devil took an involuntary step backward, gaping at the admission.

Behind her, she heard the Sitri's queen hum in agreement. "Indeed, Saji has been on the receiving end of a thousand spankings once I believe."

Now Mio's complexion paled considerably, her hands moving to protect her behind in reflexive defense. "Ah...I see..."

Chuckling, Sona ducked into the hole that her friend made and followed after her, with Tsubaki moving right after her.

"Ufufu...you're too fun to tease sometimes, you know that Mio-chan?" Akeno giggled, patting her shoulder as she passed her to enter the hole herself.

Pink eyes glared after the sometimes-sadistic devil, grumbling under her breath all the while, but stopped as soon as a certain white-haired devil moved into her field of vision by preparing to go into the hole as well.

"Hey...wait."

Koneko froze mid-action in trying to get inside the hole, turning her head to the side so that her head's profile was visible to the red-head. "...Yes?"

Mio scratched her cheek, then twitched when she realized what she was doing and forced her hand back to the side of her hips. Annoyed that her nervousness was manifesting itself in such gestures.

She twitched again when she realized that her brother did that occasionally...

"Ah, sorry. It's just that I wanted to ask you a question...if you don't mind?" Mio questioned, attempting to flash a comforting smile.

If the rook was eased or not, she didn't show it. Her expression as neutral as always. "That's fine. I don't mind."

Nodding, the half-devil continued. "It's just that...well...a thousand spankings is pretty severe, and apparently it's something that you've suffered before. So...well, why did you go ahead and risk getting in trouble? Why not stay safe and stick to the group?"

Indeed, considering the criminal that was on the loose, the disappearance of Kiba Yuuto, and the obvious battle that occurred in the abandoned church...well, it was obvious that sticking together was not just a smart decision to make, but maybe even a necessary one. All things considered.

So for the teenaged girl to disregard that and go on ahead was...

Koneko inclined her head, closing her eyes as she let out some breath. "...I didn't have a choice."

Mio quirked an eyebrow, curious, but stayed silent.

Hazel eyes locked with pink ones, serious. "...Yuuto was involved...I had to go before we lost his trail again. If I didn't...Buchou wouldn't have arrived as quickly...because she wouldn't have been in a hurry to find and catch up to me."

Koneko turned away, demeanor surly. "I guess I...just didn't want the only plausible trail we had to fade away to time...to leave it to chance whether we got a clear trail to Yuuto or not. Even...if it meant getting punished for it later."

The young devil nodded to herself, firm in her belief, and then stretched out her hand to reach the hole to reach everyone else.

"Yes...the pain of a thousand spankings doesn't measure up to the potential loss of someone close...nowhere close. I won't leave Yuuto's return to chance." she concluded in the end, pulling herself inside the hole.

But as she was doing so, she felt a hand grip her shoulder, stopping her movements with surprising strength.

Koneko turned back to the understanding eyes of Naruse Mio, smiling softly.

"...Yeah...I don't think that a thousand spankings is so bad in comparison either." Mio murmured, shutting her eyelids down as unwitting thoughts of the people she cared about entered her mind.

The grip on the reincarnated devil's shoulder grew tighter without her input.

"...I won't let your 'family' lose such an important member. I'll help however way I can." the half-devil guaranteed, eyes sharpening as she snapped them open.

Koneko stayed silent, letting the other teen say what she had to say, completely unaffected by the words that was spoken from the heart.

So after a few more split-seconds, she turned away from her, face still stoic as ever.

Mio watched her go, her heart still believing all that she has said, but understanding how sudden it all was...

"Mio-san."

Pink eyes snapped back to the rook, whose body was now inside the hole.

"...Your 'family'..." the white-haired devil said, her voice so low that the red-head could barely hear it.

Koneko then tilted her head to the side, a hint of a smile stretching across her face.

"...I feel the same way for your 'family'. Buchou, Akeno, Issei-sempai...yes...I'm sure everyone else feels the same...just so you know. Like it or not, we're all stuck together...I think."

The half-devil's eyes widened in surprise, shocked to hear so much from the usually recalcitrant girl.

But that shock quickly bled into a happy smile, pleased to hear as such.

"Then please take care of me from now on, Koneko." Mio said, her new-found cheerful demeanor infectious.

So infectious that it made the rook chuckle a little, despite her penchant for stoicism. "...Please take care of me from now on as well...Mio."

With that, Koneko pulled herself inside the hole, following after everyone else.

Mio, in a much better mood, followed right after.

---

It didn't take Mio and Koneko that long to get out of the decent-sized hole, or that long to catch up to the rest of the group for that matter.

But the only reason that they managed to catch up was because everyone else was standing still and looking around the new room that they have reached, scanning for anything suspicious.

After making it to the bottom of the stairway, everyone saw that it led to a large chamber, one that contained strange rune-like symbols on the floor as well as a pyramid-like object that jut out in the middle of the room.

"Koneko-chan, Mio-chan, what took so long?" Rias questioned quietly, eyes scanning the room for any unwanted surprises.

Both teens glanced at one another momentarily, with Mio deciding to answer. "Ah, well...sorry, we got distracted."

"Enough about that." Sona quickly cut off, tone not allowing for any kind of argument. "We can talk after we get out of here, this isn't the time for it. Anyway, can anyone tell if someone's here or not?"

As the question rang out, everyone became quiet in order to allow those who have such sensing abilities to do their work. Everyone else making sure to stay on their toes in case they were attacked.

"...Blood." Koneko stated out loud, gaining everyone's attention as they turned to her.

Seeing this, she continued and pointed at a seemingly random spot on the floor ahead of them. "Over there, there's a small blood trail over there...probably from the same person who lost their blood back upstairs."

Rias and Sona exchanged glances, nodding towards one another after reaching an understanding without speaking.

Both girls moved forward, close to one another with their power flaring a little, prepared for a fight if necessary.

Seeing this, Mio took a step forward, confused why they decided to move all of a sudden.

Then something came flying in the corner of her eye.

Several things happened at the same second that she noticed that.

As if expecting it, the two pure-blood devils quickly stretched their wings apart and jumped into the air, just as something smashed against the ground where they were standing a second ago.

The two queens also stretched their wings and took flight, expressions serious as both formed magic circles and aimed them at the area where the attack came from.

It didn't take long for lightning and water to converge towards their intended target.

A blur moved away from that point in the ceiling, narrowly avoiding both attacks that easily ripped through the area.

Meaning that the rubble resulting from that destruction quickly destabilized other sections of the ceiling, with a large amount of dust and rocks falling towards the ground in a small avalanche.

Mio grit her teeth and stretched apart her own wings, setting off towards the blur in order to aid her comrades against...whoever they're fighting.

As she was soaring towards the blur, water rose up from the ground and moved towards the blur, forming four separate pillars all the while.

Those separate pillars of water surrounded their unknown opponent from four sides, and as soon as that was accomplished, they began to twist.

The water stopped moving in a forward fashion and spun around the blur, forming a ball of water that trapped their opponent inside the high pressure water. Not allowing their foe to escape from any angle.

"Now Rias!" Sona called out, eyebrows scrunched together in concentration as she focused on keeping their erstwhile enemy inside her trap.

"...Always the strategist, huh Sona?" Rias couldn't help but state in appreciation, a fond grin on her face as a crimson magic circle began spewing her Power of Destruction towards their trapped enemy.

The attack easily burned through the water, reaching the person inside.

...

A muffled explosion was heard inside the ball of water, covered up by the water that the Sitri heiress was keeping stable.

"Ah...! Wait, Rias-sempai!" Mio called out, finally reaching her in the air after her attack. "What if that was-!"

"Relax." Sona interjected, lowering the ball of water towards the ground as she turned her gaze to the younger teen. "Rias could have put much more power into her attack, whoever was in there...is definitely still alive."

She then turned to her friend, who was watching the ball of water intently. "...This person obviously isn't Kiba Yuuto, so while we technically don't need to hold back, we still need to speak with this person to find out where Rias' family member is. So killing this person isn't an option."

Mio nodded, understanding that line of reasoning, eyes sliding to the ball of water as it was slowly set down onto the ground.

Then her eyes widened when she saw a bright light emerge from inside the sphere...

The half-devil didn't hesitate, her reflexes kicking in as she charged straight to the water-made prison, her demonic energy being focused into the newly made magic circle that appeared on the palm of her hand.

She heard the surprised cry from her elder, but she ignored that, intensely focused on stopping what she feared was a sneak attack.

As she was moving ever closer, her sense of danger grew more acute and sharp as the light inside the water prison became more and more brighter.

Mio was forced to squint when the light became almost unbearable to look at, meaning...!

She grit her teeth and swung the hand that was holding the magic circle to her front, switching from using it as a weapon to using it as a shield.

It was a good thing that she did it too, as the shining little ball that was now close to the ground reached it's apex in luminosity just right at that moment...

And with it, came a bright light that shot out of it, aiming straight towards Mio.

Pink eyes widened to the size of saucers in recognition.

A light spear...!

The spear smashed against her magic circle, trying to harm her with it's poisonous energy, but her defense held firm and prevented it from touching her.

"Mio-chan! It's going to explode!" Rias-sempai's scream echoed in the large chamber, it's owner approaching her from behind.

And when the younger sister of the 'Unknown Variable' saw the deadly weapon glow bright against her shield, she knew that her elder was correct.

*BOOM*

Rias and Sona covered their faces when the explosion pushed them back, temporarily making them lose control of their flight.

But it also made them completely unaware of the fact that several glowing objects were flung out of the dissolving sphere of liquid, not aiming for them specifically, but aiming for...

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

Blue-green eyes snapped upwards as explosions erupted from the ceiling, shattering it and causing all of the affected areas to release all of the pent up rock that the structure was holding up.

And it was heading straight for them...!

Before she could even try and manage a defense, the red-head felt a small hand grab her from her ankle and pull her down to the ground, getting her out of the danger zone with incredible strength.

"Buchou...! Kaichou...!" Koneko called out, dragging the two kings to the ground as the veritable avalanche of rubble and dust came flying down at them. "We can't get away in time...!"

Sona glared at the falling ceiling as she was getting dragged down, brain working overtime, seeking a way out of the falling ceiling.

But nothing came to mind, her mind far too clouded to think up anything useful in such sudden circumstances.

It was at that moment that lightning and water appeared from below them, shredding through the first wave of rubble easily, laying the pressure of being crushed off of them.

Akeno and Tsubaki had their hands splayed out, focusing on giving Koneko enough time to take the two heiresses out of immediate danger with their powers even as it felt like the entire building was about to fall on top of their heads.

However, despite their efforts, more and more of the ceiling began to crumble down, bringing down large sections of the earth above along with it.

The worst part was that they couldn't put more power into their attacks either, as it would probably result in the rest of the already failing ceiling to fall apart, burying them all under a lot of rocks.

So when the rook finally managed to land onto the ground with both Rias and Sona still in one piece, the two queens immediately backed off and descended towards the ground to reach safety.

"Rias! We can't stay here!" Sona shouted, trying to speak over the din of the falling rubble. "We have to back off for now! Wait until we're sure that the ground won't fall on top of our heads!"

The Gremory heiress didn't respond, only managing to gnash her teeth when she grabbed Sona's and Koneko's hands and ran towards the stairway. Knowing that everyone else was right behind her.

Everyone else...

Her heart skipped a beat as that thought repeated itself in her head.

Rias' panicked expression and tone didn't help soothe anyone's nerves when she spun around to scream at the falling earth, fear permeating her heart as she raised her voice to the highest capacity that her lungs could possibly allow.

"Mio-chan! Where are you!?"

---

...

...

...

Mio felt nothing at first, heard nothing, saw nothing, and pretty much thought of nothing.

It was all a blank, at least for the first few seconds.

Then the first cognizant thought that reached her head was one of genuine curiosity.

Why was it so hard to breathe...?

Mio's eyes snapped open when she took in a lot of dust through her nose, forcing her to get up and start coughing at the air that tried to enter her body.

Immediately after the red-head snapped her eyes open, she shut them, wiping her eyes when dust got into them and irritated them quite a bit.

It took a few precious seconds for the half-devil to regain her bearings, her eyes narrowed so that her lashes could protect them from the large amount of dust in the air.

...Wait...dust?

Mio slowly tilted her body around, a tingling suspicion in the back of her mind...

Rocks.

Rocks as far as the eye could see.

The young teen scanned the mountain of rocks that was occupying the space behind her, blocking her eyesight access to the stairway.

But as she continued to scan the veritable wall, a slow realization made it's way to her heart, the precariousness of her position becoming crystal clear.

She finally understood what their enemy has done.

Those light spears...they weren't just thrown arbitrarily.

They were thrown specifically for the ceiling, yes, but they were aimed at specific points on the ceiling.

Aimed exactly to line up with the pyramid-like structure in the middle of the chamber, a straight line from one end of the ceiling to the other., a split between two halves of the room.

The spears weren't made to hit them, they were made to cut off their enemy from them, using the debris from the collapsed ceiling to separate the two groups and buy their light-based enemy some time to get away.

Well...apparently it worked, seeing the giant wall of rocks.

But...Mio wasn't with Rias-sempai or Akeno-sempai, or any of her other allies for that matter.

No...she wasn't with them at all.

Was it because of the close proximity that she was in when she faced their trapped foe? Or maybe the explosions set her flying towards the wrong side of the wall?

Well, it didn't really matter. What really mattered was...

"...You guys just don't know when to quit, do you?"

Mio jerked her head away from the blockade of rubble and towards the complaining female voice, on alert. "Who said that!? Show yourself!"

Despite the dust cloud that still remained in the area, making it difficult to see anything beyond a few meters, the young girl still saw something approaching her in the distance.

The form of a young woman to be precise.

As the form moved closer, the features belonging to the -obviously- young woman became more clear to the teen.

As well as the current state of her body.

Three things about the young woman's body caught Mio's attention, standing out blatantly to her and as important points for later.

...Also she didn't mean it like that, after realizing how easily misconstrued her words could be taken.

Anyways, first; her extraordinarily...liberal choice in clothing.

Second; the numerous cuts and gashes that crisscrossed the woman's body, which were obviously painful for her since she was somewhat hunched over.

Third; there were a pair of crow-like wings on her back, splayed out for her to see.

"...Fallen angel." the female teen cursed vehemently, wishing to be wrong in her assessment.

But those wings were pretty damn hard to argue against.

Still, the fallen's power wasn't that impressive if her wings were any indication, so if a fight was about to break out...then she should theoretically be fine. Even with facing a light-wielding opponent.

At least that's what she thought until a second pair of wings emerged from the woman's back, wrapping themselves around her as if they being used a a large shield.

Violet eyes peered over the wings, staring at her with wary, yet hardened, eyes.

"...You lot are with that devil from before, right? The fast one." the fallen angel bit out harshly, hostile.

Mio's lips twisted downwards, unsure of what the hostile angel was talking about.

Seeing this reaction, the black-haired woman's face twisted in disgust. "...After all of this, you'd still try and pretend that you're innocent? Well your acting won't fool me, you better be stronger than your friend though...because unlike last time, I won't be holding back!"

With that declaration, the woman formed a light spear on the palm of her hand, with the added strength of a single ring encircling the shaft to give it more power.

When the half-devil saw that addition, as well as the grim determination in her enemy's eyes, she groaned. Knowing that a fight was pretty much unavoidable now.

Then the words that were stated earlier finally hit her.

Devil from before...

Fast...

"W-Wait!"

The fallen angel already spread her wings and began floating in the air, prepared to rain down her attacks, but paused at the abrupt plea from the devil.

"...What?"

Seeing her chance, Mio splayed her hands apart as a sign of her lack of hostile intent. "Ah...well, I just think that we're having a massive misunderstanding right now. You see, that devil from before is a friend of ours and a member of my sempai's Peerage. We were looking for him since he's been acting strange recently. And to be perfectly honest, we didn't really come here to fight, we came here to get answers and drag him back home."

Violet eyes regarded the red-head quietly for a few spare seconds, carefully searching for signs of her honesty.

She then closed her eyes, sighing dramatically. "Hey now..."

The fallen then snapped her eyes open and pointed her spear at Mio once more, an annoyed glare plastered on her facial features.

"Do you take me for an idiot? Everyone knows about the consequences of going against a king's word in a Peerage system. A servant that runs away immediately gets declared a criminal and are slated for death. You expect me to believe that your 'sempai' not only lost her Peerage member, not only is searching for him for answers and reconciliation, but just happens to attack me at a spot where fallen angels have congregated before?"

Violet eyes narrowed to slits. "In fact...it's not exactly out of the question for this to be a question of foul play. After all, some kings used to send their servants to 'attack' their enemies, claiming that the deaths that resulted were just 'misunderstandings'. If I had died, would my death be considered a misunderstanding, devil-chan?"

Mio took a step forward, trying to call upon any sense of charisma that she might've had inside her body in order to convince her wary opponent. "No, that's not the case! Sure, there were some devils that did that before, especially in the past, but Rias-sempai isn't like that!"

If the fallen believed her words, then she was doing everything in her power to hide that sentiment. Snorting and descending slightly at the ridiculous notion that was being portrayed.

From what she knew, devils rarely, if ever had such kind sentiments. So it really wasn't too hard to see why the black-haired woman didn't see the half-devil's point of view.

"Whatever." the fallen dismissed, tapping her foot onto the ground once she reached it. "Anyways, if you really meant no harm, then you wouldn't have came in such high numbers, as well as blocked off the entire area with a barrier. It's rather convenient that I can't escape, right?"

She shrugged, almost nonchalant. "Well, I suppose I've been had. Just don't expect me to go down easily. There's also no way that I'm going to let you use me as a pretext for war either. You can count on that."

The red-head gnashed her teeth together as the fallen angel spread her legs and took a fighting stance, prepared to attack or defend at will.

...This was bad, this was really, really bad.

"...Naruto...what would you have done...?" Mio couldn't help but wonder quietly, eyes scrunching shut in her impotent frustration.

"What?"

The half-devil snapped her eyes open, locking with shocked violet ones, the owner completely frozen in mid-movement.

"...What did you just say?" the fallen whispered, staring at her with incredible intensity.

Shifting uncomfortably under that heavy stare, Mio felt a faint sense of red reach her cheeks, embarrassed that her words were heard. "Ah...nothing really."

"No." the black-haired woman deadpanned. "You definitely said something."

"...No I didn't."

"Yes you did."

"...Not really."

"Yes, you said someone's name, right?"

"...No, I mentioned a ramen topping."

The fallen blinked, taken aback. "...A ramen topping...? In the middle of...well...this?"

Mio turned away, face as red as a tomato, looking like she was about to faint any second. "...It's a really good topping."

...

...

Steam was practically coming out of Mio's head after her fellow female began staring at her blankly for a few moments, totally silent.

It stretched on.

And on.

And on.

"...Are you really not gonna let this go?" the red-head asked quietly, getting more and more uncomfortable with the woman's staring.

The fallen simply shook her head, crossing her arms as she de-materialized her spear.

Mio held out for a few seconds more, trying to call the woman's bluff, but her defenses quickly crumbled over that hard stare. Acquiesing.

"...-uto."

The fallen perked up, leaning a little closer. "What? What did you say?"

"I said 'Naruto', ok!?" the half-devil raised her voice, irritable and embarrassed, clenching her eyes shut.

"...So you did say his name...how do you know him?"

Pink eyes revealed themselves to the world, confusion in those orbs as they focused on the suddenly amicable fallen angel. "Wait...you know him? Like, actually know him?"

In return, violet eyes had an undertone of dry humor at the question. "I wouldn't really say that, more like...he's an acquaintance that helped me out once. In a big way. To be perfectly honest, he probably forgot all about me...but I can't forget about him. I owe him, big."

Mio whistled softly, very much in wonder about where Naruto could have possibly earned this woman's favor and respect.

Then she suddenly felt a rush of negativity inflame her body, making it harder to breath and more difficult to speak properly. All focused onto the the fallen angel in front of her.

"...So." the red-head rasped out, trying not to let her annoyance slip into her voice. "How do you know about my brother...?"

The fallen angel frowned a little bit, unsure why the teen emphasized the word, but let it slide. "Hoh...so you're his sister? He never mentioned he had one...anyways, we actually met here. In this very church."

Mio tensed up slightly, on guard again when she realized what the black-haired female could be talking about.

The incident against the group of fallen angels that took over the church...

"Yeah." the woman continued. "He helped me turn my life around back then, and helped me make the right choice in a very stressful time. He even gave me some advice that...I've admittedly come to like."

It was at that moment that the fallen focused all of her attention back to the red-head, putting her on guard even more.

"Hey, what's your name by the way?" she asked out of the blue, looking genuinely curious.

Now it was Mio's turn to be taken aback, completely off-put by the fact that a fallen angel was asking for her name in such a friendly context. Let alone one that probably fought with her brother.

It was bizarre.

"Ah...it's Mio. Naruse Mio." Naruto's younger sister murmured tentatively, trying to regain some grasp on her situation. "What's...ah...yours?"

The black-haired woman smirked. "Name's Raynare, remember it, because it's going to be a famous one soon enough."

The red-head nodded, so she was the ambitious type? That's nice, it was good to have goals and the drive to aim for them after all~

...

"Wait just a damn second!" Mio shouted, forcing herself to her feet to face Raynare. "What the hell is going on!? You were completely suspicious of me just a few seconds ago, threatened to fight me, and now you're asking for my name in a friendly context after my brother beat up your people last time!?"

Raynare's lips twisted downwards, unamused. "...You didn't have to remind me of that."

"Regardless!" the half-devil interrupted, on a roll. "What the hell is with this nice atmosphere!? I got caught up in it too, damn it!"

The daughter of Vretiel tilted her head, rolling her shoulders once to stretch a bit. "Isn't it obvious? I trust Naruto...and by proxy, I feel I can trust his close family members. Anyone that is his friend, is a trustworthy person in my eyes."

Mio blinked, dumbfounded, then flat-out gaped, entirely impressed. "Wow, you'd trust me because of Naruto...? You must think highly of him."

Raynare grinned faintly. "He's the man that pushed me into the life that I have now...and I can't be more grateful. This is the least I could do."

That last statement quickly registered in the red-head's head, recognizing the chance she just got in order to convince the usually wary fallen angel.

"Hey." Mio began, completely serious now. "Going back to what I said before...it'd be really helpful if you could believe me when I said that the others don't mean you harm either. This is all just a misunderstanding, a big one."

The fallen angel's genial attitude darkened immediately after she received the plea for reason, becoming guarded and wary once more. "...It's one thing to believe in you as a person, someone who has Naruto's trust...it's another thing to believe some random high-class devil who might have an agenda. You can understand my reluctance, can't you?"

The young teen did understand, she really did.

But it didn't change the fact that the black-haired woman was incorrect about her assumptions, and since she was the only one who had any inkling of where Yuuto went...

She had to convince her.

"I understand." the half-devil soothed, sympathetic. "But this is important, not just to me or my friend...but to all of us. We've lost an important 'family member' so to speak, someone that is an important part of Rias-sempai's Peerage...and not just because of his abilities."

She clenched her fist, eyes sharpening, displaying her resolve. "...To be honest, I'm not even remotely connected to Rias-sempai except through our friendship, yet here I am. And I have no doubt that Naruto would've been here with me if he was still around."

Raynare's eyes widened fractionally when she heard about the fact that the blond wasn't present in Kuoh Town, but the red-head wasn't done speaking.

"I'm sure that to you; all I'm doing is talking about a bunch of platitudes, but we at Kuoh Academy look after our own. Devil or human. And I'm not about to abandon Kiba-san when he's in a dark place...no way. And there's also no way that Naruto will come home to a piece of our group gone. We will all be here, welcoming him, Yuki, and Maria back with open arms and cheers. We will all be present and accounted for."

Mio straightened her back, squared her shoulders, lowered her head-

And bowed.

"Please, I know that you have no reason to believe me...the only reason you're even giving me the time of day is because of Naruto. But if you could just have enough faith in me to give me a chance...I promise that I won't disappoint you! I swear on it!"

Raynare stared at the kowtowing girl, shocked that she would leave herself wide open and beg for her cooperation. She simply didn't seem like the kind of person who would do both to someone she just met.

Now that she thought about it, neither did her apparent brother.

Yet here she was, doing just that.

Her eyes became contemplative as she continued to gaze upon the red-head's form, taking a few more long seconds to think about how to properly respond.

...

The fallen angel sighed explosively, realizing that after something like that, there was only one response she could make.

"...Very well." Raynare conceded after a moment of consideration. "I will give you and your allies the benefit of the doubt...even if it is against my better judgement."

Mio straightened her back and stopped bowing, a happy smile growing on her lips. "...Thank you."

The black-haired woman snorted rudely in response. "Whatever...anyways, about your friend, the last time I saw that 'friend' of yours, he escaped the church after I destroyed the ceiling...he was definitely hurt from my attacks, that's for sure."

She then crossed her arms, her face twisting up as she tried to remember where her adversary headed to while escaping.

"...I believe that he was headed to the northwest so that he could recover from his wounds. Though I'm not entirely sure where he went specifically, but I'm sure that he was aware that you guys would be chasing after him...so my guess would be that he hide in a secluded area."

The young red-head frowned, a tingling in the back of her head going off thanks to that information. But she couldn't put her finger on it...

"I see. So he probably went to a secluded area, did he...?" Mio murmured softly, tapping her chin in thought, then grinned at her fellow female. "Thank you, seriously, this information is invaluable. If he's hurt, then it's likely that we can catch him before he moves somewhere else. This is our chance!"

Raynare shrugged. "It's alright, I don't mind...but I have a question for you now, if you don't mind?"

Pink eyes lit up, the young teen staying quiet to allow the woman to speak.

Seeing the opportunity, the fallen asked the question that was very much important to her mission in the area. As she had no clue...

"Do you know what the heiresses of the Gremory and Sitri clans look like, as well as their location? I'm supposed to make contact with them as a representative...but I'm not too sure where they might be or what they look like."

...

...

"Eh?" Mio uttered out, a shaky smile stretching across her face as she began sweating.

She...didn't know...?

"Uh...well, my sempai's name..." Mio started slowly, as if she was speaking to an idiot. "...Is Rias Gremory."

Raynare's facial expression was that of content inquisitiveness when she initially asked her question, and it stayed that way for a little bit when she received her answer.

But the fact that she began shaking slightly belayed the notion that she was 'alright' by any means.

Until finally, her expression morphed into that of desperation, her own face beginning to sweat lightly as well.

"Ah...no wait...you're joking, right? I mean yeah, I barely paid attention to my studies about the devils and their clans...but it's not like I just fought against one of the people I was supposed to be assuring...right? I didn't just do that, right!?"

Mio turned away, refusing to look or answer her.

The fallen legitimately looked like she was about to faint, becoming pale and clammy. "Ah...so I might have intermittently started a conflict with the little sister of the Maou Lucifer...? As well as the Maou Leviathan...?"

Still no response.

This time, the black-haired woman clasped her hand around her face, taking in and expelling air at an increased rate due to her rising stress. Trying to calm herself down.

"Eh...? Hey...- You ok...? You don't- Hey!"

Raynare blinked slowly as the voice that was referring to her became more slurred to her ears, as well as the world suddenly becoming more fuzzier.

She tried to wipe her eyes, figuring that she was just tired.

Then she noticed something strange.

Why was the ground coming closer to her-?

*slam*

Mio jumped when the fallen angel fell face-flat onto her face, literally tipping over without warning as if she was a falling tree.

At first, she had no idea why the woman fell over.

But when she moved to help her up, she was able to figure it out.

Mio cursed under her breath after seeing the many crisscrossing slash wounds that riddled her back, blood slowly leaking from them and pooling onto the floor.

The fact that Rias-sempai blew her up earlier probably didn't help...if anything it may have made her wounds worse.

"Damn it...! Why didn't you say that you were hurt sooner!?" the red-head shouted out, quickly scanning Raynare's back to inspect the wounds more closely.

Violet eyes blearily looked at the frantic younger girl, her sight fuzzy as she tried to internalize the information that she just heard.

...Ah...right, she did get hurt pretty badly from behind...didn't she...? Man...Azazel-sama would laugh at her for refusing to use her second pair of wings...let alone her new abilites...

It was while her sight began to darken at the edges that she looked back up at the red-head once more, trying to assure that she'd be alright.

But she saw a curious sight before she could.

"...Two...?" she whispered out loud, catching Mio's attention.

Before the half-devil could even try and ask, the fallen angel closed her eyes, her body slumping to the ground.

"Eh...? Oi! Raynare-san!?" Mio exclaimed, lowering herself to shake the black-haired woman's body. "Oh no...did she lose consciousness...? Not good..."

Pink eyes trailed behind the fallen angel, grimly noting that there was quite a bit of blood on the floor. Indicating at the very least that the woman fainted because of loss of blood.

...What should she do now?

She simply had no idea how to proceed from here, she couldn't just leave her here, right? But it's not like she could just ask Rias-sempai or the kaichou to temporarily take her in. All they knew of her was her aggression, nothing else.

So she couldn't rely on them...

As the red-head's thoughts swirled around in her head, a piece of the wall that separated her from everyone else began to crack, steadily growing bigger as if there was something digging through the rubble.

She didn't notice it until the small piece of the wall literally exploded outwards, catching her off guard as rocks came flying away from the detonation and dust enveloped the area she occupied.

Mio raised her arm to cover herself from the debris, peering into the artificial cloud that was just made. Knowing who was coming.

As expected, she saw long crimson locks as thin arms wrapped themselves around her into a rib-crushing hug, knocking the air out of her with their surprising strength.

"Mio-chan! Are you ok!? Are you hurt!? Where's the enemy from before, did you beat them? Did they escape? Oh, I'm so sorry for leaving you here and for taking so long to get here...we had to be careful so that we didn't start another avalanche..."

The younger red-head sweat-dropped as her elder kept fretting over her, hugging her tightly as if she might disappear on her.

Ngh...she was being treated like a child...

As the Gremory heiress continued to anxiously hug her kohai, her queen walked up from behind her and shot a sly smirk at the two. "Looks like Mio-chan is safe...now hopefully you'll stop tearing up about 'abandoning her', hm?"

Mio's eyes snapped to Rias, surprised to hear that her composure was so thoroughly destroyed.

Rias for her part, turned to glare at the sadistic devil, eyes still somewhat glassy. "It couldn't be helped! We already lost Yuuto, and Koneko-chan is acting so rebellious...so I thought that maybe I lost Mio-chan too..."

Akeno's expression morphed to that of gentle understanding, nodding faintly. "Of course Buchou, what's important is that our kohai is safe now."

Her eyes then turned to the younger red-head, smiling softly at her. "It's good to see that you're alright. We were worried sick, you know?"

The half-devil moved her head from Rias to Akeno, and back again. Honestly surprised to see them so concerned about her well-being. "Th-Thanks...both of you. But really, I'm fine. You guys had nothing to worry about."

As Mio kept soothing her seniors, Sona stepped up from the wall and surveyed the area, eyes latching onto the unharmed form of Naruse Mio, making her eyes soften in silent relief.

Then her eyes hardened again, moving to scan for the presence of any enemies. "Tsubaki, do you...?"

Shinra Tsubaki, the Sitri Group's queen walked up to her king and began scanning the room for enemies as Sona kept her guard up in case of a surprise attack.

Then the teen's gaze shifted to the ground right next to Mio, focusing on the faint energy that she managed to track.

She didn't even have to say anything, since Sona very quickly followed her gaze, body tensing in preparation for a fight.

"Rias, Akeno, Mio-san. All of you move away from there!" the Sitri heiress demanded, a magic circle forming on her hand as she prepared to attack. "Our enemy is still a threat!"

Rias and Akeno stopped speaking immediately and followed their ally's gaze, eyes sharpening when they saw the wings that were sticking out.

Sensing the growing hostility aimed at their downed enemy, Mio immediately broke away from Rias' hug and threw her body in-between everyone and the fallen angel. "Wait! Please! She isn't as bad as everyone thinks!"

All four devils looked at her in shock, all caught off guard that their ally would protect their enemy.

"Uhh...Mio-chan?" Rias started, tone shaky. "You do realize that you're protecting the same person that attacked us with a light spear, right? There is no 'misunderstanding' to be had in this situation."

Mio shook her head from side-to-side rapidly. "No, you see...she accidentally believed that we were with Kiba-san, who attacked her-"

"Even more of a reason to capture her and interrogate her then." Sona concluded briskly, not stopping.

"No! Listen to me!" the fifteen-year old demanded hotly. "She isn't a bad person, this is all just a grievous misunderstanding!"

Sona's expression didn't change a whit, while a frown marred Rias' face. "Mio-chan...even if her attacking us really is a misunderstanding, how do you know that she's telling the truth about whether Yuuto attacked her first? For all you know, she's simply biding her time, using sympathy as a way to recover enough to survive a situation of her own making."

The Gremory heiress inclined her head, serious. "In short, while your claim isn't exactly out of the question, neither is mine."

The half-devil winced at the logic that was employed. "Well...I suppose you could say that. But I think that she's telling the truth, her version of events is plausible!"

Rias tilted her head, expression neutral. "Why? What possible reason do you have to believe her?"

This time Mio drew herself up to her full height -which wasn't that tall- and prepared to take the opportunity that was given. "She's indebted to Naruto."

The older red-head's eyes widened fractionally, but she managed to hide most of her surprise with a mask of interest.

If her kohai noticed, she didn't point it out.

"...Is that so?" Rias inquired rhetorically. "So this woman knows Naruto? Well...I suppose that is indeed something, it's not like his name is well known or anything. Even in the Underworld, at least as far as I know. Instead, any rumors about him know him as the 'Unknown Variable' or something along those lines...so one of the few ways for her to know his name is through personal contact."

"Exactly!" the half-devil agreed heartily, a smile stretching across her face. "If she knows him, then that means that she should be pretty trustworthy, right?"

"Unless she's actually his enemy." Sona pointed out bluntly, raising her chin.

Mio paused, realizing that that could be the case.

...At least it could have been, if she hadn't met Raynare in person anyways.

"No, you guys didn't see how she reacted to learning that I was related to Naruto...her entire demeanor changed by just that one simple fact. Enough that I managed to convince her to tell me where Kiba-san ran off to." the red-head contended, very sure that she was right.

At the news, even Sona was caught off guard by the possibility that the fallen angel would volunteer information willingly. So she stayed silent as her childhood friend took a step forward. "Wait...she voluntarily gave you information about Yuuto's possible whereabouts? All because you're related to Naruto?"

The half-devil scratched her cheek sheepishly, flashing a a half-smile. "Well...it took a while to convince her that all of you were trustworthy, after all, she was wary of you guys as much as you were all wary of her. So I had to promise her that you also meant no harm to her...and I'll be excused if I don't want to be a liar."

Both high-class devils turned to one another, seeking the other's opinion about their current situation, as both were definitely not expecting this to happen today.

The Gremory heiress' pupils flicked between her kohai and her old friend, mind racing, until finally latching onto Sona once more. "...Perhaps that woman could be trusted a little bit, her story seems to check out for the most part. Also, looking at her now...it doesn't look like she could do anything to really hurt any of us. All that I would suggest is that someone keep an eye on her."

The Sitri heiress moved her gaze away from her fellow high-class devil to the unconscious fallen angel. "...I'm a little more wary about helping this person out, but I can hold my suspicions until we question her once she regains consciousness. Until then...I suppose I can't really disapprove of Mio-san helping out. As long as we remain cautious."

A relieved sigh escaped Mio's lips as she saw that the two high-class devils agreed with her, she supposed that the fallen angel was safe for now...

"Please wait a moment, kaichou."

Then someone else had to speak up.

Sona turned her head to look at her queen. "Yes Tsubaki? Do you have an objection?"

Heterochromic eyes fixed themselves onto the two pure-blood devils, calculating. "Not necessarily, but I have a suggestion in regards to our unconscious...'friend' here."

Those strange set of eyes turned to the half-devil in the room, all while brushing her long black hair back into place after her abrupt movement. "I'm not entirely sure, but considering your sweeping defense of that fallen angel, I assume that you were going to take her back to your home in order to recuperate, correct?"

An embarrassed smile spread on the red-head's lips. "Yeah...I was gonna do that. What of it?"

Rias shot her a critical look at the admission, but Tsubaki continued unhindered. "Well, I'd assume that Rias-sama wouldn't approve-"

"You're absolutely right, I don't." the Gremory heiress snarked, crossing her arms while glaring at her sheepish kohai.

"-So I suggest a compromise." the queen continued unabated, as if she was never interrupted. "Perhaps one of us could stay with Naruse-san to make sure that that woman won't do anything...untoward once she wakes up."

Mio stretched her hand out with a scowl, annoyed at these measures.

But Sona spoke up before she did. "I see...that is indeed an interesting idea. I think that's more than fair for a compromise, wouldn't you say? Rias?"

The other king nodded, a satisfied smirk plastered on her face. "I'd say so."

Mio was about to stomp her foot on the ground, as well as raise her voice at the completely unnecessary addition to watching over the fallen angel.

Then she was completely dissuaded from making her complaint when her sempai shot her a dark look, implying that she better take the compromise.

So she slammed her mouth shut; she had to pick and choose her battles here.

"Then it's decided." the Sitri heiress concluded with a tone of finality. "I assume that Mio-san will take the fallen angel to her home to recuperate, meanwhile we'll continue to search for Rias' lost knight."

With that, the teenaged king turned around and began walking out with Tsubaki in tow. "Come Mio-san, tell me what the fallen angel has told you in detail."

Mio sweat-dropped as she was asked for such a thing when no one bothered to help her drag Raynare out of there. She was left to do it all on her own.

So, grumbling under her breath, the red-head managed to force the downed woman's arm over her neck to drag her out of the unsafe area.

"Hey...where's Koneko...?" Mio complained loudly, slowly following after Sona. "I could really use her help right about now."

The high-class devil stepped inside the hole that was made earlier and kept moving, answering her on the way. "We left her at the entrance in order to keep guard...no need to leave our back unguarded. It's a precautionary measure."

The younger female teen watched as both; the king and queen of the Sitri group entered the hole that the small group made, making their way out.

Mio sighed as she bent over a little and maneuvered Raynare's hapless body, making sure that she didn't bump her in the small space.

Blue-green eyes gazed at the young fifteen-year old, watching her slowly make her way through the massive amount of rubble by using the hole that was made.

She continued to watch her until she was sure that Mio was out of earshot, before finally turning to the side to regard the one person that has managed to stay quiet during the entire exchange.

"...Akeno? Are you ok?" Rias asked quietly, tentatively walking up to her friend.

Akeno has stayed unnervingly silent ever since the group began discussing with one another about the prospect of trusting the unconscious fallen angel, not making any input whatsoever.

Violet eyes, once dull, quickly regained focus and life as they focused on the high-class devil. "Ah, apologies Buchou, did you say something?"

The Gremory heiress studied her queen, hesitating. "...You seemed distracted."

Akeno idly looked down and smoothed her skirt, shadowing her eyes with her bangs as she answered. "Distracted? Not at all. I was just thinking is all..."

Rias tried to see her old friend's face despite the angle, only managing to see the lower half of it.

She couldn't help but notice the tight smile that she had plastered on.

"...You disagree...don't you?"

The black-haired girl flinched and stopped moving, the smile that she had on quickly disappeared as if it had never existed.

It took a few spare heartbeats before she actually tilted her head upwards again to lock eyes with her king, grim.

"I...don't particularly see it as a wise decision. That's all." she admitted quietly, her ponytail bobbing a little when she turned away.

The red-head's licked her dry lips. "...Care to tell me why?"

As her queen glanced back at her, she quickly began working her brain overtime to try and delicately phrase her words.

By this point, she had already recognized what this was about.

Akeno set her jaw by this point, grasping her resolve as she spoke again. "I apologize for being frank Buchou, but I don't think that that fallen angel can be trusted. Fallen angels are beings of deception, so trusting one enough to leave your back open to them is-"

"Akeno."

The young woman cut herself off, knowing instinctively that the tone of voice that her king used meant that she was at least a little upset.

Rias stared at her for a moment, silent, before blowing out some air somewhat listlessly. "Akeno...I understand that you've had some bad experiences with fallen angels, but I don't think that Mio-chan is necessarily incorrect about that woman. Are you sure that you're not letting your bias get the better of you...?"

Violet eyes focused elsewhere, anywhere other than the blue-green of her close friend.

For some reason she just couldn't look at her right at that moment.

The Gremory heiress wanted to comfort her, to say something like 'it's ok, I understand' or 'don't worry about it'.

After all, she was more than aware of her history, of the grudge she held against the people that she had relations to.

But this time she couldn't. She simply couldn't allow Akeno's ghosts from the past to affect the present.

If that fallen angel was indeed a friend of Naruto's, then as long as she proved trustworthy, she wouldn't be abandoned. Pure and simple.

"Akeno." the high-class devil started, tone brooking no discussion. "I understand that you still hold...that man's people in contempt. But it doesn't change the fact that Mio-chan believes in her and she may be the ally of our ally. We can't be making enemies at a times like this, not with so many of our comrades out of the picture. Do you understand?"

The queen bit her lip, obviously conflicted.

But eventually, after a few more tense seconds...she managed to make an agreeable smile.

It was one of the most forced smiles Rias has ever seen.

"Of course Buchou. You're absolutely correct." she agreed easily enough, her fake enthusiasm framing her fake smile. "I'll do my best to not let...unfortunate incidents in the past get in the way of what's going on."

Even as she was speaking, the emotions she exhibited seemed brittle and weak.

Akeno bowed slightly and walked past her king, entering the hole without further comment.

Rias just watched her go, about as frustrated as any leader could possibly be in such a situation.

It felt like the ghosts of the past were doing their best to batter the unity of the little group she has formed around herself. Splitting them up and causing mischief in formerly solid relationships.

She could only shake her head sadly as she moved to leave the caved in area, unintentionally making a silent plea out of growing desperation to keep everything together.

"...Come back home soon...Naruto..."

---

Buildings blurred past Naruto's eyesight as he took a second to glance outside. Wishing to see how much time he had.

Beyond the blurred buildings, he saw the orange sky that was giving way to blue due to the falling sun just over the horizen.

It was sunset then.

Ok, he still had time.

The young shinobi was well on his way to the airport after taking the chance to use another train, enjoying the smooth travel that he was deprived of last time. Hopefully he'd reach the airport that the Church agent was gonna land in before they arrived.

Really though, this transportation was a luxury, it was mostly meant to buy himself some spare time to just let himself relax before he faced the agent in the future.

...Well actually, that wasn't the only reason he decided to take the train.

It was also a convenient place to begin practicing some fuinjutsu on the way there, letting himself fall into the rhythm of smoothly writing kanji onto pieces of paper for badass effects.

And recently he became convinced that he had to learn more, as the abilities he could get from that knowledge had become far more critical than before.

...Yes...ever since...

His hand unintentionally fell onto his stomach, narrowing his eyes in response.

Yeah...this had become more important.

Naruto turned his head to the side, glancing at the henged clone by his side, who was currently busy working on fuinjutsu as well. Though it was focused on more combat-related things.

He's been recently neglecting his fuinjutsu training anyways, mostly because he was re-focusing on his more wind-based abilities.

But now it had to become his main priority, the welfare of his allies depended on it.

Sleep could come later, this was for now.

Sure, he'd be a little late to get back to Kuoh Town, but it wasn't like there was any kind of existential emergency back home, right?

As long as they stayed united, everything would work out.

At least that was the blond's belief.

Though if he did have a single worry that he attributed to his comrades back home...well...it would probably have to rest with the knight of the Gremory group; Kiba Yuuto.

Whether anyone else saw it or not, the shinobi couldn't help but be slightly...off-put by his shift in behavior.

Why did that happen though? Where the hell did it come from?

He had no clue, but he hoped that the guy wouldn't do anything rash...

It was by that point that the young man blew out some air in frustration, suddenly wishing that Rias and Akeno weren't so spot on in predicting that he'd lose his phone.

Damn them.

He wanted to stew a little more, but Naruto broke from his irritated state of mind and shook his head rapidly, trying to get himself to re-focus.

Worrying about others when he had his own battle to fight wouldn't do anyone any good. He would deal with this, get a few hours of rest, and then rush back.

Just in case.

So with that plan in mind, he tilted his head down and restarted his fuinjutsu training.

This wouldn't be wasted time on his watch.

---

Wet gasps echoed across the the hidden grove, with the sound of crunching leaves interlacing interchangeably, as if they were one and the same.

The sounds were all coming from a handsome young man with blond hair, who was currently limping towards a rock, which he was planning to use to rest up and recuperate from yesterday's events.

Kiba Yuuto grit his teeth as he leaned against the relatively sizable solid object, regulating his breathing as he shifted to his right leg. Supporting his left side due to the wound that was plaguing it.

He was careless...

The young man honestly didn't expect that fallen angel to put up that much of a fight, or to escape his grasp by collapsing the ceiling.

It was embarrassing to be pushed back by a woman with only a single pair of wings, but as much as he hated to admit it, he fought far too aggressively back there...

His simmering anger and rage blinded him, pushing him to fight with brute force rather than using his speed like he usually did.

So because of that, his fight with that black-haired fallen ended up as a tie. With him retreating due to the very loud and obvious damage done to the church.

A snarl emerged from his throat as he pushed himself off of the rock he was leaning on, pacing around with his damaged leg, angry, furious.

His lead was completely destroyed and he had no idea how to find the location of those swords without that woman...

Maybe if he could find other fallen angels or fallen-aligned beings he could...'persuade' them to give him some information.

Yuuto finally stopped moving for a moment, his steely eyes turning upwards as he felt a rush of exhaustion hit him. Making him weary as he looked at the falling sun, watching it as it gave way to the night.

As his weariness grew, he briefly entertained the sanity of what he was doing, of why he was going so far to achieve his ambitions.

...No...he knew how all of this started.

It happened back then, before Naruto-san even left for Kyoto and after the whole 'Bapple' incident.

More specifically, it started with a simple conversation that became so much more...

---

A bit less than a week ago...

"Oh please...have mercy on me...I-I can't take anymore!"

"No. Not yet. We still have to keep going."

"Ugh...I'm gonna die at this rate...you damn slave-driver..."

"Did you say something, Naruto?"

"...Not really."

This was the conversation that Kiba Yuuto heard while he was on his way home after completing another contract, forcing him to stop as he heard two familiar voices close to him.

It's been a few days since Kuoh Academy temporarily closed down due to the damage done by...'hooligans', so the handsome young man was spending the early half of his day catching up on some of the backlog contracts and requests. All of which was created because he was away from Kuoh Town with everyone else.

So here he was, in the middle of a small market district and in front of a small restaurant.

The young man veered his head around, trying to find the source of those voices which he rarely heard outside of Kuoh Academy, genuinely curious.

Ah. Found them.

Huddled around a small outdoors table and in plain sight was Naruto and Yuki, the latter of which was directing the whiskered teen about the finer points of advanced calculus, with the former legitimately crying in pain.

By that point the blond man decided that he didn't want to get involved-

"Ah! Yuuto! Please save me!"

...Unfortunately, it seemed that Naruto managed to notice him before he left.

Not only that, but thanks to years of experience with the fairer sex, he easily saw the flash of disappointment flit through the young woman's eyes when he reluctantly walked up to them after essentially being forced to.

How vexing.

"Apologies Naruto-san." Yuuto said easily enough as he flashed a smile at the two teens. "I doubt that Yuki-san would appreciate it if I tried to 'save you'."

The hero nodded, unyielding in her belief. "Thank you Kiba-san, Naruto needs his education in order to advance properly in the human world. This is for his own good."

Naruto groaned, slamming his face onto the table with a *thud* when he lost his chance at escaping his hell.

Then a thought floated across his head, lighting up his eyes.

"Hey Yuki." the shinobi piped up, his voice the epitome of reasonableness. "I'm a little thirsty...and I want to concentrate on my studies, so can you do me a favor and get me some water? I'll pay you back later."

Yuuto glanced at him, sweat-dropping at the fact that his fellow male could actually think that the young woman would buy his excuse. She may have been a little dense at times, but she was by no means stupid-

"Sure." she accepted without question, pushing herself off from her seat. "I'll be right back, please make sure that you continue to look over those equations that I asked you to work on."

And with that, the hero turned around and walked inside the restaurant, intent on getting that drink so that the blond could concentrate.

The knight watched her go, jaw unhinged at the fact that she bought such a weak excuse.

"...Ah...damn it...now I feel guilty."

Yuuto turned his attention at his fellow blond, who was currently in the middle of cursing under his breath for feeling guilty. He supposed that even the prank-loving teen couldn't help but be affected by her earnest attitude.

As soon as the thought crossed the handsome teen's mind, another realization hit him as he gazed upon the internally flagellating whiskered teen.

He very quickly realized that he had a golden opportunity to detach himself form the situation-

"Kiba-san...what the hell do you think I should do in this situation?"

Ah.

Naruto has once more turned his attention to him again, his blue eyes teary at the conundrum he found himself in.

Hmm...what could he say? What could he say?

"W-Well...what do you really want to do, Naruto-san?" he tried asking, throwing the metaphorical 'ball' back into the powerful man's corner.

All he got in response was a confused blink.

"...Hah? What kind of retarded question is that?" the shinobi retorted rudely, not at all impressed. "I'm having so much trouble deciding what to do because I know what I want!"

Now it was the knight's turn to be confused, since he was rendered inert for all of about three seconds due to that retort.

His brain restarted in short order.

"Um...I'm not sure that I understand to be honest." Yuuto hesitantly said, deciding at that moment to take the seat that Yuki-san had left behind.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at that, but didn't comment. "Alright, basically my problem is this; what I want to do is different from what I'd like to do. Very different dattebayo!"

This time the shinobi crossed his arms, nodding his head sagely. "Indeed, what I'd like to do is run away in order to save myself from Yuki's torture...but what I want to do is...something more than that."

Yuuto's eyebrows scrunched together, even more confused. Did Naruto misunderstand him or something?

Ignoring the look he was being given however, the powerful teen continued anyways. "You see...the way I see it; what I 'want' is something that I'd like in the short-term and more importantly; something that I could live without. But something that I really want is something else...it's something that I'd be willing to truly aim for and strive for. A 'goal' I guess you can call it. The big finish line in comparison to a small checkpoint."

By this point, the reincarnated devil was more than positive that his fellow blond misunderstood him. Also it was really weird how he could go from 'dense prankster' to 'nuanced philosopher' in a matter of seconds...

Naruto all of a sudden slammed his fist onto the table, rocking it and making the bishōnen jump unintentionally.

"And you want to know something!? This is what I really want! Right here!" he declared, one-hundred percent assured.

Yuuto's eyes traveled to the blond's fist, staring at it as he tried to interpret what the hell he was trying to say.

The shinobi waited for a bit, hoping that the -marginally- better looking teen would figure out what he was saying, assuming that it should be simple.

...

...

...

"You still haven't figured it out yet?" the whiskered teen questioned with a dull look.

The knight scratched his cheek nervously, wondering whether he should mention the fact that his words were by no means easy to understand.

By this point, Naruto just blew out some air, rolling his eyes. "I suppose moments like these count as well..."

After making that last vague statement, the young man pushed himself from his seat and stood up. His eyes sharpening in his convictions, as if he was an orator that was about to preach to the masses about the 'truth'.

"Moments, events, conversations, interactions, and the dynamics that are made from my relationships with others and their relationships to others..." Naruto explained, blue eyes shining. "More than anything else, I want to protect these things. They are my day-to-day reasons for getting up in the morning and beating the shit outta bad guys. Keeping them alive and keeping my relationships with them intact is my day-to-day goal. That's what I'm saying dattebayo."

But the second he finished explaining himself in deeper detail, his face fell in despair.

"...But despite how much I hate it...I can't help but be partially content with the fact that I enjoy my relationship with Yuki! I hate it and love it at the same time! What the hell!? Am I secretly some kind of masochist or something!? And why would I feel guilty about leaving when Yuki was the one to force me here to begin wiiiiith!"

Yuuto watched as his fellow blond fell into despair, silent. Internalizing what he just heard.

What Naruto just said...was that why he did everything he did so far?

The pact between everyone in Kuoh...

The training...

The interventions...

All to protect his current relationships with the people he cared about?

...Key word; current.

Then...what if those relationships, those dynamics, changed?

Would he like that? Would he do his best to revert them to what they were before?

Those were the questions that were being bandied about in the bishōnen's head as the whiskered teen continued to despair.

But soon after, something else completely wiped those questions from his mind, focusing all of his mental efforts onto a single word.

Goal.

Goal.

Goal.

Something clicked in the young man's head.

"...Hey, Naruto."

Naruto quit shaking his head for all of about three seconds to look at Yuuto. "What? Can't you see that I'm a little busy-?"

"What do you think is a good goal?" Yuuto questioned quietly, face serious, eyes sharpened.

The shinobi blinked, tilting his head. "Uh...I don't think I can really say to be honest. I suppose it's similar with something that I said before, right? Something that you really want to do, no matter what."

Externally, the knight was staring at the other male with unwavering attention. But in reality, the pale blond was staring right through him. Internalizing the answer.

...So it should be fine, right? Aiming for his own goal?

Right...it was fine.

It was something he forgot, something that he hadn't really given much thought in a long...long time. But...a goal...a goal still was-

"However."

Yuuto's attention was brought back to reality, focusing back on Naruto once again.

The shinobi raised his chin, his own demeanor serious as well. "In my eyes, you can't consider something to be a 'good' goal if you hurt those you care about, those that care about you, and yourself while aiming for it. That just makes it...well...a selfish ambition. At least to me."

As he was speaking, the young man could practically feel the whiskered teen's form droop a little. As if an invisible weight suddenly pushed him down, making him seem much older than he was.

"Yeah..." he whispered now, a solemn smile stretching across his lips. "A selfish ambition..."

The bishōnen regarded him, his lips thinning as he considered everything he just heard.

...

"I have to go." the young Sacred Gear holder muttered softly, getting up from his seat. "Thanks for the talk...it was...interesting, to say the least."

This time Yuuto did manage to pull himself away from the situation, doing his utmost best to ignore the powerful human's penetrating gaze, feeling as if it would peel through his emotional defenses to reveal the man underneath.

Behind the soft-spoken 'prince'.

The knight felt a depreciating smile unwittingly grow on his face at that fact.

*Psst Psssssst*

Yuuto was knocked out of his temporary trance when he heard a less-than-quiet hiss aimed at his general direction.

Turning to find the source, he blinked at the visage of a familiar red-head that was hiding behind a garbage bin, looking entirely suspicious.

Naruse Mio, the imouto of Uzumaki Naruto, and -at least very much gossiped about- heavy duty 'bro-con' for him.

The young first-year was wearing an overly long trench coat that covered her whole body and pooled around her feet, a pair of sunglasses, a bowler hat, and what looked like a fake mustache under her nose...

It was a disguise, and a terrible one at that.

Mio was frantically waving her hand at him, trying to grab his attention, and ultimately grabbing the attention of the many civilians that were passing by.

The bishōnen slowly walked up to her, trying not to pay attention to the many conspiratorial whispers being bandied about.

As soon as he reached her, the poorly disguised female spoke up. "Hey...Kiba-san, how are you doing? What are you up to? You uh...busy?"

Yuuto squinted his eyes, not too sure about how to respond to the seemingly random barrage of questions. "...I'm doing well, Mio-san. And you're-?"

"Good!" the half-devil quickly answered, rushing through the conversation as if she had no patience. "S-So, I saw that you were making small talk with Naruto...so...how's he, uh...you know...doing?"

Realization shot through the knight's core as he quickly figured out what this was about, although the completely broken conversation should have been a dead giveaway to be fair.

"...Well..." the bishōnen admitted slowly, cautiously. "He actually asked me for some advice, to my surprise. But in actuality...he may have been the one to have given me some advice..."

Then he spoke in a lower voice, eyes dulling a little bit. "...Relationships...huh...?"

He stayed like that for a little bit, drifting off to the importance of that word. Trying to grasp at it.

That word...meant a lot. Deep inside he felt that way.

But his 'goal' from long ago...the one that he kept close to his heart, locked away, was something that could possibly run antithesis to that word...

Then the blond shook his head, trying to bring his mind back into the present. He was speaking to someone after all.

But when he managed to do just that, he was forced to do a double-take.

The young woman that he was talking to was gone, nowhere to be seen, and no evidence anywhere to indicate that she was even there.

"NARUTOOOOOO!"

"Gah! Mio!? What the-!? What are you doing here!?"

"You can't! I-I don't approve! You're too young to be making such decisions! Besides, Yuki definitely doesn't know much about those kinds of interactions yet! It's wrong on all fronts! You need to wait until you're more mature!"

"Haaah? What the hell are you talking about...?"

"Don't play stupid with me! I know about what you were talking before!"

"...No...I really don't..."

Yuuto easily heard the loud bickering of the brother-sister duo echoing across the street, a sweat-drop trailing down his head at the reaction he had inadvertently forced out of the red-head.

But...despite all of that...

"What's going on...? This ruckus..."

"Ah, Yuki. Sorry about that, but Mio came by and began lecturing me about something again. Don't mind her."

"Be quiet for a second, Naruto."

"Now that was just rude..."

"Anyways, Yuki, now I know that you and Naruto are friends and all, but doing what you're doing is way too soon! And honestly, if you ask me, you're both a hundred years too young for such an upgrade."

"...I'm lost."

"Welcome to my world, Yuki."

The reincarnated devil turned his head to look at the three teens, watching as the hot-blooded Mio continued to lecture the blond and the hero, the socially awkward female human continued to stare at the half-devil with befuddlement, and the male teen continued to shake his head mournfully at the situation.

Despite how...strange the conversation topic was, he could tell that at the very least, none of them were upset or particularly off-put by their talk.

If anything...they seemed to be enjoying it.

The very faint amusement that bled into Yuki's eyes.

The reluctant upturn of Naruto's lips.

And, strangely enough, Mio's growing sense of light exasperation began to permeate her facial features, making the entire exchange almost seem like a charade.

"...Gehehe..."

Steel-grey eyes shifted towards the roof of the building he was next to, focusing on a certain silver-haired loli that was giggling while taking pictures of the scene. Looking more than a little happy to be doing so.

Probably for some blackmail material or the like...

Yuuto's gaze inevitably went back towards his fellow blond, remembering what he said before about what he truly wanted.

His relationships.

Or to put it more aptly; his bonds.

...This scene was a small thing, a tiny thing. A random occurrence that happened during the road of life.

Yet...they were enjoying themselves, at least on some level.

Honestly, he could see why Naruto wanted to protect such a thing, it was something that many took for granted. But when one was involved with the supernatural...such things could easily be taken away.

Yuuto idly turned away from everyone, beginning to walk away as he delved deeply into the question that began to echo in his heart.

Which was more important to him, which did he want more?

His goals?

Even now, he could still feel the blood flowing through his fingers...

Or the bonds that he had forged?

As if he beckoned them, several images flashed across his mind, all of them about the many comrades he had made.

Buchou, Akeno, Koneko, and the newest addition to the Gremory group; Issei.

Not to mention his newest allies.

Without even realizing it, the knight's fists began to clench.

...What would he do? What should he do?

---

Present...

He had made his choice.

Yuuto plopped down from his standing position, letting his wounded leg rest, it did get hit by a light spear after all.

The light in the grove slowly gave way to the night as he sat down, the sun dipping down in the horizon.

Indeed, the knight had decided to finally achieve his long-held ambition of avenging his loved ones from long ago, although it should be noted that it was a very close decision.

His decision wasn't one that was made in a vacuum however, rather, it had much to do with an event that occurred just the other day.

That man with the half-mask...

Instinctively, Yuuto didn't trust that man, feeling deep inside that normally such an individual wasn't trustworthy.

But...his eyes...his eyes...

In that man's eyes, he very much saw a reflection of his own.

He was also seeking revenge, and in that they had a kinship, however weak it was.

So when the masked man told him about the fallen angels and their latest treacherous act of stealing...those swords...he was at least partially inclined to give that new-found lead a try.

What did he really have to lose in trying?

Of course, that meant that the knight had to check the one place where there used to be significant fallen angel activity, in the hopes of finding some intelligence that might have been left behind.

Then that fallen woman showed up.

The rest, of course, was history.

Yuuto clicked his tongue, annoyed that he lost his chance at learning where those swords may have located. That woman's reaction to his questions definitely gave away the truth of that masked man's words...

So now, all that was left for him were two options; find the fallen woman, or find the masked man.

Since the black-haired female was currently underneath an exorbitant amount of rubble, and the area had probably accrued an enormous amount of scrutiny by the general public as well as the attention of both; the Gremory and Sitri groups. It was obviously not a good idea at this time.

That left his fellow revenge-minded 'ally'.

When they last met, he claimed that he would be hiding out in this area, for what reason, Yuuto had no idea.

Nor did he particularly care at the moment either.

What he did care about was finding him and gaining some more information.

Especially before Buchou found him...

His facial features twitched when he thought of the possibility, before his heart was quickly filled with shame at the very thought.

No...he definitely couldn't let any of his...former comrades see him.

What he has done has effectively spit upon everyone's kindness, he knew that already.

So the last and best thing he could possibly do for everyone that he cared for was...just the one thing.

Make sure that they forgot about him.

He wouldn't say goodbye.

He wouldn't say thank you.

He wouldn't try and soften the blow of his betrayal.

More importantly, if they managed to find him, he would try and inflame their frustrations and anger.

Yuuto wanted them to not only forget about him, he wanted them to hate him, loathe him.

That way...they wouldn't be as hurt by his actions, they would regard him as scum and drop him. As they should.

He would destroy the relationships he made...for their sakes.

The knight nodded grimly, assuring himself that it was the only course of action that was available to him.

A sad smile stretched across the young man's face.

He seriously hoped that Naruto would never find him...that guy would definitely knock him around for making this decision.

Good thing he was a long way's away from here.

Yuuto pushed himself from the ground, expression becoming more neutral as he refocused himself to the task at hand.

Finding the masked man.

So he moved back to the rock in the center of the grove, in wait of the man that he knew on some level understood, ignoring the fall of the sun and the onset of the night.

---

"Rias, we're almost there."

Rias was already well aware of that, not really needing Sona's input to see the forest enter her view.

The significantly smaller group of devils had followed the lead that Mio managed to procure from the fallen angel about Kiba Yuuto's location.

Northwest she said...

"It's strange to be back here again..." Akeno muttered out, her words so low in volume that they were barely discernible to her king.

Though in regards to her comment, the red-head was inclined to agree. It really was strange to be in this area of Kuoh Town again.

This was close to where the Gremory group first officially met Naruto and Yuki, right after their first clash if she recalled correctly.

Was her knight in there somewhere? Or was he just passing by in order to get away from the scene at the church?

Did this place hold any significance to him, at all?

She wasn't sure, but it practically didn't matter. She would drag him back home with her and get her answers regardless.

"Sona!" the Gremory heiress called out, slowing down her flight so that the wind buffeting them wasn't loud enough to drown out her voice. "Let's descend a little bit! I want to get a decent aerial view of the surroundings!"

The bespectacled girl in question raised an eyebrow, slowing down marginally so that she could speak clearly as well. "I was going to suggest that myself."

With both devils in agreement, the grand total of four devils lowered altitude in order to stay just above the treeline, giving them the most optimal view of the ground below.

As the small group began to studiously inspect the area, Rias reflected on the current situation at hand.

Specifically, on the fact that there were so few of them and why that was so.

The rest of Sona's Peerage was still back at the church, getting rid of any evidence of the supernatural at the scene of the clash that took place there. Leaving only Tsubaki to travel with her king.

Meanwhile, Mio has head on home with the fallen angel in order to give her some medical treatment. With Koneko helping her out as well as guarding her, just in case.

Which only left Rias and Akeno of the Gremory group to search for their lost comrade.

Hopefully they won't have to, but if necessary, they could call Koneko to help them if they really needed help.

"Kaichou, I think I see something!" Tsubaki called out, pointing at an arbitrary part of the forest with intense scrutiny.

Sona didn't even hesitate, choosing to immediately stop her generic flyover and instead zero in on the area that her queen pointed out.

The entire group followed suit, with everyone else quickly seeing what the heterochromic-eyes girl was speaking of.

It would have been practically impossible for the normal human eye to see it, but thankfully, their devil eyes were more than up to the task.

A little stain of blood on the ground, which led to other stains of blood, was found by the group. Meaning that they had just found a possible trail to the errant knight.

It seemed that the fallen angel wasn't the only one harmed in the fight.

"Buchou, should we contact Koneko-chan now? Her senses could prove useful when it comes to tracking." Akeno consulted to her friend, landing softly onto the ground and putting away her devil wings.

Blue-green eyes snapped to the pair of violet pupils, partially to marvel at the complete disappearance of her disgruntlement from before as well as to actually consider her point.

"No." she quickly concluded, landing beside her friend. "We can handle this, we don't need much more than our eyes. Besides, Koneko-chan has been under a lot of stress recently...best to let her relax a little bit."

The black-haired woman nodded, accepting that logic.

...She also accepted the unspoken fact that none of them trusted the fallen angel to be alone with Mio for any extended period of time.

So with that, the small group trudged forward, keeping track of the occasional blood stain in order to let it lead them to their run-away comrade.

Rias couldn't help but marvel at what they were doing however; she was, the heiress of the prestigious Gremory clan and the daughter of the most powerful Maou in all of devil history.

...And here she was, personally searching for clues for one of her lost Peerage -family- members while walking through a dark forest.

This was far more gritty than anything she has ever done in...well...ever.

She wasn't really complaining about it, she just couldn't help but marvel at the shift in what she has done before and comparing it to the here and now.

To put it simply, the prim and proper Rias Gremory was supposed to elegantly appear to whatever hot spot or issue that sprung up in her territory. Not walk there while moving the occasional tree branch out of the way that threatened to stab her in the eye.

A reluctant chuckle escaped from her lips as she continued to move, perhaps she was a tad bit spoiled...

Indeed, even the fact that her Peerage was as fractured as it was something that she never had to deal with before.

Then her thoughts froze, latching onto that word with frightening intensity.

Fractured.

Her Peerage was split up.

Fractured.

Sona's Peerage was split up.

"...Isn't this strange, Rias?"

The Gremory heiress turned to her fellow high-class devil, almost immediately knowing what she meant. "Unfortunately...I think that you're right."

Sona nodded, idly pushing her glasses up to the bridge of her nose. "Indeed, there's been a few things that made me question whether there is...more to all of this than we initially believed. For example..."

The Sitri heiress crossed her arms, grim. "Isn't it interesting that Kiba Yuuto just so happened to meet that fallen angel, who was allegedly here to simply meet and speak with us? Or how he began to act out just around the time that such an individual would sent by Grigori? Of all times?"

Rias bit her lips, remembering that Mio-chan told them about what the fallen angel was doing here as they were leaving the underground cavern.

It truly was quite the coincidence.

"Yes...it really is interesting." she admitted slowly, her brain trying and failing to connect the dots about the chain of events that recently occurred.

"...But there is another, far more interesting thing that has my attention." the black-haired devil noted, eyes sharp. "Which has everything to do with your knight's past."

The red-head didn't even have a chance to wonder what she meant before her friend leaned closer to her, her demeanor conspiratorial. "You think that this has something to do with what happened to him in his past, correct? That that is the most likeliest of culprits to his complete change in attitude?"

This time Rias did manage to respond, in the form of a wary nod, almost afraid of the conclusions that were about to be made.

Sona raised her chin up, the glare of the moonlight catching her glasses as she did so. "Then let me ask you; is there any possible connection to his clash against the fallen angel and what happened to him in his past? Any connection at all?"

Time stopped.

That was it, that was it.

Because from her point of view, there was absolutely no connection between that fallen woman and Yuuto's past. None at all.

And considering that Yuuto's current behavior wouldn't make sense unless he was acting out on that past...

...That meant that the knight must have done this for a reason that she wasn't aware of. A reason that connected the two events somehow.

But if that was the case then, then how could he have possibly gotten that kind of information? Because it obviously wasn't from her.

That could only mean one thing.

"There's another actor in play here." Rias concluded, with her eyes closing in finality.

The Sitri heiress didn't need to even affirm her fellow devil's findings, already having reached that conclusion a little while ago.

Nevertheless, in an effort to ease the negative feelings that this revelation must have drudged up, she couldn't help but ask. "Do you happen to believe in coincidences, Rias?"

Seeing this as the slightly clumsy attempt by her friend to ease the tension, Rias chuckled a little. "Ara...if I say 'yes', do you think that maybe this could actually end up as one?"

"...Unfortunately, I don't think we have that kind of fortune, considering recent events." Sona explained, before her lips twitched upwards faintly. "Though it wouldn't hurt to hope however."

The Gremory heiress allowed for a dry chuckle to escape through her throat, not at all eased, but was grateful for the attempt at the very least.

Still though, they had to do something if there was another party involved. More than that, splitting themselves up to such small groups may have been a bad move...

"Buchou, are you ok? You seem somewhat tense."

Blue-green eyes shifted to the side of her eye, locking onto worried violet of her queen, who had walked up to her from behind after seeing her and Sona speak seriously.

Before she even tried to alleviate her worries, someone else spoke up first.

"Kaichou, the trail ends over here..." Tsubaki called out, alerting everyone else.

All eyes followed after the bespectacled woman's gaze, realizing why this was an interesting predicament immediately.

The blood trail which they were following ended up leading them to a path through some bent trees, which were moved in such a way as to almost look like a door.

Though it wasn't that fact that interested everyone, rather it was what that path led up to.

"...Is that a grove?" Sona questioned rhetorically, not quite able to acknowledge what she was seeing.

Indeed, the path through the trees led to a grove, which completely lacked any undergrowth and almost seemed to be independent from the forest surrounding it.

But natural groves were somewhat rare, especially when so close to a human settlement.

Not only that, but none of the devils present ever heard of the presence of a grove in the area.

Considering that these teens lived and breathed in the supernatural world, it was obvious that they'd all at least be a little cautious of such a place that no one was aware of. Especially when it was so close to their home.

The area was a simple plain surrounded and encircled by the trees around it, with a relatively large rock sticking out of the middle of the field. In addition, the trees that were present also managed to block out most of the light from above, except in the center.

Moonlight pierced through the trees and illuminated the center of the grove.

Tsubaki took a step forward first, aware that she was the only one present with any experience with hand-to-hand combat.

But she might as well as not bothered.

"Yuuto."

Rias' voice echoed in the small area, as if nature saw fit to repeat the word so that all who were present could hear.

And indeed, all who were present did hear.

From behind the rock, hidden from sight, emerged a handsome young man, his impossibly sharp steel-gray eyes focused on the group that just arrived.

"...Buchou." Kiba Yuuto murmured, voice bereft of any inclination of happiness or joy.

Rather, it was about as empty as one could possibly imagine.

Undeterred, Rias took a step forward, her arms splayed out in a welcoming gesture. "Yuuto...it's us. We're here now. Come on, enough of this foolishness. Come home."

If anything, the knight's unfriendly disposition was made worse after his former king's plea.

"...What are you doing here, everyone?" the young man questioned, his voice barely above a whisper. "Especially you two; Buchou, Akeno-san."

This time, Akeno took a step forward, her gaze locked onto her ally. "Kiba-kun...I don't know why you did what you did. But no matter what happens, you're still our friend. You're still a part of our family. Even now."

Yuuto didn't answer at first, staying quiet as he slowly got on top of the rock that he was laying on, getting to the top.

His eyes were narrowed as he gazed upon the devil group. "Leave. Now."

It was by this point that Tsubaki spared a glance to her king, sending a silent query.

Sona raised her hand in response, shaking her head almost infinitesimally.

She would let the Gremory group have a solid try before trying anything, though she couldn't be blamed for intervening should things get...ugly.

Meanwhile, after the revenge-minded young man made his demand, Rias took a hesitant step forward, trying to defuse the situation and understand her erratic servant.

"This isn't a request, this is a demand...Buchou." Yuuto stated in no uncertain terms. "Leave. This has nothing to do with you."

---

This wasn't good.

This wasn't what Diodora-sama planned, let alone expected.

The fast devil wasn't supposed to reunite with his former comrades, he was supposed to stay hidden. To keep the devils of Kuoh Town from accomplishing their mission, to keep them spread thin.

So that Diodora-sama could accomplish his true objective.

Yet that hasn't happened, the grove that he created was supposed to hide Kiba Yuuto, not give his allies time to catch up to him.

More than that, they weren't as split up as Diodora-sama wished...

The destruction of the abandoned church has caused far more annoyances than necessary...

...No choice, he had to intervene.

For Diodora-sama, he had to play a part, and play it well. All in order to buy him enough time to complete the daughter of the Original Lucifer's capture.

That man saved his life and gave him back his sanity...and was allied with the true heir of the Original Lucifer.

It would be an honor to die for both; his savior, and the Underworld's true ruler.

So the young man -beast- focused his attention on the group of devils that entered the grove, carefully bending his knees to strike...

---

"Nothing to do with me? Nothing to do with me? Kiba Yuuto...I am; your master, your king, your savior...and your friend." Rias grit out, unwilling to admit how much his words stung. "And if you continue to act out so selfishly...you will leave me no choice except to punish you!"

The knight's eyes narrowed, his face twisting darkly.

Sona shared a knowing glance with her queen, both teens figuring that the talks were just about over.

Akeno closed her eyes, mournful. "...Koneko-chan misses you, Kiba-kun. We all do. We've been searching for you everywhere. Please...don't do this."

At first, if Yuuto's twitch was any indication, it seemed like the young man was actually affected by the reincarnated devil's words. Stopping him short for all of about two seconds.

Then his dark demeanor returned, refusing to be reasoned with.

He opened his mouth, preparing himself to administer another verbal lashing at his erstwhile allies.

At least until he saw the Gremory and Sitri groups both widen their eyes at something behind him.

Yuuto snapped his head behind him as a shadow emerged from the forestry, moving towards him at incredible speeds. So much so that the knight was barely fast enough to respond.

Nevertheless, he managed it, as he jumped away from the rock that he was standing on and created a sword from his Sword Birth so that he could fight. Prepared to clash with another enemy.

He winced when he finally landed however, as his bad leg was still wounded.

Before anything else could be said or done, the blond turned to the devil group that was present. Features more acquiescing. "Buchou...we will discuss my actions in further details later, for now, I'd say that we both have bigger problems. Wouldn't you?"

Rias didn't comment, but she didn't deny his words either, instead choosing to stare at the new combatant that decided to reveal himself.

The possible enemy that landed on the highest point of the boulder gazed down upon them, alert and acute.

The young man in question sported pitch-black straight hair that covered his face and stretched down to his waist in cascading waves, a completely bare chest, a pair of entirely-ripped up jeans, and a pair of sandals to finish off his odd look.

Truly, the Gremory heiress wasn't sure about how she should respond to this interruption.

Turns out that there was no need to find that out, as the young man in front of them took their options out of their hands.

All he really needed to do, was tilt his head upwards to stare at the night sky.

...At something specific in particular.

"...It's a full moon today..." the young man quietly murmured, a grim edge to his voice.

The Sitri heiress' eyes snapped to the sky, or more precisely, to the moon that was clearly visible at the unknown male's current position.

As soon she did so, the black-haired man quickly began to change.

Hair began to grow all around his body, covering his skin like a dark coat, almost as if it was...fur.

Limbs strengthened and grew longer, hands morphing into claws, feet changing into large paws, nose growing into a snout...

His red eye focusing with single-minded intensity on the moon.

Something in Sona's head clicked, forcing her eyes to widen to the size of saucers.

"...Werewolf...!"

Feral red eyes snapped to the devil group, as the beast bared it's impossibly sharp canines and stood upright.

Until it turned back to the moon and howled.

*Owoooo...*

As if a signal was made, the underbrush that surrounded the grove began to shift, as if something was moving through them to reach the one that 'called'.

All of the devils had no choice except to turn their backs to one another, making sure to cover as much area as possible.

Stray devils.

Stray devils of all shapes and sizes emerged from the general greenery, closing in on them as their feral 'leader' glowered down on them.

"...Kaichou?"

The bespectacled king made a small affirmative-sounding noise to acknowledge that she was listening to her queen.

"...Doesn't that beast look a little familiar?" Tsubaki whispered hesitantly. "I feel like I've seen it before."

Sona scowled, the uncomfortable feeling she was getting when she saw that werewolf finally made sense after she heard that little tidbit. Realizing that she, no, they have seen this man before.

Last time he wasn't anywhere near as threatening...or sane for that matter.

"That's probably because you have Tsubaki." the Sitri heiress replied, voice clipped. "We crushed him during our last mission...of course, I never thought that he was a legitimate werewolf."

Rias kept her eyes focused on the feral beings that were inching ever closer to them, but still listened in on her friend's conversation. "So...that means that that man is the stray devil that you destroyed during your last mission? But if that's the case...how is he here? Alive, in perfect health, and sane?"

Sona turned to the red-head, facial features grim. "...I do believe that there's a third party that we're still not aware of yet, correct?"

Ah...

A bitter smile spread across Rias' lips, before it was wiped out to make way for a serious expression. "It seems our hands are tied then...so since this is the case, I'd like to make a little announcement."

She turned to her allies around her, a wry smile plastered on her face as they all spared her a glance. "As of now, there are no king or pawns in this battle, no grand strategy-making, and no organized plans of attacks. Instead...we're all simply comrades-in-arms, back-to-back. Let's all do our best to survive this situation, shall we?"

Akeno smirked, electricity crackling through a magic circle that she created on the tip of her fingers.

Sona, serious as ever, forged her own ice-blue magic circle, water condensing and bending to her will.

Tsubaki refrained from using magic and instead decided to call on her naginata to fight in close combat, swinging the pole with the blade end without any difficulty.

Finally, Rias herself formed two magic circles on both hands, spewing the black miasma that was her Power of Destruction. More than ready to try out what she has learned while she trained with her Peerage.

The odd man out of the small group, Kiba Yuuto, held his demonic swords with grim determination. Quietly accepting the fact that he had to fight alongside his comr- former comrades...one last time.

So he closed ranks with them, helping form a perimeter.

And it was a necessary measure, as the stray devils wasted no time in charging towards them when their 'leader' gave them the signal.

---

"Ok...there we go." Mio whispered, just as she finished wrapping the last wound around Raynare's rib cage, being as gentle as she possibly could.

The fallen woman winced as she accidentally touched one of the gashes that crisscrossed her torso. But besides that, the older female took it like a trooper.

Still unconscious though.

"...I still don't understand why you've allowed this fallen angel in your home...Mio."

The red-head tilted her head, looking at Koneko through the side of her eye, connecting with curious hazel pupils.

She turned back to the unconscious form of the fallen angel, shrugging almost nonchalantly. "A bit of a long story."

Koneko raised a single eyebrow. "...I think we have nothing but time..."

Mio coughed at that, internally acquiescing the point. "Well...ok, fine. But let me give you the condensed version instead; basically, she knows Naruto, and I think she's trustworthy enough to allow her to stay here. I'm sure Naruto would agree...if he was here."

The rook slid her gaze over to unconscious female, watching as her chest rose up and down in a steady rhythm. Peacefully resting.

She knew Naruto-sempai...huh...?

It's been a while since Koneko was chosen to watch over this woman from the abandoned church, it came as more than a 'little' surprise.

What she expected to do was run out of the church and continue the search for Yuuto after getting new information. What she got instead was a mission to...babysit, essentially.

Yet here she was.

It took a while to drag their limp 'friend' back to Mio's home, but they eventually managed it, and she kept guard over the two supernatural beings for the entire time that the red-head did her work.

Honestly, she was a little sore that she couldn't stay with Buchou. Just a little. But she did understand her concerns.

Still. She couldn't help but wonder if everything was going smoothly-

Koneko froze, yer eyes widening to the size of saucers as, unbeknownst to Mio, hidden cat-like ears twitched after catching the sound of something that chilled her to the bone.

*Owoooo...*

"Hey Koneko, I'm gonna go out and grab some painkillers, you wanna come with?" the oblivious red-head questioned lightly, already moving around to grab her bag so that she could carry the item she sought.

"No."

Mio's movement stalled, her gaze moving back to the loli that seemed suddenly on alert. Her hazel eyes pinning her to the floor with unwavering intensity.

"...You stay here." the rook stated with authority, not about to be questioned. "...I need to go. Buchou's in trouble...big trouble. I'm going to go help her."

If anything, the half-devil was confused by this response. "Huh? How would you know that, Koneko? I don't sense anything wrong-"

"Trust me." the reincarnated devil replied, her voice clipped, expression stony. "...I need to go, you need to stay here and...protect that fallen angel. I'll be back soon...ok?"

The white-haired teen didn't really even wait for a response as she moved to leave through the front entrance of the house, her movements belaying her rush to get to her king's side.

Mio just watched her go, slightly numb, unable to comprehend what just happened.

Koneko just left her, just like that.

Yes, she didn't really even want her to come guard her in the first place, but there was some kind of comfort that she received by her sheer presence.

She wasn't alone in a house that was meant for a family.

As was becoming more distressingly common, her thoughts drifted back to her 'family', heart aching at the fact that they weren't by her side. Backing her up in a situation that very much needed some sort of silver-lining, which she very simply wasn't seeing.

Maria's lighthearted, yet crude, jokes and attitude.

Naruto's overwhelming -and infectious- confidence and can-do attitude.

Both precious.

The last time she was so alone, trapped in a house with such happy memories was...

Was...

No. No.

Stop. She had to stop now.

Yet the memories came anyways, even if she didn't want them to, forcing her to live through events in her life that she once suppressed.

Instead of the well-kept and comfortable house she was now inhabiting, she was beginning to see flashes of the ruins of another house.

Her breathing came out in short and shallow bursts, eyes dilating as she began to feel it.

Their blood...

Even though it felt like years ago...she could still feel their blood on her hands, splattered across her body, refusing to leave her no matter how much she washed.

...Back then, just like now...it was quiet.

The lack of noise was far more deafening than any sound that she has ever heard.

Say something.

She didn't want to hear it again.

Why won't you say something!?

*Ding Dong*

Mio gasped, her heart in her throat, as she was snapped away from what was very quickly becoming something dangerous.

She forced herself to stand, forced herself to throw that grim reality in the past.

It was the past. It had to stay there. No more, no less.

Her family was alright, they were alright...

They were fine.

They were fine. They were fine. They were fine. They were fine. They were fine.

The red-head's breath was suddenly knocked out of her body, forcing her to her knees as she grit her teeth, trying not to cough.

Her fist was embedded in her stomach.

That was it. That was enough.

She wasn't alone. Not anymore.

This was her home now, and it would stay that way if she had any say about it.

A crooked smile grew on her face, the young woman newly positive that she would get through this. All of this.

With those damn two troublemakers back home as well.

So with that, Mio finished her trek towards the door, easily swinging it open in order to thank the person that managed to temporarily get her out of her funk.

But the words of thanks died in her throat.

"Ah. Greetings. It's a pleasure to meet you at last...Naruse Mio."

A sense of restlessness gripped her heart, keeping her still as she gazed upon the young man in front of her.

Dark green hair.

"...How do you know me?"

Eye closed into a slit.

"Ah, that would be telling, now wouldn't it? For now...let's just say that you have a secret admirer. One that knows of your worth."

A well-educated noble's bearing and demeanor.

"An admirer, huh? Well...what is it that you want with me?"

Extraordinarily expensive clothes and flowing robes.

"Ah, to the point. I like that. Well...Mio-chan, I'd like to take you to your greatest admirer, he has great influence you see, and he could easily provide you with whatever you wish. Just name it, and it's yours."

A creepy smile.

"...And if I refuse your 'offer'?"

The young man's smile, already immensely unsettling, turned more ugly as the conversation progressed.

Just who was this guy? And who was this 'admirer' of her's?

She had no idea, but there was one thing that she did know...

"To put it quite simply." the young man murmured, his voice soft. "This isn't a request."

Someone that has a happy mask that covers half of their face was simply not a trustworthy person.

So when he essentially threatened her, she wasn't particularly surprised by it. Already coming to the grim conclusion that this guy was not a man that took 'no' for an answer.

"This could go either two ways, Mio-chan." the older male stated with authority, not even bothering with diplomacy by this point. "You could either come with me willingly, or I'll simply take you by force. I suggest that you choose wisely."

Mio already bristled at the far too familiar honorific, but ignored that for the bigger problem that was staring at her in the face.

...No matter how she looked at this, she won't be able to rely on anyone to help her out this time around. Everyone was busy with something else or, even worse, outside of Kuoh Town altogether.

The young woman's hand twitched, seeking to place some semblance of defense in preparation of a fight, or maybe she could even go for a preemptive strike-

"Did you really think that I'd give you time to think your way out of this?"

Pink eyes widened as she felt the creepy man's energy spike in a threatening manner, a magic circle forming in the palm of his hand.

"...You're a devil." she realized just then, growling in frustration.

A growing smile was the devil's only response. "Indeed. Diodora Astaroth, at your service."

If anything, the red-head's already rising sense of alarm skyrocketed, forcing her to take a step back just to cope.

This was the guy that Rias-sempai warned everyone about!

But why was he here, with her? Wasn't he after Asia-san...?

Before this line of thought could be extended, Diodora saw fit to continue the pressure by pushing more power into his magic circle, leaving the implied threat in the air.

"Last chance." was all he said.

Mio snapped her eyes behind her, looking back onto the house that she has been staying in for the entire time she's known Naruto.

Her sanctuary.

Her home.

No. Not just her home.

Maria's home.

Naruto's home.

Her family's home.

"Wait."

Diodora raised an eyebrow inquisitively, but he didn't go ahead and attack, so Mio took the chance that was offered and continued to speak.

"...I will not go with you willingly, there's no way that I'll allow myself to be taken away from my home. Not again. Never again. Not from you, not by anyone." she declared, her tone firm and unyielding. "However...a fight here would do damage to the place that I have come to know as my new home. This is the precious place that Naruto offered for Maria and I to stay in, the place where my family lives, the place where I can feel safe..."

Pink eyes narrowed into slits, her own aura becoming volatile as she glared at the former noble devil. "So in order to protect my home...I'm willing to accept it if you took me to a battlefield of your choosing. As long as it is still in Kuoh Town, I don't mind, even it it gave you a tactical advantage somehow. But this home, my family's home, will not be touched. Under any circumstances."

Diodora blinked slowly, staring at her, completely silent following her declaration.

Then he suddenly bent over, roaring in laughter at the prospect of this girl making such demands of him.

It was ridiculous! She was in absolutely no position to be so confident in her diplomatic skills.

"Very well!" the traitorous pure-blood relented with a dark smirk. "In honor of the guts that it must have taken for what you have requested...I will humor you and take you up on your offer."

Mio looked taken aback for all of about a split-second, before nodding firmly, affirming to the deal in place.

Not only would her home be safe, but the fallen angel would be safe from this man's wrath as well. All in all, this was without a doubt the best thing she could have done.

It was time for her to protect someone else, instead of being the one who was protected all of the time.

His dark smile still in place, Diodora spun on his heel and walked back onto the road, a jaunty tune emerging from his throat.

The red-head watched him move warily at first, then sighed, accepting of her fate.

She tilted her head just enough to look at her home, smiling softly at it, even at this grim time.

Then she moved to follow, determined to make good on the promise that she made to herself.

Naruto and Maria would come back, and they would come back home with everyone safe and sound.

Including herself.

---

Attention, we have arrived at the Central Japan International Airport. This is the final stop. I repeat, this is the final stop.

As expected, everyone that was still inside the large mobile transport began to file out of their door, rushing to catch their flight.

A certain blond was squeezing through the crowd, his cheeks squeezed together as he grumbled in annoyance at how crowded it was.

Naruto finally made it to the airport, with a little bit of time to spare to boot, and with a little bit of training done. Thankfully.

Every little bit helped.

Now all the shinobi had to do was find a place to wait patiently for midnight to come around.

...

And get some food, he was pretty damn hungry dattebayo...

As he rubbed his stomach, trying to do his best to ignore the occasional hunger pangs that plagued him, he made sure to glance up at the night sky that was visible to him through the glass ceiling.

The moon was high in the sky now, watching over the area like a mystical specter.

He still had some time before midnight rolled around it seemed, so what should he do in the meanwhile...?

Well, he should probably make a plausible story first, it would be pretty damn suspicious if he just walked up to this church agent and introduced himself when this was supposed to be a classified mission.

A sigh escaped his lips unintentionally, knowing full well that all of these thoughts, while important, were masking a deeper concern hidden in his mind.

It was a gut feeling, really. But he couldn't help but feel worried over what was happening back at Kuoh Town.

Hopefully everyone was doing alright, standing together against...well...whatever was going to happen over there.

Especially Mio...

Naruto shook his head firmly, gritting his teeth.

No, she was a big girl, she could handle whatever was going on without him. He was sure of it.

...But he was still worried.

Blue eyes shifted to the sky, staring at the bright moon in the sky, knowing that he had to deal with this incident quickly.

The blond had to return home, if not for his friend's safety, then for his own sanity.

So with that in mind, Naruto moved forward, mentally preparing himself for what might be quite the confrontation.

---

Diodora was casually walking towards his destination, not at all in any hurry to get there.

On the contrary, he was intentionally taking his time.

The longer that he led her away from the security of her home and allies, the further agitated and fearful she would become. Any confrontation with her after that would be quite simple.

Psychological warfare through tension was a very well established tactic in battle.

Of course...seeing the way her eyes flitted about, nervous, was quite the enjoyable thing to watch as well.

But honestly speaking, he'd much rather hear her scream than anything else...her bravery was a little bit of a let-down.

Oh well, he had plenty of time to change that.

His only remaining eye opened itself up, a dark glint inside his pupil as he fully considered how to milk the current situation.

Beyond his blatant sadism, there was also the fact that there was an area of Kuoh Town that he knew would work in his favor in two aspects; to buy him time and to guarantee Naruse Mio's subjugation.

They were almost there...

"How much longer?" Mio asked quietly, voice somber and listless.

Diodora shivered, trying not to smile at her growing depression. "We're almost there my dear...I was hoping to give you time to reconsider your position by now."

Her pink eyes narrowed at him, disgust evident in those orbs. "...So is that what this entire charade was about? To intimidate me to change my mind? Sorry 'friend', but I'm not that easy."

If anything, instead of getting frustrated by her defiance, the traitorous devil seem to be pleased by it.

Almost like he reveled in her struggle...

It took her all of about a minute to remember that this was the king of those devil girls that Naruto captured back at Rias-sempai's summer home.

...She really couldn't lose to this guy. No way.

Not to his mind games, not to his strength.

"Rejoice, Mio-chan! We have arrived at our destination!"

Mio's attention was brought back to reality as she followed the devil's gaze, forcing her eyes to widen fractionally.

"...An abandoned house?" she whispered out loud, confused.

As she stated, the place that the devil led her to was that of a dilapidated mansion that looked like it was about to topple in on itself any moment now.

It's windows were cracked, the paint dulled, it's tiles falling off...

"This was my temporary base of operations for Kuoh Town, if you're curious." the cruel man commented, as if parting with a fun factoid.

The red-head snapped her head towards her de-facto captor. "What...? So wait...that means that...you were stationed here long enough to have a base here!?"

"Ding!" Diodora mocked, a dark smile spreading across his face. "Got it in one! Indeed...I've been watching you all verrrry closely...especially ever since that bastard left."

Mio frowned, taking note that the former heir of the Astaroth clan had a lot of venom in his voice when he said 'bastard'.

Then she quickly realized why that was, as there was only one person that this man could possibly hate so much.

"...Hoh...?" the half-devil questioned with a growing grin. "So I guess you still have something of a grudge against Naruto, huh? Well I guess that's to be expected...he did defeat you once upon a-"

A furious orange eye speared her with a look, as the man himself let loose a low growl at the temerity of the young girl.

Then he caught himself after noticing her widening grin, realizing that he was reacting just as she wanted him to.

She was, without a doubt, trying to get under his skin.

So the former high-class devil bit his tongue, forcing himself not to jump at her bait. "...Last chance."

Mio raised her chin, her grin disappearing as the moment of truth arrived at last.

"I refuse."

Diodora's face twitched, his patience all but gone now.

"Then fall."

Even as he was speaking, the very air itself shifted inexplicably around them, giving her the feeling that she was being moved...

A barrier...! A big one at that!

The red-head spread her wings out, jumping backwards to make magic circles on the palms of her hands, demonic energy pouring into them.

"Not so fast!" the traitorous devil screamed out, easily making his own magic circle which spewed magic bullets at extreme rates towards his 'backpedaling' victim.

Electricity quickly moved out of Mio's palms to intercept the green bolts of demonic energy, crackling through them without much difficulty and reaching for her enemy.

This time the former Astaroth heir was forced to stretch his wings to fly, using them to help him move higher into the air faster as her attack neared him.

As luck would have it, he managed to barely dodge the magical offensive as it shred apart the pavement that he was previously occupying.

Angered at this, Diodora raised his hand in order for another emerald-green magic circle to appear above his head, glowing brightly.

He didn't hesitate at all.

Countless of magic bullets came out of his rune-like construct, twisting around in the air in order to rain down on his opponent with deadly consequences.

Seeing this, Mio quickly switched to the defensive, using her left hand to make a magic shield to hold over her head as she turned around and ran from the 'rain'.

The red-head growled as she felt the attack make contact with her shield above her and the ground around her, smashing apart the earth and throwing up enough dust into the air that it clouded her sight.

Damn it...! She needed to get out of the fire zone! Fast!

Her right hand was already forming her escape plan, but she needed time to gather more energy first, so she just needed to hold out-

"Do you think that you're getting away!?" the insane man from above gloated, easily creating more magic circles around him to increase the pressure that he was placing on the girl.

This time however, his new magical constructs were aimed directly at her, all while he continued with his rain assault.

A two-pronged attack from different directions.

The half-devil clenched her eyes, forced to make a choice as she moved to turn at the end of the street block in order to use the buildings as temporary cover. Hiding herself to give her a mini-respite.

Diodora wasn't giving her that chance though, as the new magic circles did not spit out bolts of demonic energy this time.

Rather, beams were sent forward, which were easily controllable to the young man.

So much so that he actually managed to navigate them around the building that she was hiding in. Their large numbers overwhelming.

Not to mention the fact that his last bits of 'rain' were aiming for the area as well!

*BOOM*

They detonated as soon as they all converged, blowing up a piece of the small shop that his prey was hiding behind. The rubble falling all over the area. Covering the area in dust and smoke.

...

A single orange eye peered into the destruction, a flicker of worry passing through them as the young man considered that he may have taken this too far.

What if he actually killed her? Lucifer-sama needed her alive in order to properly take her inherited power...

As he was seriously trying to decide how he should delicately inform his lord, a blur shot out of the cover of the smoke and rose high into the sky.

Mio glared harshly at her enemy, doing her best to ignore the numerous scratches that covered her body, her left hand high above her head.

Diodora's eye snapped to her, widening slightly in surprise to see her well.

What he didn't know was that she was forced to use up a bit of her charged demonic energy in her right hand to get out of that in one piece.

Nevertheless, the red-head aimed the magic circle on her left hand towards him and fired.

As soon as she set her attack loose, the large fireball that appeared came flying towards him. Seeking to incinerate him with it's car-sized largess.

The former high-class devil scoffed, raising both of his hands to his front to create a barrier, stopping the pathetic attempt on his life in well swell swoop.

He succeeded.

The fireball crashed right into his barrier, barely denting it as it attempted to try and break through.

Unamused, the servant of the true Lucifer waved away the attack with his demonic energy, splitting the fire into two with derision.

As he did so, he quickly realized his error.

Mio closed the gap between them as she used her last attack as a smokescreen, buying her enough time to finish her preparations.

Her right hand was raised in front of her this time, her eyes scrunched together, focused on this one effort.

Even as she was moving, something below her was converging towards her position, helping her, standing with her.

Water.

Water from the pipes in the houses.

Water from the fire hydrants.

Water from the small ponds.

Water which she herself just made at that very second.

The very same water that Mio used to block most of the explosion that rocked her from behind that building. Much like what Sona did just earlier that day.

They joined together to create an elemental construct in front of her, which in turn was heading straight towards the enemy devil with reckless abandon.

On the other hand, all Diodora really saw after he got rid of the fireball that was thrown his way, was the large jaws of an oriental dragon's head made out of water. Of which, could easily swallow him whole.

Fear penetrated his dark heart at the sight, as he quickly flew backwards and formed new barriers to stop the 'beast'.

But since he barely had time to concentrate, those very barriers were far too weak to stop such a heavy concentration of elemental power created by demonic energy.

So it slowly began to catch up, it's creator gritting her teeth as she desperately tried to hit him, knowing that she couldn't keep this up for much longer.

As the maws slowly caught up to the former heir, his fear began to become more and more acute, his still-beating heart hammering in his rib cage.

"...No..."

Closer.

"No..."

Right in his face.

"NOOOOO!"

Diodora's bellow echoed across the sky, his hands glowing bright green as he released his pent up power to stop the unstoppable beast.

From his hands, emerged what could only be called a 'wall'. One that came down like a barrier that was made out of glass, which separated him from the water-based jaws that were about to engulf him.

The maws immediately crashed against the 'wall' that was put into place, viciously battering at it with overwhelming water pressure, cracking it.

Pink eyes dilated as the red-head focused all of her strength on pushing her water construct to break the border separating her and her enemy, pouring more and more power into her offensive.

However, her attack began to deform against the wall, slowly losing it's shape against the seemingly unbreakable shield.

It was obvious that the former heir of the Astaroth clan was barely holding it at bay though, since the cracks on the wall became more and more pronounced the longer that the water kept pushing against it.

Until...little by little...

*Crack*

The fissures made by her attack became too big...

The entire wall fell apart in short order, shattering into what seemed like a million pieces that fell towards the ground, like snow.

Unfortunately for Mio, her attack wasn't in much better shape either.

The maws that were supposed to take down her opponent was left as nothing more than a blob of liquid, which has lost it's shape after clashing against the barrier.

So all that was left for the magical attack to do was explode in a shower of water, not actually completing the task that it was sent out to do.

Said liquid splashed against Diodora, wetting his clothes and soaking him to the bone, but did nothing more than that as the leftover water rained down onto the ground.

Mio stared at the shower that she had inadvertently created, shaking slightly in her fatigue, as well as her faint despair.

Her grand plan depended on that large amount of water to crash against Diodora, in order to knock him to the ground so that she could finish him with a heavy dose of electricity...

At least, that was the rough draft of her idea.

But now what? She was fatigued by this point, and there was no way that that bastard would waste his chance to take her out while she was weakened. Let alone let her do something like that a second time...

That inkling of despair slowly bloomed in her chest, giving her a sense of hopelessness as she felt that her options were slowly being taken away from her. Giving her no real options to choose from.

She couldn't do this.

She couldn't do this.

Her confidence was being slowly drained the longer she thought about it, bringing her spirit down into a crippling depression that slowly forced her towards the ground.

Her body very simply did not have the will to continue this fight.

To put it more simply, she didn't have what it took to win, she was nothing but a burden...even now.

The red-head bit her lip, clenching her fists at the stinging truth.

She wasn't as strong as Maria.

She wasn't as brilliant as Rias-sempai.

She wasn't as talented as Akeno-sempai.

She wasn't as fast as Kiba-san.

Hell...she didn't even have the sheer guts that the pervert; Issei-san, had.

...But more importantly...

And at this self-realization, she truly then felt the prickling feeling of pain, as her eyesight became blurry and red.

...She wasn't anything like Naruto.

Not as brave.

Not as powerful.

Not as charismatic.

Not as positive.

Not as creative.

She was nothing like the person that she sometimes embarrassingly called her 'onii-chan'.

They were like night and day, with her being so far behind that...

That...

They almost couldn't even be considered family.

...To some, it could even be considered an insult. The gap was truly just that massive.

Did...she even have the right to call him that?

Mio had no idea, no clue whatsoever.

"But..." the half-devil whispered, voice still despondent at her grim thoughts. "Even now...I..."

Her feet tapped onto the pavement again, the rain that she made flowed down her hair and peppered her without relent, as she stared up at her sadistic enemy.

He glared down at her, his eye mocking.

"Have you seen how futile your struggle is now?" Diodora cackled out, his voice echoing in the din. "Give up! You stand no chance against me!"

Puffy pink eyes met his single orange one, the young woman hiccuping as she tried to stand tall, refusing to be cowed.

Even now...she...

Mio straightened her body, ignoring how heavy her body was because of her wet clothes, locking onto him with a brave face.

Then she paused suddenly, freezing, something clicking in the back of her mind, alerting her.

Hope flooded her chest as she finally found another way, giving her the energy to create one more magic circle on her right hand, focusing calmly, hoping that the young man didn't notice what she was doing.

Unfortunately, he did.

"...She hasn't given up yet? Hmph...this time, I better make sure I break her spirit apart properly this time." the disowned high-class devil remarked, smiling darkly.

He raised his hands up, with magic circles quickly occupying them.

The half-devil clicked her tongue, seeing magic bullets once more rain down on her, swiftly preparing to take her down.

Instead of moving to run away this time, she stood her ground, eyeing the magical constructs warily. Ready to move at a moment's notice.

As soon as the magic bullets reached her position, she did just that.

A twist of the body to the left as a fast object sped past her waist.

A flick of her head to the right before another object could cut off her ear.

A tilt of her leg so that the next demonic attack couldn't pierce her thigh.

Magic bullets kept raining down, as Mio twisted her body around to narrowly dodge the attacks from hurting her, intensely focused on this one objective.

Pink eyes blinked, momentarily seeing rocks moving at increasingly faster speeds instead of the attacks that her enemy were flinging at her.

Seeing a certain red-head that was grinning as she continued to 'help' her during her training...

Turned out that it did.

While she wasn't that much better physically than before, her reflexes and body coordination had improved by leagues compared to before.

Which was exactly why the ground was getting shattered into oblivion around her whilst still remaining unharmed, the 'rain' continuing at it's constant rate.

Diodora's eye narrowed, annoyed at this development.

He almost didn't care about bringing the girl back alive...this was becoming too annoying for him.

A snarl emerged from his throat at the fear he felt from this girl's last attack, driving himself to a frenzy to the point that he began to see red.

He moved to up the ante.

Several more magic circles appeared beside him, spewing more bullets as if they were assault rifles.

Mio had no choice but to stand her ground, her entire body bobbing and weaving around the magical constructs as they slowly tore apart the area around her, the rubble crashing against her skin after every small explosion.

But, slowly but surely, she was beginning to get overwhelmed.

She first got the hint when a bullet barely managed to graze against her hair at an awkward angle when she turned her head to the side. Burning off both of her ribbons which kept her trademarked pigtails up. Letting her long hair cascade down her back in all of it's glory.

Too bad she didn't have enough time to worry about that.

A bullet grazed against her right arm almost immediately afterwards, making her wince and crashing her concentration.

She quickly regained it soon after, but the more she got hit, the more difficult it became to keep up her dodging.

Soon after, a bullet pierced her stomach, forcing her to cough a little bit of blood in recompense.

Then her left shoulder.

Then the area right below her left collarbone, but luckily still above her heart.

But it wasn't until another bullet shot right through her right leg that she was finally brought low, crashing into the ground with a wet gasp. Her head knocking harshly against the severely damaged pavement.

As soon as she was down onto the ground, the 'rain' ceased, as the enemy devil was seemingly satisfied with the pain that he dispensed.

The red-head managed to drag her head up from the pavement to glare at Diodora with harsh pink eyes, her bangs covering up the blood that was flowing down from her forehead.

All she got was a triumphant smirk in return, looking down on her from on high.

Now she could easily see why Naruto didn't like this guy, as if she didn't already have enough of a reason to want him gone.

But it was fine...it was fine.

Because it was ready now.

Slowly, the half-devil brought her right arm from under her body out, ignoring the pangs of pain, as she raised it above her head. Aiming it at the renegade devil.

A relatively small magic circle was on the palm of her hand, ready to activate.

"This is it!" she declared, activating it, expanding it so that it was now twice her size.

Diodora's eye snapped to the magic circle, widening, forcing his hands to create another magic barrier like before. Predicting that this was another play at creating a charged magical attack.

Immediately, just like last time, a barrier that looked like a wall of glass appeared in front of him. Separating himself from the younger female, preventing anything from getting to him.

Mio's eyes narrowed at this, absolutely glowering at her enemy above, still keeping her right arm raised up.

The device on her hand which was about to release her next attack still glowing bright.

...But, suddenly, inexplicably, it began to dim.

Until the young female teen gasped and allowed her arm to flop down onto the floor, gritting her teeth as she grasped at it with her other arm.

Diodora stared down at her, confused for all of about a second.

Then it clicked.

"...You've run out of demonic energy, haven't you?" he almost whispered disbelievingly, a growing smile stretching across his face. "You've used too much energy when you were using different elements, so now you've thoroughly exhausted yourself...am I right?"

The red-head didn't answer, she just kept clutching her arm, teeth grinding against one another.

A chuckle escaped the servant of Lucifer, before he even began to break down into an incessant cackle that seemed to encompass the entire barrier that was placed. Ringing in everyone's ears, mocking.

"So this was your final attack then!? A pathetic show, I have to say!" he crowed, smirking smugly. "I have to say...your abilities, while diverse, are pretty pathetic considering that you're the daughter of the Original Lucifer! You really are a failure, aren't you?"

Mio lifted her head up, her gaze hooded by her long red bangs, giving him only a glimpse of her eyes.

"...You're right..." she admitted lowly, her eyes pained. "I...I'm the daughter of scum...but at least he was powerful scum, talented scum. Yet...I don't have that power or that talent. I'm just...average."

Even as she was speaking, the teen was already pushing herself off of the ground, a little bit of blood trailing down from her forehead to her chin.

She raised her chin, defiant, a small grin on her face.

"That being said..." she spoke up softly, her grin growing wider. "My 'average' self is more than enough to beat someone like you."

Diodora's smirk disappeared.

What the hell was she yapping about-?

All his thoughts ceased.

Suddenly overtaken by one, overbearing sensation that he was simply not used to.

Pain.

Something, he wasn't sure what yet, smashed against his back, sending him careening towards the ground at breakneck speeds.

The young man desperately tried to recover in the air, spreading his wings out to slow down his descent, furious that his enemy managed to pull a fast one on him.

But he didn't stop slowing down.

On the contrary, he began descending faster.

What...? Why!?

That was when he noticed, a key, yet small, thing.

His wings were wet.

His clothes were wet.

His entire body? Wet.

Diodora quickly realized that the water that splashed against him earlier in the fight was weighing him down, doing nothing but making him sink faster.

But no...that shouldn't have been enough to make him fall this fast...

Then another thing occurred to him.

The sound of wind was deafening to his ear, yet wasn't it louder than usual...? Even at this speed it was simply too loud.

And that was when he realized.

Wind.

Yet he didn't see her cast any wind! So how did she-!?

Then the final piece of the puzzle was finally put into place, making his eye widen to the size of a dinner plate.

She created this gust of wind behind him...! That was the only way!

It was a powerful gust that was pushing him down, nothing too impressive if she created it with a magic circle in close proximity to her body, but she didn't create it in close proximity to herself.

This...wasn't just 'average' anymore...

Only one that trained for years with the element should've been able to do something like that...

Yet, once more, his thoughts were cut off when the overbearing sensation of pain interrupted them, which was caused by the fact that he crashed into his own barrier.

The glass-like wall was shattered, as Diodora never bothered to reinforce it from his side, sending it all crashing down to earth.

His body eventually, finally, crashed down to earth, creating a decent-sized crater on impact while knocking the wind out of him.

Diodora squirmed on the spot, wheezing, desperate to get some air into his lungs.

As he was falling, Mio was already charging her next attack, knowing that she was drudging up almost all of her last reserves left. This wouldn't leave her totally empty, but she was definitely almost out.

So when he finally crashed to the ground, she was ready.

The teen slammed her hands to the ground, sweat glistening on her face, teeth bared.

Diodora barely managed to bring some much needed air to his lungs when he noticed that the ground under him was moving, almost as if...

His eye snapped to his -damnable!- enemy, who was shaking violently as her hands were clasped on the ground.

She could use earth too!?

That made all five elements...

What could she become with some proper tutelage...?

However, he had no time to think still, as he suddenly realized what exactly his enemy was up to.

"...You...devious cretin...!" he snarled out, bringing his arms out as he very quickly created two defensive magic circles to stop the two objects from smashing on top of him.

The earth under him was pushing against the foundations of two large objects, forcing them to tip and topple over, namely, on top of him.

He was in the middle of the street, using two magic circles to stop the two apartment buildings that were threatening to crash on top of his head and envelop his body whole.

By the time he even noticed the danger, they were already halfway there, so he couldn't even escape in time, let alone dodge.

He was stuck holding two buildings afloat.

"Hey...! I'm not...done...yet!"

Diodora snapped his eye forward, fear quickly overtaking it as he saw Naruse Mio charging at him, her left arm supporting her right, a magic circle on the palm of her right hand.

The red-head was clearly closing the gap, using the last dredges of her demonic energy for this attack on the palm of her hand.

All she had left to do, was imagine it.

Imagination, that was the key to all of her attacks, and this one especially.

She had to spin.

Spin.

Spin.

Spin.

Spin.

The ball of fire she created was rotating faster and faster as she poured her last bit of energy into it, concentrating it into a tight form thanks to the rotation.

The image in her head was of that time...so long ago...

Of a sphere, holding a maelstrom in it's depths, spinning at seemingly impossible speeds.

The rasengan.

...At least, that was the inspiration for what she was about to do.

Yet her attack was nothing like that, nothing at all.

Naruto's rasengan not only spun around in one direction, it spun around in every direction, giving it that grinding effect that made it so strong.

At least, so her brother gloated.

Her's did nothing more than spin in one direction, concentrating her power into a single point, like Naruto's, but without the grinding.

She wasn't even sure if it was possible to imitate that attack with demonic energy, yet she tried anyways.

This was the result, thanks to her training.

It was a pale imitation of a truly great technique.

Some bitter, dark part of her mind couldn't help but believe that it fit her like a glove.

Yet even if she was a 'failure'...

Mio jumped up, raising her spinning ball of fire, thrusting it forward at Diodora's face.

Even if she couldn't measure up...

A single orange eye watched the orb reach him, hallucinating in his fear of what was about to happen.

Instead of the young red-head that was about to shove an orb of power into his face, he saw something else entirely.

A young blond, with piercing blue eyes, soaring towards him, roaring out his attack's name as he raised his sphere and smashed it into his face.

Then his mind returned to reality, seeing his sister do the same.

"Even if I'm a failure...!" she screamed out, her face contorted in her effort. "I will still never lose to a bastard like YOU!"

The spinning fire smashed against his mask, it's flames spreading and engulfing that side of his face without remorse.

"GAAAAAAAGH!" he screamed, hands clasping his face as his mask melted, trying to put out the fire.

His concentration was broken.

And so were his magic circles.

Mio scrambled out of the zone of immediate danger, moving with all of her might to get away from the destruction that was about to happen.

She barely made it.

The ground under her split to pieces, knocking her off of her feet and onto the ground as the shockwave of what went on behind her also pushed her away.

Mio was sent away in a tumbling roll, as billows of dust overflowed her senses simultaneously.

She barely managed to tell, but as the world was spinning around her, she saw the remnants of both apartment buildings crash towards the ground, as the tops of both buildings ripped each other apart when they intercepted one another on the way down.

When the teen finally managed to finish rolling, debris was still falling all around her, but she couldn't tell what was going on more than that thanks to the dust cloud. Even while squinting.

"...D-Did I do it?" she asked quietly, peeking through her bangs to look at the the damage that the buildings have done.

The falling buildings have completely laid waste to the area, leaving nothing but the rough fragments of the once whole structures.

Mio crawled back up to her hands and feet, struggling to actually get onto her feet properly, but eventually managed it.

She walked -limped really- towards the ruins that were recently created, cautious, inspecting it for her enemy.

After a few tense seconds, her eyes snapped to the little bit of movement that she saw in her peripheries.

A harsh gasp erupted from the ruins, confirming her suspicions about where the former noble devil actually was.

The man himself was still buried deep in the rubble, with most of his body caught underneath, with only his single orange eye visible to her.

That same eye locked onto her when she limped closer, unwavering in it's intensity as she moved to stand in front of where the body should be.

"...Hate...you..." a muffled voice spoke up venomously, eye wishing death on her, if such a thing was possible.

Surprisingly, Mio was somewhat impassive to the man's words, just choosing to stare down at him with a neutral expression.

It took a little bit for her to actually take a breath and speak again.

"...I'm a failure...in your words anyways, even if they have a layer of truth in them." the red-head stated quietly, a hint of self-depreciating humor interlaced in her words. "But...just a thought...I think that someone that loses to a failure...is quite a bit more pathetic than the actual failure...don't you think?"

That single eye widened in outrage, as the body underneath began to rumble a little bit to the force of the devil's rage.

"...Both...you and your bastard of a brother...should die..." was all he managed to choke out.

But once more, the half-devil didn't care, opting to instead pick up a stray metallic rod that was lying on top of the rubble and raise it high above her head, focusing on Diodora.

She glared down at her enemy, jaw clenched at what she was going to do.

She's...never done this to a sentient being before...so she wasn't sure if she'd be ok afterwards, but this man couldn't be allowed to stay in this world.

Someone that even Naruto regretted to leave alive could not be allowed to stay that way.

"...Say what you will about me." Mio excused without much fuss, but her gaze sharpened just as quickly at what she said next. "But don't you dare speak about my Naruto like that."

Without much hesitation at all, the young woman thrust her rod down at where she felt the man's cold and dead heart was.

Blood splattered across the ground, it's obscene color spreading across the remains of the buildings that both of the combatants were occupying.

The single orange eye that was staring at the young female teen was blank for a few seconds, not reacting to the blood one way or another.

Then a surprising thing happened.

That eye widened in triumph.

*Clang*

A metallic rod clattered on the ground, slipping through limp fingers.

Mio wasn't paying attention to the rod anymore.

Rather, she was paying attention to the claw that pierced her stomach from behind, watching as blood slowly spilled from the wound and all over the floor.

It took a while for her to actually register what was happening, she just couldn't comprehend what had just happened.

She had it. She had this.

So then...what was this?

The claw exited from her body, leaving the wound wide open.

As soon as that happened, Mio fell backwards, unable to do anything else, numb.

It was all hazy, and clouded.

When she fell over, she met the very beast that attacked her from behind, seeing the malformed visage of a human-scorpion hybrid, it's mandibles clacking lowly.

She already knew what she was looking at.

"...Stray devil..." she mumbled quietly, eyes blank.

"Got it in one again...consider me impressed, Mio-chan~" the mocking voice of Diodora said.

He also appeared right in front of her, blocking the moon with his body.

...Wait, that was impossible.

How? How could he possibly be-?

"Confused about how I'm in such a good condition after such a dramatic attack?" Diodora asked, smirking darkly. "Well...let's just say that I took some...precautions when I started this battle."

Indeed, his body, while full of wounds and scratches, was still in pristine condition if one considers the fact that two buildings just fell on top of him.

Meanwhile, instead of verbalizing what his 'precaution' was, he jerked his head back to where he was initially entombed underground.

Warily, Mio allowed her gaze to follow through.

What she saw made her ill.

Two mutilated bodies were laid inside what should have been Diodora's grave, replacing him in effect.

And just by judging them on their disfigured bodies, she could tell that they were stray devils.

"...The mansion that I led you to when we started our battle...in that building I found the remains of a dead stray devil, one that was actually quite strong. It seemed that someone took the liberty to destroy the insane beast before I had arrived." Diodora mused out loud, tapping his charred chin in thought. "Not only that, but that stray devil seemed to have cowed the other stray devils in the vicinity..."

As if directed, several grotesque beings suddenly began appearing from around the vicinity, flanking the traitorous devil as if they were guards.

His single orange eye was dancing at the flash of fear that appeared in his prey's eyes.

"So after I revived him...not only did I actually win the jackpot by getting a new servant...but I've also gained control of all of the stray devils that were gathering in Kuoh Town by proxy! So when you left me for dead under those buildings...at least two of my slaves were already ready to throw their bodies on top of me and absorb most of the damage in order to preserve my life."

Even as he was speaking, the young man couldn't help but delight in watching the teenaged girl's pain.

He wondered what kind of face she'd make after he revealed why all of these stray devils converged on Kuoh Town in the first place?

Not focusing on that yet, the twisted man splayed his hands apart, smug in his demeanor. "In short, while you may have managed to nearly kill me...actually, no...you would have killed me with that little stunt of yours, it doesn't change the fact that you still failed to account for my back-up plan. In the end, you're still just a little girl playing with the big boys."

Mio was silent, focusing too much of her strength on keeping herself from losing consciousness, as she felt her blood continue to pool around her.

Diodora leaned closer to her, close enough that she could see why he used a mask to hide the other side of his face.

Burned beyond recognition, lips destroyed to the point that it couldn't hide the rotten teeth underneath, a jaw that was holding onto his face by a thread, and an empty socket without any trace of an eyeball.

She couldn't help but be a little proud of the damage she's done.

But her pride was cut short when she felt Diodora cup her cheek with his hand, eye filled with nothing but malevolence.

"...I'm supposed to bring you back to Lucifer-sama alive." he murmured, eye drinking her up. "But your attitude will be a problem...so I think I have to break you in a little bit."

If the red-head could have, she would have bit back with a harsh response, but she was barely able to stay awake. Let alone fight.

Nevertheless, the former heir of the Astaroth clan turned to his subordinate stray devils, giving them a single command.

"Hold her down."

Pink eyes widened, fear gripping her heart as she forced every ounce of any possible hidden strength that she might have kept in reserve to move.

To get away, now.

But two hideous stray devils moved closer to her, intent on following the orders of their 'master', their claws stretched out to capture.

Then they froze on the spot, moving their heads upwards to focus on something else.

As soon as they made that strange reaction-

*BOOM*

-something exploded right in-between the two mindless beasts, stopping their march forward.

Just as Mio was trying to figure just what was going on, she felt two arms hook from under her armpits and drag her back. Away from Diodora.

"Hold on! I got ya! We need to make a little bit of space though first!"

The daughter of the Original Lucifer felt her heart skip a beat as a gasp escaped her throat, unable to actually believe who came to back her up, of all people.

She was then unceremoniously dropped like a sack of potatoes, making her grunt at the rough treatment, until her body suddenly felt...soothed.

Bleary pink eyes watched as a green aura began to close down the wound that the sneak attack from earlier made, marveling at it.

She tilted her head up, locking with the concerned green eyes of a certain nun.

"...Asia-san..." the half-devil managed to croak, her strength slowly returning to her. "What...are you doing here?"

Asia was holding her hands over her body, the rings on her fingers shining and releasing a green aura which was restoring her physical body back to full health.

The human teen offered her a shy smile as she continued to heal her wounds. "W-Well...we were out trying to get some medicine, but then we somehow got caught inside this barrier..."

Mio blinked, unable to believe that these two were getting medicine at a time like this...

But considering they were here, she wasn't gonna complain.

"Yeah! It was a big coincidence that we got dragged into this...but now that we're here, we can finally do something!" the young man that dragged her back claimed excitedly, before offering her a thumbs up. "So don't worry about a thing, I got this!"

Pink eyes dully considered the red gauntlet that was giving her a thumbs up, unamused. "...Didn't you lose to this guy last time, though?"

Hyoudou Issei's facial features reflected that of confusion, giving her the impression that he had no idea who exactly he was fighting.

She was right.

The perverted young man turned his head to peer at where their enemies were now that the dust finally settled down...

"...You!" Issei rumbled lowly, eyes turning into daggers at the familiar visage of Diodora Astaroth.

The former heir of the Astaroth clan didn't look too happy to see him either, clicking his tongue in annoyance at the interruption.

"...Yeah, it's that guy." Mio coughed out, still a little pale from her injuries. "Look...thanks for getting me out of that situation, both of you, but that bastard over there made this fight personal. Don't interfere-!"

The owner of the Boosted Gear loudly snorted, cutting her off, much to her annoyance.

"What? You think that I don't have personal beef with this guy too?" he asked, completely serious. "No...I'm definitely joining in this fight. This is the chance that I've been waiting for!"

The reincarnated devil pumped his fist, his eyes burning with raw emotion as he glared at Diodora. "I...I couldn't beat this guy last time. I would have died if Naruto didn't intervene last time...but now it's different, I'm stronger now. Not only that, but now I can actually pay Naruto back for back then...by making sure his imouto comes out of this alive."

He then turned back to her, a shit-eating grin plastered across his face. "Basically, you're outta luck. Sorry about that."

Mio stared back at him, studying him, not responding for a moment.

Then she closed her eyes, sighing.

"...If you don't take him down by the time I get back on my feet." she stated matter-of-factly, quirking an eye open to give him a look. "Then it'll be you who's out of luck...Issei."

Issei smirked, taking the back-handed acknowledgement.

So all he had to do was bash this guy's face in before she recovered? He could do that.

The young man raised his red gauntlet, more than ready to let loose his new abilities onto the asshole that nearly took his beloved away from him.

"Now come on, Mio-san...lay down so I can continue to heal you." Asia coaxed the half-devil, who slowly followed with the 'doctor's' orders.

Mio tilted her head to the sky, seeing the moon reach it's zenith in the sky.

It was definitely late, and she couldn't help but worry about how everyone else was doing.

"...Are you looking at the same moon as me...Naruto...?" she wondered quietly.

She didn't receive an answer.

With that, the young woman finally decided to allow the nun to continue healing her. There was no way that she would let the pervert get Diodora all to himself.

---

Naruto looked up at the night sky, frowning.

It was midnight.

Well damn, how time flied when he was focusing on other things.

Strange enough, he just...had to look at the moon for some reason...

How weird.

"Hey, uh...excuse me, do you know when the airliner from...uh...I think it was 'Frankfort'...? No! Frankfurt! So yeah, when does the next flight from Frankfurt Airport come in?" the shinobi stammered out, a little embarrassed at his constant screw ups.

The man he was speaking to, a cashier from behind the counter for one of the many fast food restaurants in the airport, just stared at him blankly.

"...I do believe that it was announced that the Frankfurt flight has arrived earlier than scheduled, sir." the cashier replied bluntly, raising an eyebrow.

Naruto's jaw dropped at this burst of information, feeling a sweat-drop flow down his head.

"...Really?"

"...Really."

...

"Oh shit!" the blond cried out, jumping off of the stall that he was lounging in and running towards where he knew the people should've been getting out of the plane.

The cashier stared at the spot where the young man used to sit, his eyebrow twitching sporadically, realizing that the blond completely forgot to pay him for the food he ate.

Naruto quickly managed to reach the terminal where the church agent should have exited from, despairing when he saw plenty of people leaving the area, giving him the impression that mostly everyone had left the airliner already.

Damn it...! There were a hell of a lot of announcements, so of course he'd ignore a few of them! How was he supposed to know that the plane would arrive earlier than expected?

This was not his fault, damn it!

The shinobi scanned the area desperately, trying to look for someone, anyone that might look like an agent sent by the church.

Naruto winced at the thought, what was he thinking exactly? Of course an agent sent by the church wouldn't look...well...suspicious. They were supposed to be an agent after all.

Ah...but then how was he supposed to-?

"Excuse me sir, you seem lost."

The shinobi paused his thinking to turn around, on the verge of excusing himself so that he could continue his search.

But he stopped in mid-action, his blue eyes zeroing in on the clothes that the young man was wearing.

Said young man was wearing clothes that befits a wealthy priest from a wealthy church, with cross symbols all around his clothing, and what looked like...feathers around his collar.

His clothes were about as eye-opening and ostentatious as was humanly possible.

Naruto wanted to facepalm, but he didn't want to waste the chance that was given to him.

This was the guy, this was definitely the guy!

So the blond opened his mouth, about to tell him his rehearsed story-

"...You're troubled, aren't you?" the church agent asked rhetorically, giving the teen a sympathetic look.

Naruto paused in telling his story, befuddled at what the hell this guy was talking about.

The psuedo-priest just kept going, his green eyes beseeching him. "I sensed your hidden conflict as soon as I landed in this country, blaring out at me with the force of a hurricane...and I knew that you'd be searching for me."

The shinobi still had no idea what the hell he was on about, but the fact that he somehow 'knew' that he'd be searching for the agent shocked him.

Did he know why he was here then?

"You see..." the green-eyed man continued, rambling. "I have a special ability that allows me to control weather, but since I have such an abnormal amount of talent with that 'ability', I could actually use it to connect with others emotionally, to a certain extent. Especially with my Speranza Bolla di Sapone, but normally I wouldn't be able to actually feel someone else's emotions to such an extent...but yours were simply that powerful."

Naruto's eyes widened fractionally, taking in all of this information, but didn't respond outside of that.

It was by that point that the church agent suddenly stopped speaking, his eyes glued onto the blond's face, before a wide smile graced his features.

"I see. So you are aware of the supernatural."

The whiskered teen's eyebrows shot up into his hairline, gaping at what his fellow male just said, did he just hear him right...?

"You didn't dismiss my words." the unknown man stated simply, still smiling. "Most people, after hearing what I have just said, would have dismissed me as insane, yet you didn't. Only someone who was already aware of the supernatural would react in such a manner...or I suppose someone who was legitimately insane, but I doubt that this time."

"...This time?"

"Long story."

Naruto accepted that answer.

He could sympathize.

Though...to think that this guy could determine that he knew about the supernatural through such a roundabout way...

This guy was good, no doubt about it.

"Anyway." the psuedo-priest continued, getting back on topic. "I just wished to inform you about the current state of your psyche, as I'm sure that our meeting was supposed to happen, whether by luck or Providence's will. What you do with that knowledge is up to you, but I must be on my way. As I have a duty to complete myself. Have an excellent evening, sir."

And so the church agent turned on his heels, moving to leave and complete the job that his superiors gave him.

At least until the man felt a certain someone place their hand onto his shoulder, stopping him short.

"Wait." Naruto stated calmly, voice firm.

As told, the man waited.

"...Now, I don't know about the other stuff that you said, but I'll admit it, I came here to speak to you alright...about that very mission that you gotta do."

The church agent was silent for a few moments, still looking away from the blond teen.

Then he slowly tilted his head to look at Naruto, looking at him through the side of his eye. "...What's your name?"

A slow grin spread across his lips, raising his chin in challenge. "Uzumaki Naruto."

In return, a slow smile stretched across the other man's face as well. "...Dulio Gesualdo...but I suppose since this is Japan...it's Gesualdo Dulio. A pleasure to meet you."

Dulio then turned his body to face the teen, his dirty blond hair covering his eyes for a split-second.

"Very well then...let's talk."

---

Ruby eyes were locked unerringly onto the specter in the dark sky, giving the world illumination during the quiet night.

It was a beautiful sight, maybe even a romantic one if one were so inclined.

But it mattered very little to the young woman that was watching it, as such a thing wasn't meant for rulers. Such sentimental drivel were meant for those beneath her.

No...as a matter of fact, she wasn't even looking at the moon. Not really.

Her eyes were looking past the moon, past this world, past space and time itself to...something else.

A dream? A vision? She wasn't sure what would one call it.

But through the chairman, she saw it.

As the memory trickled back to the forefront of her mind, it was almost like she was transported back to when she herself personally experienced the vision, when she was still a little girl...

Back when she first reached her conclusions about life.

Back when she didn't really have anything more than the vague aspiration of 'becoming perfect' as her goal.

Her very first vision into another world.

The first time she saw that boy...

Yes...it was a repeat of the one that the chairman himself first saw.

The one with the boy and the mirror, where he simply stared at himself, almost as if he was trying to study about his own existence.

It was something that she could understand, especially as a child herself, back then.

She remembered hearing all about the old man's grand ambitions, how she would use this boy as a conduit to greater powers and abilities.

And she would, to an extent.

But while it aided her in her understanding of...certain things, there was something else that interested her far more. Both then, and now.

Back then, when she first saw the vision, one of the first things that she remembered seeing was a mirror.

At first, seeing the eyes that were reflecting off of them, she thought that she was looking at herself.

...She wasn't.

What she saw had already happened in that world, all she essentially was was a ghost that replayed an event for research.

She could watch, but not interfere.

So the mirror was reflecting off of the boy that was truly there, the one that was right behind her, looking through her, staring at her with the mirror.

That was the first time that she met the boy that she would know as Uzumaki Naruto.

Ruby eyes blinked, focusing on the entity in the sky again rather than what happened in the past.

In her quest for perfection, it almost seemed appropriate for him of all people to be the one to stand in her way.

The principal road block to her success.

Over here, she was the undisputed ruler; a tyrant.

There were only two individuals that ever bothered to refute her supremacy, but neither of them ever tried to usurp her authority.

Not anymore.

Although, the one that fancied himself a 'king' sometimes grumbled a little, he knew that he was beat.

There was a reason that she was now known as the 'king of kings' after all.

But Uzumaki Naruto on the other hand...he didn't know about her sublime self, he had no idea.

...And even if he did know, something told her that he wouldn't bow to her. At least not without a fight.

Not only that, but if he ever caught wind of what was in motion in this institution, he would without a doubt come and stop her.

Unbidden, she felt the corner of her mouth twitch upwards.

It was fitting too...as she wanted to face him, even if he wasn't standing in her way.

Even if he wasn't the key to making herself complete.

...After seeing him for the first time in that vision, she would peer into the many key points of his life thanks to the chairman, studying him. Learning.

But, even back then, no, especially back then, she noticed a change in him.

It was something that she was sure that the chairman noticed, but compared to her, he never really cared about such a thing.

It was the boy's eyes.

They changed.

When she first saw him, his eyes had that dull quality that only those who have understood the fruitless nature of life itself could have possibly obtained.

It was the eyes of enlightenment, at least to her.

Of someone who has transcended normal thought and morality.

Yet...that changed.

Dull blue shifted to the lie that was the bright blue.

Why?

Why?

Why?

She couldn't understand it, she almost didn't want to.

Just why did he turn away from the truth?

Even as she was thinking, she absent-mindedly felt the tiles under her fingers crack and split apart, a snarl making her face ugly...

"Ah...! I found you at last! Listen, the chairman was trying to contact you, K-!"

The 'king of kings' turned her head to the side, looking at the woman that interrupted her thoughts.

Said teenaged female quaked at the look that she was given.

"Uh...a-apologies for interrupting you." the messenger stammered quickly, knowing her life depended on this. "But the chairman said that the arrangements have been made...and that you're free to go after you meet with him..."

Ruby eyes widened fractionally.

"I see...very well then." the purple-haired ruler replied, tone clipped. "Then inform the chairman that I'm on my way."

A flash of relief flitted across the messenger's features as she immediately scrambled away from the tyrant, aware that her life depended on her getting away.

Already forgetting about the measly existence that was just talking to her, the ruler pushed herself away from the roof, her cold heart beating a little faster.

Finally...they would meet.

Finally...

---

"...How annoying."

At least that was Shiba's clear opinion when it came to the side mission that he had to complete.

The traitorous hero had literally just returned back to the Japanese branch of the Hero Tribe, with many of his 'comrades' questioning where he has been for so long.

Thankfully Shiba had already traveled to the ruins of the Chinese branch, were the remnants of the Hero Faction were now temporarily stationed. And he took the liberty of obtaining evidence of his stay there, using that to belay the suspicions of others.

But apparently there were still some who were still dubious of his claims.

Of course, this request from the old man was one that he made when they made their 'transaction' with one another...and it did potentially put him into an uncomfortable position.

Oh...but the possible benefits...

Put simply, if Shiba used his sensing abilities to find Uzumaki Naruto again, and then give the old man his location...then a clash would inevitably occur in such an instance.

If something like that happened, then that would definitely take off the heat on the battered faction that he has inherited from Cao Cao.

But more than that, he could very much take out two enemies at once.

The old man wasn't his friend, not by a long shot, so if Uzumaki Naruto could destroy the has-been and wreck his plans, that'd be mighty appreciated.

And if he died trying? Well...that wouldn't be a bad thing either.

As long as one or the other is weakened or taken out, he would be fine with this, that just meant that there was one less rival on the chessboard.

And thankfully...Uzumaki Naruto's energy signal was very easy to remember. It was quite vibrant.

So all he had to do was take some time off of his day to spread his senses...and wait for the young man to use his powers.

He would get a fix on him almost immediately, as long as he was near Japan anyways.

Shiba raised his head a little when his thoughts were interrupted by a knock on his door.

He knew exactly who that was.

The young man swiftly stood up, his trademark smile and slit eyes plastered on his face, getting ready to play his part.

"Why hello there, Jin-dono." Shiba remarked warmly after opening the door, seeing the faction leader of the Hero Tribe on the other side of the door. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

Toujou Jin, who was usually a lax man at the best of times, was strangely serious as he nodded to him in acknowledgement. "Shiba. Come, there's going to be a meeting among the elders in a few minutes in the Grand Hall, and we need as much information as you could provide about what happened."

The traitorous hero expressed light shock at this, despite the fact that he already knew that something like this would happen. "Oh? So the Hero Tribe higher ups are already preparing an appropriate response then, huh...? Sounds like a big deal."

The powerful hero nodded grimly. "It is. Which is why we need to be as informed as possible. Especially when we contact the other branches of the Hero Tribe, mostly around the Pacific."

Once more, the younger man was more than aware of that, but for simplicity's sake he just continued to act ignorant. "Of course, then please lead the way Jin-dono. I'll do what I can."

"Good." the Great Hero stated briskly, a small smile gracing his features. "...Just don't get 'lost' this time...would you...?"

Shiba twitched, back tensing.

"...Of course."

Sharp brown eyes remained on the younger hero, studying him without comment, before Jin turned on his heel and moved towards the meeting place. Not making any further comment.

Shiba watched him go, sweating slightly.

He sometimes forgot, but that man was indeed dangerous.

...More than that, he was suspicious of him.

The brown-haired man couldn't stay at the Hero Tribe for too much longer, one more slip up and he was a dead man.

He could at least take some solace in the fact that he twisted his son's mind for quite a few years, and since the boy was recaptured, that information should reach the 'Great Hero' soon enough.

A distraction like that would be more than enough for him to complete his task.

All he needed now...was patience.

---

AN: Hey everyone RekkingPride here. Just finished this chapter, it's a doozy ain't it? I hope everything was to your satisfaction? :)

Anyways, can I ask you guys for a favor? I don't normally do this, but can you guys send me as many reviews as you can this time around?

Apologies, but just yesterday I got my wisdom teeth removed, and now I'm stuck in bed, in pain through intervals. And reviews would be awesome to read while I recover:P

So just this once I will ask for reviews, I try not to be a review whore, but this is obviously special. Thanks a bunch you guys. :)

Last thing, I have decided to rewrite chapters 1-4 due to the gap in grammar. I already did chapter 1, so plz check it out. Should be far more readable now. Plz tell me if you got any criticisms. They are roughly the same with some minor changes, so don't worry about any real changes.

Alright, that's all. Cya all later!

-RekkingPride