Hey there, guys!

So, i know this chapter's been long due, but three things contributed greatly to my rather long leave of absence from this story.

Firstly, I had a few new projects in my mind. I've been working on two new RWBY stories - one of which I've recently published (I wrote the entire thing drunk, so I understand if people don't like it.). The second one is a NarutoxRWBY cross and will grace this site early next year. It's been a challenge for the second story because it is something pre-canon, hence the amount of research and world-building that have gone into it have been mind-boggling. Hopefully it'll be received well by y'all folks!

Secondly, I've had to read the DxD light novels, because the anime hasn't caught up to the point in canon where I plan to pull this story away from it. Now, I have very little love for these novels, so it took me a lot longer than I wanted to actually sit through them.

Thirdly, I'm in London with some extended family for my Christmas vacation, which places me quite far away from a usable PC. This is the first chapter I've written using a mobile, and I'm not very good with a mobile keyboard.

Anyway, moving on, here's the chapter.


"You wanted to see me, Sona?"

The demure look on Sona's face let through a lot more than she wanted to show. While the person who sat in the counselor's office was still very much Naruto Uzumaki, it did little to remove the mental shock that forced Sona's respect, a kind of reverence she held for devils far above her stature.

While Naruto had made it amply clear that he didn't want the two heiresses to treat him like anything but their effervescent and friendly school counselor, it was hard to forget that signature of power Sona had the fortune of witnessing that one day, weeks ago.

It was hard to remove Naruto Abbadon from her mind, even though Naruto Uzumaki was the one she was addressing.

"I had a few questions for you, Sensei" Sona wrested control of her confidence back from her instinct. Naruto had asked them all to treat him like an equal, and she did not want to disappoint.

Naruto breathed a sigh of relief. "oh! I was so sure that the reason for your visit today was to get your psychological report re-analyzed. Answering some questions is a lot less taxing." he stated, motioning for Sona to seat herself.

It took Sona a second to remember which re-analysis Naruto was talking about. Of course, she had weaseled out something of that sort from him even after losing a chess match to him earlier in the semester. After what all had happened in the span of the last few months, that contest of brains had almost been completely forgotten by her.

Funny, she'd taken it as a personal slight back then, and now it seemed like something so... petty.

"I wanted to ask you a fee questions about the war to begin with, if you don't mind."

Naruto nodded once. "The civil war, right? No issues, fire away."

Sona raised an eyebrow in surprise. "You're willing to answer personal questions about the war, things that have been redacted by the houses. Knowledge like that can be considered heresy... and you have no issue divulging it all?"

Naruto shook his head "Devilkind has tried age and age again to bury both knowledge and people. They are very good at the latter, but seldom succeed at the former. If I don't answer you today, you'll get answers from others tomorrow. You're the scion of the Sitri, and i'm pretty sure you'll not take over your family's affairs as a half-informed tool."

Sona found it hard to argue with that sort of logic. She had an inkling that her parents knew, and that was before she found that book in her family library. Her parents were part of the war too, there was no way they couldn't tell the lies from the truth.

"I know, but partly due to my curiosity and partly because the chance your presence has provided, I have a number of things I'd rather ask you personally." she reasoned.

"You want in-depth accounts of the stuff I did during the war? I'm not quite sure you're old enough for content that graphic in nature." Naruto's generally cheerful tone deepened as he delivered his final few words, and behind it lay a promise of deeds done in silence and darkness.

But it wasn't just curiosity that drove Sona. The Sitri heir liked to think of herself as both a strategist and a pragmatist - A pragmatic strategist, if she'd be so bold. Once Sona told her that Naruto had pretty much single-handedly drawn out the civil war for a whole year while also training the current-day satans, Sona started doing what she did best.

She started running scenarios. She started charting out the entire year - taking events as references from the mist obscure books, mostly untouched by the censorship bureau. She ran through numbers and houses, trying to figure out a scenario which could actually be considered a logical possibility, no matter how low the odds of such a scenario may be.

And she had come up with nothing.

"How did you do it?" she asked, the reverence in her tone was definitely not lost on Naruto, who caught on to the source of the question admirably fast.

"You can't see any possibility of me having pulled it off without help, can you?"

Sona shook her head. "a lot of the important skirmishes and defections happened on dates too close too each other, yet too far away from each other by distance. If the records in Bifrons' book, which has been verified by many devils is to be believed, you'd have to be in many places in the same time-span to actually even get half of these done. So, how did you do it?"

Naruto glared at Sona for a second, and the young devil was suddenly reduced to a nervous wreck as the realization of what she'd just insinuated caught up with her. She had just questioned the capability of someone who had ripped open the first Archangel in front of her very eues.

Thankfully, her nerves caught a well-deserved break when Naruto's face broke into a genuine smile. "Sona, your intelligence and curiosity always manage to catch me off-guard. It's one of the many things I respect about you. I was a silent terror during the war, and not many devils had the time or patience to chart all my movement, so what I used was a clone technique."

Sona was silent for a scant few moments, her mind running through the archives of known devil magic types. "There's no known devil magic that allows for the creation of solid clones. The Mirage spell is the closest thing that exists to what you claim to have used, and that relies on careful usage of high-level fire magic to create flickering illusions of the user."

Naruto chuckled for a second before raising one of his hands and pointing right behind where Sona sat. Before she could even turn around and look, she heard Naruto's unmistakable voice rose behind her.

"I never said it was a Devil technique, did I?"

Behind her stood another Naruto, unmistakable in both stature and features from the original. Her breath caught in her throat as the clone dispersed into a puff of smoke.

"A human technique, the shadow clone. Don't bother looking for it in the archives, it is far too ancient and too damn rare for the devils to know about, just like most of my other techniques."

Sona locked her gaze with his again. "And you're completely okay telling me about all these techniques?"

Naruto returned her gaze with his own, the smile on his face still firmly rooted. "Not all of them, Sona, but I consider you all my friends, and there shouldn't be so many secrets between friends."

"Till a few days ago, your heritage was a secret to us, could you please answer me seriously?"

Naruto was silent for a second, "To be honest, had Amenadiel not attacked, you'd never know the truth."

Sona's eyes narrowed, "You hold this secret as close to your heart as possible, yet you jumped in to protect us without any hesitation. You sacrificed your prized anonymity for the sake of people you care so very little about. So, I ask again, why do so much when you have so little to gain?"

Silence overtook the room, and just as it felt like Sona's question would go unanswered, Naruto started to speak.

"I helped you because you are good people. I do not lie when I say that I consider you my friends. We're of the same race, we both have similar values, and I'd rather be dead than not help when I can. It is one of the irritating traits that I've grown up with, but not one that I necessarily hate."

Sona wasn't buying it, though. "There's no way that you don't know who I'm related to. More so, there's no way that you don't know who Rias' elder brother is. I know about your distaste for Sirzechs - sister made it pretty damn obvious to me - so why did you save us?"

"Because I cannot - in any circumstance - judge you as individuals just because of who you are related to."

Sona stopped, she physically came to a halt as her mind struggled to come to terms with what he had just said. Devil society - to this day - operated on family connections. The individual was seen more as an extension of a family than... well... an individual. Saying that it mattered little who they were related to would be considered a white lie.

Yet the calm and collected way Naruto had stated his reason made it seem so factual, almost like Naruto didn't even think much of spitting in the face of the norms of Devilkind.

"It is also why you got no preferential treatment, even though Sera was one of my closest friends."

That's when it sunk in, Naruto actually didn't give a damn. It explained why he helped Issei, even though he was - by extension - invariably helping Sirzechs. It was why he was so candid with what he wrote in her mental review. He wasn't swayed by family power, or power in general.

How much power did he have, if he could so blatantly disregard the powers that be?

"Back during the war too, It didn't matter to me, who I killed. It didn't matter if the person I tortured was a duke, or an earl. Sirzechs gave me targets, I brought them to him. If they were hard to crack, I softened them up for him. That's how I extended the war."

Despite her mind telling her it was a bad idea, her next question was out of her mouth before she could take it back.

"What did you do to the ones that proved hard to crack?"

Naruto chuckled. "Well, my method of torture was very different from the devil staple. I was never formally trained in torture, so I came up with a theory that was a lot different than most." Naruto's eyes glazed over, as if he was remembering something painful. "I didn't hurt them, you know. Hurting them never helps. They knew I couldn't kill them. If even humans can desensitize themselves to pain, do you really think devils would find it any harder to do?"

Sona gulped. "So, how did you do it?"

"Take a look at the clock on the table, will you?"

Confused, yet interested, Sona did as asked.

"Now, look into my eyes."

And she did. Her own eyes widened as his eyes shifted color, losing their original cerulean in favor of a sinister red, with ripple-like patterns running through them.

Of all the things she had been expecting, the room catching fire wasn't one of them. She reacted as soon as she felt the heat, her mind already casting one of her family's famous water spells.

But nothing came.

No water, no spell, nothing. Her magic was inaccessible to her, almost like her stores of magic energy didn't exist.

Before she could respond, the flames simply flickered out of existence, leaving a panting Sona sitting in front of Naruto, like nothing had happened.

Wait, sitting? She could feel the perspiration on her skin, she could remember the heat perfectly, so where had it gone?

What had Naruto done?

"Look at the clock again, Sona."

Shaken out of her ruminations by Naruto's carefree voice, Sona looked at the clock. It was an hour further than what it was supposed to be.

"Did you just turn the clock ahead?"

Naruto smiled, "If you look outside, you'll see that it is getting darker too."

Sona raised an eyebrow. "What was that spell? I didn't know you could alter time itself."

Naruto chuckled, "While I believe I'm powerful, even I don't have methods of messing with time."

Sona - yet again - thought back to the devil archives. There was no such skill listed anywhere. Sure, devils could mess with the memories of others, but that was generally done by planting memories, or through charming spells.

What Naruto had shown her was none of those.

"It's one of the few abilities that are Unique to me. In my eyes, you've been sitting on that chair with a vacant expression on your face for an hour. Hell, I even did my paperwork to prove to you that the time did pass."

And sure enough, the papers that he had been working on when she walked in were neatly signed and arranged in piles on his desk.

"So, you made me feel like an hour passed within the span of a few seconds. And what about the flames. Those were real, weren't they?"

Naruto shook his head again. "Sona, a blaze of such intensity would leave marks behind. To explain why it felt so real, well, I made your mind believe it was real. There was no stimuli, but your body still reacted, which explains the sweat."

Sona nodded. If Naruto was messing with her mind, it made sense that he could disable her magic too. But how had he used this technique for interrogation? She didn't even have to ask the man before he launched himself into explanations.

"The mind perceives time differently from the body. While I sped up your cognition of time, I generally use this technique to do the very opposite. Add in a few gruesome, personal images like - let's say - the target's entire family being tortured, over and over again. You can see how it would break even the strongest of men."

Sona now understood why Naruto showed her the flames. If their realism was anything to go by, she could imagine the circumstances Naruto pointed out.

Not that she wanted to imagine something so disturbing.

"How long did they generally last?"

"No one's made it past a day." Naruto commented offhandedly. "But a day lasts generally a good decade or two in my technique. Say whatever you will about Devil royalty, but they sure aren't easy to crack."

Sona shuddered at the possibilities. A decade of hyper-realistic mental torture would be enough to break no matter who it may be.

"What generally broke then wasn't even the torture, it was the lack of power."

Okay, so that came as a surprise. Naruto accredited them cracking to something other than immense mental torture.

"Sounds banal, doesn't it? They don't break when I break everything that matters to them in front of them. They broke when they forget the feeling of their power. When they forgot what made them 'them'. It wasn't their family, or their lovers. It was them forgetting the feeling of magic, it was them believing that thet lost everything that made them 'them'. I gave them a little taste of being human, and that's all it ever took to break them."

Sona gulped. It tied in perfectly with how devil society worked. Without power, you were nothing. Taking away their powers, Naruto had givem them a taste of what would happen to them if they went again him... against Sirzechs.

"Better to have a little of something than a whole lot of nothing, don't you agree?"

Sona nodded hesitantly. Merely these two powers in tandem made her simulations of the war become coherent. She didn't know what else Naruto had in store, but she knew that just these two powers wouldn't have been enough to take down Aria.

"That's all I'm willing to tell you about the war, Sona. If you have something else to ask, go ahead, feel free."

There went most of the other questions she had in while. Well, it didn't matter. She had enough knowledge about the war to piece together the rest of it. She had time to do that. The questions still left in her mind were a bit more... immediate.

"You had every right to refuse Rias' deal. You have no reason to want to train the sister of someone who hurt you so. You can easily kill us all and start over somewhere else. So, why did you acquiesce to her demands so easily" she asked. The question had been bugging her since that night, weeks ago. She had half-expected Naruto to disappear the moment he killed Amenadiel. Who was there to stop him, after all?

But he hadn't. No, he stayed and even took on Rias' demand for training.

"Would you believe me if I said that I'm here because property in devil-owned towns is cheaper than other places?" Sona's sharp, reprimanding glare was answer enough. "Okay, okay. Sorry, but you set me up for that one. Now, think back to what I said earlier, and maybe you'll get your answer."

Sona shook her head "You might not hold us responsible for the sins of our families, but still, you're training the sister of the satan who wronged you more than almost any other. Plus, you are a devil, and devils don't just give away their tutelage. What do you want from her... from us?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "So, you haven't approached me for training sessions because you believe I want something from you? Well, I'll be frank, I do want something from you, something you're already giving me."

Sona raised an eyebrow, "And what exactly are we giving you that you can't get on your own?"

Naruto shrugged, "Cover, duh. Who'd expect someone with my circumstances being this close to Japan's devil hotbed? While I could live the existence of a sage somewhere out on the poles, surrounded by penguins. I need to be in constant contact with the world. What better way is there of doing so than being present in the one place on this plane where things are bound to get interesting?"

Sona nodded grimly, "I see your logic there. Plus, if you were with us constantly without being hostile, it would desensitize the devil world to your presence."

"I'm glad that you catch on so quickly, Sona. Plus, if anything goes wrong, say, like the sudden emergence of an Archangel long since lost in history, I can be of assistance. With you vouching for my identity, no one will suspect a thing. Plus, it gains you some much-needed reputation, seeing as you are now one of the 'Angel slaying heiresses'. "

Sona grunted. "And why is it that you are so adamant about maintaining this proximity to our affairs? You left the underworld to get away from our politics, so why are you sacrificing the freedom you've stolen?"

Naruto was silent for a moment, his eyes vacant - lost in memory. "Because I can feel something coming, Sona. You feel it too. You all do. The dragons have awoken and things are afoot. I owe it to my duty to be here - in case I am needed."

Sona sighed. That was probably all she was getting out of him, if his vacant expression was anything to go by.

"I'll take up your offer for tutelage, considering that I'm keeping up my end of this farce of a bargain, if you are still willing." Sona stated. "I also noticed how you dodged that question completely."

Naruto shook his head. "I didn't dodge that question, Sona. You know why I want to train you. I want you and Rias to survive. You're the future of the Devil race, and I'd rather not have you end up like your siblings - no offense."

Sona shook her head. "None taken. I'll meet you for training on Monday. Have a good weekend, Sensei."

It wasn't until Sona reached home that she realized that she had completely forgotten to tell Naruto about the upcoming Class Visits. Not that she wanted to tell him anyway.

She wanted to see how he dealt with it.


"Naruto, not to sound worried or anything, but why is there a congregation of devils standing at our door?"

Naruto's eye twitched. He too wondered what series of events had led to this. Just past the closed main door of his house, he could detect five very familiar magical signatures.

He had only been expecting three, and was definitely not looking forward to seeing the other two.

As he opened the door, a small part of his mind almost egged him into hiraishin-ing out of the house, leaving Raziel to deal with them. But he knew that the fallen angel in his house wasn't the most tactful person he knew.

So he stayed, and greeted them with the most genuine fake smile he could muster.

It almost crumpled instantly when he saw them.

Rias and Issei stood in front, the male of the duo carrying a number of heavy bags with noticeable effort, behind them stood Asia, who was supposed to move into his place today. A little distance behind them stood the two that he had no plans or inclination to meet.

Sirzechs Lucifer and his 'wife'.

"Wow, Grayfia, you were right, he really looks like Naruto."

"I am Naruto."

That shut the current Lucifer, a single, fleeting second of fear flashed in his eyes, before he remembered that this person also shared his name with his former teacher.

"Naruto Uzumaki, to be precise, as the westerners say it. Come in, Asia. Raziel will guide you to your room"

Generally, he would never delegate menial labor to a twelve-winged Archangel, but it was the easiest way to get both her and the younger devils out of the picture. It would give him time to scramble up a defense, and Raziel wouldn't be there to pick it for factual inconsistencies.

On the negative side, he'd be alone in a room with those two.

As the three young devils scurried off towards the no-longer guest room, Naruto gave Sirzechs another look-over. He had certainly become a lot more king-like in his time as Lucifer. There was a gait to him, an unspeakable power and charm that not many could refuse. He had become exactly what the devil faction needed.

He had reached his full potential, and to Naruto, it was kind of... disappointing.

"I don't know you, and I didn't catch your name during our last meeting. If you come inside, we can rectify that over a cup of hot beverage."

Sirzechs nodded eagerly as he followed Naruto in, Grayfia took the rear, closing the door behind her.

"Take a seat in the living room, I'll get some tea started, unless you prefer coffee." Naruto asked. Sirzechs shook his head as he mentioned towards a seat, asking Naruto to sit down too.

"We have tea, you don't need to bother." Grayfia monotoned as she summoned three cups of tea - complete with saucers and cream.

"Well, that surely reduces my workload. Anyways, I'm Naruto Uzumaki, I'm the counselor at Kuoh high, but you probably already know that. Now, if I may be so bold to ask, who are you and to what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?"

There was no sarcasm or hate evident in his voice, even though the words sounded rather sharp. He was simply a homeowner who wasn't expecting guests.

"This here is my lovely wif-" a stern gaze from Grayfia stopped Sirzechs in his tracks. "... queen, Grayfia Lucifuge. I'm -"

"Sirzechs Lucifer, I was sure I sensed you. Why are you here?"

For the second time, Sirzechs was interrupted. This time, by Raziel, who haf just gotten done with the kids, leaving them to set up the room for Asia by themselves.

Naruto had not expected her to return this fast.

"Raziel, it is nice to see you again. You should sit down, you're one of the major reasons I'm here." Raziel would have continued antagonizing him, but Naruto's presence made her reconsider. She shrugged and took a seat for herself. Seeing her properly seated, Naruto spoke.

"So you're the Lucifer, huh? I thought you'd be a Gremory, considering that Rias looks like mini you, but female."

Sirzechs shook his head. "I was a Gremory before I was given the title of Lucifer. The original Lucifer died during the war of the factions."

Naruto's eyebrow rose, "You look pretty young. Are you Rias' father, by any chance?"

Sirzechs froze for a second. Naruto was trying to show that he knew precious little about the Underworld, and calling out Sirzechs' inner sis-con was the easiest way to make sure he didn't look underneath Naruto's cluelessness.

"No! Not at all! She's my sister, the best sister a man could hope to have!"

Creepy answer aside, Naruto gave himself a mental pat on the back for the success of his maneuver.

"Huh, okay then. So, why are you here?"

Sirzechs took a sip of his tea. Naruto noted that Grayfia hadn't added anything to the conversation, typical.

"Well, part of the reason I'm here is you two, and part of the reason is tomorrow's class visit."

Naruto didn't miss the fact that Sirzechs said 'you two' instead of just Raziel. He already knew that Raziel's detachment from the Fallen and her amazing power would surely bring interest from devils.

But why him?

Sirzechs cooly answered the Question Naruto hadn't even asked yet. "I want to thank you for convincing Susanoo to train Issei. Don't bother denying it was you, cause I asked Rias about it right after the tournament. You curry favor with the Shinto pantheon, and you used it to secure training for someone you shouldn't even care much about. I thank you for your selflessness."

"As for you, Raziel, you defended my Sister when I could not. I do not know how powerful this Amenadiel was, but what little our Glyphs picked up was nothing less than impressive. You stopped a war before it could even begin, and for that, you have my thanks. "

Raziel simply nodded, but Naruto knew that Sirzechs wasn't done yet.

"It would also be remiss of me not to reward you. Rias already told me that you do not wish to be part of her peerage, Naruto, and there is no way that she can convert Raziel with her power. So..."

A ornate-looking case materialized in Sirzechs' hand. He opened it and took out two pieces. Both were bishop pieces, but one was a lot different than the other. It has a dark aura around it, visible even to those without sensitivity to magic.

A mutation piece.

"I would like to offer you places in my peerage."

"No thanks/No."

Sirzechs was stunned by how fast both of his potential recruits shot him down. A look at them was enough to explain that they more than understood what all came with being a part of a Satan's peerage.

That same look told him that neither really cared much for any of it.

"Well, I had to try. Not gonna say i'm not disappointed. Anyways, why are you here, Raziel? I thought Azazel would be glad to have you back. The fallen coukd definitely use a more competent leader too."

Raziel pointed her gaze towards Naruto. "I'm here because of him."

Sirzechs leaned back into his seat. "Interesting. Abbadon was you major rival back during the war, wasn't he?"

Raziel nodded. "Yes, he was a most infuriating opponent. I've never lost to a devil other than him and the Phenex."

Sirzechs whistled. "So, you fell because of this Naruto?"

Raziel was silent for a moment. "Among other factors, yes."

Sirzechs grinned at Naruto. "You, sir, are a lucky bastard. To have an archangel fall for you. You're even living together. So, Raziel, how's your experience being in a relationship with a human?"

Naruto made to correct him, but was stopped as Raziel answered.

"He's an ideal boyfriend."

Now, it was Naruto's turn to be flabbergasted. "No wait, what?"

Raziel leveled him with a flat look. "You care for me, provide for me, look after my well being, you're there whenever I need you and most importantly, I fell for you."

Naruto was pretty sure that Raziel had read that definition of a boyfriend off some Tumblr blog and taken the meaning of 'falling for someone' very, very literally.

Sirzechs, meanwhile, found the scene truly hilarious.

"Mr. Uzumaki, you life is a prime-time drama. I love it!" he commented, ignoring the glares from Grayfia. "Now, I need your help, if you are willing?"

Naruto's heart urged him to say no, but to keep his act up, he had to say otherwise. He nodded, and Sirzechs continued.

"Me and Grayfia arrived a day early so we could spend a day with my sister and her peerage. Sadly, we don't have a place to stay the night. Would it be possible for us to crash here? We'll take care of the dinner, if you allow us."

Naruto's mind went into overdrive. There were a hundred hotels in the vicinity of Kuoh, and Sirzechs was anything but poor. The only reason he wanted to stay was because he wanted to talk to Naruto, but about what? There's no way he could have figured out who Naruto truly was, so what was it?

"Sure, you can stay. Asia has just set up in the guest room, Grayfia can stay with her. You'll have to use the retractable bed in my room, but it should be comfortable enough."

Sirzechs gave them another one of his patented fake smiles.

"Well then, we'll get dinner started."


Dinner was a pleasant affair... or as close as it could be with three (read four) creatures of incredible power crowded with a high-class devil's peerage over a small dinind table. The rest of Rias' peerage had arrived minutes after Naruto confirmed Sirzechs' stay.

After the dinner, Sirzechs brought out the wine. This was the kids' cue to leave. Mere minutes later, Naruto found himself sitting on the terrace with Sirzechs, a few bottles of red wine between them. If Sirzechs wanted to get Naruto drunk, his plan had backfired. Samsara passively removed all venom from Naruto's body at a very rapid pace.

And all alcohol was venom, albeit the good kind.

Sirzechs, on the other hand, was pretty fucking drunk. Devils loved alcohol because it was one of the few things that still had an effect on them. Though it had taken a good number of bottles, Sirzechs' natural resistance to alcohol had long since stopped hampeting the velvet liqor progress through his bloodstream.

"You really are like him, you know?"

Great, apparently the alcohol wasn't enough to knock him out.

"Like who, exactly?"

Sirzechs rolled onto the floor, stretching his limbs. He reached out into his pocket and brought out a pretty worn out, red wallet. He opened it, and staring at Naruto was that one photo that all six of them had taken together, mere weeks before their paths had led them to castle inferno

Naruto didn't have a copy, so seeing himself as a much younger devil was a novel feeling for him. Sure, not much had changed over the years, under his meagre henge. The one glaring difference was his smile.

It was nowhere near as genuine as the one in the photo.

"I'd know if I looked that handsome, Sirzechs."

Humor and alcohol was a pretty good mixture, and Sirzechs was making the most of it. Naruto was sure that he had never heard his once-pupul laugh this genuinely.

"I know you're not him. I'd know his presence anywhere." Sirzechs bragged. "To be honest, anyone who knew him would. He was like that."

"He was that powerful?" Naruto asked. It wasn't everyday that he could get Sirzechs' side of the story, and he was quite intrigued

"He was strong as all hell. I believe if I fought him now, he'd still beat me as convincingly as that one time we fought in the Ultimate-level qualification exams."

Naruti chucked. "That's awfully humble, coming from lord Lucifer himself."

Sirzechs grunted. "If not for him, I would have never become Lucifer. Tell me, as someone who has spent the last few months in constant contact with young devils, were you surprised by how different we are to our comparative fictional versions?"

Naruto nodded, Sirzechs continued. "This is what he gave us. If not for him, devils would have never emerged from the debris of their past. He painted the way for us. If I'm Lucifer, he'd be Satan."

Naruto hummed, "I thought the Satans were four?"

Sirzechs sighed, "Yeah, no. They were originally Satan's bodyguards, till Lucifer killed one, took his place, incited a revolt and killed the Original Satan. Kinda funny how history repeats itself, innit?"

Naruto sighed, "So, where is my namesake now?"

Sirzechs was silent for a good ten seconds, and when he began speaking, guilt laced his voice. "He... left the underworld merely days after the end of the devil civil war. In part, I contributed to him leaving."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "What did you do?"

Sirzechs stared out at the sky, speaking to no one in particular. "I promised him certain things post-war that I - to this day - have yet to make a reality. I also ended up marrying the woman he loved... without realizing that he still loved her."

"Ouch... so I guess he doesn't think quite as highly of you as you do of him, huh?"

Sirzechs shook his head. "It would be impossible to do that, even if he wasn't always in direct opposition of me. Naruto, how much do you know about the power-structure of the underworld?"

Naruto shrugged, "I guess it's a 'power begets stature' kinda situation."

Sirzechs nodded. "That's quite accurate, but not detailed enough. Power will get you far in the devil society, but what sets you apart further is how close one is to the 'ideal' devil."

Naruto was quiet for a second, real confusion welling up inside. "I'm sorry, I didn't quite understand that."

Sirzechs sighed, "You know about the seven deadly sins, right? Yeah, we all have one of them. Mine is pride, and it is quite visible, isn't it?"

Naruto shook his head, "You're being humble right now."

Sirzechs chuckled mirthlessly. "I'm not being humble, Naruto. I'm just stating facts. The chasm between me and Abbadon was of gigantic proportions. I've come pretty close to the definition of an Ideal devil, but I still succumb to my sin far too often for my liking."

"What was his sin?"

Sirzechs barked a short, pained laugh. "That's the clincher, Naruto. No one knew what his sin was. He had such perfect control over it that it never surfaced. I even asked Aria and Grayfia and even they don't know!"

Of course they didn't. His sin was easy to hide. Nothing truly ever got him angry enough to fall prey to wrath.

"Back when we were kids, he was like a role model to us. People looked at the great Phenex in awe, but whenever I did, I saw him too, power, with the backuo of perfection, can be truly deadly."

Okay, this was new. He had spent his entire tenure in the underworld working in Aria's shadow, so this was new to him.

"I was truly jealous of him, you know?" Sirzechs continued, his words hitting Naruto like revelations. "He had everything I wanted. He was everything I wanted to be, and most importantly, he had the sole attention of the girl I loved."

Of course, Grayfia had to fit in here somehow.

"Aria Phenex"

Okay, what?

Naruto looked at Sirzechs like he had just grown a second head, the devil lord at least had the courtesy of looking sheepish. "Yeah, I know, shocker. I hadn't fallen for Grayfia back then, and I was a teen. She has one helluva personality, you know?"

Naruto nodded, calming down a bit. Aria had suitors lining up for her ever since her birth. Devils were always and will always be drawn to power, like a moth to a flame.

At least he was over it.

"Even my last try to get her to marry me failed horrendously. Well, I guess I'll just have to keep trying."

Okay, maybe not.

"I'm sure your wife would like to have words with you after she hears that."

Sirzechs was silent for a few seconds. "She's all for it, actually. Because she is a devil from the extra houses, her marriage to me will never be legal. I need to take a second wife at some point of my life. I'd much rather not have a political wedding, but the only two women I know who fit the bill both hold a torch for the same guy."

Naruto would have been surprised had he not known. Selfless, it was something Grayfia had always been, but giving away the man she loved just because of some millenia-old laws? That was a bit too much even by her standards.

"You know, Abbadon never realized how much those two loved him. Well, he did get to know about Aria before he left, but Serafall never got to say her goodbyes."

Naruto had to hold back a gasp. Serafall liked him? Of all the people she could choose, she chose him?

"Hiccups, eh? Alcohol will do that to you. Speaking of which, did we polish off everything in the house?"

Naruto shook his head, one of the bottles that Michael had funded for him appeared in his hands, released from the scroll he had brought them back in. Sirzechs took the proffered bottle with a thanks.

"That's a pretty neat trick, you sure you ain't some kind of shinto wine mage?"

Naruto just sighed. "So, the Phenex woman I met loves my namesake. Well, that explains her reaction to meeting me."

Sirzechs grunted. "Yeah, I heard a bit about that from Grayfia. How did that meeting go?"

"I wasn't talking about the meeting, you know?"

Sirzechs' eyes widened with surprise as the meaning behind Naruto's words hit home.

"You and her... Her and you..."

"Yep."

Sirzechs was silent for a moment, trying to digest the fact that a random human had done in a day what he hadn't been able to in centuries.

"Naruto, I don't know what to do right now. Half of me wants to destroy you but the other half of me wants to ask you for tips."

Naruto simply gestured towards the bottle in Sirzechs' hands. "How about you do neither and instead pour both of us some of that and go on with your story?"

After a second of hesitation, Sirzechs did exactly that.

"So, pretty much my entire life, I was always comparing myself to him. I thought all that would change once I became Lucifer, but it just got worse." Sirzechs drained his entire glass in a single gulp and started pouring more.

"It wasn't long after I became Lucifer that I realized just how far out of my depth I was. I was trained by my family to manage an estate, not a country. I realized that Naruto was our only safeguard from the council, and he was suddenly gone. By the time that I had actually solidified my position enough to stop fearing them, they had come to the same conclusion."

Naruto sighed. "Let me guess, they wiped his existence from the records, didn't they?"

Sirzechs nodded. "I consider it my greatest failure, you know? I let them erase his whole existence. It used to keep me up at night. I'd keep thinking about what I'd have done differently if I was more like him. I wondered how I'd face him, if he ever decided to return and learn that no one even knew of his existence, save for a very select few."

"I wonder if he would forgive me for all that I've done."

"He won't."

Sirzechs shut down like an old windows PC, his eyes suddenly a lot more dulled. "I know, I don't even have the guts to face him."

"But I think that he'll understand. He might not ever forgive you, but I think he'd respect the fact that you at least tried to do right by him, your lack of success notwithstanding."

Sirzechs narrowed his eyes. "And how do you know that?"

Naruto took another sip from his goblet, savoring the taste of the wine. "I'm a psychiatrist, Sirzechs. I'm also a firm believer that if you strip away the pride, bravado and power-hungry attitude of a devil, you're looking at something that is functionally as human as can be."

Sirzechs was silent for a moment, suddenly he burst into laughter. When his fit subsided, he finally gave Naruto a baleful look.

"Thanks for saying that, Naruto. I guess i always knew it, but just needed someone with his face to tell me."

Naruto finished his glass. "It's what I get paid to do, Sirzechs. I listen to people, and I do not judge."

"At least not most of the time."


"Where's Sirzechs, Grayfia?"

The maid was drawn out of her state of constant alert by the chirping sound of the childish Maou who posed the question. Of course, she could have begun with a simple 'hi', but that wouldn't be quite befitting a person who loathed her quite so much. Between Aria and Serafall, she couldn't decide who disliked her more.

"He was up drinking with a new friend he made. Last I saw of him was him trying to cure his hangover. He's lucky his new friend knows healing magic."

She didn't miss the twitch from Sona when she mentioned that specific branch of magic. The young devil knew something that she didn't, and Sona had never been one who could keep secrets worth a damn. Too bad that interacting with her would send up red flags for Serafall.

As much as she liked to excercise every once in a while, she didn't like her odds against Serafall on the best of days.

"I did hear that you two went to meet a fallen archangel last night. I'm quite surprised you found a fallen angel both capable and willing to treat a devil."

That comment came from Sirzechs' father himself, lord Zeoticus Gremory. Behind her stood his wife. Seeing her always evoked a pang of pain within Grayfia, because Venelana had what she didn't.

A loving and perfectly legal marriage.

"It wasn't the angel that was healing Sirzechs, but her human retainer."

This sparked an interest in Venelana. "A human with healing magic? My, isn't that rare?"

"Very rare, I hope Sirzechs is trying to scout him for his peerage? Even I wouldn't mind having a piece like that in mine." Zeoticus chimed in. Grayfia just shook her head.

"I believe that neither the angel or human have any interest in becoming devils. Sirzechs did try to get them for himself, but they didn't hesitate to turn him down."

Zeoticus grumbled under his breath. "I'd like to try and recruit them myself, though. Maybe they were simply put off by my son's childish antics?"

"Don't talk about our son like that, at least not in public, my dear." Venelana chided. Zeoticus did cow before his wife, but the determined gleam didn't quite leave his eyes.

"I have to say that unlike normally, that was not the case. I think they took something of a shine to Sirzechs, if I may say so myself." Grayfia stated.

"Since when were you a good judge of social situations, Grayfia?" Serafall offhandedly commented. Grayfia smothered the anger that rose up inside her, choosing not to rise to Serafall's bait.

"I feel his presence, he's in the school." Zeoticus proclaimed and promptly set off in the direction of his son's power signature. The group of adult devils made to follow, leaving Sona and Rias behind.

"You actually took your brother to Naruto-sensei's place last night. I thought there were limits to how stupid you can be, but I guess I was wrong."

Sona's comment made Rias flinch, but she held on to her public facade. "He came to the human plane a day earlier than expected. Part of why he did that was because he wanted to visit Raziel and Naruto-sensei."

"We're lucky that Naruto-sensei is smart enough to keep away suspicion. You're lucky that Kuoh survived the night.

"I'm actually quite surprised by how good Naruto is at putting up facades. When my brother called this morning, he seemed a lot happier than he has been in a long time... almost like a huge weight had been taken off his chest."

Sona nodded, "Pretty sure he got some sort of closure by talking to Naruto. We'll ask him for details a bit later. Right now, we should pay him a visit. It seems the worst has happened."

Rias cocked an eyebrow in doubt, "The worst? What do you mean?"

Sona answered her by pointing at the window of the counselor's room. There was a line stretching all the way from the building to the ground that they currently stood in.

And it was completely comprised of young mothers, each lined up with her kid, waiting to see Naruto.

"The women have found him."

Rias sighed. "Do we help him? Considering how long the line is, this could take some time."

Sona shook her head and pointed to the window again. As Rias followed her gaze, she saw Naruto pretty much jump out of the window, stick to the building's side-walls, and escape before anyone could stop him. His face was morphed into an expression of absolute fear.

"It's funny to see someone as mighty as him squirm under the pressure of something as harmless as fangirls." Sona quietly commented.

Still awestruck by what she had just witnessed, Rias merely nodded in confirmation.


"Why... why must I always attract fangirls?!"

Naruto was still shivering ten minutes after he made his daring escape from his office, which had turned into a den of danger from the safe space it was supposed to be mere moments after the parents arrived.

He currently sat huddled up behind one of the exhaust pipes that protruded out of the school's roof. His breathing was labored - not because he was tired, mind you, but due to fear.

Fear of the one foe he found himself incapable of beating.

"Oh, so that's where you went. Man, I was so surprised to see a human run up a building sideways that I almost couldn't keep track of where you went."

Fuck, he knew that voice much too well for its presence to provide him any comfort. He knew she was going to be here today, and he had hoped that staying locked in his office would be enough to keep her attention away from him and focused on her dear sister.

But he was wrong, and there she stood.

Serafall Leviathan, the woman who had apparently loved him for a few centuries now.

And he had just learnt of it last night.

"S-sorry, but the women of this school are rather rabid."

He got a good look as Serafall as he looked up from his scrunched-up position on the ground. He had to work pretty hard to not laugh, because the Serafall he knew was very different from the one he remembered.

Apparently, some stroke of genius had convinced her that dressing like a magical girl was a good idea. It would have been cute too, had she changed her body into that of a teenager's completely. Sadly, she hadn't de-aged one very prominent part of her body.

It was hot, but the wrong kind of hot, the jail-bait kind of hot.

"Well, you're a colorful one, ain't you?"

"And you look exactly like him."

Both Aria and Azazel's dossier had detailed accounts about Serafall's childishness, but the tone in her voice as she saw his face was enough to remind him that all that childishness was a mere facade. It was a way for her to rile others up.

Seems like his penchant for mischief had rubbed on to her.

But it wasn't some deflection of tone that caught Naruto off guard. That honor belonged to the look on her face. He saw the hope, and how soon it faded when she realized that the person who could pass for an identical twin of the one she loved didn't even know of her.

A pang of guilt shot his heart as the hope was replaced by pain. It was at that point that Naruto realized what he had done to her, to someone he cared for so much.

It was at that point that he made up his mind. She deserved to know. It was a calculated risk, because he knew how Sera's loyalty worked. Like Aria, she wouldn't sell him out.

"A magical girl, really Sera?"

The resultant confusion morphed into sudden happiness, before being replaced by a look of anger. Her magic morphed into existence as her eyes filled with tears.

Naruto sprang at her, barely able to touch her and activate Hiraishin before she launched her magic.

On the other side of the school, Sirzechs' eyes widened in surprise. Sera had just disappeared from campus with Naruto. If his previous experience with Aria was any indication, he knew exactly where they had disappeared off to.

"You're one smooth bastard, Naruto."


Sirzechs couldn't have possibly been more wrong. The place Naruto had taken them was a lonely mountain somewhere in the Himalayas. It was one of his 'emergency arenas' in case he needed to go all out without wiping off a small city by mistake.

And he was going pretty hard. He could shut down Serafall with some effort, but trying to dodge her attacks in a place filled with her natural element was no easy task. It didn't help that he was cuffed, considering most of his techniques would obliterate the woman he was merely trying to calm down.

He brought her to the mountain because of the notion of 'cooling her down'. Should have taken her to the Sahara desert when she would have been severely less deadly.

Speaking of which...

"You! Come back here and take your punishment like a man!"

A dragon made of pure ice followed him as he jumped from cliff to cliff. It was quite funny, considering that he was the one responsible for teaching Sera said technique.

Kinda Ironic how it was being used on him.

"Sera, can we just talk about this?"

He was answered by a hail of icicles appearing out of thin, frigid air. He quickly used a Kawarimi to get out of said situation, only to find that the dragon had circled around, and he had appeared right in its path.

"Talk about this? Back when we were about to fight the old Satans, I told you I had something to tell you afterwards."

The dragon connected with Naruto's airborne body, encasing him in enough ice to form an iceberg in mid-air. Said iceberg then continued to grow, feeding off Serafall's power, till it became one with the cliff next to it.

"You didn't even stay long enough to let me say goodbye."

Serafall stared at her work, heavily panting due to the amount of effort it took. Yet, something told her that her attack was ineffective.

Even though she could see Naruto's body, frozen in the middle of the Iceberg.

"I had to leave, Sera. Had I stayed, it would have just gotten harder. If I had to say goodbye to you all, I'd never had left."

Lo and behold, as she turned around to attack the source of the voice, her body was engulfed by arms much longer than her own, and she felt warmth, even at the altitude they were at.

She felt something warm slide down her face, she tried to stop them, but the tears had a mind of their own.

"I'm sorry, Sera. I should have noticed. If I hadn't been as... daft as I am, I would have reciprocated"

Sera's breath hitched in her throat as her resistance crumbled. The noise that escaped her throat was something between a laugh and a snort. She decided not to speak, but instead to reciprocate Naruto's hug.

And with a shower of golden sparks, they were in a place unknown to her. It was a room, probably in Kuoh, because she could feel the monstrous signal of Sirzechs' power somewhere in the distance.

She was in Naruto's house.

"I love you, Sera. I'm sorry it took me so long to realize that you felt the same."

Sera placed her hand over Naruto's chest. "You're not leaving me now. You've said the words, sure, but it'll take time and effort to make me believe them."

Naruto nodded, "I have a few centuries worth of making up to do, huh?"

Sera nodded back. "I'm not going to make it easy, you know? You're lucky that you told me and not Aria, she wouldn't have been quite this unwilling to do you bodily harm..."

The startled cough that escaped Naruto's chest was something Serafall didn't expect, but once it did happen, she didn't take long to put two-and-two together.

"She knows, doesn't she?"

Naruto nodded, slowly.

"Me and dear Aria are going to have one hell of a talk after we're done here."

"If it prevents a fight, she didn't tell you because I asked her to keep it a secret."

Serafall glared at him. "And she believed that I couldn't keep it a secret? I've loved no one else other than you since the war. She's taken other mates, in the human realm what more. If anything, I'm the one who should have been keeping the secret."

Naruto chuckled sheepishly. "... Yeah, about those other, 'human' mates... "

Again, Sera put two and two together really fucking fast." It was you wasn't it?"

"Guilty as charged."

Sera didn't respond verbally, instead, she pushed Naruto hard enough to make him land on the bed a good five meters behind him. Before he could respond, Serafall was on top of him."

"Naruto, this is definitely among the things you have to make up. Now, you better give me a fucking of a lifetime or so help me god I will give you a literal case of blue-balls you will never forget. I will not suffer the title of 'the lone virgin satan' a day longer.

That surprised Naruto for all the wrong reasons.

"Wait, you're saying that Falbium got laid? With that lazy attitude of his? What, did a succubus somehow just chance upon his chambers one fine day?"

Serafall shrugged, "Being able to stick your dick into whatever you please is one of the perks of being a Satan. And by the end of the night, I will make fucking sure that the inverse is also true." she proclaimed as she started to unbutton his pants with the care and gentleness of a wrecking ball.

A highly-driven, libido-filled virgin was she.

"Ahem."

And midway through the motions, she stopped dead in her tracks. In the heat of the moment, she had forgotten that there was another power signal she felt, one much closer to them.

One too holy to be a devil, yet too tainted to be an angel.

"What are you doing on top of my boyfriend?" Raziel monotoned, a light-spear forming in her hand.

"You're not my girlfriend, Raziel!" Naruto groaned, he already felt a headache coming on.

"We've already had this conversation, Naruto." Raziel spoke as she walked in through the door. Sera - meanwhile - was too stunned to even get her priorities right.

"A demon, a fallen angel and me. What kind of super-powered harem are you trying to build, Naruto?"

The dull look that met her was answer enough, but Naruto had some words to add to that. "Yes Sera, I completely control everyone who falls for me - mind and body."

It was then that a saving grace appeared in the form of a distress beacon, someone had used one of his Hiraishin kunai, and the location of the beacon was enough to let him know exactly who.

"Okay ladies, as much as I would like to continue this, I'm being summoned by a god. Now - as you very well know - I would rather not have a divine curse placed on me, so I plan to respond promptly."

And that was all it took to snap them out of their combat positions, hell, even Raziel's light spear fizzled out.

"Now, Sera, I'd love to pick up what we started here at a later date. Whenever you're free, sort out your squabble with Aria and tell her to pass on a message to me. I'll provide you with a more personal form of communicating me later."

He then leveled his gaze on Raziel. "As for you, when I return, we're going to have a long and informative talk about what human relationships entail and why we I am not your boyfriend, despite how it flies against what you've read on the internet."

And with that, he disappeared, leaving behind a shower or sparks and two very confused women.


He reappeared inside the head shrine of Kyoto. A few of the tengu guards tensed up due to his sudden arrival, but relaxed at Susanoo's signal.

"How are you, Naruto?" he asked, as a response, Naruto pinched the bridge of his nose.

"You, Susanoo, just got me out of a very sticky situation. Also, hello, Amaterasu."

While the goddess wasn't physically present in the human plane, he could feel her presense in the young Kitsune who sat at the base of Susanoo's throne. He didn't need to feel her presence to know that she was there, though, because the female Kitsune was positively radiating holy light.

"Hello, Naruto, it has been far too long."

The voice came from both nowhere and everywhere. That was the thing about divine possession, it wasn't really a physical phenomenon. Hence, no real voice box.

"What kind of situation are we talking about, Naruto? Do you require assistance?"

Naruto shook his head "Girl trouble"

Susanoo grunted, "Sorry, can't help much there."

"That's perfectly fine. So, am I right in guessing that you haven't summoned me here just to have a nice chat? Cause I could definitely appreciate that right now."

The shake of Susanoo's head was just as disappointing as it was predictable. "We have something of a situation here, Naruto. And we would appreciate your help."

Naruto sighed. "Lay it on me, how bad could it possibly be?"

"Someone stole an... artifact that the christian pantheon gave us for safekeeping after the great war."

Oh, so it was that bad.

"And what exactly is this artifact?"

The room was silent for a few moments, it almost felt like everyone was waiting for someone else to answer Naruto's question. It couldn't be that bad. Kokabiel had stolen three Excaliburs and Bloodthorn. This artifact had to be at least marginally less significant to the Christians.

"It is a body, a cadaver that was stripped of its soul long ago. It was placed in the land of Yomi, for no soul bar that of Gods and Devils may trespass there."

It was Amatersu who answered, in a voice too subdued to belong to a goddess such as her.

"And whose body was this, exactly?"

Again, silence greeted him. This time, it was Susanoo who broke it.

"The body belonged to a fallen... one named Helel"

"... The one who eventually became the original Lucifer." Amaterasu finished for her brother.

"And it has gone missing. How would you respond to that?" asked a random Yokai from his position on a pillow across the room, and for him, Naruto had only one response.

"Well, fuck me over sideways, yeah?"


And that's the end of that. This chapter was written on a mobile, so it'll have thrice the amount of typos. next chapter will come out sometime in January, I promise.

And we'll be pretty much diverging from canon come next chapter. There will still be the general backbone of canon events, but the differences will be plain as day to see.

Also, follow me on Twitch. I stream under the name Kilm3 and you can join in any time between Thursday to Sunday and I'll probably be streaming. Do drop by and make my day!

- CruelRuin