Disclaimer: First Chapter
Story Start!
Koneko was sad.
Naruto was no longer at the same school as her, since he was a year older than her, he left to go to a human school before her. It was enough that he ears had not stood in happiness since he had left, not counting when he would come and visit for the weekend. She spend time with Hashirama during and after her Senjutsu lessons, and while Mito was nice... she was stricter than Hashirama was. Spending time with Mito would usually lead to more studying for her, and while it benefited her to learn more, it didn't make for much fun.
Like today's Senjutsu lesson.
Hashirama made learning Senjutsu more fun, and while his classes were extremely easy, it was because there was no rush to learn. Students who studied Senjutsu started their training very young, and spent several years to get a good grasp of the basics. By the time they had their grasp of the basics, they would go to a human high school for a few years in order to get more balance in their lives, and after that they would come back for their advanced Senjutsu lessons.
In Mito's core study classes, the classes were boring, but easy to understand which made learning them simple.
"I call this game Senjutsu ball everyone... these basketballs are each filled with elemental based senjutsu power. We will be breaking into teams of 2... and get the right balls into the right hoops." Hashirama stated as he showed 5 basketballs. There were 10 hoops, and each of them were labeled with a different elemental affinity.
Fire, Wind, Lightning, Earth, and Water.
Koneko sensed the balls and saw that each of the five balls corresponded with a different element. She looked around and saw everyone was looking at the balls to sense which one went to which hoop, even though all of the balls on the outside looked perfectly the same. She could guess that the point of the lesson was just to hone the senjutsu ability to read ki, sense it, and hone their ability to understand the properties of the flow they were reading it while in the heat of physical activity and under light stress.
Educational, but fun.
-With Naruto-
'Kind of weird not having Koneko here.' Naruto thought as he sat down for lunch at a family diner. He was in the middle of his first few months in his new school, just a regular human school. It was also his day off from helping to go and recruit more potential for the Senju school. Naruto felt like he was being watched though, and he had felt that feeling for several hours.
He could sense that whoever was watching him was close by, but instead of using Senjutsu to check and alert his possible enemy to the fact he was onto them, he just let them watch him and waited for the right moment. If they meant him no harm, they would eventually go away on their own, and if they did mean him harm, then eventually they would attack him anyway. There was no reason to risk other people by jumping into action.
"Hello Uzumaki Naruto... it has been awhile."
Naruto turned his head.
"Do I know you?" Naruto asked when he saw a red haired man with a beautiful brown haired woman. Honestly though, both of them were unnaturally beautiful. He could tell from a glance they were not human, that much was for sure. They wore fancy clothes to a family diner, clothes of a higher quality than most likely every person in the city.
"Zeoticus Gremory, and my wife, Venelana Gremory... we were among the devils who you paid 10 yen too several years ago."
"Okay?" Naruto asked as the man and woman sat down at the same table as him. The two of them looked at the homework that he was doing, and he raised an eyebrow. He was now more on guard since they introduced themselves to him using that as their intro, since it already placed them in a position to be on bad terms. "... I'm not apologizing or paying you anymore money." Naruto stated.
The man smiled serenely.
"No need, if anything, that move you pulled was quite the learning experience. Since we stopped the general practice of taking human souls... your stunt reminded us about the fine print of contracts." Zeoticus spoke casually enough, even as he flagged down the waitress and ordered himself a steak meal. His wife just ordered herself a steak and salad meal, while Naruto saw his chance.
He ordered himself 2 steak meals.
"You would be well suited to becoming a devil... which is why I wish to offer you a chance to join my peerage." Venelana stated as she made the offer to him. She was rather abrupt with her offer, but it got straight to the point. "... you would rise through the ranks quickly, and would be quite popular." Venelana stated as she explained a good point.
"Uh... what?"
"You're a crafty young man, you know how to swingle even a devil... your words had forced those who wished to punish Kuroka to do an investigation... and we learned of illegal experiments because of it."
"What?"
"Kuroka's previous master had been involved with some very serious... very illegal experiments. Thanks to you, we were all forced to investigate Kuroka's crimes to save face." Zeoticus spoke to Naruto with respect.
Naruto had no clue what was happening.
"So?"
"You see, many of us, myself included, were quite... annoyed by the way you tricked us. So, we wanted to prove Kuroka was guilty of her crimes in order to score a win against you... we discovered that Kuroka did indeed kill her Master to protect her sister... she has been cleared of treason thanks to your bullshitting us." Zeoticus had been one of the devils who had declared on the TV that Kuroka had been cleared of the crimes she was accused of.
Venelana was given her food first, and started with the salad.
"Yes, you humiliated our species a second time. You exposed the corruption we didn't even know about... and now, thanks to the seriousness of the crimes her former master committed... there has been quite the political shift." Venelana explained smoothly, calmly, to Naruto. Her words were smooth, and she had a very naturally sexy voice to say the least.
Naruto didn't even know what was happening.
"Uh... what?"
"Thanks to you tricking us, and forcing us to investigate Kuroka, the humiliation we faced because of your actions doubled... after all, the public perception was that it was you who exposed Kuroka's master, despite you having no part in the investigation. It was your words that sparked the investigation... and we were forced to... examine multiple other families." Zeoticus stated with a flinch.
Naruto still didn't quite understand what he did.
"The fair treatment of our slaves... Kuroka was a slave to her master, so she could never go public with her treatment. Nobody would believe her. She was going to be killed, her younger sister who was innocent was going to be killed... for self-defense against a master who treated them poorly." Venelana stated.
Kuroka's Master had been the starting point.
When it was revealed to the entire Underworld that Shirone was going to be put to death, an innocent girl, for the fact her sister killed her master to defend her, it left a bad taste in the mouths of many young devils. Just to save face, and to prove that the treatment of their slaves was just and fair, more investigations started.
"So, to prove that Kuroka's Master was a rare case of a master abusing their peerage, we sparked more investigations. We wanted to prove that Kuroka's case was extremely rare... until our investigations proved that... several of our more esteemed devils were... what is a polite way..." Venelana continued.
"Rape. They were raping humans, breaking them, and then brainwashing them to join their peerages. There were even devils who were kidnapping nuns. The same devil had been plotting against an active member of the church... our enemy." Zeoticus saw Naruto's hand grip tightly around the knife he was using to cut his steak. He could see that his words had an effect on Naruto, and he looked at the boy in the face.
A vein on his forehead was throbbing, showing that Naruto was filled with fury that he was barely holding back. Zeoticus was impressed with how angry Naruto was getting for complete strangers.
Genuine empathy was a rare trait.
"We are enemies with Church and Heaven, which means one of our own planned to rape and enslave our enemies... during a very tense stalemate. Naturally, we were forced to issue a very... painful apology to the church. It was rather humiliating for us to admit that we never noticed what was happening among our own ranks." Zeoticus sighed at the massive headache.
He reached inside of his suit, and her pulled out a necklace.
It was a 10 yen coin.
"You humiliated 100 devils, by giving us a 10 yen coin each... and then because of our humiliation, you made us humiliate ourselves 3 more times." Zeoticus showed off his necklace, and he gestured to his wife. She reached inside of her dress, between her breasts, and pulled out a matching necklace. The two of them had taken the coins given to them and turned them into necklaces, so that they could wear their humiliation around their necks.
"You, who humiliated us... you are a something of a hero to young devils. You tricked several generations, and then forced us to try and save face... only to save even more humiliation. Time and time again for several years, we all tried our best to make the public forget our humiliation... but it always resulted in more pain for us." Venelana looked at the coin she was holding with both hatred and respect.
They treated their servants well.
Instead of treating them like slaves, they were treated like either parts of the family, or like regular maids and butlers. The Gremory family was famed for their kindness, so they never noticed just how horrible the other devils treated their property before. To say that they were appalled would be an understatement.
"So... why would any of this convince me to become a slave to a devil then?" Naruto asked Venelana, since that was her original offer.
She smiled.
"Your actions on that day have forced humiliated our species time and time again... humiliation that we will never live down. To the Low and Middle class... you are a hero. You don't understand how positive the impact you had on their lives has been... in our desire to make up for our humiliation... we have been forced to make laws to protect our low class. All of this, all of the forced changes to our society..." Zeoticus took a deep breath. His wife was still smiling, but her smile was getting strained.
It was hard for them to admit, even if they liked every change that had happened.
"We were forced to cancel our daughter's engagement because of you. Our daughter's fiance, when it was his turn to be investigated on how he treated his peerage... he was charged with several crimes he had to pay heavy fines for." Zeoticus wished he could smoke right now.
Riser Phenex had been forced to pay many fines due to how he put his peerage through harsh training to get them stronger, and the way he sacrificed them during Rating Games with no concern to their well being. His rough treatment of them had resulted in several fines, and the fact that several of his peerage members had been pre-teens when they joined his peerage, and Riser was famous for having sex with his peerage, had led to a lot of labels being thrown at Riser.
They could not allow their daughter to marry him.
Riser had not gone to jail, but he had been forced to pay fines for the rough treatment of his peerage, and since they could not prove he had sex with pre-teens he faced no fines for that. Still, the rough treatment of his peerage combined with the way the public viewed him in a negative light... and the way the highest class of their society hated the fact that those like Riser proved the points against them correct.
Before, Riser was looked on as a very popular, powerful, and charismatic young devil by many of their kind with many Rating Game wins, and the fact that he was extremely respectful to high ranking devils. Now though, they could not allow their daughter to marry a man who would only make their entire family look bad. If they forced their daughter to marry a man with a horrible reputation, then their own reputation would be ruined.
They were among the few families who had their reputations improve after their investigations.
Thanks to Rias saving the lives of her Knight, Bishop, and Queen, the investigation into her peerage had boosted the image of how they treated them. The fact that neither he nor his wife had ever abused their peerages helped to maintain that image. They could not allow that boost to their family image be wasted by forcing their daughter to marry somebody who had been forced to pay fines, AND now had a worse reputation.
"Good for her." Naruto stated, since he still didn't see how any of this related to him.
1. He bought Koneko, and tricked the devils.
2. To save face, they investigated Kuroka's dead master to prove her guilt.
3. They learned Kuroka's master had done illegal experiments, which humiliated them further.
4. They investigated how other families treated their slaves to prove that Kuroka's Master was rare.
5. They discovered that one of their own was plotting to rape more nuns to add to their mind broken slaves, which humilated them further, which could threaten war between Hell and Heaven.
6. They were forced to try and save face by improving the treatment of the lower classes.
7. Because of that humilation, they had to investigate more clans, one of which was the fiance of the Gremory clan's daughter.
8. The investigation into him showed him mistreating his peerage, which meant he had to pay fines, which lowered his status.
9. They broke off the engagement between the man and their daughter.
How did that cause them to want him.
"We want you to join our family... you... you are exceptional. You are popular among young devils, and even more popular among the Low and Middle-class of our society. You humiliated us, and then because of our Pride we humiliated ourselves several more times." Zeoticus spoke with a light in his eyes. "You would make an exceptional devil... if anything, the role of demon suits you more than human."
Naruto hummed with a raised eyebrow.
He had never been called a demon in such a positive way before, usually it was always given a negative feeling. He didn't like being compared to a demon that much, but the way they were describing it sounded like a compliment.
Naruto finished eating first.
Since he talked less than everyone else while he ate, he just didn't have the same distractions as the others had.
"Join your family... become your slave?" Naruto asked as he pointed to Venelana.
He grinned at her.
He was curious as to her answer.
"A formality, you would be treated as if you were a son of our family of course. If you were to become a devil, I see no future in which you don't become rich, powerful, famous, and surrounded by a harem of your choosing.. and easy life." Venelana, a woman, made the offer.
Naruto grinned wider.
"Is that all?"
"We also offer an exceptional education at our school. You see, we own the Kuoh school. We can get you enrolled there. It is a place where you can forge connections, strong bonds with others in the supernatural world. Our daughter attends school there, in her second year... I'm sure you would enjoy going to school with her." Zeoticus reached into his inner pocket and took out a picture.
They tried to play to his Greed.
Now to play to his Lust.
It was a picture of their daughter, in the bath with her mother, a hot springs bath. Their daughter was absolutely stunning, and Naruto looked at the women in front of him. He saw that she was naked in the picture, and showed no hesitation in having the picture shown to him.
"Oh whoops honey, that is the wrong picture." Venelana was a good actor at least.
She feigned that she cared if she was seen naked, or if her daughter was seen. She pulled the picture away from her husband and presented a different picture, of their daughter in her school uniform.
'Men tend to think less rationally when you rile up their lust...'
"Well, she's beautiful... but I've never met her. I would need to go to... Kuoh... in order to meet her and make a better decision." Naruto stated.
"Done, we can transfer you to our school tomorrow."
"Sounds good, I look forward to meeting her... and I'll think over your offer then." Naruto stated as he got up and left.
Zeoticus smiled.
"We got him." Zeoticus and Venelana stated in unison.
The waitress came with the check, and the two of them looked at it. They blinked, before the red haired man started to laugh under his breath when he realized that they had been played. The check was barely any money at all compared to their wealth, but the fact remained that Naruto had left them the check without so much as mentioning it to them. He smoothly transitioned into leaving the diner, without so much as raising their eyebrows.
He truly was too devilish to be a human.
A mistake that they wanted to correct.
Chapter End!
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