Here is an update for Kitsune Rook. Time for the start of the next arc. I hope you all enjoy it. We've seen some progress with Naruto and two of the girls in his heart. We have yet to really delve into the physical issues he and Kurama are suffering from his recklessness at the end of the rating game but that will become even more evident in this arc. We will also be seeing the advancement of Naruto toward his inevitable promotion, though many things remain in his way for that goal.

If you want to come join a discord server or two aimed at fanfiction readers and writers links can be found just below.

Goat Server→ /7x4YFstKcz

Triumvirate→ /auc4PQjVtz

A quick review response.

From Joker Solomon Kane: When you going have the Devil Breakfast Club goes to Konoha or the other way around the meeting with the rookie 10 plus Fuu and Sai along Tsunade, Jiraiya along with the Sensei's of the rookies? Also if you do how about adding Hinata and Sakura in Naruto harem.

Response: Naruto will definitely see the elemental nations again. There will still be quite some time until then and both he and the folks back in his homeland have to go through a lot more before they reunite again. As for his harem….don't worry about it right now. Just enjoy the ride pal.

Let's get into this story now.

Arc:Breakthrough

Chapter 11:Time to Talk

Kuoh

Naruto chuckled awkwardly as he was pretty much carried by his fellow rook into a separate room from the rest of the peerage. The furious blush on her face and the faint scent he recognized wafting off of her told him that it was likely in his best interest to simply let her do as she pleased until she calmed down.

An embarrassed Koneko was a kind of dangerous Koneko. Plus from where he was, thrown over her shoulder he was getting a great view of the absolutely adorable Asia that was accompanying them. She was blushing just like Koneko was, except her face was twisted up into a cute little pout that she kept shooting his way.

"Koneko, you can set me down anytime now." Naruto said with a chuckle as the white haired girl came to a stop.

"Don't run." His petite classmate commanded.

"Yeah sure, scouts honor."

Both girls turned to glance at one another before he found himself dumped, rather unceremoniously, onto the floor. He had to admit, as adorable as all of this was, both Koneko and Asia being arguably the cutest girls his age, even if he had to admit Rias and Akeno were the most beautiful. He had no real idea why they had effectively kidnapped him.

"So…" He tried to encourage them to speak up.

"Check him over." Koneko said to Asia, simply ignoring Naruto entirely.

Asia nodded in her determined way before kneeling down beside Naruto and slowly beginning to poke, proud, and generally rub his body. It felt nice, a bit ticklish and the mild blush on the blonde's cheeks as she did so brought a faint grin to Naruto's face.

"What are you looking for, Asia?"

"Be quiet and let her work."

Naruto shot Koneko a dull look but conceded and let his fellow blonde continue to gently check him over. Gradually the blush faded from Asia's face and a more confused and worried look crawled onto it.

"Your organs are damaged again, just like Koneko thought." Asia mumbled.

Her hands began to become a bit tougher and a faint greenish blue glow began to form around her hands as two rings formed on her fingers. Naruto could feel the pain he had become accustomed to fade away gradually as Asia's sacred gear went to work.

"Ah, yeah maybe pushing myself too hard with training. Thanks."

Naruto tried to play the damage off but the mix of a glare and worried look sent him by Asia and the scowl shot toward him by Koneko made it clear neither were all that pleased by him brushing aside their worries. Not that Koneko was about to buy his words anyway.

"Training? Today was the first time in a week that you haven't been locked away with Rias or Akeno screwing each other silly."

Her face a faint blush from her words and the thought of Naruto and the older two girls together. The green light surrounding Asia's hands flickered briefly before returning fully and continuing to heal the internal damage Naruto had as best as she could.

'The little kitten is right. You keep ignoring my warnings and saying your pitiful lusts with those two succubi. It's literally killing us.'

The voice of Naruto's prisoner swept through his head, weaker than he had ever heard it before. It made Naruto wince slightly as he remembered that his choices affected more than himself. He might not be fond of the being locked away within him, but he had long since stopped hating him.

"I will slow it down and take better care of myself. Promise." Naruto replied to both of them.

The girls exchanged a look with one another, neither seemed all that confident in the honesty of his words but they didn't really have a way to force him into doing what they wished.

"I don't understand what could be making your organs burn up like that. I can't even do all the repairs I need on you." Asia said.

"Don't worry about it. You've seen I heal up from stuff unnaturally. I'll be fine in no time."

She slowly stood up with a weak nod. The doubt on both girls' faces had Naruto feeling a bit guilty about hiding his current situation from them. Even as Kurama had been insisting that he recruit help to try and remedy their problem.

He was too prideful or perhaps too chivalrous to do that though. He was sure if he explained everything to the rest of the peerage then they would panic or in Rias's case blame herself for relying on him in the rating game that had set her free.

The Uzumaki couldn't do that. Instead he had already set up an appointment to meet with both Venelena and Grayfia. He trusted the both of them to keep things quiet but also help him find a solution. It just sadly was taking longer than he had hoped for all three of their schedules to line up perfectly for him to have that little meeting.

Evidently Grayfia had been pretty swamped doing Sirzechs smaller tasks while he handled negotiations between several agitated pillar families. Rias's victory, or more specifically the way in which Naruto had defeated Riser had caused no small amount of worry and interest among the pureblood devils. It wasn't every day that a pillar family's bloodline ability seemed to be reflected back upon them.

That wasn't really what happened but it was what Sirzechs had told them Naruto had done to keep the nobles off of his case as best as possible.

Didn't stop the influx of evil piece trade requests that Rias was denying on the daily.

'You are growing so very comfortable lying to everyone, aren't you.'

Naruto once again ignored Kurama as he said his goodbyes to the still worried girls and headed off back toward the academy building. He needed to get to class. Some of his teachers were complaining to Sona about the amount of time he had missed and she had started using that as an excuse to give him detentions with her.

Since his showing in the rating game she had become even more blunt with her attempts to poach him away from Rias. He wasn't precisely sure how she saw that working out being as his soul was more or less bound to Rias through his peerage piece. Then again he didn't really know the full extent of how the evil pieces worked.

The day full of classes was…well it was normal. That meant it had been incredibly boring and in all honesty, being as he was now a nigh immortal devil it was pretty useless too. He wasn't about to need to worry about the specifics of proper grammar for English class when his abilities as a devil included the ability to fluently speak any mortal tongue.

After class though things began to get a bit more interesting. Today was the day that Rias wanted to properly introduce the rest of the peerage to Gaspar and begin finally tackling issues that kept the little crossdresser locked away from the world.

The group stood arrayed outside Gaspar's room, most staring in awe and trepidation at the barricaded and chained up doors.

"What exactly are we-" Issei began to ask only to be cut off by the very serious looking Rias.

"While I still have a piece unused in the peerage every other spot in our group has been taken. Today you will all meet the last member of our group. Prepare yourselves, he is a bit shy and doesn't really know his own strength." Rias said.

Naruto and Akeno bit their lips to keep from chuckling. Rias knew exactly what she was doing by talking up the little bishop. Already Issei and the other pawns began to sweat and shake nervously at the image they were building in their minds. Asia stepped behind Naruto and tightly gripped his belt as she tensed.

He felt a bit bad about including her in the little prank but it was all in good fun. The group of newbies gasped slightly as the chains fell away and the doors creaked open.

Their gasps slowly transformed into confused murmurs as the room behind the door was revealed to them. It was nothing all that interesting really. A large desk with a sizable computer screen on one side and some other furniture. A small bed shaped like a coffin and at the very center of the room a single cardboard box with two holes punched into the side.

Behind those two little holes a pair of glowing eyes opened and once again the newbies tensed up.

"Gaspar…what are you doing in that box?" Rias asked a bit sadly.

The muffled answer was too quiet for any of them to understand so their king could only sigh before motioning for Koneko to handle things. The little rook had a certain…way with the bishop.

That way was of course absolute disregard for his own wishes as she strolled in and tore the box off the ground. The space below it was empty though as Gaspar had an insanely tight hold of the surprisingly durable cardboard box.

Not right enough to stay inside when Koneko began to violently shake it though.

"Ahhh!" Gaspar cried as he covered his face with his hands once he had fallen on the floor.

The pawns all gasped.

"A cute girl?" Issei asked.

"She's even more of a loli than Koneko is." Motohama said as Matsuda joined his fellow pervs in leering.

Aika could tell from what Naruto could tell and he almost felt bad for the dhampir as the young witch began inspecting him closely. His attention was taken more by the three boys fawning over Gaspar though. He couldn't wait for them to find out the truth about the tree they were currently barking up.

As for himself though, after a brief warm greeting to the bishop Naruto had to excuse himself. Both Rias and Akeno knew he had a meeting scheduled with Venelana and Grayfia, though they were both a bit annoyed he hadn't shared exactly why it was that he had set up a meeting with them. They had even tried drawing the information out in a completely unfair manner.

Naruto wasn't about to talk even when the two were hinting at both taking a swing at seeing who could swallow more of him down at once.

While Rias got the satisfaction of watching the perverted trio's minds and hearts shatter when she confirmed that Gaspar was in fact a boy, Naruto instead used a magic circle to head back home to the Gremory Estate.

As he appeared in the main foyer of the Gremory family's palatial estate, he soon found himself guided along to one of the many sitting rooms that the expansive structure housed.

The maids left as quickly as they had guided him and he was left alone as he stepped in to reveal some literally painful secrets to the two women who had become akin to mothers or elder sisters to him.

Venelana and Grayfia both stood from their seats as he entered and welcomed him into the cozy little room with hugs that brought a soft contented smile to his face.

"Have a seat and get into telling us what you needed to meet about. It must be serious by the way you made this meeting so urgent." Venelana said as her tone became completely serious and her eyes bored into Naruto with an intensity saved only for those she considered her family.

Grayfia remained silent but the nearly exact mirroring of Venelana's serious and concerned expression told him she was just as worried about the reason for the meeting as the clan matriarch was.

"Well, not a lot of people know the truth about me, you know?"

Naruto squirmed slightly as he thought about the fact he was hiding quite a lot of things from the rest of his peerage. He rarely thought about it, simply putting it behind him, but at times like this he realized that the others all gradually came forward with their pasts…he probably should do the same.

Eventually.

"Just us, Sirzechs, and Lord Zeoticus as far as I am aware." Grayfia commented.

"Not even the other Maou?" Naruto had to ask.

"Not the full story. They believe the same as everyone else, that you were a Kyuubi that was rescued by the family and recruited by Rias. They know that it took a specialized piece to reincarnate you and that Sirzechs sort of broke the rules by giving Rias the piece that was used, beyond that though, its the same as everyone else." Venelana commented.

"Actually…" Grayfia awkwardly began.

Both Naruto and Venelena turned to look at the stoic woman with a bit of surprise and worry.

"There's no need for alarm, it's just with Sona Sitri showing such interest in you over the last couple of years Serafall became interested as well on her behalf. She even seemed to think if she could get you put into Sona's peerage then Sona would somehow give in to Serafall's more…incestuous requests." Grayfia admitted.

"Wait, so now both Serafall and Sona know the truth?" Naruto worriedly asked. If anything that would probably drive Sona's interest through the roof and Serafall was a bit much for his own tastes.

"No, surprisingly, Serafall kept pretty much all of it to herself. Sirzechs caved to her needling him about you all the time but when she found out the truth she locked the information down. She is a Maou after all and underneath that childishness is the competence that's helped rule the underworld for a few centuries." Grayfia explained.

The other two breathed a small sigh of relief at the fact that Naruto's secrets weren't at real risk of spreading across the underworld. Rias thought that the attention her rook brought for piece trades or just in general was bad now, the reality would only make it worse.

"With that all out of the way, what is the reason you wanted to talk about, Naruto?" Venelana asked.

"Right."

Naruto mentally fumbled for the best way to start, best to just dive in he supposed.

"What we thought when I first came to the underworld wasn't exactly right. It did more than just change me, it changed him too. Kurama is still sealed inside me but he's a full blown Kyuubi yokai like me now."

Both women shared shocked expressions before their thoughts began to catch up with recent events and they both stood and began using magic circles to check over his form. Naruto knew better than to try and argue against it so he let them do as they wished.

"The seal is still making it hard to really get a look at anything." Venelana frowned.

"It's blurring things. I'm sensing no less than four energy sources within him. Perhaps more, though they might just be echoes. They are impossibly faint." Grayfia added.

"We might need to bring in a specialist…" Venelana hummed.

"Whoa hold on. What about keeping all of this under wraps-"

"Naruto, you came to us because of something more than just revealing that your tenant is different than previously thought, right? We can see the damage done to your body by the mixing of your energies. Even after being healed by little Asia we can see the remaining damage." Grayfia stiffly said while shooting a stern eye down at the blond.

Naruto shrunk in on himself at the beautiful woman's glare.

"Stubborn child." Venelana tisked before she forced him to lay back on the wide couch.

"Grayfia, please collect my husband as well as the Maou. It doesn't get much more specialized than Ajuka and we might as well bring Falbium into the know with him." Velana commanded as she began to undo her blouse.

"Naruto, take off your shirt, I'm going to try to heal the damage that Asia couldn't quite get too. The skin to skin method gets deep so you get to enjoy a special afternoon." Venelana teased as she removed her bra and crawled in beside Naruto while he struggled out of his shirt.

"Now don't be getting any ideas. This is just to heal you young man."

Naruto blushed quite a bit, though less from the woman's teasing and more from her large breasts pressed softly against his back.

"I would never betray you and Lord Zeoticus like that, Lady Venelana." Naruto stammered out.

"Hmm, and here I thought Rias and I looked like sisters. I've heard you have taken her quite a few times. Do you not like older women, Naruto?"

Her teasing caused the boy to grumble which made her laugh at his expense. She couldn't lie and say that Naruto would be an ideal young man to seduce, but she really did love her husband, and by now Naruto was practically her own child. Sure it wasn't really all that frowned upon in their society for such a thing to happen, but Venelana wasn't planning on travelling that road.

"Relax, I don't mind that you and Rias are together, or that you have Akeno as well. But a woman has to get her laughs somewhere."

"Right, uhm…are we almost done?" Naruto asked.

Venelana chuckled at his shift to being awkward. Around most girls he wasn't like this but she enjoyed his timidity when it came to her. It was cute. She couldn't wait until he got Rias pregnant. Not only would she have a grandchild on the way she could tease her children endlessly about it.

She used a magic circle to once again check his body over, only to feel the humor leave her the moment she realized her actions hadn't had any affect on the boy.

That shouldn't have been possible. She might be known for her power of destruction but Venelana was just as proficient at healing others through the more powerful means used by devils. It was how she had turned her marriage to Zeoticus from one of simple political convenience to one of love and devotion.

Short of actually doing the deed with Naruto she doubted she could actually heal the damage done to his organs. Sadly she wasn't quite ready to go that far, besides all she would have to do is teach her little tricks and tips to Rias and the girls in her peerage and they could heal him while working on those grandchildren.

"Playtime is over it seems, Naruto. That didn't make much of a difference sadly. Still you got to see my girls so that must have at least lifted your spirits." Venelana teased.

The pair redressed just as several magic circles appeared in the room and the five devil's Grayfia had been sent to collect appeared alongside her.

Naruto bowed his head respectfully to the four rulers as they entered. Something none of the four really cares for but definitely won him points with Venelana, Zeoticus, and Grayfia. It was best to act with the etiquette that Grayfia and Venelana had driven into his skull for the last few years.

"Naruto, it's good to see you, although I wish it was under different circumstances than what Grayfia implied." Zeoticus said as he patted the teen on the shoulder.

"I wouldn't have sent her to collect you all unless it was something of relative seriousness. I know you are all quite busy with work." Venelana said.

"Actually, I believe lord Zeoticus was the only one doing any actual work. Sirzechs had been trying to win an online auction for some rare figurine for Rias, Ajuka was playing about in his private lab, and Falbium was sleeping."

"Come on Grayfia…" Sirzechs whined slightly at his wife outing his laziness so easily.

"So Serafa was the only one of our leaders doing any real work?" Venelena asked flatly.

"No. She most certainly wasn't."

Serafall crossed her arms over her chest and huffed but it seemed Grayfia wasn't inclined to relive the moment. She instead moved on to begin explaining the situation.

The Maou were filled in on the full reality of Naruro's situation. He answered any questions they had but mostly left the discussion to the four parental figures he had found himself in the underworld. The other two rulers of the underworld we're displeased about being left out of the loop but after having some basic questions answered they were content to live and let live.

Really Falbium just wanted to know if the situation would be a threat to the underworld, when he learned it wasn't he literally sprawled out on the floor in a corner of the room and took a nap. All the while mumbling that his peerage would never think to look for him there.

Ajuka was incredibly interested in Naruto in contrast to his much more slothful compatriot. He practically grilled Naruto about his abilities, his world, and everything about the seal and Kurama that he could think to ask.

He only stopped once he had shifted to begin scanning over Naruto with a pair of magical circles that fed him far more information than what even Venelana and Grayfia had been able to learn earlier. His expression largely remained unreadable as he hummed and absently nodded. He really struck the image of the aloof mad scientist as Sirzechs had described him in the past. Perhaps barring his inhumanly perfect physical form.

"You are arguably one of the most intriguing specimens I've analyzed in the past." He commented causing Naruto to frown at the rather cold description as a 'specimen'

"Well Ajuka?" Sirzechs prodded.

"I may have some ideas of a way to do this but I am going to need time to really study that seal and try to find a way to reverse the damage that he's been doing to himself. I fear it might not be until we find a way to extricate your companion that we can really worry about healing your body fully though."

Naruto smiled despite that news. He had quite a lot of faith in Ajuka Beelzebub himself being able to figure something out. The man was the greatest mind the underworld had produced. Perhaps the greatest the supernatural world had produced overall. Although some like Azazel would give him a real run for his money.

"What about the additional energy sources sealed within him?" Venelana asked.

"Ah, yes. Those have piqued my interest even more than the seal itself, although I cannot help but already see ways that I might be able to reverse the seal and even reconstruct it ins much a way as to-"

"Ajuka, what are the other energies?" Grayfia interrupted icily.

"Right. While I was scanning you it was easy enough to locate and analyze your own sources. The devil core you've developed since your reincarnation is actually quite underdeveloped for what I expected someone of your apparent ability. Still the overdevelopment of your chakra core and reserves explains that easily enough. You rely on them much more. However I did notice that your chakra core was slightly warped. Nothing dangerous for you just, vastly different that I am used to for such an energy source."

"That's good, I guess." Naruto replied awkwardly.

"Quite. The other sources were a bit more difficult to identify. While your seal is connected to your chakra core in a fashion I didn't even think possible, the others are mostly up inside it entirely. Connected to your system through the seal which acts both as a seal and almost like an extension to the chakra circulatory system your body has. It's a genius work of art."

"That's great Ajuka but please stay on topic." Sirzechs urged.

"I am on topic. What I'm saying is that the three more pronounced of the additional energy sources are within the seal while the other very faint ones are just sort of attached to your being itself. I have some theories perhaps but they really have no affect on you at all at the moment so it's best if they are simply ignored while we focus our attention on the sources within the seal."

The others continued to listen to the long winded scientist intently as he finally got to what they wanted to know.

"Now, clearly the strongest among these is our young friend's tenant, Kurama. From what I can tell it is a remarkably similar source to Naruto himself. A chakra core though warped in some fashion. That being said the chakra he produces is so dense and thick that it is practically caustic to Naruto, the reverse is true as well. It's like oil and water, they simply can't mix. Not without some sort of reaction. In this case damage to both of them. Currently Kurama seems to be suffering terribly from similar damage to his form, incorporeal as it is, to what Naruto has, only to a more extreme degree."

Naruto grimaced at that. Guilt about ignoring the old fox while he pulled out as much pleasure as he could from his girlfriends burned uncomfortably. The huffing 'I have been trying to tell you' from his mind didn't help matters.

"As for the other two figures. They seem almost like incomplete chakra cores themselves. They are almost like copies that siphon the tiniest of amounts of chakra from both Naruto and Kurama to remain existing. If I had to guess they were somehow connected to the creation of the seal."

As Ajuka explained that Naruto violently twitched as Kurama accidentally drew on his chakra and forcibly mixed a tiny amount into their bodies. The explicit language he had started out saying transformed into a far more livid sleep of foul language as the pain wracked Kurama's form.

'What the hell is going on with you?' Naruto demanded.

'Your psychopath parents sealed portions of their souls in here with me! Or at least that blond smiling creep did.' Kurama snapped.

"My parents…" Naruto murmured aloud as the devil's around him all widened their eyes in shock.

"Naruto, what do you mean?" Venelana asked.

'Kurama, explain. Now damn you!' Naruto all but screamed across the mental space that imprisoned the Kyuubi.

Negotiations between the various members of their little group had been going poorly. It should have been expected that an organization as bent on bringing about anarchy would struggle with such things.

Thankfully for them, their leadership was nominally unified under their leader. Though leader might have been a poor choice of wording. There was little in the way of actual leading, more in the way of her simply being a creature that the others feared well enough to do whatever it was she said.

The boosts to their power that they might receive from her was an excellent incentive as well. However in truth she left them all to their own devices for the most part.

That was why, when the group was arguing so much today. One of their own had decided to do his own thing. He'd jumped the gun and now everything they had attempted to plan was in flux. Not that the majority of them had much of an actual plan.

"Kokabiel's gone off grid entirely. That idiot is going to stir shit up." One of the faction leaders complained.

"We expected as much, eventually that hot head was going to do something like this. It's not that big of a deal. He thinks he can succeed without our support, might even do what he is aiming for but the end result won't be what he's hoping for." Another commented.

"Things might be tense as ever between the big three factions but this won't be enough to start a war like he wants. The idiot isn't subtle enough to get the factions at one another's throat properly." The first said again.

A third stood and stretched making to leave. "Whether he succeeds or not I am sure the result will still be useful. We're moving in the right direction even if not at the right time. Let's just watch and see what happens with Kokabiel's little escapade."

The group seemed happy to separate once more. Their tentative alliance was not one that any of them were content with, but the old adage remained as true as ever.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

The meeting with the four Maou and the Gremory patriarch and Matriarch had dragged on for far longer than Naruto expected. By the time he had returned to Kuoh he found that the others had all finished up their day and headed off to bed, whether at the clubhouse or their various actual homes.

Rias and Akeno had both tried to stay up for him but they were sleeping on the couch together when he came into the clubroom. He left them to sleep there, though he did grab a pair of pillows and a blanket for them. He checked on the others staying at the clubhouse as well.

Koneko had stayed the night, clearly needing to support little Gaspar after a stressful day. Although he was surprised to find he only staying in the chair in Gaspar's room while Aika had apparently manhandled the dhampir into the little coffin shaped bed.

He knew that she was the type that would probably think Gaspar was as adorable as could be, but he had a bit of a sinking feeling at the sight before him.

He had better keep an eye on Aika. She seemed to be getting a bit bold. He was starting to get worried that she might have some sort of grand design for the entire peerage. One that probably wasn't exactly in line with his own.

He was a devil after all, Rias may be his king but he had desires and ambitions and that meant he had his own plans for their little group.

As long as Aika's wishes didn't harm their group or interfere with his own, he supposed he'd stand aside from whatever she was really looking for.

Seeing that the two of them were comfortable he scooped up the sleeping Koneko and headed to one of the spare bedrooms. He could tell when she stirred awake from her breathing but the girl played at staying asleep as he carried her upstairs. The blond didn't call her out on it. Instead he simply took her in and gently set her into a bed and covered her up.

"Goodnight." He said softly to her, smirking slightly as she stiffened when she realized she had been found out.

With everyone at Kuoh academy handled, Naruto headed home himself. Taking the time to fly rather than teleport. The weather was nice and he wanted time to kind of think about how best to reveal things to the others in the peerage, more specifically Rias and Akeno. He still needed to sit down with both of them and discuss all the things from their pasts that caused them troubles still to this day. Why bother being in a relationship if they couldn't open up to one another.

That being said, his mind hung on the fact that Ajuka Beelzebub himself was exploring possible solutions to his problem. He had no doubt that the scientist would find the answer to his problem and be able to help. So, there was no real reason to bring Rias and Akeno, or any of the others in on it until it was already handled, right?

As he settled onto the ground in front of his apartment, Naruto shook the thoughts from his mind and entered. He was a bit tired and wanted to dive straight into bed. When he made his way to his room though he found Asia, curled up in his bed waiting for him wearing a dangerously thin nightie.

"This girl has no idea what she does to me."

Naruto groaned faintly at the sight of the innocent and adorable girl in near nudity. He was beginning to wonder if she wasn't quite as innocent as she lead him to believe. Either way, he wasn't one to take advantage. Not to mention he wanted to get some sleep. No doubt he would need to be well rested for whenever Ajuka began running more tests on him.

He changed into a comfortable pair of shorts and crawled into bed beside the blonde. She naturally wrapped herself up around his form as he did so. That brought a soft smile to Naruto's face as he drifted off. Feeling Asia's warm breath on his chest as she slept and the mild warmth of her body as she pressed snugly against him. Like a comforting blanket almost.

The next day saw Grayfia coming to take him back to see Ajuka at his laboratory. Rather, one of his many laboratories. She was also letting Rias know that the heavenly faction was evidently up in arms about a sudden situation that had kicked off over the last two days. She told them she would be regularly meeting with her while working with Naruto on something to keep her apprised of the situation as much as possible.

It had all left the redhead in a bit of a foul mood as she disliked being left out of something. Especially when it involved one of her peerage members and more importantly her boyfriend. It didn't exactly help her mood that the damned perverted trio had taken Naruto's sudden absence to mean they should pick up their aggressive flirting.

Akeno was having an excellent time building up their egos by almost flirting back only to ridicule or even electrocute them in the end. Rias wasn't quite as forgiving or playful about the situation as Akeno was being, and while she distracted herself and the peerage as best as she could with a mix of training, helping Gaspar, and performing contracts her mind was still hung up on the fact that she felt Naruto didn't trust her with something very important, or that he was getting pulled into something troublesome by her elder brother and sister in law.

As for Naruto himself though, he soon realized that Ajuka was far from the personable and charismatic man that Sirzechs was, or the playful and quirky type that Serfall was. He was a mad scientist that had recently completed some sort of sensitivity training. Although Naruto got the sinking suspicion that was only because Grayfia was right by his side throughout every one of the weird tests Naruto went through and was very cold whenever something that looked like it might cause Naruto pain were introduced to the tests.

Despite all of that though, by the end of the day Ajuka had Naruto and Grayfia sitting in a surprisingly comfortable den as he settled into a seat across from them with an old fashioned clipboard with his findings in one hand and an even more old fashioned fountain pen twirling across his fingers in the other.

"So, I have good news and I have bad news." Ajuka began before pausing.

"Wait how old are you again, Naruto"

"Uh, just turned sixteen…" Naruto said a bit cautiously.

"Oh, Grayfia, he has been placed as a ward of the Gremory clan since becoming a piece of Rias' peerage, yes?" Ajuka turned his eyes to the silverette.

"Actually, he along with Akeno, Kiba, Koneko, and Gaspar have all been fully adopted into the clan, though not as members of the family. I believe Lady Venelana and Rias have spoken about the same being extended to the newer members soon."

"Ah, so who would be his legal guardian then?" Ajuka asked, causing Grayfia to blink in surprise.

"Why would you need that? He's a middle class devil." Grayfia was professional but a bit confused.

"Yes, maybe but with things that require a magical operation like this I will need his legal guardian to be present as well." Ajuka replied.

"Until Rias comes of age, wouldn't I technically be under…" Naruto trailed off.

"Lord Zeoticus and Lady Venelana. I'll contact them and see if one of them is available to attend this meeting." Grayfia stood and moved over to the corner of the room to send the messages.

Naruto felt a bit nervous suddenly. Was Ajuka's plan really that big of a deal? What exactly was he wanting to try that Naruto had to have guardians and witnesses?

"Relax, I am just doing this all by the book. The other Maou are a bit too relaxed with how they handle things for my personal taste. It's part of why I enjoy dealing with grayfia so much. She's far more efficient and direct than my other friends can be." Ajuka said.

"I appreciate the compliment, Lord Beelzebub, but truthfully I wouldn't separate yourself from the other Maou based on productivity when you spend weeks at a time buried within your study or a laboratory." Grayfia's bland tone cut in causing the green haired man to chuckle awkwardly at that very fair statement.

"Lady Venelana is on her way. Lord Zeoticus apologizes but he is on his way to meet with Lord Phenex to try and renegotiate some agreement."

"Excellent, because this is one of the most interesting situations I've studied in my time as a Maou. I really am looking forward to getting started. Maybe as early as tomorrow morning if everything goes well." Ajuka said with a smile.

Within his head Kurama perked up in interest at that. Something so soon. That would be nice, not only to be free of this cage, but to be healed of all the painful damage caused by his jailer's foolish actions. He just wasn't looking forward to the other foot to drop. Whatever was going to happen was definitely going to have a price. He knew these devils were even more mercenary than the shinobi of his and Naruto's old world.

And that is that. So this is the start of the next arc. Mostly just prep for the story arc this time around. One that is going to be a blend of the obvious next canon step as well as quite a lot of original stuff.

That being said, I am pretty excited to get to the arc I have planned after this one, it's a completely Original arc so it will be a lot of fun I hope.

Anyway

Till Next Time