[Chapter 3]
Naruto left Yasaka's territory two hours after the sun set. Since he was going to leave underworld for years, he decided to accompany Serafall to underworld. At least, that was what he said to the satan. The truth was, Naruto just wanted to take the few things he had. Not many, just a couple of magic papers, clothes, and books. And after having a few words with Serafall, mainly a promise that the satan would kill him should harm came upon Sona, Naruto finally left the underworld.
Though, he didn't go right to Kuoh. Naruto appeared at the outskirt of Yasaka's territory. Just roughly three meters from the invisible barrier surrounded it.
Naruto called upon his chakra, before finally clasping his hands together. " Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"
A poof of smoke appeared right in front of the blond. It took a couple of seconds for the smoke to disappear. When it did, a red haired man an inch taller than Naruto already standing there with eyes closed. The man was quite feminine—no whisker on his cheeks (so that people wouldn't think that the two had blood ties). If only his hair was a bit longer, it would be hard to tell whether it was a man or woman—even though the man in reality was a genderless being.
It was not a simple clone. It was the greatest clone in existence, at least as far as Naruto concerned. It was the combination of fuinjutsu, Blood Clone, Shadow Clone, and the idea of a jutsu that could split one into two. Bijuu Enchanted Clone, named Naruto—a rather lame name if Naruto being honest.
"Kurama."
"One and only," the clone responded with evil grin, his red eyes with slit pupils were staring intimidatingly at the blond.
But Naruto didn't fear it. Kurama couldn't beat him. With that clone body, Kurama could do more than in his original body. His control over his chakra became perfect. He could do any jutsu he knew. Even with only half of himself, the Kurama in front of him would beat Full-Kurama in his giant body. However, Naruto was the creator of the body. He could disperse it at will.
"Well, I'll leave the rest to you. You can do as you please, but don't forget of your priority. I'd hate to come to you and say that your freedom has come to an end."
"Hmph. I don't take order from you." Kurama glared menacingly. "However," his voice softened, "since you are truthful to your words, I'll help you just fine. Consider this a beginning of frie—teamwork. Yeah, consider this a beginning of teamwork between us."
Similar to a woman in one of the show Serafall forced him to watch, Kurama shifted his head to the right, refusing to stare at the blond's eyes.
Naruto mused. What a tsundere. Of course he could not say that to the red head. Kurama's pride would shatter, and there's a possibility that he would refuse to talk to him anymore.
"Then, I'll leave you to enjoy your semi-freedom. I will see you again, Kurama."
Without waiting for the said person's response, Naruto teleported himself right toward where Sona located. Indeed, he had marked the girl with his rune clothed by a simple fuinjutsu—of course without the girl knowing. That way, not only could the blond teleport himself to her location freely, he could also sense if the Sitri's Heiress was in a bad situation.
-vvv-
That night, Sona and her peerage only encountered one stray devil. It was quite strong for a mere stray devil. It took all of her peerage, excluding her and Tsubaki, to completely annihilate it. Saji didn't help much since he's still new, but he did a good job at fighting. Perhaps in a month, he would be strong enough to handle such stray devil on his own.
"Sona, shall we check on Rias and her peerage?" asked Tsubaki as soon as the rest peerage member left them to their home. "I did see her new piece visiting the old church."
"It is not necessary. Rias will ask for help if she needs it. Besides, there is no dangerous fallen angel there. Rias should be capable handling them. Let us—ah, Tsubaki, sorry to say this, but you can rest early tonight. I have something to do."
Tsubaki opened her mouth, wanted to ask her to elaborate. However, she changed her mind when her eyes caught the sight of blond hair on top of a rooftop dozens meters behind Sona. She didn't feel his presence at all. Tsubaki didn't know if it was Sona's perception or intuition, but she was quite sharp to sense if Naruto was near.
"I understand," said Tsubaki with a knowing smile. "Take it slow, Sona."
"I don't know what you are getting at." Sona adjusted her glasses while maintaining her poker face.
Tsubaki gave her a teasing smile, and she teleported herself right away before Sona managed to mutter a single word.
Once again adjusting her glasses, Sona turned around and hopped herself into the air. With a simple use of wind magic, she managed to launch herself high enough from the ground, before gradually landed right in front of the blond. Thanks for the thin legging she wore, the Sitri's Heiress needed not worry about the wind that lifted up her skirt while she was in midair. That way, even though she wanted to see the blond's reaction, she needed not to embarrass herself.
"How long have you been here?" asked Sona as she sat herself next to the blond. Not too close, but not too far either. There's only enough space to fit two adult cats in between them.
"Long enough to see the finishing blow to the stray devil. By the way, why did you ask Tsubaki to leave? I happened to hear that she suggested on checking the Gremory, I was thinking on joining you two. I'm quite interested on this Boosted Gear ability."
Sona's stoic face remained there. "I want to test myself." She said, of course that's not a lie. Sona wasn't answering the blond's question. She merely ignored it and shifted the topic of conversation. "To see how far I have become since the last time we spar."
A thin smile appeared on Naruto's lips. Sona knew that Naruto knew that she knew that he knew what she was doing. Nevertheless, they ignored that and continuing the conversation.
"How about a wager?" asked Naruto as he gazed at the full moon hanging above.
"I am listening."
"If you can land a hit on me, I'll become a proper student. However, if you fail, I will send a clone to take my place in class."
While adjusting her glasses, Sona said confidently, "I will ensure that you become a proper student!"
"Then, let us go." Naruto gave his right hand for Sona to take, and the young devil took it without a second thought and asked, "To where?"
Naruto didn't give a verbal respons. And Sona didn't need it, either. Right after the word "where" left Sona's mouth, their environment had changed to that of white land filled with snow and ice. There's no doubt that they're in Antarctica.
"Aren't you being generous?" Sona eyed her surrounding thoroughly. She was not excellent in ice magic, but she was good enough. Of course it was nowhere near her sister's mastery, nor was it comparable to her water magic. Nevertheless, it was her second strongest magic in her arsenal.
"As far as I remember, there is never a time when I wasn't being generous."
"Fine. I will not hesitate at all!" Yelling that, Sona left Naruto's side to create enough space for them. "I win with one hit, and you win when I surrender or fail to get up. Is that alright?"
"Of course. Have it your way."
Sona prevented herself from frowning. She knew that Naruto wasn't looking down on her—the blond had never looking down on his opponent, unless it was the unworthy one. Still, it would better if the blond ceased his calm demeanor away and took a serious attitude. But, knowing Naruto's strength, it was understandable. Moreover, Sona would use his confidence to beat him.
Inhaling, Sona strengthened her will and mustered her strength. In a second, a shockwave sent every snow around her away, leaving a crater with her on its center. Clasping both her hands, numerous small blue magic circles, more than a hundred, appeared out of nowhere before Sona. And in a second, all of it shot a water bullet which each speed easily surpassed that of the sound speed in air
Such offense was deadly even for a horde of High Class Devil. The speed and its number made it difficult to evade. But that was to be expected. In term of its damage, Hundreds Water Bullets was comparable to her seventh strongest water magic's offensive spell, Spear of Maelstrom. It was more than enough to completely destroy Tsubaki's Four Layer Mirrors—her third strongest defense through utilizing her sacred gear. That's why a horde of High Class Devil would likely not survive—unless they had strong defense or high regenerative ability like Phenex.
However, Naruto was not a High Class Devil. He was way beyond that. Such offensive spell didn't enough to even faze him. His speed alone was enough to evade the water bullets. Naruto was also a sensor. So, Sona wasn't surprise that none of her water bullets hit their target. She had expected as much, though. That's why that spell was not meant to attack, but to distract.
The real deal was the spell she had secretly hid with illusion magic while maintaining her Hundreds Water Bullets spell. While Naruto was indeed a sensor, he was not that great of a sensor—or so he claimed. But Sona didn't take it lightly. Hence, she put so much effort to cast such illusion to cover her gigantic magic circle with the minimum amount of demonic energy, therefore, making it hard to sense.
Deep Sea Emergence!—shouted Sona in her head.
As expected of Sona, mused Naruto as he saw tremendous amount of water erupted from the ground. From the amount of demonic power he sensed, saved to say that the water cover almost a third of Antarctica. When the water bullet stopped coming, Naruto was already inside a gigantic waterball with diameter exceeded a hundred kilometer. If not for the barrier he casted, he would naturally felt the pressure.
There's no doubt that Sona's mastery over water magic was already greater than that of Serafall's and his. Well, he didn't focus himself on water magic, so it was understandable. Still, to create such amount of water with a single spell and in a mere second, only Poseidon could achieve the same feat. Truly, Sona had grown stronger than the last time they spar.
"However, this is not enough to—" Naruto failed to finish his sentence when suddenly his barrier began to crack. "…She compresses the water?"
To truly master her water magic to its highest level, Sona bothered herself to follow the research of human scientist. At that time that she encountered the fact that unknown to the supernatural beings: when you compressed the water, it customarily heats it. Human had managed to create "ice hotter than boiling water", even though it lasted only for nanoseconds. Nevertheless, such breakthrough brought Sona to a higher level at understanding her magic.
In term of mastery over water magic, Sona believed that even Poseidon was no match for her. However, her problem was the amount of demonic power she possessed. She had so little of it that despite of her mastery, she couldn't do all things she should be capable of. That was her weakness. Her demonic energy was pale in comparison to the divine energy possessed by Poseidon. Even Rias had more demonic energy than her, although not by a large margin.
That's why, to achieve the same feat brought into reality by those scientists, Sona had to burn all her demonic energy. Hence, as soon as the water started to shrink and freeze, she had fallen to her knees due to losing her demonic energy. Her ultimate spell was supposed to be Hot Ice Explosion, yet, her demonic energy was not enough to perfect her spell. Thus, leaving only a hot ice—which diameter was about 50 to 60 kilometers—hanging in the air.
"That is dangerous, you know."
Sona let a faint smile escaped her lips. She knew how Naruto managed to escape. With his mastery over teleportation magic, it would be a child play to escape. The only way to ensure that her spell captured him was to ensure that he couldn't teleport. To do that, she had to utilize her rune magic. But Sona didn't want to do that. After all, there's a reason why she studied rune magic in secret.
"Did I manage to inflict a hit from that pressure?"
"Nope."
"I know it." Sona let a sigh escape her mouth, before asking, "Is there a way to ensure that you can't teleport without trapping you in a dimension or using rune magic?"
"You just have to be faster. Anyway, let me show you something." Naruto said with left hand directed at her, prompting her to hold it and stand. Sona did just that. The two stood shoulder to shoulder, facing the hot ice hanging above.
"This is a technique I develop after studying Sirzech's power of destruction and a certain technique of an old friend. This technique is based on compressing demonic energy. Seeing you could create such ice by compressing the water, you should be able to do this." Naruto raised his right hand with index finger pointed at the hot ice. Sona looked at his finger with interest.
Black and orange energy started to gather right in front of Naruto's index finger. No, it was not like a bubble joining another bubble, but more like water being sucked into hole. In a second, a black ball surrounded by orange aura the size of an apple manifested just a few centimeter in front of that finger.
"There are two ways to fire this ball of demonic energy. First, you launch the ball toward the target." As the words left Naruto's mouth, so was the ball of demonic energy. In a second, once the ball connected to the surface of the ice, an explosion shook the entire hot ice. Crack appeared on the entire ball of hot ice, but only roughly one fifth got destroyed.
"The second," continued Naruto—another ball of demonic energy already manifested. "You force the upfront of the ball to accelerate, turning it into a beam-like attack."
In a second, the remaining of the hot ice was slice into two, causing it to fall and shatter to the snowy ground. Losing its core, the ice began cooling and slowly became water. Naruto used ice magic, thus turning the ice-turning-water into a normal ice.
"I name it Cero. How is it?"
Sona was honestly amazed by such technic. It was capable of erasing a city with ease. While launching the ball caused a larger area of effect, turning it in a beam made it more destructive. Moreover, it could be use from all range of attack. Truly, that was a flexible technic. Sona wanted to learn that.
-Later that Night-
Okay, putting aside that there're two bedrooms in the apartment, how was it he agreed to stay in the same place as Sona?
Ah, right, it was because he used to live in the Sitri's Mansion. Staying with Sona was so normal that he forgot that they're a man and a woman under a single roof. It would be embarrassing to admit that to Sona, not when he became aware of the implication of such thing. Therefore, Naruto couldn't bring himself to say that he wanted apartment of his own. And as long as he didn't indulge on such thought, there'd be no problem at all.
Nodding his head, Naruto decided to open his bedroom's door and stepped out of it. By that time, Sona had finished her bath and already preparing a small food for their very late dinner. "I have prepared the water," said the girl with her faint smile. "By the time you're done, the food shall be ready as well."
Naruto could only nod. Though, he noted that Sona acted like a wife to her husband. But, really, even though Naruto was aware of the relationship between man and woman and their carnal desire, he didn't think that Sona was interested in him in a romantic way. After all, they had never talked in such a way. His relationship with her was like that of a close friend or family. So, it must be his imagination that Sona was acting like a wife to her husband.
Indeed, that must be the case. Naruto once again nodded his head lightly, feeling confident of his thought. There's no way he was wrong. Although he would be happy if that imagination was not a mere imagination, Naruto decided not to think too deeply about it. After all, he would not live in this world forever. One day he would return to his world. Therefore, he would try his best not to have deep bond with many people. Once he managed to create pathway to his world, he'd only say farewell to Sitri Family.
As soon as Naruto stepped into their bathroom, Sona quickly took of her apron and throw away everything from the table. She teleported herself to a nearby restaurant, quickly ordering some food, then returned to their apartment. Sona tried her best to pretend that she was the one who did the cooking, that's why she erased anything which connected the food to the restaurant. She was bad at cooking—Tsubaki pointed it out to her. That's why she couldn't allow Naruto to taste her real terrible hand-made food.
Curling her lips into a satisfied smile, Sona made herself comfortable in one of the only two chairs surrounded the small round table. She was satisfied with how things turning out to be. All things she desired were already within reach. From now on forward, things looked bright for her.
Adjusting her glasses, Sona calmed herself. No matter how delight her heart was, it's not wise to let it shown. It was fine to allow small smile appeared every now and then, but not more than that. Thus, she had to maintain her stoic face like usual. Take it slow, mused Sona remembering Tsubaki's advice.
-xxXxx-
I don't like the Trihexa in canon story. Here, Trihexa will have his own ideals and personality. Consider him OC, if you will. So is Ophis. This Ophis will be a proper Dragon God of Infinity. Yandere-Manipulative Ophis is cool? Yeah, consider Khaos Brigade to be a real deal.
#Cero is credited to Bleach's creator; I just merely borrow the technic he created for the hollow.
