.: I just now thought about this, but this fanfic is officially a year old. When I started it, I had no idea where it was headed since I was told to get a new hobby during the whole lockdown stuff. I decided to get back into writing with a new love for anime under my belt. I started Naruto on Jan. 7, 2020 and finished all 720 episodes and movies on June 30, 2020. I was listening to the COD zombies Easter Egg songs and decided to make a crazy OC based on my favorite ones. It's kind of funny for me to think that I didn't post a third chapter until Nov. 2020 and then have been trying to be consistent with updates since then. Well, on the bright side, I think we're halfway through this story now. We just need to get past Hidan and Kakuzu's deaths and then I hope it'll be a downward slope from there :) Also, sadly, Tenshi is not Dolia's mother. Sorry to get your hopes up, Thomas. I just thought it would be too cliche of a coincidence and too weird considering Akuma fathered Dolia's children. But good guess! :.

The Archangel of the Hidden Leaf

Chapter 25:

The Revelation - Origins of Project Archangel, Part 4

His heart thudded in his chest as he walked away. He could hardly believe that he faced an archangel unprepared and came out unscathed anyway. Picking her up was the biggest risk he had ever taken in his entire life. Akuma tried his best to be unintimidating and careful with Tenshi, partly because she was pregnant, but mostly because any wrong move would result in his death.

Scared to look behind him, the medical shinobi retraced the steps he took when he was trying to set the trap before he encountered Tenshi. If he was far enough to be out of sight, then he could go retrieve the trap without Tenshi possibly following him. He did not want her to get the slightest idea that he was the one who put it there. If she did, then she might summon the entire cave to come out and unleash on him. After seeing what happened to the bear, he definitely did not want a fate like that.

Spotting the cluster of thorns and thickets he had come across earlier, he came to a stop. He was surely far enough now, not to mention out of sight.

"Akuma."

The sound sent a jolt down his spine. He almost became vocal in a panic but luckily hushed himself. Turning around, he was faced with Tenshi once again. How long had she been following him? He did not hear a single twig snap or rock kicked! To think he was a jonin rank ninja who was trained to detect people like her. It was almost embarrassing to think this was the second time she snuck up on him.

"What are you doing?" he asked her. "Go sleep."

"Hungry," she said.

"I already gave you food."

"Hungry."

He hesitated with annoyance. He just wanted to complete his mission. This archangel, although fascinating to the eyes, was starting to keep him from furthering progress. If she was not pregnant, he would have taken her life already and headed back to the village. But since that was not an option, he had no choice but to cater to her needs again.

Reaching into the sack that was dangling from his waistband, he pulled out a brown food pill and offered it to her. "It probably doesn't taste good, but I don't have anything else for you," he told her, trying to use a soft tone of voice.

Tenshi stared at the food pill in astonishment. It was true that she was still hungry after her snack, but she only followed him to see if he was actually serious about the offer to be her new mate. The biggest smile formed across her face. Akuma watched her blank white eyes light up with elation. Not understanding what the big deal was about a bland food pill, he pushed it closer to her for her to take out of his hand. She leaned forward to take it directly in her mouth and chewed. The taste was lacking, but she did not care. She had someone who would take care of her and her baby.

"Better?" Akuma asked, trying to find a reason to leave her behind once and for all.

"Mmhmm," she hummed, pushing his hand away to press herself against the front of his body.

He stiffened in response, not sure what she was doing. But after waiting a moment, he found that she was not moving again. Her forehead rested against his chest and her distended stomach pressed into his. He even felt her unborn child squirm inside her womb.

This was odd behavior. It required a lot of trust to be so close and personal like this. She was even letting him feel the precious movements of the growing life. Was this…affection? It was moments like this where he cursed his line of work since it kept him away from seeking out a potential spouse. Anything regarding romantic interaction had him lost. "Tenshi?" he voiced, placing his hands on her shoulders to pull her away and create space between them.

She fought against being separated, instead opting to let her stance be known. "Mine."

"Huh?" he questioned, no longer pushing against her.

Her finger poked him. "Mine," she repeated.

Slowly coming to a realization, Akuma found himself stuck. This was bad. Tenshi was imprinting on him like a wild animal. It was going to be impossible to get away from her now. Even returning to the village seemed like a dream to him.

Groaning to himself, Akuma pulled away from her touch. Maybe if he ignored her, she would get bored of him and leave on her own. He walked around her and then focused chakra into the soles of his feet so he could have a powerful jump into the closest tree.

Confused, Tenshi followed him with her gaze and watched as the new man in her life disappeared up in a tree just for a moment before reappearing to jump up into a different one. She did not understand what he was doing, but she could follow him. Transforming to bring out her wings, she heaved herself into the air to be above the trees.

Akuma traversed back over to where the trap was, landing back on the ground. He had to take it apart and return it to the village. If he wanted a female specimen, then he would have to follow the morning scout to the next meal and pick up another dead body. Not being able to yet observe the archangels throughout a normal day annoyed him, but what choice did he have? He would just have to be patient and wait another day. Killing two birds with one stone just would not work in his favor for this situation.

Removing the chain from the tree trunk, he wrapped it around his arm tightly so the metal would not clang against each other. Then he used a kunai to deactivate the mechanism and fold up the trap without trouble.

The sound of forceful flapping frightened him, but when he jerked his head to see the archangel, all he found was Tenshi making a soft landing for herself a few feet away. She wanted to say many things to him, like "don't leave me" and "what are you doing?", but she had to catch her breath first. Flying took a lot more effort in her condition, and she had not done it in months.

Before his very eyes, he saw how drastically her looks changed. Her face had features to look at, but she also had a magnificent pair of fleshy wings to go with it. They were tall and wide, which was seemingly proportionate for her normally. Akuma could only imagine how fast she could fly when she did not have the extra weight to lumber around.

Struggling to catch her breath, Tenshi felt herself grow weary and stumble a little bit. Seeing it made Akuma's medical persona come into play. He hurried over to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders to stabilize her. "Are you okay?" he worriedly asked her.

Gazing up at him with her black eyes, she saw how magnified his light blue irises were. Under the moonlight, it was hard to see how pretty they were. She could not wait to see them in the daytime. Nobody in her kind had eyes like Akuma's, and she was falling deeper in love with him because of them.

Not getting a response from her, Akuma cursed to himself and dropped the trap on the ground. He had told her to rest, and now she was putting her baby in danger in spite. Ignoring her was definitely not an option anymore. He had to give her even more attention now so that she did not continue to make risky decisions like this. Why was this getting more and more ridiculous?

He embraced her closer and jumped up into another tree so they would be hidden. Settling down on a thick branch, he placed her next to him and let his legs dangle off the side. If she was not going to rest by herself, then he would have to rest with her.

The two of them sat in silence for a few minutes. Tenshi caught her breath and felt her weariness ebb away while Akuma took out his journal and tried to write about his experiences with her in the small amount of light he had to work with. If he was going to be sitting, then he might as well do something useful.

Curious, Tenshi leaned over to see what he was doing. But he had to stop writing because her head was blocking his view of the pages. "You can't read," he told her, moving it away.

She straightened back up next to him when she got the message that she was not allowed to see.

Taking a quick glance at her, he went back to writing. "Why don't you put your wings away and sleep?" he prompted. He wanted to watch her transform closely for the sake of more notes, but it could wait for now.

His sentence was too long, and his words were complicated, so she did not reply. Instead, she grabbed onto his right hand – the one he was writing with – and moved it to her abdomen to rest on. Her unborn child was being very active again. She enjoyed it when it did not bring her pain, so she assumed Akuma would enjoy feeling it, too.

But he sat with a blush on his cheeks. The only women he had touched throughout his life were his sister, his mother, and the female patients he cared for. But touching Tenshi like this was much different. She thought fondly of him despite having known him for less than thirty minutes. This welcoming interaction of touching her bare skin and feeling the unborn move underneath his palm was supposed to be a type of bonding.

Having Akuma's rough palm against her smooth skin was a good sensation for Tenshi. Naturally, she folded both of her arms around his and rested her cheek on his shoulder. The firm muscles underneath his sleeve cushioned her enough to make her close her eyes.

The blush on his cheeks increased. He was way out of his comfort zone. But when he looked at her, he could see nothing but bliss for her. Having a warm body against her gave her a sense of protection. She could feel how strong he was and how caring he was as the fetus in her womb kicked into his unmoving, accepting hand. Neither of them had to move. Everything was just right.

Even though Akuma did not share the same feelings whatsoever, he had to remember that it was better than dying. Yes, it brought problems in his missions, but he hoped that some intervention with the female archangel could work in his favor rather than against him. "Tenshi," he said, bringing her out of a near doze. "I want to watch you today, so I need a safe tree to stay in. Can you take me to one?"

She did not loosen her grip on him. The sound of his voice filled her ears and just made her heart flutter.

He sighed. Right. Simple sentences, he reminded himself. And perhaps being softer with her would win her over.

Tenshi felt him lean into her more and press his cheek against the top of her head. "Safe tree," he repeated. "To hide."

"Here," she insisted, not even looking around at the other leafy options.

"Well, if you're sure," he accepted, pulling his arm away from her. She whined with annoyance and tried to latch back on, but he moved away from her. He only stopped when his back touched the trunk of the tree. With a hand motion beckoning her to come over, he opened space between his legs for her to lay in. "Sleep."

Without hesitation, she retracted her transformation, letting her teeth sink back behind her lips and her eyes roll back to return to the white half. Akuma paused. It happened so fast, but the wings took a moment to shrink out of sight. The monstrous woman turned back into something beautiful. She laid down in his lap, her head resting on his groin, and did not move for the remainder of the night.

Akuma refrained from continuing his notes until he was sure she was asleep. A hooting owl did not stir her. The slowed breathing was drowned out by the steady rhythm of screaming locusts and chirping crickets. His fingers brushed some of her dark hair behind her ear. Nothing. The coziness took her into a deep sleep. If anything were to happen, Akuma would take care of it. She trusted him that much.

Satisfied, he took the journal into one hand and started writing again, this time including how the transformation works. Although the mystery of the optic nerve's part in it still bothered him, he had plenty of pages to add.

It was the sound of the scout that woke him up. With a jolt, Akuma opened his eyes and frantically looked around. Had he been spotted? Where was the attack going to come from? Tenshi lifted her head and immediately noticed Akuma's stress, so she sat up and grabbed his hand. She knew the alerting screech all too well. There was nothing to be afraid of. They just had to wait a moment.

Quickly following, echoes from the cave rang out as the horde of archangels rose from their slumber and went to go fetch their meal. The sound sent a chill down Akuma's spine. But when it died down, Tenshi let go of his hand. "I need to go," she informed him, drawing out her sentence carefully. She wanted more than anything to bring him to live with her in the cave, but she knew the others would never accept an outsider like him. They might even eat him, and she absolutely could not let that happen. But if she left him by himself, then she might never see him again, just like the father of her child. "Don't leave," she added, some sorrow in her voice.

"I won't," he assured her. He would get some observation in today. Hopefully, the dead bodies from the morning meal would be left until the evening. Then he could return to the village. But to keep her mind at ease, he pulled out more food pills and offered them to her. "I will stay here."

Looking at the food pills, she curved the corners of her mouth into a smile and took them into her own hand. "I will come back," she promised. Then she transformed to bring her wings out and used them to safely get back to the ground. Akuma, with a skip in his heartbeat, watched as she extended her wings as far as they would stretch outward and stepped off the branch. The wind caught her sails, slowing her fall until she gave them a couple of powerful flaps that brought her to a calming stop below. There was no fatigue afterward, but she retracted and began to go back to the cave while nibbling on her snack. Akuma blinked in awe at how graceful her movements were.

Once she was far enough away, he dropped down from the tree as well to grab the trap he had left out in the open. It was unusable, so he could not set it back up somewhere else, but he had to hide it until he could gain access to his bag again. He ended up dropping it in the middle of a cluster of bushes. But the sound of the horde returning to the cave made the medical shinobi return to the cover of the foliage.

Tenshi had said the tree they slept in was safe, but he was not sure if she even understood what he asked her. He also knew it was a way away from the cave's entrance. If he wanted to observe all the archangels, he had to get closer without being spotted. So, he quickly jumped to other trees until the mouth of the cave was in his view.

A steady stream of archangels was returning from their meal. Many of them were red with blood. Others had more than a mouthful of shredded meat in their jaws. He had no clue what they had hunted this time around. If that bear from the other day had cubs, they might have been now eliminated along with their mother.

Archangels who stayed behind began emerging from the shadows to greet the returners. The majority of them were females, whether they were pregnant, nursing mothers, or caring for children in general. Others were older in age who could not fend for themselves anymore. Akuma witnessed the small younglings excitedly squeal when their father returned with sustenance for them and their mother, taking handfuls from their father's mouth and eagerly consuming it as if their lives depended on it. Some children were by themselves with a single parent delivering their sustenance. Individuals who appeared to be in their teen years accompanied a parent back from the feast to provide even more food for younger siblings. But there were also some families whose providers came back empty-handed or did not come back at all. He knew exactly why that was the case, too.

Only one archangel did not participate in the routine that Akuma could see. Tenshi stayed in the background, finding a stone to sit on. It was obvious she once had a male she cared about, but her reserved body language told him that she was not expecting anybody. Suddenly her fondness of him started to make sense.

After all of the archangels returned, they started to disperse. Some went back into the cave, but most of them stayed out in the open. Tenshi was joined by other expectant mothers and mothers of small children, communicating with them in a friendly manner. One theme he recognized the most was males taking their children with them either by themselves or with the mothers. Children were happily holding onto their hands and swinging their bodies while laughing. Many archangels transformed and began to fly with at least one other person. He noticed a group of teenagers going off together, just as normal humans would do back in the Hidden Stone.

One male held onto his child as he flew above the cave and perched. A female stood underneath them to wait as the child transformed to bring out a small but proportionate pair of wings. The male picked them up and then dropped them, but quickly fell after them to be a guide. The little wings flapped purposelessly as the child tried to find the correct movement and direction in the breeze. Akuma held his breath at the flying lesson. It was the equivalent of throwing a baby into a lake to teach it how to float. Although the method appeared callous, it must have been beneficial.

Once the child had dropped a certain distance without having figured out how to fly, the male gathered it into his arms and expanded his wings to fly back up where they started. Then they repeated the process of trial and error.

A family of three flew by the tree Akuma was in. The male and female bonded by soaring in a race, all with their baby hanging from the female's arms as if they were flying underneath them.

A group of children who could fly took advantage of the openness the sky provided and played a game together.

Grandparents tried to fly with their grandchildren.

Underneath the tree he was in, a male and female shared a kiss.

A group of females perched themselves high on the side of the mountain and kept their wings spread to absorb the warmth of the sun.

A group of males gathered a patrol unit and dispatched to survey the region for safety.

There was so much to look at. Akuma, who once viewed these creatures as evil vermin like the rest of the Hidden Stone Village, began to question their perspective. If anything, they were just as human.

Taking out the journal, Akuma skipped to the top of the page he was working on instead of continuing at the bottom. He wrote "Tenshi's Clan" and circled it so he would not forget to change the name of his unfinished file in his office.