"Naruto?"

The blond hummed in response at the sound of his name. He turned his head towards the voice and saw the concerned eyes of Rias Gremory staring back at him.

"Did you have anything to do with that?"

"What?" The shinobi seemed confused at the girl's question. Sitting at his counter was Rias' peerage in its entirety, Gasper included. The dhampire was covered from head to foot with a thick pair of oversized sweatpants and sweatshirt. Despite his nervousness at being out in public, the boy had been pretty enthusiastic in participating in the conversation the peerage had been sharing, the conversation Naruto had completely missed out on.

"The strange sightings around time?" Rias attempted to clarify. When she was once again met with a confused look from the shop owner, the girl decided that she needed to get a little bit more in depth.

"For the past couple of nights there has been several strange sightings around the city. Different beasts ranging from an oversized cat with two tails to a giant turtle swimming in a lake. The creatures all disappeared shortly after being sighted. I was just wondering if you knew anything about it." The girl finished. Naruto gave a thoughtful hum at the girl's words before he began to slowly return to his snack making.

"I haven't heard anything about it. I'll be sure to keep an eye out for any weird stuff though." The blond reassured the devil with a soft smile. This response seemed to satisfy the girl as she nodded at the boy before returning to her conversation with her peerage.

With Rias' attention now away from him, the blond dedicated his full focus onto his treats. The boy looked strangely serene as he carefully sculpted a tower out of whipped cream.

While outwardly the shinobi looked as calm as a nun, inwardly it was a completely different story. The blond was having a very different type of conversation with some of the tenants of his body.

"Really? I let you guys out for one night and you get caught!" Naruto mentally yelled. His shout was met with a series of disgruntled mutterings that echoed throughout his mind.

"I just want to point it that only Isobu and Matatabi got cau-"

"Shut your sand-covered mouth, Shukaku, before I set you on fire and seal it shut." A vaguely female voice shouted out, interrupting the first voice. Silence followed the voice's outburst, showing that the original had wisely followed it's orders.

"Look, Naruto-kun," The feminine voice spoke up once more. "We weren't aware of the surveillance equipment that this world contained."

"Okay, I can accept that. But, what about Isobu? You were laying in the middle of a lake. Just before sunset! How do you explain that?" Naruto asked through his mental link.

"...I was hot." Naruto sighed at the massive turtle's response. He didn't know what other response he expected from the creature, considering its soft-spoken nature.

"Look, if I'm going to let you guys out more often, you ca-"

"As much as I enjoy listening to you fuss at my idiotic siblings, you have guests." Kurama's voice cut right through the blond's sentence. Almost immediately, the shinobi switched his attention to what was occurring outside of his head.

"Naruto-kun!"

"Dulio." A small grin spread across the shopowner's face at the sight of exorcist. The man was dressed in his usual priest garments as he strode across the shop to the counter. His appearance caught the attention of Rias' entire peerage as they kept their eyes locked on the man, even as he took a seat at the counter next to him.

"I see business is going well." The man commented as he reached into one of his pockets. After some a small amount of digging around, the exorcist pulled out an unwrapped lollipop. With a deft flick of his wrist, the wrapping disappeared from sight and the lollipop was swiftly put into the blond's mouth.

"Yes, better than ever actually." At this, Naruto took a quick glance at some of the customers within his store. Nothing seemed too out of wack, if you ignored the various fox ears and tails attached to some of the customers. Though, that could be simply chalked up to a simple act of cosplay by the people. The shinobi assumed that was the reason his human customers weren't exactly freaking out as several Youkai ate only feet away from them.

"By the way," Naruto returned his attention back onto the exorcist. "Thanks for sticking up for me back in Heaven." The blond's casual remark earned him a small chuckle and a wave from the lollipop-lover.

"No problem at all. Michael was being a bit stuck up back there. I just wish he had actually listened to me instead of ordering a manhunt on you." The two shared a small laugh at their shared memory. Their laughter seemed to catch Rias' attention as she turned to face the duo. Her movement caught Dulio's attention as he turned his own head towards the girl.

"Ah, you're Sirzechs little sister, aren't ya? Rias, right?" Rias nodded slowly at being addressed so casually. Only a few weeks ago, Dulio would've been considered one of her greatest enemies. Now the man was addressing her like she was so long-lost friend.

"Yeah, I figured. He talked about you a bunch. Made the whole entire peace meeting take a bit longer than expected." And just like that, the awkwardness the girl was feeling dissipated as a groan left her mouth. To hear that her brother had managed to embarrass both himself and her in front of some of the most powerful creatures in existence trumped any type of residual animosity she felt towards the exorcist.

"You should've heard him. I'm almost 100% certain that he was signing the treaty just to impress his 'little Rias-chan'." The volume of Rias' groan increased in magnitude at Dulio's words. The angel let loose a loud laugh at the girl's ire for several seconds before turning his attention back on to Naruto.

"You got a little time to talk?" Dulio asked while licking away at his lollipop. Naruto raised an eyebrow at the question before setting down his can of whipped cream.

"What about?" The blond asked. His question caused the angel to send a side glance at the group of devils sat directly next to him. The man looked to be debating something for several seconds before coming to a conclusion with a lackadaisical shrug.

"A team."

"A team?"

"A team." Dulio confirmed the blond's question with a small nod. The angel removed the lollipop from his mouth before leaning his upper body against the counter.

"After everything that happened during the meeting with the magicians, the higher-ups of each faction decided that there needed to be some type of countermeasure in place of events like this from occurring. They realize that the union between the three factions is possibly one of the biggest ones in the history of … well history. It's obviously going to attract attention an-"

"Nope. Don't want to be a part of any group." The whipped cream was back in the blond's hand as he returned his focus back onto his desserts. A small chuckle greeted his ears several moments later, making him look up at the now laughing angel.

"You didn't even let me finish, man." The angel said in between his laughter. "But, I understand. I figured your answer would be no. It was my answer until my boss made me agree to it." Dulio said as he rose from his seat. He flashed a small smile towards his fellow blond before turning to face the door.

"Well, it was nice meeting with you. I'm sure Michael will send me back to try to convince you again, so I'll be seeing you later." The angel then stopped to look at the group of devils. By now, Rias and her peerage had been not so subtly spying in on the conversation and had their full attention on the man.

"I'll be seeing you all later. Adios." The man held his lollipop in the air towards the group before popping it back into his mouth and walking out of the store. The group of devils and 'a god' watched the man stroll down the sidewalk before disappearing from their sight around a corner.

"What did he mean when he said he'll see us later?" Surprisingly, Issei was the person to voice the thoughts of the group. The mysterious farewell by the man had managed to earn all of their curiosity.

"I don't know, but I do plan on finding out." Rias said as she scooted off her seat. She placed a small amount of bills on the counter's surface before turning to address her peerage.

"Lets head back to the club room for now." One by one, each of the devils rose from their seats and began to follow the girl out of the shop. Koneko was the last to leave since she stopped to receive a kiss from her boyfriend. The blond had managed to sneak in a bag of cookies into the girl's pockets as a surprise treat for her later. He watched with a small smile as she pushed past the doors of his shop and disappeared along with her friends around a corner.

The smile on his face soon disappeared as a light glow began to emit from below the counter. The shinobi glanced down and caught sight of a glowing seal on his wrist. With a silent sigh, the blond removed his apron from his waist before retreating into the back room. A second later, the blond came running back out and proceeded to refocus his attention back onto his whipped cream.

In reality, the real Naruto was no longer anywhere close to his shop. The teen arrived at his destination in a golden flash. Almost immediately, he turned towards the only couch in the room that so happened to be occupied by one infinite dragon god.

"You came…" Ophis stated as she removed her headphones from her ears. Naruto rolled his eyes at the girl's apathetic tone as he made his way over to her. With a loud grunt, the blond flopped onto the other end of the couch before stretching his legs over its edge.

"I told you I would. That's the whole point of the seal since you say the shop is too loud." The blond said as he stared up at his ceiling. His response came in the form of silence, prompting him after several seconds to bend his neck backward to look at the dragon. He saw that she had her gaze steadily locked onto him and that probably wouldn't be changing anytime soon.

"I … require your assistance." The dragon said after several long moments of silence and eye contact. Her words made the shinobi sit up from his laid out position. An inquisitive look was on his face as he leaned towards her.

"You need my help? What could be bothering the mighty Ophis so much that she needs my help." If she found the statement to be annoying, Ophis didn't show it as she continued to stare into Naruto's eyes.

"What you said before … the Khaos Brigade," The dragon paused and closed her eyes. For the first time since meeting her, Naruto heard the girl release a sigh. The sound was almost inaudible and lasted only for a short moment before she opened her eyes back up.

"They … are growing out of my control." Naruto blinked at her words. Even though they didn't seem like much, the gravity behind the girl's sentenced had managed to floor the shinobi, causing him to become slightly slack-jawed.

"So, you're saying you can't control the Khaos Brigade anymore?" Naruto's question earned him a harsh glare from the girl. She managed to hold up the look for several moments before it dropped as another sigh slipped past her lips.

"They're … like roaches. I find one nest and destroy them, and ten more replace them. My home now has a giant roach and tiny pests running around it." Naruto actually felt a twinge of sympathy within his chest at the sight of the obviously upset dragon. To have your home overtaken by some foreign presence was a horrible thing to go through. The blond knew that if Ophis hadn't attempted to kill him during their first meeting, he would be full sympathetic of the girl's plight.

Unfortunately for Ophis, she did attempt to kill the blond and hadn't admitted to still not wanting to do so, losing her a large amount of his sympathy. Plus her title as an actual god made him very skeptical of what he could do to actually help.

"What exactly do you need my help with?" The bond questioned more out of curiosity than anything else. He wasn't expecting any real solid response from the girl but he still wanted to hear how she would reply.

"Killing … them." The girl's tone was as deadpan as ever as she asked for assistance murdering hundreds of people. At this point within their relationship, the blond couldn't really find himself too shocked by her answer, causing him to just sigh and roll his eyes.

"You know I can't and won't do that." The blond replied. His words seemed to stir something within the dragon as she began to rise up from her seat.

"But with your clones…" Naruto turned to face the girl as his ears picked up on something he never heard in the dragon's voice. It was a small quiver, one similar to that of a child who was attempting to hold in tears. Even though her face did not reflect such emotion, that little fluctuation said it all for her.

For once, the dragon was actually hurting on an emotional level. Unlike any physical pain she may have felt during her battle with the Great Red or himself, she couldn't immediately heal from it. The fact that this was her first time experiencing anything of the sorts most likely made the pain that much more intense.

All of these factors added up to form an emotional cocktail within the blond. And despite what every single fiber of his common sense was telling him, he began to actually feel sorry for the dragon god … as odd as that sounded.

"...Have you tried talking with them?" Naruto inwardly sighed as the words slipped past his lips. Even in the end, he couldn't stop himself from at least attempting to hand out advice. He wouldn't stoop as low to do her killing for her but he would try to help.

"Talking…?" Ophis looked genuinely confused as she echoed Naruto's words. The blond huffed at her response before sitting up further in his seat.

"Yeah, talking. Asking them to leave? Being polite? Stuff like that." The shinobi attempted to be as clear as possible as he spoke. It was during these moments that the blond hated the lack of social interactions the dragon had.

"I … ordered the Great Red to leave. I … told the Khaos Brigade to halt their actions. They did not. I erased them." It took everything within the shinobi to not face palm at Ophis' words. That was the type of response he was hoping not to get.

"Okay. How about asking them nicely to leave? Maybe even saying please?" The blond offered. The completely apathetic look he received from the dragon gave him a pretty strong hint on how she felt about that suggestion.

"...Why should I say please when its my home?" Came Ophis' dry response. And, as much as the blond hated to admit it, she had a pretty good point. If someone was invading his home, he shouldn't have to say please to get them the hell out. He should have every right to literally kick them out the door.

"Unless they're a god." The blond corrected himself as he glanced over at Ophis. If that was the case, it was best to just wait it out.

"Well…" The blond paused to rack his brain for a response. He didn't want to just say 'go destroy everyone in your home' to the dragon, yet that was the only answer that was coming to his mind.

Fortunately for the blond, his decision-making time was put to a hold as a loud knock echoed throughout the room. A visible sense of relief overcame him as he rose from the couch and dashed towards the door. Without even checking to see who his guest was, the blond turned the knob and swung the door open.

"Naruto-San … we have a problem." The frown on Naruto's face dropped like a stone because standing at his doorstep was a haggard looking Kiba.

"Whats wrong? Is everyone okay? Is Koneko okay?" Naruto immediately fired off at the boy's statement. Mentally, the blond was already preparing to flash towards his girlfriend's location the second the devil confirmed his worries.

"Everyone is okay. You … you just need to see this." Inwardly, Naruto released a small sigh at the confirmation of his girlfriend's safety. He honestly didn't know how exactly he would've reacted to hearing that Koneko had gotten hurt somehow.

"Probably similar to how Ophis wants me to act towards the Khaos Brigade." The blond thought to himself as he turned to look back at the dragon. His jaw tightened when he noticed that she was no longer sat on his couch. He couldn't sense any anywhere in the house, leaving him to believe she had returned to back to the dimensional gap.

"Lets go, Kiba." The blond said as he turned his head back towards. The young devil nodded at him before taking off down the streets. Naruto threw one last glance back at his empty couch before shutting the door behind him and following after the devil.

"This could be a problem." The blond couldn't help but think to himself as he stood next to Rias' peerage. Night had overcome Kuoh, allowing the teens to release their devil features to the world. Koneko and Rias stood by his side while he worriedly directed his attention to the display in front of them.

The wall that the group was standing in front of belonged to Kuoh Academy. It's usually immaculate brick walls was tainted with what looked to be blood. The thick, viscous liquid dripped slowly down the surface, slightly obscuring its message.

"Death to the tainted birds and beast, and the new false god they follow." Issei read the writing out loud in a slow voice. Down the line of people, Naruto sighed out loud as his head met his hands.

"This is certainly an issue." The group turned to look at Sona as she spoke out loud. The girl seemed to be alone for once as her peerage was nowhere in sight. Her face was as serious as ever as she stared at the writing on the wall.

"I am assuming that you have already contacted your brother?" Rias nodded at her friend's question. The first thing she had done when she had stumbled upon the grotesque display was send a message to her brother. Despite how annoying she found the man, this was not something that she was going to hide from him.

"Who do you think did this?" Issei said, voicing the question that was on all of their minds. Silence followed him as each person within the small group mentally searched for an answer.

"Maybe an angel? They do mention tainted birds and beasts in the message. Sounds a lot like fallen angels and devils." Kiba spoke up. Almost immediately, Sona gave a negative shake of her head as she stepped forward towards the group.

"This amount of blood and violence from an angel? It doesn't seem very plausible, especially with the new treaty." The intellectual replied. Rias turned to face her old friend with a slight frown on her face.

"It could be a rogue angel. Someone who is on the crest of falling. It isn't too hard to believe that not every angel was very happy about the treaty between the factions. Some probably still held hard feelings towards us." Rias said in an attempt to reason with the class president. Sona didn't shake her head at this, but instead closed her eyes and allowed her head to fall slightly.

"Once again, plausible. But let us not make any assumptions concerning this matter. The new treaty complicates things, especially if one of the other factions had a hand in this. We'll simply wait for Sirzechs-Sama's reply and move from there." The heiress responded.

"What about tomorrow when school starts? We can't let our classmates see this." Issei spoke up. It wouldn't do well for the Academy's reputation if word got out that someone did something like this on school property.

"I'll have it covered up by my peerage later tonight. I'll run the story that a group of delinquents vandalized the school during the night." Sona fired back. As the members of Rias' peerage nodded at her words, Naruto had to mentally sing his praise for her. It was an amazing show of leadership to be able to come up with a thorough plan so quickly, especially with so many stakes on the table.

"What do you think about all of this, Naruto-kun?" The blond turned his attention to his right as Akeno voiced her question. A small frown graced his features as he stood silently staring at the girl for a few moments before returning his attention back towards the wall.

"I think Sona's plan is a good one. There's no need for us to act rash." The blond responded. His response seemed to be enough for the girl as she nodded before turning to Rias.

"Okay. Lets head back to the club room and wait for my idiotic brother to reply to my message. Hopefully, he doesn't take forever like he usually does." The redhead sounded agitated as she spoke. Naruto couldn't help but chuckle at the girl's dislike of the man. It was pretty endearing to witness the relationship between the two.

As a group, Rias left with her peerage. Koneko was the last one to leave as she received a hug from the thoughtful blond. Once she had gone, only Sona and Naruto were left at the wall. The two stood in shared silence for a long period of time, simply staring forward at the wall in front of them.

"Naruto-san…" The class president was the one to break the silence as she called out her companion's name. At the sound of his name, Naruto turned his head towards her. He was surprised to find that the unflappable mask that had just been in place in front of her friends had fallen. Now, he could see the raw emotion, mainly worry and anxiety, clear as day on her face.

"What do you think of this?" Naruto blinked at the girl before turning his head back towards the wall. He remained silent for several seconds, seconds which felt like hours to the young devil, before opening his mouth.

"I think you made the right decision. I have a feeling, probably the same feeling you have, that this is going to be a lot bigger than it originally seemed. Not getting ahead of ourselves is the best way to go for right now." Out of the corner of his eyes, Naruto saw the girl visibly relax at his words, filling him with a small amount of confusion. Sona and him hadn't really been close enough for him to think such a simple statement from himself could earn such a reaction.

"Idiot, you're not looking at this from the right angle." Naruto's confusion was further increased as his original partner, Kurama, spoke up.

"What do you mean?"

"Look at her." With a soft grumble, Naruto briefly returned his attention back onto the young Sitri. He was surprised to find that he seemed to have the girl's full attention as she looked solely at him.

"She is quite literally looking up to you."

"But why, though?" The blond questioned, earning him another sigh from his partner.

"Because you're a 'god'. Because you're an accomplished shop owner. Because you've managed to save her and her friends multiple times. Because you have earned the respect of some of the most powerful creatures in this universe, including her sister, somehow. Are you honestly not seeing this?"

"Well … when you break it down like that…" Naruto honestly did feel a bit stupid after Kurama's explanation. It made sense that the girl would at least have some sort of admiration when it came to him.

"You've done a really good job keeping this school together and running. Just keep doing what you've been doing and everything will turn out well." Naruto finally spoke out loud after his extended period of silence. He watched as the girl's face lit up in surprise at his words before quickly settling. She offered him a small nod before turning her back to the blond and the wall.

"Thank you for the advice, Naruto-san. Know that it is greatly valued and cherished." Now, It was Naruto's turn to be surprised. The girl's wordings was very odd, weird even. He didn't have much time to question her about it before she was already too far away.

"All of this is just too confusing." The blond huffed out loud. He had expended all his mental energy for the day.

"Time to get some rest. I'll deal with all this in the morning." And with that, the blond disappeared off campus in a golden flash.

Naruto had expected that when he stepped into his house, he would be able to immediately head to his bed and take a well-deserved nap. He figured in the worst case scenario that Ophis would've returned wherever she had disappeared to and would be waiting for him at home. The dragon's completely anti-social attitude would mean their conversation would most likely be a short one, giving him plenty of time to rest.

That was not the case, however. As much as the teen wished that was the case, it wasn't going to be. He knew that as soon as he opened the door to his home. The two people that greeted him spelled that out very clearly to him.

"Naru-kun!" Naruto ducked out of the way to avoid a flying hug from an obviously excited Kuroka. As the girl smacked soundly into the closed door behind him, the blond couldn't find it within himself to feel much pity as he gazed up at his second guest.

"You've missed 87 days of work and now you think you can just show up to my house randomly?" Naruto questioned his wayward employee. Vali didn't look the least perturbed by his boss' words as he remained standing still in the blond's living room.

"I don't work at your stupid shop anymore." The devil replied. Naruto scoffed at the boy's words as he made his way deeper into his home.

"You sure do until I fire you or I get a letter of resignation." The shinobi said as he collapsed down onto his couch. From the corner of his eye, he could see Kuroka picking herself up from her jump. It didn't take very long for the Nekoshou to make her way over to the couch he was occupying and plop herself down onto his outstretched legs. The teen didn't even bother telling her to move, much to her pleasure, as he kept his attention on the descendant of Lucifer.

"Why exactly are you both of you in my house?" Naruto finally spat out the question. The sudden reappearance of the duo in his home at the exact same time couldn't lead to anything but horrible things for him. The sigh that Vali let out after his question only served to confirm his thoughts.

"We came here to warn you, Naru-kun." The teen cut his eyes over at Kuroka as she spoke. Her usual playful demeanor seemed what repressed while she sat on his legs.

"Warn me about what?" Naruto spoke as he sat up on the couch. If something managed to rattle Kuroka's mood then it must've been big.

"It's the Khaos Brigade." Vali started. "They've overstepped their boundaries. Cao Cao, that egomaniac freak, has all-" That was all the devil could manage to get out before a loud screeching suddenly filled the room. Kuroka collapsed onto the floor, screaming loudly while clutching at her ears, while Vali collapsed down to his knees. Naruto was the only one who didn't seem affected.

"Thank Kami for chakra." The shinobi thought to himself as he kept the flow of chakra constant in his ears. Without it, he was sure that he would be in the same position as Vali and Kuroka.

It was because he was unaffected by the noise that the teen was aware enough to notice the rippling in the air that was taking place in the middle of his living room. Just as the rippling reached a climax, the very fabric of space seemed to come apart as a rip formed in the boy's room. Naruto had only a second to react as a small body came shooting out of the rip. He quickly leaped up the couch and caught the body-turned-projectile before it could slam into one of his walls. As Naruto fell back to the floor, he managed to catch the briefest of glimpses into the tear before it suddenly closed, silencing the shrieking sound.

"That was unexpected." The blond couldn't help but think to himself as the shrieking stop. He took a brief glance over to Vali and Kuroka and saw that the two were slowly recovering from having their ears blasted. Seeing that the two were in a somewhat better shape, he directed his attention back onto the object he had caught from the dimensional tear. His eyes widened exponentially when he noticed just who exactly he was holding.

It was obviously Ophis but something was very different about the girl. The usual aura of power that unconsciously radiated from her had been suppressed to just a dwindling flame. The girl was shaking as if she was suffering from frostbite. Her skin looked pale, even paler than its usual color. Lastly, her gray eyes looked a sickly shade of black. Naruto could just make them out through the girl's partially opened eyes as he cradled her body.

"What the hell happened to you?" This was by far the most confusing and potentially terrifying thing that had occurred to him since arriving. If someone, or something, managed to inflict such a large amount of damage to the dragon, then that thing had an unimaginable amount of power.

"I…" Naruto strained his ears to hear the girl's voice. Its usual soft volume was even lower now that she was in this condition.

"I …. tried talking. It …. didn't work." And with those words, the dragon fell unconscious, leaving herself in the care of one very confused shop owner.

AN: Merry Christmas to everyone. My Christmas gift to you is two chapters of ASTSO and two chapters of ROAS. I hope you enjoy. If you feel like you need to return that gift to me, you can do so by having a nice day. Don't let any petty Christmas drama get in the way of having a nice day.

Review or pm me with any questions, suggestions, comments, concerns, recipes, just about anything. Enjoy your day! Peace!