AN: Happy Holidays, here enjoy. Yes, that IS your only option. Enjoy this chapter I worked all freakin' year on. Any complainers will be fed to the Fires of Perdition to help keep me warm at night. 'Cuz I STILL don't own this stuff. I don't own Naruto, I don't own Highschool DxD, or any of the other anime's I've borrowed from. So enjoy the chapter, because I just said so. Nyeh.
… Now that my little rant is over with, on with the show!
Chapter 21 – A Lance and a Bunch of Lost Children… Why?
"What am I looking at?" Naruto asked, looking at the person standing beside him. The person in question being Lily, wearing a royal blue one-piece swimsuit with white and blue accent lines. Damn she looked good like that. He, himself, was also in beachwear, a red set of swim trunks.
"A fortress." Lily replied quickly and succinctly. "An old and decrepit one."
"No, I get that," he waved off her attempt at humor. "I'll rephrase, WHY am I looking at this obvious death trap?"
"My lance is inside somewhere," She replied promptly, as if it were obvious.
He blinks at her, "So?"
"I want my lance back."
"So, go get it."
"I'm not designed for running a death trap."
"And you think I am?"
"Yes, Mister Former Shinobi."
"Touché, Miss Former King of Knights."
He looked back at the structure in question and sighed. He and Lily were on a retrieval job for her, as she had finally located the resting place of her sacred lance, Rhongomyniad. Said resting place was an island about a hundred miles west from the shores of modern-day Scotland. An island that didn't show up on any map partially due to just how freaking tiny it was.
How tiny, you might ask? Well, Naruto and Lily stood on the sandy shore of the only beach, and the only other ting they could see was an ancient castle that dominated the rest of the land, Behind them, out on the open waters was a large yacht where the rest of the peerage was waiting.
"Why don't we send Karma?" Naruto asked suddenly.
"Because he does not possess the ability to touch holy artifacts," Lily responded promptly.
"Then you go. You're a Knight, surely your speed could keep you safe in there," he argued.
Lily frowned, her eyes raking over him and finally noticing a slight tremble. "Naruto-sama, are you… scared?"
He flipped out, one hand snapping to point at the derelict castle even as his frantic gaze and profile met her incredulous one. "I'm not scared, I'm terrified! There is no way- no way! - that there aren't ghosts in there!"
Lily blinked repeatedly. What? She just stared at him for several long minutes.
Then her mouth opened, her voice working on auto-pilot trying to understand the conundrum in front of her.
"So, you'll fearlessly face down ancient devils that hold power over Death itself-" she began.
"I'm assuming you speak of Gressen here? If so, he wasn't even trying to be frightening," Naruto countered.
"-ancient dragons with power enough to destroy the world several times over-," she continued as if he hadn't interrupted.
"Tiamat's a real sweetheart, though. And very reasonable," he replied defensively.
"-hordes of enemies to protect people you don't even know-," she forged on.
"Always been my thing," he said smugly.
"-the current rulers of Hell itself-," Lily said, concentrating on her argument.
"The Maou aren't really all that bad, ya know." Naruto stated blithely.
"-but the moment ghosts become a possible barrier, you just fall apart?" She finished in exasperation.
"Sounds right," Naruto admitted without a shred of shame or embarrassment.
"...and somehow I agreed to not only follow you, but love you as well," Lily commented with a smile.
"Well, hindsight," he said flippantly.
Lily sighed in a mix of exasperation and amusement, one hand rubbing the bridge of her nose. "What if I told you there are no ghosts?"
"I'd say prove it," he replied instantly.
"You realize, that by general belief and definition, we are spirits?" She asked, one eye opening staring at him over the hand in her face, that eyebrow rising. "And by the definition of that word, a type of ghost?"
"Correction!" He said with far too much enthusiasm, "We are devils. Our high propensity for spiritual magic and abilities aside, we are very much physical. As opposed to ghosts, which are entirely incorporeal. We can be killed; they are already dead. Next argument."
"I'll get the other girls to stop letting you sex us for a month." Lily said, hand finally falling to reveal a decidedly blank face.
It was Naruto's turn to raise an eyebrow. "That's not fair. And it is entirely unlikely. Especially in Tier's case."
Lily silently admitted he was right. So she changed tack, and pointed imperiously at the ruined castle. "Go."
Naruto crossed his arms. "No."
She pouted, changing her route of attack once more. "Please?"
"Damn it," the blonde man groused. She said please. He stared at her for a moment, completely nonplussed, then gave in with a sigh. "Fine. But I'm abusing the hell outta my Kage Bunshin for this."
Lily patted his cheek with a smile on her face. "Whatever makes you feel better, Darling."
"Damn woman," he grumbled without any real rancor as he walked behind her toward to entrance to the decrepit building. "She better be glad I love her."
Having heard his quiet grumbling, Lily turned around and laid a kiss on his cheek. "Of course, I know you love me, that's why the pout and plead was my last resort."
He waved off her comment as he stepped forward. "Yeah, yeah. I'm having some fun on this beach when we're done, though."
Lily bounced in place, causing her now-noticeably-larger mammaries to jiggle interestingly in his peripherals. "Of course, Darling. I'm looking forward to some fun as well."
"Damn devil hormones," he muttered under his breath as he unconsciously followed the bounce of her bosom with his eyes.
Shaking himself, he formed a familiar cross seal and summoned a dozen Kage Bunshin. The replications looked at each other, then looked at the original, then shot a dirty glare at Lily. It was perfectly clear that they resented being used at trap bait.
The Kage Bunshin formed a circle, each facing inward, each face with a mask of supreme determination. As one they each raised a fist, nodded and…
"JAN, KEN, PON!"
A furious game of Rock, Paper, Scissors began as the real Naruto and Lily watched on, Naruto looking decidedly amused and Lily with a gob smacked expression. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye.
"They are me. I don't like ghosts, thus they don't like ghosts. So, Jan, Ken, Pon. The loser will be first up," he explained calmly.
She just turned an incredulous gaze to him, and silently pointed at the group of clones still going about their game. Naruto smiled.
"Believe it or not, they will eventually get a first loss." He gestured with a motion of his chin to one clone being shoved toward the ruins by the others. "See?"
"I fell for a mad man." Lily said with a smile.
"Nope! You fell for a crazy man," he corrected jauntily. "There's a fine difference, but it does exist."
The two of them cheerfully followed the arguing group of clones, watching as each new trap sprung dissected a clone in different ways. From tiger-spike traps in the floor, swinging logs to crush, the classic arrow trap to perforate, foot snares like bear traps, slamming walls, collapsing ceilings into rubble, the cesspool that a normal person just cannot jump, the salt-acid bath that was so popular with the Egyptians, launched spikes from the floors and ceilings, swinging guillotines, and the classic drowning trap.
By the time they got through to the final barrier, a simple carved stone doorway, the last of the Naruto clones was in a match with the original as to who was going to trip it. While they were doing that, though, Lily simply walked up the door, read the inscriptions on the carvings, and pushed on one corner to cause a portal to open. Looking back over her shoulder at the still-arguing men, she shook her head and entered herself.
Beyond the portal she found a simple, small room, with a raised pedestal. On top of this pedestal, handle down, was a shining white horseman's lance of graceful design. Lily stopped to admire it. She had never really bothered to just look at it before. Graceful, elegant, and beautiful were all words that could be used to describe this tool of death. Yet, despite the amount of blood it had shed, the weapon of light had not lost its brightness.
After her moment of contemplating the lance, Lily reached out and grasped it by the hilt. There was a moment of testing; a sensation of recognition, shock, understanding and acceptance. And then the lance was in her hands. She took another moment to feel out the weapon, the butt of the weapon extending to comfortably rest upon the ground.
"Still feels comfortable," she mused quietly to herself.
"The irony of a reincarnated devil wielding Holy weaponry is still not lost on me." Naruto said as he came through the portal behind her.
"Believe me, it is not lost upon me, either." She replied. "What happened to the last clone?"
"He was no longer needed, so I dispelled him."
They stood there for a few moments, staring at the lance in her hand, only to jump back into defensive positions when the left-side wall swung open. Neither were expecting Karma to be standing there with a grin on his face.
Each side looked at the other before Karma broke the silence. "So, did you know that there's a secret path that goes from the base of one of those towers by the beach to here?"
Naruto gave a sour look at Lily who gave a sheepish one in return. Neither said a thing as they just followed Karma back through the hidden tunnel.
Naruto took up the rear of the pack due to the tunnel only being wide enough for one person, and spent the entire time staring at Lily's ass. He could swear she was putting some extra swing in those hips. He did have to wonder just how the Pure Lily of the Battlefield became such a raunchy succubus. It's not like she was under the same hormone imbalance he was… right?
Of course, that is not to say he was complaining either. No, far from it when he was graced with sights like this one.
Lily, meanwhile, was indeed putting some swing in her stride with a smile on her lips. Oh, once they were back at the beach she and the other girls were definitely having some 'fun' with Naruto. Unknown to the others she was, in actuality, having some problems with her hormones since forcing her body to mature. But she was more than willing to put up with it. Besides, such a useful ability had to have some kind of drawback.
Karma was silently debating the pros and cons of getting a girlfriend. Rias had recently started showing the signs of attraction he had been told about by some of his former classmates and he wasn't certain if he wanted to reciprocate or not. It was a very a confusing subject for him. By the end of the tunnel he was still on the fence about the whole idea.
The next day the group reconvened on the ship, smiles and a satisfied air was on all the faces of the women officially part of Naruto's harem.
And on Naruto's face, too, of course. Sometimes it's good to be King.
XxXxXxXx
Snow was cold. Of that a group of children was absolutely certain. Yet even that cold was far preferable to the situation that they had recently left behind.
Hell. To these children the place they had left behind could only be described with such a label. Pain, discomfort, torture, grief, and distress. The children were well-acquainted with all these and more as result of experiments they had been bought and forced to undergo. They had lost a few others already before they made the leap for freedom.
They just hadn't accounted for the snow. And now they were huddled together beneath a tree empty of its leaves, attempting to stay warm. The thin sheets some of them had managed to smuggle out with them helped a little.
Thirteen children, younger ones looking at the older with pleading in their eyes. Just a ragtag group of children in clothing that seemed reminiscent of altar boys. If they died here few would care. If they died here it was unlikely anyone would actually know.
If they died here. Little did they, or anyone, know that a certain mirror in the basement of a grand mansion had reacted to their despair and focused in on them, bringing their plight into sharp focus. Only a few people knew that a certain kitsune was watching over said mirror just in case something like this occurred. And now the proverbial ball was in the kitsune's hands.
Kurama rubbed his chin with one hand. "Hmm, can't say I'm surprised that Naruto was right about something like this. Humans," he snorted then sighed.
"Well, time to figure out what to do. Most of these despair tunes are pointless. But who to bother with this… Gaara? No, he's taking care of paperwork and Albedo, no time for this kind of thing. And I wouldn't wish Shukaku on a bunch of children anyway." The fox shuddered at the thought.
"Albedo?" Head shake. "No, just no."
"Demiur… yeah, no. I can't even finish the thought."
"Cocytus? Maybe, he likes kids but they generally react badly to a giant blue beetle."
"Gaara? Nah, he's busy running things with Naruto gallivanting around."
"Mei or one of the humans from that new Yosogakure? Tempting, but none of them have a handle on the Transportation Circle yet."
"… Why does it feel like I'm forgetting someone?" Kurama mused to himself out loud with a side glance at the now partially open door.
"Because you are, you mangy fox," Temari snarked as she abandoned all pretense of hiding from the ancient kitsune.
"I am not mangy," Kurama sniffed, his snout going into the air away from the young woman. "My fur is immaculately groomed every day so there isn't so much as snarl in it. Mangy, indeed."
Temari snorted at the posturing creature that at one time would have utterly terrified her, and looked into the mirror. "So this thing is now set to detect the despair of those dying that can be saved?" She shook her head, "That new brother of mine is too soft hearted. Does he think we can save them all?"
"Not really, he just wants to help those he can." Kurama replied breezily. "The brat has grown by leaps and bounds over the past few years, and he knows he can't help every sob story out there, which is why the setting on the mirror is for those who are dying in despair in a certain amount."
Temari shot him an incredulous look and Kurama shook his head. "Don't ask me, the explanation went right over my head," he admitted with a grimace.
The blonde girl laughed even as she opened a portal to the children, leaving a few words behind. "That had to hurt to admit."
Kurama grumbled and silently mocked the female devil behind her back as she transported away. The ancient fox then refocused on the mirror. He was going to watch and see how the girl did. Because, whether he liked to admit it or not, he did care about Naruto, and in this action Temari would be representing his former host. Reputations had to be kept.
The first thing Temari noticed when she arrived was that it was really cold, unnaturally so. Second thing was the group of people that had somehow arrived before her to corral the children, putting collars and leashes on all of them while attempting to drag them back whence they came.
Well, that just would not do.
A whisper of wind was the only warning the humans had before the leashes and collars were diced into pieces, leaving both sides staring blankly at the shredded items falling slowly in their eyes. The churchmen responded quickly, each of them looking around in a coordinated effort to find the source of whatever had destroyed the collars. Their eyes didn't take long to find the young blond woman standing regally in the snow wearing a purple-patterned white kimono that looked like it would be more at home in a desert than the immediate surroundings.
"Now, now, gentlemen of the Church, that is no way to treat children," Temari chided them with amusement clear on her face. "The master of this territory has made it quite clear, children are the future. As such they must be cherished and protected, not treated with such barbarism."
An older man in the garments of a priest with glasses on his face and gray hair blinked at her, as if he could not fathom who she was, where she came from, or why she was even there. "And what do we, the chosen of God, need to fear from the laws and rules of Man?"
Temari smiled as she released her wings. It was not a nice smile. "Who said anything about the law of Man?"
The old priest snorted, "Devil scum, I care even less about your so-called authority."
"Is that so..." She mused, her smile turning mischievous even as a golden aura outlined her form. She had wanted to try her Domination for a while now, and this seemed like a decent opportunity. "I think your men care a great deal more than you do."
"We are the Chosen of God! And we will not bend knee to some devil harlot!" The Priest blustered, "We will stand fast in the face of your corruption-."
He was forced to pause as the sounds of flesh striking flesh and clothing tearing reached his ears. Upon turning to face his people he found them in an all-out brawl among themselves with depraved expressions of ecstasy upon their faces. Their words, previously not quite loud enough to reach him made the old man stare in shock.
"She's mine-!"
"No! She's mine!"
"Both of you are wrong! It's obvious I'm the one who should have her!"
The children chose this moment to scramble past the priest and his little entourage, quickly huddling behind the unknown woman. They didn't know her, but it was obvious to them that she wasn't with those men, so she was probably their best hope to get out of this in one piece.
A dark chuckle from the woman in question had the priest whirling to face her again. "Ah, the power of Lust. I'd assume your balls are too old and shriveled for my Domination to affect you, eh, Old Priest?"
She eyed him speculatively, before a smirk formed on her lips. "Or are they… hm?" Her eyes closed half way, and the smirk in combination seemed to now offer suggestions of unearthly delights. Then her body shifted just ever-so-slightly as she started walking towards him, her pose no longer that of a young woman, but that of a grown lady on the prowl, and the priest just knew he was her prey. He never even noticed when the glow about her intensified, his mind enraptured with the stateliness of her slender body and petite steps, she was now the kind of woman he would gladly renounce his vows for…
… But his men couldn't have her! Yes, he had to kill them… Wait, were they even still fighting? A small glance over his shoulder showed him that his men had beaten each other to death already, before his attention was recaptured by the beauty in front of him. Oh those ruby lips, how would they taste? That golden hair, how might it feel? The assuredly soft body, how pliant might it prove? This creature built for sinful delight, how delicious would she be…
… A moment later the old priest felt his mind return to him, along with a curious sensation. What was it, it was stemming from his chest. As he glanced down his legs gave out and he noticed a hole where his heart should be. With his remaining strength he looked up and saw what he assumed was his heart clutched in the blood covered hand of the woman who now looked down at him with pure contempt.
And finally Valper Galilei died has he lived, a heartless old man.
Temari threw the heart of the old man down onto the corpse, flinging as much blood as she could off her hand as well. "Disgusting old man. And that power of mine, too. Ugh. Good to know how it works, but if that's what it does I'll keep if for something a little more necessary. Trump Card it. Yeah, like Naruto and his Time."
Having rid herself of as much of the blood and creepy factor as she could, she finally turned her attention to the huddled mass of children. Here she smiled genuinely. They huddled together like true family, each one looking after the others to keep warm and on lookout.
She knelt in the snow, bringing herself down to their level. "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you."
The kids looked at each other for a minute, silently debating among themselves. They would not soon forget the thing with the hand and the heart and the blood. Then one of the older ones, a boy with blonde hair almost as bright as Naruto's and seemingly about Rias' age, stepped forward, using his body to try and shield the mass behind him.
Brave, utterly pointless considering just how many of them there was, but brave. He voice only shook a little when he finally managed to gather his courage to speak.
"Who are you and why would you help us?"
"I'm Temari Asmodai," she said softly. "And I want tho help you because my brothers would want to help you."
"Asmodai, that's one of the Devil Pillars, right?" The boy asked, disbelief clear.
"That's right," she confirmed, not moving from her kneeling position.
"Why would one of them help us?"
"Because my brothers know what it is to suffer," she said. "Much like you all, they were chosen for something that they had no say in. Feared and hated, they suffered at the hands others. Now they have the power to help, and they have decided to do just that. So that other children need suffer as they have."
The boy narrowed his eyes at her. "I don't know… I can't help but think that this isn't free."
Temari smiled kindly, "Then how about we make a deal, brave boy."
"The name's Kiba." Distrust was clear in his voice, even as he seemed intrigued. "What kind of deal?"
She held out her hand, palm up, an Evil Piece appearing. "You become my servant, and in return I will make certain that all your friends are taken in, fed, clothed, and adopted by good families. I'll even let you visit them when you can."
"So there are strings," oddly that seemed to make the lad relax a little. "… I want to talk it over with them first."
It was obvious to Temari that he was talking about the other children. She just smiled, closed her hand over the Piece, and nodded. Kiba turned back into the huddle, and whispers were soon easily heard.
In the meantime Temari stood and turned around, using her Wind to scour the bodies of the priests, covering the remains with some of the snow. When she was done with that, she turned back to the children only to find them watching her.
"What? I'm not letting some poor animal eat those corpses. That's just nasty." She declared.
The children nodded, and Kiba stood forward again from the group.
"We accept."
On the other side of a mirror Kurama smirked. "Not bad, Girl. Not bad at all."
XxXxXxXx- Underworld
Gaara sat behind the overly large desk that was seen as the symbol of Asmodai power, in the office that was recognized to be used only by the Authority of the Asmodai Head. Apparently there was a stigma or curse against anyone other than the head of the house using this particular office, but Gaara had found his way around that.
It was times like that that he made full use of Domination of Authority. He had discovered, quite by accident, that it allowed him to not-so-much usurp or command someone else's authority as it would allow him to borrow it for a time. So as he sat in the chair and office of the Head of Asmodai, he borrowed Naruto's Authority as Head of Asmodai to do so. Just in case any actual curse applied to that condition.
A nice, neat, little loophole.
The desk was actually clear of documents for a change, allowing Gaara to take a break. Unfortunately, as he had learned in his brief tenure as Kazekage of Sunagakure, it is in idle moments that trouble finds the time to rear its annoying head. In this case it took the forms of Terumi Mei and Mifune-shogun.
Now, by themselves this would not be problem. Both of them were level-headed leaders of their previous world, and each commanded a significant amount of respect from the young half-devil. However, he had learned in his time with them on the run from the army of Zetsu that if they both arrived at the same time without prior appointment he might want to be more than a little wary as it generally meant they had an idea that may or may not be good, and they wanted his take on it as a tie-breaker.
This time was shaping up to be a little better than those, though. The two had arrived with questions about the peerages and the system that supported them. Once he had answered them, the two looked at each other, nodded and then Mei blew his mind.
"We want to join your peerage, Gaara."
Gaara blinked once, tilted his head a little, then asked her why.
"While the immortality and eternal youth are nice, those are just bonuses." She replied blithely. "The short of it is that we, and the others, owe you for a number of our lives when you would guard our retreat. And, yes, we owe Naruto our lives, and we will be forever grateful to him for it, the two of us recognize that we owe you heavily as well. This is our best method to repay you."
"That is the truth of the matter, Gaara-dono," Mifune agreed. "Minus the eternal youth for myself. I am well content with how my body has aged."
"The fruits of years of labor on your part, Mifune-dono," Gaara recognized with an incline of his head.
"Quite so," the elderly samurai acknowledged. "This does not lessen my desire to repay you for the number of times you have saved our lives."
"As I am aware, we all agreed quite some time ago to leave such matters behind us," Gaara remarked quietly. "Water under the bridge, as it were."
"That is certainly true," Mei admitted. "Yet we believe it now bears acknowledging. We three, together, kept the remnants of our world together and safe. We see no reason why the three of us should disband."
The two humans lapsed into silence alongside Gaara as the young devil thought about it. She wasn't wrong. On many occasions the three of them were all that stood between the army of Zetsu and the few remaining peoples of their world. Through those times the three of them had forged powerful bonds of camaraderie and understanding. Two shinobi, one samurai. It was an odd partnership, but one that gave them each strengths the others lacked, and vice versa.
After much thought, Gaara made his decision.
He reached for his Evil Pieces.
XxXxXxXx - Ending Notes
Yes, Gaara finally got his next Pieces. These are the last ones I'll be going into for him. For those who want to know what positions they hold… look below. Same for Kiba. YES, I know his name was originally Isaiah. I am repeatedly being informed about it. Stop. While I'm still in a nice enough enough mood.
Peerage (World/Familiar):
King: Naruto Asmodai (Naruto/Kurama, Tiamat)
Queen: Tier Harribel (Bleach/Undine)
Bishop: Rias Gremory (DxD/Devil Bat, Magic Bat), Akitsu (Sekirei/Ice Bear)
Knight: Aayla Secura (Star Wars/Gryphon), Saber Lily (Fate Series/Arcanine)
Rook: Titania (Fire Emblem/Celestial Charger), Nonaka Yuki (Shinmai Maou/Moon Owl)
Pawn: Pyrrha Nikos (RWBY/Magic Wolf), Taki (Soul Calibur/Black Dragon), Scarlet the Arcanine (Pokémon), Akabane Karma (Assassination Classroom/Puck)
King: Sabaku no Gaara Asmodai (Naruto/Shukaku)
Queen: Albedo (Overlord)
Pawn: Mifune (Naruto – 4 Pieces), Terumi Mei (Naruto – 4 Pieces)
King: Temari Asmodai (Naruto/Kamaitachi)
Knight: Yuto Kiba (DxD)