HEY EVERYONE!

So I'd like to bring up the absence of…y'know. Chapters.

After chap 18 came out. I got hit pretty hard by the flame train. And while it wasn't the first time it had happened; this was the final nail in the coffin. A mixture of flames, writers block and burnout was what caused me to stop writing. So while I won't apologise (If I tried to keep going I likely would have dropped the fic) I hope you all understand my reasoning.

On another note, I've decided to adopt a new policy on chapters. I'll try to write two at a time. Then release one and wait two weeks before releasing the other. If I'm lucky this will allow me to always have a chapter ready. If not, it gives me a little more free time xP

I NEED YOUR ASSISTANCE. MY BETA-READER AND EDITOR: InfiniteBioDragon9780 HAS BEEN SUPER BUSY LATELY. I HAVE ALSO JUST BEGUN SCHOOL HOLIDAYS AS WELL AND I'VE SPAMMED HIM WITH ABOUT 5 CHAPTERS SINCE IT BEGUN 4 DAYS AGO. SO IF YOU'D LIKE TO BE:

BETA-READER

EDITOR

BOTH

AND MEET THE STIPULATIONS:

Have discord

16+ age

Don't mind reading DS/GoR/BNHA fanfics

THEN EITHER DM ME ON OR ON MY DISCORD! (Velvet Scarlatina#3030)

I'M LOOKING FOR 2 OR 3 PEOPLE AND ANY AND ALL HELP WOULD BE APPRECIATED! THANK YOU!

And now. My shameless plug:

If you want to join my Discord and yell at me. Here's the code! ctMzhq3

Also I will be skipping the review replies just this one time because the amount of flames scare me ;-; (Someone went through and wrote a flame for every single chap -_-)

ONTO THE STORY AND STUFFZ!

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Naruto scowled while pacing along the sand. The gruesome scene and message having been sitting where this…Sylvia, had left it for roughly about 22 hours if Sayuri's and Tsunade's predictions were correct. His purple eyes once again flitted to the girl impaled by her own teammates arms. He barely even registered Natsumi walking up next to him. Her hand on his shoulder jolting him out of his thoughts.

"Naruto-sama….How are you doing?" She asked with a concerned gaze.

He looked over at her, her golden fox ears drooped forward, and her posture somehow seemed sad and despondent despite being perfectly prim and proper. None of that had surprised him though, the sight had been a shock to them all. The message left behind, even more-so.

"I'm…..angry." He finally said while turning away from her once more "22 hours….A General got into the underworld for who knows how long. They took out a military squad and an entire Extra Clan…We're supposed to be stopping the Demon's. If Sairaorg hadn't told us. Would we have found out?" He asked rhetorically while turning to her, his eyes hardening as his emotions swelled from the tight grip he had on them.

"But he did tell us. We did find out.." Natsumi tried to placate him.

"Not soon enough!" Naruto yelled while stomping his foot, a brief surge a magic flowing outward "We shouldn't have to rely on Sairaorg happening to find it by pure luck! We shouldn't have to arrive at both scenes hours after they happened! Its not that we did find it! Its about when we found it! How we found it!" He ranted while throwing his hands in the air and beginning to pace randomly.

Natsumi looked to the side and noticed Naruto's cat, Saeko and Tsunade walking over. The rest of Akatsuki having split off to check out the destroyed ruins of the Belphegor Clan. Saeko having kept a hand on the handle of her sword at all times since they arrived here.

"Naruto? Are you okay? It's not like you to get this angry" Tsunade said while Kuroka in her cat form leapt onto Naruto's shoulder and curled around his neck.

"No! I'm not okay!" Naruto yelled while whizzing around and throwing his arms down "Dammit! How could this happen? Argggh!"

The three females in human form looked between themselves in worry before turning back to Naruto. Who was now kicking blindly at the sand as he stomped around.

"Naruto-sama…Grayfia-sensei always suggests-"

"Don't mention her!" Naruto thundered while stomping back to the girls.

The three couldn't help but lean away and back up a small amount. The fiery anger burning in his purple eyes feeling like a weapon in and of themselves. It was that reaction that finally allowed Naruto's rage to simmer down, his body very visibly slackening as he exhaled.

"I'm sorry…Shit. I didn't mean to explode. Its just a lot has happened….No. That's not an excuse-" Naruto began to ramble while ruffling through his hair.

Tsunade very gently lead Naruto into a sitting position on the sand. Natsumi sitting on the opposite side while Saeko stood directly behind him, constantly scanning the surroundings. Kuroka purred and rubbed her furry cheek against his own in an attempt to try and make him feel better. As the one person he, arguably, spent the most time around (One of the perks of her being his 'pet cat') she had become his pseudo-therapist. The teen having spilled hundreds of his woes to her by this point in time. She enjoyed it. She got to help him in exchange for him taking care of her. So finding out that he was so angry and stressed? That hurt far more than the Nekoshou ever thought it would.

"I'm sorry…." He mumbled once more.

"Naruto. Its fine….Actually. Would you like to talk about it? It could help" Tsunade suggested while rubbing his forearm.

"Yeah….Okay. Yeah." Naruto muttered despondently "This last day…day and a half. Its been way too hectic. First Venelana shows up in our house and begs for forgiveness. And Grayfia also betrayed my trust in the worst way possible. And now this!" He wailed quietly while holding his face in his palms.

"You….You do know that you don't have to forgive everyone. Right?" Tsunade asked.

"I know that! It's just….I don't want to be them. I want to be better! If they won't forgive someone who's done nothing wrong. Then…It would make me a better person than them by forgiving someone who has….right?" He lifted his face from his palms and looked at them with vulnerable eyes.

"So….You're trying to beat the Gremory Clan. Your ex-family…By being a better person than them?" Saeko questioned while keeping her senses alert.

Naruto nodded his head without saying anything. He blinked slowly when Natsumi gently wrapped her arms around his head and hugged it to her chest.

"Forgiving someone to spite them….I don't think that's quite how that works" Natsumi quietly joked "And you're doing it to get a 'win' over your old family, right? You don't need to forgive someone to do that. You shouldn't. Grayfia-sensei and Venelana hurt you. None of that is your fault. You have nothing to apologize for and they don't deserve your forgiveness" Naruto stiffened against her "You've already gotten so many wins over them. You've proven how amazing you are~" She gently cupped his cheeks and lifted his head up to the same level as hers "And after everything you've been put through. You deserve to be selfish."

"But… Your lessons with Grayfia-"

"Can stop. It's fine. Really" She reassured him "If she could become so great without lessons. Than I can become even better~" He smiled gently and cupped her left hand with his right.

"Thank you guys.." He hugged Tsunade and Natsumi and smiled thankfully up at Saeko.

Beep beep!

Naruto looked down at his phone and grabbed the technological marvel out. Sliding it open and answering the call from Sayuri. As he spoke to Sayuri about what they found at the Belphegor ruins, Natsumi sidled up besides Tsunade.

"So am I telling the other girls? Or would you like to? As his personal doctor and all?" She asked while keeping her golden eyes on her Master.

"I will. I'll have to study up on psychology some more…..I don't like seeing him like that. Anything I can do to help" Tsunade muttered back, wringing her hands together.

"I don't reckon Rossweisse or Erza will let him out of their sight" Natsumi weakly joked, getting a small chuckle from Tsunade.

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Kuroka yawned and stumbled into the bright lights of the 'Development Studio', as Naruto called it at least. The rest of the girls called it the 'mad scientists lair' considering some of the stuff Naruto managed to concoct in the giant room. Sitting smack-dab in the center of the room was what looked like a quarter of the crystalline structure Venelana had seen for barely a moment. Naruto sat cross legged on an unfinished beam of the structure, welding something in his lap while his goggles protected his eyes from the extremely bright glow of the oxy-acetylene welding torch which spewed a flame mere centimeters above his legs.

The cat girl yawned and languidly leapt up to Naruto's position, even as tired as she was. She silently padded up to him and got a grunt in return to let her know that he acknowledged her. She wrenched the welder out of his hand and switched it off, staring down at him as he flicked his goggles up and looked up at her. His eyes almost immediately zeroing in on her breasts which looked ready to spill out of his button up shirt she decided to put on. On principle he forced his eyes up to meet her own.

"Its 2:30 in the morning. You need sleep" She said while stilling holding his welder away from him.

"But this can help us! The sooner I get it up and operational the sooner we wont get caught off guard by Demons" He said while standing up, multiple joints popping from the motion.

"Everybody's familiars are on sensor duty all over the Underworld. We'll be fine for tonight" She placed the welder down and took a step towards him.

"But this part is so close to finish. Just another hour and then I can use-"

"Naruto. This isn't healthy…" She murmured, the red-haired teen stopping his motions instantly.

"Don't make me go back to sleep…."

"What?"

"I can't go back to sleep. I-I can't. Ever since we found those…sights, I can't get them out of my head. I close my eyes and I see Natsumi, Sayuri, all of you. And the longer I thought about it, the- the more jittery I got-" Kuroka let her arms swing down limply as he rambled "And this! This right here! Building. Creating. Its something useful. I can create things to protect us. To… to warn us in advance," She took a few steps forward and hugged him, causing his voice to splutter out and go silent.

"You need sleep. If you can't sleep. Then you at least need to rest. Okay?" He limply nodded against her shoulder "And if you're really so worried, I'll see if I can help tomorrow. Okay?" Another limp nod "Okay. Lets get going~" She began to lead him away only to jolt back when his feet didn't move "Naruto?..."

"Huh? Oh! Sorry. Sorry…" he mumbled as he finally remembered to move his feet.

He tried to ignore the voice in his head screaming to pick up the welder to keep working. That the structure was so close to being finished he could feel it. He really, really did.

Naruto did not get much sleep that night, and for once, the flirting and intimate actions of Kuroka had nothing to do with it.

XXXxxxXXX

It was merely a day later when Naruto found himself once more wide awake while lying in his bed. The mattress, for once, occupied by more than Naruto and Kuroka. Now occupied by none other than Erza, the red head having noticed the bags under his eyes and sleepiness during the day and having thought that he'd feel better with 'protection' with him while he slept. And while it certainly did help, he no longer felt like fire poured through his veins and ants crawled right underneath his skin due to being unable to build and tinker, it wasn't enough. He felt wide awake, like his eyes were unable to close and his mind unable to stop churning out inventions and the odd spell. His purple eyes once again moved from the ceiling over to Kuroka, who lay curled up next to him in her cat-form, her words from the night before slamming themselves to the forefront of his mind with all the impunity of a full-speed truck slamming through a tiny picket fence. He tried closing his eyes and relaxing his body.

Other than feeling a tiny bit more comfortable, it did nothing. Marvelous. Instead he ran through ways to try and help fall asleep, sadly almost of them involved getting out of bed in some way, shape or form. So instead he went to the most cliché option he could think of. He decided to try and meditate while lying in bed.

He allowed every though to drift by (admittedly getting sidelined by a few noteworthy designs he thought up) as if he were standing in a river. He allowed himself to relax. And before he knew it, he began slipping into a trance without even realizing. His breathing evening out and muscles he had unknowingly been keeping wound up and tense could finally unwind and relax. The movement of his body slowing minute by minute. Until eventually, apart from his bodies autonomic processes, it ceased. The grass outside the mansion swelled and grew inches in seconds. Tree's growing and twisting around each other as they grew far passed what they should naturally be able to. And in a rush of energy, Nature energy filled his every cell and nerve. The process all done so quickly and subtly that the sleeping Kuroka only shifted in her sleep.

And thus, Naruto found himself falling from the 'river' within his mind into a lush forest. An aura permeating the area that he had only barely sensed once or twice since he was fourteen. He turned around, and there it- she, was. The dark cloud almost twice as large as before and her red eyes a darker shade than he remembered.

"Saya…."

"So you did remember me. I have to say, you're definitely one of the most inept Naruto's I've seen when it comes to handling me~" Saya paused and her eye's tilted diagonally "I suppose that could be that Nekoshou teaching you false practices…Regardless!" Both of her eyes turned into shapes resembling 'U's "Nice of you to finally show up again after three years~"

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AAAND DONE!

I hope you guys enjoyed this chap! By the time this comes out. Chap 20 will already be complete and will be releasing in two weeks. So I hope you all enjoy that!

Adios!