Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor Highschool DxD, and I make no profit writing about them.
(AN): that one moment you realize that you spent way too much of your life on weeb shit
To Koneko, the entire world Sasuke and Naruto came was wrong. She was so used to the subconscious thrum of chakra moving through reality that coming to a plane without it felt like being wrapped in cotton. Everything was missing just a touch of colour, everything was just a little bit muffled; and even the air seemed to be leeched clean of rich aromas.
But she hadn't been pulled across the void to complain about the lifelessness her destination, so Koneko kept her mouth shut and her opinions to herself.
"Now that Naruto's awake, we're going to be moving out. You should get ready for a midnight march." Sasuke huffed quietly as he came up behind the nekomata, the crunch of the black ash under his feet reaching her ears long before his voice did. "Here."
Koneko accepted the purple bandanna he shoved at her with a grimace, tying the cloth over her distinctive white hair and settling the hitae-ate over her brow. It had been recently washed, but she could still smell the faint scent of blood, making her suspect Sasuke had scrounged it off someone's corpse. "Does it fit?"
Unsettling red eyes that were ringed with dark sclera traced Koneko from head to toe, studying the makeshift shinobi outfit they'd constructed. While questions would be inevitably asked if she stuck around the Uchiha, suspicion would be delayed if the dimension-hopper looked like just another soldier under Sasuke's command.
"It'll do."
"Fine."
Having completed Koneko's disguise, Sasuke turned away and stared over the ebony wasteland with a desolate expression. A stranger wouldn't have noticed the slight downturn to his lips or the faint crease between his brows, especially with the winding cracks of resurrection marring his skin, but Koneko saw it clearly enough.
Asking him if he was alright seemed like a stupid question, so Koneko squared her shoulders and settled her amber gaze back on the desert Konoha had become. "They'll rebuild it." She declared, making an instinctive attempt at reassurance that she wasn't sure was even wanted.
Sasuke's agreement came in a nearly silent murmur that was snatched away by the evening breeze. A heartbeat passed before he gave a louder sigh. "But I'm not sure they should." A sort of bleak wistfulness brightened the crimson of his Sharingan. "Even if they try, they're not going to be able to get back what they lost."
The clinical othering in his miserable words caught Koneko's attention, and her shoulders drew tight with a mixture of relief and guilt. "Them?" she dared to question, watching as a dune of ash began to disintegrate in the distance. "Not we?" The thought that Sasuke might want to stay had crossed her mind from time to time, but she'd tried not to pay it any heed.
"No." Sasuke sounded as if he'd aged ten thousand years in a moment, remorse and nostalgia mingling on his tongue until his very breath was heavy with the tone of defeat. "I think I knew the moment we woke up here that we didn't belong anymore. Even Naruto is starting to realize that. This place no longer feels like home. And for me, I don't know if it ever did."
Valerie drew her cloak tighter around her shoulders, following faithfully at her King's heels like a determined bloodhound as they leapt through the trees.
As far as she'd been picked up from the camp gossip before they set out, they were travelling to resupply at an abandoned outpost that had once been owned by a man named Orochimaru before travelling northeast towards the Land of Lightning.
Those names meant nothing to Valerie, since she hadn't even bothered to glance at a map before rushing after Naruto. It didn't really matter to her where they were going, as long as she stayed by his side and made sure no one hurt him anymore.
To Valerie the land of shinobi that her King described had always seemed like a fairy tale. There were bold warriors and hateful villains in his stories, but good always beat evil. She knew what Naruto told her was a good-natured fib, but she hadn't thought reality would be so different.
She hadn't thought Naruto might almost die, surviving as a cripple that burnt through his youth in a single battle. He'd been in so much pain when he woke up, both physical and emotional, that it lit a quiet ember of rage in the blonde's breast.
Why did these stupid humans have to turn to Naruto to solve all their problems? Why couldn't they have just worked through whatever greedy squabble they had on their own without involving him? It didn't matter that they thought he was happily in the afterlife rather than happily in another world. They were greedy, short-sighted, and selfish either way.
"You know, if you think too hard your brain is going to start smoking." Naruto threw a grin over his shoulder at her, mouth pulling up into an attempt at reassurance despite the dark hollows of his cheeks and the corpse white streaks through his hair.
Valerie smiled back, ruby eyes dull with insincerity. "I'll try not to." They were pretending at happiness, pretending that nothing had changed despite the pain this world had rewoven into Naruto's heart.
Some fanatic shinobi had blown himself up, massacring hundreds of troops and tens of thousands of civilians, but it was Naruto who felt he needed to bear the burden of that bloodshed rather than laying it at Kumo's door where it belonged.
The smile on Naruto's lips went brittle, and Valerie knew that he'd seen through her poor lie. But rather than confront her, he merely tipped his head before turning away. It was just more evidence to Valerie that the shinobi world was draining the life out of her King.
Birdsong echoed as they ran on through the night, trees hills giving way to wet lowlands and rice paddies. Eventually dawn broke over the eastern horizon, and with a sharp whistle Sasuke urged the whole company to halt. "We're here."
Valerie grimaced as mud squeezed in though the open toes of her shinobi sandals, but she put the minor discomfort out of her mind as she moved to shield Naruto from any prying eyes. "Do you need water?" she offered, her hooded head bent low.
"Sure." Naruto accepted her canteen, gulping back a mouthful before passing it back to her. "You take the rest."
"I don't really need it. Rias made sure I was well… watered before we came here." The euphemism would fly over the heads of any eavesdroppers, but Naruto knew about her blood hunger already.
Drawn as close as they were with the unyielding steel in Naruto's spine, to the rest of the shinobi it would look like Naruto was just having a private conversation with a pretty young woman. But Valerie took note of the grey pallor to her King's face and the faint trembling of his remaining hand, and she worried.
In her opinion Naruto needed a few weeks of rest to finish healing, but the blond had quietly told her before they set off that war waited for no man. Konoha was depending on Naruto, and he wasn't willing to let it down.
He was too selfless.
If she didn't love him so much for it, Valerie might scream with frustration. Would it kill him to maybe accept that he couldn't solve the whole world's problems? Because it was definitely going to kill him if he tried.
"There's a few scraps here and there, but it looks like they picked it clean when they swept through here after taking Orochimaru." Sasuke cut in, striding up with an idle hand resting on the hilt of his chokuto. The Uchiha considered Valerie with his unsettling undead scrutiny for a moment before looking back towards Naruto. "Orders came in by hawk. Sakura wants us to force a march right to the Yu-Shimo border before Kumo does. But it's up to you."
Naruto knuckled at his left eye, mouth twisted into a fierce frown. "Meaning if I don't feel up to it, we won't, because there's nobody around that can make us do it, yeah?" Snorting at the thought, the greyed blond shook his head. "No, I'm not going to drag us down. Tell them that they've got an hour to rest, because after that we're going right to Kaminari no Kuni. I'm not dragging this out any more than I have to."
Sasuke hummed noncommittally, a wary expression on his face as he studied Naruto. "If you're sure." Then he spun about, stalking back towards the faceless crowd with a stiff back and a silent Koneko plodding after him.
Without the brief distraction Sasuke provided, the two blonds fell into an uneasy silence. "You know, Val, you don't have to run around after me." Naruto scratched the bridge of his nose pensively. "Things are gonna get pretty violent from here until its all settled. No one would think less of you if you wanted to hole up some place until all the fighting's over."
"I would think less of myself." The dhampir instantly refused, threading her dainty fingers together as she latched a deliberate narrow stare on her King's empty sleeve. "You're right. I don't like violence. But I'm not a child like Gasper is, so please don't send me away."
Valerie wasn't like Ravel or even like Koneko. If Naruto didn't want her around then she wouldn't force herself on him to ease her own worries. A servant swore to follow the orders they were given, every last one of them, and she didn't want to give Naruto a reason to throw her away. But just because she would obey didn't mean she wanted to.
Holding her breath, she waited, and just when the silence seemed unbearable the protective clench to Naruto's jaw relaxed. "I suppose I couldn't expect you to do something I wouldn't. Just remember that some of the people we're going against are pretty strong. Strong enough to kill a devil. So be careful, okay?"
For the first time since she'd step into this hellish world, Valerie found her face slipping into a real smile. And maybe it was a reaction to her sincerity, or maybe it was just her imagination, but it seemed like the heavy cloud of despair that had hung around Naruto for the past day was finally lightening.
Phantom pain thrummed in the empty space where his right arm had been, but Naruto forced it down as he stepped over the ice coated grass of midnight Shimo no Kuni. He had no time to spend drowning in self-pity when a war was riding on his shoulders.
Peripherally, Naruto was aware of the tired grumblings of the men that Gaara and Sakura put under his command. The long march was draining even him, and the girls weren't doing much better. Only Sasuke, undead creature that he was, seemed unaffected by the long march and the chill that turned every exhaled breath into white mist.
Naruto guessed, based on hazy decades old memories of the landscape before the Fourth Shinobi World War, that they'd hit the border of Lightning Country just after dawn. After that it was a gamble to see if A and Killer B would march out to meet them or if he and Sasuke would need to stomp right into Kumogakure itself.
Once they took Kumo out of the war Iwa would probably fold, since the former was much more powerful after managing to get six – five now after the clusterfuck in Konoha – bijuu in its arsenal. That wasn't even mentioning the fact that Kurotsuchi was more flexible than A or Onoki. If he gave her a reason to come to the table and talk it out, Naruto believed she would.
Rationally, open war couldn't go on much longer, and Naruto clung to that hope like a drowning man. He never wanted to wake up against with ash on his tongue and the knowledge that he'd failed so miserably. Kurama quietly pointing out that if Naruto had been ruthless enough to go for the kill from the start he could have prevented it made the whole thing even worse.
"That's just the way the world works, Naruto."
"Not now, Kurama. Just not now, okay?" The blond shot back irritably, the crunch of ice under his heels intensifying as he took out his frustration on the frozen ground. He didn't want to hear Kurama ranting on about how he should just go for the throat the next time he got in a fight. That wasn't his way.
"And if not now, then when? Humans rule each other through violence. The losers are exploited, enslaved, and killed. That's the way the world works. That's the way it always has, and that's the way it's always going to be."
"So what, you think I should just start murdering everyone that disagrees with me? That kind of world isn't even worth living in."
Orange chakra curled warmly under Naruto's skin, bringing a pink flush of life to the jinchuuriki's cheeks as the Kyuubi prowled through his container's mindscape. "You're just like the old man was, Naruto. And I'm going to tell you now – I loved that old man, but Indra did get one thing right. Peace is something that can't exist without sacrifice and the power to enforce it. Isn't humanity's constant state of war proof of that? Good intentions aren't enough."
"If you won't even consider that the world can change, it never will." Naruto hadn't fought so hard against Madara to in the end become him. He wanted to bring life to the beliefs of Jiraiya-sensei, not the beliefs of Kaguya.
"And what happens with the Raikage refuses to back down? Are you going to force him to the table and try to create peace through understanding again? Are you going to have the strength to kill him if it comes to that? And even then, the fact that you need to resort to violence at all proves the failure of your ideals."
Stung by the blunt assertion by someone he'd thought would have his back, Naruto bit his tongue until it bled and shoved Kurama's mental presence away. The loss of the bijuu's chakra let the cold seep back into his bones, but the iciness was welcome company compared to the sharp burn of anger.
But of course, Kurama wasn't willing to let him have the last laugh.
"One day, either here or in Gehenna, you'll learn Naruto. The ruthlessness to do what's needed for the cause is a necessary quality in a ruler."
"Fuck off."
"What did you say, dobe?"
"Nothing!" Naruto spat, turning away from Sasuke's inquiring expression as he leapt over the snow-crowned hills with his friends at his side. Explaining the whole stupid little argument with Kurama was pointless. They'd already decided what they were going to do to try and heal the land before going back to Sheol, and Kurama was at best a third party to the future of the shinobi system.
The jinchuuriki ignored the niggling suspicion in the back of his mind that if he explained the whole conversation Sasuke would agree with Kurama. They'd already had a battle over their ideals once, he didn't want to do it again.
Death was on the cold crisp wind. In his mind, he wanted to give it a pleasant scent. Something sweet and flowery with the sugar of heaven, maybe.
As age turned the trim lines of his body into weathered muscle and deep wrinkles, Killer B found himself speaking less and listening more. His self-made rap had dwindled to nothing, and now days could pass in utter silence without even a word from Gyuuki. It sounded lonely, but Killer B wouldn't describe it like that.
It was more like they'd made their peace with the inevitable end, so spouting hot air wasn't needed anymore.
Killer B wordlessly met his brother's gaze through the dark lenses of his sunglasses, and with a final nod to each other the two warriors of an older era slipped through the gates of Kumogakure. Just like with Gyuki, Killer B didn't need to ask A what was on his mind. They knew each other too well for things like that.
When word had reached Kumogakure that they weren't just facing the Kyuubi, but a resurrected Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke, they'd both known the war was lost. Twenty years of struggle and dominance were swept out to sea by the one revelation. Twenty years of blood and cruelty on top of earlier decades of blood and cruelty. They'd done it for the sake of the village, without hesitation, but now they were tired.
"I hope that those kids don't decide to come after us." Killer B finally spoke, voice raspy from long disuse as they raced through the darkness. "It's not like I ever told them they needed to toe the party line, bro. Ordering them to stay isn't enough."
When Kumo had decided to strike first and recapture the bijuu, they'd ended up with five squalling babies that were promptly dumped in Killer B's lap to raise.
It hadn't been easy, what with the crying and the pooping and the teenage rebellion, but in the end Killer B was proud of them. Proud even when word came that Green D had gone wild and annihilated Konoha, because despite that horror the boy had still been like his own son.
"They won't." A declared softly, booted feet scraping over grey stones and moss. He didn't offer any other explanation, but Killer B didn't need one. He trusted his brother when the man said it had been taken care of. Maybe the kids had been drugged or maybe they were sealed up by fuuinjutsu masters, either way would be fine as long as they stayed back home.
Naruto had risen from the grave to take his pound of flesh from the world that had failed him, so the old men would pay the toll and hope it would wash the slate clean. There was no need for the younger generations to get involved. The past needed to be laid to rest before the future could begin.
(AN): Here's another 3000. I'll also reupload earlier chapters with a few grammar fixes, so don't freak if you get like ten alerts.
On Matatabi – There's still a bit of confusion on this. I conceive of her as nihilistic and angry. Naruto isn't just some kid. He's the kid that promised her she'd never be a slave again, then he went and died because he got drunk and let his guard down. He's a failed messiah. When you promise people freedom and fail to deliver, they end up bitter. It's not strictly rational, but emotions rarely are. Her suicide wasn't motivated by freedom as such, but more out of a vindictive desire to kill as many humans as possible and Naruto in particular.
