Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor Highschool DxD and I make no profit writing about them.

(AN): I strongly suggest if you're here enjoying this series you check out 'Sidereal Sunset' and 'Of Gods And Monsters', both by Magery.


There was only a split second between Sasuke's ominous declaration and the sudden rage of blood and thunder that shattered the morning. The Uchiha and the Raikage were racing across the hilltops, clashing steel and lightning even as Killer B wreathed himself in red chakra and threw a lariat at Naruto.

Caught off guard but still agile enough to make up the difference, Naruto lunged under Killer B's arm in a full body tackle that brought both jinchuuriki down to scrabble in the snow.

The blond's own chakra cloak bubbled up out of his pores and struggled for supremacy while Naruto kneed Killer B in the stomach and surged back to his feet. "Damn it, B! This isn't a fucking game!"

"No." Killer B nodded once, the red swirl of chakra intensifying around him. "It's not." Then his skin peeled away, the scent of burnt copper and iron thickening in the air as he drew on more and more of Gyuki's power. The time for talking and compromising had passed.

It was time for adrenaline and violence.

The air echoed with a subsonic boom as B stepped forward, ice and rock shattering away from the force of his launch. His heavy fists weaved from side to side, deflected desperately by the frantic motion of Naruto's one remaining hand.

"Sir!" A pair of Konoha jounin screamed, blazing up the hill even as Naruto roared at them to get back. They moved with enough speed to make Kakashi jealous, dark steel clenched in their hands as they circled around to come at Killer B's flanks.

Naruto cursed under his breath, grabbing at Killer B's left wrist while bringing his leg up in an attempt to sink his foot into the slightly flabby flesh of Killer B's gut. "Get the hell out of here!"

Unlike Naruto, the dime a dozen shinobi churned out to fill the ranks were just meat shields when it came to fighting someone like Killer B. And it showed when the once-rapper pulled back so he could effortlessly spin like a top, reducing both his would be attackers to mist and mincemeat.

At that moment, a tidal wave of rage hit Naruto so strongly his vision went dark. Maybe it was the stress of having had to march for days to meet a couple of friends that had stabbed him in the back. Maybe it was because through death and life in Gehenna and resurrection Naruto had lost a piece of himself. Maybe it was the sea of blood he was already swimming in because of having agreed to fight a war for Konoha. The blond didn't know.

All Naruto knew was that when his senses flooded back in he was wrapped up in the warm golden orange of his Kyuubi Chakra Mode, heat thrumming in his veins as he backhanded Killer B so hard a tooth went flying.

"You want to get your ass kicked?" Naruto growled out gutturally, fists forming out of Kurama's liquid chakra and pummeling into his fellow jinchuuriki. "Fine!"

Soil and snow kicked up as Naruto and Killer B collided, all fire and fury as they surrendered to the bloodthirsty instinct in their veins. They were monsters born and bred for war, and it showed as they escalated from trading fists to rampaging along the nearest mountainside in their bijuu forms.

Naruto slammed a paw against a granite plateau, steadying himself as Kurama's throat rippled and swelled with a bijuudama.

If Killer B wanted a fight he'd get one. Naruto would break every stubborn bone in his body until the fucking moron was ready to sit down and listen.

Flaming orange jaws opened with a crack, and then the air was full of heat and light.


There was fire and lightning on the horizon, blazing so bright it drowned out the midday sun, and Koneko thinned her lips at the sight. "Stay put."

It wasn't the first time she'd had to order the fretting Valerie to not get involved in what looked to be a battle of the titans, and Koneko doubted it would be the last. There seemed to be no lull in the rage of combat, and as the hours dragged on it only grew more intense.

Conceptually, she'd had a vague understanding of the strength Naruto and Sasuke had in this world. But to actually see it took Koneko's breath away. Suddenly it became utterly clear the kind of power the two were able to muster in their original forms. A level of might that was beyond them in Gehenna.

Before today Koneko hadn't really known what they were giving up. The sheer difference between what her friends could do in Gehenna versus what they could do in their homeland was large enough to give her goosebumps.

"But they could be getting hurt!"

Koneko imagined for a brief second what it would be like to meet up with her mad, murderous sister again and wrap her hands around that pale throat. The idea that anyone else would choke the life out of Kuroka set her teeth on edge. That revenge belonged to her and no one else, which is why she understood what Sasuke and Naruto were feeling.

"Sometimes, a fight is about more than just winning." The nekomata stated cryptically, crossing her arms and continuing to watch the clash of elements.

A dissatisfied sound rumbled in Valerie's throat, but the blonde let the issue drop for another few minutes.

Off to the west the two young women could see white lightning bolts arcing through the air like some giant mobile tesla coil. It was a storm come to earth wandering the mountains of Shimo no Kuni, crackling just beyond the edge of mortal hearing.

To the north there seemed to be an enormous sea of orange flame, rippling and twisting like a wild thing. More than once Koneko had heard the shinobi marvel at it like the ignorant apes they were, never having seen the majestic conjurations of their betters before.

Suddenly an echoing shriek filled the air, making Koneko slap her hands over her ears and grimace at the high-pitched howl. "What is that?" she wondered, knowing that even as she spoke the raging wind stole the words from her mouth. Gold eyes tracked towards the dying sunlight, and then Koneko forgot to breathe.

An enormous pillar of pale light kilometers wide blazed, stretching up towards the heavens like some reborn god trying to regain the skies. It wasn't electricity so much as pure plasma, energy condensed so tightly that it seemed like it was physically tangible.

"Blood and bone." Valerie whispered as the colossal display of furious supremacy died away, leaving a hole in the clouds so wide that even the two devils couldn't see the far side of it.

One battle had ended, and within the hour Koneko saw Sasuke plodding back towards their group from the western hilltops.

Blood coated Sasuke's left arm from his shoulder to his fingertips, dark and congealed in the chilly air. "It's done." He muttered when he came into earshot, his eyes still shimmering crimson and violet. He was the very picture of a victorious warlord returning from the battlefield, and it was enough to spark hearty cheers from the ragtag band of Konoha ninja.

The cries of joy from the Konoha shinobi were loud enough to deafen Koneko and make her wince in annoyance, but those irritants were easily dismissed.

What wasn't so simply brushed off was the way that Sasuke tore his own arm off at the shoulder, throwing the bloodstained limb away into the snowbanks to disintegrate beneath their collective gazes.

It was a gesture of self-destruction that Koneko didn't know how to deal with.

Rias might have resorted to words at that moment, seeing the tense crinkle of Sasuke's undead eyes and drawing out his secrets one by one with her soft cajoling.

But Koneko wasn't Rias, so when she realized that Sasuke wasn't alright the only thing she could do was saunter closer to his body of gravedirt, pressing shoulder to shoulder as they watched Naruto's struggle in the distance. "Will he be much longer?"

"Who knows?" Sasuke shot back flippantly, his arm reforming out of ragged strips of paper. "It'll end when he wants it to." That sounded almost like a bitter recrimination to her ears, and Koneko realized that despite the steely way Sasuke dealt with his past even he wasn't unaffected.

To Sasuke the entire ninja world was the first bitter reality that had borne him, shaping every hope and trimming every dream with gore and chakra. To Koneko it was just an irritating sideshow, pulling her comrades away from Gehenna and demanding undue blood and sacrifice.

"I hate this." Koneko confessed, knee deep in the snow and selfishly wishing that Ophis had stolen the memories of their past lives from Naruto and Sasuke. They were too far from home, surrounded by strangers and expected to sweat and bleed for the sake of fleeting humans.

Sasuke's admission was heavy, as if he spoke to more than the Rook alone when he sighed. "So do I."


The stink of blood was so heavy in the air that Naruto wanted to gag. It was a cloying scent, threading down his throat and choking him until he could think of nothing else. But despite the thick smell of death, the blond knew that it easily brushed aside.

Easily ignored compared to the wet muscle that trapped Naruto's elbow anyway.

"You fucking asshole." Naruto croaked, his tongue stiff in his mouth as he stared down at a pair of guileless dark eyes. "I should have known you'd do something like this."

Blood stained Killer B's white teeth as he grinned despite the crippling pain in his chest. "It's alright kiddo. It's alright." Considering the way Naruto's Rasengan had torn through him it was a wonder the dark-skinned man could even speak. Then again, Killer B had always been a pretty tough old bastard.

Distantly Naruto could taste the mingled blood spatter and tears on his lips, copper and salt threading together. "Go easy." he rasped, blinking through the wetness blurring his vision. "Just try and go easy." Even now it wasn't too late to live, if Killer B was willing to fight through the pain of bijuu rejuvenation.

But Naruto knew what an unyielding and terrible resolve looked like, and so he knew that particular hope was smothered in the cradle.

A cool palm settled over the blond's shoulder, squeezing once faintly in reassurance before falling away with sickening finality. The sudden drop of weight on his arm pulled Naruto down to his knees in the snow.

Killer B went slack, and with a shuddering gasp Naruto knew the man couldn't be hurt anymore. "Asshole." he repeated, trying not to think too hard about the way the gore clung to his skin as he pulled his arm free. "Asshole."

It had been so easy to fall back into his old habits. Naruto had practically made it his calling in his first life to beat the sense into people. On some level, even though he'd been feeling off since his rebirth, he'd expected to do the same to Killer B.

Naruto had never expected the Hachibi's jinchuuriki to drop his guard at the last moment, choosing to take a Rasengan right through the lung and then refusing healing. He'd never expected that kind of fatalism from the rapper, and he'd never expected Gyuuki to allow it.

"I hate this." Naruto whispered, clutching at his greying mane with blood-slicked fingers. "Why is this happening?"

"It's time to go back, Naruto." Kurama's usually booming voice had been lowered to a quiet rumble, and silent grief thrummed between them like a live wire. "Get up."

With a last heaving sigh, Naruto stumbled to his feet and turned to the south. Every plodding step he took felt like some momentous effort, sorrow and anger sharpening the breath in his lungs to shards of glass. He had no idea what he was supposed to do now.

All Naruto could do was keep putting one foot in front of the other, hoping that it might lead him to some place worth being. Some place where it didn't feel like his heart was dying.


It wasn't until the sun was setting that Naruto appeared on the northern snowy ridges, his golden hair burning beneath the dusk like a primordial flame.

The sight spurred a dozen cheers from the faceless shinobi that made up Konoha's advance force, and Sasuke knew each and every one of them was ignorant. They only saw the victory that the jinchuuriki bore, not recognizing the devastation or bitterness twisting Naruto's face. But Sasuke saw it, and he understood.

"We shouldn't have come back." The undead Uchiha confessed to the night air, shifting with a crackle of porcelain and bone.

A Naruto that had never encountered the failure of hope was a familiar Naruto that Sasuke knew how to deal with. The new Naruto that had anger and desolation in his eyes was something else entirely.

Sparing a sidelong glance towards the tent that Koneko and Valerie had huddled up in, Sasuke clenched his jaw and moved forward through the snow drifts. It was good that the girls were sheltering from the wind, since he knew his friend needed something the two devils couldn't provide, and there was an instinctive common tongue that existed between those who killed former comrades. "Dobe."

"Bastard." Naruto greeted stonily, the wrinkles of premature age deepening around his mouth as he pursed his lips. It seemed for a moment as if the jinchuuriki would continue speaking, but after a few silent seconds Naruto just defensively hunched his shoulders and moved to stand next to Sasuke.

Words wouldn't come easily that night, with grief and murder so fresh that Naruto could probably still smell the stink. Sasuke certainly could, even though he knew the aroma was only a construct of his fevered mind rather than his unfeeling body.

"There's some sake in the stores." He offered, knowing how tempting the oblivion alcohol would provide must be. Sasuke had taken the booze from the ruins of Otogakure on the passage north despite knowing it might be bad for troop discipline, and Sasuke faintly wondered if he'd had some touch of foresight then. Maybe on an instinctive level he'd expected something like today.

Naruto hummed lowly in comprehension but made no move to abandon their shared vigil. "I didn't burn him." He muttered, his hand twitching slightly. "I didn't…"

Snow crunched as Sasuke took a step forward, half turning so that the purple of his Rinnegan gaze glittered under the first rays of moonlight. "I'll do it." Unlike Naruto he needed no sleep, and a few hours roaming the icy slopes in search of Killer B's remains would do him no harm. A funeral pyre was the least he could do for a man that had asked for clemency during his trial all those years ago.

After the fiasco of the Fourth Shinobi World War it had become standard practice to burn all corpses to prevent resurrection. When Sasuke had finally cut down the Raikage after giving the man the battle he wanted, he'd wasted no time cremating A via Amaterasu. The fact that Naruto had forgotten to do it for Killer B just showed how off balance his friend was becoming.

A brief moment of defiance lit a fire in Naruto's azure stare, bringing back a faint flicker of life before guttering out again. "Alright." He sighed throatily, turning away and slinking off in the direction of the supply tent. Morning would eventually come and demand he be awake and aware, but until then Naruto firmly intended to be senselessly drunk.

Watching until Naruto disappeared through the tent flaps, Sasuke frowned and began his journey north.

The wetness soaking his pants and the howling wind tearing at his hair didn't bother Sasuke, even when he crowned the third ridge and ending up twisting his ankle between two boulders. It was beyond him to feel any kind of physical discomfort, creature of death and forbidden sacrifice that he was.

The only pain Sasuke could feel was his own rage and regret whipping at his soul like chains of ice.

Rationally he knew it was a tactically smart move to revive them, but he wished that Sakura hadn't been so determined to win. They didn't belong in this world anymore and finding themselves still responsible for solving all its problems made him tired on some intrinsic level.

It was like they were fighting for a lost cause, maintaining a false victory out of sheer willpower. Peace had come to the land, but only when Naruto and Sasuke were there to enforce it. Without them as the lynchpin everything simply crumbled to dust.

Why couldn't the shinobi handle their own issues? Why did it fall to Naruto and him to keep clawing their way back up to the top with chakra and might so that they could force people to stop killing each other for petty reasons? Sasuke knew that the nature of all living beings was conflict, and that logically he couldn't expect anything else from them, but it still weighed on him.

"Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown."

The quote from one of the plays Yuuto had been obsessing over a few months back came unbidden to his lips, and Sasuke was struck by a sudden and fierce longing to just go back home. He missed his makeshift family in Gehenna. He missed Akeno's perverted teasing. He missed Koneko's demands that he play another video game with her. He missed his chess matches with Rias and he missed training with Yuuto. He even missed the way Gasper insisted on calling him 'sir'.

Sasuke had been born in the world of shinobi, but every day that passed made the sense of alienation in his heart grow deeper. He felt like a stranger in a strange land, looking for hints of familiarity like a man searches for water in a desert. He didn't want to fight for Konoha anymore, and he suspected that after killing people they'd once called comrades Naruto didn't either.


(AN): This one took a while, but here's another 3000. Like I said, I wanted to get around the fighting (since we know they'll win and it's just a matter of them giving other people a chance for a good fight) and just focus on hammering down the character development.