Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor Highschool DxD, and I make no profit writing about them.
(AN): You are, each and every one of you, spoiled…
"Please stop!"
Koneko watched Sasuke as he snorted and cut through the neck of yet another squealing noble, blood squirting up in a crimson mist until the man's heart gave out. It was hardly the first death she'd seen an unfeeling Sasuke deal out, and she doubted it would be the last.
The air stank of blood and iron. Forcing back her disgust Koneko breathed in deeply. The sickly-sweet smell that made her want to gag, but the nekomata clenched her jaw and endured until her lungs were full of the stench.
So what if the constant stream of executions that night led to a floor coated with blood and her stomach clenching with the urge to vomit? She'd have to wade through much more during her life, so this was just getting an early start. It was better to get used to it now rather than waiting until she had to hold the blade herself.
After all, it would embarrass the Gremory clan if she started puking everywhere the first time they sent her to eliminate a family of subversives. It was better to show her weakness in this utterly irrelevant world than it was to freeze up when Rias would be depending on her.
Very carefully, Koneko refused to draw any parallels between what she and Sasuke were doing and what Kuroka had done to her as a child. Both parties might have raged in massacre and murder, but there had been no underlying purpose in Kuroka's actions. Koneko only killed because it was necessary, where Kuroka had killed simply for the pleasure of it – because she was a crazed bitch. They were not the same.
They weren't.
Waiting until Sasuke cleaned the blood from his sword, Koneko jerked her head towards the open doors before leading the way out of the family suite. "Let's go."
"Fine."
Crimson soaked tapestries garbed the walls, and every step Koneko took made a quiet squelch from all the gore sticking to the floorboards. "I hope Snow Country is less troublesome." Everything would have been so much simpler if the Lord of Lightning Country had just swallowed his pride and sworn loyalty to the regime Naruto was creating.
Sasuke shrugged his shoulder, unbothered by the heavy scent of the dead and dying that littered the Lightning Country Lord's palace.
Koneko briefly envied him. It might not be fun and games to only be able to perceive the world through sight and sound, but at least her friend never had to worry about being able to taste the choking cloud of blood and shit in the air.
"Naruto and I put Koyuki on the throne in the first place. Assuming she's still alive, getting her to kneel shouldn't be a problem."
Sensing a story that Sasuke hadn't bothered to share with Rias or her peerage, Koneko filed that comment away in the back of her mind. She'd bring it up once they were in Gehenna again so that everyone in their little makeshift family could hear about it. Until then they had some dirty work to do to make sure Naruto's new peace proposal got off the ground.
"And after that it's Stone Country?" She prodded, trying to remember the bland names the humans of this world had called their homelands. Their lack of originality had been funny at first, but when they needed to actually visit all the idiots and lay down the law Koneko was finding it much less amusing. Couldn't they at least be creative enough to come up with unique names rather than just describing the natural world?
"Earth Country."
Koneko gave a hum of acknowledgement, stepping out into the moonlit courtyard.
Silver light dappled the evergreen trees, painting green needles a pale white. The trees themselves stood out against the darkness like white-washed ghosts, silver columns against the black shadows cloaking the walls of the compound. If she squinted Koneko could probably peer through the haze and count brick by brick, but she didn't care to look that closely.
The nekomata couldn't claim to be enthusiastic about having to wander the continent in the first place. Sasuke was running around demanding the unconditional surrender of the various daimyo while she just stood around like stupid muscle.
At least it was probably more interesting than whatever Valerie was doing.
While Sasuke had decided to deliver Naruto's terms in person to every daimyo in the shinobi world for the intimidation factor, Naruto had gone south into the Land of Fire, towing all the Kage behind him. They were a greedy bunch, always squabbling like children, and Valerie had gotten the short end of the stick having to look after them.
So while Koneko felt like drowning herself in the nearest bottle of sake just to get away from the boredom, she imagined Valerie was fantasizing about the escape found in the noose of a rope.
The world of shinobi had no place for them, and every single second they spend breathing its air drove that fact in relentlessly. Koneko might have the power to throw herself into the battles of this world, but she didn't have the right. She was only a stranger, waiting at the door until she was called on to bring Sasuke home.
That said, even if Koneko wasn't allowed to fight at Sasuke's side, she could still watch him throw down the barred gates like a vengeful god of war. She could still watch the purple flame of his chakra surround and crown him like a midnight nebula, wishing the entire time that he could so easily summon identical splendor back in Gehenna. Their life of bowing their heads to social expectation would have been very different. They wouldn't have to hide all the time.
There was in inviolable majesty in her friend in those conquering moments, and Koneko wondered if he'd claw his way back up to similar heights back home. She wondered if he'd steal away her breath again and again like a relentless thief, leaving her to marvel at the sheer brilliance of a titan turned into a weapon.
"Are you ready?" Sasuke asked before stepping close and wrapping an arm around Koneko's waist without waiting for her answer.
The porcelain weight felt like a crushing steel band resting against her stomach, but Koneko didn't have a chance to protest before the world was abruptly filled with sheets of lavender and ghostly sparks, and at that point it would be senseless to pitch a fit anyway.
Sasuke's Susanoo made the world tremble with every movement, the chakra construct's weight shattering the earth as it kneeled down and then launched into the sky to take flight. Every flap of its wings was a thunderclap, splitting the air so loudly that conversation was impossible as it crossed the distance between nations.
Maybe it was because she wouldn't be heard over the sound of the Susanoo's wings cruising through the skies, or maybe it was because she didn't care to speak up. But Koneko rode the hours out until they reached Snow Country with her nose pressed into an unyielding chest that smelled of gravedirt and ancient bone.
Ink stained Naruto's fingernails, and his hand was stiff from all the writing he'd done in the last few hours. "Someone help me. Please?" he moaned, slamming his face into the pile of paper covering his makeshift desk.
"I see that hasn't changed."
Rubbing at the stump of his right arm, Naruto pulled back to quirk an eyebrow up at Shikamaru. "You're one to talk." Despite vague memories of promises to quit in their youth, the grizzled man had still decided to practically hotbox the tent with second-hand smoke. If Naruto had long term plans to stick around in this body, he'd probably be pretty pissed off.
Shikamaru just scoffed, snatching a handful of papers off the cheap little slap of pine that was Naruto's so-called desk. "You're making marks on your forehead with you do that, by the way."
"Shut the hell up."
Dark eyes scanned through each memo, growing tighter with concentration as Shikamaru powered through the legwork that came with setting up Naruto's one world government.
Honestly, Naruto was kind of surprised at how easily Shikamaru took to what was essentially creating a global junta. He'd been suspicious every time Shikamaru breathed wrong when his old friend had first show up, especially since he'd been sent up by Sakura to help Naruto out, but as far as he could see Shikamaru's work was perfect.
"You know, you don't have to try and kill me with lasers from your eyes." Shikamaru mumbled around his cigarette, coils of smoke escaping his nostrils as he squinted down at a slightly yellowed page. "I'm not going to just snap and turn into a murdering rage monster at the drop of a hat. I'll give you fair warning first."
Naruto huffed a laugh, turning his eyes done to the stark black kanji but keeping an ear on Shikamaru's movements. The only reason he'd agreed in the first place to having his old comrade help was because Sasuke was gone and Naruto knew that bureaucracy wasn't exactly in his skillset. He needed the help, and out of all the people in the shinobi world that he knew Naruto expected Shikamaru to be the most rational to deal with.
Someone like Kiba would curse out buzzwords at him for turning his back on Konoha's victory. At least Shikamaru would give a sincere effort to building a new government, even if he disagreed on a personal level with the ideology underlying the revolution. The Nara was pragmatic enough to work with the world as it was rather than crying when it wasn't how he thought it should be.
Cracking open a new scroll, Naruto scanned it with hard blue eyes before looking back up at Shikamaru with a half-lidded gaze. "Sasuke sent a letter to let me know Yuki no Kuni surrendered without conditions. You figure that we should fold them into the central government directly or put it on a timeline?"
The thin white scars across Shikamaru's forehead rippled as the man sucked deeply on his cigarette, weighing the alternatives with a mind as quick as lighting. "Even if they're a minor country, I'd suggest making a protectorate out of them rather than annexing them outright. They're not right next door like Kusa no Kuni. We don't want to overextend the central government."
Naruto shrugged a shoulder, accepting the suggestion wordlessly. He wasn't dumb enough to think he could control a continent of unruly shinobi with a single word. No, it was better to consolidate the smaller countries into the larger ones, and then let those larger nations come together over the space of a few decades.
Five or six curse seal bound generations of back-up Kage would make sure that the leaders of those super-countries would be stable and invested long enough to make it happen. And even if they didn't, at least Naruto could say he'd given them more than a fair shake at it. If they wanted to keep breaking the world despite his best efforts to fix it, it was time to wash his hands of the matter and let them.
It wasn't his responsibility anymore to perpetually save the shinobi from themselves. Naruto didn't mind fighting when he had to, but he didn't want to go to war forever in a foreign land. His family was back in Gehenna, not in Konoha.
He had no ties to these people anymore. It was time to admit that and take off the rose-tinted glasses he'd been looking backwards with.
The sensation of freedom that washed over Naruto's mind was like the first shaft of sunlight peeking over the dark horizon, burning away the midnight haze that had clouded his heart for so long that he'd gotten used to the shadows.
For the first time since his rebirth as a devil, Naruto felt unburdened by the past and ready to walk forward into the future.
He'd never forget Uzumaki Naruto, but he wasn't that person anymore. He couldn't be. It wasn't fair to the people who loved him in his new homeland, and it wasn't fair to himself to keep obsessing over a time long gone.
Rising to his feet with a spine-popping crack, Naruto scanned dismissively over the mess covering his workbench. "I'd guess by now that Kurotsuchi has a firm handle on the capital and gave the old daimyo the boot. You should find someone to pack this shit up. I don't know about you but I'm totally done with working in musty old tents."
"Here I was thinking you'd want to rough it out in the mud like a real man."
"Fuck off."
The days wheeled on after Naruto arrived at Hi no Kuni's capital to fanfare and pomp with Valerie carefully tucked away in the entourage of Konoha shinobi that Sakura had insisted he take with him. The attempt to stake a claim over him irritated the blond, but he didn't care enough to refuse, and before he knew it a week of whirlwind meetings had gone by.
"I thought I'd find you out here."
Naruto smirked faintly, turning about so he could lounge against the wooden balcony railing to stare at his Bishop head on. "What can I say? I'm a creature of habit." At the end of every negotiation-filled day Naruto dragged himself out onto one of the balconies so he could stare out over the palace gardens and try to sift through the bureaucratic babble boiling in his brain. And every night, once he'd settled a bit, Valerie would hunt him down and join him.
Pouting at the sarcasm, Valerie stepped up beside her King to peer cautiously at the flowers and shrubbery. The pale moonlight lit her in ghostly colors, dappling her hair silver and brightening her eyes to a glittering fire-ruby.
It wasn't the first time Naruto had seen her under the night sky with her hair floating faintly in the breeze, and he doubted it would be the last, but it still made his blood burn and his pants grow tight.
"Everything alright?" Naruto prodded, trying and failing to take his mind off the dhampir. If Naruto didn't know exactly who Valerie's parents were he'd think she was the daughter of a succubus. Ever since he'd kissed her he couldn't even stand next to her without wondering what it would be like to do it again.
Especially since if he wanted to, Naruto knew she'd let him – as many times as he wanted. Naruto was coming to understand that was just how Valerie was. It simmered in his veins, that dizzying, intoxicating knowledge that he could demand anything from her and have her give it up willingly like a priestess offering up devotions to her god.
It was unhealthy to the point that Naruto knew they both should really get psychological help. It wasn't right that Valerie thought herself as only existing to for his sake. It was even worse that rather than being repulsed by that level of obsessive dependency, the beast of instinct inside him welcomed it.
When Naruto had been dragged back across the void and resurrected in his old homeland, he hadn't expected to be broken. But he had been, with every step he'd taken from the sands of Suna to the snowy-tipped peaks of Tetsu no Kuni; shattering into sharp edged pieces that didn't remember how to fit together anymore.
It was Valerie that had taken Naruto's hand and told him, knowing those ragged shards might leave her bleeding, that he didn't have to be the same person he'd been. Even if he forgot how to fit put the fragments of himself back together to form the picture that was Uzumaki Naruto, he could still make a new mural out of them. He could be remade.
She'd save him in that moment. Was it any wonder that Naruto wanted to cling to her like a man lost at sea clutching his life raft?
Valerie's mouth curved into a small smile, her lips glistening dark and wet. "It's fine. I was a little thirsty, but I took care of it." It took a moment for that underlying implication to work its way into Naruto's brain, but once it did he realized that his Bishop wasn't wearing lip gloss. No, her mouth was damp with some of the blood that Rias had bottled up for her.
He wondered if it tasted sweet or if it tasted like bitter metal.
Oddly, questioning that didn't disturb Naruto like he thought it probably should. His heart was still ardent. Still yearning. If he hadn't made a silent promise not to take things any further until they were back in Gehenna, with him back in the body that felt more and more like his true one as the days passed, he'd probably press Valerie into the railing and kiss her mouth swollen.
Naruto dragged a shaky hand through his blond and grey mane, stepping towards the doors that led back inside. "We should probably head in for the night. It'll be a busy day again tomorrow and all that." He could admit that he was beating a hasty retreat before he lost control of himself and did something he regretted.
With Ravel he'd never been so vulnerable. He'd had moments of emotional weakness with his fiancé and known that eventually that relationship would get consummated, but he'd always been able to push it off by focusing on his morals. Ravel and Valerie were both decades younger than Naruto, at least by experience, and it wouldn't have felt right to do anything with them. Sometimes he'd even thought that he'd hold off until the girls were well into their twenties or thirties.
Valerie was either eighteen or nineteen, while Naruto was almost forty. That age gap would have made any decent human being balk at the difference. And maybe that was the problem. His humanity was slipping through his fingers bit by bit, like grains of sand. He'd already decided that it was time to lay Uzumaki Naruto to rest, but what did that leave behind?
Just Naruto Gremory, the son of the devil.
(AN): Another 3000. Anyway, for the keks I figured I'd pass along a few requests I got recently:
"let's start a petition to make Xenovia Sasukes main girl"
"You should rewrite Paradox Aeternum and make it longer"
"please add Raynare to Naruto's harem"
