Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor Highschool DxD and I make no profit writing about them.
(AN): As promised, for Raiyoukai and SenzaUchiha. Also Maggie.
"It is best if you take hands."
Naruto looked at Ophis, shifted his focus down to the stump hanging off his right shoulder, and then back to the silver-eyed girl. "Right." He snorted, wriggling the few inches of arm he had left around in his sleeve. "I'll get right on that."
Blinking slowly at his sarcasm, Ophis took three dainty steps forward and gently laid her palm against Naruto's stomach. "You may have it your way then."
Pain hit Naruto's belly like he'd been kicked in the gut by a horse, and everything went dark as he fell backwards through sand and shadow and suffocation. He couldn't breathe – he couldn't even inhale!
He was dying, his heart stuttering out a last staccato in the void.
Then light burst back in and Naruto landed ass first on a gilded antique Venetian table, smashing right through with a thundering crash. "Bitch." He moaned, rolling onto his side and laying his cheek on the splinter covered rug. "Did you really have to go that far?"
"Yes."
Cracking open a baleful azure eye, Naruto outright glared at the unapologetic girl who stood by the fireplace.
Sprawled in a heap at her feet was a mixture of limbs that he knew belonged to his friends, and Naruto would bet a pretty penny they'd suffered almost as much as he did passing through the gap between universes.
Sasuke groaned, his face grey as he shoved off Valerie and Koneko so he could climb back to his feet.
Naruto met his best friend halfway, limping across the lounge. "Home sweet home, eh?" he grumbled out of the corner of his mouth, absently extending a hand to his Bishop as he warily glanced at Ophis.
In truth he wasn't sure how to feel about the Ouroboros Dragon. On the one hand it would be easy to scapegoat her for all his problems. If not for her meddling he'd have never left Konoha. Maybe he could have stopped the war from ever beginning. Maybe he could have built something different. Something better than the dictatorship he'd left behind.
On the other, it was because of Ophis that he'd had a second chance at living. Without Ophis there would be no Naruto Gremory. He had a new family. He'd met Ravel and Valerie because of her.
If she hadn't stuck her nose in, who knew where they'd all be right now? He probably have been railroaded into marrying Hinata. Sasuke would probably still be off wandering like a hobo. Rias would probably have to marry Riser. Or maybe Rias would rebel against her arranged marriage and run off with some human boy? Maybe she'd get so desperate she'd hook up with a perverted screaming man-child.
Naruto paused at that thought.
Nah. Wouldn't happen.
"Where is everyone?" Sasuke muttered, cracking his neck as he pushed past the group and peered out the window.
Turning his thoughts away from his undefined relationship with Ophis and the consequences of it, Naruto followed and peered through the glass as well. "It sure is a ghost town out there." He noted, scanning over the familiar gardens of Starling Hall. "Usually there'd be at least someone out trimming."
Koneko snorted indelicately. "We weren't about to keep servants around while Rias dabbled in soul magic to play both your roles. It is illegal."
"And dangerous." Naruto pointed out sharply, before blowing a gusty sigh through his nostrils and letting it go. There was no point in tearing a strip off of Koneko for it. She hadn't been the one to make that call anyway. "Nevermind. Let's just go find them."
It was easier not to think on the empty gaping hole that Kurama left behind when he had something concrete to do. Naruto didn't have to agonize over the right choices or the future wars that would inevitably return to Konoha if he had a simple A to B task to accomplish.
This was his life now. He just needed to find his groove again. Somehow.
The bright gold of Koneko's gaze darkened to inscrutable amber as she considered Naruto's war-scarred body and Sasuke's sharp edged expression, but she didn't try to bar their way. Instead she just shrugged noncommittally and strode out the door.
Biting into the flesh of his cheek until the copper taste of blood sparked across his tongue, Naruto forced his mouth into a bitter smile and followed.
There was a sensation of the utterly surreal when Ophis of all people quietly filed in, and Naruto tried to ignore the itching feeling that tickled across his spine. The Dragon Goddess might have some say in what went on in the Gremory house because of her interference, but Naruto was only willing to give her so much control.
Giving into his own enslavement was no way to build an empire.
Despite the tension that hung thick in the air, Koneko didn't betray them, and Naruto found himself standing in his own bedroom floundering while he wondered just what in the fuck was actually going on. "Where in the hell is Rias?" he demanded, looking at his own motionless body and trying to swallow back the urge to vomit.
It just wasn't right, seeing himself just laying there like he was dead. It made Naruto nauseous.
"Not here." Ophis murmured, her eyebrows drawing tight as she looked through the material world and cast her senses out across the spiritual. "They're in their own bodies at the moment, which is ideal for you."
Turning away from the flame-haired body he'd once considered his own, Naruto tried to ignore the way that his face had melted into skin and bone. There was no fat or excess flesh left behind in his second body; only skin and bone.
It didn't project strength or call him home in the way that he'd hoped.
"So how do you want to do this?" Naruto prodded, letting his eyes automatically seek out his devil body.
It took supreme effort to tear his stare away. Naruto was at least for the moment a man of the shinobi world, dealing only with chakra and not magic.
Threading her hands together, Ophis sought out Sasuke's gaze, looking for the first time unsure. "Your bodies are at the moment unoccupied and ready to host your souls. Shifting your consciousnesses should be relatively simple now that you both exist on this place."
Naruto roughly scrubbed at his eyes with the palm of his hand, his mouth pursed with anger. "Don't beat around the fucking bush, yeah?" he cursed, patience gone. "Just tell us what the fuck you need so we can get on with our lives here."
Frigid grey ice conquered Ophis' eyes, and when she stared down Naruto once more it was with an utterly unconcerned mien. "Very well. As I said once before, you and Sasuke once bound as the inheritors of Ashura and Indra. Thus, in order to grasp onto your souls I only need to lay hands on one of you."
"And since chakra isn't compatible with magic, someone needs to die so you can hold onto a soul." Sasuke theorized, sagging with exhaustion.
"That is not quite true." Ophis made a vague circling gesture with her hand, as if she were searching for the right words. A flicker of surprise crossed her face as she took in her oddly human gesture, but she pressed on. "I can push through the chakra to disembody you. It is simply an order of magnitude easier if you died first."
Which made sense, Naruto supposed wearily. Edo Tensei was supposed to only require one living sacrifice to function, and Rinne Tensei only needed one per use as well. Sakura and Gaara had sacrificed dozens of people to bring them back to Konoha. Some of that cost could be attributed up to the distance between universes, but some of it was probably fueling the jutsu to push past the chakra-magic barrier.
Briefly, the blond wondered what it would have been like to bring Kurama with him to Gehenna. The huge furball was a chakra construct himself. The fox would have been disintegrating every time he touched basically anything.
The image of Kurama wailing 'I'm melting!' and turning into a puddle of goo made Naruto's mouth twitch with amusement.
Enough.
Exhaling slowly, Naruto steeled himself. His body was already slowly dying without Kurama – Uzumaki vitality could only take him so far – so he just had to go easy. It would be as simple as going to sleep. "Alright, I'm ready."
"You're a self-sacrificing moron." Sasuke commented acidly, glaring at Naruto with an expression of supreme irritation. "Take a back seat for once, and make sure to change the rug. Rias hates it when blood gets on the carpet."
Valerie grinned in slightly desperate relief. "Don't worry about it. Cleaning up a bit of blood is my speciality."
"What?" Naruto goggled, looking from one friend to the next with bafflement.
Instead of responding to the confused blond, Sasuke just laid the flat of his palm over his heart. Then he lit it up, punching straight through with a Chidori Eisou.
"Look, I know that we've usually tried to deal with things on our own, but this is getting to be a bit too much, isn't it? Maybe you should think about talking to your brother."
"No." Rias declared emphatically, running a hand through her ragged mane and violently suppressing the urge to break out in wild frustrated screeching. "We've come too far to quit now, and there's too much riding on our silence."
Scoffing at the denial, Akeno narrowed bloodshot eyes at her best friend. "Alright then." It wasn't the first time the Thunder Priestess had suggested that they reach out for help from devils with much more power and experience than they had, and Rias knew it wouldn't be the last.
It was only to be expected. A few days or weeks playacting that everything was perfectly fine was one thing, but they had spent nearly two months now dabbling in illegal soul magic and shifting bodies to keep up the charade. Rias herself was exhausted on a bone deep level from having to constantly possess her nephew's body, and with smaller reserves Akeno was even more fatigued.
Sooner or later something had to give. Either Naruto and Sasuke came back home, or she and her peerage wouldn't be able to keep lying. They might be devils but they still had their limits, and Rias was reaching hers. She was constantly tired, with daily body aches and what little sleep she could get disturbed by surreal nightmares. It was probably even worse for Akeno.
But Rias had made a promise to Naruto that she'd keep his secrets and not betray him. The entire fragile reconciliation she'd built with her nephew depended on that trust. Maybe it would be easier for her to come clean with the rest of their family, but doing so could destroy the bonds their family had with Naruto. He wouldn't be Naruto Gremory, their young genius, but rather the reborn Uzumaki Naruto and not truly their son.
If Rias turned her back now Naruto may never forgive her.
Not to mention that she'd have to admit that the man she'd come to love was the subject of a highly illegal ritual. Lilith's spells might be lost to time, but criminalizing soul consumption in general was a condition of the armistice with Heaven. Rias loved her family, but she'd grown apart from them, and she didn't know if she could trust them not to turn Sasuke over to the angels for some political benefit.
"Fine. We'll just have to wing it." Akeno sighed, shoulders slumping as they stepped through the front doors of Starling Hall. "As long as we include extra details in the diary Naruto should be able to deal with Kyoto when he comes back."
"Agreed."
The 'diary' was a meticulous account of the various meeting Rias had been forced to pretend to be Naruto at, which she'd started so that once her nephew returned he could step into his role like nothing had happened. It had been mostly minor events and easily forgettable details that Naruto probably didn't even really need to know about.
Until now.
A play date with the only daughter of Kyoto's ruling kitsune seemed like a chance for the adults to play nice while the children toddled around making friends. But a single meeting of that magnitude could change Naruto's entire future.
The burden that hung heavy on Rias' shoulders was enough to choke a weaker willed woman. She hoped she was strong enough to bear it.
"Let's just hope that they're asking for a few positive reviews about their cuisine rather than a reasoned statement about their economic practices."
Rias laughed bitterly, rubbing at the bridge of her nose at she climbed to the second floor. "I suppose we could describe Naruto's sense of taste – he enjoys everything but prefers well-cooked beef above the rest. He's not exactly a fussy kind of man."
Letting the tips of her fingers trails across the tiny grooves that criss-crossed the stairwell's bannister, Rias let her eyes drift shut. She might have to put up with another day of thankless expectation and pretense, but at least she didn't have to step forward with eyes wide open.
"Rias."
Everything stuttered to silence, hanging on that one note as Rias' teal gaze fluttered wide. There was no layered falsehood or teasing bait on that tongue, only naked truth and the aching need for completion. A twinned stare as dark as coal looked down, settled in a sallow face, but Rias knew. She knew him just as she knew the hunger in her bones.
"Sasuke."
Half-shrouded by the winking fluorescent lightbulbs of the manor, Sasuke stood with his face hidden in shadow. The fire of the Sharingan burned in the dimness; two glittering embers offsetting the dusty stillness that had fallen over Starling Hall.
"You're here." Rias stumbled, her eyes blurring with tears as she practically lunged across the landing without any regard for propriety. The crimson-haired girl crashed into Sasuke in a tangle of limbs and desperate flesh. "You're here."
Hot salty tears leaked from the corners of Rias' eyes as Sasuke looped his arms under hers, finding a steady stance that could support both their weights while he stared down into her face.
"You're here." She marveled again like a broken record, with desolation lilting her voice.
Two months without Sasuke's steady presence at her back and Rias had forgotten how to function. It had been bad enough when he'd been deployed to the war front, but Rias had been able to reassure herself that they still stood under they same sky. She'd been able to write him letters and have them returned.
There'd been nothing but suffocating worry and absence when he'd been called back to Konoha. She practically forgotten how safe she'd felt knowing that no matter what she had at least one man standing in her corner, backing up her decisions.
And now he'd finally come home.
"I'm here." Sasuke affirmed, tangling his hand in Rias' hair and pressing her face into the hollow of his throat. He might not be the most empathetic person in the world, but Sasuke knew enough. He knew how it tainted the very taste of her aura when Rias gave into frustration and despair.
Winding his arm around Rias' waist, Sasuke resisted the urge to crush her against his own chest. That was a wild surge of possessiveness that had no place right now. "I love you." He admitted instead, closing his worn-out eyes and huddling down cheek-to-cheek.
Rias broke down into silent heaving sobs, burying her face in Sasuke's chest as tears streaked down her face, darkening the blue cotton of his shirt. It was a shameful display of weakness that would have the likes of her cousin Silas grinning, but she didn't care. Rias was tired of having to be relentlessly strong.
Looking down at the embracing couple with a fondly exasperated expression, Akeno hooked her thumbs in the pockets of her jeans and smiled. "It's about time." Then a mischievous light entered her gaze. "Although I have to say I'm disappointed I won't be able to give you sponge baths anymore. It really was the highlight of my day. There was so much to play with."
"You're as vulgar as ever." Sasuke grunted, running a soothing hand over Rias' back as her sobs turned into watery laughter. "And I suppose I should add sex criminal to your titles. How does the Violet-Eyed Violator sound?"
Akeno stuck out her lip and pouted. "Oh please. Don't pretend that you don't like it. I would bet a pretty penny that you're going to be touching yourself tonight to the thought of it."
Separating from Sasuke with a last lingering hand on his chest, her fingers feeling the reassuring beat of his heart beneath them, Rias threw a mocking glance over her shoulder at Akeno. "Please don't project your own proclivities on others. It reeks of desperation."
Simply glad to finally see some life come back to Rias' face after the slow death she'd been witnessing for the past couple of months, Akeno allowed her the win. "How did you know?"
The Ruin Princess rolled her eyes, then wiped away the tracks of her tears before finally steeling herself. She just wanted to cuddle up to Sasuke forever, or at least for a few hours, but now was not the time. With her boys home she had real business to attend to. "Where's Naruto?"
Sasuke glanced down the hall pensively, thinning his lips. "He's in the West Wing lounge with Valerie and Gasper. Koneko is off roaming the grounds looking for Yuuto, so we all made it home" he pre-empted when he saw her open her mouth. "But I should warn the both of you that he might not be exactly who you remember."
"Take me to him then. If he's having a crisis of commitment again we had better pull his head out of his ass before Ravel gets back from visiting Riser."
"I wouldn't describe it as a crisis of commitment."
(AN): Another 3000 here. We're really winding down the arc now. Just gotta line up all my ducks.
Alright. So after dozens reviews and questions, I can bend. I'm not unaware of what DxD is and why people actually watch it. It's waifu bait. So perhaps it's time to recognize my audience and consider bigger harems. I can probably - given Gehennan culture - swing them. And given how long the series will continue for, I have the space to set up properly.
Let no one say that I don't love you guise. So please give your thoughts on this development. I've already rolled up and down the Discord server and settled on Naruto/Kuroka and Sasuke/Rossweisse if I do write bigger, but I could probably be convinced otherwise.
The invite is yuF2GYx if you want to speak to me directly on this matter (or just scroll through the Ouroboros/Resonance channel history to read the debates), otherwise gib reviews and I can respond through PM.
