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

(AN): Everyone was telling me 3wei was the best but it was just meh. It's just the plot of the end of the second season done over again in 12 episodes.


Stretching his arms over his head until he heard the joints of his elbows pop, Zeoticus yawned. "Glad to see you're ready to go."

Naruto snorted at the way his grandfather slurred all his words together. The man's tongue lolled out like a giant lazy cat's. "Not that I'm scared or anything, but do I really have to go? I'm sure you can run your own show, can't you?"

"Look, just think of it this way." Zeoticus sighed, throwing a heavy arm around his grandson's shoulders. "Before you clinch the deal you've gotta clinch the deal, you know what I'm saying?"

"No!"

Laughing at Naruto's irritated confusion, Zeoticus swanned away towards the teleportation circle. "Well come on then, we've got a train to catch and I'd like to keep my body in one piece. You know how your mother can get about tardiness."

"Now that I understand." Naruto shivered, giving his white cravat a last nervous smoothing out before following the taller redhead into the faintly glowing runic array. "And if we miss it, let's just pretend we made it and catch the next one, yeah? No harm, no foul."

"Righto." There was a certain gentlemen's agreement between the males of the Gremory clan. They all understood that the fewer screw-ups that happened, the less punishment that Grayfia would inflict on them. So if something did happen, well maybe it was better to sweep it under the rug. What Grayfia didn't know wouldn't hurt her. "All aboard."

Zeoticus still felt the phantom burning on his scalp from that one time he'd slept through a diplomatic meeting with the Sitri clan only to wake up with his daughter-in-law setting his hair on fire.

"It's just us you geezer."

Blinking away crocodile tears, Zeotiscus blubbered down at his heir. "Such cruel words from my beloved grandson." Then before Naruto could send a sarcastic barb back, the Duke reached out with his magic and shoved them sideways through dimensions.

The view of Starling Hall's foyer popped away like a soap bubble, plunging them into darkness before an absolutely crowded train station faded into view.

Steadying Naruto with a hand between the shoulderblades, Zeoticus narrowed his ice blue eyes and swept them across the platform. There was no trace of the goofy grandfather in his face then, only the disinterested Duke of Gremory who seemed to be looking down at the commoners as he and his heir shuffled through the crowd.

While he was sure that word had gotten around that he had been speaking with Yasaka, Zeoticus would rather at least try to maintain some plausible deniability. And it was much less suspicious for a grandfather to take his grandson to the human world by train than it was to take the backroads paths between dimensions.

A public trip implied they had nothing to hide after all.

Zeoticus led Naruto into a private car about two thirds of the way down the train, wordlessly flicking his fingers and locking all the doors with an offhand cantrip. "If there is one single benefit to being obscenely rich, it's that even the public transport is private. I think I would kill myself if I had to ride coach."

"And to think you bill yourself as a man of the people." Naruto laughed, plopping down in the nearest window seat and staring out over the milling crowds. "Five minutes to go, yeah?"

The Duke just shrugged and slipped into the bench in front of his grandson's open compartment, throwing his legs up over the seat so he could lean his back against the glass. "Me and every single politician that managed to hold power longer than a week, yes. Some degree of populism is always necessary."

"I suppose. But what happens when someone stands up and says you can't be all that popular if you're afraid to let the people vote about it?"

Zeoticus smiled without any trace of humor. "Well I guess first you try to convince him that democracy leads to anarchy, then you try to bribe him, and if that doesn't work then one day he appears in the local news as an unfortunate victim of armed robbery."

A cool chuckle bubbled out of Naruto's lips, but he didn't dispute the statement like he might have a few months ago. It was that more than anything that convinced Zeoticus that something had changed. Sure, for the last couple of months the few times he'd seen the boy something had seemed a little off, but he hadn't dug too deeply into what was probably teenage angst.

Silence hung between them, heavy and a bit tense as the two redheads waited for the train to begin moving. Once the whistle blew and the wheels started creaking, Zeoticus settled a penetrating stare on his grandson. "You've seemed a bit morose lately, kiddo. Do you have something you'd like to get off your chest?"

The veiled accusation seemed to hit home like an arrow to the heart, making Naruto hunch his shoulders together a bit defensively and stare out the window with blank blue eyes. "I've just got a couple of things on my mind, yeah?"

"Yeah?"

A spark of something flared in Naruto's gaze, and he quirked his mouth into a crooked smirk. "Well there's been a bit, of how do I say it, this and that back at home." A pink flush settled over the younger man's cheekbones. "I mean, you know, there's Ravel. But now there's Valerie, and well that, umm… yeah."

Zeoticus cocked an amused eyebrow, feeling the muscles around his mouth twitch with the repressed urge to grin like a loon. "Girl troubles is it?" Maybe it was a bit sadistic of him to take such pleasure from the boy's suffering, but really, his grandson had no idea how bad things were going to get.

Oh, to see the look on his face in five years or so!

"Well let me tell you kiddo, I had a bit of those kinds of problems myself back before I met your grandmother. Now, speaking from one man to another, there's a few things you should keep in mind about girls."

Naruto just covered his ears and groaned like a man set up for execution.


"Good afternoon, Lady Rias." Chorused simultaneously from the throats of a dozen mahou shoujo cosplaying maids, and Sasuke fought back the urge to shiver. Never let it be said that Serafall Leviathan was anything approaching normal.

Following two steps behind Rias like a proper and well-trained servant was supposed to, Sasuke kept his dark eyes on the redhead's back.

In truth he probably should have come alone since his King wasn't an officially sanctioned member of the conspiracy between Naruto, Sairaorg, and Sona Sitri, but it was much less suspicious for Rias to be visiting Sona than Sasuke by himself. Not to mention it killed several birds with one stone.

First, it would cement Naruto's newly seized control over the conspiracy since he was inviting people without even informing Sairaorg and Sona beforehand. Second, it officially brought Rias into the circle. And thirdly – the surface rationale for the visit in the first place – he could tell Sona about the refinement in their political aspirations.

Rias led the way up the stairs to the library with the surety that came with knowing Sona her entire life, only to walk right past the doorway once they actually made it there. "The door is closed, so she's not in there." She explained to her Pawn before he could question her.

"I see." Sasuke hummed, frowning as they climbed back down a different stairwell, winding their way through the halls with seemingly random turns.

A quarter of the way down the seventh hallway, Rias stopped abruptly and settled her hand on an innocent looking set of pure white double doors. "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here." She muttered lowly. Then she pushed the doors open.

"Ah! I wasn't expecting you today, Rias, but it's fortuitous for you to come visit. Come, take a seat."

With the grimly determined expression of a woman doomed to be hung, Rias slumped over to sit down on one of the high stools that Sona motioned out.

Sasuke for his part only felt an enormous sense of foreboding as he entered the spacious kitchen. Nothing seemed to pop out at him as wrong. Stainless steel kitchen appliances glittered here and there, clean and new and obnoxiously expensive. The countertops were made of smooth black marble, and there wasn't a single stain on the kitchen island that Rias was resting her elbows on. Even Sona Sitri herself was smartly dressed in a freshly pressed chef's uniform.

"Sitri." Sasuke acknowledged as he crossed the room, finding his own chair and leaving a single one between his and Rias' seats. It was the strictly polite thing for a male servant with a female master to do, and while Sona was part of their group he didn't consider his personal life something she needed to know about.

Sona nodded back before returning to kneading the ball of light brown cookie dough that she had her hands buried in. "What brings you here then?" she asked, short and to the point while adding another dash of baking powder to the bowl.

"We thought it best to tell you there's been a change of plans in regards to our little association."

A very slow deliberate blink was the only reaction Sona gave to Rias' response, the bespectacled girl never even missing a beat as she squeezed out the cookie dough onto a long pan before sliding the entire tray into the oven. There was no trace of surprise or anxiety in her face, which made Sasuke suspect she was further ahead of the curve than he'd thought.

In hindsight, it would be a bit dumb on Sona's part to not expect Naruto to blab about their goals to all the peers he trusted. The Gremory heir was constitutionally incapable of going it alone.

"What sort of change?" Sona prodded, washing her hands in the nearest sink with mechanical motions. "And will Sairaorg be made aware of these… changes?" Every word was carefully measured with just the right amount of detachment, but underneath the suspicion shone through.

Rias furrowed her eyebrows in thought, but before she could formulate a properly politic answer Sasuke cut in boldly.

"Think less of 'the Senate of the people' and more 'hail Caesar'." The Pawn pointed out dryly, smirking on the inside at the irritated twitch Rias made. "Sorry for stealing your thunder, Little Red."

The sarcastic barb pulled a short laugh out of Sona's throat, and when she turned back to face them head on there was only exasperated amusement in her violet gaze. "I see you're still struggling to control your servants, Rias. I assume Akeno is as feisty as ever?"

Puffing out her cheeks in a pout, Rias glared at the other two. The glint in her eyes promised painful and embarrassing revenge in the near future.

"Regardless." Sona sobered back into distant disinterest, slipping on a pair of oven mitts and pulling the tray of golden brown cookies out of the oven. "That's fine. As long as the state is efficient and forward-thinking, I am not really concerned with the exact mechanics of governance."

Well that was convenient, Sasuke suppose, watching the Sitri heiress shuffle the chocolate chip cookies one by one from the tray to a large porcelain plate. Of the original three conspirators, he'd always pegged Sona as the most pragmatic, more concerned with pet projects than with overarching questions of ethics. But even if she was the most coldly rational out of the three, he'd expected a little more resistance.

It was probably best for Sasuke to keep an eye on Sona for a while, just in case.

"Would you like to try one?"

Deciding not to make waves where he didn't have to, Sasuke accepted a single biscuit from Sona, not noticing the frantic gestures Rias was making until he'd bit down.

It was…

This…

The flavor…

Sasuke chewed slowly and swallowed, looking down at the discreet half-moon his teeth had left behind in the freshly cooked dough. "This is not bad, actually." Then he took another bite.

Something like pure horror rippled across Rias' face. "What manner of creature are you?"


Yasaka scanned over the slightly crumbled note in her hand. Most of the list was written in shorthand and vague references, just clear enough for her to understand what it meant without overtly declaring the intent to acquire a dozen different types of youjutsu artifacts.

Sighing expansively in the cultivated way that she knew drew eyes to her generous cleavage, the ruler of Kyoto shifted her gaze to her last but most important supplicant of the day. "I've indulged you for long enough, Duke. But I believe it's long past time you give me a proper explanation." She fluttered the note Zeoticus had given her in emphasis.

"I didn't think it was something that needed an explanation, in truth." Zeoticus murmured, staring intently over at the veranda where his grandson and Yasaka's daughter were awkwardly sitting together while the servants bustled around serving the children tea. "Doesn't everyone in politics seek the occasional alliance?"

Irritated at the deflection, Yasaka decided to cut through to the heart of the matter. Zeoticus was just another man who thought he was cleverer than he actually was. As if she couldn't see his transparent attempts to matchmake their heirs and reduce her only daughter to a concubine. Kunou might only be nine years old, but opportunists had been seeking her hand before the girl had even been born.

"There is a difference between a mutual defense pact and what is very obviously an attempt to create a stockpile of weapons from another pantheon. Do you take me for a complete fool? Between requesting thirty thousand infused omamori and that nonsense about you buying up all the land in Kuoh questions need to be asked."

Amber light burned in Yasaka's eyes with the promise of blood and violence, and there was naked steel in her tongue. When she spoke it wasn't a request but a demand. "I asked you before and I'll ask you again, are you trying to take over this country?"

It seemed her simmering anger was enough to get a reply, since Zeoticus finally stopped watching the children with that proprietary greed to focus on her instead. There was no lust in him, which Yasaka disliked because it deprived her of a possible weapon, leaving only that distant conceit that every devil seemed to carry with them like a second heart.

"After the conquest of Mictlan and the emigration of the fallen angels, we have Gehenna to ourselves. We've nearly doubled our territory in the space of a couple of years. Trying to expand further would just be dangerous when we already have an excess of living space. Overextension leads to collapse. So no, I'm not trying to take over this country."

"Then what is it? I'm not going to be party to unknown motives and unknown goals."

Zeoticus hummed lowly in thought, bracing his elbows on the table as he learned forward. It took only a heartbeat for him to age from arrogant aristocrat to fatigued family man, startling Yasaka with the sheer swiftness of it. "What does any man want?" he questioned rhetorically. "I want peace in my time, a strong and prosperous clan, and for my children to never suffer through the bloodshed I had to go through as a boy."

Which was a nice sentiment Yasaka acknowledged, but his deeds didn't match his words. "I wouldn't call building alliances that benefit your clan above the rest and stockpiling war material to be pacifistic." She noted blandly.

The smirk that twisted the devil's mouth was full of vindictive bitterness. "He who wants peace must prepare for war. Speak softly and carry a big stick. It's just realpolitik. I'm not naïve enough to think that civil conflict or another external invasion won't ever occur, but I might be able to make a few people think twice about it."

"Or you might trigger an arms race that creates that very war you're trying to prevent." The kitsune countered immediately, shaking her head and turning away from Zeoticus to think. Any kind of war that involved Gehenna could spread to encompass the entire Biblical Pantheon, and despite the causalities of the Great War they'd proven to still be disproportionately powerful compared to everyone else.

If she allowed Kyoto to become affiliated with the Gremory clan, then her little fiefdom could be drawn into a devil conflict. And considering her influence ended just outside the Kansai region she didn't exactly have spare resources to throw away at another Great War.

That said, Yasaka wasn't blind. Like any other ruler she understood the value of courage and ambition. And she could benefit from breaking orthodoxy and dealing with the devils. "Fine." She declared decisively, snapping open her pocket fan and cooling herself with a small breeze. "We can do business, as long as we come to a certain understanding."

"I'm listening."

Pointing her fan at the young redhead on the terrace, she shook her head. "First of all, this isn't going to be happening. I have one heir, who will rule after me. She's not going to be bartered off as some devil lordling's fifth wife or whatever nonsense you're after."

"Second." Yasaka continued without giving the Duke a chance to disagree. "I don't want you to make any assumptions about the nature of their relationship. Informally we might have a private understanding but the policy of Kyoto will be neutrality. I won't turn away the House of Naberius or anyone else if they want to make a deal with me. At most you can expect a favour here and there from me."

Zeoticus' knuckles whitened, but it was the only physical expression of his displeasure with her diktats. Quite frankly Yasaka didn't care. Her interests lay in the prosperity of Kyoto, not in that of the Gremory clan. "Thirdly, any and all exchanges are going to be as discreet as possible. The later people find out that we're trading, the better for both of us. As long as the secret is kept I am not collaborating with foreigners and you are not a warmonger."

She knew it was a great deal less than what he'd come for, but she was confident that Zeoticus was smart enough to cut his losses and agree.

Which he did.


(AN): 3100 again. Decompressing from the angst now. This chapter shouldn't be taken as abandoning the Naruto/Kunou ship, which will happen. Rather, it's just to show that politics is not always straightforward. Current policy is not necessarily the policy of ten years from now.