Fearful Symmetry

by Act 3

Both angel and human, both delinquent and hero, both tiger and lamb. Duality is defined as possessing the quality of being dual. An existence consisting of two parts, of two elements. Trapped somewhere between those elements, a young blonde seeks the truth. He is caught in duality, forced to draw lines, to pick sides, as he becomes further entangled within life's fearful symmetry.

4. Let Us Prey

I saw a chapel all of gold
That none did dare to enter in,
And many weeping stood without,
Weeping, mourning, worshiping.

~.~.~

Chapter Four: Let Us Prey

~.~.~

He had tried to ignore it. For as long as humanly possible, he put up a front of resistance, but in the face of its unrelenting nature, his stoicism struggled to win out. It was like trying to disregard the scorching heat of the sun in the most arid of deserts or like a child trying to turn a blind eye to a suspected monster lurking just underneath his bed—undoable. It roared at him for attention, demanding to be acknowledge. It simply would not be denied. So, despite his valiant efforts, he did the one and only thing he could think of to put an end to his torment.

He submitted.

"Hyoudou, I'm not one of your porn mags," Naruto gruffly relented, "Quit staring at me like I am."

Issei flinched slightly and was pulled back into reality by the sound of the blonde's voice, "O-Oh, sorry, Naruto-san. I guess I kinda spaced out there for a second…"

It wasn't every day that the most terrifying delinquent in the city walked to school alongside the most perverted student around, but it was an occasional occurrence. Typically, the two took different routes on their way to their morning classes, but Issei would from time to time stray from his usual path for certain reasons, namely porn. Today, for example, it just so happened that Issei had awoken early and walked an extra ten blocks off his normal way to school to visit a local shop and peruse their newest shipment of dirty magazines.

'The kid has the delivery schedule for all the porn shops in town memorized,' Naruto dryly noted, his brow twitching, 'He's a dedicated man, I'll give him that.'

The breast-loving teen had come across the blonde walking out of the store and, after a short greeting, the pair headed off to another day of classes. After their greeting, however, they had fallen into a bout of silence, creating, at least for Naruto, a sort of awkward atmosphere. The delinquent had turned to Issei to strike up a small conversation, only to find that his classmate was leveling him with an intense, unblinking, unnerving stare.

Completely unaware of how he was weirding his companion out, Issei had been lost in his own thoughts as he reappraised the blonde. Despite his resolve to become a "Harem King" as he called it, the entire existence of the paranormal was still a very foreign concept to him as well as the idea that his classmates were already deeply involved in it. While it hadn't been the first time the delinquent had surprised him, Issei certainly never thought that Naruto would both be knowledgeable of the supernatural and fighting off evil Stray Devils all alone with his bare fists.

'And Buchou said that Naruto-san only got his powers a few days ago. Compared to me, who barely has any power, Naruto-san is really impressive,' Issei thought to himself, humming. Once again, the perverted youth glanced to the smoker walking beside him, 'Maybe I should try to be a bit more like Naruto-san…'

Catching Issei's stare once more, Naruto sighed, "Look, Hyoudou, if ya got something to say, just say it already."

Issei paused, casting a look to the ground as his gaze steadily hardened, his eyes brimming with determination, "In that case, can I ask you a question, Naruto-san?"

"Uh…" Naruto blinked, "Sure."

Before Naruto was a sight the blonde had never laid his eyes upon before—Hyoudou Issei, renowned idiot and pervert extraordinaire, looked to be dead serious. To be quite honest, it caught the delinquent off-guard. Naruto had watched Issei embarrass and shame himself publically multiple times before, but even then he had never once seemed to be taking the scorn and disgust of his peers earnestly at all. What kind of troubles must his classmate be facing, then, to show such a solemn expression?

"What kind of porn do you watch?"

As the question left the pervert's mouth, Naruto came to a halt, as did Issei. Though Issei's eyes continued to shine with vigor and determination, Naruto's grew flat, dull, and disappointed. Standing there, silently judging the expectant young man before him, Naruto looked to the ground and slowly began to shake his head from side to side.

"…Hyoudou, we're going to keep walking, make it to school, and pretend we never had this conversation," Naruto spoke evenly, shifting the weight of his schoolbag as he turned and continued down the road. Issei blinked, bemusement clear on his features as he watched the blonde go.

"H-Hold on, Naruto-san! What about my question? It's important!" Issei called after the delinquent, "Naruto-san? Naruto-san! Wait up!"

~.~.~

Naruto stared wearily at the door before him, silently cursing his misfortune.

It was like magic—the second Naruto had stepped into the school building, the speakers were calling his name, demanding that he report down to the nurse's office as soon as possible. In fact, considering who he was dealing with, Naruto had reasoned on the walk down that magic may very well have played a role in the impeccable timing. Yes, Azazel was calling for him and, given their recent history together, it either meant another Stray Devil had reared its ugly head or the Fallen had finally decided to dissect the blonde to find out just what Nephilim were made of—either way, it didn't fare well for the delinquent. Still, with really no other choice, the blonde had parted ways with Issei, who still refused to stop grilling him on what kind of porn he partook in, and reluctantly headed off in the direction of the nurse's office.

'Well, time to bite the bullet,' he thought with a silent groan, '…again.'

Sighing, the blonde stepped forward and grasped the handle of the door, quickly sliding it open before stepping inside.

"It's difficult to say, really. I get the feeling that he doesn't want to be feared or disliked, but that he struggles with expressing his emotions."

"Yes, he certainly does give out that vibe, but boys like him are currently going through that difficult transition from child to man."

"He is at that age, isn't he?"

Seated around a small coffee table in the nurse's office (which was now suited with black wallpaper) and enjoying piping cups of tea over light small talk were Azazel, Akeno, and Rias. Silently, Naruto observed the trio in a mix of abject shock and disbelief. If there was anything amiss about the presence of a male stranger who appeared to be in his late thirties taking the place of the young and decidedly female Tsunematsu-sensei, Rias and Akeno certainly weren't showing it. They were instead completely relaxed, taking to the odd décor and abrupt change in faculty with ease, likely due to the illusions that Azazel had mentioned the other day.

It was Akeno who first looked up from their conversation and took notice of him, regarding him with deceptively pleasant and joyful eyes.

"Ara, ara. If it isn't Namikaze-san," the raven-haired beauty cooed, placing a delicate hand to her pale cheek, "What a surprise! We were just talking about you, you know."

Rias then turned from where she sat to cast him a triumphant smirk over her shoulder, "What a coincidence. Speak of the devil, as they say."

Despite what many believed, it was actually a very difficult task to truly garner the true hatred of Namikaze Naruto. Oh, it didn't take too much to frustrate or irk him and, when someone did so out of malice, they would likely be rewarded with at least one fist to their face, but honest abhorrence was a thing that rarely grasped the blonde's heart. Of course, there were a few easy ways to do it—insulting his family, for example, would bring the fury of the delinquent down upon one's head faster than God's divine judgment could ever hope to match.

What made the current situation particularly odd for the blonde, however, was that he was most certainly not this enraged when he had left the Occult Research Club just a few days ago. Had he been angry? Without a doubt, but that paltry anger seemed trivial in comparison to the fury that he felt building within him now. Perhaps it was that, after attempting to push him into working under her, she had decided to show her face again too soon, before he had cooled off, and had again caught him off-guard. Perhaps it was just the many little frustrations adding to the much larger ones he had felt these past few days and boiling over his control.

Whatever the reason, Naruto was suddenly very much aware of just how dangerously close Rias Gremory was to earning the full brunt of his true animosity.

As his temper flared at that infuriating look the redhead was leveling him, there were a number of colorful words and phrases that were armed and waiting on the tip of Naruto's tongue, all of which he was sure would turn that pretty little face of hers a matching shade of red. Instead, in an astounding display of self-control, Naruto only grounded out the word, "Why?"

The redheaded Devil seemed to pick up on the blonde's growing distaste, as she was quick to attempt to assuage his ire. Standing, Rias allowed her victorious smile to drop from her face in place of a much calmer, stoic expression, "There's no need for anger, Namikaze-san. We just had a few matters to discuss with Tsunematsu-sensei, none of which involved you."

Akeno nodded, humming lightly in agreement, "It's true—we only began to talk about you after Tsunematsu-sensei brought up your meetings with her."

Azazel was unfazed when Naruto's piercing, withering glare turned his way. The Fallen merely smiled before leaning back in his seat to continue enjoying his tea.

"And I'm supposed to believe this is a coincidence?" Naruto muttered, returning his gaze to the King before him. Rias shrugged in return, both her and Akeno rising from their seats as she did so.

"You may believe what you want to, Namikaze-san," Rias' tone was even and infallible and Naruto loathed every second he spent listening to it, "If we're bothering you, don't worry. We were just about to leave, anyway."

"Thank you for your time, Tsunematsu-sensei," Akeno spoke gracefully, moving to stand by her friend and leader before the pair began to step towards the door, "It was very enlightening."

"Oh, the pleasure was all mine, dear," Azazel smiled, "Please feel free to stop by again any time you wish to talk. I'm always available."

The duo moved past the blonde and out into the hallway, not sparing him another glance until Naruto's hand shot out to tightly clamp around Rias' wrist just as she was about to shut the door behind her. Her teal eyes, only slightly tinted with surprise, stared back into his cerulean gaze, ferocity swimming just beneath the surface of his stony visage. It was almost enough to send an involuntary shiver down her spine.

"…Can I help you, Namikaze-san?" Rias held a commanding grip on her own emotions, however, and instead only raised a questioning brow in response to the sudden contact.

"Don't fuck with me, Gremory," Naruto growled lowly, inching his face closer to hers, "I want you to stay away from me, understand? Put as much distance between you and me as you possibly can."

Her smirk had returned by the time he had finished giving his command, "And if I don't?"

His temper spiked.

He now most certainly knew the reason for his wrath. It had nothing to do with the fact that he was still frustrated by their previous encounter or the stress he'd been under lately. No, the true source of his anger was that he had given the redhead a clear answer—a firm rejection to her offer of a place in her Peerage—and she clearly did not give a fuck. No matter what he did, no matter what he said, Rias Gremory had no intention of leaving him be and the idea that she was treating his life as her own personal playground to march around in was absolutely maddening.

He responded with silence. Rias' smirk bloomed into a grin and she pulled her hand from Naruto's after his grip began to slacken, adopting a teasing, sultry tone, "Really now, grabbing a young woman's hand like that and then telling her to stay away? You're giving me mixed signals, Namikaze-san."

Having said that, Rias slid the door closed, ending their brief confrontation on her own terms. As the pair made their way down the hallway to their morning classes, Akeno shot Rias a contemplative glance, bemusement clear on her lovely features.

"Was it really a wise idea to antagonize him like that, Rias?" she questioned.

"Well, it wasn't necessarily part of my plans for building trust between Namikaze-san and I," the redhead admitted, a calculative look overtaking her eyes, "But perhaps it's for the best. Considering Namikaze-san's rather…unhappy response to our presence today, it's clear that our future relationship won't be one built upon subservience. Rather, if it is to prosper at all, it seems it must be one of mutual respect."

"And picking a fight with him will build that respect?"

"Refusing to give into his demands and him refusing to give into mine will, albeit begrudgingly," Rias flashed her companion a confident smile, "Namikaze-san, much like myself, appreciates a challenge. I realize now that backing down may be detrimental to my chances of recruiting him."

Akeno paused to consider this. Yes, Rias certainly did enjoy a good challenge when the opportunity arose and, given the girl's latent talent and abilities, that opportunity came about rather infrequently. In fact, with the exception of perhaps Sona, the Queen could think of no other time that one of Rias' requests or demands had been so flatly rejected since coming to Kuoh Academy, where the entire student body was almost too happy to bow down to the King. Naruto, through the simple act of denying Rias, had unwittingly presented her with her first real challenge in years.

'I haven't seen Rias so fired up about recruiting a new Peerage member in a long time, either. Maybe Namikaze-san's rejection affected her more than I thought?' Akeno quietly considered, "Yes, you two are rather similar, aren't you?"

"You think so?" Rias hummed, tapping her finger to her chin as she mulled over Akeno's observation, "I'd say that there is one very large difference between Namikaze-san and I, however."

Akeno blinked, "And that is?"

"Unlike Namikaze-san, who is a loner by nature, I understand people," Rias decided as she turned a corner, only to be greeted by their standard posse of adoring fans. Their conversation no longer private, Akeno knew that this would be the end of their discussion regarding Naruto until they were once again alone. Still, as the duo were swallowed by a sea of their fellow students, she couldn't help but allow a stray thought to wander through her mind.

'But do you understand Namikaze-san?'

While Rias and Akeno continued on with their day, however, Azazel was currently left with the task of explaining himself to a thoroughly vexed delinquent. Finishing his tea, the ancient being sighed, casting an exasperated look to his young ward, "Really now, is it that bad that they came here to talk to me? I am their guidance counselor, after all."

"No, you're pretending to be their guidance counselor," Naruto shot back gruffly as he glared at the man from across the table, "Now why the hell did you have to go and tell them about our meetings? You think they're not going to find that suspicious at all?"

Azazel actually laughed at this, earning a look of confusion from the blonde.

"My dear boy," Azazel began, gesturing to himself with a sweep of his hand, "Do you really believe that I have anything to fear from the likes of two juvenile Devils? I have used my illusions and resources to secretly take the place of this Tsunematsu-sensei, but do bear in mind that I only did so for your own convenience in the matter of keeping your situation private knowledge. Even if they were to discover precisely who I am, there is extraordinarily little that anyone could do about it."

"Lovely, except that you having your ass covered doesn't exactly help me cover mine when it comes to those two," the blonde argued, "The last thing I need is for Gremory of all people to have some dirt on me."

"Yes, you do seem rather concerned about little Rias, don't you?" Azazel leaned back in his seat as he spoke, "Why is that exactly?"

"You mean aside from the fact that she's trying to get a leash around my neck?" Naruto dryly questioned, snorting, "She doesn't know when to quit and I have to draw the line in the sand sooner rather than later. You think I wanna open my front door one day and find her chatting it up with my mom about how I should join her club?"

Azazel rubbed his chin in thought as he considered this, "Yes, I suppose that would be problematic, wouldn't it? Devils have an innate inclination towards power and are none too subtle in their pursuit of it. Rest assured, however, that you don't have much to fear from our little encounter this morning. In fact, I believe their primary reason for coming to my office today was to investigate me, not you."

Naruto blinked, "They wanted to talk to you? About what? With your illusions, everyone in the school thinks you're just the nurse."

"It would seem as though they are suspicious of me," Azazel shrugged as he stood from his seat and waltzed over to his desk, "They didn't say anything of the sort, but I believe that they were quite interested in discovering the nature of our relationship. More likely than not, they suspect that I am somehow aiding you, though they have no way of knowing just how right they are."

"First of all, don't call it a relationship," Naruto frowned, shifting in his seat to cross one leg over the other, "Secondly, they came here to ask you about our deal and you just flat out told them?"

"Of course I did, though I did omit several particularly damning details," Azazel answered, rummaging around his clutter of papers, "There is something you humans have often failed to understand despite centuries of interaction with one another—a lie is far, far less useful than the truth. Had I lied or avoided the subject, those two surely would have grown wary and began to dig deeper into the matter. Instead, I told them a small truth, and that will be more than enough to sate their appetites for the time being."

"And when they inevitably come back?" Naruto questioned, his brow raised.

"Then we'll cross that bridge when we get to it," Azazel responded, pulling a file from the pile of disorderly forms, "In the meantime, I have your next assignment for you."

"And the good news just keeps on coming," Naruto groaned, "What do I get to do this time? Fight some giant rat that can melt my flesh off? All for what, another measly one thousand yen?"

"Now, now, don't be like that," the Fallen lightly chided, tossing the file to the blonde, "You're in luck. I have only a small task for you to complete today, a painless one that doesn't even necessarily involve any fighting at all."

Catching it, the smoker quickly began to thumb through the pages, growing more and more bewildered as he did so, "You do remember that the agreement was that you'd send me after Stray Devils, right?"

"I do."

"And you do realize that you're sending me after some thirty-year-old salaryman with a drinking problem?"

"I am well aware," Azazel nodded, pointing to the papers in Naruto's hands, "According to reports, our friend there, one Kobayashi Tamami, has been attempting for the past several days to summon a Devil through various means. My informants stationed in this area seem concerned that Tamami could soon accidently manage to summon up a Stray Devil and have requested that preventative measures against such an outcome be taken."

"And instead of sending them in, you're having me do it," Naruto finished with a sigh.

"That's right," Azazel grinned.

"I'm just some random punk this guy's never even heard of, let alone met," the delinquent pointed out, "How am I supposed to persuade this dumbass not to summon a Devil?"

"Talk to him, of course. Explain to him the dangers, reassure him of his own self-worth—say whatever is necessary to change his foolish little mind," Azazel answered simply, "If all else fails, then you may even try your usual approach to these matters and simply threaten him into submission. As long as Tamami agrees to not summon a Devil, the assignment will be accomplished."

Naruto scowled, "I thought the idea of our agreement was to pit me up against a bunch of monsters, not an alcoholic looking to sell his soul for a quick buck."

Slaying the deadly and brutal demons of the night? That was something that Naruto could at least get some satisfaction out of and, when one added the fact that it was currently his only lead in his search for answers about his father, he really didn't have much of a choice. Spending an evening or two trying to talk to a drunk about how summoning up Satan might be a bad idea, however, was not something the blonde was too terribly excited about.

"Don't think of it like that," Azazel clapped his hands together enthusiastically, "Instead, think of it as saving an innocent from potentially dying at the hands of a Stray. I'm sure the Stray Devils you've fought against took a number of lives before you met them. Wouldn't you want to prevent such a travesty from happening again if you could?"

The fact that it would also cost Azazel far less time, resources, and paperwork to simply send the delinquent rather than take up official sanctions to remedy the disturbance was something the Grigori overseer felt needn't be mentioned at the moment.

'…Dammit,' Naruto groaned, "How do you manage to go from insane to convincing in the blink of an eye?"

"Years of practice," Azazel answered cheerfully, "You'll find Tamami's address in that file, so just head there after school and do what's necessary to talk him out of trying to summon a Devil."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll see what I can do," the delinquent relented, standing up, "Is that it or was there some other job you wanted to stick me with today?"

Azazel shook his head as he settled into his desk, combing over his research material as he did so, "No, that will be all. Do make sure to get to class on time, alright, Naruto-kun? I am your guidance counselor, so I wouldn't want you becoming a truant due to our arrangement."

"You're not my…" Naruto began, only to trail off with a frustrated sigh, "Fine, yeah, sure, whatever. The sooner I learn to accept the craziness, the sooner I learn to ignore it…"

"There's that go-getter attitude I like to see in my employees!" Azazel observed with mock-enthusiasm, chuckling lightly when his snarky comment earned him a lazy flip of the bird from his protégé as the blonde left the room.

Shutting the door behind him, the blonde glowered, his thoughts now caught between how best to deal with a certain nosy redhead and the no doubt wonderful evening he was now going to be spending with some random drunk. He opened his schoolbag, planning to shove the file on Kobayashi inside until he needed it, only to be greeted with an unwelcomed reminder that he still had one other unpleasant task to complete that day—returning the school uniform that Rias had lent him the other day.

If it had been anyone else, the blonde might've just tossed the clothes into the garbage and been done with it. He was, however, dealing with Rias Gremory, a Devil who was making it particularly clear that she held no issues with using any means at her disposal to corner him. If nothing else, the blonde was an honest sort who paid his debts—for better or worse—and he most certainly did not want to be indebted to the redhead in any way.

Releasing a loud groan of frustration, Naruto smacked his forehead, startling several passing students with the abrupt gesture, 'Life fucking sucks.'

~.~.~

Kiba liked to believe that during his short and relatively unpleasant time in this world, he had come across a number of extraordinary sights and experiences and that he had handled them quite well for one so young. Yes, in a world where Devils and Angels waged war, where demons and spirits roamed the countryside, the handsome blonde had taken all of it in stride, drinking in whatever strange occurrence he came across with a relaxed confidence. Perhaps it was to be attributed to his distant disposition or maybe he was just a calm individual, but it was true enough Kiba was rarely one to be stunned into silence.

And yet there he was, standing on the rooftop of his school, his sapphire eyes wide, his mouth agape, and his entire vocabulary failing him. It had been a simple, unremarkable text that he had received a few minutes prior to his lunch break, one simply asking him to come up to the rooftop. It was the fact that the sender was Namikaze Naruto, his friend who so sparsely chose to communicate through the messaging system provided by his phone and who had recently been murdered by an Angel for no apparent reason, which had Kiba running out of his classroom and storming up two flights of stairs before the bell had even rung.

The swordsman had maintained a calm façade since the death and rebirth of his friend, but those that truly knew him could easily detect a shard of dread within his expression these past few days. That shard had stuck in his mind, creating a wound that grew larger and deeper with every hour as he followed his orders—to sit and wait and watch the seconds on the clock pass by until his friend died again. The motherly Akeno had already taken notice of his growing anxiety and Kiba suspected that an observant Koneko had as well, but he failed to understand how they did not share his concerns in anyway. How could his allies be so content to simply rest on their laurels until Naruto came to them for help?

Kiba knew the Angels and their followers—if they wanted a person dead, they were not the sort to just meekly abide after a single failure.

Even so, he had made a promise to both Akeno and himself. He'd swore that he'd put his faith in his friend's decision and in Rias' orders. He'd thought he would be strong enough to endure his own anxieties, to stand back and allow the judgment of those he trusted to play out. In the end, he'd only been fooling himself with a poorly-told lie. If men could change so easily, with only the merest of words, there would be little conflict in the world.

The first thought that had entered Kiba's paranoid mind upon seeing the text was the possibility that Naruto was once again under attack. Had another holy being descended from Heaven to slay the delinquent? Was this message Naruto's last desperate attempt to reach out for aid before his life was once again snuffed out? What would await the young swordsman when he finally did reach the roof? Would Michael himself be standing over the Naruto's dead body? Had Uriel swooped down and impaled his friend upon a flaming sword? Kiba's mind raced, all these questions and more smothering all sense of rationality. As he had reached the entrance to the rooftop and burst through the doors into the blinding sunlight, he had not been sure what to anticipate, but he had prepared for the worst.

What he found before him was a scene he could have never imagined in his wildest dreams.

"What are you two doing?" Kiba finally managed out after a good few minutes of quiet, shock-filled observation.

"Blowing off steam," his truant friend curtly answered.

"Proving my superiority to Yankii-senpai," came the stoic reply of his fellow Peerage member.

"Don't call me that," the smoker roughly replied in response to his apparent new nickname.

The snowy-haired lass merely stuck her tongue out childishly, though her eyes remained as aloof as ever, "Yankii-senpai."

"I will crush you," was Naruto's simple response.

Koneko merely retracted her tongue, her face losing the slightest traces of humor that it had briefly held, "Bring it."

Throughout the entire brief exchange of banter, the duo's tones were practically empty, devoid of any passion or humor, which, although common for Koneko, was a tad more unusual for Naruto. The reason for their unsociable voices was immediately clear to Kiba, however—the pair was far too focused on their current activity to even bother to join their emotions to their words. And what was the all-important task that commanded such attention?

A thumb war.

The most feared individual in the entire city and the adorable "mascot" of Kuoh Academy's freshmen were currently engaged in the most fervent thumb war that Kiba had ever seen in his life.

The duo relied entirely on instinct and touch, their gaze never once parting to glance down at their hands, even as skillful dodges and counters continued to propel their thumbs to dance across the battlefield that was their conjoined digits. Naruto's movements were slow and calculated, with every twitch of his thumb commanding a terrifying power behind it, matching against Koneko's graceful and dexterous skill. So enraptured were they in their little conflict that neither had even turned or paused to greet the handsome youth when he first stumbled upon the bout playing out on the rooftop, only acknowledging him when he finally spoke up.

He hadn't been aware that Naruto and Koneko were even acquainted, let alone friends. Here they were, however, partaking in such a childish rivalry that Kiba could barely believe his eyes. It was almost too surreal and, for a moment, the Knight wondered if he might be dreaming. One self-inflicted pinch was all it took to confirm that the odd sight before him was, in fact, real. With that confirmation, however, came the horrifying realization that he had also embarrassed himself in front of his entire class by panicking, jumping up, and all but kicking the door down in his mad dash to get to the roof and aid a friend he assumed to be in great peril.

Instead, he found that friend completely unharmed, acting like the outcome of a thumb war would decide the fate of the world itself.

Kiba had never felt quite as stupid in his entire life as he did at that moment and idly wondered if throwing himself off of the roof would end his life or only serve to hospitalize him.

"What do you want, Naruto-san?" Kiba exasperatedly questioned, reaching up to massage his throbbing temple in preparation for an oncoming headache. His fellow blonde dared to break away from his stare-down with Koneko, his gaze flickering over to Kiba.

"I need you to—oi!" Naruto growled, suddenly returning his full attention to the petite Rook next to him, "No snake-holes!"

Koneko shrugged, unabashed and unapologetic for her supposed illegal move, "Didn't say I couldn't."

"I shouldn't have to!" the delinquent argued, "That's totally cheating!"

"Is not."

"Is too!"

"Naruto-san," the utter bizarreness of the moment caused Kiba to interject a tad more forcefully than he normally would have, "Why did you call me up here?"

"Huh? Oh, right. Time out," Naruto detached his hand from his opponent's, finally turning to face the devilish swordsman, "First things first, though—Kiba, is snake-holing in a thumb war cheating? It is, isn't it?"

'…If I threw Naruto off the roof instead, would he die?' the Knight briefly wondered, his irritation slowly but surely breaking down an internal bastion of patience that the youth had spent years developing.

"Yuuto-senpai is not a referee."

"You're just saying that because you know he'll agree with me," Naruto grinned triumphantly, causing Koneko to once again stick her tongue out at him in response. Pushing himself up off the floor, Naruto stood and moved over to where his bag rested against the chain-link fence that separated students from the stable safety of the rooftop and the certain death they were sure to face if ever someone was to plunge over the edge. Undoing the clasp and reaching inside, the blonde quickly retrieved the contents of his schoolbag and turned back to Kiba, nonchalantly tossing them to his friend, "Catch."

The handsome Devil deftly caught the thrown articles before bemusedly holding them out to examine, "A school uniform?"

"The one Gremory lent me the other day," Naruto explained, walking back towards the Devils, "Do me a favor and return that to her. I washed it like I promised and everything, so go ahead and tell her not to try and hold it over my head while you're at it."

Putting the clothes aside, Kiba frowned as he turned towards his fellow blonde, "Why don't you do it yourself?"

Naruto gave a wry chuckle, tossing a thumb towards Koneko as he did so, "She said the exact same thing when I asked her to do it. I'll give you the same answer, then. I've come to the realization that I don't really like your boss. In fact, you might say I hate her guts. Hell, I don't even wanna be in the same room as her."

"Buchou isn't a bad person, Naruto-san," Kiba stepped forward, his hands spread as though he was actually physically offering the notion to the delinquent.

Naruto snorted, crossing his arms, "And was I supposed to pick up on that little tidbit before or after she tried to trap me in her clubroom?"

Kiba flinched, glancing away from the blonde as he did so. Rias had been clear on her intentions to keep Naruto in the room until she was satisfied with the answers she received and the delinquent had the right to be angered. The Gremory heir could be forceful at times and overbearing at others, such was the confident and tenacious character she had matured to become. Still, the buxom Devil had not once acted in such a manner out of malice in the many years that Kiba had known her and he was absolutely certain that she would never do so. Convincing Naruto that Rias had never and would never was an entirely other matter, however.

"She had her reasons for doing so," Kiba frowned.

The brawler scowled, "Sure would've been nice if she had just tried talking to me about those reasons in a way that wasn't entirely illegal. Forcible confinement, believe it or not, is a crime—you might wanna let her know that."

"You're not exactly the easiest person to approach," the handsome blonde slowly shook his head from side to side as he spoke, "You may not understand, but she has duties she has to carry out that come with her position, including protecting the territory she was assigned to. If an Angel was involved, then one way or another, Buchou had to find out what happened to you and you made it pretty clear that you weren't in a talkative mood when you first walked into the club."

"Still doesn't mean she had to turn my only friend against me and make him into her guard dog," Naruto snarked, aiming an accusing look towards the swordsman.

In the months that Kiba had known and befriended him, the Knight easily came to know Namikaze Naruto as the most stubborn person he'd ever met. More than Rias, more than even Kiba himself, Naruto was as headstrong as a person could possibly be. Even after facing the reality of death, the blonde continued to glide through life as though he was invincible, simply because that was how he had always done things and took offense to anyone who tried to dissuade him of that notion. Kiba's hands tightened into fists, his knuckles running white.

If there was anyone who knew the dangers of believing oneself to be invincible, to be secure, it was Yuuto Kiba, a young man who wasn't about to let yet another friend make that mistake.

"I would've done so even if she didn't ask me to," Kiba declared, meeting his friend's gaze, "Any day now, another Angel could fall right out of the sky and finish the job its brother started! Why can't you understand that!?"

"You're the one who doesn't understand a goddamn thing," Naruto snapped back, "I've told you over and over again that I don't need any help! What is it that you don't understand about that!?"

"Do you think this is a game or something, is that it? That you're some kind of hero now that you cheated death once?" the swordsman spat, "That you can just go out and beat up the bad guys and save the day without worrying about any consequences!? I don't care what kind of powers you have or how many Strays you put down—one of these days, your luck is going to run out!"

For the briefest of moments, Naruto appeared to be taken aback. His shoulders loosened, his head pulled back and his eyes widened just a fraction as he stared at Kiba in utter disbelief. Then, as quickly as that surprised had crossed the blonde's features, it had disappeared, replaced with fury.

"She was spying on me!?" Naruto bellowed, hands clenched tightly into fists, "You were spying on me!?"

"I was looking out for you, not that you'd care!" Kiba countered, pointing an accusing finger in the delinquent's direction, "You think it's easy, being your friend!? You think it's fun covering for you whenever Sona-san tries to convince the faculty to expel you!? Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep you out of trouble when you never listen to a word I have to say!?"

"And? What is it, then!?" Naruto snarled, "What do you have to tell me that's so goddamn important that your bitch of a boss feels the need to treat my private life like it's her own fucking playground!?"

"I'm trying to tell you that you're going to get yourself killed! And who do you think is going to be left picking up the pieces when you die!? Your mother, your godfather, your friends—how do you think we're all going to feel when you get another hole in your chest!? Do you even care!?" the handsome youth's face was twisted, contorted in vexation, "Buchou is trying to help you, to save your damn life! For once, can't you just open your eyes and realize when something is for your own good!?"

Kiba's head snapped back as he stumbled, a stinging sensation echoing across his face before giving way to an aching dull throb. Stunned into silence yet again, Kiba eyed the trembling fist that Naruto had just slugged him with, reaching up to cradle his numb cheek.

"…Don't you ever say that I don't care about my mother again," Naruto spat out the words vehemently, "For my own good? I get to bow down to Gremory and live out the rest of my days as her puppet—is that what you think I want? Or were you so caught up with putting me on a damn leash that you never stopped to think about what I wanted to do with my own fucking life?"

Silence met the delinquent's ears.

Naruto snorted, shoving his hands roughly into his pockets, "Whatever. Go have fun being Gremory's slave then, but don't expect me to bend over and kiss her ass just because you tell me to."

Bumping shoulders with Kiba as he passed him, the delinquent held a dark fury in his eyes as he moved towards the door.

"We're not slaves."

As her voice reached his ears, Naruto turned to face Koneko, traces of rage still clear on his features. The stoic girl met his wrathful eyes with her own amber pools, which cradled a certain tranquility within them. She had kept quiet as the pair had begun to argue—it was simply not her fight and she had no place in it. In fact, from a slightly more impartial view, the girl could clearly see the reasonable arguments on both sides—Kiba, concerned for his friend, believed that Naruto was simply being foolish and stubborn in refusing Rias' help, while Naruto clearly felt some sort of betrayal over the notion that his friend was more or less attempting to control his life. Still, she would not—could not—allow the delinquent to walk away with that misconception of what Rias' Peerage meant to her and what Rias meant to them, because they were most certainly not slaves and Rias Gremory was no slave master.

"What are you then?" Naruto questioned, venom seeping into his tone.

"Family," Koneko replied with finality.

The word echoed in the blonde's ears.

Images of a tranquil and happy home came rushing into Naruto's mind with all the speed and force of a great flood—his mother's laughter, his godfather's humorous antics, and his father's calm and proud smile. It used to be that the thought of that smile would fill him with comfort and joy. It had given him the knowledge that, even if his father was now gone, he had loved his son and his son could fondly remember that love. Now, the only thing he could see in the memories of his father's smiles were the cold calculations of a chess master, carefully manipulating the pawns around him so that he could protect himself.

It disgusted the teenager.

"That's a real pretty fucking word," Naruto's voice now lacked the anger that it had held so fiercely just moments ago, having filled the vacancy with an untold plethora of bitterness, "Just don't be too surprised when you find out that it doesn't mean shit."

His parting words spoken, Naruto walked through the door and slammed it shut behind him, completely missing the flash of sympathy that briefly appeared in Koneko's gaze as he left. Now, with only Kiba and herself on the rooftop, Koneko turned towards her fellow Devil, whose head was currently bowed in dejection, and offered the only words of comfort she could think of at the moment.

"Even the best of friends fight sometimes," Koneko shrugged at the young man before turning her attention to the package of cookies she had brought with her.

Beside her, the swordsman allowed his rigid form to fall back and collapse onto the roof, his arms spread out as he stared up at the passing clouds sailing through the blue sky. It wouldn't be until the bell had rung again, bringing with it the end of their break, before either of the two spoke another word.

~.~.~

Surprisingly, it was never really too difficult to get away with cutting class at the prestigious Kuoh Academy. In fact, it was because of the fact that the school had such a sterling reputation that ditching the educational system was so effortless. Having only recently been converted from a single-sex academy that was renowned for producing the finest young ladies in all of Japan to a coeducational school that allowed for a far rowdier breed of student to exist within its walls, the faculty had yet to begin the practice of keeping a watchful eye on the gates that barred anyone from entering or leaving school while classes were underway. Why bother? Up until a short while ago, there were no students at Kuoh Academy who would even think about committing truancy. Anyone who actually cared enough to try, though, could just walk right up and jump the fence—it wasn't hard.

It was that sense of naivety that Kuoh Academy so openly displayed that had Naruto rolling his eyes as he gripped the metal bars that stood between him and freedom. Sure enough, in just a few seconds, he was over the fence and touching down on the other side. Taking a quick minute to brush the dirt from his pants, the blonde took a moment to consider his options for the rest of the day. After all, he did have more than a few hours before he would have to go and find this Tamami person and, if he had to spend his evening with some random drunkard, he would prefer to have at least gotten to enjoy a little downtime in the afternoon.

'With the way my day's been, it's not like I don't need a good distraction to take my mind off things,' Naruto scowled to himself, his morning encounter with Rias and his recent fight with Kiba still at the forefront of his thoughts, "Guess I'll go hit up an arcade or something."

"Great idea, Naruto-san! There's this one arcade in my neighborhood that has this rare figurine with huge tits in the claw machine that I've been dying to get my hands!"

Naruto blinked, turning to find none other than Hyoudou Issei cradling the top of the gate, tightly grasping onto the wrought iron in fear of losing his balance and toppling to the concrete below. A flat stare was aimed at the young pervert as he slowly and carefully began to make his way down, courtesy of the delinquent. When Issei's feet finally rediscovered stability upon the ground, the blonde spoke up.

"Hyoudou, what the hell are you doing?" Naruto questioned, arching an eyebrow at the abrupt appearance of the breast-obsessed student.

"Huh?" Issei blinked as he turned to face the smoker, "What do you mean, Naruto-san? We're going to the arcade, aren't we?"

Palming his forehead, Naruto spoke in an exhausted tone that the brunet failed to pick up on, "I meant what are you doing here, why did you follow me?"

"Well, you never answered my question, Naruto-san," Issei shrugged, as though that explained everything in perfect detail. Then again, considering who he was dealing with, Naruto supposed it did. The blonde could put the pieces together fairly easily having heard that, after all. Issei had spotted him in the hallway as he snuck out and, determined to find out what type of porn he partook in, the brunet had followed him. In his love of porn, he had completely disregarded the fact that Naruto was blatantly ditching school.

Naruto shook his head, shoving his hands into his pockets, "You're not getting an answer, Hyoudou. Honestly, who even asks someone something like that?"

Issei's brown eyes grew wide with shock, his mouth falling open and his shoulders turning stiff. Naruto couldn't tell if it was funny, sad, or disturbing that this horrified reaction was caused only by his unwillingness to openly discuss pornography. Trembling, Issei threw his arms into the air, waving them in desperation as the blonde refused to dignify his inquiry with a proper response.

"B-B-But Naruto-san, how are you supposed to enjoy your porn if you don't share all the details with your friends!? No, who else are you supposed to enjoy it with!?" Issei cried as though his honor had somehow been challenged, as though it had been sullied by Naruto's reluctance to revel in the finest of perverted works, "Think of all the good that comes with sharing your smut with your comrades! Entire worlds are opened up to you! Your bonds are strengthened that much more and you become united in knowing each other's most intimate secrets! Porn is the key to world peace, Naruto-san! In fact, as Descartes once said…"

Choosing to ignore the majority of Issei's porn-themed rant, Naruto did take away one important piece of information from the impassioned speech. Apparently, Issei considered him a friend…or at least a "comrade" with whom he could share his porn, but those two things may be one and the same in the pervert's eyes. Were they actually friends, however? Naruto had always considered Issei to be a distant acquaintance at best. Other than Issei's love of porn, Naruto knew absolutely nothing about the young man and he was fairly certain that Issei knew nothing about him. They had talked before, an activity which primarily consisted of Issei waxing philosophical on the issue of breasts and all things sexual while Naruto tried his best to ignore him, but that was only during class and for brief moments at a time. In fact, the only times they had even hung out outside of school were during those rare mornings when Issei's path would cross Naruto's on the way to Kuoh.

With so little interaction and knowledge of one another, could they really call each other friends? Issei seemed to think so, but maybe the leader of the 'Perverted Trio' just had a broader definition of what friendship really was.

"Youth is something you can't go wasting, you know, and there is no better way to waste it than to spend it alone."

Naruto really wasn't sure why Azazel's words had resurfaced in his mind, particularly considering that the blonde was fairly convinced that the Fallen had only said them to tease and mock him. The delinquent sighed, running a hand through his locks as he did so, "Hyoudou."

"…and the leaders of the world shall come together, united under the banners of little sisters, childhood friends, and the housewife who lives next-door and…huh?" Issei blinked, ending his smut-centered soliloquy and glancing over to the delinquent, "Did you say something, Naruto-san?"

Naruto took a moment shake his head in exasperation before continuing, "You can come with me to the arcade if you want, but I'm not gonna talk about what kind of porn I like, got it?"

Issei pouted at the refusal, but slowly nodded his head in acceptance, "Well, it's not like there aren't other topics we can talk about."

'I'm almost too afraid to ask…' Naruto sighed as he heard Issei mutter those words before the two turned and began down the sidewalk at a leisurely pace, "Such as?"

Issei turned to the blonde, sparkles dancing in his joyous and excited eyes, "If you work at a porn shop, is NSFW material still NSFW?"

Almost automatically upon hearing Issei's new suggestion for their topic of discussion, Naruto pulled his lighter and cigarettes free from the confines of his pockets and lit one, 'I get the feeling I'm gonna need a few of these to get through today…'

"Ah, Naruto-san, you smoke?" Issei mumbled, more to himself than to the blonde.

Naruto shrugged his shoulders and took a drag of the tobacco, "Got a problem with it?"

"Of course I do!" Issei retorted, pointing to the willowy wisps of smoke that were drifting in the air, "Smoke is the thing that most often covers exposed breasts in anime and manga! What am I supposed to do if we bump into a naked cutie and I can't see her boobs because of your bad habits!?"

"…Until you find a better reason, I'm not putting it out," Naruto knew that had he turned to look at Issei at that moment, he would've been unable to keep the look of judgment and disgust from entering his eyes. Instead, so as not to offend his companion of the next few hours, he continued to look towards the horizon, like a soldier rallying his courage for one last brilliant hurrah after a hellish uphill struggle, "Also, I'm deciding what we talk about from now on."

"B-But Naruto-san…!"

Naruto exhaled, sending more pillows of smoke into the air and watching as they slowly faded from view, "Deal with it."

~.~.~

Holding up his treasure to the sun in joyous celebration of its retrieval from the infamous clawed thief, he could not help but stare in awe of its pristine magnificence. The battle over who was fated to stand as its rightful owner had raged on for what felt like hours, draining him both emotionally and economically with each and every vain attempt to free it from the cage it had been so cruelly abandoned in. It wasn't until his ally, a true champion and hero who would no doubt be spoken of around campfires for ages to come, had stepped forward to rescue the treasure from the jaws of eternal imprisonment that he could finally hold it in his grasp and it was with supreme satisfaction that he could safely say that all the legends describing its glory were entirely true.

Her tits really were amazing.

"Thank you, Naruto-san!" Issei crowed, leering down at the figurine in his hands and nearly drooling over the…fullness of the PVC. If plastic could bounce, the Pawn was certain that he'd have quite the sight to ogle with every step he took. Off to the side, watching the enraptured Issei and struggling not to comment on the creepiness of it all, Naruto was rubbing the back of his neck, suddenly very conscious of the fact that hanging out with Issei could easily land him with the label of "pervert" in addition to his already rough reputation as a thug.

Naruto's gaze shifted away from the display of affection and the blonde took a step back from his classmate when the brunet actually began to rub his face against the box, "No problem. It's not like it was real difficult or anything…"

When the pair had reached the arcade, the delinquent had made a beeline for the 'Trial by Fighter' cabinet, where he had quickly busied himself with smacking down any challenger that dared to step up and play him. When he had finally taken a step back from the game after a solid twenty straight victories, Naruto had decided to go and see what Issei was doing. It hadn't taken long to find him—he was, after all, the only one in the entire store openly weeping on his knees in front of the claw machine, lamenting his lack of skills and money. Stepping up to the machine, Naruto slipped a few coins into it and, as the lights of the game flashed to life, asked which prize Issei was going for.

When he looked inside the cabinet, however, the blonde swiftly realized that he needn't have asked—the plastic, bikini-clad anime girl with a chest that was easily twice the size of her head was practically screaming Issei's name. His assumption proved correct when Issei then shot up, pressing his face against the glass to wail about a "PVC siren" who "lured men's wallets to the grave with her beautiful pair."

Now sorely tempted to just get the stuffed rabbit next to the "siren" instead, Naruto bit his tongue and worked his magic, nonchalantly positioning the claw over the figurine's box and snatching it up by the lid. He was only slightly put-off by the way that Issei's face was alight with glee when the blonde had handed him the box, a feeling that only grew faintly (immensely) when the brunet had then run out of the arcade, waving his prize around and singing praises to the delinquent.

"But you were amazing, Naruto-san! You got the grand prize on your first try!" Issei exclaimed.

Naruto just shrugged his shoulders in response, "It's nothing. For whatever reason, I've always had a talent for pointless crap like arcade games."

"Naruto-sensei!" placing the figurine's package under his shoulder, Issei leapt forward and captured one of Naruto's hands in both of his, falling to his knees as though he were standing before the Lord himself, "Please, teach me your techniques!"

As he tried to wrench his arm out of Issei's surprisingly vice-like grip, Naruto frowned, "It's not really something I can teach, ya know? I just kinda do it."

"Eh? No way! You didn't even hesitate for a second—that can't just be luck!" Issei jumped up, pointing an accusatory finger towards Naruto, "You're just trying to keep all of your secrets for yourself, aren't you? How stingy! I didn't think Naruto-san was that kind of person…"

Naruto's face was as cold and emotionless as stone as he wrapped his hand around Issei's outstretched digit and proceeded to slowly bend it backwards at an intolerable angle. The effect was immediate, with Issei dropping to his knees, rivers streaming from his eyes as he frantically shook both his head back and forth. The blonde resisted the urge to roll his eyes—he wasn't even really hurting the pervert. Not yet, at least.

"Grah! I'm sorry! I'm really, really sorry!" the brunet cried, "Forgive me, Naruto-sama! It was a joke, a joke!"

Naruto sighed and released Issei, "That figurine was the only reason you wanted to come here, wasn't it? I'm getting pretty tired of the arcade, so you wanna go do something else?"

"How about we head to the convenience store and check out their swimsuit magazines?" Issei cradled his finger gently in his hands as he made his recommendation, a small blush creeping over his face and a giggle escaping his lips as he envisioned what kind of beauty would be awaiting him on the centerfolds of his favorite publications.

"…Why don't we go get something to eat instead?" Naruto dryly suggested, brow twitching in irritation, 'Does this kid's libido even come with an off switch?'

"Eh?" Issei blinked, staring up at the blonde with curious eyes, "Doesn't Naruto-san want to see cute girls in bikinis?"

"Not particularly," Naruto gave his classmate a lazy, half-lidded stare as he shot down the perverse proposition, "I don't really have much of an interest in that sorta thing."

As Naruto would no doubt soon discover, however, the mind of Hyoudou Issei is nothing short of a psychological marvel. It is a place of delusion, bathed in misapprehension and sheltered within a world of popular culture and erotica. In its pure yet avaricious pursuit of bodily pleasures, a number of factual realities and evident truths had and would continue to be pointedly denied by the inner workings of the teenager's subconscious. For example, the fact that, in modern societies such as Japan, harems were by and large nonexistent was one such verity that Issei had firmly repressed for the sake of his dreams. Another fact that Issei would continue to deny was that anyone, let alone the godson of the legendary Jiraiya-sama, author of the godly 'Icha Icha' series, held no interest or passion for porn.

Thusly, rather than seeing Naruto's flat expression and unyielding indifference towards smut, a very different scene played out for Issei.

For Issei, the world behind Naruto seemed to lose itself in a dreamlike amalgamation of vivid oranges, pinks, and blues—a collage of colors to match even the most scintillating of sunsets. As bubbles that sparkled as brilliantly as any diamond began to float through the air, dancing in the gentle breeze, a version of the blonde that existed only in Issei's mind began to grow a healthy blush. The imaginary delinquent glanced away, refusing to meet Issei's gaze, as he stammered, "W-Well, i-it's not like I'm i-interested in that sort of thing!"

And in that moment, an epiphany struck Issei, leading the teenaged pervert to enlightenment.

'I see…Naruto-san's reluctance to discuss pornography, his lack of interest in any of the magazines I've tried to show him—it all makes sense now! Naruto-san's tsundere for porn!' the brunet Devil realized, looking to the smoker with newfound understanding, "Naruto-san…"

"Hm?" the blonde raised an eyebrow, "What is it?"

"It's okay—I understand now and, more importantly, porn understands," tears of joy pricking at the corners of his eyes, Issei offered Naruto a proud smile and a firm nod before raising his thumb in approval, "And both porn and I will wait for the day you finally turn "dere" and join us as our comrade and brother, no matter how long it takes."

"…I'm going to get some ramen."

"Eh? Naruto-san?" Issei blinked, watching bemusedly as Naruto walked past him without another word, "W-What about the swimsuits? Naruto-san? Naruto-san! Ah, not again! Wait up!"

As Issei gave chase after the departing delinquent, he quickly swiped at his forehead in an attempt to cleanse his brow of the sweat that had gathered there. Rias hadn't been joking around when she informed him that newly reborn Devils tended to have difficulties with fatigue while in direct sunlight—ever since he'd woken up this morning, he'd been feeling particularly exhausted, though the brunet believed that he hid it well. It helped that his body was also enjoying the physical benefits that came with being a Devil.

'Still, chasing after Naruto-san is really tiring!' Issei decided as he lurched to a sudden halt. With one hand upon his knee and the other placed over his rapidly beating heart, Issei propped himself up against the corner of a building as he stopped to catch his breath. As he waited for his shallow gasps to steady, the young man couldn't help but stare down at himself, sweating and enervated, and feel slightly inferior to nearly everyone around him.

He had always been rather pathetic—his parents knew that, his classmates knew that, and he knew that. He could laugh and play if off like he didn't care what others thought of him, but he knew. After all, what was he? Just a perverted student with an appreciation for anime. He had no talents or skills, he wasn't good at any sports or extracurricular activities, and his grades were middling at best. Combine that with the fact that he had all of three friends on a good day and Hyoudou Issei couldn't really say that his life was one that anyone could be envious of.

Joining Rias' Peerage hadn't just been a means of attaining a harem for him, though that had played a large part in his decision. As he saw it, he had been offered an opportunity to make something of his boring, unappealing life. It had been a chance to be something more, to finally have something unique that he could be proud of. So what if he was a talentless pervert? Who cares if he couldn't hit a homerun or ace his English exam? He was a proud and powerful Devil under the protection and guidance of the beautiful Rias Gremory and no one could take that from him.

Or so he had thought.

Unshakable was the confidence his reincarnation had given him and yet, after spending a brief few days as a lurker of the underworld, Issei had quickly realized just how low his status truly was. He wasn't wildly swift like Yuuto Kiba or ungodly strong like Koneko. He couldn't perform devastating magic like Himejima Akeno, nor could he strategize and command a battlefield with superiority the way that his crimson-haired commander could. He was just a Pawn, one so weak that he couldn't even use the basic teleportation magic that even the freshest Devils had access to.

This realization had brought with it an earth-shattering blow to his ego, which wasn't terribly powerful to begin with. Still, he had comforted himself, at least he was stronger than the average human. None of his classmates, who mocked and looked down upon him, could ever even dream of being a Devil. None of them were aware of what really went bump in the night, none of them could fight vile evils and protect the common good.

And then he witnessed Namikaze Naruto, his classmate for half a year, fight and kill a Stray Devil who had murdered fourteen innocents, all by himself. Naruto, who wasn't even a Devil, who hadn't even had his powers for more than a week, had already surpassed Issei by leaps and bounds. He was supposed to be a Devil, a powerful being who slayed the demons of the night and granted people's truest wishes, yet all he could do was stare at the backs of those around him as they grew and he remained his same, weak self. His opportunity for greatness had reaped no results—he was still just as pathetic as before.

Issei hadn't been joking this morning when he had thought that maybe he should try and be more like Naruto. Yet, both then and now, the question he really wanted to ask the blonde died on his tongue whenever he faced him. After all, how is one supposed to tell another that they feel powerless? What words can one friend say to another to explain their jealousy? Issei didn't know. So, rather than try, the pervert stuck to what he did know—making perverted jokes and discussing porn.

Now was the moment in his life when he should have felt the most powerful, the most fulfilling, yet Issei had never felt so impotent.

With a sigh, Issei straightened up and looked in the direction Naruto had walked off in, "I guess I should try to catch up…"

"C'mon, Sister—we just want a peek."

"Yeah, and who knows? If you show us Heaven, we might just convert!"

"P-Please, stop! I…I just need to go and find—"

"What's the rush? Relax and we'll give you a grand tour of the whole city—after we're done here, that is."

Issei paused and turn towards the alleyway that rested just a few steps ahead of him. Moving towards it, he dared to steal a glimpse inside and his efforts were rewarded with a scene he had read about in many of his favorite anime and manga. Just a few feet into the alley, a pair of particularly unfriendly-looking thugs had their backs to the entrance, no doubt trapping the young lady they were clearly harassing inside. As for the lady in question, Issei couldn't actually see her—not with the punkish duo blocking his view—but even he could clearly hear the growing fear and discomfort in her voice.

It was at times like this that a hero would appear out of thin air and save the day at the last possible second, a brave crusader who would rush into danger, never once heeding their own safety, and rescue the lovely damsel from the dastardly clutches of the villains. Sadly, there appeared to be no heroes around and no police, either.

'No one but me…' Issei frowned.

The brunet could very easily imagine Naruto or Rias storming down the alley without a second thought and confronting the pair. He could see Kiba casually taunting the thugs from the entrance and then quickly dispatching them both with a few simple yet elegant strikes. Koneko would've silently stalked towards the punks before effortlessly slamming their skulls together and throwing them out onto the street. Akeno would've been licking her lips in anticipation at the prospect of punishing a few goons.

Issei looked down at his hands and bit back a laugh, brimming with self-loathing—they were trembling at the mere thought of entering and drawing the ire of the two supposed it wasn't surprising—up until a few days ago, he'd just been a normal kid. Had he really thought that, just because he got a small upgrade, he was going to be a hero now? Looking back at it all, the idea just felt…stupid.

"I really am pathetic," Issei muttered, allowing his arms to drop and hang listlessly at his sides. He looked back and forth down the street—no Naruto, no Rias, no hero. Just an oblivious crowd of bystanders, walking by without a thought in the world. Issei swallowed the lump in his throat.

No one but him.

"N-No, stop! P-Please—somebody help!"

"Stop right there!"

"Huh?" one of the thugs muttered as both he and his accomplice turned towards the entrance of the alley, the scowls on their faces revealing their discontent at being interrupted. There they found Issei, standing straight up with a cocky grin glued to his face, a fist at his hip and a proud finger pointed outwards at the young criminals to strike a pose similar to one a Saturday-morning cartoon hero would make. The punks, who normally would've been shaking in fear at this point in the episode, instead looked thoroughly unimpressed.

"What the hell do you want, ya stupid bastard?" the larger of the two spoke up, "We're kinda in the middle of something here, so beat it and we might not beat you, understand?"

What did he want? Issei only wished he knew—his body, which had refused to move only seconds ago, had jumped into action upon hearing that last desperate cry for help. Both his body and mind on autopilot, he had imitated the heroes of his youth and even borrowed a line he was certain he had heard them utter a thousand times. Even so, that left him without a plan of action—he wasn't even entirely sure what to say next.

'C'mon, just go with it, you idiot! You've seen this kinda scene a hundred times by now!' Issei mentally cursed himself as he lowered his finger, "What do I want?! Justice, of course!"

Issei would later smack himself in embarrassment for that one, but for now, he had other worries to deal with.

"Justice…? Is this kid for real?" the second goon snickered, "You wanna be a hero, is that it? This isn't like the cartoons, kiddo—we put the last "hero" we ran into in a real bad way. Don't think he had any teeth left by the time we were done with 'im. How about it, kid? You wanna keep your teeth?"

'Yespleasedon'tkillme,' was Issei's first panicked thought, but he chose instead to boldly declare, "I'd rather take yours!"

"Oh, well, what do ya fuckin' know? Kid's actually got a pair on him," the larger thug grinned, pulling out a knife, "Wanna cut 'em off?"

"Sounds fun," the smaller one smirked. Issei flinched.

"Y-You're going to want to put that knife away, bastard!" Issei tried his best at giving a threatening growl as the two slowly approached him. Judging from the way they laughed, it wasn't terribly convincing.

"Is that right?" tossing the knife back and forth between his hands tauntingly, the punk laughed, "Or else what?"

Issei ground his teeth together, fighting his every instinct that commanded he run away—fast, "O-Or else…"

"Or else I'm gonna take that knife and cut you from your nonexistent balls to that empty head of yours, just so I can open you up and see what dumbasses are made of."

When the familiar voice of Namikaze Naruto resounded behind him, Issei turned to see his intimidating classmate standing just a foot behind him, meaning he didn't have the chance to watch the arrogant smiles quickly fall from the faces of his would-be attackers. The knife dropped to the pavement with a clatter, having fallen out of the thug's now shaking hands, "Shit! It's the 'Blood Orange'!"

"I really hate that name…" Naruto scowled before cracking his knuckles, "So, how about it, boys? Care to try?"

Their answer was to quickly turn tail and run, pushing past their captive in a mad dash for the other end of the alley. Naruto watched them go with a shrug, turning to Issei as he placed his hands back in his pockets, "Would you believe that's the second time this shit's happened this week? You okay, Hyoudou?"

"Y-Yeah," Issei mumbled, still slightly stunned by the sudden arrival of the delinquent, "You…you came back?"

Naruto frowned, raising an eyebrow as he did so, "Came back? 'Course I did. You didn't think I'd honestly just ditch you like that, did you? I'm not that much of an asshole."

"…I guess not," Issei chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly as he grinned, "Thanks for the save, Naruto-sa—whoa!"

A small blonde torpedo crashed into Issei's chest and enveloped him within a tight hug, nearly knocking the brunet off his feet in the process. Glancing down, Issei found an angel staring back at him and quickly felt a heat spread across his face in the form of a healthy blush. Emerald-like eyes shined up at him, held by a beautifully pale and flawless heart-shaped face and framed with stunning golden hair.

"T-Thank you for saving me," the young girl mumbled, blushing slightly as she let go of Issei.

"O-Oh," Issei glanced away from the girl, "N-No problem—it was nothing, really."

"I-It wasn't nothing," the small girl clasped her hands together, "Y-You were very gallant!"

"I doubt it," Issei chuckled nervously, scratching his cheek, "I probably looked pretty dumb…"

"Not at all…"

'Feels like I'm watching a scene right out of those sappy romance movies that Mom hates,' Naruto chuckled in amusement as he watched the flustered duo. Standing off to the side of their conversation, he silently observed the young lady. She was small, perhaps only slightly taller than Koneko and probably around the same age. Her clothes were the most striking thing about her, though—a long, flowing teal habit cloaked her body and a white veil rested upon her head. Naruto eyed the silver cross hanging from her neck, "You a nun, Miss?"

"Ah, yes!" the girl blushed, quickly turning to bow to Naruto as well, "Thank you for saving me as well! My name is Argento Asia!"

"Don't mention it," Naruto held up a hand, waving off the maiden's thanks, "Name's Naruto, by the way, and your savior here is Issei."

"Naruto-san and Issei-san, is it? Thank you both again," Asia bowed deeply once more, "If it weren't for you two, I'm not sure what would have happened."

"What exactly did happen between you and those guys, anyway?" Issei questioned.

Asia frowned, glancing downwards in dejection, "I'm afraid I'm a bit lost. I was looking for the local church and stopped to ask directions, but I guess I asked the wrong sort of people…"

"It happens," Naruto shrugged, "There're a lot of punks in this town. You just gotta be a bit more careful."

'But you're one of those punks that people look out for, Naruto-san…' Issei thought, giving a nervous chuckle, "The church, huh? We don't really have a church, except for that rundown one…"

"You know where to find it?" Asia's eyes lit up with hope at the prospect of finally reaching her destination. Naruto almost laughed—the girl looked so giddy that she almost resembled a puppy about to receive a tasty treat. Giving Issei a pat on the back, Naruto jerked a thumb in the brunet's direction.

"Issei here can take you, then," Naruto casually decided, earning a look of surprise from his perverted classmate.

Issei frowned, "Eh? But weren't we—"

"This is more important, isn't it? You saved the princess, now take her to the castle," Naruto turned to leave, shoving his hands in his pockets as he did so, "Just try not to get into any more trouble on the way there."

Issei watched Naruto leave silently as Asia waved her goodbyes, shouting a few final calls of thanks as Naruto disappeared around the corner.

"You saved the princess…"

'I didn't though—not really,' Issei frowned, clenching his fists, 'You're the one who saved the both of us.'

"Issei-san?"

"Huh?" Issei turned to look at Asia, who's large, bright eyes were staring up at him with curiosity.

"Weren't you going to lead the way to the church?" Asia asked innocently, giving the brunet a heartwarming smile.

Issei quickly placed a smile on his own features, one that he hoped matched hers, "Y-Yeah, let's go!"

"Right!" Asia cheerfully nodded, bouncing on her feet. As she turned to the entrance of the alleyway, however, she spotted something lying on the ground and stepped towards it. Picking it up and peering down at it, a bright red blush swiftly bloomed upon her adorable visage. Turning to Issei, she held the item out towards the young man, allowing the teenager a good look at what she had found. A single glance was all it took for Issei to recognize the item and, as he saw it, his blood ran cold—it was the figurine that Naruto had won him at the arcade.

'I must've dropped it when I went to help her!' Issei realized as his complexion paled—the last thing he wanted was for this beauty, whom he had just met, to think he was a pervert, even if he actually was one.

"I-Is this y-y-yours, Issei-san?" Asia questioned, her gaze struggling to avoid looking at the obscene bathing suit the small plastic woman wore.

"N-No, not at all! T-That's…" Issei waved his hands back and forth defensively, racking his mind for an excuse that could save him. Desperate and out of options, Issei gulped and, praying that this would not come back to bite him in the ass, gave the only alibi he could think of, "That's Naruto-san's! W-We were just at the arcade and he won it! I guess he left it here, though…"

Asia's blush increased as she spared another glance at the figurine, "N-N-Naruto-san likes this kind of thing?"

'Please forgive me for this, Naruto-san!' Issei laughed awkwardly, "He loves stuff like that! I think he collects them. He'd be really sad if he lost it, so I can take it and give it back to him later!"

Pure, innocent Asia bought the lie without so much as a second thought and it only made Issei feel even guiltier as the girl gingerly passed the box to him. As the pair walked out of the alley and back into the sunlight, Issei once again felt the weariness that came from being under the sun and remembered that he was, in fact, a Devil. He snickered a little bit—who would imagine that a Devil would be escorting a nun to her church? Glancing at the nun in question, however, Issei allowed an easy smile on face.

Something about it just felt…natural.

'Ah, that's right,' Issei recalled as he and Asia stepped out onto the street, 'Didn't Buchou warn me not to go near churches?'

"Issei-san? Are you alright?" Asia's voice brought Issei out of his thoughts and the brunet found the blonde shooting him a concerned look, "You seem distracted."

One look at the petite girl was more than enough to convince Issei to ignore the warning, if only just this once, "I'm fine. Now, let's go find that church!"

He was a Devil, after all. What was the harm in breaking a rule or two?

~.~.~

Kobayashi Tamami, at age thirty-six, was a typical salaryman working a typical office job and living in a typical community. Unmarried, he brought in just enough money to keep himself living in reasonable comfort, without any great luxuries to his name. With no friends in his life, his hobby was going out drinking with his coworkers and superiors, all of whom he hated with a passion and all of whom hated him back. Those drinking sessions were an event which occurred every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday night. On those nights, he would arrive home at one in the morning, fall asleep at two, and wake up at five to head back into work. Sometimes, he would arrive back at his home in a drunken rage, screaming and making such a ruckus that his neighbors would call the police, though he was never once arrested for drunkenly misconduct. Other nights, he wouldn't even make it past the door and would wind up sleeping on his front step.

He was, by all definitions of the word, average and blandly so, whether it be his looks, his career, or his personal life.

'Exactly the sort of person stupid and desperate enough to try and spice up their life with a helping hand from Satan,' Naruto sighed as he finished looking over the brief biography of the man in question, "And I'm the lucky guy who gets to spend all night giving him a pep talk. Hoo-fucking-ray."

Checking the address listed in the file one last time to make absolutely certain that he wasn't about to barge into some random home, Naruto found that the number given did indeed match the abode he was standing before. Looking up from the papers to the domicile, he resisted the urge to roll his eyes—even the house was boringly commonplace, with an unremarkable white coat of paint and the standard two stories.

'At least this place doesn't look like the set of a horror movie,' Naruto appraised the location of his latest job before shaking his head, 'Like that makes it any better.'

As he stepped out of the illuminating shine of a streetlamp's glow, the blonde cast his gaze up to the darkened skies above with a frown, 'How come it's always nighttime when I have to do this supernatural shit?'

Moving towards the door, he noted with little interest that a single window, dimly lit on the second floor, stuck out against the shadows, contrasting the dark and gloomy faces of its identical brethren. Snorting as he reached up and loudly hammered his fist upon the wooden barrier, Naruto glowered, 'Lucky me—he's actually home instead of at the bar.'

Knocking three times upon the door, Naruto retracted his hand and waited…and waited…and waited. Frowning, the delinquent knocked again, louder this time, only to again receive no response to his efforts. Naruto let out a growl of annoyance as he looked upwards toward the lit window, 'Did the drunkard pass out already? It's not even seven yet!'

"Oi, Kobayashi! If you're in there, then open the damn door before I tear it down and kick your drunken ass away from the bottle and into the nearest hospital!" Naruto roared up at the glass. Considering the possibility that Kobayashi truly had blacked out in a drunken stupor so early in the evening, it was rather unsurprising that the blonde's frustrated threat was met only by silence. With a low snarl, the delinquent turned his attention to the door once more.

"Fine then, if that's how you want to play it…" the blonde grounded out, gripping the doorknob, fully intent on ripping the wood to the ground with all the might he could muster. Instead, however, Naruto found that the moment his hand so much as brushed against the brass of the handle, the door slipped inwards, revealing that it hadn't even been locked in the first place. A strong breeze of cool wind came rushing by in that very moment, pushing the door open on its own.

As the doorway slowly swung open before his eyes, Naruto was allowed a glimpse into the confines of the home.

'Oh, fuck me…' Naruto groaned mentally as he eyed the inside of the house. Furniture was toppled haphazardly across the room, upholstery torn and lamps and lights shattered, their broken forms lying scattered on the floor. Crimson ichor had been sprayed across the walls, where it had poured down and seeped onto the floor before congealing in thick puddles that stained the floorboards. All in all, it didn't take a genius to realize that a struggle had taken place here, one that the blonde was willing to bet had ended in the death of Kobayashi Tamami.

'So much for not looking like a horror movie. Guess that means I was a little late to the party—Kobayashi must've summoned a Stray Devil,' Naruto grimaced as he warily stepped into the living room, calling his Light to his hands, 'But where the fuck is the damn thing?'

"…God…sorry for my…heart…"

The delinquent's shoulder's stiffened as a voice, faint and emotionless, drifted down from the stairway. Moving over to the stairs, Naruto peered up into the darkness that cloaked the second floor, stilling his breath as he strained to catch the words that floated down the steps, mere whispers in the air.

"…choosing to…wrong…failing to do good, I have…against You, whom…love above all…"

His eyes narrowed in suspicion, Naruto slowly and deliberately set his foot on the first step, gripping the handrail and carefully settling his weight so as to avoid making any noises that could potentially alert the upstairs occupant. The last thing the blonde wanted at the moment was to have his cover blown by a creaky floorboard.

"…I firmly intend…Your Grace, to sin no…avoid whatever leads me to sin…"

As he silently crept up each step, the voice began to become clearer and clearer, to the point that the blonde could now establish certain details about the speaker. Whoever it was, they were clearly male and possibly a few years older than he was. They also didn't seem to be hurt in anyway, judging from the distinct lack of pain in their voice, meaning that they were also likely the one who had attacked Kobayashi.

"…Our Savior, Jesus Christ, suffered and died for us. In His name, I ask the Lord have mercy…"

'Seems a bit pious for a Stray,' Naruto frowned, bemusement shining in his gaze, 'Maybe the bastard's just crazy—crazier than the last two, anyway.'

"…God, Father of Mercies, through the death and resurrection of His Son, has reconciled the world to Himself and bid the Holy Spirit be among us for the forgiveness of our sins…"

Ascending to the top of the stairs, Naruto found himself eclipsed in the shadows that he had spied. The only beacon that stood for him lay at the end of the hallway in the form of a door that had been left ajar, illuminated by the light that poured out from within the room. It was from that room that Naruto could hear the religious chanting of the suspected murderer, the monotone voice becoming louder as the blonde drew nearer.

"…Through the ministry of the Church, I ask that the Lord may grant me both pardon and peace. I absolve myself of my sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."

Approaching the door, the delinquent crouched low and dispersed his Light so as to remain as inconspicuous as possible. Naruto peeked inside, determined to find out exactly what had happened in Kobayashi's home that evening. As he glimpsed the scene within the room, however, the delinquent felt his blood run cold.

A carcass, stripped naked and flayed, it's chest cut from neck to pelvis and torn wide open to reveal it's complete lack of innards, was nailed to the wall. Upon the cadaver's face, two dark and empty pits lay sunken in place of eyes and its bloody mouth, lacking all teeth and a tongue, hung open at an inhumane angle—a look of utter agony and terror, frozen on its cold features. Long and disgustingly surgical cuts ran along the insides of its arms and legs, and it turned the blonde's stomach when he noted how the veins had been intricately pulled from the limbs and left to hang limply in the air like the strings of a puppet. Large iron spikes had been driven into its hands and feet, pinning the body to the wall in a pose that resembled the figure of the crucified Son of God.

One needn't look far for the eviscerated corpse's organs, however. They were all nailed to the walls surrounding it, blood dripping down from the intestines and falling onto the bones that littered the floor. So fresh was the death that the room had yet to stink of rot. Rather, the scent of blood was palpable and widespread that Naruto could actually taste iron in the air. Perhaps it was just a sign that he was slowly becoming desensitized to the sight of blood and gore, but he felt no need to vomit or look away.

In the middle of the horrific sight, a figure was kneeling with his head bowed low, clasping his hands together and muttering prayers.

A human.

Not a Stray Devil, but a human had tortured and murdered Kobayashi before disemboweling him.

Naruto gulped—hopefully before disemboweling him.

Yet, even though the stranger was no demon, at least not literally, the air about him felt far more vile and malevolent than the presences Viser and Stolas. The Strays he had fought had murdered for enjoyment. They killed, and tortured, and gorged themselves upon the flesh of innocence because that was what they wanted to do. As he gazed upon the bloody sight before him, however, Naruto saw something far more dangerous than a Devil wanting to harm the innocent could ever be.

He saw a man compelled, a man who felt he needed to murder and mutilate.

"Amen," the figure whispered, his dispassionate tone reverberating in Naruto's mind, "God has forgiven my sins—may I go in peace. Thanks be to God…"

The praying psychopath stood from his kneeling position and straightened himself. A mane of silver flowed from the young man's head, matted down with thickened blood. His pale skin and dark cassock matched his head, dotted and stained with blotches of coagulated gore. Stretching his arms until he heard the satisfying crack of his own bones that he sought, the young man released a content sigh, his voice suddenly taking on a lax nature, "Well, now that I got that shit out of the way, let's deal with you, shall we?"

Naruto's heart stilled upon hearing the man's words, 'N-No way! I didn't make any noise—when did he notice me!?'

"Oi!" the young man barked, turning to face the doorway where the blonde had hidden. Somehow, his eyes honed instantly in on Naruto's form, despite the fact that the blonde still remained well within the confines of the shadows, "Do you have any idea how long you kept me waiting, asshole? Come on out and let me get a look at ya. Not every day I get to meet a holy bastard like you, ya know?"

'He knew I was coming here tonight! Fucker even knows I'm a Nephilim…I swear, if this is another one of Azazel's tests, I'm gonna kill that jackass,' the blonde scowled from within the darkness. A loud and sudden click drew the delinquent out of his thoughts—the silver-haired maniac had pulled a gun from his robes, a metallic gleam racing across its barrel, and had levelled it in Naruto's direction, his finger tapping mockingly against the trigger.

"Alright, listen here, you little shit," the man spoke, sneering, "Maybe you feel like hiding out there and jerking off all night, but I'm starting to get a tad impatient. Either you come over here and present yourself like a good little piggy for the slaughter or I start pulling this trigger and see if I can't plant a bullet in your dick before I put one in your skull."

That…did not sound particularly pleasant, Naruto decided, and while it was true that he had gotten considerably faster with the awakening of his latent powers, the blonde was still rather unwilling to see if he really was faster than a speeding bullet. Along with this, the delinquent also decided he wasn't interested in seeing if he could turn and run quicker than a blood-crazed psycho could pull a trigger.

'Gotta go along with him until I find a way to deal with that gun,' Naruto grimaced and reluctantly stood, stepping into the room and glowering at the stranger as he did so.

Rather than answer, however, the silver-haired stranger instead took to observing the blonde. Calculating violet eyes that held a madness churning within them like the waves of a dark ocean fell upon the delinquent, drinking in every detail as though the murderer was dissecting him with his gaze alone. His curiosity apparently sated, the killer looked away after a brief silence, spitting a disappointed sigh as he did so, "Boring…"

Standing in the bloodied bedroom of a flayed corpse, Naruto had certainly not been expecting that word to slip from the murder's mouth, "…What?"

Waving off Naruto's confusion, the man shook his head dejectedly, "Forget it. More importantly, don't you have something you wanna say?"

'Seems like he's a talker. Good—that should buy me some time,' Naruto clenched his fists, "Oh, I have tons I wanna say, like that you're a soulless piece of shit or that I'm gonna take that gun and shove it so far up your ass that I could pull the trigger and shoot your front teeth out. Right now though, I think I'll just go with fuck you."

"All very interesting choices and all so very wrong, shithead! Zero points, you lousy little bastard, absolutely none~!" the silver-haired lunatic smirked, jabbing his index finger in the blonde's direction, "There's an order to these things and the trash-talk comes later. When you walk into confession, the first thing you say to the priest is, 'Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.'"

"I somehow find it hard to believe that you're a priest," Naruto retorted dryly.

"Ha!" the man laughed, cackling as he did a prideful twirl, "Believe it! I'm not just a priest, I'm the priest, bitch! Father Freed Sellzen, exorcist extraordinaire, tasked with butchering demons, heathens, and any other fuckers who offend God!"

The delinquent glanced to the corpse on the wall, feeling his indignation spike at the sight, "And drunken salarymen, apparently."

Freed grinned in response, waving an arm towards the body, "My prey comes in all shapes and sizes, but a spade's a spade and a heretic's a heretic. This here? Not even my best work. You should see me on a good night, when the whole family's home when I come a-knockin'! That's some good fun right there~! I typically leave the kiddies for last, but sometimes I switch it up and let mommy and daddy watch as I slice their brat wide open."

The blonde clenched his teeth, snarling at the mere thought.

"Oi, what's with the glare? Don't worry, God always forgives me—I just clasped my hands together, say I'm sorry, and poof! Free of sin!" Freed snorted, his smirk taking on a mocking gleam, "So, if you've got a problem, then take it up with the big man upstairs. It's not my fault God's got a snuff list a mile long and a hard-on for murder!"

Naruto narrowed his gaze, "I'm gonna take a shot in the dark and say I'm on that list too, aren't I?"

"Right now, you are the list, buddy. Some associates of mine want your head to roll and it just so happens that I'm more than happy to oblige," Freed chuckled, nodding towards the pistol in his hands, "So it's nothin' personal, but I'm gonna have to ask you to open that mouth of yours so I can plant a few slugs in your throat."

"You pull that trigger," Naruto snapped, "And you're gonna lose the finger that pulled it."

The exorcist's grin stretched from ear to ear, "That a threat?"

"It's a promise," the smoker corrected, "And I kinda pride myself on keeping my promises."

"I can respect that—admire it, even. See, I have something of a reputation to keep too," the priest licked his lips, eyes bulging with excitement, "Killing is my trade and I'm real good at what I do. I've murdered every single fucker that I've been told to make disappear and you're not gonna be any different, kid."

"You never know. Most people seem to think I'm a pretty special guy," the blonde muttered.

"Something tells me you'll bleed like all the rest of them," Freed laughed, thrusting the gun towards Naruto, "But why take my word for it!? Let's find out!"

His finger hovering over the trigger and the barrel aimed squarely at Naruto's head, Freed had begun to pull the metal backwards when his attention was suddenly seized by the abrupt appearance of a stunning and vibrant glow. Freed's eyes shot down to Naruto's left heel, his gaze suddenly catching the bright illumination the poured off of the back of the delinquent's foot. Just as the trigger was finally pulled completely back, Naruto swiftly lifted his foot and slammed his heel down onto the floor. The Light-powered stomp proved too much for the floorboards to handle and the wood shattered and erupted into the air under the pressure of the strike. A large shard of a two-by-four went flying straight up, slamming into Freed's wrist at full force and pushing it upwards just as the hammer flew forward and smacked the bullet in the chamber.

Violet eyes widened as Freed found his aim shifted by the debris.

As the bullet rocketed out of the muzzle, the slug's target was no longer Naruto's head—the metal now flew upwards, towards the lamp that hung overhead. The bullet easily shot through the lightbulb, shattering the glass and destroying the room's only source of illumination, plunging both the priest and the student into total darkness.

As quickly as he could, Freed pointed his gun to where Naruto had been just seconds ago and fired again, only for the brief flash of light the shot gave off to reveal that the blonde had moved—the exorcist now had no idea where Naruto was. Cursing under his breath, Freed's gaze darted around, searching for any shifting shadow that might give his prey's presence away as he waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness.

An iron grip suddenly encircled his wrist, squeezing down with such force that the exorcist nearly dropped his weapon involuntarily, 'Son of a bitch!'

Freed twisted his arm and pulled, attempting to quickly free himself from the vice-like hold of the delinquent. As he did, a sharp pain suddenly flared on his hand and a particularly sickening snap sounded. Freed was suddenly aware that he could no longer feel the trigger of his pistol—the blonde had broken his index and middle fingers, having taken them and pulled them back to snap the digits like twigs.

"Grah!" Freed screamed, the firearm falling from his hands as he moved to cradle his injured fingers, "You cock-sucking motherfucker! I'm gonna make you watch as I gut you, you goddamn fuck, you—!"

And there it was—as though a light switch had suddenly been flipped, a blazing radiance that promised only pain suddenly appeared, shattering the shadows. At the heart of it stood the smoker Freed meant to kill, his hands now aglow with Light, shining and illuminating the room in a holy brilliance.

Fists already packed with Light, Naruto wasted no time in letting a solid left hook fly forward to greet Freed's face, the attack cutting through the gloom like a comet. His blow landing true, Naruto leaned into his punch and watched as the contours of the exorcist's visage caved inwards and molded around the force of his hand. Freed's head and neck snapped backwards with a crack as the maniac felt himself begin to lurch upwards and off the ground before he was sent flying backwards with all the speed of the bullet he had just fired off.

A grunt escaped Freed's lips as he felt his back collide with the far wall of the room and, when he continued to feel himself soaring through the air, he didn't need to open his clenched eyes to realize that he had actually gone through the wall.

Naruto, his heart and mind racing over just how close he had come to being shot, watched silently as his opponent disappeared through the hole that the priest had torn in the wall and into the next room. A loud and sudden crash rang out, signifying that the holy madman's trip had finally come to an end and that he now probably rested somewhere within a pile of drywall and broken furniture.

"Amen," Naruto muttered as he finally lowered his fist.

~.~.~

Throughout his childhood, he had been told of all sorts of dangerous and sinful creatures that he would one day be tasked with slaying. Truth be told, that was how he spent most of his youth—in a small classroom in one of the many chambers of the Vatican, being taught how to kill Devils and Fallen and why it was right to do so. He, along with his classmates, studied the Seventy-Two Pillars and Grigori so often that it almost seemed like that was all they ever learned about. Still, every now and then, as the sun sank below the horizon and shadows began to line the halls of the Vatican, Freed would hear whispers of another monster that lurked in this sinful world.

Nephilim.

When the children of God would treacherously descend from Heaven and join with the children of Cain, a sin-ridden curse would be born to walk the lands. Giants, wielding the Light that was rightfully His for their own heretical ways, who dreamt of one day reaching up and seizing all that is celestial within their vile hands. It was they who sought to drag the Heavens into the pits of Hell to burn for all eternity. They would be the ones to dance around the ashes and sing hymns of fornication and sacrilege as the pious screamed in agony. Come judgement, it was none other than the Nephilim who would stand upon that pyre and proclaim themselves to be kings, usurping the world and its livelihood from the Kingdom of God.

And yet, when he first heard of the supposed terrors that such monsters would bring, Freed cared extraordinarily little for the disastrous consequences. While his classmates had quivered in fear of a creature capable of tearing Heaven from its holy roots, Freed trembled with excitement. Whatever plans the Nephilim had, they meant nothing to him. What mattered was their fabled thirst for carnage and war—his concerns lay with the surely legendary battle that one would give him and nothing else.

"How much blood does a giant have to spill?"

It was a question that often ran through his head as he daydreamed. More than a man, certainly, and probably far more than any Devil or Fallen Angel. He would find out, one day, when he would hunt a holy giant and slay it. He would bathe in its blood and drop its carcass at the doorstep of the Vatican and the world would know that he was Freed Sellzen, the man who killed God's bastard.

Such a prospect lit a joyous fire in his young heart and Freed found new determination. Fueled by this, he excelled in all studies and ventures brought before him, both in the classroom and in the field, and graduated at the top of his class to become the most promising exorcist of his generation to take up the mantle. He took on increasingly dangerous missions and operations, to the point that many considered him suicidal, and he hunted down all those he was sent after, waiting for the day that he would be tasked with the greatest of all quests—to kill a Nephilim.

Of course, he had never seen one—no one had. The last known Nephilim was said to be Goliath of Gath, who had been brought down by a single stone cast by the hand of a meek shepherd that had been guided by God. Absolutely none had appeared in the thousands of years since then. Still, Freed had held a firm, child-like belief that a Nephilim would one day appear again and that he would become the next giant-slayer, the man who slew the bastard of Heaven.

He would wait however long it took for another one to be born.

Days turned to weeks, weeks into months, and months into years, all the while. As he awaited his unholy opponent, Freed grew in body and mind. He learned everything there was to learn about his many prey, went out on hunt after hunt, and spilled enough blood to cover an entire battlefield thrice over. Even still, no Nephilim ever appeared and attempted to pull Heaven from the skies and Freed's childhood dreams faded from his adult mind, parting with them as he parted with the Vatican.

His own teachers had turned on him, scorning him for utilizing the tools and techniques that they themselves had given him. He could see it—the jealousy churning in their eyes, alongside their fear. They were envious of his skills but, most of all, they had been terrified of his insight. After all, he alone knew what he was, what they all were.

Murderers.

Butchers.

Unlike his classmates, unlike his teachers, Freed understood. He understood that the Devils and the Fallen had young of their own. He understood that they had family and friends, hopes and dreams, and that they could love and laugh just as anyone could. While all others who walked the halls of the Vatican denied these simple facts, Freed embraced them.

That was why he had to be the most brutal, the most ruthless, the most manic—it was all he could do to try and teach his peers what they really were…well, he'd also be lying through his teeth if he said he didn't enjoy reveling in the black comedy that was his line of work.

As he would come to learn, however, his fellow exorcists did not share his appreciation for the finer points of parody. It seemed, in fact, that many of them were desperate to obscure their view of the proverbial mirror he was holding up to them, to the point that they showed no hesitation in stripping him of his titles and exiling him from the Vatican. For a great while afterwards, he had wandered aimlessly, continuing his dark act and leaving a trail of blood and flesh wherever he went. It had been his new employer who picked up on that trail, tracking him down and offering him a wider, more worthwhile stage to perform on. It was rather an odd experience, finally meeting someone who understood the joke as Freed did. For the first time, Freed had someone to laugh with rather than at and he wasn't about to let that rare opportunity slip by.

He agreed to work for his kindred spirit without a second thought.

It wasn't too long afterwards that he was assigned the job of serving some pompous little upstart Fallen bitch in her quest to steal a Sacred Gear from a sniveling little nun. It had been a task Freed resented, dealing with Raynare's bullshit and babysitting Asia, and he had on more than one occasion considered simply slaughtering the both of them. As it turned out, though, showing some restraint had proven to work out in his favor, as it wasn't much longer before he was being ordered to make his childhood dream a reality.

When he first realized what had happened, he laughed so hard and long that he had nearly passed out—to think, that when Raynare had given him that pointless order to kill Azazel's new toy, the whore had been offering his dream to him on a silver platter. It wasn't until hours later, when he finally decided to get a bit of info on his latest target, that he discovered the truth.

Azazel had done the impossible—the Fallen leader had found a genuine Nephilim and Freed was being given the chance to strike it down where it stood. The set-up had even been taken care of for him. Raynare had learned through their true employer's information network that a man in the local area was seeking to summon a Devil through dubious means. From there, her lackeys merely had to file a mission request to trick Azazel into sending the Nephilim right into Freed's clutches.

Freed had been all too anxious as he past the hours playing with Kobayashi, just waiting for his prey to wander into its death. At last, the moment had arrived—he heard his target come through the front door and sensed it slowly stalk up the stairs. He turned around and demanded it face him. And when it finally stepped out from the darkness, what did he find standing there?

A kid.

The great, all-powerful Nephilim that supposedly breathed sin itself was nothing more than a snot-nosed punk, barely tall enough to jump up and dunk a basketball into a hoop, let alone pull Heaven into Hell.

"Boring…"

He had muttered the word at the precise moment that his dreams had turned to ash in his mouth. If the boy really was a Nephilim, it would seem that the legends of the giants that would bring about the end of days for all things holy were nothing more than fairy tales, meant only to scare rambunctious children into being pure and pious. His dream was destined to remain only that, for reality, it seemed, had far more disappointing plans in mind.

Or so he had thought.

'Little fucker's quick on his feet, I'll give him that,' sitting up, Freed reached upwards to grasp his aching head. Pulling his hand away, he grimaced as he noted that it came away wet and dripping with his own ichor, 'Hits like a goddamn truck, too. This might actually turn out to be a bit more interesting than I...'

His thoughts trailed off as he realized that an obnoxious ringing had suddenly appeared in his left ear, one that was gradually growing louder and louder. As this realization dawned on Freed, a wave of nausea abruptly overtook him, clouding his mind as his stomach turned. He gasped, only to hiss and shut his mouth quickly—not only had the mere act of moving his jaw caused considerable pain, but simply parting his lips had filled his mouth with the familiar taste of copper.

Reaching a trembling hand up to his face, Freed wiped his own blood from his visage before pulling his palm away to stare at the crimson that covered it—judging from the amount there, his lip had not only been split, but his nose had practically become a faucet, spilling out red with reckless abandon. He didn't have long to consider his own loss of blood, however, as Freed swiftly realized that he was staring at three left hands.

'What!?' the silver-haired man blinked, stunned only for a moment before awareness grasped him—it was his damned eye. Through his right eye, the man could see that he still only possessed one left hand, yet in his left, he was seeing double. Soon enough, the whole world began to blur in his left orb, becoming nothing more than a swirling mass of vague shapes and muddy colors, 'Christ, what the fuck did this kid do to the left side of my goddamn face!? I can't hear shit, I can't see shit…I'm half-deaf and half-blind!'

Accompanied with these symptoms was an intense, agonizing pain that flared across his features.

'Probably a broken cheekbone…probably a few broken things, actually. Hell, shattered might be a better word,' Freed spat a glob of blood as he sat up, reaching into his cloak to procure his second firearm, 'Always bring a spare. Still, I doubt I can aim worth a damn with my vision fucked like it is…'

Even though his eyesight had finally adjusted to the blanket of shadows that covered the room, his depth perception, among other things, was gone. With just one punch, the blonde punk had the experienced exorcist at a severe disadvantage. While the Nephilim was still fresh and raring to go, Freed had half of two vital physical senses completely failing him.

Staring down at the pistol in his hands, Freed thought of what he had loaded in the chambers in preparation for tonight and smirked, 'Well, let's see if we can't level the playing field a bit.'

~.~.~

'That…was way more of a fluke than I care to admit,' Naruto frowned, peering into the hole that Freed had exited through, 'If I was up against a Stray, I'd say I still had my work cut out for me, but, regardless of how fucked in the head this bastard is, he's still just a human. That hook should've knocked him out cold at the very least, dead at most.'

As far as the blonde could tell, that left him with all of two options. If the madman of the cloth really had been killed by the blow, then the delinquent could simply leave the house and bodies behind for the proper authorities to sort out at a later date, preferably when the delinquent was nowhere near the murder site. He supposed he should've felt a little disgusted by the idea of actually murdering the man, but Naruto decided that he could live with the guilt—somehow, the prospect of accidently killing a man like Freed didn't exactly weigh too heavily on Naruto's conscious. Alternatively, if Freed was merely unconscious, then the smartest option would probably be to drag the priest back to Azazel for a healthy bit of interrogation.

'After all, I wanna know how the bastard knew who I was and that I'd be here tonight. Can't imagine God would send him instead of another Angel,' Naruto frowned, 'And if it wasn't God trying to off me, then that means there's someone else out there who wants me dead.'

A loud and abrupt bang suddenly erupted, followed by another sharp crack. Before the blonde could even twitch, he felt unbearable pain explode within him.

He'd been shot.

Twice.

~.~.~

I saw a serpent rise between
The white pillars of the door,
And he forced and forced and forced
Down the golden hinges tore.

~.~.~

So…I'm alive. I know, it's been awhile, but what can I say? I've been super busy. If it's not papers, it's work, if it's not work, it's a wedding, and if it's not a wedding, it's more fucking papers. Seriously, kids who shouldn't be reading an "M" rated story even though it's really only rated that for violence and cursing, don't major in writing intensive fields when you go to college. Not fun. In fact, instead of writing this, I should be working on one of the three papers I have due in the next few days. Meh, I'll get around to them eventually.

I wanted to end this chapter after having Naruto and Freed duke it out a bit, but the inclusion of a gun in a story where I'm trying to keep the physics and realities of life at least somewhat intact (for now, anyway) make trying to survive against a person who is armed and skilled with a gun a pain in the ass to write. Honestly, this chapter was sitting at about 22,000 words for about six months while I was in the fresh Hell known as writer's block trying to figure out a decent way to write it. My cure for that writer's block? Push it off until the next chapter!

…I said it was a cure, I didn't say it was a good one.

For those of you who aren't already aware, I have a new story out. If you're a fan of Roosterteeth's RWBY, I'd recommend checking it out. It's called All Along the Watchtower and it features the same long-ass chapters and is also a Naruto crossover…so yeah, there's that.

Anyway, to summarize, writing the fight between Naruto and Freed has been kicking my ass and I wanted to just finally get the work I've already put in on this chapter out to you guys, so here it is. I'm sure some of you will notice that I've started about two other characters down their own arcs as well, namely Kiba and more importantly, Issei. For Kiba, the trauma with his past and his protective nature are certainly going to be the crux of his story, focusing on what happens when someone who has a strong need to defend others wants to protect someone who just doesn't want protection. For Issei, I don't know—I always felt that he's been portrayed as way too confident for a kid who is literally hated by the vast majority of his school. His story is mostly going to be about him finding his own role as a "hero" and trying to step out of the shadows of those who he thinks are superior to him. To demonstrate that, I put him in a situation similar to the one we found Naruto in when he confronted Mizuki, just for a nice bit of comparison.

Anyway, onto some of your responses and questions.

Does Kushina know that Minato was an Angel? Hm…that's a difficult one to answer. I can't really give away that one without spoiling some details of the plot later on, soooooo…maybe? I'm not saying no and I'm not saying yes.

Shouldn't Raynare want to follow Azazel's orders? Well, ordinarily, she might. For now, let's just say that all is not well amongst the members of Grigori.

Is Akeno a Nephilim? No, for reasons that some of you (you know who you are) have already guessed. All will be explained in time.

Can Naruto control different types of Light? I didn't really intend for there to be more than one type of Light, so not really. I will say that Naruto hasn't even really begun to realize or even tap into what being a Nephilim and having all that Light really means, though. Someone else asked if I was making the Light abilities as I go along, and the answer is no to that too. All of the attacks and capabilities of the Light have been planned out, from what they do to when they'll appear in the story.

Cut down on the banter during fights. Someone said that they didn't like the banter, but I disagree. Maybe in a more visual format, banter does get in the way of the action, but in a written piece, there's only so many times you can write "Freed dodged" or "Naruto kicked the man" before it gets tedious, both for the writer and the reader. It's for that reason why, in most books, fight scenes without an exchange of dialogue are usually super short. This person also told me to make the villains less cliché and make them terrifying, but I don't know. A part of my influence in writing this story was the phenomenal JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, which features a ton of wacky and just plain weird enemies.

It's because of how weird and zany the characters can get with their mannerisms and powers that the series is incredibly fun. That's what I want to focus on—not making a character that's terrifying (because, let's be honest, if I did that for every single enemy, it'd get really old really quick), but making one that's fun for me to write and hopefully fun for people to read. I know "fun," just like "terror," is a relative concept, and some people might have more fun reading about a terrifying villain than a weird one, but hey, it's not like all the villains will be wacky. I mean, we've seen what, three, including Freed? Even then, the other two are dead now, so I wasn't exactly going to go all out and develop full characters and backstories for Strays that were only going to last half a chapter. Give it time—I promise you that later villains are not going to be "comical."

Anyway, please tell me what you guys thought of the chapter. How did you feel about the interactions between Naruto and Kiba, and Naruto and Issei? Particularly, please tell me about how you felt reading Naruto and Kiba's argument, because I wasn't sure if maybe that seemed a bit rushed? I mean, I did hint that Kiba wasn't really okay with how Naruto didn't join the Peerage, but still. For that matter, what did you guys think of Freed and his backstory? What were your thoughts on Naruto's run-in with Rias? Please review and let me know!

As always, thanks for stopping by and have a good one.