Chapter 2

"Another round, barkeep!" Naruto called from his stool.

"Comin' right up," the grey-haired man replied from the other side of the bar. He then poured another glass of the amber ale and told his patron, "This is your fourth one; you sure you're alright? This bit here is a pretty stout one – most only make it through two before they get piss drunk."

"I'm fine," the scarred blonde assured him, not sounding inebriated in the slightest. "It takes a lot to get me buzzing, and I'm nowhere near close just yet."

The bar's owner shrugged in acceptance of his odd logic and added, "Okay. It's your funeral though, and that'd be another solid for the glass."

The haggard-looking man frowned at his glass and furrowed his brows in thought for a moment before reaching into his coin-purse and pulling out a handful of gold coins. "Give me six more after I finish that one," he grunted and followed that up by chugging down his mug of ale.

The older fellow seemed to be conflicted with himself after hearing the new proposition, but he eventually just shrugged and took the gold off the bar. He collected the few cleaned glasses from in front of his apparently-not-poor customer and went to his barrel of special ale in the back to refill them all.

"Sounds like someone's having a party over here!" a feminine voice Naruto recognized from the day before came from behind him. The voice's owner took the vacant stool on his left and asked with a big, toothy grin, "Mind if I bum one offa' ya', stranger? The old guy's Amber Specialty is probably the best this side a' the Capital, and I left my purse back home."

The man turned his head towards the woman and, after a minute, nodded to her. "I could use a drinking partner," he answered. "Drinking alone is never fun after all."

The blonde young woman sprouted a happy grin and greeted, "Name's Leone, O' Generous One. What's yours?"

The woman's cheerful personality caused Naruto's lips to twitch and he told her, "Naruto."

Leone was a buxom, fully-grown young woman who – by his estimate – was no younger than her early twenties. She had short blonde hair with two lengthy bangs which framed either side of her smiling face and bright gold eyes shining with mischief and an odd intelligence. She wore a beige scarf over her neck and had a pair of loose, three-quarter length sleeves over her arms that went up from her wrists to a pair of golden bangles over her biceps. Her brown, knee-high boots ran up into a set of leggings which had no inner-thigh covering at all, which made the man greatly curious as to how she managed to keep that attire and not seek out a change because of how breezy it must've been. The woman's modesty was covered by a single dark-colored piece of underwear showing off to the world with a matching breast band holding back her ample bosom, but it was the seemingly innocuous belt she wore that made his eyebrow rise in curiosity.

Lionel, huh? he immediately recognized the Teigu due to his past with one of its former wielders.

Leone swiped one of the six glasses and gulped it down nearly as quickly as Naruto had managed. She let out a sigh in contentment after removing the mug and commented with a smack of her lips, "Ah, you're still my all-time favorite no matter how much time passes. Hey, Old Man! Did you add something more to it since last week?"

The man's eyes opened and the barkeep realized who was in front of him, "Oh, it's you, Leone. But nope; nothing new. Maybe it's because someone else is paying for it?"

"True, true," she agreed with a serious nod of her head. "There's always a certain allure that makes everything taste better off of someone else's plate."

"That there is," Naruto agreed with a solemn nod as well. "So, besides bumming off of complete strangers, what do you do, Leone?"

"I don't recall giving you permission to call me by name," she grinned playfully, "but I don't mind so long as I get to do the same to you."

"I don't mind at all."

"Good!" The vivacious woman let out a rather unladylike belch and answered his previous question, "I'm from around these parts; born and bred down here in these slums. Made a real name for myself as a little tike giving massages at a local parlor."

"You still offering?" Naruto asked, seemingly interested in her every word at this point.

"Why are you propositioning little ol' me?" she smirked at him, which he returned with an innocent shrug and a smirk of his own. She then admitted, "I still do on occasion but not real often anymore. Got myself another job now; one where I ain't gotta' offer any happy endings – if ya' catch my drift," she finished with a small hiccup.

Naruto downed another glass and a little flush began to show on his disguised face. "I hear ya'," he responded with his voice beginning to slur a little from the alcohol. "So whatcha' doin' now?"

"A little of this; a little of that," the woman answered vaguely. "So what about 'chaself? I'm guessing from the cloak that you're a traveler?"

Naruto took another swig from a mug before nodding once and admitting, "Been moving around for the last decade-or-so, but I was born and raised right here in these here slums, same as you."

If possible, the woman's face brightened even further after hearing his words. She held up one of the last glasses of ale and proposed, "A toast! To two slums-souls like ourselves who've found our way back home!"

The disguised man smiled drunkenly and clinked the two mugs while slurring in agreement, "To us! To a better tomorrow today!"

"I'll drink to that!" Leone exclaimed and then the pair of drunken blondes chugged the last two mugs of ale. "Whew! Now that really hit the spot there!"

"It sure did," he nodded in agreement. "Oi, Barkeep! Another few rounds for the pretty lady and miself as well!"

"You're a man after my own heart!" the beauty declared, slapping his back in hearty merriment. She then settled down a little bit and asked in a more casual tone, "So whatcha' doin' back here in the Capital, Root?"

His lone-visible eyebrow rose and he queried curiously, "Root?"

She shrugged back uncaringly, "Eh, I don't really like long names; best to keep 'em short and simple in my book, so 'Root' is what I got for ya' out of 'Naruto.' You got any better ideas?"

He actually stopped and thought about that for a minute before returning with a shrug, "Not really, but you're the first to ever come up that that'n. My mom used to always call me her 'little Naru-chan' though."

"Then Root it is!" Leone exclaimed excitedly. "So why'd ya' come back to the dreariest city in the world?"

Naruto answered, "I heard a few stories and came back to see iff'n they're true or not."

"Which ones?" she probed deeper behind her perceived drunkenness. "There's a whole buncha' rumors out there."

The blonde man hiccupped once in chorus with his drinking partner and his eyes darted around the bar in search of anyone listening in. After confirming there were none, he leaned closer to his partner and whispered, "Can you keep a secret?"

"You bet your sweet ass I can," Leone grinned. She leaned closer after completely turning towards him and asked lowly, "So what's the secret? Is it something big?"

He nodded once and his mouth opened to speak, but he stopped himself before he said anything to her. He shook his head and reminded himself, "No, no; I can't say. If I do then someone'll try and kill you too."

Leone whined in annoyance, "Oh, c'mon! Now you got me really interested, Root! You can't just tease a girl that way; dangle that juicy piece a' meat and then take it away when I bite. Come on! Pretty please," she looked at him with her large eyes which oddly reminded Naruto of the cat his mother had kept as a pet when he was a kid.

Eventually his resolve crumbled and he sighed in defeat, "Oh, alright; alright! I'll tell ya' my big plan – just don't go blabbin' it around town."

"Yosh!" she smirked with a victorious fist-pump. "Still got it."

"But," he added, "I can't just give it ta' ya'. You need to earn it, ya' hear?"

Leone stopped and seemed to consider his words for a moment before asking him, "So whataya' want me to do?"

"Spar with me," he revealed simply. "You land a clean blow and I'll tell you a secret so big that it could very well destroy the Empire."

The buxom beauty looked dead into his eyes and then suddenly burst out laughing at his proposal. Naruto's face was absent humor as she gasped out, "Oh…Oh that's rich, Root; you very nearly had me there for a minute. You know, if all you wanted was a grope then all you had to do was just ask. You've got no idea how many horny asses come in here and try out that same line on me, and each one's turned out to just be all bluster with no real meat to them at all." She stood up from her stool with a click of her tongue in disappointment while shaking her head, "I honestly thought there was a little more muscle to you, Root. You disappoint me."

"Fine by me," he responded with an uncaring shrug. He then finished in a cunning whisper just loud enough for her to hear as she began to walk away, "Although I do wonder just who gave you that Teigu that you've got wrapped around that sweet ass of yours, Leone."

The blonde woman stopped cold at hearing his words and her shoulders tensed, showing that he'd hit the bull's-eye. "I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about," she attempted to casually deny, but she made no moves to escape just yet.

"Nice try," he smirked from behind his last mug of ale, "but after all the fights I had with the Ol' Asshole all those years ago I'd recognize Lionel anywhere. Now, why don't you sit back down, pretty lady, so we can talk a little bit more? I do enjoy your company, and you can stop trying to think up ways to try and kill me now. I'm not going to run to the guards – you can trust me when I say I hate the Capital as much as anybody."

Leone turned back around towards him with a large grin on her face which was to fool the casual observers, but the trained assassin in the cloak was easily able to pinpoint the signs of restrained hostility in her cheeks. "Well, why didn't you say so!?" she shouted playfully, drawing everyone in the bar's attention towards them both. The beauty then jumped onto his lap, wrapped her arms around and legs around his chest and waist, and happily exclaimed, "Why don't we go somewhere a little more private so we can finish our…discussion?"

Jealous murmurs from the rest of the bar's patrons fell upon deaf ears as he frowned at the woman grinding on his lap. So that's your game, eh? he realized quickly after assessing the situation. Put me on the defensive by gathering all this attention and preventing me from making a move while we're in your territory. Not bad, girly, but I'm an adaptable man. The man sprouted a lascivious grin and he drunkenly screamed out, "Hell yes! Your place or mine!?"

"Mine's not far," she answered while keeping up the ploy rather well – she gave no signs she could prevent from showing. "Just a couple streets down. You know that bookstore nobody ever shops at?"

"I do," he nodded. Naruto then sent out a mental command and he felt two of his active clones accept his new orders over the link.

"I know the owner," she told him. Leone then pulled out a set of keys from her pants' pocket and finished with a lecherous grin, "He's got a back storeroom that he keeps a bed in for when he's gotta' stay overnight. You up for a roll around in the hay?"

The man nodded once in assent to her request and then the pair of blondes both left the bar, with Leone walking next to and clinging onto him. She leaned her head on his shoulder and wrapped both of her hands around his body, pinning one of his arms between them both with her tight hold. To the casual onlooker, and judging from the many jealous glares Naruto felt on the back of his head, it seemed that a happy couple were basking in the afterglow of a wondrous night and were walking down the street for some shopping, but anyone trained to see it could notice the tension between the pair.

It took the two a few minutes of travel through the busy streets to finally locate the right bookstore. Just like usual, there were no customers, but this time the shopkeeper seemed to be nowhere to be found.

"I wonder where the bookkeeper is," Naruto mused aloud while Leone pulled the keys out from the valley of her breasts. "It's a good day for sales out here."

The door's locks gave way and she informed him, "Lubbock's off on business today, Root; won't be back until later. After you," she offered once she'd opened the door.

Naruto calmly entered the shop and idly perused the shelves lining the store while Leone locked the door behind them. She made certain the 'Closed' sign was facing outwards and closed the front windows' shades, preventing anyone from looking in and spotting them.

"Now then," she began, all playfulness now absent, "why don't you tell me how the Hell you recognized Lionel, Root?"

"Good books your friend's got here," he idly commented while he whistled once in appreciation and he pulled a copy of his mother's favorite book off of the shelf. He flipped through the tome and informed her simply, "And I knew it because I'm the one who found it fifteen years ago."

"Bullshit," she growled. "I bought Lionel from a clothing store five years ago because nobody knew it was one. It had never reacted to anyone who'd ever worn it before until I put it on."

He closed the book after reading one of the passages his mother had loved to read to him over and over again from back when he was a little kid and responded to her claim, "Then you're the first person Lionel's liked since I killed his previous wielder."

Leone's eyes sharpened at hearing his words and she took a ready stance in preparation for a fight, but Naruto made no such moves.

Without turning towards her, he continued, "Let's see… If I'm remembering right then Honest gave it to some Noble-or-other to bribe him for his support for when he planned to take over, but Lionel refused to activate for any of the fat lard's men. I guess then that they sold it since it was pretty much useless to 'em. Then you came along a few years later and charmed the big kitty."

The woman began to silently stalk about the empty store towards her prey and she demanded, "Just who the Hell are you, Root? Are you one of the Minister's Assassins, or an agent of the Revolution?"

"Neither to your second guesses, and the other bit's the secret I told you about, Leone," he replied amicably, seemingly unaffected by the tension in the air. He turned towards her with a big smile on his face and told her, "You know, my offer still stands. If you can land just a single clean blow then I'll tell you just who I really am, but now I realize that a bet's not a real bet unless I can get something from you should I win."

"Just what is it you want then?"

"Information," he answered easily. "If I win then you need to swear to answer a simple yes-or-no question honestly. Deal?"

Leone's gold eyes narrowed and she clarified, "What question?"

His smile remained plastered over his face and Naruto presented his terms, "Are you a member of Night Raid?"

Her eyes went wide in astonishment before they went sharp and intense again. "I don't know who you are, but now I can't let you live, Root," she growled menacingly. "Too many of our faces are known already. Nothing personal; just a part of the job." Waves of Killing Intent then washed across the store and her belt began to glow.

Unaffected by the crashing tides sent through the air, Naruto watched on with an interested eye since this was his first time witnessing Lionel's full activation first hand. Two furred, clawed paws enveloped both of Leone's hands which he knew from personal experience were exceptionally sharp. Her short blonde hair grew into a spiky, mid-back length golden mane with a pair of cat-like ears growing from each side of her scalp, and to complete the transformation a gold tail now crept out from her lower cloth and snaked itself around her waist.

Before any words could be said, Leone charged across the aisle with a single paw raised to cleave him in two. She brought her claws down even with his neck, but she was stunned to find only air where he'd been not even half-a-second before.

Leone felt a tug on one of her new ears and quickly turned only to find her foe directly in front of her, his face oddly intrigued for some reason while he held one of her added appendages. She jumped away while he complimented her appearance, "Not bad there, Leone. I'd always wondered why it was that the son of a bitch always seemed to be dressed like a cat and now I know why."

A bead of sweat traveled down Leone's face, but she otherwise showed no outward reaction to his little show of speed, impressing him with her mental fortitude. "Not bad," she offered back. "You're fast."

"That's an understatement if there ever was one, my dear," Naruto told her with a sigh. "I am the best at what I do."

Her feet slid out into another stance in preparation for another pounce and she asked him conversationally, "And just what might that be?"

"Kicking ass," he grinned, and then he disappeared from sight. Leone quickly reacted and punched right where his face reappeared behind her, but he managed to avoid the furred fist and complimented once more, "Good instincts. It's been a few years since anyone was able to guess my path until it was too late. I take it that's Lionel's assistance at work?"

She offered no verbal response to his query but the slight twitch of her jaw line was enough to confirm it to him. Leone offered him no room to get away and began sending flurries of punches and kicks of all types and in all directions at him. The blonde's face retained his large grin as he continued to easily evade each blurring strike seemingly with relative ease, which began to annoy his foe.

Eventually the assault ceased and Leone decided to disengage from the conflict for the moment. She jumped away from him and perched herself atop one of the largest bookshelves with her body in a four-legged crouch. Her eyes narrowed in thought and the lighting in the store that shined from the roof down onto her perched form reminded Naruto of when his mother's feline companion would perch herself atop his head and act like she owned the world.

"What's so funny, Root?" Leone growled down once she realized he was chuckling for some reason.

"Oh, nothing," he replied with a wave of his hand. "Just feeling a little nostalgic these past few days since I got back to the Capital is all."

"Tell me," she suddenly began, "why is it you're really back in the Capital, Root? You deny being an Assassin and an agent, yet I'm not believing you and my instincts are screaming at me that you're a whole lot more than you show. Have you considered joining Night Raid? We're currently down a few members and I can tell you seem to have no love for the Minister. You're obviously strong enough too, so what do you say?"

"Not really interested," he dismissed lazily. "You see, I've met those assholes leading the supposed Revolution and they're not really my friends after the stunt I pulled on them a little over five years ago. Najenda's alright, but I'm not really one to just do as I'm told and she's never liked any rebelliousness in her troops. So, nope."

The lion-enhanced woman frowned down at him in disappointment, "A pity really. Unfortunately, I can't let you live now regardless, as I don't think you'd let me capture you and take you prisoner. With you and Akame, though, I don't know if even Esdeath's new troupe would stand a chance."

"Word to the wise," he advised her. Naruto then moved so fast she couldn't keep track of him and he reappeared directly behind her. "Never assume you're the superior of the two combatants."

The blonde man sent a single chop of his hand to the back of his foe's neck and Leone's entire body went completely limp. Her listless limbs caused her to fall to her side and off of the bookcase towards the floor, but Naruto caught her before she could smash into the solid flooring a story below.

He gently laid her on the ground and scolded her, "Stop playing possum, Leone. The nerve I just hit only temporarily paralyzed you from the neck-down; I know you're still conscious."

Leone's gold eyes opened and she simply told him, resigned to her fate now, "Just do what you will and make it quick. If you're going to rape me, then do it while I'm still warm."

A lone bemused chuckle came from the man and he reiterated, "You can relax, you big baby, I'm not going to hurt you or run to the guards; trust me when I say that would only create more problems than the both of us could handle. No, I only want you to honor the arrangement we made earlier. So, yes or no, are you a member of Night Raid?"

"I'd have figured that the past few minutes was proof of that," she mumbled bitterly.

"So is that a yes or a no?"

Leone took in a steadying breath and she figured aloud, "I suppose there's no point in denying it since I'm about to die anyways. Yes, I am a member of Night Raid. You won't get the names of the others out of me no matter how hard you try though, so don't bother – I won't break."

"That's a little over-dramatic, don't you think? Besides, I just got what I wanted out of you," Naruto chirped with a happy grin. He then pinched another nerve on the side of her neck and told her just before she fell unconscious, "If you want to beat me though you'll need to try much harder next time, Little Girl."

"Tatsumi," Akame whispered to herself. She then finished strapping on her forearm guards and drew Murasame from its sheath. "Please stay safe."

The dark-haired young woman closed her eyes and took in a steadying breath, feeling the slight breeze waft its way across the training ground. After a few moments passed, the wind died and her crimson eyes opened, cold and sharp.

She dashed across the training grounds, weaving her way through the traps Lubbock had laid earlier at her request. The assassin ducked under an arrow and quickly back-flipped away from a large axe that fell right where she'd just been. The girl's hair spun around her as she landed and turned on her toes so she could slash the first dummy's throat.

After removing the first of her targets, she dashed to her right and slid underneath the razor-thin wire-trap that had been waist high. Her extended leg's heel met a small rock and she used that to propel herself back to her feet before she slashed the next target's throat and moved on to the next one.

For the next hour she continued to seamlessly avoid any harms on her person and consigned each of her planned targets with ease. When she finally stood up and took in her handiwork she felt pleased with herself when she spied that all sixty-four targets' necks had been slashed cleanly by her Teigu's blade.

Akame then looked down at herself to ascertain any damage she'd received from the obstacle course and frowned in dissatisfaction at what she saw. "Still got a ways to go," she reminded herself while one of her gloved hands grasped her tie – which had now been cut in half at some point in the earlier exchange. Why must this happen when the Boss is gone? she couldn't help but wonder bitterly.

With both her and Mine, now, unable to safely go into the Capital for reconnaissance and Tatsumi kidnapped by Esdeath she was running out of potential ideas. When Lubbock and Leone had returned with that grave news yesterday Akame had desperately wished to help her precious comrade but she'd known that Mine was right; she couldn't risk everyone's lives for the sake of a single person, no matter who they were.

"It's the burden of leadership," she recited from memory. She looked up into the sky and asked, "Why can't I be as strong as you, sensei? If I was then I could protect everyone and I'd never lose anyone again. I try hard every day, but I'm still so far behind you I don't know if I can even see you yet."

Esdeath was a foe Akame knew that she had no chance against as things stood unless everything went in her favor: The General was simply too powerful, too intelligent, and too dangerous for anyone in Night Raid to face as they were now. It was a sobering thought, and it wasn't one she liked to think about too much, but she couldn't rid herself of it in the past twenty-four hours.

Akame shook her head of such thoughts and sealed her blade back in its sheath. She walked over to the towel Mine had left for her and she wiped the sweat off of her brow that had accumulated from her training session. She then checked the time and noted to herself, "There's still a few hours until Leone and Lubbock are supposed to be back, so I guess I can go collect some more tuna for dinner tonight."

The Night Raid chef then grabbed her large wicker basket and went out to the same waterfall she'd brought Tatsumi to when he was under her domain. She stripped down to her white two-piece bathing suit and looked down into the pool of water below, spying a few schools of the right fish. The girl then dove into the pool and began throwing the tuna out of the water and into the basket she'd left on the bluff a hundred feet above the water.

After changing back into her usual dress an hour later she returned to the relocated base with another collection of fish to cook for everyone. As she approached the entrance, she spied a dot of pink sitting in a chair atop the base's roof watching the approaching pathway.

"Mine!" Akame called up. "Do you see them yet?"

"Not yet!" Mine shouted back down. "They've still got thirty minutes though!"

"Okay! I'm going to go get dinner started!"

"I'll be down in a minute!"

The dark-haired chef-slash-killer nodded up to her comrade and made her way into the base and to the kitchen. Once there she began to prepare the food and her consistent practice over the stove allowed her to get most of the meal prepared and finished before Leone and Lubbock had returned.

The sound of hysterical laughter broke Akame out of her concentration after twenty minutes of working on the meal. Curious as to why she could hear Lubbock and Mine laughing like a pair of hyenas she walked out of the kitchen and into the dining room, deciding to also go ahead and grab the plates so she could set the table.

Akame walked into the dining room and found that Leone was sulking in her seat at the table and was staring straight down at the ground at her feet. Lubbock and Mine were both grasping their sides while they rolled on the floor, both laughing so hard that each had tears in their eyes.

Blinking in shock at the sight and remaining rooted to her spot just inside the doorway, Akame's head glanced around at each of them and asked curiously, "What's so funny?"

"H-H-Her face!" Lubbock shrieked between his gasps for breath.

"Oh…Oh God that's hilarious!" Mine gasped.

"I'm gonna' kill him," Leone mumbled without raising her head. "I swear I'm gonna' kill that blonde bastard for this."

Akame's eyes were large, showing her confusion at hearing all of this, while she thought, What is going on here? She then asked Leone for information, "Did someone attack you, Leone, while you were gathering information?"

"…You could say that," the older woman confirmed meekly in a small voice.

"You could also say I really wanna' meet this guy!" Lubbock chimed in happily. "If he did this to you, then I've got to meet him and shake his hand!"

Akame's head tilted to the side and she queried, "Just what happened out there today? Leone, report."

She then recited to them without ever raising her head, "I was out doing my recon in the slums like I usually do and I came across a person drinking alone at the bar. I got the feeling that he was worth talking to so I joined him for a few minutes for a few beers and I thought he made a pass at me, but now I'm not so sure of that. I got up to leave then, but he blackmailed me into staying with him by telling me he somehow recognized Lionel.

"I quickly drew as much attention to us as possible and then forced him to go with me someplace isolated; I chose Lubbock's bookstore because I had the key, it was empty, and it was my home turf. After I locked the door I tried to get him to tell me just who the Hell he was but he refused to unless I played his game. He told me he'd tell me exactly who he really was if I could land a clean blow on him, but if I lost then I needed to answer if I was in Night Raid or not.

"Naturally," she continued on through the suddenly absent laughter, "I knew right then that he at the very least suspected I was so I couldn't let one of us leave the store alive. I activated Lionel and tried to pounce on him, but he was too fast and quick for me to land a punch or kick; he seemed to make it look effortless when he dodged me. I was able to predict his path once, and then I guess he just amped up the speed even further in response to keep me from doing so again.

"I realized then that he wasn't going to be an easy kill at all, so I disengaged and attempted to buy a little time for Lubbock to get back and help. I then asked him if he'd be willing to join us because I could tell from when we'd talked at the bar that he hates the Prime Minister something fierce, but he shot me down; claimed he wanted nothing to do with the Revolution at all.

"The guy then just…disappeared from my senses – even with Lionel activated – entirely and managed to paralyze my body below my neck. At that point I was certain I was dead meat, so I admitted to him that I was in Night Raid. He then pinched my neck again and knocked me out cold, but not before that arrogant asshole rubbed my defeat in my face."

The room was deathly silent once she'd finished recounting her tale, all prior humor completely gone now. Akame calmly digested all the information and assessed the situation before she prompted Leone to finish, "Just what did he say to you at the end, Leone?"

The blonde let out a dissatisfied exhale and repeated for her, "'If you want to beat me though you'll need to try much harder, Little Girl.'"

Akame's red eyes shot completely open in her shock and she dropped the plates she'd been holding in her hands, shattering them upon the ground. Both Lubbock and Mine looked over at their temporary leader curiously while she reeled, No. That's… It can't be… "Leone," she sternly requested, "did this man give you his name?"

"Naruto," the older woman revealed. "That's all he gave me."

Akame's dark hair flew behind her as she quickly dashed across the room and appeared in front of the blonde woman. She then asked her, "Just before you got knocked out, did he do anything to you? Anything at all?"

Leone answered her, "He didn't rape me, if that's what you're asking, Akame."

"How do you know for certain he didn't do anything though?" Lubbock queried, all humor from earlier drained away from his face.

"I've been around it enough to know the signs," the buxom woman informed him. She then listed off, "There were no additional fluids, no pain between my legs, and all my clothes were still intact and on my body. He had the chance but didn't do it."

"Well that's a sight," Mine commented while crossing her arms over her chest. "For once someone doesn't rape a defenseless girl; I'm somewhat in shock."

Akame ignored all of that and requested with an unfamiliar anxiety, "Leone, please show me your face. I promise that whatever he did I won't laugh."

"Mine said the same thing," she responded bitterly.

"Eh, it was a promise I just couldn't keep no matter how hard I tried," Mine shrugged without remorse.

"Please," Akame repeated, and Leone did as she had been asked. The red-eyed young woman sucked in a shocked breath at what she saw and she felt a single tear fall from her right eye at the sight: Six black whiskers had been drawn on Leone's face. It is, she confirmed.

"The kitty-cat has her own whiskers now," Lubbock grinned.

"Shut up, Lubbock!" Leone shouted back threateningly. "I tried for two hours to wash this shit off but nothing I tried worked." She then went stiff and asked, "Uh, just what are you doing, Akame?"

She ignored everything else going on around her and just blankly stared at the marked whiskers. Eventually she simply licked her thumb and wiped it on one of the markings.

"Ew!" Mine and Lubbock grimaced.

"What-What-What the Hell, Akame!?" Leone screamed from the spot across the room that she'd retreated to, her face flushed behind her whiskers.

Akame merely informed her, "Confirming something. Also, that type of ink only comes off when saliva is wiped on it; no other liquid works for some reason."

All three other members of Night Raid blinked dumbly to her words. "Huh?" Leone asked, and then she touched her face to confirm her words. Her gold eyes went wide and she exclaimed after confirming, "You're right, Akame! I can't believe it though," she added in a mumble. "Really? Saliva?"

The temporary leader of the group of assassins was completely oblivious to the entire subsequent conversation between the other three. It is him – it has to be, she told herself with conviction in her certainty. He's the only one I know of who could and would do all that Leone said he did. The only thing I don't know though, she thought while her hand tightly gripped her blade's hilt, is how he's still alive. I still have the proof that he died, so how? "Leone," she suddenly spoke up, cutting off the banter going on, "can you find this 'Naruto' again before midnight?"

Her gold eyes showed her confusion to the request but she nodded, "Yeah, no problem. Dude's not trying to draw attention to himself, but he isn't really going out of his way to hide either. Why?"

"Because all this was a message," she told everyone, stunning them silent, "and I intend to answer with one of my own."

Mine, Lubbock, and Leone all sprouted vicious smirks after hearing her plan and Leone asked her, "And just what kind of message would you like me to deliver, Boss?"

"When you find him, and he won't be hard to," Akame then instructed, "tell him that we got his message. Then you are to take him out of the Capital to Rendezvous Point Beta. If he wants proof, then tell him this: 'The blood here is as red as the moon.' Don't worry; he'll know what it means. I'll meet you both there."

"Roger that, Akame," Leone continued to smirk.

Akame's grip tightened further on Murasame's crimson hilt and she felt like she could hear her Teigu singing from this news. A feeling of excitement, nervousness, and anxiety pierced her thoughts while she swore to herself, I promised I'd make you proud, sensei, and tonight I'm going to prove it to you.

Naruto leaned against the trunk of a large pine in the dense forest that surrounded the Capital's outer walls. He continued to whistle one of his mother's favorite lullabies as he looked up at the moon and felt his face twitch.

So I was right all along, he thought with a small smile. The man's lone-visible eye drifted down and towards his current company and he assured her, "You can relax, Leone; I promise I'm not going to bite you."

"Forgive my skepticism," Leone responded, not sounding apologetic in the slightest, "but you didn't leave the best first impression earlier, Root."

"Need I remind you that it was you who attacked me first," he grinned back cheekily. "So if we were being technical then all I did earlier was entirely out of self-defense; I do wonder why you thought I'd be willing to join you after you attacked me though."

She shrugged once and replied to him, "Eh, that's how most of us were recruited anyway, so I figured 'why not?' But that was cruel of you to mark me like you did, Root."

Naruto smirked and teased, "But don't lion's usually mark their preferred mates, Leone?"

"Not like that," she informed him with a rueful shake of her head.

"I can do it the other way, if you'd rather," he grinned at her, and then he noticed another scent in the air. She's here, he thought while schooling his face into a neutral expression. The former assassin then turned his head towards the new presence and his cerulean eye locked with both of her red ones.

The two most immediately recognizable features of the new young woman there were her hair – blacker than a new moon and so long that it fell below her thighs – and her eyes: red as the rivers of blood she'd spilled. Her choice of attire was a sleeveless dark mini-dress that fluttered over the middle of her toned thighs in the nightly breeze that had a red skirt-armor covering her left hip which was held up by a crimson belt. Around her neck was a necktie the same color as her forearm gauntlets: Blood-red. And strapped to her side and within its sealed sheath Naruto spied the crimson hilt of her Bladed Teigu – Murasame.

Naruto pushed himself off of the tree and walked out to the other side of the small clearing. He pulled out a knife and suddenly cut off the lengthy locks of hair hiding his scar, revealing it also to the world at-large as well now. He held his closed hand out in front of him and opened his palm upwards, the blonde strands being blown away by the night's gentle wind. The man then gripped his cloak and tossed it into the air behind him, now showing his own attire to his opponent.

The man wore a sleeveless, skin-tight orange tunic and black pants that latched onto his legs just as tightly as his shirt did to his torso. Along both his arms' entire lengths ran a pair of dark lines that ended in the center of his palms, and down the outwards seams of his leggings was a single helix-curve white line that ended even with his ankles. He wore a pair of deep-black boots over his feet, and in the center of his shirt's back was a swirling red symbol which resembled a whirlpool – the symbol of his mother's family.

He viciously smirked across the way at his unfazed opponent, who simply gripped her sword's hilt tightly and pulled it from its scabbard. The bright light of the moon above glinted off of the polished blade's surface menacingly as she held the katana out before her, facing its edge towards him.

Naruto chuckled once and the edge of his lips twitched upwards at the sight in front of him. His arm then shot towards the girl and a small projectile rocketed through the air directly towards her, but the dark-haired assassin merely leaned her head to the side to avoid it. The small knife sailed by her head, blowing her hair slightly as it went by, and dug its entire six-inch length into the trunk of a tree behind her with a dull 'thud.'

The signal given, the red-eyed teen then shot across the clearing with Murasame singing through the air at her side. Naruto jumped over her horizontal slash that had been even with his hips and pushed his booted heel off of the blade's back in order to jump far enough away to avoid the next swipe at his neck.

Two daggers were pulled out of his pants and he brandished both in each of his extended arms before leaping towards his opponent once more. He slashed at the young woman at speeds many couldn't hope to see, but she danced away from each of his blades with a graceful ease no mere dancer could ever hope to compare to. She eventually ducked underneath one of his high cuts and delivered a straight kick directly into his center, sending him skidding along the ground and away from her.

She then sprinted forward again, but was forced to slow her advance in order to deflect both of the daggers Naruto threw at her, which allowed him just enough time to adequately recuperate from her stronger-than-expected blow. The man somersaulted over the sprinting girl and landed a few feet behind her, but he was again forced on the defensive once more due to her immediately pivoting on her foot and her spinning the blade in a deadly arc directed at his jugular.

Naruto's grin was practically maniacal as he was pushed back while continuing to avoid Murasame's cursed, deadly blade. He eventually jumped a fair distance away from his foe and then stomped the ground once, causing a tremor to rumble across the battlefield that shook the very earth beneath them and forced his enemy to stop her offensive in order to keep her feet.

The man quickly took his provided chance and delivered a solid punch that dug into the young woman's stomach. The girl grunted from the impact and was sent flying through the air until she fell to the ground hard and continued to roll a good twenty meters away from him. Murasame's bladed edge fell from the sky and pierced the ground just a mere three feet away from where she came to rest on the ground, prone.

Not bad, Naruto calculated with his smile briefly faltering on his face. She didn't want to risk being cut by Murasame's blade in the tumble on the ground so she threw it into the air just before she hit it. You've gotten much better, Girly. He then ducked under a sudden kick aimed at his head and scolded the other girl's timely intervention, "Don't you know it's rude to intrude on a touching reunion, Leone?"

"Bullshit," the Lionel-enhanced woman growled at him with a feral snarl while she brandished her clawed paws in front of her. "Like Hell I'm gonna' let you go in for the kill while I'm here."

Before he could berate her for her assumptions and lack of understanding the situation, the other member of Night Raid shakily called out, "Leone, stand aside. He's my opponent."

The golden-eyed woman looked back at her friend attempting to shakily stand and screamed in disbelief, "Have you gone completely bonkers!? Look at yourself! I know how strong you are, Akame, and it's not easy to get you so beat-up. This guy's too much for only one of us to take on."

"I know," Akame informed her, "but he's always been like that. Even still, you need to stand aside, Leone; this is my battle and I will fight it. That's an order," she added icily when her friend made no move to desist.

Leone shook her head but didn't allow her eyes to leave the observing blonde man. She responded without remorse, "Then that's an order I'm gonna' have to refuse, Akame. I won't let you fight him alone; I won't let you die."

The sound of an amused snort of laughter came from the lone male present, yet it wasn't a kind of insane laughter. "I see you've found some good comrades, haven't you, Akame?" he noted as he watched the scene. "I do believe that's enough for the night though, don't you?"

Leone's eyes narrowed at him and she demanded, "Just what the hell are you talking about?"

"I mean," he clarified for the respectably skeptical woman, "that I'm done fighting; I've seen what I wanted to." He then let his tightly-wound body visibly relax and drained the tension from himself, and then he began to walk towards Akame, who was holding onto Murasame like a crutch.

"No!" Akame protested vehemently with a refusing shake of her head. "I can still fight! I'm not done yet!"

Naruto merely kept walking towards the girl; Leone watched him closely, but made no hostile movements so long as he didn't. "But I am," he informed the girl evenly. Eventually he stopped right in front of the shivering girl and he gently smiled down at her. One of his hands rested over one of hers atop Murasame's hilt, making her inhale sharply, and he told her softly, "It's over, Akame. If you're going to ever beat me then you'll need to try a lot harder next time."

The black-haired girl sniffed once and looked upwards with her eyes large and their corners showing the beginnings of tears. Her lip quivered as she timidly asked, "Are…Are you really back, sensei?"

This elicited a frown from the man and he flicked her on the nose in response, making her squeak in pain and hold one gauntleted hand over it. He scolded her, "I thought I told you the last time we saw each other that you were to never call me that again."

Akame's nose was as red as her shocked wide eyes and she hurriedly tired to tell him, "I swear I didn't mean all that I said three years ago! I didn't know why you left yet, and I was still so angry because you left us, and I wanted to just hurt you as much as you did me, and I –"

She squeaked again when he cut her off by flicking her in the nose one more time and he informed the girl, "I knew all that then, and I know all that now. I never hated you, Akame, not even after all you said that day. If I did then I'd have never come back to the Capital in the first place."

She looked up and timidly asked, "So…So you're not…"

He smiled gently to her and reiterated, "No, and I never was. All I've ever been is proud of you, Akame, and that's still not changed even after all these years."

A pair of tears trailed down her cheeks and she sniffled, "I…I…I…" She then buried her face into his chest and wrapped her arms around him, crying out, "You're back! You're back! I thought for so long that you'd died! I can't believe you're back!"

He placed one hand atop her shaking scalp and let the other come to rest on her back to comfort the emotional girl he remembered, just like he used to have to do all those years ago. He smiled at his former disciple, "How could I go and die and leave my darling little ones behind? I'd have never forgiven myself." Naruto allowed a lone tear to drip onto her head and he whispered softly, "But yeah, Akame, I'm back, and this time it's for good. I won't ever leave again; I promise you."

A/N: Here's Chapter Two for you all. I apologize for the wait but it seems that my course-load this semester on top of my job doesn't allow me much free time anymore. Unfortunately, this means updates shouldn't be expected consistently for the next few months. Rest assured, there will be more for all of my stories, I just can't be certain as to how many and when they will happen.

I feel like an ass for having to go back on my promise to all my readers, but this doesn't pay the bills or build me any resume' points.

I still love you all, so don't think I don't. I will return and I will continue to put out kickass chapters that generate your interest and make more people want to come back.

Spread the word! Let your friends know of the story if you think they might be interested, as that's the best way for a reader to show support for a writer: Generate more interest!