As he stood in front of a full-length mirror in the room, Naruto couldn't help looking at himself, his attention focused on his face.
So these were Sasuke's eyes? He recognized the bright red irides with the three black, comma-like tomoe around the central pupil, but the sclerae were ebony, doubtlessly a lingering trait from before death had caused the alterations the curse mark had induced in Sasuke's body. Clearly, they'd been removed premortem.
It a twisted way, it made him feel almost like Kasashi-sensei, what with his own second-hand left Sharingan eye that was a mismatch to the rest of his body. Of course that meant he most likely had the same drawback as his teacher had, being unable to deactivate the Sharingan into a "normal" eye...or eyes, in Naruto's case.
Looking down at himself, Naruto felt his lip curl in revulsion.
The calluses on his hands showed he worked himself to the bone through physical training. Which meant he wasn't the gifted type who easily picked up on new skills, instead having to devote hours and energy into mastering them to even get close to those who were considered geniuses. He was actually proud of those.
No. It was the scars that left him disgusted about his body...wait...no not his body, he corrected himself, not anymore. This body. While it looked the same as it always had, it wasn't a human's anymore.
While the damned fox in him had done a lot to heal Naruto of the injuries he sustained, under the understanding that if Naruto died, the fox would as well since it was stuck in him, it couldn't always rid him of the scars. His body was a latticework angry lines and other, uglier wounds. Mementos of his surviving pain and abuse so awful, so evil, that were it not for the markings that stared back at him in the mirror nearly every day, he would have banished it from his conscious mind, things that no human could or should be able to survive...thing's he'd only survived due to a demon's necessity in having him alive...things that had happened to him because because people THOUGHT he was a demon himself before.
Now he actually WAS one. All because he had tried to stop a comrade from selling his soul to a body-snatching madman. Meanwhile, said "comrade" was most likely living it up in the eternal paradise of Heaven!
Naruto couldn't help but be bitter at the idea.
His fingers traced the outline of his newest mark: the nasty starburst-shaped divot in his chest where Sasuke's chidori had nearly taken a lung, as he did, his new eyes trailed over to the dozens of tinier spots and line where Haku's needles had pierced him, wondering what his old cryo-using frienemy/mentor would think of the situation Naruto currently found himself in, before his eyes drifted to other, much more unsettling wounds. The ones he had from BEFORE his life as a ninja. Mementos of his surviving pain and abuse so awful, so evil, that were it not for the markings that stared back at him in the mirror nearly every day constantly reminding him of them, he would have banished it from his conscious mind for the sake of his own sanity.
Naruto sighed, recalling how he'd felt in the past. Unbearably lonely, longed to be liked, loved and acknowledged as an individual as a result of being a jinchūriki — to show that he was a human being, not the demon he'd been forced to contain by that ever-damned son-of-a-bitch Yondaime Hokage, the person Naruto both admired and loathed above all others— and was driven to depression and desperation. That was part of the reason Naruto had consequently developed that misconception that pranks and mischief would bring him the attention he craved, but the other part was because not only did it allow him to vent his negative feelings towards the ones who treated him horribly in a passive aggressive fashion, it also helped him try to fool himself that the people around him loathed him for his pranks as opposed to the fact that he existed in the first place.
For Naruto, he'd worked and fought twice as hard as anyone to prove his humanity, a fight he had to endure...to fight at all...because he carried inside him the spirit of the Nine-Tailed Fox that almost destroyed the Leaf Village after the Yondaime had sealed it within him back when Naruto was a newborn, having utterly no say in it whatsoever. As far back as he could remember, people had always treated him like a monster and a freak. Everyday was a struggle just to be accepted by the world as a human being.
A struggle that, thanks to that Rias Gremory girl, he had now ultimately lost.
Some small, rational part of him was aware of the fact that Rias girl hadn't meant any harm—quite the contrary, she'd done what she had to in order to save his life—but hearing what had been done to him, he was too angry with her to care about that.
Sighing, he turned away from the mirror, fighting the urge to smash the reflective surface to pieces, and to the nightstand, where he'd found a new set of clothes that had been set there for him after he'd awoken after that Kiba guy had knocked him out. The outfit that had been laid out for him consisted of black jeans, an apricot-colored T-shirt with a grey wolf head imprinted on it and an unzipped, dark red hoodie that had a black mark on the back that looked like a three-clawed beast had slashed it, and black-and-white tabi boot sports shoes for parkour as well as a pair of clean socks and even some fresh underwear.
Naruto snorted. He wanted nothing to do with the redhead or her little group. Far as he was concerned, even the outfit she'd had left for him was an insult. Still...looking at the tattered remains of his orange tracksuit, he had to confess that the battle against his now-deceased, former "best friend" had done a number on his attire. Unless he wanted to go around as a nudist (which he didn't!), he guessed he'd have to give just a little ground on this one thing. Resentfully, he put on the outfit. Ah, well...least it had orange. Small miracle that it was.
As his thoughts went to their battle at the Valley of the End, Naruto realized something about Sasuke. When it all came down to it, this mess with him being turned into a devil was all Sasuke's fault! Self-righteous dumbass that he was!
While he understood why Sasuke was so angry over his family's massacre (after all, who couldn't?), after the incident at the inn when him and ero-sennin had been looking for Tsunade-baa-chan and Sasuke had been beaten senseless and put into that Tsukuyomi-induced coma, Naruto had realized that when it came to Itachi, Sasuke's mindset was as transparent as air: He lost his cool before the fight even started. He didn't bother even trying to assess his enemy's strength at all, and then he just charged in without thinking, blind hatred as his only rational, only to self-destruct.
Once that happened, the damned idiot's hubris kicked in and how he had both a superiority and an inferiority complex exposed itself, with the way he was unwilling to acknowledge when someone was stronger than him, but obsessed when he believed that they were. Besides, the self-titled avenger had grown up in the shadow of a prodigiously talented elder sibling, he should have understood the desire to have approval and recognition for his own merits, his own level of ability and improvement. Honestly, how hard was it to simply tell someone else "Good job"? But NOOOO! He just couldn't accept that someone wanted to get even that much from him.
It must have been soooo hard having to just settle for being rich, powerful, and admired, but it wasn't enough, and his lust for power and his pride had gotten him killed. Ironic really, they had both taken the thing they valued most from the other: Naruto, while in the figurative, emotional, and idealistic sense, valued that heart. Sasuke had valued absolutely nothing but his eyes...now Sasuke was dead from his heart being ripped out, and those very same ho-so-precious eyes were in the head of the one who had killed him.
All It had cost Naruto to put down the wrathful, self-righteous headcase was him being human, and since Konoha worshiped everything about Sasuke from the ground he walked on to the toilet he shit in, the blond couldn't go home either. All because, in the end, Sasuke had proven himself to be nothing but a spoiled rich kid who couldn't stand not to get everything he wanted and thought he was owed just because of his clan name.
Besides, the emo's goals were backwards. The guy who demanded power and just assumed being given it was his right and whose purpose was to destroy his brother and repopulate the Uchiha clan had never thought about the order of his priorities. The prick had always just assumed that one day he would be the one to end his brother's life. He had never seriously considered any other possibility. The problem with THAT was, it was obvious that Itachi was someone who preferred to end fights as quickly as possible, all the while holding himself back. Why that was, Naruto really had no clue, maybe he just hated to expend unnecessary effort in battle...? But to the point, that made it so that NO ONE, save Itachi himself, was aware of exactly just how powerful he was and what he could do when he seriously went all-out in a fight and actually aimed to kill his opponents. Taking that into account, Sasuke should have repopulated the Uchiha clan THEN gone after Itachi. That way, even if Sasuke had lost against his sibling, the task of rebuilding their family wouldn't fall to the one who had destroyed it in the first place.
But then, forethought never was Sasuke's strong suit as far as his goals. He wanted blood on his hands more than he did making sure his bloodline wasn't driven extinct or having restoring it become the job of the one who had whipped their family out. Then, in his obsession, he'd grown addicted to the twisted, forbidden power of that curse mark he'd gotten from Orochimaru in an attempt to just be given power on a silver platter because he didn't want to "waste time that he could have been using to hunt Itachi down and exact vengeance and justice on behalf of the Uchiha clan"...Naruto shook his head, knowing that was exactly what Sasuke's views on spending time training to improve his skills and grow stronger were. Like he'd said, Sasuke's logic was transparent as air for how easy it was to figure out how he though. Funny really, Sasuke had took the apple from the Snake, and it was NARUTO who was cast out of Eden for it!
As soon as that thought crossed his mind, Naruto groaned. Damnit! Now he was starting to think biblically?! He hated religion! Not matter the creed, no matter the entity they proclaimed, he HATED religion! All religions! Anyone that didn't like it, they could try living his life...constantly begging for help that wouldn't come from deities that didn't exist when cutthroat mobs were out to butcher you for simply being alive, proclaiming that all things holy wanted you dead because of the sheer fact that you existed in the first place...it could leave a profoundly bad impression as far as having faith went on people.
Naruto chuckled bitterly before he heard a snickering sound coming from behind him near the ceiling. That killed his sour amusement and his eye twitched, he turned to look up at the source of the sound.
So...it was still there huh?
It was some sort of bat creature. A pink round body like a ball, pointed ears on top of it's head, a noseless face, a human mouth, and big, human, gray eyes. It had small wings, a tiny, crooked tail that ended in an arrowhead, and stick-like legs that ended in cloven toes, and the top of it's head was a dark brown fur that extended to its ears and wings, and went into an almost bowl-cut, cowl-like point that met it's eyes, giving it a devious look.
Naruto glared at it with narrowed eyes. Wondering if he could get away with chucking the room's nightstand at it and smashing the thing. After all, it was the only living thing in the room with him, so not like anyone could snitch on him if he did. Ever since he'd awoken earlier, he'd found that thing watching him.
He just wished the damned thing would stop staring at him. Or at least blink!
At best the thing was just some freaky native animal, at worst, it was a summon that was ordered to keep an eye on him. Naruto was betting on the latter.
If he had to guess, it was that redheaded devil chick's. Something that annoyed him was the fact that whenever Rias crossed his mind was that, as much as he wanted to throttle her, part of him still considered the redhead pretty.
GAH! Not those thoughts again! Naruto turned and started banging his head against the wall. Where had he gotten this damn thing he had for redheaded women?! His non-existent "father"?! Maybe. For all Naruto knew about his own family, he might as well have been a test tube child, a botched attempt to genetically recreate the Yondaime Hokage after his death...guy was certainly beloved enough for people to go as far as grave-robbing and making imitations like that..."Project Ever-Light" Naruto called it, after all, the Yondaime's nickname was the "Kiiroi Senkō"...the "Yellow Flash", because his use of the Hiraishin no Jutsu causing him to appear and disappear in flashes of yellow light when he used it...and with a line of successive clones to make the man look seemingly immortal, a light that would never fade, it seemed to fit.
Depressing thing was, thinking of himself in this way had to qualify as Naruto's definition as a "happy thought" when he was growing up. If he was just a failed experiment and faulty clone produced by an experiment that was scrapped after the ones who pulled the strings saw how disappointing the results of the prototype were, that meant he hadn't been abandoned at birth for being a "hellspawn" as the people around him had always told him as an explanation as to why he was an orphan.
The bat-thing snickered at him and he turned to glare up at the thing again, the urge to smash it with "his" nightstand becoming even stronger. "Shut up!" he snarled at the creature. Oh, if he had a kunai...Rambo-style bat-kebobs! He meant it! Unfortunately, upon regaining consciousness, he'd discovered his ninja tools had all been confiscated, most likely by Rias to make sure he could try another suicide attempt again.
Naruto looked at the door, he'd tried it already, only to use "his" Sharingan to discover it not only locked, but reinforced with some kind of barrier, same with the window. He wasn't a prisoner, dammit!
Sitting on the bed, Naruto sighed, feeling restless. He needed to do something-anything-to keep his mind off that he was no longer human. Looking down at his hands contemptuously, and as his did so, his eyes widened as a glowing, crimson-colored symbol that consisted of a rose encased in a series of concentric circular shapes appeared on his palms briefly before they faded away as if they'd never been there.
What the?! Was that kind of seal for something? A curse mark to keep him under control like what the main branch of the Hyuga clan (one glaringly obvious exception to that excluded, of course) did to the cadet branch members of their own clan? No. What more could she do to him that was worse than turning him into a being of the underworld like he'd been accused of his entire life? A contract seal, like shinobi had with summons, then? Risa must've placed it on him at some point. Damn her! was she staking a claim on him or something?!
For that matter, where WAS the (literal) she-devil?
Rias paced her room, concern on her features.
The reluctant, newest addition to her peerage had her worried...for several reasons. First and foremost, his suicide attempt. Another was the oddity that had happened when she had made him a reincarnated devil.
It wasn't-shouldn't have been-possible to mix evil pieces when resurrecting someone, a person's body just couldn't process more than one classification type of Evil Piece at once. Meaning that it shouldn't have been possible for Rias to have used both all eight of her pawns AND her mutant bishop piece when resurrecting Naruto. Yet, as if to spit in the face of reality, his had. How could that be?
But most of all, there was his attitude...the things he had said before attempting to slit his throat. The blond hadn't seemed to be the religious type, so that ruled out his reaction being explained that way. And what kind of lunatics convinced someone they were a demon?
Granted, as a pure-blooded devil, Rias herself couldn't talk in that regard to the last point, but the idea of a person being raised never knowing a soft touch, never a kind word, never any of the joys or kindnesses that made life worth living and was instead forced to see only the bloodiest, cruelest, darkest aspects of the word...it was just sick and wrong to her that a person could have been forced to live through that. Seeing as the Gremory Clan were known as beings with extraordinary affection among the Devils, and as such, they didn't discriminate themselves with their servants and instead saw them as family rather than anything else, she found it even more appalling.
If she didn't do something to help him, he could easily become a stray, and Rias knew what happened to stray devils that had no master: Without their masters to keep their powers in check, they became a threat if their powers grew beyond their control. Devils took cases like that very seriously, and any Devil who became a Stray was to be killed on the spot.
She couldn't let that happen to him!
She stopped and took a deep breath, closing her eyes. First thing was first, she had to get through to the blond, at least learn his name, and hopefully where he was from so she could investigate his past a bit. She couldn't help him adapt to his new life as a devil of the Gremory if he threw up walls around himself like that. She'd left her familiar watching him (judging from his reaction earlier, she guess he wouldn't have appreciated finding her or any of her peerage with him when he awoke) to make sure he didn't do anything to try killing himself again, and used her magic to seal the room he was placed in. She hadn't liked that part, but with the way he seemed to become unstable after learning he was a devil now, giving him some space and time to himself seemed like it was for the best.
She had told her peerage to avoid telling anyone what happened. If her brother found out about him, Sirzechs would freak. While her brother was rightly renowned as a very laid-back, kind and caring individual towards others and was know to prefer to have things sorted out through talking instead of fighting, her brother was still considered as a siscon because of his deep love for her, and as an overprotective father. If he ever learned how her first meeting with the new member of her peerage had gone with the young man going off on her like that...well...there was a reason the hereditary technique the Gremory shared with the House of Bael thanks to her mother, Venelana, marrying her father, the current head of the House of Gremory, was known as the " Power of Destruction".
And from what she had sensed of the demonic energies within new newest family member prior to his devilfication, and the abnormality of the way his being turned into a devil had gone, Rias actually didn't want to place bets on which would win in a fight between her brother and the newly reincarnated devil.
Making up her mind, Rias resolved to try finding out what she could from him and look into who he was. Hopefully there were some answers to her questions regarding her concerns to be found. That she couldn't simply be told by him was a snag, but she wasn't going to give him the third degree over information he didn't want to share, so she'd find out on her own.
Walking out of her own room and heading to her multiple-evil piece-carrier's, Rias lowered the barrier spell over the door before entering...and instantly raised a brow at what she saw before shaking her head in amusement.
He was going up the walls...literally! He was walking up the vertical surface as easily as the ground, then flawlessly transitioned to the ceiling so that he hung upside down like a bat, sticking there by the soles of his feet.
"Well, good to see you're up." the Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess quipped, making him give a startled jerk and lose concentration for whatever he was doing and he fell to the floor, crashing headfirst in a heap.
"Damnit...this body feels better than mine did...chakra network feels like it isn't so highly overdeveloped and actually feels the way it would for average people in my age group...fits better in this body...need to work on my concentration now..." he grumbled, then started muttering about how the calibration of his physical and spiritual energies finally feeling properly proportioned with the body he was using now would take some getting used to.
Rias noted that he kept on using the term 'this' rather than 'my' to talk about his body. As if it weren't his at all. That was disturbing as far as she saw it. He resented his new devilhood that much. If that was the case, he might get himself killed intentionally to feel like he was distancing himself from being a devil, as if trying to slit his own throat wasn't bad enough, he'd be overly reckless in battle too.
Recruiting him into her peerage was looking more and more like a mistake. She HAD to get through to him, at least enough to rid him of his desire for death if he felt it would no longer mean being a devil. But she also noticed the word "chakra", another piece to the puzzle about where he was from and how he'd ended up in a crater before.
A hand entered the blond's field of vision, clearly offering aid, and he took it and was helped to his feet and he gave the person a quick word of thanks...before seeing it was the person that had changed him into a native of the underworld. He jerked away as if he'd been burned, his face hardening. "You again." he growled.
Rias sighed and looked at him before walking over and sitting on the bed. She figured he'd still be hostile, so she wasn't surprised.
"What're you doing here?" her unwilling servant spat.
"I live here. After all, this is my family's home, you were the one brought here after being found more dead than alive." Rias said, not missing a beat, making him growl and a muscle jumped in his jaw. Tricky bitch. "Fine, I'll give you that one. Whaddya want with me now?" he said, eyes narrowing.
Rias felt a tiny bit annoyed with his attitude, but given his reaction to learning he'd been made a devil, she supposed she could call this a small improvement. "I never got your name."
The boy looked at her incredulously, then snorted. "You came to see me because I didn't give you my name? Do you think I'm THAT dense?!"
Rias raised an eyebrow at him, "All I want is to know about you." she said.
"And all I want is to be human again!" the whiskered male retorted heatedly.
Rias sighed. "Ok. Fine. But could you just tell me your name? At the very least?"
He hissed like an angry alley cat, but decided to humor her if it meant getting her off his back for a while. "Naruto...Naruto Uzumaki."
Rias smiled at him. "There. Was that so hard...Naruto?" she asked, testing out his name even as she addressed him with that question.
Naruto glared at her.
Rias stood up and walked over to him. "Naruto...I'm sorry."
HUH?! He gave her his full attention at that. Sorry?!
His expression was pretty good. Under other circumstances, it might have made her laugh, but this was important to her. "For what I did to you."
His hands balled themselves into fists. Noticing this, Risa took a step back to get out of rang of his hands in case he tried to deck her before she continued, "I understand you're angry, you don't like what happened to you. If there had been another way to save your life in time with the state you were in, I would have done it. Who did that to you?"
Naruto actually paused at that. She was sorry? What did she really think telling him that would do, push back time so that he was never forced to be a demon...devil...whatever! It made him furious with her all over again! But there was what else she said.
If there had been another way...meaning stripping him of being human was the only readily available option at hand at the time.
He hated that.
Just like he hated being a monster now. But at least this devil girl was acknowledging that the sins of the creator shouldn't be visited upon the creation.
"Don't want to talk about it." he said curtly.
Rias nodded. "Then can you tell me something I need to know if I'm going to help you: Where's this leaf village you mentioned before? I need to know that if I'm going to help you get back there..."
He stopped at that, then let loose a cry akin to a wounded animal and collapsed, as if the notion of home broke his spirit and robbed him of the strength to stand. Naruto started muttering something nonstop under his breath. What it was Rias didn't hear because at that very moment, in response to his anguish, the power within him all but exploded outwards. a sudden hurricane of sheer demonic power that erupted like a volcano, not holding back a thing.
Like a thing alive, the demonic energy enveloped him, roiling and boiling, snapping and snarling. Rias' eyes widened at the sheer power, unable to even feel her own body, her own pulse, in its very presence. It was a terrifying and immense thing, blacker than the darkness of death itself. It threatened to blot everything else out and smother everything she was and snuff her out like a candle in the wind. For a moment, she wanted nothing more than that. To die. To be spared from the feeling of terror tearing through her body and twisted and tore at every fiber of her being and still, she wanted nothing more than to submit as she felt it settle over her like a layer of soot. The more she wanted to sweep the feeling away and escape, the more it swelled and swirled around her, so thick she could hardly see and was only just able to barely breathe.
THIS was her newest piece's power?!
Ok...whatever had nearly killed him, that was officially something Rias NEVER wanted to encounter!
"...get back, get back, get back, getback! Getback! Getback! GET BACK?!" he repeated over and over again and again like a mantra, his voice becoming shriller...louder...more brittle with every word until he was cackling like a madman and screaming it at the top of his lungs as he stood up again and faced her.
"I CAN'T GO BACK! NOT WITH WHAT YOU'VE TURNED ME INTO! YOU ROBBED ME! MY HUMANITY...MY HOME...! WHY DO YOU WANT TO FIND OUT ABOUT ME?! SO YOU CAN STEAL EVEN MORE OF WHAT MATTERS FROM ME?!" Naruto shouted, his power still blazing about him.
Rias took a half-step back in fear before she remembered herself, and flared how own power. "Don't you come any closer to me." She threatened, "Don't get any nearer with that pitiful output of power or I'll crush you just by standing here." To emphasize such, the floor beneath her cracked and dipped inward just from the increased intensity of her demonic aura. Even the walls began to rattle, "I mean it." While his power was anything BUT pitiful, Rias had to put on a strong enough front to where Naruto would believe his demonic power was inferior to her own when, as it stood, they were equal.
Please buy the bluff...Please back down...
Pitiful? Bullshit. Even on his own he had crushing levels of chakra, and everybody who knew him was aware of it. Still, she seemed determined to stand her ground, no matter what against him. Begrudgingly, Naruto had to admit he respected that. He understood that. Naruto momentarily chewed on the inside of his cheek in contemplation before deciding that he wasn't just going to stand there. Deciding to see if she could actually back up her tough attitude, Naruto's fiery orange chakra around his body grew stronger in intensity.
"Not enough." Rias said, "You know it's not."
In response Naruto took several deep breaths before his chakra cloak somewhat solidified into a bubbling red fox outline as a tail emerged. It still got no reaction, so focusing even further, Naruto yanked yet another tail forth, his whisker-marks darkening and his canines becoming more pronounced as his eyes took on a wilder red tint.
Rias paled at the sight of the emerging tails. So there were levels. And her Power of Destruction was only equal to the initial, tailless one. Just perfect. While her mother or elder brother were more powerful with the power shared by the Gremory and Bael, seeing as they were older and more experienced, there was no way the marquise-in-waiting was going to allow herself to be overcome so easily.
She stepped forward until she was nose-to-nose...as well as breast-to-chest...with her servant. The proximity making their energies mix. The bonding of their demonic energies swirled up in a vapor to the ceiling and seemed to be slowly eating through the ceiling as if it were acidic.
Naruto had to smirk at her, loathing for her aside, if there was one thing he could admire, it was determination. And this human-appearing girl certainly had plenty of that.
"With power like this, I can see why you were worth all my pawns and a mutate piece." Rias said, taking a step back to look at him appraisingly.
"Say what?" Naruto growled.
"Evil Pieces." Rias repeated, "They're something that was created by the Devil Ajuka Beelzebub to help replenish the number of Devils after the Great War...or Great Biblical War of Heaven and Hell...which had caused the death of countless Devils. they're identical to normal chess pieces in terms of appearance but glow in accordance to the magic color of its users when in use and are commonly given to Pure-blooded High-class Devils, so that they can gather servants of their own by reincarnating other beings into Devils, that's a set of 15 chess pieces. Furthermore, there are also special pieces known as Mutation Pieces. If reviving a person requires more than one piece, then using one Mutation Piece would be sufficient in reincarnating that person instead of having to use several pieces. Mutation Pieces can be a Queen, Rook, Knight, Bishop, or Pawn. They're very rare, and only One-out-of-Ten Devils possess Mutation Pieces."
Naruto snarled at that. So that's what you used on me then?!" while he didn't know what 'chess' was, from the terms he was being told the pieces were named, he guessed it was similar to shogi back home.
Rias nodded. "I had to use all eight pawns and my mutated bishop piece to bring you back."
He frowned. Nine huh? Lovely! So he had the same number of these "Evil Pieces" within him as the Kyuubi had tails? Needless to say, the information didn't help his mood.
"Get them out of me!" Naruto snapped, looking ready to tear his own chest open and dig the Evil Pieces out of his body himself if he had to.
Rias shook her head. "I'm sorry, but I told you I can't do that."
Seeing Naruto's nostrils flair, Rias held up her hands placatingly, "Easy Naruto...Like I said, I didn't have any other choice if I wanted to help you, and I AM sorry about that, but I'm wondering something."
"What's that?" he growled, glaring at her murderously, making Rias wish Naruto's original eyes hadn't needed to be replaced. Those red and black ones he had implanted in him to serve as replacements were damn scary when he glared.
"You...well..you don't seem the type to accept religion. So...I can't help but wonder why you're so angry about being made into a Devil."
That did it! Save his life or no, his past was off limits!
With a beastal roar from the blond, Rias was flung to the wall behind her like a rag doll from sheer pressure of the shockwave that forced the two away from each other. The sudden separation of the two malevolent energies forced blew through the room and burst out the window and door, the ceiling, floor and walls cracking.
As the reverb started vanishing in the room, Rias rolled out of the way as one of the tails of energy as it made to slam down on top of her. Then tried standing, only to duck as a clawed hand left a series of gouges in the wall where her head had been a second earlier.
As he prepared to attack Rias again however, someone tackled the enraged blond, sending them both crashing to the ground. Surging his power, Naruto released a demonic aura-enriched roar to throw the person off of him before leaping to his feet with a snarl aimed at this new enemy.
Rias's eyes widened as she saw the one who was about to fight it out with her newest peerage member was a handsome young man that had appearance of a man in his early twenties, and possessed shoulder length crimson red hair and blue-green eyes, similar to Rias' own.
Her elder brother, Sirzechs.
Damnit! She didn't want them to meet like this!
Naruto leaped backwards before landing on his left foot and pushing himself forward using the added speed and momentum to flip himself forward and slam his right leg out flat. Sirzech quickly leapt back to avoid the attack causing the extended leg to slam onto the ground, then dodged as the energy tails lashed out out at him, giving Naruto time to recover, leaning to his side before performing a fast-paced windmill maneuver, actually creating a bit of a whirlwind before kicking himself up to his feet and using the momentum to push himself right to Sirzechs without even pausing. Once near, he turned into a spin kick yet once again he avoided it by quickly placing his hands onto the incoming kick pushing it away from him. Though he was far from done as he actually lifted his body off the ground like he was leaping a fence and then rotated his hips and feet directly towards Naruto's face who unfortunately couldn't dodge the attack.
Rias winced slightly at the kicks to the face though they quickly cringed as her brother actually grabbed the stunned blond by the shoulders before pushing his body down enough to deliver a knee strike to his abdomen, actually causing air and spit to fly from his mouth. Yet he still wasn't done as Sirzech released his enemy before flipping backwards and having his back leg smash into Naruto's chin sending him flying.
At first glance it looked like he'd been dispatched, though it only lasted for an instance as Naruto quickly spun rapidly in midair before actually using his legs to push himself backwards and land on his feet. He slowly raised himself to standing position before dusting himself off. Sirzechs was still on guard watching the reincarnated devil spitting out some blood.
He didn't say anything and instead merely cracked his neck in response before responding, "Is that all you've got?"
Surprisingly, the redhead merely narrowed his eyes at the comment, his guard remained strong, "Of course not, that was just a warm up," Sirzechs' stance slowly shifted into a more offensive one as his eyes narrowed into a rather cold gaze, before he and his enemy both lunged. Sirzechs dodged a blow from Naruto and countering with a flying knee, which was followed up by a series of jabs, forearms and elbows to keep the blond from getting any breathing room. Finally, Naruto caught him with a forearm shot to the jaw, disorienting and stunning him, then a gut shot and a powerful front kick to his ribs. The fox-host followed up by kneeing Sirzechs in the stomach, making him double over as the wind was knocked out of him. As he did so, he grabbed the collar of Naruto's shirt and headbutted him but Naruto stabbed him with his chakra tails. After that, he grabbed Sirzechs' arm and twisted it backwards while smashing the point of his other arm's elbow into the older devil's shoulder hard enough to nearly dislocate it.
Sirzechs grit his teeth to bear the pain then twisted around and caught Naruto in a triangle hold and flung him off. Naruto used his momentum and thrust his hands out, rolling into a somersault to properly break his landing. As he did so, Sirzechs suddenly vanished into a static blur, only to reappear before Naruto with her palm on the ninja's stomach before he'd even completed the somersault. Spontaneously, Naruto was thrown brutally onto the opposing wall by a powerful shockwave expelled from Sirzechs' palm and the shinobi smashed through the wall behind him, bringing half of it down on him in a pile of rubble.
Sirzechs looked on, mildly impressed as Naruto pulled himself out of the rubble and a second later, Naruto and Sirzechs grappled with one another, tightly clasping each other's hands hard enough to draw blood, their eyes narrowing, mouths both set in a grim line, a power struggle now in the works.
Naruto smiled first, and his opponent mirrored him in kind.
As one, a shout worked its way up their throats, ripped its way out of their mouths, Naruto was the first to release, and Sirzechs winced as three lines of blood appeared upon his left cheek from the ninja's wickedly sharp claws.
Moments later, Naruto doubled over from a vicious kick in the gut, one that collapsed his stomach inward before he disappeared from sight in a flash of movement, now coming from behind him.
His fist passed through air, as he hit an afterimage, which soon faded away, leaving a rather furious blond in its wake.
Sirzechs suddenly appeared behind him and with a quick movement of his arms, slammed his fists down on the blond's neck...only for him to vanish in a plume of white smoke as the real Naruto came in from above, his hands intertwined, and he smashed down hitting the Crimson Satan solidly on the head.
A triumphant growl escaped him, as she was knocked flat to the ground, only for Sirzechs hands to slap out, breaking his fall, and allowing him to pivot his left leg into Naruto's neck in a violent jarring kick.
He cried out in pain, that blow snapping his head to the right due to the impact, yet he cartwheeled with the blow and and landed on his feet.
Seeing their opponent still revved to continue the fight, they each cocked a fist back, when they connected with the fist of the other, a shockwave created from a mix of Naruto's energy and Sirzechs releasing his own supernatural energy from his body at the exact point of impact spread out, driving them apart, and back into the ground.
The two titans couldn't help but smile as they skidded backwards, but Naruto slowed his skid early by applying chakra, and upon grinding to a halt, he laughed aloud,"Not bad, however...I'm just getting started!" said, punctuating his statement with a roar.
As Naruto roared, his demonic chakra extended outwards with devastating results. This outward destructive sphere of chakra was so intense it began to destroy the surrounding landscape and violently push back onto Sirzechs.
Quickly realizing the seriousness of the situation, Rias' elder sibling began to channel huge amounts of concentrated energy before a massive explosion erupted around his body, but leaving herself very much unharmed.
When the shockwaves of the collision of energy faded, Naruto quickly charged towards his target before leaping into the air while spinning his body to perform a flying round house kick.
As the kick came closer, Sirzechs raised his forearms to block the attack. Naruto grunted in annoyance when his leg connected to his arm and he remained still, not even registering the kick at all.
"My turn!" shouted the Satan before grabbing his ankle before throwing him. Naruto, however, was able to flip mid air and come skidding across the ground. When he looked up, he saw that the devil was now rushing at him with incredible amount of speed.
A punch directed at the shinobi's jaw only ended up caught by the said boy who winced slightly at the strength behind the punch. Blocking out the pain, Naruto sent a kick to the other man's midsection before letting go of his fist and kneeing him in the chin sending him skidding back a bit, but it wasn't enough to make him lose balance. As rias watched Naruto follow up with another attack, he was surprised when Sriechs smirked before stomping both feet into the ground as he leaped into the air and delivered a roundhouse kick to her brother's jaw, causing him to snap his head clockwise.
Naruto was only half surprised when Sirzechs' head snapped back in his direction with a sickening smile glued to his face. Sirzechs quickly grabbed hold of his arms before heaving his feet out of the ground and kicking Naruto with such speed and force, that it seemed like he was hit by a blur.
As the boy came crashing to a halt on the wall, he slowly eased himself out of the hole before ducking under a punch aimed at his chest as the force behind the punch that almost connected was enough to demolish that part of the wall leaving a gaping hole where the elder devil's fist had made contact.
Naruto appeared underneath Sirzechs before delivering an upward kick to his chin and sending him skywards. As Sirzechs soared through the air, Naruto then jumped after him before appearing behind him as he grabbed onto his midsection to keep him from escaping while pinning his arms to his sides.
As Sirzechs felt himself getting closer to the ground, he closed his eyes while Naruto released himself from him as he went crashing headfirst into the floor, smashing a hole through it.
"Not bad...but I'm t done yet!" yelled Sirzechs from inside the crater that was just made.
Naruto couldn't defend himself from Sirzechs as he vanished from his view only to appear in front of him to deliver am unbelievably powerful punch to his abdomen. The result ended up making Naruto go airborne with a great amount of blood shooting out of his mouth. A second later, he appeared behind him while he was still in the air and launched another powerful kick to his back.
Naruto groaned in pain from the two bone-breaking attacks, before he shrieked in pain as another punch slammed into his chest. Sirzechs was jarred as he was suddenly hit on the chest and sent flying by all three of his foe's energy tails, crashing into the ground and tumbling as he landed ten times harder than he should have.
Gasping, Naruto stood shakily as he watched as Sirzechs struggle to get up. As soon as he had, Naruto disappeared, leaving a trail of wind at his vacated place. Switching his sights upwards, Sirzechs saw the bestial descending at him. The blond sped at the pure-blooded devil and stormed a foot on him. Sirzechs evaded the assault but the aftershock winded him. Clutching his midriff,Sirzechs grinned haughtily. "Not bad."
Naruto said noting, but vanished in a blur of speed. The male redheaded devil leaped away, but something smashed into the small of his back with the force of a runaway freight train and sent him flying. Sirzechs landed on the other side of the chamber and panted tediously as he stood, rubbing the spot where he'd been hit. Assessing his injuries, Sirzechs smirked. "You caught me from behind. But that won't happen twice."
Naruto pummeled the ground with a fist loaded with chakra, shaking the chamber with tremendous quakes. Sirzechs did a few backflips to avoid the impact and when he got to the wall behind him, kicked off it, ramming Naruto with a sudden burst of acceleration, knocking the devil ninja onto the ground.
Naruto jumped to his feet before darting towards the current leader of Hell with vicious conviction; performing a clothesline, Naruto slammed Sirzech onto the unforgiving ground in a horrendous impact.
Recovering from the previous assault, Sirzech blitzed away before reappearing behind his orange-red energy enshrouded enemy. Without hesitation, the male Gremory sent a devastating kick at Naruto's waist, successfully hurling the ninja soaring through another wall and the outcome was disastrous as another defenseless wall was demolished.
With blinding speed, Sirzech dashed towards Naruto. The blond's eyes widened and he raised his arm to block any blow the redhead would give him. Sirzech disappeared in the blink of an eye and reappeared behind Naruto, kicking the ninja up into the air. The red-haired devil jumped up into the air and was about to give him a knee in the back when Naruto suddenly turned around in midair and threw his arms out, his demonic aura extending and the claws of power launching at him, enlarging as they did. Eyes wide, Sirzech managed to turn around in time to only get a small scratch on his arm.
The ninja narrowed his eyes as he landed and Sirzech raised a bow in confusion, "Didn't you have three tails?" he asked, wondering why he only saw two before he got his answer as the third tail burst from the ground and wrapped around Sirzech's ankles, pinning them together as Naruto raised his arms over his head, his energy shroud mimicking his movements as the arms extended again and the clawed hands enlarged again as they were clamped tightly together befor Naruto used the chakra limbs to strike down with a forceful two-handed blow onto the ruler of the Realm of Damnation. The attack hit Sirzech head-on and struck him down onto the ground. Naruto kept up the assault, continuously pounding the energy generated limbs down onto his opponent like one would use a hammer to strike a very annoying nail. After a few more hours of this, Naruto whipped his chakra tial up and around, swinging Sirzech around like a lasso before releasing him and he smashed a crater into one of the few remaining relatively intact walls of the room.
After a few second, Sirchech's eyes opened fully and he pried himself out out of the impact impression, got back on his feet. and dusted himself off. "Whoa, that did more damage than I thought it would. You definitely aren't a normal guy."
"What?! That was... You're supposed to be down and out after that attack!" Naruto exclaimed.
"I had to admit, that attack did hurt me, but an attack like that won't really affect me." Sirzech folded his arms across his chest. "That's not to say you're not pretty good." The red-haired Lord of Hell suddenly dashed forward and boxed Naruto in the sturem with such strength that one could swear that his fist was pushing against Naruto's spine. The blonde's eyes widened and his pupils shrunk as his world faded to black, his aura dissipating as he lost consciousness.
Sirzechs nodded in satisfaction then turned to his little sister, "Ria-tan!" he cried, then enveloped her in his arms and pressed her so close that it was as if he were trying to fuse them into Siamese through sheer force of will alone, even as he bombarded her with questions.
"He didn't hurt you, did he?! He didn't scare you?! If he did, I'll make him regret it, don't you worry! Nobody's gonna do ANYTHING bad to my Ria-tan as long as I'm around! Believe me! As long as I'm around and can do anything about it, you'll always be happy! So what did he do to you?! Disobedient new piece, don't worry! I'll see to it he's punished properly for upsetting you!" he said, river-like streams of thick crocodile tears running down his face.
Rias groaned from the way this was just like her overprotective older brother to use things like this as an excuse to hug her...or maybe that was from her spine nearing the end of its endurance? She couldn't tell.
"I'm fine, onii-sama, the newest member of my peerage just surprised me that he had so much power." Rais said, trying the squirm free, even trying to push off her elder brother using her legs. Rias truly loved her sibling, honest to all things Holy and Damned alike, she did, but he was just too...smothering for her, sometime...like now!
As that, Sirzechs looked taken aback, then his expression changed from concern to beaming at her and hugged her even tighter, going on a rant that he was so proud and happy that his beloved little sister had found such an undoubtedly powerful addition to her peerage.
Rias winced. This would be so much more bearable if Sirzechs wasn't doing an impression of a human-sized vice! Her face was starting to turn the color of a blueberry from lack of being able to breathe when something caught her brother in the back of the head with a bang, and his eyes rolled back into his head and he fell forward the same way Naruto had when Sirzechs had knocked him out, pinning Rias under him before the one who had come to her rescue rolled him off of her and Rias saw it was a beautiful woman that appeared to be in her early twenties, with silver hair and matching eyes. Her hair flowed all the way down to her back, featuring a long braid on each side with small blue bows at the ends, while the rest was let down, ending in twin braids. The woman was wearing a blue and white French maid outfit with long sleeves and a white maid headband over her head, with red lipstick as a cosmetic accessory.
Rias sighed, glad to have use of her lungs again, then smiled at the woman, who, inspite of looking otherwise, wasn't a member of the Gremory family's staff, and was instead her older sister-in-law.
"Thanks, Grayfia..." Rias told her, seeing the bent cast iron frying pan in the woman's hand as the silverette helped her stand.
Her family member by marriage looked as the pan and sighed, tossing it aside and glared at her husband's prone form. "I loose more pans that way...blasted thick skull of his...you all right, Rias-san?" Grayfia asked.
Rias nodded, then turned to look at Naruto with hurt and pity in her eyes. "I'm not hurt...but I'm not okay either..."
Following her gaze, Grayfia nodded to her sister-in-law,"Difficult servant?"
Rias sighed, "There's a lot tearing at him...so much anger...and as much as I want to help, there's a wall there."
Grayfia nodded. She was well aware of the way the Gremory were, kind and caring to an almost unconditional degree. It was one of the things she loved about her ridiculous husband enough to forgive him for the things he did wrong. Of course being unable to help someone that needed it would bother a Gremory.
"Anger can be useful that way, it keeps you from focusing on the things that bring you despair, and then there's how a person's past shapes them as well, all I can advise you to do is give him time and not give up on getting through to him." she said, then bent down and dragged her husband out of the room by his ankles, leaving Rias alone with her thoughts and the reluctant, unconscious devil.
A smokescreen? That did seem the case, recalling how Naruto had freaked out upon learning he'd been turned into a devil. That was always hard at first for humans.
Ok...if that was the root of the problem, Rias at least knew where she had to start to be able to get through to Naruto. The Evil piece system changed Humans into full blown devils, right down to the souls, but their hearts...their views on what they believed...who they were as a person...THAT had to be either retained or abandoned by their own personal choice.
Rias smiled.
At least she knew what she had to do, she just had to help him realize this aspect of his new life as a devil. That he could still be who he was before if he wanted to, all he had to do was choose to stay as the kind of person he had been prior to becoming a devil. That if he wanted to, he could still be himself! Sure convincing him would be hard, but it was clear all she had to do was let him know that option was there and all he had to do was take it. She knew he would!
Placing her new peerage member back in the bed, Rias felt hope bloom inside her that she hadn't been wrong to save him. Tucking him in and smiling, Rias left the room to see Akeno waiting for her.
"Trouble, Rias?" the half-Fallen Angel asked.
Rias shook her head. Akeno was, in fact, close enough to call Rias by her first name while maintaining their master-servant relationship, the two were like sisters more than anything else.
"Not really, in fact I know what he needs now. It's getting him to be convinced about that he still has the freedom of choice about who and how he wants to be as a person that I have to figure out." the redhead told her sister-figure.
Akino's eyes gleamed, overjoyed at hearing that. "How can I help?" she asked at once.
Rias smiled, her mind buzzing with ideas on how to help Naruto come to accept his new life.