A.N: Before starting the chapter, I want to thank all of you guys for the heartfelt reviews you left on the last update. While you guys always leave nice reviews on every update, the reviews on the last update were something else. They weren't just about the specific chapter, but also about how much you guys adore my story. It felt incredibly good reading those reviews.
Thank you, guys!
-oOo-
The underworld was in chaos. It was in a state Sirzechs had never seen it be in for a long time. Everyone, be it a child or a high-class devil, was talking about it. Their voices were filled with fear and surprise as they recounted the events that had unfolded just a day earlier.
Zeoticus Gremory was murdered.
The lord of Gremory House, his father, was killed by someone that everyone wanted to know the name of. People were stunned, especially those in his household. For them, Zeoticus was a symbol of hope and respect, and with him gone, they were finding it hard to keep their minds straight.
Rumours and speculation about the unknown man had already spread like wildfire among the fearful population of the Underworld. The once bustling and crowded streets of his world were now filled with an atmosphere of distrust and panic. Everyone wanted to know who had killed Riser and Zeoticus Gremory.
"I warned him not to go there alone, but he chose not to listen," Sirzechs said and clenched his fists, struggling to hold back the tears that were on the verge of falling from his eyes.
No matter how ruthless and cold-hearted his father was, he was still his father. He was the man who raised him to become the person he is today. Sure, he was not a great man, but Sirzechs still shared a blood relationship with him, and that fact alone was enough to make his heart sad.
"He knew that the boy was no ordinary human, yet he still went to fight him alone." Sirzechs closed his wet eyes and sighed, taking a deep breath to calm himself down. "Fool!" he screamed; his voice filled with rage. "How could someone be so careless?" Anger began to suffuse his voice as his mind began to remember the condition in which he had discovered his father's lifeless body.
It was a mess of burned flesh, distorted eyes, and an unending pool of blood. If Sirzechs had not seen the red hair scattered around the body, he would have never recognized that it was his father's dead body. The harrowing image was etched into his memory now, a sight he knew he would never be able to forget.
"All he had to do was wait for me." His anger began to fade as remorse overwhelmed him. "If I had been there with him, I'm sure we could have defeated that boy and brought Rias with us." Sirzechs gasped as he felt the heavy weight of guilt settle in his chest. The pain of his father's death was now compounded by the remorse of being unable to rescue Rias from that boy. Each shallow breath he took felt like needles of sharp, cold ice piercing through his lungs.
"Rias..." The tears that were held back in his eyes until now began to run down his cheeks. "That boy is a monster," he whispered to himself, his voice drowning in an ocean of despair. "Soon, he will kill you too." Sirzechs shook his head and wiped away his tears.
"No!"
His hands grabbed the stone railing of the balcony.
"I won't allow him to hurt anyone else."
An intense wave of red energy enveloped his entire form.
"I'll save you, Rias."
Sirzechs had already failed his sister once before by not being there for her when his father was ruining her life. He was not going to make the same mistake again.
Rias was travelling with a guy capable of killing devils easily. There was no certainty that he would not harm her once he'd done with her.
"I'll save you from that monster."
-oOo-
Evil.
Naruto never imagined he would describe himself in such a way, but now he saw himself as an evil person. The old Naruto that had been guiding him through pain and loneliness was no longer present within him. The deeper he searched, the more he saw the hate and desire for revenge that had taken root in his heart.
He was no longer the man who believed in forgiving others. Now, he had transformed into a man who believed in eradicating the presence of those he considered to be evil and harmful to others.
Especially her.
"Rias Gremory."
She was the catalyst that transformed him into this cold man, or at least the final nudge that forced him to become one. Her pain, her tears, and the sorrowful smile that she always wore on her face compelled him to finally accept the reality of what he needed to do in order to wipe them away from her face. He wanted to see her radiant smile, hear her contagious laughter, and watch her brim with happiness all the time.
For that, Naruto needed to destroy lives, lives of those people who had destroyed Rias' mind in her childhood. She was imprisoned by the chains of her past, and in order for her to truly be free, he needed to slaughter the individuals responsible for binding her to those painful memories of the past.
"And I just did that."
Naruto killed those people. He took their lives and destroyed their souls without showing any remorse, something that made him confront the unsettling truth: he had changed. He had become the very thing he once loathed.
"A man filled with hate and hunger for revenge."
He wasn't supposed to be like this. This wasn't how Naruto operated. He always talked to people, giving them a chance to change their hearts, and forgiving them when they admitted their mistakes.
"Then why did I kill those people?"
Naruto could not help but ask himself the same question for the hundredth time that day.
What changed inside him that made him do those horrible things to those people? Sure, they were evil and had ruined his friend's life, but death was not the punishment they deserved.
"Is it because of her?" Naruto whispered, his eyes dilating as memories of the past began to haunt his mind again. They were filled with cries, pain and the red colour of death.
-Flashback-
"N-naruto..."
Naruto gasped as his ears caught the familiar sound of his friend's voice. He could tell it was her, even without turning his head to look at her.
"Naruto, look at me..."
He did not. Even when he tried to, he could not. His mind knew what was waiting for him in that direction. "I-I'm sorry, Sakura-chan..." He whispered, hoping that she would hear him and forgive him for his mistake.
"It wasn't your m-mistake i-idiot!"
Naruto bit his lips to control the sob that had been trying to escape his mouth for a long time now. "It was my mistake," he argued with his weak voice, his eyes still not daring to even peek in her direction. "I was the one who believed in that guy." His voice turned weaker if that was even possible as he tried to hold back himself from looking at her.
"So?" Sakura's voice was like ice to his heart, chilling it down with how weak and lifeless it was sounding. "You had no way of knowing that h-he would b-betray us, Na-Naruto..." She whispered out his name with as much warmth as possible.
"Still..."
"Look a-at me, N-Naruto..."
Naruto swallowed the lump that was growing in his throat and finally turned his head to look at her, only to gasp in horror when he saw her body covered in blood and riddled with wounds. "S-Sakura..." He choked out, his hands reaching out to her in a desperate attempt to save her, but he knew it was already too late. "Sakura-chan, I'm so sorry," he fell to his knees beside her as tears finally began to fall from his eyes.
"Naruto..."
His misty blue eyes gazed at her and widened as she leaned in to embrace him, her bloody lips brushing against his forehead in a soft kiss of forgiveness. "It was n-not your fault..." She whispered, her voice turning weaker by each passing second, yet the smile on her face refused to fade away. "Some people c-can just never ch-change," her words began to falter in her mouth, indicating she was on the verge of her demise.
"No, Sakura-chan, please keep talking, I will heal you," he cried out to her, his grip on her pale hands tightening as he desperately tried to gather his remaining chakra to mend her wounds. "Just don't close your eyes, okay?" His eyes looked at her face again and went blank when they saw no signs of life there.
She was dead.
"Sa-Sakura-chan..." He tried to shake her, hoping that she would wake up and yell at him but nothing happened. Her body remained motionless while her eyes continued to stare at him blankly.
They were horrifying to look at it.
It was as if they were blaming him for everything.
Blaming him for believing in Obito.
Blaming him for letting him follow her to the battlefield.
Blaming him for forgiving that man.
Blaming him for not killing him when he had the opportunity to do so.
"I'm a fool."
-Flashback END-
That day, Sakura died because of old Naruto, a naive fool who forgave a monster in the blink of an eye when it apologized for its mistakes.
"She would never have died if I had killed him earlier," Naruto whispered to himself.
It was his mistake that he got influenced by that man's words. He forgave him because Naruto thought he had changed. Unfortunately, he did not. Obito remained the same guy he was when he first met him on the battlefield. A man filled with hate and hunger for revenge.
"Some people can just never change."
Sakura's last words rang inside his mind again, making him forget about Obito.
"She was right," he said, rising from his seat and casting a sharp gaze upon the serene landscape surrounding their small inn. "What if those two men had done the same thing as Obito did?" He whispered to himself as his eyes saw no signs of any unusual foreign presence for the first time in the last few weeks. "What if they had refused to change?" His thoughts began to shift away from self-reflection and started diving into the possibilities of what could have been.
"What if they had caused harm to Rias if I allowed her to go with them?"
The feeling of self-loathing began to vanish from his heart as an image of her smiling at him flashed before his eyes. It was beautiful and a clear remainder of what he was trying to protect.
"Her smile."
Everything he had done till now was not because he was enjoying it, but more because of her and the comfort her warm smile provided, always managing to mend his shattered heart somehow.
When they first met, Naruto remembers promising her that he would protect her from anything that tried to ruin their journey. And he was still determined to keep that promise. She was going to finish her journey with him.
"And after that, she will go to a home that is now filled with people who love her."
The monsters that once dwelt there, both in that place and in her heart, were no longer alive. Now, she was finally free from their clutches. Everything she once feared was erased from existence by him. Now the only thing that remained was her return to that place.
"I'm sure she is going to like it there."
A small smile flickered on his lips as his mind began to paint a picture of a happy Rias, living in her home surrounded by her loved ones.
-oOo-
Love.
As defined by the true definitions outlined in the dictionaries of her world, love was a beautiful and profound emotion that someone feels towards another person, where the happiness of the other person unexpectedly becomes more important than their own. One of the most extraordinary examples of this sensation was God himself, a being who loved his children more than he loved himself.
According to the ancient tales inscribed in the sacred books of the Underworld, the revered God of Heaven was believed to be the origin of the enchanting emotion, bestowing it upon his beloved children so that they, too, could revel in the divine elixir that is love. It was because of him and the emotion known as love that the entities in his world were finally able to settle into an unstable peace. Without love, they would have been trapped in an eternal conflict with each other.
"Is this what I'm feeling?" Rias whispered to herself, her face forming a shy smile as she gazed at the stars in the sky above.
They were looking as beautiful as ever, just like in the old times. Not a single flaw could be seen in them. They were flawless. And why wouldn't they be? They were supposed to emit beauty, strength, and peace, after all.
"Peace…"
A gentle warmth enveloped her shy smile as she realized just how peaceful her life had become in the past few months. "I can hardly believe it," the red-haired girl whispered to herself, vividly recalling the life she had been leading prior to meeting her friend.
Before she met him, she was living in hell. There was no happiness there for her, only sadness and nothing else. People around her were controlling her for their own gains, and she could do nothing about it. For her, it was normal, something she deserved for being weak and kind.
"But then I met him."
Her life was no longer being controlled by anyone else. She was now the sole owner of herself. The emotions of sadness and anger that once seemed to be an enduring part of her life no longer haunted her every step. Sure, they were still there inside her, but she could control them now. They did not make her feel weak like they used to do before.
"He changed everything."
Her current life was nothing short of a fairy tale for her. Rias never imagined in her wildest dreams that she would be able to live a life with a man who saw her as a friend, rather than an object to fulfil his desires. She loved it; she loved it with all her heart. A girl who was once bound by the shackles of sadness and pain, was now free and at peace.
"I don't want to escape this dream."
Rias giggled to herself, finding it amusing how she had been behaving in the past few weeks. She was no longer afraid. The emotion of fear no longer existed in her heart. It had been replaced by a new resident, an emotion she would not mind keeping there forever.
Love.
The smile on her face got surrounded by red as she shyly buried her face in her hands.
Rias was falling for Naruto, and she could not deny it any longer. Her heart wanted to beat just so that she could see him and stay with him more. Every time she thought of him, her heart would race, and her cheeks would blush with a warm, rosy hue.
'I will die soon, Rias.'
Yet every time it would happen, his words would ring in her mind and ruin everything. They were horrible, but true. They were a grim reminder of what she was destined to witness in the future.
"His death."
The memory of that warm feeling faded from her heart along with the red blush on her face, replaced by the thought of the red blood that was going to plague her mind a lot in the future.
"He is going to die soon."
Rias knew it was inevitable. Their trip was about to come to an end, as they were only a few towns away from Fukuoka. Soon, Naruto was going to eat that bowl of ramen and would leave her alone. The comforting warmth he brought with him would vanish along with him, leaving her with nothing but sadness.
The world that was now filled with colours of happiness and love would turn back into that dull place that she loathed to no end. Once again, it would become her personal hell. Rias did not want that. Well, a few weeks ago she did but now, she did not. Now, her heart wanted something else.
"I want to live now."
A small smile dared to blossom on her again, but she stopped it immediately.
"With him."
Rias could not stop the smile this time. The thought of being with Naruto was enough to make her heart flutter with emotions she could not even describe. All she could feel was that they were warm and soft, just like his touch. She liked them and wanted to feel them more and for that to happen, she needed to save him. She needed to save him from the cruel fate that he had chosen for himself.
Rias knew she was being selfish, but she couldn't wipe off that thought from her heart. The idea of her spending her whole life with him was both beautiful...
"And impossible."
No matter what her heart wanted, Rias knew very well that Naruto was never going to change his decision. He was going to die and so would she. A few weeks ago, she was unsure about it, but now she was certain. She was going to die with him.
"Maybe those threads will work and bring us together in the next life."
Rias giggled as she remembered the threads she had bought for them. Those thin strings of red colour were nothing more than some strands of silk and cotton intertwined together. Yet, still a part of her heart could not help but believe in them.
"Maybe then, I'll be able to spend my life with him."
Tears began to form in her sad eyes, but she quickly wiped them away with a trembling hand.
"As his wife."
-oOo-
The room Rias and Naruto were staying in was small but beautiful. Adorned with numerous paintings, all created by the inn owner, and featuring lanterns of various sizes hanging from different sides of the room, the space was beautifully decorated, perfectly capturing the essence of the era in which the inn was built. The old wooden walls that surrounded the room only added to the warm atmosphere of the room.
"Naruto!"
Naruto, who was lost in his thoughts, blinked as the sound of his friend's voice reached his ears. "Hmm?" he responded with a soft hum, his gaze still fixed on the window, enamoured by the charm of the small town outside. It was beautiful and reminded him of his own village to some extent.
"At least look at me..."
A small smile spread across his face as he noticed the traces of annoyance in her voice. "Fine," he sighed and turned around to look at her, only to blink when he saw her staring at him expectantly. She wanted something from him; he could tell it just by noticing the way her large, innocent eyes were gazing at him. "What do you want?" he decided not to beat around the bush and asked her directly.
"Can you prepare food this time?" Rias asked him, her voice as sweet as honey and her eyes filled with nothing but hope. Unfortunately, Naruto was not in the mood to fall for her tricks today.
"No," Naruto shook his head and averted his gaze from her. Why? Because he knew that if he continued to look into her eyes, she would find a way to change his mind. Rias always had a few tricks up her sleeve for moments like these.
"Please..." Rias, on the other hand, was not ready to accept her defeat this easily. She knew she had a chance as long as Naruto was in the room with her. "Naruto, my hands are hurting today," she whispered and extended her right hand to show him.
"It looks normal to me, Rias..." Naruto countered after subtly glancing at her hand from the corner of his eye.
"No, it hurts here," Rias said, placing a finger just above the wrist to reveal traces of red. "See, it's even turning red." Her voice turned feeble as she pressed the red area gently, wincing slightly from the pain that followed.
Naruto, who was still watching her out of the corner of his eye, sighed to himself. He had lost yet again; there was no point in arguing further. "Fine, I'll prepare the food," he murmured with a touch of defeat in his voice. Rias nodded slowly, her gaze never leaving his face.
"I'll make it up to you by preparing whatever you like for dinner tomorrow!" She blurted out in hope to make him feel better. She knew she was being lazy, but her hand was actually hurting a bit, and her heart really wanted to savour a dish prepared by him.
Why?
Because it had been days since they had enjoyed a home-cooked meal. Since they had left that mountain town weeks ago, they had been dining out because they hadn't been able to find an inn that provided a room with a kitchen.
"Really?"
Naruto's voice brought her out of her thoughts as she looked at him and nodded her head enthusiastically. "Yup, I will make anything you ask," she said with confidence. She already knew what he was going to ask for, so it was no big deal for Rias. Making miso ramen only took a few hours of preparation, nothing more.
"Okay..." Naruto smiled at her, his eyes shining with an unknown emotion. "Anyway, what do you want to eat now?" He asked her, making her go silent.
"Hmm..." Rias paused for a moment, pretending to act confused, but she already knew the answer. "How about donburi?" she looked at him, knowing very well how much Naruto loved it when she prepared the dish for him a few weeks ago.
"Donburi huh... sounds good to me," Naruto replied with a smile, recalling the delicious mix of rice and meat Rias had prepared for him before. "Just wait here, I'll prepare it in no time." He added and began to walk towards the kitchen.
"Okay..."
-oOo-
"It's so amazing!" Rias exclaimed, savouring each delectable bite of the perfectly seasoned rice with a smile on her face. Food like this was the reason she wanted him to prepare dinner today. Naruto was a genius when it came to cooking food and she loved it. She loved everything that he prepared for her.
The flavours coating the rice and meat were exploding in her mouth, and she couldn't help but take another spoonful of the rice. "You are great, Naruto!" As she looked at him across the table, her heart skipped a beat when she saw him staring at her. "What?" She stopped chewing the food and asked him.
A warm smile spread across Naruto's face. "Nothing," he shook his head and turned his gaze towards his own bowl of rice. "It's just that you look really cute when you eat like that." Her cheeks flushed with a delicate shade of pink at his unusual compliment.
"I-I..." Rias felt her heart beat even faster as she tried to compose herself. "Thank you..." In the end, she just said what she thought was the best thing to say at that moment. 'Control yourself, Rias!' Rias looked down at her bowl and sighed, her heart still fluttering at Naruto's words.
Soon, a comforting silence fell between the two as they continued to eat their food. While enjoying their meal, Rias found herself unable to resist stealing a few glances at Naruto, feeling her cheeks grow warmer with each stolen glimpse.
A part of her mind wanted to compliment him too, but the sane part of her mind knew it was not a good thing to do at that moment. Naruto had recently begun to open up to her, and she knew that if she rushed things, he would revert to his old self. She did not want.
"You know," Rias blinked as Naruto gazed at her and began to speak. "I have never had anyone share a meal with me like this when I was in my village." His words hung in the air, filling the silence between them.
"Really?" she asked, undoubtedly curious to learn more about his past.
In response, Naruto nodded his head, a sad smile blooming on his lips. "Yeah," he replied, his voice tinged with a hint of nostalgia. "Back then, I was always alone, eating my ramen in that dark, stupid room." His voice softened as he remembered the prison of loneliness that was his room. "Talking to no one but myself," he said, smiling as he looked at his bowl.
"I can still remember how empty and irritating it used to be, but it eventually became normal to me," Naruto continued. "Even when I made friends, they rarely used to share meals with me, and whenever they did," his eyes moved towards her face again, rendering her silent. "It never felt good because I knew it was temporary," he paused, lost in thought. Suddenly, he shook his head, as if to clear his mind. "I guess that's why eating with you around feels so different, Rias." He admitted, finally making eye contact with her.
"It feels good."
Rias felt a strange emotion bubble inside her heart at Naruto's words. She couldn't help but smile at how genuine and vulnerable they were. "I'm glad to hear that, Naruto." She softly replied, her words filled with sincerity. "I too..." She hesitated for a moment, searching for the right words to express what she was feeling. "I feel the same too..." She whispered; her voice barely audible.
Naruto, who was observing her changing expression with each word, sighed sadly to himself. The scene before him was the reason he did not want to see her die with him. She was too kind, too compassionate to be both a devil and a human. Unlike him, who had nothing left and was likely being pursued by an army of devils, she had a loving family and supportive friends.
'She has people that love her.'
His lips quivered with fear. If he failed to stop her, he would be the cause of yet another person's death. He did not want that, especially when she was someone, he had begun to consider a friend.
"Rias..." He swallowed the feeling of remorse and smiled at her, hoping that she wouldn't see traces of fear in his eyes.
"Hmm?" she replied, tilting her head slightly as her eyes met his.
"You said you were going to make dinner tomorrow, right?" He asked, masking his true feelings behind a facade of innocence and warmth.
"Yes, I did promise that," Rias exclaimed, her eyes sparkling with excitement. "So, have you given any thought to what you would like to eat tomorrow?" She asked him, her voice filled with joy as she eagerly awaited his response.
Naruto paused for a moment before responding, "Yes, it's something I have been wanting to eat for some time now." His voice turned warmer as he gazed at her, wishing to etch her face into his memory.
"What's that?" Rias inquired; her curiosity piqued.
"Hakata ramen."
-END-
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