Disclaimer: First Chapter
Story Start!
"Zzzzzzz."
"He's actually asleep... he can sleep during all of this?" Kobeni stared at Denji, who after 5 hours of being trapped in Eternity, had decided it was time to get some sleep. The comfortable hotel beds were perfect for him, and he was out like a light. It was hard to imagine anyone getting any sleep during a moment like this. "Naruto... you can get us out of here... right?" Kobeni turned her head.
Her cheek brushed against Naruto's cheek.
To feel safe, Kobeni was sitting between Naruto's legs with his arms around her in a hug. His arms around her, her back against his chest, and just spooning from a sitting position helped her feel calmer during their situation. Naruto was the supernaturally strong, and fast, invincible guy who could take down giant devils with just brute strength. He was also the only person in her entire life who had helped her just because it was the right thing to do, and made sure she could take control of her own life away from her family.
Naruto's lap was a place of safety.
"I'll figure something out." Naruto assured her, the door to the room was open, and Hirokazu was walking around with Power. He was pretty sure that Aki was still searching for the devil in the hopes of making it appear. The sooner the devil appeared, the sooner they could take care of it and escape.
It was a unique war.
The toilets had running water, and so did the showers for that matter, so they were capable of showering and using the bathroom. They wouldn't die of thirst, and with there being 2 immortals in the group with bodies that could regenerate, they wouldn't go hungry either. That meant that the devil wouldn't be able to wait for them to weaken. The Eternity devil was in kind of a rough place, because it couldn't hunt them down when they were weakened by starvation, thirst, or even disease from not showering.
Hirokazu and Kobeni were problems though.
Aki was too serious, and was controlling any fear responses he had, so the devil wouldn't be getting stronger from Aki, and the same thing with Himeno. She was able to control her fear response so long as Aki was calm, so the two of them weren't going to be feeding the devil any fear. Denji wasn't a sane person to begin with, and anyone who could sleep in this situation wasn't so afraid as to feed the devil.
Power was retarded, too retarded to be afraid of this kind of situation, because he doubted she understood the situation itself.
Naruto was cuddling Kobeni, and serving as safety for her, to prevent her from freaking out or being afraid. Unlike the others, for some reason being in contact with him, and his words, actually seemed to soothe her fear. She was able to exhibit some signs of fear control, but only when he was in the same room as her, and the effect was greatest when he was holding her like a lover would.
'Kurama, KURAMA, wake up!'
"There isn't anything we can do right now, so I was asleep." Kurama woke up with a grumble inside of him.
'Give me a sense of the general negativety in the air. How is everyone doing right now?' Naruto asked, and Kurama sensed their surroundings. Naruto slipped Kobeni's knife out of her uniform, and set it to the side. He felt things through Kurama, and he nodded his head in satisfaction. The general negative aura around the living humans and other species was at a low point, meaning nobody was giving the Eternity Devil any strength.
Hours passed.
It was hard to give an exact amount, but Aki was taking a break with Himeno as they smoked through a few of their cigarettes. Kobeni was the only one who didn't have to patrol, well, and Naruto, but that was because she would freak out, and Naruto was preventing her from freaking out. She was currently nibbling on his forearm as she watched Aki and Himeno get ready to smoke, because chewing on his arm was comforting to her too.
"I'll do another patrol later... any ideas on how to make it show up?" Aki asked Himeno as he lit her cigarette with the tip of his own.
"I freaken love this addiction... but not, if you haven't thought of something, then I haven't either. This is turning into one giant waiting game. Eventually, the devil is going to have to attack us. We have an endless supply of food and water... boredom, and my cigs running out is a more pressing concern." Himeno was down to her last 4 cigarettes in her box, and she could see that Aki was down to 3. As long as they had them, they could take the stress off, but once they were out, stress would build up over time.
"Then stop smoking them every 45 minutes."
"Hey, this is a stressful situation, helps take the edge off." Himeno stated to Naruto's deadpan with a grin. She grinned wider at Naruto cuddling Kobeni, since the woman was sinking into his arms like a lovestruck girl. It was hard to find a woman in the room who was currently more chilled out than Kobeni was right now. "Careful Kobeni, you'll end up smelling like Naruto at this rate."
"That's fine with me, smelling like Naruto might scare off devils." Kobeni stayed curled up in Naruto's arms, a happy little smile on her lips. She made herself super comfortable.
Aki watched this with an unimpressed face, before he turned to look out the window into the other room.
"This has turned into a waiting game... a damned one at that." Aki spoke to himself with a sigh of frustration. The Eternity Devil had a piece of the gun devil making it stronger than it should be, but it was afraid of something, so it wasn't showing up yet in person. The thing was trying to drive them to insanity by keeping them trapped.
Hours continued to pass.
Denji yawned as he woke up, scratching his belly.
"That was an awesome nap... still here huh?" Denji looked towards Naruto and Kobeni cuddling. He continued to look around more, before he turned to face Naruto and crossed his legs, rocking back and forth on his butt. "Okay... so... we got off on the wrong foot, so tell me... is cuddling nicer than grabbing boobs, because you and her have been cuddling since before I even fell asleep?" Denji seemed to genuinely want to know.
"It's pretty nice."
"Oh, good... cool... soooooooooo..." Denji scratched his cheek awkwardly, since he didn't really know what else to ask. "Ah! What kind of jam do you like on toast! I've been trying tons of different jams!" Denji grinned at the conversation about food. Everyone could have a fun conversation if it was about food. 'Heheh, nice, get him to drop his guard around you, then I can kick him in the balls-' Denji blinked.
Naruto was staring at him.
"You know, I can practically read minds when it comes to pranks and petty revenge. I'm never going to drop my guard around you. You are never getting a chance to kick my balls." Naruto deadpanned to the obvious boy. Naruto was genuinely amused by Denji's petty grudge, it was actually super funny.
"I'm going to kick your balls one of these days, one for each flick... but... hey... the jam question?" Denji did want to know the question.
"Butter, I don't really do jam on toast. Butter." Naruto explained, a spread of butter was up his alley. "... Salted butter, I like salty flavors more than sweet ones." Naruto decided he would humor Denji, since his fellow teenager DID want to know. As much as it was an attempt to get him to drop his guard, it was still strangely enough a normal question.
Hours passed.
Denji had gone out to look through the different rooms, and to try and find stuff from the different guests luggage.
"SCORE! CONDOMS! AWESOME!"
"He found condoms, and he's bragging about it?" Hirokazu was on break as he sat against the wall, while Power laid across the bed and stared at the ceiling. He kept his eye on her, and refused to drop his guard enough to even sleep. He was tired though, and the more tired he got, the more irritated he got as well.
Hours passed.
People were starting to get hungry, but they had found food in the other guests luggage, so they had managed to eat that, and not have to resort to Naruto cutting off his own flesh right away. When they finished eating, though it was just snack foods, Aki had decided he would lay down and rest a little, with Himeno joining him in the same bed, cuddled up to him. Kobeni had fallen asleep as well.
'Kurama, mind controlling my body while I sleep?'
"Go for it."
6 hours passed, and Naruto woke up when Kurama woke up him to switch places again. As far as anyone was concerned, Naruto had stayed awake and on guard the entire time they were asleep. Denji was yawning and replacing Aki and Himeno in the bed, going to back to sleep.
2 days passed.
They were out of the snacks, and the smokers in the group were down to their last cigarette each, having saved it when they realized they were almost out. They were all able to shower, and drink shower water, and use the bathroom. Yet, hunger was setting in for almost everyone, and even though Aki was refusing to let Naruto cut off pieces of himself to let them eat, even he was getting to the point that he seemed exhausted with no food.
"I need a smoke, but this is my last one... fuuuuuuuuuck." Himeno complained, in a real bad move without her stress relief. She was bored out of her mind, and feeling a little worried about their current situation. She wanted to smoke, but they had already been on the 8th floor for over 2 days, and the devil hadn't shown itself at all.
Hirokazu was on the floor, curled over and holding his pained stomach.
"I'm going to do it. If you guys go much longer without eating, you're going to start to feel hopeless, and if you feel hopeless, fear will set in." Naruto started to head to the bathroom with a knife, Kobeni's knife. Aki grabbed his wrist and stopped him from going in.
"We haven't gotten to the point of needing to do that yet... " Aki narrowed his eyes and squeezed Naruto's wrist as hard as he could to try and intimidate Naruto into obedience. Naruto yanked his wrist out of Aki's grip, and glared at him. "... We don't need to do that."
"Yes, we do."
"It doesn't have to be you though. It can be Denji." Aki pointed out with grit teeth. "... you're the strongest one here, if you weaken yourself, that devil-" Aki started, but Naruto gave him a gut punch that knocked him to his knees. He collapsed forward, and Naruto chopped the back of his neck, putting him to sleep.
Naruto went into the bathroom.
He rolled up his sleeve and prepared to cut chunks off of his arm.
"Wait, Naruto, stop!"
"Gyuki?" Naruto asked when he heard one of the Tailed Beasts who never really spoke up in him. Naruto had directed the knife, and was moments away from cutting himself. "What's up?" Naruto asked as he closed an eye, and appeared halfway in his mindscape.
"You can cut off one of my tentacles, and offer that to the others instead. You don't need to cut off an arm for this, let me take the sacrifice for you." Gyuki could manifest one of his tentacles.
SPLURT*
"No can do, Tailed Beast flesh contains your chakra, and the stronger the Tailed Beasts, the less safe it is for humans to eat." Naruto grinned through grith teeth as he spoke. Naruto sliced off a large chunk of his arm. He appreciated the gesture that Gyuki was making, but it just was not a safe option for the humans in the room. Naruto would be able to eat Gyuki's tentacles without an issue, since he was a Jinchuriki, but nobody else could safely eat such condensed chakra flesh without dying in the process.
"Naruto..."
"It's fine, it hurts, but I can handle it." Naruto continued to slice off chunks of his arm, he got down to the bone, before he started to regenerate the lost flesh. Just like when he regenerated a destroyed lung as a kid, his flesh swirled and spiralled as it healed up without so much as a scar remaining. Naruto continued to slice off enough of his own flesh, enough to feed everyone to the point of fullness. "... now to cook it." Naruto had a punch of it layed out in front of him.
-Later-
"This... it doesn't taste good at all... this is wrong." Aki spoke through grit teeth as he ate the small chunks of cooked flesh, distaste and displeasure on his face.
"If you don't want it, I'll eat it." Denji offered.
Hirokazu ate in silence, while Himeno gave Naruto a genuinely worried look over what he had done to himself. He had cut off his own flesh and cooked it, to serve it to them. While everyone was pretty much starving, and forced to eat his cooked flesh. It didn't have a good or bad taste, it was without any seasonings of spices. It filled their stomachs though, and with filled stomachs everyone's moods started to improve again.
"Delicious! Truly a delicacy!"
Power enjoyed the taste though.
"You're the most unpleasant person here." Naruto would rather people just eat in absolute silence than making comments about how he tasted. He wasn't doing this because he wanted to, but because he absolutely needed to. Naruto wasn't eating his own flesh, instead he was using flesh from Gyuki's tentacle, since eating himself would provide him with nothing. Of course, nobody knew the flesh HE was eating was different than what the rest of them were eating.
There was a heavy sense of guilt from half of the people in the room as they ate.
"When we're out of here, I'm going to treat you to the nicest meal of your life." Himeno promised Naruto, dead serious, and absolutely willing to pay whatever cost.
"... You're a good man." Hirokazu offered his thanks.
"You can sleep with me if you want. I'm not confident in my skills, but I'll do whatever I can to reward you for everything you've done for me." Kobeni had tears in her eyes as she offered even her virginity to Naruto. The meal she was eating was gross and cooked badly, but she felt better with a full belly than a starving one.
"Re-really, you'll sleep with a guy who does this... then will you sleep with me if I let you guys eat my flesh instead of Naruto!?" Denji asked with an excited look as Kobeni offered such an amazing prize onto the table for Naruto.
"No." Kobeni deadpanned to Denji.
"Yeah, no, that's kind of creepy, trading flesh for fucks." Himeno denied with a wave of her hand. "Naruto deserves a fuck or two, because he's genuinely being selfless and isn't for anything in return. You offering is just you trying to get your dick wet, there is a HUGE difference." Himeno wasn't even upset with Denji, but seeing his dejected look, she had to explain the difference. "Heck, even I'm willing to pass a fuck or two Naruto's way for this."
"Same, I'll be a bottom." Hirokazu stated, the dude nodding his head.
"I don't want your ass, and I don't need a reward... but I will absolutely take you up on that meal offer Himeno." Naruto didn't need some dude offering ass to him. He pointed to Himeno, and the mood lightened up with his comment. She grinned and offered a peace sign to him.
Denji went silent as he actually thought about what was being said.
'So... being a good person because it's the right thing to do, gets people to want to give you more rewards, than just doing good things to trade for stuff.' Denji nodded his head and grinned. He would remember that for the future when he tried to trade sex favors for services. He looked at Naruto with a curious glance, before he looked at the silent Aki.
Aki looked at Naruto, and down at his own meal.
'I feel sick to my stomach eating this, this is wrong. This is so wrong, but we need to keep our strength up.'
"Yeah, now we have an endless supply of food and water, and with good company, we'll never get bored." Naruto purposely said with a jovial tone. The others looked at him as he stood up and walked towards the room door. "I'm going to do a patrol of my own, you guys stay and enjoy the meal." Naruto left the room with a full belly himself.
Naruto saw the Eternity Devil.
It was small, and it wasn't his main body, but the creature was hanging out and listening to them from the hallway.
"You'll go crazy eventually... they all will, and then the Chainsaw's heart will be mine."
"So, you're after Denji's heart, figures. I would attack you, but you aren't the main body... but still..." Naruto punched the devil, and splattered it across the hallway. There was a pained gasp somewhere else as the devil felt what he had done. "... damn did that feel good." Naruto had enjoyed punching the devil very much. "Lets see who can go longer... because while we're here, you're stuck with us... we won't starve."
"Soooooo?"
"So, you're still a devil, you need to eat too... and while you're keeping us trapped, you're starving too. I wonder how long you can last before you starve and get weaker. So come on, you want to play this game, lets play." Naruto walked down the hallway and talked to the devil that was all around them. He had a grin on his face, hands in his pockets, and he was ready for an attack to come at any time.
Inside the room, Aki was leaned up against the door, and listened to every word Naruto said.
Aki put a hand to his chin.
'Right, devils need to feed off fear, or fill their bellies too. If none of us are afraid, then we can starve the devil and force it to show itself. This is a good plan. Even if the devil refuses to show itself, eventually it will get weak enough that it's power will break, and we can escape.' Aki could see now why Naruto had been so willing to let them eat him. Keeping them fed, even if it wasn't pleasant for him, was a way to taunt the starving devil.
The Eternity Devil had to be so hungry watching them eat, and the longer things went on, the better their situation was overall. None of them would have to worry about food or water, they could always maintain their full strength and be ready for the devil to attack. With each day though, the devil would grow weaker as it starved, and eventually when it couldn't take it anymore, it would attack them in a fit of hunger.
"Yeah, I figured out his plan too." Himeno leaned up against the wall next to the door.
"Will it work?" Aki asked for her opinion.
"Yeah, even devils need to eat. It's a concept people forget, but while Naruto was cuddling Kobeni, he had a lot of time to think about a way to escape with all our lives. He's a good guy, but he's definitely got screws loose." Himeno grinned at that when she said it. She looked at Aki though, and she took out her last cigarette, before she looked at it, wondering if she should light it now. "... I'll save this for when we're out of here. A good smoke after this bullshit sounds like a great way to celebrate." Himeno put her cigarette back up.
Aki on the other hand, took his out and lit it.
"This plan is fucked up, and I need a smoke after hearing it." Aki didn't agree with using his last cigarette for celebration. He needed a smoke, and he needed it now, just to deal with the guilt he would feel when he realized that for however long it took them to starve out the devil, Naruto was going to have to keep cutting off his own flesh and serving it to them.
"Super fucked up. It's why when this is over, I am absolutely going to take Naruto for the nicest meal, and get both of us super drunk, and take him on a wild ride. He's earned it for the bullshit we're putting him through." Himeno took Aki's cigarette, and took a single puff off of it, before giving it back to him. He continued to smoke. "... this makes me want to retire from Public Safety, and go into the Civilian Sector of devil hunters. Not having to deal with devils this strong would be nice." Himeno stated.
"The Civilians don't have the resources to go after the Gun Devil, so Public Safety is where I'm staying."
"Yeah... yeah, I get it." Himeno sighed and leaned against the wall, before she slid down and sat on the floor. "... you're a very sane man. Don't die Aki... make friends with Naruto. He's a crazy guy, and strong... if you want to take down the Gun, Naruto might be one of the only guys who can do it." Himeno leaned her head to the side and looked up at Aki.
Aki took her words, nodded, and walked to one of the beds.
"I'll sleep, and then go patrol the halls."
"You do that Aki, you do that." Himeno closed her own eyes.
This situation they were in, it really sucked.
Chapter End!
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