IMPORTANT A/N: If you follow and/or have this story favorited and jumped to most recent chapter (this one) when you saw it updated, go back one chapter. This is the second part of a double update, because I felt that it didn't belong as a direct part of the previous one, but needed to be posted alongside it. I'll remove this A/N next time I update, so as to not break immersion for everyone else reading at a later date.

Back to our (semi-)regularly scheduled program.

Kuoh Streets
(Nighttime)

His time was being wasted.

His time was being wasted because his boss was being a paranoid bitch tonight, and wanted him to follow some brat she thought seemed suspicious.

'Not that her being a bitch is out of the ordinary,' the man thought with a chuckle as he walked down the sidewalk.

Sometimes, it was nice to take a breather after a successful hunt; Take a stroll through whatever town he was in at the time, see the sights, enjoy the food, all that jazz. He would hit up a bar and get plastered on cheap beer, or find a fancy strip club and enjoy the sights with a fine whiskey in hand, or maybe even the tried and true fishing hole down by the lake. Didn't matter which lake, there was always a suitable lake somewhere, you just had to find it.

Hell, the arcade was even a little bit fun for a while, though it got tedious by the time the second hour rolled around. After the fifth, well, he could barely even bother pretending to be engaged.

Yes, sometimes it was enjoyable to do "normal" activities, to set everything else aside and do something meaningless to relax.

But only sometimes.

He pulled his hat's brim further down over his eyes after his mark turned the corner, in the middle of lighting one of those idiotic smoke-sticks the humans loved to kill themselves with.

Most of the time, he preferred the rush. The adrenaline. The anticipation of victory, of pitting his own power against another being's and coming out on top. Sure, he could have performed this particular recon mission from the air above instead of walking among his 'lessers,' as some of his comrades would put it, but that was exactly why he always chose to walk among the humans, to the point it became a habit of his even when there weren't any people around.

It was a totally unique thrill, to walk through a crowd of living, breathing beings, with thoughts and lives of their own, knowing with absolute certainty that he could kill every single one of them with barely a second thought–

'Hmm?'

He turned the same corner as his current target for observation had almost a minute ago, but slowed to a stop under the light of a storefront's canopy when he couldn't see the short blond anywhere on either darkened sidewalk ahead of him. Looking around, his gaze sharpened, and he almost took off in flight as anticipation welled up inside him at the thought of a chase, before he caught sight of the telltale orange glow in an alley just ahead of him and to the left. On top of that, there was a very slight trail of smoke, and the tiniest edge of a dark piece of clothing sticking out around the corner.

He slowly approached, simultaneously relieved and disappointed. On the one hand, potentially losing track of the kid would have made it a pain in the ass when he reported back to base. On the other hand? Now he didn't have an actual excuse to spice things up a little and get a measure of the boy in his own way.

He lifted up a hand, intending to tap the boy on the shoulder the moment he walked around the corner and pretend to ask for a smoke–

"Hey there."

–when he turned his head at the sound of a young-sounding voice behind him, eyes narrowing at what he saw.

The boy was standing right where the man named Dohnaseek had stopped a moment ago, his shut-eyed smirk being cast in shadows by the dim overhead light, the whisker marks that looked so stupid in the daytime now lending a more menacing air to the facial expression.

Dohnaseek turned his body to fully face the blond, instincts warning him that this was a person he didn't want to leave his back open to.

He glanced to the side at the alley, only to discover that the fabric he'd seen was the jacket that had previously been wrapped around the boy's waist, hung around a pipe that ran up the side of the building. The cigarette had been set on top of a trash can lid, left to burn on its own, while the grocery bags sat at the base of the can.

"Ya lookin' for something? Maybe a quick smoke?" The boy questioned with a slight tilt of his head, prompting Dohnaseek to suppress a grimace and give the boy his full attention back. "I got them just for you, ya'know? You look like a guy who smokes." No doubt about it, he'd been had. The kid's smirk widened. "Or were ya just looking to chat?"

The question now was just when he'd been made.

"Hmph," Dohnaseek grunted in irritation. "How did you get behind me without me noticing?" He asked, getting straight to the point and ignoring the taunting.

"Me? Get behind you? You're the one who walked right past me." The boy brought his arms up and shrugged, changing out his smirk for a 'what can you do?' sort of expression. "I'm positively shocked that you didn't see me there. You couldn't have missed me even if you were looking straight up for some stargazing…" He smirked again "... ya'know?"

Dohnaseek's eyes widened, before they narrowed again.

'He knows I'm a Fallen? Not only that, but he himself can fly, it seems. Not human, then. An unknown Devil?'

He'd never been the best at judging others' power outside of battle, but the boy could have killed him before he even realized he was being attacked, with how casually he'd bypassed Dohnaseeks notice.

'Looks like Raynare was right to be paranoid.'

"Boy." Dohnaseek addressed him. "I am Dohnaseek. What's your name?" He asked, watching for any signs of sudden aggressive movements. He may greatly enjoy a good battle to the death, but he couldn't trust this battlefield to be a fair one. It would be unfortunate if things came to blows, and he was forced to retreat because a trap he hadn't noticed took him out of proper fighting condition.

The boy seemed taken aback at that, leaning away slightly as his eyebrows rose and his smirk fell. Then again, he'd already shown that he was adept at misdirection. It could just as easily be an act, considering how much more childish he'd seemed when together with the suddenly-revealed Devil girl.

"... You've been following me for like, what, six or seven hours now?" The boy questioned, eyebrows still raised. "And you don't even know who I am?" Shit. He sounded genuine. "I even took the scenic route home, to see if it was me or Koneko-chan that you were following from the cafe…"

'Aaand the brat's eyes are still closed.' Dohnaseek mentally sighed, now doubly sure that he'd apparently been outed from the beginning. 'It's always the most annoying types who do that shit…'

"...Incompetent much?" The blond questioned jokingly. "Whatever," he shook his head and slid a hand into his pocket. "Nevermind that. The name's Uzumaki Naruto."

'A Japanese name,' Dohnaseek thought, adjusting his mental profile for the teen. 'Half-devil then? Or maybe those clan exorcists finally figured out an efficient flight spell, as unlikely as that is.'

"So, now that we've introduced ourselves…" Naruto took a couple slow steps forward, stepping out from under the light and into the dark night. He opened his eyes and sent a half-lidded stare at the tall man. "... why don't you tell me why you're following little old me."

'... What a creepy damn kid.'

"My boss has been on edge for a couple days and thought you were acting suspicious, so she sent me to keep an eye on you." Dohnaseek told the total truth, without actually giving away anything about their purpose in Kuoh. "Which group or faction holds your allegiance, if you don't mind me asking? For peace of mind, you understand."

Regardless of whether or not the boy interfered in either of their local operations, Dohnaseek swore that the next time they met, he would be properly prepared to kill the teen. The only peace of mind he needed was knowing whether he would need to go to ground after, to avoid the wrath of one of the bigger organizations.

"Eh? Faction, allegiance?" Naruto questioned with his eyes squinted closed again. "... Seriously, just how incompetent are you guys? I'm just a student at Kuoh academy, if you couldn't tell from my uniform. I'm a regular human, Donut-man."

That stopped Dohnaseek short. No matter what the kid said, there was nothing "regular" about him, though he seemed to be telling the truth about being an unaligned human. That being the case…

A smirk of his own formed, and he gathered his Light in preparation.

'...Raynare can't get mad at me if I take care of the problem directly!'

Naruto's eyes opened slightly, a sly smile forming as he watched the man's posture intently.

As Dohnaseek prepared to dash at the boy, a solid glowing spear appeared in his hand formed out of blue light.

He didn't flinch or twitch, nor did his eyes widen, but most importantly, Dohnaseek didn't freeze. He wasn't a rookie.

He stepped back instead, battle-hardened instincts screaming at him that his life would end if he attacked. There should have been a tell, some sign that he could point to for why he knew he would die, but the blond just stood there as relaxed as ever despite the appearance of the light spear, smiling lightly with his hand in his pocket.

"You were trying to bait me into attacking you, weren't you?" The man accused with grudging respect.

"Not necessarily. If you decided to finally leave so I could go home already, I'd have considered that 'mission completed,' ya'know?" Naruto shrugged "I'll admit it though, I did kinda want to see if you were actually gonna give me a fight, so I guess yeah, guilty as charged!" He chuckled, one hand rubbing the back of his head. "Normally when your types come knocking on my door for this or that, they pretend to be all 'in control' and stuff to try and bully little old me into going with them." He shrugged again. "No idea why, but for some reason they tend to get really nervous when I tell them why that isn't a great idea."

"Hmph." Dohnaseek fought the urge to make a sarcastic comment about that in irritation. He decided to release his wings and get the night over with instead. "... Mark my words, should you interfere with our goals and we meet on the battlefield, only one of us will live to walk away."

With that the newly revealed Fallen launched himself into the air and flew into the night, the spear only dissipating when he'd put multiple buildings between them.

"... Huh. So… that wasn't one of those government agent guys?" Naruto said out loud once he was alone, rubbing his chin. "I probably should have realized that was a Fallen sooner, given the whole glowing-spear thing…" 'I guess I just didn't expect "Light Spears" to actually look like spears. Figured they'd look like Sasuke's Chidori spear or something,' he thought. 'More importantly though…'

"I was so certain he was going to attack…" He muttered. "So why did he back off at the last second?"

Deciding that standing around wasn't going to solve it, he began walking the small distance over to the alley where he'd set up his ruse. "I really should look into getting some kunai, if it's possible that happens more frequently."

Just after he reached his stuff, a noise sounded out behind and above him.

"Meow."

Turning around, he was greeted by a dark blur atop the edge of the store's canopy, practically invisible against the night sky until it jumped down to the sidewalk, revealing a jet-black street cat.

"Hey there, little dude." After putting out the lit cigarette and throwing it and the rest away, Naruto crouched down to appear less threatening as the animal approached him. "I see you don't have a collar, so you probably don't have an owner to feed you. Do you want a snack?" As expected, the cat didn't answer him, though it did rub its side against his leg as it slinked past him to paw at his grocery bags.

"Straight for the food, huh?" Naruto rolled his eyes with a sigh, though he smiled regardless. "Yeah, yeah, I get it."

After feeding the cat some scraps of shredded chicken from a can, the blond teen put on his blazer, grabbed his bags, and continued his trek home through the dimly lit side streets.

…

"..."

Standing outside of his condo's door, Naruto deadpanned down at the yellow eyes staring up at him.

"You want to come inside for the night, don't you?"

The cat that had followed him home prodded his leg with a paw in response.

"... Come on in then, I guess."

He opened the door.