Disclaimer: First Chapter
Story Start!

Naruto stood over a devil's corpse.

"Confirming the death of the Onion Devil." Naruto looked down at the devil. While 9 days had passed in the hotel, only a single second had passed in the world outside of that sealed time space, meaning that Naruto had to go to work the next day. That meant getting assigned to hunting devils, and today his partner was Kobeni. Himeno was with Aki, and Denji had the day off, and when Denji had the day off that meant Power also had the day off.

Hirokazu put in his resignation letter.

9 days trapped like that, eating human meat, had caused a break in his psyche. He was still going to be a devil hunter, but he wasn't going to be hunting the stronger devils that Public Safety hunted down. Instead of was transferring into the civilian sector who didn't get government funding, and thus only hunted the weak devils.

Kobeni stayed on.

"Are you crying because of the onion, or crying because you're Kobeni?" Naruto asked as he rubbed his own crying eyes. He had chopped the Onion devil in half, the damn thing had spider legs, and eyeballs all over it's body. When the thing died, it caused everyone around it to start crying from the release of onion power.

"Onion."

'Well... Kobeni now lives on her own now, so she has to support herself. Makes sense she won't retire from that ordeal... considering I made sure to keep her calm the entire time.' Naruto wasn't that surprised that Kobeni had kept herself in Public Safety instead of quitting. Also, considering that bonuses were coming up, she wanted to buy herself some nice clothes. All of the clothes she owned were hand-me-downs from her sisters. Her parents really didn't ever buy her anything new. "So, did you get the invite to the bar from the others?"

"I did... I have a nice dress I got from my sister to wear... it is... paid for right?"

"Yeah, I think somebody else is paying for it. I know Himeno is paying for me." Naruto knew Himeno was going to pay him back by ordering him extras of anything he wanted. "It's a fancy BBQ place that serves booze." Naruto told her. Kobeni was 20, the drinking age, and she could get sloshed if she wanted to. He planned on drinking just a little, even if it wasn't legal for him. "... even I need a drink after that shit." Naruto jumped off the Onion devil when the clean up crew arrived.

Kobeni slid right next to him as he started to walk away, and she stayed shoulder to shoulder with him, maintaing a constant physical contact. As long as she was with him, she wasn't a nervous wreck like she normally was. She was still timid, and a quiet person, but she had a little more confidence that she wasn't going to get killed by a devil with him.

"We're on Harajuku street?"

"This place reminds me of Hot Topic." Naruto looked at the store.

"What?"

"An American store that me and Himeno went to in New York." Naruto explained. They were still on the job, but the devil was defeated and it wasn't like there was a need to avoid going into stores. "You said you only had your sister's nice dress... why not get something new here?" Naruto asked as he gestured to the nearest clothes store. "I need some new shirts, so I'm taking a breath... break." Naruto entered the store.

Kobeni had to follow him.

"Oooooooh, English words, I wonder what they say?" Kobeni saw a bunch of shirts with english words on them, the only word she recognized was devil though. She lifted a shirt to herself to size it, and it was way too big. "Do they have this in a small..." Kobeni whispered.

"Do you do custom designs?"

"Tell us the words you want, and we can have it on a shirt. All shirts are made in-house." The store keeper stated to Naruto's question. Naruto grinned.

"Awesome-"

-Later-

"Nice shirt?" Makima stated questioningly, her face not smiling, but more of a neutral confusion as she got home to Naruto wearing a new shirt she hadn't seen him wear before. She was used to him wearing her clothes, since he hadn't bought anything for himself.

Carpet Muncher Devil

"Me and Kobeni stopped at a shirt store today, and picked up matching shirts. I got the Carpet Muncher Devil shirt, and she got the Sloppy Blowjob Devil shirt." Naruto had gotten the shirts in English so that they could wear them, and few people would be the wiser. He was wearing casual clothes now, and he was getting ready to go to the BBQ bar to meet up with all the others who were attending the company party. "Aren't you coming to the party too?" Naruto asked.

"As the lead of Special Division 4, I will show up at the party when I finish some business. I'll see you there. Are those pants pink?" Makima looked at him.

A blue shirt with pink letters, and pink pants.

-At the Bar-

"Nice shirt Kobeni."

"Thank you!" Kobeni smiled and bowed to Himeno for the compliment. She she wearing a pink shirt with blue letters, and blue pants. She didn't know what Naruto had put on their matching shirts, but she was so happy with the outfit that she had to wear it to the party. She saw a few of her fellow Division 4 members were already eating.

"The seafood is mine!"

There was Power.

"The seafood is for everyone... nice shirt Naruto." Aki deadpanned when Naruto showed up after Kobeni, and he sat down between Denji and Himeno. Kobeni sat across from Naruto at the large table, and quite a few Division 4 members they hadn't met yet were at the table with them. Aki could clearly read what was on both of Naruto and Kobeni's shirts, and he wasn't super amused by it.

Himeno could read it too, and she did find it very amusing.

"A round of beers for everyone but Denji, and Power!" Himeno added, since nobody wanted to deal with a drunk Power. She called right to the waitress. "... also, an extra serving of beef for this guy here!" Himeno wrapped an arm around Naruto's neck, and pulled him down to her breast level. Looking at the beer in front of her that was half drunk, he would say she had already loosened up with beer before he even arrived.

Drinks arrived.

Drink got drunk.

Makima arrived.

"Miss Makima." Aki, with flushed cheeks, greeted her as he stood right up. Naruto looked at the lovestruck look on Aki's face, and he felt a genuine pity for the guy. It was clear to see that he was hopelessly in love with Makima.

A woman who would never love him back.

Not just never, but was incapable of loving him back. Makima could only love things if they fulfilled certain conditions, and Aki was unable to meet those conditions. He could never be her equal, or her superior, and he wasn't even able to give her his absolute loyalty either, because of the simple fact that she could never tell him of her status as a devil without earning his disloyalty for it. The man was a fool in love with something out of his reach.

"Hello Aki, a nice evening we're having." Makima was still polite to him though.

Naruto saw her gaze go to Denji, before it went to him next.

'She's plotting something.' Naruto raised a glass to Makima as she sat down at the end of the table. She smiled at him, and a glass was brought for her as well. 'She's debating if plotting against Denji will put on on my bad side... maybe... she wants the Chainsaw, but she knows with me here she won't get it if she uses horrible methods.' Naruto could see the gears in her head working. Makima wanted both him and the Chainsaw devil on her side, but those were hard to do with her usual wicked methods.

There was a reason Naruto stayted so close to Makima in her apartment.

He was her leash.

"Narutooooo."

"Bft." Naruto looked down in his lap, and saw a drunk Kobeni had slipped under the table. She had her arms around his waist, and her head was right in his lap. Her feet were sticking out of the other side of the table.

"I wuv yoooou."

"Oh dear." Makima stated with a smile.

'She won't do anything to Kobeni or Himeno, because she knows that if she hurts anyone I'm friends with, then I stop being ally potential.' Naruto was less worried about what Makima would think than one might consider. She would make people's lives harder, but he had a feeling that Makima knew that getting anyone he cared about killed would end with him being her enemy, and that was a course of action she absolutely didn't want to happen. She was immortal, and bound to him, but the fact she didn't know if he had ways to get rid of her or not.

Naruto trusted Makima, because he knew exactly what ways he could and couldn't trust her, and he knew he could trust her to be manipulative. He also knew that he couldn't trust her to not be manipulative, and thus every action she took was calculated... which was why Makima was so relaxed around him at the apartment. He was aware of her true nature as a devil, so she couldn't be manipulative to him directly, and instead had to manipulate those around him.

He trusted the fact that she couldn't be trusted.

"I wuuuuuuuuv you... be's my boysfriend." Kobeni slurred her words as she cried into Naruto's crotch. Her sloppy drunk had come out, and he saw she had drunk a lot more than she did at her apartment. Naruto continued to eat, and he pacified her by rubbing her head, and she enjoyed his touch. "Youz always waching be... help with ma family... mak me safe... mak me feel safe." Kobeni's slurred words turned into the reason for her feelings.

"Ooooooh, love confession, so awkward to get that from a drunk girl, eh newbie?"

"Uuuuuuh?" Naruto looked at a nameless man, who was sitting next to a nameless woman as well. He didn't know who either of them were. "I've actually never had a love confession from anyone before."

"Yes you have."

"Huh?" Naruto asked when Kurama spoke up. 'That thing with Sakura doesn't count, she wasn't trying to manipulate me.' Naruto responded to Kurama with roll of his eyes. She had faked a love confession to get him to stop trying to save Sasuke, so that she could attempt to kill him. A love confession like that didn't count.

"You changed me, Naruto! Your smiling face saved me! And that's why I'm not afraid to die, defending you! Because... I love you..."

Naruto stood up abruptly when Kurama played a forgotten memory for him. Naruto's hand went to cover his mouth as a memory that he had forgotten became vividly clear to him. It had happened, and he forgot about it because of what happened right after. Naruto saw everyone was staring at him, so he sat back down.

'That was fucked up, showing me that.' Naruto thought to Kurama.

"I was just showing you that you were wrong. You've been confessed to by a girl before."

'Still super messed up to show me that.' Naruto calmed down. His overall good mood had been brought down by showing him something that he had forgotten. When he left his world, he had abandoned a person who had genuinely confessed her love to him. A dear friend of his, who no doubt had felt extremely horrible at his departure.

Mood killer right there.

"You made a choice, to leave your world so that you didn't follow a dark path and take everyone with you. Hinata's feelings are a sacrifice needed for world peace."

'Don't say it like that, that makes it seem like her feelings didn't matter at all.' Naruto deadpanned to the large fox inside of him. Naruto felt Kobeni fall asleep as she saddled back up to his lap, with Himeno leaning on him with a teasing grin.

He was immortal.

...

'Still, even if all these people die around me, I'm not going to abandon them or avoid loving them. Even when they age and I don't, I'll hold these moments precious to me.' Naruto had become immortal, and all of these people around him were going to die. Still, he wasn't going to avoid forming bonds with them. Just like how he would forever cherish Sasuke in his heart, and his many other comrades he loved, he would cherish the people he was forming bonds with.

"You better, because you're not alone, and I don't want to deal with a sappy Naruto for all eternity."

"Heheh." Naruto chuckled with a grin.

Kurama laughed with him.

The mood returned to the party.

Chapter End!
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