Although I know it's going to upset someone, time to answer a few comments.
Guest: The thing is ambiguous with Naruto and Rias, they were born on the same day with only minutes of difference from different mothers. People consider Naruto the elder because he's the one of the two who literally doesn't behave like a spoiled and idiotic little child. Yes, he throws his tantrums, but they're never for not getting what he wants, but out of pure frustration when something goes wrong for him. More than crying tantrums, they're more about yelling and cursing a couple of times and then going back to work. Regarding Raizer... the truth is they don't even care who that clan's disappointment marries, but that's explained in this chapter.
Krn3: I'm not contradicting myself. Venelana is pretty much indifferent to me, and her character is contradictory because she doesn't like Naruto for the simple fact that everyone keeps comparing him over and over again with her daughter, and her daughter never comes out on top. But she has to admit that Naruto is genuinely a genius because denying it is stupid. The Sirzechs part is intentionally stupid, since well, the guy has no situational awareness when it comes to his siblings. Years of favoritism towards Rias and barely knowing his younger brother made him a complete idiot in those matters. Regarding Naruto's mother... yes, it's an important topic as it explains why he's a complete bastard, why he has the six eyes, and a few other things, but that's revealed in the story itself in a few more chapters.
Uzumaki Naruto: I genuinely regret that you don't like me answering comments at the beginning of chapters, but I'm not the only one who does it. Many authors, in fact most of those I've seen, reply at the beginning of chapters, because very few people reach the end. Regarding Sona, Sona isn't mature, she's terribly childish even in canon, she's just studious. And honestly, I don't know what people see in her, she has the personality of a potato, meaning absolutely none.
reyrey5210: Answer to your question, I don't think it counts as a spoiler since I'm not telling you the plot but whether or not he's going to a place, meaning not what he'll do in said place if he goes. But yes, he will eventually go since one of the beasts he'll kill is Japanese, but that would be a spoiler, and I'll leave it at that.
And that would be all, now let's get to the chapter.
N/A: First of all... what is said here is part of the expanded lore of my stories, so please ask if you have any doubts and I will answer them later either in subsequent chapters or in a PM, with that said, let's go for the chapter.
Chapter 8: Consequences, Part 2
The rawness of reality struck Sirzechs with the force of a gale, pushing him to the edge of the abyss of despair. The current week, blackened by the ominous shadow of the decisions made during the ill-fated Ravel Phoenix ball, had been etched into the annals of his memory with the indelible ink of regret. Each new dawn seemed conjured by a relentless fate, determined to deliver a fresh and painful blow to his troubled existence, and foreshadowed with grim certainty that the imminent ruin looming over the once revered House Gremory had not yet reached its lowest point, that the very foundations of his lineage creaked with an unsettling fragility.
The overwhelming weight of events crashed down with a desolate intensity, tilting the scales towards a slow and painful death sentence for everything he held dear. Three alliances, which once stood as unwavering pillars of the Gremory fortress, had been pulverized in his hands with alarming rapidity and fragility, like sandcastles collapsing spectacularly before the relentless tide of adversity.
The powerful Astaroth clan, venerated for their arcane erudition and invaluable political support in the intricate power games of the Underworld, had delivered the first and most piercing stab in the back. Ajuka, the august Maou with green hair, had ruthlessly banished all vestige of camaraderie, abruptly breaking the sacred bond that once united them. The deep rift that now separated their souls stretched like a frozen abyss of congealed reproaches, born from the bitter exile that Sirzechs had imposed on his young protégé, whose unparalleled talent had illuminated the corridors of his mind. And this affront was sharpened by the abrupt loss of the valuable opportunity to further strengthen ties with this influential clan, given that before this unprecedented debacle, Lord and Lady Astaroth were actively considering the idea of their talented heiress, Latia-chan, courting the promising Naruto. This union would have greatly strengthened both houses and further elevated the prestige of the Gremory.
The meticulously orchestrated revenge by the Phoenix, for their part, was both precise and brutal in its execution. They sank their golden fangs into the vulnerable financial arteries of the Gremory clan, surgically demolishing the vital trade routes and economic pillars that once sustained their imposing power with unwavering solidity. The revenge unfolded with the aseptic coldness of a slow-motion mercantile apocalypse, heralding an uncertain and faltering economic future that foreshadowed dark times for the clan. And the lowest blow, the poison-oozing insinuation that tainted every word of the vengeful phoenix leaders, was the cruel ultimatum of an absolute detachment that chilled the blood in the veins: As if Raizer were a wandering soul that the proud House Phoenix wished to eradicate forever from their revered genealogical records, ruthlessly and shamefully erasing his very existence from the sacred tales of their house.
And, like an undertaker meticulously finishing the job of a car accident, the haughty Agares added themselves with growing disgust to the list of opponents: The year before the catastrophe with Raizer, Naruto and the peculiar heiress Sawakare had explored the possibility of a romantic relationship, but discovered with mutual displeasure a deep incompatibility in their souls and personalities. However, in a pragmatic twist motivated by the desire to strengthen ties between their houses and ensure the continuity of the Agares lineage, they reached an agreement to cooperate in the procreation of an heir. The cryptic words with which they summarized their dynamic ("they were awful together") concealed an unconventional but beneficial pact for both clans. But now, with Naruto's exile, even this delicate and valuable alliance had dissolved, leaving Sirzechs without allies in an hour when his house desperately needed unity and wise diplomacy.
The deep, piercing wound in Sirzechs' conscience festered with an acrid stench of undeniable failure: The recent meeting with the seemingly jovial Serafall had consumed the last spark of his already battered vital energy. The melodious joy that the powerful leader of the Sirens once distilled at every step had evaporated like a drop of morning dew in the dryness of the scorching desert, withering under the somber onslaught of the conflicts that the Shinto faction seemed to enjoy and manipulate at will. The serene but implacable moon goddess, Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto, with a distant and imperturbable attitude and a vengeful light shining coldly in her ancient eyes, had taken the reins with an iron fist, revealing a facet of her character that promised the most devastating annihilation for the Gremory.
The exorbitant demands, whispered with ancient solemnity by the lips of the moon goddess, which not even the indisputable power of Lady Gremory could refute, resurrected the purest and most lacerating pain of the atrocities of the past: The Shinto faction, a people of legends rooted in sacred traditions, was not willing to yield a single inch of their absolute dominion over the revered lands that had been cruelly stripped away during the height of demonic power. The inflexible condition, imposed with the inhuman coldness of the frozen and solitary moon, with which the dire blood pact between demons and gods was sealed, could not be softened by even a sliver of leniency.
Like a sting of poison that disfigured every bone of the once proud Sirzechs and the members of his weakened clan with the deepest shame and unfathomable humiliation before the other great clans of the Underworld. Furthermore, the inhuman Shinto deities, with an arcane and colossal power that transcended mortal comprehension, had imposed heavy financial sanctions that would become an unbearable burden for the faltering future of the Gremory clan, threatening to drag them without remedy into the abyss of economic ruin. Only the admission of Rias and Sona to the human school was allowed, but subjected to the humiliating whim of strict control and constant surveillance by the distrustful Yokai faction. The two demonic sisters could no longer decide freely for themselves, as if they were mere puppets of a relentless master who expected them to act according to their demands without any room for reply. And in the worst and darkest situation, the righteous Shinto gods reserved the divine right to enter with total impunity into the sacred territory of the Gremory clan and settle accounts by force with the criminals and traitors who should have answered to their judgment according to an ancient plan of justice that dated back to the dawn of civilization itself.
All this complex whirlwind of unprecedented hostility was orchestrated with a cold, calculated, even Machiavellian malevolence by the despicable and vengeful Phoenix family, whose haughty leaders, with venom oozing unpunished from their twisted lips, revealed with cruel glee at the ill-fated ball that the bloody carnage unleashed during Ravel's insipid birthday festivities and Gremory's fateful, thoughtless decision had triggered this intertwined hell of interconnected calamities that now threatened them. Now, to the eternal shame of the once powerful demonic leader, the relationship with his beloved friend, Serafall, was marked by icy tension and a silence as sharp as crystal about to shatter, a frozen abyss that reflected the devastation that now extended beyond his dwindling coffers to infect the relationships he once cherished. And that... was a final and ruthless blow, a below-the-belt strike, the ultimate betrayal that resonated with the rawest of injustices, a slap that shook the very essence of his being.
The recent meeting with Serafall was an additional blow to Sirzechs, a weight that drained the last reserves of his vitality. The normally vibrant energy of the Maou Leviathan, which used to fill every one of their encounters, had vanished like frost under the first sun, leaving in its place a cold echo of the tense confrontation. Yasaka herself, the leader of the Yokai faction, whose presence Sirzechs usually considered a minor nuisance within the context of altercations between Shintoists and demons, did not preside over this ill-fated negotiation with the Shinto faction this time. Instead, the weight of responsibility had fallen on the shoulders of the implacable Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto. The serene Moon Goddess, while possessing a much calmer temper and an infinitely lesser inclination to unleash violent explosions compared to her powerful siblings, proved to be an even more inflexible and authoritarian force in her resolutions.
Serafall, a friend of Sirzechs but a Maou above all, had bluntly communicated to him that they would not dispossess the more than one hundred yokai who had established their home in the human city of Kuoh just to appease the whims of two young female demons, the Devil's sister and Queen, whose intrusion and dominion were considered unacceptable in a territory that was, by all rights, sacred to the Shinto faction. Serafall's strenuous efforts to mediate and mitigate the moon's drastic demands, and to reach a less damaging pact for both parties, proved futile. In a desperate and solitary attempt at concession, all the Leviathan managed to secure was the dubious permission for Rias and Sona to infiltrate the human academy. A permission granted without guaranteeing the demonic goddesses' safety, without the freedom to wield demonic power as they pleased, and even with the imposed demonic surveillance that would report their every move within the city limits. The message from the Shinto, transmitted through Tsukuyomi's temper, was clear and unequivocal: if Rias or Sona, during their visit to the city, dared to turn any human into a demon in their territory, the Shinto would respond without delay with the force and characteristic savagery inherited from their brother gods on earth. In addition to this humiliating submission, the Gremory would face a hefty fine, the suffocating debt charged to them, along with the non-negotiable demand to hand over those responsible for the Nekoshou massacre before the year ended, or the Shinto would extend their justice beyond the earthly world, invading the Underworld itself and pursuing those who resisted.
The origin of this disastrous outcome lay in the particularly petty nature of the Phoenix family. The demonic leaders spared no effort in spreading the most lurid details of the debacle that occurred during Ravel Phoenix's birthday ball, using every available tool to ensure that the negotiations with the Shinto, which were already extremely complicated to begin with, would become an utterly impossible task. The Phoenix's betrayal, that low blow orchestrated with surgical precision, was ultimately one of the main reasons why Serafall, in the gloom that followed the disastrous meeting, reluctantly conveyed to Sirzechs that, despite their long friendship, the most prudent and healthy course for both of them was to establish a cautious distance.
Worst of all, the truth that Sirzechs refused to admit aloud, was that he perfectly understood Serafall's position. If she persisted in her friendship with him, her delicate work as Maou Leviathan, the imposing demonic authority in charge of navigating the treacherous waters of the Underworld's foreign relations, would become an infinitely more complex and arduous dance. A burden that, amidst the growing hostility, she could not afford.
Now, only one friendship, unwavering support, remained as a vestige of their former affection: the fourth Maou, the pragmatic Falbium. Whether Sirzechs liked it or not, he had become his only pillar in the midst of the storm. His only anchor in that raging sea, at least until he managed to devise a way to mitigate the enormous disaster that his impulsive and fateful decision had unleashed upon his own house.
Unfortunately, fate seemed to be wreaking premeditated havoc on Sirzechs. As soon as he crossed the threshold of the hall, with the desperate yearning to collapse face down on the plush edge of the sofa, seeking a brief respite from that shitty day, the latest in a succession of shitty days, he stumbled upon a scene that left him paralyzed with confusion. His wife, the stoic Grayfia, was consoling his son, young Milicas, whose inconsolable sobbing and desperate clinging to his mother's impeccable maid uniform tore at his heart. Driven by a protective instinct, Sirzechs tried to approach, only to recoil cautiously at the fierce and relentless gaze with which Milicas raised his head and faced him. A youthful but unmistakable ferocity, similar to what he had witnessed during the fierce battles of the great Demonic Civil War, burned in his amethyst eyes, piercing Sirzechs with a heart-wrenching intensity.
"Grayfia... What happened?" Sirzechs asked cautiously, his voice tinged with a growing apprehension as he tried to shorten the distance with his wife.
"It's your sister, that's what happened," Grayfia let out those words with a heart-rending vehemence, an unexpected crack in her usual composure. The anguish gnawing at her, the entire week watching Milicas waste away in silent grief, broke her habitual stoicism. "I've been ignoring the problem for years, but enough is enough. Rias has to stop behaving like the spoiled brat she's been since Delta... no, since Naruto proved to be better than her in so many ways. Look at the fear Milicas has for her. The boy has been tearing himself apart in silent mourning for his uncle's absence for an entire week, and we don't need Rias to stoke the fires of his pain even more."
Sirzechs held his breath, surprised by the harshness in his wife's voice. He knelt before Milicas and placed a gentle hand on his trembling back.
"Hey... Milicas, buddy. What exactly happened between you and Rias?"
He couldn't help the shiver that ran down his neck at the icy glare Grayfia gave him when she heard the familiarity with which he addressed Rias. Milicas raised his tear-streaked face, his words punctuated by sobs laden with a childish fury that defied his young age.
"I told her I didn't want to waste my time watching anime with her, that I preferred to keep learning with Uncle Naruto! That I had better things to do than put up with her airs of superiority!"
The resentment towards his own father, whom the young demon had lost all trust in the blink of an eye, tinged every syllable. Grayfia, her voice now a firm and unwavering command, pointed an accusing finger at him.
"You have to put her in her place. And fix that irrational anger, that... that demonic tantrum she has installed in her brain. Now."
Sirzechs simply nodded, trying to devise the most reasonable strategy to deal with the situation.
"Okay, I'll try to address it peacefully."
"No, there's no way to resolve this peacefully, and you know it perfectly well. That doesn't work with her!" Grayfia hissed the words with a ferocity that made Sirzechs shudder. "You have to be stern with her for once in your life, Sirzechs. For once!"
"I'm sure I can reach her..." Sirzechs pleaded, the mere idea of asserting himself firmly with his beloved sister was extremely unpleasant, almost painful.
"We'll continue this conversation at another time," Grayfia replied in a dangerously calm tone, barely a whisper that emanated contained fury.
And without uttering another word, she left the hall, leaving Milicas in the care of another maid. A sense of doom, like a shadow lengthening in his soul, settled in Sirzechs' heart, an ominous premonition that only intensified with each minute of agonizing waiting. However, fifteen minutes later, Grayfia returned, as stoic as ever, though this time without Milicas by her side.
"Why do you refuse to see reason, Sirzechs?" Grayfia spat, the contained fury in every word. "Kind words and indulgent treatment... they don't work with Rias, they never have!"
"I used a firm hand with Naruto! And look how that turned out!" Sirzechs retorted, finally losing patience, his voice laden with a mix of frustration and despair.
"You never treated your brother with the same measure you treated Rias, Sirzechs. You've always had a double standard when it comes to your siblings, and that's obvious. You don't do right by either of them. Your brother is alone, lost in distant Siberia, and you're condemning your sister to be a social outcast, isolating her from her own clan and the Underworld. And you know it!" Grayfia unleashed all her anger, her voice a whirlwind of accusations and bitter truths.
"I'm trying, Grayfia, damn it! You know perfectly well that I'm trying!" Sirzechs shouted, his voice torn by impotence and regret, a confession of his internal torment for the casual way he pronounced the sentence that exiled Naruto.
"You're not really trying. You just repeat the same mistake over and over again, expecting a different result. That's not trying, Sirzechs, that's being, as your brother has described you so many times... a perfect conformist idiot. Are you really so blind that you don't realize the damage you cause by being so devoted to her? Your method doesn't work with Rias, stop fooling yourself!" Grayfia asked incredulously, her voice an incredulous murmur at her husband's stubbornness.
"I can't use a firm hand with her, Grayfia, I can't! It only serves to ruin relationships, to destroy everything I've tried to build! I'm sick of it, sick of you demanding something I can't do!" Sirzechs counterattacked, his voice torn by frustration and pain.
"Well, either way, you've already lost one brother, Sirzechs. If you don't change, if you continue to be blind, you're going to end up losing the other one too. And, believe me, in a much more irreparable way," Grayfia hissed the words with icy precision, and an incipient frost began to form around her, like a silent warning. Sirzechs, instinctively, felt anger boil inside him, a suffocating heat and an intense red glow emanating from his body for a fleeting moment.
"And why do you say that, Grayfia? Tell me, please, what is the logic behind your accusations?" His voice trembled with barely contained fury, the spark of an imminent verbal battle ignited in his eyes.
"Because you won't always be able to defend her, Sirzechs. Because she, with your implicit approval, expects the whole world to bend to her desires, for everyone to give her exactly what she wants. The world, my life, doesn't work like that, and you showed it to your brother in the most painful way possible. For Rias, the truth will hit even harder, with even more devastating consequences."
Sirzechs' anger surged, fueled by the inevitable reproach of his mistake with Naruto, but above all by the heartbreaking suggestion that his protective indulgence towards Rias only led her to a premature demise. "It's not true," his mind screamed in silent denial. "I will protect her from everything, at any cost. That is my duty, my sacred duty as her older brother."
"Clearly, you will never understand, Sirzechs-sama. For you, the unhealthy relationship with your sister overshadows everything. Even the life of your own son," Grayfia sentenced with a coldness and precision that stabbed at Sirzechs' pride, before turning and leaving the room, leaving behind a dense silence laden with accusation.
Sirzechs' mouth opened and closed violently, stifling a silent scream. His eyes clouded for an instant, glassy with the pain of realization, as he desperately struggled to find the right words to refute her relentless accusations. In his mind, a chaotic stampede of mini-Sirzechs ran in frenzied circles, each one desperately searching for the perfect counterargument. Sadly, the only finding in that search was a vast emptiness.
-At the same time, in the opulent Phoenix mansion-
Ruval had had to deal with a series of intricate and exhausting matters during the past week, most of them orchestrated with surgical precision to inflict the maximum possible damage on the already weakened Gremory clan. These actions, carried out by express order of his father, had a singular and clear purpose: to ensure that the Gremory understood in the marrow of their bones the magnitude of their error in daring to interfere in the plans of the august Phoenix family. "We are the Phoenix," echoed that pride in every decision, "the immortal descendants of the king of all kings, the most influential and revered clan in the vast expanse of the Underworld."
However, at that precise moment, such demonstrations of power and vengeance mattered little to Ruval. Any cunning maneuver or political stratagem his clan could employ to further undermine the already precarious stability of the Gremory clan paled in importance before the heartbreaking personal situation that now overwhelmed him.
His wife, the compassionate and serene Sabnock, had conveyed the alarming news to him with a voice tinged with deep concern. His beloved little sister, the sparkling and energetic Ravel, had been confused and silent since the very day Naruto was exiled, as if her spirit had left her body, trapped in a labyrinth of her thoughts. Her parents, despite their power and dominion, had been unable to break the ironclad silence that imprisoned her. Now, his family's desperate gaze turned to Ruval, placing on his shoulders the hope that he, at least, could penetrate the armor of silence that Ravel had forged for herself.
He wasn't sure he had the necessary strength to achieve it. The idea of facing his sister's pain caused him deep unease. However, there was no alternative; he had to try.
Finally, Ruval reached his little sister's opulent room and, after a light and respectful knock on the carved door, spoke with restrained softness:
"Ravel, may I come in?"
He received no answer... at least, not immediately. Just as he was about to burst in, driven by the urgent need to see how his sister was, the door opened silently, revealing Ravel, dressed with the impeccable elegance that always characterized her, but devoid of the lively, proud, and irreverent sparkle that so defined her spirit. The spark that normally ignited her eyes had been extinguished, replaced by a distant and worrisome emptiness. Ravel simply stepped aside, allowing her older brother to enter the twilight of her room.
The two young Phoenixes sat on the edge of the bed, the heavy silence of the room imprisoning them with a tangible force. Neither articulated a single word for long minutes, allowing the charged atmosphere and the weight of unexpressed emotions to fill every corner of the room. It was Ruval who, finally, decided to break the spell of silence, his voice soft and cautious:
"What's wrong, little sister? What... what's happening?"
The answer, when it came, was a barely audible whisper, devoid of sadness, though that, in some way, made it even more heartbreaking. Because Ravel was not only Naruto's friend; she was his confidante, his equal, his best friend. But now, the words flowed from her lips with a strange monotony, revealing a shock so profound that it had stripped her of the very capacity to feel.
"They exiled him."
There was no pain, no rage, not even sadness in that brief statement. Only a paralyzing disbelief, a blank mind incapable of processing the magnitude of the betrayal and injustice. Ruval waited, the air in the room throbbing with the expectation that his sister would add more. But the answer never came. The silence lingered a moment longer, heavy and unbearable as the shroud of a tomb.
Then, abruptly, as if a dam had suddenly broken, Ravel exploded. A whole week of forced muteness, of repressed emotions that had been suffocating her inside, materialized in a single scream, raw and primal in its expression:
"What the fuck...?"
"Believe me, Ruval, no one in the Underworld, not even I, expected Sirzechs to behave with such... recklessness?" Ruval let out a sigh of exasperation, unable to comprehend the monumental blindness of his demonic colleague. "How the hell didn't he realize, the moment the words left his mouth, that he had essentially exiled his own brother? And why, damn it, didn't he revoke that decision at that very moment, when he had the power to do so? Ah, right..." A hint of bitterness tinged his voice. "Because Naruto isn't his precious little sister, whom he would idolize even if she demanded that he drown the world with his tears."
"I don't care about that imbecile," Ravel growled with a contempt that left little room for doubt. The truth was that she didn't care about Sirzechs; what he did or didn't do was irrelevant. She felt not a shred of respect, admiration, let alone loyalty towards him. In fact, in her eyes, he was nothing more than a perfect imbecile, a judgment influenced, overwhelmingly, by the vivid and incessant descriptions Naruto had given her of his older brother's many "qualities." "He exiled the brightest star of our generation, the most capable being, the... the..."
"Your best friend," Ruval inquired in a soft but firm tone, stifling Ravel's words in the cradle of her throat.
The Phoenix, completely disarmed before the simple truth articulated by her brother, could only nod her head, a weak and slow gesture, before collapsing onto the bed in an exhausted slump.
A heavy and dense silence spread over the room for almost a whole hour, finally breaking with a question, a splinter of voice cutting through the tension.
"Ruval... do you think I should start forming my own peerage?" Ravel asked in a strangely flat voice, keeping her gaze fixed on the ornate ceiling, as if seeking answers in the ancient paintings that decorated it.
"Huh?" Ruval, still absorbed in the whirlwind of recent calamities, blinked in bewilderment at his sister's sudden question.
"I... I never really wanted to be a queen. My desire was to be someone else's piece, someone I could walk with and who would protect me at every step, because I didn't want the arduous effort that came with building a peerage from scratch, dealing with all the intrigues and obligations that role entails... Naruto once told me it's difficult, but..." Her voice trailed off slightly, leaving the sentence suspended in the air.
"Rewarding," Ruval affirmed, his tone laden with a certainty born of experience. He too had witnessed that conversation and fully shared the exiled youth's perspective. "Why are you considering forming a peerage now, little sister?"
"It's not that I really want to... it's just that... my whole world has been shaken to its foundations." Ravel's voice faded into a weak and insecure murmur, a nascent tremor running through her vocal cords. Fear, a beast she kept hidden behind a facade of boldness, finally claimed her. "If they... if they could do that to Naruto... what the hell prevents me from meeting the same fate?" Her eyes, normally overflowing with brilliance, darkened with a painful uncertainty. "If they exiled the most brilliant, most capable, most ambitious demon of our generation... what protects me? I don't possess his ambition. Or his charisma. Or the support of as many influential clans as he had. Now he only has the unconditional support of his Queen... and that wild girl..."
Ruval felt a black and primal fury roar from the depths of his being. A protective instinct, fierce and relentless, consumed him completely.
"I swear I will kill anyone who dares even attempt to hurt you, Ravel, with the same cruelty Sirzechs hurt him." His voice was a guttural growl, devoid of mercy. The bonds with his other siblings, once unbreakable, had been irreparably severed, corroded by bitterness and disappointment. To tell the truth, at this moment, he couldn't agree more with the brutally exemplary punishment that his parents had inflicted on the foolish and execrable Raizer.
Here's the edited version of the final fragment, focusing on Ravel's vulnerability, Ruval's support, and the foreshadowing of future conflict:
"You're not making me feel any better, you know, Ruval?" Ravel commented in a strangely subdued voice, the inherent acidity of her tone diluted by an unfamiliar melancholy. She no longer yearned for her brother's constant protection; she wished to possess the strength to protect herself, the autonomy to carve her own destiny. But fear haunted her: the fear of not being strong enough, ambitious enough, self-assured enough to reach the greatness of her best friend... of that young man she secretly loved with the fury of the sun.
"It's natural to be afraid, Ravel. Overcoming it is what defines our courage," Ruval replied with unusual sincerity, a comforting calm radiating from his being.
He leaned back beside his sister on the soft surface, silently accepting the instinctive embrace with which Ravel clung to his side for comfort. His gentle voice resonated in the room, trying to instill hope in her.
"It's only three years, little sister. They'll fly by, you'll see."
"You don't know him like I do, Ruval," Ravel murmured in a barely audible voice, a whisper laden with a dark and terrifying premonition. Naruto was... relentless in his rancor. Three years would not appease his anger, but only allow his hatred and resentment towards his older brother to fester and grow to monstrous dimensions, fueling an insatiable thirst for his blood. And the thirst for the blood of all those who dared to stand in his way.
End of Chapter.