Chapter 9
Naruto was jogging towards the abandoned church with Issei tagging along.
They were supposed to be flying through the trees...but his tag along lost his lunch after a while so they had to go on foot.
Naruto was actually regretting bringing the teenaged boy in the first place a little. Not a lot...but a little.
When Naruto decided to take Issei for the ride, he was admittedly placing himself into his shoes.
What would he do if a friend was in danger? What would he do if he failed to protect that friend prior? How much would he hate the bastard that tried to stop him? Even if it was too dangerous for him?
Those questions, plus the fact that Naruto was sure that he could protect the guy and reveal to him just how dangerous the supernatural world actually was. This would be a perfect field test for the perverted boy...to show him the reality of what becoming a devil could mean.
The danger and the enemies he would face. All while being protected by a badass such as himself.
So yeah, it was probably better for Naruto to leave him home. But he figured it wouldn't be so bad since those fallen couldn't really beat his clone. Now they were facing the real deal!
He just wished they weren't moving so slow.
"Come on Issei! Surely you've got more stamina than this? Get your rear in gear!" Naruto shouted back at his thoroughly exhausted partner.
"Damn it...not everyone...is a...stamina freak like you!" Issei shouted back, thoroughly exhausted. Seriously, was this guy even human? He claimed he was...but humans don't go jumping from tree branch to tree branch like a damn monkey!
Naruto rolled his eyes at the perverted teen before facing ahead towards the direction of the abandoned church. He felt the energy signals...
Light energy. A lot of light energy.
This will probably be more troublesome than he expected.
Damn, he could see why Shikamaru liked that phrase now.
Naruto stopped suddenly, Issei who wasn't paying attention just crashed into him before looking at Naruto in confusion. "Naruto? What's up?" Issei asked with confusion. Naruto didn't say anything for a moment before finally responding.
"Issei, this will be your first glimpse into a supernatural battle. Sooner or later the fallen will probably try and make a barrier or something. That way other factions won't sense their large numbers..." the blond said seriously, much to Issei's consternation. A battle? Would it really come to that?
"You have nothing to worry about, but you should probably go and hide if you see the sky turn into a creepy purplish color, ya can't miss it. That would probably be the barrier. Just stay hidden until I grab you alright Issei?" Naruto said while glancing towards the brown-haired boy.
But before Issei could say anything, his worst fear was realized when the sky seemed to have been blanketed by a purplish aura that distorted it. It was something...inhuman.
Supernatural.
Issei was staring at it like a deer would stare at an oncoming car before he felt Naruto's hand touch his shoulder. He looked up to stare at intense blue eyes.
"Issei...you want to live?"
Issei gulped.
"Ye-yeah?"
"Then MOVE!"
Issei nodded frantically and ran towards a nearby foilage, he couldn't help but curse at his weakness again. Once more he was nothing but a liability...
Then his thoughts ceased when he saw it.
The little black feathers that have haunted his dreams last night.
"...Fallen angels..." Issei spoke in awe and fear.
Naruto just grimaced. He wanted to be involved, he hoped that Issei's guts would keep him alive like it did for him.
"...Welp, might as well grab their attention. Stay here until I grab you alright Issei? I promise I wlll be right back." the blond said with a grin.
He dashed off before the perverted boy could say anything in retort.
Vretiel was staring down at the forest before them.
The forest separated the abandoned church from Kuoh Town, enough for a battlefield inside a barrier. All that was left for them to do...was to actually find the intruder.
She kept the small army in a loose formation and ordered them to stay above the clouds for their hunt. She learned from last time how crafty these powerful and strange humans could be.
Close range was not the way to go, better to pepper the human from afar. With sheer numbers they would overwhelm the human before any of their crafty tricks could be initiated.
She would take no chances this time around, too much was at stake to simply take their time with this opponent.
Then she saw it.
She saw him.
The human before her eyes stared back at her with a glare, she just gave him a cruel smirk as she slowly pointed her arm towards his direction. He simply stood there with a defiant expression on his face as her hand took the shape of a childish hand gun.
Was he terrified so thoroughly that he was now paralyzed? Behind his brave front he was terrified and she knew it.
His life was now in her hands...to mold...to save...to break.
The army behind her prepped their light spears while waiting for her signal to fire on the human.
Like an armed gun...they were ready.
One word left her lips as her eyes turned murderous.
"Bang."
Issei was waiting for the blond to come back, it was pretty creepy here. He didn't know what to do or where to go...so until his new ally came back, he was stuck there.
He was seriously hoping that he would come back at all.
He may have been fast, but what could he do against fallen angels? He was still human after all.
He frowned as he thought about that, maybe he was too quick to turn to Naruto. Naruto never said anything about being strong himself right? All he knew about the blond was that he could make copies of himself and had good speed and stamina.
That's it.
He really hoped that he had a trick up his sleeve. But before he could ponder on the question further...something happened.
He felt it before he saw it.
A tremor...a large tremor.
The ground was shaking and Issei was quickly losing his balance to the sudden movement. Man...what the hell was going on right-
Then he saw it.
His eyes widened as a shock wave of power slammed into him and pushed him into the tree behind him. He groaned at the pain the action had made while staring up in horror at what he was seeing.
Fallen angels.
A lot of them.
All grouped together above a large plume of smoke.
The brown haired boy was feeling numb as despair was beginning to set in. That was definitely where Naruto headed...there was no way he survived that.
Then something more horrifying began.
The fallen angels were moving...they were moving in his direction!
Issei scrambled to get out of the way, but he doubted he would make it. But he couldn't give up yet...not until he saved Asia!
Before he could allow this second wind to empower him, he felt a hand grab him by the back of his shirt and pull him into the bushes. Issei had his heart in his throat as he automatically tried shouting out in surprise before he felt a hand cover his mouth. His eyes widened in shock and horror.
No...no no no no!
Did he get caught!?
"Damn it...shut up Issei and wait for them to pass!" a familiar voice hissed in his ear.
The teenaged boy's eyes widened.
Naruto!
Then he saw the large group of fallen angels pass by their hiding spot as they seemed to be focused on chasing down something rather than looking for anyone else.
Seconds ticked by as they both stayed quiet before Naruto finally let go of the breath he was holding and let Issei go. The second he let go, the plain-looking boy turned around and opened his mouth for a question-and-answer session.
But before he could begin, the blond cut him off.
"Issei, we don't have time for this. We have to get to your friend before the fallen realize that we tricked them." Naruto said quickly while grabbing Issei by the arm so he could stand up. The perverted boy frowned for a moment, but he nodded after thinking about it. They really didn't have time to mess around right now.
Issei began jogging with Naruto as he made his way to the abandoned church before the blond spoke again.
"By the way. I'm a clone."
Issei deadpanned.
"...Where's the real you?"
The Naruto clone just scratched his head.
"Well...you see the boss is..."
The real Naruto was currently dodging and weaving light spears that were raining from the sky.
After his initial encounter with the fallen, he decided that instead of fighting them...he should make a break for it so that he could take them with him. The reason for doing this was pretty simple.
He sorely miscalculated on how many fallen angels there would be here. I mean how can you blame him!?
For the rescue mission to save one of their own in the abandoned factory, there were very few!
Their home base is a small abandoned church!
Azazel never mentioned that a large amount of fallen have joined Vretiel!
He had every reason to think that there were only ten-fallen strong!
But turned out there were more like...fifty.
Probably more since they were all above the clouds.
Even then he could probably just obliterate them with a few clever tricks, but the initial miscalculation bred another one.
Bringing Issei.
Now he has to focus more on making sure that Issei wasn't caught in the cross-fire as well as fight them.
So he was leading them away, to a safer location to bring the fear of God back to them.
But now he had another problem.
This problem had something to do with the large amount of explosions that were peppering around him.
By sheer number, they were preventing him from counterattacking properly. Not to mention the fact that they were very high in the air. So high that it would leave him wide open for a split-second if he tried to jump to them before he actually reached them!
So he had to improvise. He was good at that anyways.
But first...
Naruto continued dodging the light spears, some were impaling the ground while others were setting off explosions which decimated the local forestry. The explosions were quickly causing small fires to break out and spread among the still healthy trees.
In short, there was a lot of smoke.
That would work.
Vretiel was staring at the burning forest with frustration. Her subordinates were simply not getting the blond menace. Every time one of them would get a decent shot at the boy, he would veer off from its destination as if he knew where it would land!
Which was why she was going to begin her own assault in a moment.
She couldn't afford the negative perception that her own attack on the human would bring. The simple fact that she would attack a 'downer' at all would have looked terribly bad to her subordinates.
Why would someone so strong even bother attacking a weak human?
Unless they weren't so strong after all.
But now she was sure that they would accept her own attack of the blond since they were as fed up as she was. Now...they just wanted the wily human dead.
She would oblige them.
She raised her hand in order to cease the attacks of her fallen comrades, most followed while some begrudgingly followed. Good enough.
With that same hand she formed a light spear which was surrounded by rings, it was bigger than her.
The same one at the factory.
She looked up to stare at it for a moment. Then she put more power into it.
Now it was the twice the size of the one at the factory.
Perfect.
"Rejoice downer! For you shall fall to a soon-to-be legendary figure in history! You shall get your own footnote as one of the many that I have destroyed! Congratulations." Vretiel said with a dark grin.
"Now die."
The spear flew to the ground with enough speed to break the sound barrier. It crashed into the ground where the human last was.
*BOOOOOOM*
The explosion that rocked the forest was deafening. Even to the fallen who were high from the ground.
The trees which were near to the spear when it fell was completely obliterated and the trees that were only affected by the shockwave were completely ripped away from their roots. When the explosion finally receded and only smoke remained, there was a large crater where a nice patch of forest once remained.
Vretiel could hear the shocked gasps and feel the silent awe that many of her fallen surbodinates were now permeating.
She reveled in it.
"Now do you see downer!? The superiority of our race cannot be fathomed by a lowly human such as yourself! Now weep! As you have only come to this realization far too late!" Vretiel exclaimed with amusement. She ended it all before the clash could have become anything more than an annoying waste of time. Now...she had better check up on Raynare and make sure that the ritual is proceeding smoothly.
"Ya know...it's kinda hard to hear you from all the way down here dattebayo!"
All of the fallen's eyes widened at the foreign voice that no one recognized.
Vretiel's most of all.
She snarled as she glared heatedly at the ground where the smoke resided. How the hell did he survive that!?
Before any of the fallen could do anything about it though, the smoke was suddenly pushed back by a strong wind that came out of nowhere. What appeared from behind the smoke shocked the fallen even more.
There were several copies of the annoying human!
They were mostly grouped into twos, with one copy standing behind the other. The copy which was in front was holding the front of the collar of the one behind it.
Vretiel was stunned for all of one second before shaking her head and snarling at the human.
"Do you take us for fools!? Those are obviously illusions! Everyone! Don't be fooled by the downer's trickery! Focus on finding the real human!" Vretiel shouted amongst her troops. This woke up many among them from the strange sight before them, many started focusing on making new spears of light.
But before they could, the human shouted again and finished his prior sentence.
"Well since it's hard to hear you from here...I suppose I just gotta bring you all to my level!" the blond human shouted before pointing up at them.
"FIRE!"
"""ROGER BOSS!"""
Then it happened.
The copies in front of the two-man group held the collar of the back one and pulled them over their shoulder. Then with all of their strength, they launched the copies into the air!
The army once again gaped as the projectile human copies were sent at them at breakneck speeds. They couldn't respond in time!
But that was ok right? Since these were illusions, they couldn't hurt them. All they had to do was focus on finding the real one.
Then their expectations were crushed when the projectile humans crashed into them and sent them flying towards the ground. Many of them were being sent back-first towards the ground from the sky.
Vretiel was among the few who were fast enough to dodge the human that was sent at her before slashing it from behind.
*POOF*
The copy was destroyed in a puff of smoke?
But more importantly, only the most powerful among the three-winged fallen angels were still in the sky. Everyone else was sailing towards the ground. Unless they wanted to kill off at least about ninety-percent of her followers...she couldn't attack. She would be more likely to hit them than the blond.
As much as she didn't care for them at all, she didn't want to lose the power that their sheer numbers would provide.
She growled as she clenched her fist. The human would not die quickly...or painlessly.
Naruto was having the time of his life!
Although if someone saw him saying that while surrounded by flailing fallen bodies that were falling towards the ground of a burning forest...well...there would be questions.
Also...he had to say...thank goodness for kawarimi no jutsu!
Most underrated justu in the world. You gotta love the logs!
When they finally reached the ground, he felt the fallen below him; a young-looking man with brown hair and two pairs of wings smash the ground with his back. He heard more than felt the man's wings break when he crashed.
He looked up to see his clones smash other fallen into the ground like...'falling' stars!
Man, that was a good one. He better write it down.
He was partially feeling a little giddy because he could focus more on fighting rather than worrying about his opponent or someone else. With the stray devils in the forest; he had to keep Mio and Maria safe. With his fight with Yuki; he had to make sure that he didn't irreparably destroy any chance of friendship. With his first clash with the fallen; he had to make his loss look reasonable.
Now?
He just had to kick ass without killing anyone! That's practically his usual MO anyways!
"Boss! Incoming!" a clone shouted at the same time as he snapped his head to the sky and dodged to the right. Where he once stood was a light spear which glowed and then exploded.
The explosion dispersed a clone which was too close and he quickly targeted the perpetrator and charged at the male fallen. He punched him hard in the stomach and allowed it to send him flying to another fallen which was getting ready to fly back to the sky.
He took a second to look around him, the battle between his clones and the fallen was fierce. The clones have limited themselves to hand-to-hand fighting while the fallen were in complete disarray. Some were attempting to get back to the sky and were thwarted by his clones before they could try. Some were fighting it out with their light spears in physical combat. While the rest were simply trying to use their spears to carpet-bomb the area, either forgetting or not caring about their comrades.
Naruto decided to back off for now to better survey the situation. He couldn't tell what was going on from where he was in the middle of a battlefield, better to be a general and join in the fun after he beats the crap out of Vretiel. She was the objective here, no matter how he looked at it.
He jumped away from the fiery forest grounds towards the trees which still had branches, from there he studied how the battle was going and looked through the sky for Vretiel. He was getting memories from several clones that were 'popped' but he still got nothing in information about the fallen leader.
He was about to jump to another branch when he saw something...or rather someone who he did not expect to see here.
"...Naruto."
Naruto just gaped at the person. But actually...maybe he could turn this strange coincidence to his advantage?
"Hey...could you do me a quick favor?"
Issei was staring at the abandoned church in the clearing.
Asia was being kept in this building...
He didn't know how Naruto's clone thingy worked, but since his clone was still here then he could assume that Naruto himself was ok.
But he was definitely giving the fallen angels hell.
He could see the fire from the other side of the forest all the way over here!
"Ok Issei...it should be mostly clear. All that are left should be the weakest of the fallen angels. We should have a clear shot to your girlfriend now." Naruto said with a grin, Issei just sputtered out a response to his words, but they were just ignored.
They both moved into the church where Naruto just expected to mop up the rest of the fallen.
He was wrong.
He had to mop up the rest of the humans.
"Well well well! It seems that the shitty nun has some friends! Are you looking to die too!?" said a young looking man with an insane face and priest clothing.
The shinobi just frowned, the man had quite the mouth on him.
Then the man just up and ruined any future positive thoughts about him when he literally licked his gun like it was a damn piece of candy.
"...I don't want to meet this guy in a dark alley way Naruto."
"...You're telling me Issei..." Naruto replied with a sweatdrop. He then hardened his eyes and addressed the obviously insane priest.
"Look, we don't want any trouble buddy. But we need to save a friend of ours, so just move out of the way and you won't have to get hurt." Naruto said seriously, but the priest just hunched forward in laughter at the blond's pleas.
"HAHAHAHA! YOU!? You are begging me to stop!? I think you should look around you shitty blond-chan!" the insane man exclaimed.
Issei looked around and widened his eyes in shock as he realized that they were surrounded by priests!
All of them had what looked like lightsabers from Star Wars to the perverted boy...and guns!
He looked back towards Naruto in the hopes that he had a way to get them out of this, but he was shocked to see that the clone seemed completely unconcerned.
"Priest-san...no...fallen priest-san. If I can beat up fallen angels then I'm pretty sure I can beat you and everyone here. Move." Naruto insisted with a glare. The priest just cackled and then pointed his gun at the blond.
"Kill 'em boys!"
The priests immediately charged the two intruders and Issei tried to warn Naruto...before he noticed something.
Naruto wasn't there.
The perverted boy's eyes widened in horror as he began to believe that the blond had abandoned him...
Until he heard several bodies fall.
Issei looked around in amazement as priests were falling left and right to...well...something. The truth was that he had no idea, but the priests gave him an idea of what...or rather who was causing the chaos.
"Damn it...! Hold still so that I can smite you...you whiskered freak!" the insane priest from before he shot randomly at the crowd of his own comrades.
All he got from the attack was another dead priest.
The insane priest growled as he saw his forces getting decimated by a bastard that was moving so fast...that he couldn't even see a trace of him!
Well damn it! He was gonna kill something! If it wasn't the freak then it could be the other kid!
With that in mind, he aimed his gun at the unsuspecting Issei...
Then with a sick grin, he fired.
The real Naruto was busy knocking out each and every fallen angel he could find.
He was in the process of grabbing a fallen's ankle and using him as a bat. He never played baseball before...so he wanted to try now.
"BATTER UP!" Naruto shouted while ignoring the terrified screams of his hostage. He also decided to ignore the screams of the 'ball' as well.
The 'ball' in question was a female fallen angel that was thrown by a clone of his towards him. She was trying desperately to stop herself but she was thrown far too hard to stop now.
The blond grinned and swung the fallen man towards the woman and...
*SMASH*
Both fallen were sent sprawling together towards the sky, they were definitely knocked out.
Meh, he should have sent them higher.
"Like hell you freaks are gonna take me down easily!"
Naruto looked to the side to see a fallen man try to fly to the sky in desperation, but unfortunately for him.
"TAKE HIM DOWN!"
"""RIGHT!"""
It seems he just made himself into a target of several clones.
So as one, the clones each jumped up and grabbed a limb. Four clones grabbed his arms and legs which began to drag him back to Earth. As the man struggled, the fifth and final clone jumped up and brought his feet out to crash them into the fallen's stomach.
"Gah!"
The force of the blow sent the fallen angel towards the ground with surprising speed with spittle coming out of his mouth.
*CRASH*
The crater the man formed was shaped just like him.
The clones then went and high-fived each other.
Naruto grinned at that, things were going great over here.
Then memories began to flood into his head from a destroyed clone.
Quite a few destroyed clones.
"Found ya Vretiel!" Naruto said with a grin, it was about time that he found her and ended this little fight.
He wondered if his friend made it to the church yet?
Issei watched in fascinated horror as the light bullet from the gun was heading straight for him.
It almost seemed to be moving in slow motion, but there was no mistaking the fact that it would cleanly pierce his heart. He simply wasn't fast enough to move.
Ah...there it was again.
He wasn't fast enough...
He wasn't smart enough...
He wasn't strong enough...
Not to save Asia...
Not to help Naruto...
Not even to save himself...
'I'm...I'm sorry Asia...'
Issei closed his eyes as he awaited for death.
...
*CLANG*
Issei opened his eyes wide at the sound.
That was something intercepting the bullet!
"Naru-!" Issei poke out in jubilation, ready to give the man a hug.
Before stopping himself.
The man in front of him...was most certainly not a man at all.
Definitely a woman.
More importantly, it definitely wasn't Naruto.
"...Hyoudou-san?" the woman asked while holding her sword in a defensive position.
Issei normally would have taken the time to admire her nice body if it wasn't for the fact that this was definitely wasn't the time for that.
"Ye-yeah?" Issei gulped, he really hoped she was on his side.
The woman turned her head to face the perverted boy and stared at him with yellow eyes.
"My name is Nonaka Yuki. Naruto sent me here to help you. I am pleased to make your acquaintance." the girl with the light blue hair said simply. Issei just gaped at the young woman, Naruto sent her?
"Yo Yuki! Glad to see you made it!"
Both of them turned to see the blond teen himself with a silly grin. Yuki acknowledged the clone with a nod.
"Naruto? Why didn't you intercept the bullet just now?" Yuki asked with curiousity, he should have been fast enough for it. Naruto just shrugged his shoulders in response and stated plainly.
"Because you had it. If you weren't there then I would have got it myself though." Naruto said with a grin.
"Ehhhh? So the entire time I was never in any danger!?" Issei exclaimed in shock, what the hell Naruto!
In response Naruto just deadpanned at the brown-haired teen. "Of course not, no one is ever in danger when I say that I'm protecting them!" Naruto exclaimed with passion.
This just caused Issei to sweatdrop in return.
"...But you never said you were going to protect me..."
"Oi! You stupid bitch! What the fuck are you doing interrupting my kill eh!?"
Everyone turned to face the insane priest with his tongue out disgustingly. Yuki just regarded him coolly for a second before ignoring him and turning back to Naruto.
"Naruto, please disperse yourself and alert the real Naruto that I'm here. I can deal with the priests without trouble." Yuki stated simply. The clone glanced at Yuki for a second before nodding.
"Alright, I'm counting on you Yuki!" the clone exclaimed before it dispersed it's chakra and exploded into a plume of smoke.
Issei glanced nervously at the teen, now his life was in this stranger's hands...what if she wasn't as trustworthy as Naruto?
"Hyoudou-san."
Issei immediately straightened up at the sound of the young woman's voice.
"Ye-yes ma'am?" Issei stuttered slightly.
"Go." the bluenette said without missing a beat.
Issei just looked at her with a confused expression, what did she mean?
"Hyoudou-san. You wish to save your friend right? Then go and help her...I can deal with these people without issue. The only problem we have is time and we have no idea how much time your friend has left...so go." Yuki said seriously, there was no way there were any more enemies to face down there. If there were, then they were most likely focused on whatever it was that they were doing.
That would be the only reason that fallen angels would use their human 'priests' to protect them. Their pride wouldn't allow them to be protected by beings many believe to be inferior to them. Not unless they didn't have a choice.
Thus, the way was undoubtedly clear.
Issei widened his eyes. "Right! Asia! Hold on! I'm coming!" Issei called out while heading towards the still opened stairway to the basement.
But before he could reach it...
"Stop ignoring me you bitches!"
The foul-mouthed priest from before appeared right in from of him with his light sword in mid-swing towards Issei's head.
*CLANG*
Issei ignored the priest in favor of reaching the stairway...besides...he knew that the teenaged girl has got it covered.
Said girl in question intercepted the priests swing with her own blade and grabbed the priest by the collar.
"...Sorry. But your fight is with me...!" Yuki exclaimed while swinging the now flailing priest towards his brethren. Smashing them to make a heap of human bodies.
Sakuya hummed in Yuki's hands as she set herself up to deal with the fallen-aligned humans as quickly as possible.
Vretiel was glaring down at the battlefield. She did not expect these turn of events when she ordered her subordinates to come with her and destroy a single intruder!
She was watching two copies of the human run toward a fallen angel with two pairs of wings and their arms raised up together to cross with one another. Before the fallen could move out of the way, the blonds smashed their crossed arms against the fallen's neck.
Their combined weight conspired to leave the fallen breathless and then...
""SMASH!""
The twins used the force from their psuedo-clothesline to swing the fallen into the ground with tremendous force. The crater that emerged from the smashed fallen was s couple feet deep.
Vretiel just gnashed her teeth as she couldn't help but notice that several fallen angels were in a similar state as that one.
This wasn't a battle...this was a thorough slaughter.
Although interestingly enough, she noticed that none of the fallen were actually dead...just unconscious.
So the human was soft? Bad mistake.
She swooped down towards the two copies in order to destroy them quickly, but it seemed that they noticed her presence before she could finish them. They quickly formed together, with one holding his hand and the other seemingly grabbing the air around it repeatedly.
The fallen leader just raised her eyebrow at this, what were they up to?
She found out soon enough.
A blue...seemingly miniature hurricane was contained in a small sphere in that copy's hand. She held her light spear high in the air as she meant to throw it at the pair before they could use their attack.
What she didn't expect was for the other copy to throw the clone with the sphere towards her!
Although thinking back on it...she probably should have.
"Rasengan!"
Before the sphere impacted her however, she managed to use her light spear to form a defense for her stomach.
Then the sphere reached her spear.
She immediately gritted her teeth as the sphere began to push her back and much to her horror...seemingly disintegrate the area where the rasengan was touching! There was no way that little ball could have the power to cut through her spear!
Then she realized her error.
The spear of light was fashioned after the real spears used by ancient humans and just like the real spear...the true power of the weapon was the tip. The handle was meant to reinforce the tip with power to increase explosive and piercing damage.
Whereas the sphere was meant for a different kind of damage. The initial power of this attack may not have been strong enough to destroy her light spear when in a face-to-face confrontation...
But if it was allowed the time to continue pushing through without facing the power of her light spear head on?
The little hurricane wasn't just for show...it was grindingthrough her attack!
Constant friction was whittling the strength of the attack down until it was weakened enough to break through!
She held firm though, while the constant grinding must have been destroying the spear...at least she could weaken the sphere as well!
As she feared...the spear broke against the rasengan'spower.
But her hopes were dashed...the little sphere wasn't any weaker by the time it reached her.
So the attack was self-perpetuating?
Damn it.
When it hit her stomach, it felt like someone had placed a grinder on it. The horrible twisting and turning was ripping through her skin!
But finally, the compressed energy exploded and sent her spiraling backwards against several trees in the area.
It said something that she was thankful that the explosion happened. Anything to get away from that horrible sensation.
But all that happened because she was caught off guard.
Now she knew...
"...Now...now I know that I definitely can't let you live!" Vretiel shouted, her rage beginning to cloud her judgement. But for now, she was sane enough to jump high in the air before they could continue their attack.
She formed two light spears with each holding two rings around them and then threw them before they could finish making another rasengan.
They didn't finish it in time.
The explosion rocked the area and probably hurt a lot of her subordinates...as well as those annoying clones.
But she was far too angry to care.
She's been hurt.
She...has...been...hurt.
Not since the Great War between the biblical factions did she ever receive injuries!
Yet this human not only hurt her twice...but he managed to do damage to her flawless skin...that was unforgivable!
It was time to crush him once and for all!
Naruto was quickly running towards the last confirmed location of Vretiel.
Last memory he received of her, she was looking pretty upset.
Probably because she took a rasengan to the gut.
But damn, she must be pretty tough! Most people can't take a rasengan's grinding force to the stomach so easily!
Well...maybe not easily...but still.
He doubted that he could get another one as easily as the last one though.
He decidedly ignored the fallen angels which were suffering under his clones' hands.
There was a woman which was trying to get her head from out of the ground.
There was a man which was cursing him out when he passed him as his body was stuck underground...with only his head above ground.
Another woman was hanging upside down from a branch due to the ninja wire that was holding her up.
Finally, he saw a man that was held onto a tree with several kunai that stuck his clothes to the bark.
Man, his clones had a weird sense of humor eh?
Then he finally saw his objective.
The woman was frazzled, that was for sure. She was glaring at the ground as if it has done something absolutely horrible to her while her fists were clenching and un-clenching at will.
He decided to take the time to notice her current state.
In the beginning of the battle, like most fallen angels for some reason, she dressed provocatively. Her body was covered by a dark blue dress which was form-fitting to her figure. The attire even had a considerable v-neck and a slit down the sides of her leg!
But now...
Well, if her dress was barely holding together before. Then it was definitely barely holding together now.
There was grime all over her and her dress, as well as a gaping hole in the front of it which showed her stomach. There was now a swirling wound where that hole was.
Wonder what did that?
After waiting a little bit, he had enough of waiting and decided to announce his presence.
"Man! That was quite the party you threw back there Vretiel-san! I was genuinely impressed with all of the party guests you invited! But now I think that the party is just about over...don't you?" Naruto said while walking towards the fallen angel.
Her attention snapped towards him and her regard was obviously extremely poisonous.
"...You...! You dare...you dare mock me...!? I will kill you!" Vretiel screamed at the approaching blond, her composure completely broken as she couldn't stand the utter gall of the human teenager in front of her.
Naruto nodded sagely at this. The bigger the baddie, the bigger the breakdown maybe?
"Well, for the first time since earlier today...you may just get your chance. Ya see...I'm the real Naruto." the shinobi said with a shit-eating grin.
The fallen's rising hysterics stopped the second she heard this piece of information.
Then she began chuckling.
Those chuckling grew into laughter.
That laughter turned into hysteric laughter.
As the woman seemingly broke down in front of him, he just then received the information from the clone at the church.
Yuki has reinforced Issei. Good, he wasn't gonna question her on why she was here yet. Best not question something good.
Finally, the woman stopped laughing and regarded the blond with a cool smile. Though he couldn't help but notice that the smile was not friendly.
"...This is fine...I don't care if I lose my entire army...as long as the ritual succeeds then I can still achieve my ambition! But first...I will destroy you...that will be the end of this ridiculous farce!" Vretiel snarled at the blond. Though Naruto didn't look too impressed.
"Well then...you just have to actually beat me to do that now won't you? You haven't been doing a good job of it so far though. What makes you think that you can beat me now?" Naruto asked with a tilt of his head. Did she really lose it or did she really have more planned?
She merely shook her head. "No no...my army has been crushed. I only have one thing to combat you with...although I have been saving my energy in case this happened...!"
Vretiel brought out her wings again, this made Naruto tense as he prepared to stop her from flying again.
But she didn't make to fly.
He frowned for a second. What was-?
Then he noticed it.
Her wings.
There weren't four pairs of wings.
"You see...I just managed to upgrade. You will be the first to face my new power!" Vretiel exclaimed with a mad smile marring her face.
She had spread her five pairs of wings and took flight as Naruto was shocked by this turn of events.
He immediately knew his mistake.
"Can you defeat me now!? Downer!?"
The blond shinobi just clicked his teeth.
Time to finish this.
Naruse Mio was upset.
Very upset.
Naruto was not only absent again...but he also made trouble for the student council.
The blond not only left early...be he forgot to buy the groceries!
It just so happened that she was spending some time with some friends at her class today. She was finally getting that normal life that she yearned for ever since...that happened.
Well, it was interrupted because the house needed food.
Not only that...but she heard from Maria that Naruto hasn't been home all day!
So she thought that she had a right to be upset.
Mio finally reached the house and opened the door now that her errands were accomplished. She closed the door behind her and placed the food on the counter in order to put it away inside the fridge.
After finishing that up, she decided to rest up in her room for a while as she decided on-
Mio stopped.
"..."
She immediately turned around from where she was headed and looked towards Naruto's room.
The door.
The door.
It was slightly...ever so slightly opened.
Practically a crack.
But the fact was...it was open.
Mio stared at it as if she was looking at a bomb that was about to go off.
What should she do?
She talked about going in there and getting him back for his pranks but...
Now that she had the chance...she was hesitating.
It was an invasion of privacy.
It was rude.
It was just outright bad.
Yet...
Mio hemmed and hawed over the dilemma. She wasn't as interested in getting her psuedo-brother 'back' like before. More like...
She was worried.
Maybe she was being a little needy but...ever since her parents died...she couldn't help but fear that other people would leave her as well.
In the short time she has known Naruto...he had become one of those people.
She's afraid...no...terrified that the blond would leave her alone.
Like so many before.
Now he's been gone since early this morning...
Maybe clues to where he was can be found in his room?
Mio stared at the door...
Then she made a decision.
She opened the door and walked in.