Naruto lay in bed on his back. His right arm was hanging off the mattress, one of his ankles was propped on the footboard, and his left hand aimlessly reached for the ceiling.
"Just when things were getting fun," he muttered.
He'd fucked up. He went sage mode in front of a room full of devils. Worse, he'd done it in front of his family.
His attempts to explain what happened hadn't done him any favors. They barely understood what he was saying; the only thing they knew was that he used a power no Phenex had used before him. They didn't take it well.
Or, Ruval seemed pretty hyped up. If they'd been alone in a locked room, Naruto was pretty sure brother would've slapped him on the back. Lord Phenex acted concerned and nodded a lot, but that was probably just because he knew it was the wisest course of action.
Naruto didn't blame him. Lady Phenex had been on a roll…
She'd seen firsthand how much power senjutsu granted, and she was old enough to know that no power like that came without risks. She was completely correct; the dangers of senjutsu could barely be understated. Naruto couldn't even tell her that he'd known he could handle it, because if he did she would've asked "How?"
Somehow, he didn't think he'd get away with the excuse of: "In my past life, I was actually the best sage ever!"
Yeah… It had been easier to let her smuggle him to his room and call in doctors. There had been… Eight? Ten? Naruto honestly lost track, since all the visits went about the same.
They'd look concerned, ask some questions, then eventually leave saying nothing was wrong. Because it was true. Naruto couldn't be in better health. His biggest source of pain was being stuck in his room, bored to death.
"Knock knock." The words were followed by rapping knuckles.
Naruto smiled for the first time in a while. He tucked his knees against his chest, rolling back so only his shoulders were on the bed, and sprang up to land in front of the door. He knew who he'd find before he opened it.
"You're the only person who says knock knock, bro," he said.
The man waiting to enter was so skinny that it almost looked unhealthy. He had glasses, and bags under his eyes that even the powers of immortality never managed to get rid of. He was handsome, somewhat, but personal care was clearly an afterthought. His hair was shaggy and spiky in a way that wasn't punk; it just meant he'd forgotten to cut it for a few months too long.
"Forgive my verbal ticks," said Riven Phenex, Naruto's second oldest brother. "I don't speak to others very often. I haven't had a chance to level up that skill."
Yeah… Sometimes Riven talked in weird ways, like his life was a video game. He was a nerd, and if asked he'd proudly declare it himself. His personality paid off when it scored him a position as one of the underworld's foremost magical researchers. The clash between his noble upbringing and scientific passion was visible in how he dressed: a white lab coat thrown on top of a tailored suit.
Naruto walked to his bed, dropping onto it and spreading his arms behind his body. Riven walked inside after him, choosing to stay standing.
"Senjutsu, eh?" Riven asked.
Naruto winced. "Mom told you about that."
"The day of, actually." Riven chuckled. "You should've heard her voice when she called me. I think her first question was, 'Is he dying?'"
"I'm not," Naruto groaned. "I feel fine!"
"So I've heard. But that's a miracle," Riven said. "Your good health is as shocking as your ability to feel chakra in the first place."
So far everyone, even the doctors who'd been called in, had been treading carefully. They'd mix up terms and ask a lot of questions, making plenty of notes. Something about the calm way Riven referenced chakra made Naruto's eyebrows rise.
"You know about Senjutsu!" he said.
"Researchers have dabbled in almost every power out there, even the light powers of angels," Riven said. "Recently, a minor branch has been devoting all their time to understanding this power. I read through their notes. You're either extremely lucky, Naruto, or you're a prodigy… Who's also extremely lucky. Frankly, you should have gone berserk the moment you used that much natural energy."
"But I didn't," Naruto said.
"You didn't," Riven agreed. "Congratulations."
Naruto grinned, while Riven gave him a wily smile.
"It's at this point that I should apologize," Riven said.
"For the party?" Naruto asked.
His own stunt with senjutsu might've taken some of the heat off Riven's back, but their second oldest brother missed his and Ravel's eleventh birthday. Without the "senjutsu scare" as Naruto had taken to calling it, Lady Phenex would've already beaten Riven's brakes off.
"I was caught up in a big project, lost track of time… But those are excuses," Riven said. "Which is why, instead of coming with an apology, I've brought a makeup gift."
Naruto grinned excitedly. Why wouldn't he? Riven might've been a little flakey, but when he told you he had something for you, you knew it was going to be GOOD.
Instead of pulling anything out, Riven looked around the room.
"I know you've got them close to you," he said. "Let's see them, Naruto. Bring out your Evil Pieces."
Naruto squinted. He couldn't see exactly where this was going.
Then, he flipped off the bed, shoving his hands between the mattress and the bed frame. From this space he drew out the box that Lord Bael had formally handed to him.
"An odd spot. No one is trying to steal them from you. Or did you want to sleep close to them, like a teddy bear?" Riven asked.
"Better safe than sorry." Naruto put the box on the bed and flipped the lid open. There, all the pieces were laid out in an orderly row.
"Good. Bring them with you," Riven said.
He started to walk toward the door, and Naruto said: "Hold on, we're going somewhere?"
Translation: Mom is actually letting me off the premises?
Riven looked back at him, smiling.
"I missed your biggest birthday," he said. "It's only right that I get you something of equivalent value. Let's pay a visit to a coworker."
LINE BREAK
The only thing that somewhat dulled Naruto's excitement was when he realized they would be traveling via magic circle.
He and Ravel had never been out of the Phenex Clan's territory. Before eleven years old, it just wasn't done barring exceptional circumstances. He heard in lessons about how massive the underworld was; he wanted to see it.
He was still excited to see a new place, of course. He just couldn't help moping about the instantaneous travel method.
The Phenexes kept a permanent teleportation circle in a room on the second floor. Naruto was well aware of it, despite never having used it before. He tensed up when the magic circle started glowing, but the travel itself felt like absolutely nothing. They were just in one place one second, then they were somewhere else the next. They appeared on the inside of another building, in a room not too dissimilar from the one they'd left behind.
The architecture was a little different. There was more stone and less wood making up the walls. When Riven led Naruto into the rest of the building, the major changes started showcasing themselves.
It was messy. There were lots of rooms separated by glass walls, full of tables and overflowing bookshelves. Books had been removed from their rightful place, partially read, and then dropped in teetering stacks.
Inside some rooms, there were sanitized instruments and tables that looked designed for patients. Others held vials and burbling bottles of different colored liquids. "Does a doctor live here?" Naruto asked, suddenly suspicious that this was a setup for yet another physical inspection.
Riven laughed. "Kind of, but not the kind you're imagining. This is the home of the Naberius Clan. As you can see, they've devoted themselves to research… Not too dissimilar to myself. Think of them as scientists; researchers, if you'd prefer."
Riven took Naruto past more rooms that were much the same. Though not as big as Castle Phenex, the live-in laboratory still took up a huge amount of space, made to feel even bigger by the number of see-through glass walls.
Finally, they found a devil in a coat like Riven's hunched over a table, flipping the pages of a book like his life depended on getting to the end.
Naruto's eyes were drawn past the man to where five other people stood in utter silence. There were two adult men, an adult woman, and two yokai. Naruto had never met a yokai before, but that was the only thing these girls could be. The older sister had black hair, black cat ears in addition to her human ones, and two black tails. The younger sister looked to be Naruto's age, and had all the same appendages but in the color white.
"Nox!" Riven said. "How's the research coming!"
The devil at the table jumped, then kicked off the ground and spun around his swivel chair. He had black hair nearly as shaggy as Riven's, plus dark pupils. He smiled tentatively.
"As well as ever, as well as ever." He had a very quiet, somewhat raspy voice.
"Glad to hear it!" Riven declared. "Hey, meet my new party member. Naruto, say hi."
"Yo," Naruto said.
This didn't seem like the kind of meeting where he'd need the proper etiquette that Bafeel taught him. Sure enough, the conversation moved swiftly on.
"To what do I owe the honor of this visit?" Nox asked.
"We talked about it a few days ago, remember? I'm proposing a trade," Riven said.
Nox didn't rise, but he did rub his hands together. The mannerism reminded Naruto of a fly.
"Yes. I remember now. You offered to solve my problem," Nox said.
"Very kindly, all things considered," Riven said.
"I'm appreciative. And interested," Nox said. "However, troublesome or not, you can't deny the value in what I hold. The question, Riven, is what will you give up? The necessary Evil Pieces are a necessity. To form a deal, something of value is needed."
"True, true. Would a look at my notes suffice?" Riven asked.
"Just one look? You can do better than that. A copy of all your findings across the last sixty years."
"Denied," Riven said flatly. "We're striking a deal here, Nox, not enacting a charity. Value must be equal. And as we both know, you can't handle the asset in question. You NEED to get it off your hands. Cursed items sell for less than their value, everyone who's touched an RPG knows that."
"Ten tears, then," Nox proposed. "I could push my research forward decades with that kind of tool."
"You could also buy a fiefdom," Riven said. "One tear, and even that is overpaying."
They traded a few more offers, half of the terms flying way over Naruto's head. Finally, Riven stroked his chin.
"This will take some time. Naruto, why don't you leave us to this?" he said.
"A good idea," Nox said. "Kuroka. Take him to the garden to wait."
The black cat bowed her head. She walked by Naruto, and as she went past, her tails jabbed forward, pointing for him to follow her.
He noticed, as they left, that the white cat twitched. It was the first non-ordered movement he'd seen from who he guessed were Nox's peerage.
Leaving his brother locked into negotiations, Naruto trailed after the older girl, following her for nearly two minutes. Eventually they stepped outside into a garden. The Naberius Family home was constructed in a square, leaving an open green space in the middle, which had been cultivated with a variety of ferns and decorated with exquisite statues. The air was humid. There was a bench close to him, and Naruto went to sit down, before stopping.
Instead, he approached the closest statue. It depicted a male devil with his wings out and his hands at his sides. The level of detail was tremendous.
Looking around, most of the statues depicted devils, though there were a fair amount of humans spaced around, and even one yokai. Naruto wandered into the very middle of the garden, his eyes locking onto the statue of a cat woman with three tails. Her arms were up like she was trying to protect something.
Naruto reached out to touch the stone, but when his fingers were an inch away he heard a noise.
Turning around, he found that Nox's servant had dropped into a fetal position.
"Please, take my sister instead!" Kuroka shouted.
"Huh?" Naruto said.
She looked up at him, her eyes so fierce she was almost glaring.
"I know you're here for me," Kuroka said. "He plans to trade me to get me out of the way. As soon as I'm gone, he'll turn Shirone into a devil. Once she's his servant all bets will be off. I'm begging you, take her instead of me! Free her!"
It occurred to Naruto that the object Riven and Nox were bargaining over, the "cursed object" that they were referring to, was this girl.
Naruto wasn't sure what was bad about her, nor why Nox would need her out of the way.
He knelt down and sniffed. Kuroka recoiled slightly, seeming like she was trying to decide if she should be offended.
Naruto, however, had sensed exactly what he was looking for.
"You have chakra!" he said. "Not just that, you know Senjutsu!"
"How can you…" Naruto could see the moment that Kuroka decided his abilities didn't matter, returning to her original purpose. "Shirone has a talent for Senjutsu too! Is that what you're after? She'll be far better than I am! I promise, in the future, she'll be the best at it that you can ask for!"
"I take it Shirone is your little sister?" Naruto asked.
"That's correct," Kuroka said. Distress crossed her face a second later when, instead of answering her plea, Naruto turned toward the statue of the cat woman.
"You two have a strong resemblance to each other," he mused. "Y'know, this statue looks a lot like the two of you as well…"
Kuroka didn't say anything, still awaiting his answer.
Naruto turned back to her, grinning. "Shirone can really learn Senjutsu too?"
"I swear it to you on my soul," Kuroka said.
"Score," Naruto muttered. "But… Why do you want her out of this place so badly? Is there something wrong here?"
Kuroka opened her mouth, missing a beat before she answered.
"No, Lord Phenex," she said. "Nothing like that."
"I'm not a lord," Naruto said. "That's my dad. I'm just Naruto!"
"Right. Naruto." Kuroka rose to her feet. "You won't regret this."
They remained in the garden a bit longer before beginning the walk back. With Kuroka leading him, she didn't see Naruto stop right before leaving the garden.
He looked back, at all the statues but especially the one in the middle. For a second his pupils changed, reading the invisible energy currents traveling through the natural world.
"Nothing bad is happening, huh?" he said.
He turned around, his eyes returning to normal, and hid his frown.
LINE BREAK
"I'm taking both," Naruto said.
Riven and Nox had finally reached an agreement on the transfer of Kuroka into Naruto's peerage, but this one sentence blew everything up.
"Both?" Nox asked with a strained smile.
"It's not good to be too greedy, Naruto," Riven said. "You have a long time to collect more pieces. Kuroka will take both of your bishops. Giving up so many pieces so soon might backfire."
"I'm taking them both," Naruto repeated.
Nox's eye twitched. He smiled condescendingly, thinking Naruto was nothing but a whining child, but Riven could tell something was afoot.
"Why are you so insistent on both?" Riven asked.
"They're like me," Naruto said.
He gathered natural energy, just enough for it to be felt and the effects to be seen. He could collect the energy quicker in this world; it seemed to be more plentiful, with the added risk of driving you berserk if you made a mistake.
Kuroka stepped back slightly, looking shocked. Riven looked a bit afraid, no doubt worrying about what would happen to him if Naruto recklessly hurt himself on the outing that Riven sponsored.
The biggest reaction went to Nox, though, whose jaw fell open.
"A pureblooded devil using stable senjutsu!" he said. "The ramifications for this… If it can be replicated… Both of the girls are yours! In return, you only have to volunteer for a few experiments!"
Naruto was about to ask what kind, and what those might involve. Before he could, Riven slid his arm over Nox's shoulder.
Naruto's brother leaned into his coworker's face, smiling with his eyes closed.
"Remember your place Nox," Riven said.
Nox froze.
"It was a slip of the tongue," Nox said. "I didn't mean—"
"Of course you didn't," Riven said. "Because it sounded as if you, a mere branch house of a family of the Extra Demons, was asking to run experiments on a Phenex. Listen closely, and do not forget: one drop of my brother's blood is worth more than your entire pitiful lineage."
"I-I understand," Nox stammered.
"If you understand, then the girls are ours," Riven said.
Nox lifted his head. "But—"
"I thought you understood?" Riven was still smiling, his eyes closed. "Or do you have a thick skull? I wonder if getting all your funding removed would clear up your hearing? How many experiments could you run without a coin to your name? You'd have to sell off everything you have. So the question is, Nox, will you hand them over for free now… Or later, when you've lost everything else."
Nox had no choice but to look at the floor. "Now," he whispered.
Riven rubbed his back. "I knew your intelligence stat was high enough to understand. Let's get the magic circle ready."
On that day, only a week after his eleventh birthday, Naruto took on his first two servants.
Kuroka, traded for both of his Bishop pieces, and Shirone.
Naruto's first Knight.
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