Two minutes before the explosion.
As he walked through the woods around Kuoh, Naruto suddenly stopped. He took the keychain meant for Shirone out of his pocket, walking to a nearby tree, and stowed the item within a gap in the trunk.
He then took a big step back and turned around.
"Rias didn't mention anything about YOU," Naruto said.
He was standing most of the way up a hill. At the crest, between the trees, with moonlight glittering on her long silver hair, stood a girl, leaning forward with her hands on her hips.
"I don't see how she could have. We've never met," the girl said.
"This is Rias's territory," Naruto said.
The girl smirked. "So?"
Naruto didn't answer. The girl was wearing a leather jacket and pants. The jacket was open, with a white buttoned shirt underneath, short enough that it showed her midriff and clung to her B cup breasts. She was pretty, but then so were pretty much all female devils.
Yeah, Naruto knew what she was. There was no way to miss the demonic power pouring off of her. She absolutely REEKED of it.
Despite the power that was readily pouring off of her, Naruto looked away, staring at the trees on either side of her.
The girl grinned. "I think he's seen you! Might as well come out!"
Some kind of invisibility spell ended, revealing a monkey youkai in one tree and a pair of blonds in the other. Of the blonds, one was a boy wearing glasses and giving off an aura that gave Naruto shivers. The other one was a smaller girl, who looked to be pouting.
"How could you sense us? That was my best stealth spell!" she complained.
"You can't trick nature," Naruto said.
"Hah! I like this one!" declared the brown haired youkai on the other branch. "Hey hey, Vali, let me fight this guy! He seems fun!"
"That's not our agreement, and you know it, Bikou," said the silver haired girl. "I always get the first fight. If you have a problem with that, you should've beaten me."
"Booooo," Bikou groaned. "You're so stingy!"
"Do I get a choice about fighting you?" Naruto asked.
Vali grinned. "None."
Naruto nodded, the answer not being unexpected. "Do we have a reason to fight?"
"Because it's fun!" Vali said in a feral voice. "Naruto Phenex, the youngest son of one of the 72 Pillars. An aberration capable of using senjutsu as well as any youkai in addition to his demonic powers! The moment I learned about you I had to see it for myself!"
Vali brought her fists together, creating a bang as they collided. Two giant blue wings sprouted from her back and cast light over the surrounding area.
"My name is Vali!" she declared. "I'm eighteen years old, my favorite food is rice noodles, and my type is powerful men! As the Eighty Third White Dragon Emperor, I challenge you, Naruto! If I defeat you, join my team!"
"I still don't get a choice?" Naruto asked.
"Nope!" Vali said. Her words were backed up by the blonds behind her who both shaking their heads, clearly experiencing flashbacks to their own losses.
Naruto sighed.
"Kuroka is gonna be so pissed," he said as his eyes changed.
He entered sage mode as a clone hidden in the woods dispersed itself, feeding him the necessary natural energy. Naruto knew keeping one in reserve might come in handy. After all of Kuroka's nagging, he'd created it that morning, just in case.
Strength filled his limbs. Naruto broke the ground as he leaped forward, striking at Vali's pretty face.
She blocked the blow easily as gauntlets formed over her fists. The shockwave that was created whipped her hair around.
"Let's do this!" she said.
Armor spread across her whole body to match her gauntlets. She lashed out at an insane speed, uppercutting Naruto. He blocked with his arms but was launched into the sky.
Before he flew away, when Vali's fist was still buried against his forearms, he heard her say: "Divide!"
The strength in his limbs disappeared. Naruto's chakra reserves were immediately reduced, exactly as if he'd summoned a shadow clone. His eyes widened at the immediate reduction; on the ground, Vali's wings grew brighter.
She'd just halved his power!
Immediately, Naruto felt something he hadn't experienced since he caught up to Kuroka. It was the utter thrill of facing an equal… No, a SUPERIOR opponent!
It made his blood burn. Literally. Naruto's Phenex powers activated in tandem with his rising emotions, his body partially turning into fire. Time to give it his all!
He crossed his fingers, creating a single clone next to him. There was no need for words since they were the same person. Naruto called on one half of his powers, pulling out every last ember that he could. Meanwhile, his clone called on the power of a Phenex's beating wings, summoning a maelstrom of wind.
They attacked at the same time, the two halves combining, and all of Kuoh Town was lit up like it was the middle of the day.
The place where Vali stood was enveloped in an explosion so powerful that it blew Naruto's hair around. He grinned, knowing the whole time that it wasn't over. "Let's see what you've got!"
"Don't blink, then!" Vali said.
Her voice sounded vaguely robotic as it was filtered through her armor. She flew out of the inferno propelled by her bright blue wings. With her fist extended, she flew so fast that she almost looked like a beam of light. Naruto's toadlike eyes followed her attack. Before it could hit him, his clone dropkicked him, knocking him out of the way.
Naruto's fiery wings came out to let him maneuver in the air. Vali adjusted her blow to hit his clone. Twelve seconds after she first halved his power, Vali's fist made contact with his clone, and she screamed: "Divide!"
As soon as he heard that, Naruto dispelled his clone. Vali looked at her gauntlet in surprise as she failed to acquire any additional power.
That ability was absolutely unfair… But it had weaknesses.
There was some kind of limit to how often she could do it. Either it took too much stamina to spam it, or there was a time requirement; Naruto knew because when he first attacked, she'd blocked it and then hit him, but only divided his power once, not twice. Based on the fact that she'd tried to divide his power just now, he was leaning toward the limitation being time based, just with a short interval.
The other weakness was that it clearly required her to be touching him. Otherwise, she would've just sat back and absorbed his power over and over again. Taijutsu was out, in that case. Even with his senjutsu active, if he lost half his strength every few blows that approach would be as good as giving up.
Luckily, he had a loophole.
Naruto used the power that had returned from dispelling his first clone to summon another one. The clone appeared with wings identical to his. As it flew at Vali, she spun and struck with a vicious elbow that literally took the clone's head off.
Flames spewing from its neck, the clone fought on, landing a hit on Vali's armor that sounded like it might've left a crack.
Vali's laughter could be heard from inside her helmet.
"The copies have your immortality! Brilliant! GIVE ME MORE!"
She punched his copy again, this time hitting it so hard that Naruto's clone POPPED. It was blown apart from the force she injected her fist with… But the clone reformed behind her a second later, punching the back of her head. Vali flew toward the ground for a few seconds before catching herself. She was still laughing.
The real Naruto kept his distance but made sure his presence was felt. He launched narrow attacks of concentrated fire akin to lasers. Vali created glowing shields around her armor, conjured with devil magic, but Naruto's attacks broke through, leaving glowing spots on her silver armor.
"Divide!" Vali said, grabbing Naruto's clone by the throat, only for it to dispel the same as its predecessor.
Naruto capitalized on the opening and rushed in before she could use her ability again.
Carried by his wings, he formed a huge rasengan and attacked Vali's back with it.
She proved herself a skilled flier, ducking down and flying away with extreme speed. Naruto chased her, leaving trails of fire in the night sky behind his body.
Exactly ten seconds after dispelling his clone, Vali turned sharply. "Divide!"
Instead of losing half his power, Naruto watched as his huge rasengan was halved. Vali flew straight through the attack, shrugging it off with pure durability, and struck him in the face.
Like a comet, Naruto was launched all the way to the other side of Kuoh Town, trailing fire as he moved so fast he was just a blur. His face had been deconstructed by that blow, though the damage was already healed by the time he hit the ground, after which his powers had far more damage to heal.
"Ugh… That hurt!" Naruto said, staggering up.
Amidst a heavy silence, Naruto realized that he wasn't alone.
Vali hadn't caught up yet. Instead, he had landed in a scene he could barely make sense of.
Around him were so many yokai that the natural energy in the area was going haywire. All different kinds were represented, many of them carrying weapons and dressed in armor. The more Naruto looked, the more sure he became: he'd just landed amongst an army camped on the edge of Kuoh.
Fujimai's warnings that something was wrong with the youkai came back to him. The fact that he couldn't sense this many before landing in the middle of them meant that they were using magic to hide themselves. Given the way they were armed, that couldn't be good.
"Who are you to interrupt the speech of the King of Beasts on the eve of our war!" someone roared.
There were five youkai standing apart from the main group, one of whom happened to be the one shouting at Naruto. In fact, the one who shouted was so tall he could be considered a giant, standing over six meters tall. A single horn protruded from his forehead, red to match his skin. He was pointing at Naruto with an enormous kanabo war club.
Behind the physically imposing ogre was a busty blond with fox ears wearing a golden kimono, a hunched old man with a wrongly shaped head, and a tall thin woman with dark skin and floppy dog ears surrounded by three miniature storm clouds. Looking between these youkai, each of whom exuded considerable power, Naruto spotted a grounded palanquin serving as a throne.
Strong, Naruto thought. It was the first thing he felt deep inside as soon as he looked at the girl sitting there. She was wearing a blood red kimono, her legs crossed and her feet dressed with sandals. She had nine orange tails and fluffy fox ears to go with red hair that would've fit in amongst a room of Uzumakis.
Naruto felt a pang inside his chest.
He actually stumbled slightly, feeling his heart beat faster. His body was behaving strangely.
The ogre blew air out of his nose. "Answer me, devil, before I crush you where you stand!"
Despite what he said, the demonic youkai immediately leaped forward and swung his club. So apparently Naruto was only being given a second to answer, which he hadn't taken.
With no other choice, Naruto forced himself to ignore the strange feelings he was experiencing and reacted to the threat.
"I've got other stuff to worry about!" Naruto howled.
He didn't even dodge the club. Naruto let it crush him, dispersing his body into fire, reforming above the club as he healed. The youkai—who was busy laughing after seeing his club connect—was hit by a senjutsu fueled kick.
The ogre's massive body was hurled away, digging a trench through the ground. Naruto heard gasps all around him. For a second, none of the youkai attacked.
The other three who stood out from the crowd all started to step forward, but the girl on the throne held her hand up.
"One of my generals has been bested. It's only right for the king to handle this matter," she said.
Every youkai immediately relaxed. It was a bit scary how much trust they had in their leader.
Still, Naruto could barely pay attention to this weird drama that he'd somehow caused. Vali could catch up with him any second, and he was now surrounded by potential casualties.
"Scary dragon!" Naruto pointed at the sky. "Coming here! She'll blow all of you up with me, if you don't get away from this place right now!"
The kitsune youkai spread her nine orange tails, smiling ferally.
"A dragon?" she said. "Good. I'll eat it for dessert when I'm done with you. I love the crunch of their scales."
She kicked off the ground. To Naruto's shock, she was as fast as Vali.
He should've been tense, having a powerful being that he knew nothing about coming at him… But Naruto couldn't focus. That weird feeling was back inside his chest and only getting worse.
As the kitsune came closer, Naruto got a better look at her, and even though he was sure he'd never seen her face before she felt tremendously familiar. It felt like there was a hole inside of his chest, one that had always been there but he'd never noticed until now, and his powers were helpless to heal it.
When the girl was fifty meters from him, he saw her smirk disappear. When she was twenty five meters away, he watched her squint at him, like she was trying to tell if she was seeing things. At ten meters, she slowed down. At five meters, she turned around and tried to run the other way, howling with what might've been fear.
It was too late. The feeling in Naruto's chest was so intense that it almost made him cry. The King of Beasts, as her subordinate had called her, had her feet leave the ground. A force she couldn't resist pulled her straight at Naruto.
"HOW ARE YOU HEEEEEEEREEEEEEE…" was the last thing Naruto heard her say.
She collided with him, but instead of being knocked over the girl disappeared and passed INTO his body.
In an instant, the hole was filled. He felt complete again… And then some.
"Here you are!"
Vali had caught up. She appeared in the air, her armor largely untouched and her wings pulsing with power. Naruto could tell she was smiling under her helmet.
"Caught you!" she said with satisfaction. "Fight to the end, Naruto Phenex, and lose with honor!"
She thought the fight was decided. Frankly, Naruto couldn't blame her. Based on their previous exchanges it was obvious: she was stronger and the best he could do was drag this out.
Things had changed. Grinning like a madman, Naruto ignored all his confusion about this situation, finding comfort in the most familiar gesture he could make.
"Shadow Clone no Jutsu!" Naruto yelled, laughing as he said it.
A thousand puffs of smoke. A thousand Narutos, grinning just as crazily as the original. And in front of each of them glowed a magic circle.
Vali howled with pleasure.
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