An army of Youkai that was already thoroughly disoriented turned even more confused when a golden beam shot out of the sky. When the beam stopped, they recognized the young man who had run off with their leader. Now, their leader was nowhere in sight.
Until she was abruptly ejected from Naruto's body, taking the glow that had enveloped him with her.
The two of them landed in crouches amongst the four Youkai leaders. The blonde kitsune that had spoken to Naruto before he made his escape gasped and ran forward.
She picked up Kurama, hugging the shorter kitsune, burying Kurama's face deep in the crack between her Tsunade-like titties.
"Set me down! Unhand me!" Kurama complained.
"That is the one order I won't listen to," the blonde kitsune said. "I was scared for you, Little Red."
The nickname made Naruto chortle. Kurama called on her strength and finally managed to force her way out of the other fox woman's grip. The difficulty of the maneuver made Naruto lift his eyebrows. The blonde fox was strong.
"What do you want us to do with this one?" asked the huge Oni, looming over Naruto.
Despite having been kicked straight off of his feet earlier, the horned Youkai was holding his iron Kanabo in a position to swing it. To be fair about the blow earlier, it hadn't done any lasting damage, so Naruto didn't blame him for being ready to square up for round two.
The poor guy just didn't know how much harder Naruto could hit.
"No, nothing like that will be necessary." Kurama finally succeeded in prying herself out of the other kitsune's grip. "Things have changed, Kyogai. I've decided to become a devil. There will be no attack tonight; feel free to head home."
There was a prolonged silence as Kurama's lieutenants grappled with what she was saying. Kyogai, the oni, dropped his metal cudgel. It shook the ground when it landed.
"Wh-What do you mean?" Tears poured from his eyes, and he sank to his knees. The other leaders showed more mild but similarly shocked reactions behind him. "We've assembled here under your banner!"
Kurama didn't care much.
"I've become a devil," she repeated, slower this time, like the problem was that they hadn't heard her clearly. "I've entered this one's service. He's called Naruto. He's not quite as stupid as he looks."
"Kurama," Naruto said. "What were you here for? Before I showed up."
She turned to look at him, smiling nervously and pulling on her collar. His tone and his crossed arms set her on edge.
"I assembled all the Youkai clans that I conquered. So, all the Youkai in Japan… These are the leaders! The big ugly one is Kyogai, the little ugly one is Nuarihyon, the goofy dog back there is Yasu, and this one with the stupid breasts is Yasaka!"
"We ruled the four factions of Japan," Yasaka said. "Until a baby kitsune challenged me one day. It was horribly embarrassing to lose to her, though I felt somewhat better when I watched the others lose the same way I did."
The other leaders looked away, some of them muttering excuses while others just winced.
Naruto nodded at Yasaka, acknowledging her, but he wasn't letting Kurama off the hook that easily.
"What did you assemble them to do?" he said sternly.
Kurama shifted between her feet. "Well, to have a little fun…"
"What kind of fun?"
"I… I… I was going to conquer Kuoh!" Kurama finally snapped. "Once they'd pledged fealty to me, I'd beat all the devils that came and make THEM my servants too! But I know you're going to be alllllll annoying about it. You'll tell me to be peaceful, or something boring like that, just like the sage used to! That's no fun!"
Her prediction proved true as Naruto stuck his hand out, clubbing her head moderately hard. Instantly, three of the youkai leaders (all of them except Yasaka) sprang as far away as they could, looking worriedly at Kurama. Yasaka didn't move at all.
Kurama's only reaction was to rub her head and give a muted glare, although it turned out more like a pout.
"No starting wars," Naruto said. "That's going to be a new ground rule."
"Not even one?" Kurama asked.
Naruto shook his head. She let out a prolonged groan.
"But what if someone—"
"None," Naruto said. "Although if someone else starts one, we can finish it."
"Fine," Kurama said with the put-out air of someone making a harsh compromise.
A knowing look spread across Yasaka's face suddenly. Despite her mature looks, she gave off the impression of being suddenly younger as some of her trickster roots came out.
She slid her hand over Kurama's shoulder, leaning down and looking at Naruto, her bouncing breasts showing him a dangerous amount of cleavage; not that he stared.
"You'll be taking Kurama with you to the underworld, I imagine? At least for a little while," Yasaka said.
"I have to," Naruto said. "I've gotta go back, and she's sticking with me from now on."
His grin was bright as he said the words, reminding himself that he and his partner had been reunited. Even if she was still a little sore about him ending up in charge again, Kurama smiled too.
"Let me have a little chat with her," Yasaka said. "You know, to say goodbye. I was her first lieutenant, so the two of us share a somewhat deeper bond. It would be terrible to send her off without saying anything.
"Go ahead!" Naruto said. He'd give them all the time they needed.
Yasaka didn't guide Kurama toward the other youkai leaders; she took Kurama over to an area where no one was, and where no one could overhear them. Naruto watched, a confused look growing on his face, as the two women went through their discussion.
First Yasaka said something that caused Kurama to leap back like a startled cat. Yasaka shook her head, saying something calmly, to which Kurama replied angrily, or at least in a spirited way. Unperturbed, Yasaka lifted her hands, planting them under her breasts and pushing her tits up just to drop them, sending ripples through the two boulders on her chest. Yasaka next shifted to the side, ignoring Kurama's increasingly scandalized face, and walked a short distance while sashaying her hips, flitting her golden tails around while she walked. She looked back to make sure Kurama had watched. Kurama screamed something at the older kitsune, talking so loudly that Naruto could hear her words for the first time. "YOU WANT ME TO—"
Yasaka shook her head. With a grave face, she held up one hand, making a hole with her index finger and thumb. She then brought her other hand up used it to repeatedly penetrate the hole she'd made at high speeds.
Kurama gaped at her, stunned by whatever Yasaka was saying to go with the gesture. Ultimately, Naruto watched his partner flee, turning around and sprinting at him with all her might, like she was worried Yasaka might give chase.
"Let's go! I'm done saying goodbye!" Kurama declared.
"Already? You haven't even talked to the others—"
"I'm done!" Kurama said.
She folded into Naruto, sliding seamlessly into being part of his body and flooding him with her power. He could feel her urgency to leave, willing him to zip away into the sky as fast as they could go.
Yasaka didn't come back over. Smiling, she gave an overhead wave. Naruto waved back, giving her a grin of his own. He took pity on Kurama and shot into the sky again.
His Phenex wings fanned out behind him, now clad in golden chakra just like the rest of his body. Naruto whooped as he pushed himself and zipped away, a single beam of light in an otherwise dark sky.
LINE BREAK
The trip home went smoothly until he got home.
"Hey, mom! Is something wrong?" Naruto asked.
Lady Phenex was waiting right at the beginning of the path that led to their castle, accompanied by Fujimai. Kurama looked curiously at the woman who was Naruto's mother in this world, sizing her up in silence.
Naruto was busy smiling until his cheeks hurt, hiding his fear at his mom having come this far to meet him.
"He's back!" Lady Phenex said.
Almost immediately a teleportation circle appeared behind her. Kuroka appeared, bringing Bafeel and Ravel with her. Only Bafeel studied Kurama; the others were so fixated on Naruto that they didn't pay any attention to the stranger he'd brought back with him.
"Would you care to explain to me why I received a call from your fiance on the verge of panic, explaining that a massive attack had been launched on her territory during your visit, and that she had not seen you since?" Lady Phenex asked.
"Someone attacked Kuoh Town?" Naruto asked.
Kurama shrugged as if to say, 'Wasn't me.' She'd tried, sure, but Naruto and Vali crashed that party, derailing her plans before they could start.
Lady Phenex wasn't impressed.
"Rias reported a chain of explosions so powerful that she feared it was an attack on her life," Lady Phenex said. "In her words, the reverberations could be felt throughout the entire area. Yet, despite having been in that area, you made no call to inform myself or Kuroka of this."
As he heard more details, the clearer it became that his mom was talking about his and Vali's fight. He didn't think telling his mom it was an attack on HIM, not Rias's territory, would really calm her down much.
"Then," Lady Phenex said dangerously, "you arrive hours later than you were supposed to, bringing with you a girl I have never met."
Lady Phenex finally turned to Kurama. Kurama gazed back at her, making prolonged eye contact. As the staring contest stretched out, Kurama frowned. "How arrogant—"
Naruto slapped his hand over her mouth.
"Mom, meet Kurama!" he said, hoping to change the topic from the chaos at Kuoh. "She's my Queen!"
He got what he wanted as far as changing the topic. Unfortunately, it didn't lift his mom's mood any. Lady Phenex frowned.
"It's nice to meet you," she said to Kurama, though her voice was strained. "Welcome to the Phenex Clan. We'll talk more inside."
Naruto knew his mom well enough to understand that he wasn't off the hook, he'd just pushed back the inevitable conversation. In front of a new member of the household, she didn't want to dress him down too badly, at least not as a first impression. Lady Phenex looked back at Naruto.
"Come," she said, turning in a way that swirled her red dress. Naruto hurried forward, walking alongside her, while the others all walked behind them like a retinue.
"You're looking good, Mom. Is that a new dress?" Naruto asked.
"It's ten times your age," Lady Phenex said.
He laughed. "Maybe it's the hair. Did you do something new with it? It looks great!"
His thumbs up didn't help the compliment land any better. Lady Phenex glanced briefly at him. She stepped slightly to the side, opening a space between the two of them, and a whispered word from Fujimai sent Kurama to walk between them.
"Your name is Kurama?" Lady Phenex asked.
"Yes." Kurama was looking at Castle Phenex, her eyes darting over it. Naruto suspected she was theorizing how easy it would be to destroy; she had weird hobbies like that.
"And you are a kitsune?" Lady Phenex asked.
"The strongest there is," Kurama said in a bored voice.
"Of course." Lady Phenex's voice was polite. "And how old do you happen to be?"
Kurama didn't answer immediately. Finally, she chose to say only her age in this world. "Eighteen."
"Hm," Lady Phenex said. "The same age as my son, then. You've certainly grown powerful quickly."
Lady Phenex was using the voice that she used to talk to Ravel in back when they would play dolls. She was old and educated enough to know that youkai amassed power over time. From her perspective, it was as if a three year old had just walked up to her and claimed to be the fastest runner in the world.
"Yasaka always says I'm the fastest learner she's ever witnessed," Kurama smirked.
Fujimai perked up behind them. "Yasaka?"
"You know of her?" Lady Phenex asked.
"I do," Fujimai said. "She rules the West Youkai Faction. I glimpsed her once or twice during my time in the East Faction, when she would pay visits to our leader."
"Hm," Lady Phenex said, this time more contemplative as she sized Kurama up. "I see."
Naruto let out a sigh of relief. That name drop probably just saved him a serious talk about how important the Queen Piece was, and how it wasn't supposed to be used casually on strange arrogant youkai who weren't even two decades old. He knew that Riser had gotten a similar talk when he filled his whole peerage at such a young age, focusing on physical beauty over raw ability.
"How was the meeting with Rias?" Lady Phenex asked.
"It went well!" Naruto said, smiling as he remembered the day out on Kuoh Town.
His mom finally smiled. It was the first time she looked happy since he arrived in front of her.
"I'm happy to hear it," she said. "I'll be glad to put a stop to your complaints."
She climbed the steps to the castle's front entrance, two servants opening it for her, and slipped through into the lush interior beyond.
Naruto considered objecting, telling her that no matter how nice Rias was he still didn't want to MARRY her just because his dad and her dad wrote something on a crappy paper way before he was born. But he didn't.
Mainly because, when she was back in the comfort of her home, he saw the way his mom's shoulders slouched. Her posture slackened more than he'd ever seen it do before, a sigh sinking from her lips.
She'd been worried. Meeting him at the edge of the property, grilling him the way that she had, it was all because she'd been genuinely scared. Naruto felt a little guilty thinking about it, although there was no way he could've known Rias would call his family. Then again, he'd probably worried HER, too… He and Vali hadn't been going easy.
In addition to his (temporary) fiance and his mother, there were others that Naruto had made to worry.
His arm was grabbed the instant he was inside, a strong yet feminine hand hauling him away immediately. Kuroka pulled him toward the stairs to the higher floors.
"Where are we going?" Naruto asked.
"Room," Kuroka said.
"Why? I'm not sleepy—"
"I haven't been able to sleep since Lady Phenex woke me last night," Kuroka said. "When it gets dark, I am going to pass out and sleep for fifteen hours. Maybe even longer. Before that happens, I have a lot to get out of my system."
She turned around, pressing her lips to Naruto, pinning him briefly against the bannister of the stairwell. They were the only two around, allowing her to plunder his mouth with her tongue as she pleased. When he pushed his tongue into her mouth, returning the deep kiss, she dug one of her fangs into his flesh, stinging him.
Then she pulled back and was dragging him again, heading straight for his bedroom. Naruto had a much clearer idea now of what they were going there to do.
.
Check the link in my profile to find more.