Chapter - 32

Naruto watched his father stare out the window with a frown. The choice to leave Sasuke and Rias to get up to trouble on their own had been a good idea as far as he was concerned, but he hadn't anticipated it going to shit so quickly.

Damage control was something the Gremory heir had imagined he'd have to do in months or years – after many hours of teasing and match making. Not the very next day. Sirzechs Lucifer might be a great Satan and a better father, but sometimes he got hung up over the silliest things.

Ah well, no use crying over spilt milk. "What's got your boxers in a bunch, dad?"

"Don't talk to your father like that, you scamp." Sirzechs sighed, spinning around in his chair to peer at Naruto over his desk. The Satan's son was perched cross legged on that desk, clad in pajamas with his hair uncombed. "Or rather, don't let your mother hear you talk to your father like that, you scamp."

Waving off the warning, Naruto propped his chin in his palm. "I think she's given up after all these years. There's only so many times you can beat a dead horse. But that's just dodging the question. What's got your boxers in a bunch, ya old geezer?"

"Wow, I am just shivering at all that respect. Do you think it would help morale if I ordered all the troops to call me that too?"

"Yeah I guess. Mom would beat them all black and blue for it, so they'd have first-hand experience with the kind of punishment they'd be getting for failure. "

"You know, I have the feeling that this is the kind of conversation that would end up with us being beaten black and blue by your mother."

"Ah, caught on to that did ya? Well don't let me stop you. S&M roleplay usually starts somewhere."

"You're right, an Oedipus complex usually has a root cause in frequent conflict with a boy's maternal figure."

"Ouch. That's cold."

"I try." Smirking at the disgruntled look on Naruto's face, Sirzechs leaned back in the leather armchair. Sizerchs 1567 – Naruto 452. But jokes aside, the underlying question had been serious, and the Satan tended to trust his son's opinion. "What do you think of Uchiha Sasuke?"

Now there were two ways to resolve his father's conundrum as far as Naruto was concerned. He could either take the grave approach, and put on a mature act for his father. Or he could just bullshit it.

"Seriously?" Naruto rolled his eyes, tone echoing disbelief. "That's what you're worried about? Not the treaty, not how things are going to be going with the Phenex clan, but that Sasuke and Rias were getting a little freaky on the dance floor?"

"Naruto, it's a serious clan matter. You know how social expectations are for the nobility. No one would care if you were visiting brothels every other day, but if Rias has taken a lover that would have negative impact on any marriage arrangement our father tried to make for her."

"Are you serious?" Ah, the old duty argument. Well Naruto had done the duty for the clan. At the least he should be able to expect that his friends and family were bought a little more freedom with his sacrifice. "Look, Sasuke is about as sexually liberated as Mother Theresa. Nothing happened, and knowing him nothing is going to happen for years if ever without me prodding things along. And even if it did," Naruto rushed to add when Sirzechs looked displeased. "What does it matter?"

That wasn't to say Naruto had decided to nudge things along, since he was still weighing the long-term effects any relationship he tried to encourage on both of them, but he wasn't firmly opposed to it. And if they'd be good for each other, then there was no reason why it shouldn't happen.

Though if Sasuke was going to expect Naruto to call him 'uncle', that bastard was in for a rude surprise.

"Dad." Hopping in before the Crimson Haired Satan had a chance to reply, Naruto decided to cut right to the guilty coup de grace. "I never, not once since Souji spilled the beans before we could talk about it, complained to you about my arranged marriage. I'm doing my duty to the clan and to the Underworld, even though I could have up and run at any time. Don't you think that buys me a little goodwill?"

Sirzechs looked like Naruto had slipped a knife between his ribs.

The poleaxed expression on his father's face sent sympathetic guilty twisting through Naruto's own guts, but he couldn't stop now. "Well I'm asking for that now. I'm not blaming you for thinking like a politician – millions of lives in many different worlds are depending on it. But I'm asking you to think like a brother rather than like a Satan. Rias is your sister, don't you think that we should be trying to make her happy rather than dragging her into our little chain of martyrs? If we need another marriage alliance, there are other ways we can deal with it. Rias isn't the only other member of other clan out there. Like, come on, it's Rias."

Heavy silence hung in the air as Sirzechs visibly struggled with the appeal. Naruto knew that he was ultimately to the emotional side of his father – the side that was unfortunately typically weaker than the logical side his statesmanship depended on.

A rueful smile pulled at Sirzechs' lips, and the Satan closed his eyes with a fond sigh. "Alright, I can agree to that… Now I'm sitting here wondering when my itty bitty fishcake grew up to be so wise."

"Well ya know, I eat all my veggies and never skip breakfast. That was bound to do something."

"If only that something included 'escape from midgethood'.'

"Why is it always the short jokes? I am not that short. In fact, I'm tall for my age!"

"That's what they all say, my boy. That's what they all say."

"I think someone is looking for shit in his sock drawer."

"Just for that, you're going to be taking Ravel to Disneyworld. In fact, you could even say it's the price of my cooperation for leaving Rias alone goes."

"Wait, what?"

*

Sairaorg Bael did not consider himself a particularly cruel person. He made the conscious effort to ensure credit was given where credit was due. Everyone that approached him was given their fair chance to speak their minds regardless of rank or birth. The Bael heir firmly believed in the right of everyone to work towards achieving their own potential.

But Sairaorg was a devil, so a little blood and bone didn't bother him.

The crack of the assassin's ninth finger beneath his lazy grip was accompanied by a sob.

Kuisha's blood was speckled across Sairaorg's cheek, and the fact that his Queen lay unconscious on the floor while Coriana sewed the hole in her gut closed with sorcery made him just a little less patient than he normally was.

"I would greatly appreciate it if we could skip all the begging and crying and get to the part where you tell me who you work for." The snap of the woman's last finger left the blue haired assassin curled in a piteous ball, fragments of white peeking out from the torn skin of her knuckles.

"I don't, I don't…"

Frowning, Sairaorg pulled the hired killer's foot in his palms and snapped the first of ten toes. It was a good thing that Naruto wasn't lurking about. The Bael heir had a strong suspicion that if Naruto had seen him torture a girl for information that his cousin would be shocked and appalled.

Oh well, Naruto was still young. In a way, it was refreshing that the boy was still so innocent. He hadn't yet learnt the lessons Sairaorg had discovered over his thirty-five years of life. They may not yet be in open conflict with the ruling ideologues in their world, but they were at war with them. And if there was any truth Sairaorg could swear by, it was that there were only two kinds of people in a war. Victims, and men of violence.

One day, Naruto would be forced to experience that truth. Sairaorg just hoped it didn't come too soon.

Sairaorg snapped the last toe, peering down at the bloodied woman before shrugging and crushing the bones of both feet in his meaty fists. "I guess it doesn't really matter, you know? Going out by magic. Getting done up with a blade. Being crushed into pieces. Fast or slow. Either way, you die at the end."

"So how about it missy?" Snatching up one of the assassin's discarded stilettos, Sairaorg forced a malevolent smirk at her teary look of pain and fear. "How do you want to do this, quickly – or should I take my time?" The devil pressed the tip of the knife to the bruised skin of the woman's calf, and begun to painstakingly flay.

"Okay!" the pained shriek filled the air, halting the progress of Sairaorg's torture, though the Bael heir didn't remove the blade. "Okay, okay! I'll tell you, just please don't hurt me anymore."

Cocking his head at the flood of sobbing, Sairaorg shrugged and let the bloody leg slip from his grip. "Sure. Tell me what I want and I won't hurt you anymore."

"I wasn't in charge." The assassin clarified in a pleading tone. "I didn't choose the job. I just took orders from the boss. No one said anything about it outright, just rumors."

Rising to his feet, Sairaorg cocked a bushy brow as his strode around the woman's bleeding form. The faint light of Coriana's magic winked out in the corner of his eye as Kuisha's healing finished. "Go on."

"Nina told me that it was the Great King that paid for the hit. That's all I know! Please believe me!"

"Alright." The Bael heir stopped by her head, eying the blood matted into blue strands with a vague look of interest. "I believe you."

Then he stepped forward, pressing a heel down into the assassin's neck. Cartilage and flesh gave way with a pop and a squish, merciful death visiting the tortured woman from the sole of Sairaorg's boot.

Ignoring the smell of feces and urine that filled the air as the corpse nervelessly voided in death, Sairaorg absently ran a hand over the blood streaked surface of his face. Gore from his palms further smeared into his skin, making the young man wrinkle his nose in disgust.

"I know you must be a little tired, but do you think you and Misteeta would be able to clear this mess up?"

Coriana blankly considered the mess of bodies and blood that covered the floor and walls of Sairaorg's bedroom. "Yes, I suppose. Your pajamas are ruined though."

"Eh, you win some, you lose some."

Peeling the gore soaked nightclothes off his body, Sairaorg tossed them in a heap and plodded past his Bishop with no concern for his nudity. He needed a shower, and he doubted that his father had a hired knife waiting in the bathroom for him.

That the current Great King Bael had decided to send assassins after his son was no great shocker. To be honest, Sairaorg had expected it before now. It was easy to dismiss a powerless son as a shame, but when that shameful son came back and become the heir by strength, boats were rocked.

Plus there was the whole plotting a revolution against the governing ideology concern.

The only real question was if the assassination attempt was motivated by trying to get rid of an heir without the Bael clan Power of Destruction, or was it an attempt to stifle Sairaorg's infant political movement? If it was the second, Naruto and Sona may be in danger as well.

Or perhaps not. His father might be legally speaking the highest ranking devil in the Underworld, but even the Great King would hesitate before starting a clan war against at least one other clan and at least one of the Satans.

In the end, it likely didn't matter what his father's motive was, since for the foreseeable future the only viable target in either scenario was Sairaorg himself.

Still, Sona and Naruto would want to know.

Preferably without the mention of grisly interrogation.