Capítulo 21: Chapter - 21
"Show me."
Sasuke's lips thinned at the command from the Princess of Destruction. It was exactly what he'd agreed to, but that didn't make the sting of taking orders any less needling to his pride. Huffing slightly through his nostrils, the Uchiha held up his hand and dug deep into his reserves of power.
Lightning flickered, at first silently but building to a dull cacophony of chirping as Sasuke poured more magical energy into the Chidori. Reproducing his signature jutsu was easier with the extra strength the Evil Pieces gave him, but the drain was still noticeable.
Red light began to seep from Rias' skin, curling like mist around her arm as she clicked her tongue in thought. Seizing Sasuke's Chidori shrouded hand despite her Pawn's instinctive jerk away, she ran a considering thumb across the skin of Sasuke's palm.
"It is not terrible, for someone that was self-taught." Rias declared after a moment, loosening her grip and crossing her arms under her chest. There was not a spot of singing on a single finger; her Power of Destruction easily shielding her against the weaker crackling of Sasuke's magic.
"What else can you do?"
"I can shape it." Sasuke forced the Chidori tighter, bounding the lighting until a cold white beam shot out and gouged a shallow trench in the turf of Rias' lawn. "Some." He added grudgingly. The attempts at recreating the Chidori Eisou were too unstable to be used in combat.
Red brows dipped as Rias considered the rent in the soil. "No other spells? What sort of emotions are you feeling? How are you casting your spells?"
Gritting his teeth in a mixture of annoyance and self-disgust, Sasuke extinguished the Chidori. "That's the only spell." Without a formal instructor in magic Sasuke had no idea how to begin even the most basic spell of devil magic. Ophis had given him a few pointers about feeling the energy inside him and moving it about, but she hadn't fed him much in the way of theory.
The Chidori was instinctive – even if magical energy was not precisely like chakra, it was close enough that he could muddle through generating the lightning and shaping it without any information outside of Ophis' vague clues. Anything else he had no idea how to even approach. "I'm not feeling emotion. I'm calm. I just summon the right amount of energy, convert it, and release it."
A brief expression of shock crossed his mistress' face before Rias barked a short laugh and smiled. "A true beginner I see. You are casting magic like you're a human. Devil magic – or angel magic for that matter – is not about calculation. It's more than just theoretically moving energy around with a calm state of mind. It requires a certain passion."
Calling forth a crimson whip of power, Rias languidly flicked it and dug a trench wider and deeper in the ground than Sasuke's Chidori Eisou. "We are creatures of emotion, and to make your magic truly respond to you, you need to feel. Look inside yourself and decide what you want in your life. Admit it, and refuse to be ashamed of it. Your magic is nothing but a tool to achieve your goals. As long as you don't suppress your ambition, it will respond to you. The greater the strength of your desires, the greater your spells will become."
Desire. Sasuke chewed the inside of his cheek, dark eyes dropping to stare at the gouges their spells had torn. What did he desire for himself? The endless chase of his youth for revenge and power, had that been what Sasuke had wanted or what he felt was his duty to accomplish?
After Naruto had overcome him during the Mugen Tsukuyomi, Sasuke had wandered the world for years in search of peace and atonement. Yet had that search come from sincere recognition that he was at fault, or was it just masochism cultivated by the recognition of his defeat? And then he'd come to the new world and decided that he was going to establish the Uchiha Clan as a name worthy of respect – did he actually want to rebuild the clan, or was it just a lingering sense of filial obligation?
"Take your time, Sasuke-kun". Rias reached out to squeeze the Uchiha's shoulder. "It's not an answer you can find in a moment. It may even take years. The only one who can decide is you. In the meantime, we'll start with some basic invocations." With a final pat, the crimson haired princess left Sasuke standing alone in the artificial sunlight.
*
Perspiration ran down Naruto's flanks as he gasped for breath. The blunted bastard sword slipped from his sweat slicked cramping fingers to clatter to the dirt with a puff of dust.
Okita Souji stared down at the Gremory heir with a blank expression. The keen eyes of one of the best swordsmen in the Underworld took in the exhaustion trembling through Naruto's muscles. "That's enough." Souji declared, sheathing the tourney sword and setting it back on one of the weapon racks that hung from the walls.
As soon as the weapon was put away, the Knight's expression rippled. Stern sensei was replaced with grinning uncle, and Souji ruffled Naruto's red strands mockingly. "Better luck next time kiddo."
"You bet your ass." Naruto huffed, watching as his father's Knight swaggered out of the Gremory Family main house's dueling arena.
Groaning at the twinge in his back, Naruto painfully bent down to reclaim his weapon. Every muscle practically screamed with discomfort. Another day, another beat down.
The beatings were worth it though. Naruto had never considered himself much of a swordsman, and the chaotic fighting style of his first life was useless without all the Kage Bunshin to plug the holes in his defences or make up for his weaker offense.
Even if Naruto was a magical prodigy with the Bael family Power of Destruction, he'd had to rebuild his entire taijutsu arsenal from scratch. It wasn't easy to retrain his instincts – even half a decade after he'd convinced his parents to focus on nurture his physical skills rather than magical ones, the redhead still found himself slipping into old forms. It didn't happen nearly as often as it had when Naruto had started taking instruction from his father's Knight, but once in a blue moon he faltered. Old habits died hard, and shinobi habits died harder than most.
Stumbling like that was unacceptable. In the Underworld, the 72 Pillars had so much wealth that gathering more of it was irrelevant. The only way to move upward in society was through strength and through connections. As the son of a Satan and the cousin of the heir to the King of Hell, Naruto had connections galore. But connections alone wouldn't make him part of the next generation of Satans.
Naruto had to be strong – stronger than natural talent with the Power of Destruction would make him. Being the Duke Gremory would give him equal voting power in the Senate as a Satan, but the buck stopped there. The four Satans formed the military command of any war effort in Gehenna, and despite having less voting power than the Princes, the Archduke, or the Great King, the Satan title itself had prestige that was only second to the Great King.
The Satans all ruled over the clan territories that had once belonged to the old Satans' clans, so it wasn't like he was going to have to give up lording over a domain if he become a Satan either. Naruto needed the authority that came with the prestigious office.
He wouldn't be able to support Sairaorg otherwise.
At first it had been strange to willingly follow someone else. All through his first life Naruto had been a trailblazer. He'd had to make his own path, and motivate others to follow him down that road. It was the only way for him to survive without falling into despair, and the only way to achieve the dreams he'd inherited from Jiraiya-sensei and his original parents. Even after he'd been pulled into a new life, Naruto had faith in those he'd inspired to keep moving forward. Sasuke could be almost profound once in a blue moon, and he'd been right about leaving Konoha and its future in his comrades' hands.
Gehenna was both more evil but more idealistic than the Elemental Nations had been. There was a much larger group of people revolting against the system than there had been back home. But the sins of the people in Sheol were far more egregious. People may have murdered each other for money and revenge in his first life, but at least outright slavery and tyranny wasn't part of the social fabric.
The Elemental Nations had no counterpart to someone like Diodora Astaroth, who corrupted and raped maidens to the laughter of his peers. Such perversion may have existed, but it wasn't understood to be part of high society.
Luckily he'd been raised in a household that didn't tolerate such things. Sirzechs had been instrumental in overthrowing the old Satans and reforming the government of Sheol. If the current Underworld Naruto lived in was corrupt, at the least it was no longer downright evil. Consumption of human souls was illegal, and the commoners were free of serfdom.
Perhaps it was the human in him showing through, but Naruto couldn't be satisfied with that. And he wouldn't have to be. Change was coming. There were devils – old and young – that wouldn't tolerate the current system. It wasn't Naruto against the world once more.
How had his cousin put it? 'An Underworld where any Devil regardless of background can make their dream come true?'
A world like that was a world worth fighting for. A world like that might even be worth dying for.
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