A/N: Alright ladies and gentlmen, good news and bad news. Good news first. I'm on the mend. Even better, My grandpa's all but recovered from congestive heart failure, and I managed to sell my old house, though all that money went to more bills. Ugh. Anywho, I've finished moving my things and am now a proud resident of East Berlin, Pennsylvania! Alas I'm now jobless, and the bills are piling up because of my health. Fun, right? But enough about this.

As I'm sure you've all noticed, I've been on a bit of a Sekirei binge as of late. I've rewatched both seasons twice and read the manga to its latest chapter. And I realized something. I wanted to try my hand at a slower-paced Sekirei fic. My other three are just fine, but I wanted to make this more realistic. More character time, instead of setting him on a path and making him run it, he'll walk before he remembers what it means to sprin.

On that note, I should warn you. This Naruto makes the one in Counting Stars look like a tame little puppy. Why, you ask? Because unlike his Counting counterpart there's very little left to redeem here and its going to take some time. Because this Naruto isn't just old; he's batshit INSANE. You'll soon see why.

Anywho, I managed to put this up here at points between job hunting. A bunch of you have been clamoring for a NarutoxHaihane fic so...

...I give you Wings of Madness!

"Madness is like gravity. All it takes is a little push...

~?!

To Know a Madman

By day Shinto Teito was bright city, filled with life and sunlight.

At night, however, when all life had withdrawn to its safe little dens, away from prying eyes, the fear came to obscure. Things once seen as safe in daylight were unsafe in the twilight. Dangerous. Towering skyscrapers became ghostly, looming silhouettes. Streets seemed to grow more narrow in the fog, every thoroughfare becoming a lonely dangerous alleyway. Even businessmen and gangsters were apprehensive about going out at night-it took a strong heart to brave the foreboding, muderous silence.

The dark city at night was a place for the desperate and the foolhardy; it was a land of swirling mystery and strange beings.

Strange beings like me, Naruto thought. He stood upon the ledge that ran around the lip of the flat-roofed tower. Shadowed buildings loomed in the night below him, and these evening mists made everything seem to shift and move in the darkness. Weak lights peeked out from the occasional window, but the tiny beads of illumination were huddled, frightened things. So were those within he thought to himself, cowards who daren't venture a step out of their compartmentalized little lives.

A cool breeze skipped across the rooftop, shifting the haze, brushing against Naruto's mist-wetted, whiskered cheek like an exhaled breath. In his days past -before everything had gone so wrong- he had always sought out a rooftop on the evening after finishing the day's reports, wishing to overlook the village that he oversaw. He didn't realize he was observing his old custom this night until he glanced to the side-expecting Sakura to be there next to him as she always had been. His darling wife.

Instead, he found only the empty air. Lonely. Silent. The mists had replaced her. Poorly.

This wasn't his village. Many years ago it had been. Perhaps someday, it would be again. But not tonight.

"It's a fabulous sight, isn't it, Naruto-kun?!"

He sighed and turned at the sound of that voice, the wind tugging at his long bangs. Minaka stood behind him on the rooftop of the MBI building, grinning without a care in the world. His white garb was a glaring sight against the backdrop of the city lights. If the man was at all apprehensive to be standing at such a height, he certainly wasn't showing it. One did not get far in the cuthroat world of bussiness today without learning to stomach their own fears.

Naruto had learned to do far more than "stomach" them. He had gone among them so often during the last few years, toed the thin line between insanity and terrror so many times, that he was beginning to feel more comfortable at night, with the darkness's obscuring embrace than he did at day. That didn't change the fact that he was still a creature of the light, despite these bloodstained hands. He couldn't ignore the needs of his body anymore than he could avoid avoid the daylight.

"Come now," The founder of MBI continued, "do you have to stand on the ledge and sulk like that? I know my plans might be a bit crazy," and that definitely earned him a snort, "but I'd rather not have them end with you splattered across the cobblestones down there just because you were lost your footing. We've put a sizeable investment into you, after all! Besides, Karasuba-chan would be crushed should something happened to her favorite sparring partner."

Naruto almost smiled, thinking of his bedmate in the Discipline Squad. Then he frowned. Bastard still doesn't think of me as an immortal, he thought. It will take some getting used to for all of them, I suppose.

Years before, centuries really, he had become the most infamous Kage to ever grace the elemental nations, and he had done it without ever becoming a chunin. Sakura had been a jonin by then, but he...had just been a regular shinobi. The Biju-even Kurama god bless the kitsune's misbegotten soul-were gone, Sasuke was back in the village, and Uchiha Madara was dead and gone for good this time. Together-with her at his side, he had founded a peace that lasted for eons to come. The man who ended the Fourth Shinobi War and united all the nations under one banner. Tough to top that one. There was just one problem.

He'd never died.

Everyone went right on aging without him. Growing old and dying. Watching Sakura and his five children wither away and then their children, and their grandchildren and so-on and so-forth until he woke up one day to discover that the impossible had happened. He was the last of his kind. Most, if not all of his descendants were dead and gone and the world had moved on without him. The one's he had tracked down weren't even the tiniest bit interested in learning what he had to offer, they thought he was just some kind of freak. So building up another Shinobi nation, as he'd soon learned, was out. Before he realized it...

He was alone. And with loneliness came the madness.

For those first few fateful years he had been in an utter funk about the whole damn thing as he tried to puzzle it out; how did one man stay trapped in eternal limbo with nothing but his own massive chakra reserves and the Uzumaki blood in his veins? He'd heard of members of his clan living for centuries, but this was different. Physically, he didn't look a day over twenty. In reality he'd probably breached a thousand a couple of centuries back. There was just no change. No voices in his head to tell him what was going on, no curse laid upon him, he simply retained all of his youthful vitality and power as the years wore on, reaching a godlike plateau in terms of skill and power, eventually unlocking the Rinnegan as the years wore on. Sakura would never see what he would do with his new eyes.

But the world had.

In the end he'd become something of a recluse, really. Kept to his roots, mostly, when it suited him. Traveled a bit, stopped a few wars, killed a couple of asshats -Hitler being right up there with the worst of them- but he almost always returned to Japan. Or rather, Japan almost always returned to him. There was just something about his home that still fascinated him though, numb as he might've become. He watched and marveled as the years progressed and technology advanced, quietly mourned at the increasingly lethal ways mankind used to kill one another. In the end, he'd just grown tired of it all. No matter how many villains he'd killed, he couldn't rid the world of war, or sickness or corruption, no matter how hard he tried.

He'd nearly given up after Hiroshima.

When mankind could obliterate entire cities with the push of a button, what need did they have for him? He could manage well enough with his own lack of sanity, thank-you-very much.

That was without the burden of relationships weighing him down. Oh, he'd had bodies to keep him warm at night, but nothing real. Not since the Blitz. Not since she died in a hail of gunfire. There was a reason he didn't emotionally invest himself in anything regarding the fairer sex, or at least that had been his motto until two decades ago. Yes, this was what had called him back to Japan, on this evening. Not this time. He'd spent the last twenty years of his not-inconsiderable life preparing for this, working towards a singular goal, readying everything for this moment.

The Sekirei Plan.

It was only natural that MBI had eventually sought him out; one didn't stay under the radar long with a rap-sheet like this. Not unless you had friends. Very powerful friends. There were only so many aliases one man could think up or produce without making a mistake, a flaw that would result in the being uncovered and ultimately force them to go to ground for the next decade or so. He'd been at this art longer than most though; indeed it could even be said that he'd been the one to invent it. But somehow, someway, they'd found him.

When Minaka had approached him some twenty years ago, looking to acquire his unique "skillset" as it were, he'd flat-out rejected him. He wanted nothing to do with guarding some damn island. That had been before he'd seen what said island contained, the little birds there that needed protecting. He'd been a part of things ever since. The moment he'd laid eyes on those one hundred and eight souls he knew he'd found a purpose in keeping them safe, in ensuring that they were not made into the tools Minaka had wanted them to be.

Since that first fateful day, so very long ago, he had done much. He had stood back to back with the first five Sekirei and helped them repulse entire armies; he had singlehandedly prevented the kidnapping of two little birds and butchered the squad of blithering idiots who thought they could take them and in doing so, ensured that one little bird never dissappeared. It was a subtle change, so simply, yet his eyes remained fixed firmly not upon No. 08, who continued to espouse the power of love but the Jinki; they were the key to everything.

Including his restoration of all that he'd lost. And if he risked genocide by playing the game, that only made it all the more exciting.

"So?" he asked at last, realizing he'd been ignoring the man who signed his checks. "I know this is redundant, but you're going to say it again, aren't you?"

"But of course!" Minaka laughed, launching into a tirade without any further provocations needed. "Listen well, Naruto-kun! I'm going to tell you a story from long ago. In ancient times, the Gods lived in a land known as Takamagahara. It is said that the stone ship of the Gods once landed here, carrying their treasures. However, that is just an old story. It is merely a tired, ancient myth, unrecorded even in the Nihon Shoki and the Kojiki...

The blond sighed. "Here he goes...I never understand him when he's like this...

"But the new legend begins now!" The whitehead continued merrily, dauntless in the face of the assassin's skepticism. "One hundred and eight Sekirei have been dispersed! They must fight for the Ashikabi which they have chosen for themselves. The final one remaining, shall guide their Ashikabi to the heights of heaven, where he shall obtain the faith of the world! So, let the new legend begin! The beautiful tale of war! The miraculous love story! A story in which you may finally take part, my dear boy! Are you as excited as I am?!"

...as long as my little birds enjoy this, yes." a dangerous gleam entered the sapphire skies that were his eyes. "That's why I'm here, after all."

"My, so protective! You seem to have more in common with Yume-chan than you'd like to admit!"

Naruto, the only human member of the Discipline Squad-if he could even be called such given his mental state-actually cringed at those words. Yume. The one person who wouldn't leave him the hell alone, who insisted that he had the capacity to love others...despite how jaded he'd become. "Please don't tell her I said that. I'll never hear the end of it otherwise." And he wouldn't either-if she learned that he actually considered himself the respective big brother to her and all her siblings things would get real awkward for him, really fast.

"But of course!" Minaka crowed. "Your secret is safe with me!"

...you never change, do you?"

"Not at all!" He blanched only slightly when the blond withdrew a mirror from the folds of his cloak and pointed it in his direction. "Well, perhaps a little...

Minaka's hair had been black, back then. Now it was white, just like the rest of his outfit. One of the few only changes Naruto had undergone since those days had also been in terms of wardrobe. He'd taken to wearing the uniform of the Discipline Squad, cloak and all, despite the desertion of most of its many members. It was a little sad really. He was one of the few that still wore this uniform. Of the first Five Sekirei that had served as his comrades in arms, only Karasuba remained.

And he hated it.

Almost everyone had gone their separate ways after Miya-chan had left. Without No. 01 there to reign the rest of them in, their little group simply fell fell apart. Then came Matsu's failed attempt to take a Jinki and her subsuquent escape. Kazehana wandering off after he'd rejected her. Then there was Mutsu being Mutsu...sneaking away one day in the middle of the night-never to be heard from again. Naruto hadn't enjoyed the idea of his comrades wandering off like that. Of course he'd tried to stop them. Naturally, they'd resisted. And so they'd parted ways.

Violently.

Even with Yume as the de facto leader of the squad, things just weren't the same.

"Oho?" Minaka was suddenly at his elbow, grinning that infuriatingly childish grin of his. "You're blushing, Naruto-kun! That excited, are you? I haven't seen you like this since Number 01-

"Not another word!"

For the first time that evening, the genius dropped his smile. Within good reason.

Naruto refused to dwell on that disaster.

Well, perhaps the departure of Number 01 had been his fault, in a sense. Miya had fascinated him in the beginning, her cold aloofness proving irresistible to mess with. The first time he'd spoken to her she'd ripped his arm off and beat him over the head with it for some perceived slight against her; handing him his first true injury in a decade. He'd regenerated, of course, but the fact that she'd been able to get the drop on him with his guard up spoke volumes for her ability. Truly a worthy opponent, someone who piqued his interest in the Sekirei Plan even further.

Then she'd screwed it all up by falling for him five years later.

He'd liked Miya, he really had, but he just wasn't capable of loving someone like that anymore.

So instead of accepting those feelings he'd subtly encouraged Takehito to take care her instead. The young researcher obviously liked her, and he was a sore sight better than a half-crazed immortal. Everything turned out surprisingly swimmingly. For a time it had seemed the matter of Miya would be taken off his hands entirely. Then the fool had gone and gotten himself killed by that Jinki accident just as Miya was starting to forget about him. To make matters worse, Takehito wasn't even an Ashikabi so that left her unwinged as well. He had the distinct feeling that particular would be coming back to bite him on the ass sooner than he'd like.

Very soon, indeed.

Because tonight, on this night of nights, after much arguing and cajoling on Minaka's part, he was to become one of these Ashikabi. Finally. It was an event he'd been dreading and anticipating for quite some time; on a fundamental level Naruto knew he would have to play the game to keep Minaka from completely having his way, yet he also relished the idea of being able to test his abilities once more, to throw himself headfirst into the fray once more, come what may. But the idea of bonding himself to another, of opening the doors of his heart that he'd long since closed...it was almost enough to make him reconsider this course of action.

This wouldn't be a simple partnership like the one he had with Karasuba. Despite all their foreplay he'd yet to lay on hand on that wicked woman-on any woman, for that matter-outside of battle for the last two decades since joining MBI. It would be something more when he became an Ashikabi. There would be feelings there that might not be entirely his once he bonded with his Sekirei. He knew full well what the bond entailed. What would be expected of him, he wondered? How would he feel?

Time would only tell.

"Then let us begin!"

Naruto groaned as Minaka performed a sudden and about-face, spinning away from him.

"Is it too late for me to back out of this?" he griped.

"Completely!"

"Can't blame a guy for trying...

Naruto quietly allowed himself to trail after a skipping Minaka and stepped into the elevator that would return them to the innermost depths of the tower; even then the whitehead was visibly bouncing on the balls of his feet and giggling in anticipation. Tch. He twas enjoying this far too much for his liking. Nothing more was said as they began their descent; any and all attempts by his employer to strike up conversation were ruthlessly cut down one after the other. Now that he'd finallys ettled on this, he wanted to get it over with.

Ding.

Ding

He was coming.

She perked up the moment she heard that sound, her heart hammering against her chest. The sound of his footsteps were like hammers in her ear, the crooning call of his voice made her normally dispassionate visage twitch in a rare, genuine smile. A delicate hand pushed through her ashen hair, dark eyes widening a fraction of an inch as she heard the blond nearing her room. Scarlet stained her cheeks, blood pounding in her veins like the drums of a great hunt out for her blood. Ashi-no, Naruto wasn't her Ashikabi yet. Reaction or not.

Maybe this time he would be?

Clamoring up and out of her bed at the though she began to fumble in the dark, trying to make herself more presentable. There was a frenzied pace to her motions that bellied her normally slothful gait, something deep in her chest was spurring her to action and this time, it would not be denied. Somehow, someway, she knew that something was about to happen.

"Sensei...

But what?

Ding.

Naruto emerged first, stepping out before the doors even finished opening, his eyes narrowing slightly as they adjusted to the fluorescent light within the labs. This was it. He was only minutes away from becoming an-oi?! Blue eyes narrowed further still as Minaka bounded on ahead of him with a mad cackle, relegating Naruto to the role of follower once more.

"I'll need some time to ease into this." he warned, his tone sharping into that rough edge that was his wont; a subtle warning slipping between those words. Don't rush me. He wasn't about to wing Karasuba right off of the bat, he'd save that little hellion for later. Still...the more he thought about becoming an Ashikabi, the more uncomfortable he became. "One, will do." he said at last, ignoring Minaka's sudden frown, as he caught up to him. "I don't feel like dealing with a small harem right of the bat."

"Come now, Naruto-kun!" The man admonished him. "Surely can't expect to fufill your duties with only a single-

"As I said, I'll manage with one for now." he continued with a growl. "I'll wing more as the need requires; but at a later date."

"Ah, but Benitsubasa is quite smitten with you! She speaks of you all the time-

"Later."

"Erm...right," impossibly the CEO's grin returned in the face of that killing intent. "In that case, I have just the Sekirei for you!" he favored the blond with a conspirational wink behind his glasses. "Neh, lets surprise her, shall we?"

"I certainly hope so."

Indeed, there was one he wouldn't mind bonding himself to...

"Here we are!" he gestured with an exagerrate bow. Naruto hesitated only an instant before stepping inside. He felt as if those doors were opening on more than just his partner; it felt as though a brand new chapter of his life was unfolding before his very eyes.

Well, he supposed it certainly helped that he knew some of these Sekirei from firsthand experience. He was no scientist not by any means; but he had taken a vested interest in a handful of these little birds. He'd given their tuners a small sample of blood to work with during the adjustment. Some had taken to it better than others. Yume, was one such example; she'd progressed a little too well. He was convinced that their "Sekirei of Fate" possessed all of his once redeeming traits; the ability to love everyone and inspire change in others. And she was damned persistent in trying to convince him he still possessed those redeeming qualities.

If Minaka tried to make him wing her, he'd be eating out of a tube for the rest of his life!

These Sekirei were by no means his children or any such thing; he just wanted to see things through to fruition he kept telling himself. He'd trained a sizeable portion of these little birds himself, ensured that they were up to his rigid standards before Minaka released them into the city. Thus far, only half of the one hundred and eight Sekirei had been released into the city-a dry run of sorts so as to see what might happen. Naruto felt an emotion dangerously close to pride as he thought of those little birds, the ones he'd personally trained.

And then the doors were open.

"Here she is!" Minaka bowed and stepped aside. "Have at him!"

"!"

Naruto's only warning was of a movement in the dark; he very nearly prepared himself for an attack at the sudden attack. Then a pair of strong arms locked around his waist, slamming his back up against the wall in a fierce vice and holding him tight, her body pressing tight against his flush to him. Unbidden he felt his throat run dry. Hers was a face he recognized almost immediately; that ashy gray hair, bandaged body, and all too tattered kimono, none of which did her curves any justise. He knew this Sekirei. She was one of the last he'd trained. His favorite student.

"Hello..." A halting, husky voice greeted his ears, her breath warm on his face as the lights snapped on. "Naruto-sensei."

"Hai...Haihane?!"

Snick.

"Owowowow!" He hissed, cringing as a rib cracked under the force of her embrace. "Haihane! What did I tell you about your strength?!" It certainly didn't help that Minaka had essentially abandoned him to his fate.

"Oh." she blinked, stepping backward with a flush. "I...forgot."

"I swear, you and Akitsu are twins!" Naruto hissssed, gasping as she released him, frowning only slightly as the door slammed behind him. "Always acting like you are!" They each had a tendency to forget the strangest things! Thanks to his blood, the the ice-wielder had been spared the fate of a Scrap Number in this game but-wait. Wait wait wait just a damned minute! Blue eyes bulged as small, delicate hands wrapped around his, a familiar face pushing itself up against his, foreheads touching, noses brushing. Lips-LIPS?!

"Sensei, please...be mine...

'BY THE NINE!'

That thought fell away as Haihane suddenly stepped forward-her face flushed, eyes glazed. Unbidden Naruto's legs hedged a step backward in retreat. He knew on a fundamental level what she was trying to do, Naruto did, but the idea of intimacy suddenly made him...ill. When she tried to seal the deal with a kiss, he shoved her, sending the startled Sekirei stumbling backwards. Not gently.

"Stop!"

"Sensei...!"

Poor Haihane, she flinched as though she'd been struck; looking for all the world as if someone had murdered her favorite puppy. Tears brimmed in her eyes at the sudden and unexpected rejection, threatening to well up and spill over at the sligthest provocation. As if she would bolt at any instant. Naruto was suddenly overcome with the senseless and powerful urge to rush to her side; embrace the sullen Sekirei, promise everything would be alright, and kiss all those tears away. He very nearly did just that.

"S-Stop that!" He sputtered, both at himself and the sullen girl standing before him. "Stop crying, you! Aargh! Godamnit!"

By the time he realized exactly what was happening to him-what hold she had over him-it was already too late, he'd taken hold of her shoulders and pulled her close, it was already too late. Those dark orbs did nothing more than stare as he tucked her head into his chest and held on, not trusting whatever had come over him to finish the job.

"Balls." he muttered.

Haihaned cocked her head aside toward his neck, baffled.

"What...?"

Naruto had been afraid of this, dreaded it from the onset of his decision. Sekirei were creatures of emotion. He knew that. Just being near one was enough to stir up emotions in a lesser man; even he had felt a stirring or two when he'd trained Tsukiumi and the others. This was different. It was as if she were calling to him somehow, speaking to him in a language that only he knew. For all those years of not inconsiderable experience, the shinobi was stricken by her. He had no power over his body in that instant; because she was reacting to him. And he her. It didn't make any sense. A human couldn't-shouldn't-react, and yet the longer he held onto Haihane the more certain he became.

He'd spent the last twenty years-two entire decades-watching over her and her siblings, ensuring that no outside force touched them, and that they flourished into all they were meant to be. Perhaps that was when this little ash feather had first gotten her claws into him. Literally and figuratively. She'd been such a shy, quiet little thing in the beginning. It had taken months of coaxing to even get her to talk. Now, twenty years after a chance meeting in the incubation chamber...

...here they were.

Dumbfounded, he pushed a hand up under her chin and uplifted her face to his. Her shining eyes held him. Pinnioned him. Rooted him. How could that little girl have become this drop-dead gorgeous woman? When had he missed that? This close he could feel her breasts pushing up against him, his hand cradling the curve of her waist, holding her scorching skin beneath the bandages. Haihane was warm. It was such a silly thought for him to think of, but it was suddenly there, her face blotting out all else. Her voice was there too, welling up in every corner of his mind:

Naruto-sensei...

Suddenly she pushed even closer to him, her face inching towards his. He didn't stop her, in fact he found himself leaning closer to her as well...then their lips touched. Wait. What in the Nine circles was he doing?! Too late, emotion roared through him and there were no words; fear, relief...eclipsed by a bliss so powerful it nearly brought a tear to his eye, a happiness more intense than anything else he'd ever experienced. It thrust a dagger of warmth into his heart, a tiny crack forming in the walls he'd erected around himself.

Wow...

Naruto got his very first view of her wings then, silvery streamers sharp and jagged bursting to create her crest, so much like the claws she oft wielded. They hung there for a long moment, enfolding the room, hainging over them in silent pallor. And then they were gone.

"Many years to come." she whispered, taking her lips from his to nuzzle her head against his neck.

That was the start. When his strange, insane little life changed again. It was the beinning of something weird and wonderful, wicked and wild. But little did he know...

...it was also the end of everything.

A/N: And there you have it! Naruto has replaced Natsuo in a sense-never really liked him to begin with-but he's far from being MBI'S dog. Nor is he at their every beck and call, obeying their every whim. In a twisted sense he feels the only way to properly watch over the Sekirei Plan as a whole is to do so from the inside, where he can do the most good. Now bear in mind, this Naruto is powerful because he's worked his ass off training, for more than a thousand years. No Kyuubi power, no cloak, no otherwordly powers save his own chakra and the Rinnegan. No voices in his head, either!

So lets go over the changes thus far in case some of you missed the while you were reading. Here we go:

Naruto has been with MBI almost from the very beginning, hence the uniform. He has yet to wing any Sekirei save Haihane...at the moment. He'll open up gradually, but the idea of being intimate with his feelings after clamming them up for so long is a new one for him. And its going to be funny as hell given who will be a part of his strange little flock.

Akits is NOT a scrap number in this. She's out there as an active particpant in the plan. I won't say who her Ashikabi will be!

Yume is ALIVE and an active participant in the plan. Musubi still exists. Kaho still exists. Their respective personalities are still intact. Yumi is like an antithesis to Naruto at this point; she believes in love an all its power but Naruto scorns the emotion and fears it, for it brings him too much pain.

Naruto has replaced Natsuo and bears the title of "Executioner" for his bloody deeds in the past and in the defense of MBI. He is, in a sense, emotinally broken after being alive for so long. I mean really BROKEN. He's still himself, but he's taken to the path of the Ashura, preserving as many lives as he can no matter the means. He doesn't care for humanity; if he has to butcher a dozen men to save a single Sekirei he WILL. Lets make that brutally clear. It'll take a while-and a couple of girls-for him to get back to his old self, but he won't be regretting his actions anytime soon.

Miya had feelings for Naruto at one point, but because our favorire blond has temporaily forsworn all relationships, he tried to pawn her off on Takehito. That backfired. BADLY. And it will come to bite him in the ass someday.

There, I think that covers things for now!

Anywho, I worked extremely hard on this one, so I hope to hear what you think! Pairing is up in the air! YOU DECIDE! As said before, I have a vague idea who will be a part of Naruto's flock in this, but the rest its entirely up to ya'll! And on a final note, thank you to everyone offering emotional support in regard to my health woes. Its greatly appreciated! An awful lot is going to change in this story soon! Look forward to an epic prank next chapter...provided my health holds out.

So...in the Immortal Words of Atlas...

...Review...Would you Kindly? And of course, enjoy the Preivew!

(Preview!)

"You...You killed her!"

"No, that was Haihane." the blond chastised with a slight frown, his chin tilting in the direction of the lone Sekirei standing over Kuno's corpse. "I'd never harm one of my little birds. You, on the other hand, Ashikabi-kun...are a different story and in violation of your agreement. As per the terms of your contract you and your Sekirei were forbidden from leaving the Capital until the Sekirei Plan finished. You knew this. And yet you made the attempt to do so regardless." He gestured with his blade. "These are the consequences." All part of the plan of course.

"M-Murderer!"

"Oh. That stung." He'd been called far worse back in the day. Adulterer, psycopath. Backstaber. But murderer? He hadn't heard that one in awhile...

"Pffft!" The Blue Sekirei snorted, somehow finding amusement in his anger. "Murderer...hehe...

"Haihane?"

...hmm?"

"Something's on your forehead."

"Uh?"

Unthinking, she raised a hand. A hand still clad in those cruel claws.

Splurt!

"Gah! I'm bleeding!"

"Oh, that never gets old." smiling, he turned his attention back to the boy crouched before him. "Now for you...

"What're you going to do?" Haruka gulped and turned his head aside as that grave gaze settled upon him; finally realizing the mess he'd landed in. "Lock me up and throw away the key?"

"No." Naruto said softly. "I'm afraid that's no longer an option for you. Spare the rod and spoil the child, as they say."

...what?"

The immortal shinobi scratched the back of his head with a hand, ruefully regarding the aimless Ashikabi he'd come to apprehend. Poor little shit had pissed himself, after Haihane took out his Sekirei. And now, he was going to die. Shigi Haruka. No one special by any means, just another kid in over his head. Someone who wanted to get out because he didn't think he was strong enough. If he wanted to run, that was fine. But to take his Sekirei with him? He couldn't let such a thing stand. Couldn't let these escapist ideas spread to the rest of the capital and inflame the already panicky masses.

After all, how could he watch over these little birds when they were scattered across the globe? Where the world could sink their claws into them? Corrupt them? Kill them? Oh no no no, that just wouldn't do. They were safer here, in Shinto Teito. In Minaka's grasp yes, but also where he could keep an eye on them. No, he had to pull this problem-this weed-out by the roots. And there was only one way to do it.

It was a twisted logic yes, but it was his logic. Not Minaka's. And that, made all the difference in the world.

"Look, kid," he continued, "I'm not a monster. I'm a shinobi. I don't just randomnly kill people. I kill people when they misbehave. Although," An almost wistful expression began to pull at his whiskered visage, "E're oft to blame, and this is too much proved, that with devotion's visage and pious action we do sugar on the devil himself."

Haruka gulped.

"What does that mean?

Naruto sighed and closed his eyes, palming a kunai and hoisting it high. "Spare the rod."

"No! Don-

And his weapon descended mercilessly.

R&R! =D