Author's Note: This is my first time, so please be gentle and leave a lot of reviews!

Disclaimer: I don't own either Naruto or High School DxD.

Ninja in a Strange World

Chapter 1: Naruto Uzumaki!

This world is fragile. Delicate. Subject to the whims of the powerful. Isn't that every world, though?

He raised his hands to the sky, rolling a pebble between his fingers. It felt cool against his digits, a result of years of weathering and erosion.

He squeezed. Before his eyes, it crumbled into dust that was carried away on the back of the wind.

I don't belong here.

Are you going to descend into the depths of teenage angst again? Because you know I'm going to start describing the many, many attempts at your conception again.

Fuck off, Kurama. Uzumaki Naruto scowled, even as the pall around him was lifted. After so many years together, the last of which they'd spent as friends and partners, the nine-tailed fox inside him knew exactly how to deal with him.

Ooh, 'fuck off!' However am I ever going to deal with the pain your words bring me, Naruto? How will I ever be able to rebut such a marvellous insult, the very pinnacle of both creativity and abuse?

It didn't mean that the beast couldn't be a raging annoyance sometimes.

Thankfully, his Shadow Clone Jutsu chose that moment to dispel. He didn't feel like losing another war of words with the ancient demon.

Four members, three girls and a boy. Leader is the redhead behind the desk, even though both men seem to shy away from the brunette. Brunette, on the other hand, is jealous of the leader, even though she doesn't let it show. Both are firm friends.

"That explains nothing about their strange power, though," Naruto muttered, running his hand through his hair. "Only one of them shows hints of chakra, but not one of them have a chakra system."

You're going to be late, you little fool, Kurama grumbled. You're never going to keep up a profit if you don't make your deliveries within time.

Thus spurred into action, Naruto quickly picked up the container on the ground next to him.

"Ramen delivery!" he announced loudly, his ears picking up the sound of grating and hurriedly shuffled papers. Counting to five in his head, he pushed open the door and found him staring at the inside of a room his clone had already been staking out for the past ten minutes, hidden away by the power of his Sage Mode. The blackboard on his right had obviously just been flipped, but he carefully kept his eyes on the target.

Walking up to the girl, he bowed and held out his package. "Four bowls of ramen, two pork, a chicken and a miso, for the president of the Occult Research Club! That will be twenty-nine hundred yen, please!"

Absolute silence followed his words, before it was broken by the sound of low giggling. Naruto looked up to find the dark-haired girl hiding a smile behind her sleeves.

"You must be mistaken, Mr. Delivery Man. I am but the Vice-President, and this young lady –" she gestured to the redhead, who gave him a blank look, "is our leader."

"Ara?" Naruto faked confusion as he scratched his cheek. "But in the manga, isn't the most beautiful girl always the leader of the club?"

There! For a second, the redhead had let her powers slip.

Clever. If any person could annoy an enemy into showing their hand, it would be you.

"Ufufufufu~!" The brunette dissolved into another round of low laughter. Naruto joined in with fake embarrassment, enjoying the not-unpleasant sound of her voice. "You flatter me, Mr. Delivery Man," she said. "Surely you do not mean to compare my meagre looks to the radiance of my President?"

"Akeno, that's enough," the redhead cut in sharply. "You can set the food there," she addressed Naruto. "Here's your money, you can keep the change."

Naruto sketched another bow in her direction and did as told, thanking her for the change. The girl refused to meet his eyes, only replying with a stilted nod. Naruto took it in his stride, masking his amusement.

"Akeno!" He wasn't quite done yet. "I am glad to have made your acquaintance today! Your name is just as beautiful as you are." He flashed her a thumbs-up, grinning widely. "I hope you will enjoy the meal I have worked so hard to prepare!"

He shut the door behind him before she could reply. He waited three seconds before somebody decided to speak again.

"Ara, we should have ramen more often, don't you think, President?"

Naruto grinned, throwing his hands behind his head and strolling back down the path he'd come. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, and his life wasn't over just yet. Besides –

My goodness, that girl had some breasts on her.

Naruto laughed, startling some of the students who were still hanging around school after-hours.

That she did, Kurama, that she did. But their power, did you notice?

Not really. I mean, they look too perky for their size, but –

"Oh, go fuck yourself," Naruto muttered, ignoring Kurama's rumbling laughter. "Their powers...it feels like Shikamaru's. Dark. Strangling."

"Not evil, though," he mused. "Certainly not like yours once felt."

No chakra can ever match up to mine, Kurama boasted. But you know better. Chakra itself is never evil, be it yin or yang.

"I know, I know," Naruto examined the circle emblazoned onto his palm. It was the Sage of Six Paths' gift to him – the chakra of the man who had gifted his people ninshu and even created the moon. "I really wish I could enter that state again. That feeling...it was the closest I've ever come to Nirvana, ya know?"

It's dangerous. My father was something beyond normal man, Naruto. That sort of an understanding of chakra, of the world – it can strip you of your own humanity, if you're not careful.

"A few seconds couldn't hurt," Naruto retorted, even though he knew Kurama was speaking the truth. "It feels a bit like cheating, though," he said, concentrating chakra to his hand and feeling water from the atmosphere coalesce and cling to his hands in small droplets.

His primary affinity was wind, something that he'd mastered within a week thanks to excessive use of his shadow clones. The six paths' chakra granted him the ability to comprehend and mould every type of chakra in the universe, even allowing him to create Truth-Seeking Balls when he delved into it.

It's a shame that we can't fight together anymore, though. It's funny that you may be the most powerful human in this world, but you can't pull out your strength for fear of destroying everything around you.

"I'm working on it, you stupid fox! It's not exactly easier now that you've got your entire chakra back!"

Excuses, excuses.

Naruto ignored the fox as he walked back to his shop, taking a moment to smile at the large signpost with Whirlpool Ramen written on it in peeling yellow font. What else was it but providence that he'd found a job here?

In this world, there was nobody to hate him like they did in his childhood days. Neither did they follow him around in adoration, like after his fight with Nagato. Here he was just Naruto, the friendly ramen chef who was renowned for his cheerful disposition and unbelievably flavourful ramen.

The latter was probably because the water he used in cooking was full of his own chakra, which in turn was tainted with Kurama's own potent one. His control over the element was now almost as great as his abilities with wind, by dint of his daily cooking.

"Boy, you took your sweet time with that delivery!" The grizzly voice of his employer greeted him as he walked into the store. "What, didja stop to smell the fresh air and hear the birds sing?"

"I made it in time, you old fart!" Naruto shot back, thumping his fist against his chest. "So keep your trap shut and take the money, and the tip's mine!"

"Yours? Yours? That'll go into the money you owe me for your clothes, you stupid brat! Would ye rather I take them back and let you walk around naked?"

"Bah, maybe that'd help bring some more customers to the store! Did you forget to take a bath today, or did you want to garnish the food with your sweat again?"

"Why you – " Naruto dodged the ladle that was swung his way and quickly put his apron on, walking to the back of the store and falling into the newly familiar rhythm of chopping ingredients and preparing the sauces. Once his control was good enough, he'd start using wind instead of knives.

His mind, however, was on the strange energy he'd felt from the group he'd just delivered to. Normally, it was one of his clones that went out on runs, but he'd been keeping tab on several students for a couple of months.

As he waited for the broth to come to a boil, he reached into the pouch on his back and pulled out a small scroll. A small stab of chakra unsealed the item hidden within.

A single black feather emerged, almost as long as his hand from his palm to the tip of his longest finger. It was the only key he had to the mystery surrounding his arrival in this world.

He'd sealed himself away with Kaguya to save the world, but everything had gone massively, massively wrong. He'd woken up with blurry memories, and an inexplicable understanding of the world and people around him. The only thing he'd found, however, was the feather he was currently staring at.

That had been exactly twelve months ago. It had been a year, and he was no closer to returning to his real home.

Naruto sighed deeply, creating another clone to take over for him. Quiter than a whisper, he vaulted out of the window and then jumped his way to the roof, slumping against the back of the board. For once, Kurama was silent as well.

Dusk was creeping its way over the world, with the evening nipping at it heels. The world around him was coloured a medley of orange and deep reds that would have delighted him in different circumstances, but Naruto could only imagine the glowing faces of the Hokage Mountain, and his burning desire to have his own face their one day.

"I'm not going back, am I, Kurama?" he said, his voice so quiet that only someone who was a part of his very soul could hear.

Naruto...you've never been one to give up.

"Shut up, Kurama. There's no Sasuke to open any dimensions for me to jump through, and my Fuinjutsu is so bad that nearly every fucking seal I make ends up an exploding tag. And we both know the real reason why I'm stuck here for good – "

You don't know for certain.

Naruto tapped the circle on his palm. "Don't bluff somebody who holds all the cards, fox. How many years do you thinks it's been? Fifty? Sixty? Do you think they even think of me anymore?"

Don't be stupid – you can't rely on gut instinct for something like this. Naruto only smiled bitterly, for he knew that the fox was denying what they both knew.

Do you still remember me? He closed his eyes, not daring to verbalize that thought. If he concentrated, he could still feel the phantom touch of her tiny hand in his, and the fire in her white eyes.

"Do you still remember our ninja way, Hinata?" He straightened his back, examining his giant shadow against the canvas. "The guts to never give up, the will to carry on even when everybody says you can't?"

He clenched his fist. "The will to be strong? I'm never going to give up, y'know? Sure, it hurts that I'm stuck here, but I know we're going to meet again one day! And you better have a great story to tell me, you hear?!" He was yelling by the time he finished, tears streaking down his face, his fists shaking at the heavens. "You better have fulfilled your dreams and carried on without me! Because now I'm going to do the same, and I'm going to find happiness! So you gotta find yours as well!"

For a moment, he imagined shy, upturned lips, and pale pink cheeks. "We'll meet again," he said firmly. "That's the promise of a lifetime."

The sound of clapping shattered the moment. "Bravo, bravo. That was quite a display." Instantly on guard, he turned around to find himself facing a scantily-clad woman, with a smirk on her face and –

"The hell?" Naruto forced his sluggish chakra into motion, and Kurama instantly began accumulating natural energy. The woman had dark, black wings coming out of her back, hovering over the edge of the building. "What the hell are you?"

"I'm your death, babe." There was a flash of light, and Naruto leapt to the side as something whizzed past him, embedding itself into the floor. He turned to find a glowing, humming spear embedded through the cement, before he was forced to dodge another.

She's making these herself, out of pure energy. It's almost like the Rasengan, but she's giving it shape.

Naruto flipped an empty basket her way, enough to catch her off guard, and leapt at her. In the blink of an eye, he was in front of her, driving his fist solidly into her stomach. He heard the sharp exhale of her breath before she was sent spiralling away.

"That felt good," he muttered, leaping over rooftops to get as far away from civilization as he could. The woods behind the Academy would serve nicely as a spot for their showdown. He twirled sharply to dodge another spear – didn't she have other attacks? – before he saw the dense green in the distance. The woman – bird – thing –was definitely durable, considering that she was still mobile after his attack.

He jumped clean over the high wall and into the embrace of the trees, a rush of nostalgia invigorating his system. He may have not had a serious opponent in ages, but hidden in the leaves, there was nobody who could beat him.

She arrived a moment later, but was immediately assaulted by a clone and send rocketing back down to earth. She landed heavily, the ground fissuring under her body.

He channelled chakra to his feet, shooting forward faster than the normal eye could see. The earth beneath his foot exploded out, a signal of how potent his power was in this world, and then he was on top of her, his hands around her throat and his weight on her midriff.

His heart was pounding, his blood singing – Naruto couldn't fight the grin breaking out on his face. She flinched, and struggled against him, but he was careful to hold her hands down and above her head.

"Now, bird-lady. Let's talk."

"I'm not saying anything!" she snarled, squirming under him. She might as well have been trapped underneath a boulder for all the good it did her.

"Oh?" Naruto commented lightly. "I don't think you'll have much choice."

He flipped away before she could reply, dodging another of the energy spears. A man appeared next to her, standing guard while she got to her feet.

"Why did it have to be a person in a trenchcoat?" In Naruto's experience, the people who wore them on a battlefield were generally maniacs of the highest order. His hypothesis was proven correct when the man smirked and formed two energy blades in his hand, before charging at Naruto –

Who dodged to the side and smacked him away like a fly. Ok, so not much of a maniac.

"Is that really the best you can do?" Naruto asked, a bit disappointed despite the situation. The man was no better than a rookie ninja.

The man took the bait – with a roar, he charged at Naruto, considerably faster this time. Naruto waited until the last second before weaving into motion, by which time his opponent was moving too fast to change his tracks. He tutted – these people were really terrible martial artists. A solid kick to the neck sent the man crashing to the ground, and a substituted clone took the woman's light spear to the chest.

She smirked as the clone hunched over, but Naruto didn't stop to savour the look of shock on her face before appearing behind her. One quick chop and she was permanently down for the count, leaving Naruto to deal with the man next.

He turned around, but his other assailant was gone, vanished into thin air. Naruto quickly made a couple of clones in case he was suppressing his energy, sending them out to sweep the area.

He leaned over and checked her pulse, half-expecting not to find it in the proper position. Her strange wings were now gone, but Naruto had seen enough to know that they were the same kind as the one he'd found on himself.

A clone dispelled. The four members of the Occult Research Club were closing in on their location, fast. Curious and curiouser.

He grabbed the woman before vanishing in a quick shunshin, moving in small leaps until he was in his tiny apartment, right at the west end of town.

With the absence of ropes, he used the last of his ninja wire to tie her up, mourning the loss of another piece of his equipment. He was careful to keep her hands tightly locked together to stop her from making any more of those spears.

His clone's memory told him that she was using Yin-Yang release of some sort, for those spears were made of highly concentrated Yang energy, poisoned with some Yin. He hesitated to call it chakra, because the composition of spiritual and physical energy was all off.

He ran his hands over her body to check for any internal injuries, channelling a sliver of Hagoromo's chakra when he found a bruised rib. It had the added effect of waking her up to the sight of Naruto standing over her, pressing a sharp implement at her throat.

She lowered her dark eyes hesitantly.

"Is that a chopstick?" she asked, mildly incredulous.

"I've killed people with far less," Naruto replied conversationally, adding a pleasant smile for further effect. It paid off. She paled dramatically, swallowing against the point of the bamboo stick.

"What are you?" she asked. "You have no magical or demonic power, so how were you able to beat me so easily?"

I'll show her demonic power, alright.

Not while I'm working, Kurama, Naruto chastised.

"That's funny," Naruto replied. "Because I was wondering the same thing. What exactly are you, and why do you have wings?"

The woman remained stubbornly silent.

Naruto gave a gusty sigh. "This is going nowhere. If you haven't noticed, you're completely at my mercy right now, so it's best you begin talking."

"Or what?" she sneered. "You going to kill me? You don't look the type, blondie. My friends are going to be here soon, and you'll be dead before the night is out."

Naruto grinned. "See, you're right. I really don't like killing. But I know your type as well, lady. Your 'friends'," he emphasized the word heavily, "have already left you to die. They're not coming for you anytime soon."

A flash of fear. "My name is Raynare," she muttered. "I'm a Fallen Angel."

"See?" Naruto asked mock happily. "Now we're getting somewhere!" He tossed the chopstick and sat down cross-legged opposite her. "Now, my dear Raynare, what exactly is a Fallen Angel, and why does one want to kill me?"

"We're angels who left Heaven years ago, and the children of their matings with humans," she said. "One of the three great factions, along with the Angels and the Devils. I was asked to watch over some people in this town, and you were one of them."

"What?" Naruto didn't bother to hide his puzzlement, but completely ignored her question. "And so you decided I was better off dead? And this is looking past the fact that you're speaking absolute nonsense to begin with?"

She scowled. "It's obvious that you have a Sacred Gear within you, otherwise Azazel wouldn't be interested in you." Naruto noted that name down for later. "I decided to take you down before you could become a threat to us."

Naruto was starting to feel the beginnings of a headache pounding at his temples. "Hold on," he said. "None of this is making sense. I'd send you to the hospital if I hadn't seen your wings and weird spears myself."

Raynare chose not to answer him.

"Hold on," something struck Naruto, "the other people you mentioned. Are you going to kill them as well?"

Raynare grinned, something that looked strangely ugly on her fair face. "Just the one, actually, and my colleague should be giving him a very happy ending to a date right now – "

Naruto's fist shot past her and through the wall next to her head, driving the breath out of her lungs in shock. "I may not be the type to kill people, but I got nothing against beating them within an inch of their life. Tell me where they are and what they plan to do, now. Now." He repeated, allowing a bit of Kurama's chakra to leak into him. The floorboards under him cracked from the pressure of his power, and she couldn't stop the little scream that escaped her throat.

Raynare began talking.

We were too late.

The world around him felt out of focus. Naruto could only see the falling figure of a dark-haired boy, his hands clutching ineffectively at the spear of light that had punched right through his chest.

I could've stopped this. Naruto had never loathed himself as much as he did right then. I had the power, Kurama, and I could have stopped this.

You didn't have the knowledge, Naruto. Don't be an idiot –

You can sense evil emotions, Kurama. We could've been here before he could have even been in any danger!

Don't be a fool! Kurama roared. You think you could use that power every moment and not go insane? Every person around you has a dark side to them, Naruto! You think you could feel the intent of a million people and not go mad? The Zetsu were another matter, this is no battlefield –

"Stop – " Naruto mumbled, as the ground under Issei suddenly glowed a deep crimson. "There's something going on. Hide me."

Kurama sent a shot of Nature Chakra through his system, immediately masking him from every sixth sense possible. Naruto was careful not to let any of it escape his tenketsu, lest he blow up the tree he was hiding in and give up his position. He stood stock still as the Occult Research Club appeared out of nowhere, gathering around the fallen boy.

Naruto watched in shock as something that was supposed to be impossible happened before his eyes. Even when Nagato had brought back the people of Konoha, he had sacrificed himself in exchange for their lives. The redhead just casually reincarnated a person whose life had obviously left the plane of the living, and Naruto knew that she had none of the near-divine power that Jiraiya's fellow student possessed.

They disappeared just as strangely as they had arrived, by way of a strange glowing seal that sprung out of nowhere on the ground. Naruto waited for ten minutes, his heart beating impossibly fast, before he landed on the ground.

Overwhelming Yin energy hung around the park like a veil, the same power he'd sensed in the redhead earlier that day. Within the space of hours, Naruto had ended up with a person after his life and the knowledge of eldritch beings that walked this seemingly peaceful world. His past experience told him that life was going to get very complicated very, very fast.

So why couldn't he keep the grin off his face?