Naruto stood on the edge of a roof, arms crossed as he looked out.
The view was filled with buildings roughly the same as the one he was perched atop, which meant that they were made of concrete and glass with lots of broken windows. It looked like an abandoned factory town from somewhere in Siberia. Maybe it was; Naruto knew that Rating Games sometimes just copied real locations on Earth or the Underworld.
All of his peerage members except for one were behind him. They were carrying a flag that had the emblem of the Phenex family. Kuroka sauntered forward to stand next to her master, her black kimono hanging as low as ever.
“How’s the view?” she joked.
“It’ll get better in a second,” Naruto said, grinning. His confidence was unflappable.
Rating Games had a variety of formats which they might use. Devils were nothing if not pleasure seekers, and since Rating Games were one of the main sources of entertainment for the population, all kinds of thought had been put into keeping them fresh.
Sometimes they came up with zany new formats for one devil to triumph over their opponent.
At other times, they reused much older ideas.
“I love capture the flag,” Naruto said. It had been used, albeit rarely, by certain Jounin senseis back in Konoha as a training exercise for gennin. He always thought it looked like fun, even though Kakashi never used it.
“I’ve found it quite dull,” Kuroka said. “Maybe if we took a more proactive approach…”
She was usually happy to do nothing on any given afternoon. But doing nothing in a Rating Game meant being on standby, so she couldn’t nap or otherwise laze around until it was over. If she tried, Griselda would pinch her ear.
Therefore, Kuroka instead wanted this to end as soon as possible.
“Give it a minute,” Naruto said. “It’s not our moment.”
Kuroka sighed… But it turned out even a minute was an overestimation on the wait. What Naruto warned her about happened just a few seconds later.
His grin widened as he shielded his eyes.
The arena was large, about the size of a Hidden Village like Takigakure. For just two peerages, that meant there was a huge amount of ground to cover and spread out in.
Their opponents weren’t spread out. The entire opposing peerages, from the King down to all eight of his pawns, were putting everything they had into running or flying.
They were just too slow.
A white blur sped ahead of them, with something large and green trailing behind it. The arena was split into two halves, one side being Naruto’s territory while the other side was given to his opponent, with the goal being not just to capture the opposing flag, but actually returning with it to your own territory.
Some of the enemy peerage gave up and collapsed onto the ground in defeat. Naruto’s chosen vantage was right next to the border between his territory and the opponent’s.
So when the blur stopped, distilling into a beautiful brown haired girl sitting abreast a beautiful white stallion, holding a large flag mounted on a flagpole, it meant it was all over
Bafeel hefted it in the air, beaming up at Naruto. Arion, one of her new mounts that she’d named for his famous ancestor, whinnied, adding to the feeling of victory.
Naruto gave Bafeel a big thumbs up.
LINE BREAK
“And so you win again,” Lord Amon said, walking with Naruto through an ostentatious lobby. “It’s become a habit.”
The lounge Riser had taken Naruto to, where Naruto and Lord Amon first met, wasn’t actually the headquarters of the ones who ran the Rating Games. Or, it wasn’t the only one. Most often, the place Naruto came to deal with anything administrative, from confirming a new match to dealing with the aftermath of a finished one, was a building in the city of Lilith.
Named for the mother of all devils, it was the capital that had replaced Lucifaad. Most truly important organizations were based in that city, and the Rating Game Bureau was no exception.
Apparently, Naruto learned belatedly, that was the official name of those who ran the system. And among them, Lord Amon is actually the chief. The more you knew!
“I told you to expect it,” Naruto said.
“You did!” Lord Amon enjoyed that answer. “I'm very glad to see that you were not all talk. That makes three now, doesn’t it?”
He knew full well how many it had been. He remembered and knew everything important in the world of Rating Games, Naruto had realized. With this in mind, Naruto just nodded.
“You had me frightened when you didn’t appear for the first one. It was a good scare, considering I put my reputation on the line. But your Queen… Where did you happen to find her?”
“Here and there,” Naruto said.
To which Lord Amon just smiled.
Something even Naruto knew, especially after getting involved with Rating Games, was that you never wanted to give away too much info about your peerage members. Everyone tried to keep things secret. Otherwise, people would use the information against you.
With Kurama, for example, if he blabbed about their story, attention would be placed on the youkai who had served her. Powerful devils might go out and target the leaders of the factions, looking to take them as servants even by force if necessary.
Or, they could snoop around and get a read on Kurama’s moves. It was less of a concern with her, since she was an anomaly like Naruto, but Griselda had engaged in plenty of fights in the past. It would be possible to learn her moves, to discover the nature of her sword and its powers, or other things that might grant an edge when a match finally came up. Since she was so famous, Naruto couldn’t exactly keep her past a secret, so no doubt someone was already looking into those things, just in case they faced each other.
Things like that would matter when Naruto finally got to fight some of the powerful competitors who could actually fight back. Ruval was 10th in the rankings and everyone said those above him were much stronger.
While they talked, Naruto and Lord Amon had gone past multiple guarded doors. They now went through another set, stepping into a dark auditorium with a lit white stage down at the front. Behind the stage was a wall covered in sponsors for all kinds of underworld brands. Everywhere you looked, someone was holding a camera.
“I’m afraid you'll have to wait a few minutes to give your comments,” Lord Amon said. “Today’s main event is running long.”
Post match interviews were another part of Rating Games. Some devils put excruciating levels of thought into their answers, picking every word methodically in order to increase their fame or branding.
Naruto usually just said whatever came into his head. He’d never been shy. Deep down, he was still the little kid who could boldly scream at everyone he’d be Hokage one day, even while being the last in the academy.
Naruto and Lord Amon stood in the back of the room, all the way at the top of a staircase that led down to the stage. Although he’d initially been disappointed this would take longer than expected, Naruto started to find himself curious about what Lord Amon had described as “Today’s main event.”
There were two men on the stage behind a table, standing up in front of seats that they’d recently left.
One of them had silver hair that went down to the base of his neck, wearing a headband to keep it pinned to his scalp. He had deep green eyes, and he was currently smirking at the other man, who was talking loudly.
“You really think you have a chance?” the other man demanded. “You think that YOU, a pitiful reincarnated loser, could pose a challenge to ME? I’ve swatted bugs that were more threatening than you.”
This man looked around thirty (which meant nothing of his true age) and had short blond hair. He chose his words like a thug while talking in the cultured tones of an aristocrat. Whereas the smirking man wore a long green coat that went down to his ankles over a leather shirt and pants, the man who was talking was wearing a suit, every inch of it perfectly pressed.
They wouldn’t have really caught Naruto’s attention… Except for the fact that while they faced each other, magical power was pouring off of the two of them. It filled up the whole room. Looking around, Naruto saw that a few of the less experienced reporters were having trouble remaining conscious.
“Who are those two?” Naruto asked.
Lord Amon looked amused. “You don’t spend much time researching Rating Games, do you? You must not watch a particular amount of television either. Rudiger is often in commercials. He enjoys it, for some reason.”
Pointing, Lord Amon first gestured toward the smirking man with green hair.
“That is Rudiger Rosenkreutz,” he said. “The Upsetting Sorcerer. Reincarnated a very long time ago, he is the most powerful human to become a devil. Recently, he reached sixth place in the rankings.”
“You’re awfully fond of talking,” Rudiger said, his smirk unchanged as he regarded the blond man. “I wonder, when we fight, will you try to talk me into defeat? If it were a debate we were preparing for… Well, I was going to say that you would have me beat, but that is a bold faced lie. You talk a lot, but your words are as empty as your head.”
The blond man growled, looking as if he was genuinely considering launching an attack.
“That is Bedeze Abbadon,” Lord Amon said. “He is third in the rankings. A nobler devil with purer blood you would be hard pressed to find.”
“I cannot wait to turn your hideous face into a bruised and bloody pulp,” Bedeze said. “Try not to die when the beating begins. I wouldn’t want Lord Mammon to lose a slightly useful dog.”
“Your insults are uninspired,” Rudiger said, wearing the same flat smirk, infuriating Bedeze. “I don’t know what I expected. You should at least try to get creative. For example, if I were to insult you, I would ask about your wife’s deep love for fallen angels. She’s probably with one right now. Why, they might even be in your bed together. I’m pretty sure I saw a video of something like that online—”
Bedeze whipped his hand up. A magical circle appeared there, threatening to let off a blast. Devils wearing the emblem of the Rating Game Management Bureau surged onto the stage, grabbing the two of them and pulling them apart.
“They can’t really stop those two,” Naruto said.
Some of the security were High Class devils based on what he could sense… But they might as well have been gnats to the two that had been facing off. Yet, somehow, the two were successfully separated, still trading insults. Bedeze kept repeating that he was going to murder Rudiger, while Rudiger made a dozen different allusions to how Bedeze was going to find feathers in his bed.
“You’re right, of course,” Lord Amon said. “If those two decided it, this room wouldn’t survive for three seconds. The whole building would disappear shortly.”
Naruto was frowning. “Then…”
“It’s fake,” Lord Amon said pleasantly. “Well, not their animosity for each other. There is plenty of bad blood between the two of them. But they’re hardly the only ones who do a meeting like this before a scheduled match. Everyone in the top thirty is contractually obligated to do so.”
“Why?” Naruto asked.
This time, Lord Amon wasn’t forthcoming.
“You’re an intelligent boy. Why don’t you tell me?”
Still frowning, Naruto watched as the scrum around the stage was calmed down and brought to an end. Rudiger was shuffled out of one door and Bedeze was pushed out of another. The whole time, cameras shuttered as they captured video footage and as many pictures as they could.
“Attention,” Naruto said. “Everyone who does this cares about Rating Games being a success. If they’ve insulted each other a bunch, everyone is going to want to watch and see who wins.”
“Either Rudiger will be victorious, humbling Bedeze after being so uncouth about his wife… Or Bedeze will make good on his threats, leaving Rudiger’s smart mouth full of blood,” Lord Amon said. “Storylines, Naruto. They mean the world. Why, it was the storyline of your match against your brother and the Sairaorg Bael that brought you to my attention. The storyline captivated me. Especially once I saw your showing.”
“Who do you think is going to win?” Naruto asked.
“Between those two?” Lord Amon asked, looking at the doors where the two top ten competitors had disappeared. “It’s not the first time they’ve fought. They are both devils who wield considerable power, and veterans who will not be caught off guard.”
“You didn’t answer,” Naruto said.
“The all time record is led by Bedeze, who has won five matches against Rudiger, while Rudiger has only one two of them.”
Naruto just looked at Lord Amon, because he STILL hadn’t answered. Knowing that Naruto was giving him a look, Lord Amon held a hand up, showing that he wasn’t done.
“Bedeze,” he said.
“Why?” Naruto asked. “Because of the record?”
“Let’s just say… I feel it in my blood.”
“Excuse me, Mr. Phenex?” A nearby reporter asked. “Are you going to take the stage?”
With those two gone, it was time for Naruto’s conference. Only a few of the reporters had got up to leave. The rest were waiting for him. He really was a tremendously hot story right now.
Unfortunately, he was going to disappoint a whole bunch of reporters today.
Naruto hopped down the steps to the stage. A stool had been prepared for him. It was the one Rudiger had originally used (although they’d both been standing up by the time Naruto arrived) while Bedeze’s stool was carried off.
Naruto tapped the microphone, listening to the thumping side come out of the speakers. A bunch of voices started calling out questions, hoping he would pick on them out of the throng.
First, Naruto held his hands up, raising all of his fingers.
“Only ten questions today!” he said loudly, grinning. “I only have twenty minutes, otherwise I’ll be late!”
“To what?” a reporter in the front row asked.
Naruto put down one of his ten fingers, causing devils all over the crowd to glare at the one who asked.
“That’s one,” Naruto said. “If you really wanna know… I’ve got a party to get to.”