A Simple Teenage Shop Owner

29

"I knew they planned on acting against her. I just didn't know it was going to be so quick." Vali sat idly on one of Naruto's foldable chairs with a white mug in his hand. To his side sat Kuroka in a similar chair with her own mug. The contents of their cups seemed vastly different, with Kuroka's looking as white as the moon while Vali's sat at a dark brown.

Across from the duo sat a rather interesting sight. It was a sight that neither thought they would ever witness in any sort of capacity within their lifetimes or in the afterlife.

Sitting on the sole couch of the room was Naruto and Ophis. The dragon was wrapped in a mass blankets, looking very similar to a swaddled child. The convulsions the girl had been having earlier seemed to have settled somewhat as her body only shook slightly under her wrappings.

What was interesting about the girl was her position. The god was quite literally snuggled into Naruto's side. Her head was laid comfortably in the boy's lap while the rest of the body sat very far into his own personal space. The blond looked only slightly bothered by the development as his hand rested calmly against the sleeping girl's scalp.

"Is one of you finally going to explain just what the hell happened? How did this happen to her?" Naruto glanced down at the shaking dragon with a large frown on his face. Despite everything that had happened between the two, it was worrying to see the dragon in this type of condition.

"That's what we came here to warn you about. I just didn't predict that they would move so quickly." Vali muttered the last sentence before taking a long sip from his mug. A low sigh left the devil's lips once he pulled the mug away from them.

"While I was gone from my 'job'," The devil made sure to throw up air quotes at this, causing Naruto to roll his eyes. "I was observing the Khaos Brigade. I had heard reports from some members of my group that they had been acting odd since Ophis had started visiting."

"Turns out they had teamed up with some evil god to hurt Ophis-san, Nya!~" Kuroka suddenly spoke up. This managed to earn her a glare from the young devil. She quickly responded by blowing the boy a raspberry, causing Vali to roll his eyes at her before returning his attention back onto Naruto.

"As crude as she put it, she is pretty much correct. Recently, a mysterious figure has been spending a lot of time in the dimensional gap. There's been a lot of whispers that the figure was a god. Which one, I'm not entirely sure of, but it must be a major one to cause this much damage." Vali finished. Naruto nodded at the boy's explanation, but a slight confusion still covered his expression.

"Is there even a god that could've managed to do this to her by themselves. Isn't she supposed to be ... well pretty much all-powerful? Plus, why leave her like this? She feels more weak than hurt." If someone really did manage overpower the dragon god, the blond was sure she would be dead. Instead, she was left shivering like a child, but still very much alive.

"We're not entirely sure. Like I said, I thought we would have a little more time to investigate. I just came to warn you." The devil's cold nature came into view as he set his mug down and flashed Naruto his usual apathetic look.

"Nya, don't lie, Val-chan. I remember you saying just how worried about Naruto-kun and how you had to warn him as soon as possible." Kuroka teased with a coy smile on her lips. As soon as the words finished leaving her mouth, Vali whipped towards her with a furious look on his face.

"Shut your mouth, woman. I said no such thing." The devil barked out loudly to the Nekoshou. Kuroka didn't look the least bit perturbed by the shout. If anything, the smile on her face only grew larger by the boy's agitation.

"Don't be shy now. When we were living together, you couldn't help but talk about him all the ti-" Kuroka stopped talking in order to duck a flying mug. A loud cackle left her throat as she took off towards the kitchen with Vali hot on her heels. While the Nekoshou looked as happy as she could be as she ran, Vali's face was a furious mask mixed with a tinge of embarrassment could be seen by the blush on his cheeks.