At night in Konoha.
Devan finished the paperwork in the afternoon, then went to Konoha to grab something to eat and finally returned to the residence where Naruto was living.
On the way, he saw a sort of place selling round candies and bought a few to enjoy before sleeping. Then, he walked almost calmly and relaxedly to his rented apartment.
"One or two weeks?" Devan wondered how long those Anbu would be following him. "I should pretend I don't notice their presence; that feels… I feel like these guys are looking down on me," he thought. He was about to enter the residence when he saw Naruto standing near the main door.
The blond boy also looked at him, a smile forming on his face before it trembled slightly and he took a step back.
"Naruto!" however, Devan smiled and called the boy by his name. That simple act almost seemed enough to catch the blond's attention. "Sir," the blond slightly bowed forward.
"Let's go inside, it's late; you should sleep soon. In less than a year, you'll enter the academy, so…" Devan moved his hands over the lock, opened the huge metal door, and went in. "You should sleep and reduce those dark circles, Don't you think?" He smiled brightly, his voice warm and calm.
Naruto nodded his head before entering, walking behind Devan without saying a single word. Even when the man made small comments about the day, the blond simply nodded.
He had been thinking about the academy, about what it means to be a ninja for a while, and finally, he thought of Devan, about why the man who had shown up to take care of him after he was nearly killed had been kind.
As they climbed the stairs, Naruto looked slightly upward, at Devan's back with slightly bright eyes. He wanted to ask why; he wanted to know why this man had an aura of absolute evil yet seemed kind.
"Is he lying? Maybe he enjoys giving people hope and then killing them?" Naruto thought as a shiver ran down his spine.
Soon they reached the apartment doors.
"Oh, by the way, good night…" Devan said, about to enter his apartment when Naruto suddenly raised his voice, "Sir!!" His voice sounded restrained, to some extent suppressed for some reason. The boy's eyes showed determination.
Devan turned halfway, observing the blond boy, and almost smiled because of his expression.
"Eh?" the necromancer tilted his head. "Is something wrong, Naruto?" he asked with genuine curiosity.
Naruto slightly moved his body, clenched his fists, bit his lower lip, and seemed on the verge of collapsing, but he composed himself as if he had found a new conviction in life. He raised his head and looked Devan in the eyes.
"Are you someone evil?" Devan's eyes scanned Naruto's body, examining his bright and curious eyes, listening to the calm, fearful, and at the same time hopeful words of the boy.
"Evil?" Devan wondered to himself. In fact, in his old world, necromancers were seen as demons, or simply people with completely twisted minds.
However, "It's true, I can consider myself someone evil, but Wk. ,ho isn't evil in this life? There's no saint who hasn't sinned, Naruto," Devan smiled, placed a hand on the boy's yellow hair, moved his hand slightly before entering his apartment.
The following days passed almost completely normally. Devan worked at the cemetery until noon, and in the afternoon he watched over Naruto.
Following Lord Hokage's orders, Devan did not intervene further in the boy's life, nor did he buy more food, clothes, or supplies in general. As the days went by, it could be seen how Naruto's apartment, which had been bright, clean, and full of life when Devan first entered, was losing its charm, and the refrigerator was running empty.
At night.
"The Anbu have stopped watching me. Did something strange happen?" Devan said to himself while sitting in his apartment with crossed legs, meditating. He no longer felt any Anbu or Root ninja spying on him.
"It's already been three weeks since Kakashi left on his mission; he should be back," Devan looked out his window at the outside world, then narrowed his eyes, put his hand in his pocket to feel the Fractured Mind Coin that Kakashi had given him, and almost without hesitation left his apartment.
In the middle of the night, Devan moved at great speed, passing through various places until he entered Konoha Cemetery without anyone noticing.
His body was as fast as a small black flash that entered the cemetery and quickly reached Kurenai's grave. "Fractured Mind Coin, if what Kakashi said is true, then you too…" Devan narrowed his eyes and quickly began to dig.
His hands moved skillfully, his body in a repeated rhythm of constant thrusts of the tip of his shovel against the fragile earth, and in almost less than ten minutes, he finally found the coffin of the woman who had once loved him.
"Do you remember telling me once that you could die for me?" Devan made a small joke to himself. "It seems you did, but I still think your death is strange…" he murmured as he calmly opened the coffin.
He had done this many times in his old world; digging to exhume a corpse was necessary for his practice of necromancy.
Upon opening the coffin, Devan's suspicions were finally confirmed. Inside was not Kurenai's decomposed body; no, on the contrary, there were ten shiny golden coins with strange patterns engraved on their faces.
Devan slightly moved his body and with his hand picked up five coins. "This is…" he narrowed his eyes, quickly looked at the back of the coins only to find the same words he had seen on the coin Kakashi gave him.
Fractured Mind.
Devan held back a sigh. He had really suspected that the Fractured Mind coin might be a joke. However, now that he thought about it more carefully, Who else knows about the Fractured Mind Counter?
Devan shook his head slightly, put the five coins in his pocket, and prepared to leave to return to his apartment when he heard a familiar voice.
"Devan! What are you doing here?"
The voice froze his bones, his mind lit up with multiple alarms, a slight cold sweat ran down his forehead while he still looked at Kurenai's open coffin. He quickly narrowed his eyes and, while still looking at the empty coffin, slightly bowed his head.
"Kakashi, you know… I," Devan's voice was fragile, a bit high-pitched, and he spoke almost brokenly. He let out a slight, contained sigh as he touched the edge of the coffin.
"Do you remember what you talked to me about last time?" Devan said, faking a voice full of regret and sadness. Noticing that Kakashi did not respond, he continued speaking.
"I've been thinking about Kurenai many times; no… I don't think she would have collapsed just because I broke her heart. No, she is stronger, and the Fractured Mind coin you found in Altair's coffin, all of that spun in my mind, and I wanted to come check it," Devan said as he stood and slightly looked outside the pit he had dug.
Kakashi was there, watching him calmly, his only fully visible eye showing no apparent emotion, and his body almost seemed like a statue.
Chapters Ahead on: [email protected]/tgthegoodd
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