Foreword: The scientific explanations of the magic in Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei are simply amazing. Normally, I really dislike reading Sci-Fi because the science is usually horribly wrong, but the magic system (at least the science portion of it) in Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei is nearly ironclad.

This crossover will have Naruto characters strewn throughout the Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei Universe. Obviously, there will be differences in personality and abilities for the Naruto characters. The most obvious will be the differences in Naruto.


Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei.


Naruto stifled a yawn as he entered the schoolyard. It was still early in the morning and Naruto was feeling a bit groggy. Even after all these years, he just simply was not a morning person.

He had simply gotten up early because it was the first day of school and he didn't want to be late, but now he had almost an hour to kill before the start of the school ceremony.

"Ah…" he said while stretching, feeling the resistance from his still-new clothing. "I wonder what high school in Japan is like going to be like."

He had already finished the first year of high school in the USNA, but apparently the freshman year of the 4-year high school curriculum in the USNA was equivalent to the last year of middle school in Japan. He took out his mobile terminal to check the map of the school. ID cards were to be given out after the school entrance ceremony ended, so he couldn't access any of the school facilities just yet.

Naruto mentally groaned. That meant he was just going to have to meander around aimlessly for the better part of an hour.

Walking around, he saw and heard some—presumably older—students who walked through the courtyard and hallway with practiced ease and confidence.

"Isn't that kid a Weed?" an upperclassman girl whispered loudly to her friends as she walked through the school doors.

Her friends weren't any quieter. "He's early. He sure is enthusiastic for a reserve."

"In the end, he's just a spare."

Naruto blinked as he turned to look at whom they were about. Naruto didn't know too much about this school, but given that his scores on the entrance examination had been near the top—rank fourteen overall—he most certainly wasn't a reserve.

So they were referring to someone else. Naruto noticed another boy standing outside looking blankly at the school building.

Ah, another first-year. Naruto appraised him from a distance. The black-haired boy was a bit taller than average at around 175 cm with a medium build. And sure enough, the lack of the eight-petal flower emblem on his chest and shoulders indicated that the boy was a Course 2 student. Naruto felt a slight rise of anger at the upperclassmen girls' blatant dismissal of his fellow first-year and their snobbish sense of elitism. No matter where he went, it seemed that people placed too much value on artificial standings over other people.

His anger ebbed away as curiosity took over. But what the hell is a weed? Is that some kind of Japanese idiom?

Shaking his head to forget that irrelevant point, Naruto walked towards the other student.

"Hey," Naruto called out cheerfully.

The other boy merely raised an eyebrow as their gazes met. "Hey."

Naruto sweatdropped at the stoic response.

"I've seen corpses that were livelier," Naruto muttered under his breath, before plastering a bright smile on his face. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto, but you can call me Naruto. Nice to meet you."

"Shiba Tatsuya. You can call me Tatsuya. Pleased to meet your acquaintance."

This time, the other boy's voice had a bit more energy in it, almost as he heard Naruto's low mutter to himself. As for the greeting, it was a normal, friendly greeting, with mutual agreement to be on first-name basis, but Naruto couldn't shake the feeling that something was…off…about the other boy.

Naruto was so lost in his thoughts that he was almost startled when the other boy spoke. "Did your parents really name you Naruto?"

Naruto almost scowled and not for the reason most people would think. Still, he couldn't blame his displeasure on Tatsuya so Naruto gave him a wry smile.

"I'm actually an orphan," Naruto said with a shrug. "I don't know what name they gave me."

That wasn't the truth, but that was all he wasn't going to reveal his past to a boy he just met a few minutes ago. Naruto was often outwardly open and cheerful, but he kept his cards closer to his chest than most people.

"Ah, I see. My apologies," Tatsuya said with a light tilt of his head.

"No," Naruto said while waving both his hands in front of him, "I never met my parents, so it's not like the thought is painful." Another lie. "And it's definitely not your fault for bringing up the topic. It happens a lot when people realize what my favorite food is."

"Ramen, I presume?"

"Got it in one!" Naruto laughed. "The characters for my name actually mean 'maelstrom,' of course, but it's funny how the other meaning of 'Naruto' fits me much better."

Tatsuya's facial expressions didn't change one bit.

Strange kid, Naruto thought. Either Tatsuya had superb control over his facial expressions or he was unable to express any emotions.

In the world of magicians, either was possible. Many magicians, even at this age, were highly trained warriors who were very mature and controlled for their age. Also, although there weren't too many anymore, many magicians were literally created to be weapons from birth and sometimes lacked many human features and functions. Conditions like autism, while still rare, were comparatively common among magicians.

"I see."

Naruto almost glared at the other student. "What about you? I told you something about myself so you should tell me something about yourself." Without waiting, Naruto went on. "Why the hell are you so damn stoic? Your face hasn't so much as twitched since we started talking."

"That's just the way I am and have been. There was no intention to offend."

Naruto blinked. He hadn't really expected an answer—he was actually hoping to rile the other student up—but the answer was completely unsatisfactory. He opened his mouth to voice his displeasure.

Tatsuya interrupted before Naruto could get a single word out of his mouth. "If that's all, then…"

Naruto was so shocked that all he could do was gape at the stoic, apathetic, yet somehow completely rude student as he walked away.

"What the hell just happened?"

Naruto groaned. Not only did he not get his answers as to what a weed was—Naruto knew the upperclassmen girls weren't referring to vegetation—now he had to figure out how to waste more time until the entrance ceremony.

"Maybe I'll have better luck in the actual auditorium."


Tatsuya was sitting down on a bench with his screen terminal out.

However, reading was the furthest thing from his mind. He was wondering about the blond boy he had just met. He could tell the other student was dying to ask some sort of question and Tatsuya had decided that he should leave the premises as soon as possible.

It wasn't likely that Naruto or any of his soon-to-be-classmates would know anything about his past and connection to the JSDF or Yotsuba Family, but that was no excuse to be careless. Tatsuya trusted his well-honed instincts. There was nothing hostile about Naruto, but something about the blonde was unsettling. The best bet was to withdraw and observe from a distance to see if the fellow first-year would pose a threat.

Still, Tatsuya felt mildly irritated that he couldn't pinpoint just what exactly about the blonde was so worrying.

Was it the measured way Naruto had carried himself?

No. Tatsuya shook his head. It was natural for magicians to be confident and it wasn't unheard of for magicians to have combat training.

Was it the fact that Naruto's Japanese was flawless despite his clear foreign ancestry? Flawless enough to joke about the clever pun on his own name.

After all, magicians weren't allowed to freely cross borders. Naruto could be related to one of the many USNA magicians who settled down in Japan in the pre-war era when the world was more concerned about increasing the number of magicians through magician-magician marriages rather than solidifying national power. While his softer features suggested mixed ancestry, lending credence to the theory that Naruto was a descendant of a foreign magician who settled down in Japan, Naruto's claim of being an orphan was both suspicious and convenient.

After all, how did an orphan somehow enroll in the most prestigious high school in the country? And as a Course 1 at that? Innately talented or not, an orphan should not have been able to have the sufficient training and education—both usually obtained by going to the very expensive magic cram schools—to pass the entrance exam to get into First High School.

Tatsuya was so lost in his thoughts that he was startled when he heard a voice.

"Are you a new student? It's almost time for the ceremony."

Tatsuya looked up from his screen.

The first thing that came into view was the skirt of a uniform. Following that, wrapping around a left arm was a wide bracelet.

He instantly noticed that the broader-yet-thinner-than-normal-bracelet was the latest model of a generalized Casting Assistance Device (CAD). He dully noted that the sleek CAD was crafted with ease of use and fashion in mind over actual processing power.

While most magicians did prefer the bracelet-type CADs to eliminate the possibility of dropping the CAD, most A-rank magicians used the handheld CADs, both for their processing power and the ability to use the CAD with either hand. And while Tatsuya himself preferred functionality to appearance even at the expense of fashion, but Miyuki did not, so Tatsuya had come to slowly learn the value of fashion. He was sorely tempted to write it off as a "girl" thing even though such notions were severely outdated; the only people in his life who seemed to care about fashion were the girls.

All of these thoughts passed though his mind in a fraction of a second.

He instantly realized that only select groups of students were allowed to carry CADs while on campus. Given the situation, the girl in front of him was most likely a Student Council executive.

"Ah yes. Thank you, I'll be on my way."

The girl in question didn't have any intention of letting him go and merely leaned forward to get a closer look at his mobile terminal.

"I'm impressed. A screen terminal?"

As he moved to stand up, he noted the girl's eyes flickering to his chest and shoulders. But her gaze did not have the slightest hint of belittlement and was filled with a pure, innocent curiosity instead.

"Our school disallows the use of virtual display terminals. It's regrettable that many students ignore those rules and still use the virtual display types."

The girl tilted her head in light confusion. "You're technically not a student of this school just yet. You aren't under any sort of restriction just yet. Despite this, you're still using a screen terminal."

"The virtual type is not suitable for reading," Tatsuya explained succinctly.

It was the truth, but Tatsuya would be lying if he said that he didn't put any thought into his answer. If Tatsuya came off as excessively blunt or careless to a member of the Student Council, it could potentially have negative repercussions for Miyuki, who was the freshman representative and would probably be chosen by the Student Council.

"You read instead of watching animations? I'm impressed. That's rare these days." The girl sighed wistfully. "I also prefer book-based information to animation-based ones, so I'm kind of happy there's someone else like me." The upperclassman girl suddenly froze. "Ah, I'm sorry. I haven't introduced myself. I'm the Student Council president of the First High School, Saegusa Mayumi. Nice to meet you."

Despite the friendly tone and the wink at the end, Tatsuya almost frowned. A Number! And a Saegusa no less!

It appears that high school wasn't going to be a joke after all. His mind briefly turned towards the blonde he met earlier. He should probably get used to meeting more unsettling people if there were members of the Ten Master Clans walking around in plain sight.

"I'm…I mean…my name is Shiba Tatsuya. It's a pleasure to meet you, President."

It was slight but Tatsuya caught it. The eyes of the Student Council president went wide with surprise.

"Shiba Tatsuya-kun…I see. You are that Shiba-kun, huh?"

Normally, he would have gone on guard, but it was likely that the president knew of his relation with his sister, Shiba Miyuki, the freshman representative. The "that" was probably referring to the fact that he was the inept older brother of the genius freshman representative.

He politely kept quiet, however.

The upperclassman girl went on. "Among the teachers, you have been quite the topic," she said with a cheerful smile, appearing unconcerned with his silence.

It was probably due to how rare it was to have a pair of siblings who were that much of a far cry from each other. Tatsuya thought cynically even though he didn't feel the slightest bit of pain or shame; he was beyond such feelings now.

Still, he was baffled that he couldn't detect any incredulity or negative emotion could be sensed from her. The president's bright smile was devoid of any intent to ridicule him.

"Has it now?" he asked.

"Out of a hundred marks, the average mark of all seven subjects in your entrance exam was ninety-six. Especially outstanding were the topics in magic theory and magic engineering. Even though the average grade among those who passed was barely seventy in those two subjects, you received perfect scores on exams that even had difficult essay-based questions."

"Those are merely paper test results. They are just data inside an information system. In the world of magic, practical results are what truly matter," he responded with a wry smile, pointing to his left chest.

There was no way for the Student Council president to not understand his gesture.

But the older girl just shook her head at his words.

"Perhaps, but that kind of terrific score is something even I wouldn't be able reproduce, you know? I may not look like it, but I'm much better in theory-based subjects than I am in the practical-based fields, Shiba-kun."

For the first time in a long time, Tatsuya felt the urge to roll his eyes. It was likely that the president was more comfortable in magic theory, but difference between her theory scores and practical scores was most likely negligible. The girl was a Saegusa, after all.

Repeating his tactics from his conversation with Naruto, Tatsuya stood up abruptly and addressed the girl.

"It's about time. Please excuse me."

With that, Tatsuya took his leave from the older girl, who seemed to have more to say, and turned his back towards her without waiting for her reply.


Naruto stepped into the nearly empty auditorium with a sigh. He had been planning on getting to know someone before school started, but that plan was looking like a failure so far. Most of the people in the auditorium seemed to be paired up and engaged in private conversations already.

Naruto wasn't rude enough to just randomly jump in.

Maybe this whole idea of making friends was a bad idea. He certainly didn't have problems being the loner back in the USNA, although that was mostly because he was absent a third of the time and never had the time to get to know anyone.

Ah, there was a person who was alone.

Naruto quickly trotted towards the person who was sitting near the back. All Naruto could see was the student's back, so all Naruto knew was that the student was male and was a Course 2 student.

"Hey…" Naruto began. His eye began to twitch when he was greeted with a light snore.

Naruto was about to reach out and shake the other boy—manners be damned—when he was hit with a flash of recognition.

Shit! What the hell is someone from Konoha doing here?

Konoha. An organization with roots in Japan and now one of the strongest ancient magic organizations in the world. The most powerful families within Konoha were said to be close to the level of a family within the Ten Master Clans of Japan. But unlike the Ten Master Clans, Konoha operated in complete secrecy and was only known to those at the highest level of government around the world.

Being privy to insider information, Naruto knew that Konoha had a few thousand magicians with combat capabilities alone, the might of a small country. Of course, that was nowhere near the force that Japan, one of the strongest magic countries, had. While actual numbers were classified, it didn't take a genius to figure out what Japan's military strength was in terms of magic. Japan currently had a third of the population that it did in the early part of the century at forty million and only one in one thousand people were just regular magicians. It was well known that thirty to forty percent of all magicians were affiliated with the military in some manner, so there were probably anywhere between ~12,000 to ~16,000 combat magicians in the military.

On the other hand, the Konoha employed shinobi, not just regular combat magicians. Shinobi trained in all areas of combat, and not just magic. In a single combat between an average Konoha shinobi and an average modern combat magician, the Konoha shinobi would win every time.

Nonetheless, modern magicians were catching up in combat prowess. It was said that with the death of the ninety-fourth Hokage twelve years ago, Konoha deserted its ancestral home of Japan to consolidate its power in a less magically developed nation. From what Naruto knew, Konoha was now based in the southeastern part of the Great Asian Alliance, near present-day Shanghai.

Naruto's hand twitched as his hand itched towards the weapon he had hidden in his sleeve.

While Naruto's father, the previous Hokage of Konoha, had promoted integration of Konoha shinobi in the modern world, the rest of Konoha did not. Naruto suspected it was one of the reasons why Namikaze Minato had been assassinated.

There was no way Konoha would have sent one of its members to a school teaching modern magic without good reason.

And Naruto had a good idea what that reason might be.

The agent could be an agent sent to assassinate him. While Konoha's power was greatly diminished in Japan, it wasn't completely impossible for them to have found out that Naruto had snuck back into Japan. Naruto, with his heritage as the son of a Hokage and the product of a classified series of experiments to make him a super soldier, was a loose end that needed to be tied up.

But considering the lax attitude of the Konoha operative, it was probably only within the realm of suspicion.

Mind racing, Naruto weighted the pros and cons of acting right now and killing the likely assassin in his sleep and tried to reign in his rising killing intent as much as possible. Naruto could probably succeed in killing the boy in front of him, but that would all but scream confirm to Konoha that he was hiding not just in Japan, but also in Tokyo as a student of First High School. That would only lead to future and more frequent assassination attempts. Perhaps it was just better to keep an eye on this operative for now.

Naruto lost his chance to make a move, however, because the boy woke up.

"Eh?" the boy blinked. "Who are you?" he groaned.

Naruto plastered a bright and well-practiced smile on his face. "The name's Uzumaki Naruto. You can call me Naruto. If you don't mind, can I sit here?"

"Nara Shikamaru. You can call me whatever you want," the yawning boy replied before nodding. Naruto wasn't surprised when he didn't recognize the name. Not only were operatives were given codenames and false identities, but Naruto also hadn't seen this boy in front of him for over seven years. It was completely by chance that Naruto had recognized him. "But are you sure a Bloom like you should be sitting next to a Weed like me?"

"What do those terms even mean?"

Shikamaru's eyes widened in surprised. "You're an idiot, aren't you?"

Naruto felt like hitting the other boy and it wasn't because the other boy was a likely assassin. "I'd prefer uninformed. I'm not from a magic family or anything and I just moved to Tokyo two weeks ago after finding out that I passed the exam."

Shikamaru sighed. "Well, a Bloom is a Course 1 student and a Weed is a Course 2 student. The names come from the emblem shape. I'm not sure how much you heard about this school, but there's an unspoken rule forbidding Blooms from associating with Weeds."

"How ridiculous," Naruto snorted in a genuine show of irritation. "Social hierarchy at this school is determined by the entrance exams? You've got to be kidding me."

"Power is everything," Shikamaru quoted. "There is nowhere where that is more true than the magic community."

Naruto almost narrowed his eyes at that comment. He knew that better than anyone else. For the better part of seven years, he had been on the run, training the best he could and fighting to survive. He had miraculously survived and escaped the Great Asian Alliance, to Japan, and then to finally to the USNA.

In any case, it didn't seem like Shikamaru recognized who he was. In hindsight, it was to be expected, after all. Seven years was a long time. And Naruto only recognized Shikamaru because Naruto was constantly on guard for assassins from Konoha and had learned to never forget a face.

It was strange, however, that Shikamaru's face wasn't in the "Black Book," a long list of known Confederate operatives that Naruto received from the Pervy Sage.

Naruto paused. That would be Ero-sennin in Japanese. Naruto reminded himself. But hell if he was going to think in Japanese when he was far more used to using English.

In any case, the Pervy Sage regularly sent encrypted storage disks through his familiars so that Naruto could update his personal screen terminal with the latest information and the perverted old man swore that anyone who could be sent after Naruto would be listed in there.

Naruto often spent his free time memorizing the faces, codenames, and skillsets of as many operatives as he could.

Shikamaru's face was definitely not in there.

Naruto shook his head. No, he was being overly reliant on the Pervy Sage's information. Not even the famed spymaster could get completely accurate and comprehensive data when the opponent was Konoha. Shikamaru could very well be a newly licensed agent or a deep cover spy. Naruto couldn't afford to let his guard down.

"You seem pretty resigned," Naruto commented in an off-hand voice. "Shouldn't you be bitter?"

"Nah," Shikamaru chuckled. "It's too much of a drag to be bitter. And prestige itself is a drag. Once you have it, people expect more from you and life becomes that much more difficult."

"Ah, so you tanked the entrance exams," Naruto concluded. Shikamaru would no doubt be surprised that Naruto "astutely" read between the lines, but Naruto already knew that something as pitifully easy as the entrance exams would be no problem for a Konoha magician. Naruto's response was a calculated move to see how the Konoha shinobi would react.

"I don't know if tanking is the right word," Shikamaru shrugged nonchalantly. "It's too much of an effort to increase the phenomenon-writing strength of my magic spells, so I just kept it to a minimum to pass. And I just answered the just enough to pass in the theory portion and napped for the rest of the exam."

"It might have been less of a hassle to just finish the exam as fast as you can and go home than to thoroughly calculate what score you would need to barely pass."

That last comment was actually genuine. Naruto himself had tried to hold back so as to not invite too much attention, but he ended up miserably failing at that.

In hindsight, it was to be expected that the standards of a magic high school were even lower than he had imagined. After all, Naruto was someone who had slaughtered and fended off constant attacks from dozens of Konoha shinobi since he was eight years old.

"Meh."

Naruto pressed on further. "Or if you take that argument even further, it might have been a less of a drag to be a normal citizen altogether instead of a magician."

"I hardly have any other marketable skill," Shikamaru drawled. "And magicians in general have a higher average income the average citizen. I did a thorough cost-benefit analysis of all my options. I even considered taking the high school exit exam to skip high school altogether, but it turns out that most places prefer a high school diploma." He sighed. "So it's going to be three years of listening to boring lectures on terminals. The silver lining in all of this is that Course 2 students have complete freedom of how to approach their work. Almost all our class time is essentially independent study."

Naruto couldn't tell if Shikamaru was really serious or not. The other boy's tone was completely genuine, but there was no way anyone this lazy would have sent out on a mission.

He was half tempted to drop the word "Konoha" just to see how the black-haired boy would react.

Would he maintain that façade of laziness even then?


As a result of the conversation with the Student Council president, by the time Tatsuya entered the auditorium, more than half the seats were already filled up.

Occasionally, there were schools that still followed the traditional style of arranging the seats by class. But First High School only revealed the assigned classes after the entrance ceremony. As such, there were no seat designations. Tatsuya was free to sit anywhere he chose.

He noticed, however, that there was clearly an order to the distribution of seats for the freshmen.

The first half were taken up entirely by the Course 1 students with the eight-petal flower emblem on their uniforms—the Blooms…the freshmen who would receive the full benefits of the curriculum of this school. The back half was entirely taken up by the Course 2 students—the Weeds.

The people who were the most conscious of the discrimination accepted the discrimination, huh? He thought to himself.

Tatsuya had no intention of going against the flow and slowly walked towards where the other Course 2 students were.

Sweeping his gaze towards the back, he realized he had to amend his earlier observation.

The back half wasn't entirely populated with Course 2 students.

There was a single Course 1 student sitting next to and chatting excitedly with several other Course 2 students. It was Naruto, that strange blond boy who had chatted with him earlier that morning. While the girls next to Naruto were giggling and apparently enjoying the talk with Naruto, the black-haired Course 2 student sitting immediately next to Naruto appeared as if he wanted to be anywhere but next to the chatty blonde.

It seemed…prudent…to avoid the blonde and Tatsuya began to walk towards the other end of the auditorium.

"Hey! Tatsuya! I saved a seat for you!"

As fate would have it, his escape plan had been foiled. Considering the fact that over half the auditorium was still empty, there had been no need for Naruto to "save" a seat. It was evident that Naruto wanted to talk.

Resigning himself, Tatsuya politely nodded to acknowledge the blonde. It wouldn't do to blatantly offend a fellow student on the first day of school. He had probably been pushing it with his clipped self-dismissal earlier.

"Thanks," Tatsuya said succinctly as he sat down next to Naruto.

Naruto introduced him to the others sitting in the area. "This is Shiba Tatsuya." Naruto gestured towards a redhead, a girl with glasses, and the black-haired boy who looked absolutely miserable. "Tatsuya, this is Chiba Erika, Shibata Mizuki, and this is Lazy Ass."

Chiba. Tatsuya thought. Another one from the Numbers.

Tatsuya wasn't surprised at this point, having met a Saegusa already, but he was beginning to realize that the magic community was even more insular than he thought.

Shibata wasn't a special family name, however.

The girl identified as Chiba Erika chortled. "Nice to meet you, Shiba-kun. 'Lazy Ass' is actually Nara Shikamaru, but I think he's given up trying to reclaim his real name."

Nara wasn't a special family name either. But unlike Shibata Mizuki, the boy in question didn't look nervous at all next to a member of the famous Chiba family. If anything, he merely looked annoyed.

Naruto snorted. "I'm telling you. You wouldn't believe half the stuff this guy said. I mean…his ambition, if you can call it that, is to get married to a plain woman, do nothing while saddling his wife with all the chores, and then die before his wife after living a very boring life. And he keeps falling asleep every thirty seconds! If that's not being a lazy ass, I don't know what is."

"Uzumaki-san, that's not a nice thing to say. I'm sure that Nara-san has his own dreams."

"Naruto, you're such a troublesome guy," Nara groaned. "Shiba, I'd say it's nice to meet you, but I have a ringing headache right now from this guy's obnoxious voice, so you'll have to excuse me as I fall asleep."

Tatsuya raised an eyebrow a fraction of a centimeter when he saw Nara actually falling asleep.

He merely looked towards the girls for an explanation; they seemed much more normal than Naruto.

"Don't look at me," Chiba shrugged. "I only met them a few minutes ago."

"Nara-san must be really tired," Shibata supplied in a timid tone.

Tatsuya nodded even though he disagreed with her assessment. Even though it could be dangerous to judge someone by appearance, it was clear that she was a shy person and openly correcting her could scare her and make her withdraw, something he had no intention of doing.

Even if last statement of hers seemed more forced than anything.

Upon a closer look, he instantly noticed what had been bothering him about the girl. In this era, it was quite rare for girls to wear glasses. Vision correction procedures were so widespread to the point that very few people needed corrective lens. And the few people who did often wore permanent contact lens. However, this girl was wearing glasses. At first, Tatsuya assumed that the glasses may have been a fashion accessory, but one look at the lens told him that the girl wore them because of a special condition.

Oversensitivity to pushion emissions…

All magicians could sense pushions, which were the particle manifestation of emotions or more casually known as spirit particles, but only a select few could see them. And oversensitivity to pushion emissions was a condition of the body where one can see pushions emission without conscious effort, and cannot shut it out with conscious effort. In other words…a disorder where one's senses were too sharp. Because of the nature of pushions, being highly sensitive to pushions made the person susceptible to breakdown of his or her mental stability in the presence of a high amount of pushions.

Tatsuya would have to be careful around the girl and reign in his intents even more. He couldn't have her finding out any of his secrets.

"Shiba-kun?"

"Yes, Chiba-san?"

The girl made a gagging face. "Call me Erika. As expected, being called by my family name is unpleasant. In exchange, I'll call you Tatsuya."

"Very well. Erika, then."

"Anyway, you just had a scary look on your face. Is there something wrong?"

Tatsuya shook his head. "No. It's nothing like that."

"Eh?" Tatsuya leaned back as Naruto leaned over to get a good look at his face. "He had that same sullen look on his face since he sat down. Erika, you sure you saw something?"

"You seem to be talented at insulting other people," Tatsuya said mildly, feeling not insulted at all. He wasn't capable of feelings like that.

Naruto gave him a cheeky smirk. "I find it that it's the fastest way to get chummy with people…at least with guys."

"Uzumaki-kun, you can also get into fights that way." Shibata murmured lightly.

Naruto shrugged. "That's fine, too. Guys can bond over fighting."

"Spoken like a true barbarian," Erika commented sardonically. "You're lucky that Nara-kun didn't slug you after you scared him awake, Naruto-kun."

"Well, I knew he'd be too lazy to do so," Naruto explained. "I got to talk to him for about fifteen minutes before you girls showed up so I had a very good idea of what I could get away with."

Tatsuya did not mention that fifteen minutes was definitely not enough to get a grasp on a person's habits and personality. Then again, with just a few minutes of careful observation, Tatsuya could tell that Naruto, at least superficially, was the type of person who hated adhering to the norm. Naruto wasn't sitting with the rest of the Course 1 students and he definitely wasn't shy about pushing limits in social interactions.

Normally, that was characteristic of someone who generally wouldn't be of interest.

Were his instincts earlier wrong?

Tatsuya made a mental note to ponder about that later as the Student Council president went up to the podium to start the orientation.


Naruto was rather impressed with Shiba Miyuki's orientation address. After hearing what Shikamaru had said about the culture at First High School, Naruto had cynically considered thought that Shiba Miyuki might be one of those elitists who loved looking down at others. But her speech openly promoted ideas of integration and acknowledging that there was more to a person—and life—than magic.

At the same time, he was rather unimpressed with the audience's reaction. He doubted that anyone in the audience had truly listened to what she had said. The guys were figuratively drooling at Miyuki's beauty and pose while the girls were wallowing in a sense of inferiority after comparing their own physical beauty with Miyuki's.

Idiots…all of them… Naruto mentally snorted. Why was he in high school again?

Naruto was too grizzled and far too much on edge, the Pervy Sage had said. Which was then followed up with some perverted bullshit that being around "fresh young flowers" in their school uniforms and taking part in "cherry pops" was good for the soul. He did have to admit that Miyuki was an unparalleled beauty, but Naruto had enough self-restraint—a solid resolution not to be like the Pervy Sage—to not lose his bearing just by being around her.

No girl was that pretty.

Naruto mentally snorted again when he again thought about the pervert's reasoning. Being in Japan made him more on edge since he was technically back in Konoha's former backyard. And sitting next to and making friends with a potential assassin who was most likely looking for him and trying to kill him was driving him insane.

Naruto decided that he was going to shove a Rasengan up the Pervy Sage's ass the next time they met.

"Tatsuya-kun, what class are you in?" Erika asked excitedly.

After the orientation, they had all stood in line to pick up their identification cards. Erika hadn't bothered to ask Naruto since it was likely that he, as a Course 1 student, would be in a different class.

"Class 1E."

On hearing Tatsuya's reply, Erika bounced up and down. Naruto felt it was a bit unnatural, but the happiness in her tone was anything but.

"Yay! We are in the same class."

"I'm in Class 1E as well!" Mizuki said with a smile. "What a coincidence! Three of us out of five?"

"Make that four," a voice interjected. "Must be something about Class 1E students and sitting in the back row."

Naruto looked down at his ID card. "I'm in Class 1A."

"A for asshole," Shikamaru drawled, saying the one-word insult in suspiciously perfect English, although his voice didn't have any malicious intent. "That's what you get for constantly waking me up."

Naruto groaned humorously although he didn't miss Shikamaru's shift in language. Naruto briefly wondered if Shikamaru had caught on to who he really was. If so, then why give it away?

"That's so not fair. If I had B, you would have called me a bitch. If I had gotten C, cu…well…you get the idea." Naruto wisely stopped before uttering some filthy words. He was fairly certain that the girls didn't know the particular word he had in mind, but he didn't want a reputation for being a potty-mouth even among the guys. After all, he was in Japan, where the customs and social norms were far more conservative than in the USNA. When in Rome…do as the Romans do…and when in Japan…be a complete stiff… "It didn't matter whether I got A, B, C, or D. I had no way to winning in that situation."

"Exactly, so you should have just let me sleep."

Naruto rolled his eyes, but slumped his head again to make a show of being disappointed. He was a bit disappointed that Shikamaru would be out of his sight, but as for friends…Naruto could just make more in his class. And it wasn't like he wouldn't see the ones he had just gotten friendly with during the ceremony.

"Ugh. So I'm back to square one. Time to put on my game face and deal with the awkward first-time greetings again."

"Aww cheer up," Erika said while patting him on the back. "It's not like you could have taken courses with us reserves in the first place, you know. And I'm sure you'll make plenty of friends. I'm already happy that you even took the time to talk with us. None of the other Course 1 students did that. You saw how divided the seating in the auditorium was."

Naruto shrugged. "You forgot about the freshman representative. She seemed pretty levelheaded as well. Ah…what was her name again?"

"Shiba Miyuki," Mizuki said brightly before she turned to Tatsuya. "Shiba-kun, is Shiba Miyuki-san be related to you by any chance?"

"She's my little sister," Tatsuya responded, his first contribution to the actual conversation since he told everyone his homeroom assignment.

"Twins?" Shikamaru asked sharply.

Tatsuya shook his head.

"I was born in April 2079. Miyuki was born in March 2080. So while we were born in different calendar years, we are in the same academic year."

The answer was robotic and practiced. Naruto got the feeling that Tatsuya had been asked the same question many times. He felt a wave of pity for the other boy. It must have been hard growing up, constantly being compared to the more talented sister.

"Heh…" Erika replied. "I guess that makes things rather complicated. It might have been easier if you were born a month earlier or her a month later."

Tatsuya smiled, his first sincere sign of emotion all morning. "On the contrary, I find that being in the same year as my sister is convenient."

Naruto chuckled. "Oh? Folks, we have a real-life siscon here."

Everyone present snickered with the exception of Tatsuya.

Erika didn't even bother trying to hide that she was laughing. "Man, Tatsuya-kun, you walked right into that one."

Naruto noticed that Tatsuya looked lost during the exchange. More and more, Naruto was sure that Tatsuya simply didn't have enough experience with being around other people.

"But wow, must have been difficult with a walking bombshell like Shiba Miyuki-san as your sister," Erika noted. "Not to mention that she's talented, too." She narrowed her eyes. "Well, I'm sure you're quite talented, too, Tatsuya-kun."

"Not just talented," Mizuki added mildly. "I think Shiba-kun is rather good-looking as well. He has similar features as Shiba Miyuki-san."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. A confession on the first day of school? Without any substantial relationship beforehand? Ridiculous. Naruto felt like he was living in some kind of visual novel or dating simulation game where Tatsuya was the protagonist and a flag was just raised for the Mizuki route.

"Yep! If you think about it, Tatsuya is quite the hunk!"

Naruto twitched. And that would be a flag for the Erika route.

"Erika-san, you like using archaic phrases and idioms, don't you?" Mizuki noted curiously. "'Bombshell.' 'Hunk.' Neither word has been in use since the beginning of the century."

"Do we really look alike?" Tatsuya suddenly asked.

Mizuki turned red as Tatsuya turned to look at her intently.

"No," Naruto said quickly. "And we're all very glad that you don't. Tatsuya, it would be a very bad thing if you looked like Miyuki while being male." Naruto shuddered. Imagining Miyuki as a male, but keeping the same features, was enough to kill any sort of lingering physical attraction Naruto had for Miyuki.

"I'm pretty sure that's not what he meant, Naruto," Shikamaru said with a roll of his eyes.

"Well…It…it's not that you look alike…it's…it's your aura. Your dignified features look alike."

"Hm…aura…" Shikamaru said thoughtfully. "I've been meaning to ask, Shibata-san, could it be that your lens have no degree?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes. He had noticed that, too. Shibata Mizuki most likely suffered from oversensitivity to pushion emissions. It was an ability that was similar to his own sensing ability. He couldn't "see" pushions, but he could sense them with far more sensitivity than normal magicians.

Mizuki's eyes widened in panic, but there was no time for further comments.

"Onii-sama!"

His jaw would have dropped if he hadn't been worried about looking so stupid in front of his peers.

Onii-sama?! Who the hell says that in this time and age? Either that or I have less of a grasp of the Japanese language than I thought.

That could very well be possible. While Naruto was born in Japan, he had only remained until he was three before moving to the GAA with the rest of Konoha and returned to stay for only a single year when he was nine years old. He had been taught Japanese, but professional fluency still couldn't compare to native fluency.

"Onii-sama, sorry for the wait."

They all turned to see Shiba Miyuki who was positively sparkling with joy. For what, Naruto had no idea.

"Ah, it's no problem, Miyuki. I hardly had to wait at all; I just finished getting my ID card a few minutes ago."

A voice interrupted them.

"Hello, Shiba-kun. We meet again."

Naruto blinked when the Student Council president waved to Tatsuya as she walked towards their little group. Naruto turned his eyes towards Tatsuya. "Wow, Tatsuya, for someone so seemingly unsocial, you sure move fast," he hissed, with a slight elbow to the side.

The temperature in the air dropped a bit after that statement.

"Onii-sama…" there was a hint of warning in her tone.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the sudden change in the girl's mood. Was the girl bipolar? He was tempted to activate his special ability to gauge what was going on in the girl's head. But one glance at Shikamaru made him shelve that thought. If Shikamaru were an ESP user, he would instantly detect Naruto's sensory ability the moment it activated.

"Ah," Tatsuya said quickly, "this is Nara Shikamaru, Uzumaki Naruto, Chiba Erika, and Shibata Mizuki. Aside from Naruto, they are all in my class. And as for Saegusa-sempai, I met her just before the orientation." The final part was added with a sense of urgency.

Ah…so that's what it was… Naruto rolled his eyes. A siscon brother and an even more hardcore brocon sister.

The Shiba siblings were quite the pair. Part of Naruto wanted to cut his losses and run away while he still had the chance. The other part wanted to tease Tatsuya in front of Miyuki and see how the situation would escalate. Naruto could feel the psions leaking out from the younger Shiba and he didn't even need to activate his own special ability to know that the girl's emotions were wildly swinging between insecurity and anger.

Miyuki seemed to get a grasp of her emotions, however, and the tension cleared up.

"Good morning, Nara-san, Uzumaki-san, Shibata-san, Chiba-san, I am Shiba Miyuki of Class 1A. I'm also a freshman just like Onii-sama, so I look forward to being in your care."

"Eh, Class 1A?" Erika said excitedly. "You're in Naruto-kun's class!" She suddenly got sheepish and gave a quick apology. "Sorry, Where are my manners? It's nice to meet you, too. Just call me Erika. Can I call you Miyuki?"

That led to a quick round of introductions where it was agreed that they would all call the siblings by their first names if only because it was annoying to distinguish who was being addressed using the last name alone.

Naruto felt that fussing over using given names and family names was a hassle, but he knew that it was the social norm in Japan. Things were so much easier in the USNA.

"Miyuki. Are you done with your business with the Student Council? If you are not, I can go kill some time myself."

"It's fine."

They all turned to the Student Council president. "I'm here just to say hello for today. Miyuki-san, may I call you that as well?"

"Ah, yes."

The older girl smiled brightly. "Well then, Miyuki-san, we'll catch up on another day."

One of the accompanying male students at her side voiced his complaint. "But President, what about the schedule on our side?!"

"It's not like we made an appointment beforehand. If she already has another engagement, she should give that priority, right?" Her voice was sweet, but Naruto could sense the underlying steel in her tone. It wasn't all that surprising, considering that the girl was the first daughter of the Saegusa Family. "Well then Miyuki-san, I shall take my leave. Shiba-kun as well, I'd love to catch up with you one of these days. And you too, Uzumaki-kun."

With that, the Student Council president waved and made her exit out.

Naruto didn't miss the glare that the older upperclassman boy sent towards Tatsuya. It was a completely undisguised look of jealousy and self-righteous anger.

Naruto mentally snorted. At first, Naruto had thought that it might have just been jealousy, but given that the glare had been reserved only for Tatsuya and both he and Tatsuya were called out by the president reeked of elitism. It seemed that even the Student Council wasn't immune to discriminatory behavior. Naruto shook his head. Wait…that wasn't right. It was probably because it was the Student Council that it was more prone to such attitude.

Still, Naruto wondered about Saegusa Mayum's comments. It made sense for her to be interested in him since he scored first overall on the practical exam, but it was odd for her to be even more fixated on Tatsuya. Naruto wondered just what could make the Student Council president and a Saegusa interested in a Course 2 student like Tatsuya.


"Now, shall we go back?"

Tatsuya didn't really understand how he had somehow managed to provoke the displeasure of not just the upperclassmen, but some of the Student Council executive members as well just a few minutes after official enrollment. He hadn't been expecting a smooth-sailing high school life, but he had to bemoan his luck, or lack thereof, when it came to deflecting unwanted attention. Miyuki seemed to draw the good sort of attention, whereas he seemed to draw the bad form.

Tatsuya didn't voice any complaints though. He would take what life sent at him and do his best to protect Miyuki.

That was the only thing that mattered.

"I'm sorry, Onii-sama. Because of me, people are getting a bad impression of you."

"It's nothing you need to apologize for," Tatsuya said gently, as he brought his hand up and placed it on Miyuki's head from the side in a small pat. As he continued to stroke her hair in a combing fashion, he noticed that her downcast face became colored with happy expression so he continued patting his sister's head to sustain her good mood.

"Um…I know you're just patting your sister on the head, Tatsuya…" Naruto said in a tone that Tatsuya recognized as uncomfortable, "but given the look on your sister's face, I'm pretty sure what you're doing has to be illegal."

"Eh?" Tatsuya said as he stopped and looked down at his sister's flushed face. "How so?"

"You can't tell?" he asked incredulously. "She looks like she's a minute away from org—" The blonde groaned. "Never mind."

"I'm guessing we'll have to get used to this," Shikamaru said dryly. "Tatsuya's in Class 1E with the rest of us and Naruto and Miyuki-san are in Class 1A. We'll be seeing a lot of one another."

Erika suddenly jumped into the conversation. "Well, enough about that. Anyway, since we are all here, why don't we go have a cup of tea?"

Teatime invitation. From what Tatsuya knew, it was a way for high school students to get to know one another better.

"Sounds great! There seems to be a nice cake shop around."

"You two didn't check up on where the school entrance ceremony would be held, and yet you know where a local cake shop is?" Naruto asked with a shake of his head.

Tatsuya figured that this must have been the topic of their conversation before he joined them in the auditorium.

"Of course! It's something important, isn't it?" Erika nodded as if that was the most obvious thing in the world.

"More important than education, huh?"

"Definitely!" Erika returned cheerfully.

"Don't try to argue with women, Naruto. It'll just end up being a drag."

"Hey! This is the end of the twenty-first century! That kind of sexist talk has no place here!"

"Right, this coming from a girl who uses completely antiquated phrases," Shikamaru replied sardonically. It was evident to everyone that he was wholly unapologetic. "Well, let's hurry up and go before we die of old age."

All of them began walking before noticing that he and Miyuki weren't following.

"Coming?"

"Onii-sama, what do you think?"

Tatsuya paused for a moment. He had intended to spend the rest of the day with Miyuki only to commemorate his younger sister's enrollment and status as freshman representative, but given how disastrous his social interactions went just a few minutes before, he might as well try to end the school day on a good note.

"Well, sounds good. After all, we just got acquainted with one another. As Shikamaru said, we're going to be seeing a lot of one another."


"Welcome to Hisajima Devices!"

A girl with light blond hair greeted Naruto as he stepped into the CAD shop. Like Naruto, she too was mixed Asian and Caucasian descent.

"Hey, Shiho. I'm finally here!" Naruto sang out.

"Naruto-kun! It's been so long! Oh my, you've grown so much! The feeds on the video chat don't do you justice!"

Naruto laughed as he rubbed the back of his head. "Thanks, and you've become quite the beauty."

"Oho! Little Naruto-kun has grown to be quite the charmer."

"And perhaps you hear these compliments enough that you can accept them without even a light blush," Naruto shot back. Considering Shiho's relatively mild personality, however, it was more likely that she just hadn't taken Naruto's quip seriously at all because they had known each other for so long.

Naruto looked carefully at what he had just interrupted.

"Working on a new CAD I presume," Naruto said, as he gestured toward her glasses. Unlike Mizuki's glasses, Shiho's glasses had the function of aiding in the detection of psion activity and were used for her work.

"Business has picked up in the last year, so I have to help my father more often. It's a shame though. I usually don't have the time to participate in my club at school. It's technically fine since I'm just an auxiliary member, but I do wish I could help out more at school. Oh my! That's right! Today was your first day of school!"

Naruto nodded. "The first years only had orientation today and we got out at noon. I spent some time with some classmates after that and then came here in a railcar. I figured it was a good time as any to get my CAD checked up."

In general, public transportation was now accomplished via mini railcars in stations that leave on a systematic schedule at high speeds. Large vehicles that accommodated dozens of transportation, such as trains and subways, were rarely used. Instead, small linear two or four seat cars linked to a central control system were mainstream.

Unfortunately, while infinitely more convenient, they were only slightly faster than transportation systems eighty years ago.

"It's over two-hour taking the rail-car from Tokyo to Tokai, Naruto-kun."

"Your fault for moving here," Naruto said cheekily.

Shiho took off her thick glasses and glared at him, although the glare was a forced. "Well sorry, I didn't feel confident enough in my magic skills to get into the elite First High School!"

Naruto raised his hands up in mock surrender. "Yes, yes. I'm an elitist and you have every right to insult me. And let's all calmly ignore the fact that we both know that you went to Fourth High School because of your skills in magic engineering." Naruto chuckled. "And besides, I've only been here in the country for two weeks; shouldn't you be glad that I visited you as soon as I could? And besides, starting from tomorrow, I probably won't be able to visit for a while. So instead of tearing into me, even if it's a joke, shouldn't you tell me about your first day back?"

The girl smiled. "Well, the novelty of being at a magic high school has worn off long ago so coming back is nothing special, especially considering that breaks between school years are rather short. It was nice seeing all my friends again and the second year classes seem far more interesting, but there's not much beyond that."

"So you don't feel any wiser?" Naruto teased lightly.

"Nope. Let's get straight to business. Bring your CADs here."

Naruto complied. He took out his two mobile phone shaped general purpose CADs (each holding ninety-nine Activation Sequences), his gun-shaped specialized CAD (that held up to nine Activation Sequences), and his three different knife-integrated CADs (each holding one Activation Sequence).

Shiho raised an eyebrow. "Do you really need all of this?"

"Heh…I do, but I'm sorry I can't give you any more details." Naruto gave her a sheepish grin.

"Yes, yes…I got it…just like six years ago…" More so than quality of work, the strict merchant-customer confidentiality was the reason why Naruto had come to Hisajima Devices.

Shiho took him down to the lower floor where CAD related merchandise was sold; the top floor was for general electronics that non-magicians bought. Magicians were still relatively rare, so it wasn't good business to sell only magic devices and equipment.

"This place is much larger than your last place."

"And part of the reason why business has been doing so well; people automatically seem to think that bigger places are more legitimate." Shiho sat him down next to a large machine with a monitor. "Need to do any adjustment or switch in spells?"

Naruto furrowed his brows. "I definitely don't want to switch or reorganize any spells, but I'm not so sure about whether I should do any adjustments. The CADs work perfectly fine for me but I'm not a professional."

"Alright, I'll take a look at the operating system first to see if there are any problems and then we can manually check your synchronization with each CAD."

"Thanks."

After about fifteen minutes, Shiho sighed in exasperation. "You haven't changed at all, Naruto-kun."

"Eh?"

Shiho let out an unladylike snort. "Where should I start?" She paused. "Well, I'll start with the good. You've been doing an excellent job maintaining your CADs. And I'm impressed by how many professional grade Activation Sequences you have on your CADs. But seriously…seventeen different lethal A-rank spells and thirty-nine more lethal B-rank spells? Really?" Shiho shook her head. "And that's not even counting how many other spells can be used for combat. Your CADs might as well be encyclopedias for spells used to kill other people."

"And that's the reason why I can't really go anywhere else."

"Yeah, I'll bet. But wow…you really haven't changed. I still remember the day when a blood-soaked nine-year-old kid came bumbling in with a high-end generalized CAD only containing spells for combat and killing. My father almost had a heart attack from seeing some of those Activation Sequences.

"So…" Naruto said uncomfortably, "aside from the questionable nature of the Activation Sequences on my CAD, is there anything wrong?"

"Nothing besides the norm. There was some junk cluttering up the operating system, but I remove that; I'll show you how to do it in a bit. But…you really need to do something about appearing like some sort of killer."

He was a killer and he was sure that Shiho knew that as well, but he wasn't going to voice it out loud.

"What do you suggest?"

"Ever thought about assigning one of your CAD for 'mostly normal' use and the other one for 'mostly combat' use? Even you would have a hard time completely filling up a single CAD with only purely lethal spells. The 'mostly normal' one could have a few lethal spells and hold most of the other high-ranking complex spells that you have, but that's nothing out of the ordinary for elite magicians."

"I suppose I could," Naruto sighed. "But that's too much of a hassle reorganizing the Activation Sequences and memorizing which sequence is located on which CAD. All of my spells are carefully organized along the Four Great Systems of Magic, by range, and by complexity. After years of keeping the same order, asking me to change that is…"

"Do you even need that many Activation Sequences stored up? Most A-rank magicians do fine with the ninety-nine slots in one generalized CAD. In fact, most combatants get on well with just the nine possible with the specialized CADs. And going by the fact that you have a specialized CAD as well, you must have spells that you favor. There's no reason for you to have nearly two hundred individual spells."

"Actually, I rarely use the specialized one. It's just there in case I run into someone who has a faster casting speed than I do."

Shiho's jaw dropped. "You're kidding…I personally know for a fact that your activation speed when you were nine years old was 500 milliseconds. From the checkup I did just now, in the last two months, ninety-five percent of your cast times range from 187 milliseconds to 235 milliseconds, with a mean time of about 209 milliseconds. Given the nature of whatever it is that you do, those were your activation speeds during battle. In a calm setting, you should be able to reach speeds of 150 milliseconds."

Naruto shook his head. "Improved activation speed in controlled settings is only a phenomenon that occurs for people who aren't used to combat. My focus is more or less the same in all situations."

"So your upper limit right now is somewhere around 187 milliseconds. Do you know what a ridiculously fast time that is? The average reaction speed for humans is 253 milliseconds."

"Some people achieve reaction times of around 110 milliseconds," Naruto argued back. "There are bound to be people faster than I am."

Shiho's eyebrow twitched. "Naruto-kun, you're talking about outliers for human reaction time, not activation speed of magic. And you're missing the point entirely. There's supposed to be a lag time between how fast a person reacts and the construction of Magic Sequences in the brain's magic processor. Even if your mind is able to reacts at a certain speed, it can't create Magic Sequences instantaneously. You have an average activation speed of 209 milliseconds. That means that your reaction time is even faster. I highly doubt there's a single person in the world faster than you at invoking spells using a CAD."

"It's always best to be prepared. It's what kept me alive," Naruto insisted stubbornly. "Besides, there are situations where I might end up activating my magic later than my opponent. In that case, I'll have to rely on the specialized CAD to make up the difference."

"Okay…" Shiho muttered dubiously. "Whatever you say…"

Naruto sighed. He wasn't going to convince a non-combatant about how any fight can instantly go FUBAR. "But anyway, going back to the topic of slots…I limited the number of spells as much as possible. I selected those one hundred ninety-eight spells carefully so that I won't be caught flatfooted in any situation."

"Ugh…then how a third general purpose CAD to use as a smokescreen?" Shiho said in an irritated tone. "You can come here for your more questionable CADs for any major problems while doing your routine maintenance on them, but you really should use a normal CAD that you can get regular weekly check-ups on in Tokyo. You might argue that you can just come here after Saturday's morning classes or on Sunday when we don't have school at all, but there are several magic engineering courses where you might be forced to reveal the contents of your CAD."

"But that means I still have to memorize…" Naruto protested before stopping when Shiho gave him a withering glare, "alright, alright…"

"Since you won't be battling with this one, you won't need such a high-end device, but I doubt you'll agree to that," Shiho said. "However, you should be fine with a conventional one, instead of these modified mobile phone types that you holster on your thighs."

Naruto frowned at that. "The regular phone-types have to be held at all times unless they're modified and holstered."

"If you don't like holding a CAD, then get a bracelet-type or cuff-type. It might actually help you fit in better since students prefer those."

"I can only access those with one hand and whenever I do have to cast a spell, both of my hands are occupied since I have to maneuver them in the proper position to press the buttons."

"So?"

"In combat, I don't know which hand I'll—"

"Naruto-kun! You do understand that the point of a third CAD that holds the most commonly used non-lethal spells is so that you can maintain the guise of being a normal magician, right? This is so that you won't have to use your other two combat CADs, specialized CAD, and weapon-integrated CADs for daily mundane tasks. Besides, if you combine basic non-combat spells properly, you can even use them in battle. Not every battle has to include heavy-hitting spells like Njord that have no other purpose except to kill. If you want flexibility, learn how to be creative with fewer spells!"

"You're preaching to the choir," Naruto grumbled. "You only took a look at the number of complex spells I have. It's true that I have a lot of high-ranking spells, but I have quite a few basic ones, too."

"Speaking of which," Shiho replied thoughtfully as she looked back to the screen where the different Activation Sequences were listed. "That's true. I didn't think much of it at the time, but you don't seem to have very many mid-level spells."

"That's because I can use multiple basic spells in conjunction or use them sequentially to imitate the effects of most mid-level spells. I suppose I could do that for complex spells, but I don't feel comfortable simultaneously activating like twenty spells—no matter how basic—when one complex spell would do the trick."

Shiho winced. "Not to mention calculating all the variables for each individual spell that you cast. I see…but still, I really don't see the point in having a highly specialized spell like Aegir Wave that can only be used with a lot of water nearby."

"I might be attacked on a ship," Naruto shrugged.

"Ugh," Shiho moaned, while cradling her head. "Forget I asked."

Naruto went on and provided a more acceptable explanation. "It takes time to adjust a CAD with new spells and it was much easier for me to add a new CAD instead than find a tight-lipped expert to help with the adjusting whenever I needed to switch in a new spell."

"Well, that makes things easy then," Shiho finally decided. "Get a third CAD. Put in all your basic spells, add in three or four of your most frequently lethal spells, and then split the rest of the space between your favorite non-combat complex spells and the most popular mid-level spells that other magicians use. Consider it your 'all-around' CAD."

"Yes, ma'am," he said in a resigned tone, noting that his wallet was going to feel much lighter by the time he returned home. The Pervy Sage still hadn't given him his allowance for the month, so things were going to be tight for some time.

"Good," Shiho said with a satisfied smiled that slowly turned sly. "And besides, in the case of an emergency, you don't even need modern CADs, right?"

Naruto jerked in alarm. "How do you know that?" Naruto said in a deadly tone while raising his killing intent. Naruto subconsciously noted that it was lucky that they were in the basement where no one would see him turn Shiho into a smear on the wall if that's what was necessary.

The information she just revealed was true. First, Naruto was highly skilled in Non-Systematic Magic, which didn't require CADs. Second, Naruto had an innate magic that only he could use and this magic could be used without a CAD. Third, under special circumstances, Naruto could use launch spells using telekinesis and extrasensory perception (ESP). Needless to say, very few people knew the first piece of information and Naruto could count the number of people who knew about the second and the third pieces of information on one hand and have fingers left over.

Despite looking a bit unsettled from the heavy killing intent, Shiho smiled. "I finally got permission, so I'll tell you. For someone so on guard, you really are naïve at times. What are the chances that a nine-year-old kid would find a place that wouldn't question such unique Activation Sequences on a state-of-the-art CAD?"

Naruto groaned as he dropped the killing intent and relaxed. "Ero-sennin…" (AN: note, he's talking in Japanese, hence "Ero-sennin." In Naruto's internal monologue, it'll remain as "Pervy Sage.")

The girl laughed. "Jiraiya-sama said you might react that way when you finally found out that I knew that you could use the ultimate Non-Systematic Magic Rasengan. Naruto-kun, I know you resent him, but he really has your best interests at heart."

"I don't resent him. I'm grateful…really…but he's irritating in the most annoying ways," Naruto grumbled. "He micromanages my entire life while being an absentee godfather at the same time. And his training methods are ridiculous! Do you want to know how I mastered Inferno? He took me out of school, freakin' dropped me off in Banff in the middle of winter for a week, and told me to practice Inferno on the ice and snow to make my own drinking water." He gave her a hurt look. "Now you're telling me you worked for him all along? And you didn't mention this to me at all in the last six years? We kept in touch over the net! And you pretended that you had no idea what I was doing!"

"It was an order from Jiraiya-sama. In the single year you were in Japan, he wanted to keep it from you so you wouldn't end up relying too much on us emotionally. Think about it…we only provided shelter for you for a few months and you're this attached to us. If we told you that we knew about your background, you probably would never have left us."

"Maybe…"

Naruto had to admit that they had a point. Despite his paranoia, he did have a tendency to be a bit attached. Naruto couldn't imagine his life with the Pervy Sage and he was upset just having to leave the USNA to come back to Japan.

"And the five years after that when you were abroad, we were to keep quiet because Jiraiya-sama didn't want sensitive information passed through the net. And I really didn't know what you were doing. All I know is that Jiraiya-sama has been training you and that you're his godson. It's not like we keep in touch with him everyday anyway. Messages are really sporadic."

"I'll never get used to his methods. He doesn't even trust coded messages via voice chats. It's always a handwritten note in code on a paper, delivered by one of his familiars, or the unique Sense-Tuning Magic that he developed for long-range communications."

"Well, this goes for everyone, but we shouldn't be communicating through any traceable means at all. The USNA's spying capabilities are enormous. Echelon III intercepts virtually every transmitted piece of electronic data in the world. The USNA government claims they never look at the actual content and merely look at the metadata, but it's still a lot of information that goes into the USNA's hand. But I was being honest with my surprise at all these crazy Activation Sequences. Just what does Jiraiya-sama have you doing?"

"Nothing," Naruto said honestly, a bit relieved that he could be truthful to his friend. "It's just that I have assassins after me."

"From Konoha?"

Naruto wasn't surprised at that question. It had been obvious from the moment that she mentioned the Pervy Sage's name that she had some past affiliation with Konoha. "Yes. And given that you calmly dropped that name and the fact that you're connected to Ero-sennin, I assume you're from Konoha as well."

Shiho's normally cheerful eyes hardened at that. "My parents and I were considered non-essentials in the Exodus twelve years ago after the death of the Minato-sama and were publicly given the option to stay in Japan. However, the current Hokage sent one of his personal assassins to kill us to get rid of 'loose ends,' so to speak. We were fortunate that Jiraiya-sama was able to arrive in time to kill the assassin."

"Wait, wait…Sarutobi sent assassins after you?" Naruto asked.

Shiho looked taken aback by that. "I'm surprised that Jiraiya-sama didn't inform you. Hiruzen-sama died five years ago. The current Hokage, Shimura Danzo, staged a coup d'état and purged all of the Hiruzen-sama's supporters. Konoha's fighting strength was estimated to taken a twelve percent hit."

"Holy…" Naruto breathed out, floored by the revelation. "I'm surprised that fighting on that kind of scale didn't make major news. Good information control or not, thousands of shinobi fighting would definitely be noticeable."

"I told that the fighting only happened in the main village near Shanghai and ended quickly with the assassination of the Hiruzen-sama."

"To think that he went down so easily," Naruto muttered. There was no lost love between Naruto and the man who had essentially exiled him from the village, but it was strange to think such an important figure in his life was gone just like that. And Naruto knew that Shimura Danzo was significantly worse than Sarutobi; the assassins sent after him were almost entirely from Shimura's Root organization. "Anyway, you haven't had any problems since?"

"I guess we were far too low on the priority list," Shiho shrugged. "Still, Jiraiya-sama scouted my parents because of my father's skill in fuinjutsu and my mother's talent in hacking and modern cryptography. It wasn't too difficult to apply the basics of fuinjutsu to modern magic and skilled computer engineers are always in demand so my parents were able to start up a business here in Japan."

"I see…"

"Well? What about you, Naruto-kun? Why do you have assassins after you?"

That's right. Shiho didn't know too much about what happened in Konoha in the last twelve years aside from what the Pervy Sage told her.

Naruto decided to be honest, but vague. "I'm not sure I can give you details, but I was part of a classified magic project that succeeded but was leaked to the rest of the villagers. Sarutobi tried to have me killed to cover the experiment up and after I escaped, Shimura Danzo kept sending assassins after me, presumably either to kill me to prevent me from falling into enemy hands or to capture me to use me for his own ends. But to think that he even became the Hokage…"

"Naruto-kun…" Shiho gasped as she hugged him lightly, "I'm sorry."

Naruto returned the hug. "Don't be. It's not your fault and I've done pretty well for myself." He stepped back and smiled. "And I'm glad that I could finally tell you all of this."

"Yeah…" Shiho murmured. "But your situation was much worst than I had imagined. No wonder Jiraiya-sama had you stay to the USNA for the last five years. Staying in the most powerful country outside of Konoha's influence was probably the safest for you."

He nodded. "It didn't die down completely, but there were far fewer attempts on my life. Anyway, enough about that. I still haven't told you about my first day at school!"

Shiho smiled. "Oh? Go on, then. So what do you think of Japan? How's it like to return?"

"Well," Naruto folded his arms. "I hate Japan already. Publicly, it's way too conservative, but half the people here are freaks. There are these two siblings in my class. They're Irish twins and—"

"Irish twins?"

"Oh," Naruto said thoughtfully. "I forgot. Japan doesn't use that phrase. In the USNA, they called siblings born within twelve months of each other Irish twins. Don't ask me why it's Irish. Anyway, the siblings are a guy and a girl and I've never seen such a crazy siscon and brocon pair before." Naruto made a gagging face. "The younger girl is always swooning and ecstatically moaning 'onii-sama, onii-sama,' and the older guy is always cooing at her. They have eye-sex…all the time."

Naruto shook his head in disgust.

"Eh…I'm sure you're exaggerating things a bit, Naruto-kun. I might have believed you if this was the beginning of the century when morals were loose and sexual perversion was rather rampant in the country, but…"

Naruto shook his head. "I'm fairly certain I'm understating it actually. I lived abroad in a more liberal country for the last five years and I was still about to hurl." Not to mention, I could literally feel Miyuki's love for Tatsuya coming off of her in waves. "Seriously, I wouldn't be surprised if she ended up pregnant with her brother's child before the end of the year."

Shiho made a face at that before laughing awkwardly. "Well…sounds like an interesting first day of school. Welcome back to Japan, I guess?"


Despite getting out early that day, by the time Tatsuya got home, it was close to evening.

Of course, there was no one to welcome them to their large house.

He returned to his room and took off his uniform first. He really didn't want to think that such a "makeshift mantle" could affect him that much, but after taking off the blazer that was intentionally fashioned to look "different," he felt a little lighter. He was definitely getting out of shape if such small amounts of weight affected him.

Ignoring such thoughts for the moment, he went back out to the living room to greet Miyuki who had just finished changing herself.

Once again, he noticed his sister's choice of clothing. For some reason, this little sister's fashion sense tended towards a more revealing nature at home. It hadn't mattered three years ago, but with Miyuki becoming older, Tatsuya began to feel troubled about where he should rest his gaze.

"Onii-sama, would you like something to drink?"

"Sounds good. I would like a coffee then."

"Certainly."

In an advanced country where the use of Home Automation Robots (HAR) was widespread, women—as well as men—who involved themselves with kitchen work belonged to the minority. But Miyuki made it a point to try and do as much work as possible. Tatsuya had initially protested, but Miyuki stubbornly maintained that it was her way of being of use to him. And she strictly kept to that reasoning. When friends came to visit, she would normally leave the kitchen work it to the various HARs they had around the house.

Tatsuya pulled out his screen terminal and began to read several articles on Gravity-Type Magic while Miyuki prepared his coffee.

"Onii-sama, here you go."

She placed the cup on the side table, came around from the other side and sat beside him. The coffee on the table was black, while the one she held had milk added to it. It was strange to see how different their personal tastes were even though they were siblings.

"It tastes really good. Thank you, Miyuki."

And as always, Miyuki smiled brightly and lowered her head. There was no need to compliment further.

Neither of them struck up a forced conversation; neither was bothered by the presence of the other.

Miyuki suddenly stood up. "It's almost time to make dinner."

Tatsuya didn't bother offering to help. He merely handed over his coffee cup to his sister's outstretched hand. "Very well. Thank you in advance."

"Of course. Anything for Onii-sama."

As Miyuki hummed a tune to herself while cooking, Tatsuya kept reading while thinking about the first day of school.

It had been a far more interesting day than he had expected. All Tatsuya had wanted out of high school was happiness for Miyuki and a high school diploma for himself so he could pursue a career in magic engineering. But he got to meet intriguing people like Chiba Erika, Saegusa Mayumi, and Uzumaki Naruto.

He couldn't suppress the light smirk that appeared on his face. Frog in the well, indeed. While he made every effort to keep himself humbled, Tatsuya had thought that he knew quite a bit about the magic world. But judging from the conversation they had over lunch, there was still quite a bit he had to learn.

He wasn't capable of strong emotions, but Tatsuya was certainly looking forward to the coming year.

He was so lost in thought that he almost missed Miyuki's mood suddenly plummeting.

"Miyuki?"

"Onii-sama…" she said in a strained tone.

"I…I received a message from those people…"

"Those people? Ah…did Father just call you? You should have picked up," Tatsuya said neutrally. He honestly didn't care about his father at all, but he had to be careful with his words and tone to prevent Miyuki from getting even more upset.

"He sounded excited about his daughter's school admission yet…Onii-sama…did he leave a message for you as well?"

Tatsuya sighed. He didn't need to take out his phone to check, but he did anyways. "No, it's the same as always."

"I see…no matter how you look at it…this rudeness…I…I had a fleeting hope that they might have sent Onii-sama even something as small as an email…but…"

Tatsuya stood up and walked over to Miyuki. He gently embraced her when he saw ice gathering around the floor and on the walls. "Calm down."

"I'm very sorry. I became upset."

Tatsuya looked into his sister's eyes. "Look, I ignored Father's demands that I help out with the company and entered high school instead. So it's natural that he would be upset at me, right?"

Four Leaves Technology. It was the company where their father served as the developmental section chief and the vice-president of the company. Of course, Tatsuya was far more involved with the company that he let Miyuki believe, even as a part-time worker, but he didn't want to make her worried that he was overworked.

"It's infuriating for our father to act so pathetically childish, it's infuriating. It's natural that a fifteen-year-old would attend high school. And if he was worried about overstepping boundaries and contacting the Guardian of a candidate for the next head, he should have made the effort to call our aunt to get permission."

Tatsuya felt slightly ill at the thought of his father calling his aunt for something as insignificant as a congratulatory message for entrance into a high school. The Yotsuba Family didn't operate that way. If anything, it was probably more natural that his father not talk to him at all.

"Miyuki, I really don't mind, so you really shouldn't be upset. It's likely that he was simply following protocol for how things are done in the Yotsuba Family. You are a candidate to be the heir whereas I am merely a Guardian. We aren't quite a normal family."

Tatsuya sighed as Miyuki's displeasure melted away when he wrapped his arms around her again.

"If you say so, Onii-sama."


Author's Note: Hey, so I decided to start this story for fun. I'm not too invested in it and I'm very busy these days, so updates will be very slow and sporadic - I apologize for that in advance.

As for the story itself, once we get the first few chapters out of the way, it'll mostly follow Naruto and his adventures. I'm certain that this will upset quite a few Tatsuya fans, but it's really hard to write a story following a character who's perfect in just about every single way and simultaneously has the emotional development of a rock. In any case, there will still be a significant overlap, so it's not like Tatsuya will be out of the picture.

I'm sure people will have a few questions about the following:

Naruto's power level - Unfortunately, just about all the high school kids in the Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei are overpowered and to keep things balanced, Naruto won't be breaking that trend. There were already several hints about how strong Naruto is in this chapter. While Tatsuya's magic is highly specific, he himself is a jack-of-all-trades; he's a powerful fighter, he's good an espionage, he has a great deal of theoretical knowledge in many different fields, he's a world-class engineer in CAD software, he can play politics, etc. Naruto, on the other hand, is just a well-rounded fighter who can't do anything but fight.

Pairings - At the very least, there is one planned for Naruto. Given Naruto's background, it should be painfully obvious as to who his future partner is (hint: she's not named in this chapter and won't be for some time).