Chapter 8

As Clare and Naruto were cleaning and sheathing their swords, Miria walked towards them.

"That was quite impressive." She said as she reached them.

"Thank you. We have been practicing our teamwork for this job, and I must say, it has borne fruit." Clare said with the hint of a smile on her face.

"I'll say." Naruto said, positively grinning.

"I want to ask you something. Please take it as a serious question." Miria said.

"Very well." Clare replied.

Miria looked her dead in the eye before asking: "Have you come close to awakening?"

"Huh?" Helen blurted out from behind her. "What kind of question is that?"

"Like I said, it's a very serious question. Now would you answer me?"

Naruto and Clare shared a look and after a moment Naruto nodded to her. "Yes, I have." Clare answered. "I went over my limits while trying to regenerate a wound."

"Very strange." Miria said after hearing Clare's answer.

She turned to the other two. "And you two?"

"Well, yeah, I have." Helen answered, scratching her head.

"So have I." Deneve answered shortly and without emotion.

"Hmm, and have any of you been a problem to clents or others?"

"Well, you can probably tell from my personality that I have a couple of times." Helen answered, then continued. "Deneve seems to have more of a problem with her own kind."

Miria looks to Deneve and then: "Have you two known each other long?"

"Yes." Was Deneve's verbose reply.

"Yeah," Helen pipes up again, "we started working around the same time."

"I see." Miria turns back to Clare. "And here we have one that goes wild from time to time and ignores orders."

"Well, what are you getting at?" Naruto asked, frowning slightly.

"Well, supposedly, a group of Claymores have been chosen who have all come close to awakening and supposedly they also have a problem with authority." Miria theorised.

"You don't seem to have a problem with authority." Clare said.

"I'm the one with the biggest problem with 'authority' as you put it."

Miria proceeded to tell them of a hunt for an Awakened Being that she had been a part of.

"When the creature was near death it transformed into its human form again. When it finished, it turned out to be my best friend. I hate this organisation that does this to us and then puts us out to pasture when we outlive our usefulness. That was also the day I almost awakened, but I didn't, probably because I didn't want to give her the satisfaction."

"Who are you talking about?" Helen asked.

"Never mind that, my theory is that since almost awakening, we are all a lot more powerful. You all can probably take on a single digit, no problem, but the following ones you should be careful of."

She proceeded to scratch a series of symbols into the nearby rock.

"These are the symbols of the top five. Avoid them as much as possible, especially this one."

At this, she pointed to a symbol of a circle with a vertical line through.

"She is entirely too bloodthirsty, even among her own kind. Avoid her even if you have to act unnaturally. Her name is Ophelia."

"So what are you going to do while we avoid these guys – or in this case gals – like the plague?" Naruto asked.

"I will continue my investigation alone. It is better that way as the organisation sees me as little more than nuisance at the moment."

With that, she drew her sword and extended it before her. As if reading her mind, the others did the same. They crossed at the point. Naruto had decided against drawing his as it would be too short to reach.

"May we all live to meet again." Miria said.

And so they separated.

-----

A final slash was heard. Naruto and Clare each swung their swords to the side to get rid of the yoma blood and then sheathed them.

"Well, it seems your training has really helped a lot." Clare said with a slight smile.

"Thanks, you've become quite strong as well."

Since the first Awakened Being mission things had gone pretty much back to normal. A few things did change, however: Clare and Naruto wanted to improve their skills to such a point that they could take on Priscilla without being killed outright. Also, Clare decided to clean up her image a little by keeping her rebellious tendencies in check. Strange as it may seem, having Naruto helped a lot with that.

Their teamwork seemed almost instinctual now. This could be attributed to many things: They practiced many hours a day at it. Or it could be the strong feelings they felt for each other aided them in their fighting as well.

"So, are we going to camp out on the outskirts of the town or shall we stay at an inn?" Naruto asked.

"Inn." Clare replied with that same small smile.

To Naruto, that smile said a lot about Clare's personality. She could not grin like he did when he was happy, because it didn't suit her, but she could still show how happy she was by this smile.

'She looks cute like this.' He thought.

"Inn it is." He said out loud.

As they made their way to the nearest inn, a shadowy figure was standing in a nearby alley, watching them.

"Target located." The figure said to no one in particular.

Suddenly, a second figure joined the first.

"Good. Keep an eye on them Rafaela, The young man is of particular interest."

"Very well." The figure, now named, replied and seemed to slip back into the shadows.

The second figure remained behind for a few more minutes. 'So it seems number 47 has fallen in love with him. That may prove troublesome.' The figure thought, as it too moved into the shadows.

-----

Meanwhile, in their room in the inn, Naruto and Clare found themselves in for a surprise. Because they did not specify as such to the innkeeper, they were given a room with one double bed, instead of two singles.

"Well, we can still make this work." Naruto said after a few minutes of silence.

"What do you mean?" Clare asked, slightly uncomfortable with the fact that they may have to sleep together.

"Well, we just each sleep on our own sides." Naruto explained. He knew Clare was still uncomfortable about sleeping in the same bed, not to mention having sex, but it would probably be okay. So long as they stayed on their sides of the bed.

"Very well." Was all she said.

-----

As they lay in bed later that night each on their own sides of the bed, Naruto lay thinking about the state of their relationship. They were almost in a rut at the moment, they just couldn't seem to get over that hurdle of sleeping together. Not like now of course. There was no reason for him to feel as uncomfortable as he was feeling right now.

So why was it that he couldn't sleep.

-----

Unknown to Naruto, Clare – lying with her back to him – was having trouble sleeping as well. She was worried that Naruto might try something. That was stupid of course, Naruto was an honourable person and she loved him. Naruto would never take advantage of her like that.

Yet, for some unknown reason, she shared Naruto's inability to sleep.

-----

The next morning, as the sun's first rays began streaming through the curtains, Naruto was woken by them first.

"Ugh, damn sunlight. Can't even sleep in a little."

As he was moving, he became aware of his position. He had inadvertently moved closer to Clare in the night. He was currently spooning with her. Clare was, fortunately (or unfortunately), still sleeping.

He decided to do something that could be very dangerous. He decided to wake Clare.

"Clare. Wake up Clare." He whispered close to her ear.

In a flash, her eyes were open. She started to move to get out of the bed, when she felt someone holding her down. In the same moment she realised who it was.

She tried to remain calm as she asked the inevitable: "Naruto, what are you doing?"

"I really didn't do anything, I woke up like this." Naruto replied.

"Oh, okay." She said. She began to calm down a little more. Slowly, a small smile formed on her face.

"Listen, we should probably get going." Naruto said, breaking the comfortable silence that had begun to form.

-----

As Naruto and Clare were beginning to get ready to leave, the innkeeper heard the bell above his door ring.

"Welcome, how may I help..." the rest of the greeting died on his lips as he saw who – or rather what – was at his front desk.

"Greetings, I am here to ask about some customers of yours." The Claymore said in a trademark monotone.

"Sure, anything I can-"

She cut him off. "They checked in yesterday, one of my... business associates you could say, and a younger blond man." She explained.

"Yes, I remember them. They haven't checked out yet."

"What room?"

"Number 3. Up the stairs, down the hall, last door on your left." The innkeeper answered nervously.

"Thank you." Was all she said and then walked up the stairs.

A/N: Ooh, cliffy. Bad I know, but I felt like ending it here. Sorry for not updating in a while. For those who do read it, I'm not that far along on the manga. Most of my source material comes from what happens in the anime, of course diverging where necessary. I can tell you one thing though: The chapter after this one is where my story diverts wholly from the anime or the manga.