Hello everyone! I've got a bit of news to say regarding this story. Taking a look at the chapters and seeing how many I've finished already I'm surprised that all of them are stories from the To Love-Ru cannon, just with a new spin on them. So I've decided that I'll definitely be making the chapter uploaded after the Seaside Summer School arc is finished an original chapter. So if that chapter takes longer to finish then the ones I've been uploading in the past few days it'll be because I'll be working out all the details to make it an enjoyable chapter for all of you wonderful readers.
With that said, I hope you all enjoy the chapter!
(Marshalanime does not own Naruto or To Love-Ru)
'Thirteen, huh? I wonder who I'll be paired with' Naruto wondered to himself as he looked at the slip of paper he pulled out of the box. Naruto didn't have to wait long before receiving an answer, as it would seem.
"Ah, Naruto, you're thirteen!? Yaaay, me too!" a chipper voice said from behind the blond. Turning to see the pinket with Peke sticking out of her yukata, a piece of paper with thirteen on it held up in her left hand, and her normally free hair pulled up behind her, Naruto had to stop himself from contemplating whether or not the universe was trying to tell him something.
After the first couple of pairs had started
'All we got to do is walk down this path until we reach the shrine. Then we can all call it a night. nothing to worry about' Naruto thought to himself as he watched the next pair pass through the tori ate that they were using as the starting line.
Standing there with Naruto, Lala found it a bit odd when she noticed the blonds hand shaking a little. "Naruto?" Lala as she looked at the blonds face. "Is something wrong? You're shaking" the pinket asked.
"Eh?" Naruto jumped a little at her question, having not noticed he was shaking in the first place. "Hahaha! No, nothing's wrong. I-I'm just really excited is all!" Naruto rushed for a somewhat believable excuse her as he nervously rubbed the back of his.
"Me too!" Lala cheered buying it completely, a big smile on her face. "I wonder what kind of spooky ghosts are going to be waiting for us!" Lala excitedly continued as she turned back to the path.
"He he, yeah, I wonder" Naruto hesitantly said with a nervous smile. 'Damn it Naruto! Get it together! You know these ghosts are just guys in costume so stop freaking out about it!' Naruto mentally yelled as himself as he tried to steel himself for the 'dare'. His fear of ghosts and anything supernatural connected to them was an embarrassing fact that he would never willingly tell anyone, it was already bad enough that people like his sisters or Tsunade had figured it out. It was even a stupid fear if he thought about it, I mean, ghosts couldn't possibly exist right? 'Well, there was that creepy mansion Me, Hinata, and Kiba were sent too on a mission. There was also that time in Tori no Kuni when we were sent to deal with that whole cursed warrior mess' Naruto thought to himself, making his shaking worse before he shook the thoughts out of his head telling himself that there must have been reasonable explanations.
"Oh! It's our turn!" Lala happily said as she took hold of Naruto's sleeve and lead him over to the path.
"Well then, lets get going" Naruto told Lala, even though he was reluctantly letting her drag him along.
"Whoa, it's pitch-dark" Lala commented shortly after the two had started along the forest lined path to the shrine, the well lit area the other students who had yet to start slowly shrinking into the distance behind them.
"They said the goal is at the shrine five-hundred meters ahead" Naruto told her as he kept a close watch on the forest within the light of the paper lantern he was carrying. "Hmm?" up ahead Naruto had noticed some of the students from the pairs that had entered before them. "What's going on!?" Naruto questioned as the students ran passed him, terrified as they scrambled to get back to the starting line. 'Is it really that scary?' Naruto wondered as he watched them leave from over his shoulder.
Looking back in front of him Naruto was spooked when Saruyama nearly bowled him over as the boy took off after the other students who had just run past him. "The hell Saruyama!" Naruto yelled out to the teen, whether he heard or not. 'Wait' Naruto started as he just recalled something. 'Wasn't he paired up with Haruna?' Naruto thought as he looked around for any since of the girl, noticing that his partner had seemed to vanish as well in the process. "Lala? Why the hell am I out here alone now!?" Naruto yelled out in the middle of the path.
Back with the other students
'Come on, when is it going to be my turn? At this rate I'll never catch up with Naruto!' Run was saying to herself as she stood near the starting line while staring into the dark forest, ready to run in there the moment she could. Next to the girl stood a bland looking guy from the other class who looked boarded out of his mind.
"Okay, pair fifteen may go in now" on of the inn's attendants called out, and without a second of hesitation Run took off down the path.
"Hey! We're suppose to go together!" the boy she was paired with yelled out as he started to run after her, only to be caught in the group of students running back to the start and getting knocked into a tree.
"Kyahahahah, that's a funny face" Lala cheerfully said to one of the employees dressed out along the path to scare students. The man had on full body make-up to match the mask, a human like creature with a heavily reseeded hair line, a flat nose, yellow eyes, and two large fangs jutting out of the bottom jaw that reached past the nose. Over the make-up he wore a tattered short kimono with a raged mino covering most of his torso.
"Heh? You're, not scared of this face?" the man asked after getting over his shock while pointing at his face.
"Nope! It looks funny" Lala honestly told him, a happy smile on her face.
'Funny!?' the man thought in horror before slumping down to the ground. "I spent six hours on this" the man sadly said to himself as Lala skipped further along the path.
"Playing the ghost part seems like fun. I wanna it" Lala said as she walked along the path.
"You are better at scaring than being scared, lady Lala" Peke told her, now hanging off the girl's shoulder.
"Lala, where'd you run off too?" Naruto called out as he walked the dark path alone. 'This is really starting to freak me out' the blond thought as every little sound from the forest was beginning to make him jump more and more. Hearing yet another sound coming from the brush Naruto jumped back and instinctual reached for where he usually had his weapons pouch while training or on a mission.
Feeling a bit stupid when his hand grabbed thin air Naruto did his best to push his fear aside and see what had made that noise. Walking up and shining his light on the spot Naruto was surprised with the sight of a frightened Haruna flat on her rump and with tears running down her cheeks. "Ah! Haruna, are you alright?!" Naruto called out in concern as he started running over to the girl.
He was halted from going any further when the girl suddenly rushed into him and clung to his chest as if her life depended on it. "I'm scared. I'm really bad at dealing with all those, ghosts and stuff!" Haruna cried into the blonds shoulder.
'Haruna, she's really taking this hard' Naruto thought as his surprised eyes softened as he looked at the girl clinging to him. 'There's no way I can let her know I'm scared. I have to be brave for the both of us' Naruto thought as he was bringing his hand up to comfort the girl when he stepped on a twig, snapping it.
"Kyaaaaaah!" Haruna screamed out with widened eyes before grabbing hold on Naruto's wrist and taking off through the trees, unintentionally slamming the blond into almost ever tree they passed.
'Fuck bravery, I'm going to need a medic after this!' Naruto thought as he was dragged along like a rag doll by this frightened girl.
"Cuurses on youuu" two of the employees along the path creepily said as they stepped out from behind a tree.
"Nooooooo!" Haruna yelled with tears coming down her frightened face as she tightened her grip on Naruto and used him like a club to knock the guys away.
"Boo!" Lala popped out upside down, thanks to her anti gravity wings, from a tree with a silly expression inches away from a students face. This had both him and the girl he was with turning around and running back to the start at full speed, leaving Lala floating there in a typical Japanese ghost outfit, a playful smile on her face.
"Ooooh, good job miss" one of the employees praised her after seeing her scare the students.
"I can do more stuff" Lala told them as she brought out her D-dial, leaving the two employees there with her a bit confused as to what she had in mind.
"I-I'm sorry Uzumaki" Haruna apologized as her and Naruto walked along the path. "When I get scared, I can't control myself" the girl said, concerned that she really did hurt the blond.
"It's fine" Naruto told her with a wave of his hand as he tried to ignore is swollen cheek and other small bruises along his uperbody. "I've been through far worse, so you don't need to worry about me" the blond said, though the comment made Haruna wonder just what this 'far worse' was. "Though" Naruto started after taking a quick glance at the girl. "I'm going to have to have a talk with Saruyama after this. Just leaving you out here like that isn't excusable!" Naruto said, hoping his injuries would help cover up his fain blush as he looked off to the side.
"It's okay, cause you came for me" Haruna told him, a blush dusting her cheeks as she too looked off to the side slightly. "But what happened to Lala?" Haruna asked after a brief moment of thought.
"She took off ahead of me early on. Guess I was going to slow for her, especially with how excited she was" Naruto joked with a stupid grin on his face.
"I see" Haruna said as she turned from looking at Naruto to the path in front of them. "You think she's okay?" the purple haired girl asked after a few more steps.
"Lala? Ah, I bet she's already at the shrine waiting for us" Naruto said as he turned to look at the girl, which is when a large group of the inn's employees in costume came running past them screaming about real ghosts. 'Eh, wha?' Naruto questioned as he stood there frozen in confusion.
"Ah! There you are, Naruto and Haruna!" the familiar sound of Lala's voice coming from the dark path ahead of them had Naruto slowly turning his head forward.
'What did she do this ti-' Naruto was asking himself when the sight in front of him stopped his thought processes completely.
"Wah, did you put on ghost make-up too? It looks so real" Lala happily said to the blond as she stood a short distance from him and Haruna. Behind the pinket was a group of monstrous figures with blue spirit flames dotted around them.
"L-Lala, who are your friends?" Naruto shakily asked as his even more shaky hand came up to point at the ghosts around her. It was taking every fibber of his being not to try and grab both girls and high tail it out of there.
"Ah, this?" Lala asked turning to look at a small device floating behind her that looked like a demonic ball with it's large sharp teeth and glowing yellow eyes surrounded by black. "I projected ghosts using a hologram. I read a book about ghosts in Naruto Papa's house" Lala explained to Naruto.
'Oh thank god. It's just another one of her inventions' Naruto thought as he put a hand over his heart and let out the breath he didn't know he was holding. It was at this point of relief for the blond that a pale Haruna, who had blocked out everything he and Lala had jus said in her state of fear, grabbed hold of Naruto and with all of her strength tossed him at the ghosts Lala had made with a scream. 'How the hell is she this strong every time she gets scared!?' Naruto thought to himself as he sailed through on of the holograms and smacked his head of of Lala's invention.
"Aaaack! My Deru Deru Vision-Kun!" Lala yelled out after seeing the spider web of cracks spreading across the device.
'Shit! That doesn't look good' Naruto panicked as the device was getting ready to blow. Acting quickly Naruto took hold of Lala in one arm and Haruna in the next and was about to jump away with them.
"I finally found you, Naruto!" Run happily called out as she threw herself onto his back and wrapping her arms around his neck, nearly knocking him over.
"Run!? Where did you come from!?" Naruto asked as he looked ack at the girl, her sudden weight reducing his jump as Deru Deru Vision-Kun exploded. The force of the explosion sending all four of them flying quite a distance, landing at the top of a small flight of old, yet well maintained, stone stairs.
"Naruto, you're amazing! How did you know it was going to explode!?" Lala happily asked as she looked up at the blond holding her as he worked on sitting up from the face plant he just performed.
"Uugh, just consider it a guess" Naruto told her as he held an unconscious Haruna in his other arm and had a softly groaning Rub still wrapped around his neck.
Naruto was just about to curse his luck when the group heard a chorus of clapping from ahead of them. Looking ahead they found themselves in front of the shrine with the Principle, the inn's owner, and several staff members clapping for them. "Congratulations! You're the only group that got through the entire 'dare' this year!" the Principle excitedly cheered for hem with his arms in the air and the light of the morning sun just starting to shine over the trees behind the shrine.
"Eh? We made it?" Naruto asked while blinking a few times, surprised that they were actual at the shrine after everything that had happened during the night. 'Whew, I can finally rest' Naruto thought as he let out a heavy breath, only to have an excited Run squeezing him tightly afterwards.
"Yes! We made it to the shrine together! Now the 'dare's' jinx will make us a couple!" Run excitedly cheered as she held onto Naruto tightly, pressing herself up against him.
'Oh yeah, I completely forgot about that whole couples thing Mio was talking about' Naruto thought with a tired grin as Lala joined in on Run's celebration. "Wait" the blond suddenly said to himself as something occurred to him. 'What is this suppose to mean!?' Naruto wondered to himself as he sat there at the goal with the three girls around him.