Gah. Life seems to like picking on me. Sorry, my favourite Macs recharger was a bit old, and it broke, so I'm got a new one. But it took a while, and slowed my progress. But it's here now, so you have nothing to worry about! Also finally found out why I wasn't receiving any updates. In case you also have this problem and have no idea how to fix it, you can either read my beautiful Verdana font, or just go to guidelines in Alerts. The answer is a bit strange, but not unbelievable: You must have bot as a contact. So there you have it. Anyway, hope you find this chapter just as interesting. Enjoy!
(Tsukune's POV)
Tsukune yawned, arms outstretched as morning fatigue sleepily seeped into him. School had yet to begin, but a large group of students were huddling around a large bulletin board, talking excitedly.
"Morning Tsukune!" A pair of jiggling flesh ambushed him from behind, crazy amounts of pressure formed from the back of his head and from the evil glares many boys were giving him. He was already getting used to it, sad as it was.
"Morning Kurumu," He yawned. "How are you doing?"
"Great! And I didn't do too bad on my test either!"
"That's great…" The human yawned again, and Kurumu took notice.
"What's wrong Tsukune? Couldn't sleep?" Tsukune nodded.
"Naruto had a bad dream last night or something, cause he was kicking around, hit me in the face. Didn't hurt, but it kept me awake for a while" Kurumu pressed closer in sympathy.
"Aw, my poor dear! Allow me to cheer you up" His head was getting harder to hold up. Then the Succubus' words finally registered.
"Wait, test? School hasn't even started yet, how would you know what you got?" The whole school had written out the quiz, although it was just the start of the year, Yokai school was very severe in it's standards, what with it being a school meant to help fit monsters in with humans. Kurumu grinned.
"Well duh, why do you think all the other people are crowding outside? The scores are posted on the board!" Mentally slapping himself awake, he strode over to the board, wedging himself to the front.
"Now let see…" Using his finger to trace the board, he searched for his name and found it by his student number. He was dead center. Well, at least he hadn't failed. A cry of shouts and whistled called. Without even turning, he said
"Morning Moka-san" Who else could it have been? She was at the top of the school when it came to grades, and was beautiful. And she still hung out with him, for which he was eternally grateful for.
"Morning Tsukune! How did you do?" Tsukune sighed and shrugged.
"Okay. How well did you do this time?" Moka rubbed her head and stuck out her tongue.
"Toppish… but it's okay Tsukune! I'll help you study next time!" This really did cheer Tsukune up.
"Thanks Moka" Kurumu appeared, shoving herself in between the couple, pointing.
"Guys! Look at that!" Tsukune and Moka looked in the direction she was pointing, and they saw three boys and a small girl. The little girl was trying to put on a brave face, but it looked forced to Tsukune. The males had condescending looks on their faces, and Tsukune's eyes narrowed slightly. Bullying. He knew that look, and he hated it. HE was about to walk over and talk some sense into them, until he realized the ridiculously of his thoughts. No way would they listen to just some words of a younger boy. Then he noticed something running up to the younger girl.
"Naruto!" Moka and Kurumu followed his gaze, and they both saw the furry mammal.
"Oh no!" Tsukune pushed his way through the crowd, and getting closer, he could hear snatches of their conversation.
"Who cares if… number one… genius!"
"Please… stop!"
"Teach… lesson!"
The leader raised his fist, but a fur ball of orange tackled him, knocking him over, the lackeys struggled to catch him in surprise, but also fell, due to their weight and pure uselessness. Satisfied with the chaos he'd wrought, Naruto mewed, and hopped into the surprised little girl's arms.
"Kyuu!" The three bullies had managed to get up, scrambling over each other.
"Enough!" Tsukune could hear everything now. "How dare you! You damn witch!" Moka stepped forward, arms out, shielding the younger girl.
"That's enough from you! How could you, treating this poor girl so evilly?"
"Moka-san…?" The girl said in surprise. By now, people had begun to take notice, and gave the bullies dirty looks.
"Moka-san is standing up for Yukari…"
"Ugh, such disgusting boys…"
"Go Moka-san! Defeat those bullies!" The three boys recognized the position they were in, and wisely decided to retreat.
"Cheh," The leader spat. "You better remember this Yukari! We'll be back!" Stomping off, the three boys left, the sour mood slowly lifting and everyone went back to what they were doing before the interruption.
"Thank you so much Moka-san!" The little girl bowed. "You really saved me then!" Moka smiled, returning the bow. As the crowd eventually left, Tsukune shoved his way to the front.
"Moka-san! Naruto!" Moka and Naruto both responded happily, with the latter jumping into the teen's arms.
"Kyuu!"
"Hey, that tickles!" Still, Tsukune laughed as Naruto licked him, Moka watching with a smile.
"And what's your name?"
"Yukari, I'm a witch" Yukari brought out her wand and stuck her tongue out to the side.
'Seriously, what happened to the rule where you can't say what kind of monster you are?' Tsukune sighed and hung his head.
"Yukari? Sendo Yukari?" Moka gasped. "Not the school genius? The one who always gets 100% on a test?" The witch puffed her chest in pride.
"Yep! That's me!" Tsukune stared in amazement, Naruto watching with curiosity on his favourite perch on his friend's head.
"I'm Moka, and this is Naru-chan and Tsukune" Moka gestured to the two, and Tsukune raised his hand.
"Nice to meet you"
"Kyuu" Raising his paw, Naruto greeted Yukari. Eye's flashing, the child snatched Naruto up, and stuck him in her hat, head only just sticking out. Both Tsukune and Naruto looked confused at this.
"He's so cute! Is he yours?"
"U-uh… No, but he's my frie—"
"Good! He's my familiar now!" Moka hesitantly tried to defuse the becoming of a bomb-like situation.
"U-um… Yukari-chan? Naru-chan is—" Yukari turned to Moka, eyes shining.
"It's alright Moka-san! For the longest of times, I've always liked you! You're so pretty and smart! But today has made it final! I definitely love you!" The young girl flung herself onto Moka, squeezing her tight. And that was the start of their many days together.
(Moka's POV)
"Good morning Moka~san!" Yukari tackled Moka, squeezing her face into the mammoths known as breasts.
"M-morning Yukari-chan" She replied somewhat awkwardly. "Did you sleep well?"
"Yep! Naru-chan helped me fall asleep, he's super fuzzy you should try it!" Moka glanced at the little fox, and her hand went to her mouth. Naruto did not look good. His eyes shadowed, and his fur had lost some of its luster. He didn't even greet her, his eyes threatening to slip shut at any second.
"Err… That's nice. Did you tell Tsukune you were borrowing him?" The witch looked to the side with a grunt.
"No, why should I? He's not his" Moka was about to point out Naruto wasn't hers either, when Tsukune walked around the corner.
"Oh, Tsukune! Good morning!" Tsukune almost looked as bad as Naruto did.
"Morning Moka-san…" He yawned, then saw his friend near dead in Yukari's hat.
"Naruto!" He grabbed his friend, holding him to his ears, checking for signs of life. Sighing with relief, he angrily tried to scold the witch.
"How could you? I even let him go with you, and now he turns up half dead! What do you have to say for yourself?" Yukari stuck her tongue out at him, hiding behind Moka.
"Neh~ Who cares what you think! You're just a completely average monster, with average grades, average intelligence, and average looks! You shouldn't even look at Moka-san! You don't deserve her! You and she are too different!" And with that, she held onto the behemoths even tighter and wouldn't let go, not saying a word. Tsukune threw his hands up in exasperation, and Moka forced a laugh. The only good news was Naruto looked quite happy to be reunited with his favourite sleeping spot, and closed his eyes, heavy breaths inhaling and exhaling in deep slumber.
(Yukari's POV)
'Humph! What a stupid boy that guy was! Who did he think he was, hanging around Moka-san and being so friendly with her?' The lunch bell had rang, and Moka got up to go to the cafeteria, Yukari following. That boy and the school Succubus were getting all snuggled up. 'Okay! Enough is enough!' With a swish, the witch brought out her wand. Star decorated the top, and glowed with a hum of magic.
"And… there!" Naruto suddenly found himself flying through the air, squeaking in surprise, eyes wide.
"Kyuu!" The cuddling momentarily halted as both human and Succubi gaped at the flying fox.
"W-what?" As Naruto floated down to Yukari, the witch beamed, hugged the fox, and stuck her tongue at Tsukune again.
'Serves him right!'
Tsukune got up from his seat, but before he did anything, Yukari waved her wand a second time, and all sorts of strange things rained from the sky. Brooms, water pans, pots, kettles, anything. Buried under a small mountain, Yukari pointed and laughed, with Kurumu and Moka and pretty much everyone else who could see staring.
"And you deserve it! From now on, Moka-san is under my protection! None of you boys will come anywhere near her!" All the boys gasped in horror, while some girls clenched their fists in secret victory.
"Cheh" The cursing of a bully wasn't heard with all the commotion, and he walked away, footsteps heavy. "Just you wait…"
(Kurumu's POV)
"Ouch. How do you feel?" Tsukune and she were working on the rough draft for their newspaper alone in the clubroom. Yes, alone. Well, except for Naruto chasing after a rogue-floating piece of paper.
"Well, not too bad. Oh, who am I kidding, I feel terrible, but mostly inside. That girl took my best friends, and won't let me anywhere near them. I can barely concentrate"
'YES! THANK YOU SENDO YUKARI' She cried inside. Clearing her throat, she remembered something she heard before.
"Hey, I heard although she's a genius, she's still really bratty and like to play pranks. Apparently a lot of people hate her" Tsukune sighed, the words hardly processing.
(Yukari's POV)
"Hehehehe…" Yukari giggled wickedly. "This'll teach him!" She brings out a straw voodoo doll, with a nail sticking out. She carefully inserted a hair, which she'd found on Naruto's body into the doll. Warawara-kun could control anybody to a certain point. Pausing to savor the moment, Yukari let the conversation inside continue for a moment.
"…and they say nobody likes her cause she's a brat…" The girl froze. It hurt… Then she got angry. How dare they? Violently twisting the doll she bent its body in an unnatural position.
(Kurumu's POV)
Huh? EH? What was Tsukune doing?
"OOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCHHHHHHHHH!" Tsukune's joints snapped into different angles, with the human himself screaming in pain.
"W-what's going on?" Kurumu gasped. Tsukune looked like he wanted to know the answer to that as well, but the pain became too much for him to do something so strenuous as thinking.
"OW, OW, OW!" Then it stopped. Tsukune cringed and tightened his muscles in an attempt to stop another attack, but it failed. But instead of just pain, this time it went for embarrassment too. Tsukune's hands lurched, grabbing Kurumu's chest and squishing them. Kurumu let out a sound, and Tsukune's face turned into a tomato of red, and his nose exploded in the same colour.
"Oh~ Tsukune!" Scolded Kurumu, not really sounding very angry. "Naughty boy!" Tsukune stuttered in protest
"No! It's not me!" Of course, the universe has those select few it loves to torture, and at that moment, the door slid open to reveal Moka.
"Sorry I'm late! I was—" She stopped dead. Tsukune groaned.
(Yukari's POV)
'EHEHEHEH! This is too easy!' Laughing so hard she almost dropped the voodoo doll, this time she controlled his hands into a coffee table flip.
(Tsukune's POV)
Oh no. His hands flew up, flipping the Succubus' skirt up, with a shriek; he received a hand shaped dent in his face.
(Moka's POV)
"OKAY! THAT'S IT! SOMEBPDY DO SOMEHTING ABOUT THIS GIRL!" Yukari had nearly busted her gut holding in the laughter, so she'd let it out, revealing her location. After a lot of prying and convincing, some demanding from an indignant Tsukune, a flustered Kurumu and a nervous Moka had gotten the information they needed. Naruto had wandered off again, probably still following that paper, but Tsukune forget him for the moment.
"Now, Yukari-chan, why would you do something like that?" Kurumu scoffed.
"Asking her nicely wont get you anything, she's too much of a brat for that. Lemme show you how it's done" Kurumu stepped forward, a threat at her lips, but Yukari lashed out, attempting to bite at the nearest piece of flesh, which was Kurumu's chest.
"You and you're stupid boobies! You think big is so great!" Kurumu's dislike curdled into hate.
"Hah? You're just a jealous little brat, you witch!" Kurumu laughed, purposefully shaking her chest from side to side. Yukari was shaking with anger.
"Now, now," Moka once again found herself trying to make peace. "Just calm down okay?" Moka shot the Succubi a look, and Kurumu just grunted and shrugged. "So, Yukari-chan, why were you controlling Tsukune exactly?" She turned to look at Tsukune.
"Because he doesn't deserve to be anywhere near you Moka-san! He's just so… normal! She kicked Tsukune in the shin, and he doubled over in pain.
"Ow! Okay, look! Right now, you're just being a pain! You're bothering everyone around you! Even Moka-san is tired of all these antics!" Yukari stared in disbelief, but she turned back to Moka.
"That's not true!… Is it?" Moka couldn't look her in the eyes.
"So it is… Even for Moka-san whom I've admired for so long…" Tsukune huffed. Finally, his point had gotten across.
"That's right! Now you have to stop acting like this, or you're going to be hated by everyone!" Yukari flinched, and Tsukune winced at his own words. He'd gone too far.
"Huh… It doesn't matter to me! Nobody's my friend anyway, and I don't want them to be! They're all such low intelligence people, who needs friends like them!" Yukari tried to shove him away, but when she couldn't she ran away, even further in despair. Moka reached out as if to stop her.
"Wait! Yukari-chan!" But she'd already run off. Tsukune slapped his forehead, and even Kurumu looked a tiny bit guilty.
"How could you! She's lonely, and she just needs a friend!" She ran after her, leaving Tsukune feeling miserable. Kurumu tried to sneak an arm onto his shoulder to comfort him, but he shrugged her off.
"I'm gonna go think…" And he left, with Kurumu wondering whom she should follow.
'What have I done? Why do I keep yelling and getting angry?'
"Kyuu" Tsukune looked down, noticing his friend. Instead of jumping onto his shoulder like he usually did, Naruto simply stared at him, his gaze asking a question.
"I'm fine… Don't look at me like that…" Stare.
"Fine… I know what I did was wrong, now stop bothering me" Stare.
"…I'm not going to do anything about it! SHE was the one who started it!" Stare. Then pain.
"Ow!" He stared. Naruto had jumped and bit his finger, refusing to let go.
"Let go Naruto! Bad boy! Naruto!" Yanking him off, Tsukune held him by his neck, glaring. Naruto tried to bite him again, but couldn't reach.
Then he wrestled himself away, running into the direction Moka and Yukari had gone.
"Damnit… I'm becoming insane… Being scolded by my pet… Chasing him back… Ugh…" He raced after the little fox, determined to set things right.
(Kurumu's POV)
After a frustrating internal debate, Kurumu had just given up and decided to fly until she found one of them. Sailing wherever she wished, she gazed for miles around, but the view was dreary. The red air seemed heavy, the ocean black, with the trees dead.
"Sigh… Now what?" As if some heavenly being had answered her, a flash of movement caught eye. Tsukune was running into the woods, running towards… Kurumu gazed ahead, spotting Moka, Yukari and… Those bullies. Her teeth grit together, her lips curving down. Bastards.
Folding her wings, she plunged back to Earth glad to have some good news for Tsukune, even if it was telling him where her love rival was.
(Tsukune's POV)
"Huff… Huff… Huff…"
'Sheesh, how far was that fox going to run?' It felt like forever since his last breath, like he was running and breathing through gelatin. 'Gosh, when had the world become so narrow and focused' Occasionally, Naruto would stop, glance back, and sprint off in another direction. Where was this guy leading him? After an eternity of running, stopping, turning, and running again, Naruto finally stopped, and waited for Tsukune to catch up. He faced Tsukune with a strangely regal aura, back straight, nose high, eyes staring at him. He gasped, waiting before he finally had enough energy to ask
"W-w-what… are… we here… for?" Naruto nodded behind him, and Tsukune kept his head up to see where his friend gestured. And he inhaled faster than he intended, choking.
"What?" It was Yukari, surrounded by those three bullies that had bothered her yesterday. "How did we get here so…" His question died when he saw how Naruto was looking at him.
"Look, we can argue all we want later, but right now, I need to save Yukari" He tried to move, but was frozen to the spot. Naruto looked him straight in the eye, and growled. As in, bared his sharp teeth and made a offensive gesture. Naruto did that.
'What the hell is going on? Naruto's never like this!'
"Alright, I'm really sorry! I know I shouldn't have treated Yukari like that okay? It's just…" He looked to the side, hoping Naruto would just let him go save Yukari already. But no such luck.
"Fine. I might have yelled at her because… I was a teensy bit jealous of how she was hogging Moka to herself" He glanced at Naruto and scowled. The fox was laughing. At least, he was smirking, but laughing on the inside.
"Oh, shut up! Now are you gonna let me go or not?" Experimentally telling his leg to move, this time, it responded. He sighed, and wondered if it had been the greatest thing to meet Naruto at the bus stop.
Then he blacked out, without warning. No pain, no fading darkness, but a sudden evil feeling of sleep. What?
"Well, wasn't that fun? Really led him on a goose chase didn't you?" Tsukune spoke in a voice that dripped in gravelly rancor.
"How dare you? Making me do your bidding? Just because the stupid human might die, who cares? A little pain never hurt anyone… Hehehe…" The little fox in the everlasting darkness just stared the entity in the eye. "Just because you're my vessel, doesn't mean I can't show you what real pain is like!" Naruto flicked his tail, and stood up, walking away.
"Oh right, just ignore me. Just cause I haven't eaten anything in a while, doesn't mean I can't destroy you!" A wave of bloodlust washed over the fox, but he didn't flinch, instead doing quite the opposite. He sent a wave of his own intent, but it was a stubborn force of calm. In grudging respect to the intent, and acknowledging this own lack of power at the moment, he concluded that it was best to bide his time and wait for a bigger meal. Of course, he knew it would be soon. After all, the seed he'd planted was starting to grow, and after this, would grow larger still.
"Fine. You win. I'll go and do you a favor. I'll be calling on this debt sometime soon…" Naruto stoutly nodded, and faded. Tsukune opened his eyes, grinning madly in anticipation for his afternoon stretch.
"Now, shall we see how tough this my new toy is?" And he disappeared, his smile leaving a hazy aftershadow.
MUHHAHAHAHAHAH! MORE ACTION AND MYSTERY! I will also tell you this will be happening more and more frequently as my story goes on, and even more will be explained. So sit tight, and enjoy the ride! I was just feeling really happy, so I used all that nervous energy to make sure my late chapter was no later. Ish. Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed reading that!