Kitsune on Campus

by Asha'man of Fire

Naruto finds himself in a strange city, Mahora Acadamy. Unable to return to Konoha he begins a new life, but having to take take of a 10 year old mage and his class will prove difficult, even for him. Pairings undecided. Naruto/Negima crossover.

21. Countdown Part Two

Naruto found himself wandering alone in Mahora, surrounded by dozens of people who were eagerly preparing for the festival. As he passed, Naruto felt a multitude of female eyes on him, sending a shiver up his spine. He kept hearing whispers of the World Tree too, which didn't help his nervousness.

It was rather unnerving to have all these eyes on him; it hadn't been this bad since he had first arrived, but now he couldn't use the excuse of him being new to justify the attention. Before it had gradually faded, but now it was back full force. Maybe he had something on his face?

His hand unconsciously wiped his face, but it did nothing to change the situation. Giving a group of passing girls a nervous smile that sent them giggling, he continued on.

It was a couple of days after Sayo had been threatened, and most of the class seemed to believe that she had moved on to the next life.

Sayo was rather upset at that, but apparently Kasumi had begun to interact with her move, which was a plus.

Right now he was going to visit Mana, Kaede and Kuu Fei to tell them they would start the spars after the festival, and in Kuu Fei's case, invite her in the first place.

He'd been hoping to catch them as they left school, but he'd lost track of time and so arrived too late.

It had been simple enough to find Mana, who had headed straight to the dorms. The rest were proving harder to find. Setsuna and Kaede were nowhere to be seen, and so Naruto found himself heading to Chao Zi Bo where Kuu Fei would probably be working.

He ended up finding more than he bargained for.

A crowd had gathered around the restaurant in a loose circle, most of them male. Slipping through the crowd, Naruto found himself looking at Chachamaru, who was wearing a short and cute white top and a short skirt, showing off her more obviously robotic joints.

Naruto had never seen her in anything quite so revealing.

Naruto approached, giving her a smile and a wave.

Nervously, she returned the greeting before turning her attention back to Negi and a few classmates.

Negi, Asuna, Setsuna, Konoka and Hakase were all present, the latter intently scanning a computer.

"What are you guys doing?" Naruto asked as he approached, giving Cha-chan one last curious glance.

"I'll run a search of her database!" Hakase declared suddenly.

"You can do that!" Konoka asked in amazement.

"Oi! Isn't this a breach of privacy?" Asuna quickly put forth.

Negi was watching them intently, so Naruto turned his attention to Setsuna, the only one who had acknowledged his arrival apart from Chachamaru.

"What's going on?"

Setsuna squeaked at his question, looking like a frightened cat who wanted to bolt.

Naruto gave her a confused look, before suddenly remembering. He broke into a kind smile. "Don't worry," he told her soothingly. "I'm not mad anymore."

Setsuna continued to gibber incomprehensibly. Seeing this, Naruto turned his attention to Negi, hoping she would calm down soon. It had been two days since he chewed her out over the Sayo incident.

"What's going on?" he asked again.

"We're checking Chachamaru's memory for the one she loves." It was Hakase who answered, speedily typing on her computer.

"What!" Naruto yelled. He shared a look with Asuna, who gave a single nod. "That's enough," he asserted as he and the red headed girl approached.

"Yeah, this is seriously too much," Konoka put forth.

"Aha, what's this? A Favourite's folder?" She clicked it open.

The screen instantly flashed up, showing three sub-folders, one with no title, the other called 'Uzumaki's Blackmail.' The final folder was titled 'Family'.

"What's this? Family? Blackmail-?"

"You keep your blackmail on Chachamaru?" Asuna turned to Naruto.

"I don't know how to use a computer, and she told me this was the best way. You aren't allowed to open that by the way," he told the still ranting mad scientist.

"-and what's with this anonymous folder! She wasn't programmed to think of family or love!" The scientist opened the 'Family' folder. It showed various pictures and video clips, all of which contained Eva, Chachazero or Naruto, a great many of them containing all three, often with Negi added to the mix.

Most prominent of all was the first picture, which Hakase opened and fully enlarged. It showed a sleeping Naruto, on one side of him a snoozing Negi, on his stomach laid a content looking puppet, and snuggled into his left side a certain blond vampire. All four seemed peaceful and at ease.

"Awww," Konoka let out, "that is so cute! You look just like a set of siblings."

"When was this taken?" Asuna asked.

Nervously Chachamaru answered her. "On the first night of Negi-sensei's training; mother snuck into Naruto-sensei and Negi-sensei's room. I believe she felt lonely."

"Oh, so this is when it started?"

"You were aware of mother's actions Naruto-sensei?"

"Well, I didn't notice it that time, and who knows how many other times, but I am a ninja you know. Of course I would notice if someone repeatedly slipped into my bed."

"Repeatedly?" Asuna demanded.

Naruto shrugged. "I don't particularly mind. She does it every so often, and I'm not heartless enough to throw a girl out without a good reason. I'm not sure why she does it, though I have a guess." Instead of elaborating, he turned to Chachamaru for a possible explanation, unwilling to give his own theory.

"It is not my place to talk about mother's troubles; she has also specifically ordered me not to tell you about my belief that she does it because of loneliness, and Naruto-sensei exudes, in her words, a very comforting aura. She told me that if I were to reveal such information,and that mother said this almost too softly for me to hear while looking very pleased, she would punish me severely. Therefore I won't tell you anything."

Chachamaru nodded her head as she finished, looking amazingly self satisfied despite there being almost no change in expression.

Naruto grinned, pleased at the robotic girl for telling them anyway, even if it was in a strange roundabout way.

"What's this? Chachamaru violating Eva-san's orders shouldn't be possible. I programmed her to follow such instructions flawlessly. Just how much have you grown?" Hakase asked in wonderment. "Love, embarrassment, family and now disobeying orders; just how far will you go?" The mad scientist's eyes widened. She'd been sidetracked by the blond teachers' arrival and had forgotten her original objective. Not that it mattered; his arrival had given her extra data, and for true scientists like her, data was more precious than gold.

"Now, for the most important thing. Who does she love?" the girl cried out, raising her arm up and bringing it down onto the mouse with a resounding crack.

A screen opened, but before Naruto took more than a glimpse of red hair, he and the rest of the observers were pushed away.

He landed on the bottom of the heap, Setsuna, Asuna and Konoka atop him. Naruto involuntary squeezed his hand as he tried to push the three upward. Asuna let out a moan.

Naruto flushed as he registered what he was holding in his hand.

Similarly, Asuna's face reddened.

"Oho, Ane-san, I never would have expected you to be cheating on Aniki with Naruto-nii," Chamo chimed in.

"Shut up you damn squirrel!" Asuna snapped. "Me and Negi aren't like that."

"Oh, so you and Naruto-nii are like that?"

"NO!" she snapped again, turning even redder.

Naruto said nothing, still half expecting a thrashing that never came. All he got was small hit on the head that he barely even felt. A punishment that Naruto translated into 'Be more care', and not the usual 'How dare you accidently do perverted stuff!', like he was used to.

"Hakase, you idiot!" Chachamaru yelled out, firing a rocket punch which sent the scientist flying.

Naruto let out a whistle, satisfied by her tears that the glasses wearing girl had deserved it by going too far. A theory that was further reinforced by Chachamaru literally overheating moments later and running off in a panic.

Naruto was about to chase after her when he noticed Negi pick up his staff and mount it.

"Negi, can you handle it?"

"Sure can nii-san!" the boy called back.

Naruto relaxed, content to let him take care of it. He had to fly solo occasionally, and this was the perfect opportunity to let him spread his wings. Instead he turned back to his original objective; he'd find out just what the hell was going on later.

"Kuu Fei," he turned to the Chinese girl, who right now was working as a waitress. "Has Setsuna spoken to you yet?"

The blond shook her head as she approached. "No-aru. What did you wan to talk about?"

"I wanted to invite you to join Mana, Kaede, Setsuna and I for sparring. So, what do you say?"

Kuu gave it a moments thought before finally nodding her head.

"Great!" Naruto cheered, giving her a brilliant smile. "We'll start after the festival, alright? I really do need to work on my Tai-Jutsu, so you joining us will be really useful."

"I'll be looking forward to it," she responded with a grin of her own.

'Alright,' he thought, 'now to find Kaede.'

Naruto wandered around campus, searching for the laid back Kunoichi to no avail.

He did run into someone else though.

She was alone, which was unusual for her. Then again, considering the books he could see poking out of her bags, he could understand why she wasn't with her two closest friends.

"Hey Haruna," Naruto greeted.

The girl's attention snapped to her blond haired sensei. "Hey Sensei. What're you doing?"

"Looking for Kaede. What are you doing with all that porn?"

"This is research material for my manga," she explained.

"You use porn as research material?"

"Sometimes. Right now I'm drawing doing a chapter which contains a sex scene, and so I wanted to look through current media examples."

"Liar," the ninja immediately called her on it.

"I'm not lying."

"You're just a perv who wants to read porn."

"So what if I like to read porn? And they really are for research purposes."

"Do you also spy on bath houses for 'research purposes'?" Naruto asked with a smirk.

"How did you know that!" she yelled, pointing at him in her shock.

"I knew another smut author who always did that. Geez, you don't secretly have white hair and a wart on your nose, do you?"

"No, of course not." Haruna frowned, pushing her glasses up her nose in thought. "You knew a fellow author? Was he any good?"

Naruto shrugged. "I didn't think so, but he was, and even after his death, still is pretty popular. He made me beta-read his last two too."

"You've edited explicit material before?"

Naruto scowled. "Don't remind me. I've had to deal with Ero-Sennin's perverted writing and behaviour since I was 12."

"That's not the first time you've mentioned him. He was the author of explicit-"

"Smut."

"- novels? What did he write? Maybe I've heard of him."

Naruto stopped to consider this. Should he tell her about Icha Icha? There was no reason not to, he supposed. Besides, she was a major fan of Jiraiya's work, even if she was a pervert.

"Ero-Sennin was my sensei and Godfather, the author of the Icha Icha series, Namikaze Jiraiya. He made me read the first two at the age of thirteen, and give him advice during the writing of the second two while I was fourteen and fifteen respectively."

"Icha Icha?" Haruna asked, stars in her eyes. "Can I have-" she began, before suddenly stopping as she remembered that the author of Icha Icha was dead; there had been a note in the books mentioning that they had been published post mortem. Plus, it had been made very clear to her and the rest of the class that Naruto's relatives were also deceased.

She shifted mental gears. "Can you come and read some of my work? I'd love it if someone involved in the production of Icha Icha would critique my work."

"You want me to comment on your smut?"

"It's not smut!"

"Yes it is. Do you know where Kaede is?"

"No, now-"

"Then sure, I'll have a look over it if you want me to, but I'll warn you now that I usually find this kind of stuff boring, so it better not be just smut."

"Don't worry, it's not. And, can I ask a favour?"

"Ask away."

"Well, I wasn't lying when I told you I was writing a sex scene, and these" she lifted the bag full of porn, "are fictional materials and just as likely to be over the top and unrealistic. I want a first hand account of someone's first time. The furthest I've ever been is second base. I was this," she held up her thumb and finger millimetres apart, "close to third, but we were interrupted and I dumped him not long after." She gave a defeated sigh. "So this could really help me." She licked her lips and gave a perverted giggle, wiping a bit of drool from her lips. "Maybe you could even give me a live model."

"C'mon you Ero-Shoujo, let's have a look at that chapter," Naruto agreed, slightly amused despite himself. She reminded him a little of Jiraiya, which was nice. Though the way she was staring at him was seriously creepy; it was like she was undressing him with her eyes. No wonder Baa-chan's instinctive reaction was to punch Ero-Sennin through a wall.

"I'm not modelling for you, though I will look over your story if you really want me to. And, depending on how I feel, I might, might," he stressed, "tell you a bit about Shion and Ero-Sennin. Though I won't if you keep staring at my ass like that."

Haruna's eyes snapped upward instantly, only to find Naruto still walking forward without having looked back. Slowly,her eyes drifted back down.

It was after a few minutes of silence as they continued on their way that Naruto spoke again.

"I'll say this now, if you keep looking at me like I'm some of your research… or for that matter I find out you have been using either me or Negi for research, I'll, I'll, I'll tell everyone that you've been drawing pictures of Konoka and Asuna naked."

"How do you know about those!"

"What, you really do that? I was just guessing." Naruto gave her an amused chuckle as he cradled his head in one hand. "This is what happens when you spend 3 years with a pervert; you can guess what they'll do."

"So what if I'm a pervert? I take pride in my work!" she instantly snapped back.

It was at this point that they finally arrived at Haruna's dorm room; once inside, Haruna began to unpack her porn onto her desk and hand Naruto some of her past work, as well as the outline for her current chapter.

Naruto spent the next half an hour skimming through her work.

"The chapter I wanted your help on is the climax to a short series that I was asked to do. It is a romantic fling between an insecure man and a confident woman told from the woman's perspective. He becomes more and more confident in himself as time goes on, and the story shows her reaction to this change," she explained.

As he finished the story so far, he gave her a wide grin. "I love it; I wouldn't change a thing."

"Thanks Naruto-sensei. Ha, I can put in big bold letters that it was approved by one of the men behind Icha Icha," she suddenly laughed, her glasses glinting evilly.

"If you want, but I don't see the point. Remember, I only looked Icha Icha over; I didn't write any of that crap."

"How dare you call that Masterpiece of literature crap!"

"I call it like I see it!" Naruto yelled back, standing up so that they were face to face.

"You take that back!"

"Never!"

There was a moment of silence as they glared at each other, before suddenly Naruto broke off, laughing.

Haruna gave him a confused look that the blond soon noticed.

"Sorry, it's just that me and Ero-Sennin used to argue like that all the time."

"Will you tell me about him?"

Naruto gave her sad smile. "Sure. What would you like to know?"

Suddenly the glasses wearing grin grinned, and Naruto shivered.

"You said he was your sensei, right? I bet he taught you a lot of good stuff, right?" she asked as she began to advance towards him.

"Er, yeah, I suppose," Naruto responded, unconsciously keeping his distance from the approaching girl.

"I bet he taught you how to treat a girl," she suggested, licking her lips.

Naruto found himself frantically glancing around the room and only relaxing when he noticed the window was open and big enough to fit through easily.

Even as he did this, he paled at the question. "Don't remind me. It was horrible; the old fart tied me down and gave me tips on picking up women."

"Oh really? Not the kind of advice I expected, but oh well." Haruna's scary advance had stopped now, and with an established escape route, Naruto was much calmer than he had been just a few moments earlier.

Still, he hadn't realised the cause for his panic; it had merely been a subconscious reaction he didn't understand.

"Yeah," Naruto laughed, "that perv tried to teach me how to seduce a girl. Like I would ever listen to him!"

That grin was back, but this time Naruto didn't notice it.

"He did? What did he tell you to do?"

"Stupid stuff; I don't really know how to describe it."

"Show me," she demanded.

"Huh, why?"

"Please?"

Naruto shook his head and approached the mangaka, placing one hand on her shoulder. "Why do you want me to show you something stupid like that?"

"Are you kidding? Techniques thought up by Jiraiya-sensei should be treasured, and I would love to see how he would go about it."

Using the hand on her shoulder, Naruto guided the girl to sit on the bed and took a seat beside her. "Jiraiya-sensei was really talented, but so are you. You don't need me to tell you about how he would go about things; you're a lovely girl, and you probably know better than him the best ways to go about this kind of thing." As he said this, he gently turned her head to make sure she was looking him in the eye, his other hand on hers.

"To create a great and believable scene, you should consider all techniques, views and advice before deciding on the method, and I would be honoured to hear about Jiraiya-sensei's approach to the female mind, for the sake of my manga!"

Naruto gave her his best smile. "That passion of yours is really amazing. It really makes those lovely eyes of yours shine."

Haruna blinked, and for the first time seemed to notice that Naruto's face was inches from her own. Haruna grinned and was about to lunge for the blondes lips when…

"And that's the kind of thing he taught me," Naruto told her as he pulled back, a small blush on his cheeks as he scratched the back of his head and smiled with his eyes closed, a nervous habit. "Kind of dumb, huh?"

Haruna's thoughts raced. Naruto-sensei was in her room, on her bed. His eyes were closed and he had just been pretending to seduce her. It wasn't a difficult equation for her. She lunged for him, and before he could do more than open his eyes in surprise, her lips were already on his and her tongue thrust into his mouth.

Haruna only had time to process that he tasted like ramen before he was pushing her away. He immediately jumped away, his face flushed as he put distance between them; he was prepared to do a back flip out the window at a moments notice.

Haruna licked her lips and Naruto tensed. "If you're going to seduce me, you should be prepared for that kind of thing Naruto-sensei." And then suddenly she pointed at him, a serious look on her face. "You don't mind if I use some of that in one of my manga, do you sensei?"

Naruto blinked. "No, not really," he answered her slowly.

"Excellent. That really was quite good, if a bit cliché. For a moment there, even I, the great Paru-sama was convinced. I'll be looking forward to more."

"More?"

"That's right! More scenes like this may come up, and I expect you'll give me lots of inspiration for the future."

---

Naruto trudged back to the cottage soon after that, having failed to find Kaede. He had succeeded in telling the other girls though, and he was sure he could just tell her tomorrow.

The entire fiasco with Haruna had been put to the back of his mind, especially the kiss. That was in the same place as the kisses from both Kaede and Fuuka; the very back, hopefully to be forgotten, simply because he just didn't want to think about it. She seemed to be just messing with him anyway.

Naruto stepped into the cabin to find Chachamaru working on dinner in the kitchen, and Eva playing an old video game on the couch.

He sat himself beside the diminutive vampire as she played, giving her a casual greeting. "Hey Chibi-chan."

She grunted in response, and so Naruto contented himself with simply watching her play.

Less than a minute later though, she suddenly stopped, pausing the game. She turned and leaned into him. Naruto pulled back, slightly confused.

Suddenly she grabbed his collar and dragged him close to her with more force than he thought her 10 year old body could muster.

And then she sniffed him and grimaced. "Where have you been?"

"Just around," Naruto responded uncomfortably.

"Who with?"

"No one in particular."

"Don't dodge the question; who were you with?"

"Why does it matter?"

"You smell like another woman. It's too strong to be just you spending time with her; it smells like you were all over each other."

"We were not!" Naruto blushed.

"Who was it!" she demanded again.

"Geez Chibi-chan, why do you care?"

"I don't care!" she shouted back.

"That's good then. I'm going to help Cha-chan," he told her, disappearing into the kitchen.

With a huff, Eva continued her game.

---

The day after found Naruto helping 3-A prepare the Haunted House at lunch; he wouldn't usually help at this time, but he had to make up for not helping out the night before. He'd forgotten he was supposed to help then; what was worse was that it would have been the perfect opportunity to speak to Kaede, but he had missed it.

He had been put in charge of constructing fake walls while the rest of the class was working on costumes and building the entrance.

"Hey guys, have you seen this?" Makie asked, the school newspaper in her hands.

She rolled it open for her friends to see. The title was 'Does It Really Work? Legend of the World Tree.'

The legend of the World Tree is a story that has been circulating around campus for decades. It states that if you confess your love underneath it, you will succeed; your love will be requited.

"I suppose it could be true?" Yuna said dubiously.

"The ghost turned out to be real," Makie pointed out.

Overhearing this, Misora joined in. "Well, I heard from a sempai that, even though the guy she was after was a super cute club captain and loads of other girls were after him, and everyone said it was impossible, when she confessed, he said yes. They've been dating ever since."

"No way!"

"I also heard that, three girls in our year, they asked their student teachers out and they said yes too."

"Second year junior high girls? Isn't that illegal?"

Undeterred, Misora continued on. "This one is unconfirmed, but apparently someone even managed to ask out a guy from one of those boy bands on T.V."

"Really?"

"Yep," she confirmed. By now there was a sizable crowd gathering around Ako and Yuna, the two who were holding the paper.

"Listen to this: 'No obstacle too tough to overcome. Age, looks, fame, anything is possible. Results don't lie!'

"I can hardly believe it," Ako mumbled.

"I know! Me neither!" Makie responded.

"I'm not sure I do…" Akira put in.

"I wish I'd waited and confessed under the Tree," Ako admitted, having recently been rejected by the boy she confessed to not long ago.

"I think I'd like to try it, just to see if it's true."

"Who could you ask though?"

"We are an all-girl school."

"Well, there's always…" Yuna began, glancing at the blond boy who was currently hammering in a nail.

Unconsciously, the girls huddled closer together and lowered their voices.

"Do you really think it would work?"

"I don't see why not. Who wants to try it?

"I will!" Sakurako volunteered.

"…" Zazie interjected.

The other girls jumped at her sudden and silent entrance.

"…" she continued at length.

"Iincho!" Madoka called for Ayaka, the only girl who could understand the most mysterious classmate with ease.

The class president approached quickly. "What do you want?"

"We need you to interpret for us," Yuna told her, glancing at Zazie.

"…"

"Is that so? Girls, you have a job to do, get back to work," she commanded.

"Yes Iincho," they chorused, dispersing unhappily.

The blonde woman turned to her silent classmate. "If you want to talk to him, do so. In fact, I think it's great you've taken an interest in someone; you hardly speak to anyone at all, both inside and outside of class, and I was beginning to worry about you. I whole heartedly encourage you to talk to him; Naruto-sensei is an open and friendly person, and would happily spend time with you. Go for it."

"… Thank you…" Zazie said softly.

Throughout it all, Naruto was oblivious.

---

The next day was a day off; the members of class 3-A were all using the opportunity to prepare for the activities their clubs were going to be performing or doing during the festival.

Ako, Madoka, Misa and Sakurako were practicing for a band performance; Zazie was practicing for the 'Nightmare Circus'; the library trio were planning the tour of Library Island and Asuna and Negi were on a practice date. The latter of which looked fifteen instead of his usual ten due to some magic pills.

Naruto had no knowledge of any of this, and was instead continuing his search for Kaede.

After another full hour of searching with no success, Naruto was fed up. 'Screw it, Sage Mode it is,' he finally decided.

Finding a quiet spot, Naruto began to meditate and gather Natural energy, absorbing it into himself. His eyes turned from blue to gold and his pupil become horizontally slitted with rounded ends, like a toad. The area around his eyes transformed and coloured into red. After a few minutes of concentration, he finally managed to locate the ninja he was looking for; she was a few hours away in a mountain range.

She wasn't alone though; there were two other people with her. Naruto frowned; was that the Narutaki twins?

It was only then when he realised that there was at least a dozen people heading his way at top speed, and he only recognised a few of them. Takamichi, Kotaro, Mana, Negi and Asuna were all very close by, Konoka, Setsuna and Chamo travelling together in a group a small distance away from the latter two.

Then Negi and Asuna began to slow, Konoka and Chao following suit and stopping a small distance away.

Still, Takamichi and Setsuna didn't stop, and neither did any of the others. Negi must have recognised him from when he showed the boy Sage Mode before.

"Ehehe, whoops."

Naruto stayed still and held Sage Mode; Takamichi was the closest teacher and would arrive first. It would be easier just to show the teacher that it was him than leave, rather than making them worry.

He didn't have to wait long before the glasses wearing teacher arrived. Naruto stepped out of his cover and let himself be seen before allowing Sage Mode to fade. He gave Takamichi a nod and mouthed an apology before setting off. He returned the nod with a frown, giving Naruto a stern look.

Without Sage Mode, Naruto couldn't really sense the people that had been speeding toward him, though he did pass a pair of girls on the roof top. One was a young red head who was wearing the middle school uniform; she looked to be in her second year, but then again, if 3-A were any indication, looks could be deceiving.

The other was an older blonde; she was a high school student who seemed to be the same age as Naruto. He gave them a friendly smile and waved as he passed by, causing the blonde to flush bright red when she spotted him. She stumbled in surprise and tripped down into the gap between two buildings.

The young red head travelling with her came to a skidding stop on the next building over and rushed back to the edge to check on her sempai.

Naruto reversed direction, concerned. Jumping down the gap he was quickly joined by the younger girl. Grabbing hold of the blonde, one arm each, and then they hauled her to her feet.

"Are you okay?" the younger girl frantically asked, patting down the taller girl in an effort to knock off the dust and dirt on her clothes.

It was only now that Naruto could get a closer look at the duo. Both were rather pretty. The older girl stood just an inch or two shorter than Naruto, and had long blonde hair that she kept down and dark green eyes.

The younger girl was almost a whole foot shorter than Naruto, and had her shoulder length red hair tied up into two buns decorated with flower like clips, which kept her hair separated into pigtails that hung at the back of her head. Her eyes were a rich brown.

"Yes Mei, I'm fine," she assured the red head, stopping the girl's hands when they continued to pat her. Instead, she lightly brushed herself off.

"Sorry if I surprised you," Naruto apologised, bring both girls' attention to him for the first time.

Mei's face took on a familiar red hue, but the older girls face flushed an even more brilliant red.

"Thank you for stopping to help," Mei gave him a quick bow. "I'm Sakura Mei, and this is my sempai, Takane D. Goodman."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Uzumaki Naruto."

"It's is nice to meet you too, Naruto-sempai."

"N-Naruto-kun, it's good to see you again." Takane told him.

There was a moment of awkward silence before Mei nudged her older. "Onee-sama, we have somewhere to be."

"Oh, of course. Will you be coming Naruto-kun?"

"No, sorry, I have somewhere to be. I'll see you around," Naruto told them as he jumped up onto the building's roof and continued to the mountains.

'Wait, did she just say again?' Naruto thought to himself.

---

Takane frowned as Naruto disappeared, but didn't pay it too much mind. Mei was right; they still had to check up on that sudden appearance of a powerful and unknown energy source.

"Er, Onee-sama, is Naruto-sempai a mage like us?" Mei asked once they were moving again.

"I believe so; he is at least aware of magic."

"Have you two met somewhere before?"

The high school girl flushed. "That's none of your business."

Chastised, Mei quietened down until they reached the area in which the strange energy was sensed. Not that it was difficult as Mei was a shy person by nature, and had only spoken first in that alley because her Onee-sama had been acting strange.

When they arrived, they found a small group of Mage teachers and other magically aware students had gathered around Takamichi.

"Sorry we took so long," Takane apologised as soon as she was close enough. They were the last to arrive of the people she had sensed coming.

Takamichi gave her a good natured smile. "No need to worry. This was a false alarm."

"A false alarm? What was it? You can't just dismiss this as nothing. We all sensed something powerful and we have a right to know what it was. We can't all have been fooled," one of the teachers put in, Gandolfini, a tall dark skinned Mage teacher.

"Yes, you are right," Takamichi allowed. "The truth is that the power originated from an ally. When I arrived at the scene, I discovered Uzumaki Naruto to be the source. To be truthful, I am unsure of the reasons he was using so much power, but it was definitely coming from him. He seemed apologetic for attracting so much attention, so he probably didn't mean to bring us all here."

"That was Naruto-sensei? But I thought his power couldn't be sensed by Mages." Mana put forth.

"This might have been his Sage Mode; Negi-sensei told me about it. Apparently he can be detected when he is using it," Setsuna explained.

"He did mention he had a couple of power-ups," Mana mused.

"Aniki's been holding out on me," Kotaro growled.

"Naruto-sensei?" Takane asked. "He's a teacher?"

"You hadn't heard? Naruto-kun was set up as a substitute teacher when he arrived. He isn't really in charge of anything; it is more like a figure-head position so that we have an excuse for why he is here, just in case any mundane investigates."

"Why wasn't he just enrolled?"

"He refused," Takahata shrugged, "and the Headmaster wanted him to stay so much he let it slide."

Takane dumbly nodded her head. Now that the explanation had been finished, the group dispersed, leaving Mei and Takane alone.

"What's wrong?" Mei eventually asked.

Blushing again, the taller woman shook her head. "Nothing. Let's go."

---

It took Naruto about an hour of roof hopping and eventually tree jumping to get to the general area where Kaede and the twins were.

Once he arrived they weren't very hard to find.

The sound of splashing and spluttering was easily distinguished from the sounds of the forest. Naruto could also hear the soft sound Kaede's laughter over the shrieks of the twins.

Hiding his presence, Naruto approached quietly. Poking his head through a gap in the foliage, Naruto found himself looking into a clearing with a large pond being fed from a waterfall, a rocky overhang to the right. Kaede sat there, her legs dangling over the edge. She was watching over the twins as they continually stepped onto the water and fell through.

No, that wasn't right. Fumika had just managed to take two steps on top of the water before she fell through. She came up spitting water but with a proud smile splitting her face.

"Much better," the tall girl praised. "Remember, you need to maintain a steady stream of chi. Fuuka-chan, you need to use less power. You're just pushing all the water away."

"Hai!" the girls chorused, climbing out of the water and trying again. For the first time, Naruto noticed they were both wearing blue one piece swimming suits, school issue. Their names and class number was stitched onto the front. That made distinguishing between them easier, as with their hair down they were near identical.

Naruto grinned. So, she was teaching them a bit of Nin-Jutsu. Well, time to have fun.

Naruto waited patiently, watching all three girls until none of them were focusing on him. That was when he moved.

As far as Nagase knew, one moment she was alone with her apprentices, and the next there was a hand on her shoulder and someone whispered "Boo," in her ear.

She couldn't help it and jumped, letting out a shriek as she fell into the water below. The sudden shock of cold water enveloping her caused her to gasp.

With a splash, all three girls were now in the water, and when they all arose, gasping for breath, they found Naruto on his back, laughing his head off; one hand held his stomach, the other pointed right at them. "Haha, your faces, hahaha," he continued to laugh.

"Naruto-sensei! What are you doing here?" Fuuka asked.

He answered once sufficiently calmed. "I needed to talk to Kaede; I'm rather surprised to see you two here though, and learning Water Walking no less."

"Yep, Kaede-nee-chan is teaching us to be ninja!" Fuuka happily told him, splashing water up in her excitement.

"Nee-chan, that's a secret!" Fumika chastised her sister. Both were treading water.

"Don't worry; I'll keep this between us Nin," Naruto fake whispered, a grin on his face.

"You're a ninja too?"

"Yes. In fact, Naruto-sensei is an even stronger ninja than I de gozaru." Kaede told them, climbing up to stand on top of the water.

"Really?"

"Yep," Naruto confirmed, jumping down and onto the water to stand beside Kaede. Where he stepped, the water barely rippled.

"Will you teach us then?" Fuuka asked.

"You should respect your teacher," Naruto told her plainly. "I'm sure she knows what she's doing. Besides, there are a lot of reasons I'm not really suitable."

"Owww," they both groaned.

Naruto gave Kaede a glance and she nodded her acceptance. "But, I suppose I can give you some help today."

"Yay!" they cried as they began to splash in the water once again.

"Alright then girls, out of the water," Naruto ordered, stepping between them. He quickly made the hand-seals for Suiton: Suijinheki no Jutsu and placed his hands on the water. Both girls shot up on the top of the water walls that only existed for a second before Naruto plucked both girls out of the air as they began to fall.

"Awesome!" they gasped.

He held the both of them up by having one arm wrapped around their sternum and they both clung onto him in turn. Fuuka grinned as she tightened her grip.

"Oi, Fuuka-chan, not there," Naruto was quick to tell her.

With a weak grin the elder sister moved her hand from his ass to the small of his back.

"Alright girls, we can do this the quick way or the slow way. Which is it?"

"Quick!" Fuuka yelled.

"Slow!" came from Fumika.

"Alright, Fuuka-chan first. Put your feet on the water," he let her do so. "Now, focus on pushing out a steady stream. I think Kaede-chan said you need to use less power."

"But it's hard to control."

"Yeah, I used to have the same problem. It helps to form the hand seal to concentrate before stepping onto the water." He waited a moment as she closed her eyes and formed a hand seal that Kaede taught her for control. "Ready?" She nodded. "Alright," he said. It was her only warning before she was dropped.

She hit the water and managed to steady herself and stand for a full two seconds before she fell through.

"Good job. Keeping trying like that."

"Hmm, what method of checking is this de gozaru?"

"The sink or swim method," Naruto answered Kaede's question. "You should consider yourself lucky," he addressed this to Fuuka. "When I was learning this it was at a hot spring; whenever I fell through I would boil."

"What does that have to do with me?"

"Would you like me to find a hot spring and you can try it out?"

"Nononono!"

"Excellent. Now keep trying," he instructed.

Now Naruto turned his attention to the younger twin, who was still in his arms. "And now for the slow method." Naruto shifted his grip, causing her to squeak, so that instead of holding her in one arm, he held her with both in front of him and facing towards him, her feet skimming the water.

"Now," he began, "I want you to do like your sister and form the hand seal Kaede-chan taught you." Fumika did so, closing her eyes in concentration. "Now, I'm going to gently lower you onto the water. Keep the stream of chak- chi steady. Are you ready?"

The girl nodded in acceptance.

Naruto lowered her slowly until she caught on the water and stood on her own. Once she was ready, Naruto relinquished his grip.

She stayed steady on the water; it took her a few minutes before she began to slip through. Immediately, Naruto caught her and helped steady her.

"Hey, how come you didn't let her fall?" Fuuka demanded.

"Because this is the slow method, and yours was the fast."

"How does that work?"

"By falling through, you'll be more motivated to get it right, and will hopefully improve quickly. The slow method is step by step; you keep trying, slow and steadily trying different levels of Chak- chi, until you get it right. It takes longer but is more efficient. However, you also need patience; something I think Fumika-chan here has, and people like you and me lack."

"You too?"

"Yeah. I would never have been able to learn with this method. I just kept trying over and over again, forcing it until I got it right. That's the best method for people like us."

"How do you know which is the best method?"

"I asked, didn't I? Chances are, those that say they want to learn the fast way don't have the patience for the slow method and would be better suited to the fast method, and those that say they want to use the slow method will have most likely have a more analytical mind better suited to the slow and steady way."

"Really? You got all of that from a one word answer?"

"That, and I know you."

"Oh."

"Yes, 'oh', now keep trying."

Fuuka returned to her practice.

Slowly, both girls improved; Fumika got steadily better, lasting longer with every attempt, while with Fuuka it took longer for her to get going, but once she had, she improved greatly.

All the while, Kaede was content to watch from where she had re-perched herself on the overhanging rock.

At this point, both girls were taking semi-confident steps while Naruto kept watch.

"Um, Naruto-sensei," Fumika began as she walked towards him on the water, "I'm getting really tired," she admitted.

Taking a closer look, she looked exhausted. "Alright, I think that's enough for today."

"I'm not tired," Fuuka proudly told him.

"Then keep going if you want, but your sister's tired."

Said sister took this opportunity to stumble forward into Naruto; he allowed her to lean on his chest as she steadied himself, but when she slipped and almost fell into the water, Naruto outright picked her up and carried her to the shore bridal style.

Seeing this, Fuuka pouted and kicked water at him.

Naruto ignored her as he sat the younger girl down, but when he turned back to the elder sister he was grinning.

"So you want to a water fight Fuuka-chan? No problem!" he called as he immediately leaped into the pond and caused a wave.

She stumbled as the waves washed beneath her feet, forcing her up and down, but she didn't fall.

"Ha, I didn't fall!" she yelled, a smile stretching her face.

Then she felt a pair of hands wrap around her ankles. Looking down, she found the still grinning face of Naruto looking up at her from beneath the surface. "Well, crap." And then he pulled, forcing her under, squealing.

"Playing around, Naruto-sensei? You should be more serious if you're a teacher."

Both teens heard this comment by Kaede, distorted though it was. Fuuka watched as Naruto's face fell into a frown before reversing into a cheeky grin.

He winked at her before his hands began to form seals and a torrent of water burst forth from his mouth.

To Kaede, who couldn't see where her classmate or teacher lurked under the water, it was like a sudden stream that shot forth and soaked her.

"Ara ara, is Naruto-sensei inviting me to a water fight?"

Naruto's response was to repeat the technique, except widening it and aiming just above her head, causing the water to rain down on her from above.

Kaede stood up calmly, shaking the water out of her hair. Then, with a smile, she created three clones and sent them crashing into the water.

The newly risen Fuuka was hit full in the face with one of the resulting waves, causing her to splutter. With some difficulty, she climbed out onto the water's surface and made it to where her sister was resting.

Kaede took this opportunity to jump onto the waters surface, and her three clones did the same, climbing out of the turbulent waters.

There was still no sign of the blond shinobi.

"Are we playing hide and seek now Naruto-sensei?"

There was a moment of silence, and then the kunoichi was splashed from behind. Turning around, she found both the blond and the twins; the elder two were smiling down at her, while the youngest was shyly fretting over the whole thing.

She turned to where she last saw the twins to find them still there. Seeing her looking, they gave her identical grins before poofing into a pair of Narutos which gave her a wave before disappearing with another poof of smoke.

"I'll give you a tip for our next spar Kaede-chan. I'm never where you think I am." Suddenly Naruto straightened up and clapped his hands as Kaede squeezed some water from her hair. "I think it's time for lunch, and then we have to go back to school; we still have to help out with the Haunted House."

"Do we have to? I really want you to teach me more."

"I just finished teaching you to walk on water; what more do you want?"

"That Jutsu that let you spit so much water!"

"I didn't spit it out! Besides, it's too advanced for you…. And I'm not your teac- ninja instructor, Kaede-chan is. If you want to learn, ask her."

"Oww, but-"

"No buts."

"Fine," she sulked.

After that, the four caught some fish and cooked them around a fire.

"So, what did you want to tell me?" the kunoichi finally asked. They were sat side by side as the twins fought over the last fish opposite them.

"Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about that," Naruto admitted, scratching the back of his head. "I just wanted to tell you we'll be starting those sparring sessions after the festival is over and done with."

"And you came all this way de gozaru? I'm flattered."

Naruto shrugged. "I was looking for you, and it isn't like I had anything better to do. Besides, I was curious what you were doing all the way out here with the twins."

"This is my training ground and as you can see, we were training; you're welcome here anytime you want de gozaru."

"Thanks."

---

"So, what are we going to do about Naruto-sensei?" Mana asked her companion. She and one other person were in the top most level of the Tatsumiya Shrine.

"Don't worry; I know how to deal with Naruto-kun-ne."

"How?"

"How will I deal with him, or how do I know how to deal with him?"

"Both."

"Well, Naruto-kun is like a pussy cat with people he knows; unless we threaten to kill someone-ne. Then he'll become fierce as a hungry lion. That's one good reason why we'll be fine; there will be absolutely no killing" she strongly affirmed. "Without that being a possibility, Naruto-kun won't get serious. Well, too serious-ne."

"The amount of energy he gathered earlier seemed pretty serious to me," Mana pointed out.

"You saw Sage Mode?"

"No, I didn't see him. Is that what it's called?"

"Well, it's either Sage Mode or Kyuubi Mode; I've always wanted to see them-ne," a sigh escaped.

"Naruto-sensei has only been here for just over two months. Not exactly long enough for 'always.'"

"I've wanted to see it for more than two months; I've wanted to see it since I was a little girl."

"And how would you know all this?"

"Because, I'm a Martian!" she stood and shouted it out to the sky.

In response Mana whacked her over the head, an instinctive reaction.

"So, do you think he will join us?"

"Not a chance," she scoffed. "Naruto-kun has already sworn himself to the Headmaster and Negi-sensei, at least for now. He won't betray them-ne."

"Isn't he dissatisfied with having to hide his power?"

"As you've said, Naruto-kun has only been here for two months; not enough time to grow frustrated with having to hide his abilities. The fact that he has only been on two missions, is surrounded by Mages, and has been very secretive anyway doesn't help-ne. He doesn't yet understand the way the world is right now either, and how much revealing magic to the world will help it; he'll trust the Headmasters judgement over mine."

"I see. We can't risk explaining it to him either, because there is too much of a chance he will tip the teachers off."

"That's right."

"Naruto-sensei really is troublesome. We can't just leave him alone; he's too powerful to fight directly, even if he will hold back."

"The same method we are using against Negi-sensei will work on Naruto-kun-ne."

"And if it doesn't?"

"Well, we'll just have to ambush him."

"Did you just shiver?"

"No!"

"Yes you did."

"I'm not the only one-ne!"

Choosing to ignore that, Mana continued. "So, this ambush…"

---

Two days later Naruto was once again working in the 3-A classroom. It was in the evening; the class of 3-A had been working at lunch, after school, and in the evening between 19:00 and 21:00. It was looking as though they may have had to go into all night sessions, but with Naruto helping, it would only be one night instead of the perspective three that Ayaka thought it was going to be.

He was the first one here tonight, having come early and alone. It turned out Eva and Cha-chan may come to class early, but didn't want to come help the Haunted house any more than necessary. Well, Eva-chan at least. Naruto was sure Chachamaru would have come with him had he asked, and Eva-chan not demanded she stay with her.

"Naruto-sensei?"

Naruto turned from sewing a costume to look at the door. He found one of the girls looking in.

"Yuna?"

"Hey sensei."

She was alone, which was unusual. Yuna, and most people for that matter, usually travelled in a group, in her case mostly with Akira, Ako and Makie.

"What are you doing here so early?" she asked.

"Not much; I just thought I'd get a head start on this," Naruto told her, holding up a half finished costume. "What about you?"

"The same. I wanted to put the finally touches on my costume and try it on before anyone got here," she admitted with a blush.

"Really? I can leave if you want," he told her teasingly.

"No, its fine sensei," she was quick to tell him.

Naruto nodded, and after a quick rummage, pulled the red costume from the box. It was a rather skimpy outfit; it consisted of a red tube top with half sewn on white fur around the top, a pair of short shorts similarly coloured, the white fur around the waist fully attached this time. There was another red tail waiting to be attached, and a pair of paw like gloves, ears, and a black collar with a bell attached.

As he handed her the fabric, he couldn't help but imagine what she would look like wearing it.

Instantly the picture a picture of her entered his mind, the tight clothes hugging Yuna's frame, her belly, arms and legs bare, cute red gloves over each hand with the whole thing topped with cat ears sitting on her head.

Naruto flushed. "Ah, erm, here you go."

"Thanks," she energetically told him. Then she noticed how red his face was. She grinned. "Have you been picturing me in this outfit?" Naruto averted his eyes from hers, looking off to the side. "I'll look really cute and sexy in it won't I?"

"Y-y-yeah, you will," he stammered.

"Really? You think so?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Thank you! Does sensei want to see me in this outfit now?" she teased, holding the top to her torso as she gave him an inviting wink.

Naruto could feel his face heat up as the blood rushed to his face and his heart began to pound. He knew she was just messing with him, but it still threw him through a loop.

And then suddenly her teasing grin faded. "Sensei," she began slowly. "What was it like being a father?"

Naruto's face froze and his shoulders noticeably tensed. "Why do you ask?"

"Ah, sorry," she panicked, waving her arms back and forth in front of her, waving away the question.

"No, no, it's fine" he assured her. He motioned for her to take a seat next to him and she did so. "Honestly, I never really thought about it much," he started, gaining a far off look in his eye. "Shion was still pregnant when it happened. Thinking back, the baby would have been born soon; I think the due date would have been… late next month; the 30th. I can picture it now; it would have been a beautiful baby girl with my blonde hair and her mother's purple eyes. I can just imagine holding her in my arms," he admitted, miming just that. "I can practically hear her giggle…. I was gonna deliver her myself you know? After I'd finished that punishment Baa-chan gave me, she told me that I'd be putting all that training to use. She said: 'You were the one who put that baby in the poor girl; you'll be the one to pull it out.' As horrible as that sounds, I was actually looking forward to it."

Naruto focused back in on Yuna and the present; she looked sad, like she was regretting the question.

Then she suddenly stood up and wiped the tears from his cheeks, before holding his head to her chest in a comforting hug. He hadn't even noticed he'd been crying. He rubbed her arm in response, trying to convey his thanks. Soon, he had stopped crying, and looked up at her.

"Why did you want to know?" he asked again.

"I was just curious, that's all," she told him, breaking off the contact.

"If you want to talk about something, anything, I'll be happy to lend you an ear," he said in response, not quite believing her.

"Thanks," she quickly tried to leave.

"Where are you going?" he asked as she opened the door.

"Just to get a drink. Do you want one?"

"Yeah, sure; just get me anything."

As soon as she was out of his sight she flushed scarlet and breathed a sigh of relief at being able to hold it in.

The reason she had asked about Naruto's feelings on fatherhood was stupid. She had been speaking to her own dad, and he had said something along the lines of: "Being a dad's great. Some of my happiest moments were with you and your mother."

It had caused her to ask herself about what it would be like to be a mother; she had quickly realised that she couldn't really picture it. Then she had found Naruto in the room and suddenly remembered he was a parent. After a moment of thought, the question had slipped out. It was only after that that she had recalled that Naruto-sensei was only going to be a father and that his girlfriend died before she gave birth.

She felt terrible at the moment she realised her mistake and immediately tried to take it back. He had continued though, and as she listened to him speak of a daughter he had never had, she had felt both sadness for him, and an attraction to him. After he'd finished, her immediate response was to comfort him, doubly so when she noticed the tears.

Once his head was resting on her meagre bosom though, she had become almost instantly aware of the intimateness of the gesture. She had had to fight back the blush as she left the room, unwilling to ruin his moment of mourning for the sake of her own silly embarrassment.

Still though, the way he talked about even the prospect of being a dad set her heart racing. Maybe Sakurako had the right idea; Naruto-sensei was cute, had a great body, usually filled a room with cheer, and was always helpful. He would make a great boyfriend. She might just try that confession thing after all.

Right now though, Naruto-sensei was still a little upset; maybe some of her natural cheer would help get him back to normal.

Taking a deep breath, she brought a smile to her lips as she opened the door again. He turned at the noise and gave her confused look. "Now, let's get started!"

Naruto's look of confusion morphed into a grin as they both got to work. Who cared about the drinks?

---

Three days before the festival, Naruto was once again working away in the classroom. Now, however, things were finally picking up. This particular morning, Ayaka was feeling just how close to their deadline it was and had been shouting out orders as soon as she arrived.

Naruto was fine with this, at least until Negi arrived. He gave a wave to the child teacher, which he returned.

"How are you doing," Negi asked the class at large.

"We're knee deep in it!" Yuna yelled.

"You'll help us, won't you Negi?" Makie asked.

.

"We should NOT ask Negi-sensei for help!" Iincho shouted, her attention caught. Suddenly she was right in front of the kid, holding both of his hands in hers. "Negi-sensei is a teacher, and this is his first year too. Teacher's shouldn't have to help, and should be allowed to relax."

Naruto shot her a dirty look, causing Sakurako to giggle from beside him.

Naruto debated with himself whether or not he should give her a detention for pure cheek. Then he sighed and let it go. For now.

Suddenly the girl beside him smiled. "Ah, sensei, I wanted to invite you to a concert. Me, Misa, Madoka and Ako are playing during the festival. Will you come?"

"I'd love to. When and where?"

Just as she was about to answer, she was cut off by the twins. "How sly, asking sensei like that. Our club is having a walking tour. You should come too sensei!"

After that, it was like a switch had been turned on and the girls began to crowd around both boys, inviting them to their club activities.

Naruto agreed to everything that was asked of him; his only worry was trying to remember it all. Luckily, he spotted Chamo jotting it all down for both him and Negi. Noticing Naruto's gaze, the ermine flashed him a reassuring thumbs up. Before Naruto could think too hard about how the girls hadn't spotted the white animal when it was sitting so plainly on Asakura's shoulder, and how an ermine had thumbs, he caught a glimpse of how panicked Negi was becoming.

Unlike Naruto, who knew he could be in one thousand places at once, Negi was busy trying to arrange it all in his head, and with a dozen girls crowding around him and inviting him to events, the Mage was a little overwhelmed.

It was then that Asakura stepped in as both Naruto and Negi's manager, or more accurately Chamo using Asakura as a go between.

"Hey! Since when were you Naruto/Negi-sensei's manager!"

"Since the trip to Kyoto," she revealed with a mysterious smile. "But, well, if you don't want to accept me in that position, it just means that Negi-sensei may not make it to your event. He is only ten, and with so many things going on, who knows whose club activities might slip through the cracks," she said to them with an exaggerated sigh.

Ayaka and the others fumed. While it was true Negi was very mature for his age, he was still only ten, and with 31 different places to go to, it would be easy for something to be forgotten. The unspoken threat wasn't missed; if Asakura remained his manager but the girls didn't acknowledge that, Negi would conveniently be indisposed during their event.

"Fine! Once you've invited sensei to your event, get back to work!" Ayaka called out before informing both Negi and Asakura of her horse-back riding exhibition.

Slowly, most of the girls had invited both teachers, though some had only invited one teacher. For example, Ayaka had only invited Negi, while Sayo had only invited Naruto. It wouldn't stop both of them from going to the events regardless though.

Lunch rolled around, and Negi, Naruto, Asuna and the manager duo were all looking over the rapidly growing schedules for each boy.

"It's a tight fit, and I tried to leave you some room for yourself, but…" Chamo trailed off. "I'm not sure you'll be able to fit everybody in."

"Its three days, right? Plenty of time." Asuna noted.

"Yeah. I'd been planning on visiting them all anyway Chamo-kun. I'm their teacher after all."

"That's right Negi-kun"

"And what about you?" Asuna asked Naruto. "Are you going to go see everyone too?"

"Yeah, no problems. I'll have an easier time than Negi here."

"And why is that?"

"Kage Bunshin," Negi answered for him. "Naruto-nii-san can be in dozens of places at once with that Jutsu. What's more, he retains all of the memories and experiences form the clones. It's no problem for him to be in multiple places at once."

Asuna gave a low whistle. "That's one amazing spell you have there."

"Jutsu," Naruto idly corrected as he spotted a group of three approach. It was Yue, Haruna and Nodaka. Each was wearing an apron with a picture of a cat over their uniform.

"Hello everyone, hello Negi-sensei," Nodoka greeted with a smile.

"H-hi," Negi awkwardly returned.

"H-hello," she repeated.

"Nodoka-san? Is there a problem?"

She flushed scarlet immediately, and Naruto suppressed a groan. "It's, it's, it's… The library club is having… Won't you please come to our scavenger hunt?" she stuttered out loudly, thrusting a set of tickets out at him.

Negi took them with a naïve smile, and Haruna and Yue immediately rushed forward, pushing the Nodoka behind them.

"The Manga club will be doing caricatures, so you must come, okay?

"The Children's Literary Club will be having a group reading, while the Philosophy Club will be hosting a discussion circle on Heidegger and Aristotle. May we expect you?"

While Negi stuttered out an acceptance and Chamo added it to the list, Haruna and Yue began frantically whispering something to the shy girl behind them.

Once again, she stepped forward. "Erm, er, er… Negi-sensei, during the school festival, would you like to go together with me?"

"Ah, go, together?"

"It's so embarrassing! I cannot believe I said it!" she yelled, running away.

"Geez, she didn't even wait for an answer! You'll do it though, right?" Haruna asked.

"S-sure I-I will, but…"

"Make it the last day if possible," the short philosopher added, before Haruna set off running. Yue was about to follow when she noticed Asuna's thoughtful expression. "Something wrong Asuna-san?"

"N-no, it's just… she's really brave, isn't she?"

"Heh, can't argue with you there." With that, she was gone.

Chamo and the two girls gave Negi an amused look, while Naruto rolled his eyes.

"E-excuse me… Sorry to interrupt, Negi-sensei," Chachamaru bean to speak to the boy.

Meanwhile, Asakura turned to Naruto. "Someone doesn't seem happy with Miyazaki-san," she noted. "Don't you approve?"

"Not really."

"Why not? I think it's cute."

"And I think Negi's ten and Nodaka is, what, 14, 15? It doesn't matter how mature he is for a ten year old, it doesn't change the fact that he is ten. Besides, he's worse than me when it comes to these things, and I'm terrible."

"That's no barrier to love."

"Tell me Kasumi, have you ever seriously considered Negi as a boyfriend?"

"What, no!"

"Have you thought about it at all?"

"I-I admit I've entertained the thought, but I've never seriously considered it. He's just a kid!"

"Exactly. I don't really like the idea of Nodaka getting close to him and trying to start a romance."

"If not Nodaka, then who do you think would be best for Negi-sensei?"

"Again, he's ten," Naruto repeated. "I don't think anyone should date him, at least not until he is older. Or maybe someone his own age," he mused. "It's not like I'm going to get in the way. Well, not unless they try to cross a line no te year old should cross," Naruto finally sighed as Chachamaru sped off.

Moments later, Kotaro appeared. "Negi!" he shouted as he ran up to the red head. Naruto moved to stand beside them. "The battle tournament registration is almost over. We should hurry and sign up!"

"But I don't want to!"

"What are you talking about? This is the best opportunity to see who is the strongest!"

"If the tournament is just martial arts, I've got no chance. Plus, my schedule's packed."

"Don't worry; I'll squeeze some time out of it. This is a great opportunity to see how far you've come," Chamo pointed out.

"He has a point. This is a great time to test yourself against new opponents," Naruto agreed.

"Exactly! But, er, there's a problem."

"What problem?"

"Anyone under the age of 12 gets put in the children's division. Fighting them would be like bullying."

"Heh heh, I've got a plan."

"Why doesn't that sound good?" Naruto asked.

"Really?" Kotaro ignored him.

"Yep. Aniki, Kotaro, follow me," the white ermine commanded, setting off on a run. "You're going to love this!"

"Hey, wait, you don't mean?" Negi called after them.

"Oi, what is it?" Naruto followed.

Chamo lead the group to a nearby clothes store. "Here, grab these," he directed all three, pointing to two sets of teenage clothing and one for a kid.

Confused, they grabbed them and quickly paid for them. Chamo handed each of them a candy; the two boys a red one and Naruto a blue one, and directed them into changing rooms.

Naruto looked at the clothes he was handed and frowned as he realised it was the smallest set; ones fit for a ten year old.

Nevertheless, he swallowed the candy. With a pop, he shrank. Looking into the mirror, he found himself looking at himself as he looked at Negi's age. He was skinnier, his hair looked longer and fuzzier, his eyes were wider and more open. All in all he looked more innocent; a contrast to the mirror image he remembered looking at when he actually was that age. Back then he was always angry, and his eyes were full of rage. He smiled at his reflection. This was much better.

He quickly changed into the clothes he had been handed and out of the outfit he had been wearing. When he left the changing room he found two teens waiting for him, one a red head and the other a boy with long and spiky black hair. He blinked, then realized he should have expected this. The two boys were obviously Negi and Kotaro.

"Nice look there small fry," the half demon taunted. Naruto immediately resisted the urge to smack the boy upside the head. He settled for a glare which caused Kotaro to grin.

Grumbling, Naruto led the way out of the shop. On the way, Chamo explained the candy. "These are age changing pills. The blue ones make you look younger, while the red ones make you look older. They're really high class magic items. With these, you can enter the adult tournament with no problems."

"And why did you see the need to make me younger?"

Chamo gave him a grin. "You'll see."

Naruto shivered.

"Still, these pills are amazing," Kotaro gushed.

"What, don't you know Henge?" Naruto asked.

"Huh, Henge? You mean transformation?"

"Yeah, basically."

"Nope."

Naruto looked him up and down. "I'll see if I can teach it to you," he offered after a moment. "It's really useful if you know how to use it right, and I can teach you a load of different tricks."

"Thanks Aniki!"

"No problem."

Negi shook his head with a small smile on his face. He found it surprisingly amusing to hear Kotaro call Naruto big brother in these forms.

"So why do you have these pills anyway?"

"We needed them to help Asuna-san with that practice date we told you about."

"What practice date?"

"Huh? I thought Chamo called you to ask if you would help." Three sets of eyes turned to the white ermine.

"So I lied," he cracked under the pressure.

"Wait, why did you need me?"

"Asuna-san needed to practice dating, and she wanted you to do it with, but when Chamo called you and said that you said you couldn't help, we had to resort to these pills to age me up so I could stand in," he rambled before taking a deep breath.

"Geez you two, its always girls girls girls. What's your problem?" Kotaro put in.

At that moment, a group of first year high school girls tittered as they passed, giving both teens their undivided attention. None of the three noticed.

As they got closer to their destination, one thing lingered in Naruto's mind. 'She asked for me?'

He was unaware that Asuna didn't want to do it in the first place, and when she was cornered she had a choice between two people, and frankly she would rather have the teen than the ten year old.

When they finally arrived back at where they had left the girls, they also found Ako and Madoka speaking to a flustered Asuna.

Spotting them, Negi politely greeted them. "Ako-san, Kugimiya-san! How are you?"

"Do we know you?" Ako asked shyly, taking slight refuge behind Madoka.

"Now there are two cute guys and an adorable kid," Madoka muttered to herself.

"Negi, you idiot!" Asuna whispered, punching the boy/teen in the face.

As they began to whisper to each other, Naruto stepped forward. "Nice to meet you nee-chan's, my name's Arashi!" he enthused.

"Aww, he's so cute!" Madoka squealed, pinching his whiskered cheeks. Naruto silently endured the pinching, until he heard another incoming voice. "Ako! Madoka!" Sakurako yelled, approaching the group. "Huh, who are they?"

"I'm Nagi Springfield. Asuna-san has told me all about you; I can hardly believe this is our first meeting."

"Oh, um," Ako stuttered.

Meanwhile, Shiina turned her attention to the chibified Naruto. There were hearts in her eyes as she looked him over. Naruto cringed as she suddenly began to hug him tightly to her chest. As Naruto was hugged, smothered and generally molested for his cuteness, 'Nagi' was being invited to the concert.

"Please come if you can?" Ako blushed, handing over a set of tickets. "Gotta go!" she ran.

"I hope to see you there," Madoka bowed. "Bring the cute guy next to you too."

"Come on Sakurako!"

"Hai!" the cheerful girl replied, taking the feebly struggling Naruto with her. His head was still pressed into her modest chest and her arms were still liberally feeling him up.

"Help! Help!" he shouted.

"Shiina!" Asuna snapped, "You can't just take some kid you don't know," she chastised, ripping 'Arashi' from the girl. Straight away the blond boy latched onto the red haired girl's shirt and hid behind her.

"But he's so cute!" she said again, ruffling his spiky hair. "Ah, his hair's so soft," she said again, reaching around Asuna to begin rubbing her cheek on the apparently soft hair.

"Let go!" Asuna tried again.

Eventually, she let up. "But only if he comes by tonight," she pouted.

"No, I-" Asuna began, and Shiina was already reaching out to hug him again.

"Fine, fine, I promise I'll come tonight."

"Yay!" she cheered. "I'll hold you to that!" she told them as she ran to catch up with Ako and Madoka.

Naruto gave a sigh of relief as Negi and Kotaro chuckled.

Naruto threw them another glare, though he was silently relieved Negi had a sense of humour. The kid laughed very little. Sure, he smiled, but this was maybe the third or forth time he had actual managed to get the kid to laugh.

"You know, you can let go of me now," Asuna told him.

It was only then that Naruto realized he was still clinging onto her. With a start, Naruto released his hold and backed off. With a shy blush on his face, he scratched the back of his head. "Sorry."

"C-cute," Asuna muttered embarrassedly. Asakura nodded her head in silent agreement, snapping a picture out of reflex.

Turning to Negi, he spotted Chamo leering at him. "You planned this!"

"Heh heh, I thought you would want to know what it's like for Aniki. Give you a little perspective." He puffed on a cigar, smirking.

"You little rat bastard!"

"And now it's not just going to be a hand full, but the full deck," the smirk got bigger, "cause you never go back on a promise."

Chamo blinked, and the next thing he knew he was in Naruto's hands, who twisted, a sadistic grin on his face.

Suddenly, Eva zoomed onto the scene. "Nagi! What the hell-!"

"Ah, Evangeline-san," Negi acknowledged.

"Ah, it's just you," she was quick to realize. Mage's had a mild form of telepathy, and seeing through illusions like this was quite easy. "Why the hell are you going around with a magical illusion?"

As Negi explained, Kotaro turned to whisper to Naruto. "Who is this?"

"This is Eva, Negi's teacher. She's a vampire, and is epically powerful. Apparently. There's a barrier…" he quickly explained the whole thing. "She was the owner of the resort we trained in for a little while."

"Oh, that's cool."

"I see," Eva stated. "I think I'll join this tournament myself. I want to see how my disciple has improved."

"You, Master!"

"Whoa!"

"Then I might join too," Naruto chirped.

Eva stared at him for a full minute before bursting out laughing. "Hahahahaha, is that you Naruto? Hahahahaha!" she clutched at her ribs as they began to ache.

"Shut it Chibi-chan!"

"Haha, like you can call me that now! You're shorter than me!"

"Am not."

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too! Argh! Damn body!"

"Huh? What are you yelling about now?"

"This damn body! Sometimes I act like a kid because of it!"

"Then why am I acting like this?"

"Maybe the magic's affecting you."

Naruto turned to Chamo, looking for an answer. "I thought this was just an illusion."

"It's possible you're mind is being affected. You come from so far in the past you may not have the natural immunity most people take for granted, or might just react differently."

They considered this for a moment. "Or maybe you're just naturally that childish."

The people around them nodded in agreement to this last one.

"Hey!" Naruto pouted.

"You'll be punished if you fail to beat me in my weakened state," she told them. "For the whole last Festival day you will have to do anything I say, in that form."

Naruto pointed to himself. "Even me?"

"Especially you!" she yelled, twirling around to point at him.

"Aww, then let's make it interesting. A bet."

"What are the terms?"

"If I win, you'll do one thing I say. If you win, you get to tell me to do one thing, as well as doing anything you say on the third day."

"That's pretty vague."

"Alright, I'll tell you now; you have to call me 'Onii-chan.'"

"You're still on about that?"

"I only put it on the back burner; I didn't forget. Now's the perfect time to get you to call me that."

"Fine!" she growled. "But if I win, you have to call me 'My Mistress' at all times, even when you're talking about me to someone else."

Both ten year old looking blondes pressed their foreheads together in challenge.

"However, you can't use chakra during the fight," Eva added. In her weakened state, chakra would tip the scale much too far in his favour, and unlike Negi, he had the experience to properly utilise his powers. With her centuries of experience, against Negi, there was a chance she could win even if he did use magic due to him only recently beginning to learn. Naruto had years more practice.

"Done!"

Asakura grinned as she watched. "Alright, with that is your bet agreed?"

"Agreed!" they shouted simultaneously, pressing their heads together almost painfully. They were so close their noses mashed together and they could feel the others breath on their lips. Never one to miss an opportunity, the reporter clicked another photo.

With one final huff, Eva turned and departed, but not before giving one final gloat. "I can't wait to have three slaves for a day!"

"What did she mean by three?" Kotaro asked once she was gone.

"By the way," Naruto opened with, dismissing Kotaro's words, "I was taller!"

Asuna looked upward, thinking, 'I don't think you were.'

---

With much fear, 'Arashi' approached the 3-A classroom, Naruto escorting him. The taller of the two was just a clone, while the real Naruto was 'Arashi'. He thought the smaller of the two needed to be more durable.

Just before he opened the door, the clone turned to him. "Good luck Boss; I'll try to run interference as best I can."

Arashi nodded, took a deep breath, and then signalled the clone to open the door.

They were a little late today, and so the room was packed when they opened the door. Arashi cringed as all eyes focused on him and jaws dropped.

"He's so cute!" Misa was the first to react.

"See, see, I told you. His cuteness surpasses that of Negi-sensei's."

"I wouldn't go that far, but he isn't bad," Ayaka allowed. "But nobody beats Negi-sensei!" she reaffirmed.

"They look like brothers," Chisame pointed out. "I thought Naruto-sensei was an orphan.

"Coincidence," was Naruto's simple response.

"Bull!"

"Kyah!" the rest of the girls finally pounced, crowding around Arashi, questioning him and hugging him close.

"I'm an orphan," he explained. "Nagi, Naruto and Kojiro (the name they had given to Kotaro's elder form) are some of my sponsors, and decided to take me out for awhile."

As soon as he had finished the sentence, Arashi knew he had made a mistake. The by now slightly familiar sight of streaming tears assaulted him, and he was almost crushed by glomping.

By the end of the night, a dizzy Naruto stumbled to Negi's dorm room and knocked. He'd spent the entire two hours being passed from one girl to another, receiving 'motherly' hugs, having his face pushed into their still developing bosoms and listening to near incoherent blabber that was meant to cheer him up. Then it got worse, as he was once again passed from person to person, except this time the girls didn't even try to act motherly, well, except for Chizuru, who seemed to have that as her default mode, and spent their time stroking his hair and body, dressing him up and finally giving him little kisses. Never on the lips though. Apparently while Negi was cute, huggable and fun to tease, Arashi was cute, kissable, and provided the perfect opportunity to practice mothering someone.

Naruto silently prayed for the emotional scarring their future children would have if they didn't mature. Some of things they did were not motherly at all, despite what they might think.

His clone had been useless the entire time as well; he kept getting blindsided by the girls who weren't smothering Arashi to be told what an amazing thing he was doing.

Chizuru for one had gone so far as to kiss Naruto's cheek, causing the clone to blush.

Not even Mana and Kaede spared him. Even though they could immediately sense it was him, they seemed to take sadistic pleasure in playing with him.

"Aren't you just so cute," Mana opened with. Arashi backed away as she approached, intimidated by her impressive height; she loomed over him with ease. She quickly grabbed him before he could get away and quickly buried him in her cleavage. "I never would have expected you to be here in this diminutive form Naruto-sensei," she whispered, giving him a small grin.

"Mana-chan. Can you, er, get off me?"

"I'm afraid not. You see, I still haven't payed you back for sneaking into my room and humiliating me so. I wonder what I can do with you now? Maybe get you into some of the costumes? I'll bet you'd love that."

Naruto gulped. "Please let me go. If you don't, I may have to do something you'll regret."

"Such as?" she called his bluff.

"You like to compete with Kaede-chan, right?"

"You know I do."

"If you don't let me go, you'll catch up to her but lose all respect of your class mates. Last chance; please let me go?"

"No."

"Fine. Don't say I didn't warn you."

With a heave, Naruto pushed his head out of the valley between her soft breasts. Instantly she pulled him back, not willing to let him get away. Anticipating this, Naruto had mananged to pull himself up.

As she pulled him close, instead of into her bosom, his face mashed lightly onto hers, meeting lip to lip in a kiss. She spluttered and Naruto took this opportunity to wriggle free.

The other girls quickly descended. "Now tha's too far! Young boys shouldn't be forced like that," Ayaka told Mana, who was blushing lightly.

From the perspective of everyone else, she had snuggled Arashi's head between her breasts, and then when he had tried to pull free, she had forced a kiss. When she threw him a glare through the crowd of girls, he flipped her the bird.

Naruto continued to stumble back, right into Kaede. She gave him a knowing look and ruffled his hair, bfore the look turned hard and she began to reach down to grab him. Unwilling to let himself be caught again, he slipped though her arms, giving her a slap on the ass as he passed by. She jumped from the unexpected contact. Arashi found himself next to the twins; he exchanged a glance with them before breaking out into silent giggles. He was already plotting pranks when he was swept up into Cizuru's arms, were he was put back into the group to play.

In the end, to even get out the door he had had to promise to make an appearance during the festival.

Finally, Negi opened the door. Still somewhat dizzy, Naruto just spoke the truth. "Those girls are nuts. You have my undying respect for managing to do anything with them. Goodnight."

---

The day before the festival, Naruto was chatting to Chachazero when someone knocked on the door.

He opened it to find Takamichi waiting for him. "Ah, Naruto-kun."

"Takamichi."

"Will you come with me for a moment? The Headmaster wants to speak to you."

"Ah, sure. Just give us a second," he told the glasses wearing teacher. He went back into the cottage. "Zero-chan, I have somewhere to go, you wanna come?"

"Hai!" she cheered. She was quick to take her usual place atop Naruto's shoulders.

"Alright, let's go," he told Takamichi as they set off.

As they made their way towards the World Tree Plaza, Takamichi gave the puppet and Naruto a slightly surprised look. When Naruto noticed and gave him a confused look of his own, he was quick to explain. "I must say I'm surprised you and Eva-san's puppet get along so well."

In response, Naruto smacked the teacher in the stomach causing him to stop short. "Her name is Chachazero, and she's more than just Eva-chan's puppet."

"Ah, of course."

"Why are you surprised?"

"It's just I didn't think you two would have anything to talk about."

"Ah, we just talk about normal stuff. Our past battles, things that happen during the day, that sort of thing."

"That's right!" Zero added.

"I see," he acknowledged with a nod of his head. "Ah, we've arrived," he noted.

Naruto turned his head to find themselves at the Plaza; there were 17 other people present, including Negi, Kotaro, Setsuna and even the two girls he had met the other day, Mei and Takane. The only other people he recognised off the top of his were the Headmaster and Shizuna-sensei.

On the far left were two nuns, one adult (Sister Shikti) and one younger than Naruto. To their direct right was a man in a suit that he vaguely recognised but couldn't place (Seruhiko), then Mei, then the Headmaster, Shizuna, Kotaro, Negi and Setsuna all in a row. Then there were three people, one girl in a sailor uniform, and then two adult men, again in suits. One rather chubby (Nijuin Mitsuru) and the other slightly taller and more fit looking (Akashi). This time he didn't recognise them at all. To their direct right were Takane, and then another group of three, two very tall men (Gandolfini) and a blonde sword wielding woman (Kuzunoha Toko), again in suits. Standing a step apart was another man with a beard and sunglasses wearing a suit (Kataragi). Naruto guessed they were teachers, but couldn't be sure.

"We've been waiting for you, Naruto-kun."

"Yo. You got a mission for me old man?"

"Hohoho, yes indeed. And for everyone here too."

Naruto scanned the crowd and quirked a brow.

"Ah yes, I was about to introduce them. These people are students and teachers from across the campus. All are involved in Magic to some degree or another, teachers or students of the art."

"EH?" Negi yelled. Naruto shrugged, not really surprised at this development.

The teachers took this opportunity to step forward and greet the blond and red head.

"I never would have guessed there would be so many Mage's in this academy."

"I didn't know either." Setsuna added.

"Really? You didn't suspect at all?"

"You knew?"

"No, but I'd thought about it," Naruto admitted. "I mean, there's the giant man eating tree, the vampire guard dog, class 3-A (a magical occurrence in itself), half demons, robots, you."

"When you put it like that," Negi muttered, his eyes down cast as he scratched the back of his head. Behind him, the teacher with a sword whispered to her companion, "Man eating?" The suited man shrugged in reply.

"Now, if I can have your attention please. I would like to explain to you the reason I have gathered you here today," the old man began. "We have a problem, and I'll be needing your help to set it right."

"An enemy!"

"Again!"

"Calm down you little brats," Naruto told the two speakers, Kotaro and Negi respectively, ruffling both boys' hair as he spoke. "Wait for it."

From atop his head, Zero sniggered, knowing that he was even worse then them when he was their age.

"Quite right. You are all aware of the Legend of the World Tree, are you not?"

"Which one?"

"Of course!"

This time it was Naruto and Kotaro who had spoken. The blond turned his attention to the half demon, who continued speaking.

"All the kids in my class are talking about it. Something about wishes made on the third day will always come true, blah, blah."

"Wasn't it more about making couples?"

Naruto searched his memory. He might have heard something about this while he was working.

"That's close enough," the old man interrupted. "The thing is, it's true. Wishes do can come true, especially every 22 years. And so, what I need everyone to do, on the last day especially, is prevent any and all students from putting the World \tree Legend to the test."

"So it really does work!"

"Hohoho, as you already know, and Naruto-kun can in particular attest, the World Tree is in fact a magic tree. Once every 22 years, the magical energy accumulates and it begins to glow. From the Word Tree in the center, six loci surround it from which the magic emanates. This Plaza is one of those places."

Hearing this, Naruto began to shift around uneasily.

"This magic is very vulnerable to human emotions. It won't grant wishes for money or power, but when in it comes to things like confessions of love, it grants a 120% success rate! We can't let this kind of power be misused! Changing weather patterns, the environment, Naruto's freedom, who knows why, but what should happen next year is happening now. That is the reason I have gathered you here today."

"But what's wrong with falling in love?" Negi asked.

"But it is wrong. This magic will permanently change that person; I shouldn't need to tell you how Love Potions and the like are illegal. Would you want to fall in love against your will?"

At this, Negi began frantically whispering to Chamo about something Naruto didn't quite catch. He was too busy listening to what Zero was saying.

"If it can make people fall in love by confessing, can't they also turn someone into a blood thirsty killing machine?" the puppet asked with a grin and a giggle. The people around paled at the thought.

"I-It's possible. The wrong words at the wrong time, and we may have a massacre on our hands."

"In theory, you could make anyone act however you want and do whatever you want," Takamichi added.

"Hopefully none of our students hold such ideas, but we should always be cautious." The headmaster changed gears and continued on the original track. "I imagine the rumour has spread thoroughly throughout the campus."

"Very much so," Shizuna told them. "The 'Seven Wonders' club; the Historical Society; the Occult researchers club- they have all investigated the World Tree's glow. Many have come dangerously close to the truth. In female students, the rumour has spread to 79 percent of the student body, and 34 percent among men. Fortunately, the number of people who actually believe is much lower."

Akashi stepped forward. "Still, even if we are only talking about girls who believe in such superstitions and want to try it out, we have quite the number to contest with."

"Indeed. This is how things currently stand. Most of the danger lays on the final day, but already there are signs of activity. I feel for my pitiful pupils, but I must ask you to guard the six loci and prevent confessions."

"We're being watched," Mei noted.

Instantly the suited man who was standing apart from the others earlier, who had slicked back black hair, a goatee, and a cigarette in his mouth, snapped his fingers while extending his arm outwards and downwards. A razor thin shockwave erupted outward.

Naruto followed the wave with his eyes and frowned when spotted the wavering form of Sayo next the falling rubble.

"I didn't sense any magical power."

"Must be mechanical. A student perhaps?"

"If that's true, I must congratulate them for getting past the barrier."

"We must never underestimate the students," the teachers conversed.

Naruto pointed at her and crooked his finger in the universal signal for 'get down here right now'. She gave him a guilty look, and then floated down and into the town. Naruto dismissed her for now; he would speak to her later.

"I'll find them," Takane offered. "It shouldn't be too hard; the number of students capable of this is few."

"Please do."

Dozens of rooftops away, a pair of girls prepared to flee, their spy-bot destroyed. Back at the Plaza, the headmaster continued.

"As long as they don't confess or," he threw a look at Zero, "something else, it should be fine. The main concern is that the adolescences don't make a huge mistake. I should warn you that magic users are more likely to achieve a successful request." The principal nodded his oblong head.

Naruto raised his hand.

"Yes Naruto-kun."

"Can't we just chop the tree down?"

"NO! Of course not."

"Aw," Naruto pouted.

"All of us will make patrol shifts until the festival ends. Alright, scatter!" he finally ordered.

"Yes Sir!"

"Sure thing old man."

Instantly the other Mage's scattered, leaving Konoe, Kotaro, Negi, Setsuna and Naruto in the plaza as it slowly began to fill with people again.

"Where did these people all come from?" Naruto asked.

"The spell keeping them away has been lifted," Negi explained.

"Really? Cool."

"Negi-kun, Naruto-kun, please avoid confessions to your own selves as well."

"Wah, what are you trying to say?"

"That's right Negi, you should be careful!"

"I meant you too Naruto-kun."

"Huh, why I should I be careful?"

"Idiot," Setsuna softly stated.

"Hey!" Naruto shouted. "Is there anything else old man?"

"No, no, just please be careful."

"Sure thing."

With that warning given, Konoe began to amble away and out of sight.

"So, where to?" Kotaro asked as the four began to walk in a random direction.

"I want to checkout some of the booths at the market," Negi told them.

They all agreed, and so set off for the crowded market place. It was situated in the long streets of Mahora, making them seem quite narrow. There were people everywhere, buying, selling and even just talking.

"Still, who would have thought the legends were true?"

"I thought the World Tree magic came from you?" Setsuna said to Naruto. "Do you have any abilities that could explain this?"

"No, I don't have anything that could do that. My chakra is highly responsive to emotions, but other than that, I have no idea."

"Is that the Kyuubi's fault Naruto-sama?"

"Yeah. Its chakra responds to hatred and dark emotions, while in response mine responds to love and happy emotions. We have a Yin and Yang thing going on."

"Kyuubi? Isn't that the Demon God you were talking to that old demon bastard about?" Kotaro was the one to notice.

"Haven't I told you?"

Setsuna and Kotaro shook their heads. So, Naruto gave them the very short version: "I had the Kyuubi sealed inside me at birth. I got a lot of pure power from it, but it made me an outcast in my youth. Kind of like you two."

Setsuna blinked. "I see."

"Is that what you meant in Kyoto?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Does that mean you're strong?" Kotaro asked.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Yeah, but you already knew that."

"Geez Kotaro, is fighting all you think about?" Negi asked.

He shrugged and grinned in response.

Naruto opened his mouth to give his opinion when he was interrupted by Zero. "Don't be too hard on him Master, he's just a dog."

"Hey. All you think about violence too. Except your version has way more blood."

Zero gave a shy giggle, knowing she had been pegged completely.

Naruto opened his mouth again, this time to ask if she just called him Master when he spotted something. A girl in a beige coat was falling from the roof of a nearby building. Instantly, he rushed to catch her, the others following him with their eyes, confused.

She landed easily in his arms, though the force of the landing knocked back the hood that had been hiding for face.

"Chao?"

"Nii-er-Naruto-kun?" She seemed as shocked as he was. She almost instantly composed herself though. "I'm being chased by evil mages, will you help me?"

"Wha! Mages?" Negi asked.

Instantly, Naruto's formally grinning face became serious. "Sure thing," he told her. He turned to the other three. "Let's go," he ordered, jumping away so fast he became a blur.

"Sweet! A fight!" Kotaro called as he chased after him.

"What's going on?" Negi asked the only one that was left, Setsuna.

"I don't know, but I suggest we catch up to find out. Or would you rather risk Chao-san getting hurt?"

That harsh reminder was enough to get Negi moving. Setsuna was momentarily stunned at the display of sudden speed he deployed, before she too rushed to catch up.

It didn't take too long for the four of them to meet up, jumping from surface to surface, including buildings, rails and even food stalls, all at speeds that defied normal human eyes.

Even moving so quickly and carrying someone, Setsuna got the distinct impression Naruto-sensei was annoyed at how slow they were moving.

During a particularly long leap high in to the air, they finally got a glimpse of their pursuers. It was a group of seven people in black clothes and cloaks, which seemed near ethereal to Naruto. Each wore a bone white mask with a different shape and pattern.

"What are they?" Kotaro asked. "Can we fight them?" he asked hopefully.

"What's going on?" Negi enquired.

"Like I said, I'm being chased by evil Mage's. Please Negi-sensei, help me?"

"Setsuna!" Naruto yelled, catching her attention. In front of the group rose three more of the enemies. They rose from the stone rooftop like wraiths.

Instantly the swordswoman sped forward, spinning her still sheathed blade and knocking the attackers away, allowing Naruto safe passage.

When they landed, Naruto instantly noticed that they were fast becoming surrounded.

"These come from Western Mage's!" Negi informed them.

"They're like my Inugami, so it's alright to kill them."

"Really? Rip them to shreds Naruto-sama!"

Naruto nodded his head at that and placed Chao on the ground. "Stay down," he told her, pushing her head low to the ground to reinforce his point.

The creatures closed in quickly, and Kotaro and Setsuna were equally quick to attack, punching and slashing them, while Negi began preparing a spell.

Naruto waited a moment longer, until they were in close, allowing him to duck underneath one as it swiped at him, directing its fist and throwing the creature off balance.

As he touched the things arm, he could sense that it wasn't quite real. It was solid, but had a feathery, light feel that made Naruto think of it as nothing more than animated silk, if that.

With the creature off balance, it was easy enough to punch it back and into one of its companions. Jumping up, he landed a quick heel drop, causing them to dissipate like smoke.

Meanwhile, Negi had finished his incantation and sent 17 arrows of Light towards a second wave, which tore through them and exploded, simulating fireworks.

Naruto was silently impressed with Negi for remembering to keep a low profile; Naruto had forgotten all about that and was just lucky he hadn't done anything attention grabbing yet.

Suddenly a third wave appeared, this time rising from the floor. Naruto instantly spotted three of them, one behind each of his companion, and by the look on Setsuna's face as she looked his way, their was probably one behind him as well.

None of these were of concern to him though; he was more worried about the two that had appeared either side of Chao. He instinctively brought his hands together to create Kage Bunshin; his real self raced forward to Chao, his clone speeding off to take care of the enemy behind Setsuna as she came at equal speed to slash through the one behind him. From the corner of his eye, he spotted Kotaro and Negi doing the same.

The real him jumped into the air, twisting so that when he passed between the two looming over Chao his head was towards one and his feet the other. Simultaneously, he kicked and punched, knocking both back. He landed in a crouch and sprang forward; he delivered a drop kick to one, and using it as a springboard, he punched the other. Both disappeared in wisps of smoke.

That was the last of them. As soon as it was clear, Setsuna grabbed Chao and set off again, looking for a safe place to hide and plan.

"Hehehehehe," Zero giggled madly. "That was awesome!"

"Yeah, it was pretty cool. How many did you get?" Kotaro asked.

"Erm, 8."

"6." Setsuna gave a succinct response. She didn't care about showing off her kill count, but counting the number of already defeated enemies is also useful. Kotaro probably unconsciously picked up the habit on previous missions and began to ask because of his competitive nature, while his previous companions answered for the same reason as Setsuna.

"I got the same. You Aniki?"

"Only 5."

"Ha, the so called strongest got the fewest kills."

"Shut it Dog boy!" Zero was quick to defend him as Setsuna ducked in between two buildings and the boys followed her.

"Thanks, you really saved me," Chao told them.

"We're not out of the woods yet," Setsuna was quick to correct. "We still have to deal with the person who summoned these golems."

"Naruto-sama will annihilate them!"

"I'm not going to kill anyone," he sighed.

"Oww," the puppet pouted.

"I was really surprised though; to think the rest of you would be this strong without the aid of technology. To even be able to disguise magic as fireworks; as expected of a prodigy like Negi-sensei," she grinned and gave him a thumbs up.

"Nah, I still need practice," he modestly replied. "You seem to know a lot about magic."

"Well, sort of-ne."

"Never mind that for now. Who was chasing you?" Setsuna asked. "Are there really evil mage's inside the school?"

"Well, about that…" she started grin an uneasy grin, scratching the back of her head.

"That can wait for now, it seems they've found us."

"There are 4 of them," Kotaro continued.

"Really, you can tell that?" Naruto asked.

"Yep. I can also tell that they have us almost surrounded us. They are 50-80-70-100 distance wise. One's on the roof. Why, can't you?"

Naruto mutely shook his head. With so many people and no way for him to detect magic, he had no idea.

"This isn't good. If I get caught, they'll erase my memory."

"What? Your memory? Like Hell!"

"Right! We shouldn't let that happen!"

"You got a plan?"

"In this situation, the first to attack has an advantage. We'll quickly finish them within the crowd; Setsuna, go up top, Nii-san go far," Negi ordered.

"Heh, not a bad strategy, especially for an amateur."

"It's a good strategy for anyone. Great work Negi."

"Thanks Naruto-nii-san."

"It'll be bad if they call for reinforcement," Chamo noted, a spell crest appearing in the air in front of him. "Ermine Magic, Interfario. There, now they shouldn't be able to talk to each other. GO!"

At once, Setsuna back flipped away, Negi, Kotaro and Naruto speeding in different directions.

"Zero-chan, I'm trusting you to be my magic sensor. Point me to my enemy."

"And you'll crush them?"

"If necessary. Can you do it?"

"Yes."

"Then do it."

"By your command," she told him in absolute seriousness. He was putting his trust in her, and she refused to let him down.

She scanned the crowd; it wasn't her forte, which lay in combat, but she was originally built for support before being moved to her current combat role. Her skills were rusty, but more than enough for these insects.

"There!" she yelled, pointing towards a blonde high school girl. In one hand she held a sceptre, most likely her wand, and she was flanked by two of the golem like enemies. There was a large amount of magical energy being emitted from her, and a faint taste of delicious violence in the air.

Naruto didn't hesitate as he rushed toward his enemy. Unmindful of the crowd, he darted between the people and charged a weakened version of the Rasengan in each hand.

He still hadn't mastered creating a fully formed Rasengan one handed, although he no longer needed a clone to do it. It was just faster that way.

His head ducked low and moving to fast for her to follow, he tackled her onto the ground, hitting both her guards with the Rasengans and destroying them. He ended up straddling her, quickly knocking way her sceptre and the spare wand she pulled out, before grabbing both her arms and restricting movement. Then he got his first good look at her. "Takane?"

Negi took a different approach; 'Cantus Bellax' he activated his battle hymn and, as soon as he was close, jumped into the air and used a nearby lamppost to redirect himself towards his attacker, a huge man wearing sunglasses and with a bald head.

He twisted in the air and incanted in his head and thrusted his hand towards the man. 'Flans Exparmatio!' It blew the gun out of his hands, and Negi quickly ducked under the punch the gigantic man threw, and pointed his wand at his chin.

It was only then that he realised that this person was one of the teachers that was at the meeting around the World Tree.

Kotaro simply snuck around behind his opponent and surprised her. The red headed girl didn't even sense him until he had already struck. She tried to twist around, but before she could do anything, her arm was grabbed and she was flipped over and onto her back.

He frowned at her when he realized it was a girl not too much older than he; he hated violence against women.

Setsuna landed on the roof crouched low, and wasted no time in rushing the attacker. She however noticed that her opponent was a teacher before she was anywhere near him, and both stopped short.

Naruto slowly released his hold on Takane's arms and sat up. He didn't get off of her though.

"What's going on?" he yelled, something that he have sworn he heard from several places behind him, and even from the girl in front of him.

"I was protecting someone from Mage's, and it seems you were the attacker."

"I was trying to capture a dangerous element. Now will you please get off me?"

"Not yet." He told her on impulse, before realizing he had no reason to keep her down, and it would actually be better to take her to the others. He was about to say as such when she spoke first.

"Ah, Naruto-kun," Takane wriggled beneath him, a huge blush on her face. "I know you might want to conclude our unfinished business, but not here and not now!"

Naruto gave her a confused look and mouthed 'unfinished business' to himself.

Last time he saw her was the first time he met her, at least to his recollection. As far as he remembered, that business was finished.

Zero's eyes flashed. "Kill her! Now!"

Naruto stood up and bopped the puppet on the head. "There will be no killing," he told her. She held onto her head painfully and her eyes widened, increasing her cuteness factor tenfold.

Naruto held out his hand, which she took, and pulled Takane up and to her feet.

"C'mon, let's go meet up with the others," he began to pull her towards his friends.

Takane and Zero stared at their enjoined hands, the former happily and the latter with a glare.

When he arrived he found Setsuna speaking with Gandolfini, Negi listening intently while Kotaro stood next to Mei and looked on in a bored expression, while Mei fretted. The large, bald man was gone. Chamo was the only one to spot his approach and give him a thumbs up and a grin.

"I would like to know why you felt the need to defend this problem student," Gandolfini gestured to Chao, who stood just behind Negi.

"Do we need a reason to protect our students?" Naruto made himself known.

"Well, I suppose not. But Chao Linshen has been causing us quite some trouble. She knows about magic, and as you know that can't be allowed."

"Sorry, but I think you've mistaken me for someone who cares about that. Chao is-"

"Naruto-nii, calm down. Please, Chao-san is in my homeroom and so we helped her, as a teacher should. If there is a problem, explain the situation to me properly."

Gandolfini sighed. "Well, I'm at least glad it's you; for a moment there I was worried a Mage had snuck onto the campus." He shook his head to clear those thoughts. "Back to the matter at hand; you haven't been told anything about Chao Linshen?"

"No, should I have?"

"Then I'll have to ask you to defer to us in this situation. Please come with us Chao Linshen."

"Why should she?" Naruto demanded. "What are you going to do with her?"

From beside him Takane spoke. For the first time Naruto noticed their hands were still linked together.

"Normal people that find out about Mage's have their memories erased. It is as simple as that; it is as much for our safety as it is for theirs."

"You're going to erase her memory? But so suddenly?" Negi exclaimed.

"Actually Chao-kun is already on her third warning. You know this Negi-sensei, in order for us Mages to peacefully co-exist with normal people; our existence must be kept secret. Its best they never learn about us."

"I know that! But-"

"Negi! You agree with this?"

"Yes! I mean no! I mean, I might have tried to do it to Asuna-san when she first found out, but I don't agree with this."

"For our own reasons, we've allowed Chao-kun to know quite a bit, but there is no reason to tell her everything. This time we found out that she deployed a mechanical device to spy on our meeting." He turned to address Chao, who was still partially hidden behind Negi. "Even ordinary students would be punished for breaking the rules. This is the third time you have defied us, correct?"

"Umm, y-yes," she replied in a small voice.

"Then you should know that by ignoring our orders, you deserve to be punished. Correct?"

"I-I guess?"

Naruto grit his teeth. "I won't allow it!" he forcefully disentangled his hand from the blond mage beside him and took a step forward.

"You have no authority here. She is regarded as a problem student for a reason. She's even been known to conspire with the criminal Evangeline – she isn't someone we can just let wander freely."

"Who cares about Eva-chan! She's been here, helping out even longer than you!"

"That's right! There's no reason to bring mummy into this!"

"You live with her; you must know at least a little about her past." The man growled in frustration. "Evangeline-san isn't what we should be talking about. The fact of the matter is you can't stop us from doing what needs to be done."

"The hell I can't!" Naruto began to gather chakra and prepare for a fight.

"Naruto-nii, calm down," Negi once again told him. "While it is true Naruto-nii has no authority, I do. Chao-san is my student, and you have no authority over her, or any other member of 3-A for that matter. I will not stand idly by as you pass judgement on her as a criminal. Chao-san is my student, and you will defer to me!"

Looking at the resolute Negi, Naruto ready to pounce and the two other students behind them, both looking ready to move if needed, Gandolfini relented. Negi was correct anyway; when it came to his students, Negi had more say than he. "Then I suppose I'll have to trust you. But, please, be careful. If anything were to happen now, you will be the one held most responsible; you'll probably be turned into an ermine. I'll leave it to you." He gave one last glance at Naruto. "I hope you'll come to understand our reasoning one day, and realize that this is what needs to be done."

Naruto watched him leave with a glare.

"Naruto-kun. I too hope you'll learn to understand. Call me," Takane told him as she and Mei followed.

"Thanks Negi-bozu, you really saved me! I owe you."

"It nothing; you're one of my students after all. But what is it that you've done to have them treat you like that?"

"Hoo, that's a secret-ne."

"You do know they'll hold me responsible for anything you do now, right?"

"By the way Negi-bozu," she ignored him, "you have your own problems, right? I can solve it for you. In order to pay you back, the science of Chao Lingshen is at your command!"

"I don't really…"

"Ask me anything! Any problem you need help with?"

"Well, there is my schedule…"

"Done! Here, take this," she reached into her coat and pulled out a large golden pocket watch. "This'll take care of all your problems!" she passed it to him.

"What is it?"

"You'll just have to figure it out yourself-ne!"

She began to run off.

"Chao!" Naruto called. She stopped and turned on her heel. "Keep out of trouble if you can, but if you can't, I expect you to call me."

Her smile slipped a little. "If I can!" she called again, before disappearing into the crowd.

"What do you think this is?" Negi asked, flashing them the watch.

"No clue."

Naruto frowned. There was something bugging him. "Do I know Takane? I feel as though we've met before, and she keeps saying things that make me think we've met more than one time a few days ago."

Setsuna and the two boys shook their heads; they didn't know her. On the other hand, Chamo gave him a chill inducingly perverse grin. "Don't you remember?"

"When?"

The grin grew. "When we went to the bar?"

Naruto placed his hand on hiss chin as he thought back. The night was more or less a blank from his second drink to when Negi snapped him out of it. He shook his head.

The grin grew to an impossible length. "Heh heh heh, do you really want to know?"

"Yes you little rat!"

"Why don't you ask Zero-san? She knows."

He turned his eyes upward to the puppet. "Do you know where I met her before?"

"That doesn't matter! You don't need to remember her!"

"Zero-chan, tell me."

"I don't wanna," she sulked.

"Please?" he begged.

Zero squirmed on his head. "Chamo told me when he visited," she reluctantly began. "He said you met up with a blonde slag and started necking her because you were off your tits. He said you even copped a feel of her arse and would've gone further if you weren't interrupted. Apparently you're horny when you're sloshed."

Silence, and then, "What do you just say?"

"I'm not repeating it."

Naruto looked at his companions; Setsuna and Negi had a faint tinge of pink in their cheeks, and refused to meet his gaze. Kotaro just looked mildly uncomfortable.

"That was nonsense. I didn't understand a word."

"Not my fault."

"Of course it was! You're an English woman aren't you; you should speak like a lady."

Suddenly Naruto felt very sharp metal at his neck. He stiffened in response.

"I. Am. Not. English. I'm British, or more accurately, I'm Scottish. Don't make that mistake again. Is that clear?" she asked sharply, digging the knife in a little.

Naruto nodded. "Got it, you're Scottish."

"Good," she cheered, removing the knife which disappeared into her shirt.

"I thought you couldn't move?"

"I can if someone calls me English!"

"Right. Now, are you going to tell me what any of that meant before? All I got was something about her ass."

"Not telling."

"Chamo?" he looked to his friends, but they were already gone.

"Ha, they've scarpered!"

"Seriously, stop that."

"Nope!" Zero sang.

"You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?"

"Maybe."

---

"He reacted with more anger than expected."

"Yeah he did-ne. I expected him to act more mature."

"This could work in our favour though."

"Well, he was, or should I say is the most Unpredictable Ninja. Wait, what?"

"I said that this could work in our favour. It seems he disagrees with the memory erasure punishment. We could use that to win him over."

"I doubt it-ne. But yes, we should try. I'll talk to him when the time is right and it will be too late even if he does say no."

"And you've prepared a trap."

"More or less. I just need to add the finishing touches."

"Are you sure it will work?"

"I quickly surpassed my teacher in these arts."

"That doesn't answer my question."

"Yes. Yes it does-ne."

---

"Come on Chibi-chan," Naruto shook the seated blonde. Eva was sat on the couch, quietly reading her book and unfalteringly ignoring the persistent shinobi who was slowly shaking her back and forth. "The pre-festival night Gala is going to be starting soon. Don't you want to go see it?"

"No."

"Why not?" he whined.

"Because it's boring. It was boring the first time I saw it, 15 years ago, it was boring the second time 14 years ago, and the third, and the forth; it'll be boring this time too." She said this all without a change in tone or inflection.

"Please?" he begged. "For me?"

Finally she turned to face him. "If you want to go, why don't you just go?"

"Because, I want you to go with me."

"Why?"

"Why wouldn't I want you to come with me? You're one of my precious people, and I like spending to with you. It's as simple as that."

Eva blushed. "F-fine, if it's that important to you. But you owe me," she jumped onto her feet and thrust her finger at his face, pressing his nose.

"Great! I'll grab Zero-chan and we can go; we're supposed to be meeting up with the rest of 3-A soon, so we better hurry."

Eva growled as Naruto darted out the room to get Zero who was resting in Naruto's room. "One day you're going to take me somewhere nice, just the two of us." As soon as the words left her mouth, she quickly shut her mouth with a click.

"Sure thing! Just name the time and place!" Naruto called back.

"W-what?"

Naruto returned to the room. "If you want to go anywhere with me, all you have to do is ask."

"Like I want to go anywhere with you! I'm only going to this Gala because I like the idea of having something over you."

Naruto stopped to consider this a moment, before shrugging. "I don't really care. C'mon." he grabbed her arm and began to drag her out the door.

Chachamaru had left hours earlier and Naruto hoped they would meet up later on.

"Master, where are we going?" Zero rubbed her eyes as she awoke, already in her favourite spot.

"This bone head is dragging us to the Gala."

"There'll be fireworks," the blond added.

"Fireworks?"

"Yep. Huge explosions in the sky."

"Yay! We're going to see the fireworks!"

Eva looked the duo up and down. "One day you're going to tell me how you purified my psychotic doll and got her to act like a sweet and excitable little girl."

"What are you talking about Chibi-chan?"

"Yeah mummy, what do you mean?"

Both gave her a confused look

Eva simply huffed in exasperation. "Let's just go."

"Yay/Alright!"

It didn't take long for them to find the rest of 3-A – a group of over two dozen middle school girls and their teacher was rather hard to miss.

"Hey!" he called

"Naruto-sensei! You came!"

"Of course I did. Now, what's first?"

"Food!"

"Games!"

"Now now," Ayaka stopped them. "You know it is the fireworks first, and then we'll go play."

As they made their way towards a high spot that would give them a great view, Naruto turned his attention to Eva. "Erm, can I ask you for something?"

"Ohoho, you want something? Remember, I am an evil Mage. Favours from me cost blood."

"I was just going to ask you for a translation. Zero-chan started speaking in slang before, and I couldn't understand a word."

"Really now, you did, did you?" Eva glanced towards the puppet, who kept her eyes averted. "What did she say?"

"Erm, that I get horny when sloshed?"

Eva choked, and then gave him an incredulous stare. "What else did she say?"

"That I was necking a slag? And then something about copping a feel?"

Eva grew quiet. "I see. I take it you were so drunk you can't remember what you did?"

"Yeah. How'd you know?"

Then Eva twisted around to punch him in the stomach, causing him to double-over.

"Oi, what was that for?"

"I felt like it. I don't need any other reason. See you later Naruto." With that she disappeared into the crowd.

"Hehe, mummy got you good."

"Yeah, but why? What did I do?"

"Che, dumb blonds."

"Oi!" Naruto began to move forward once again.

They eventually arrived in a large open space, giving them a lovely view of the World Tree.

"Oh well, it doesn't matter right now."

"Good."

At this moment the Tree began to glow, and the fireworks began to fire. "For an evil tree, it sure is pretty."

"Evil?" Ako asked from beside him as they observed the view.

"Not important," he sighed. "Well, looks like the festival has begun. I hope its fun."

The surrounding girls nodded their heads at this. It was the festival, and they had been looking forward to it for over a month.

Then Naruto grinned. "Negi!" he called, causing the 10 year to turn away from the fireworks that had been delighting him so. "I'm going to teach you some games!"

"Hai!" the boy grinned back.

Naruto quickly began to run, Negi not far behind.

"Hey! Sensei!" Makie was quick to follow, Sakurako not far behind. It didn't take the others long to follow.

Naruto led the girls to the nearest booth, laughing all the way.

---

Omake: Meet The Wife, Part 3.

Minato sat at the table as Arika brought the two men tea and sat beside her husband, who was slouching in his seat. Minato was sat on the opposite side of the table.

"Namikaze-san, Nagi tells me you and he had a brief battle. Who won?"

"I believe it was my loss. Nagi-san is quite powerful."

"Don't sell yourself so short Minato! It was a draw."

Arika raised one eyebrow in mild curiosity. Her husband was one to boast his own strength; the fact that he was praising someone else spoke highly of his ability.

"Was it really a draw?"

"Yeah it was! He out paced me completely."

"That is quite some praise from the Invincible Thousand Master. Do you really think he is your equal?"

"I wouldn't go that far! I would gladly have him in the Ala Rubra though."

"Mighty praise indeed. May I ask where you come from?"

"Konoha. Well, the full name is Konohagakure no Sato. Have you heard of it?"

Arika shook her head. "I'm afraid I have not. That means The Village Hidden in the Leaves, correct? Such an unusual name. Is there some meaning behind it?"

"Yes. My village is located in a dense forest. The first Hokage grew all of the trees around the land and made it green again. It wasn't really hidden though," he added. "That part is just a name."

"Green again?"

"Yes. It was a very war torn land before Hashirama managed to unite the Uchiha and the Senju. After that he and his brother rejuvenated the land."

"They sound powerful."

"Yes, they were. Where do you come from?"

"A now defunct kingdom known as Ostia. Have you heard of it?"

"No, never. How'd it end?"

"That doesn't matter now," Arika replied somewhat uncomfortably.

Minato, noticing this, didn't press the issue.

"I heard you don't know the way home?"

"Yeah, I'm clueless."

"Well, since Nagi has offered you our help, we will do our best to get you home!"

"Thank you. I really appreciate it."

"No problem," Nagi grinned.

"Excuse me for a moment," Arika stood up and left.

"So, so, what do you think? Isn't she amazing?" Nagi gushed.

"Yeah, I guess. She does seem like a lovely woman. Is she nobility?"

"Yep. A Queen, or at least she was. She got framed for genocide and was sentenced to be executed." Nagi snorted. "Like I was going to let that happen. We allowed the proceedings to get to a certain point before we interfered. Allow the people to think she was dead; that way there would be less people to come after her."

"You mean you're fugitives?"

"You could say that, but only to the Magistrate. No one else cares. It does mean Arika doesn't get out much, so your visit has really made her happy."

"She you really be telling me this?"

"I trust you."

"Er, thanks."

"Na-giii! What are you telling him?" the Queen returned.

"Only that you're happy he's here. It's been awhile since you've met someone new."

Arika's face coloured ever so slightly. "That may be true, but there are some things you don't say out loud."

"I understand. Ooh," he sat suddenly sat up straighter. "I'm going to call Jack. He'd love to meet you. I'll be back in a minute," he told them.

"Nagi, wait," his wife tried to stop him, but she was ignored.

"Hey honey, Minato here is the leader of his village. You two should talk about leader stuff."

With that Nagi was gone, leaving the two in an uncomfortable silence, Arika glaring at the door her husband had left from.

"So, Nagi-san tells me you were a Queen?

"NAGI!"

---

A/N: Let's see let's see. A couple of things.

First of all, in my profile in the section dealing with this story is a link to a picture of Eva and Naruto from the Pranks and the Beach chapter. Please comment. I didn't draw it, but I did request it. I think he did a great job, so thanks PandaDude17.

Next up, I'm thinking of going back and updating my past chapters. As you know, Naruto here is set after most of the war is already over, and I was intending to allow for certain things that were happening concurrent to the Naruto manga. Then I got blind sided by Kushina. I want to know if you think this is a good idea. It wont affect the story much, but I've been thinking about it. What do you guys think?

Abilities used: Ermine Magic, Interfario - Chamo has the abilty to interfere and disable telepathy, a common mage trick.

I'm pretty sure you know Cantus Ballax and Flans Exparmatio, the battle hymn and the disarming spell. Or the stripping spell as Negi likes to utilse it as.

Someone did manage to guess Naruto's remaining wind Jutsu, but so far no one has gotten the water one.

Zero- When I wrote the 'By your command' line for Zero, I was playing with BattleStar Galactica as I'm sure some of you guessed. Later, I was going to remove it as it felt a little clunky. Then I realised that the Cylons and Zero is actually a good comparison- both are creations that have acheived sentience and a will of their own, and on at least some level, rebelled against their makers. Cylons are self explanitory, and Zero because she has slowly begun to swear her loyalty to Naruto rather than her mummy, though she still loves her. A product of my sub-conscious or coincidence? Probably the latter.

The slang Zero uses - it is modern(ish) british slang, so Zero shouldn't technically know it, but I don't care. She got it from T.V if I'm asked. I'm not going to explain it, though I imagine most of you understand it anyway.

Recent manga chapters - Minato is amazing, Kushina is awesome, Zazie is confusing and Arika is too cute for her own good.

In other news, I really do need a Beta. Any volunteers? You'll need to be well versed in both Naruto and Negima canon, good spelling and able to tell me if you think my characters are too OOC.

I hope you'll enjoy this, my longest chapter yet with over 23,000 words. Next is the festival proper. That'll be confusing.