A Shinobi Among Yokai Chapter 26

I don't own Naruto or Rosario + Vampire.

"Where are we going?"

Naruto reached up and attempted to snatch the blindfold away, but was thrawted by the old headmaster slapping his hand away. As simple as it was, the blindfold kept him from trying to memorize where he was being led. If it wasn't there, he'd easily be able to do it with Sasuke's eyes. Well, he had agreed to the blindfold originally, so it was his fault and all he could do was deal with it.

Was this the headmaster's way of helping him out? It didn't seem very productive. At least Tsukune and Mizrore were the Academy's med bay. Mizore would live; she'd been beaten bloody, but nothing fatal had been done to her body. Tsukune was a different story, it was surprising that he was still alive even now. His left arm was gone, and he'd lost so much blood that it wasn't funny.

There was no way a normal human could survive the wounds he had.

"You can remove it."

It was about time.

The sun?

He flinched, squinting his eyes against the sudden light. He wasn't anywhere near Yokai Academy, the scenery was way too different for that. There was also the fact that he couldn't sense anyone that was familiar—scratch that, he couldn't actually sense anyone. It was like there was no life anywhere close to him.

"A... ah..."

It was off-putting, to say the least. He'd always been able to sense someone, even if it was insignicant. It didn't help his thoughts that the headmaster had been right beside him just a few seconds ago.

Taking a deep breath, he sat down on the soft ground, the inummerable amounts of flowers swaying in the light wind. He closed his eyes, letting himself feel the—

"You don't need to do that."

"Eh?" His eyes snapped open in shock, body jolting backwards, the back of his head colliding with the soft earth. Huffing through his nose, he repoisitioned himself in his seated position and stared at the girl in front of him.

She was cute. The short, amused smirk and red slitted eyes reminded him of Moka's sealed personality—was that even how he was supposed to refer to her when she was like that? He had no idea, it was a strange situation with that girl. Her long ping hair, on the other hand, was like the happy and excitable Moka he was used to. That's where the similarities stopped. Her face was different, puffier cheeks and thinner lips, and she was much shorter than Moka was, she didn't even look old enough to be a teenager yet. A thin, white dress covered down to her thighs, contrasted by the black stockings going just above her knees.

"Are you okay?"

It wasn't a nice question. Rather, she was mocking him.

"Who are you?"

"Uh-uh." She wagged her finger in front of his face. "That's for later. Stand up."

Naruto frowned. Who was this little brat trying to boss him around?

Despite his thoughts, he listened and rose to his feet.

The moment his legs had finished extending, his arms rose up in front of him defensively. Something screamed at him in the back of his head to do so.

Kurama?

No way. Kurama didn't scream, he also didn't sound even remotely like that.

His instincts. They were screaming for him to stop whatever was coming, he was dead if he didn't. That had never happened before—essentially, it was his brain yelling at his brain to do something, and he could hear it happening in real time.

It crashed into his arms, instantly breaking his defense. Was he flying? The clouds were moving by so quickly just watching it made him want to vomit. His arms felt like they had been destroyed, moving them even a little bit pained his body immensely.

He couldn't dwell on that for long.

Naruto had come to a sudden stop.

"Are you okay?"

She sounded less mocking now, but not in the least concerned.

Naruto ripped himself out of her grip, snatching her wrist and pushing her arm away from him, making sure to put distance between them.

'Who's that?'

Kurama would never know how relieved the blond felt at hearing his voice.

'Ask her yourself.' He snarked. Not wasting any time, he drew in Kurama's chakra, his body igniting itself in a cloak of the biju's chakra, haori and all. 'An enemy I think. I don't know.'

There wasn't a reply. Of course there wasn't. Kurama would wait and see what happened first.

"Already going that far are you?" Her tone had changed. She wasn't mocking him anymore, she sounded playful, his assumption aided by the smile she had on her face. It was one he was familiar with—she wanted to prove herself, she wanted to show someone that she could kick the blond's ass.

As if he'd let that happen.

"It's shocking that you can fit so much confidence in such a small body."

There it was.

Her leg was in front of his face already, he'd barely even noticed her move. He didn't try to stop it this time, ducking under and manouvering himself around her body. An elbow to her back, that was sure to take her out in one hit.

Instead, he was the one to get hit.

Naruto's face crashed into the ground, body bouncing off the groundi and spinning uncontrollably through the air, grass, dirt and a myriad of flowers accompanying him in his flight. He regained control of himself quickly, landing back on his feet. How far away were they now? He'd been sent back much further than he had thought.

This little girl was no joke.

He was suddenly glad that he had gotten into the habit of placing hiraishin seals on anything he touched when he was in a fight.

In quite literally no time at all, he was at the girl's side, leg already extended. As far as he was concerned, there wasn't even a little bit of a chance for someone to counter or block an attack that was so sudden.

Turned out he was wrong.

She'd wrapped her small hand as far around his ankle as she could, the force of his kick ripping up the ground and digging a wide trench on her other side, going on for what looked hundreds of metres.

"Disgraceful." Naruto felt his body raised into the air, before it was swiftly slammed into the ground, the earth beneath him giving in to the force, a nice crater forming around his body. She dropped his ankle. Kurama's chakra went back into the biju's control as the blond just lay there. He hadn't even made the girl break a sweat. "This is all you can do, and you're supposed to be one of the stronger ones?"

"Stronger ones? Of what?"

"Of you." The girl's lips twisted into annoyance. "But that's for later. Much, much later."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Don't ask, I'm not telling you." She offered her hand to help him up but he didn't take it, and she retracted before continuing. "It's not something you'll have to worry about for a long time anyway."

So she was keeping information from him, too? Just what kind of person had the headmaster left him with?

"Who are you?"

He'd asked it again.

This time, she graced him with an answer.

"Aya."

Okay.

She didn't continue.

"What are you?"

"Can't tell already?" She gestured to herself, as if it was supposed to be obvious. Were those fangs? "I'm a vampire. A very old vampire."

They were.

"You don't look it."

"Thanks."

Naruto pulled himself up into a seated position, hands resting in his lap. "How old is very old?"

"Well." Aya smiled, gently this time, kneeling down in front of him. This girl was crazy, she couldn't even stick to a single emotion. "I don't know how many years it has been, but I'll give you an idea. You made that little jump through time over fifty thousand years ago-"

"Wait, wait, wait, what? What did I do? What happened?"

"It's a strange thing, time." Aya went on. "It moves at a constant rate, it never slows nor accelerates. No matter how hard you may try, no matter how strong you get, time will not budge. He was supposed to be as strong as a god, you know? Time didn't change for him either." She stood up, her eyes piercing through his. "Every time traveller I've met has described it the same way—you're at one point in time, then you're waking up at a different point. The transition feels instant, is that what you felt?"

"Uh, yes?"

How the hell was he supposed to know? He'd woken up in a hospital.

"That's not what happens. Time doesn't jump back and forth, from point to point just because someone wants it to, it consistently moves forward and only forward. Time travellers don't jump, they hitch rides on the back of time and get dropped off at their destination."

"Why are you telling me?" Naruto frowned. "I didn't come here for a lecture on time travel."

"I'm telling you so you don't mess with time again. There's no going back to your point in time—you can only go forward. Have you ever heard about history repeating itself? It's a very literal phrase. Instead of going back, you will ride time until it reaches that point once more."

"The past can't be changed, huh?"

"Exactly."

Her words did hurt. All of his friends, everyone who had fought a war with him, they were all long dead. There wasn't anything he could do about it.

He grinded his teeth. "You said that you'd met time travellers before. Do you tell them what you told me as well?"

"No."

"Then why did you tell me?"

That playful smile had returned. Why did he always get stuck with the loopy people? "You ask too many questions, I thought you would have come here with an actual reason."

"I did."

"Oh?" Her lips spread wider across her face. "Well whatever it is, you might as well start running back to Japan. I'm not going to help."

"I'm not going anywhere." His fists tightened. He had a friend that was dying right at this moment. "I don't know how the headmaster thinks you can help, but I'm not leaving until you do."

"I'm immortal." She bragged, though it was rather empty in terms of pride. "You could cut me up into thousands of tiny bits and I wouldn't die. The fifty thousand years into the future that you sent yourself, that's like a baby step in my life. I'm not changing my mind, so how do you plan on getting my help?"

"I'll make you."

"You think you can?"

Tsukune's eyes started to twitch.

Slowly, he could feel himself waking. His arms and legs moved, they ached but he still had control of them at air smelt clean, way too clean for him to be in his room. His eyes cracked open—white ceiling, walls, tiled floor and a light curtain half-cast around the bed. It was a hospital.

"Awake already?"

That was a voice he'd welcome right now. The blond kicked the sliding door closed behind him, strolling over and planting the tray he had down on his bedside table. Cookies?

"What are they?"

"Cookies." Naruto said like it should be obvious. "Kurumu made them."

Tsukune snatched one up as the blond sat down on the chair beside his bed, tentatively taking a bite. A quick glance was made at the analog clock hanging up on the wall, noon. "Why aren't you in class?"

"I was suspended. Punishment for killing on school grounds apparently, even if they instigated." Naruto amused himself with a smile. "At least, that's the excuse."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm leaving, Tsukune. For—well, I don't know how long."

The brwon-haired teen devoured the last of the cookie. "Leaving? Why would you leave?" He froze for a moment, a cold shiver running up his spine. He didn't open his mouth about it, but what would happen to him when Naruto left?

"It's a long story."

"I've got time."

"But I don't. I'm leaving when I'm out of here."

A few moments of silence followed. Tsukune didn't know how long it lasted, but he'd managed to shove another cookie down his throat during it. "When did you decide to leave?"

Naruto shuffled around on the seat. "Not even an hour ago."

That was rash decision making, wasn't it? What made him want to leave the academy so quickly? Tsukune scrunched his eyebrows together, dropping the subject for the moment. He was coming to realize something. "Hold on, what day is it?"

Was that supposed to be Naruto's attempt at a bitter smile? It sucked. "Wednesday."

"I've been out for over a week?"

"No. You haven't even been asleep for two days." The blond's lips twitched. "How's your arm?"

That's right.

Tsukune snatched up his left arm with the hand of his right. It was there. He remembered being attacked, he remembered losing it, he remembered seeing it on the floor. "What?"

"I made a deal, you see. They fulfilled their part of the deal, now I need to do mine."

"What kind of deal? What did you do to me?"

He'd shot the questions out of his mouth quicker than he had time to think, but he was still comprehensible to Naruto apparently. "I told you it's a long story. Maybe I'll have time to tell you when I get back."

Damn it.

Ruby was tagging along with him.

The Headmaster had insisted.

She needs to see more of the world, he'd said.

"Hurry up Ruby."

"I'm coming!"

It felt like the headmaster just wanted to keep an eye on him. Whatever, if he needed to keep something hidden then he'd make sure Ruby didn't have a clue. He heard her heels clicking against the few steps off the bus before she was stood beside him. A breath of smoke and a wave from the bus driver later and they were alone, their transportation already half way down the road.

They'd been dropped off in Tokyo, but he had no idea where in Tokyo. It was a big city, overcrowded with way too many flashing lights, begging for anyone and everyone's attention.

Naruto shuffled his backpack. "Come on." He said, starting to meld in with the crowd, the witch hot on his tail. "We need to find a place to stay first."

He only had cash, so the receptionist had given him a bewildered look when he'd pulled his stack of notes from his backpack to pay upfront. One room for the both of them to share—last time he'd stayed outside of the Academy, the entire city he was in was destroyed. There was no wayhe was letting Ruby stay on her own, even more so considering what they were in Tokyo to do.

Naruto fumbled the stupid plastic card out of his pocket and swiped it over where it had LOCKED printed in red letters over a thin piece of metal.

"Down further."

"Huh?"

"Down." Ruby repeated. "Swipe over the exposed plate, not the word."

"Oh."

As if by magic, the door unlocked with a click. He twisted the handle and pushed it open and took his first step inside—it smelt clean, too clean. Almost unnaturally so.

On the opposite end of the room was a window with the dark curtains drawn, a large screen plastered up on the wall adjacent to it, facing the foot of the bed. Neat, he thought, but he doubted he'd have time to relax and enjoy it. To the left of the entrance was a small kitchen, tiled floor, a full-sized fridge and a small benchtop, three tall chairs seated at it on the other side. To the right was another door, no card-swiping mechanism this time. Naruto assumed it led to the bathroom.

"Yep, bathroom."

Naruto shrugged off the backpack and tossed it over near the window, idly wondering if anything in there could actually break.

Ruby had already begun settling herself in. She rolled around on the queen sized bed as if she was trying to leave an imprint of her body on it before kicking her heels off, they landed on the small bag she'd brought along. Sighing, she stretched her stocking-clad legs in the air, one after the other, rotating her ankle until there was a crack. They came crashing back down, toes curling as a relaxed expression began to settle on her face. "Come on." She encouraged with a pat on the free space beside her. What was up with that smile? "I don't mind sleeping with you."

He probably could have done with the sleep, but it was already past 9 PM. He wasn't in Tokyo to rest. "No." He said. "I'm going back out, you can stay if you want."

Ruby pouted like she was still twelve years old, spinning around so she was facing the foot of the bed and rolling onto her stomach. Her chin rested on top of her hands, legs aimlessly kicking in the air. "Why are you in such a rush?" She asked. "What are we doing here in the first place? Headmaster wouldn't tell me anything."

"Reputation." Naruto made a mental note to piss off the headmaster when he got back, he could have at least explained to the girl what she'd be walking in to. "We're here so that I can build a reputation among yokai."

Chapter 26 done!

Short chapter.