34
Disclaimer: I own some popcorn, I think? Maybe?
AN: I'd like to thank Hurricanelaurk for him Beta reading this, along with Dadlop3, and SC CloudStrife and his wife for helping me through my Writers Block and giving me ideas; along with Blaze1992 and Dadlop3.
Trying Again 7
Familiar Trials.
One crystalline blue eye twitched open, only to blink closed again with a groan. Everything hurt right now for the young dragon-kin; his skin felt like it had been peeled off than glued back on, his fingers felt like they'd been broken repeatedly, all his joins hurt, his throat was raw even his hair hurt right now. Knowing he was going to need at least a few minutes to recover enough to move again, Naruto tried to get his mind to work out what had happened.
His memory came back to him in short bursts; memories of his clones hunting and attack priests, the memories of his clone with Asia getting to a barrier that had been set up. 'Likely Red's work' He added mentally while he started getting feeling back in his body. The clone with the girl had waited behind some trees near the edge of the grounds until a bright purple light filled the area, it lasted only a moment before pitch black flames covered the grounds and the clone popped.
Finally his own memories of the fight he'd been in came back: the feeling of how close he was to dying again, the need to protect his friends; a secondary image came to his mind of a feminine black haired youth, in a short sleeved pink kimono decorated with blue swirl marks. "When a person has something important they want to protect… That's when they become truly strong."
'Haku…' Naruto thought as he remembered the life changing friend turned enemy. Slowly letting all the memories filter through his mind and organize themselves, the boy started to feel around his body. He could tell he was in a bed, likely Rias or his own after Rias had laid claim to it, because of the silk sheets. He also felt weights holding him down, one on each side of his chest and one on his stomach.
He opened his eyes to take in the room; his memory finally showing the end of his fight with Mastema, and he needed to see everyone to be sure they were alright. His first view was not what he expected it to be. He was used to Rias and Akeno sleeping next to him and was half expecting to have a blob of red or black from their hair covering his sight, so having a curtain of white was a new view. Taking a second to use some of the minimal chakra he had regained, he switched places with the pillow that was in the corner of the room and looked back at the bed.
As almost expected Rias and Akeno had been at his sides, now cuddling into the body pillow. However he hadn't expected that Asia was passed out where his stomach was, or that Koneko was above his pillows. The two new girls had been fully dressed, letting him know that they hadn't planned on sleeping where they had but rather they appeared to have fallen asleep while doing something else.
Mind too fogged from sleep to wake them and ask the blonde boy staggered out into the hall in hopes of finding a shower or coffee, whichever appeared before him first would be fine.
Yuto yawned loudly while he returned to Naruto's house from picking up breakfast for them all, which was quickly becoming the group's new base of operations. He would have liked to keep it separate himself but Rias was finding it much simpler to come here to do their work because they always ended up here in the end anyway. She didn't see a point in keeping their devil work separate from the rest of their lives because to her, it had always been part of her life.
He had to give it to Naruto for his tolerance in dealing with these things. The dragon boy was easy to anger over some seemingly trivial things and yet that would have made Yuto lose even his cool Naruto dealt with easily.
Opening the door to the kitchen he almost started to laugh, Hikari was blushing and covering her eyes while Naruto was glaring at the kettle seeming to be waiting for it to boil. The reason for Hikari's blush is Naruto seem to have come right here from his bed. This normally wouldn't have mattered as he always wore sleeping pants due to knowing what he was like in the morning. However, after the fight the day before yesterday Rias and Asia had tried healing him, and ended up spending a great deal of their energy to try and refill his reserves; which had been the only problem he had. As such he'd been stripped naked; as such he was now completely naked, half asleep in the middle of the kitchen while his 'sister' was in the room.
"At least he's up." Yuto said while he carried the drinks and food over to the counter.
"Kiba-kun! Please make him put on pants!" Hikari begged, her eyes still covered as to not look at her brother figure.
Yuto chuckled as he walked forward and put a coffee cup in the other boy's hand. "Drink." He said simply before taking the rest to the dining room. He popped back into the kitchen long enough to lead Hikari out and give her something to eat. They only had to wait a couple of minutes before the heard Naruto complaining about being naked somehow before he set off back upstairs.
"That was a side of Nii-san I really didn't need to see." Hikari muttered after he had disappeared upstairs. She was slowly picking at her breakfast while waiting for her blush to die down. Yuto continued to chuckle. To him, it was relieving to have the other blonde doing something stupid after he had witnessed his fight. "It's not funny, I've been traumatized!"
"Come on now Hikari-chan, you can't say you didn't expect something like this to happen at some point. We all know how dead to the world he is in the morning." Yuto said with an amused grin plastered on his lips.
"Eh, I could hope can't I?" The snake girl asked, before sticking her tongue out at the boy.
Yuto continued to chuckle while shaking his head. "I'm just glad he's back on his feet, even if there was nothing wrong with him. The amount of energy he let off..." Hikari lost her happy look; she was happy he was okay too but felt horrible that she was so useless. She'd been knocked out cold when the group that took Asia blew the door in; all she was told she received was a burse on her head, which Rias healed in moments. Everyone else had ended up fighting for their lives to save the blonde nun, Naruto coming home being carried by Yuto and Akeno. "It's not your fault Hikari-chan."
Hikari looked back at the blonde knight, having been startled from her thoughts. She closed her eyes and sighed, "I know Kiba-kun but I just feel so useless. Asia-chan is my friend too; everyone was working so hard. Nii-san was out cold for over a day and what did I do? Slept." Her frustration could be felt in her voice and clearly seen on the purple haired girls face. Her eyes were squeezed shut, her knuckles white while she clenched a fist around her chop sticks.
Sighing tiredly, as he hadn't gotten much sleep, even if he did sleep this time, Yuto could understand what the young Lamia was dealing with. "Hikari, I'm training with Naruto and Koneko in the afternoons. Maybe if you ask Naruto he will start helping you as well."
The girl bit her lip in thought. "Maybe, but I kinda wanted to do this for him, not have him help me with this."
"Ara ara, then maybe after you learn the transformation spell you can continue to study magic?" Akeno offered, as she just heard Yuto's offer and decided to add her own. "I'll even help you learn if you'd like."
"Really Nee-chan?" Akeno smiled and nodded, before she was once again subject to a flying Lamia glomp. "Oh thank you." She sang smiling. Hikari quickly let go of the black haired girl and rushed around the table to hug Yuto as well. "And thank you too Kiba-kun."
"I didn't do anything." The boy said with a chuckle.
"You listened and made me feel better. That's more than thank worthy," Hikari said while pulling again from him. "Nee-chan are all boy's as thick as Nii-san and Kiba-kun here?"
"OIE! I'm not thick!"
"Ufufu, most are worse Hikari-chan." Akeno replied with a hand hiding her giggles, which made Hikari laugh even more while Yuto just grumbled.
"So anyone else awake or just you Akeno-sempai?" Yuto asked while he moved around setting out food and drinks for them.
"Hmmm, I think Koneko-chan was waking up while I was leaving the room." Akeno said. "Buchou and Asia-chan were still asleep from giving Ghosty-kun so much energy."
Once she had finished saying this Naruto was dragged into the room by Koneko, the petite girl forced him into a seat before dropping into his lap without a word. The boy was mostly dressed having a pair of workout pants on and an open button up shirt exposing his chest, water was still dripping from his hair, as he appeared to have just gotten out of the shower when the cat girl found him.
"Welcome back to the world of the living Tortoise. Did you enjoy your nap?" Yuto asked, a small smirk on his face, clearly calmed now that his friend was up and about, and dressed.
"To early bunny-boy; ask again when I'm awake." Naruto grumbled back, while he reached for another coffee that had been left out for him. Missing the fact that Yuto had shown that he figured out where the bunny-boy reference came from.
"At least you're dressed this time." Hikari grumbled at the boy while he drank his coffee.
"Not my fault someone else stripped me in my sleep." Naruto shot back. Koneko, who just started munching on some pastries that Yuto had gotten for her breakfast, shot the boy a blank look.
"Baka."
"Come on Kitten, everyone knows what I'm like in the morning." Naruto tried to defend himself from the shots, only to have everyone give him a look, mostly deadpanned though Akeno was clearing amused.
"Oh I don't mind you walking around like that Ghosty-kun." Akeno said happily, everyone including Naruto, turned their deadpanned stares to her making her giggle more.
"Blah, I give up, it's too early for this sort of thing." Naruto declared as he slumped down a little. Just as he was lifting a bite of eggs into his mouth the last two girls quickly came into the room.
As soon as Asia saw him she started to rush towards him "Oh thank the Lord you…" She didn't get to finish as she was suddenly slammed into the floor holding her head "Owwie."
Naruto raised an eyebrow at that reaction "You're a Devil now Asia you can't praise the Biblical God anymore." Rias scolded lightly.
"Heh I forgot." Asia said giggling nervously.
Naruto sent a sharp look towards Rias before looking at Asia. "And why exactly are you a devil now Goldie?"
Asia sat up without raising her head, her fingers nervously fiddling with one of the ties on her night shirt. "Well, umm, when Naruto-san was hurt I kept running out of magic to try and heal you. Rias-san her mentioned that she wished she had a Bishop so she had more Magic to help you. So I asked her to make me one. She told me that I'd be basically turning against everything I was as a nun, but this way I can help Naruto-san and Hikari-chan, and I won't have to leave."
Naruto only groaned into his hands while he shook his head at the girl. "You wouldn't have left anyways Goldie. This is your home now. If you tried to leave I'm pretty sure Hebi-chan would have tied you to a chair." Hikari nodded sagely, while Asia smiled and blushed. "Besides, you start School Monday. Speaking of so do you Imouto, so you better start working on the spell after breakfast."
"Hai Nii-san." Hikari said excitedly. The young girl was almost bouncing in her seat.
After breakfast and more than a few cups of coffee Naruto had returned to his now furnished study, in which he was followed by Koneko and Yuto. Sitting behind his desk and booting up his computer Naruto watched the two sit down in a couple of the three high back chairs on the other side of his large old oak desk. He'd had his study done in warm blues and cool black colouring to give it the feeling of peaceful waters so as to calm him while he worked. The walls were lined with bookshelves, even if most were still empty, so that he had room for his collection. "What can I do for you two?"
"Well I'm here to see if I got my answer right to your bunny boy comments. Tortoise and the Hare right?" Yuto asked feeling much more at ease in this room then the ORC room. Naruto nodded with a slight grin. "So I'm guess you're telling me that I'm rushing into things."
"That's right, rushing forward is making you miss details that are right in front of you;details that would give away the answer to your question." Naruto explained, his small grin showed that he knew exactly which questions the other blonde boy wanted to ask.
"You really are a pain in the ass you know that?"
"Only when it's amusing." Naruto countered in a heartbeat. Turning away from the other blonde Naruto focused on his white haired cat-girl friend. "So what can I do for you Kitten?"
Koneko took a deep breath while closing her eyes for a moment. When she finally opened her eyes again she stared straight into Naruto's eyes. "Train me with you."
Naruto raised an eyebrow; he was starting to think she had forgotten about his request for her to learn something to balance his growing aggressive style and outlook. "Okay. I'll train you with Yuto."
"No. With you." The white hair girl said. Naruto kept his eyebrow raised while he looked at her waiting for her to explain. "I saw you. When we were about to be attacked, I was too weak, everyone almost died because I was weak. Don't want to lose anyone else."
"Will be painful to catch up."
"Don't care."
"You'll have to do EVERYTHING I say."
"Don't care, trust you."
Naruto closed his eyes with a sigh, something he'd been doing way too often since he started hanging out with this group. "Fine, just be sure you realized just where I need to put the seal." When he looked at her he could see her blush lightly but her eyes were still firm, no hesitation what so ever.
Rias stared blankly at the letter in front of her; Akeno sat by her side a worried frown on her normally smiling face. "What are we going to do?" The two were currently at the red heads desk in the Occult Research Club room.
"For now there's nothing we can do Akeno. I knew he'd be trying this soon, I'm just glad Onii-sama managed to send me some warning this time." Rias said tiredly. "I can only hope that I can challenge the marriage somehow. I'm running out of options."
The two sat in silence for a few minutes thinking over what they had read. "The Rating game route is still an option Buchou; we know Naruto is strong, with everyone together there's still a chance for us to win it." Akeno said, breaking the silence that had descended between them.
"I know he's strong Akeno, I just wish I knew how strong he was so I could plan for him more accordingly." Rias said as she turned to look out the window of the room. "But he doesn't show us anything, even when he's training with Yuto or you he does just enough to keep ahead of you."
Akeno seem to think deeply about this. "Perhaps you're going about this the wrong way Buchou."
"What do you mean?"
"Instead of trying to see what he can do, why don't we ask him?"
"We've tried that, he just gives us somewhat vague answers unless it involves the magic we are helping him with." Rias reminded her Queen.
"That was when we were giving up nothing in return Rias. I'm talking about putting everything on the table and then asking for help. We've all seen his protective streak; if you are level with him he'll help you. He might even let you know what he can do so you can plan." The black haired Queen offered.
Rias narrowed her eyes as she thought about it, even if things had smoothed out between them to a degree Rias knew she never really had control of any situation he was involved in. He always did things his own way, only stepping back if he believed they didn't need him, or he wanted to see something.
At first this had annoyed her greatly, as she had always been in charge and in full control of her Peerage, having someone take that away from her made her feel undermined, only his threat to just disappear had made her hold her tongue. She had thought that if it got to bad she would have to declare him stray, even if it horrified her to even think about. They argued about things, but it was never very bad, mostly it was more a view point problem for them; and often as long as one could prove their point the other backed off, she'd even won a couple of arguments and he relented.
That had been the main reason she had been able to relax around him. He wasn't truly trying to undermine her simply he didn't see any of them as anything but equals; something she didn't get except from Sona, and even that was a formal equal and rival. With Naruto he simply saw her as his equal; and friend now, nothing more nothing less.
As time wore on she was finding herself less annoyed that he'd do things his own way, with or without her knowledge and consent. She would still worry about him, much like during their fight with the Fallen Angels, but there was little she could do about it. Plus, this was the second time she owed her life to him.
"We'll talk about it after we get them their familiars, it's only a week away so I'll have time to try and think how to talk to them." Rias said, both relenting to her Queen and putting off the problem for a while.
Akeno frowned slightly, knowing that Rias was putting off telling them simply because she was worried about how to talk about her issues. "I'll hold you to that Buchou."
Before any more could be said they heard a knocking at the door. "Come in!" Rias called out, effectively ending the conversation for now. The door opened to reveal the black haired, pink eyed student council president. "Sona? What can I do for you?"
"Sorry to bother you Rias-sama." Both high-class devils winced slightly at the title, before Sona pressed on. "But I would like to speak to you on the subject we did not get to cover during our last meeting."
"Oh yes, I'm sorry I didn't get to see you earlier, however things have been surprisingly busy." Rias said, with a small smile. "Please have a seat so we can talk." The girl offer while waving to one of the many seats, while she left the desk to sit on one of the couches
"I'll get you both some tea." Akeno said with a pristine smile.
"Thank you Akeno."
"Thank you Himejima-sama." With that Akeno disappeared out the door before Sona took up the couch across from Rias. "How goes your planning for Riser?"
Rias' face dropped at the question, as a small groan escaped her lips. "I was just talking about this with Akeno, I'm putting a hold on any more plans till after the next full moon."
"Oh, why's that?" Sona asked as she tilted her head slightly.
"I have two new members of my Peerage so I think they should both go to get their Familiars."
"Ah." Sona said before a small smirk appeared on her lips. "That could be troubling as I was planning on taking my two new members to get their Familiars as well."
Rias got a smirk as well. "Oh really? I guess you're not going to give this up easily are you?" Sona didn't even have to say anything, as her smirk said everything for her. "So I guess I'll have to challenge you for the right to go first."
"Oh a challenge is it? We can't have a rating game as neither of us are mature devils yet." Sona asked intrigued.
"Oh no of course not, you have many more pieces then me, and I doubt Hyodo and Naruto-kun meeting in that setting would end pleasantly." Rias agreed, getting another nod from Sona. "Besides, I do believe this is a bet between the two of us not them. How about a tennis match?"
Sona seem to think about it for a moment before nodding. "That could work, as this week is the club ball tournament."
"Then it's agreed; we hold a tennis match, winner get to go to the Familiar Forest first." Rias said as she shook hands with Sona. "So what did you want to talk about?" Just as Rias said this Akeno returned with the tea and set it out in front of the two Devils.
"It appears my Parents thought farther ahead than I had assumed. Not only was there a marriage contract for me; there was one for my children as well." Sona said, a frown marring her face. Rias and Akeno's eyes both widened when they heard this, as this explained Sona's edginess for the last while. "My parents were also less than happy that I managed to break the first one and warned this family of how I managed to break the contract. He will not play me in a game of chess, nor is he letting my insults to his pride get the better of him even as he shows his anger. I was hoping you might have some idea how to help me, as you have the same issue with Riser."
Rias narrowed her eyes and bit the tip of her thumb as she tried to think about how to help her friend. After several minutes of silence Rias sighed aloud before telling the other girl the truth. "Right now the only real 'plan' I have is to challenge Riser to a rating game and hope I win."
Sona sighed herself as she realized while that was easier for Rias; as the red haired girl did have a trump card, her own Peerage wasn't quite set up for a quick over powering rush like the red head could pull. As she had escaped the first engagement she had focused on getting long term potential rather than the fast power members that Rias had; she also was focused on members that would be loyal without question, not taking the chance with wild cards like Naruto.
Sona closed her eyes while rubbing her temples under her glasses. "That would not be possible in my case. Unlike you, my Peerage is nowhere near ready for battle; nor do I have the pure fire power to have a chance with such a plan."
"Even with your other Rook?" Rias asked
"Yes Garou-san is strong but does not have enough battle experience yet." Sona said while she thought about her chances. "Even if I was to take into account Hyodo-san and Saji-san gears, without enough training to use them it would do little good."
"What are their gears anyways?" Rias asked, wanting to know exactly what she'd given to her rival and friend.
"Saji-san has a fragment of Vritra, the Absorption Line, and Hyodo-san has a unique Twice Critical called Tiger's Pride. Both can be of great help with the proper training." Sona explained, lightly sliding her glasses back up her nose as she spoke.
"However you don't have the time to do that training. Do you have any idea when he's supposed to be coming?" Rias asked while trying to come up with some idea of how she could help.
"I was told I'd be starting courtship next year, but considering how impatient he seemed I can see him trying to push up the timetable." Sona explained.
"So much like what Riser is trying to do." Rias said tiredly. Sona could only nod mutely at her statement.
Both girls were lost in thought before a loud crash sounded from outside "Owwie."
"Hikari are you o…"Crash "Owwie."
"Ufufu it appears Asia and Hikari have arrived." Akeno said with a grin of amusement on her face. The pony-tailed Queen walked towards the door, her giggles could easily be heard even as she tried to suppress them, and opened it even before the pair could knock. "I'm glad you could make it you two." Akeno said with a smile as she watched the girls brush off their skirts.
"Thank you Akeno-sempai." Asia said with a bow to the older girl.
"Heya Akeno-nee-chan, Rias-nee-chan, and lady I don't know. How are you?" Hikari said happily bouncing in place, only to have to grab Akeno and Asia's shoulders as she started to lose her balance. "Muuuu, legs are so hard to use. I don't see how you all make it look so easy," the girl said as she lifted her ankle length baby blue skirt to reveal two humanoid legs that were covered in dark purple snake scales.
Asia blushed a bit a gasped, rushing forward she pushed the skirt from the girls and hands. "Hikari-chan you can't do that. It's indecent!" The ex nun exclaimed, causing the two girls that new her to giggle while Sona stared in slight confusion.
"Its fine Asia-chan, it's only us girls here right now so no need to get worked up." Rias explained, even as her smile seemed to grow more natural from the two's antics. "And Hikari-chan, legs are natural for us, so we don't find it awkward to use them. If we were suddenly given Lamia bodies we would have just as much difficultly moving as you are. That's why Naruto wanting you to have a full weekend to adjust, which you are doing quite rapidly." Rias pride in the young girl could be heard quite clearly, causing the purple hair girl to blush from the praise.
"Ara, Hikari-chan, when the spell was earlier you didn't have scales on your legs; so why do you have them now?" Akeno asked, as she remembered the spell clearly. She had learned it right after the blonde boy had finished it.
Hikari laughed nervously. "Well I knew Nii-san would always be around so I cast it myself this morning."
"Oh my, that is quite impressive for your first time casting it." Akeno said equally as proud of the girl they all had taken in as a sister.
"Well, actually this is my third try to get this spell on my legs." Hikari admitted in embarrassment, her blush not leaving her cheeks. "The first time it only split my tail in two, second time I had feet at the end of my tails. Third cast took pretty much all the magic I had left to get this." Her head hanging down in slight shame.
"That is still really impressive as that was the first spell you've learnt, and it is a rather complicated spell." Akeno insisted, a large smile on her face backing up her words. Hikari got her own smile as she heard her nee-chan's praise. "However, as you need to wear a uniform skirt, how about I finish this spell of yours and we can work on your casting after classes today?" Hikari nodded with a large grin.
"Oh before you three go, I'd like to introduce you to an old friend of mine. Sitri Sona, here is the student council president, and a fellow high-class devil." Rias said to the two newest girls.
"While at school please refer to me as Shitori Souna." She said with a polite bow.
"Sona this is Argento Asia, she's an ex-nun who's taken up the position of Bishop in my Peerage." The blonde bowed deeply to the high-class devil. "Naruto calls her Goldie." Rias added on, knowing that her friend needed to know so wouldn't have Naruto calling her out on it.
"Ah nice to meet you Argento-sama." Sona said with a bit of a grimes.
"Ahno, it is a pleasure to meet you Sitri-sama, but you don't need to call me 'sama'" Asia said while waving her hands in front of her.
"Ufufufu, I'm afraid she does Asia-chan." Akeno said, holding a hand over her mouth in a vain attempt to hide her laugher. Asia and Hikari both looked at the pony-tailed Queen with questioning looks making Akeno giggle more before she explained. "Sitri-sama made a bet with Ghosty-kun so anyone he nicknames she has to refer to as Sama until he says otherwise."
A look of understanding dawned on the two girls faces before a big smile bloomed on Hikari's face as she tried to step forward to greet the pink eyed devil; she almost tripped again, having to windmill her arms until she wasn't going to fall over. Catching her balance once more and ignoring Akeno's giggles, Hikari turned to Sona with a big smile. "Hi, my names Hikari, nice to meet you." The girl chirped, while waving hyperactively. "I hope we can be friends."
"It is nice to meet you as well Hikari-san." Sona said with a small bow of her head.
"Muuuu, you're too stiff, you should relax Sona-nee-chan." Hikari said back with a pout, already deciding that if she was Rias' friend she was going to be a nee-chan as well.
Rias almost started laughing at Sona's stupefied look, but held herself back so she could cut off anything that might transpire between the two. She had enough problems between her blonde rook and her friend she didn't want to deal with anymore. "Sona, this is Uzumaki Hikari, Naruto's adopted sister." She could already see lights going on in her friends eyes, the girl had only been around a month but from being near Naruto that whole time she'd already picked up a few of his quirks, just mixed with her perky attitude.
"Ah, I'm sorry Uzumaki-sama, I didn't realizes who you were." Sona said, trying to correct her lack of 'Sama' last time she addressed the girl.
"Muuuu, Rias-nee-chan why'd you do that, she was just saying my name normally." Hikari whined as she realized her connection to her brother figure caused her to be addressed so stiffly.
"Sorry Hikari-chan, but you don't want her to get in trouble with your nii-san do you?"
Hikari still pouted a bit before relenting "No," she finally said.
"Ufufu, come on Hikari-chan let's get you fixed up for your first day of school." Akeno said as she helped the girl walk out the door. Hikari waved as she left while Asia gave a quick bow and left as well.
"Anyway Rias-sama I really should be getting back to the council office. I'll see you at lunch to set up a time for our match." The black haired King said to her rival.
"Okay Sona-san, see you then." Rias agreed before her oldest friend disappeared out the door. Once she was gone, Rias got a small frown on her face; although it was very small, something had changed in her friendship with Sona, the red head couldn't tell what it was but she felt something was off when they had talked. Sighing the crimson haired girl leaned back and stared up at the ceiling, she had so much on her mind right now that she was having trouble keeping it all straight.
Naruto clapped his hands together, as if to knock off any dirt, while he walked away from his latest handy work. Behind him, hanging once more from a rope, where the perverted trio; although this time all they had were their shirts tied around their waists like diapers and pacifiers taped in their mouths. He'd even managed to tape their hands closed around a rattle each, while their free hands were just taped into fists. All three were tied with their backs to each other, before they were tied up at the same height as last time.
On Monday, he'd caught the three ogling Asia when she was talking with his sister before class, so he thought he'd be nice and warn them away from trying anything on the girl. It was now Wednesday and he'd already caught them trying to peep before the Nun's gym class. Just as last time he didn't give them a chance to see who caught them, though he had a feeling Hyodo would know, he'd warned the boy that it would only get worse if they didn't shape up. Just like last time he'd left another note hanging below them, this one said. "We were caught peeping again. We are slow learners so we're in a time out."
He was glad he got this done now as he could slip away without anyone noticing and grab some lunch before he had to be back to watch Rias match. She'd made it a point to ask everyone if they could come to watch. Naruto noticed that the Red haired girl an odd twitch when she asked him and Koneko; who'd seated herself in the middle of his lap but refrained from acknowledging it.
He really hadn't wanted to go, even asked why she wanted him there, saying he was going to skip today to practice his Alchemy. She pouted and asked him to please come. With that and Koneko's incessant poking his thigh, he buckled. Truthfully he would have buckled to her pleading pretty quickly; he just didn't like watching sports much, finding them pretty boring. That being said he didn't really have to be seen by anyone other than the club members. He was planning on letting them see him then hiding somewhere so he could read while keeping an eye on the game.
It took quite a bit of work for him to stop the people from looking for him after his lunch with the Club; something that Rias tried to repeat and Azazel wouldn't let him live down. Keeping his head down and out of sight, which was difficult during and at the end of classes, paid off and soon the rumors about him started to fade. He had no desire to become some second prince of school or be called a delinquent that was forcing them to be with him mostly because teenager rumor-mills can easily run either way. While rumors for idiots didn't bother him too much, reputations did follow a person all through their life and he didn't want to have to move to escape being labeled something he wasn't.
This of course didn't stop Rias and Akeno for having fun with what others saw, something that made his disappearing much harder then it needed to be. Rias was very much happy to say that he'd joined their club, and was very helpful and smart, and pretty much blowing sunshine about him to everyone in ear shot. Akeno however liked to blush and smile while insinuating all sorts of things about the kisses they'd given him.
Koneko was the only one that sort of helped him in his disappearing act, not much she just didn't talk about him to anyone. Everyone that had asked her about the kiss she simply pointed at the asker and said "Pervert." before turning and walking away. After the fifth person got the cold shoulder from the girl they learned to stop asking about it.
Yuto had his own set of problems to deal with; apparently the smaller blondes little show while asking for help training caused a bigger stir among the school then the kisses did. Naruto couldn't say he was overly surprised by this considering almost 80% of the school was girls. As such the Prince was the hot topic not some blonde boy nobody ever really sees or knows anything about; though he could freely admit being referred to as "Kuoh's resident Ghost." did raise an eyebrow or two when he heard it.
He had gathered some attention when he would meet Hikari after school to walk her to the club room, though he had mostly brushed that off as having Asia and Koneko following with him to meet the girl. Since the rescue, both girls had been stuck to his sides like glue whenever they could, something that didn't go unnoticed by anyone. Naruto personally wanted to chalk it up to them needing to get over a traumatic event. He'd taken to getting a few hours rest in his study the last few nights because Sunday night his bed was full of other bodies before he could even get into it.
Hikari had made jokes of it, saying he was so popular he should just make his whole bedroom one large bed so it could fit the whole house hold, or talking about group weddings. The fact that Koneko and Akeno looked actually thoughtful about that comment disturbed the boy enough that he closed himself into his study for a complete night, burying himself in his magic studies.
Shaking himself clear of his thoughts, the boy slowed his pace so as to not draw attention to himself, he had just arrived at the sports field where he was supposed to watch the tennis matches. As he had approached from where the locker rooms were, Naruto arrived from behind the 8 tier white bleachers. The three tennis courts where set inside a ten foot high chain link fence, all having red ground covering; something that looked like dyed red asphalt to the blonde ninja, with spray painted white lines on the ground to mark the courts. A line of trees surrounded the back and sides of the fenced in area, giving shade and some measure of solitude to allow the players to focus without cutting the area off from the rest of the grounds.
Smirking faintly, Naruto moved away from the rapidly filling bleachers and found a shaded area that gave him view of the courts and audience without being easily seen, as usual it was an area that was out in the open but easily overlook. He'd just been able to pull out his alchemy book, he said he'd come not that he wouldn't still be trying to learn a skill that interested him as much as seals did, when he felt a familiar weight drop into his lap. "Hello Kitten."
"Naruto-sempai."
"Good day?"
"Hai. Your work?" When Koneko asked this she pointed towards where the girl's locker room was.
"Their fault." Naruto responded with a shrug, finally managing to dig his alchemy book out and open it.
"Sitri-sempai will be upset."
"Not allowed." Koneko looked confused, as she knew that Sona was just as protective of her servants as Rias, even if she showed less compassion about it. Naruto shot a look to the girl when he didn't hear her say anything but did feel her move a bit. Seeing her look at him with her question in her eyes Naruto answered her unasked question. "The bet. She's not allowed to be upset for anything I do."
The Nekoshou thought back to the bet Naruto had with Sona. The first part said she wasn't allowto demand anything of him, so while she could get upset she couldn't do anything about it. So basically, even if Sona does know that Naruto had done this prank against Issei, she was not able to call him on it, therefore stopping her from expressing any displeasure. Nodding her understanding Koneko turned back to the courts and pulled out some snacks for her to enjoy while she watched the match.
She had just started to relax in her spot when she felt a comforting hazes fill her mind, causing her to release a slight purr while her eyes fell closed. Naruto hadn't even realized that he'd starting to absentmindedly pet the girls hair while he read his book, only noticing what he'd done when the girl fell back into his chest fast asleep. Blinking in surprise Naruto cast a quick look around; Rias had yet to take to the courts so he still had time, none of the other students had noticed them yet, not even Yuto or Akeno. Assuming she was as tired as he felt, Naruto decided to let the white haired girl rest. 'Maybe Koneko feels that same "protective big brother" aura that Hikari was talking about?' the confused blonde thought to himself as he felt Koneko curl in to his chest more. Lazily wrapping an arm around the girl to reach his book, the clueless blonde boy flipped the page and pushed the thoughts of why the white haired girl was sleeping on him from his mind.
It was a good twenty five minutes later that Rias and Sona made their way into the courts, Naruto had shaken Koneko awake as soon as he saw the pair. However, once he saw both of them starting to use magic in the game, he simply went back to reading his book; having lost any interesting once it became a game of who can cheat and not let the humans catch you. He felt no surprise when the game was called a tie, though he had to admit he was impressed that they managed to keep the damage to a minimum.
As the game had finished, he could see Rias looking around trying to find something or someone. Soon enough Yuto, Asia and Akeno had come up next to the young women. The three had a quick conversation before they too started to look about causing Naruto to shake his head. It was all too obvious who they were searching for. Getting Koneko to stand, he moved himself in to direct sunlight and waved to the three.
Akeno was the first to see the pair and giggled at Naruto bored wave, as he hadn't stoped reading as he waved. Koneko was beside him as she stared intently at the three, as if she wanted them to know where she was simply by a look. Finally, Akeno got the other three to look to the side of the court and they all approached the two anti-social members of their club. Asia's smile lit up her face when she saw the blonde boy."Why are you two over here?" Rias asked, still not understanding how some people simply couldn't handle having many others around them.
"Got here early, so wanted to have a quiet comfortable place to read. Kitten joined me soon after," Naruto said easily, finally putting his book away.
"So you were here the whole time to watch my Tennis match?" Rias questioned happily; she wasn't sure why but she felt more excited knowing that the dragon boy had been watching her.
"Yeah, though I'm pretty sure you stopped playing tennis after the second serve, and it suddenly became a game of wreck-it ball." The boy countered with a smirk.
"Don't you mean racket ball?" Yuto asked.
"Nope, I mean wreck-it." Naruto stated while pointing a finger at the destroyed tennis court, even if the girls managed to contain the damage done, the whole court would need to be re-floored. Akeno giggled as Rias blushed when she realized what happened while she got caught up in her game against Sona. "So was there a point to you playing this? Because you sure seemed 'into it' for a simple match against your friendly rival."
Rias sighed and nodded. "I sort of took a page out of your book and made a bet with her." She had most of her blush under control now that she was talking about her reasons rather than looking at the results of the bet. "Something that I'm fairly sure we are going to have to re-discus as this match ended in a tie."
Naruto raised an eyebrow when he heard he inadvertently helped make this mess. "Okay, now you have my attention. What's at stake?"
The girl's eyes darted around for a second looked for something before she came up with an answer. "Club resources, I'll explain the details over lunch in the club room." Naruto realized what she was alluding to easily, so he simply nodded. "I should tell you now Sona and the student council will likely be there."
Naruto's eye quickly started to drift off as he turned around to get his bag. "They may be late then," The boy said as he started to collect his belongings.
"Why's that?" Rias asked, as she had been too focused on her match to notice her surroundings when she left the locker room.
"Perverts got caught again." Koneko answered for the boy. "You didn't see?"
Rias narrowed her eyes in thought from the Nekoshou's question, trying to remember if she had seen anything. "I don't recall anything, though I'll admit I was preoccupied with other thoughts."
"Oh, and what happened to them this time?" Akeno asked with an impish grin.
"Oh they're just having a time out. I'm sure Sitri will find them hanging around." Naruto said with a bit of a smirk, getting a giggle from Akeno and a low chuckle from Yuto while the princely blonde shook his head. "I have pictures on my phone if you want to see?" The blonde ninja offered.
"I'd rather know how you pull it off honestly." Rias said as she shook her head, she could already see the storm Sona was likely to cause from this.
"I'm ninja like that," Naruto said giving the same answer he'd given Koneko when she asked. Asia tilted her head in confusion while the other three inside the fenced off area all snapped their heads up towards the smirking blonde; before they could question if he was serious though they all saw Koneko poking him in the ribs hard, a barely noticeable frown on her lips. "Hey stop it Kitten."
"Baka." The white haired girl said while she continued to poke at the amused blonde.
Rias sighed as the pair played around, she could honestly say she was jealous of the two. Giving a quick glance at the other two with her she could see she wasn't the only one. While most couldn't see it, Rias had been with her Queen long enough to notice the slight tightening around her eyes and strains she's putting into keeping her smile in place. Asia looked to be pouting slightly, as if she wanted to join the game while not sure she could.
Rias and Akeno were also becoming very stressed from the lack of sleep. They'd become very use to sleeping next to the blonde ninja, but for the last few days he hadn't even been coming to bed. Several times, one or the other would slip out of bed and go looking for him only to find him in his study working on one form of study or writing things out on a large journal. By morning, neither had been able to sleep much at all and when they made it down for breakfast Naruto was wide awake intoning that he either gotten up fairly early or the more likely option of he hadn't slept at all.
Naruto's light chuckles draw all of them from their thoughts as he gotten Koneko to stop poking him. "I guess we should head to the club room now then?"
Rias shook her head to clear away her feelings and thoughts, now wasn't the time. "Yes, hopefully Sona will be calm enough when she arrives that we can get our business dealt with."
Naruto shrugs as he and Koneko turn to head toward the old school building. "As long as she doesn't go back on our bet Sitri can't really say much." Naruto said as he moved away from the others, ignoring the fact that Koneko had taken his hand as they walked.
Yuto was quick to retreat when he felt Rias starting to release and angry aura of jealousy while staring at the retreating pair; looking up he decided it was best to run as he could see mischief and planning going on in Akeno eyes awhile she had joined the red head in staring after the two. For all his quick wits and his extraordinarilyfast learning curve, Naruto could be extremely dense when it came to some of life's common sense things and women.
Watching from a safe distance, Yuto was the least affected by Naruto's joke. While he did wish to know if the blonde was really a Ninja, he wasn't about to push for answers from his fellow blonde. He'd been honest with him when he asked his friend to help train him. Naruto could keep all the secrets he wanted and Yuto wouldn't question him about them, as long as the other boy helped train him. Naruto had already kept up his half of the bargain, something Yuto could already feel and see; as while he could still barely move under the level three seal, when he was walking a moving normally he felt faster and lighter.
Naruto's hand twitched very so slightly while he sat in 'his' chair. He desperately wanted to have he's book out so he could ignore everyone else in the room. The whole Sitri peerage was in the Occult Research Club room with Rias' peerage. The red head herself was currently seated on one of the couches directly across from her pink eyed rival; while both girls' Queens sat beside them. Yuto had taken up standing directly behind the red haired devil; his back to the only window in the room, while the rest of Sona's known Peerage stood behind her. The four slightly odd ones out were Koneko who was sitting on his lap as was normal for the girl; Asia, who was standing so close to the side of his chair he was sure if she moved any closer she'd be sitting on the arm rest; Hikari, was standing behind his chair using the back to support her as she was still having trouble with walking even if she was getting use to her new leg fast; and finally, himself.
The eight members of Sitri Peerage were all looking between the two high-class devils and himself with varying looks of nervousness, and in one case annoyance. Naruto couldn't even bring himself to blame Issei for his annoyance either, the boy was likely the laughing stock of the school, he'd missed Sona's tennis match and caused them to be late for this meeting as they had to get him down and into proper clothing. That wasn't to say Naruto wouldn't do it again or worse if he caught the boy again, or if he and the women's other pawn continued to stare at Asia with so much lust it could be smelled.
As the two girls continued to talk about things over their tea, Naruto decided to take a more through look at the others in her Peerage, as while he had seen them before he wasn't really paying them much attention. The girl closest to him was a tall girl with long white hair, with almost metallic blue green eyes. Her domineer was slightly shy but with a resolved stance that meant she was obviously nervous to be here, but held firm with her king. If his memory was right this girl was Hanakai Momo, a girl that was in his and Yuto's grade, and an apparent Bishop for the Sitri heiress.
Next to Momo stood Sona's second Bishop, a brown haired and eyed, girl by the name of Kusaka Reya. She seemed far more shy the Momo and seemed to cast shy looks towards Yuto every once in awhile, even going so far as to twirl one of her fingers through her chest length hair once in awhile. Even Naruto couldn't miss the signs of her crush on his friend, which meant a lot as he rarely understood any human or former human behavior.
Following the brunette was the reddish-brown haired Knight of the group. The girl could be seen barely holding back a fidget as she stood behind her king. This was something that Naruto understood as he remembered seeing this girl around and she was always moving. Megumi Tomoe was a hyperactive bubbly girl who would sometimes spar with the kendo club; however she never joined from what he could recall.
The last non-pawn of Sona's group was Yura Tsubasa who was a blue haired and eyed Rook. Tsubasa was the tallest of their group, coming up just short of his own height by only a couple of inches; and she gave off the feeling of a tomboy. She did have a very bishounen face much like Yuto's looks.
The only female Pawn Sona had was a first year by the name of Nimura Ruruko, who was doing much like Reya, only her glances were sent towards the blonde haired pawn next to her. Ruruko had waist length brown hair that was pulled back into two ponytails and bright happy green eyes, she was also the most nervous one of their group and make a point of keeping the blonde pawn, whom she kept glancing at, between her and Naruto. The blonde Pawn was Seji Genshirou, Naruto only need one look at the boy; who was staring at Asia, to know that Genshirou was a blonde haired, gray eyed, slightly taller version of Issei, Naruto didn't like the boy one bit.
He had to stop his examination of Sona's Peerage when he felt Hikari tapping him lightly on the shoulder. Giving a glance up he saw her point over to Rias and Sona, both of him were looking at him, Rias with slight worry, Sona with confusion. "Sorry I was lost in thought." Naruto said, as he barely held in a yawn.
"It's okay Naruto-kun, are you okay?" Rias asked her worry for the boy clear in her voice.
"I'm fine Red, just haven't slept since Sunday." Naruto said waving off her concern with an easy going smile. "What's up?"
"Sona and I have come to an agreement, sort of. We want to finish our bet by facing both our Peerages in a dodge ball game this Friday after classes." Rias explained. "Everyone else agreed but you seem to have zone out." Rias withheld that she had only asked her Peerage and Hikari if they agreed to the match, something she'd only really started getting into the habit of doing after Naruto had joined. It was also something that she found surprised the others at first, but made all of them happier. While she didn't second guess herself in battle she had started to ask their opinion more often.
Naruto looked up at his adopted sister. The girl had a happy and excited look on her face that seemed to make her almost glow with joy. Making a quick glance at the nun that looked equally excited for the game Naruto looked back to the red head and nodded as well. She seem to have gotten the others into it so he wasn't about to ruin their fun just because he thought the game was boring. "Sure, might as well. Winners will go right from there to the forest I take it?"
Rias give a happy grin while nodding, she was glad he didn't make much of a fuss over the game, as she was expecting to have to try and convince him to join. "Uzumaki-sama, if I may, is there something bothering you?" Sona asked, as she could clearly see he was still very distracted; both her and Naruto easily ignoring the grumbling from her Peerage at her having to still refer to him as 'Sama'.
"Nothing you need to concern yourself over Sitri-san, it's mostly family matters." Naruto said airily, waving her worry off.
"I see." Sona said before letting the matter drop for now. While she knew there was more to it there was little more she would get out of him. She would just have to try to regain her standing in his eyes before she could be trusted with anything else, something she found exceedingly odd to have to do. Pushing the thoughts from her mind for now she turned her head back towards Rias, who also appeared worry over the whiskered blonde. "Rias-sama, as I believe there is little more we have to talk about in regards to the match, I believe it best for us to retire from this meeting for now."
"I agree. I look forward to our match on Friday." The red haired devil said with a large smirk, one that was matched by the Sitri heiress.
"I hate you so much right now." Yuto said as he flopped down in the middle of the living room of Naruto's house. The other male of the group was only grinning mercilessly at the bishounen boy, while Koneko just stared blankly at the fallen knight. The three had been training for several hours, Koneko and Naruto in hand to hand fighting while the Knight was trying to still walk in level three gravity seal.
Koneko's evil Rook piece allowed for her to handle the gravity training far better than Yuto's Knight, which was more speed focused. So while both were now training at level three, Koneko was already learning fighting styles from Naruto that could complement each other, while Yuto was just trying to relearn how to walk.
The kicker for Yuto was that Naruto ended today's training earlier than normal to fulfill his promise to his first multi-year client and kept his word to the Knight by drag him along. Yuto had completely forgotten about Naruto's threat to take him along, and Naruto hadn't released the seal to allow Yuto to run away. Koneko just came along to see what the fuss was about as she hadn't been in the room when Naruto had returned from that client. "I told you I was taking you with me when I went next."
"I forgot with everything else that was going on."
"Not my problem."
"You're a Bastard."
"Most likely, but I really don't care." Naruto said with a wide, evil grin on his face. Yuto could very well be considered his best male friend, and he knew the little princely asshole was the reason for his sudden jump in female contractors. He couldn't prove it, but the sudden spike in hormonal teenage women being able to summon him was very much not to his liking, and Yuto was the most popular male in school.
"So what do you want to turn this damned thing off?" The ragged looking Knight asked while he finally managed to roll on to his back.
Naruto lifted his hands into a hand seal while spiking his chakra. With a quiet 'Kai' Yuto and Koneko both felt the weight lifted from their bodies, allowing Yuto to release an explosive sigh of relief; Koneko's was much softer but even she sighed happily while the tension left her shoulders. "How'd you do it?" Naruto asked while he stared intently at his fellow blonde in the room.
Yuto opened one eye as he smirked up at the other boy. "Do what Ghosty?"
Naruto raised an eyebrow at Yuto using Akeno's name for him. "The contracts ass-hat."
Yuto snorted aloud at Naruto's insult, while Koneko had to hold back her own snort behind her small smirk. "Whatever do you mean?"
"Give it up; I know it's you that's making all those horny girls get a hold of my summoning circle. How? And why are they willing to summon me not you?" Koneko suddenly became very interested in the answer to that, glaring intently at the once smirking blonde. With both Rooks staring down on him with hard looks Yuto started to sweat.
"Called you my 'big brother' and ummm, sorta implied that they had to 'impress' you for me to consider dating them?" Yuto asked while he was slinking back into a wall from the combined glares.
Naruto started getting a twitch in his eye; finally after a few minutes he just face-palmed and muttered to himself about perverted uncles and corruptible knights. "Fine, prank well played Prep." Yuto visibly deflated in his relief from having the blonde stop glaring at him, though Koneko still didn't look pleased. "However, you do know this means War right?" Threatened Naruto.
"Huh?!" A rapidly paling blonde said as he looked up to the whiskered dragon wearing the most evil and frightening grin he'd ever seen in his life, and could only wonder if he should have ignored Az's advice on how to get Naruto back for all the times he'd disappeared on the Knight. He knew he should have when Koneko's once hard look suddenly became one of pity. 'I'm so fucked.' was his only thought.
Naruto and Yuto stood side by side as the over looked their 'team mates' for the dodge ball game. Yuto was trying desperately to hold back his laugher while Naruto's eyebrow was twitching dangerously; on the other end of the court Issie and Genshirou were staring lustfully at the same thing as the two blondes. All the females were stretching to ready themselves for the game, while this wasn't bad in and of itself as it would prevent many injuries, they were doing so in tight girl's bloomer shorts; which were the reason the two perverted pawns were staring and drooling on the floor.
However, that was not the reason for Naruto's twitch or Yuto's withheld laugher. The reason for that was, like the student councils oddly homemade headbands, all the girls had decided they wanted to wear something matching. As such they decide to raid Naruto's T-shirt stock, and were now all wearing matching flame print T-shirts of varying colours along with they're shorts. Although they did look cute in the shirts, especially Koneko and Asia whom the shirts covered almost like a dress, Rias and Akeno looked far to self satisfied in the clothing. "Why are they all in my shirts?"
"Why do you have so many matching shirts?" Yuto shot back.
"On sale and they looked cool." Naruto answered back without really thinking about it.
"Really?"
"672 yen a shirt, and considering how many shirts I destroy in training..." Naruto trailed off as a look of understanding came over Yuto's face, as even he had started to need new shirts while training with Naruto. "Still doesn't answer my question as to why they're wearing my shirts."
"They're women why the hell are you asking me?" Yuto asked.
"Well with your pretty boy looks you could almost pass-" Naruto had to stop and dodge sideways as Yuto attempted to smack him in the back of the head.
"Ass."
"I know, it's sexy." Naruto said with an infuriating smirk. "But sorry, I only like girls Prep."
Yuto had his turn to twitch this time as he glared at his friends smirking form before calming down and tilting his head to the side. "Really? 'Cause I've never seen you with a girlfriend?"
"You're one to talk, almost every girl in this school would drop their panties at your smile and yet you've never even given one of them a second look." Naruto countered before he stopped and thought for a second. "Granted almost all of them are the evil fan-girl (Both boys shuttered from the word.) variety but not all of them."
Yuto deadpanned at the other boy. "The fan-girls *shutter* would eat any girl I asked out alive. So I've avoiding doing so till I'm away from them."
Naruto snorted loudly at the boy. "Good luck with that." He said before he took a second to take stock of the gymnasium they were to play the dodge ball game in. while the area was a large concrete and stone brick room, lit by florescentlights; it was painted to make the room seem larger and brighter then it truly was. The floor was painted a fleshy peach tone with many black, white and red circles and lines throughout the room. The retracted basketball hoops along either wall gave way for Naruto to know who normally used this gym. The white walls reflected a great deal of the light from the ceiling allowing everyone to know they had been paint recently, something that indicated to the blonde that this room was both in regular use and in high demand.
"Ano, aren't you going to stretch Naruto-san?"
"Are you ever going to drop the san from my name?" Naruto asked back as he smiled lightly at the blonde nun as he and Yuto approached the group. Asia smiled with a light blush on her cheeks, unable to stop herself from playing with the hem of his shirt that she was wearing. "I jogged here with Prep so I'm plenty stretched out Goldie."
"Awe I was hoping you'd put on a show for us ladies, we did so for you Ghosty-kun." Akeno said with a flirtatious smirk.
Naruto could almost see her trying to bait him into another one of her traps, even as Issie and Genshirou were prepared to do any showing needed to see more. Seeing a chance to crush their hopes, and hopefully stop their annoying lust filled stares at his friends, he smirk before speaking a little louder then truly necessary to be heard. "And I was hoping one of you would mind explaining why everyone other than Prep here is wearing my shirts?" He couldn't help the vindictive smirk that appeared on his lips as he saw both Sona's perverted pawns suddenly appear crouching in the corner of the room with storm clouds above their heads.
He was brought back to reality when he felt Asia tug lightly on the sleeve of his shirt while looking down shyly. "Ano,,, I'm sorry for taking your shirt without asking, Hikari-chan said you wouldn't mind, and we should all wear them as a team." She slowly raised her head to look at him, her face that of a horribly sad puppy that would have shattered heart if you didn't give it all your attention and love. "Please don't be upset."
'There should be a law outlawing that look, it's just not fair.' Naruto thought before he sighed exasperatingly, gently laying one of his hands on the small ex-nuns golden locks and patting her head. "I'm not upset, just confused. Why my shirts? I'm pretty sure the one Kitten's wearing was the one I wore to bed last night." Naruto said before he turned his eyes towards his sister hoping she'd explain. Had he looked towards the other girls he would have noticed the looks of envy Koneko was getting from several of the girls.
The Lamia girl with legs just grinned at her brother before giving him the 'victory' hand symbol. "Pay back for the other morning my dear Onii-chan. Now we're even for you walking around the house naked." Again the Uzumaki siblings totally missed the blushing glaze eyed looks on the girls' faces.
"Stop letting people strip me in my sleep and that wouldn't happen." Naruto said trying to vainly defend himself.
"Oh like I can stop the number of girls that crawl into your bed and strip you." Hikari declared, ignoring how that statement knocked both perverted pawns out with matching nosebleeds. Nobody paid their mutters of 'lucky bastard' any mind as they simply left them there for the moment.
"Okay, stop you two." Rias said with a soft and amused smile on her lips. "As much as I'd love to let you two continue we have to start this game before the night is over."
Naruto blinked, having forgotten where they were in his game with Hikari. "Oh yeah." Shrugging he walked toward the court where everyone else was waiting; stopping only long enough to rub Koneko's head. "So I just have to not get hit right?" Naruto asked with a laidback air about him, he was trying to get the other side to underestimate him, not hard but by the looks of the perverts on the other side he didn't have to try hard anyway.
Really the only two that fell for his act were the perverted pawns. They had matching looks in their eyes as the picked up a set of balls to throw at him as soon as the game started. Once the whistle was blown both boys threw their 'weapons' at the lazing boy to try and get him out, only for the ninja to catch them with an evil grin and mischievous look in his eyes. "You perverts need to learn to keep your balls were they belong." Naruto called before firing the balls back at the two, aiming below the belt on both.
"Evil." Koneko said, with a small note of amusement in her voice.
"That was just brutal Ghost." Yuto said, having decided until he came up with a better name, he was just going to stick with the one Akeno called Naruto. The game had ended about ten minutes ago and everyone was had returned to their normal clothes. Except Koneko and Akeno, who still wore Naruto's t-shirts. Though from the looks of Rias and Asia he doubted he'd see any of those t-shirts again.
"But very amusing." Akeno herself added, a small amount of lust in her voice; she slide up beside the decided victor of the dodge ball game. Naruto was pulled away before she could get too closed to him by a determined looking Koneko. "Muuu you're no fun Koneko-chan."
"Eh they had it coming, I didn't like the way they were looking at the girls, so I had to remind them of their place." Naruto said simply. He held firm in his ignoring the by-play between the girls in the group, as he was sure it would only confuse him more if he tried to understand them.
Yuto snorted as he stood beside his best friend. "I didn't say it was underserved; only that it was brutal. You made a point to aim so that if they stood up the ball would find a way to hit them in the nuts again. I've never seen a guy cry that much in one afternoon."
"I only hit them once, the rest was just their bad karma coming back to bite them." Naruto said trying, and failing, to look innocent.
Yuto and everyone there snorted loudly when he said that. "Right." The princely blonde said before he looked back to their team medic, who was healing the injured boys as best she could. "Asia-chan, we need to get going!" The knight called out, drawing her away from the light healing she was doing to the two.
"Ah Right, coming Kiba-san." The nun said before bowing to the two boys politely before rushing over to Naruto's side, not even giving the two boy's a second look. Even as they stared longingly at her retreating form, until they saw Naruto's hard glare at them.
The rest of their conversations were cut off as Rias approached the group, her satisfied smirk allowed everyone to know she was enjoying having her Peerage dominate Sona's, as only Asia had gotten out, and that was more of a fluke as the nun had tripped and fallen into the ball rather then been hit.
Akeno smiled as she started up the magic circle once she saw Rias approach. "Is everything ready Buchou?"
"Yes Akeno, we can leave once everyone here is ready." Rias said before turning to the rest of the group. "Are you?" She was still having to remind herself to ask once in awhile but she believed she was getting better, and from the shocking results Yuto was has having from Naruto's training she was completely convinced it was worth the effort to stop thinking of any of her peerage as her servants. 'Though I don't think it should be this hard to remember.'
The following course of 'Hai's and one lazy 'sure.' from a distracted and whiskered blonde following the question was all Akeno needed to hear before she activated her spell.
The first thing Naruto noticed when he arrived in the forest they'd been transported to was that he could FEEL like it was breathing. There was so much energy everywhere around him it was staggering to him, he knew if he tried to activate his 'Fox eyes' he'd likely end up blinded. It both amazed him and unnerved him as not having his advanced eye sight could hamper him if something was to attack him right now. The energy was also darker then was he was used to, making the air slightly chilly;the dusk like sky cast a red hue across the almost black trees that surrounded them on all sides, adding to the effect.
In seconds after appearing here Naruto felt Asia latch onto his arm while shivering in fright, while on the other side Hikari was holding on to the hem of his shirt. "Well, isn't this a welcoming place." The whiskered blonde remarked sarcastically, cutting through the tense atmosphere with ease. Even as the others laughed Naruto could feel the hairs on the back of his neck rise, something was already watching him.
"This is the Familiar Forest in the underworld Naruto-kun, the atmosphere here is to be expected." Rias said as she sent a disarming smile to the nervous girls. "There's nothing to be afraid of, this area of the forest is completely safe."
"You just jinxed us I hope you know that." Naruto remarked flatly.
Rias just laughed. "Oh relax; we've been here lots of times. Each of us had to come here to get our own familiars, plus we have a familiar master meeting us just up ahead, what could go wrong?"
"And now we're fucked." Naruto said with a groan. He could already see himself coming back after a series of horrifying and embarrassing events happen. "I reserve the right to say 'I told you so' when the shit hits the fan Red." Rias laughed lightly, until she turned around to see everyone was giving her deadpanned looks, causing her laughter to slowly die awkwardly. Naruto's head shot sideways and glared up into a tree at the side of the walking path ahead of them. "The stare is creepy bud, get out here."
"Gotta catch'um all!"
"NO MORE POKEMON FOR YOU!" Hikari screamed as a man jumped down from the tree Naruto had been glaring at. The man looked to be middle aged but was an off white sleeveless shirt, a large yellow backpack, blue backwards baseball cap, beige cargo shorts and wore hiking boots. The Uzumaki siblings both had rather clear twitches in their eyebrows as the reddish brown haired man looked like he was trying to rip off a Pokemon character but was VERY over the hill, and refused to let go. "5000 yen says he's a pervert." The girl whispered to her brother figure.
"No bet, I already caught him leering at you girls." Naruto muttered back, his glare not letting up on the over the hill Ash wanna-be.
"I'm Zatouji, The Familiar Master. I can catch any Familiar." The now named Zatouji called out, puffing himself up as if trying to impress the women of the group.
"Old Pokemon perv." Naruto muttered. He lost interest in the man after that as he could still feel something in the area almost hunting him, but as no one else seem to notice he was almost tempted to put it off as paranoia. 'This is the point when I'd have vanished normally.' The blonde thought with narrowed eyes. He was not use to having this many people near him and it was started to bother him more and more each day. Having them basically hanging off him like two were now just drove his instinctive need to attack into over drive, and now he could feel a presence stalking him.
The group started to walk deeper into the forest following the still talking familiar master, he had started telling them all about the different types of familiar they could get, the varying abilities they displayed and elemental affinities they could have. "So what type of Familiars are you looking for?" The man asked while he finally stopped in a large clearing with a small pond near the end of it.
"Ano I'd like something cute please." Asia asked shyly, stepping slightly away from Naruto in order to be seen.
"Of course you can!" The man responded, puffing himself up as if he could do anything. The man looked around "You're in luck, there happens to be an Undine connected to this pond. I'll call her out for you." The devil said as he pranced over to the pond while digging for something in his backpack.
Suddenly all moment stopped as everyone felt the something dark enter the clearing, a low but deep growl echoing off the trees. Everyone's eyes slowly moved toward the far side of the area as the shadows seem to become darker and collect into one spot. Naruto slowly released himself from Hikari's hold while he moved in front of the group; he knew this thing was here for him as it had been since he entered the forest. "Nii-chan?" the younger Uzumaki asked watching her brother figure move to meet the slowly forming mass of shadows.
"Finally showing yourself?" Naruto asked aloud as the mass started to take shape. The shadows seem to run down the beings form like black oil, clearing away to show what looked to be a black wolf with shots of red highlighting its coat. The wolf stood at least five feet high on the shoulders, and two and a half feet wide; however the two most defining features were the glowing green eyes that lit up the clearing and the four massive black and red feathered wings coming from the wolfs back.
"A MONARCH!" Zatouji yelled out in shock seeing the massive wolf, which was currently in a glaring contest with Naruto.
"A what?" Rias asked in worry. She'd never heard nor seen anything like this beast before. Everyone else was listening, while they were preparing to fight the beast, should it attack.
"It's a Monarch Shadow wolf, the strongest breed of shadow wolves, or any elemental wolves for that matter. Nobody really knows where they come from or how they're born, though some rumors say they are the direct descendants of Hati son of Fenrir; one is only seen every 500 to 1000 years. The only way not to be attacked when you see one is to bow in submission, and pray it doesn't see you as a threat." Zatouji explained, he was already getting to his knees while he explained this.
Rias could already tell this was not going to be a pleasant night, nor was she going to get home without having to listen to Naruto's mocking 'I told you so'. "I still don't believe I jinxed us," Rias said while she glared at the blonde boy as he started to release an aura of blood red chakra. She knew she and the others wouldn't have to bow, the Wolf was solely focused on the one being that would rather die than bow.
"Keep telling yourself that Red," Naruto said while kept staring at the wolf. Then it happened; the horse sized wolf lunged forward at the dragon-kin boy fangs barred, Naruto met the attack with a Chakra enforced raising kick to snap the beasts mouth closed, before both were dragged into the shadows and disappeared.
From inside a cave deep within the mountain range bordering the Familiar Forest a large golden eye slowly opened. The silted iris narrowing as the being awoke from its slumber, searching the surroundings for what caused it to awaken. Slowly lifting its head from the ground crystalline blue scales shown in the moonlight, the massive western dragon slowly crawled from its resting place to scan the forest more closely.
'What is this feeling? It's feels like Ophis, yet different.' The Dragon thought as it tried to locate where the feeling was coming from. The majestic blue dragon was none other than the Chaos Karma Dragon, only female of the dragon kings, Tiamat. She slowly descended the mountain its cave was located in, while sniffing the air to try and find the source of strange energy without the cause getting away. Suddenly, in the distance from the devils entrance to the forest she felt a spike of the power accompanied with a feeling of emptiness before it receded again.
Narrowing her eyes Tiamat shifted her form into a smaller size before taking flight to track down the power that seemed both familiar and foreign.
Naruto fell backward while holding his leg up, keeping the beast's mouth shut as it sailed over the falling blonde, swinging up with both arms as his head neared the ground Naruto shot up a second kick to the beast's chest. Once the wolf was completely above him, Naruto's hands hit ground and his second leg joined his first in finding contact with the Shadow wolf's body. The blow sending the beast clear across the new clearing they had ended up in.
Finishing his flip, Naruto was back to his feet and facing his opponent before the large creature landed from its impromptu flight. Fists clenched and adrenalin pumping the blonde boy gave chase to the large predator to keep up his attack, only to be left flat footed as the wolf touched a shadow and disappeared. Sliding into a defense stance the whiskered ninja quickly started scanning the clearing for any sign of the wolf, as he knew it wouldn't be over with one attack. 'This is going to get annoying quickly.' The boy thought as he kept his eyes sharp, not enjoying this turn about as he was the one that often appeared from the shadows to attack.
Trusting his instincts Naruto closed his eyes while slipping two kunai into his hands in reverse grips. Feeding Chakra into the kunai, he waited only as second before his eyes flashed open and he spun around. Slashing out with his left hand he watch as a solid tentacle of shadow was shredded. The boy hopped to his right with a spin and slashed out with his right hand, this time slicing into the wolf, only for it to shred around into shadows as well.
Narrowing his eyes as he saw more shadows start to condense into the forms of wolves and weaving coils, Naruto knew he needed to stop the wolfs ability to control shadows if he wanted to end this quickly and return to the others. Pulling in the burning chakra aura Naruto released his wings and called on his Void Flames. Waves of fire flashed off of him feeding on the massive amounts of energy in the air, as well as the magic the wolf had fed into the shadows to give them form. The blaze had only just been released and all of the constructs his opponent had created fell to pieces, but Naruto knew something was wrong.
The flames vanished as the blonde dragon-kin fell to his knees coughing and clutching his chest in pain, blood leaking from his lips even as he tried desperately to stem the cough. Calling up his Chakra once more, he focused it in and around his chest, hoping desperately that his regenerating would fix the problem or at the very least stop the cough till he finished the fight. As the blood red chakra cloaked his body once more Naruto felt the pain from his chest ease off, but couldn't help but glare at the blood that had fallen to the ground in front of him.
Pushing the pain from his mind, Naruto reclaimed the fallen kunai and stood back to his feet, already scanning for his enemy once more. He already knew he was at a major disadvantage because he could no long use his Void Flames to neutralize the beast's shadow powers and the wolf had brought him here, so it had chosen a place where the shadows were abundant. Seeing a gleam of green shining down on him Naruto snarled up into the branches of one of the nearby trees, where an equally snarling four winged shadow wolf stood glaring down at him.
Coming up with an idea to counter the advantage the beast had given itself Naruto started drawing up his magic, before he returned the kunai from his right hand back into his sleeve. Keeping a careful watch on the wolf as it jumped down from the tree and started circling him, Naruto carefully reached into a hidden pocket of his coat and pulled out several shuriken. The wolf stopped circling while Naruto kept his eyes locked with the beast, keeping his mind focused no several thinks at once was almost giving the boy a headache but he felt it once he had his spell ready.
With a low growl the monarch shadow wolf lunged at Naruto again just as the boy threw his throwing stars at it. As if repeating the same attack as their first exchange Naruto once again shot a raising kick into the wolfs lower jaw, however this time as soon as contact was made both being disappeared in a flash of black; reappearing seventy feet in the air. His wings already out the blonde ninja finished his flip kick before stabilizing himself in the air.
The wolf managed to stop his own flight as well; through not as gracefully as Naruto. By fully extending its wings he showed that they weren't just for decoration despite how out of place they seem to be. Growling at the cause of its pain the wolf opened its mouth and started pooling all of its dark power there forming a large ball of power to collect.
Naruto stared blankly for a second as he watched the large beast start calling up a massive amount of power in front of its mouth. In that moment the large wolf seemed to be over lapped with multiple animals doing the same stance, only with small balls of blue and red condensing into a large black orb in front of them. Seeing a different attack happening; but expecting the same results, Naruto let himself drop. He had just managed to get out of the way as the beam type attack shot past him burning his coat sleeve and wing, causing him to focus his chakra cloak to heal it quickly.
Clear from the blasts path Naruto snapped his wings open; ignoring the shooting pain from the rapidly healing one, and swooped around on a collision course for the still recovering wolf beast. This action didn't go unnoticed by the tired but aggravated animal, which turned and started to fly to meet the dragon-kin in mid-flight. The impact caused a blast wave of shadow energy and chakra to explode out before both beings were sent crashing back into the ground beneath them.
Tiamat watch in amusement as a hatchling part Dragon Being fought with the local Monarch shadow wolf. When she had first arrived she hadn't expected to see the two trying to dual each other in midair, as it seem out of their elements. She had originally thought for a moment the part dragon was a devil that Ophis had empowered, that thought was discarded once she got a better look at the boy's wings; which were clearly draconic in origin not demonic.
The Chakra glowing around the blonde also threw off her thoughts on whom he was as well. As far back as she would remember only Youkai had any form of Chakra, not dragons, and his Chakra was far thicker they any Youkai she's ever met. His was very befitting for a dragon, however the Chakra didn't enhance his draconic smell, which if it was his main power it should have. Had he been empowered by Ophis her sent would have been all over him right now, but she couldn't find a trace of it on him.
"You little Hatchling, are a mystery." Tiamat whispered quietly as she flew closer to where the blonde had landed, hoping to see more from him.
With the main group right after Naruto was taken.
"What do you mean, you can't find him?!" Rias growled at the shaking and stuttering familiar master, a halo of blackish red power of destruction outlining her form.
"E-e-exactly t-t-that G-G-Germory-sama." Zatouji barely got out, while he crab walked his fallen form backwards into a tree, trying to get away from the many anger women bearing down on him. "No one can track a Shadow wolf unless they have a greater control of shadows and since that was a Monarch there isn't a being alive with a greater control of shadows."
The girls all took another step forwards towards the man, each with their individual powers coating their forms; from arcs of thunder jumping across Akeno's body, to aura of malice around Koneko. Before the group could try to get a better answer from the shivering guide a hollowing wave of energy washed over them before disappearing, calming the worried girls significantly. The wave had the reverse effect on Zatouji however has he now looked more panicked and fearful. "WHAT WAS THAT!?"
"Aren't you supposed to be the one that knows everything about what's in the forest?" Hikari shot back snidely.
"Ara ara, now Hikari-chan that's not fair. Our little Ghosty-kun is in a league all his own." Akeno offered with a grin, the thunder she had arching around her before gone and her demeanor returning to her always smiling self once more.
"She does have a point Hikari-chan. I've never even heard of powers like your brothers before." Rias said, her aura gone and a thoughtful look on her face. "The closest I can think of is 'The power of Worthlessness' of the Belial clan, but that simply nullifies the abilities of people and objects, where Naruto's Flames consume everything and leave nothing behind, it even feeds off other fires."
Everyone stopped to watch as a streak of black energy cut through the sky, allowing them all to know that even as they spoke Naruto was still fighting with the large wolf. "Ano, shouldn't we be going to help Naruto-san?" Asia asked shyly, worried about the man that had taken away the loneliness in her heart, and even risked his life to save her.
"Not serious," Koneko said simply, watching the sky as red and black light flashed quickly.
"True," Yuto said with a nod. "If Ghost was really trying that feeling of emptiness wouldn't have stopped. Plus, we would have felt him…" The blonde Swordsmen had to stop as a feeling of weightlessness came over him; a glance at Koneko showed her eyes widen marginally as she felt the same. 'Release the gravity seals.' The boy finished in his mind as he stared at where the light came from.
Zatouji's head was whipping from person to person as he tried his best to follow the conversation, whoever that boy was he was important to the group but they also seem to have complete faith in him as soon as they knew he was alive. He wasn't sure if the boy was going to live but as long as the group wasn't going to take their worry out on him he was fine with it. Looking up he spotted something that would farther get him away from the blame. "Oh look at that! It's a Sprite Dragon, they are super rare."
Naruto ducked as a wolf made of pure shadow leapt over him, only for it to shred into black wisps as the blonde turned his forward momentum into a spin and lash out with a slash to the phantom beast's stomach. Jumping after his slash, the boy did an acrobatic twist and landed a double flip kick to another of the phantom wolves before landing sideways on a tree.
Rapidly scanning the area Naruto spotted his target and sent three more shuriken at the tree bound wolf that was summoning the phantom menaces. The elemental canine snarled and leapt from his perch to the ground. As soon as its paws touched the shadows spikes shot out at the blonde dragon-kin causing him to leap away from his wooden landing pad and sail up towards where the wolf had just vacated. "Wish I had remembered to bring those exploding tags I finally figured out how to make." The boy mutters as he sent a Chakra charged kunai at the already running wolf.
The wolf retaliated by shooting out thousands of little blades of darkness towards the blonde, forcing the boy to slip two kunai into his hands and use them to fend off as much of the attack as he could. As fast and as skilled as Naruto was he didn't make through the attack unscathed, his shirt, jacket and pants were littered with tiny cuts and small speckles of blood.
"Fine, let's play hard ball then." Naruto growled before he raised the forefinger and middle finger of both hands and crossed them into a plus sign shape. "Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" He called out causing a large cloud of smoke to form, from the smoke 20 replicas of blonde jump out into different directions before bouncing back towards the wolf with kunai in hand.
Taimat watched, very impressed from her place near the top of the trees. She'd never seen a skill like this before and the boy used the ability excellently. All 21 of the blondes would attack in waves of 7 each, coming in with fists, feet or kunai; as the beast moved to counter the blondes another wave would sweep in from a different angle to take their chance to attack. When the wolf managed to catch a piece of one of the boys and make it explode in smoke the others would work to cover the gap in their defense.
The battle came to an end when the wolf snapped its jaws closed around the left forearm on one of the remaining 6 blondes; however unlike the rest this one didn't explode into smoke, rather the arm released a spray of blood and a yell of pain and rage escaped the boy's mouth. The wolf sunk its teeth in deeper as it thought it had finally had the upper hand on its pray; its momentary victory didn't last though. With its head locked in one position all six blondes released chakra empowered attacks to the beast's head, effectively knocking it unconscious.
Holding the bite mark on his arm, which was already starting to heal, Naruto stepped away from the prone form of his latest opponent. That had been a long and unexpectedly difficult fight. Although, it would likely have been made much easier if he had use of his void flame it did remind him not to become dependent on anyone ability. Had he not kept up his training to relearn his Ninja skills he could very well have lost. Dispelling his clones Naruto took a deep breath through his nose, only to wince and fall back into a stance again and start scanning the trees in the area "I know you're there, come out." The boy called out, praying he wouldn't have to deal with another fight so soon.
Taimat almost snorted at finally being noticed by the blonde hatchling, before jumping down to ground level, allowing her body to return to its full 180 foot long size. She withheld a grin as the boy gulped but didn't back down or bow to her as he looked on her full form. "Hello Hatchling, what are you doing in my forest?" The blue western dragon asked as she stared down at him.
"Besides getting attacked by big, cocky, winged, dogs?" Naruto asked sarcastically, sending a dirty look at the knocked out wolf and getting a light giggle from the female dragon. "My friends came here to hunt familiars and had me come along, that is until stupid here attack me for no reason."
Taimat lowered herself down to lazy lying position while keeping one eye focused on him, unknowingly causing the boy a savoir cast of Deja Vu. "Really you are traveling with that group of devils and they haven't added you to their Peerage yet?"
"Not for lack of trying." Naruto admitted with a grin as he relaxed slightly. With the dragon lying down showing no hostility, he allowed his chakra aura to vanish. "I'm unique in that they weren't able to turn me into a devil with their evil piece system."
"Oh Really?" Tiamat asked
"Yep." Naruto responded with a smirk. "Name's Uzumaki Naruto, it's a pleasure to meet you."
"I am Tiamat the Chaos Karma Dragon, it is a pleasure to meet you as well." The blue dragon said with a nod, neither bowing to each other but acknowledging each other with respect.
"How did you get the title of Chaos Karma Dragon Tiamat-san?" Naruto asked, knowing that titles like that were earned.
Tiamat smile slightly sadly, when she remembered back a very long time ago. "It was what my first opponent called me in our last match, since then I always introduced myself as it when I would fight." She explained, causing Naruto to remember how when he fought Mastema; the fallen had titled him as well. Noticing the look in his eyes Tiamat smirked. "I see you understand our dragon's pride. Come now introduce yourself correctly."
Naruto looked sharply up at the female dragon king and felt himself answer unwittingly. "Maelstrom, the Oblivion Dragon."
Rias smiled happily as Asia and Hikari played with their new familiars along with the rest of her Peerage. She'd been shocked when Asia had managed to bond herself with the young sprit dragon which she named 'Reito', which she named after the other dragon in their group. The sprit was cute, however it shocked Yuto the second the boy came to close. Apparently Sprit dragons have an instinctual hate for any other males of other species, which, caused some worry for how Naruto and him would get along.
Hikari's new pet was another matter of worry, somehow the Lamia wondered off for a few minutes and came back with a baby Nundu following here around. The snake girl thought it was the cutest thing she'd ever saw and instantly bonded it as her familiar, and had been trying to cuddle it to death ever since. While the kitten itself seemed content with Hikari it hissed and backed away from everyone else except Asia. However, the Sprit dragon and Nundu would end up in staring contests every time they were in sight of each other.
The part that worried the whole group the most though was it had already been three hours and there still had been no sign of Naruto. With the weak signal from his Evil Pieces Rias couldn't track him or call to him, she only knew that he was alive, even that being in the most basic of terms. While she wasn't worried originally after the pulse of his flames, as she seem to think it was his way of letting them know he was alright. Now Rias was starting to regret not at least sending Yuto or Koneko out to find him.
Finally tired of waiting for the boy's return the red haired beauty stood up and called Akeno over to her. "I'm worried. It's been too long and we haven't heard or even felt anything from him." Rias said, knowing that Akeno would already know who she was talking about.
"Hai Buchou, but do we even know where to start looking for Ghosty-kun? I can't even feel his energies anymore, not even that really dense Chakra from when he started fighting the Monarch." Akeno asked, she was all for heading out to hunt their elusive Rook but she was hoping they had some sort of plan.
"The energy pulse he gave off earlier came from north of us." Rias said while she waved in the general direction that she remembered feeling Naruto using his flames. "I think our best chances would be to start heading that w…"
Rias was prevented from saying anything else when a large black and red form came rolling into the clearing with a loud whine, and yelps as it hit the ground. "Oh be quiet you big wimp."
Everyone's head turned as they heard the easily recognizable voice of their missing friend call from where the beaten Shadow wolf had been throw. "Welcome back Nii-san. How was playing with your new friend?"
Naruto was already giving Hikari a deadpanned stare when he stepped out of the wood and into the clearing with the rest of the group. "I highly doubt this thing trying to eat me counts as playing Hebi-Imouto." Seeing her chipper smile not fading, while she awaited her answer Naruto sighed. "However it was fun, and educational." Hikari nodded happily before going back to playing with her Nundu cub. "How was your trip?"
"It was great! Asia-chan and I got new friends to play with and everything. This is Kuronami, isn't she cute?" Hikari called out happily as she held her Nundu up for Naruto to get a look at. The kitten was about the size of a full grown house cat, but showed its age by the soft and puffy fur it sported. While it's fur was looked black in colour, it in fact was mostly black circles over a dark yellow coat.
"Yes very cute indeed, what is she?" Naruto asked as he moved towards his sister and friends.
"She's a Nundu, and Asia got a Sprit Dragon." The adopted Uzumaki said excitedly, until she got a look at Naruto and frowned in worry. His cloths was torn, burnt and covered in blood, while his left sleeve was missing from the elbow down; dried blood was on the side of his face and his wings were still exposed.
Naruto stopped moving forward as he could see both pets quickly hide behind their owners, looking down he realized not only was his disheveled appearance but also he had yet to stop the large amount of chakra he was flowing through his body. Even if it wasn't visible, anything that was in tune with its instincts enough could feel the overwhelming force of power erupting inside of him.
He didn't even get a chance to say anything before Asia was upon him with her scared gear out looked to see if she could find where he was hurt. "I'm okay Goldie, they were all just small cuts that have already healed, see?" the boy lifted the left side of his shirt and jacket while speaking; exposing his well defined chest, rippling abs and pristine unmarked skin for all to see.
"But, but you were…"
Naruto released his shirt and lightly ruffled the girl's hair, showing her a calm and gentle smile. "Thank you, but I really am okay. Though the dog over there could use some help." The boy explained while thumbing over to where the massive wolf lay still in a crumpled heap. Asia looked over at the wolf with a small frown, upset that it had hurt her blonde savior before she saw how hurt it was. Her kind nature got the best of her and she walked over to start healing it.
"So I take it you took so long because you had to carry the wolf with you?" Rias asked as she approached the dragon-kin.
"No, I took so long because I kept getting lost in that damned forest." Naruto grumbled. "I had no idea where the heck the damn thing dragged me and I kept getting turned around." This caused most of the girls to giggle and Zatouji to sweat-drop, as he was more annoyed about being lost then being attacked. He chose to keep his meeting with Tiamat to himself for now unless something came up that he needed to tell the others about his meeting a dragon king.
Rias' smile was more relaxed as she felt better with everyone in one group again. The more the group was together the safer and more relaxed she felt, in fact she noticed everyone was more relaxed the more they lived together in Naruto's house. With the exception of Naruto; who was still fairly awkward in larger groups of people, but even he was getting better.
Hearing a low growl, Naruto turned to see the wolf was getting back to its feet, pushing Asia away with one of its wings; surprisingly gently. Naruto took a step forward towards the Monarch before releasing a growl of his own. The two dominant beings stared fiercely into each other's eyes, growling loudly, finally the wolf lowered its head and eyes in submission. Naruto nodded before motioning for Asia to finish, being sure to growl at the wolf again when it tried to snarl at the girl.
Zatouji stared wide eyed at this teenage boy that just tamed one of the most dangerous types of wolves ever recorded. 'Three incredibility powerful familiars for their first attempts, this is going to be one dangerous group.' "How did you get him to accept being your familiar?" Zarouji asked, already having pulled a pad and paper out to note it down for future note.
"Come again? I just kick its butt because it attacked me." Naruto explained. "I'm getting it healed 'cause it was only attacking me, it ignored everyone else so no reason to go overboard." This remark caused Asia and Hikari to smile lightly that he was being so kind to the wolf while the rest of the Gremory Peerage frowned at his still lacking self regard.
"You are an odd devil; most would have killed it for attacking them."
"I'm a Dragon not a devil." Naruto stated flatly, not even bothering to look back at the man. Everyone attention was then drawn back to the large wolf as it moved forward and lowered its head towards Naruto, pawing at his foot lightly. "What do you want? If you try fighting me again I'm going to beat you with a car."
The wolf lay down and covered his nose with his paws, whining lowly. Naruto snorted at the surprisingly intelligent wolf, as it completely understood him. "Okay, so no attacking. What do you want?"
The Monarch Shadow wolf got back to his feet before using one of its wings to point at the Familiar Master, and half barked half howled at them. Naruto raised an eyebrow, following the wing then back to the animal. "You want to be my Familiar?" Nods "Let me guess: pack mentality to follow the strongest?" Again the wolf nodded at the blonde boy. This caused Rias to become even more excited, her peerage was filling with stronger and stronger beings. If this kept up she would take care of Riser without a worry.
Naruto stared hard at the wolf and sighed. "Fine, but I swear if you attack anyone in our group I'm going to beat you with a car so bad you won't know the difference between yourself and a T-bar." Everyone in the clearing other than the wolf and Naruto, sweat-dropped from the boy's odd threat but quickly set up casting the bonding spell. "Welcome to the family Tabar."
"Tabar?" Yuto questioned the Wolf's odd name.
"Reminder of what happens if he forgets our deal: I'll use him to replace a T-bar in a car." The blonde smirk, clearing making another of his bad jokes.
"Baka." Koneko said before she and Asia started to drag the boy towards the exit, all the familiars following their masters. The now named Tabar following a few steps behind sulking at his less then steller name.
To be continued.