Naruto rode away from the school on his motorbike. He lived a considerable distance away from the academy, nearly a three hour ride away for any other vehicle going at the speed limit. Luckily his bike couldn't be considered normal by any standards. He had modified it beyond what was considered to be physically possible. The blond felt a sense of pride at how fast the bike was going, especially since he could make it go even faster. He felt even more pride in knowing that he was the only one who could ride it at that speed and still be able to have full control over it.
He weaved through traffic at blinding speeds, his motorcycle becoming little more than a blur to the casual observer. Smirking slightly from under his helmet, the blond sped up to around 600mph, and yet somehow managed to keep from crashing into any other vehicles. He was pretty sure that he was breaking some laws by doing so, but he didn't really care about that.
Twenty minutes later, the blond was pulling into the garage of his house. It was a nice duplex painted white and yellow with a small gated fence painted orange, the color the gods favored the most.
The building's interior was nothing to scoff at either, the walls were painted white much like the outside, which was accentuated by the light coming from the LED's in the light fixtures. The spiral staircase that lead up to the second floor was painted black. The cupboards and drawers were painted yellow, as were the doors. Besides those exceptions, as well as the furnitures which had been left behind by the previous owner, just about everything else was orange, starting from the carpet and ending with the curtains.
All in all, it was a very nice place to live, especially for a teenager. Naruto shed his sneakers at the door and placed them on the rack, before jogging up the stairs to his bedroom. The bedroom looked less like something a teenager would sleep in and more like something you'd see in a penthouse suite, or a four-star hotel.
It was pretty much the only place, the only place in the house that Naruto had decided to leave as it was. The bed was clearly queen-sized with a memory foam mattress and two pillows. The sheets and the bedroom curtain, believe it or not, were orange and had black trimmings around them. They were obviously really high quality too. There was a small bedside table beside it, on which his alarm clock currently sat, and a black wardrobe, that housed his outfits. (That's right he's not going to be repeating the same outfit everyday). There was also a reading table placed in a corner of the room, which looked to be covered in textbooks.
Naruto had to give some amount of respect for whoever the previous owner was, they obviously had really good taste, as evidenced by the orange sheets and curtains. However the blond didn't really have the time to think on that any further. He dropped his bag beside the reading table and went to take a shower in the bathroom.
After his shower, he changed into a blue tee-shirt with a white fox front on it and a pair of dark blue jeans. On top of that he wore an orange jacket, and a simple string necklace with a green gem. He took out a silver wrist watch from his bedside table and wore it around his left wrist.
Feeling satisfied with his current dress, he headed back downstairs and grabbed a military style backpack from a compartment in the vent. He put on a pair of white sneakers and headed back outside.
He didn't take his bike with him this time, choosing instead to run the distance back to the academy. Some people called out greetings and waved at him as he ran by, and he returned their greeting with a wave of his own. After jogging a few more miles, he noticed his only stop on this trip coming up in the distance, a small sweets shop. A smile appeared on his face as he slowed his pace and walked into the shop.
"Welcome again, Naruto-san. What would you like today?" Said the pretty brunette who ran the shop. She had a charming smile on her face that Naruto returned.
"It's nice to see you too Yua-chan. I'd like the usual please, if it's not too much trouble." The blond asked while the girl now named Yua just smiled brightly and pulled out a candy gift basket from behind the counter.
"I had a feeling you'd ask for that, so I had one already prepared for you." She replied with a smile handing him the basket.
"Arigatou Yua-san. I'll see you tomorrow." Naruto said as he paid for the basket and walked out of the store.
"See you tomorrow Naruto-san and say hi to Koneko-san for me, okay!" Yua called after him just as the blond teen was about to leave the store. He gave a small grunt of agreement and then he was out of the store and running down the street at speeds that left people dazed.
With no further stops to make, Naruto decided to kick it into high gear and started running at full speed. Streetlights and signs, office buildings and houses, trees and people alike, they all blurred past him in a blend of colour. He could barely distinguish any individual thing that he ran past from the other, the same way that anyone looking would hardly make out anything than a blur shooting past them. Amazingly though, he was able to keep from colliding with anything ahead of him, despite not being able to actually see anything clearly.
After nearly twenty five minutes of non-stop running, Naruto finally started to slow his pace, he'd been running this route everyday for the past month so he could tell that the Kuoh Academy building was now within walking distance. He felt the familiar burn in his lungs from the strain he'd put them under, but he paid it no mind.
Instead he focused his efforts on his stealth, he'd need it for what he was about to do next. First his breathing started to slow, the beat of his heart slowing with it and coming out only in small dull, once every few seconds. Next were his footsteps. He listened for the small tap his soles made against the pavement and then started to quiet them listening intently until even he couldn't hear himself move. Feeling satisfied, he shot forward in a burst of speed and was up and over the gated walls of the school in an instant.
He soundless landed on the branch of a rather large tree inside the compound and proceeded to hop from one tree to the other, sometimes needing to run along the walls and at a point jumping into the roof of the gym building, before he finally landed on his target position. He was seated on the branches of a fairly large tree, well hidden by the leaves, with a pair of binoculars in front of his eyes, granting him a good view of, yet still keeping him out of the line of sight of the window of the Academy's Old school building.
The Old School building as it was called was the building formerly used by the students up until the school was renovated and the New School building was constructed. After that, the Old School building had been vacated, but hadn't been torn down for some reason. Instead it had been given to a girl who was one year his senior as a 'meeting place for their club activities'.
That immediately struck him as suspicious, especially since the building looked to be falling to pieces and yet it had been sanctioned for student use. What was even more suspicious was the kind of club that occupied the building: The Occult Research Club. That immediately set off warning bells in his head. Now normally, Naruto would simply just stay the fuck away from the club and all it's members, however that wasn't an option this time since his girlfriend was a member of that club. The same girlfriend that he could tell was sitting in the tree behind him staring at him with her usual flat expression that he found immensely cute.
"...You're snooping around again." She droned flatly, her golden eyes betraying nothing, yet he could tell that she was happy, if a little irritated to see him again.
"Nice to see you too Koneko-chan." He greeted with a smile dropping the binoculars from his face and turning around to look her in the eyes.
"...You shouldn't be here." She said as stoic as ever. "...School closed over an hour ago. You should have gone home."
"I did go home, then I came back!" The blond stated casually, causing the white haired girl to let out a small sigh at the very Naruto-ish response, as she barely resisted the urge to face palm.
"...Either way you still shouldn't be here, the school is off limits even to students after closing." She 'reminded' him even though she knew that he knew this. After all she had said the same thing yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that, and every other day for the past month.
"In that case, you're not supposed to be here either Koneko-chan." Naruto stated to the petite white haired girl.
"...I have club activities after school." The girl answered giving him a look of slight exasperation, since she knew what he was going to say next. 'What kind of activities?'
"What sort of club activities?" He asked even though he could already tell what her response would be. 'I can't say.'
"...Sorry, but I can't tell you that. I'm not allowed to discuss our club matters with non-club members." She answered exactly like he had expected.
He stared directly into her golden eyes and she did the same to his blue ones, neither of them saying anything for what felt like the longest time, both refusing to back down. A few seconds later though and Naruto let out a sigh. This was the one thing that they disagreed on. They were both completely open to each other at any other time when they were alone together, but whenever the ORC came up, Koneko would suddenly withdraw into herself, and he would always be made painfully aware of how little he truly knew about of the side she kept hidden.
"Would you at least let me join the club, maybe if you spoke to the president she would let me-" He started to say even though he knew he'd already lost the argument, though Koneko interrupted before he could finish.
"I'm sorry Naruto, but membership is invite only, and only Buchou decides who gets to join and who doesn't." There it was again, that jumpiness that she would suddenly get whenever he suggested joining the club. And while it may seem silly, he always got the feeling that she didn't want him in her life, or at least that part of it.
"I see. In that case I guess I'll see you tomorrow then." He said, keeping the sadness from bleeding into his voice. "By the way, I got you something." He said handing over the sweet basket that had been sitting in the tree beside him.
He barely waited to hear her quiet 'thank you' before jumping out of the tree and walking off with a dejected look on his face that the white haired girl couldn't see since he had his back to her.
Koneko too jumped down from the tree, clutching the gift basket in her hand as she watched the blond walk off. While she couldn't see the look on his face, she could tell that her words had hurt him, and while that wasn't her intention, it was necessary in order to keep him safe. She cast one more glance in his direction and was just able to catch his retreating form disappearing over the school fence. Her expression softened a bit in sadness before returning back to its emotionless state.
Then she turned around and walked towards the clubroom. Neither the blond nor the petite girl were aware of the redhead that had been watching them from the very same window that Naruto had been trying to peer into.
Naruto had managed to walk a total of five steps away from the Academy before giving into the urge to punch the closest thing to him. Said thing happened to be a lamppost that was unfortunate enough to be placed within striking distance of the angry teen, as when Naruto's fist impacted against it, it gave off a loud groan and bent around the fist.
Unfortunately the destruction of public property did little in the way of calming him down. He could feel the frustration and sadness at yet another fruitless effort bubbling beneath the surface, desperate for some form of release.
However no solution seemed forthcoming so all he could do was stew in the anger he felt and let it fuel his hate for that one person that he couldn't bring himself to like, no matter how hard he tried.
His redheaded senior who was also the president of the Occult Research Club. From the first day he had arrived in the school, he had found that he couldn't stand being in the presence of the girl for any longer than was absolutely necessary. Sure he could admit to her being unnaturally beautiful and insanely attractive, but the fact was that he didn't care for her much, though he wasn't sure why.
She seemed nice enough, and was amongst the smartest people in the entire school, just behind him and Souna, but yet he couldn't envision himself becoming friends with her like he was with Souna. Maybe it was because she was the reason Koneko and him had fought against, maybe it was the strange feeling he sometimes got whenever he ran into her or the other members of the ORC and even the student council. Maybe it was the fact that she had red hair, a hair colour that he had hated for as long as long as he could remember, especially one males.
It could be one or all of those reasons, but that hardly mattered now. Right now, all he wanted to do was go home and get some sleep without hurting anybody that might be stupid enough to try pissing him off. He cast one last glance back at the school before shooting off with the same speed he had used to get here.
Meanwhile Koneko had just entered the clubroom to see that everyone was still the same as they were when she had excused herself moments ago. Yuuto was still seated on the sofa drinking the tea that Akeno had no doubt prepared. Said Queen was standing dutifully behind Rias with her usual smile on her face.
While her King, Rias Gremory herself was still sat behind her desk, though she seemed to have finished filling out the paperwork she had been engrossed in earlier, and was now regarding Koneko with a curious stare.
"What happened Koneko, is there something wrong?" She asked the white haired girl.
"...No Buchou. Nothing's wrong." The petite girl replied.
"Are you sure? You just excused yourself so suddenly, and you seem to be doing that a lot lately."
"...Ah, sorry, I just needed to take care of something." Koneko answered somewhat nervous about lying to her King, but she needed to do it for Naruto's sake.
Rias of course noted her Rook's nervousness, confirming the suspicions she had that Koneko was hiding something from her. Still she decided to give it one final test to make absolutely sure.
"Was it to go get that sweets basket?" She asked and Koneko seeing this as an out immediately replied.
"...Yes. I went to go order some sweets from the shop nearby."
"Could I have one?" Yuuto, who had been blissfully unaware of the underlying tension in the conversation politely asked the white haired girl who immediately replied.
"...No." This made the blond Knight of the group to sweat drop slightly at the response.
Rias cleared her throat slightly to get everyone's attention before they proceeded on with their business, then she Yuuto and Koneko off on their contracts, leaving her alone in the room with her Queen.
"Koneko's hiding something." She suddenly said, getting her Queen's attention.
"Ara, what makes you say that Rias?" The black haired girl asked still not losing her smile.
"I saw Uzumaki-san here today. He was the one who gave Koneko that basket but she didn't say anything about him being here. And she even said that she went out and bought it herself."
"Ara ara, could it be that Buchou is jealous that our sweet little Koneko-chan might have gotten herself a boyfriend. Especially a fine specimen like Naruto-kun." Akeno said teasingly though her voice gained a sadistic tint near the end.
"Not now Akeno. This is serious. It is entirely possible that Uzumaki-san has been snooping around for far longer than just today. He's probably the reason why Koneko has been excusing herself randomly for the past month." That had the effect of getting the ever smiling vice-president to narrow her eyes.
"That's not good. Do you think he knows about us Rias?" Akeno asked with a small frown.
"I don't think so, but I wouldn't put it past him to suspect something. I want you to watch him, make sure that at least one of your familiars has eyes on him at all times. We need to know just how much he knows about us, and I also want to know about his relationship with Koneko."
"Hai Buchou." Akeno responded with a small nod, before walking off to do as she had been asked, leaving Rias to her thoughts.
Said girl stared ahead of her with a serious expression on her face, her thoughts centered around a certain blond and her Rook.