Just Like Instinct
Chapter 2
Jean Baptiste Colbert was fascinated. This, of course, was no rare occurrence, as the balding Professor often spent his time fascinated with something or other, usually involving chemistry, history, or some strange combination of the two. No, this particular evening, his fascination was directed at the blonde haired youth sleeping on a bed of straw.
It was strange, Jean thought. The blonde looked to be no older than 17 and was clearly human. They were quite sure he wasn't of noble birth, judged mainly by his strange clothing and the manner he acted upon being summoned. But that was the problem. The boy sleeping in front of him was human.
The young man had been summoned by a particular student of his. A student he had been fully prepared to fail. While Louise de La Vallière had proved to be a dedicated student, she lacked nearly all practical ability to cast even the simplest of spells. As much as it pained Jean, he was ready to declare the poor girl a failure.
And then… All of a sudden, the girl had pulled a stunt like this. Something Jean had never in his wildest dreams believed was possible. Louise de La Vallière had summoned a human commoner, something that was known to be impossible. Never in recorded history had a human been summoned. Of course the Founder supposedly had a human familiar, but that was a special case, as the Founder utilized the Void, the lost element.
Suddenly, Jean felt like there was more to it. He had a hunch. After digging through the Academy's Library, a process that took much longer than it sounded, Jean had been able to find a single illustration of the specific rune he sought to find, hidden deep within an ancient tome. Flipping open the tome to the marked page, Jean examined the image once more.
"Just as I thought…" he muttered in disappointment. The blonde didn't possess the Gandálfr Rune, but a much different rune. A rune he'd seen many times in his career. This rune wrapped around the boy's neck, in a shape reminiscent of a collar. Strangely enough, it resembled the rune that was inscribed on normal animal familiars.
Without a thought, Jean Baptiste Colbert reached out and brushed a hand against the boy's neck. The hand didn't stay there. Without warning, the balding professor found his wrist held painfully behind his back and the cold feel of a razor sharp blade on his neck.
"What are you doing?"
"What are you doing?"
It had taken a total of 6 seconds for Naruto gain his bearings. The man he held in an arm lock was present when he'd been summoned. He didn't know his name; just that the balding man had been in charge of whatever had summoned him here. He was in an unfamiliar bedroom. Without a second thought, Naruto had 3 escape routes planned, one of which involved blatantly jumping out the closed window.
Naruto held his breath, just waiting for the man to make his move… Would it end violent, or would it end with the man's surrender? Maybe the man hadn't understood him like before? Silently admitting that he could still be on friendly territory, or at least the friendliest he could get, the shinobi let the man answer.
"I-I was checking on you! You collapsed shortly after being summoned." The man answered quickly. Naruto was briefly surprised at the lack of a language barrier, but pushed the thought away for another time. After a brief silence, Naruto let go of the man's arm and concealed the kunai in his sleeve just in case he made any trouble. The man wasn't lying, but there were many ways to deceive without uttering a single falsity. Quick as a flash, the man turned around and gave a disarmingly sheepish grin.
"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to disturb you… I had been sure you wouldn't wake up for at least a few hours." he said, still smiling apologetically. Naruto let out a sigh, before he sat at a nearby table. While he may have been awake, he was far from recovered. Whatever method of summoning they'd used had taken a lot out of him, which was quite the achievement.
"It's fine." Naruto muttered, motioning for the older man to take a seat. The man hesitated, before taking the opposite seat. The blonde studied him closely, watching for any hostile movements, before he finally spoke.
"My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I'm sure I'm supposed to say something like, 'It's nice to meet you' or some other bullshit, but right now, I'm not feeling it." Naruto muttered. The man seemed to blink in confusion, before it dawned on him. How could the guy not realize he was summoned from somewhere.
"Right… I'm terribly sorry about that." the older man said with a grimace. Naruto scowled and motioned for him to continue.
"Wha- Oh! My name! You can refer to me as Professor Colbert, if you'd like." Professor said with a smile. Naruto gave a terse nod.
"What are you?" he asked, jumping straight to the point. There was no reason to beat around the bush if he needed information. No doubt, Sakura would have chewed him out for being so blunt… But Naruto wasn't a diplomat like his pink haired teammate.
"Erm… A professor?"
Naruto let out a groan and immediately applied his palm to his face in a rather violent expression of exasperation.
"No, smart ass." Naruto said with a roll of his eyes. "I meant, 'What are you?' as in,
'What gives you the ability to summon me without a prior contract?'."
From what Naruto knew of summoning, it was only possible if the summoner had signed a summoning contract… And even then, he'd never heard of a summoning contract for humans.
"What?" Professor Colbert asked, blinking in wild confusion.
"How did you summon me?" Naruto stated the question in a flat tone. Obviously the man in front of him had been the one to summon him, as it would take an enormous amount of chakra or an equivalent energy to fully summon him. He could sense the power the man possessed. He hid it well, but Naruto was a practiced hand at sizing up opponents and allies alike.
"Oh… I didn't summon you." said the professor. Just like that, Naruto's theory fell apart.
"Alright… Who summoned me, then?" he asked.
"Oh? Louise de La Vallière. She's a student of mine." Colbert said, smiling at some kind of private joke. For some reason, the name was familiar… He could have sworn he'd heard it recently… Louise… Louise… Wait.
"Does… Does she have pink hair?" Naruto asked, feeling slightly uneasy.
"I assume you remember her?" Professor Colbert said.
"Yes… May I ask a question?" Naruto asked.
"Certainly."
"Why was I summoned?"
"To form a contract." Colbert answered.
"Yes, I already gathered that…" Naruto muttered. "But what kind of contract?"
"A Familiar Contract."
Naruto let out an agonizing groan as he sat contemplatively on the foreign grandiose bed. Colbert had left at least an hour before, mumbling something about an experiment that needed tending. As he left, Naruto didn't miss the sudden change in Colbert's demeanor. Gone was the weak willed man who'd been there before, only to be replaced by a hardened veteran who'd seen the worst in the world. The two had stood stock still, waging a silent battle of dominance with their eyes alone. And then, Colbert bowed his head and politely left, like the last few seconds hadn't happened.
Through the curtains, Naruto could see the afternoon light was quickly dimming. Most likely, his new mistress would be coming back to her room soon. As much as he wanted to avoid the girl, he knew it wasn't something he could put off for long.
After what seemed like an eternity, the door opened and shut with sharp click, and Naruto was rewarded with the sight of Louise de La Vallière, standing with mouth agape in the doorway of her room, pointing an accusatory finger at him. What Naruto assumed was her school supplies clattered to the floor, forgotten in her newly felt anger.
"Wha- How dare you contaminate my bed with your filth!" she said, her unused hand curling into a fist as she began to literally shake with fury. With that said, Naruto came to the sudden realization that he preferred when she spoke nonsense. With a heated glare, he growled at the girl.
"And we're off to such a wonderful start." he said with as much sarcasm as he could muster, which was, admittedly, quite a bit. The girl seemed to falter for a moment, before matching his glare with her own.
"How- How dare you speak to a Noble in such a manner, familiar! A commoner such as you should-"
"Don't call me that!" he interrupted with a growl. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki! Not Familiar and definitely not Commoner."
"You're my familiar and I'll call you whatever I please!" she said with a stomp of her foot. Without giving Naruto a chance to reply, the girl unbuttoned her blouse and dropped her skirt, leaving her in the long gown that made up her underclothes. She tossed them to Naruto, who allowed them to fall to the floor as he stared in silent confusion. Out of the many replies he'd expected, stripping was not one of them. "Wash these, familiar. I want them clean by tomorrow morning."
"If you want something cleaned, do it yourself. I'm not your damn slave, I'm a Shinobi." Naruto snarled, jumping to his feet. Louise stood silent for a moment, a look of shock embedded on her delicate features. After a moment of tense silence, the girl let out a frustrated yell.
"Why don't you follow my orders?" she barked, pointing an accusing finger at him once again.
Naruto turned away and began walking towards the door, ignoring the sputtering pinkette. As his hand touched the door knob, he glanced back. "I only follow the Hokage's orders, not yours. You may have me under contract to be your familiar, but I don't give a shit. If you need me, I'll be out for a walk… Also, do us both a favor and don't need me."
By the time he'd come back, the strawberry-haired girl was sound asleep, mewling quietly with each breath. Despite his situation, Naruto had to let out a chuckle. Who would have guessed his fearsome master could seem so vulnerable, and dare he say it, cute in her sleep. With a violent jerk, the blonde forced that train of thought from his head. He refused to think that way about the girl who'd enslaved him. Sighing, he grabbed a chair and dragged it quietly to the window to watch the sunrise.
"This is too much to take in..." Naruto muttered, rapping his fingers against the windowsill in a frustrated rhythm.
"No matter, you should be focusing on finding a way to end this Kami-forsaken contract." Kurama growled, his projected voice echoing from the back of his mind. Naruto shook his head.
"We both know it's not that easy..."
"Just kill the girl and be done with it."
"No. I won't kill someone innocent without a good reason. Besides, that would paint target on my head..." he thought, slowly increasing the tempo of his finger tapping. Kurama let out a dark chuckle.
"It was worth a try... Still," Kurama let the word hang for a moment, stressing the syllable with a serious tone. "I refuse to be confined by another contract, even if it's vicariously through you."
"Another? What other contract?"
Much to Naruto's annoyance, he didn't receive a reply. The blonde scowled as he pondered the cryptic statement in silence.
"Ehh..? F-familiar?"
Naruto glanced over his shoulder and raised an eyebrow at the girl's... Disheveled appearance. Her hair was a complete mess, with her long pink strands sticking in obscure places. She rubbed her eyes slowly, trying desperately to keep her eyes open longer than a few seconds. Naruto rolled his eyes as he coughed to conceal his chuckle. Adopting his best serious expression, something that was slightly difficult for him, Naruto stared the girl down.
"I think we should set things straight, Shorty." he ignored the meowl of outrage as he continued. "I know you summoned me and all that, and I will accept the fact that I'm your Familiar..."
"For now..."
"Then-"
"But!" he said, cutting her off. "I'm not a fucking servant, and I'm definitely not your slave. Don't treat me like shit, and I'll do the same. Got it?" she gave a hesitant nod, most likely surprised by his nonexistent subservient attitude. "Good. Since I have nothing to do, I guess I'll follow you around today."
Naruto nodded once, before turning back to watch the sunrise. Honestly, he'd never been one to hold a grudge... And from what the professor had said- not that he fully trusted the man- Louise hadn't intended to summon a human, in fact, it hadn't been heard of in a few thousand years. Although, the man had been particularly tightlipped about the previous occurrences. In the end, Colbert was a dead end on information; he obviously didn't trust him all that much, not that Naruto blamed him. Of course, this did nothing to diminish his dislike for the girl.
"Fami- I mean... Naruto..."
It was a work in progress, it seemed. He scowled and turned around to see Louise fully dressed and presentable. He would find a way to break the contract eventually... But there was no reason to let that info slip at the moment… He'd act accordingly for now.
"What are we waiting for?"
I'm sorry for the short chapter! So sorry! I will try to get out a longer chapter next time! Seriously!
Anyways, leave me a review please! I really enjoy hearing your thoughts on this story, whether all you say is, "Fuck you and your mom!" or "Wow this is a good story!".