'Promise'

Chapter 15: The Second Story

The day began as normal. The sun was shining through his curtain, illuminating the wreck he once called a room. Looking to his left, Naruto saw his arm being pinned down by a less-than-appropriately dressed Hinata, wearing a simple, yet totally see-through fishnet vest. He was too scared to look under the duvet, in fear of what he might find.

On his right arm, he found a familiar head of pink hair. Straining his neck, he confirmed that it was indeed Sakura snoring, or dare he say it, drooling on his arm. Sighing, he looked down at his legs. Kyoko was curled up in a ball, using his crotch as a pillow. Uncomfortable was not doing the sensation justice. His daily morning wood was fighting a futile battle trying to awaken from it's slumber.

Raising his head as much as his predicament allowed, he noticed he was lacking a significant amount of floor space. The entire cast of Love Hina was unconscious on his floor. And Sasuke was there too, with his arm wrapped around a sleeping Kanoko, who wore a gentle smile of satisfaction on her face.

Leaning back down onto his pillow, he smiled as he remembered the events of last night.

Attempting to get to sleep after reading the first chapters of Rosario + Vampire, he had begun to dream about vampires, werewolves and more hot girls. He had then been shaken awake by everyone at once, with the first thing he noticed being that there was a lot of people in his room who looked a little over-excited.

They had a massive late-night party, wandering the streets of Konoha, half as a tour of the village for the Love Hina crew, half as a way of waking up the entire village unceremoniously. The Hokage wasn't pleased, threatening to publicly castrate him if the incident repeated itself. The party then moved back to Naruto's house, picking up as much alcohol as they could on the way.

As of right now, his room smelt like sake and beer as a result. Poor Shinobu was probably going to experience her first hangover. Not to mention his own brain felt like he was head-first in a swamp. Except, instead of the usual swamp smells, there was a lot more alcohol and female scents flowing through his mind.

Inching his way out of the bed, he finally managed to get out from underneath the girls, tucking them into the bed. Pulling on his jacket, he quietly walked outside. He needed a walk to clear his head, and was thinking about whether or not ramen for breakfast would be a good idea.

As he paced his way slowly towards the centre of the village, he noticed something glitter on the ground in the morning sun. Walking closer to it, he realised it looked extremely familiar. Too familiar.

Picking it up, his suspicions were confirmed. A silver Rosario was sparkling in his hand, and looked identical to the one he had seen in the story from the night before. Looking at it with a look of dread, he realised something bad was about to happen.

"Not again..."

Suddenly, the world around him changed. As soon as he blinked, his world had become a war-torn wreck of a village, surrounded by flames, which as impressively terrifying as it looked, only lead him to believe he was in another genjutsu. This was confirmed by the figure standing metres away from him.

She had beautiful, silvery hair and blood red eyes that shone bright against the backdrop of a crimson moon behind her. She wore a collar around her neck, complete with a sort of chain that looked as though it was missing something. He quickly realised that he was holding that something.

"Can I help you?" Naruto tried to sound as cheerful as possible, despite the situation. He enjoyed seeing his story characters come to life.

The girl he recognised as Moka Akashiya smiled.

"Yes, you can. My world is in dire need of a hero, and by chance, it seems I've managed to stumble upon one."

Laughing, Naruto shook his head. "I'm no hero. Just a host to a bad-tempered demon."

"I guess we'll find that out for ourselves." She replied. "But for now, come with me."

"Do I have a choice?"

Shaking her head, her smile vanished.

"Not really. It's either I bring you home and save our world, or go home empty-handed, and everyone dies."

A brilliant flash of white light erupted around him, and before he knew what was going on, everything suddenly went black.

零

The sun was still streaming through the curtain, getting stronger as the day fully awoke.

The first to awaken was Hinata, with a single eye slowly opening. As soon as she realised Naruto was gone, both of her eyes opened quickly. Sitting up, she looked around the room, but she could not find Naruto anywhere.

She turned to Sakura and tried to wake her.

"Sakura! Sakura, wake up!"

The ninja slowly woke up, but quickly became aware of Hinata's look of panic. She looked around quickly, the situation becoming clear in an instant.

"Where is he?"

Rousing the rest of the group, they all raced out of Naruto's apartment, desperately looking for him. With their hangovers totally forgotten, the group split themselves into two, with Sasuke and the Love Hina group searching the southern area of the village.

Hinata, Sakura and Kyoko raced to the north. They had been running for ten minutes, when Hinata suddenly called for them to stop. She had picked up a strange chakra in the area they were in.

"What's this?" Leaning to the ground, she picked up the source of the chakra. It was a silver Rosario, and it was emanating a chakra that Hinata had never seen before.

"I've never seen that before, what is it?" Sakura came closer to inspect it, when Kyoko suddenly yelled out.

"Don't go near it! Drop it Hinata!"

It was too late. The area around them had completely changed. Destroyed buildings, cracked streets and a crimson sky, complete with a red moon surrounded them, instead of the peaceful village on a perfectly sunny day that had been there not a minute before.

A few metres away, a girl with long, pink hair and green eyes stood. Her eyes were filled with worry, and she looked like she was trembling.

"Who are you? Where's Naruto?" Kyoko screamed at the girl, who seemed to flinch at her words. She looked at them all one by one, with a clear expression of fear etched onto her face.

"My name is Moka Akashiya. We needed Naruto to save our world. I'm so sorry..." Her voice faltered. Pointing at the Rosario, she began to speak again.

"If you want to come to our world, you will need that Rosario." She indicated the object that Hinata held in her hands. "With that, you can open a tunnel to our world."

"How do we open this tunnel?" Sakura looked at the somewhat simple-looking Rosario that didn't seem capable of much.

"Point it in front of you, and say 'Aperi Via'." Moka's body began to fade, along with the broken world around them. "Come quickly. Naruto... he needs you now."

And then she was gone. The village had returned to normal. The whole experience had been so surreal.

The three girls looked at each other, and then at the Rosario still in Hinata's hands. They didn't really have much other choice. Lifting the Rosario and pointing it towards the air in front of her, Hinata gently spoke the words.

"Aperi Via"

Well, this is the end for 'Promise'. It's been a long time coming, but the main plot is finally finished. I would like to thank all my reviewers so far for their continued support, and for all the helpful critique along the way.
I am well aware that this story is far from perfection, as there's still a few loose ends and mistakes back there that I need to rectify, and reading back, I feel like rewriting several of those chapters to fit in with the consistency. So until then, I won't be marking this story as complete. However, there will not be anymore new chapters for Promise, just some minor revisions.

That being said, as you've probably figured out, this ending sets up the sequel story that I am beginning to write, title pending. It will include the same characters, including the Love Hina gang, but will include new characters from 'Rosario + Vampire'.

Hope to see you again soon, and thanks again!

David Shigure