Place to Try

by SpinLord

To forget is to let go of one's past. When Uzumaki Naruto makes up his mind, the path he chooses leads him to the Afterlife; a purgatorial realm created to appease those with regrets in their lives. Sounds nice, doesn't it? It would've, if only there isn't a group of people waging a rebellion against God. [New Chapter] series, 'Amnesia route' {Currently being rewritten}

7. Chapter 6: Class Clowns

[A/N] Starting this chapter with the highest possible spirit!

Or not really…actually, I'm in a lazy mood when I wrote this. Knowing myself, I know that this must be the result of finishing one chapter with all I got, which led to me losing any motivation to continue.

Not only that, but I've also gotten hooked up with a certain visual novel. Ever heard of "Katawa Shoujo"? It is a story that's related to various people with various disabilities. It's a really…how should I put it…well-made? No, I would say it's an eye-opening story. Seriously, I've always thought that I should pity those with disability because of what they didn't have, but that visual novel taught me something. I shouldn't pity them at all, because they might as well do something that people with no disability can't.

If I am to be frank, I had always thought that a cripple's number one problem would be their disability. But thinking like that was a mistake. Even cripples who don't have any arms or legs had problems even bigger than that disability of theirs. It had nothing to do with being a disabled person, but rather as a human. Those who don't have legs might have a problem with trusting other people, those without arms might have problems expressing herself, et cetera, et cetera.

I realized that I've been prejudicing those kinds of people my entire life. I really had much to learn…

…Aaah, I ended up rambling on my own. Sorry, I just had to let that out somehow. Please ignore me.

Anyway, *ahem*, back to the story.

Honestly, though, this is a chapter I've always wanted to write. This should be…episode 5 of "Angel Beats!"? Somewhere around that number, I'm certain. All I know is that it's the chapter where Yuri put good use of a rocket-propelled chair.

Speaking of Yuri, I've decided to make her do today's disclaimer!

Yuri: Why do I have to do this, of all people?

Me: Oh come on, you know you want to. Doing the disclaimer is the trend these days, even more so than rebelling against God.

Yuri: …are you mocking me?

Me: N-Nah, not really…

Yuri: …whatever, I'll do it. If that can raise my popularity as a character, I guess it's a good deal.

Me: So now you're doing it? Talk about bipolar…

Yuri: (presses a button on a handheld remote)

Me: (tied to a chair which blasted upwards due to the rockets underneath) OOOOI! WHAT'S WITH THIS TREATMENT?!

Yuri: Now, while that annoying author is away, I can peacefully do the disclaimer.

Disclaimer: SpinLord doesn't own "Angel Beats!" and its characters, and he definitely doesn't own "NARUTO" or the yellow-haired idiot that starred in that series. Oh, by the way, if you're dead and reading this, you're probably already in the Afterlife. Be sure to join our battlefront!

Me: NO PROMOTING YOUR GROUP HERE!

Extra A/N: I have made a mistake by calling the Afterlife a "world". This mistake wouldn't have much of an effect on this story alone, but it will make contradictions with my other fics that branched out from the same bridge fic that "Place to Try" branched off from (that bridge fic is called "A Whole New World, Prequel to a New Chapter"). For that reason, I'll refer to the Afterlife as a "realm" rather than a "world".

Also, I forgot to give a route name for "Place to Try". It's an idea that I thought up not too long ago, and I think it's better for this story to have one.

Sooo…let's name it 'Amnesia' route!

---

-Chapter 6-

Class Clowns

[PART 1]

"So, when gas is heated, it naturally becomes lighter. Gas particles with higher temperature are lighter than the ones with lower temperature, so it travels upwards as a result. This phenomenon becomes vital later on at the time when blimps and air balloons were created, because they used the same—"

*CRAAASH!*

"Sensei, Uzumaki is on the run!"

"AGAIN?! That's the fourth time this week!"

The bespectacled teacher turned from the chalkboard he had been writing on and set his eyes to where his delinquent of a student was supposed to be sitting. Sure enough, that particular seat was empty and there was a ransacked window at the farthest back row of the class. Normally, that sort of class-escaping method would be impossible for a human. Jumping from the third floor would break a bone or two as a result. However, that yellow-haired transfer student had shown that he was able to walk on thin air and thus was able to avoid getting any injury.

For a teacher, that kind of problem child was the worst.

But the middle-aged man just sighed and continued his lecture.

"Oh well, he'll come back sooner or later. Now, class, open page #153."

xoxoxo

Afterlife.

A limbo-like realm where children who hadn't lived a fulfilling life, or had an underlying regret in their life, went to after they died. More often than not, the cause of their death had to be so ridiculous or tragic for someone to get trapped in this eternal world.

Take Uzumaki Naruto for an example.

He was a ninja in his days as a living person, but then he died by the hands of a villain that controlled the Ten-Tailed Beast after seeing his friends and comrades got killed right in front of his eyes. It couldn't have gone more tragic or ridiculous—or both—than that.

The realm called Afterlife was never connected to the world he once resided in, and logically he shouldn't be there after he died. However, he was able to be there because of the Saint of Time and Space, Frederica Bernkastel's interference. She had given him three choices that would determine the future of his life after death, and he chose to forget about his past life and live a new life as a reincarnated person.

This was the 'second chance' given by God to the boy who gave his all to protect a world which was destined to end.

But as that second chance given to him was only the start point of a path, it was up to him to reach the finish line himself. Technically speaking, he had to pass the Afterlife and reincarnate in the world it was connected to, thus activating the realm's memory-deleting mechanism which would make him forget about his past. Those memories will then be donated to the "real" world in his home universe, «codename: Shippuden», for the sake of its growth via Frederica Bernkastel as the acting Saint of Time and Space.

This wasn't just about him. By passing on his memories of his dead world, he could prevent Shippuden from having the same fate as his world.

Of course, to do that, he had to pass on from the Afterlife first.

In the end, he was stuck in the Afterlife until he could find a way to transfer out of there. Sadly, he didn't understand what method he should use to do that. Even committing suicide wouldn't work, because in this world death was only a part of the life's cycle, and people who die here will revive afterwards with no injury.

Until he could gain knowledge of how to pass on from the Afterlife, he had to remain there.

That meant he had to put up with the boring classes as well.

"I've had enough!" the orange-clad ninja exclaimed whiningly. "They can't expect me to be comfortable cooped up in that room, having to write down exactly what those teachers told us to! I can't even begin to understand whatever the hell they were teaching. And what the hell is [XY + XY = 2XY]?! X and Y are alphabets, right? They're not supposed to be added or subtracted, right?!"

Naruto might be an idiot, but he wasn't unintelligible. The curriculum they have here simply held no similarity to the one he was taught back in the Academy.

"Aah, screw that…that just means I'm free for the rest of the day," Naruto said, finalizing his situation with a long, drawn-out sigh. "I guess I'll try and find something to do in the meantime."

Truthfully speaking, there wasn't that much attraction in this world. Other than the school, the only fun he supposed he could try was being a nuisance to the Afterlife Battlefront (Shinda Sekai Sensen), known as SSS in short. They were a group of people who supposedly died with some kind of regret or unfinished business, and were miraculously transported here. Unlike Naruto, they seem to originate from the same world.

But he was getting off topic here.

Maybe tagging along with the Battlefront would cure his boredom, but getting too comfortable with them wouldn't be preferable. They were a friendly bunch—well, most of the time, they really are—but their leader (a short-tempered, ill-natured girl) would probably have his head if he do anything wrong. Not to mention Noda would still want to kick his nuts.

Then again, there weren't any other amusing things to do. The ball game tournament yesterday was quite fun. Sure, being under the student council vice-president Naoi's command was annoying, but he was glad that he had helped Angel quite a bit in that game. Other than that, though, Afterlife High didn't really have anything entertaining.

"…School's not over until some more hours…*sigh*, Afterlife Battlefront it is, then."

With that, he took off to the one place he knew those lot were supposed to be.

xoxoxo

[Anti Angel-Headquarters (Principal's Office)]

"It's here…" the Battlefront's leader said. "The time has finally come."

Yuri looked out the window as she said that. Her tone suggested that whatever she was talking about held an ominous meaning to it. After all, it was rare for Yuri to talk so seriously like a married wife declaring that she's pregnant.

…

Okay, that wasn't right at all.

"What has? Is something about to happen?" Otonashi inquired with a bewildered look on his face.

Yuri answered smoothly without skipping a beat. "Angel's assault will begin."

"Angel's assault?"

With such a grand term, the normal thought process would bring out the picture of an army of Angels assaulting the Afterlife Battlefront, fighting back with weapons in their hands. That was precisely what Otonashi had in mind, and he couldn't help but gulp in fear.

"W-What do you mean by 'assault'?"

"It's exam season," Yuri replied flatly.

The fear in Otonashi dropped spectacularly because of that answer.

"Uh…how does that…"

"Think about it," Takamatsu interjected as he began to explain. "Making us attend classes is important, but making us take tests and getting good scores…that's also important for Angel."

The grand image of having to fight against an army of Angels like a battle between Spartans and Persians crumbled. Otonashi sighed, thinking how his paranoia would eventually be the death of him at this rate.

Leave it to Yuri to overdramatize something so simple.

"But this exam period might actually be a good opportunity for us to take Angel down." Yuri pointed out.

"You sound like you've got an idea, Yurippe." Fujimaki said anxiously. His grip on his shirasaya tightened a little as the mere idea gave him a slight excitement. "Let's hear it."

The members other than Fujimaki looked just as curious as he was, and they would also like to hear what their leader had in mind.

"We'll interfere with Angel's tests and make her get bad marks. That way we'll force her score down to the lowest in the school," Yuri said, circling the principal desk to its front.

"What will that accomplish?" Ooyama asked with a perplexed look.

"Do you think she'll be able to retain her dignity as student council president like that?"

Angel posed a threat to the Battlefront. Her power was one dangerous thing, but her influence as the student council president has the potential to be an even bigger threat. Angel might not be someone who flaunts her influence to accomplish her own goals, but that wasn't enough to ensure that she wouldn't use it.

"So you're saying that'll weaken her?" Noda asked.

"At the very least, the opinions of the ordinary students and teachers will change. It'll cause a change in their behavior that we've never seen before."

"What kind?"

"Who knows? I can't predict that."

Matsushita's thinly opened eyes scrunched close even further in confusion. "Then isn't this meaningless?"

The overgrown teen had a point. Even if the plan could work, wasting their time and resources on something that didn't have a clear end result would be disadvantageous. And with how vague Yuri made that checkpoint of success, the operation didn't even have a 50% chance of success.

'But if she isn't a creation of God, an angel…if her emotions aren't made of steel…if she has a human soul, same as us, then…that loss of dignity will be an effective emotional attack.'

That was Yuri's thought.

She had been suspicious for some time, about Angel not really being an 'angel'. There wasn't any particular reason to think so, but Yuri had a habit of suspecting a turnout that differentiates from what her normal thinking process made her think. If she ignored Angel's artificial supernatural powers, then there was one result her mind came up with:

Angel can be defeated.

That white-haired student council president might be invincible in combat, but if Yuri's theory was correct, then Angel's heart should be as vulnerable as any human being.

However, she had no concrete proof about her theory. This was the reason why she decided to do a daring operation such as messing up Angel's test scores. At the off chance that her suspicion proved to be wrong, it could at least clarify things and lift her doubts.

There was one thing that could jeopardize the operation, though. Angel alone should be easy to target as long as they don't get drawn into combat, but there was this third party that would most likely not let anything happen whether it was combat-related or not. Knowing him, he would jump in between the Battlefront and Angel and prevent any of the two from fighting against each other. He was a completely unrelated person in this battle, but his position as a 'neutral party' gave him the ability to thwart the Battlefront's plans without making unnecessary conflicts.

Uzumaki Naruto.

Yuri didn't know who he exactly was, but he was very powerful. Even alone, he didn't hesitate to take on the Battlefront the first time they met, and the way he carried himself showed that he didn't think of them as much of a threat. According to recent events, he had no intention of fighting any of the two factions; be it Angel or the Afterlife Battlefront. However, he would unconditionally fight for one of the two if certain circumstances were met, like the one time where he fought Angel for the sake of Girls Dead Monster's concert.

He could be a powerful ally or a formidable foe depending on what course of action he believed was 'good'.

Frankly, as he was such an annoying wild card, Yuri would've preferred for him to stay away. Last time, he sided with Angel in the ball game tournament. While it might be just a game, it just showed how unpredictable he was. That was why Yuri didn't want to rely on him as an ally.

She just had to find a way like usual.

'There's just no guarantee that he would side with us on this,' Yuri thought while sighing. 'As much as possible, we should do this without him knowing. Besides, allying ourselves with him is the last thing I would want to do.'

She decided that she should start with the mission briefing and think about how to avoid Uzumaki later.

However, she didn't even get the chance to sit back on her chair (or more precisely, the principal's).

*Knock*, *knock*, *knock*.

Three consecutive knocks stopped her in her tracks and turned her attention towards the double office doors. Naturally, all the other members did the same thing.

"Hm? Who's that?" an unsuspecting Hideki wondered aloud.

"…" Yuri stared at the door like it had stolen her precious bandana. "For once, I think I'll pray to God and hope that it isn't him."

The truth spoke otherwise as if God was rejecting her request just to annoy her.

"Oi, can somebody just open the damn door? Having to speak that password every time I go here is a pain, so please just let me in, 'ttebayo!"

When did he become so nice to them that he would say please?

Irritated, Yuri walked towards the door and stopped right in front of it. She then spoke with a voice loud enough to carry out through the door, "I don't have time to play along with your delivery service. Besides, we didn't even order anything!"

"Hey! You think delivery service is all I do?! That hurts, Yuri, really…"

"Then go ahead and die, please."

"I can't, otherwise I'll fail to introduce you to my special product: the Rasen-Vacuum Cleaner, 'ttebayo!"

"You're a salesman now?!"

Meanwhile, the Battlefront members just stared agape at the heated exchange between their battlefront leader and the person beyond the door (though it was already obvious who that was since there was only one person there who used the phrase 'dattebayo' as his catchphrase).

"Have we really been this friendly to him?" Otonashi asked to no one in particular.

"Unfortunately, his interactions with us really have softened us up, even though I don't like to admit it." Takamatsu answered while pushing up his glasses.

"Isn't that a good thing? At least we know he won't attack us out of the blue without any reason."

Hideki's opinion was the exact opposite of what he would've said several days ago when Uzumaki Naruto first arrived. To be honest, most of the Battlefront member's opinion about the whisker-marked blond had changed somewhat. He didn't know how, but they just changed like that. Uzumaki got on their less aggressive side so easily it was almost magical.

Then again, Yuri was still antagonizing him with all her heart.

"At least Uzumaki being here ends up being a good thing for us."

"How did you come up with that conclusion?" Otonashi questioned Hideki's peculiar statement.

"Well…for one, he has a good impact on Yurippe's behavior." Hideki said as he looked at Yuri who was still arguing through the closed doors. "Lately, she seems to be thinking a lot by herself and has this strange silent look on her face every time she did so. It might not be much, but having someone to argue with is enough for her to relieve some of her stress."

"She's stressed? What is she thinking about that she even stressed herself like that?"

"Beats me. She never told us anything about it. It must be something about Angel, though."

There should be a reason why Yuri would think so hard on an issue. Otonashi was sure that his leader was someone that would keep on thinking about how to overcome an obstacle standing in her way. Angel was such an obstacle, and Yuri must be thinking about how to defeat her even in her sleep.

But for her to think even harder on that one issue, she must've stumbled upon a lead or a clue about Angel.

"Ah, that's right. I have an idea!"

The one who said that was Yuri, who suddenly sounded rather cheerful and enlightened. The sudden change in her tone made the Battlefront members give her a confused stare.

"Hey, you, do you really have to go in here?" she asked Naruto through the door.

"It's not like I've got anything better to do. School's still on for a few more hours, and eating alone in cafeteria sounds terribly sad even if ramen's on the menu. I'm thinking about messing around with your Guild guys again, but I guess I'll stick around here first."

Had he really been to the new Guild? To answer that question, yes he had. In fact, when some of his frequent nagging visits to the Anti-Angel Headquarters weren't enough to cure his boredom, he took it upon himself to visit Chaa and his Guildmates. Sometimes they'd even test out new explosives (on the annoying Uzumaki), which perhaps brought a few good results for the Afterlife Battlefront.

But back to the initial problem…

"Then let's make a deal. I'll let you in here…but you will do as I say."

"And why would I do that? Knowing you, it's better off dying out of boredom rather than dying because of your schemes."

Naruto's casual remark about dying was the result of him staying in this ridiculous world called the Afterlife, where dying was only part of the life's cycle. When one knew that dying wasn't so bad in here, they'd be more concerned about how painful their death can be rather than how to avoid death itself.

Yuri scoffed lightly. "You're taking me too lightly. Who said that you have a choice in the matter?"

"…your point being?" Naruto inquired, unsure of the meaning behind Yuri's statement.

"There's a trap that will activate when someone tries to enter this room without saying the password, as I'm sure you've noticed. However, there's this slight error in the construction. That trap mechanism would still activate if someone from inside the room opens the door without saying the password. Going by that, you can say that your position is a bit…unfortunate."

After a short pause, Yuri continued. "In any case, if I open the door now without saying the password, the trap will activate. Of course, there's only one trap here, and it's the one that will slam a gigantic mallet into you."

In other words, Yuri had Naruto cornered. If she so much as twisted the doorknob, the sledgehammer trap would activate and hit Naruto head-on.

One of his clones once became its victim, and he couldn't exactly say that the memory coming from that clone was nice. Also, though Naruto didn't know about it, Otonashi had also become the hammer's victim before he was first introduced to the Battlefront.

But…

"You really think a simple hammer can hurt me? Pfft, please, a simple Rasengan and that hammer will be blown to smithereens." Despite himself, Naruto couldn't help but boast about his favorite jutsu. "I actually wouldn't mind blowing the door open with it, either. But since this is actually the principal's room, I'll try my best not to be aggressive towards it. The point is, you can't force me to do what you want me to, Leader-chan!"

"L-Leader-chan?!" Yuri exclaimed in an explosion of anger.

At the back, Otonashi couldn't help but make a single comment. "They're giving each other nicknames, now? …Someone please tell me how much I missed."

"I don't think any of us can answer to that." Hideki answered. The blue-haired baseball player then turned his head to an obvious sizzling noise, "And Noda, your ears are smoking! What's up with that?!"

"*grumble*…that fucking bastard…!" Noda's grumbling was laced with jealousy, but somehow none of the dense Battlefront members picked it up.

Right then, Yuri who was burning with anger held herself back from activating the supposedly-error of the trap mechanism. While she wanted nothing more than to seriously hurt that wisecracking Uzumaki, taking him out right now wouldn't benefit her if she really wanted to include him into the new plan that she had just thought out of the blue.

So she pressed on.

"O-Oh? I don't what you're talking about, but surely you're not thinking that there's only one trap set, right?"

"Eh? There's more?"

The one who asked that question wasn't just Naruto, it was also asked by the whole Battlefront members behind Yuri's back. From a third-person's perspective, it would seem like the Battlefront members had no idea what Yuri was talking about.

Fact is they really had none.

"For your information, I've prepared the hammer trap especially for Angel. You think I haven't thought about what would happen if she can break that trap, knowing how strong she is? That's why I've also set a couple of Gatling guns as a backup plan. It'll fire when the hammer trap is destroyed, and it has a firing rate over one…no, 4000 bullets per minute."

In other words, it would be the same as facing an overpowered version of Tenten's Soushoryuu (Twin Rising Dragons) technique.

"Geh! You prepare something like that just to stop a little girl?! That's more than a little much, you idiot!"

"Shut up! Putting up Gatling guns is the minimum of what I need to stop someone like her!"

"But that's just like letting the final boss use an anti-hero demon sword that can kill the protagonist in one blow! Games like that just won't sell! AND TRUST ME, I KNOW!"

"STOP ROLE-PLAYING AS A SALESMAN ALREADY!"

"We're definitely getting too friendly with him." Otonashi stated as he stared blankly at the exchange.

"Agreed," Hideki said with a nod. "By the way, we don't really have Gatling guns as traps, do we?"

"There's nothing like that when Chaa first constructed it, but…honestly, I really won't say it's beyond what Yurippe would do." With a shake of his head, Fujimaki gave his honest opinion.

Yuri was the kind of person who would do anything for victory. Even though she had to do something ridiculous like input a cheat code to win in an online game, she would really do it with no hesitation. Even though she had to cover her failed strategy with an even more over-the-top bluff, she would do it regardless.

Currently, she was using that over-the-top bluff to force Naruto to obey her.

On a side note, the part where she said that there was a slight error in the construction in the trap was also a bluff. In truth, the trap will only activate if anyone from outside tries to gain entrance without saying the password, but she didn't have to tell the blond idiot that.

She was truly a frightening person.

"Well?" Yuri playfully taunted the blond beyond the door. "I'm waiting your answer, Uzumaki-kun~"

The person in mentioning could only stare disbelievingly at the door as he was driven into a (fake) corner. He didn't know that the Battlefront leader could go that far in her planning. He wasn't really keen on tasting death even if he would be revived afterwards, and as much as he wanted to prove Yuri wrong he had to realize that he was at a disadvantageous position.

"…you're evil, you know that? Well, whatever. I'll play along with your plan for now."

Sighing in defeat, Naruto finally agreed to Yuri's terms.

The purple-haired girl grinned happily as she finally gained victory in their little argument. As promised, she then said the magical password that would safely detach the trap mechanism as she opened the door.

"No God, no Buddha, no angels."

"…personally, I think you should get a new password. Not that it's any of my business, though."

"You're right. It's none of your damn business." Yuri quirkily replied, succeeding in making a tick of a nerve appear on Naruto's temples. Ignoring that, Yuri turned around walked towards the principal chair.

"Let's cut the chatter and start the mission briefing. Otonashi-kun, close the curtains please."

xoxoxo

The Afterlife Battlefront's Mission Briefing was really something.

Not a second after the curtains were closed, a projector of some kind displayed the Afterlife Battlefront's crest (a writing of SSS over a shield) on the wall behind the principal's desk. All of the sudden, Yuri was already behind said desk, wearing a white beret like the kind that officers wear to formal occasions. The Battlefront members immediately had their attention on that leader of theirs.

Left with no place to sit, Naruto opted to stand and leaned to the closed double-doors of the principal's office. He didn't mind having to stand there; it was actually a pretty nice spot. And it gave him a clear line of vision throughout the whole room, so he could observe everything carefully without standing out too much. Incidentally, the first thing that he noticed was different from last time was a short, bespectacled boy with his brown hair in a bowl cut, though it was somehow different than Lee's hairstyle.

Naruto couldn't define his facial characteristics clearly, but he put the issue down for the moment and turned his attention to Yuri who was starting the briefing.

"First, I'll announce the members participating in this operation." Yuri declared.

"Before that, can you at least tell me what this 'operation' is all about?" asked Naruto as he raised his hand. "You haven't told me anything ever since you dragged me in here."

Yuri gave the yellow-haired boy a pointed look. After debating with herself whether to tell him or not, she decided to give him an answer.

"I guess so. You may not like what you hear, but I'll be blunt about it. This operation's aim is to make Angel fail her tests."

"…" Naruto didn't give any noticeable reaction, but his shoulders tensed. "That's not a very good idea now, is it?"

"Why'd you say that?"

"I don't know what kind of tests she'll be taking, but trying to make her fail them is just wrong. That's just as bad as pushing down a tower of cards someone has given their all to make. There's just no way I'll join in for that kind of operation!" Naruto narrowed his eyes slightly. "In the first place, what makes you think I'll join you after knowing this?"

"Oh? But didn't you agree to do what I told you to?" Given the circumstances, Yuri was in no position to smirk victoriously. Even so, that was exactly what she did. It was unknown whether she wanted to irritate Naruto or something.

Naruto's response was to growl at the purple-haired girl.

"Sorry, sorry, that was a bad joke." Yuri waved off the yellow-haired boy's response with a light laugh.

"You see, you may not notice it, but Angel is our enemy. No matter how unfair you say it is to attack a single girl with the power of a whole battlefront, that isn't our concern. We don't see her as the feeble girl you see her as, we see her as an enemy so strong we have to combine forces and form a battlefront. That being said, we'll do anything to find a way to defeat her, even if we have to gamble our hopes on someone like you."

Yuri took a deep breath before continuing, "After all, fighting her is one way to ensure our continued survival here and the only way to find God. Unlike you, we don't have a choice in the matter."

Naruto blinked as he took in Yuri's words. Her words held no deceit, but somehow that just made him more uneasy.

'Unlike me? What makes me so different from them?'

As that thought came to Naruto's mind, he could only come up with one answer:

He was the only one who thought of Angel as an ally.

He was a third party unrelated to any of the battling factions in the 'Angel versus Afterlife Battlefront' war. Unlike the Battlefront, he was the only one that had the freedom of choosing whether to make one party an ally or an enemy. The Battlefront, having been created with the sole purpose of fighting against Angel, could only make her their enemy.

Incidentally, the same could be said for Angel, who did not have the freedom of choosing whether to make the Battlefront her ally or enemy. She was already stuck with the 'enemy' option from the very start.

"…" As he made that silent revelation, Naruto couldn't do anything but keep his mouth shut. Yuri was right; he was the only one who had a choice in the matter, being the third-party and all.

Yuri's words held no deceit…so what did they hold?

He surmised that it must be envy.

At the core of every human being, there will always be the need to be free in every sense. Naruto couldn't judge how Yuri actually felt, but he realized that deep inside Yuri must've wanted the same freedom he had. She must've also wanted to decide for herself whether to make Angel an enemy or an ally. In the very end, she might still choose to see Angel as an enemy, but that freedom is what counts. After all, no one would want to be forced to fight against their will.

But that revelation wasn't made him keep silent.

It was the fact that, unlike them, he hadn't even made that choice yet. It was the shameful fact that he was afraid to make that choice that Yuri…no, perhaps even the whole Battlefront yearned for so much.

Would he ally himself with Angel and fight against the Battlefront? Or would he ally himself with the Battlefront and aid them in their fight against Angel?

Choosing between those two options would likely destroy him.

It was almost reminiscent to the 'weight of choice' Obito mentioned back in his world. Naruto had the freedom to choose whatever he wanted, but he would have to bear the weight of the other end which he didn't choose.

In the end, he didn't even make the choice. All he did was alternating between the two factions, fighting for the sake of both.

The same thing was occurring now, and he now realized that.

'…if that's really what's happening, then I can't be more pathetic than I am now.' Naruto thought. 'That's right. Being a third party is just my convenient excuse to not choose. In the end, I still can't escape from Obito's truth.'

He fell so deep into his thoughts that his face took on a deeper expression than before.

Yuri mistook this as a sign of him getting even angrier, so she decided to explain herself further.

"Well, don't worry. If this operation works, it might as well work for that girl's benefit."

"Eh? What do you mean?" Naruto asked with a surprised look.

"I'll explain that to you later. For now, I'll brief you all on what to do."

Naruto would usually press further for information, but Yuri didn't let him get the chance. "Anyway, I've already arranged for us to take the tests in Angel's class."

"Wouldn't it be best for us to attack with all our members?" Fujimaki suggested with a smirk.

"It wouldn't 'be best'! We can't afford to make mistakes this time. If our plans are exposed, they'll have us immediately moved to a different classroom, and we'll lose any hope of ruining Angel's tests!"

Initiating an operation with the full member of the Battlefront would only bring about unnecessary attention. Not only that, it'd be strange to have a single classroom so full of people wearing the special SSS uniform.

"I see. Count me out then, that kind of work is for the girly members."

"Stop being a sexist and just admit that you're not smart enough for this kind of operation."

"What did you say?! Are you trying to pick a fight with me, Goldilocks?!"

Grinning in delight after his successful wisecrack, Naruto ignored the halberd-wielding brute and instead asked Yuri a question. "What kind of test will be held, anyway?"

"? Well, it's obviously academic tests. Why do you even have to ask? At the very least, there will be Physics, English, Mathematics, and Chemistry."

"Oh, that sounds pretty easy. I'd score well enough on…uh, we actually call it Natural Laws of Movement back in the Academy, but it's called Physics here? Anyway, I'll be safe as long as I can prove that throwing a kunai with a sunset-level elevation will result in the furthest possible range of a horizontal throw."

"? What the hell are you talking about?"

Naruto had complained before that he couldn't understand the slightest bit of what the teachers in his classroom was teaching. However, it wasn't that he was a complete idiot who had a pea-sized brain and had no common sense. It was simply that the curriculum which was taught here was very different compared to the one taught in his world.

Incidentally, what he had just stated just now was an application of vector calculation, which was primarily used to determine the maximum point of distance reachable in a travel along the horizontal axis.

In other words, while Naruto's weakness was the tedious studies of numerous theories and laws of physics (this was, actually, also his weakness when he was a mere student of the Academy back in his village), he was very adept at using his knowledge for 'application' and 'practical use'. Afterlife High's curriculum which was focused on 'theories' and 'how to solve a non-existing problem' contradicted Naruto's thinking pattern such that he was unable to gain any useful knowledge from it.

"Hey, I may be an idiot, but even I can learn a few things from school."

"That's fine and all, but the tests won't really require you throwing a kunai or the like. They're all written tests through and through."

"…" For a moment, Naruto fell silent. He felt that something he heard wasn't right, and he thought it was just a joke. However, as he saw Yuri's deadpan expression staring back at him without any sense of humor, he began to sweat.

"Wr-written test, you say…?"

Let it be said again, Naruto wasn't unintelligible.

Thinking back on it, though, he was the class's dead-last.

His lack of theoretical knowledge might be his greatest downfall. And hearing that the test was to be a written test (something that would definitely gain him an epic fail) earned him a hard blow to his conscience.

'Really, of all places to rendezvous with that dreaded enemy of mine, it's here?! Is it really wrong for me to be a plain idiot wishing to not go through the Chuunin Exam prelims again?!' Unable to contain his shock and sorrow, Naruto smiled bitterly and closed his eyes. Tears were trailing down his eyes almost manly.

"E-Eh?! Why are you crying all of the sudden?!" Yuri actually found the pathetic scene shocking.

"No…I'm just reliving my past memories that happened to spring up because of what you said…"

It must be one horrible memory if it was enough to reduce a grown teenager to tears. Yuri was concerned enough to react to Naruto's sudden breakdown, but she couldn't spare more time to worry about that. She ignored the tear-stricken boy and went back to explaining the operation.

"Well, whatever. Anyway, continuing where we left off…" Yuri switched her attention back to her members. "The members participating in this operation will be Hinata-kun, Takamatsu-kun, Ooyama-kun, Takeyama-kun, and Otonashi-kun."

Otonashi's breath got caught in his throat. "Me again?" he let out with a displeased tone.

"Please call me Christ—"

"I just chose the normal-looking members." Yuri reasoned carelessly. "Oh, and the crying idiot over there is also included."

"What about him is normal-looking?! With hair dyed blonde like that and those tattoos on his cheeks, he stands out too much! And his orange clothes are nothing normal either!"

"Oi, respect the color! Orange is the coolest color there is! At least I don't have reddish-orange hair that looks like it got chili sauce all over it!"

"I don't like particularly love it either, but do you expect me to take it off just like that?! It's not a wig!"

Despite him actually being a conflict-avoiding person, Otonashi couldn't help but get into an argument with the orange-loving blond.

"Well…"

Yuri seemed to be thinking deeply as she leaned back to her (or the principal's, more exactly) chair.

"We can't do anything about his hair and whisker marks, but maybe we can do something about his clothes."

"What do you have in mind?" asked Otonashi.

"There are several pairs of spare 'Class SSS' clothes stored in Ooyama-kun's room. I guess we can use that to change how the idiot looks, if only a bit. Ooyama-kun, can you bring it here?"

The child-like boy in mention looked surprised at the request, but complied. "Ah, right! I'll be back in a minute."

As he ran towards the door, Naruto stepped aside and let him through. The shocking thing for him was the Ooyama went through the door without saying any password that, which should've activated the trap function like Yuri told him, but the trap didn't activate.

"Hold on. The trap didn't activate like you said it would!" Naruto pointed an accusing finger towards Yuri.

"Oh, that? That was a lie."

"IT IS?!"

xoxoxo

At times, Ooyama couldn't understand what his leader was thinking.

His leader was a girl with all kinds of sinister plan that only an evil mastermind could conjure up. He already had a feeling that she wasn't the safest girl the first time they met. Of course, despite that, she was still someone who was considerate to her friends. There were those horrible punishment games that she often exacted upon her subordinates, but he knew she was just trying to motivate the others.

Or was she?

Anyway! He was sure that even though her plans were often recklessly dangerous…or dangerously reckless…she always had the Battlefront's best interest first and foremost in her mind!

"Strip him off."

So…why did it have to come to this?

"Eh?"

"I said, strip him off."

"Eh…um, does that word have two sides to it? You're being too ambiguous…"

"Then let me rephrase it to you," the purple-haired Battlefront leader said intently. "Take. His. Clothes. Off."

"ARE YOU SERIOUSLY GIVING HIM THAT ORDER?!" Otonashi, the only one in the Battlefront who was fortunately still sane and had some common sense, exclaimed loudly.

Meanwhile, the one whose clothes were ordered to be taken off balked in utter surprise. "What's with this suddenly taking my clothes off? Are you a pervert, Leader-chan?"

"No you stupid idiot. I'm saying that you have to strip and change your clothes with the ones Ooyama-kun brought you. That's the Afterlife Battlefront's uniform, and you'll have to wear it to blend in with us."

"…why?"

"Well, so you can participate in our operation of course! It's the only way to do it, unless you happen to have an NPC's clothing."

"No, no, I'm not asking about that." Naruto waved his hand in denial. "I'm asking why I have to strip here! Whatever the purpose is, getting naked here is the same as proclaiming myself as a full-on exhibitionist! Don't you have common sense or something?!"

"Well, if you don't like it, we can turn around and not look while you change."

"That's not the point, you idiot! Just by changing here right in front of you all will raise a serious misunderstanding in the future! Or is it that you yourself want me to change here? HAH! I KNEW IT! YOU'RE JUST A CLOSET PERVERT!"

"SHUT UP! IT'S NOT LIKE ANYONE WOULD WANT TO SEE YOU CHANGING! It's just that there's no restroom in this building and having you strip naked outside is just more unreasonable! I'm actually being considerate here, you know!"

"THAT'S NOT SAYING MUCH FOR SOMEONE WHO ASKS A GUY TO STRIP IN FRONT OF HER, ECCHI LEADER!"

"JUST SHUT UP AND DO AS I SAY, YOU LUNKHEAD!"

Thought it might seem like a desperate request of exhibitionism from Yuri, it was not that at all. She assures you, it wasn't that at all! If there was actually a restroom around here then she would've already told him to go there! And it wasn't that she would see him changing his clothes anyway!

Of course, even though she thought so, it wasn't her style to immediately blurt out what she had in mind. This left her Battlefront members wondering what exactly the point of having the yellow-haired boy strip then and there was.

"You think this has anything to do with the grudge she had on him?" Hideki asked aloud.

"Probably… Demanding someone to strip naked in public is a form of punishment used to humiliate the victim, after all." Takamatsu gave his analysis.

"It amazes me that you guys can talk about it so casually…" Otonashi was looking perplexed at the situation surrounding him. At one point, he seemed to be holding the urge to palm his face at the absurdity of it all.

"But you know…I never thought Yurippe was cruel enough to think about that kind of punishment," said Fujimaki. "I guess she really is a sadist."

That comment rewarded him with a flying kick reminiscent to that of Maito Gai's Dynamic Entry from Yuri.

Meanwhile, Naruto was left to think hard on how he should avoid being labeled as an exhibitionist. Part of his mind had the idea of telling the Battlefront members to get out while he changes in the principal's office, but there was no telling that Yuri would go with that kind of request. Besides, asking them to go out while he changed inside the room reminded him too much of a blushing moe girl screaming "Kyah! Get out! Get out!"

'Hey, that might actually work. Maybe I can include that to my Oiroke no Jutsu (Sexy Jutsu)'s variations…'

As that useless thought went through his mind, Naruto suddenly came up with an epiphany. His face brightened up as if a light bulb suddenly appeared beside it.

What if…

What if he changes his clothes while he's in Sexy Jutsu mode?

'That's it! I can knock the guys unconscious by using the Sexy Jutsu, and then I can safely change my clothes without being labeled as an exhibitionist! HAH! My cunning knows no bounds!'

With that master plan in mind, Naruto put on a stupid grin and moved his hands to form a hand sign. 'Keh he he he he! Prepare yourselves, Afterlife Battlefront! Your leader's perverted plans will be stopped by an even more perverted plan!'

"On a side note, that leader will not be affected by your perverted plan, brat." Kurama suddenly interrupted from Naruto's subconscious.

'Eh? Why's that?'

"Well, for one, that leader you're talking about is a girl."

'And why's that so differ—AAAH! I FORGOT!'

Yuri was definitely a girl, but Naruto didn't forget about that part. The little detail that he had forgotten about was the fact that the female population of the human race was immune to the effects of Sexy Jutsu. Not only that, but using that particular transformation jutsu on girls would backfire at him, and it would do him more damage than good.

"You know how women react to your perverted jutsu. If you try to use that in front of someone like that cheeky leader girl, I can't be sure that she'll let you live."

'Ah…aah…I-I almost walked right into a figurative landmine… Thanks Kurama, you just saved my life.'

"Well, not that it worth shit when you can revive immediately, but you're welcome brat."

At some point, death had started to be mentioned casually as it lost its value in the Afterlife. Kurama might've not realized it, but it had affected his psyche in such a way. The idea of the Shinigami reaping the very life out of them became somewhat a laughable joke. Simply put, God had set up a workplace where the Shinigami wasn't needed. The image of the Reaper losing his job was all too amusing.

Anyway, the problem remained, and Naruto still had to rethink his strategy. With the Sexy Jutsu card out of the deck, he had to miraculously pull out another card to save his ass.

'…well, I can always make a wall out of my shadow clones. It's the most effective way, but there's no sense of art in it.' Naruto sighed to himself. 'And here I thought I can give them some of their own medicine.'

So, with that in mind, Naruto made a hand seal to summon a dozen of his shadow clones which materialized in flashes of bright lights. Those copies of Uzumaki Naruto encircled their summoner in a dome like circle as he backed up into a corner.

"Haha! In the end, you just gotta go with shadow clones!"

"Woah…so he can use it like that, too?" said an amazed Ooyama. Most of the people in the room were amazed, but only a select few looked disinterested. One specific example was Yuri.

"Hmph. Whatever, just hurry up and change already."

"Yeah, yeah, I hear ya," said Naruto from behind his clone dome. "Just don't peek like the closet pervert you are, Leader-chan."

"I WON'T PEEK, DAMMIT!"

"YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" The clones that made up the clone dome roared in declaration, which only served to irritate Yuri even further. It was as if they were implying that she would really peek.

Otonashi looked at his battlefront leader as she began grumbling to herself while angrily clenching her fists. The amnesiac teen was amazed that Yuri would react to such an extent when he clearly knew her as a composed leader who wouldn't bat an eyelash after seeing Noda slammed by a hammer, courtesy of one of the Guild's many traps.

Or after seeing Takamatsu turned into paste by a boulder-sized iron ball.

Or after seeing Matsushita 5th Dan laser-diced into a human meat steak.

Or after seeing TK crushed into a fine puddle by a falling ceiling.

Or…

"Figures," muttered Otonashi, "I guess Uzumaki being here does affect her in a way."

He couldn't figure out whether that was a good thing or not, but if the blonde's presence actually helped in restoring Yuri's usual behavior just like Hideki said, then he supposed it was fortunate.

Then again, Uzumaki wouldn't actually realize that fact, would he? While he didn't particularly have any ill thoughts about the blonde, Otonashi had always seen him as a third party. No matter how anyone put it, Uzumaki Naruto wasn't affiliated with the Afterlife Battlefront. With that in mind, Otonashi thought that there was just no way would Uzumaki trouble himself by coming here just to lend a hand and light up the mood. He simply had no obligation to.

But, if that's the case, that also meant that he came here without any sense of obligation.

It was either he was that kind or he was just that bored.

"Yosh! I'm finished!" suddenly came a loud declaration from within the clone dome. "Or so I would've said, but this thing is too tight. Can't I just wear my usual jacket? This uniform is killing my shoulders. And close-toed shoes? What the hell, I'm not a businessman! I can't stretch out my toes like this!"

"Stop complaining already," answered Yuri with an annoyed tone. "And aren't you a salesman not a moment ago? At least live up to your role when you decide to play as one, you indecisive idiot."

There was a slight grumbling in response before the clone dome finally dispelled in a column of bright lights. The Battlefront members shielded their eyes in reflex, but put their arms down when they realized it wasn't that much of a flash.

Standing in front of them was Naruto, who was now covered in a familiar uniform. His top which was usually the black-and-orange jacket was replaced by a white shirt and the 'Class SSS' light brown, long-sleeved blazer which he left unbuttoned. The SSS crest was emblazoned right on the blazer's right sleeve. His orange pants were also replaced by a dark brown long pants, and so were his open-toed sandals with the non-descript brown shoes.

At that time, he really looked like a member of the Afterlife Battlefront.

"Haaah…the shoes are really killing me. Is this what you guys wear every day? No wonder you're so cranky…"

"Hm, hm. It fits you well enough, I guess." Yuri commented off-handedly. "But…that headband has got to go. I thought it would go well with the uniform, but I really don't want to risk it."

"What? Hell no! You can take away my favorite orange, but you don't take my headband! It's my pride and joy!" Naruto yelled out in rejection. "Besides, you got that blonde guy over there wearing a red headband and you don't seem to complain!"

It was obvious that the person mentioned was TK.

The tall boy who looked to be a Western didn't seem to mind the comment as he responded by pointing both of his hands in a pistol-like form towards Naruto. "Hey yo, chill."

Yuri looked contemplative for a moment, holding her chin between her thumb and index finger. She closed her eyes and sighed as she nodded and agreed to Naruto's terms.

"Alright, fine. You can wear the headband if you want to. I suppose there's just no changing your image as a delinquent anyway."

Even though he was labeled by the girl as a delinquent, Naruto grinned all the same. To him, he wouldn't mind being called as anything so long as he still had his headband. After all, handing that headband away was the same as putting down his position as a ninja, and that was more than a simple humiliation.

"But I gotta admit, it's quite a shock. It fits you way better than I had expected," Hideki blurted out suddenly. "For some reason, I thought that seeing you in that uniform would be really awkward."

Naruto gave the blue-haired boy a smirk. "Hehee! One of the perks of being a ninja is you can easily blend in with your surroundings! I guess I'm just that good that I don't look weird in this."

Otonashi doubted that being a ninja would give just anyone that perk. Shiina was nothing short of a ninja herself, but she wasn't exactly 'blending in' more than she was actually staying hidden. Of course, her style was probably the more ninja-like out of the two.

Then again, Naruto didn't look like a ninja, as far as stealthy appearances go. Bright orange tends to be more contrasting than other dark colors.

"Hm. Well, at least we got that part covered." With a somewhat dissatisfied tone, Yuri brought everyone's attention back to herself. "I'll explain more about the operation in the way. For now, we should get a move on to the classrooms."

After taking a deep breath, she then declared the start of their operation.

"Operation…START!"

[PART 2]

[Classroom Block A]

There were some things that Naruto would never expect of doing, yet he did. For instance, he would never expect himself to paint the Hokage Monument and turn it into an artwork fit for children, but he ended up doing so anyway.

This was one of those things.

And by 'this', he meant walking down the alleys to the classrooms alongside some of the Afterlife Battlefront's members.

Despite how the earlier situation led up to this moment, Naruto still had a hard time processing just how it ended up like this. Yuri was walking ahead, leading the group to the designated classroom they were supposed to be in, while the other members (including him) walked slightly behind her. No words were exchanged; probably because they were as tense as him. The truth was, they were tense, but for a different reason than Naruto.

Supposedly, the Afterlife Battlefront themselves never expected to team up with Naruto either.

Meanwhile, even though Naruto was feeling tense because of the Afterlife Battlefront, his thoughts were more preoccupied with the prospect of having to work on written tests after all this time.

'For the life of me, I can't figure out why I have to work on tests again. I thought kicking the ass of a Tailed Beast is already enough, but noooo…'

"You have my sympathy, brat."

'…wow, uh…thanks, Kurama. I never thought you cared for my pain.'

"Oh, nonsense, I've always pitied you for having such a microscopic brain."

'Why you…!'

Kurama laughed in satisfaction. "Aaah, I'm just messing with you brat. To tell you the truth, even I don't see the reason why you have to do this."

'I know, right?! Of all things that I do, written tests should be at the lowest rank in my to-do list! No, it shouldn't be in my to-do list in the first place!' Naruto began to erratically rant in his mind, all the while cursing the term 'written tests'.

Kurama chuckled at that, but he then shook his head. "That's not what I meant. You're free to suffer your dreaded tests for all I care, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm asking why you decide to partake in this stupid operation of theirs."

'Eh? Well…'

Naruto's dissatisfying answer made Kurama's mouth drop into a frown. The giant fox then lied down on his front legs and peered down at the mental image of his Jinchuuriki with its huge red eyes, eyes that looked like it could look into Naruto's being. Whenever Kurama did that stare, Naruto almost felt like his clothes were transparent like glass, and that his skin was see-through like water. It was quite the uncomfortable feeling.

Naruto gulped nervously.

"You're actually very predictable, you know? Maybe it's because you're an idiot that actually made you so transparent. I'm actually glad someone like you became my prison. At the very least, I don't have to wreck my mind trying to figure out what you're planning about." Kurama spoke with a light tone.

'Uh…I think you meant that as an insult…but what're you talking about?'

Kurama raised an eyebrow. "Wow, you're stupid enough to not notice your own actions? I'm impressed."

'HEY!'

"Your idiocy aside, brat…what I'm trying to ask you is why did you decide to go against that white girl?" Kurama seemed to sigh as he asked this.

Naruto had no trouble of knowing that the 'white girl' Kurama mentioned was Angel. However, the fox's question made him feel a little uneasy.

'I didn't…I mean…going against her? I'm not doing something like that.'

"You say that now, but a moment ago you also said that there's just no way are you joining in this kind of operation. I can see what you mean by that, and truth to be told, I respect your reasoning. That's why I'm asking you about the reason why you suddenly decided to go against your words." Kurama took a breath to see Naruto's reaction, but as of the moment the boy was still frozen in place. "If I remember correctly, your nindo is 'I won't go back on my words', right?"

Kurama was right. His words were correct.

To be honest, Naruto also had second thoughts about the operation. Why would he participate in such a stupid offense? What would it accomplish? Would it really be all right if he supported the Battlefront in their schemes to take down Angel? Those kinds of question roamed his mind for some time.

However, there was something else.

'…There's something that caught my attention.'

"What?"

'Yuri…that leader girl said that this operation might work for Angel's benefit. I don't know what she meant by that, but if that's true, then shouldn't we try to do it?'

"It might be a lie. You know how deceiving that girl can be."

'It might be, or it might not. There's just no telling, but I'm going to cling on the chance that it's not a lie.' Naruto responded resolutely.

For some reason, Naruto had the intention to protect Angel. He didn't know the reason, source, or the meaning of it, but he just did. It might be his instinct to protect, it might be his guilt of having failed to protect, or it might be some other reason. It wasn't a cliché reason like love at first sight, though.

Just…

Somehow, he felt like she needed an ally. He thought that it wasn't fair for her having to fight alone when the Battlefront had so many allies. It might be irrational, but it was ultimately the only reason he could think of.

'If by any chance this can help her, it's enough of a reason for me to try.' Naruto added, looking at the giant nine-tailed fox in the eye.

"…Hmph," the fox seemed to be scoffing, but he had a smile on his face. "I can't say I don't respect that either. If that's the reason for it, then I suppose I don't have to worry about my jailor's mental stability."

'What, you think I've gotten so bored that I decided to fight Angel? Pfft, please. Last time I checked, heroes don't change into villains to cure their boredom.'

It would take at least the death of a whole clan to do it, at least. He wasn't sure if Sasuke could be counted as a hero, though.

"Though I was wondering, what did that cheeky leader girl meant by this operation working for the white girl's benefit?" Kurama wondered, displaying genuine curiosity by cupping his chin. "If my memory serves correctly, the Battlefront's whole existence was to fight her."

'I…don't really get it myself. I wonder if I should ask her…'

Thinking like that, Naruto looked ahead of the group towards Yuri. He couldn't discern anything from that angle. Normally, he would just skip ahead and catch up to her before asking his question, or just blatantly ask her aloud from where he was. However, judging by how her mood would be after all the wisecracks he threw at her back at the Mission Briefing, asking her right now would be brushed off with a "Shut up, I'm not in the mood for questions" or something like that.

'Aah, I don't think my gentle heart can take any of her pointy words anymore for now. Best for us to wait for a chance after she's calmed down.'

"Gentle? If anything, the only way I can describe your heart as is 'virgin'."

"Wha—SHUT UP! WHAT DOES THAT HAS TO DO WITH ANYTHING?!"

"!"

"!?"

It seemed Naruto did his outburst not only mentally, but also verbally as well. Thanks to the sudden embarrassing subject that Kurama brought up, it seemed that the blonde became agitated enough that he gave such a reaction. Of course, the oblivious members of the Afterlife Battlefront had no way of knowing this, so they just saw Naruto suddenly yelling out for no apparent reason.

"W-What's with you all of a sudden?" asked Hideki tensely. He had jumped quite a bit at the outburst out of reflex, but he almost looked like he would jump right onto Otonashi's shoulder like a cat.

Otonashi, of course, was not pleased.

"Haaah…look, I know walking with us must be grating on your nerves, but what's with the sudden outburst?" the amnesiac boy asked.

"Eh? Aah, sorry about that. I had a little…argument with my…inner tenant." Naruto ended his apology in a muttering quiet enough that no one heard what he said.

"Hm? Did you say something?" Takamatsu asked.

"Aah, nothing, nothing at all! It's just that I'm getting kinda nervous about doing written tests again. To be honest, it's not one of my strong points…"

"Hmph. With how much of an idiot you are, that sure didn't come out as a surprise."

Yuri's cold reply made Naruto as well as the others flinch. Naruto, however, was not one to accept an insult so easily. "Hey, what's with that attitude?! Are you still hung up because you didn't get to see me in a state of undress? Just how perverted are you, ecchi leader?!"

"It's that kind of response that makes you so freaking irritating! And I'm not a pervert!"

Otonashi looked at the two bickering pair almost like he was looking at a pair of smelly socks. The issue between those two were already serious enough that he regretted the fact that there wasn't any mental therapists around. He might actually need one to keep him sane.

xoxoxo

At long last, they all reached their designated classroom.

After Yuri calmed down enough to control her anger, she explained the situation to her subordinates.

"Seating will be decided on the morning of the tests by lottery. If we don't get a seat close to Angel, it'll be difficult to interfere." Yuri kept a close eye on the oblivious Angel who was sitting and minding her own business. "Got it? Get the seat in front of her."

"Don't ask the impossible," said Otonashi with a troubled expression.

There were a total of forty-two seats divided into 6 rows, so there were seven seats in a row. Angel's seat number was #37. It was the second seat in the furthest right row of seats, which were the closest ones to the classroom door. Getting the seat in front of her would mean getting the seat number #36.

The first one to try his luck was Hideki. "Let's see…" the blue-haired boy jammed his right hand into the lottery box before pulling out a slip of paper. "20… I missed!" Hideki palmed his face lightly, though it wasn't understandable why he had to go that far.

Takamatsu tried next, but he wasn't successful either. "11… Quite far from Angel."

"33… ahaha, totally no good!" Ooyama also failed to get that targeted seat.

This time, Naruto decided to try his luck. He was confident that he would get the number, seeing as he had the best luck a man could ever wish for. However, when he pulled out his paper slip, he was surprised to see that he missed.

"8?" Naruto let out in confusion. "Huh. Never thought that I'd run out of luck now of all times…and front row of all places? How am I supposed to cheat, then?"

This was too much like the written test part of the Chuunin Exams for his liking. It had now begun to feel more like an unlucky déjà vu, as he also sat on the front row on that day.

Looking a bit disheartened, Naruto stepped back and heaved a sigh. 'Still, maybe that's a good thing. I wouldn't want to actually mess up Angel's test myself. Better to leave that to the other guys.'

It was finally Otonashi's turn, so he stuck his hand into the box. He was sort of hoping that he didn't accidentally pull out the right number seeing as it would've been nerve-wrecking sitting in front of Angel, who had been the one to stab him right in the heart a few days ago. Frankly, having someone like that sitting behind him was not good for his mental health. Then again, he wondered what kind of punishment Yuri would give them if none of them gets the #36 chair.

The amnesiac boy sighed. "Down to me, huh…"

He pulled out his number and it read…

"25… I'm pretty far too."

He wasn't whether to be glad or not, but he looked at the bright side of things. At least he didn't have to do anything important.

After that was Yuri's turn.

"YAY! I got number one!" the purple-haired girl exclaimed with a radiant face. That radiant face fell off not a second later as she threw the paper slip and proceeded to repeatedly stomp her foot on it. "I mean, what the hell's with this damn thing?! And I'm next to the idiot too?! That's it! I'm going for a second draw!"

"I know you don't have any compassion for me, Leader-chan, but if you're really going to go that far I can't help but feel insulted!"

"When did I ever care about your personal opinions?! And stop with the 'Leader-chan' thing; it's stupid!" Yuri yelled back at the yellow-haired boy. "Isn't anyone close to her? I don't care if it's beside or in front!"

The battlefront leader turned to her subordinates with an angry face. She might've expected them to have better luck than her, but she was currently mad that they didn't. Thing was, if they really were going against God, then the losing their luck would naturally be one of the lesser punishments.

Then again, that might not be the case.

"I got the seat in front of her," said Takeyama as he held his glasses. In his other hand was a paper slip which read the number '36'.

"Alright!"

"So, what should I do?"

Yuri had a devious grin on her face as she finally went to sit on her chair and began her explanation with the others circling around her. "When the answer sheets get passed out, take two sheets. And when they're collected at the end, switch one with Angel's. Leave that sheet blank—uh, no, that would be too suspicious… Just write down lots of stupid answers!"

"Like what?"

"Just write about what you'd like to be in the future."

"It's a Physics test, you know…" Takeyama said unenthusiastically.

"It's fine, just write 'pilot' and 'dolphin trainer' and stuff."

Otonashi visibly cringed at the idea. "That's pretty stupid…"

"What's a pilot?" asked a bewildered Naruto as he raised his eyebrows at the foreign word. His question was ignored as Takamatsu gave his own inquiry. "What do we do when the tests are collected?"

At that question, Yuri's eyes darted towards Hideki before pointing her index finger directly at him. "Hinata-kun! Wait for the right moment, and then do something stupid! Make it so everyone focuses on you."

"Huh? That's just…"

"Why do you think I included you in this operation?" Yuri asked with careless tone.

"Eh?! I never thought it'd be for a clown act!"

Yuri ignored Hideki's protest and continued her explanation, making the blue-haired boy groan and palmed his face in despair. "And then at that moment, after gathering all the tests from behind him, Takeyama-kun will switch out Angel's test paper with the fake one. If anything goes wrong, make sure you don't panic and just help each other out. Okay?"

The reply she received from her subordinates was a simple grunt of agreement, and a slightly awkward nod from Naruto. For his part, he didn't understand what he was supposed to do there, even though Yuri clearly asked him to come along as backup. If all he had to do was completing the tests while Hideki makes a fool of himself, why was he needed anyway?

Not finding the answer he needed, the yellow-haired boy shrugged the problem off.

"Ah, wait a second…" Suddenly, Takeyama called out to his leader. "What should I put down for her name?"

An awkward silence came along after that.

It was clear that that part hadn't been thought out.

"Angel." Takamatsu answered simply.

"Are you an idiot?" Hideki replied immediately. "Isn't 'Student Council President' fine?"

"Yeah! She's going to be an idiot who writes 'I want to be a dolphin trainer' on her test anyway, right?" Ooyama added as he looked seemingly unaffected that the "idiot" he mentioned was sitting several desks behind him. An outstanding lack of tact, that was.

"No way, being unable to write your own name is too unbelievably stupid!" Otonashi argued.

"Eh? So 'Angel' isn't even her real name?" Meanwhile, a bewildered Naruto's thinking process was still slow as ever.

"What kind of idiot would use that kind of name as her real name?" Otonashi asked back. He looked a bit disgruntled that Naruto would really consider 'Angel' as a real name, judging by how he looked seriously mislead.

"Well, she is supposed to be an idiot who trains dolphin in her future…"

"Please don't mix up that stupid future prospect with her own self. And wait, how do you people not know her name, anyway?!"

Yuri looked up at the orange-haired boy with an unknowing innocent look. "We've never had the chance to find out."

"That's messed up!"

"Fine, you go find out what it is then. Go to the staffroom and check the register."

Yuri didn't seem to feel the slightest guilt in not knowing who that girl's real name was when she had already fought her for a disturbingly long time. Otonashi found that it ticked him off more than he realized. With an unsatisfied click of his tongue, he turned around and quickly walked towards the door, intending to do what Yuri told him just for the sake of finding out Angel's real name.

'That's just…that's just really stupid! Just ignoring her real name and coming up with a nickname you made yourself is just unthinkable!'

It was not clear who his annoyance was directed to. He felt annoyed by Yuri's uncaring attitude, but he was also largely disappointed in himself for only remembering this problem now himself.

The only clear thing was that Otonashi felt more than a little annoyed. How come Yuri didn't know of Angel's real name in the first place? Fighting someone without even knowing her name sounded really stupid that it made him question why they should fight Angel at all. It was as if she wasn't worth knowing her name. Otonashi felt that that kind of degrading was just ridiculous. Angel or not, she was still a living being with a name. Omitting that part of her was the same as not acknowledging her existence.

"Geez, you could be a bit more—"

He was so focused on his own thoughts that he didn't realize someone coming up behind him. He only did when that someone pulled on the hem of his school blazer and stopped him from going out.

Otonashi turned around and found himself staring at a certain silver-haired girl.

"Where are you going? The test is about to start."

It was Angel.

Somehow, Otonashi could sense the worry in her voice, even though her expression betrayed it. Judging by the situation, it could be said that Otonashi leaving so close to the start of the test was enough to make her rise from her seat, strange as it was.

Even so, he couldn't help but get nervous.

This was, after all, Afterlife Battlefront's strongest enemy. Moreover, she did stab him in the heart not so long ago.

"Ah, no, I just…got a bit nervous." Otonashi tried to put up his most convincing act, but Angel's passive stare made it hard for him to maintain it. However, failing to go out to the staff room right now would be disastrous on his part, and it wouldn't help the operation at all. If he couldn't find a way to ensure Angel go out of the classroom now, he'd fail to find out her real name.

'Damn it, what should I do?' the boy began to think. 'It would be too cruel to hand in her test under the name "Student Council President"…no, even worse than that, answering the question "What is the resulting amperage when applying 3.0V to a conductor with 20Ω resistance?" with "I want to be a train company director!" is just…!'

The orange-haired boy who worried too much pulled on his hair in pure frustration. Somewhere along the way, he began to doubt if he could really do such a cruel thing.

"Are you that worried?"

At one point, the worry in Angel's voice seemed to increase as Otonashi began to overreact on his thoughts. It stopped him from doing what he was doing and drew his attention to her immediately.

"Eh… No, that's not it…"

Otonashi felt bad for making her worry when the aim of his operation was to make trouble for her. It really put a good amount of guilt on his conscience. Though, with Angel being who she was, it felt strange that she'd be worried that much about him. No…in the first place, worrying about a stranger like him was already a weird thing to do. Worrying about someone from the group that hurt her in a daily basis was something even weirder to do.

Yet…though he might be just having delusions…

This girl seemed to be more worried about him than herself.

"Calm down. It's okay."

Within those two sentences, there was a genuine worry that someone like him shouldn't deserve.

"Um…" Angel paused between her words, searching for the next thing she should say. It became apparent that she also didn't know Otonashi's name, so he quickly introduced himself.

"Ah, I'm Otonashi."

Angel nodded and continued, "Otonashi-kun."

It was an odd feeling.

Here he was, trying to find out Angel's real name in such a roundabout way that he didn't even consider asking her directly. And now, the chance for it just appeared all on its own. And all he had to do to reach that miraculous chance was to give his name in return.

"I don't know your name either…"

"Me? Tachibana," The silver-haired girl answered expressionlessly.

"And your given name?"

"Given…? Kanade."

"Tachibana Kanade…" Otonashi slowly uttered the name almost like he was imprinting it in his mind. He looked down to Angel…no, Kanade's golden eyes with a newfound wonder.

'Her name sounds beautiful…' was his first line of thought, though he figured that it shouldn't be surprising. 'Like her name, "playing music" seems to suit her.*1'

"Thank you. I feel better now thanks to you," said Otonashi as he absentmindedly scratched the back of his head.

"Well, do your best then." Kanade gave her reply. Once again, her expressionless face put a veil over her voice which was tinted with a slightly relieved emotion.

Talking to the infamous Angel that the Battlefront had fought for countless times; it was an amazing feat when one thinks about it. That was primarily the reason why Naruto and the rest of the Battlefront members opted to look silently as it progressed. In the blonde ninja's opinion, that particular interaction was surprising in its own way.

"Huh…never thought that she'd be that open to other people," Naruto uttered his thought with a sense of pride. He didn't know why, but seeing that supposedly emotionless girl interact with other people so fluently relieved him in some way. It was a strange feeling, considering how short a while it had been since he had only began to know her. It must be a normal human nature to root for someone they know.

However, not all people could feel that way so quickly. Yuri, for instance, didn't share the same feeling as the blonde ninja did and opted to just observe things as it progressed.

Eventually, Otonashi went back to his group, feeling more relaxed than before.

"It's 'Tachibana Kanade'."

"Oh yeah, that's what it was." Yuri looked away, looking mostly annoyed for reasons unknown.

"So you did know!" Otonashi said accusingly.

Yuri closed her eyes as if trying to imply that she had nothing to do with it. It looked more like she didn't care, really. "I just forgot."

Before anyone can say anything else, a teacher came in through the door carrying a brown folder which seemed to contain the test papers. The NPC teacher looked around with stern eyes before declaring the start of the test. "All right, the test is starting. Sit down."

At the same time, Naruto let out a tired sigh that didn't fit his character. Personally, he felt that he could afford losing his character if he really had to work on written tests again. That was the worst bane of existence since a Hokage's paperwork. He somehow just couldn't bring himself to appreciate the literary sense behind written tests with it being a more tedious problem to solve than fighting an S-Class missing-nin.

However, with Naruto being who he was, he stubbornly refused to back down and gave the NPC teacher (or, more precisely, the test papers in his hands) a confident stare. The blonde made a motion with his hand, which could only be described as a 'come hither' sign, cockily challenging those impudent tests.

"You, the blonde with the whisker tattoo over there, go sit down as well."

"They're not tattoos, they're birthmarks!"

xoxoxo

Five minutes into the test, Naruto felt like throwing up.

'What the freaking hell is this supposed to be?! "What is the resulting amperage when applying 3.0V to a conductor with 20Ω resistance"? How the fuck should I know that?! I'm not an electrician; I'm a ninja for Kami's sake!' Naruto tried glaring at the preposterous test paper almost like an Uchiha activating their Amaterasu, probably intending to turn it into ash. When that didn't work, he hung his head in despair.

'Aah, to hell with this…I'll just make up an answer and be done with it.'

By pure idiotic coincidence, Naruto decided to write "I want to be a train company director".

It was obvious that the rock-headed Uzumaki had forgotten that, according to the plan, Kanade's (Angel's) paper was the only one that needed to have stupid answers.

Just to alleviate some misunderstandings, let it be stated that Uzumaki Naruto wasn't unintelligible. It was the curriculum of this different world that is to blame. If the question was written in a different way, like "What is the resulting percentage of lightning attribute when applying 0.3% of lightning-type chakra to a blade with standard iron resistance?" Naruto would've found some way to answer that.

Alas, the cultural difference between two very different worlds couldn't be overcome so easily.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Battlefront members present seemed to be handling their tests pretty well. Hideki was the only one who seemed a little troubled, but other than that he did the test quite easily. Probably, he was just nervous of having to do a clown act when the time comes.

Otonashi was quite surprised with himself. Not only did he find no trouble with the test, but he was answering the questions with exceptional fluency. His pencil literally wouldn't stop moving.

'That's weird…' he began to think. 'How am I answering these so easily even though I lost my memories?'

He already had amnesia from the very first time he came to the Afterlife. No matter what, he couldn't remember what happened before he died or even how he died. In fact, he didn't remember any other facts about himself other than his family name. Being able to answer the test's questions without even remembering whether he had learned about it or not was quite convenient.

Then again, Yuri had said something about not getting too serious about the test.

---

"Don't take the tests seriously. It might be a factor in how people disappear."

---

'Whoops.'

Otonashi didn't understand how it works, but he didn't want to disappear for no reason either. So he obeyed Yuri's order and quickly erased some of the answers he had written down.

'I can't answer seriously.'

A couple of minutes later, the bell softly rang signaling the end of the first test. The NPC teacher had been looking at his wristwatch before the bell rang, counting the time down to the second. He lifted his gaze from his wristwatch and towards the students.

"Alright, pass your tests forward," he sternly said.

Some of the NPC students held their head with both hands, groaning at their failure to answer some of the questions and the like. In the case of a certain Uzumaki, he had already despaired early enough to even do that anymore. To make matters worse, he was seated at the front row, so he had no way to cheat even if he wanted to.

"…remind me why I agreed to do this again?" asked Naruto aloud as he turned slightly around to receive the test papers from the seats behind him.

"Because we made a deal, you short-minded buffoon," Yuri answered him with a roll of her eyes. She sat on the seat to his left

"Damn, so it's not because of ramen…you sure you're not paying me with a bowl ramen after this?"

"Oh, shut up. The only reason I even let you tag along is because you happened to come to us when we were going to start an operation."

"Tch, figures…"

Yuri gave the depressed-looking blonde a look. He looked really out of it, and for the life of her she couldn't comprehend why a simple written test would make him so downhearted.

"How bad did you do, anyway? Just to remind you, it's actually better do it as bad as you can, or even worse than that, so that you can prevent yourself from disappearing. I'll even go as far as to say that your complete idiocy is a great asset for you in this test."

"Try saying that again when all you can think of every time you answer a question wrong is a sadistic old man with holes in his head."

"? Is that some kind of mind trick?"

"No, it's something called trauma." Naruto said, still keeping a downcast look on his face. He noticed Yuri staring at him in bewilderment, wondering what he was actually talking about. With a sigh, he began to explain. "I've got a particular interrogator who became a proctor for the exams back when I was alive. He's got some nasty scars all over his face, and all I can think of whenever I can't do a written test is how I could practically see his brain from a mile away."

"Geh…what kind of school was that supposed to be?" the mental image was enough to make even the fearsome battlefront leader shudder. Just the description of that might be enough to give her nightmares. If that was what the yellow-haired boy had been thinking about throughout the whole test, no wonder he looked so depressed.

Before the violet-haired girl could say anything else, her attention had moved towards her subordinate who was assigned to do the distracting clown act. She could only hope Hideki would do something stupid enough to get her mind off that terrible image.

On the other hand, Hideki had gotten nervous about the clown act he was supposed to do. How if it wasn't funny enough? What would happen if his clown act was not enough to distract the whole class? Those problems made him tremble in anxiety. However, there was no meaning to it if he didn't do anything right at that moment, so he threw all those problems away and stood up with a burst of adrenaline.

"W-What the hell's that?! Huge two-legged bamboo shoots are walking across the field!"

"Eh?! Where?!"

With left index finger pointing to the windows to his left, Hideki tried to make that critical distraction that seemed so crucial to the operation. He failed to garner anyone's attention except for one naïve Uzumaki who immediately fell for his lie. In the midst of the unaffected NPCs, Naruto being the only one who reacted seriously to the distraction looked absolutely idiotic; at least in the opinion of one purple-haired battlefront leader.

It didn't help that Naruto was supposed to know about this part of the plan already, so him falling for that kind of act was just…stupid.

Honestly, the idiocy in Hideki's clown act met Yuri's expectation, and it did took her mind off from the 'scar-headed old man' Naruto spoke of, but still it failed to attract the class's attention to him (other than Naruto).

Even the members of SSS had no obvious reaction.

"Hinata, you moron…" said Otonashi quietly to himself.

Finally realizing the failure of his act, Hideki pathetically sat down with a pathetic whimper.

"Geez, no other choice then…" Yuri, who opted to look out of the window beside her with a disinterested face, figured that there was no other option left except for the one held in her right hand under her desk.

It was a red cubic-shaped device with a single button.

She pressed it.

Not a second later, Hideki's chair erupted in smoke and blasted upwards, carrying the seated idiot towards the ceiling which in turn introduced the hardness of concrete to the blue-haired boy's skull.

"GHAAK!"

In Yuri's honest opinion, the face Hideki made as a reaction was more hilarious than his clown act.

The 'flying chair' spectacle was more eye-catching than the blue-haired boy's unsuccessful clown act, proven by how everyone in the room turned their heads towards his fallen form. Naruto, who had been too busy trying to find the 'huge two-legged bamboo shoots walking across the field', wasn't able to see the hilarity for himself, so he was left wondering how Hideki could end up sprawled on the ground like someone just pulled a Thousand Years of Death on him.

Even Kanade, who usually would've been unaffected by it, looked towards Hideki with furrowed eyebrows. There was a strange mixture of concern and confusion in her, though as usual it didn't show on her face that much. Meanwhile, while she wasn't looking, Takeyama who was sitting in front of her stealthily switched her test paper with the fake one.

xoxoxo

"I put a propulsion engine under your seat just in case you messed up," said Yuri with an innocent smile. "So, how did you like the feeling of being an astronaut?"

"I just got driven to the ceiling then dropped! And how did you make a propulsion engine in the first place?!" Hideki exclaimed while pointing a finger towards the oh-so benevolent battlefront leader.

Of course, Yuri felt no remorse after sending her subordinate to a premature flight with an engine she had asked Chaa to build not so long ago. After all, Hideki shows more hilarity when he was actually a victim rather than being a class clown. "You should be thankful I helped you out," Yuri stated with a face that said she wasn't to blame. The statement made Hideki blanch.

'Was my clown act that lame that it's better to have me as a human rocket?!' he thought in despair.

"Operation successful, right Takeyama-kun?"

"There were no mistakes. And please call me Christ—"

"Next is Takamatsu-kun then." Yuri declared while quickly dismissing Takeyama's request as usual.

Takamatsu looked slightly startled and somewhat confused. He tried to compose himself before asking, "What exactly am I…?"

"You'll be drawing everyone's attention."

The bespectacled boy nervously pushed up his glasses. "I-Isn't that Hinata-san's role?"

"Don't you know the story of 'The Boy Who Cried Wolf'?"

"…Repeated lies make people lose trust in you?" Takamatsu guessed.

"Exactly," Yuri smiled widely, proving that his guess was correct.

"Don't tell me that's why you included so many—!"

"I wonder…"

"Please excuse—!"

One look.

That was all it took for Takamatsu to back down. One look with that innocently sadistic…or sadistically innocent smile on Yuri's face which was so wide one would've thought they were talking about their plans for summer holiday.

"You're doing it."

Somehow a dark aura settled behind Yuri's seated form, giving her the image of an evil mastermind hell-bent on making anyone suffer and kneel before her. Though, that was probably not too far off, according to Naruto's knowledge of the cruel girl. It was likely enough that she would order an execution with a guillotine should the propulsion engine plan gets too boring for the spectators.

'…Not that it'll mean anything when your head will come together again after that,' Naruto thought to himself.

Meanwhile, Hideki tried to assure Takamatsu to just do as Yuri told him to with a friendly pat on the shoulder. "Just give it up and fly. And then get driven to the ceiling." That wasn't actually much of a reassuring line, but it seemed that there was no other thing to say. Hideki looked all too happy when he said that though.

That was enough to make Takamatsu grab his head with both hands in frustration. "I have to think of something that'll successfully draw everyone's attention!"

The others gave Takamatsu a sympathetic look, but they were honestly too scared of being the one being rocketed to the ceiling to propose for an exchange, so they kept silent. Takeyama decided then to bring them back to the next issue and turned to Yuri. "What kind of answers should I write next?"

"Man, you have it easy." Hideki said with a dissatisfied groan. "You just need to be sneaky, and you're not flying like us."

"What are you talking about? I'm carrying out an extremely risky part of the mission!"

"Then swap with me." Takamatsu immediately stated as he found the opportunity to escape his predetermined fate.

"No!"

"If not him, let me do it!" Somehow sounding overly cheery, Naruto decided to butt in and try his luck. He didn't know what the fuss was all about, but it seemed that everyone was eager to take Takeyama's spot in the mission.

"Letting you do it is the same as flunking this mission! I can't do that!"

"See, your part is better! Aren't you the lucky one, heh?!" Hideki continued to rant.

"This is a job that requires the kind of cunning only I have! Aren't you lucky you don't need to use your brains to fly?!"

"What?! Are you calling me stupid?!"

"HEEEY! STOP FIGHTIIIING!"

Yuri could no longer cope with the bickering idiots, so she snapped and yelled out at the top of her lungs. Doing this, it was natural that all other noises in the class became silent as the occupants all looked towards Yuri; some looking with a shocked expression. Also, her outburst had evidently caught Kanade's attention because that white-haired student council president stood up from her seat in reaction.

"Crap..." the rather loud battlefront leader muttered while covering her mouth.

Kanade passively stared towards the general direction where the Battlefront members were gathering. At one point, it seemed like she was going to do something in regard to Yuri's outburst, but a frantic Otonashi immediately darted in and stopped her.

"Sorry! We were just discussing our answers! We just figured it out! Uh, Hinata got a zero! Ah, and Uzumaki said he drew doodles to answer question #12! Everything's okay, no problem at all! Sorry we were loud! It's all okay now!"

"I see…" Kanade calmly sat down again, finding Otonashi's hurried explanation and exaggerated hand motions convincing enough.

Thanks to Otonashi's quick thinking, the Battlefront could breathe out in relief again. On the other hand, Naruto didn't share the same sentiment, opting to raise an eyebrow in mild bewilderment. "How did he know I drew doodles for that question?"

"So you really drew doodles?" Hideki asked in disbelief.

"Well, yeah. I also did for the rest of the questions as well, though I do take pride in having added nice quotes here and there."

"Somehow I doubt you ever take anything seriously…"

Hideki wiped his brows with a relieved look on his face. "But that sure was close. We're lucky Otonashi could pull something like that out of his sleeve, or we're toast."

"And whose fault is that going to be, idiot…" Yuri grumbled as she narrowed her eyes at Hideki.

"Hey, who's the idiot here?!" Hideki exclaimed in retaliation.

Getting into another bout of argument would only lead them to their previous predicament again, so before that happen Takeyama decided to bring them back to the initial problem. "So, what kind of answers should I write next?"

"What's the subject again?"

"World history," Takeyama answered his leader swiftly.

"Then answers like aliens have taken over the Earth."

Yuri's choice of answers was absolutely ridiculous, but obviously that was how it meant to be. The Battlefront members could only exchange uneasy looks, though in Takamatsu's case he was just uncomfortable about the idea of flying to the ceiling.

Naruto perked up at the word 'world history'. It was somewhat a subject that he had better time handling, considering how most of them were stories rather than those unreadable equations Physics were made of. Personally, he felt good about this upcoming test subject.

'I just have to remember not to confuse Nobunaga with an ambitious Madara… *sigh*, why does history always has to include overpowered people taking over the world?'

xoxoxo

And finally, the next test period came to an end.

Unexpectedly, Naruto was sweating bullets.

'In what year did Indonesia declared their independence, therefore freeing itself from Japan's reign? What the fuck?! How am I supposed to know about that? Indonesia? What in the name of ramen is an Indonesia?! Where's the story of Nobunaga and that burning temple?! I intentionally stayed awake in the Japan's History lessons just so that I can master that part!'

The things Naruto learned in Japan's history were probably one of the little things he actually liked, compared to other subjects. The stories of war and war heroes were enough to catch his attention, and thus he studied quite a bit about that particular subject. However, the subject for this test was world history, and it was not limited to just Japan. Due to that unexpected level of difficulty, Naruto had no other choice but to sigh and, once again, write his answers in the form of doodles and nonsensical writings.

'Aah, screw this. It's better to look forward into the future rather than mull on the past, so I'll write down my dream for all I care. I don't give two shits about who Adolf Hitler is or how bad his mustache looks like in this picture…'

His mind began to wander, and unfortunately, he began thinking about Ibiki and his scarred facial and cranial structure. He shuddered and whimpered momentarily.

"If it's that bad, stop thinking about that old man already." Yuri stated from her seat.

"If that was so easy, I wouldn't be thinking about it in the first place." Naruto replied sullenly. "You see, this is why I hate written tests. It brings back too many memories about how I almost failed an entire exam because of one written test."

"You're overreacting. I told you, the worse you do the less the chance you'll disappear because of doing great in the test."

"The way you say it makes it sound like I'll disappear if I actually do it well."

"It's possible," Yuri said with a shrug. "We'll disappear if we so much have a little sense of accomplishment, or when we feel like we've achieved what we want. That's as far as the information I've gathered can tell us though."

"So…the same thing happened to Masami-chan back then?"

That took Yuri by surprise. Caught off guard, she turned and looked away.

It wasn't really an approachable subject for her, considering that she understood how close the yellow-haired idiot was to the Girls Dead Monster's former lead vocalist, and how he must've blamed her for Iwasawa's disappearance.

"More or less, yeah. Actually, that's the first time anyone just disappear like that, so while it was unfortunate we can learn something from what happened."

Naruto laughed a bit at that, but his voice sounded remorseful.

Even though what Yuri said made sense, he couldn't shake the feeling that it also felt wrong. It felt like he was taking advantage of Iwasawa's disappearance, using the info from what happened to avoid disappearing himself. It made him feel guilty.

"Hey, put your game face on. Angel's looking at you."

Yuri's warning made the yellow-haired ninja turn his head to his right instinctively. Sure enough, Kanade was looking at him. His previous laugh might be what drew her attention. Even though it wasn't particularly loud, his laugh was out of place.

Fortunately, the look Kanade was giving him was one of concern, not suspicion. It amazed him how she could still worry about others when she needed to worry about herself more. To dismiss that concerned look, Naruto gave her a grin and waved slightly at her. It did the trick as she nodded and settled back to her seat. Naruto slowly brought his hand down along with his grin.

"…She's got a name, you know." Naruto said quietly enough so that only Yuri could hear him. "I didn't know she had one before, but now that I do, it's better to call her by her name. That works for you, too."

"Hmph. Since when do I have to take orders from you?" The stubborn battlefront leader turned her head away and cut off their conversation.

At other times, Naruto might snap back at the attitude. However, it had been a while since he first interacted with Yuri, and by now he'd already gotten used to how she acts. She was harsh—dastardly so—but not all of her words had ill-intent behind it.

Naruto decided shrug and smile to himself before glancing behind him.

Takamatsu was next up for the distraction. He had been thinking hard all the time that it would seem that he was busy thinking about the plan rather than the test itself, which proved to be easy for him. Even now, the bespectacled boy was thinking deeply about what he would be doing. Takamatsu never did strike Naruto as a comical person, unlike Hideki perhaps, but it was never too late for a flat character like him to make a humorous comeback.

Sure enough, when the bell finally rung, Takamatsu stood up from his seat, drawing the attention of the long-haired female teacher in the front. "You over there, what's wrong?"

"Sensei, the truth is…"

Takamatsu proceeded to completely open his upper clothing.

"I'm the type who looks thinner wearing clothes!"

It seemed that, underneath the SSS uniform he wore, Takamatsu hid more than a slightly muscular build. His physique was surprisingly ripped, considering the slim appearance his clothing gave him.

…

Unfortunately, it was debatable whether showing off his naked torso could classify as a joke.

Yuri was definitely not amused. In fact, her face was darkening with some kind of unreadable emotion. At the same time, Naruto did a spit-take, almost falling off his table as he did.

Lack of tact might be the only reason why Takamatsu could still remain standing like that while boldly holding his shirt open.

"What do you think?"

"I see that. Sit down," replied the female test proctor flatly.

"Right…"

The moment Takamatsu sat down, his chair immediately rocketed upwards as the propulsion engine activated on Yuri's press of a button. Then, just as Hideki did, his head crashed the ceiling with the impact force of a roller coaster.

"DWOOGH?!"

He hit the ceiling with the back of his head before falling down while still on his chair. The shirtless boy looked to be dazed by the impact to his occipital lobe which nearly robbed him of his consciousness. However, by doing so, he had successfully drawn everyone's attention towards him. The shocked and pitying looks from the NPCs were like a salt to the wound, but Takamatsu endured it for the sake of the mission. The pain on the back of his head was unendurable though.

At the same time, Takeyama once again switched Kanade's test paper with the fake one.

xoxoxo

"Seriously, the best you could come up with was something that weak?" Yuri was unsatisfied by Takamatsu's performance. It was a lame distraction in her opinion.

"I was confident it would pass…" Takamatsu said with a downcast look. "I thought it would be surprising…that no one would see it coming…I train in secret—"

"Yes yes, just put on some clothes already." Hideki pointed out, slightly feeling embarrassed that his friend had yet to put his shirt back on.

"It went perfectly this time too, right Takeyama-kun?" Yuri turned to the short bespectacled boy, though she already knew that his work went flawlessly.

Takeyama nodded and leaned forward, adjusting his glasses. "There were no mistakes. Now will you please call—"

"Then you're up next, Ooyama-kun."

"So I really have to do it! I can't come up with anything!" The brown-haired boy grabbed his head in distress. He wasn't able to think of any good jokes that can prevent him from having to fly to the ceiling, and he didn't think that his head can withstand such a brutal punishment.

But Yuri seemed to have an idea.

"Your seat is a bit behind and to the left hers, right?"

"Oh, you're right… Then I don't have to do anything crazy?" asked the boy hopefully, tears coming to his eyes.

"Yep, you just need to confess to Angel."

"Ahah…wait, what?"

"Confess to Angel. 'I'm sorry I didn't pick a better place or time! I've always liked you! Please go out with me!' or something like that."

"EEEEEEEEH?!" Ooyama exclaimed in a manner that suggested he had just received a death sentence from a judge in court.

"If you do it exactly like that, you won't have to fly." Yuri said with a consoling tone.

At the mention of 'not flying', Hideki dissatisfiedly looked at Ooyama. "What, he just has to confess? That's not fair."

That comment triggered a reaction from Ooyama, who suddenly reacted by flinging his arms up in distress, nearly hitting Hideki and Otonashi in process.

"No way! Try being in my shoes!" he exclaimed with a really distressed voice. "You just got away with physical damage, but I'm going to take critical mental damage! After all, this will be my first time confessing to a girl! And I know I'm going to get rejected too!"

Ooyama was being overly dramatic to the point he began twiddling his fingers wildly, reminding Naruto about how Hinata used to do it (and still does, seeing her NPC version), and ended his reasoning on a completely sad note.

"Hahah, how innocent. It's perfect for practice." Hideki remarked, completely unfazed by his friend's misfortune.

"Unlike you, I don't practice! I only fall in love seriously!"

"What?! Are you saying that my love is a dirty lie?!"

"SHUT UP! STOP FIGHTIIIIING!" Once again, Yuri snapped at her subordinates and screamed out an order at the top of her lungs. For some reason, it sounded even louder than the first time she did it.

Of course, this time Kanade also rose up to her feet.

And once again, Otonashi made a cover up for Yuri's outburst.

"Sorry! Yuri's a bit cranky right now. Last night she dreamed about Hinata, and he was like,"

*Dream Stage*

# "Don't think that I'll be the same tomorrow as I am today."

*cue gentleman-like finger snap and dreamy heart apparition*

# "You'd better be careful."

*Dream Stage end*

"…or something like that. And then Yuri said that it turned out to be true!" Otonashi's explanation was accompanied with several over-the-top hand gestures, so Kanade should be able to understand the nonsense he was saying.

Well, generally speaking, that is.

"So there are two Hinata-kuns?" asked the silver-haired girl as she came up with a surprising conclusion.

Not knowing how that ended up becoming the conclusion, Otonashi decided to go with the flow. "Uh...I guess, yeah..."

"Then there might be more than three?"

"W-Well, maybe…"

"How discomforting…" Kanade commented.

'You're the one having discomforting ideas…' Otonashi thought as he stared at the peculiar girl. He shook his head and brought them back to the initial topic.

"Anyway, she's calmed down now, so don't worry! Everything's okay! Thanks for worrying!"

Like before, Kanade wordlessly nodded and settled back to her chair. Relieved by the lack of violent development, Otonashi gave a large sigh and went back to the others. Hideki and Yuri greeted him with a heated questioning glare.

"Who is there more than three of?"

"Who's cranky?"

The fact that both of them demanded an explanation from him with protesting faces made Otonashi feel even more lethargic.

"Come on, I just covered for you guys. What's with the complaining? You brought that on yourselves."

"He has a point," said Naruto.

"We didn't ask for your opinion." Yuri said coldly, giving him a glance.

Being the receiving end of Yuri's disinterested response, Naruto clutched his chest dramatically. "Ugh! That hurts, Leader-chan. To think someone like you would give say such words to a guy with a tender heart…"

"Enough of your innocent gentleman act! That's Ooyama-kun's part!"

"I'm not an innocent gentleman! I just haven't confessed to a girl in my entire life, that's all!" Ooyama protested vehemently.

"Isn't that the textbook definition of 'innocent'?!" Hideki pointed out.

"Oi, oi, pipe down a little, she can hear us if we're this loud." Otonashi reminded, narrowing his eyes at his friends unenthusiastically. "Don't make me go there and pull out a lie again. I'm running out of spontaneous, realistic ideas."

"Which part of me being more than three is real?! I'm just a normal human being, oi!" Hideki didn't expect that all of those lies Otonashi made up was actually based by realistic ideas. If that passed off as 'real' for him, then Otonashi's common sense really was disintegrating. He felt bad for exposing the red-haired boy to too much of the Battlefront's antics.

"Hey, I can make three more of myself!" Naruto piped up with a big grin.

"What part of you is a normal human being?!"

The squabble between the Battlefront members as well as Naruto was like constantly ringing cicadas in Yuri's ears; she just wanted them to shut up and continue the operation already. Part of her just wanted to scream out and stop them again, but that would only gain Kanade's attention again.

Noticing his leader's dilemma, Takeyama decided to act mature and pull them back to the next problem.

"So, what kind of answers should I write next?"

"What's the subject?" Yuri asked back. She didn't really keep a good track of the test subjects.

"English."

"Answer everything in katakana then."

Before Takeyama could respond to that, Naruto raised his hand to get everyone's attention. His face looked sincerely confused; his eyebrows were creased inwards as he scratched the back of his head.

"Uh…what's an English?"

"…"

At first, Yuri thought that he was pulling a bad joke. But seeing the sincerely lost look on Naruto's face, it was hard to take it as a joke. If that is so, then the yellow-haired idiot was being serious.

"Are you serious?"

"What? Don't answer my question with a completely unrelated question."

"You seriously don't know about English?" Yuri said again, ignoring Naruto's statement. "What year were you born in anyway?"

"What does that got to do with anything?! I've kept up with the developing society alright, but don't blame me if that slang is new to me!"

It seemed that Naruto thought that English was a kind of language slang. Somehow, Yuri wanted to palm her face at the stupidity of the situation, but she settled with an annoyed look before explaining, "It's a language, you idiot. You know, English? The world's universal language, largely used in England, America and other nations to the west?"

Even with that explanation, Naruto wouldn't understand. After all, Elemental Nations was enclosed to the outside world, and he wouldn't be surprised if it would seem like the Elemental Nations became rather disconnected to the rest of the world. No one had actually stepped out of the Elemental Nations before, when his world hadn't ended yet, so it was a given that they should be a bit behind in the development of any aspect.

For all he knew, English could be a new cutting-edge technology. Frederica had said so herself; technologically, the world connected to the Afterlife was more advanced.

"Uh, no, that doesn't explain much…"

"Huh. I thought you were an idiot, but I never would've expected you to be completely unintelligible. When were you born, anyway? The Stone Age? Seems like it; you look like a Neanderthal, after all."

"I don't get what you're saying, but I can't help but feel insulted somehow!"

Yuri rolled her eyes. "Well, whatever. Anyway, the test is about to start, so get back to your seats! Ooyama-kun, remember the plan."

"Aah…uh, right…"

The nervous response Ooyama gave went by unnoticed by the others.

xoxoxo

The test proctor this time was a large man with clean-cut hair wearing a pair of glasses. Even with those glasses, though, his character felt unbelievably unimportant. That was how NPCs were supposed to be, perhaps.

Naruto had even started to compare the test proctor with Ibiki. The level of difference between the two was astounding! If this kind of proctor had replaced Ibiki back in the days, the Chuunin Exams would've been a lot easier.

Then again, putting such an easy proctor in this current test didn't make it easier for him.

'What is this?! All of the words here are written in characters I've never seen before!' Naruto thought, staring at the test paper with an almost helpless look. 'Is this that foreign character Sakura-chan called "romaji"? How the hell am I supposed to answer this kind of thing?! I can't even read the words, let alone understand the language behind it!'

He had heard about the set of different characters in a different style of writing from the world outside the Elemental Nations. Sakura had even once read about it, having access to files that normal ninjas wouldn't be able to find. That was one of the perks of being the Fifth Hokage's student. She had even told him about it, but he was never the learning type, nor did he have the motivation to learn it.

He was regretting that decision now.

'Aah…aaah, damn it. This is even harder than kanji… Maybe I should just write my answers in katakana? That's what it is for, after all; addressing foreign words. But if I do that, it'll just make me the kind of idiot Leader-chan is making Kanade to be…and I already had enough of her calling me an idiot.'

As Naruto began pondering, the time was ticking. It was fifteen minutes until the end of the test when the yellow-haired ninja finally received an epiphany.

'That's right! If I copy these foreign characters and put it as my answer, I won't look like a complete idiot! This might be my first time trying it, but copying it should be easy enough.'

And so, with a newfound strength and purpose, Naruto began copying the questions written in English and putting them in their respective answer text boxes. It would've been easier if he had something like the Sharingan which would've enabled him to copy some NPCs hand movements, thus copying their answers, but that would be asking too much. After all, copying from his own paper was already convenient enough, and he couldn't be prouder of his sudden ingeniousness.

(Pfft, if only he knew…)

His sudden progress didn't go unnoticed by Yuri, who looked surprised as she saw him picking up his writing speed.

"Well, well, look who's getting a hang of it. I thought you don't know English that well." Yuri kept her volume down to a whisper to not attract the proctor's attention.

"Haha…well, I have my ways," Naruto whispered back, smirking mischievously. "You look like you're handling it pretty well yourself."

Something about his smirk made Yuri turn away from him. She didn't know why, but she felt like a smile would've formed on her face the longer she looked at him smirking.

"Hmph, who do you take me for? English isn't a problem as long as you remember how to use the words in a proper conversation; it's the same as when you're using Japanese, just with a little reordering in the sentences. That said, the only real problem is memorizing the vocabularies."

"Heee… You sound like you already understand all of this. Are you an expert of this English thing?"

"At the very least, I'm not a moronic Neanderthal like you."

"…And here I thought I'd get a nice response for complimenting you," Naruto whispered with a disappointed pout.

"The day I be nice to you is the day hell freezes over," Yuri replied with a pointed look. The yellow-haired Uzumaki wasn't that high up in her list of preferable people, and she wanted to state that point.

"That hurts, Leader-chan. Would it really be hard to say nice things to me, at least once? Saying 'Ah, your hair looks good, is it a new haircut?' is already enough you know."

"Assuming that yellow bush growing on top of your head is even hair, I'd say it's not even that good."

"…" Naruto let another sigh escape his mouth before letting his head lie on top of his table. He wanted to see if Yuri could actually talk to him normally without putting an insult in every sentence she says, but maybe that was asking too much. For the life of him, he couldn't understand what Yuri saw in him that made him so detestable.

'Was it something I said? Seems like it. I don't think I have anything to hate regarding my appearance. I think even this spiky hair has its good points.'

"If I were you, brat, I'd put my money on your idiocy." Kurama's voice boomed inside Naruto's head. The sound loud enough to take Naruto's complete attention, but it wasn't a voice that could be heard by just anyone. As Kurama was a Bijuu sealed inside Naruto, only the yellow-haired ninja alone could hear his voice.

'How the hell can idiocy make someone hate me?! And I'm not that stupid!'

"Well, if it isn't your idiocy that makes that cheeky girl hate you, then I don't know what would."

'You're making it sound like my idiocy is something to be hated! And I'm telling you, I'm not that stupid!'

"Really? Then please remind me who it was that flunked his Genin exam twice by making a useless clone?"

'…uh…'

"And who was it again that thought Sexy Jutsu is an appropriate transformation jutsu?"

'W-Well, it's actually effective enough for a distraction…'

"And who was it that became the class's dead-last?"

'…Argh, fine! I get it! People hate me because I'm an idiot! Maybe the source of hatred in the ninja world that Nagato spoke of is idiocy after all!'

Naruto then heard the sound of Kurama's laughing reverberating throughout his skull. It wasn't that much that it gave him a headache, but it was still loud enough to drown out any other sounds.

"Aah, I'm just joking, brat. Thing is, even I have to pity your current situation. If you ask me, that cheeky girl simply hates your guts." The nine-tailed fox said, grinning behind his cage. Taking in Kurama's opinion, Naruto didn't have any other choice but to agree.

'That might explain why she looks so intent on spilling it. I guess I'm just hated by the female population in general…'

Continuing to converse with Yuri would just result in him getting heartaches from the countless insults, so he opted to simply wait out until the current test period ends. The gag show that was Ooyama's confession act was about to start anyways, so he might as well pay attention. It might be funnier than he expected.

Then again, given how self-conscious Ooyama was about what supposed to be his first confession, it wouldn't be a surprise if he starts to twiddle his thumb and stutter midway through. Naruto thought the boy was that kind of person.

A moment afterwards, the bell rung, ending the current test period.

"Alright, pass your test papers forward," The bespectacled test proctor said as he walked across the classroom to his desk.

"Tachibana-san!"

All of a sudden, Ooyama jumped up to his feet so quickly his thighs hit his table in process. With a face that was reddened with embarrassment, he gathered all of his willpower to begin his distraction act, the fake first confession.

"I'm sorry I didn't pick a better place or time! I've always liked you! Please go out with me!"

"Pick a time and place then."

"…"

No matter how you looked at it, it was definitely a first time Ooyama's. What was more surprising, however, was how Kanade responded to that confession. It seemed that her focus was on his apology for not picking a better place and time rather than the confession itself. It was confusing whether that was a lack of consideration or common sense.

Either way, the confession seemed to go unnoticed.

"You there, sit down." The proctor was unfazed by the spontaneous love confession, and his face was so straight it felt awkward.

"Okay."

It was hard not to feel bad for Ooyama at that time. Naruto shed manly tears for him, just for the sake of respecting a fellow pure-hearted man enduring his first time confessing.

'Though, is it really a rejection? She didn't say no outright…but the fact she didn't say yes was confusing too…'

Meanwhile, the playboy Hinata Hideki held his forehead in his palm before brushing his hair smugly. With the distraction act failed, the only way to get everyone's attention was to propel Ooyama towards the ceiling like he and Takamatsu did. He almost felt sorry for the boy.

"Wow, he actually did it. He's gonna fl—AHAHAGGH!"

However, the chair that flew up wasn't Ooyama's, it was Hideki's. The shocked expression on Hideki's face didn't last long, mainly because this particular flight of his ended up plunging his whole head into the ceiling, breaking through the tiles. His flight had been spiraling up like a drill rather than a straight flight, so it might have something to do with him breaking through the ceiling.

Yuri must've added something to this propulsion unit; that was the only explanation.

And the painful thing to watch was Hideki being stuck in the ceiling compartment of the classroom from the neck up. He struggled wildly for a moment before going limp. It was unclear if he died or not.

But, as death lost its meaning in the Afterlife, it wasn't too concerning.

At the meantime, Takeyama switched Kanade's test paper with the fake one while she was too busy looking at the hanging Hideki.

xoxoxo

"Hey, HEY, what the hell was that?!"

After successfully removing himself from the ceiling, Hideki angrily stomped towards Yuri's seat. His hair was completely disheveled with traces of debris lingering in the strands of his fringe. His face was far from amused as he gave Yuri an annoyed glare. He was such in a state of annoyance and disbelief that nothing seemed to faze him anymore, even if it was Takamatsu being bare-chested for no clear reason.

Strangely, Takamatsu was being bare-chested for no clear reason.

"What? Don't come over here!" Despite what she did, Yuri didn't feel any guilt. Instead, she responded Hideki's outburst with equal fervor.

"Why did I have to fly?!" Hideki protested, hitting Yuri's table with his fist multiple times.

"Well, Ooyama-kun already took enough damage to his heart."

Beside them, Ooyama was clearly crying into a wide blue handkerchief lent by Yuri, who generously thought that he had done enough work to not take any further punishments. Otonashi was beside him, patting the shorter boy's shoulder to calm him down, looking sympathetically at him. On the other side, Naruto was doing the same while nodding to himself and saying "The first is always the hardest. You've done well, comrade." And even though that wasn't the most comforting line ever, it showed his sympathy for the boy.

Of course, Hideki felt bad for Ooyama as well, but that wasn't the issue.

"But why me?! I don't get it!"

"Takamatsu just flew before this, so no one would be interested in him flying up again."

"It hadn't been that long since my first flight, so I don't see the difference!"

"In your case, I noted that you turned three heads more than Takamatsu-kun, so that means people pay more attention to your flight rather than his."

"So that's the only reason?!"

Even if what Yuri said was true, it didn't give much of an explanation to Hideki, so he didn't have any choice but to accept that treatment with a sour face. He sighed despairingly and looked down to his feet. "Sometimes I wonder if things like this just happen to me..."

"Stop being so dramatic already. There's still one more test, so get a hold of yourself," Yuri reprimanded. She then turned to Takeyama and asked, "What's next after this?"

"If I'm not mistaken, it's Mathematics."

"Hmm…that's a bit harder to make a stupid answer," Yuri said, cupping her chin between her thumb and index finger. "Haah, I seriously can't think of something that can make her look stupid. Oi, Uzumaki, what do you think?"

Upon hearing his name called, Naruto glanced at her in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"What kind of answers would make Angel look stupid in this case?"

"And why should you ask me that? I'm not sure I'm qualified to make someone look stupid."

"Sure you are. It takes an idiot to recognize an idiot," Yuri stated as-a-matter-of-factly.

"Is that the way you ask someone for help?!" Naruto retorted in disbelief.

Yuri shrugged uncaringly. "I just need something that can work with the subject. If the answers are completely unrelated to the test subject, it'll have less impact than otherwise."

"That's not to say 'dolphin trainer' is related to a Physics test..." Otonashi muttered as he looked to the side.

Naruto frowned in thought. Yuri might be troubling herself with the problem of finding the appropriate stupid answer for Kanade, but in his case, the main problem was determining whether giving an opinion about it to help would be the right thing to do. If he did play a hand in this, it would be the same as messing with Kanade's test. Originally, he would've refused to help if that was the case, but...

---

"If this operation works, it might as well work for that girl's benefit."

---

It was a dangerous bet, but he wanted to believe in what Yuri had said.

"Well, I'm not sure, but if it was me…I'd answer '2 + 2 = Fish' or something..."

"Haa? What's that? Is that even an answer? Are you retarded?" Yuri asked consecutively.

"...Oi."

"But, I have to admit that sounds pretty stupid," Yuri said, nodding with a satisfied look on her face. "In other words, the idea is to make silly resulting values from any equations. Nice one, Uzumaki. I guess an idiot like you has some uses after all."

"Somehow, I don't think that's really a compliment." Naruto pouted childishly at the response.

"Because it isn't, you moron," Yuri dismissively said and turned back to Takeyama. "Answers like that should suffice, Takeyama-kun. You're free to improvise the rest."

"That means I'll have to dumb down my answers a bit...but I understand."

"Alright! Now, before we start, I'm obliged to point out that we couldn't have continued this plan without Uzumaki, whose sparkling idea made preparing Angel's stupid answers possible."

Caught off guard by Yuri's generous statement, Naruto could only look at her with his mouth agape. He didn't expect her to suddenly give such a nice compliment to him, considering her previous attitude towards him. And it seemed that the other Battlefront members didn't expect it from their battlefront leader, either. Realizing that being silent about it would be rude, Naruto decided to respond, albeit awkwardly.

"Oh, uh…thanks, I guess…"

"And so, as a token of gratitude, I'll grant him the chance to pull a clown act in the next test."

"Isn't that just a punishment?! No matter how you see it, that's exactly the complete opposite of showing gratitude, 'ttebayo!"

"Oh? Is it so wrong to give someone a chance to be the center of attention?" Yuri asked with a mischievous smirk on her face. She clearly was enjoying this.

"If it involves making me fly to the roof, then I wholeheartedly refuse!"

"Tch, and here I am being generous to you...show some gratitude, will you?"

"Oi, oi, I thought you said I was the one to get all the thanks..." Naruto swore that girl was so indecisive he would've thought she was bipolar.

Yuri let out a short "hmph" before turning away from the yellow-haired boy. "Whatever, the point is you'll be the next on in line to distract all the other NPCs as well as Angel. If you screw up, you'll be flying up to the ceiling, so just make sure to get all the attention to turn to you, got it?"

Being reminded of the alternative plan should his original one fail made Naruto shudder nervously. No matter how thick his skull was, slamming it into the ceramic-tiled ceiling would hurt him. His head wasn't made of Rasengan, dammit, and he would certainly have a bump the size of Fujiyama afterwards. That was why he shouldn't fail.

"Hm…hmph…a ha ha ha! Well, Leader-chan, it seems that you won't be pressing that button anytime soon, because this Uzumaki Naruto won't fail if it comes to gathering the people's attention, 'ttebayo!"

"So in other words, you're a natural attention-whore?" Otonashi asked.

"That's a really far-out conclusion, isn't it!?"

xoxoxo

Mathematics didn't work well for Naruto. For one, as explained before, the curriculum taught in the Afterlife was somehow different from the one taught in his world's Academy. Even though the fundamental works of mathematics were the same anywhere (even though it was a different world), the way they use it here was so different.

For example, how come alphabets got wound up in mathematic calculations?

"..."

With a sigh that signed his surrender, Naruto decided to draw 4-koma comic strips as his answers.

He shouldn't let the difficult test get to his mind. He still had to find a way to divert everyone's attention to him, and a legitimately eye-catching one, or else he would have to experience becoming a human rocket firsthand. Judging by the facial expressions of Yuri's previous lab rats which were Hideki and Takamatsu, it would be a painful experience.

'Darn it! I really should think of something, otherwise I'll end up just like those two! Is there anything that will certainly draw everyone's attention to me? If I had brought some firecrackers, this shouldn't be an issue.'

To note, he had tried it once in his time learning at the Academy. Needless to say, his teacher Iruka didn't find having that day's test papers getting burned as 'amusing'.

'Should I try to make a joke? Nah, that wouldn't work. Takamatsu already tried that, and even though it wasn't funny at all, it means I won't get their attention that way.' Thinking analytically wasn't something Naruto usually did, but he had to because of the circumstances. 'And saying something unusual like...Hinata, was it? Damn, how come his family name is the same as Hinata's given name? This is damn confusing… Anyway, if I do something like he did, that'll end up making me fly as well.'

Naruto crossed his arms and fell into thought. He continued thinking for several more despairing minutes before suddenly his face lit up like a Christmas tree.

'Ah! I know! Reenactment of Pervy Sage's over-the-top introduction! That always got my attention every time he did it. If this doesn't get their attention, nothing else would!'

A sense of relief spread throughout Naruto's body as he grinned. With his plan thought up, there was nothing to worry him anymore.

"Heee...that's a pretty happy face for someone who's going to smash the ceiling," Beside him, Yuri cynically commented on his upturn of emotion. Again, her voice was not much louder than a whisper as to not draw the proctor's attention to herself.

"You immediately assume that my act will fail? Now I think you set me up for this job and deliberately make me fail."

Yuri gave the yellow-haired boy a smirk that proved his hypothesis correct. "Well, that's one way to say it. Besides, when you think about it, I get to mess with Angel while smashing your head through the ceiling, so it's two birds with one stone."

"Hmph! You'll see how wrong you are when you see me performing my ingenious plan, Leader-chan. I'll show you that not all things go the way you want it!"

The determination behind Naruto's whispered words were flaring. It was obvious that he was very set on proving the purple-haired battlefront leader wrong.

Yuri heard Naruto's statement, but she didn't respond to it for a while. Her previous smirk dropped as she pondered on what he said.

"...Hey, what's with the change of mindset?"

"Eh? What change of mindset?"

"Just before, you said that you're not helping us in this operation. You blatantly refused when you knew that we were going to sabotage Angel's tests. Knowing that, why decide to help us in the end?" Yuri asked. "This might be presumptuous since I haven't even known you for that long, but I thought you're the kind of guy who sticks to what he says."

...

Unconsciously, surprise etched itself on Naruto's face as he blinked. It wasn't that he was surprised by what Yuri said, but rather, he was surprised that she would actually say it.

"Heh, what's this? And I thought you're not the type to compliment other people." Naruto shot her a grin. "It's kind of surprising that you would have that kind of image about me. Thanks, Leader-chan."

"? What does that suppose to mean?"

"It's true that I said I didn't want to help you on this," Naruto continued, ignoring Yuri's question and opting to answer her previous one. "On the other hand, I want to help her as well. You said that if this operation works, it'll benefit her in some way. I don't know how it'll end up helping her, and I personally don't like the way you have to mess up her test first to do it...but, I'm gonna believe in what you said."

The Battlefront was a group that was formed as a means to counteract against Kanade. The reason they did it, they said, was to continue their existence in the Afterlife and to have a stepping stone towards God. Still, no matter what reason they had, Naruto thought it was ridiculous to put up one girl against a whole group in a fight, and that hadn't changed. He was a neutral party between them, which meant he was free to take actions on his own terms. Because he saw that Kanade was alone, he had once chosen to side with her, just because he saw it was only fair to do so. However, he would also fight her should certain circumstances were met, like when Girls Dead Monster did their guerilla concert before.

In the end, however, he still felt that Kanade wasn't meant to fight alone. He was a neutral party, though, and as much as he wanted to help her, he didn't want to choose one side and fight the other just for the sake of existing. He already had enough of his share of conflict in his old world. But again, he couldn't just ignore Kanade as she fights the Battlefront all by herself.

That was why...

Suppose there was a way to help her without having to pick sides, without fighting either of them, he would gladly take it.

Such was his determined goal, his unsaid words which he would not go back on.

It might have something to do with his grandiose tone or that confident look on his face. For that one moment, Yuri was amazed. From her perspective, it seemed that Naruto was really serious about helping Kanade. He would even trust someone like her, knowing full well that she was Kanade's greatest enemy. There was just no explaining what made him trust the likes of her. It was a completely baseless trust that he gave just because she said that this plan might turn out to be beneficial for Kanade. It was that kind of unthinkable trust.

Even though she didn't want to admit it out loud, that was one thing she might actually compliment him for.

"…H-Hey—"

The bell rung before she could finish what she was about to say.

"Alright, pass your tests forward please," the male NPC proctor said, gaining the despaired groans of multiple NPC students.

"Heh, that's my cue." Naruto grinned and stood up.

At this point, Yuri blinked in surprise. It was then that she remembered that Naruto was going to play the distraction act. She didn't have the chance to ask what he was going to do, but since she would see it now anyway it seemed pointless to ask it now.

"Hm? You over there, what's the matter?"

The proctor's attention was on Naruto in a matter of seconds. However, he was the only one who the boy managed to distract, at least for the while.

Suddenly, Naruto let out an ominous chuckle.

"Hmph...it's not 'you', commoner."

"I beg your pardon?"

Naruto's speech pattern suddenly changed, sounding a lot more like an arrogant Uchiha. The boy let loose more chuckles before he controlled that strange amusement of his while placing a palm over his face. His other arm crossed over his chest, making it clear that he was striking a pose.

"Do you seriously have no idea of who I am?" Naruto said, his mouth grinning under his palm. He talked with a tone that made him sound like a tyrant king.

Intrigued, the proctor checked the students list he brought with him and looked over the seat number. "Hrm…Uzumaki Naruto-san, right?"

"I am partially amused that you would address me with no glorifying title at all!" Naruto shouted triumphantly. He then jumped to his table and pulled a daunting pose, outstretching both of his arms. One arm was pointed to his back while his other was pointed to his front, both palms openedwidely. Lastly, he raised his right foot off the table so that he only stood on his left one.

"I am the legendary Toad Sage of Mt. Myoboku, the handsome beast who will make crying babies silent as he walks by! People are awed by my greatness, and villains tremble in fear of me! It is I, THE GREAT UZUMAKI NARUTO-SAMA!"

With a bellow that would've made Jiraiya himself proud, Naruto gave a passionate introduction of himself.

Supposedly, that over-the-top introduction was something that he copied from that perverted teacher of his. Given the exceedingly loud voice in which he shouted with and the extraordinary pose, it was supposed to be the ultimate eye-catcher.

And that was true. All the Battlefront members had their attention drawn to Naruto as if magnetized. Even Yuri, who prided herself for being composed most of the times, had her mouth hanging open in disbelief.

'Hah! How about that, Leader-chan?! Looks like I'm doing better than you expected, huh?'

Naruto grinned victoriously. This turn of events was really going better for him, with him not having to get rocketed and all.

Unfortunately...

"*Ahem*...I see. Then, Uzumaki-san, please be seated."

"Eh? What's with that flat reaction?" Naruto asked with a dumbfounded face.

The proctor wasn't fazed in the slightest. Even though Naruto had just pulled an unbelievably loud and ridiculous introduction, the proctor seemed to take it naturally like seeing an apple fall from a tree.

At first, Naruto was simply surprised that the proctor had such a calm disposition even in the face of a Jiraiya-styled introduction. But then, as he slowly looked around, he noticed that none of the NPC students even bother to look at him. It was such a shock that he almost fell from his perch on the table. Some of them were even too busy talking about the mathematic test they had just taken a while ago, discussing how bad it would be.

"Hey, I haven't answered questions #18 and #20..."

"You kidding? I thought I was the only one who didn't!"

"You guys are lucky. I can't even finish half of the test..."

It was almost as if the test was more important than Naruto's distraction act.

"Haah...looks like it's a failure after all, huh?" Yuri asked rhetorically. She looked at Naruto who was already breaking in cold sweat and smirked. "It seems they're not paying that much attention to you."

"Uh...aaah..."

Yuri held in a laugh at seeing Naruto's panicked facial expression. As much as she wanted to see more of that peculiar expression of his, her eyes caught sight of Kanade. Surprisingly, Kanade was looking towards Naruto. Yuri had thought that she wouldn't be affected by Naruto's distraction act when none of the students were, but it seemed her assumption was wrong. Even though the result wasn't a hundred percent, Naruto's efforts were enough to take away Kanade's attention. And ultimately, that was the only thing that mattered.

'Well, well, I never thought that I wouldn't need to send him flying,' the purple-haired girl thought in astonishment. 'Even with just this much distraction, Takeyama-kun would still be able to do his work unnoticed. It's annoying, but I guess I should give this idiot here some credit.'

"Hey, good job, you actually managed to—"

"AAAH, DAMMIT ALL! IF IT HAS COME TO THIS, I HAVE NO OTHER CHOICE!"

"!?"

Before Yuri was even able to say anything else, Naruto's outburst cut her off. Judging by his reaction, it looked like he hadn't noticed that Kanade's attention was already on him. His fear of getting blasted off to the ceiling might be clouding his awareness.

That same fear must've prompted him to make a hand sign that she always saw him do before using mysterious power.

"O-Oi, what are you—?"

"HENGE!"

It happened in less than an instant.

Just mere seconds after Naruto shouted out what Yuri thought to be his spell to activate a technique, his body covered in a translucent light so bright that all of the classroom's occupants had to cover their eyes lest they blind themselves. The light dissipated after a short while, and they all uncovered their eyes and instinctually looked towards the source of that previous light. Their eyes then met an image that they wouldn't have ever expected before.

The first thing they noticed was long, near-golden hair.

That hair that looked to be able to outshine the sun itself was tied into twin ponytails, trailing down a tall slim figure.

The second was skin. LOTS of skin.

No matter how anyone saw it, the amount of skin displayed in front of them was so much that it wasn't at the level where anyone would think that clothes were being worn over them somewhere. In front of them, standing on top of the table while striking a dangerous pose, was definitely a naked girl. Only a fair amount of lights which mysteriously had the ability to make vulgar images pass a censorship covered the most private parts of the naked blonde. But even then, the amount of cleavage she showed by pressing her arms up her generous breasts, the toned stomach, and the slim long legs left little room for imagination.

Provided with that sudden display of a beautiful naked girl posing in front of them, the next reaction was certain. The boys, being caught off guard with the sudden appearance of such a bombshell, all bore either a heavy blush or a heavy nosebleed, some even both.

Strangely, some of the girls more or less reacted in the same way, just not the 'perverted nosebleed' part. Most of them, if not all, turned away with reddened face, but one or two actually commented, "She's bigger than me?! Is that even high school-level anymore?!"

Of course, this effect wasn't limited to just the NPCs.

Otonashi, although usually kept his composure, had to hold back his nosebleed and looked away. His mind was in disarray as he, although proud enough to not be called a prude, had never actually seen a naked girl before. Therefore, he couldn't actually contain the shock.

Takamatsu's jaw dropped as he hurriedly covered his nose to prevent nosebleed. The fact that he was almost as naked as the blonde girl went by unnoticed.

Takeyama at least had the decency to blush and look away as quick as he could, but he was more focused on preventing his nosebleed from dirtying the test papers.

Hideki's reaction was more extreme, to put it nicely. He didn't even had the chance to cover his nose as the blood spewed out of his nostrils which such force that it rivaled Yuri's propulsion engine, and hit the ceilings once again.

"GUHAAAGH!"

Needless to say, none of the people in the classroom was safe from the effects of what they had seen. However, there were two people who had completely different expressions. Amidst all of those other people who got nosebleeds and reddened faces, Yuri and Kanade were the only ones who were able to pick up the third aspect that everyone had missed from the mostly naked girl.

The third aspect being the three whisker marks on each of that girl's cheeks.

"..."

"..."

Although Yuri and Kanade weren't on the best of terms, they nodded to each other in understanding. It seemed only the two of them knew who the blonde girl really was. Kanade remained silent and expressionless as if she had no problem with it, but Yuri was trying hard to keep herself from exploding in rage.

'Why...that...little...!'

Meanwhile, the blonde girl gave a last daring pose and blew a kiss. Not a second after that, she was suddenly enveloped in a bright light not unlike the one that came before her appearance. The next thing everyone knew, Uzumaki Naruto stood at the same place where the previous girl had, arms folded across his chest with a proud grin.

"Ha ha! How do you like that?! A simple transformation jutsu modified into something with a bit more kick to it! I call it Oiroke no Jutsu (Sexy Jutsu), 'ttebayo!"

Naruto proudly explained his perverted jutsu while Yuri's thumb was inching to the button of her propulsion engine remote.

"It takes the balance of 'Bon-Kyu-Bon' of a female sex appeal and conjures up the image of a perfectly sexy woman, and as you can see it is impossible for anyone not to—!"

Yuri pressed the button.

Whatever Naruto was saying was drowned out by the deafening noise of a rocket being launched. Surprisingly, the propulsion engine this time wasn't put under Naruto's seat like the others', but it was placed under his desk. Naruto, standing on top of that same table, had no idea of that and was launched towards the ceiling headfirst with a completely dumbfounded expression.

"BUGAAAAH!"

The impact might've cracked Naruto's skull, but it was a miracle that it didn't. Then again, it might because it was just that thick.

Just as Naruto was in the process of falling back down, the propulsion engine activated again and pushed him towards the ceiling once more.

"GAAAKH!"

It happened one more time, repeating the same process.

"FGUUUH!"

And again.

"DABUGH!"

...To be honest, Yuri lost count on how many times she sent the ultimate idiot Uzumaki flying to the ceiling. Her fingers just moved automatically as a dark shadow casted over her face.

The other members could only look at her in fright, all having the same train of thought.

'S-Scary!'

xoxoxo

"Well, that somehow went well," Otonashi's voice was dripping with sarcasm as he said that.

As a complete opposite from how she looked before, an overtly cheery Yuri then replied, "Yep! Looks like it. All of Angel's tests were successfully switched with the fake one, so it's so far so good. And on the plus side, I feel a bit better than before!"

"Isn't that just you venting on Uzumaki?" Otonashi pointed his index finger to a fallen figure on the floor near them. That fallen figure was Naruto, who was currently being tended by Takamatsu, Ooyama, and a bloody-nosed Hideki who had to stuff a couple of tissues into his nostrils. Ooyama was bandaging Naruto's head, but the messy handiwork made him look more like a mummy.

"Even I have to say it was a bit too much, considering what he did for us."

Yuri ignored Otonashi's further preaching and looked away with a pout. Sighing in defeat, Otonashi dropped the subject altogether. There was nothing to get Yuri's attention once she didn't want to talk about it; at least, as far as he knew her, there wasn't. Besides, it wasn't the first time Yuri was being irrational and unfair. He just wondered if being so towards someone who helped them in their operation was the right thing to do.

Then again, that perverted technique was uncalled for, and he could sympathize with her.

'What was that, anyway?' Otonashi thought to himself. 'Uzumaki just suddenly turned into a girl. Was that one of his magical powers or something? I can't imagine anything else other than that.'

"Oh, look! He's waking up!" Hideki exclaimed.

"Hm mph, mph hmph pmf?!" There were several inaudible words coming from Naruto's fully bandaged head.

"Are you sure that's the right way to bandage someone's head? It looks to me that he's suffocating there," Otonashi said. "And is there even any injury on his head? He doesn't look to be bleeding, as far as I can tell."

"Eh? Well, I don't really know...but someone's bound to get hurt if he's rammed to the ceiling that many times, so I thought I better wrap it up before it bleeds." Ooyama carefully peeled off his bandaging on Naruto's head, treating it as if there was really an injury. In truth, he didn't see any injuries by the time he started to bandage Naruto's head, but he didn't want to risk it either.

"Woah...that's pretty impressive, Otonashi. You sound like a doctor or something, talking like that." Hideki let out in amazement.

"Eh? Is that so? Well...anyway, just take that bandage off."

Eventually, Naruto's head was completely uncovered. True to Otonashi's perception, there wasn't a single injury to Naruto's head, or at least visible ones.

'Strange,' Otonashi thought. 'There's bound to be at least a concussion after that much impact to his head.'

"Ugh…whahapponiname?" Naruto's speech was slurred, most likely as an effect of having just woken up.

"Oh? You woke up faster than I thought," said Yuri, looking somewhat uncaring.

"Hm...? AH! Leader-chan, you...!" Suddenly shooting up to his feet, Naruto angrily glared at the purple-haired battlefront leader and pointed an offending finger at her. "What was that for?! I was doing everything perfectly! They were all staring at me like idiots and I get blasted to the ceiling in exchange?!"

"Yes."

"An instant answer?!"

Baffled by Yuri's blunt statement, Naruto could only stand with his mouth agape. Not only did she blast him to the ceiling with the propulsion engine, but she didn't even deny that fact. Strangely enough, she looked like she was enjoying herself. Just what did he do wrong this time?

"More importantly, what was that all about?! That was several times more severe than what you did to the others! Wasn't that just now a successful distraction?"

"I admit that you were doing great at first; Angel did have her attention diverted towards you. Even though not all of the NPCs attention was diverted, just Angel's alone is enough."

"Then why?!"

"Why? WHY?!" Yuri stood up and walked up to the taller boy that agitated her so, "What kind of girl would stay quite when some pervert turns into a naked girl right in front of her eyes?! I don't know how you did it, but that's sexual harassment!"

"It's called Sexy Jutsu for a reason! And sexual harassment? You got a lot of nerve telling me that when you're the one who told me to strip before all this happened!"

"I didn't!"

"You did!"

At that point, Yuri was yelling straight at Naruto's face, and he at hers. The heated argument seemed like it would've continued forever, and Otonashi, not having enough energy to keep up, stepped in and separated them at arm's length.

"Hey, hey, quit it already! If you get loud again, Tachibana's going to get suspicious again! And honestly, I've already run out of lies."

Yuri immediately clammed up when she was reminded about Kanade. She almost forgot that they were in the same room. On the other hand, Naruto rolled his eyes and turned away from the two, opting to ignore Yuri's annoyed face and Otonashi's chastising. He decided to turn his attention to the rest of the group.

"Hey, you're...Ooyama, right? Thanks for the bandage, though it didn't do much."

"Eh? Ah, uh, right, you're welcome."

Hideki then piped in, but not before letting out a frustrated sigh. "But dude, that was kind of surprising. You went through all that and come up with no injury at all."

"Pfft, you think I would get injured by that kind of treatment? Please. I've went through more than enough to withstand whatever Leader-chan throws at me, regardless of how much of a sadist she can be."

"I'm not a sadist!" Yuri exclaimed, shooting the yellow-haired boy an annoyed glare. She clicked her tongue and turned her back to her subordinates, folding her arms in front of her. "Enough of that! The first test period has passed, so let's have lunch already."

"Ooh, am I invited?" Naruto asked with a lopsided grin.

"Unfortunately, yes."

"Well...assuming you didn't cook anything poisonous for me, I suppose I'll join in."

"As if I'd cook food for you, you gigantic retard! Go buy some food from the cafeteria!"

"I actually expected to get an apology meal for what you did, but I guess you've got too much tsun and less dere to do that, don't you?!"

"What kind of character do you think I am?! Just go buy food for yourself already!"

[PART 3]

Yuri had already brought food before the tests began, so that left the rest of the group to go buy some food from the cafeteria. They still had some leftover tickets from their last Operation Tornado. In Naruto's case, however, he was so broke that he didn't have enough to buy his own food.

Otonashi ended up giving the pathetic boy a food ticket.

"Eeh? It's not ramen?" Naruto whined as he was handed with the food he exchanged the ticket for. He got a dish of fried yakisoba in a take-away plate.

"Don't complain when you're eating on someone else's budget."

After each of them bought their food, they walked up to the rooftop where Yuri said to rendezvous. In this case, eating lunch at the rooftop was probably the most normal thing for high school students like them to do, but for some reason none of the NPCs were there despite how 'normal' it would be.

"There were no mistakes, right Takeyama-kun?"

As they were having lunch, Yuri saw it fit to evaluate their operation so far. The boy she was speaking to had opened his laptop as soon as he finished eating, working on something no one else but him knew about.

"It went perfectly. And please call me Chri—"

Once again, Takeyama's request was left unheard, this time because of Hideki's tired sigh. "Haaah...how much more are you going to make me fly to into the ceiling?"

"I'd like to know about that too," Naruto said in support. He sat beside the blue-haired boy while slurping his yakisoba continuously, making it look like an upstream waterfall.

Yuri's eyes moved alternately between the two as she sipped on a carton of milk she had bought. She then calmly answered, "The whole exam period."

Hearing the answer didn't calm Hideki in the slightest. With a panicked face, he suggested, "Let's change up the members for tomorrow!"

"Matsushita-kun and TK look too heavy," reasoned Yuri.

"Don't pick me just because I'm light! And even if sending me flying once or twice has impact, people are going to get bored of it eventually! 'Man, he's flying again', they won't even watch it!"

Yuri took a bite from her sandwich before responding, "That's why we'll keep doing it while adding more gimmicks each time."

"Gimmicks? There I was being creative and added some gimmicks to my own act, and I got additional rocket launches in payment." Naruto still felt sore after those impacts to the ceiling, and if that was what he would get for adding something more spontaneous to his distraction acts, he wouldn't want to do it again.

He had even forgotten about what Kurama had said about the effects of Sexy Jutsu on girls. That was something he would never forget, ever again.

"That's because your idea of gimmicks was something unacceptable. I'd bet even Angel wanted to pummel you, but she was just too much of a silent type to do that. If you ever do that again, it won't end just with multiple launches."

Yuri said that purely for the purpose of giving Naruto a scare. It seemed to work as he began to tremble and break into cold sweat.

Hideki also got nervous. After all, he had been on the receiving end of Yuri's punishment throughout the tests due to his bad acting and misfortune. If he were to do something spontaneous like Naruto did, he'd end up in the same position as he did.

"What are you planning on making us do? I'm scared! Aren't we in this together?" Hideki asked desperately.

"We are, so help me out!"

"That's why I said I'm scared of this!"

Meanwhile, Ooyama and Takamatsu was following the conversation without getting in it. At the side, Ooyama had a slightly off look that made him look like daydreaming. The boy then tilted his head slightly upwards and wondered aloud, "Will I have to confess again tomorrow, I wonder?"

It was debatable whether he actually sustained mental injury, or rather having finally placed a foot in the road of a man's growth.

For the sake of him, he should wish it was the former.

Meanwhile, Takamatsu, who had been bare-chested since the end of today's test period, was looking down on his sandwich with a blank stare. He had heard about Yuri's plan of adding gimmicks to each member's distraction acts. Personally, he could only think of one thing he might be able to do if that the time comes.

"Maybe I'll take the bottom off next," he said to himself, clenching his sandwich-filled hand tightly.

Such was the ingenious thought process of Takamatsu.

Despite how ridiculous it seemed, they were all seriously planning about their next courses of actions. The only exception to that was Otonashi, who stood a little bit away from them leaning to the railings. A can of coffee was in his hand and he was looking over the school area with a contemplative look. He wasn't actually thinking about the school itself, though. Another thing was on his mind.

'The plan is pretty much perfect. But will anything change because of this?' Otonashi's question wasn't particularly directed to anyone; he doubted even Yuri knew the answer to that. It was just that, despite how much effort they put into this operation, he couldn't see the point of doing it.

'In the end, we'll just run around causing a ruckus as usual, and then things will go back to normal, as usual.'

'It seems like a pointless thing to do,' was basically what Otonashi was thinking. At times like this, he began to wonder if all these operations had any purpose behind it, or if it even had anything to do with opposing God. The disturbance they were creating wasn't at the level that would start a large uproar throughout the Afterlife. If so, weren't they just behaving like troublemaking kids all the while?

"Hey, Otonashi, what're you doing over there? Get over here!"

Otonashi's train of thought was broken by Naruto's loud call. He turned around to see Naruto waving a sandwich to him.

"Ooyama gave me an extra sandwich! I'll give you half to repay for the yakisoba."

"When you're repaying your debt, you should give the payment as a whole, you know." Otonashi wasn't really feeling hungry, opting to bring along a can of Key Coffee for lunch, but he couldn't help but reprimand the other boy's repayment logic.

"Huh? But I want to try it too! This sandwich has something called...Godzilla cheese in it. I don't know what that is, but it sounds good."

"That's Mozzarella cheese, isn't it?! And try to decide whether you want to eat it or give it to someone else!"

Naruto's face scrunched in confusion. "Why decide when I can do both at the same time? I'll just have to eat half and give you half."

Sighing in defeat, Otonashi walked over and took half of the sandwich Naruto offered to him. It seemed to be filled with a standard pizza topping which included pepperoni laced with Mozzarella. Otonashi wasn't hungry, but he wouldn't mind taking a bite from the unusual sandwich.

"Thanks."

"No prob. At least this means we're even," Naruto said, grinning. "And speaking of getting even, Leader-chan!"

Not expecting to be called all of the sudden, Yuri's eyes quickly darted to the boy, slightly wide in surprise. "What?"

"I think it's safe to say that you owe me a big one from what you've put me through, right?"

"Ah, right. I've paid you by giving you extra flying experiences for free, if I'm not mistaken."

"That's some payment alright!" Naruto exclaimed. "I actually expected payment to come in ramen, but I'll let it slide just this once. Instead, I'll be asking a question in return. You can do that, right Leader-chan?"

"You mean answer a question?" Yuri asked with a raised eyebrow. She shrugged before saying, "Depends on what you're going to ask. If you're going to ask what English is again, I'll have to find someone who can explain it to a Neanderthal."

"...I still don't get what that is, but I'm sure it's not something nice. But whatever," Naruto said, waving off the insult. "There's something that I've been meaning to ask since the start of this operation. You said to me that, if this operation works, it'll benefit Kanade in some way. I agreed to help you because of this, but I need to know what you meant by that."

Now that the problem was out, the atmosphere shifted to a slightly tense one. It might be strange how Naruto—who anyone would think of as the epitome of joy and cheerfulness—would be the one who triggered that shift, but he also had the presence of a 'neutral party' among them. With that kind of image backing him up, he was someone to be taken seriously at the right times.

Not only that, though. In all honesty, the rest of the group also got curious after hearing Naruto's question. Otonashi especially, since he had been more or less thinking about the same thing.

Faced with the inquiring faces, Yuri was cool enough to keep her composure.

"Does it really matter? I just thought that it'll be nice to see her give a different reaction than her usual flat expression."

"That's not good enough," Naruto said while shaking his head. "If that's the only reason, then you might as well dump a bucket filled with water over her head. But no, rather than trying to set up a prank like that, you decided to mess up her tests as well. A class dead-last like me might not know what the difference is between the two, but it's different for a student council president like her, isn't it? So, tell me the truth, Leader-chan. What're you planning?"

There was one thing that Yuri realized about the enigmatic boy known as Uzumaki Naruto, who was usually an idiot in her eyes.

He can be exceptionally sharp.

Even the Battlefront members didn't see it through that deeply. For someone unaffiliated to the Battlefront, and therefore not knowing how Yuri's thought process usually was, to be able to keep up with her was unusual.

Yuri was surprised about this, herself.

However, as she didn't want to create unnecessary suspicion, she took a deep breath and calmly answered, "Alright, alright, so maybe that's not the only reason. To be honest, the reason I have us do this is because I want to see whether she would react to a non-physical attack. Things like psychology and mental pressure are also noted down as a form of attack. In this case, I want to see if messing with her psychology by messing up her tests would draw a reaction out of her."

"So it's like attacking her without actually fighting her? That's pretty clever, Yurippe." Hideki looked astounded. So far, Yuri had never had a strategy that didn't involve having them in a direct conflict against Kanade, so this kind of strategy was new to him.

Naruto was not impressed, though. If anything, his frown had deepened because of Yuri's answer.

"But it's still an attack on her all the same. I don't see the benefit of that, Leader-chan."

"Hold on a minute, you're seeing the big picture! There is a benefit if this operation works. If she actually reacts to a psychological attack like this, then the importance of fighting her physically will disappear. If that happens, then for all the operations in the future, none of it will involve attacking Angel physically. Fighting her with psychological attacks is different, but it's still a fight, so it'll be enough to keep us existing here."

The Battlefront members were convinced that their only way to keep existing in the Afterlife was to disobey the rules and keep fighting against the only rule enforcer there, which was Kanade. Their other purpose of taking down God was also reachable by this method. However, the term 'fighting' wasn't limited to a clash of guns and swords. There was also the kind of fight that was on a psychological level. If they could fight against Angel with this method, they might be able to avoid physically clashing against her altogether.

Even so, the answer Yuri provided didn't do much to impress Naruto.

"This is almost laughable, you know? You're not even considering to stop fighting her; you're just changing targets." Naruto went silent as he looked straight to Yuri's eyes, locking their gaze. A tense minute flew by as both of them sat silently while trying to see deep into each other's eyes, gauging each other's reaction.

Naruto was the first one to break out of it by sighing. He scratched the back of his head and said, "But...at least you're trying to stop hurting her, even though it's only on the physical part. I guess I can relax because of that."

Yuri let out a breath that she didn't know she was holding in. Even though it was only unconsciously, she was a bit cautious about how Naruto would react. She considered herself lucky that he didn't get violent.

"Well, that's the gist of it, at least. Some of us are just normal people who don't have strange powers like you and Angel do, so it's only natural that we try to avoid physical conflicts."

"Yeah, I suppose so." Naruto had to agree with that train of thought. He had forgotten that they were all not that different than the normal civilians back in his village. The Afterlife Battlefront was many, but aside of Shiina who seemed to be trained in the ways of ninja, most of them were just normal people. Even Noda, though he had enough arms strength to use a ridiculously large halberd, was essentially a normal person. And, like any other normal, non-ninja persons, they were quite fragile in actuality.

Unlike Naruto, people like them would only refer to conflict as a last resort.

"Sorry for sounding aggressive just now. I'm just concerned about that girl, you know? I mean, it doesn't seem like she has any ally other than the NPCs in the student council."

Yuri took in Naruto's apology, but the only sign that she accepted it was a simple nod. Surprisingly, it was Hideki who responded in a more vocal way.

"Aah, don't worry too much about it. Some of us think like that too, sometimes. I mean, take away her unnatural powers and her position as the student council president, she's not so different from a normal cute girl. It's kind of a downer that she's actually God's angel."

"...God's angel, huh?" Otonashi wondered aloud. He began to look back on his latest meeting with Kanade, back in the classroom. At that time, the way she reacted and talked was no different than a normal girl, but her features were probably something that he could call 'angelic'. After all, not all people had silver hair or golden eyes that gave an ethereal glow.

"I guess she might be an angel after all."

At that time, there was a far out look on Otonashi's face as he looked up to the clouds in wonder. He was spacing out a little, but he didn't realize that. Naruto was the only one who was interested enough to catch that look before it disappeared not a second later.

Yuri clapped her hand once as if signing the end of the conversation. "Right! With today's tests done, we're off schedule until tomorrow. You're free to do anything for the rest of the day, just don't do anything stupid like running a marathon through the new Guild."

"I doubt we're stupid enough to do something suicidal like that," Takamatsu stated while pushing up his glasses.

"Well, we can't be too sure of that." Yuri shrugged and stood up before dusting her skirt off. "You're all dismissed for the day. Me and Uzumaki will stay behind and take care of the trashes here."

"Ah, thanks Yurippe," Hideki said with a happy grin.

Meanwhile, Naruto stared at the girl with a gaping mouth, exclaiming, "Why me?!"

"Half of the stuff scattering here is yours, so you're supposed to clean it up."

"That can't be true! These plastic coverings are all from the sandwiches you and the others ate. And—OI, OTONASHI! WHY ARE YOU LEAVING YOUR COFFEE CAN HERE?! GO THROW IT ON YOUR WAY DOWN, 'TTEBAYO!"

"I'll leave it to you, Uzumaki." Otonashi had already joined the others and walked away, waving carelessly at Naruto with his back facing the boy.

"TRAITOR!"

"Oh, shut up and help me with cleaning already." Yuri gave the yellow-haired boy an annoyed glare, bending down to pick up some plastic coverings lying near her feet.

"*grumble*..."

Begrudgingly, Naruto began to pick up the trashes. It wasn't as tiring as it was boring, as being diligent on spotting a piece of trash no matter how small wasn't exactly on his shinobi criteria.

"You missed a spot," Yuri said, pointing at an abandoned pair of chopsticks near Naruto. It was the pair that Naruto used to eat his yakisoba with.

"*grumble*..."

"Stop sulking already, it's pathetic for someone your age."

"A friend of mine sulks all the time, so your order is invalid. Besides, you're not my mom. You can't order me around."

"It seems I can, seeing how you agreed to help on picking up the trash."

"...good point."

The boy sighed and continued to pick up the garbage at a snail's pace. Yuri looked at him incredulously, not believing that he could go any slower than he already did. Not that she mind, though, since she didn't expect to be done cleaning so fast anyway. Besides, that wasn't what she needed him to do in the first place.

Why did she asked him to stay behind while sending the others away, dumping all the garbage on both of them?

On other cases, she would be the one dumping garbage on other people. However, she let this one slide because she needed the other Battlefront members to be away for the while.

"What I said before was a lie."

"Eh?" Naruto perked up when he heard Yuri's sudden statement. "What is?"

"The part where I said that this operation is a try-out psychological attack on Angel; that was a lie."

Naruto curiously raised an eyebrow at her. "What...do you mean?"

"The reason behind this operation wasn't to attack Angel psychologically." Yuri shrugged her shoulders and looked to the side, avoiding Naruto's inquiring look. "Well, it's half of the truth, actually. This was some sort of attack on Angel's psychology, but it wasn't purely for the purpose of attacking her."

"Then what are you really aiming for? And why are you saying this now, not before when I asked you about it?"

Yuri finally looked back at Naruto.

Naruto caught her gaze, expecting her to glare at him, but in those sea-foam green eyes of hers he could only see uneasiness.

"What I'm about to tell you is not something the others should hear about. Well, not yet, anyway." Yuri folded her arms in front of her chest and gave Naruto a serious look. "I know this must be unreasonable, but I want you to keep a secret. Can I trust you?"

Being asked like that, Naruto couldn't help but blink in a moment of confusion. He was quick to respond, however, seeing Yuri's impatient stare.

"O-Okay, I guess... Just what is this secret you want to talk about?"

He was answered with silence for a moment. It seemed Yuri wasn't entirely sure that he could keep whatever she was going to say a secret. Of course, that didn't sit well with Naruto, so he tried to assure her.

"Hey, I trusted you with the problem about Kanade, didn't I? The least you can do is trust me in return."

That wasn't the most assuring line, but it was the fact.

To be frank, Yuri actually found that fact convincing enough for her to finally let up. She then opened her mouth to speak, "I suppose so. This actually involves Angel as well, so I thought you should know. However, I can't let the others know since I figure it'll affect how they usually work, and I can't have that changing yet."

"It's something that the Afterlife Battlefront shouldn't know yet or else they'll behave differently? Is there a fight in your group?"

Yuri shook her head. "No, there isn't. Like I said, this is something that involves Angel, not the Battlefront."

"Then...what is it, really?"

Yuri gripped her elbows tightly with each hand as she once again looked to the side. Whatever this secret was, Naruto concluded that it was something troubling enough that it would make the feared battlefront leader look...fearful? It did seem like it, judging by how she kept postponing before talking.

A moment later, she spoke again.

"I have a sneaking suspicion...that Angel is human."

-End of Chapter 6-

---

[A/N] January 2nd, 2014

I think I'm losing my touch. And my creativity, since that is probably the second time I said that.

This is probably the chapter that I took so much time to write on so far. And I know I've said this before, but I am a very slow writer. I think I may even be bordering on the lazy part...

This mammoth chapter was my effort in dramatizing episode 5 of the Angel Beats! series. Adding Naruto to this was fun, especially having him contributing in the distraction act with his own style of distraction. I had been thinking about what to have him do for some time actually, and I laughed to myself when I came up with the Sexy Jutsu.

Naruto: Psycho...

Me: Well, I am an author who writes down a non-existing conversation with a fictional character.

Oh, and did anyone noticed that I've divided this chapter into parts? I was inspired by how the light novels in Baka-Tsuki was written. Each of the chapter's contents were divided into Part 1, Part 2, etc., and I think I ought to try that. It might help a lot for readers to read it, since it helped me when I'm reading it that way too.

Anyhow, I'm deeply sorry for not updating sooner. It's not that I'm expecting many readers to wait for me, but in case there is, I'm happy to say that I'll be willing to do a Japanese-style bow to apologize to all of you out there.

Also, I'm sorry for ending this chapter on a completely different note than last chapter's [Next Chapter] preview. I intended to do it until the end of the canon's episode 5, but ended up not being able to. I suppose I'll edit that part for now.

This time, I'm adding the [Glossary] section, as I haven't been able to the first time I posted this chapter.

[Glossary]

*1. As mentioned in the anime series, Kanade's given name means "to play". Otonashi affiliated that name with the action of "playing music".

And now it is...

Trivia Time!

1. In regards to the Jiraiya-styled self-introduction that Naruto did, I tried giving him a slightly arrogant dispositon. It seems, however, I ended up making him look like a kid with an eighth-grader's syndrome. Cookies for those who thought he acted similar to Dark Flame Master.

2. The part where Yuri decided to tell Naruto about her suspicion was an extra detail that I thought I'd put in for the plot. In the canon, it was very unlikely that she would tell the others about how she thought Kanade was a human being. I think her telling Naruto came off as natural, given how much they've interacted recently.

Okay, then, this chapter is officially finished, although not entirely as I expected. I'll see you in the next chapter, update pending until further notice :p

[Next Chapter]

"So the principal called you, too?"

"A 4-koma comic strip, Uzumaki-kun?"

"This is the last song Iwasawa left behind."

'I even stole that simplest of joys...'

"I'm ready to make an enemy out of all of you bastards!"