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}

9. Chapter 8: The Strong and the Weak

[A/N]: (started at July 3rd 2014)

…I am lower than a worm.

Let me start off by saying: I'M SO TERRIBLY SORRY! How long has it been, a year? The starting date looks like last year…oh, shit, I probably should've put a hiatus sign on this story. I can't describe how sorry I am for this unsightly late update.

S-Shall I do the Kousaka-style bow to beg for forgiveness?

*Ahem* Anyway, deep apologies. It has been the most annoying and inconvenient writer's block to date, and honestly, I don't know if I can still call myself an author in spite of this…even I get annoyed if pizza delivery gets to my house 10 minutes late.

I think an apology is due, so will you accept an apology in the form of an updated chapter?

Fortunately enough, this chapter is a personal favorite of mine. In regards to Naoi-teme's massacre in the canon episode 6, I'm motivated enough to introduce him to the world of OP characters! *cough*a Jinchūriki*cough*

Also! I've foolishly forgotten about a single, small detail. In the last chapter, Kanade wasn't supposed to understand that Mapo Tofu is her favorite food despite her saying so! I messed it up a little in the previous chapter when she and Naruto were summoned by the principal. Aaaargh...I'll have to do something about this.

I think I'll go back and fix some details. Might make Naruto find out that Mapo Tofu is Kanade's favorite food rather than her telling him exactly that. Not that it would affect the story much, but I hope to be consistent to the story. Not that I have a good chance for that, though.

. . .

Well, that's enough from me. We'll move to the guest review reply for a moment:

Guest Review Reply!

Viscount: I realize that there are many readers shipping Naruto with Kanade with how I made their interaction to be. Truth to be told, I would've paired them up myself if Otonashi wasn't already the perfect match for her. That, and I notice Yuri was being a little lonely, so I thought why not? It's a shame I didn't plan this out as a harem fic...though Hisako, Sekine, Irie, Yusa, and Shiina are still free...
*grin*

Let's start out the story then.

[Disclaimer]: I'm not the owner of [NARUTO] and [Angel Beats!]. *sighs depressingly*

[Extra Note]: Concerning TK's English-speaking behavior, I decided to finalize my decision and give each of his English speech a slash (/) as extra quotation.

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Chapter 8

The Thin Line Between Strong and Weak

Soundtrack Listing: (Sawano Hiroyuki feat. Kobayashi Mika - Bios)

---

[PART 1]

It was morning.

Though, that was simply an assumption. With how the reflection room was designed, it was impossible to correctly deduce the time of day. There really were no windows whatsoever; the only thing connecting the room to the outside being a thick metal door which looked more like a prison door.

It was inside that kind of room the Afterlife Battlefront was kept in.

After what happened the other night, the student council had stuffed them all in empty rooms which were located at the basement level of the school building. There were enough rooms to contain all of the Battlefront members, and it seemed none were spared.

The main members were placed in Reflection Room 1.

Being the first to wake up, Otonashi looked around to check that, yes, what happened last night wasn't just a dream.

Around him were his comrades in the Afterlife Battlefront, sprawled on the ground in their sleeping position. The guys had no shame in displaying how they usually sleep at night, so it was relieving to see Yuri's reserved sleeping manner. He couldn't see Shiina anywhere, but being a ninja, she could probably hide her presence even while sleeping.

He didn't include Yui because she, too, was sleeping without shame. Or rather, the amount of panty shots one could take when they saw her sleeping with her legs spread on the ground like that was mortifying.

"...I wonder when we're getting out of here."

He said that while looking around once more to confirm another presence.

He saw a yellow-haired boy dozing off in the corner of the room, sitting cross-legged with his arms folded.

Because Naruto had also been there when the student council rounded them up, he had also gotten tangled along. Surprisingly enough, he went along without trying anything destructive, though he did give Naoi a frightening death glare.

There was a particularly heavy atmosphere when they first entered the room. Most of it was caused by Naruto's presence. Fortunately, no fight broke out like what Otonashi imagined, and Naruto only glared at Fujimaki once before saying aloud that he was going to sleep.

He wondered how Naruto was feeling throughout the night.

"Hmh...? *Yaaawwn*" Naruto suddenly woke up. He scratched the back of his head while looking around, saying, "What, we're still here? Where's my ramen?"

"Is that really the first thing that crosses your mind?" Otonashi rebuked in disbelief.

"Hmm? Oh, Otonashi. Mornin'."

"A-ah, morning. I'm not really sure if it's really morning, though..."

"It is. There's no way my body clock got it wrong."

Just as Otonashi was beginning to wonder how exact Naruto's body clock was, a loud clanging noise was heard from the metal door. Turning to look at it, the two boys watched as the metal door that entrapped them finally opened. On the other side were two nameless NPC members of the student council. None of them said anything, but it was a clear signal for them to come outside.

The loud noise woke the room's tenants. They all began to wake up ever so slowly.

"Heh. Well, that's my cue." Seeing this, Naruto stood up and walked out of the room. "Geez...to think I still have my cleaning duties after this. Really, Shikamaru would've complained how troublesome this will be."

After saying something that Otonashi didn't completely understand, he waved a hand at the confused boy as he passed by the door.

"I'll be going ahead then, Otonashi."

"...Sure."

Although his leave was abrupt, Otonashi could understand why Naruto was in such a hurry. After all, if the rest of the Battlefront saw him again after waking up, the tension would undoubtedly rise again. Things would probably be awkward for them after last night. In a way, leaving ahead of them was Naruto's only option.

"Otonashi-kun?"

Hearing his name called, Otonashi snapped out of his trance and tilted his head back, seeing Yuri rubbing her eyes as she stirred from her sleep. Her eyes drifted left and right as if she was looking for something before she focused back on the red-haired boy she just called.

"Where's Uzumaki?"

"He left just now."

"Hmm...is that so."

Otonashi raised his eyebrow and asked, "Do you need something from him?"

"It's nothing. More importantly, we should get out now."

Giving the purple-haired girl another curious look, Otonashi complied and stood up himself. The others followed a moment later, and together they exited the room in a single file.

Yuri stretched her arms up and let out a groan. Her stiff shoulders had been bothering her ever since she woke up, and relieving herself of that feeling had never felt so good.

"Aah, they finally let us out..." said a tired-sound Fujimaki. "My neck hurts after sleeping on that hard floor for so long."

Being one of the few who opted to sleep while leaning on the wall, Otonashi was spared from that uncomfortable feeling of muscle cramps. Though, he had to admit, sleeping that long while sitting like that affected his tail bone in a way. He wasn't sure if he'd be sitting comfortably anytime soon.

TK, however, was energetic as always as he twirled around in his haphazard dance moves. /"Just wild heaven"/ the tall boy proceeded to say.

"Weren't we supposed to have the advantage now that we've taken down Angel?" Takamatsu wondered aloud while flexing his stiff muscles.

"...Why are you topless?" asked a clueless Ōyama.

In spite of that, no one else seemed to take notice of Takamatsu's state of undress. It was almost like they had already gotten used to it, and that was scary in its own way.

The reflection rooms were surprisingly quite far away from the Battlefront's base of operations, the principal's office. To return there, they had to walk through a passageway under the first contact bridge. The morning sunshine gave them pleasant warmth as they walked, as if returning back the heat they lost after sleeping on the reflection room's cold floor.

Still, that didn't make their mood any better than before.

"What the hell's with those guys?" Hideki said as he groaned in annoyance.

Noda responded while sharing the same sentiment, "Next time they come, we'll pay them back the way we do to Angel!"

"They're just ordinary students, so we can't." Yuri immediately rejected.

The Afterlife Battlefront held true to one policy whilst rebelling against God. That policy was 'to never hurt the ordinary students', i.e. the NPCs. Despite their coercive nature towards Kanade, the ordinary students were the only ones they wouldn't lay a hand on. That policy of theirs prevented them from putting up a fight when the student council members, comprised wholly of NPC students, arrested them.

"...Though it's pretty weird," added Yuri as an afterthought.

"What is?" asked Noda.

"The ordinary students have never sent us to the reflection room before."

Immediately, the Battlefront members realized what Yuri meant.

"You mean Angel was keeping them in check?" Hideki suggested.

"Maybe," Yuri said vaguely. "NPC's actions are generally supposed to be models for how we should act, but their personality is limited to that of the most basic emotions. No matter how weird someone acts, they're supposed to think it's normal."

"So basically, you're saying this shows that they can go further than that?"

"That would seem to be how the acting student council president is reacting," Takamatsu said while having the same thought.

"He's more bothersome than Angel. At least she has never turned the table on us."

Hideki believed that everyone agreed with him on this. Facing Naoi as the student council president would be much harder than when they did against Kanade. He wasn't as strong as her in terms of power—with him being an ordinary student and all—but his influence was much greater. To prove it, he could mobilize the whole student council members to confront them, whilst Kanade always did it by herself.

That actually posed a greater problem than going against a target they can fight directly.

As said before, the Battlefront would never hurt the ordinary students.

Knowing that, Matsushita brought up the ultimate question. "What should we do, Yurippe?"

"Let's take him down with sex appeal!"

To note, that answer didn't come from Yuri. It was the pink-haired Yui who answered that serious question with an unexpectedly crude answer. Surprised by the indecency, Yuri had to give her a weird look.

"Exactly what part of you is sexually appealing?" Hideki asked with a disbelieving tone.

"What was that?! Have you ever seen it before?!"

"I can tell just from your shirt."

Annoyed by Hideki's underestimating comment that slighted her woman's pride, Yui cupped her modest breasts as if pronouncing their size.

"You think it's the same as touching them, huh?! Their absolutely exquisite form!?"

"How the hell should I know?!"

No matter how it was seen, that was one unlikely way a girl would defend the pride her sex appeal gave her. In other cases which they do grow violent, they wouldn't go as far as fondling their own breasts in front of the guy who looked down at them.

"This is so stupid," so said Shiina.

o-x-o-x-o

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

Things subsequently calmed down as they reached their base of operation, the principal's room. Even so, Matsushita's earlier question remained unanswered, as none of them knew exactly what they had to do.

Even though everything had settled down for now, Yuri couldn't shake her unease. Although she was sitting with her legs propped up on the principal's desk ever so casually, her finger was tapping the armrest of her comfy chair anxiously.

"So, how should we proceed from here?" Takamatsu reaffirmed the question.

"Time to decide, huh?" Hideki commented offhandedly.

The incessant finger-tapping Yuri did gradually came to a stop. No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn't find an immediate solution. It was natural, with Naoi's appearance and all. The acting student council president was a new enemy; even though he was just an NPC, that in itself was a problem. Furthermore, they didn't have any prior knowledge about him, so fighting him directly would be like trying to hit a piñata with a blindfold.

"We'll experiment a little," Yuri finally declared. "For now, attend classes and do whatever you want during them. Just try not to get in the way of the ordinary students."

In the end, that was the best course of action they could choose.

"That's all. Dismissed."

Saying that, Yuri then got off her chair and started to rummage through the drawer under the principal's desk. Thinking nothing of it, Otonashi started to join the others as they went out of the office. He didn't make it far before Yuri suddenly called out to him.

"Alright. Otonashi-kun."

Turning around, Otonashi glanced at his leader and saw her holding out some kind of walkie-talkie to him.

"I want you to take this with you."

"Isn't that a pretty valuable equipment? Why are you giving it to me?" he asked hesitantly.

"Just take it."

Yuri's blank expression didn't change as she blinked. It seemed she was really adamant about this, so Otonashi accepted it without saying anything.

"Oh, and also, please give this one to Uzumaki if you run into him." Yuri suddenly added while handing out another walkie-talkie to Otonashi.

"I'm not sure if I'll find him just anywhere after this..."

"Don't worry. Even though he's an idiot, attending classes is something he does from time to time. Even if he isn't, he wouldn't be far away from the school area."

Otonashi didn't understand why he had to do this kind of errand, but had no complaints either. He ended up taking both walkie-talkies and stuffed them into his pockets. He turned and left the office after that, leaving Yuri behind with her occupying thoughts.

'Angel won't get in the way anymore. Last night was proof of that.'

With the absence of the former student council president, the Battlefront should've been able to attain a good amount of freedom.

No, to be exact, as Kanade was supposed to be their only enemy, her being uninvolved had eliminated all further oppositions...or it supposed to, at least.

'Now the problem is the acting student council president. What will he do if we screw around with the school?'

Naoi's actions would be hard to predict with the lack of knowledge about him. But even if her opponent had changed, her goal stayed the same.

Her current enemy was a complete unknown.

Even so, Yuri was determined to take him down.

o-x-o-x-o

Anybody would consider eating during class as a luxury that only a delinquent or an ojou-sama type of a student could have.

...What, you wouldn't?

In any case, it's clearly the kind of luxury normal students didn't have.

Ōyama was no different.

Even as he reached into his bag of potato chips from behind his raised book, his hands were shaking like crazy.

'I'm so nervous...' he thought as cold sweat rolled down the sides of his face. 'Eating snacks in the middle of class is just...!'

In case it wasn't obvious enough, it should be known that Ōyama wasn't a delinquent type, nor was he a conceited descendant of any royalty who likes to do things on a whim. To be frank, he might actually be a 'Goody-Two-Shoes' type, judging by how he thought eating snacks in the middle of class was enough to portray a troublemaking student.

Nevertheless, Ōyama opened his mouth and ate a piece of potato chip whole.

'I ate one! I just ate one! I never thought I'd eat snacks in class like I always wanted to!' he thought giddily.

...That train of thought actually cemented his image as a 'Goody-Two-Shoes'.

Still, the fact that he was putting in some effort in being a troublemaking student was amazing by itself. However, almost like scoffing at Ōyama's effort, none of the common students had turned their attention to him – including the former student council president Kanade who was focused on her book. It seems that eating snacks during class was somewhat normal in their eyes.

...That is to say that the four students playing mahjong at the back of the class (Fujimaki, Hisako, TK, Matsushita 5th Dan), the bare-chested student who was diligently doing push-ups as if PE was in session (Takamatsu), the halberd-wielding delinquent carelessly sleeping on another student's table (Noda), the noisy pink-haired girl who kept going to the toilet (Yui), and the scarf-wearing female student who was balancing a broom, a scissor and a ruler simultaneously on her fingers (Shiina), were somehow passed off as tolerable.

Out of the odd group displaying a variety of disturbances, only Otonashi and Hideki acted relatively normal.

Their battlefront leader did say that they are free to do what they want, but Otonashi didn't feel like doing anything out of the norm. Thankfully, Hideki had the same train of thought.

While Hideki was complaining about Yui's idiotic toilet act, Otonashi's eyes lazily drifted to the windows' direction.

'It sure is a calm day...somewhat,' Otonashi thought; adding in an afterthought that it was barely calm at all. In comparison to the usual days of ridiculous chaos, though, this was indeed calmer.

"Hm? What's with that far-out look, Otonashi?"

"No, it's nothing. More importantly, is doing nothing like this okay? The others are going out of their way to act like that – it kinda makes me feel bad."

"It's pretty much okay. Yurippe did say we're free to do anything, so doing nothing is also included. And don't worry about the others; this is normal for them. How do you think Hisako is beating the other guys in mahjong?"

Because he didn't know Hisako all that much, Otonashi initially thought that her focus was on music, much like Iwasawa. Apparently though, Hisako also had some experience in gambling under her sleeves, if her continuous win against the three other guys had anything to say about it.

Hideki sighed aloud.

"What's with the sigh?" Otonashi asked.

"No, it's just that...to think that we're reduced to doing mundane things after the new student council president got into place – we're really in a pathetic state."

"It can't be helped. With this kind of sudden change, we don't even know what we should do. I bet even Yuri is confused."

"Heh, yeah, that would be a first."

Hideki was frustrated by their inability to do anything. Even so, Otonashi couldn't help but see it as a form of blessing. Personally, he needed something ordinary to balance out the crazy things the Battlefront did on a daily basis.

Even if that normality involved counting how many times Yui had gone to the toilet...

Though it involved counting how many times Yui had gone to the toilet...

Unfortunately, it involved counting how many times Yui had gone to the toilet.

"Sensei, toilet!" exclaimed the aforementioned girl.

The teacher had an almost fed-up look after Yui's repetitive exclamations, so he grunted while saying, "Yes, get going already."

"How many times does that make?" Otonashi asked quietly.

"Are you seriously counting it?" Hideki asked back with a face of disbelief. He sighed before replying, "Forget it. An idiot like that would repeat that stunt no matter how classic it may be."

As Yui opened the classroom door for the umpteenth time, something that broke her continuous streak finally appeared.

A figure wearing a black student cap glowered at her with menacing yellow eyes.

It was the acting student council president, Naoi Ayato, along with some NPC members of the student council.

"HIIEE?!" exclaimed Yui in shock.

"That's enough, all of you."

Naoi's asserting voice was loud enough to carry out throughout the whole classroom, alerting the Battlefront members of his presence – though Noda remained uncaring and continued sleeping.

"Oh, here he comes. The great Naoi Ayato-sama," Hideki whispered mockingly to Otonashi.

There was a moment of shell-shocked silence that filled the classroom. No one knew the recently appointed student council president would appear so suddenly in front of them. Though, in their defense, this had not happened to them before. After all, Naoi was the first student council president who took matters into his own hands.

Following that moment of silence was a rush of adrenaline-induced escape.

"I-I need the toilet!"

Yui charged past Naoi and the other student council members, pushing them aside like a professional American Football athlete. At the same time, the four idiots playing mahjong at the back of the class swiftly packed up their game pieces and board.

"Let's beat it!" Pushed by his adrenaline, Fujimaki chose an open window as his escape route and jumped through it.

Probably compelled to do the same, Hisako, Matsushita 5th Dan and TK did the same and jumped through it like a parkour artist. TK turned around just before going out and gave a lazy salute.

"/I'll be back./"

—Said like a true badass. Arnold Schwarzenegger would be proud.

The vigorously-exercising Takamatsu as well as Shiina who had been balancing a ruler, a scissor, a pen and a broom on one hand had suddenly disappeared. And though Shiina's unseen escape could be attributed to her ninja skills, Takamatsu's escape route was quite a mystery, though he left behind a wet towel in his stead.

All the while, Ōyama focused more on hiding his bag of potato chips that no one even noticed.

Despite the great disturbance created by the Battlefront's rushed exit, Noda still slept without a care. Noticing the purple-haired delinquent's uncaring act, Naoi approached the table, on which Noda was sleeping, and proceeded to question him.

"What are you doing?"

Even at such close proximity, Noda's didn't seem to hear anything. Or he might've, but his unchanging breathing pattern suggested otherwise.

Noticing this, Naoi took a deep breath to calm himself.

"It seems you can't hear me," said Naoi before continuing, "Fine, then. Take him to the reflection room."

As ordered, the two student council members who followed him went to grab Noda, but just before they did...

"UHAGH!"

One of them got a palm hit to the stomach while the other was kicked away as Noda rose to his feet, still on the table. The halberd he was so notorious for was in his hands and pointed out to the one disturbing his sleep.

"What the hell do you want me to reflect on?!"

"Kyaaah!"

"Huh?"

Somehow, Noda mistook a common female student for a student council member in his drowsiness, scaring her half to death with the pointy edge of his halberd. It took quite some time for him to realize that.

Naoi, meanwhile, was clearly standing behind him.

"You were blatantly sleeping in the middle of class, and then you threatened an innocent student. You've got some nerve asking for such an obvious answer. Quite commendable, in a way."

A mocking smile was plastered on Naoi's face, which riled Noda even more.

"The hell did you say?!"

Turning around, Noda was ready to cleave the student council president's head off along with that annoying smile.

But before he could, Otonashi and Hideki carried him off while running out of the classroom.

"Aaargh?! Are you running away?! I'm right here! Come at me!"

"Shut your trap already! That student council president is already spewing off death glares that can kill you with a look!"

"...Well, not that it really matters if it can really kill, at least not in this world."

Being mindful of the fact that, yes, the student council president was already pissed off as it is and, yes, Noda was the type of idiot that would only make matters worse, Otonashi and Hideki broke their agreement on doing absolutely nothing and took off while carrying the shouting barbarian on their shoulders.

Naoi was left with a sour look on his face. That is, until a sudden screech of the intercom filled in the silence that the Battlefront members had left.

"Ahem. Aahh, testing, testing...is this thing on? Oh well, I guess it is."

The intercom system was connected to two places in the school area. One was the principal's room which had been converted into the Afterlife Battlefront's Anti-Angel Headquarters, and one was a specialized broadcasting room usually used by school staffs or the radio club.

As far as Naoi knew, the principal's room had been off-limits for some reason, and the principal had moved out ever since. That meant the only other place anyone could use the intercom from was the broadcasting room.

But whoever was using it was not the principal or any of the school staff.

Though the tone was unsure, the voice was a familiar one.

"This voice..." Naoi thought aloud.

The speaker's tone over the intercom then changed as he continued.

"Ahem. Greetings, fellow students of Afterlife High. I'm here on behalf of...well, I'm here on behalf of myself, actually. Honestly, I wanted to advertise my delivery service once more, but I know no one would care. It's not like any of you employ my delivery service anymore, though...*sniff*. Anyway, I speak here today to bring you some good news and bad news. And since I'm such a good guy, I'll start with the bad news, 'ttebayo!"

There haven't many things that stuck to Naoi's mind much like the catchphrase that orange-loving delinquent used.

Frowning, Naoi made a gesture to the two student council members he brought with him.

"Go to the broadcasting room and arrest whoever is behind this."

"Yes, sir!" Both of the NPCs answered affirmatively before speed-walking towards the intercom room.

Meanwhile, Naoi intended to pay a visit to the classroom where that yellow-haired troublemaker said he belonged in. He needed some proof that the culprit behind this prank was really who he had in mind, though the voice speaking through the speaker was undoubtedly that person's voice.

He arrived at the doors of Class [3-C] and abruptly opened it, surprising the students inside. Like in the other classroom, the speaker was still going on with the broadcast.

"The bad news is, as you all have noticed, is that our current student council president is a condescending prick who has no qualms about interrupting someone's dinner over curfew. Sleep is important, I know, but I can't sleep with an empty stomach now can I, Naoi A-yarou*?!"

The angry tone built up and reached its peak when the speaker spoke Naoi's cleverly-twisted name. And even though Naoi felt more than a bit miffed, his self control was better than most, so he didn't let his annoyance show. He was more interested in clarifying that the person he believed was speaking through the intercom was indeed 'that troublemaker'.

"And the good news is, new decorations have been added to the student council room and now it looks like Care Bears have raided the goddamn place~!"

"NOT AGAIN!"

From how they yelled out in defeat, it looks like both the rest of the class had agreed with Naoi on one thing.

It was definitely 'that troublemaker'.

Scanning the class, he saw most of the common students having a disbelieving expression on their faces. Some were staring back and forth between the intercom speaker and the back of the class for some reason.

"Oi, oi, is this for real?"

"That voice can't be anyone but his, right? And to begin with, who else would do paint jobs for this school on a daily occasion?"

"Yeah, but..."

Naoi caught several murmurs thrown about between the students who didn't even pay attention to him entering the class. Out of curiosity, the moss-haired boy followed the students' gazes and found himself staring at...

"...What?"

He couldn't believe his eyes.

He had believed that the one broadcasting from the intercom room was that brash transfer student called Uzumaki Naruto.

And yet, that same person was currently sitting on his chair with a smug look of victory.

"Oh, if it isn't the student council president. What's up? You don't look so...peachy."

"What the hell is the meaning of this?" Naoi snarled at the smirking blonde.

"What do you mean? Is me attending class really that strange? I may be a delinquent, but I'm a diligent delinqu—"

"You were supposed to be in the broadcasting room."

"Why? There's already some other guy in there messing up with the broadcasts, so I'll pass. Besides, today's Japanese History, and studying about the Battle of Aokigahara is more interesting than messing around with you."

Admittedly, Naruto's interest in Japanese History was greater than his interest in playing pranks, as strange as it sounded; probably because it was similar to reading a story, and he loved stories. Then again, it might simply because it was a subject that didn't require him to calculate the square root of a three-digit number.

"And by the way..." Naruto continued, closing one eye and grinning, "Class is in session, Mr. Student Council President. Would you care not to interrupt, 'ttebayo?"

Naoi flinched at the question.

Checkmate.

The overbearing, unpredictable prankster had just driven him into a corner.

Noticing how he, like Naruto had said, was acting so unbefitting of a student council president – interrupting class and all – Naoi finally turned away and silently walked out of the class, all the while gritting his teeth to prevent cursing out loud.

Meanwhile, the victorious Number One Most Unpredictable Ninja of the Hidden Leaf grinned wide enough to make him close his eyes.

"And now we're even, you moss-haired bastard," he muttered under his breath.

"Um...Uzumaki-san?" called out an NPC female student who sat near him.

"Yeah?"

"Uh...you weren't actually in the intercom room, were you? I mean, sure it sounded a lot like you, but it's not like you were in two places at the same time, right?"

"What're you talking about? Of course not," Naruto answered with a raised eyebrow. He then went on to say, "The broadcasting room, here in Class [3-C], and the one in the student council room giving new paint jobs...doesn't that make it three instead of two?"

o-x-o-x-o

[Frederica's Realm]

"He's a much more amusing toy than I thought."

Frederica's gaze sharpened behind her white teacup at the remark the blonde witch had just made.

"Does that really surprise you? And don't refer to him as if he's your plaything."

Lambdadelta laughed mockingly at the annoyed look Frederica gave her. It was as if she truly believed that the Saint couldn't hurt her even if she tried. The way she slowly drank her tea served to prove that suggestion.

Though, honestly, Frederica wouldn't be able to do anything at all. She knew that, should she clash with Lambdadelta once again in a magic-induced battle, a larger shift in reality would be created. Lambdadelta would – without a shred of doubt – use that shift to apply even more discrepancies to the Afterlife using her 'Certainty' magic. Thus, fighting her directly would be too unwise.

This could happen because, unfortunately, her base magic was a complete opposite of Lambdadelta's. It didn't change even after her ascension to a Saint.

That was the reason why they settled with the 'Truth system', where the game doesn't involve clashing certainty and miracles together.

Even then, this game has its limitations. One was that the participants were only able to attack each other using the 'Truth system'. The other limitation was that the participants would need a certain condition to occur on their game board – in which case happened to be the Afterlife – and to their playing subjects before they could actually play the game.

For example, Lambdadelta couldn't just say "[Blue] Naruto is an idiot. [Blue]" whenever she wanted, or else she would be right all the time and it wouldn't be a valid move. Stating that kind of factual truth as a single statement wouldn't be registered as an attack.

However, if she were to incorporate a 'set reason' which corresponded to their current game board for her statement, it would count as a 'blue truth' and give her a chance to attack Frederica. For example, if she turned her statement to "[Blue] Being an idiot, Naruto will fail his written test. [Blue]" then it would be a valid move.

Fortunately enough, Lambdadelta didn't know just how much of an idiot Naruto was and hadn't used that move.

Of course, that powerful attack can be canceled if Frederica were to use the 'red truth'. With the 'red truth' having a very simple system, which was that it would cancel a 'blue truth' so long as it could prove that truth wrong, Frederica had the ultimate shield.

It was a bit different from their last board, Rokkenjima, where the condition needed was the mysterious death of an individual. In their current board, the Afterlife, both Frederica and Lambdadelta needed a condition where they could try and predict Naruto's course of action. And since that condition hadn't occurred yet, they had called a temporary truce.

That was the reason why they agreed on a somewhat-friendly tea time to wait until their next round.

"Unfortunately, I can't really see him as anything else~. You're partly at fault too, Bern, for doing something as interesting as this. When was the last time you took a human into your hands?"

"I've done that numerous times as a Saint."

"Perhaps, but certainly you didn't get as involved to them as you do with this Uzumaki Naruto, right? I mean, using a single human boy as the center of which the whole game revolves around? The way you used something so miniscule for this kind of game is not fun at all, considering the limitations it puts on our number of moves."

"If you have any problem with that, you're free to forfeit." Frederica said calmly. "In fact, you brought this on yourself, Lambda. You were the one who got him involved in our fight in the first place."

"Ah ha ha ha~! Well, normally, you wouldn't have cared if a shift in reality would be created so long as you killed me, so I simply followed my gut when I did that. Besides, isn't that part of your job as a Saint? I am a Voyager witch, one of the anomalies of the universe, so you'd have to kill me, your best friend, to maintain the balance no matter what, right?"

Frederica closed her eyes as she refilled her cup of tea. "Trying to appeal to my sense of guilt is quite the underhanded move. Not so much of an effective one, though."

It would be quite hard to feel guilty about killing a mad witch with the tendency to create havoc in multiple planes of reality. Lunacy was a true trait to all witches; Lambdadelta undoubtedly included. Unfortunately, for all her lunacy, she was sane enough to know what she was doing. She was crazy enough to abuse her powers as a witch out of mere boredom, yet she had enough sanity to properly carry it out.

That was what made her extremely dangerous.

Frederica understood that, considering she was not all that different some time ago.

But speaking of guilt, she would feel even guiltier if she let Lambdadelta do as she pleased and toy with the humans of the Afterlife. And the thing about Voyager witches was that they couldn't actually be 'killed' since they would simply reappear several years afterwards, so there really wasn't any guilt felt in 'killing' them. Their existence was elusive like that.

Lambdadelta audibly snorted. "Well, like me, you were a fellow witch in the past, so I doubt you still have any sense of guilt left whatsoever. In which case, you were probably worse than I was, with how often you used humans as pawns~. Might I remind you that this is not the first time you decide to make someone your pawn in this game of ours?"

As she was saying this, Lambdadelta was implicitly talking about their last game that took place in that deserted island called Rokkenjima.

Frederica turned her face away, "...That was a mistake birthed from the stupidity of my past self. It's currently irrelevant."

"It's very relevant! It's very easy for me to get bored, so you'll have to entertain me more. The last entertainment you brought me was that Ushiromiya boy. And now that he's become something potentially stronger than the both of us, he's not very fun anymore."

"You say that, but you were the one who gave him his wizard title in the first place."

"Yeah, and I kind of regret it now. He was so interesting when he was just a pawn~..."

A sigh escaped Frederica's lips. She had known Lambdadelta for a long time, so her undying urge for amusement was nothing new to her. If she were to be honest, she was like that too before her ascension to a Saint.

"Say, Lambda..."

"Hm?"

"Have you ever thought about leaving your position as a witch?"

Lambda's eyebrows rose by a fraction, and then she laughed aloud.

"A ha ha ha ha ha! What's with that question? Bern, have you really gone senile?" she asked as she held her stomach in subtle pain. "Why would I ever want to do that? In the first place, my greatest joy was when I first became a witch! I'm sure nothing would be interesting anymore once I step off from my spot as the Witch of Certainty."

"I see," Frederica responded calmly. "I suppose that's natural. The strong wouldn't want to become weak for no reason at all."

"O ho~? Is that what you had in mind when you ascended to a Saint?"

"Not at all," Frederica said as she poured herself another cup of tea. "I became a Saint simply because a calling from a higher power, so I have no personal thoughts about it. But...lately, I've been reminded about how marvelous it is to be human, no matter how weak they may be. Looking at Naruto, I can't help but be reminded of that."

"Ah, that's right. I almost forgot," Lambdadelta let out in realization. "Even a Saint such as you was once human too, huh?"

"Were you not?"

"Hah! I try not to remember the times when I'm such a weak existence."

Frederica had known Lambdadelta for a long time.

But their respective pasts as a human remained unknown to each other. Frederica didn't know about Lambdadelta's past before she became a witch, and neither did Lambdadelta hers. Deep down, the blue-haired Saint was a bit curious about what upbringing her crazy witch friend had gone through, but Lambdadelta always seemed to despise her memories of being human.

Again, Frederica sighed.

"That's understandable, I suppose. More importantly..."

"Hm?"

The blonde witch cast a gaze at the Saint, a jovial smile on her child-like face.

Probably infected by the unwavering behavior of her opponent, Frederica dared a fearless smirk of her own.

"...It looks like the setting for our next battle is lining up, isn't it, Lambda?"

o-x-o-x-o

[PART 2]

[Main Dining Hall (3rd Floor) – Rear]

Several days had passed since the Battlefront started their 'normal' life. Note that the term was used loosely because playing mahjong while in class wasn't exactly 'normal', but it was less insane than their usual operations.

They had been gauging Naoi Ayato's behavior as the current student council president.

Although this should've been easy since he wasn't as emotionless as Kanade, it turned out that he was just as – if not more – unpredictable. His power over the student council was enough to thwart any of the Battlefront's movements, and it seemed like he knew what he was doing.

He almost seemed too aggressive for a simple NPC. Even if there was a chance that this was hidden plan by Kanade, that silver-haired girl would never incorporate ordinary students into their fight. The planning style just didn't match.

That was Yuri's initial thought. And that thought gave birth to suspicion.

What if Naoi wasn't just a normal NPC? What if, like Kanade, he held a particular power that gave him reign over the Afterlife?

If that was really the case, then their current enemy was no simple opponent to beat.

That was the reason why Yuri sneaked up to the roof of the main dining hall. Unlike the usual spot where Otonashi and Hideki were usually placed as snipers, the roof there was made of concrete. It was similar to the school building's roof.

As she ascended through the stairs, Yuri frowned.

'It seems the student council president has gone through here while taking two students with him. Let's see if the info I got from that ordinary student is true...'

Yuri grasped at the knob of a metal door which led to the roof's exterior. She then turned it and slowly opened the door, trying her best not to make any noise. The door gave a creaking sound, but Yuri stopped early enough to not attract anyone's attention – assuming the Naoi was really on the rooftop.

The magenta-haired girl peeked through the slight opening and was glad that she was prepared for anything.

Quite a few distances away from the door, she could see Naoi hitting an ordinary student and kicking him while he was down.

The scene was so unbelievable that Yuri almost tripped on her own foot, but she managed to control herself. Though a student executing such cruelty was nearly unheard of, brutality was something which was etched into her very mind. Actually, Yuri's ability to calmly analyze the situation was more frightening than that cruelty itself.

'...Though, this is something else. Who would've thought the student council president would do something like this behind everyone? And they might be NPCs, but he's really going too harsh on them.'

The beating continued long enough that Yuri became tired of it and closed the door silently. She had seen enough to confirm her doubts, but she really had no way of telling whether that was good news or not.

. . .

Later on, she found herself standing in front of a vending machine, staring blankly at the many choices of assorted drinks and snacks.

She also found herself sighing for some reason.

"*Sigh*...what a way to start off the day. And to think there had been no further leads regarding the student council president after all this time..."

She pressed on a button randomly without paying attention. The pocket money she brought with her was something that is always refilled at the end of the day. She didn't even have to ask; somehow her small purse would be filled with enough cash to buy herself a meal or two. That was one of the things that made the Afterlife convenient.

As a world that aims to recreate a satisfying school life, the Afterlife surely had its upsides.

That did nothing to lift up her mood though.

"Strawberry-au-laít? Tch..."

She wasn't really in the mood to drink sweet things.

"Ah? Now that's one scary face you're making there, Leader-chan."

Startled, Yuri looked to the side to see Naruto, who had an awkward look on his face.

The irritated look on the battlefront leader's face made Naruto believe that she might've woken up on the wrong side of the bed earlier today. As he was quite familiar with Yuri's sadistic tendencies, he opted to play safe and lay off his wisecracks.

"Um...that...s-strawberry-au-laít isn't that bad, you know!"

"Why do you sound so desperate all of a sudden? I haven't even said anything."

Although Yuri was slightly impressed with Naruto's progression in foreign language (a subject which he had trouble in not too long ago, particularly English), she wasn't in the mood to give a snarky comment about it.

"What're you doing here? And what's with that getup?"

Currently, the whisker-marked blonde wore an orange cap while holding a mop with his right hand. His other hand was dragging a wheeled bucket along his side. Other than that, he was wearing his old clothes consisting of his old black-and-orange jacket and orange pants.

"Ah, that's right, you didn't know... I was assigned as a one-week janitor as punishment for being ridiculous in the tests during Test Disturb. That being said, this is my last day, so I'm in a really good mood, 'ttebayo!"

"Aah, is that so?"

"...Now that's a little unenergetic. I guess you're in a bad mood today, huh?"

"Not really. I just happened to feel very unlucky today. Not to mention I have to see your sickening face here—uwaah, I'm feeling sick already."

"You're being ruder than usual, 'ttebayo! Are you really in that bad of a mood?"

"...It's the strawberry-au-laít," Yuri lied while looking at the canned sweet drink in her hand. "I guess even I can get sick of something after drinking it for over a month. And it's not even that I don't like it... Oh whatever. You can have it, Uzumaki."

"Eh? Really?"

Genuinely surprised, Naruto received the sweet drink without thinking. He never thought that a pissed-off Yuri was actually a nice Yuri.

"Yeah, I don't feel like drinking this anyway. In fact, I think I'll go back to the dorms and call it a day – I'm so tired I feel like dying."

"Now that's one way of dying none of us have tried yet...and I can't believe we're casually talking about dying methods in front of a vending machine."

Death had become something less important than...well, anything else in comparison. The Afterlife, where death was simply a part of life's cycle rather than an end, had that kind of effect on people's way of thinking.

"Oh well, I guess I'll be going then. See ya, Uzumaki."

Yuri skillfully ended the conversation and walked away, leaving one oblivious blonde in wondering.

In defense to her curt farewell, she actually had a good reason for avoiding Naruto. Although she wasn't subtle enough to do it discreetly, she had honestly tried her best not to offend the boy with her evasive attitude.

In all honesty, she still felt guilty after what happened when the Battlefront blatantly refused to make peace with Kanade, which triggered his anger back when they had their late supper last time. She had to admit that she also felt like Kanade wouldn't become their ally anytime soon, so she had likely pissed him off as well. To top it off, she let this happen right after saying to him she would back off if Kanade proved to be human. She felt dirty just by thinking about it again.

And since she wasn't the smoothest flower in the garden – on the contrary, she might be the thorniest – avoiding Naruto was the only thing she could think of doing. She didn't like selfishly evading her guilt like that, but she didn't have the courage to apologize either.

"Wait a sec, Leader-chan."

"Huh?"

Being called over, Yuri gave a glance at Naruto and saw him fiddling with his pocket. He pulled out what seemed to be coins before inserting them into the vending machine.

"Alright... Hey, what do you wanna drink?"

Yuri narrowed her eyes at Naruto, gauging his action and scrutinizing the careless smile on his face. She thought he was joking around, but that smile didn't disappear.

"...Are you treating me?"

"What else would this imply?"

"A crafty, diabolical plan to take revenge for all the pain I've caused you?"

"I'm not as cynic a person as you are, 'ttebayo! And why are you being so self-conscious all of a sudden?!"

Despite his good intention, Yuri considered this as a chance for him to take revenge. That vengeful disposition was better suited for the always-sulking Uchihas, so it hurt his conscience quite deeply.

"Anyway, stop thinking so violently and just pick something already. I've already sacrificed what little money I had for this, so you better appreciate it!"

"Uwah...I didn't know you're a tsundere-type," Yuri stated as she scooted further away from him.

"Just because I'm blonde doesn't mean I am!" exclaimed an exasperated Naruto.

At that time, Yuri felt compelled to release another sigh just to show how tiresome the day had been. She did, but not without choosing a drink for herself.

"...Key Coffee would be nice."

"Roger that~" Naruto said with a sing-song tune.

With a press of a button, a clanking noise came from the inside of the vending machine. A can of coffee dropped into the exit not a moment later. Naruto handed the coffee to Yuri, which she accepted with a nod.

"Thanks."

"No prob. Consider this getting even for the strawberry-au-laít," Naruto said as he opened his drink. "I would've bought coffee as well, but currently I don't have enough money to brag about."

That would mean he spent the last bits of his money on the canned coffee he bought her. Yuri didn't know whether she should admire him or pity him for that.

"Well, beggars can't be choosers. I assume that you know that, at least. And speaking of which, what happened to your wallet? It's supposed to be filled with cash every time you wake up."

"Huh? Does having a wallet means you get instant money? Do the students here get paid for studying or something?" Naruto asked with a befuddled face.

"I don't know much about it either," Yuri said while shrugging her shoulders. "It just happens that your wallet would automatically be filled with money at the exchange of days, usually at midnight. Considering the way the Afterlife works to appease us, I guess that's only natural."

"...Uh huh, more magical stuffs about the Afterlife. This keeps getting weirder and weirder."

If that kind of satisfying situation actually happened in real life, Naruto would've been a millionaire, considering how he only spent money on ramen. The amount of money he would receive would be more fulfilling than an S-rank mission pay if he thought about it carefully.

"...Now I really regret leaving Gama-chan behind before the war..."

"Come again?"

"N-Nah, it's nothing. To tell you the truth, I don't have a wallet right now..."

Yuri almost let a harsh retort fly out of her mouth, but seeing Naruto's crestfallen face which seemed to be bordering on crying made her change her mind.

"Entering the Afterlife without a wallet? That has never happened to anyone up until now... I guess you really are an idiot."

"Cut me some slack, Leader-chan. If I knew that I would be sent to a money-oriented afterlife after dying, I would've brought my wallet and my piggy-bank to my grave."

Of course, there was no assurance that the frog-shaped purse Naruto called Gama-chan could actually survive a full-powered Tailed Beast Bomb. Then again, his clothes remained intact even after he transferred into Frederica's realm, so maybe it would've? Thinking about it dampened his mood a bit.

To avoid further regrets, Naruto drank the canned strawberry-au-laít in his hand. The sweetness of milk overpowered the supposedly-sour strawberry, but it was a nice taste. He glanced at the purple-haired girl before smirking again.

"Though, I'm kind of surprised to know you like coffee. I thought Otonashi's the only one who drinks it."

Yuri raised her eyebrow at the change of subject before opening her canned coffee. "It's not my favorite, but I do drink it from time to time. Otonashi-kun is probably the only other one who likes coffee. I've never seen any of the others drinking Key Coffee, after all. Hinata-kun prefers juice, and Ōyama-kun likes sweeter drinks, so I guess I'm kind of glad there are some people I can share a can of coffee with."

"Huh...sounds like you know your guys pretty well."

"I'm their leader, what else do you expect?" Yuri asked while waving her hand dismissively.

"No, well, from how you usually treat them, a stranger would've thought that you're quite the tyrant..." Naruto said casually, before hurriedly continuing when Yuri glared at him. "N-Not that you are, of course! But you care about your guys a lot more than I originally expected."

"...Is that so?" Yuri asked with narrowed eyes. She turned her face the other way before saying, "Well, if that's your roundabout way of praising me, thanks."

Part of her felt that she should stop being so buddy-buddy with him. It was clear that she was pushing her boundaries, with her dragging him into the Battlefront's affairs and whatnot. Fighting against the student council wasn't something a neutral party like him should be doing, yet he ended up doing so thanks to being grouped with the Battlefront.

But her resolve wavered every time she tried to do so, and Naruto being so carefree about the problem didn't help it. In the end, Yuri gave up on avoiding him right at that moment.

'I don't think I'll ever succeed in avoiding this idiot anyway, so why bother?'

She took a sip out of the can and relished in its refreshingly bitter taste. Drinking sweet things was good and all, but coffee always cleared her mind in a way.

It was thanks to that clear mind that Yuri noticed something different about Naruto.

"Say, Uzumaki..."

"Yeah?"

"...It's been a while since I last saw you wearing that black and orange jersey."

Naruto paused between his gulps. From the looks of it, he seemed startled by the sudden question, though Yuri had no way of knowing why.

"Ah...yeah, I guess it has."

Yuri raised a curious eyebrow at Naruto's so-so reply, assuming he wasn't paying much attention.

"Are you that uncomfortable with the 'Class 3S' uniform? Not to compliment you or anything, but it suits you better than this orange costume you're wearing. You look like a western prisoner more than anything in that, though I can see you being exactly that in your previous life."

"Still with the sharp tongue, Leader-chan? I guess that's one thing about you that won't change." Naruto laughed lightly at his small joke. He took another sip before adding, "Well, after what happened last time, I don't think wearing it is an option anymore."

"..."

Yuri fell silent as she stared at Naruto's solemn expression.

That was an expression she had not been able to get used to.

"...You don't have to feel guilty about getting into a fight with Fujimaki-kun. It's normal, given his personality."

"Ah ha ha. Ah, I don't really regret anything about that, actually."

Silence overcame them once more as they both stared at the cloudy sky through the school's window. That comfortable blanket of peaceful nothingness was broken by a question from Naruto.

"Hey, Leader-chan, can I ask you something?"

"What is it?"

"Well...considering the rest of the Afterlife Battlefront are against getting along with Kanade, I doubt that it'll change anything. But I have to know..." Tilting his head, Naruto gave a serious look and asked Yuri, "What's your opinion about it?"

In all honesty, Yuri had expected the blonde boy to ask her that. But even if she had expected it, it didn't mean she already had an answer. She had once said to him that, if Kanade was really an angel, the Battlefront would fight her with all they have regardless of how unfair it might seem.

At the same time, she also had a hunch that Kanade was human.

That was the secret she shared with Naruto.

However, as things stood, it seemed that their conflict wouldn't end just with Kanade being human.

"It's hard to say," Yuri admitted with a shrug. "I can't give any concrete answer yet."

"That's a pretty vague answer."

"It's my opinion, isn't it?" Yuri countered. "Besides, with things as they are, I can't selfishly decide an answer on my own. I'm a leader for a reason, you know."

"Ah...I guess you're right," Naruto complied with a nod.

"On that account, I think I also need to apologize for last time. Whether he was correct or not, Fujimaki-kun went too overboard with his reaction. I suppose I can understand why you snapped at him like that. I'm actually surprised you were able to keep yourself from punching him or something."

Naruto smirked at the thought. "Would you really forgive me if I had done that?"

"You think?"

"...It's hard to say, 'ttebayo," Naruto stated after a pause. He had a smirk on his face, but it didn't seem like he had anything else to say. Probably he just felt amused by his own choice of words, which he took from Yuri's previous statement.

In the end, even he was confused by how things turned out.

Whenever he thought back to that late night supper, he felt like laughing and screaming at the same time. God knows how frustrated he had been when he was faced by a bunch of idiots who couldn't see the truth in front of their eyes – the truth being that Kanade was not an enemy.

"It's probably my fault for expecting too much from you guys. With your hatred towards God as bad as it is, I should've known it wouldn't be that easy."

If anything, he should have known it best. Having enough experience dealing with hate-driven villains and friend-turned-enemies, underestimating the Battlefront's hatred and regret was the last thing he could've done. He had been naïve – believing that demoting Kanade from her position was all it would take for the Battlefront and her to reconcile.

He didn't wait for Yuri to respond and turned to walk away.

Noticing this, Yuri then spoke up once more.

"What would you do if I end up fighting her again?"

Naruto paused in the middle of his walk. It took a while, but after straightening his orange cap and chuckling, he gave his answer.

"That's your choice to make. After all, in the first place, I'm just a neutral party."

"A neutral party wouldn't go that far for the sake of a single girl," Yuri rebutted with a small but daring smirk.

Naruto laughed once more at the statement. When his laughter died down, he smiled to himself.

"...Well, compared to a whole world, a single girl is much easier."

Yuri couldn't possibly hear such a quiet voice. Knowing that, Naruto resumed his walking and disappeared from Yuri's line of sight. The girl herself could only stare at the empty space silently, exhaling softly afterwards.

"Would I really forgive you, huh...?" Yuri wondered aloud as she recalled Naruto's lighthearted question. That question made her think about how she would've behaved if she were in Naruto's shoes.

"Maybe I wouldn't...but I wouldn't blame you, either."

o-x-o-x-o

-The next day-

It was a few hours until midday, and it was time for recess.

An upset Otonashi could be seen trudging through the class corridor. He had his usual neutral expression, but if one looked closely he looked more restless than usual.

The reason was because their current operation hadn't brought any results, and that frustrated him more than he expected.

Curiously enough, the rest of the Battlefront didn't seem to mind. Even though they had to do random stupidities every day, they still did what they had to do. In fact, they seem to be enjoying themselves. Maybe having fun like that from time to time was a good change of pace.

'Still, if we keep this up, won't we disappear? Enjoying normal school life is one of the things that can make you disappear from this world, if I recall.'

With that kind of thought in mind, it was hard for Otonashi not to take this seriously.

His train of thought was broken when someone slapped him on his back.

"Yo, O-to-na-shi~!" the person called out with a sing-song tune.

Turning around, the red-haired boy found himself staring at a vibrantly grinning, yellow-haired boy.

"Uzumaki? I thought you weren't in school today."

"What are you talking about? I was here all the time. Counting out the times when I handed Naoi his own ass through various acts of mischief, that is."

Otonashi cringed as he continued walking, followed by Naruto beside him. He then went on to express his amazement of the shorter blonde's mischievous behavior.

"The way you say it so normally makes it twice as scary. I still can't believe that's what you do in your free time."

"Is doing pranks something you shouldn't do as a high school student?" Naruto questioned with a tilted head.

"Normally, it is, but no one's stupid enough to target a student council president. Moreover, aren't you supposed to clean the mess you made afterwards?"

"Ha ha! My voluntary cleaning had already ended yesterday, so I'm free to make as much make over as I want on the school! I'll even be able to take revenge on Naoi-teme after this and fill his shoe locker with goat shit, 'ttebayo!"

"I think Yuri's rubbing off too much on you, really...and how would you find a goat here in the first place?"

The yellow-haired boy laughed at the point being made. Seeing that, Otonashi couldn't help but chuckle in amusement.

Through the obnoxious banter they were having, Otonashi could feel his mood lightening up. Though initially he would've found the yellow-haired Uzumaki's exuberance too much to handle, he lately figured that he needed that kind of energy. He was thankful that Naruto's enthusiasm in particular was so infectious.

...

Though, with Naruto being here, he could also feel himself tensing up.

The reason was that this was the same person that had openly challenged the whole Battlefront the other night. He could still remember how angry the boy looked, and how frightening his presence alone was. The yellow-haired boy that night wasn't the same goofy Uzumaki Naruto he had come to know.

Just by remembering that terrifying pressure on his chest back then was enough to make him shudder.

And to think all of that happened because the Battlefront members refused to come to terms with Kanade...

'He must've thought highly of Tachibana. I never expected anyone would stand against us just to protect her. Just how does he view her as?' the red-haired boy thought.

Naruto had always stated that he was a neutral party in this war of theirs. However, Otonashi had always thought that he was more defensive towards Kanade for an unknown reason. There were times that he stood by their side as well, but all of the decisions he had taken up until now led him to believe that it was all for the silver-haired girl's sake. A stranger would even say Naruto had an obsession of protecting that girl.

Again, the reason for this was unknown to him. But he respected the blonde's actions wholeheartedly nonetheless.

"By the way, Otonashi, are you going somewhere?" Naruto asked suddenly, pulling Otonashi out of his reverie.

"...No, not really. I'm just strolling around for a bit since it is recess," Otonashi answered with a sigh. "Yuri did say we're free to do anything, but it couldn't be helped if I don't feel like doing anything at all."

"That statement kinda reminds me of someone I know..." said the blonde while remembering about a certain Nara who had a tendency to be lazy all the time.

Otonashi seemed to be thinking something until he let out an 'Ah' as he remembered.

"Oh right, Uzumaki. Yuri told me to give you this," he said while reaching into his pocket. Naruto gave a curious glance as Otonashi pulled out a black object that looked like an old telephone.

"A...walkie-talkie?"

"Yeah."

"Why would Leader-chan give this to me?" Naruto asked skeptically.

"I don't know about that, either. She gave the same one to me without telling me the reason, too."

"...This isn't loaded with a time bomb or anything, right?"

"..."

"Uh...Otonashi? Your silence is making me nervous somehow?!"

"Don't worry, our leader might be a sadist, but she's not that unreasonable...I think."

"At least try to sound confident!"

Eventually, Naruto sighed and put the walkie-talkie in his utility pouch on his hip. As far as he knew Yuri, she was sadistic enough to pull any kind of stunt just for the sake of comedy relief. And if that wasn't enough, the fact that he was now her main source of amusement supported that theory.

'Well...a Saint has more or less the same tendency towards me, so I really can't complain with Yuri.'

While being caught up in his thoughts, Naruto noticed that the taller red-haired boy had stopped walking. He peered at him curiously, realizing that he was looking at something to his side, and followed his line of sight. It came as quite a surprise when his eyes landed on a very familiar figure.

At the end of the two boys' sights was Kanade, sitting alone in her classroom while tapping on her desk with a pen. The way she leaned her cheeks on the back of her left hand made her look even more bored than usual, though the difference from her usual expressionless face was almost nonexistent. Her vibrant, golden eyes were cast down, staring at her pen-holding hand tapping the desk.

At first glance, she looked to be faintly sulking.

When Naruto took his eyes off of her, and saw Otonashi staring at her as well, he grinned mischievously.

"Well, well, I guess I can rest easy."

"Huh? Did you say something?" Otonashi asked obliviously.

"Nothing, nothing. Anyway, if you're that worried about her, then go get her."

"No, that's...I'm not really—"

Otonashi stammered out a denial, but Naruto cut him off saying, "Your face says it all, so shut it and go, 'ttebayo. I'm pretty sure she's boring herself out as well."

Not giving Otonashi any chance to complain or refuse, Naruto walked off while lazily waving at him. "In the meantime, I'll go find some place to kill some time. See ya~"

"Uh...right."

Otonashi briefly cast a look at Naruto's retreating back, wondering why he chose to depart all of a sudden.

"...an obsession, huh?" he wondered to himself.

Thinking back about his hypothesis, Otonashi felt ridiculous. Though at first glance, it would seem like an obsession, he knew it wasn't that at all. What Naruto had done up until now, they were all done out of concern. After all, Otonashi shared the same concern, so he should know. He lamented on the fact that his own courage could never measure up to the blonde's – there was no way he would be able to be completely honest to himself and act the way he believed like that.

Even just now, he was sure Naruto was thinking about the same thing as he did, but for some reason held back and left him behind.

He sighed while muttering, "Don't act like you're not worried yourself, geez."

Now that he was left alone, Otonashi found himself thinking. What should he do regarding that silver-haired girl?

He chose to abide by the first option that popped into his mind; approach Kanade with no hostility. After all, she was no longer the student council president, so he believed it was all right to not think of her as an enemy.

'I guess...I'll try talking to her first.'

Of course, this wouldn't be a simple task, either. As much as he wished for things to be different, he wasn't as close to Kanade as he hoped to be. The most he had interacted with her had been that time when she stopped him from going out of class during the exam season. And though they had exchanged names, there wasn't much he knew about her as of yet.

Still, he tried to remain positive.

Otonashi entered the classroom and walked towards an empty seat behind Kanade. He tried to look unassuming as best as he could and plopped himself onto that empty chair, leaning his back to the windowed wall beside it.

A few seconds of silence ticked by accompanied only by the incessant tapping of Kanade's ballpoint pen. Realizing that he wouldn't get anywhere without saying anything, he tried to establish a conversation.

"Say...are you hungry?"

Not so much of a good topic, and Otonashi even felt too awkward to address Kanade directly, but it was a start.

Kanade didn't even turn her head to face Otonashi; she seemed more preoccupied with her desk at the moment. She did respond, however, by saying, "Not really, it's not even lunch time yet."

"I see..."

Clearly, there wouldn't be much success in trying to get Kanade to talk more than a sentence; that was something Otonashi learned from their first exchange. Even the continuous taps of Kanade's pen might have numbered more than the words she actually said.

Not wanting to leave it at that, Otonashi continued, "You know, the cafeteria has this ridiculously hot Mapo Tofu that no one dares to order. When I tried some, it's surprisingly good."

At the mention of Mapo Tofu, the pen tapping stopped. Otonashi didn't notice this up until the moment he caught Kanade glancing at him from her shoulder.

"So, yeah...if you're okay with it, how about letting me...treat...you?"

Even before Otonashi finished his sentence, Kanade had suddenly stood up and walked towards the classroom door. Her walking pace was so hurried she reached it in no time at all. Otonashi was left blinking in wonder, confused by her behavior.

"What are you doing?" asked Kanade with a neutral expression as she stood by the door.

Realizing that the silver-haired girl was asking him, and that she had wordlessly accepted his offer, Otonashi got up from his chair and followed her, slightly stumbling as he did so.

"Ah, right, let's go!"

o-x-o-x-o

[Main Dining Hall – Interior]

After arriving at the cafeteria and ordering two portions Mapo Tofu, Otonashi and Kanade sat oppositely at a table. To be honest, Otonashi still felt that he shouldn't be ordering Mapo Tofu, given his initial impression of it.

The amnesiac teen looked at the red-colored dish in front of him as he spooned some of it, being reminded once again that eating Mapo Tofu probably wasn't the best of ideas.

'It really does look scary...'

Mapo Tofu's ferocious looks, however, was nowhere close to its torturing spiciness; as Otonashi was reminded once again when he took a spoonful of it into his mouth.

"SO HOT!"

Otonashi could feel his tongue getting overexcited by the hot taste, so much that it nearly went numb. The heat coming off his face wasn't exactly normal, either.

This was a dish that could give someone a fire-based elemental affinity, so it was a given, to say the least. Normal people would've turned into a fire-breathing dragon just by tasting it, but for some reason, Kanade was eating it calmly like it was plain cream soup. This mystified Otonashi greatly.

"I heard you're normally supposed to eat this with rice..."

"Really?"

"Well...isn't this way too hot?"

"Not really. It's just..."

"Just?"

Kanade chewed lightly on the tofu she just ate. From the look on her face, she seemed to be relishing its otherwise hellish taste (and somehow taking pleasure in chewing it). It almost seemed ridiculous since Otonashi was nearly crying just from a single bite.

"...Delicious."

"I-I see," Otonashi couldn't comprehend why she could be immune to this kind of overly spicy food, but he couldn't deny its nice aftertaste. He almost envied the small girl for being able to enjoy that unique aftertaste without being tortured by its initial taste.

'Then again, Yuri was somehow immune to that strange curry Uzumaki tried to eat, so I guess girls in general have stronger tongues than we do?'

When he looked at it that way, girls really were scary.

At the very least, he learned a new thing about Kanade. Just because she liked to eat Mapo Tofu, it didn't mean that she was masochistic enough to enjoy spiciness at that level. It was more like she was lucky to have immunity for spicy food.

"So, it's not that you particularly like spicy food, just that Mapo Tofu is your favorite food?"

At that statement, Kanade raised her head to look at Otonashi with a somewhat surprised look. Otonashi was in the middle of drinking cold water from his glass when he saw that unusual expression.

"What's wrong?" he asked the girl who usually did not show any emotion.

"...Is it really that obvious?" the girl asked, her tone suggesting that she was surprised.

"Eh? Uh, well, yeah. I mean, not a lot of people would eat the Mapo Tofu they serve here. Even if it is delicious, which it actually is, most people would get scared of burning their tongues."

"...I see," Kanade said. She glanced at her plate of Mapo Tofu before looking up at Otonashi again. "Is it strange that I like Mapo Tofu?"

"Well, I wouldn't call it strange...everyone has different tastes in food, so liking Mapo Tofu isn't strange at all."

Of course, for someone to be able to like that super spicy Mapo Tofu so much that it became their favorite food was amazing. Kanade might not notice its queer taste, but she did know that no one else but her had eaten Mapo Tofu on a daily basis. That alone was enough to get her common sense running and told her that eating Mapo Tofu was unusual.

However, nothing was strange about having a favorite food.

"...You're the second person to figure that out."

"Hm? Ah, the first would be Uzumaki, right? Now that you mention it, he did tell me that this is your favorite food. I forgot about it until just now."

"You've met him before?"

"Numerous times, yeah. We've been...acquainted several times before. He has been hanging around with the Battlefront recently, so we almost see him every day now. Honestly, it's actually impossible to not notice him ever since he put on that ridiculous orange jersey of his again."

"For some reason, I get the impression that you're badmouthing my favorite color again, 'ttebayo."

A certain someone responded in an annoyed fashion to Otonashi's statement.

As if saying the color orange was a summoning spell, Naruto came up from behind him whilst carrying a tray of food with his two hands. The bowl was letting off steam as he put it on the table and pulled a chair next to Otonashi. The orange-loving blonde grinned at the pair good-naturedly.

"Fancy meeting you two here! What brings you to my humble yet appeasing abode?"

"This place isn't yours to begin with, so stop acting so haughty."

"But Otonashi, this place did belong to me right until you two showed up. If anything, you're trespassing."

"What kind of logic is that?!"

Ignoring Otonashi's retort, Naruto sighed. "But y'know, I specifically chose this time when nobody would come to the dining hall to eat in peace. Zen and all that is important, you know."

"Eating and Zen are two different things though..."

Once again ignoring Otonashi's factual retort, Naruto linked his right arm around Otonashi's neck and pulled his head next to him. He looked annoyed for some reason as he whispered to the red-haired boy.

"(Seriously though, what the hell are you two doing here? I left her to you so that you can raise her flag properly. Immediately taking her to a lunch date in the cafeteria is skipping a lot of steps, isn't it?)"

"(So that's your reason?!)"

Otonashi's had initially assumed that Naruto had other business to attend to, and thus left without tending to Kanade like he usually did. He certainly didn't expect the blonde to intentionally have him cheer her up with that kind of ulterior motive.

"(Who said anything about raising a flag? And this isn't a date or anything like that, dammit!)"

"(*sigh*...I was trying to be a nice guy and give you a chance to pull her in slowly, 'ttebayo. I didn't expect you to take it to an entirely different level and jump to this event right off the bat. I know being a virgin is hard, but this is a bit much, you know?)"

"(I'm telling you this isn't a date! And you're one to talk, you die-hard virgin! The way you're planning this so-called 'date' looks more like a scenario from an eroge rather than real life experience!)"

Left out of the secretive conversation, Kanade tilted her head curiously. She had an inquiring look on her face, but she didn't say anything. She was actually more interested in taking another scoop of her Mapo Tofu.

Eventually, Otonashi sighed and gave up on throwing another retort. He instead focused on the steaming bowl of ramen Naruto brought, and how its red color somehow reminded him of another dish entirely.

"Uhh, Uzumaki? What's that supposed to be?"

"Can't you tell? It's ramen."

"What kind of ramen is red and has tofu topping in it?"

"He he, that's the interesting part!" said the boy with a mischievous smirk. "You see, I've always thought that ramen is the best food in existence. And although there's no reason to believe otherwise, Kanade's obsession with Mapo Tofu got me thinking, 'Maybe it's not that bad of a dish'. And then I remembered I still got some meal tickets from my last delivery service, and that two of them happened to be the answer to this great mystery."

"...Please don't tell me you did what I think you did."

"So I created Mapo Ramen!"

"Damn it, Uzumaki, I said 'please'! Seriously, Mapo Ramen?! You couldn't decide which one's better, so you ordered both and combined it in one bowl?!"

"No no, don't get me wrong, ramen is obviously better."

"Mapo Tofu is better," Kanade suddenly joined in.

"The way you said it with such a straight face irks me somewhat, but I'll let it slide, 'ttebayo." Naruto stated, waving his hand dismissively.

In what seemed to be a divine intervention, the calm atmosphere that hung over Otonashi and Kanade before was thrown out of the window with the force equal to the throw of a Koshien pitcher in his prime condition. The mood shift between then and now was so big Otonashi had a hard time grasping their current situation.

"Anyway, with all that said, let's eat!"

With a seriously skillful change of subject, Naruto dug into his ramen with a pair of chopsticks and slurped it in.

"Oi, wait a sec, that's gonna burn your tongue afterwards." Otonashi reminded, watching Naruto eating his ramen laced with the legendary spicy Mapo sauce carelessly.

The tough guys who did eat Mapo Tofu with rice still felt it was too hot even with rice. Naruto himself was sweating bullets as he ate, but for some reason he didn't spew flames out of his mouth like last time.

"Mm...strangely enough, the hot taste becomes bearable, and it tastes really good. Is it because I mixed it with ramen?"

"Hmm...now that you mention it, this Mapo Tofu is usually eaten with rice. Maybe the noodles toned the spices down a little."

"...In conclusion, Mapo Tofu is better than ramen," Kanade once again interjected.

"...Are you still hung up about that? And where did that result come from? It's obvious that this is no longer ramen or Mapo Tofu; it's both of them in the same plate, 'ttebayo."

Naruto folded his arms and seemed to be dropping into his thinking pose. Both Otonashi and Kanade looked at the yellow-haired boy's serious expression in slight amusement, but then were surprised when he opened his eyes and made a wide grin.

"But this is actually really good. Comes close to the ramen from Ichiraku back home," Naruto said, nodding to himself as if he just said something good, and then jabbed a finger towards Kanade's. "Alright! Even though I don't want to say this, but Mapo Tofu is good! It's a tie, Kanade!"

"...hm."

Kanade responded with a quiet nod.

Otonashi glanced at Naruto and watched as he tittered with a grin at Kanade, subconsciously feeling out of place all of a sudden. As he observed Naruto's friendly interaction with Kanade, he realized the difference between him and the yellow-haired boy, which had probably brought out that feeling in the first place.

Otonashi had a habit of evaluating people.

More than a habit, you could say he had that sort of inclination. As such, he sometimes could understand a situation better than others.

And in his eyes, Kanade looked more relaxed in Naruto's presence. It wasn't that she felt uneasy about Otonashi or anything, but for some reason, she seemed less reserved when Naruto was around. At least, that was what he could see.

This was the difference between him and that reckless boy who had befriended the silver-haired girl and stood as her ally.

In any case, the relationship between Naruto and Kanade was something Otonashi could never hope to achieve.

'...Though, even if I tell him that, he'd brush it off and say "I'm just a neutral party" like he's just an unimportant side character.'

Although Otonashi realized that he might not have picked the choice he wanted, he also thought he might be overthinking the results a bit. The feeling of being out of place might or might not come from Otonashi's choice, but this wasn't the time to mull over it in regret. He should just enjoy this peaceful moment when he could, because it took quite an effort for him to reach this outcome.

The end result of Kanade's demotion might not have brought true peace between the Battlefront and her, but this illusion of a temporary ceasefire was enough for the moment.

That was what he honestly thought...

"Tachibana-san."

A calm voice called out.

The source came from behind Otonashi and Naruto, so the two boys turned around to look at the person. Kanade, too, stopped eating and raised her eyes to look.

There stood Naoi Ayato, along with three student council members.

"Well, I'll be damned," Naruto sneered at the new student council president. "It seems everyone just loves crashing my place of Zen, 'ttebayo."

Giving the yellow-haired delinquent a sidelong glare, Naoi continued on while ignoring the two male students in front of him. His current focus seemed to be on Kanade.

"What are you doing in this time of day?"

Seemingly annoyed by Naoi's conceited tone in his inquiry, Otonashi gave him a pointed look. The intimidation failed somewhat since his mouth was still red because of the Mapo Tofu he ate, but he didn't notice that.

"Can't you tell? We're eating."

Naoi didn't expect to be answered by a student he didn't even know, but he paid no mind and answered accordingly, "Eating during break time is a violation of school regulation."

Expecting a hastily-registered student like Otonashi and a transfer student like Naruto to be knowledgeable of the school rules as a whole was probably a bit demanding, so perhaps that was why Naoi stated that while facing Kanade rather than any of the other two. That being said, Otonashi and Naruto really had no idea that kind of rule actually existed.

"...Did you really look through the rulebook or did you just pull that one out of your ass?" Naruto asked skeptically.

On the other hand, if there really was such a rule, Kanade wouldn't have come to the cafeteria in the first place. She might be a normal student now, but she was once the student council president. There was no way such a rule existed if the former student council president came here without any hesitation.

"I forgot," Kanade stated, sounding surprised.

"Eh?"

Both Otonashi and Naruto turned their heads quickly to look at Kanade and giving her an astonished look.

"Wait a minute here! You forgot? I thought it was okay to eat here at this time! Isn't that why you two came here in the first place?"

"Well...he told me that he would treat me Mapo Tofu, so..."

Kanade's excuse sounded like a child who was promised candy by a shady stranger. The way she said that so calmly would make anyone worry about her health in real life society. Of course, a cute girl like her would definitely fall prey to those kinds of criminals.

"OOO-TOOO-NAAA-SHIII! So you were planning to have your way with her after bribing her with Mapo Tofu?!"

"Wait wait wait, how did you reach that conclusion?! Why the hell would I do that kind of thing which only rapists and kidnappers would do?!"

While Otonashi could relate to Naruto's protective nature towards Kanade, he had no reason to stay quiet when being accused of such a terrible deed. Should he end up with that kind of label, not only would his value as a person drop tremendously, but he was sure to get less screen time than a protagonist normally should.

This story was rated T for a reason, after all.

Meanwhile, Kanade stared downwards as she spoke up once more.

"That's right, it's a violation of school regulation...I forgot."

It was a believable statement. It wasn't rare for a student, even a student council president, to not memorize the school regulation completely. It would take someone with near-genius brain capability to remember them all.

But Otonashi begged to differ.

As stated before, he had a habit of evaluating people.

'This girl...there's no mistaking that she knew. In that case, it's pretty scary what her favorite Mapo Tofu can do to the usually rule-abiding her!'

Otonashi had always thought of Kanade as a stoic type of person, further supported by her lack of expression, and thus made him believe that she was also the type to follow the rules no matter what. Her initial position as the student council president also helped that thought. It surprised him greatly that she would be so out-of-character for the sake of her favorite food.

While Otonashi stared at her with an amused expression, Kanade suddenly spooned her Mapo Tofu and quickly finished the remaining portion of her food. That remaining portion also happened to be more than two-thirds of the plate.

At the same time, Naruto downed his nearly-full bowl of Mapo Ramen with several large gulps.

"UWWAAAA! A-Assh I shought, dat washn't a ghood idea—GAAAAAAAAHH!"

"You're breathing fire again?!"

Perhaps getting tired of their stalling, Naoi's patience reached its limit as his gaze darkened as his eyes narrowed at the trio. He then issued a command without looking at his subordinates.

"Take them."

o-x-o-x-o

They were taken to the reflection room.

However, compared to the one the Battlefront had been confined in several days ago, this one looked more like a personal prison cell. The moment Otonashi and Kanade were shoved into the room, which was only slightly bigger than a janitor's closet, they were sealed behind a thick metal door with numerous automated metal locks. It had a toughness that could rival a blast door.

The fact only served to make Otonashi more agitated.

He slammed into the door with both hands, pushing all his weight in hopes of prying the metal door open, but to no avail. He even tried bashing his shoulder into it, but a flesh-and-blood human would never be able to make a dent on that thick barrier.

"Dammit! Simply eating Mapo Tofu during break time shouldn't warrant this!"

The frustration was evident on Otonashi's face as he rubbed his sore shoulder. He turned to look at Kanade, who was calmly standing behind him. For someone who was captured, she sure looked composed – it was almost as if she wasn't affected by this sudden turnout.

Otonashi's eyes scanned the whole room. It was a small room, consisting of a seated toilet, a sink and a single bed. From the looks of it, it wasn't a room designed for two people.

"And where is this, anyway? It's like a prison!"

The silent, silver-haired girl looked at him with half-closed eyes.

"I'm sleepy... I'm going to sleep," said Kanade while climbing the single bed.

"Hey, this isn't the time to do that!"

"What else can we do?" countered the girl, taking off her shoes as if she wasn't perturbed by Otonashi's statement.

"Doesn't this seem strange to you? Throwing us into this jailroom?"

In exasperation, Otonashi began to whine and balled up his fist. He really couldn't see any reason behind putting him and Kanade in a room that a normal high school should not have. Rather, this truly felt like he was a prisoner in a foreign penitentiary.

"We're supposed to reflect on our actions, so there's no helping that."

And yet, Kanade continued to calmly rebuke his statements like a teacher scolding her student.

"Still...! How can you sleep in this situation?!"

It seemed Kanade had already ignored most of Otonashi's words, because she yawned and completely shut her eyes. "Good night," she said, falling asleep the next second.

Initially wanting to voice another complaint, Otonashi stopped when he saw the silver-haired girl already balling herself up in the farthest corner of the bed, leaning her back on the intersection of the walls.

"She seriously went to sleep..."

Part of him was annoyed by the fact that Kanade could still sleep in a desperate time like this, but he didn't have the heart to wake her up again. She must've been tired, after all. Attending classes was tiring enough as it was. He who had skipped classes to do particularly nothing had no right to continue disturbing her.

"*sigh*...well, it's my fault that we end up in this kind of situation. I suppose I can let her sleep."

Otonashi sat on the other side of the bed. The single bed was pretty big, much to his surprise. About a third of the room was occupied by it, and with Kanade opting to sleep in the corner, the space left for Otonashi to use was big enough for him to sleep on.

He wasn't in the mood for sleeping, though.

"Hmm...I wonder where Uzumaki ends up in," Otonashi wondered aloud.

The three of them had been brought to the same floor of the building, but since Otonashi and Kanade were thrown in first, they couldn't see where Naruto was kept in. Most likely, he was in a room similar to theirs.

As he was thinking this, he heard a static noise coming from his blazer's pocket. Confused, his right hand reached into it and pulled out his walkie-talkie.

"Was this thing turned on? I didn't even notice."

Then, he heard someone talking through the device.

"Uhm, ah, testing, testing...is this thing even working? *kssshh*"

"Eh? That voice...Uzumaki?"

"Ah, Otonashi? Good, so this thing really works. I half-expected Leader-chan to put a bomb in it, but thank goodness she didn't."

"You really thought she would go that far, huh?"

"Well, I can't predict when she'd decide to do that, so I prepared myself for anything, 'ttebayo."

He heard Naruto taking a deep breath as if to calm himself down.

"But seriously, what's with this room? The toilet seat is terrifyingly close to the bed for some reason. Is this their unique way of telling me 'Eat shit and die in your sleep'?"

"That's one amusing way to imply such a grotesque message," Otonashi spoke with disgust apparent in his face. "Anyway, from what you said, it seems you're trapped in the same kind of room as Tachibana and I are. Where are you?"

"I'm in a room a little bit away from yours..." Naruto trailed off when he recalled what Otonashi said. "Wait...both of you are in the same room?"

"Hm? Yeah, why?"

"...Look, Otonashi, I know I mocked your virginity back then, but deep down I know you're sane enough not to do funny business in there just because you're together with her there, alone."

"What the hell are you saying?!"

"Ah, you know, ecchi stuff—"

"STOP MAKING ME OUT AS A PERVERT! You're being real stubborn about this, aren't you?! Do you want me to do it that badly?!"

"Hey, hey, wait, Otonashi! Don't fall into that sinful hell!" Naruto seemed to pause before he grunted and continued, "Urgh, fine! I'll Rasengan the walls separating us and punch some sense into you! If you really think you can do ecchi stuffs just because you can, then let me destroy that perverted illusion of yours!"

"WAAAH, STOP! YOU'LL KILL US BOTH IN THE PROCESS! And don't use that reference which came from a totally different fandom!"

Amidst the heated argument over the radio, Kanade still slept peacefully.

After a long series of shouting that focused more on the wonder of adolescence and raging hormones rather than discussing an escape route, Otonashi proposed a plan to wait for help from the Afterlife Battlefront.

"Hmm, hmm...that's a good plan. On the other hand, we can just wait it out until the student council guys release us, but that's just my optimistic opinion, 'ttebayo."

"There's no telling they'd do that, and I don't wanna find out what they'll do to us afterwards. Either way, though, waiting's the only thing we can do now. Unless, of course, you can do something about the metal doors."

"Nah, not happening. Even when I put all my power into it, my Rasengan couldn't even scratch the door. I don't know why, but when I tried it, there seems to be a barrier that canceled it out. I can try breaking the ceiling or walls, but there's no telling how sturdy the building is. I'd end up burying us alive if there's a mistake."

Otonashi didn't fully understand what Rasengan was or how it worked, but he had caught a glimpse of Naruto using it back when he stopped a cannonball shot. If something that strong couldn't open the door, he couldn't think of anything else.

"...So there's really no way out, huh?" Otonashi muttered depressingly. "Oh, well. Waiting for help makes me uncomfortable, but let's just do that for now."

"Alright. I'll try sleeping for a while, so give me a ring if something happens."

"Right."

"And Otonashi?"

"What?"

"Do try to keep your hormones in check, ne ha ha."

"For the last time, I WON'T DO ANY—"

"This is Uzumaki, maintaining radio silence, over and out, 'ttebayo! *bzzt*"

And then there was silence.

The conversation ended, leaving Otonashi in a dark mood as he stared at the walkie-talkie in his hand. As if things weren't depressing enough, he was still viewed as a hormonal teenager who couldn't keep himself in check.

"Not that I care, but what kind of pervert does he think I am? Geez..."

Sighing tiredly to himself, Otonashi instinctively looked behind his shoulders towards Kanade's sleeping form.

He stared.

Kanade was sleeping with her legs folded to her side, obviously to prevent certain mishaps happening since she wore a skirt. Her socks covered the entirety of her calf, but left her snow-white thighs exposed.

He stared.

Her peaceful face as she slept was somewhat different than her usual expressionless face, but similar in a way. Her mouth was slightly open as she breathed softly, and he could see her thin lips moving periodically as she did so.

He stared—

"AAARGH, DAMMIT!"

Despite everything, Otonashi's conversation with Naruto made him exceedingly conscious about his surroundings. He was currently accounting the fact that, yes, he was in a room together with a girl, and yes, the girl was sleeping, and yes, this was a dangerous situation that would definitely raise a 'bad end' flag if he wasn't careful.

"Damn you, Uzumaki...damn you and your speech about hormones and indecency..."

In order to prevent himself from doing exactly what Naruto expected him to do (which he absolutely would NOT do under any circumstances), Otonashi begrudgingly stood up from the bed and settled himself on the cold, hard floor.

He sighed.

"This is going to be a long night."

o-x-o-x-o

"Well, with our final source of entertainment gone, this is gonna be a long night."

Naruto sat on the single bed his room provided while smirking to himself. Teasing Otonashi was admittedly more amusing than he thought, now that he knew how he would react. He never thought the red-haired amnesiac would become so flustered when that kind of topic was brought up. Though, judging by their current circumstances, it was hard for someone not to.

"For some reason, I think Bernkastel is rubbing off too much on you, brat," Kurama grumbled in his subconscious.

"What, first Leader-chan and now Rika-chan? So being around sadistic women can give this much influence?"

Naruto shuddered to think if he would turn into a sharp-mouthed, thorn-hearted maniac with a murderous tendency if this kept up.

Thankfully, he was on the 'savior' side of the two Children of Prophecy, so he was relatively safe. Of course, he doubted Nagato would ever turn into a sadistic battlefront leader or a fun-loving Saint despite that.

"So, what do you think, Kurama? That barrier just now doesn't seem to be made of the same material as reiryoku."

"I'm not sure... It's possible that it's just another form of it, but yeah, it's definitely different from the spiritual power you wield. This one seems more like the one that white girl uses."

"Kanade? So...it's the same material used for her hand-blades? If that's the case, we can't find a way to deal with it then."

Kurama sighed, "It's unfortunate, but we don't have enough information about that type of energy. A different kind of energy that existed in this realm...I doubt even Bernkastel knew about this beforehand, otherwise she would've told us about it."

"A different...energy?" Naruto muttered.

As far as Naruto knew, his current power was something drawn from a different universe than the one he was currently in, known loosely as reiryoku, spiritual energy. Frederica had said something about him being a natural magnet for that power, and though he was a bit skeptical, he accepted it the way it was.

However, thinking logically, if he really was such a power magnet, the power he received should've come from the Afterlife rather than a completely different universe, and thus should've resulted in him having similar powers as Kanade. That was the logical conclusion since the Afterlife had been closer to him than any other worlds at the time.

If so, how did the power known as reiryoku fall into his possession?

"Could it be that Rika-chan..."

"What is it?" Kurama asked, curious to his Jinchūriki's thoughts.

"...nah, that can't be," Naruto said, shaking his head.

"Just what is it, brat?" Kurama asked once again. He knew Naruto had thought of something, so he couldn't help but get even more curious.

"It's nothing," refuted Naruto with a dismissal wave. "More importantly, can't we use anything else to get out of here? An explosive tag should be enough to blast the door open, right?"

"Why would you think a door that didn't even budge from your Rasengan would open with a simple explosive tag?"

"I was thinking about blasting the wall around it..."

"And risk the possibility of bringing the whole room down on us? You said it yourself; you don't know how stable this building is. Just give it up, brat. It's better if we stay put while waiting for help."

"...I suppose so, 'ttebayo."

Naruto lied down on the bed, putting his hands behind his head as he stared at the ceiling. He let out a prolonged sigh and closed his eyes, wondering how he ended up in this situation. He still couldn't comprehend why he went with the flow rather than fighting his way when Naoi arrested him. Was he being too overconfident in his own abilities?

The curious fact was, he didn't feel any regret in not putting up a fight. Why was that?

"Say, Kurama."

"Hmm?"

"The Afterlife...is surprisingly comfortable, don't you think?"

Kurama raised an eyebrow at his human friend's sudden statement. He went silent for a bit before answering, "Well, this is a realm created to appease its occupants. I'd say that's not really surprising."

"...then, isn't it strange?"

"What is?"

"Rika-chan said that the Afterlife helps people with regrets to pass on. That's why it creates an appeasing atmosphere by reinventing a fulfilling school life."

"She did say that. What's your point?"

"...When someone gets comfortable enough that he doesn't want to pass on, what happens then?"

At that moment, Kurama cocked his head to the side as a sign of confusion. He couldn't understand why Naruto was having that kind of question in his mind. If his memories served correctly, they hadn't come across anyone with that kind of issue. The Battlefront's reason for not passing on was because they wanted to rebel against God, not because they found the Afterlife comfortable. And since they were the only other occupants of the Afterlife, the only one who might have that feeling was—

Kurama slightly trembled as a certain thought came across his mind. He let an involuntary growl slip through his lips.

"Naruto, don't tell me...you don't want to pass on?"

Yes.

The only one that could have that kind of ridiculous thought was the one who asked such a question – Naruto himself.

"..."

"What's gotten into you, all of a sudden? You do realize what we came here for, don't you?"

Kurama's stern voice made Naruto feel a sense of tightness in his chest. He gnashed his teeth to prevent himself from gasping.

"I know, but look around for a sec. Don't you notice that there's a really big difference this world has when compared to our world?"

"Meaning?"

"It's a hell lot more peaceful here, 'ttebayo. Even though there might be the recurring fights between the Battlefront and Kanade, this is the closest thing to peace we've ever been in. And…I don't know why, but I feel like this is the kind of peace Pervy Sage had been searching for!"

It was sad, but it was the truth. Compared to Naruto's old world, which was riddled with near-constant battles and wars, the Afterlife was indeed a peaceful place.

A war-hardened soldier who had seen many battlefields would be confronted with two possibilities upon their return to their peaceful homes; either to drown themselves in another conflict or loosen up and accept the peace at the risk of losing their effectiveness formed by countless combat.

The tired Uzumaki Naruto was most likely the latter. This was proven by his choice of becoming a neutral party unrelated to the battles between those two factions.

"...So you're basically saying we should just stay here since this place has already achieved peace?"

The hard tone of Kurama's voice was enough to make Naruto gulp in nervousness, but he gave his answer nevertheless.

"Yeah."

*CLANG!*

A loud noise came from Kurama's cage, shaking the metal bars, shocking Naruto enough that he jumped to a sitting position instantly. He realized that Kurama's paw had just punched the cage.

"Don't give me that shit! You've clearly forgotten what you wanted to do the first time you came here. It's to forget about our past, isn't it?! You're tired of carrying that weight the world had selfishly put on your shoulders, so you wanted to forget, didn't you?! The last thing I wanted you to do is to be enthralled by this fake, illusionary peace!"

"But what if I don't want to forget?! I know at first I said I wanted to forget about them; my friends, my village, my world, all of them. But seeing those...those NPC versions of them feels so natural to me that it scares me! What if coming here was enough for me? What if it turns out I really can't let go of these memories so easily?!"

"THEN SUCK IT UP AND FORGET!"

With his patience burning out, Kurama roared and shook the entirety of Naruto's subconscious, leaving the whisker-marked boy speechless.

"You knew what you wanted, and you knewwhat this choice would acquire you to do. Don't come crying like a coward when it gets hard, because I know damn well that you're not the kind to go back on your words!"

For all Kurama knew his whole life, Naruto wasn't a quitter. It was simply not his style to give up, and the fox demon had always admired that side of his jailor.

That was why he got so angry when the boy sounded weak.

Because it reminded him of how he himself had failed to support Naruto in protecting their world. It reminded him of how that failure led the boy to give up and wished for their world to cease to exist.

Seeing Naruto drop into silence made Kurama's hard gaze softened. The fox calmed himself by taking a deep breath and exhaling through his pointy nose.

"It's not like I can't understand what you're going through. I know that you treasure your bonds with your friends more than anything," Kurama said consolingly before lowering his head to Naruto's level. "But you can't expect me to stay put and watch as you get dragged down by your past. I know that at least you're smart enough to not let those treasured bonds become mere chains holding you back from the future you want to achieve. If they're as much of a friend as I am to you, I'm sure this'll anger them just as much."

Naruto raised his head in slight surprise, looking at Kurama's red eyes through his subconscious, before averting it downwards with a grim expression.

He didn't say anything this time, either.

He knew that what Kurama told him was the truth, yet he had a hard time accepting it in his mind.

Kurama took Naruto's silence as an end to their conversation and clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"Tch, whatever. I'm going to sleep then. Wake me up when you're finally calm enough to talk to me again."

With that, Kurama turned back into the depths of his cage and walked slowly into the darkness. Before his giant figure was completely shrouded by the shadows, though, he turned his head slightly to glance at Naruto.

"And Naruto, I don't think I need to remind you of this," he said with his stern tone again. "But this half-assed attitude of yours is precisely what Obito had taken advantage of."

o-x-o-x-o

[PART 3]

The ground was shaking.

The first thing Otonashi noticed when he woke up was Kanade's sleeping form, still at the place he last saw her. He must've fallen asleep when he sat on the floor and leaned on the metal door, but the shaking ground woke him up.

"What was that sound?" Otonashi wondered to himself. "An earthquake?"

If it really was an earthquake, they would be in for a trouble. The underground wasn't the best place to be in an earthquake, and they would really be buried alive if it happened to be a strong earthquake.

Otonashi concentrated on his hearing and could hear the sound of water dripping. It wet the single bed a bit, but he wasn't particularly focused on that.

'Has the Afterlife ever experienced an earthquake before?'

The worst earthquake Otonashi had ever experienced in the Afterlife had been when he came to the Guild during Operation 'Guild Descent', and even then, the earthquake was not a natural phenomenon. That would mean the earthquake just now was the same, and that could only mean one thing.

"A battle?!" Otonashi exclaimed in realization. "They're here to save—"

He paused.

Why didn't he think about that possibility?

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his walkie-talkie that Yuri gave him.

"I had this all this time, so why didn't I realize it? Let's see...will the frequency be able to connect me to Yuri's device?"

The frequency before had connected him to Naruto's walkie-talkie. If that was the case, Otonashi would have to carefully search for a frequency that was compatible with the one Yuri was using.

He had to try with the frequency he already had first.

"Yuri, we're trapped!"

A noise of static answered his call for help.

But fortunately, he received a response.

"Hrm? Otonashi...? Wazzup?"

Naruto's voice suggested that he had just woken up, judging by the slight drawl in his speech.

"Uzumaki, huh...so it really does only connects to you," Otonashi sighed in disappointment.

"Huh? What do you mean? By the way, is there an earthquake or something? The ground's shaking."

"That's what I would like to know, too. Possibly, the others from the Battlefront are coming for us and are now engaging in battle. I can't say for sure, though."

"Really? That's good...still, is there a way to contact the guys above? We have the walkie-talkie, right?"

"The frequency doesn't match. If it comes to this, we will have to search for it on our own, though I don't know how long that would take."

"Are you kidding me...? That's something Shikamaru would be capable of. I'm not patient enough to scroll through frequencies that long, 'ttebayo."

Otonashi was about to ask who Naruto was talking about when another voice joined in their conversation through his radio device.

"...-shi-kun? Otonashi-kun?"

"Hm? That voice...Leader-chan?"

Otonashi perked up at the voice and immediately spoke up, "I'm here! I can hear you!"

"Oh, good...from the sound of it, it seems that brash idiot is there too. I'm glad I set the same frequency for all the devices."

"Ugh...I expected this kind insult in your speech pattern, but hearing it hurts a lot more than I thought, 'ttebayo!"

Otonashi exhaled in relief and spoke, "I see. So it's capable of conference calls as well. Thank goodness for that."

"More importantly, hear me out and believe what I'm about to tell you, Otonashi-kun."

"Eh?"

"Listen carefully. Naoi Ayato isn't an NPC," Yuri said through the walkie-talkie. "He has a soul. He's a human just like us!"

"...For real?" Naruto let out in disbelief.

"No way..." Otonashi felt the same in that it took him completely by surprise.

"When you think about it carefully, it makes sense," Yuri continued. "As the former vice-president, he was supposed to be a paragon of student life. If that were the case, he should've accepted his life and disappeared."

"Hold on, doesn't the fact that he didn't disappear despite that means he is an NPC?" Naruto asked hurriedly.

"That was what I initially thought as well," Yuri responded in agreement. "But I discovered that he'd been beating up ordinary students under the table. That's not something a simple-minded NPC would do. He acted like an exemplary student publicly, but in the shadows he was doing terrible things. That's how he maintained his balance in this world."

"That's..." Otonashi could only hear, nearly speechless.

The Afterlife's system dictated that teenagers with insurmountable regret were placed there to get over their regret. The method to achieve that was by giving them a fulfilling school life, enabling them to pass on once that sense of fulfillment was achieved. The Afterlife Battlefront deliberately rebelled against that system by not going through that method, and instead instigated a war against Kanade.

Naoi used the same approach as the Battlefront did, but in his case, rather than merely rebelling, he lived through that 'fulfilling school life' while doing rebellious acts to keep him hooked to the Afterlife.

In a way, that was his own crude method to integrate his position in the Afterlife.

Not rebelling outright, but not completely obeying the system either.

"And when Angel lost her position, he gained the freedom to do what he wants with this world. I don't know what his objective is yet, but we've started a battle against him. ...It's a terrible fight like you've never seen."

Yuri seemed to pause for a moment before continuing, "He knows we won't harm ordinary students, so he's using them as shields and hostages. We have no choice but to submit. It's turned into a one-sided massacre. Our friends are falling...one after another."

"...! Then what the hell are you doing standing around there?! You guys gotta run away! It doesn't matter if you'll resurrect afterwards – this isn't the time to get overconfident against an enemy like that!"

Naruto's desperate voice could be heard from the other side of the device, and Otonashi was surprised by the mixture of fear underneath his tone.

"It's too late even if we retreat now. The student council members have already surrounded us and covered all of our exits. The only thing we can do is to surrender for now."

"Then think something up! No matter what, you can't let them all die so meaninglessly like this!"

"Uzumaki...?"

It was the first time Otonashi heard Naruto behaving so out-of-character. Was he...scared? Of what, exactly?

Otonashi heard the boy gasp in surprise before cursing under his breath. Yuri was silent as she listened to Naruto's sudden outbursts as if she wasn't in a dangerous situation at all. An amused chuckle was heard after that.

"Hmph...who do you take me for? Of course I won't let them die meaninglessly. I've got a plan to turn the tables around," Yuri confidently replied. Her tone was strangely light all of a sudden, and Otonashi could really make out a smile as his leader spoke.

"Besides, I told you, didn't I? I'm a leader for a reason. There's no way I'll just accept this lying down."

"..."

Yuri took Naruto's silence as an answer. She then continued, "I think Angel's been imprisoned somewhere. We went to the reflection room to find her, but she wasn't there. I think they put her in a different place, one not so easy to release her from."

Yuri took a deep breath to regulate her speaking tone.

"And so I thought, Otonashi-kun, maybe you're with her right now?"

Otonashi looked to his side.

The 'Angel' Yuri spoke of – in other words, Tachibana Kanade, was sleeping beside him.

"Get her out, Otonashi-kun. We need her to stop this terrible fight."

Indeed, if there was anyone strong enough to go against someone who had achieved enough authority to control the Afterlife as his own, Kanade might be the only option.

She had reigned over the Afterlife longer than any of them, so she should know how to turn the situation around.

"...There's no time left. Come to the Grounds."

Not long after she said that, the sound of repetitive gunfire resounded from the walkie-talkie. Distraught, Otonashi pressed his ear to the radio device and hoped that he misheard that, but the gunfire didn't cease. If anything, it went wilder than before.

"I'm heading out now as well. Be careful!"

That was Yuri's last words before she hung up.

The overwhelming silence that came afterwards was intense.

"Dammit! Why am I here in a time like this?!"

Whilst Otonashi was trapped in this inescapable room, his comrades were dying. This was enough to put him under stress.

On the other side of the walkie-talkie, he could hear Naruto feeling the same.

"...That idiot...does she really think we'll be there in time?"

In a situation where people were dying one after another, the two boys could only clench their fists in anger. They wouldn't be able to save their friends even if they wanted to, and that made them feel more helpless than ever. By the time they got out, it would be too late to help them.

Of course, neither of the two had any intention to let that happen.

"...Like hell I would accept that," Naruto muttered, his voice gradually growing louder. "Otonashi, find a way out of there. I'll try to see if I can do something myself."

"You have something in mind?"

"Probably, but I don't know if it'll work. In any case, see if Kanade knows how to deal with the door on your end. I don't like dragging her into this, but I'd rather die before letting that moss-haired bastard do as he pleases."

o-x-o-x-o

Naruto cut off his device's connection with Otonashi's and stood up beside the bed.

His narrowed eyes glared at the metal door which stood in his path.

"...Kagebunshin no Jutsu."

Instantly, a clone came into existence via a flicker of bright light. He held his hand out to said clone and released a tremendous amount of reiryoku, while the clone moving his hands in a motion that suggested he was rolling something round.

A second later, a large white orb appeared and gradually got bigger; it grew large enough to be mistaken for a basket ball. Both Naruto and his clone lunged forward and drove the orb into the metal door.

"Oodama Rasengan!"

The giant Rasengan crashed into the metal door, but just before it actually made contact, a barrier of some sort appeared to hold it back. Its appearance was similar to a wireframe-like data construct shaped into a wall, and it wasn't budging even as Naruto's Oodama Rasengan continuously bit into it.

Eventually, the Rasengan wore off and so did the clone, disappearing in a flicker of light.

"It didn't work the first time, what makes you think the second time would?" an amused voice asked him.

Knowing it was Kurama, Naruto scowled.

"What makes you think that'll keep me from trying?" he harshly asked back.

Hearing Naruto's aggressive tone made Kurama narrow his eyes at the boy. Mirroring the scowl that was on Naruto's face, he then said, "I get that you're eager to save those Battlefront brats, but rushing things won't change a thing. If you don't calmly think of a plan—"

"I already have one. I just needed to get a rough measurement of that barrier's strength," Naruto stated confidently. "Normal Rasengan wouldn't work no matter how much reiryoku in it."

"What's your next plan, then?" Kurama asked.

"...Rasen-Shuriken should do it."

Wind Release: Rasen-Shuriken.

To date, it was Naruto's strongest technique next to the highly destructive Tailed Beast Bomb. It employed his natural affinity of wind and was supposed to be combined with his Rasengan to create a spiraling shuriken capable of destroying whole forests in one blow. Its worst effect – and at the same time, its greatest risk – was the destruction of cells through the countless miniscule wind blades gathered in the shuriken part of the Rasengan.

That destruction of cells wasn't limited to the target, but also the user doing the Jutsu.

"Rasen-Shuriken, huh... Well, if you want to use it without risking blowing your arm off, I suggest using your Sage Mode to do it. I'm not certain whether natural energy exists here in the Afterlife, though."

"...Well, we gotta try."

Naruto sat cross-legged on the floor, put his hands together on his lap as if in prayer, and then closed his eyes.

To enter Sage Mode, Naruto needed to draw in natural energy that existed in the surrounding living things. It was harder to use than normal chakra, so one needed to be still and calm as possible to actually draw it in, in a sense 'becoming one with nature'. Once the right amount of natural energy is drawn, Naruto would enter Sage Mode, enabling him to do feats normal ninjas wouldn't be able to achieve.

One of the advantages Sage Mode gave Naruto was enhanced physical strength on a level capable of withstanding even the cell-destroying Rasen Shuriken.

"Let's do this."

Concentrating on feeling his surroundings, Naruto started to picture himself grabbing around for natural energy.

The first few seconds passed by as planned until Naruto finally got a good grip on a faint trace of natural energy. It wasn't nearly as potent as what he used to feel back when he was alive, but the quality of the energy wasn't all that different. It would surely turn him into a Sage if he absorbed it.

And absorbed it he did. The moment he had drawn in an adequate amount of natural energy, he released his focus and activated his Sage Mode.

But what happened next was not something he had expected.

"Huh? Hey, what...?!"

"What is it?"

Naruto lost the feeling of his legs. For some reason, he could no longer feel his legs, almost as if they were not part of him anymore. Confused by the turnout, Naruto turned his head downwards to look at his legs.

It came as a shock to him when he saw his legs turning into something resembling a toad's.

"What the hell?! Why am I turning into a frog?!"

Naruto was forced to watch as his limbs underwent a series of change.

Little by little, his legs and arms turned into that of a toad's. He could even start to feel his limbs freezing up as they gradually turned to stone.

This was the side-effect to drawing in natural energy. When someone tries to draw in natural energy but ends up being overwhelmed by it, they will turn into a frog and will afterwards become a frog statue.

But that didn't make any sense.

In the past, Naruto had already mastered the Sage Mode. His control was said to be even better than Jiraiya, his mentor, and was said to have perfected the Sage Mode. In other words, he had already memorized the adequate amount of natural energy he should draw in to activate his perfected Sage Mode.

And yet, that grotesque side-effect still happened despite the fact that Naruto had absolute control over natural energy.

The mere thought of turning into a statue frightened Naruto more than anything.

"Kuh...GUWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!"

"Brat...!"

o-x-o-x-o

Otonashi trusted Naruto.

If nothing else, he had faith in his abilities. That yellow-haired boy was way stronger than anyone he knew, so he shouldn't worry too much about him finding his way out.

He had to put his own situation in precedence first.

And so, he shook Kanade awake from her sleep.

"Wake up, Tachibana!" he quite literally shouted into her ears.

At first, there was no immediate reaction. But slowly, and groggily, Kanade began to wake up. Her droopy eyes faintly scanned her immediate surroundings and noticed Otonashi sitting on his knees beside her with a distraught face.

"Help us! My friends are in trouble!" she heard him say that.

Slightly confused by the sudden request, she slowly went over Otonashi's words. No matter how she saw it, she clearly didn't mishear any of that.

"That's a strange thing to say," she honestly stated while rubbing her eyes sleepily. "Aren't we the ones in trouble?"

"Yeah, I know that well enough. My friends are trying to save us, but right now, they're in a very big trouble! I don't know how to make a way out of here, but I'm sure you can do it!"

Otonashi then bowed his head to Kanade, saying in a pleading voice, "Please! Everyone's counting on you!"

It didn't matter if it sounded selfish of him. He knew well enough that he was powerless to do anything. At this rate, his friends would get slaughtered. Right now, Kanade was his only hope.

Kanade stared at Otonashi as he begged for her help. Her golden eyes evaluated the boy in front of her, while her mind wondered why he sounded so desperate.

She was about to continue thinking when a sound of explosion resounded, followed by a thundering rumble that shook the ground. The sound was much louder than the ones before, so it was either that the source was coming closer or the battle outside had escalated to a higher level.

Even so, Otonashi kept his head bowed to her, his request for her help remained unchanged. He sincerely hoped that Kanade would help him and change the tides of battle.

That unmoving hope of his caught Kanade's attention.

"..."

Without saying a word, Kanade got off the bed, slipped her feet into her shoes and stood facing the metal door.

"Guard Skill: Hand Sonic."

A translucent blade of light materialized on Kanade's right arm. The process of it appearing looked strangely numerical matrixes colliding and intertwining with each other before finally giving it a physical form; that was how it looked like to Otonashi.

Otonashi had been a part of the Angel Area Infiltration team (which he insisted was a group of house raiders) which figured out the source of Kanade's inhuman powers. As it turned out, Kanade's source of power wasn't of a supernatural origin like a gift from God or anything like that, but rather a computer program called 'Angel Player'. It was a computer program she used to create her Guard Skills she used in her fights.

Although Otonashi had been skeptic at first – his mind still couldn't comprehend how a computer program could give anyone any supernatural power – seeing Kanade's Hand Sonic changed his mind.

"Can you get through the door with that somehow?" Otonashi asked tentatively.

Intending to test it out, Kanade walked to the door and began slashing her blade at the door. Unfortunately, the door was protected by a barrier of some sort, capable of holding itself against Kanade's Hand Sonic. It was the same phenomenon which occurred when Naruto used his Rasengan at the door, or so he had said.

"No good, huh..." Otonashi said in disappointment.

"Well, I didn't create it with offense in mind," Kanade responded as she deactivated her Hand Sonic. "It's meant for self-defense."

"Self-defense? Didn't create it with..."

There was something that bugged Otonashi.

That hand-blade was something that could deflect bullets with pinpoint accuracy and withstand any attack from weapons which outclassed it in both size and weight. Initially, Otonashi thought that it was an extremely effective offensive weapon, but hearing Kanade's statement made him think.

What if the fact that it could deflect bullets and withstand any attack made it a very sturdy shield rather than a mere weapon?

If that was the case, then the Hand Sonic truly was created for self-defense.

Then...wouldn't that mean she never had the intention of truly fighting them?

"That's right!" Otonashi exclaimed as he stood up, walking towards Kanade as he spoke. "Do you remember when we first met? You stabbed me through the heart and killed me."

"That's because you asked something weird."

"Yeah, but I mistook you for an enemy because of that."

Even though he came back to life afterwards, the fear that he felt at the time had been real. Otonashi at that time had no knowledge about the Afterlife's resurrection system, so he had truly felt the fear of dying when Kanade attacked him.

"I lost my memories," Otonashi said bluntly. "So I don't really have any reason to fight you. If I still had my memories...if I hadn't asked you that stupid question...maybe I'd become your ally in this world."

"...There's no such person."

Otonashi blinked in surprise. "It's fine if there are, right?"

"There are none," Kanade denied once more. "Even if there were, they'd all disappear."

'Disappear...?'

The word puzzled Otonashi.

The concept of disappearance in the Afterlife was obvious to him. Anyone who achieved a sense of fulfillment in this world would disappear as a sign of them letting go of their regret. That was the only way to pass on from the Afterlife.

And then, it hit him.

The reason why Kanade had neither allies nor friends in this world was dishearteningly obvious.

'I see...' Otonashi thought, suddenly feeling weak on his legs, and fell onto the bed. 'Anyone who befriends her would live a normal school life...and eventually disappear from this world.'

The Afterlife worked to help regretful teenagers pass on through the method of giving them a chance to relive a fulfilling school life. As such, those who lived through that life together with her in this world would disappear after some time.

For instance, the simple act of studying together in the same class with her or enjoying a meal together at the cafeteria with her or confessing one's feelings in a very normal, high school-like way to her – any one of them would lead them to disappear.

—Leaving Kanade alone by herself.

Though her friends would disappear, she alone would not.

The only way for them not to disappear...was to become her enemy.

Otonashi honestly thought that was too miserable for anyone to bear. He could never hope to understand Kanade's pain – the pain of being left behind. He had to hold in his tears just imagining it.

'But...' Otonashi thought again. 'Shouldn't there be someone that can overcome that ridiculous system?'

In fact, according to the memories he did have right now, there was such a person.

"I once thought that I was the reason everyone disappeared," Kanade suddenly said. "That may be true to an extent, since I abide by the rules of this world. Anyone who is involved with me will disappear sooner or later."

Otonashi raised his head and listened to Kanade's words. He was clearly interested in why Kanade could speak more than her usual amount of words, but he stayed silent to hear what she had to say.

"That's why...when there's someone who doesn't disappear no matter how much they interact with me, I'm a bit glad."

"...You mean Uzumaki?"

The only person who could live through the school life prepared by the Afterlife, both attaining and creating laughs of happiness without disappearing out of fulfillment, was a delinquent who wouldn't live through that school life in a normal, orthodox way.

In other words, that person was Uzumaki Naruto.

The neutral party who befriended Kanade without disappearing and hooked his existence in the Afterlife without rebelling.

To put it simply, he had become Kanade's ally in this world.

"Hah ha...that makes sense. He does seem like the kind of guy who won't disappear no matter how much you want him to," Otonashi said in a joking manner. A smile made its way to his face as he said that.

It was a bittersweet smile.

It was as if Naruto had broken the ridiculous system of the Afterlife and came to drag Kanade out of her loneliness.

Compared to him, Otonashi really was...

"Hand Sonic: Version 2."

"Huh?" Otonashi stared as Kanade materialized her hand-blade once more, but this time it changed form into a thinner, longer sword with a spearhead-shaped point.

"It's a thinner form for higher speed," Kanade explained. She then proceeded to repeatedly slash at the metal door once more. Like she said, her slashing speed really did increase, but it didn't do any damage to the door.

Otonashi could only look at Kanade as she relentlessly barraged the door with her sword slashes. He was almost surprised by her tenacity – an expression that could not be seen on her expressionless face, but on her actions. An involuntary smile rose to Otonashi's face at the peculiar sight.

"Say, Tachibana?"

Kanade stopped her barrage and turned her head slightly towards Otonashi, as if to ask "what?" indirectly.

"What do you think about Uzumaki?"

Faced with that question, Kanade tilted her head questioningly. "...Well, I'm grateful to him. Despite how he insists ramen is better than Mapo Tofu, he's a nice person."

Otonashi smirked awkwardly after hearing that offhanded comment. "That last bit isn't really necessary, is it?"

"But, Otonashi-kun," Kanade interjected, surprising Otonashi with her use of his name. "Despite how he acts, he seems lonely. I think...the reason he tries his best to help me is because we can relate to each other."

"Because he's...lonely?" Otonashi asked in disbelief.

No one would've thought that upbeat and obnoxious blonde would feel lonely. Or rather, Otonashi didn't thought he had the chance to feel so, given how frequent he got involved with the Battlefront.

Then again, he never truly became anyone's ally. He was just doing what he wanted.

Maybe that was a form of loneliness in itself.

"That's why," Kanade started, aligning her right arm to cross in front of her face. "Part of me wants to help him out as well. Version 3."

Once again, the blade sprouting from Kanade's sleeve changed form, this time into a trident. She glanced at her weapon's new form and looked a bit discouraged.

"Inelegant, isn't it?" she said in reference to her Hand Sonic's third form.

Contrary to her disappointment, Otonashi gave her a thumbs-up and smirked. "It's pretty cool!"

"But I can't open the door with this, either."

"Does it have any other forms?"

"Yes, Version 4."

As soon as Kanade said her code of activation, the trident transformed once more, exuding a bright light as its data construct changed. When it was done, a slight gust of wind was released and Otonashi could see its new form.

It was...an odd one to say the least.

"I tried to shape it like a flower, but maybe it looks too cute?"

True to her words, the fourth form of her Hand Sonic looked like someone had printed a two-dimensional picture of a flower and used it as its base form. That being said, the ironclad flower was wider than a grown man's shoulders.

"No, I think it looks pretty threatening..." Otonashi said uneasily, but then he looked closely at the size.

His eyes widened in realization as he said, "That might work..."

Kanade, who had just deactivated her Hand Sonic, tilted her head in a questioning manner. As if to answer her unsaid question, Otonashi stood up and looked straight at her.

"I want you to try something."

He had a plan.

After explaining the plan to Kanade, the girl nodded and took a step back from the door. Concentrating, she once again activated her Hand Sonic.

"Hand Sonic: Version 2."

As the thin long sword appeared on her right arm, Kanade pulled her arm back and stabbed the sword towards the door. However, her target wasn't the door itself, but the slight opening near the handle.

Otonashi noticed that, despite it being a metal door with numerous heavy iron locks, there was a slight gap separating it from the wall. It was similar to every other door that used a hinge to swing open. That gap was wide enough for the second form of Kanade's Hand Sonic to get through.

"Version 3," the girl uttered.

Once the sword got through, Kanade changed her blade's form into the thicker third form, the trident. The damage applied on that small gap started to become visible as the pressure rose.

"Version 4."

And then, when it reached its fourth form – the stupidly large, ironclad flower – it was big enough to slowly pull apart the door from its hinges. The door started to give a glow as the damage done to it reached a critical rate.

"It'll work!" Otonashi exclaimed.

Not a moment later, the door was thrown inwards and crashed as a hunk of metal on the single bed. The explosion caused by it took away Otonashi's hearing temporarily. It wasn't until he heard the sound of a ringing bell that he regained his senses.

Fearing that the bell might alarm any guards in the vicinity, he quickly pulled Kanade out of the room and looked to the side. They were apparently standing in a long, dark corridor. He certainly had no recollection about having been there before, so it must be a new building.

"Let's hurry!"

Taking Kanade's hand in his, he ran towards the exit.

On his way, he passed by a room which metal door had been blasted to the wall on the opposite side. The metal door was charred black as if it was burned, and the destruction caused on the wall surrounding it was so severe he wondered how the wall was still intact.

He paid it no mind since he already knew who could've done that.

o-x-o-x-o

Rain poured hard on the Grounds.

It had been a cloudy all day long despite it being summer, but that was probably a phenomenon caused by the season. One of the drawbacks of summer was that the water vapor gathered by the heat would later on form clouds. As time passed by, the mass of water would become too much to contain and would fall as a downpour.

That same rain had slightly toned down the smell of blood hanging in the air, but failed to completely hide the large amount of blood staining the grounds.

The one-sided massacre carried upon the Afterlife Battlefront seemed truly unfair.

Utilizing their weak spot, which was their reluctance in hurting any of the ordinary students, Naoi Ayato had mobilized the student council to surround all the members of the Afterlife Battlefront, before proceeding to kill them one by one right then and there. The Battlefront members could not put up a fight when they knew the student council also held some ordinary students hostage.

Amongst those who had not been killed yet was Yuri. She herself was putting up a futile last resistance along with some of the surviving members.

It would only prolong the inevitable, but she refused to acknowledge that fact.

The battlefront leader could only stare helplessly as she saw her comrades getting slaughtered one by one. She gritted her teeth to keep herself from recklessly charging forward in rage.

'Don't be stupid,' Yuri thought to herself as she held her trembling hand, the same one that was holding her silver Beretta. 'Help will come. No matter what, our objective is to hold out as long as we can!'

She scanned her surroundings with her eyes.

Through the thick rain, she could see Hideki, Noda, Fujimaki, Ōyama and Shiina still standing. Blood was all over them, but they were still alive. She just needed something to distract the student council members pointing their guns towards them to regroup with those survivors.

"Give it up."

The cold, relentless voice of Naoi Ayato called out to her. Even through the continued downpour, she could hear that voice clearly. He was quite a distance away from her, standing among the dead bodies of her comrades, stepping on their motionless figures as if to mock them.

"The way you're resisting will only make you all suffer more. I may not look like it, but I actually despise unnecessary bloodshed."

"...Don't joke with me," Yuri snarled at the dark-clothed student council president. "The way you killed off my subordinates clearly shows otherwise, you asshole!"

"Oh, such a sharp tongue. I suppose I've angered you enough to hear that coming from you. However, haven't you realized that you've already lost? Surrender while you can, and I probably won't have to kill you."

"Haa? Do you seriously think we'd just put our hands up after all this?" Fujimaki asked with hostility. He, like the others, knew well enough that he couldn't really hurt the student council comprised of ordinary students, but that didn't stop him from unsheathing his shirasaya to put up a fight.

He had avoided most gunshots that would've killed him, but his stamina was nearing its limit.

"...How shallow-minded," Shiina muttered under her breath.

Despite being the fastest and arguably one of the strongest in the Battlefront, Shiina had numerous cut wounds on her body. Arm, leg, hip, and shoulder; blood was running from the wounds on those limbs of hers. It would not be a lie to say that her condition was the worst amongst the surviving Battlefront members.

A ninja like her was more of a one-hit kill type more than anything, so it was hard for her to fight the student council without the intention to kill. She managed to weave through gunshots and fatal blows, but the sheer number of the student council members had overwhelmed her. Moreover, the lack of cover in the Grounds prevented her from hiding in the shadows, leaving her having to fight head-on.

"You got some guts talking high and mighty like that after what you did, you freakin' bastard," Noda breathed out.

Unlike most of the Battlefront members, Noda was one of the ones who were skeptical about not retaliating against the student council. In his eyes, those who attacked him and his comrades were enemies regardless of whether they were ordinary students or not. Out of respect for Yuri, he didn't hurt any of them, but like Fujimaki, his halberd was enough to keep most student council members at bay.

It wasn't without cost, though. Blood was trailing down his forehead, but his grip on his halberd was as strong as ever.

"Let's see if you can you still talk after I skewer that mouth of yours!"

"Stop it, Noda!" Hideki shouted.

Compared to the others, Noda might have the least wounds, but having him charge in towards the student council members and provoking them to use their guns would instantly change that.

But the same was likely to happen even if they didn't do anything.

They were obviously in a pinch.

That was why Noda ignored Hideki's warning and dashed towards Naoi with his halberd held at ready.

"Like hell I'll let you off after mocking Yurippe like that!"

"Wai—Noda-kun!"

The Battlefront's oath was to not hurt the ordinary students, so hurting the student council members comprised of those NPCs was out of the question. However, as it turned out, Naoi was not an NPC, so Noda had no hesitation in attacking him.

That didn't mean attacking him would be easy.

Yuri was a step too late to stop Noda, who was already pulling back his halberd ready to bring it down on Naoi. In response to that, Naoi merely smiled dangerously.

"HUWOOOOOAAAH!"

"Hmph, a foolish move."

Naoi's confidence came from the fact that he already had the Battlefront members surrounded.

*CLANG!*

Even when the blade of Noda's halberd was closing on his head, he stood fast, letting a sword-wielding student council member come to his aid and block Noda's attack. This shocked the purple-haired teen because his attack was completely stopped, despite the sword being an ordinary katana.

His shock prevented him from noticing another student council member on his right, pressing a handgun to his temple.

"It's over. Now die," Naoi said from behind his subordinate's cover.

Noda was frozen, finally realizing he was caught off-guard, and braced himself for the pain.

As said before, the Battlefront's oath was to not hurt the ordinary students. As such, even if Noda could draw his halberd back and make a desperate slash at the student councilman, he wouldn't be able to.

The student councilman with the handgun pulled the trigger. The sound of gunshot tore through the rainy skies.

. . .

But no blood was splattered.

*BAM!*

Noda opened his eyes upon realization that he was still alive, and that his brain was still intact. He thought he heard a sound of shuffling feet, like the one made from someone landing a long jump, but the loud sound of gunshot near his ears took out his hearing capabilities for a while. Curious, he looked to his right to see what happened to the student councilman previously holding a gun to his head.

He saw a bright flare of yellow.

At the back, Yuri, Hideki and Fujimaki all stared at the appearance of this new entity. Their eyes had widened ever since they saw Noda being held at gunpoint.

It had all happened in an instant.

The very moment a gun was pressed to Noda's temple, everyone was sure the boy would be shot to death. This was based on the fact that no one would be able to dodge a shot from point-blank range. Of course, when the student council member pulled the trigger, a gunshot was heard and a bullet had undoubtedly left the barrel.

But it never reached its target.

Because all of a sudden, the gun held by the student council member flew out of his hand.

Another hand had back-handed the student councilman's hand so strongly that the momentum made him spin around and fall on his back. That was all Noda could register before he was pulled by the collar and haphazardly flew in midair as the mysterious person dragged him while jumping back several times. It was a second later that Noda realized he was being pulled back towards Yuri and the others.

"SPECIAL DELIVERY!" announced the person as he dropped Noda on his ass. There was a bit of flailing about because of how fast Noda was being carried with.

"I thought I was imagining things when I first felt that huge amount of life force suddenly disappearing. So it really was this bad, huh?" the mysterious figure said.

He then stood up and revealed his face. His eyes were red and had a cross-like symbol as the pupil in contrast to his usual deep blues, and orange pigmentation colored the area near his eyes. However, those thickened whisker marks were a dead giveaway of his identity.

Coated in an aura reminiscent to a burning yellow flame, Uzumaki Naruto appeared before their eyes.

"So," started the boy with a feral smirk, "who's up for round two?"

o-x-o-x-o

-Some time before-

Let's rewind the events a bit.

Around the time when Otonashi was trying to get Kanade to help him, Naruto had already been frozen solid.

He had turned into stone.

There wasn't even enough time for him to undergo the frog transformation which was supposed to occur first. The petrification rate had jumped into an alarmingly fast pace that the transformation was overlapped.

In any case, Naruto had been turned into a stone statue.

But he wasn't dead.

The reason was because Kurama was forcibly controlling the boy's reiryoku to hold off the petrification process. However, even though he succeeded in preventing full petrification, he was powerless to do anything else.

"D-Damn it...the brat's body has already turned completely into stone. At this rate, his organs are next, and it's all over if his heart stops working!"

Even though he was trapped behind a seal, Kurama could still do a bit of tinkering with Naruto's physiology. At the very least, rerouting all of his innate reiryoku to create a path to divert natural energy away fromthe parts he could still save was something he could still accomplish. It took extreme concentration to do it, as he never had the experience of controlling something other than chakra, but he managed to do it. The fox was now holding both of his hands towards the bars of his cage to control an invisible route of reiryoku.

"But how am I supposed to go from here?! He's already lost consciousness when his right lung turned to stone, and I hate to know what will happen next." The fox growled out to no one in particular. "Isn't there anything I can do?!"

"There is."

"!?"

In the middle of his desperation, a feminine voice he had grown familiar with answered him. Turning his head slightly, he saw blue light wisps appearing from the corner of his eyes, eventually taking the form of a blue-haired girl.

"Bernkastel..."

"It looks like you've got your hands full, Kurama."

The slight smile on Frederica's face showed amusement, probably because of the amount of frustration on Kurama's face. The smile held no ill will, but it annoyed Kurama nonetheless.

"Drop it. I wouldn't be doing this if you've told us beforehand that this kind of thing might occur. How were we supposed to know that the brat would turn into stone the moment he tries to draw in natural energy?!"

Kurama left out the question on how natural energy even existed in the Afterlife since he wanted to focus on the worst case scenario currently happening.

"My apologies, but I never thought he'd use his Sage Mode in this peaceful world. It seemed...redundant for him to do that, at the time."

Kurama snorted, "Peaceful, yeah right... In any case, what do you have in mind? You said there is something we can do to save the brat, right?"

"The only way to save Naruto is by balancing the natural energy he'd drawn in," Frederica stated with a serious look in her eyes. "I've once observed how he trained to master his Sage Mode. The method is the same no matter which arc I observed, interestingly enough. If I'm not mistaken, to achieve Sage Mode, he needs to draw an amount of natural energy equal to the chakra he has."

"Yeah, and considering he had considerably large chakra reserves, he was able to draw in a lot of natural energy. But just now, he turned into stone the moment he tried to do it."

"That's to be expected."

"What do you mean?"

"The only thing that could balance the natural energy he draws in is his own chakra reserves," Frederica explained. "But at the moment, he doesn't have any chakra. He's dead, remember? The amalgam which creates chakra had been broken the moment he died and turned into a spirit. In other words, the chakra which acts as the counterbalance for his natural energy is gone. The energy he has within him now is reiryoku, a type of spiritual energy, which I doubt is sufficient to balance the natural energy he drew in."

The main reason Naruto was able to achieve Sage Mode in the first place was because the near-inexhaustible amount of chakra he had. Chakra itself was an amalgam of physical and spiritual energy. If a person dies, that was the same thing as having their physical energy extinguished.

The current Naruto was a spirit. So naturally, he only had the spiritual energy part of the chakra he used to have. In that case, it was impossible for him to refine chakra.

"Then what the hell are we supposed to do?! I actually thought that things turned out like this because he lost his focus, but it's another story if the main problem is his nonexistent chakra. If there's no way for the brat to use chakra, then how are we supposed to balance his natural energy?!"

"That's an easy problem," Frederica answered with a relaxed expression. "We only need to give him chakra. And, before you ask, I can confidently answer that we already have a donor."

"Get to the point."

"In summary, you'll be giving him chakra."

"Huh?"

Kurama blinked owlishly. He must've heard it incorrectly.

"Hold on, what do you mean I'll be giving it to him?"

"Oh? Are you reluctant to give some of it a way?"

"Like hell I am. If it's to save the brat, then I'll be glad to. But how am I supposed to do that? I'm also dead, remember? Theoretically, I shouldn't have any chakra left in me, though there is this abundant amount of energy in me which I'm not sure what to call anymore."

"That's not true," the blue-haired girl denied while shaking her head. "Even in death, you still have the amount of chakra you used to have when you were alive. Have you forgotten what you are, Kurama? Despite being sentient entities with separate personalities, Bijūs are essentially masses of chakra. And that didn't change even after you transferred into the Afterlife."

A shocked look crossed Kurama's face, disturbing his focus on the reiryoku reroute.

"I...what?"

"Like I said, as you are now, you still have chakra."

"Wait a minute here, I thought chakra can't exist in dead bodies. In that case, being a mass of chakra, I shouldn't be able to exist in this place, should I? Isn't that what you meant when you told me beings such as I can't exist here?"

"Normally, yes," Frederica nodded in agreement. "That is exactly why I sealed you inside Naruto's body. Granted, transferring you as a separated individual would be impossible, but it's a different story if I were to seal you inside Naruto. Currently, you and Naruto are accounted as a single being, and that is why you're able to exist in this world, regardless of whether you're not a spirit or if you are entirely consisted of chakra."

It wasn't impossible, but the requirements for Kurama to exist were indeed difficult. To sustain Kurama's form as a chakra entity, he had to remain sealed inside Naruto's. And then, there was the trouble of spiritual bodies not being able to be a suitable prison due to not having their own chakra.

But Naruto had once said this before,

"-Then again, it might be you since you still had a mountain equality of chakra, even in your human form.-"

If what Frederica said was true, then what Naruto had felt that time really was his Bijū chakra. How was it possible that he still possessed chakra inside him despite being dead?

The key to this was the Hakke Fūin, the 'Eight Trigrams Seal' Frederica used.

Even if Naruto's physical body could no longer be used to house Kurama, Frederica was able to seal Kurama in Naruto's spiritual form (the one he was in now).

"I forgot to tell you this, but I upgraded the Fourth Hokage's sealing method without your consent, tee hee~"

"Then tell me that sooner, you nonchalant saint! And what's with that ridiculous revelation?! Are you seriously telling me you could bind chakra to souls after tweaking the Fourth's Hakke Fūin a little bit?! That's too ridiculously easy that I feel sort of cheated!"

"Ah, the petrification rate is speeding up."

"UWOOOOH?! Dammit, I got distracted!"

After a short bout of uncharacteristic panic on Kurama's side, the fox calmed down and glared at the cheerfully smiling Saint.

"...You're lucky the brat's quite fond of you, otherwise I would've turned you into a bloody paste under my paw."

"Oh, he is? My, my, I suspected he was a lolicon, but I never thought I'd be correct."

"Anyway," Kurama interjected with fervor. "I get what I have to do now. So basically, I just have to transfer my chakra to him?"

"Yes, preferably enough to balance the amount of natural energy he had accidentally pulled in."

"Hmph, then that makes things easier," Kurama said confidently. He smirked and showed his rows of sharp teeth, "Thanks for the help, Bernkastel. I might be able to save the brat thanks to you."

"Don't thank me. On the contrary, I should apologize for not informing you of this earlier. Still, how are you going to give your chakra to him?"

"Well...I just have to do it. Giving him my chakra wouldn't be the first for me. He's my Jinchūriki after all, so it's almost like an instinct, really. It's a boring method, but with the brat in the state he is now, I doubt he'd be able to play chakra tug-of-war against me."

There was only one way to reawaken Naruto.

Kurama stopped rerouting Naruto's reiryoku and clasped his hand, gathering his chakra. He sneered as if he just noticed something.

"Tch, that Naruto...the amount of natural energy he drew is worth four of my tails. Did he miscalculate the amount of natural energy he was supposed to absorb or something? What a troublesome brat."

"Four tails...will he transform into that hideous four-tailed form of his?"

"If he hadn't mastered my chakra, he would. But with the current him, that amount is enough for him to enter the Bijū Mode. Considering we needed a way out of this room anyway, I'd say it's hitting two birds with one stone."

"I see..." Frederica muttered with a smile. She stepped back and turned around, saying, "Well, it seems you have things under control now. I'll be taking my leave, then."

"Hold up, Bernkastel."

"Hm?"

Kurama glanced down at the small girl who was no bigger than his thumb. His nose twitched momentarily, almost like he smelled something funny, before peering down at the girl with his large red eyes.

"...This may sound creepy coming from me, but there's a different scent coming from you," The nine-tailed fox showed a slight uncharacteristic moment of shame before continuing to speak. "Was there someone with you back in your realm?"

Frederica stiffened.

She had not expected Kurama's nose to be able to pick up that faintest of scents. Or rather, she didn't expect that her body still had the concept of scent given its spiritual properties.

"...No, there wasn't. I think what you smelled was my perfume."

"Why the hell would a loner Saint use perfume? Are you trying to look good in front of the souls of other lost heroes? I really can't understand you..."

"There's a lot about me that you don't know, Kurama," said the girl, hiding the gloominess of her smile under the mischievous light in her eyes. She started to walk off again and started to disappear. "Well, good luck saving Naruto. I put a lot of hope in you succeeding, of course."

"Yeah, yeah, tell me something I don't know."

Hearing the arrogant reply, Frederica smiled as the last of her visage faded. After she completely disappeared, Kurama sighed and turned his head towards the bars of his cage.

"Alright then, brat. Let's see if I can't bring you back to life."

Without hesitation, Kurama let loose a tidal wave of chakra from his body. The amount he released was worth four of his tails, and that amount was comparable to an erupting volcano. The inside of Naruto's subconscious shook as that invisible chakra traveled throughout the yellow-haired boy's body, revitalizing his empty chakra circulatory system.

And then...

"HnnnnnnnnoooOOWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

The yell came from Naruto's mouth, which was previously frozen like a rock statue. His stone-laden body burst with energy, sending the rocks covering his skin flying wildly to all directions.

"Kah...! Hah...hah...*cough*, what the hell...just happened?"

"Oh, good, you're back. Next time, think before you try something reckless like that. Fortunately, I'm here to save your ass."

"Kurama? What..." Naruto was about to ask what happened to him when he saw his hand.

There wasn't anything strange with his hand, per se. He just didn't expect it to be lighting up in a familiar yellow aura almost as if it was burning.

"This is...Bijū Mode?" Naruto questioned out loud. "Did you do this, Kurama?"

"Yeah. It seems you didn't turn into stone by some inexplicable accident. Bernkastel came by to explain that your absence of chakra is the reason why you couldn't balance your natural energy. In short, I gave you my chakra to balance it." A brief snort came from Kurama's mouth. "Though, I gotta say, the byproduct that came after that is surprising. I never thought that natural energy would mingle so well with my chakra. As it is now, the Bijū Mode is combined with your Sage Mode."

Naruto looked stunned when he heard Kurama's brief explanation. His mind was still hazy, but he could already recollect his memories up until before he completely turned into stone. That was a sensation he'd never want to experience again.

In contrast, the current him felt like he could punch the Hokage's Monument and break it in half.

"Uh...I thought my reiryoku was enough to balance the natural energy, but is it lower compared to the chakra I used to have?"

"Well, there's an explanation to that as well, but it'll take too long. You don't want to leave those Battlefront guys for dead, do you?"

Naruto's eyes suddenly widened. He was so caught up in his revival that he forgot about those people trying to save him.

"Damn...how long was I knocked out?"

"It didn't even reach ten minutes, now that I think about it. Then again, time moves faster here than the outside world thanks to your mind's processing speed, so roughly 53 seconds have passed just now."

"That's probably enough time for that bastard Naoi to kill them all..."

Naruto had heard gunshot sounds when Yuri contacted last time, which meant that the fight had already begun around that time. He might not know much about guns, but he surmised it wouldn't take more than a minute to kill the vulnerable Battlefront with such a sophisticated weapon.

'Are all of them dead already? ...No, I can't think like that. For what it's worth, I believe in Yuri. She should've been able to keep them alive some way or another.' Naruto thought. 'But...just to be sure...'

Naruto closed his eyes and concentrated.

The Bijū Mode he was currently in enabled him to do things normal shinobis couldn't do. For instance, it granted him a unique sensor ability which gave him the ability to sense people's hearts, more specifically the dark intentions in their souls. Combined with the Sage Mode's own chakra sensor ability, he could now practically sense peoples' presences within an undetermined radius.

However, he didn't expect the result.

"What...?"

He could feel it. The gradually decreasing number of life force outside felt so clear he had a hard time believing it. There was no doubt that was the Battlefront being slaughtered by the student council.

"That bastard...!"

He gritted his teeth and stared at the metal door once more. This time, he had no intention to stall anymore.

"That's it," Naruto said under his breath, muttering in a low, angry tone. "Playtime's over."

"I was waiting for you to say that," Kurama said with a grin.

"From the sound of it, you're pretty excited about this."

Naruto held out his right hand and gathered Kurama's chakra, the one which covered his body, and concentrated. Then, two yellow chakra arms sprouted from his back, one spinning the chakra Naruto had gathered while the other applied wind-type chakra to it.

Not a moment later, a big chakra orb with what looked like an even larger chakra shuriken spinning around it formed on his right hand. Wind picked up in that small room as Naruto held it up, tossing around the objects there.

His target was the metal door separating him from his friends.

"Fūton: Rasen-Shuriken!"

o-x-o-x-o

'In the end, the barrier protecting the door overloaded and gave way for me to blast the door open. That hallway leading outside was a complete maze, though. I was lucky that this Bijū-Sage Mode also works as a really good sensor otherwise I'd be lost in there for good. Speaking of which, the natural energy I absorbed is still inside me. This feeling is something else, 'ttebayo.'

Slowly spreading and clenching his fingers, Naruto could feel Kurama's chakra surging throughout his body. He relished in the nostalgic rush that the chakra gave him, giving him a feeling of security. Despite being content with the spiritual energy called reiryoku, having chakra running through his system felt much more refreshing.

And most of all, he felt very powerful, thanks to the natural energy added into the mixture.

"You...what the heck is that covering your body?"

Still shocked by Naruto's appearance, Noda could only let his mouth voice his confusion. Seemingly looking like he had just noticed Noda beside him, Naruto glanced at him momentarily.

"Ah, it's Noda the Nutcracker."

"The WHAT?!"

"Wow, you look like shit. Are these guys really that strong to hold you off like this? Don't be like that, you'll make me look bad for struggling when we fought."

Reprimanding the purple-haired delinquent good-naturedly, Naruto then turned to look at the girl beside him and grinned. "Yo. It took some time, but the reinforcement you requested has arrived!"

Yuri looked at him, wondering what made the orange-loving blonde glow all yellow. She had seen many strange things in the Afterlife – Kanade's powers for instance – but none was too much to comprehend. The yellow aura covering Naruto's body, however, was definitely a new thing for her, and despite being used to seeing supernatural powers, her mind couldn't understand that sight.

Instead of troubling that, though, she rolled her eyes.

"I don't remember ever asking for you to come, though."

"That's kinda harsh, considering I'm here to save your asses. It doesn't look like you're faring well against these guys, just so you know."

Hearing that comment come from Naruto annoyed her, but she couldn't help but agree. Their hands were tied since Naoi was using ordinary students to attack them, so it wasn't like they could do something to retaliate.

"Hmm...so other than the nut-kicker, it's you and Hinata, huh? And you're, uh...Shiina, right?" Naruto stated, doing a headcount. "...Oh, you're here too, Ōyama? Sorry, didn't notice you were there."

"A-A ha ha ha, that's okay."

The boy whose defining trait was of not having any defining traits at all laughed dryly at the statement. He realized that he was laughing quite hard for something like that, but he ignored it and continued on.

"It must be my thin presence, right? That's okay, I completely understand, ha ha ha! I'm actually grateful about it (even though it cuts my screen time shorter). It's probably the only reason I'm still alive right now...so, yeah..."

"...I can't help but feel sympathetic about that statement of yours, 'ttebayo."

For some reason, it was relieving to know the tension had loosened enough for them to joke around.

In any case, at least they were still alive. He shuddered to think what would happen if they were part of the heaps of bodies lying on the bloody ground in front of him.

"Say, Uzumaki, where's Otonashi?" asked Hideki after realizing the absence of the red-haired amnesiac.

"He's still being kept in some room. I went ahead of him since I didn't want to waste any time, so I didn't think of getting him out."

"Ah, right...Angel's with him too, right?"

"Yeah. If it's possible, I'd like to wrap this up without her help though."

It was yet unknown to the Battlefront members, but Naruto was undoubtedly superior to Kanade in terms of firepower. Not to mention now that he had activated his Bijū-Sage Mode, making him even more powerful. He intended to use that power to finish their current problem quickly without involving either Kanade or Otonashi. It was more a sense of unwillingness rather than obligation that made him think so.

He'd hate to let anyone else die in this fight.

"Keh! I don't know what you're up to, Goldilocks," Fujimaki finally said, giving a nasty look to Naruto. "But you're too late to do anything! Our comrades are already dead, so there's nothing else you can do."

Naruto tilted his head slightly to return the delinquent-like Fujimaki's look, grinning daringly as he did so.

"Ah, so you were here too, you hypocritical bastard?"

"The hell did you say, punk?"

Before the argument could heat up any further, Yuri stepped in to separate them, saying, "Fujimaki-kun, that's enough!"

"...Tch."

Fujimaki clicked his tongue in annoyance and tightened his grip on his unsheathed shirasaya, but his arms were already slacked tiredly on his sides.

"And Uzumaki, quit with your wisecracks. We're already on our last ropes here, so don't agitate us anymore."

"Right, right."

Yuri gave a pointed look at Naruto after hearing his untroubled response. From how he was behaving, it seemed to Yuri that Naruto was capable of doing something to resolve their current conflict.

Judging by the mess they got into, defeating Naoi would probably end it all. That was their plan in the first place. But the student council members surrounding them proved to be a problem as well. Not only did they outnumber them, they themselves also carried guns and other weapons. Even if they wanted to defeat Naoi, dealing with the student councilmen was another story.

They could not retaliate against coercive force with coercive force.

Naruto's appearance might've prevented them from getting slaughtered instantly, but that didn't mean they were safe from all danger. It didn't help that the addition in strength Naruto gave them was barely usable against the student councilmen, since the Battlefront refrained from hurting them at all costs.

Naoi, who was initially stunned by Naruto's sudden appearance, once again realized that weakness and chuckled haughtily.

"I didn't quite expect you to be able to escape. How did you get out? That door was designed to be able to contain even Tachibana-san."

To Naoi's question, Naruto shrugged and answered, "I blasted the door open, that's it."

"Really? So you overpowered the barrier protecting it. Is that the effect of having that powerful aura covering your body?"

"Don't expect me to jump into a long explanatory rant unique to protagonists, because I'm already past that. But yeah, that's the gist of it."

"I see."

Truthfully, Naoi wasn't really interested in Naruto's new power. He had seen his fair share of supernatural power, mostly shown by Kanade, so it wasn't all that surprising. Besides, this being the Afterlife, it wasn't rare to see unfathomable things that normal logic couldn't explain.

He was, however, cautious enough to want to know how to counteract it.

At the same time, he knew he had the Battlefront in a bind because they wouldn't hurt the ordinary students the student council was comprised of. The advantage was still his, so it was only a matter of time until the Battlefront was completely annihilated.

"I've never thought that you're an ability user like Tachibana-san is. That puts me in a tight spot, but unfortunately, you won't be able to do anything."

"I can kick your ass," Naruto deadpanned.

"Hmph, you probably could, but aren't you underestimating me a bit much? Being around a powerful person such as Tachibana-san has its perks. Though she rarely resorts to violence, once she did, it gives me a chance to analyze her powers. You could say I got used to her supernatural abilities after seeing it countless times."

"What, are you some Uchiha descendant now?"

Naruto's offhanded question confused Naoi a bit, but the black-suited student council president paid it no further heed and continued to talk.

"That being said, it's not as if you'll be able to lay a finger on me. Trying to attack me is the same as trying to hurt the student council members protecting me. If I'm not mistaken, wouldn't that go against what the Battlefront believes in?"

As Naoi sneered sinisterly, Naruto casted an annoyed look at him that spoke volumes of how disinterested he was.

"So you're just going to sit back and let your guys do the dirty work? Somehow I'm not surprised to hear that from you," he said with a disgusted expression.

Yuri clicked her tongue after hearing Naoi's words. She looked down, disheartened by their current situation. "It's a shame, but our rule is to not hurt the ordinary students. Since the student council is made up of primarily that, we've run out of options to handle them with."

"That's good and all, but you're losing badly because of that."

"It's a line we've decided long ago not to cross no matter what," Yuri explained sternly. "We were gathered to fight against Angel, but the ordinary students are unrelated to this. We're not an anarchic group that causes trouble for no reason, you know. We pick who we fight carefully as well."

Despite how they behaved, the Battlefront was not pure evil. They were merely a group that decided to rebel against God. That itself might be considered evil, but there were multiple ways to perceive evil. If seen from a certain point of view, the members of the Battlefront were akin to kids crying over their favorite toy getting broken.

They were ridiculously, unnecessarily destructive, but they weren't evil.

The fact that Yuri refrained from causing unneeded casualties on the NPCs' side was proof of that.

"...Heh," Naruto chuckled out. "I know I've said this before, but I'll say it again. You're all kinds of sadistic, but you're definitely a good person, Leader-chan."

"W-What's with that all of a sudden?" Yuri asked, taken aback by the compliment. She felt heat rising to her cheeks involuntarily, and it somehow annoyed her. She wasn't supposed to be weak to compliments.

"I respect your reluctance in hurting the ordinary students, 'ttebayo," Naruto continued with a happy voice. "In fact, I'm glad you're holding back. If it weren't for that, I wouldn't know what I'm fighting for right now."

"...What do you mean by that?"

A wide grin appeared on Naruto's face, but no answer was heard. It seemed like he was happy.

Seeing this, Naoi couldn't help but feel annoyed. He righted his student cap as he spoke, "I'd prefer if you don't sound so conceited, Uzumaki-san. Perhaps you lack the brain to understand the situation, but it's already over. You are already defeated. You are defeated by the student council and the ordinary students it is comprised of, the same ones you don't want to 's been decided ever since you lot put that restraint on yourselves."

Once again, Yuri gritted her teeth and let the truth sink in. She couldn't deny that that one rule became the Battlefront's downfall. If it weren't for that, they would have been able to retaliate in some way.

Ultimately, Yuri was at fault for creating that rule.

Just for the sake of not letting those who were not even human get involved, she caused this defeat.

'It's always like this...' she lamented. Her eyes wandered to the bodies of her fallen subordinates with blood pooling around them so much it made her sick.

'No matter how stronger I've become, I always fail to protect what I want to protect. All I've been doing is piling up one mistake after another. Why's that? What's with this turnout? Haven't I decided to not let that kind of tragedy happen again in front of my eyes!? In the end...isn't this the same like that time!?'

Yuri had decided not to hurt the ordinary students, simply because they were unrelated to the Battlefront's rebellion. It was a naïve thought, but that was the core which Nakamura Yuri was made of. That decision of hers had caused the Battlefront's defeat which led to many of her subordinates dying. When she thought about it, the cause of their defeat was her naïve choice to not hurt the ordinary students.

That naivety of hers might have been caused by that one failure that happened in her past.

She had once failed to protect the ones who were dear to her.

And now, she had failed to protect her subordinates.

'Ah, aah...it's no good. I really am a no-good leader.'

That was her honest thought.

But...

"Shut the fuck up."

(Activate Soundtrack: Sawano Hiroyuki feat. Kobayashi Mika - Bios)

A voice of repressed anger was heard. For a moment, Yuri almost thought that the voice was responding to her thoughts.

The purple-haired girl looked to her side, seeing the whisker-marked boy clenching his trembling fists.

"You're the conceited one here, bastard. Restraint? Stop joking already. The fact that they're all strong enough to refrain from killing you assholes off isn't a weakness! In fact, they're strong enough to grit their teeth and hold it in as you kill off their comrades in front of their eyes! That reluctance is their strength, 'ttebayo!"

There was something in Naruto's anger that could not be described.

"You can call it stupidity, you can call it ridiculous, but this is their strength. It's something that someone like you, who didn't even think twice about bringing those unrelated students into this fight, could never understand!"

"Uzu...maki..."

There was compassion, obviously. Even from the fact that he got angry in their stead surprised the Battlefront greatly. He was practically voicing out their angry thoughts in their place.

However, the feeling Naruto had was ultimately envy.

He was envious because he could never have that kind of resolve.

"...Oh? I guess even a cornered dog can still bark." Naoi said with an annoyed glare. "Hmph...it doesn't matter what you say. If you say putting that limitation on yourself is a form of strength, then so be it. In the end, you'll still lose because of that 'strength' of yours."

With a motion of his hand, a student council member with a handgun ran forward with his gun pointing at Naruto. Another one holding an assault rifle followed suit while pointing it at Yuri. More of them closed in accordingly with a wide array of weapons and firearms. They intended to kill all the Battlefront members with the firepower of more than ten student council members.

But Naruto merely chuckled.

"You're mistaken."

It then happened in an instant.

In the next second, Naruto had dashed forward with great speed and launched a punch at one student council member.

*CRUNCH!*

A blow so powerful it sent the poor guy flying away with a broken nose connected, leaving Naoi staring with widened eyes.

"What...?"

The one who first snapped out of their shock was Yuri, uttering that unfinished question in confused disbelief.

Meanwhile, Naruto was smiling.

"The Battlefront is strong because they can resist kicking your asses as you leisurely kill their comrades," the whisker-marked blonde repeated.

The balled up fist he used to punch that first student council member opened up, instantly charging up a Rasengan.

"But then again, I'm not a member of the Afterlife Battlefront, am I?" the boy said with a wild grin. "And unfortunately for you, I'm not strong enough to simply watch as you kill my allies."

That was the truth.

Naruto had never joined the Afterlife Battlefront, so he had never accepted that rule for himself. He was a neutral party unrelated to either the Battlefront or Kanade, so he was free to do things with his own set of rules. However, it was true that he was also a friend to both sides despite being a neutral party. Naturally, he would get angry if anyone tried to hurt them.

It wouldn't matter who hurt them. Even if the ones who hurt his friends were themselves, he would raise his fist towards them nonetheless.

That was why it didn't matter if the ones who hurt them was the student council comprised of ordinary students. He had no obligation to spare the ordinary students despite them being 'unrelated'.

Therefore...

He clenched his fists in place of those strong people who stayed true to their resolve.

He would fight in place of those strong people who were torn between trying to protect those unrelated students or to take revenge for their fallen comrades.

Because...

He was weak enough to act irresponsibly like that.

Without another word, Naruto zoomed towards the other student council members. The way they were lining up in a straight line helped him finish them off with one blow as he rammed his charged-up Rasengan into one of them, letting it fly and crash into the other council members. By the time he was done with them, the ten student council members had been blown away like lined-up bowling pins.

"Tch!" Naoi clicked his tongue as he saw his first line of troops getting decimated at the mere passing of a second. "Spread out! Use your guns to take him out from a range!"

Acting according to Naoi's orders, the student council members dispersed and each ran a good distance away from Naruto's flaring figure. The remaining councilmen had assault rifles in their hands, so the distance covered could measure up to more than ten meters. After they reached enough distance, they turned around and started shooting at Naruto.

Naruto's body was glowing yellow because of his Bijū Mode, so he was an easy target to spot despite the heavy rain.

But thinking that spotting him was enough for the bullets to hit him was a mistake.

The Bijū Mode enabled Naruto to move at a speed comparable to the Fourth Hokage's Hiraishin, which was essentially a teleportation technique. Meaning, he could move in near-supersonic speed. Coupled with the mode's secondary ability of sensing malicious intent, he could determine the position of each and every student council members and know where they were shooting from.

The bullets shot by the student council members didn't even come close to grazing him.

'Those bullets they're shooting out of those weapons of theirs really are fast,' Naruto thought this despite being faster than said bullets. 'It's similar to Sky Country's kunai launcher in application...but they're smaller, so it's kind of hard to see it coming. Damn, I'm glad I can move this quick. I doubt even someone with a Sharingan can see the bullets' movements.'

At first, Naruto was cautious of those weapons that he had never seen before. The world he came from wasn't as technologically advanced, so it was only natural that he felt so. However, parts of the ninja world such as the Sky Country had given him the experience of fighting against opponents whose technology far exceeded his own.

As Naruto zipped left and right to dodge the bullets, he took his chance to effectively knock out several of the gun-wielding student councilmen. The numbers of people shooting at him began to drop gradually.

At this moment, Naoi was trying to keep up with Naruto's movements the best he could. Though visibility was good enough thanks to the high-intensity neon lamps placed on tall poles around the grounds, his untrained human eyes couldn't catch up to the speed of Naruto's movements. However, what he was observing wasn't the way he moved or the way he fought. Naruto was using simple punches and kicks that even an untrained amateur could do, so there was no need to learn his attack pattern since it was already so simple.

Instead of concerning himself about that, he was watching closely at Naruto's yellow chakra shroud.

To him, the shroud of yellow covering Naruto looked to be a mysterious form of energy. It was flaring like a torch, but even as rain poured down on the aura, it wasn't extinguished. On the contrary, light steam rose from that point of contact as the raindrops evaporated. It was not necessarily that hot, but it seemed to be able to turn water into vapor.

'Is it some type of plasma? No, from the looks of it, it isn't an electrical current, so ionizing the surrounding air is out of the question. He's probably superheating the gas around him with a temperature exceeding a thousand Celsius degrees, but there's no way he could've done that without turning his own body into ash.'

Normal logic rarely worked against supernatural abilities, but those abilities must've been derived from some sort of laws logic could relate to. As long as his opponent was human, he could analyze their power with human logic. That was Naoi's belief.

Still, even with his brilliant mind befitting for a leader of the student council, he had a hard time understanding Naruto's power.

'He can move so fast even bullets are not enough to catch him. And a simple punch can throw away people like swatting flies... Damn him! This isn't anywhere around Tachibana-san's level! I don't have anything to measure it with!'

Clicking his tongue in annoyance, Naoi gestured a silent command to his remaining subordinates. They wielded varying melee weapons like a katana, a crowbar, a baseball bat and an axe. As proven before when one of them blocked Noda's halberd, they had enough strength to wield it efficiently.

His silent command was to sneak an attack at the remaining Afterlife Battlefront members who were currently defenseless.

'Well, first off, I should limit his options by cutting off his reinforcements. There's no telling when those Battlefront members would join the fight. I'll deal with them while he's busy with the ones carrying guns.' Naoi thought with a sneer. 'Let's see if they really are as "strong" as you said, Uzumaki Naruto.'

With that, the melee-fighting student council members made a circling route around Naruto's path of destruction. Unlike Naruto, those councilmen did not emit such a bright glow from their bodies, so the heavy rain would be enough to conceal them from a distance, and also hide the sound of their footsteps. They took the Battlefront members by surprise when they were finally close enough to attack them.

"!?"

Yuri reacted quick enough to dodge a katana slashing at her head. She very nearly brought her silver Beretta up in reflex, but she held herself back and continued to evade the sword slashes.

"This is bad, Yurippe! They're not holding back at all!" Hideki exclaimed as he blocked a swing of a baseball bat with his submachine gun.

Yuri noticed this predicament, and she knew how dangerous it was. However, she still couldn't bring herself to shoot the student council member in front of her. This hesitation left much time for the student council members to attack them relentlessly.

Shiina drew her kodachi while holding her wounded side. Fending off a shovel-wielding student councilman with one arm sounded impossible for a wounded girl like her, but she could manage it. However, her strength was dwindling by the second and she wasn't sure how long she could keep her defense up.

"Yuri...!" she tried to call out.

"Hold your grounds! Just hold your grounds and stay alive! We'll figure out a way out of this, so don't die no matter what!" Yuri yelled aloud to her subordinates.

"We'll die sooner or later if this situation keeps up!" Noda stated aloud as he was locked in a contest of strength with a pickaxe-wielding councilman. "We've got no other choice but to fight back, Yurippe!"

The situation demanded they fight back to stay alive.

Even though they would revive afterwards thanks to the Afterlife's system, the fundamental fear caused by the pain of dying was still present. The Battlefront was a group formed for rebellion, so putting up a fight was their forte. With a simple command, they would be able to retaliate in some way.

But Yuri couldn't issue that command.

Part of her didn't let her stray from the rule she made, so she remained quiet. Even to the very end, she was still hesitant to fight the NPCs.

That hesitation created a chance for the student councilman attacking her to try and slash at her side horizontally.

"Yurippe!"

The others watched as their leader stood shocked when the blade nearly hit her.

But before the katana could reach her, the student councilman was kicked away by Naruto, who suddenly appeared next to her and let loose a flying show-time kick to the councilman's face. Before she could react to that, Naruto had dashed towards the other student council members who were attacking her subordinates, swatting them away with moves that even amateur fighters could do. There was even an instance where one of his unserious punches missed a councilman's face, but he was still blown away by some invisible force.

Unbeknownst to anyone but the perpetrator himself, that phenomenon was caused by his Sage chakra – specifically the natural energy in his system. It gave Naruto a reach of attack that surpassed one's physical body.

That was just how much strength he held right now.

"...That's a cheap strategy, Naoi-teme."

He said with an agitated growl.

"I should've expected that coming from you. But if you really were planning to do that, you should've told your guys to suppress their killing intent. There's no way I'd miss them circling around me with that much negative emotions, 'ttebayo."

Naoi, who looked stunned as even more of his student council subordinates were defeated, clicked his tongue and narrowed his eyes in contempt.

Ultimately, however, the first one to say anything in response was Yuri.

"Y-You idiot! Stop punching NPCs around already! This is getting ridiculously repetitive it's not even funny!"

Naruto raised a questioning eyebrow at her order. "Uh...you do know that I'm fighting not because I find it humorous, don't you?"

"It's because you're treating this like a joke!" Yuri said while glowering at the boy with a vein growing on her forehead. "We're trying our best not to hurt the ordinary students while you fling them about like toys! Where's that respect you said you had for me? Didn't you agree not to hurt them?!"

"I never said that. I said I was glad that you held back," Naruto answered unperturbedly. "I never said anything about not hurting them. Besides, your strength and mine are different. When it comes down to it, I have little to no restraint for things like this."

"Then have some restraint, dammit!"

The situation might've turned from being completely hopeless to a more advantageous one, but Yuri didn't feel relieved at all. If anything, the way Naruto handled the situation made her even more upset. This was probably because he chose to fight the ordinary students rather than stopping Naoi, the source of their problem.

"If you really don't like me hurting these NPC guys, then stop me. You guys are stronger than me, after all."

"Trying to stop someone yellow who moves at Mach 20 like you would turn this into a completely different story!"

Naruto gave an incredulous look at the purple-haired battlefront leader while absentmindedly wondering what Mach 20 was. He sighed when he saw Yuri's eyes glaring holes into him.

"Look, I've made it clear that I'm not a part of the Battlefront. You should know by now that I'm doing this of my own free will, so what you say can't change how I fight, 'ttebayo."

"...If you really are not one of us, then why the hell are you helping us in the first place? And then, why not do it all the way and defeat that student council president stand-in while you're at it?"

"Hey, it's a given that I'm going to beat that guy up sooner or later. But first, these student council members are in for a world of hurt for what they did. It doesn't matter if they're just NPCs with no individual will. They still killed your subordinates; some who I happen to call my friends. That's enough reason for me to give them hell."

As if finalizing their argument with that statement, Naruto turned away and faced forward once more.

Yuri gritted her teeth. It was true that she could just let Naruto obliterate the student council, but that wasn't what she wanted. She didn't want to involve the NPCs, but more than that, she didn't want them to get hurt for no reason. This was the Battlefront's problem as far as she was concerned.

...Naruto said that she could stop him if she didn't want him to hurt the NPCs.

He presented her that option since he believed she was stronger than him, in his own complex logic.

The question was whether she would take that option or not.

"..."

In the end, she raised her silver Beretta and pointed it at Naruto's head.

"...?"

Naruto noticed from the corner of his eyes that he was being held at gunpoint. At that close a range, even if he reacted at the first sound of a gunshot, he wouldn't be able to dodge the bullet completely.

"I see...so that's your choice, 'ttebayo."

"Don't make me do this, Uzumaki." Yuri stated under her breath while gritting her teeth. "I'm grateful that you helped us. If you hadn't come when you did, there's no doubt we would've all been killed already. It's thanks to you that we're still standing here alive."

"Then wouldn't it be better to leave it to me?" Naruto asked with a challenging tone. "Why are you so stubborn on protecting them? Last time I checked, they're not even human. They're not even supposed to be real."

"..."

The ordinary students – in other words, the NPCs – were not actual human beings. They were what could be called models of a human being, but simply being a model doesn't make them the real thing.

That was all they supposedly were, but...

While holding up her gun to Naruto's head, Yuri began to speak. Her voice was shaky almost like she would start crying all of a sudden, but her words were clear as she spoke.

"You know...real people like us revive after we die. That's the mechanism of this world. But what about the ordinary students? What would happen if those unreal people die? Thanks to their lack of individuality, we might not be able to keep track of who died and who didn't, but that only makes it worse. It's almost like they completely disappear after they die, and that's terribly unfair for them! Their lack of a human soul doesn't make it right to kill them! Maybe you won't feel anything by killing them, and maybe they won't feel anything either...!"

Her right hand gripping the silver Beretta tightened as she continued, "But I won't be able to live with myself if I let any more of those unrelated students die! Even if they did kill my subordinates, I...! I simply can't! I don't know why, but I can't! All I know is that if you still want to kill them, then I'll shoot you myself!"

Yuri's grip on her gun was trembling, but that didn't matter considering her range to Naruto. She could shoot him at point-blank range without worrying about her unsteady aim.

Knowing this, Naruto didn't do anything. He simply turned his head towards the girl, surprising her.

"...Why?" she let out a weak voice. "Once I pull the trigger, the bullet will go straight through your head and kill you instantly. So...why are you still smiling?!"

The smile on Naruto's face grew into a grin.

He then said,

"And that's why you're kind, Leader-chan."

"Eh?"

The perplexed look on Yuri's face was further deepened when Naruto smirked at her.

"You have no qualms about shooting someone who saved you for the sake of someone you want to protect, huh? It's a bit cruel, but I can respect that. It's a bit odd how you can still see them as innocent victims even when they're technically your enemies. But I guess that's what makes you kind, 'ttebayo," Naruto explained with a happy tone. "Even so, you actually care enough about me that you're hesitating to shoot me. I can't say I'm not touched, Leader-chan, ha ha."

"Sh-Shut up! I'll shoot you! I'm definitely gonna shoot!"

"No, you're not. If you really were going to shoot, you would've done so without letting me notice it."

He wasn't scared at the least.

It had nothing to do with the Afterlife's revival system, and it had nothing to do with the accelerated healing ability which Kurama's chakra gave him. He simply understood that Yuri wasn't that kind of person. She was cruel, ferocious, and all kinds of sadistic, but she wasn't the type to betray someone she trusted. Simply put, she was an astonishingly honest person.

Why had she told Otonashi to give Naruto the walkie-talkie before?

And a while back, why had she consulted Naruto about her suspicion regarding Kanade being human?

She trusted Naruto enough to count on him in dire times. That much was obvious even to the oblivious Uzumaki.

Yuri's trembling hand still aimed her gun at Naruto, but her gaze was lowered. She knew what Naruto said was right, but she couldn't be proud of it. It just proved that part of her wanted him to turn the whole situation around and fend off the ordinary students, by force if needed.

It seemed that she lost this argument. She let out a huge sigh and said, "It just occurred to me that you might not be just an ordinary idiot at all."

"I'm Konoha's #1 Most Unpredictable Ninja. What else did you expect?" Naruto threw her a rhetorical question. "Anyway, if you want to stop me, there's a relatively easier way to do it rather than killing me. It's your mistake to not realize something so obvious."

"And that would be?"

"Well, change your target, for starters," the yellow-haired boy stated with an unconcerned shrug. "Rather than me, shouldn't you be targeting that bastard Naoi over there?"

"What do you think we've been doing for the past 15 minutes?" Yuri spat out indignantly. "Unlike the ordinary students, I don't really have a problem with defeating the current student council president. This incident would end if we do that, after all, and he'll be revived even if he is killed. Unfortunately, we haven't got enough leeway to attack him, considering the student council members are always protecting him."

"Hmm..."

"Why don't you defeat him yourself? You're fast enough to pass all the student council members without having to hurt them, aren't you?"

"And leave you guys open to get shot or stabbed? I may be fast, but I still have my blind sides. You guys would be killed the moment I set Naoi as my target. It's proven just now that he'd use that kind of nasty strategy if he has to."

"We'd revive afterwards, so it doesn't really matter."

"That's not the point. If I let you guys die, there would be no meaning in me coming here. Acting tough is cool and all, Leader-chan, but let's be honest to each other. You wouldn't call for reinforcements if you didn't care about dying, would you?"

Naruto's scarlet red eyes looked at Yuri seriously.

"Deep down, aren't you afraid of dying, too?"

"..."

Death meant nothing in the Afterlife. It was simply part of the life's cycle there, and people would revive after they die there.

However, the pain of dying still existed. And like all human beings, it was natural to be afraid of dying. It was a self-preservation instinct that no one can defy.

Even Yuri had that humane fear. And although they didn't show it, the rest of the Battlefront wasn't exempt from this, either.

"And that settles it," Naruto finalized firmly. "I'll keep hurting those NPCs so that they won't hurt you. In the meantime, you guys should focus on taking down Naoi. If he's defeated, then there won't be anyone to order the NPCs around, so that'll make them harmless. Of course, that's assuming they have no individual will like you told me. But when that time comes, I won't have any reason to beat them up anymore."

Yuri listened to Naruto's plan with a heavy heart, knowing that he would still need to kill the ordinary students who stood in their way.

Noticing Yuri's sullen expression, Naruto groaned tiredly as if he had been holding in some gas for a while.

"Okay, okay, I'll try my best not to kill them. It'd be hard to keep my cool while seeing bloody corpses everywhere, but I'll try to only break a bone or two. Satisfied?"

"...Alright then," Yuri conceded.

With a wave of her hand, she signaled the remaining Battlefront members to regroup around her. She then commenced what could be called an in-fight strategy meeting.

"All right, you morons, here's the plan. We're going to give a last push and win this battle. The plan is mainly the same; defeat Naoi Ayato and end this fight. There's no time for carefully planned-out strategies. Just run as fast as you can towards him and take him out in one blow!"

"Eh? Then what about the student council members? Wouldn't they pose as a problem?" asked Hideki with an unsure look.

"...Uzumaki here will take care of that," Yuri said reluctantly. "He'll create an opening long enough for us to break through them without getting into direct combat with them. All things considered, we won't have to fight the ordinary students."

"Wait...in other words, he's going to fight them instead?"

Hideki's question was remained unanswered. It seemed Yuri was not willing to clarify it and was more concerned on what they were supposed to do instead.

"We don't know much about Naoi, nor do we know whether he has any specialty in any fields. All we know is that he's the student council president and is able to amass the power of the whole student council to do his bidding. He must have quite the charisma if he could influence the school to go along with this, but that's about it. Until now, we haven't seen him using any particular strength for direct combat."

"So we'll overpower him in that aspect, huh?" Noda took a guess while grinning in excitement. "Fine by me! I'll teach that bastard a lesson for humiliating Yurippe!"

"W-Wait a minute, please! So Uzumaki-san is going to fight against the ordinary students? Is he really okay with that?"

Ōyama had a distressed look on his face. It almost seemed as if he was worried about Naruto.

With a sigh, Yuri explained, "Don't put him in the same boat as us. It turns out he doesn't give a damn about the ordinary students."

"Well...that's a harsh way of putting it, but she's right." Naruto's cheek twitched at Yuri's cold statement, but he supposed he deserved that. He did insist on fighting the ordinary students despite her protests. "In any case, you guys should just focus on taking Naoi out. Leave the NPCs to me."

Shocked, the rest of the Battlefront members other than Yuri stared at Naruto. Hearing someone stating that they would hurt the ordinary students was somewhat alien to them, considering the one rule they abided by restricted them from doing as such. Hideki was the first one to voice his surprise.

"Hold on here...are you really okay with that?"

"Don't worry about me. Unlike you guys, I don't have any special feelings for the NPCs."

It might be because he hadn't lived in the Afterlife that long, but Naruto couldn't feel any sentiment for the NPCs. Things might be different if he had lived in the Afterlife since a long time, but it was a fact that the current him felt no responsibility towards the NPCs.

In this situation, zero responsibility meant zero hesitation.

Knowing this, the Battlefront came to an understanding that it was better to leave the ordinary students to Naruto, at least for the while. If they were told to fight against the ordinary students, they'd end up hesitating and getting themselves killed.

"..." At the moment, Shiina looked like she wanted to say something. She was holding the bleeding wound on her navel, and her pain-filled face turned towards Naruto.

"? H-Hey, that's a deep wound...shouldn't you get it bandaged or something?" said the blond as he noticed Shiina's condition. He mentally berated himself for not knowing any medical ninJutsu, because he had more than enough chakra to use one on the wounded girl.

"...This is nothing. More importantly, Uzumaki-san," Shiina said while dismissing Naruto's worry. "If you're going to fight the ordinary students, then let me join you."

"Huh? What, with that wound?"

"Like I said, this is nothing. It will not hamper my ability to fight. I may not be able to use my full strength, but I can't let you take all the burden of fighting them. At least let me help you."

Baffled, Yuri stepped in and looked at Shiina disapprovingly. "Hold on, you can't do that! Your wound will get worse if you push yourself to fight much longer. You'll only get yourself killed!"

"That's true, but...I can't let Uzumaki-san handle it all by himself. This is our problem in the first place, so it doesn't feel right just to hand it all to him. "

Shiina seemed adamant on helping Naruto despite her wound. As much as Naruto appreciated it, he couldn't possibly ask her to fight the ordinary students. He alone was enough for that, as shown when he overwhelmed the student council members. Moreover, the Afterlife Battlefront's rule was to not hurt the ordinary students no matter what.

"It's not that I don't see where you're coming, 'ttebayo. I'm thankful, but I can't force you to fight the ordinary students just because of that."

"But..."

Naruto shook his head once more at Shiina's insistence.

"You don't have to," he repeated. "I'm doing this because I want to, so you shouldn't feel so indebted. I told you, you guys are strong because you can stay true to your rules despite the situation. Don't give that moss-haired bastard the satisfaction of taking that strength away from you."

No response came afterwards, but Shiina still looked a bit unsure as she lightly bit her lip in disappointment. Seeing that stubborn look, Naruto couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

"S-Still, it might help me if you can cover the Battlefront for me," he said with a forced pensive look. "I'll be busy venting on these damned student council members, so I might not be able to always keep an eye on you guys. When that happens, can you protect them for a bit?"

In all honesty, Naruto just needed to give the black-haired kunoichi another priority. Since he didn't want her to join his fight, it was more logical for her to work on something else – mainly, giving the needed extra manpower to attack Naoi.

"...It sounds stupid, but I suppose I can do that." Shiina conceded after a while. A trace of a pout was evident on her face, but it disappeared so quickly that no one noticed.

Naruto breathed out in relief and grinned, saying, "Yeah. I'll leave it to you then, 'ttebayo."

Silently, Yuri watched the exchange and was relieved that Shiina finally gave up on her first idea.

"...That's a good plan. Alright, we're going with that idea." Yuri said as she turned around towards her enemies. "Remember, this is a full power head-on rush, so I'll leave you behind if you're slow. Our target is the acting student council president, Naoi Ayato. ...Let's defeat him quickly and get this over with."

Everyone present nodded.

"Understood!"

With a cry of affirmation, they prepared to charge in.

Meanwhile, as he saw the change in the Battlefront's formation, Naoi let out a short laugh.

"Ha ha... ah ha ha ha ha ha! So in the end, you still choose to fight? Why don't you give up already? It's proven that you can't hurt me in any way."

Yuri then answered with a small but confident smile, "At the same time, you can't completely silence us either, can you? Look around you. The student council is already in tatters. It's just a matter of time until you run out of soldiers to control, so it's your side that's supposed to surrender!"

"Oh? So that's where your confidence comes from?" Naoi rhetorically asked with a mocking tone. He chuckled before saying, "You don't honestly think that my control is limited to the student council, do you?"

"...?"

"If you do, then you're helplessly naïve." Naoi declared. He then explained why he said so, "The Afterlife as a whole is modeled from the very essence of school life. The term 'school life' is what makes up this world, nothing else. To put it simply, it's like expanding the concept of school life to the scale of a nation...no, to a whole world. Naturally, the power which set things in motion in this world is undoubtedly centered on school life as well."

When no one made a reaction to his grandiose explanation, Naoi didn't look offended. If anything, he smirked.

"Don't you get it?" Naoi asked. "The power in this world is based off from the hierarchy of school life. If so, then can you imagine how much influence I have as the student council president?"

A rumbling sound was heard.

It wasn't loud and quick like someone using a mechanical jackhammer to repeatedly hit concrete. It was more akin to the sound of an animal stampede. At first, it was only a quiet vibration, but the noise gradually grew louder as if whatever causing it was coming closer.

In a sense, that was correct.

Not a moment later, hundreds of students burst out of the school building and charged towards the grounds where the battle was commencing.

"What the hell...?!"

"Those uniforms...don't tell me you influenced the whole student body and controlled them!"

Yuri paled at the sight of more than a hundred students charging in towards the battlefield. There was no doubt about it. The black uniforms for the male students and the light brown blazers for the female students – that was the uniform of the ordinary students, the NPCs.

And Naoi had taken all of them into his control.

"Why so surprised? I told you, the power in this world is based on a normal school's hierarchy. The students are the soldiers, while the student council members are the elite troops similar to imperial guards. I can move them all with a simple order like a command prompt to a program. Because I, as the student council president, am their king."

The boy whose yellow eyes gave off an eerie look laughed quietly to himself.

"Though, considering the scale of school life in this Afterlife, you might as well call me a god."

The mere notion of it was laughable, but it wasn't too far from the truth.

As things stood, Naoi's position as the student council president gave him the power to control the Afterlife by its very reins. This was of course thanks to the Afterlife being modeled off from the concept of a school, thus giving him the power equivalent to one who controlled any and every school affairs.

And, since the scale of the school concept was expanded to the size of a whole world, it gave Naoi a near-undeniable control.

"...That guy has officially gone bananas."

In spite of their growing disadvantage, Naruto stated so with an amused face. Even as countless ordinary students poured out of the school, he wasn't fazed at the least.

"*Sigh*...you know, a boss-level opponent does usually spawn minions to tank damage from the players, but this is going way too far."

"That's what you're concerned about?!" Hideki exclaimed.

"It's annoying, but you're right. It's fun when you have more bags to punch, but spawning this much minions ought to turn it into an unbeatable shitty game." Noda jumped into the conversation.

"Oh, so you play RPGs too, Nutcracker?"

"'Too', you said...so you do as well?"

"Well...DraQuest is fairly entertaining, 'ttebayo."

"Would you focus on your surroundings a bit?! This isn't the time to get lost in your own world, you hardcore gamers!"

Even though Naoi amassed that huge number of students into his control, it almost seemed like those two were more concerned about how they felt cheated by that ridiculous turnout and how games like that wouldn't sell. It was even stranger that Noda and Naruto somehow got along in that one topic even though they had been out for each other's necks (or in their case, balls) up until now.

Yuri ignored the unneeded commentary from the gaming geeks and asked straight away, "Do you think you can handle it?"

"You think I can't?"

"Well, you are going up against opponents numbered around the triple digits."

Naruto barked out a laugh, "Hah! If you're worried about that, then don't be. That bastard is just being arrogant since he thought he could win over quality with quantity. I'm actually more of a quantity guy myself, so I'll admit there's nothing wrong with that train of thought."

Grinning like he had just won a lottery, Naruto made a cross using the index and middle finger on both of his hands. "However, he already lost when he stepped into the territory of quantity. Good job, A-yarou. You just activated my trap card. Tajuu Kagebunshin no Jutsu!"

Multiple puffs of smoke came forth, giving the illusion that they were surrounded by clouds. Those puffs of smoke filled nearly half of the whole multipurpose field. Eventually, the smokescreen cleared out and revealed their true form.

Unlike his reiryoku-empowered shadow clones which materialized via explosions of bright lights, this was Naruto's original shadow clone technique which used chakra. As Naruto's current chakra was worth four of Kurama's tails, the amount of clones he could produce dwarfed what he could using his reiryoku.

Approximately two hundred identical copies of Uzumaki Naruto, complete with the Bijū Mode chakra shroud, had appeared. The mere sight of them was enough to shake even Naoi's confidence.

"You might think you've won because you've got an army, but too bad! I've brought my own too!" exclaimed Naruto with an obnoxious laugh. "Ne ha ha ha! Now then, I'll show you how to win over quantity with quantity, 'ttebayo. I'll beat the crap out of all of you with techniques straight from my ninja handbook!"

[End of Chapter 8]

---

[A/N]

This marks the end of Chapter 8.

If you've paid attention, then you might notice something strange in this eighth chapter. For those who felt nothing is different, then I'm also pleased to tell you this:

There is no cliffhanger here.

To be frank, this wasn't where the chapter's supposed to end. No, the end of this chapter, as well as the end of the Battlefront vs Naoi battle, was planned to be written after a wall of text I'm sure is unfitting of an action-based event.

The truth is, I've…written too much.

When I first wrote down Chapter 8, I was under the impression that I should cover the whole episode 6 of the canon [Angel Beats!] series. In fact, I did. But the word count of that effort reached 62k words in total.

Sixty-two-friggin'-thousand.

And when I tried to find a loophole to split this gigantic chapter in two, the result was a 35k eighth chapter and a 27k ninth chapter.

Imagine my surprise when I belatedly realize that I've been holding off a chapter just for my selfish desire to cover a whole episode. I…I don't know, I can't believe I did such a stupid mistake. To the readers who had been waiting the whole year for an update, you have my heartfelt apology.

*Sigh*

The good thing is, I suppose, I'll be updating two chapters instead of one.

…Now how cool is that?

[Glossary]

*A-yarou: A wordplay on Naoi's given name Ayato, bastardizing it with the word "yarou" which essentially means "bastard".

Trivia Time!

I probably had mistakenly turned Naruto into a straight-man character. Then again, it's a nice mistake, so I'm gonna keep it that way :D

[Next Chapter]

"Now, let's begin our game!"

"Get your hands off Yurippe, you bastards!"

"You're…NOT…GOD!"

"Wasn't your life real to you, too?!"