Broken Faith

Disclaimer : Don't own anything.

Chapter 4

Demon's Requiem

Warning, Dark Fight at the Bottom.

The following blast of noise and girls squeeing reached the upper registers and almost caused him to go deaf before he went pale at the incoming trainwreck of female flesh.

Many of the more excitable girls, read Asakura Kazumi and various others jumped at the chance to talk to the hot man meat. Stepping back he activated the precaution he had taken earlier, slamming the door to the car close and causing a pile up on the other side of the door. He felt bad for Negi, the poor guy was buried under there…somewhere…

Behind him he heard Asuna, Haruna and Konoka giggling loudly at his pale face. He only gave them a deadpan stare, "This really isn't funny you know, you try being bait in a train full of testosterone fueled teenage boys." He smirked at their pale faces.

When normality had been restored to well… normal, at least relatively, meaning no one was jumping him this time, he gave his introduction, "As I said earlier, my name is Namikaze Naruto, the dean found me when I had an accident outside Mahora. Due to the accident, a hit and run, I suffered amnesia and could only remember my name and some basic information. The dean was kind enough to let me stay in Mahora for the duration it took me to recover, that is all."

There was another bout of awwws and questions but he mostly ignored it until the blonde silenced everyone again, this time a redhead went for batter up. The girl sidled up to Naruto and wrapped her arms around his biceps, secretly copping a feel, causing a certain orange haired princess to burn on the inside, "Naruto-kun~ my name is Kazumi, how old are you?"

The blonde only frowned before giving the girl a cold look filled with disdain, pulling his arm from the girl's grip, taking a few steps back from her and answered her question stoically, "I am 15 this year I cannot remember the exact date anymore but definitely 15 this year." At this, even Asuna went wide eyed, 15? He looked like 20!

After another round of awwws of pity, someone else shouted a question, a pink haired girl this time, "Where are you from?"

"I cannot remember,"

Another question was shouted, "Do you have a girlfriend?"

This particular questions caused even Asuna to perk up but she immediately sinked back into her seat when she saw that Naruto instead of answering the question was looking at all the girls with a cold and piercing stare.

After a moment of silence in which he had glared at the girl who had asked that question into submission, poor Kazumi, he answered, "I cannot remember, if that is all, I feel tired and want to rest, I am sorry." He headed for the very back of the car and slid into a seat that was unoccupied and dropped his backpack in the other empty seat beside him.

Slumping down into his seat, he took out a fedora he had bought in Harajuku and slid it onto his head to cover his eyes and tried to sleep, although he could hear someone berating the reporter for asking something so insensitive from an invalid like Naruto. Invalid? How did having amnesia count as being an invalid? Suppressing a snort he ignored everything else and tried to continue his nap from earlier. There were some other announcements by Negi and a lot of chatter but he mostly ignored anything that didn't register as a threat in his semi asleep state. He did find it funny though, the swordswoman, according to his senses took avoiding him to the extreme and went out her way to the other end of the train to avoid him.

Perhaps he might have overdone it a little earlier. Just a little.

Nah.

And just like that after a few measly hours of peaceful nap, the noise suddenly took a major upswing. Little girls screaming and what not. Frustrated he extended his senses, and narrowed his eyes under the fedora, and identified the source of the problem : little summoned frogs, no threat whatsoever, but useful as a diversion. Although he had to give the culprit props for sneaking in and doing something like this under his very nose and not even registering on his radar.

Nonetheless, he made no move.

These were just frogs, not his problem. His job was to protect them from danger, frogs damn well didn't qualify as danger. Neither did making sure the teacher completed his assignment from the dean. If the child teacher with such a big reputation couldn't handle a few frogs then….. he might as well quit the job and go back to his mother's bosom.

"Neh, Naruto. Cant you do something about these frogs? Negi went chasing after some weird bird and a letter…its complete chaos here." Surprisingly someone had enough balls after his earlier display to disturb him. He was about to glare at the person when he noticed exactly who was talking to him.

Asuna had nudged him in the side and was talking to him in low tones while the rest of the class tried to catch the frogs. Well those that hadn't passed out yet were at any rate. And just like that, his resolve to be hostile melted. He didn't want to see a disappointed expression on that face, more than anything. He had enough of it in his nightmares. He just muttered an ok, causing the girl to grin at him.

Naruto sighed and laid back in to his chair and tilted the fedora so that Asuna couldn't see his eyes. Gathering his anger at the situation he infused it with his Ki and glared at the scene in front of him, pushing his malicious intent to 'damage' whoever drew his wrath should they not listen to his wishes with pure will power. Under the shadows cast by his fedora onto his face, if one were to look carefully, they would see two dark fire red pools in the darkness. Every frog immediately stopped moving and turned to the source of the pressure as one. As animals they were far more in tune with nature then the average human, and as such, they identified the immediate threat of a great big predator looking at them. They held the gaze of the red eyes for a split second before the frogs conducted a mass exodus from the car, jumping out of any exit they could find, window, door, toilet, anything, and poofed away once they were in safety.

The average humans on the other hand, felt an urge to be silent and stop moving, but only the few had any combat experience and training whatsoever, realized what this feeling was and managed to resist it. The rest however immediately shut up and followed their instinct to behave almost subconsciously, not knowing the source of this feeling. Mana glanced at Kaede and received a nod in return, the boy at the back of the car was impressive, with nary a glance and order was established. Chao grinned, Naruto jiji was strict but always fair and despite his teachings to the contrary had always been a show off. It was obvious he hadn't changed much; even decades later. Ku fei noticed the killing intent immediately but unfortunately was a bit dense and didn't know where it came from or what it meant.

Once everything settled down, Naruto gave a small grunt of acknowledgement to Asuna who was watching wide eyed at everything that had just happened before going back to sleep. Because she had been beside Naruto she hadn't felt a thing. No magic spell was chanted like Negi, no movement, no nothing, and poof, the frogs went ballistic and everyone shut up. What the hell? No more like WHO the hell was Naruto.

Thanking Naruto in a daze she wandered off to find Negi, hopefully he knew something. He was a genius after all.

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The rest of the trip was unusually quiet….. even Negi was surprised. However whatever inhibitions the students might have had were totally unleashed when they reached their destination.

Everyone charged out the train and went to celebrate, Naruto gave an amused smirk and followed when he noticed a girl had tripped. Walking up to her, he gave her a hand and bent down to pick up her belongings. With his support the brown haired girl stood up again, and bowed in thanks. He gave a genuine smile in return and continued walking.

He didn't notice Chizuru Naba glowing bright red at the smile he just gave her.

Naruto just followed at the very back of the group, although he didn't like noise, he had to smile at the boisterousness of the group of girls. He did notice a tall dark skinned girl and a squinty eyed girl occasionally glancing at him from the corner of their eyes though.

As he leaned on a pillar and breathed in the fresh Kyoto air. It was far purer then the air in Mahora, something to do with the temple and purity he supposed. As he stood there alone he was suddenly yanked by his right arm, although annoyed by the girl's forwardness, he had to admit he was secretly pleasantly surprised when Asuna dragged him over to stand on her right, while Konoka was on her left for a class picture. Nonetheless, deep down, a dark voice wondered if she would keep trying to make him join the class activities if she exactly what he was.

Unbidden a memory of him and Akane taking a walk near a temple on a starry night so many years ago during one of their vacations before the war appeared in his mind's eye. He was standing here on her right just like this posing for a picture then as well. The temptation to wrap his arms around the Asuna's petite waist and nuzzle her neck while posing for the picture was almost overwhelming and quite frankly, painful. He did the only thing he could, grit his teeth so hard that he could taste copper to remind him that this wasn't Akane and no doubt Asuna would punch him to kingdom come if he did something like that. Once the picture was done, the blonde walked away from the group to calm down and watched the scenery from Kiyomizu temple in a daze, the peaceful sight from so high atop the platform gave him the impression he was far from civilization and took a deep calming breath and somehow he felt Akane's presence beside him, soothing him. Perhaps it was wishful thinking, perhaps this he was torturing himself by reminding himself of her every time something familiar jogged his memory, but he deserved this. This pain and burden was his punishment.

So lost in his memories was he that he didn't notice the shadows flirting around the perimeter, setting up traps to ensnare and sabotage the trip. He didn't notice or even hear the explanation about Noh plays, or the fortune telling stone and the frog pit where Ayaka and a pink haired girl fell in. He just followed the crowd, walking on auto pilot. He did notice that the moment the frogs saw him when they jumped out of the pit they leapt away like the hounds of hell were chasing them. He only snapped back to reality when he realized that he had let his guard down and almost the entire class was drunk. Someone had spiked the third Otowa waterfall with sake and there was hardly anyone that was NOT drunk as a skunk.

Oh wait, the only ones that were drunk were the pedophiles. No biggie.

By now he had also noticed the leftover presence of more than one person hiding in the shadows. It would be prudent to keep his guard up.

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Naruto was leaning against a vending machine as Negi finally told Asuna of his task and the obstacles he would be facing while Chamo the ermine was busy spouting his conspiracy theories. When he shot one off about Setsuna the swordswoman as the culprit, Naruto couldn't hold it in anymore and gave a short bark of laughter.

"Wha-whats so funny kinpatsu-niisan?" the ermine asked. The blonde scared him. For a lot of reasons, most that he didn't understand, something to do with her ermine instincts. But he was hired by the dean and thus he was definitely on their side and trustworthy. Right?

"That you think sword girl is the culprit. Call her what you want, lesbian, feminist, S&M fetishist, apron fetishist but the fact remains that she is first and foremost a swordswoman. Her very posture screams honor and nobility. If she wanted to stop the trip, she could have done it earlier in Mahora instead of going through the hassle of doing it now. Even then, if she was serious about stopping you, the swordswoman that she is wouldn't spike the class with sake, she'd challenge you to a straight up duel, feed you your family jewels, leave you at a hospital and go home. End of story.

Asuna blushed at the bodyguard's crude analogy but before anyone could refute his claim Shizuna sensei came up and told them it was almost time for the staff finish bathing, and since Naruto was following Negi, his bath time slot was the same.

Naruto just shrugged and went to onsens, followed by the boy teacher.

The blonde relaxed into the hot water as he let his hair free of its ponytail, curling it around his neck so it didn't get in the way he leaned back on to one of the rocks. The red headed teacher came in after he did and relaxed on a stone opposite from him. "Na-naruto-san, are you sure it isn't Setsuna, before this I already had to fight one student, Evangeline, I don't want to fight another student again. They are all important to me." The small teacher asked.

"Then don't," was the curt reply. "Until you are absolutely sure that she is the culprit, do what you can to find facts that prove that she is innocent. Right now everything you are muddling about is based on nothing more than pure speculation. Facts twisted to suit your theories rather than the way around. An utter waste of time, time which I might add could be spent to prove the girl innocent. Although to be completely honest, it's not my problem until she tries to take your head, or anyone else's head off for that matter."

The little teacher seemed to contemplate the answer given to him and let Naruto relax in silence. That is until the sound of someone stepping into the bath was heard. Negi broken out of his thoughts spun around, "Huh? Who is it at this time, one of the teachers?"

From his position, Naruto could clearly see who had just come in but kept quiet, he had been in here before she did and it wasn't his fault if she neglected to scan the area first like any competent fighter should before bathing. The boy on the other hand was clearly stunned when he peeked over the rocks to see who it was. Although apparently not stunned enough refrain from commenting on the girl's beauty. Little pervert. Then again he would be a liar if he didn't admit she was in good shape.

"Phew…." The sound of the girl relaxing caused the frightened teacher to freeze in position, afraid of the swordswoman's feminine fury.

"If Negi-sensei is indeed a mage…I might need to take action…how troublesome." Naruto was forcibly reminded of the only person in the Konoha 9 that was always stoically on his side of the fence no matter the cost. The thought caused him to crack a smile. However he could see that judging by the clearly panicked expression and the wand in his hand, Negi had already forgotten the blonde's advice and was gearing himself up for a fight.

How troublesome, to quote a friend.

The girl obviously noticed the Negi's sudden movement when she suddenly tensed and immediately threw something at the overhead lights, causing everything to go dark and cloak her nudity.

Good reflexes.

"Who's there!" Setsuna shouted into the darkness.

Naruto couldn't see a thing but he definitely heard the sound of metal rasping against wood, which meant she brought her sword with her into the bathroom. He couldn't hold back a sweat drop at his deduction. What in the world was she doing with a sword in a bath, did she go everywhere with that thing?

"Shinmei ryuu Ougi : Zangan ken!" a wave of energy was released with a swipe of her nodachi, cutting the rock directly in front of her and Naruto's eyes widened, the girl was serious, an inch lower and Negi would be breathing through his scalp, immediately reacting he created a wind blade to deflect the energy wave that was about to disconnect his head from his body and picked up two pebbles. Taking a split second to aim he charged both pebbles with water chakra and shot them both at Negi and Setsuna. The pebbles flew straight and true, water chakra reducing any air resistance and increasing blunt force trauma; hitting the sword and Negi's wand, knocking both from their owner's hands.

Setsuna obviously didn't care and charged forward anyway, her left hand grasping Negi's throat with a chokehold, slamming the boy onto the surface of a rock while her right hand dipped beneath the water line…. Ewww….. pedo bear.

"Don't move! Who are you? And if you don't answer I'll crush and snap it off." Naruto's jaw dropped, this girl had balls. And sneaky too. He made a laaarge mental note to be especially careful of his junk around this girl.

Negi was apparently suffering from emotional trauma of having his family jewels squeezed tightly because the only noises he made were some sort squeaking sounds. The sounds seemed enough to alert the swordswoman as to exactly whose balls she was currently crushing in her grip. Naruto couldn't help it, he laughed. Long and hard until he was wheezing and clutching his sides.

When he looked up, Negi was still suffering from BSOD but Setsuna had jumped away from the teacher as far as possible when the sound of laughter had shocked her into reacting, her face red and staring incredulously between at her right hand which happened to be twitching, Negi who was still in a coma and the laughing blonde.

"Bwahahahahaha!" guess who.

"Stop laughing, Kinpatsu-oniisan, shouldn't you be helping Negi?" The ermine tried to stop the blonde's laughter so that something else other than laughter could be heard. When the blonde's laughter died into small chuckles and wheezing noises but seemed content to let everything to play out, the frustrated ermine continued, "Ah! if Kinpatsu oniisan isn't going to help us, we can do this ourselves! Setsuna Sakurazaki, you're the spy from Kansai association out to stop Negi aren't you!"

"Hu-huh? No! that's not true sensei! I'm sensei's ally!"

That was enough to snap Negi out his emotional trauma and he stopped crying in a corner. "Eh? What do you mean by that?" he said.

"I am Setsuna Sakurazaki, of the Shinmei ryuu school, protector of Konoka ojousama." Her tone was pretty regal, even if she was still pretty much naked except for a flimsy towel in front of two guys.

"Yo, Namikaze Naruto, the dean hired me as 3-A's bodyguard, and this little guy which YOU just molested, is a mage tasked to deliver a letter to the leader of the Kansai Magic Association." The girl blushed at the molested comment but continued to put on a brave face. "I'm sorry if I did anything wrong, but I thought you might be someone targeting Konoka ojo-"

The swordswoman was interrupted by a loud scream, the eyes of everyone present was wide open, "is tha-" Naruto started,

"It's from the changing rooms!" Negi continued.

"Its Konoka ojousama and Asuna-san!" and without any further words two of them of them rushed out of the hot springs while the third sighed and jumped into the shadows.

The duo reached the changing rooms and opened it, only to see Asuna and Konoka being stripped by monkeys. "Negi what the hell are these monkeys doing to our clothes," Asuna screamed trying to keep her clothes on. The monkeys then took off Konoka's remaining clothes, her bra and panties, leaving her stark naked on the floor.

"AHH! Se-chan, Negi-kun~ don't look!" Konoka cried. Naruto had the decency to look away at the moment, especially since he could feel killing intent coming from Setsuna. He saw her holding up her blade with a look of fury in her eyes.

Fury of feminine righteousness.

Yep.

"What are you perverted monkeys think you are doing to ojou-sama?" Setsuna threatened.

"Hey hey, Setsuna is that a real sword?" Asuna asked surprised.

"Yes don't attack them! Their just poor monkeys," Negi stopped her from doing anything by latching himself onto her body.

"These are all just low level Shikigami! They will only turn to paper if I cut them up," Setsuna shouted desperately, trying to help her ojousama. Then suddenly a monkey snuck up on the arguing duo and stole Setsuna's towel causing her and Negi to topple over. Negi was on the floor and looked up to see a good view of Setsuna's lower region. Asuna could only stare in shock at what happened.

Then suddenly she remembered what situation she was in barely a second ago and turned to look around.

"Hey the monkeys are getting away with Konoka!" Asuna stated pointing at the door.

Setsuna immediately pushed off the teacher with a cry of "Ojousama! Shinmei ryuu Ougi : Hyakuretsu Ou Kazan!" drawing the great blade with one smooth movement the swordswoman slashed rapidly all around her retainer without even a scratch on Konoka, the monkeys all froze for a second before bursting into a flurry of paper. Chopped shikigamis flew like a blizzard of paper around the two naked girls. Konoka could only watch in awe, "….Oooh."

Behind Setsuna, Naruto dropped into sight and released a flurry of kunais into a tree but was met with the sound of metal meeting wood.

'Damn, they got away,'Naruto and Setsuna thought at the same time. "Se-chan," Konoka said from her position. The group looked down and saw her smiling at Setsuna. "I don't know what is going on but thank you Se-chan."

Setsuna blushed and promptly dropped Konoka in the water and ran away. Naruto, Negi, and Asuna gained a rather large sweat drop at the scene. "What was that all about?" Naruto asked.

"Konoka-san just who IS Setsuna-san?" Negi questioned waving his arms frantically. "She calls you oujo-sama and says she is your protector when we talked earlier but suddenly she runs away like that?"

" Konoka, did something happen before with Sakurazaki-san?" Asuna asked.

"Hai. I never really talked to you before about this huh, Asuna. You know, before I came to school and lived with Asuna, I used to live in Kyoto…" Konoka started. "I lived in a big mansion in the mountains. It was always so quiet and lonely. It was because it was secluded I didn't have a single friend."

Naruto grimaced, the old man had apparently left quite a lot of details in his story, not telling her about her heritage was nothing more than the icing on the cake.

The brunette took a deep breath before continuing, "But one day, Kaa-san brought over some guests and along with them was a little girl. It was Se-chan. She was the very first friend I had when I was young. Even at a young age she practiced kendo, and protected me by driving away dogs and helping me when I was in danger. There was this one time I was about to drown, and she did all she can to help me out. In the end we were both saved by adults. She then started to dedicate her time with her training. She became busier and busier that I rarely got to see her. We didn't have time to talk much and then I had to move to Mahora. When it was my first year of middle school I saw Se-chan moved here too. I was happy we were able to meet again but she still didn't talk to me," Konoka started crying, "It was like I did something wrong. Se-chan wouldn't talk to me like she did before."

By now they were already dressed in some light yukata instead of wearing towels, Negi tried to comfort Konoka while Naruto stood at the side stoically. He noticed Asuna wanting to follow Negi's lead to comfort Konoka but occasionally glanced at him worriedly, as if looking for advice when he shook his head to signify this was something Konoka needed to deal with herself.

Konoka stood up suddenly and said, "I'm ok, really, just let me go finish bathing, the three left behind just watched her go when Negi suddenly stood up and declared he needed to talk to Setsuna leaving Asuna and Naruto behind.

"Was it alright to leave her alone?"

Naruto nodded, "I have twenty clones circling the perimeter, at the moment nothing will get into the hotel."

"Why didn't you want me to talk to Konoka earlier?" Asuna asked.

"This is something she needed to come to deal with herself. This is something that was so deep seated that she didn't even tell you, her best friend of so many years, trying to comfort her about it and telling her everything will be fine would be spitting on that bond of friendship between her and Setsuna as well as nothing more than patronizing her. And she would know it. if there really isn't anything to repair that bond, then she has to find that out herself, or she will never grow up and leave the past where it belongs"

For a moment, Naruto thought about a black haired guy, the same age as him with onyx black eyes. He felt like snorting, never grow up indeed. But unlike him and Sasuke, where he had been chasing nothing but dreams, it was clear Konoka and Setsuna were close, there was just something stopping them from being clear about their feelings for each other.

"Heeeh, for a 15 year old, you're pretty mature."

"And you are pretty immature." Asuna wanted to blow up at the blonde but when she saw the small smile he had on his face she just pouted causing his smile to widen even more.

"Come on, lets go find Negi, Konoka is safe for now." The bodyguard beckoned Asuna to follow him to their room.

When the duo reached the room they found Setsuna lecturing Negi about the intricacies of Eastern mageship, Zenki, Goki, and the Shinmei Ryuu swordsmen. Naruto just sat back and relaxed he already knew everything the swordswoman was saying anyway. That and at the moment he was suffering from a slight migraine that had developed because he had one clone following each group the entire day, he was hired to guard 3-A after all, not just this particular group and the hourly feedback from each clone as they made and dispelled a Kage Bunshin to send the message back was getting annoying.

Then something the black haired girl said caught his attention, "Wait, you said the Eastern mages are deeply tied to the Shinmei Ryuu Swordsmen of Kyoto, but you're from Kyoto and yet you're fighting against them? And does that mean we will be facing more Shinmei Ryuu users that are as strong, if not stronger than you?" the bodyguard tried to clarify.

"Yes you can say that," Setsuna sighed. "They would consider me a traitor for leaving Kyoto. But I wanted to protect Konoka-ojou-sama and that is all that matters. As long as I can help her out I am satisfied." She felt a hand on her head and saw Naruto smiling down on her.

"It's good to see you wanting to protect Konoka-san," Naruto smiled. "You got my support Setsuna-san."

"Right. Seeing as you don't really hate Konoka I'm glad. A friend of my friend is a friend right?" Asuna said agreeing with Naruto.

"Namikaze-san, Kagurazaka-san….."

Naruto laughed out loud this time, "I don't mind the –san, but please, don't call me by my family name, it sounds really weird."

Negi ran up and grabbed the Asuna and Setsuna's hands and put them into a pile. "As of now 3-A's guardian angels are formed. We will protect the group the class from the Kansai Magic Association!"

All three of them turned simultaneously and gave 3-A's bodyguard the puppy dog eyes, even Setsuna.

He returned it with a dry stare.

When they didn't back down he gave a sigh and a small smile, "Change the name and I might think about it."

Negi and Asuna started cheering while Setsuna gave the bodyguard a deep bow in gratitude for helping. Naruto just waved off the bow and muttered something about part of the job description anyway.

"Me and Negi can patrol the outside," Naruto said walking outside with Negi. "Asuna-san and Setsuna-san, it would be more appropriate if you girls handle the rooms." The girls nodded and turned inside.

Naruto separated from the ermine and mage duo to jump to somewhere a high vantage point and clear view of any main entrances that Negi wasn't patrolling so that he could watch for anyone coming in while meditating. That and he should probably relay today's happenings to the dean.

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Asuna and Setsuna reached group five's sleeping quarters. Haruna, Nodoka and Konoka were asleep on the floor while Yue was sleeping soundly on a chair. "Well it seems like everyone fell asleep before me," Asuna said with a sweat drop.

"I'm going to patrol the hallways," Setsuna said.

"Let's switch shifts later on okay," Asuna yawned. "I'll keep a watch on Konoka."

"Thank you, I'll be going now."

"Ah…? who is it? Asuna?" Konoka said dazed.

"Eh? Konoka, gomen, did I wake you?" Asuna asked. Konoka groggily got up and drunkenly made her way to the door but was interrupted by Asuna's question, "Konoka where are you going?"

"Toilet." was the only response Asuna received.

"Well…. if it is the toilet it can't be helped."

Konoka walked towards the bathroom and opened it. in her groggy state, her mind barely registered a giant monkey inside sitting on the toilet bowl and all she could do was sweatdrop.

"I'm still using it," the lady in the monkey costume said with an eerie voice before she jumped forward and put a handkerchief soaked in chloroform on Konoka's mouth. "Just kidding!" she then dragged Konoka into bath room and shut the door.

A few minutes had passed since Konoka had gone to the bathroom, and Asuna was getting worried. "She's taking pretty long time in the bathroom."

"Mmmrgh, I have to use the bath room too," Yue said walking out of the room with Asuna. When they reached the girl's toilet, Yue immediately knocked on the door and cried out, "Hey Konoka are you done yet?"

"Sorry, I'm still using it!" Konoka's voice replied from inside the bathroom.

Asuna shrugged at Yue and they both returned to their room to wait a bit longer but suddenly Setsuna came bursting into the room.

"Kagurazaka-san! where is Konoka-ojou-sama?" the swordswoman shouted.

"She's in the bathroom," Asuna said. She was trying to help Yue control her bladder, not that it helped because Yue was practically vibrating in one spot from the urgent need to go potty.

"How long has it been?"

"Ten minutes!" Yue said struggling to get the words out through her gritted teeth. "We both drank from the spring earlier, just please make her hurry up."

"Konoka you arein there right?" Asuna asked knocking on the door.

"I'm still using it," came the reply.

"Konoka-san, whatever you are doing, hurry up! I can't hold on much longer!" Yue said banging on the door.

"I'm still using it." Yue face faulted. She knocked on the door again, her eyes filled with anime tears, she desperately needed to go..NOW but received the exact same words in reply.

"I'm approaching my limit…" Yue mumbled towards the door.

"Something doesn't seem right," Setsuna said.

"I agree," Asuna said. They heard the door bang, and saw that Yue had kicked it open. Inside was just a seal that kept repeating the words, "I'm still using it." with Konoka's voice.

"We've been had!" "W-wh-what do we do!"

"I DON'T CARE WHAT THE HELL YOU GIRLS DO! JUST LET ME USE THE DAMN BATHROOM!" Yue shouted kicking the two girls out of the room.

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Naruto's eyes snapped wide open and he breathed out, "Shit."

The dean on the other side of the card who had been listening to the summary was immediately alert, "What is it Naruto-kun?"

"Some of my clones were just destroyed and alerted me to something, the culprit is someone wearing a large Monkey suit and obviously uses Monkey shikigamis. We were going about this thing the wrong way, she was never outside in the first place but already inside the hotel. The woman just killed a few more of my clones, I have to go jiji."

"Hurry, Naruto, please don't let an old man's mistakes burden his granddaughter."

"I can't promise anything anymore, but I'll try."

"Thank you…"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"So let me get this straight, this pactio card lets me one : Communicate with a partner telepathically, two : summon my partner to me, and three : Activate their abilities and tools?"

"Yeap! Now let's test it out aniki," Chamo said happily.

"Okay, I think I'll talk to Asuna-san telepathically," Negi chirped with as much enthusiasm. "Hello Asuna-san? How come I can't hear her voice?" the mage looked at his card with disappointment.

"Wouldn't a cell phone be better then?" Negi asked while looking at the ermine. At that moment Negi's actual cell phone went off.

"Negi we got trouble! Konoka's been kidnapped! What should we do!" Asuna said… no shouted into the receiver.

"What mage uses a cell phone," Chamo cried with anime tears.

"Wait, Konoka-chan has been kidnapped!" Negi was shocked.

Suddenly Negi's call was interrupted by Chamo frantically pulling on his sleeve, "Ano, Aniki, what's that?" Chamo asked pointing at the oncoming figure shadowing the moon. The figure landed with a crash and revealed to be the giant monkey costume from before. In her hands was Konoka.

"What are you doing with Konoka?"

"Arara, aren't you that little cute mage I ran into at the hotel?," the monkey lady said. "Nevermind, you're too weak to do anything about this anyway, Bye!" She then jumped off into the night holding Konoka, but didn't leave without giving Negi presents. A whole bundle of Monkey shikigami seemed to swarm about Negi stopping him from casting his spells properly.

"Get back here with Konoka! Ras Tel Ma Scir MMMFF" Negi was interrupted as he chanted. In the end he was saved by Setsuna who had just arrived with Asuna and cut away all the shikigami with her giant blade.

"Where is that Monkey Mage Negi-sensei!"

"She got away." Negi so disappointed in himself that he couldn't bring himself to look into Setsuna's eyes.

"STOP moping Negi, you can mope after we're done kicking that Monkey's butt!" Asuna shouted.

"You're right. We can't let these bastards have her." Setsuna and Negi nodded. Asuna suddenly realized something, Naruto was missing. "Hey where is Naruto, wasn't he supposed to be with you Negi?"

"Um… he was taking care of the opposite side of the hotel, I don't think he knows Konoka was kidnapped. Anyway we don't have time to go back and call him, we have to go NOW!"

If Setsuna or Asuna were surprised at Negi's tone they didn't show it, but started running in the direction which the Monkey lady left.

Although Asuna took a glance back, 'Where are you blondie, you said you'd help us, were you lying to me?'

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Railway station

The trio had finally chased the Monkey lady till the railway station and the lady had taken off her monkey suit to fight them.

"We've caught up, you have no where left to run Monkey lady!" Asuna shouted while Setsuna charged ahead without a word.

The lady just summoned two shikigami, a bear and a monkey, both exponentially more powerful then the small monkey shikigami she had been throwing at the trio the while time. The bear and monkey both attacked Setsuna and it was obvious that she was outmatched by the two opponents.

"Asuna go help her!" Negi shouted, "Get ready, Sis mea pars per centum octoginta secundas : Ministra Negii Cagurazaca Asuna!"

Asuna grimaced abit at the feeling of magic flooding her body and she felt a lot stronger. She leapt forward and started fighting the monkey, pushing it away from Setsuna, allowing the swordswoman to get a hit in and push the bear away from her. Even with her style and a deep gash down the bear's front, it wasn't enough to dispel the shikigami.

The lady frowned at the power the orange haired girl suddenly displayed, 'So that's a partner for the western mages…'

"Aniki, use the third option now," Chamo the ermine declared, Negi nodded and shouted so Asuna could hear him while battling, "Asuna-san, I'm bringing out a special artifact only you can use, its called the Hamanotsurugi, please accept it!"

"A weapon? Alright, give it to me Negi!"

Asuna set her jaw and kept fighting, stopping the Monkey from attacking Negi.

"Excerceas Potentum Cagurazaka Asuna : Ensis Enxorcizans!"

A bright glow suddenly appeared in Asuna's hands and a giant fan with a unique hilt formed from the bright light, "Wha-what? This is it? This is just a normal fan Negi, aargh! There's no helping it, here I come!"

"Setsuna, you go ahead, I'll take care of the two shikigamis."

Setsuna who was kneeling on the ground, slightly scuffed behind Asuna widened her eyes in surprise before setting her jaw and both the girls charged at the eastern Mage.

Naruto had been following the trio the whole way, was hiding in the shadows and opted not to get involved and let them gain combat experience and get stronger on their own as per his agreement with the dean. The blonde had already activated his pactio, the cloak helping him blend in with the shadows. But many times he had to clench his jaw to stop himself from blowing through the many obstacles the eastern mage seemed sooo fond of throwing at the Guardian trio. Even now he was barely stopping himself from dashing forward and obliterating the two shikigami to help the trio. It was against his principles to let the underdogs be bullied.

Setsuna dashed low on the ground while Asuna engaged the two shikigami's successfully obliterating the monkey with one hit. Although that was more because the monkey had stubby little hands and couldn't block the hit in time rather than lack of skill and one time was all it needed for the Magic Cancel Hamanotsurugi's ability to activate, not that anyone there knew it yet.

The bear was able to dodge the attack.

Setsuna continued dashing forward and was about to attack the mage when she saw the mage smile, suddenly another blur appeared and Setsuna was forced to block an overhead strike from a katana but she didn't expect her opponent to suddenly swipe at her with a small tanto in her off hand scoring a thin gash on Setsuna's chest. The only reason it wasn't deeper was because Setsuna had seen the glint of an extra weapon in time and kicked the newcomer in the stomach to flip herself backwards to minimize the damage.

Setsuna retreated back beside Asuna while the bear retreated beside the newcomer. Everyone was stunned by the new appearance, a blond girl in a Gothic lolita dress.

The girl got up and dusted herself off. In her hand were a tanto in her left hand and an ordinary katana in her right.

"Owwie. I think I hurt my head. Hello nice to meet you, I'm from the Shinmei-Ryuu! My name is Tsukuyomi!" She stared at the two then looked at Negi. "You're pretty cute." Negi frowned at the weird comment. She then turned to Setsuna, "You must be my senpai. But I have been assigned to protect Chigusa-san so I have to take this seriously."

"To send a body guard like you… the Shinmei-Ryuu must be short on people," Setsuna said frowning.

"You'll get hurt if you underestimate her. Well I'll leave things to you Tsukuyomi-chan," the monkey lady said smirking.

"Shall we begin?" Tsukuyomi asked. "Please go easy on me." She went to attack Setsuna while Asuna engaged the bear, while Asuna was faster and had longer reach, the bear was more experienced at fighting and dodged all her hits before hitting back at the hole's in her guard.

Setsuna danced with the newcomer but as time passed it was obvious that the smaller girl was far faster than Setsuna and was slowly pushing Setsuna back with the flexibility her style afforded her. Setsuna's style and two handed sword gave her more power but at the cost of agility, something she was seriously beginning to regret.

"Kukuku, the Shinmei Ryuu style traditionally favors two handed big swords, but Tsukuyomi-chan is special. It must be hard for you to swing that big thing around to defend against the smaller but faster and precise attacks that Tsukuy-"

The eastern mage was interrupted when a shout of "Sattica Magica Aer Capture!" and several bolts of green energy flew at her,

"Ahhh crap, I forgot there's still that chibi mage!"

"Too late!"

"Somebody Help me!" the mage instinctively used Konoka's body as a shield, causing Negi's eyes to widen and immediately threw all his energy in to divert all the bolts of energy to the side and miss Chigusa entirely.

The eastern mage opened one of her eyes cautiously from behind Konoka, "Arara?"

Negi mean while was going ballistic, "AH! Its no fair, using Konoka like that!" And unseen to everyone there, Naruto had begun clenching his hand so tightly that it was bleeding, he despised this kind of tactics.

"Haa~n, .. I see… I know your type of people. You back off as soon as it looks like the hostage is about to be captured. Tsukuyomi, Kuma! Come back!"

Both the blonde gothic Lolita girl and the bear immediately pushed and kicked their opponents away from them before retreating to Chigusa's side.

"Hehehehe, now that you can't attack me, I'll have you deal with the third of my charms." She then threw the charm and it exploded into flames creating the kanji for great (dai). "Those flames will kill off any normal person. This is goodbye gakis."

"Wait! Why are you doing this, what are you planning on doing to Konoka!" Asuna shouted, even from this position the heat from the fire was almost unbearable.

"Kukukuku, I need her power. This girl has amazing magical reserves. I guess I'll use her like this as an innocent meat shield. And when the time comes, I'll use spells and drugs to force her to obey me. She'll be nothing more than a puppet that our every word and provide the impetus I need to destroy the western mages!"

Naruto went blank.

In front of him was someone, who by any definition of the word had the exact same purpose as someone who had plagued his entire life in Konoha with misfortune. To enslave a powerful source of energy and bring about conflict.

He had to laugh at the irony. And so he laughed. Irony that he met someone with Akane's face. Then he meets another who has the exact same goal albeit not on the same scale as Madara Uchiha. Screw his orders, the bitch was dead. The phrase history is nothing but a waltz, a requiem for all of time was never truer.

"Well, looks like we win this time, see you later you green bottomed little gakis." The mage couldn't help but taunt them and see them stew in their own helplessness.

Setsuna, Asuna and Negi who had been horrified by the woman's cruel and inhumane ideals suddenly felt a killing intent the size of which they had never felt before. Even worse, the killing intent was accompanied by an eerie laugh that echoed throughout the entire tunnel.

Naruto was pulling it, pulling every last bit of energy he had, drawing even from the bottom, he wanted, no needed to kill the person at the top of these stairs. Unknown to him, the Totsuka Tsurugi contained in a seal on his body, cracked slightly.

And Kami granted his wish, his body exploded in red youki and his gloves tore, replaced by huge claws. The claws dug into his flesh since his fists were still clenched.

And he walked out from the shadows like a nightmarish monstrosity, cloaked in black, blank mask with red coals glowing in the eye holes. His body almost hunched over in animalistic instinct with what looked like a sniper rifle of all things strapped to his back.

Everyone on the battlefield froze, not knowing exactly what was it that just walked out from the shadows. Whatever it was it was the source of that grating laughter and sickening killing intent.

And then it roared and walked forward faster and faster. The trio immediately tensed, they didn't know what they could do against this nightmare but they couldn't run away and let the eastern mage get away with Konoka.

They needn't have worried though; the being completely ignored them, walking with shuffling footsteps almost drunkenly. Then the thing walked right into the fire.

And even the fire ran away from this thing, the fire before him split apart from pure air pressure exerted when the being swung his hand in a vertical manner. It shuffled forwards, the red eyes flowing brighter and brighter.

Chigusa was terrified, this thing, looked human but it sure as hell wasn't human. "What are you two idiots waiting for! Kill that thing!"

The bear, stupidly lumbered forwards while Tsukuyomi frowned by followed in the wake of the bear's footsteps anyway. They charged at the thing, the bear on the ground and Tsukuyomi using the bear's back as a platform jumped up to perform an overhead strike with Zanganken. Chigusa started chanting the strongest spell she could.

The thing just moved. One hand plunged into the bear and ripped it in half violently before leaning backwards to avoid the downwards blade before pivoting on the spot and his booted heel was introduced to a stomach covered in gothic Lolita clothes.

Tsukuyomi's sword missed by barely centimeters and before she could hit the ground to jump back out of the demon's range she was kicked with insane force. The watchers only saw a blur as the masked being kicked Tsukuyomi, one moment her body was on the receiving end of a vicious roundhouse kick, the next she was buried foot deep in the concrete behind Chigusa. Tsukuyomi coughed out blood as she sat stuck in the wall like a folded lawn chair. She could feel it, at least 5 broken ribs, anything less and she'd start betting on race horses. The last thing she saw before losing consciousness was the black cloaked monster advancing on Chigusa.

"Wha-What have you done! What demon did you western mages summon from beyond the grave?"

"Summon?" this was the first time the monster spoke, and everyone flinched. It sounded raspy, like metal screeching on metal.

"They didn't summon me, people like you did, people like you that just crave destruction for your so called justice. Your intentions to abuse that girl's power summoned me. And today you die."

The eastern mage immediately unleashed her most powerful offensive spell, Naruto couldn't hear it over the bloodlust clouding his mind. He just took it square to the face.

Chigusa's was almost comical in that it showed so much hope that she had conquered a demon when her most powerful and longest spell hit the demon's face. The demon seemed to fall backwards until he was almost parallel to the ground when he stopped. The demon's body started moving upwards again in a parody of undeath. The hope in her face shattered like fragile glass, and it dawned on her that this thing wasn't playing around. It really was going to kill her and tear her body asunder causing her as much pain as he could before he swallowed her whole.

She screamed and threw Konoka's body at the demon, hoping to Kami that at least it would let her and Tsukuyomi get away. The demon caught the sleeping girl gently, so much so that the contrast was almost funny. Passing the girl gently to a clone which laid the sleeping girl on a safe bit of floor he turned around and underneath the mask Naruto frowned, like Madara this person was a cockroach that was almost impossible to kill and everytime they got away, they would come back with even more twisted plans.

That was something he couldn't afford.

Reaching behind his back, he unsealed the great Totsuka no Tsurugi making it seem as though he had pulled the sword from pocket dimension, twirling it around he turned it point first and threw it like a javelin. The sniper rifle would probably be more effective, but he still had no clue how to aim that thing.

Chigusa kept running, one of her shikigamis was carrying the unconscious Tsukuyomi when time seemed to stop moving and her legs refused to move when she felt like a truck and run straight into her from behind. Looking down she saw why, she had a great sword piercing her abdomen vertically.

Naruto yanked on the chakra chain he had attached and swung it around like some gruesome anchor, Chigusa attached to the other end, skewered on the sword, he swung it around and slashed downwards, intent on smashing the woman 10 feet straight into concrete, headfirst.

The resulting boom of concrete and dust was enormous.

From behind the terrified trio watched as the demon yanked the blood covered sword back into his hands and his head cocked as though confused. Reacting on pure instinct the demon suddenly spun on its feet, avoiding several stone spears.

"Ah…. You had an accomplice waiting in the shadows. Pity." There it was, the grating voice again.

A top the roofs, Chigusa cradled in Fate's arms looked down to see the cloaked thing standing in the middle of flames unharmed as that blank mask stared back like some vision of a true demon in hell waiting for its next meal. Then she saw nothing as Fate teleported away and she fainted.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Asuna and the gang didn't know what to say. The demon that stood in the middle of the flames with its back to them was brutal. Very much so. They were terrified of that thing in front of them.

But the way he had handled Konoka so gently and his words about summoning. They didn't know what to think. They just waited for that thing to say something now that they were the only ones left.

Naruto gripped his mask and pulled it off. The blood from his palms had smeared across the white porcelain mask. Wearily he walked out of to the fire towards Konoka, the others seeing where he was headed immediately tensed again and started running forward, demon or no demon, they weren't going to leave her to it's mercy.

They didn't have to rush since they were so far away and the so called demon reached Konoka first. But it did what no one was expecting. It turned around and they stopped dead in their tracks, his features as clear as day, the 'demon' slumped down beside Konoka and called "Abeat." and his cloak as well as that mask disappeared. The mask didn't look remotely demonic, but the blankness unnerved anyone that looked at it and the added smear of blood just made it worse.

The 'demon's normally springy and silky blonde hair seemed like it was wilting, along with his entirely body that seemed to emanate too much tiredness and exhaustion for a body than a body had any right to emanate.

Naruto looked up into his probably former by now, comrades' gobsmacked expressions and chuckled bitterly. "Guess I got some things to explain huh?"

Negi would never admit it, but Chamo's exclamation after that statement that fateful night was probably the most accurate thing he had ever heard.

"What the fuck?"

AN

Facing my final exams in exactly 2 weeks so i was studyng, when i lose concentration i took some time between bursts to write this thing as a way to relax, like right now, i was stoned out of my head after staring at the computer for 5 hours straight and couldnt get anything else so i finished the touch ups on this chapter and decided to publish it. BWAHAHAHA i'm going to fail T^T... but dont get your hopes up for any stable updates until at least february next year. my schedule is bushed for my final year of uni.

this chapter was originally part of the one from yesterday but it was too long.

Btw, did ANYBODY see that bullshit Kishimoto is pulling out his ass in the latest Naruto? Sharingan, Rinnegan anda freaking comet? over power much? i really wonder if Kishi has some secret crush on another guy whose name rhymes with Uchiha? i mean come on, so many different levels and suddenly Rinnnegan equals Sharingan, which means Sasuke will somehow get Rinnegan later on because we all know Kishi is Sasuke's fanboy while Naruto gets a half assed upgrade from a lack luster Kyuubi fight. You have to wonder, if he drew this manga based on himself as Naruto, while his god damn love interest is Sasuke, because in my opinion, Naruto is taking it up the ass all the time, that and he totally ignores two confessions so that he can confess to Sasuke lol. i mean... that i die you die thing, thats pretty much a glorified confession isnt it? similar to a lover's suicide lol. you know, that thing where two lovers embrace and jump off a cliff.

AN 2

Alicel
2011-10-23 . chapter 4

Forgot to log in. Anyway i hope your not gonna have naruto explain everything this early. That would be so annoying. I mean seriously, why should he? Whatever happened to the word 'secrets'? Did it got pregnant by sasgay? That is the problem in most xover fics.

What is it with you people complaining about Naruto spilling his guts out to other people? i think this is the fourth or fifth review complaining about the exact same thing. didnt i already say wait till i update before you judge? even if that wasnt the case, have some god damn faith, i really dont like stories where the characters seem all artificial, overpowered without reason, and somehow has precognition (IE: the writers already read the manga and knew what happened, in turn so do their characters). do you really think i would make the same mistake? at least i wouldnt do it knowingly, if i do, please scold my ass off. next, i wasnt complaining about Madara's power level or anything of the sort, i was commenting on the amount of attention Kishi gives the Uchihas and all the gamebreaker dojutsu skills they have. the title of the manga is Naruto, and what does he get? an upgrade that runs out of gas mid battle and makes him look like a monkey with golden fur. the jumpsuit does not help.