Broken Faith 15
Mahora Fest Begins
Disclaimer : I don't own anything, Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto as much as his screwing it up nowadays anyway, Negima belongs to Akamatsu Ken.
I have rewritten chapter 14 because I wasn't satisfied with it, feel free to go check it out. What I wanted to do with the middle part of chapter 14 was meant to show him gradually distancing himself from the rest of 3-A but as one of my reviewers said, it was rather patchy, so I asked him what would make it work better and voila. Thank you AznPuffyHair. Yes I'm asian and yes my hair gets puffy during the wet season. Anyway, I felt the same and rewrote certain parts of it to better show what I wanted.
SoundTrack List
Gundam Seed OST – Kimi wa Boku Niteiru
Fiction Junction Yuuka – Honoo no Tobira
****Broken Faith****
Konoemon stared at the blonde in front of him in shock, "I see….. this is… very disturbing."
The blonde smiled in reply, "Don't worry. I won't let it come down to that."
"Oh? You have a plan?"
The blonde gave the old man a lopsided grin.
Play Gundam Seed OST – Kimi wa Boku Niteiru
Flashback
Naruto shook his head in frustration, "But there is no sure fire way of limiting myself forever, especially if I reach the limit and draw more power for some reason or other or lose my temper like I did with Dietrich. Sooner or later I have to die."
Evangeline looked at the tired blonde in horror as the pieces of the puzzle fell together. The reason he had been distancing himself from everyone.
Words failed her as her mouth open and closed like a fish out of water. Clenching her jaw she forced her wits to get back in line before growling her words out, "How long?"
Naruto who was still on his back replied, "I'm not sure. The sword and seal has been absorbing my power for nearly 5000 years if Wilhelm was right. Its capacity is incredible so I have no idea what is the limit, 10 years, 5 years, 3 months, I don't know. The only reliable way to measure it is through the cracks on the sword."
The sounds of footsteps walking away reached his ears and Naruto sat up in confusion to see Evangeline stomping away.
"Wha? Where you going Eva-ch-"
"SHUT! UP!" Evangeline pivoted and instinctively hurled an ice javelin at the blonde to shut his mouth. The javelin missed the blonde by inches but she wasn't paying attention. She was staring at the hand that had somehow manifested a spell that shouldn't have worked in shock.
The idiot had managed to lift the seal.
Then it all fell into place, and Evangeline growled, "You fucking bastard. You've been planning this ever since that night where you showed the red head and the boy your memories haven't you? Even though you said you hadn't reached your own seal."
The rueful grin told her enough.
"All those words during the fight with Wilhelm, the harsh way you keep pushing everyone to be better, shoving lessons and tactics down their throats. Showing them your memories, you planned all those knowing you wouldn't be around; you wanted to use yourself as an object lesson. You fucking bastard, you already gave up on finding a way out didn't you?"'
The blonde shook his head, "What was I supposed to do Eva-cha-" he was stopped as another javelin stopped just short of piercing his neck, the other end of the javelin was being held by a pissed Evangeline with flashing eyes.
"Don't. Fucking. Call. Me. Eva-chan. Only one person can call me that, and he isn't you. My nii-sama was a complete bastard, but he was a talented bastard. He was as flawed as he was talented but that only made him human. Even through his flaws he refused to give up. The magnificent bastard that he is, could achieve in 3 months what I couldn't in 15 years, and when he did, the smug bastard would have danced up to me and give me a smug smirk before saying 'I told you so,'. Not quietly leave some damn present for me to find while he went off to die alone. Even if he was going to die, he wouldn't distance himself from his friends and use some stupidly noble excuse about not wanting to hurt them when he left to hide the fact that he's just afraid of dying with regrets. The fact that he is going to die doesn't make a difference because I don't see the other 6 billion humans that are about to die as well act like cowards."
"No, he wouldn't run away, even if Kami herself told him he was going to die, the bastard would just smile at her before giving her the middle finger and waltzing off. He's the kind of bastard that just won't die like a cockroach." She bit out slowly as if talking to a child.
The small vampire took a deep breath after her rant and continued, "My nii-sama wasn't a fucking coward. And a fucking coward like you isn't my nii-sama so You. Don't. Get. To. Call. Me. Eva-chan. Geddit?"
The small vampire spun and around and continued to stomp away when she was stopped by someone hugging her from behind.
She struggled to get away from him until she heard him whisper, "Thanks…. I needed that wake up kick Eva-chan."
Evangeline stopped struggling and stilled for a moment before leaning back with a wry grin. Her nii sama was back.
"And for the record? I happen to know who my parents were, I'm an orphan not a bastard."
Evangeline snorted. Typical of the bastard to be more worried about being called one rather than dying.
"Oh and I noticed you willingly called me your nii-sama." She knew he was grinning. She could feel it.
Evangeline futilely struggled in his arms while blushing furiously, "I did not! Let me go!" but when the arms didn't remove themselves she took desperate measures.
Desperate measures meaning she slammed her elbow back into the blonde. And considering her height compared to his, she was very satisfied to leave the blonde face down in the ground eating dirt while clutching his family jewels.
End Flashback
"No, but I don't plan on giving up either."
Konoemon grinned back in reply, "Very well. I leave it up to you. Oh by the way? You owe me 9 million yen for that stadium."
Naruto left with a wave over his shoulders, "Make it 10 million and one hell of a good festival."
"Understood."
****Broken Faith****
The blonde grinned at the 4 girls standing at attention in front of him, "Alright, give me 20 laps, usual weights please."
All four of them looked at each other before Asuna spoke, "Err…. Naruto.. you alright? 20 laps? Usually you force us to do 50."
His grin widened, "Alright, since Asuna has seen fit to protest my kindness, do 70 laps."
"GEEEEEHHH?"
Setsuna smacked the back of Asuna's head.
Hours later
"Asuna…*pant* yo-you bitch." A pile of pink hair mumbled at the pile of red hair beside her, "Go*pant gomen..."
Naruto chuckled before separating into 4, 3 clones and the original, each one took a girl with him to another part of the clearing and erected barriers so none of them could see what everyone else was doing.
With Setsuna
"Setsuna, like I said I don't know what I can teach you. So the only thing I think I can do to help you is sharpen your instincts to the maximum."
The girl nodded with resolve, "Good, up till now, everything I've done with you is endurance training. Now that your body has developed the foundation needed, we can go forward. First, wear this blindfold." Setsuna stared at the black cloth Naruto handed to her and she looked dubiously at the grinning blonde before reluctantly tying it on.
As soon as her vision was blocked she was immediately punched in the gut, "Wha-what? Naruto-sensei?"
She got no reply and just barely ducked another attack, the air pressure from the attack brushing her neck. Setsuna gulped. That attack to the neck would have put her down for at least a day if it hit.
The bastard was serious.
Immediately ducking into a reactionary stance she waited for the next attack.
They continued back and forth and Setsuna soon lost track of time since she couldn't see anything, the only way she could keep time was by the number of bruises she was slowly accumulating
A few hours later of dodging and occasionally attacking back, Setsuna smiled she was getting the hang of this.
Naturally she regretted that statement as soon as it appeared in her mind as the presence she had felt aimed at Kotarou flooded the clearing and the swordsgirl struggled to breathe. Although she admitted to herself that she had an easier time of it because this time the presence was diluted, aimed at no one in particular. It was simply there, menacing and dangerous.
As soon as the presence hit, she staggered and was immediately punched in the gut. The girl flew back and smacked into the barrier before coughing up some blood.
"Once you can sufficiently move and act under this kind of pressure I will teach you how to use this ability. In almost any Master level fight, both sides will always be using their presence almost unconsciously. It won't do anything but slow your opponent by a fraction of a second if they are on your level but when it comes down to it, every little bit will matter. What you will be learning….is how to take advantage of that split second."
Setsuna staggered up as the voice rang out in the clearing and shakily nodded but her shaky stance belied her attitude. Setsuna was grinning. If this was the level she could achieve then bring it on, then she realized something.
"Eh? Wait," Setsuna pulled off her blindfold, "What do you mean it won't do anything but slow them down?"
"Hmm? It's an intimidation tactic. Fear grips your opponents, slowing their moves and dulls their blades."
Setsuna scrunched her eyebrows in thought, "Bu-but when you used it on Kotarou and that demon they practically smashed their own faces in the floor!"
"Oh….err… Ahahaha…" Naruto laughed sheepishly while scratching the back of his head as Setsuna gave him a puzzled look, "It's… a parlour trick." The blonde admitted sheepishly.
When he saw that Setsuna didn't get it, Naruto tried to clarify, "You remember my eyes activated at the same time?"
Setsuna nodded her head dubiously, "Heheh, since you're going to be a front line fighter, I suppose you're going to need to understand something. But it'll be our secret alright?" the blonde winked saucily at the girl.
Setsuna simply nodded since she was too busy trying to hide her blush and words seemed to fail her.
"Basically it's a combination of two things. The first, being my natural presence intimidating my target. And the other is one of the powers my eyes. My eyes give me the ability to control vectors. The predecessor of these eyes, despite being powerful and well intentioned, was admittedly arrogant and complacent and thus never took the time to explore its true potential. He thought it was simply the power to control gravity and was happy with the ability to push and pull but it was something more. You understand gravity? A force that pulls objects downwards, or more accurately to the centre of the earth?"
Setsuna nodded wide eyed, "Gravity, Air resistance, Inertia, they are all sub categories of what I consider Force. Or Vectors. Direction and Magnitude. While he was only capable of pushing and pulling, I improved it to push, pull, up, down, etc. Long story short, take an apple falling from the tree. It falls because the downward force acting on it is greater than whatever force is holding it up, say inertia. With my eyes activated I can increase the upwards force to match the gravity. In other words?"
Setsuna gaped, "The apple would float!"
"Good girl. So with that in mind, I simply increased the gravity and smashed Kotarou as well as Dietrich down, I never explicitly said that was the result of my presence. Everybody drew their own conclusion. Generally small stuff like that, I can do without techniques, just minor chakra manipulation, but the big stuff like pulling a dragon out of the air requires a real technique." Naruto scratched his chin in thought, "There are other applications; for instance when I need to hit something really hard, I am capable of either amplifying the forward inertia of my attacks or reducing the reaction force of my target to a point where even a finger flick can be lethal. I usually don't use anything more than that, it would take a lot of power but had I really wanted to I can completely incapacitate any enemy simply by looking at them. But then there wouldn't be any fun left in battles hehehe…."
Setsuna sweat dropped at the nonchalant way the blonde said he preferred to get his hands dirty.
"Basically I just use it when I want to be flashy, intimidating and really impressive looking. Parlour trick? Yes. But sometimes intimidation can mean the difference between war and peace. As a front line fighter, muscles and skill isn't everything, little tricks like that are important as well. Understood?"
"Hai, Naruto-sensei!"
"Good." The suffocating aura came back, but this time Setsuna withstood it and retied the blindfold, determined to learn.
"Don't depend on your eyes. Use your sense of touch, feel the air flow around you. Hear the muscles tensing in your opponent. Extend your presence and locate your enemy." The girl braced herself in response.
Naruto smiled at the girl. She would go far. In terms of pure combat skills she would be the best out of the three.
With Asuna
"Come here and sit down with me."
Asuna stared at the blonde with confusion, sit down? Weren't they supposed to be training?
"Don't worry just come and sit."
The red head hesitantly sat beside the blonde and mimicked his stance, crossed legs with his hands resting on his knees.
Naruto smiled approvingly, "Good, now close your eyes. I want you to meditate to the exclusion of everything else. Feel only your own existence and presence. To help you do this I will cast an illusion on you that cuts off all your sensory abilities. You won't be able to see, touch, or even taste. The first few times will be difficult because most people panic when it happens to them but don't worry."
Asuna nodded shakily as the blonde started to play his flute.
He hadn't been wrong, it was incredibly scary. It felt like darkness was creeping up, a dark mist that slowly crawled up her body and covered everything. She lost touch, sight and taste. A prisoner in her own mind, unable to stand the sudden loneliness Asuna thrashed around in fear when the fog suddenly lifted and she found herself clinging to Naruto and sobbing. She hadn't even realized that she was crying since she couldn't feel her tears.
Naruto held the girl tightly and cooed gentle words to her, her reaction wasn't unexpected and he had guessed as much.
When the sobbing slowed down he gently whispered to her again, "You feel better?" he received a small nod in reply and softly squeezed the girl in his arms.
"Alright, this time you can hold on to me as I do it again, just let me know whenever you think you're ready."
Her grip on the blonde tightened enough to cut off his air supply and Naruto considered it lucky that the original had chosen to teach Asuna. A clone would have popped in her grip already.
A few more tries later and Asuna had succeeded in at least maintaining her cool in the darkness. When it lifted again she saw a grinning blonde and the red head smiled back. At least she did until the grin suddenly turned predatory.
"Good job. Now we can finally start what I wanted to do."
Asuna gulped again.
The blonde cast the illusion without any warning and when the darkness set in Asuna felt her panic start to rise but she quickly found her centre and regulated her breathing, even though she didn't know if she was really breathing or not.
Focusing on her own existence and she calmed herself and took comfort in it. Then she felt it, a dark feeling rose in her stomach that seemed to be clashing against her existence. It was a few minutes before the darkness lifted again.
"Wha-what was that?" the bewildered girl asked.
"That, was my presence clashing against your existence. We'll do it a few more times, each time it will get clearer and clearer until you know how to describe the feeling."
With each try came more clarity until she understood what was happening and what Naruto was trying to teach her. She likened her existence to a ball of light in the middle of darkness. Naruto's presence was like a hand that was trying to crush that ball. When she told him as much Naruto laughed raucously. "Good! Very good. Now we finally get serious. You can feel my presence and you can feel yours. You understand the limit of your existence, but now instead of defending, attack. Stretch it out and try to smother mine."
They kept at it for the entire evening but Asuna found it incredibly difficult to change that ball of light. The best she could do was form a small needle out of that ball.
"I'm sorry I couldn't do more," Asuna said dejectedly.
Instead of getting the scolding she expected, the blonde just smiled.
"It's more than enough for now. Come, I'll show you exactly what I've been trying to get you to do."
She looked at the blonde with a puzzled expression as they left their barrier and moved to the one where Konoka was.
Inside she found a blindfolded Konoka dancing around a clone of Naruto. The clone would attack relentless while Konoka moved around his attacks like fluid water. Asuna felt something burn in her chest as she tried to hide a frown. The two of them weren't training. They were freaking flirting in the middle of battle. Konoka had a small seductive smile as she danced around the blonde, her fans occasionally brushing the blonde's skin as his attacks brushed past her. As they stood watching Naruto whispered to the red head so not to disturb Konoka, unknown to him, the red head's heart skipped a beat at his closeness, "I can't teach Konoka how to fight with magic, so I'm improving her evasive abilities. As my clone attacks her she has to dodge and react with her fans, but she is restricted to only using dance moves, she can't say, jump back if it isn't in the dance."
Asuna nodded half in awe at Konoka's grace and half in irritation as she watched Konoka move around like she was really dancing and the Naruto that was attacking her was nothing but air. Mating dance that is. She doubted the idiot realised it. Or if he did, he wasn't doing anything about it.
Once they were done, the clone dispersed and Naruto gave Konoka a congratulatory hug and Asuna suddenly felt inadequate, before explaining what he and Asuna were here for, "Konoka, can you create a small ball of fire and maintain it for a while?"
Konoka looked at the blonde in confusion for asking such a simple request, but agreed readily enough. Pulling out a novice wand she willed a flame to life even without an incantation. She gave Asuna a dry grin and an explanation without being asked, "Naruto-sensei forces me to practice any spell I learn to the point where I can do it silently."
Naruto made Asuna stand a few feet beside Konoka and her ball of flame, "Alright, now I want you do what you have been practicing so far. Only this time, make your needle pierce Konoka's presence like you did to mine." The blonde gently coaxed Asuna.
"Eeeh? Bu-but wont it hurt her?"
"Don't worry, it'll feel weird if I'm right, but it won't do any lasting damage."
"O-ok…." the red head replied hesitantly.
Konoka watched in confusion, needle? What needle? She continued to watch her best friend close her eyes and focus hard. After a few minutes of absolutely nothing, Konoka suddenly gasped. It felt as if somebody had suddenly thrown a bucket of cold water on her and her flame winked out.
She stared at her wand in shock while Asuna stared at her in shock.
Naruto just grinned sadistically. Out of the three, Asuna had the potential to be the tie breaker. When he was done with her and if he had his way, mages would piss their pants and start running for the nearest hole whenever they heard the name Asuna Kagurazaka.
Funnily enough, the three of them reminded him of rock paper scissors. In theory, Konoka could beat Setsuna anytime with her spells and long range capabilities while Setsuna would always out skill Asuna in pure melee combat since Setsuna wasn't dependant on her Ki, on the other hand Konoka couldn't do jack shit against Asuna and her anti mage abilities and with her arsenal practically halved, she could only dodge as long as Asuna didn't let her chant any area of effect spells and since Asuna was a damn stamina tank….
Together? Well, it was a sucker bet only Tsunade-baa chan would take as far as he was concerned.
****Broken Faith****
Play Fiction Junction Yuuka – Honoo no Tobira
Naruto sat in his tent with Akako playing with a ball of yarn in her fox form. He sighed, it looked like Chachamaru wasn't coming, not that he had expected her too after he kept brushing her off recently.
When he had asked Evangeline for help, she had only sneered at him and told him, "You made this mess. You fix it." Then she had stomped off but not before throwing one last bit of advice over her shoulder, "Nowadays she just sits at the bottom of the World Tree in the evenings."
He had just smiled at his self proclaimed little sister's hidden caring.
The blonde sighed, picking up the small lump of fur that just looked at him curiously and left the tent. His destination? The World Tree.
As he leapt from tree to tree with a snuffling fox riding on top of his head he wondered exactly what he was going to say to the gynoid.
Chachamaru leant back against the rough bark of the World Tree as she hugged her knees to her chest and watched various people bustling around, setting up tents and what not for the Mahora Festival, with unseeing eyes.
A small weight settled on her head, causing the gynoid to jerk up in surprise. Before she knew it, another presence had sat down on the ground beside her. She berated herself silently for being so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn't even sense the approach of the powerhouse beside her.
The three of them stayed silent with the occasional snuffling from the weight atop her head as it rooted about in her hair. Chachamaru smiled at the snuffles and lifted Akako so she could pet the kitsune.
Akako twisted about in her mother's arms and lifted her snout to lick the gynoid's cheek.
"I'm sorry I've been ignoring you lately."
The green haired girl didn't reply, causing the blonde to sigh and lean back into the tree and softly speak, "I really don't know what to say, I'm not like those people that can always say what's right. All I can say is I'm sorry….. I was stupid, and I wronged you, and for that, I'll keep waiting until you forgive me."
The two of them watched the procession of students for a little while longer.
"I…I don't know what's happening to me… at first I just wanted to be by with you because you gave me warmth. I'm not alive, I'm not suppose to have that urge. But it was there. And I couldn't stop it. Being with you in the tent made me so…. so warm. But now I wish I never felt that warmth. Everytime you looked at me, everytime you refused to touch me, my chest felt so tight. I don't need to breathe, but at those times, it felt like I lost that ability. If that's the price for needing to feel your warmth, I don't want it. I don't want to feel that pain."
The gynoid let out a choked sob as laser fluid splashed on a sad Akako, "I didn't even know how to describe those feelings until recently. Because all those nights I spent alone in the tent, I read books alone to see if I could find out what was wrong with myself."
Arms tried to hug her but she pushed the blonde away and stood up over him and even though she tried to hold it in, she failed, her tears fell harder as she screamed at the blonde, hoping that by doing that she would scream the pain away, "Do you how stupid it made me feel! How illogical it was when I went as far as to change my hairstyle, to wear nice clothes, just so I could catch your attention, so that you would stop ignoring me? And for what? For that one second you said I was beautiful, it felt warm again, but when you left that tightness in my chest returned, and it hurt even more. Everything, everytime, it's so illogical, but I can't help it…. When Hakase tried to find out what was wrong with me, I almost asked her to reformat my memories, just so I won't hurt, but I couldn't do it. I had too much to lose, I didn't want to forget Akako, the times we spent together. I couldn't say it. Something was wrong with me and it wouldn't let me say it…."
She grabbed his collar and lifted him up to her face and growled at the blonde, "Do you understand? Because I don't…. tell me how to fix this, I don't want this anymore, I want to go back to being a robot, cold, logical and unfeeling! Then it won't hurt!"
She buried her face in his chest and quietly sobbed into the cloth, "Fix this… please… I don't want to hurt anymore…"
Akako whimpered at her mother's shouts.
Naruto let the girl lift him and shout at him. He deserved it. He held the crying girl tightly and they just stood there as the evening sun set, repeating the words "I'm sorry." over and over again as his own tears fell at the girl's words. The equivalent of a confession from the gynoid even if she didn't have the proper words to say it with. He tilted her chin up and laid his lips to her own.
Chachamaru really didn't know how to respond. All she knew was that she wanted to melt and for once she thanked Kami she didn't need to breathe as the warmth she wanted so badly spread all over her mechanical body. She fisted his shirt and pulled the blonde deeper into the kiss.
When their lips parted, Naruto smiled and spoke.
"I'm not going anywhere. I won't let you feel like that again. I promise."
As he said those words he looked up at the tree behind him and resolve burned. He wasn't going to die. If not for 3-A, then for Evangeline. If not for her then for the girl in his arms.
In his sister's own words, he would be the bastard that just refused to die.
****Broken Faith****
Naruto leaned against the tree with a gynoid that had sobbed herself dry and a sleeping bundle of fur around her neck, as they watched the full moon.
"Neh, Naruto…" a soft voice broke the silence.
"Yeah?"
"After the festival can we go visit somewhere? Like the beach vacation, anywhere is fine. Just you, me and Akako."
"Yeah."
Naruto smiled.
****Broken Faith****
"Ano… um… If you could spare some free time to.…Um..." the red headed maiden stared at her shoes as embarrassment heated her cheeks.
"Yes? You know you can tell me anything," the figure in front of her replied.
"I-I-I LIKE YOU!" Asuna practically shouted.
"Oh…. I'm glad…I like you too" Asuna looked up as hope filled her face.
"Wha-Wha-What the?"
She looked up to see an older Konoka wrapped up in Naruto's arms as they walked towards the glowing World Tree. Wait, wasnt the figure Takahata-sensei?
Asuna's eyes snapped open as she sat upright and hit her head on the low ceiling, "Itai….. what the hell was that dream… Crap, must be because of yesterday."
Asuna covered her face and groaned into her palms, "What the hell am I doing…. If Konoka wants that idiot she can have him... I like Takamichi-sensei dammit."
"Ahhhh!" She started pounding her pillow in frustration, only for her pillow to yelp in pain, "A-Asuna-san?"
"Ah! Gomen! I forgot you were in my bed Negi."
"Ah... ok… but what were you shouting about?"
Another fire red stain appeared on Asuna's cheeks, "No-nothing, it's time to go to school!" she kicked the teacher out of her bed and ran to hide in the bathroom.
Negi watched the girl leave with a weird expression on his face, "Asuna-san…"
****Broken Faith****
"Hey~ you guys seen today's newspaper?" Makie asked, the school newspaper in her hands.
She rolled it open for her friends to see. The title was 'Does It Really Work? Legend of the World Tree.'
The legend of the World Tree is a story that has been circulating around campus for decades. It states that if you confess your love underneath it, you will succeed; your love will be unrequited.
"I suppose it could be true?" Yuna said dubiously.
"The ghost turned out to be real," Makie pointed out.
Overhearing this, Misora joined in. "Well, I heard from a sempai that, even though the guy she was after was a super cute club captain and loads of other girls were after him, and everyone said it was impossible, when she confessed, he said yes. They've been dating ever since."
"No way!"
"I also heard that, three girls in our year, they asked their student teachers out and they said yes too."
"Second year junior high girls? Isn't that illegal?"
Undeterred, Misora continued on. "This one is unconfirmed, but apparently someone even managed to ask out a guy from one of those boy bands on T.V."
"Really?"
"Yep," she confirmed. By now there was a sizable crowd gathering around Ako and Yuna, the two who were holding the paper.
"Listen to this: 'No obstacle too tough to overcome. Age, looks, fame, anything is possible. Results don't lie!'
Behind everyone else Makie started to rub her hand and giggle in a really disturbing manner, already planning an all out attack on Negi's affections. Konoka poked her in the side, "Oi, do your creepy laugh somewhere else, your wolf tail is showing."
"Mou~ Konoka…. Heheheheh….. Don't you want to try it out?"
Konoka smacked her harder this time, "Whatever your plan is, I don't want to know. I can already tell it's not going to be good."
"Eh~? But don't you want to go for Evil Naruto-sensei? I know you were thinking about it…. Hehehehe…think about it, you and Naruto, me and Negi, double dates are proven to be more successful…" Makie started to rub her hands as she slowly corrupte-persuaded Konoka to join her plans.
Too bad Konoka was already corrupted and all she got for her trouble was another smack. Rubbing her temples, the princess left the pink haired girl to sit in a corner with a large lump on her head.
"Sigh… idiots all of them… Depending on a tree for love…. Don't they have confidence in themselves?" Konoka muttered.
"Ahaha…. Not everyone is as confident as you Konoka-ojou sama." Setsuna sheepishly said.
"Oh?" Konoka glanced up and down Setsuna with a leer, taking in the swordsgirl's cute neko mimi and untied hair, "You sure you didn't have thoughts along those lines?"
Konoka siddled beside Setsuna and slid one finger up and down Setsuna's arm with a very naughty grin, eliciting a small squeak and shivers from the swordsgirl, "Ideas that say… involve a certain blonde and you like knights saving a princess before engaging in more pleasurab-gak!"
A furiously blushing Asuna had pulled Konoka away from Setsuna by the ear, "Itai Itai Asuna-chan!"
Setsuna fell to her knees and thanked Kami with anime tears, just a bit longer and she… she…. She didn't know what she would've done.
Asuna face palmed, "I don't care what you do with who, but you can please don't flirt like that in class where everyone can see you?"
"I see it enough at training," Asuna muttered under her breath.
"Mou…. I thought you spending some time with Naruto-sensei would loosen you up, but you're as straight as ever….but don't worry Asuna-chan… I'll ever only flirt with Setsuna, you or Naruto-sensei." Konoka added with a wink as her advances now turned to the redhead, then she slowly whispered stuff into Asuna's ears.
Asuna blushed again as blood started to leak, she knew damn well Konoka placed extra emphasis on the word 'loosen' on purpose and the rest of her sentence didn't help the fantasies rampaging in her head. Not to mention the very….ahem…. interesting ideas Konoka was whispering to her, "I-I don't know what you're talking about! Nuuuu, stop! I want to stay innocent, I don't like whips and no I don't want a threesome!" the red head spluttered. Loudly.
Then she blushed as she realized she had practically yelled that last part and everyone in class was staring in her direction.
Then just because the universe wasn't done playing with her, a topless Naruto walked in and noting the weird atmosphere as everyone stared at him, just said, "What?" in an utterly clueless tone.
Asuna fainted.
Konoka sighed as she waved everyone off and propped an unconscious Asuna on the nearest table, "She's so easy to tease sometimes." The princess mumbled before grinning, "We need to do this more, help her build…endurance. Yes endurance."
"Ko-Konoka-ojou sama…."
"Um… not to be nosy but what the hell was that?" a certain blonde cut in as he pointed dumbly at the fainted red head.
Konoka smiled innocently at him, "Temporary blood loss."
"Riight….."
Kazumi timidly walked up to Naruto, "Um… not that we're complaining, why are you walking about topless, Naruto? It's rather distracting." To prove her words she waved a hand to punctuate the group of drooling girls in 3-A.
"What are you guys talking about? Ayaka asked me to carry all that lumber and start building the heavy stuff, under the sun. I'm not wearing that stuffy uniform while doing that." Naruto replied with a hint of annoyance, "I just came in to get more nails."
"Holy shit, look outside!" Fuka or Fumika shouted, as one, all the girls ran to the window.
There was a horde of drooling girls sitting outside; all of them seemed to be waiting for something. Most of 3-A could guess what judging by the cameras.
Just then Naruto walked out and started hammering again. As one they turned around to see that Naruto had gotten his nails and had already went back out to continue his job. They turned back to the scene outside.
They could see his muscles flexing in his arms and chest all the way from the second floor when he lifted the hammer up and brought it down. As he wiped his sweat, the blonde even developed a typical bishonen sparkle.
Slurp…. "Yo-you know, there aren't many boys that are worth it in Mahora…. Maybe we should, you know, since he's our classmate? We should do it before other classes get their claws in him?"
Everyone stared at Yuuna who had spoken.
Then all of a sudden, down below, a green haired girl stomped up to their only male classmate and pulled a protesting Naruto back inside by the earlobe.
"Was that… Chachamaru?" someone spoke in surprise and everyone swivelled back around to see that the gynoid really had gone missing from class. Evangeline just sat by the side and slowly banged her head on the wall, that idiot could be so…. infuriating sometimes. He had no problems noticing affection from girls that he knew personally. But outside of that….. she had yet to find a wall denser than him. He was the kind to just ignore everything if it had nothing to do with him. How could someone so sharp be so… dumb.
Eveyrone swivelled back to look down just as Naruto walked back out, only this time he looked like he was dressed for a snowstorm, balaclava, scarf, boots, the works. He even had what seemed like a fox draped over his head to hide his hair. A grinning fox that seemed to be enjoying her father's humiliation a little too much.
Naruto poked her tummy just so he could stop the smug amusement emanating from his daughter in waves only to get yips that sounded suspiciously like laughter in reply.
"Urgh…. What's going on? What happened and why am I lying here?" a voice from behind Konoka spoke.
Konoka smiled innocently in reply, "Oh nothing, we were just discussing how to help you get Takamichi-sensei. Just bring him to a quiet spot, like practice or something then confess, we'll even help."
"O-Oh…. I see… wait why were we discussing my love life?" Asuna wailed uselessly as Konoka walked off.
As Setsuna followed Konoka she could vaguely hear the brunette mutter under her breath, "Or you could just jump him with his pants down, that's what Okaa-san said she did and it worked pretty well, pretty sure Naruto won't mind if I try that…. Oh wait, he'd run away screaming like a little girl. Otou-san didn't have that kind of balls. Damn Makie was right, I'm going to need her help."
Elsewhere Eishun sneezed and knocked his coffee onto his paper work. "Ah damn, there goes my weekend."
"Ko-Konoka-ojou sama…." Setsuna cried anime tears again. Where had the pure Konoka-ojou sama she knew went?
****Broken Faith****
Asuna staggered to her art class, she was feeling woozy for some reason and there were blank parts in her memory. As if she had blocked herself from remembering something. She wondered what it was.
She sighed as she sat down at her easel and tried to finish the painting she had been working on for while now, a side portrait of Takamichi-sensei. Something Konoka had said had rubbed her the wrong way, but she wasn't entirely sure what it was.
She sighed again and tried to recollect herself by using the meditation techniques Naruto had taught her while her fingers danced on the painting almost on autopilot as hours passed, a strong jaw line… glasses… his usually white suit…. Always looking calm and unruffled….. sword…. side burns…. Whiskers….. Confident but not as distant as Takahata-sensei.
Wait, Takahata-sensei didn't have whiskers or side burns.
She looked at the drawing properly and saw just what she had painted, Takahata and Naruto standing back to back on a hill both had proud confident smiles. Takahata-sensei had one finger adjusting his glasses in his cool and confident way while the blonde had his massive sword on his shoulder looking ready for battle.
Just then someone tapped her shoulder and she looked up in surprise to see the one of two people she didn't want to see right now.
Shii…..
****Broken Faith****
A silhouette stood above Mahora Academy's highest roof and surveyed what would soon be a battlefield if everything went as planned.
Her companion stood beside her in a pensive mood, she had been in one ever since that night. "I don't really care about the plan, as long as I get paid I'm ok with it, but are you sure Naruto won't interfere? I've seen the way he fights when he's angry and I don't want to be on the receiving end. Bullets, magic and swords I can handle, but when he aims for your mind and heart…. One is so scared of her own shadow she can't piss without help and the other was reduced from a proud demon to a crying lump of flesh with the mind of a 5 year old, I am confident I can hold him off but it won't be easy. This plan of yours has more than a decent chance of angering him, especially since it will affect his friends adversely.
The first figure continued whatever she was doing silently contemplating her answer, "No…. I know him well enough to know that as long as we don't threaten people's lives he won't get serious, we just have to keep him from realizing our true goal till the end."
"And how do you know that? In the 3 months he has been here, you have only spoken to him twice that I know off."
"To him right now, as long as no one he personally knows is hurt, he doesn't really care what happens to the magical world, unless specifically asked to do something about it by either Evangeline-san, Negi-sensei or the dean he will simply observe. It's the way he does things, as efficiently as possible unless of course it conflicts with his moral compass." the first shadow explained, "It's the way he taught me before he…." She added so quietly that it was blown away by the wind before Mana could catch the words.
"The.…future? Efficient? How do you know this?" the second figure tried to clarify, "Wait, nevermind, I don't want to hear another 'I'm a Martian' quote."
Chao pouted, she had just geared herself up exactly for that.
"You sure we can't ask him to join us?"
"I don't mind if you're the one to ask. But I can already imagine his reaction at this point, he doesn't care, and he won't take sides because the people involved, you, me, Negi, the dean, Evangeline, Chachamaru, we're all close to him in one way or another. Knowing him, he won't join; instead he'll sit back and eat popcorn while he watches." Chao elaborated with a sweat drop.
"And if we try to tell him our goal to convince him, at this point in time he will turn us down and even if we manage to persuade him not to tell Negi-sensei or the dean, he'll definitely join the battle and the chances of him fighting seriously increases because now he knows it will affect them badly."
"I see…. At least Chachamaru and Evangeline are helping us."
"Ahaha…." Well Evangeline will probably join Naruto and eat popcorn but Mana didn't need to know that.
****Broken Faith****
"Uguuu…. I'm so useless…. Running away like that…"
Someone tapped the depressed girl's shoulder causing her to look straight up into a grinning Konoka and an embarrassed Setsuna, "Aww…. You missed such a good chance too Asuna."
"Geh! You two saw?"
"We..uh…we weren't following you when we saw you and Takahata-sensei alone in class."
Konoka face palmed behind the swordsgirl. 'Ah, Setsuna… You'll never learn to lie will you? Meh…. The fun is in corrupting you anyway. Hehehe…'
Setsuna felt a shiver run down her back but ploughed on, "A-Anyway, even the usually brave Asuna ran away…. confessing must be really hard…."
Asuna half laughed half cried in reply, "It needs more courage than I have, more than fighting demons even. Even thinking about confessing makes me so nervous…." And Naruto isn't helping.
Chamo sudden joined the conversation, "Ehehe, I have an idea, you're nervous right? It's like sports, if you're nervous before a competition then you just need to practice!"
Asuna felt the bottom of her stomach fall as she watched Konoka conspire with the ermine.
Shii….
****Broken Faith****
Naruto quirked an eyebrow at the boy beside him, "May I know exactly why do you need me to join you on a date? I mean, I heard Chamo talking about it, and I'm pretty sure I wasn't included in the plan."
"Bu-but nii-san! It's Asun- I mean my first date. Even if its practice, I just need some moral support!"
Both of them were dressed up, an older Negi in a light brown jacket, green t-shirt with slacks and an older Naruto dressed similarly to Negi's clothes only predominantly black and made of a tighter fit with an orange shirt. His pony tail fell down his back, enhancing his black clothes and a black leather choker.
Naruto sighed, "Alright, alright, but don't expect me to tell you what to say on a date. I'm as dumb as you are there."
Negi smiled slightly, "Don't worry, I wasn't planning on that."
As the two bishonen walked they were completely unaware of the amount of drool that was starting to flood the streets until Negi bumped into Ako.
"Ah… careful where you walk Ako," Negi smiled softly at his student while Naruto stood by his side, hands in his pockets, looking casually bored, "Ah, you're preparing for your performance then?" Negi said when he noticed the girl carrying a guitar case.
"Umm… yeah?" the girl blushed at being so close to two extremely handsome albeit unknown men.
"I'm looking forward to it," the somehow familiar red head walked off with a smile as the blonde beside him gave her a casual wave.
Ako watched the two of them leave in a daze before being shaken by someone, "Mi-mi-misa? Stop shaking me!"
"Who were those two guys?" Misa demanded, completely ignoring Ako's protest.
"I-I don't know!"
"Liar! He knew your name!"
****Broken Faith****
Asuna glared at the side walk as she waited beside the coffee store, "'Wait here and see Negi's new look,' my foot. Damn pervert ermine." The girl scuffed her foot on the side walk, fantasizing that it was a certain ermine she was stomping on before she finally gave up, "Gah! What am I doing here, this is stupid, I'm going back to fix that painting."
Before she could leave two silhouettes approached her, "Ah... Gomen, we're a bit late because I had to pick Naruto up."
Naruto? What did this have to with him? And where was he?
Her eyes roved about before falling on the one that had greeted her and his companion and her eyes widened.
Negi had lost his baby fat and instead developed lean muscles that suited his build and had become undeniably taller than her, beside him an older Naruto stood. Where Negi had been lean and lithe, Naruto now looked like he had finished puberty, some stubble under his strong jaw that added a certain degree of ruggedness, his back had broadened slightly to complement his lean face and a black choker wrapped tightly around his neck.
Where Asuna had been enjoying the eye candy, Naruto had been doing the same, he had never seen Asuna look this girly. It suited her. Then it hit him, Negi's first date was with Asuna.
Grabbing the grinning red head that had been watching the two of them check each other out, he pulled Negi aside, "You didn't mention your date was with Asuna!"
"Oh I didn't? I'm pretty sure I said something."
"Like hell! Chamo just said you were practicing for a date of some kind! And you implied it with Nodoka!"
"Eh…. Oh look at the time! We should go to lunch!"
Asuna watched the two of them move to a quiet corner and seemed to bicker about something, or rather Naruto seemed flustered and Negi was grinning in a complete reverse of how things usually were between the two of them.
Lunch was an incredibly awkward affair as a grinning Negi edged Naruto in between him and Asuna. The two of them refused to even look at each other. Naruto mostly because while he wasn't going to distance himself, he refused to encourage it either.
Asuna just couldn't do it because her face felt like it was on fire every time she did.
A group of girls suddenly came up to them, tittering; one of them spoke to get the two boy's attention, "A-Ano…"
Both Naruto and Negi turned to face her, Naruto gave her bored lop sided smirk and a "Yes?" while Negi smiled sincerely and asked if she needed anything simultaneously.
All three girls were blown back by the force of their nosebleeds.
Naruto watched the twitching bodies and elbowed Negi, "Eh…. Is that normal for girls nowadays?"
"I dunno. You think we should help?"
"I guess…"
Before either of them could do anything a hand twisted their earlobes as a fire red Asuna pulled both idiots away getting a "Gah, Asuna!" and a "Oi oi, what's up with you and Chachamaru pulling my ears!" from the two males.
She pulled them to a secluded spot and started to scold both of them, "Listen you two, don't think just because you and Naruto suddenly became older and more handsome, the both of you can be vain and hook some innocent girl like those three!"
"Eeeh? Hook some innocent girl?" that was Negi.
"What does that even mean? Wait, they came to us! We didn't do anything!" and that was Naruto.
Asuna glared at Naruto, "I don't care! I won't let you corrupt some poor innocent girl again!" Naruto was half tempted to say Konoka didn't count since she wasn't innocent to start with but settled for sighing in annoyance, "Whatever…." He released his henge before turning back to normal, surprising Asuna. "You two enjoy your date; the haunted house still needs a lot of work."
The two remaning ones looked at each other before looking back at Naruto's retreating back, "That… wasn't the pills was it?"
Negi shook his head, "Naruto-nii san said he had some transformation spells so he didn't need them."
"Ah…."
The date got even more awkward after Naruto left, Asuna seemed to be pensive over something while Negi desperately tried to draw her out but just walking around didn't seem to work.
Behind a wall Konoka was tearing a handkerchief to pieces, "Kiii, my eye candy! Naruto-sensei… come back *sob sob*"
Setsuna sweat dropped.
Negi sighed, the day wasn't going according to plan at all, tapping Asuna's shoulder. "Come on; let's go where we can talk quietly."
Asuna looked up in surprise at Negi's serious expression and nodded.
They reached a pavilion that no one seemed to be using near the World Tree, and Asuna watched as Negi paced around the platform while chewing his lower lip. "What's wrong? Why did you suddenly want to talk?"
Negi sighed as he sat beside Asuna, "First, I want to apologize. I dragged Naruto-nii san to the date on purpose and it just made the two of you uncomfortable. Next, why do you like Takahata-sensei?"
"Wha-what's this all of a sudden? Wait you brought him on purpose?" Asuna spluttered.
"Just tell me."
"Err...Uh…. well…" Asuna sighed before gathering her nerves, "Sigh, you see… when I first came here, I couldn't remember my past at all. All I could remember was Takahata taking care of me. The only person I could depend on was him." Asuna reached up and removed her bell ornaments and smiled softly at them, "I still remember, one day I was sitting alone in class, I didn't even know my birthday nor did I have any friends to celebrate with but suddenly Takahata-sensei knocked on the door and came in. He asked me if I knew when my birthday was. When I said no, he smiled kindly at me before saying, 'Well, since you can't remember your old birthday. Today will be your new one. The day a new Asuna Kagurazaka is born.' Then he gave me these as a present. They were the first presents I could ever remember getting. And the last I ever got from him."
Asuna looked up in to the sky, "From then on, I guess I liked him. Maybe it's stupid; maybe I'm confusing the love for a father for the love for a partner. But to me, it was the first time it felt like I was worth something. Like I was somebody."
Asuna wiped a few tears away and smiled at Negi, "Stupid right?"
Negi shook his head, "I know I'm stupid, and sometimes *snort from Asuna* I don't know what to say, but that was beautiful. I can't blame you for feeling like that for someone that gave you your worth. But I just want to ask, why do you like Naruto-nii san as well? Compare them and tell me."
"Wha-what do you mean? What are you talking about, I don't like that idiot!"
"Ignore your embarrassment, just tell me honestly, why do you like Naruto-nii san?"
"Grrr… that's none of your business."
Negi didn't budge and kept staring at her seriously while Asuna fidgeted in her seat before face palming, when the heck had Negi gotten so...persuasive.
"Sigh…. I don't know alright. It just feels right. Takahata-sensei is like someone I look up to. But with Naruto, it's like there's different parts. I can look up to him, admire him, hate him, fight with him, be gentle with him, talk to him like an equal. He can be mature and serious, but when it comes down to it, he's as much of a brat as you Negi." She grinned at the boy before continuing, "I honestly don't get it. Takahata is like this established castle, strong and firm but stationary, but when I look at Naruto, I get the sense of something just as strong, but at the same time the construction isn't don't yet, and watching him get stronger, watching his back protect me and encourage me, it gives me this bubbling feeling that gives me warmth. It makes me want to stand beside that back and grow strong with him. I don't know how to properly say it." Asuna looked at her hands and clenched the bells in her fist.
"Kami, I feel stupid talking about something like this to a 10 year old."
Negi grinned and mimicked Asuna's voice, "'I-I-I LIKE YOU NARUTO!' That's what you said in your dreams this morning before you woke up, word for word."
Asuna blushed deeply and tried to deny it while Negi continued to speak, "I admit, I'm just ten years old Asuna. I don't know what love is, nor am I ready to date or anything along those lines. But even I can see the difference. When I met you, you were a steady, determined, brash but honest girl, you had this glow inside you that anyone could see. But when Naruto came along, that brashness changed into something, something soft. I could see it every time you looked at him while we were in Kyoto. I saw it when you bandaged him in his room, when you play your flute, but after we came back from Kyoto, that brightness dimmed somehow because the two of you weren't as close anymore, like something happened but I didn't understand it at the time. On the other hand when you talk about Takahata-sensei, there's something forced about it, you blush; you say you like him but…"
Asuna watched the boy struggle to find the words, "AH! It just feels weird. I don't know how to say it. But when you talk about Naruto there's a difference. A passion and softness that isn't there when you talk about Takahata-sensei. I'm not saying you should go after Naruto. I'm just saying I don't want to see the brash, honest, caring Asuna I know to be so depressed, like you're hiding something. It hurts to see you so indecisive, it hurts me, Konoka, Setsuna, everyone of us that likes the bright caring Asuna are hurt. Especially because it's about something like this, so… so just do what you have to do and change back into the bright and beautiful Asuna we know. That's why I brought Naruto today but it failed, I'm sorry."
Asuna sat there stunned as she listened to Negi's words. Then she smiled and stood up before conking Negi on the head, "I-itai! What was that for?"
Asuna turned her back to Negi so he couldn't see her face, "Tch, have I really fallen so low that I need romantic help and advice from a ten year old."
"Wha-wha?"
"Hmph, come on, we have to finish this date or Konoka and Chamo's efforts will be wasted."
"Huh? Wh-Why are you suddenly talking about this date?"
"Tch, be quiet and let's go. There's a shrine over there that I want to visit."
"Eeeeh?"
"Women are weird," Negi muttered under his breath, careful not to let Asuna hear him as he was dragged by the collar along to the shrine.
Konoka and Setsuna watched them go, before Konoka snapped her fingers, "Let's go home Setsuna."
"Bu-but Konoka-onee san! I want to watch more!"
Konoka grabbed the ermine and brought it up to her face before smiling sweetly at the ermine, "We've seen enough haven't we?" she squeezed the ermine slightly to emphasize her point,
"Hai Konoka-sama!"
"Eh? We're really not going to watch them anymore?"
Konoka dropped the scared shitless ermine, "Fufufu, there's no need to anymore. Asuna already made her choice, I don't know what is it, but that's none of my business."
"Huh?"
Konoka faced Setsuna and her bottom lip trembled, "Yo-you don't want to go home and spend some time alone with me? I mean we've been so busy and now that Asuna and Negi aren't there….." she trailed off and watched as the gears turned in Setsuna's head.
Konoka hid a grin as Setsuna grabbed her and flew them both back to the dorm. That reminded her; she needed to learn that transformation spell from Naruto. She preferred being seductive over being cute, but that avenue didn't have as much of an impact in her 14 year old body. It was so much more effective in her 17 year old one. Fufufufufu….
****Broken Faith****
Naruto hammered on a plank as the moon rose in the sky behind him before wiping the sweat away and stretching his back. His shirt and jacket were lying on a chair nearby. He had already told Chachamaru he probably wouldn't be back tonight till late. He smiled as he surveyed the growing makeshift building. He loved working with his hands; it was far more satisfying than exercise of the mental kind. He supposed he was just that kind of person no matter how intellectual he forced himself to be. He could have used clones to speed up the process but it felt more satisfying when he did it with his own hands.
Suddenly his hand shot out to grab something on reflex. Staring at the cold can of juice dumbly he turned around to see Asuna sitting on a low wall, grinning at him. How the heck did she get the drop on him?
"I thought I'd find you here."
"Yeah? You finished the date with Negi?" he tried to keep the resentment in and succeeded in keeping his tone neutral.
"Yeah, I dragged him back to change into his 10 year old form again then we enjoyed the festival at the shrine. No matter how handsome his 15 year old form was, it just wasn't natural. I didn't like that feeling."
Naruto smirked, "So you saying you prefer 10 year old kids to 15 year old kids?"
Naruto ducked a plank that flew in the direction of his head as Asuna glared at him, "I don't like kids. Period."
"Hmph, and here I thought you'd be a good moth-"
Asuna raised an eyebrow, "Good what?"
Naruto averted his eyes, "Nothing, I need to get this done." before he resumed hammering the plank.
It didn't take long before he felt her presence join him in hammering.
He wouldn't encourage her, but that didn't mean he couldn't take comfort in her presence.
****Broken Faith****
Ayaka came to school the next morning, determined on making the haunted house a success. Only to gape as she found the entire thing already completed. "Wha-who-huh?"
A topless Naruto walked out of the haunted house and Ayaka stared dumbly at him, "Oh, bondage girl. The foundation is already done. The only things left to do are the cloth related stuff, like curtains and décor."
She was about to answer when a red head walked out of the same room Naruto had just been in, her clothes dishevelled and unbuttoned halfway down her chest and her hair mussed, "Na-yawn-Naruto? Where did you go? It's so cold."
Very indecent thoughts crossed the female blonde's mind at the red head's words; most of them had something to do with a naked Naruto and an equally naked Asuna, before it snapped, "How indecent!"
Ayaka failed to look either Naruto or Asuna in the eye for the rest of the day.
****Broken Faith****
Day before Festival
Evangeline strolled into her cottage, looking extremely happy. Walking by the couch she kicked the blonde currently napping on it, "Whuh- wha?"
The blonde groaned from the floor, "What is it Eva-chan? And did you have to kick me?"
"You stay in my house, you follow my rules. And since you're freeloading here now, I order you to join the Martial Arts Tournament."
Naruto grumbled, "It's not like I wanted to stay here, couldn't say no when Chachamaru looked at me like that."
Evangeline smirked smugly, "And I let you stay here. So since Chachamaru belongs to me, and you belong to her, by proxy you belong to me, Ohohoho."
Naruto lunged at the vampire and started tickling her, "No! STOP! Bwahaha! Please!"
Grinning at the vampire, "Who owns who now?"
"I own you!"
He started tickling her again, "Noooo! Stop! Bwahaha! Ok, Ok I GIVE!"
His victory smirk lasted as long as it took Eva to gather her wits and knee him in the ribs, "Idiot. Anyway, you should take part in the Tournament. You always complain you don't get to fight all out. There are a lot of good fighters in it and I know Takahata always joins and his pretty strong for a human."
A shaky thumbs up rose from the groaning blonde on the floor, prompting another victory smirk from Evangeline. If the blonde joined this year, along with his four students and Negi, the fights would be pretty interesting.
A knock on the door alerted the two of them, giving each other a look which Eva shook her head to, Naruto shrugged before opening the door to find Takahata. "Oh there you are Naruto, I couldn't find you at your usual place, luckily I came here first, I thought you were camping out in the classroom or something. Hahaha."
Naruto sweat dropped, "Yeah… I shifted here. Don't ask why, it hurts my male ego. Anyway you were looking for me?"
Takahata looked strangely at the blonde before continuing, "Yeah, the dean has called a meeting for everybody on campus that is a mage and a few certain independents, you're one of those independents, so you're invited."
"Oh…. What time is the meeting?"
"In about an hour."
"Right, thanks for the heads up man."
"Sure, I'll be seeing you."
When the teacher left he turned to the vampire, "So you know what that was about?"
Evangeline looked pensive, "It's earlier than usual….."
"What's earlier than usual?"
"Basically you know how magic is a combination of a person's belief and will commanding the natural energy in the atmosphere?"
"Yeah…? The energies in the world can be divided into three rough categories, physical energy, the energy the body uses, Ki, and then we have mental power, or will, or mana and lastly natural energy. The latent energy in the atmosphere. Magic in general is the combination of the latter two while the chakra I use is a combination of the former two and my Sage Mode is a combination of all three. Why?"
"It boils down to the fact that the magical energy in the tree overflows and is released into the atmosphere for a period of three days, the entirety of the Festival if I'm not wrong, from there on, because of the amount of magic in the air, if you believe strong enough, and the magic resonates in response, your wishes can literally come true. Well not literally, the wishes have a pretty insignificant limit if you ask me. Not big ones, just small ones. And humans being humans naturally take advantage of it, and they use it for the stupidest thing. For love confessions."
Naruto didn't care about that, he had heard the term magical discharge and he immediately started making theories.
"So…. You're saying the magic in the tree becomes too much, so it releases into the atmosphere? Is it a natural process or is it affected by seals? And why is it earlier than usual? By earlier, how much earlier?"
Evangeline frowned at the flood of questions before she remembered the male blonde's current…problem, "It's a year early. Usually this happens every 22 years but I assume that your release and the fact that you use more energy compared to when you were sealed has accelerated the process. You need more energy, so you regenerate more, hence the tree absorbs more than usual. I'm not entirely sure whether it's natural or not, I wasn't here for the last one so I wouldn't know the difference but the records of all previous ones are around since it was a big deal. For humans anyway. You think you can use this to your advantage?" Evangeline questioned.
"I'm…not sure. But I'm going to try anyway. The discharge might have something to do with the fact the seal managed to keep me in there for 5000 years. Best case scenario, I can make the magical discharge a perpetual thing rather than once every 22 years, only in smaller quantities to offset my regeneration. Worst case scenario, it has nothing to do with me, and I still need another way." Naruto shrugged, "This is just one of a few ways I'm thinking about. So I'm not exactly desperate."
Evangeline quirked an eyebrow at his nonchalant attitude, "And yet you have yet to tell Chachamaru or the bouya."
Naruto squirmed uncomfortably, "We-well, it's like you said. Everyone has to die someday. For me it's just a more set in stone thing. There's no difference."
"Uh huh…." Her grin widened.
"And it's kinda stupid, I mean, 'I'm sorry I ignored you because I was afraid I was going to die. But don't worry I don't know when I'm dying. Just like every other human being.'" Naruto paused. "Ok, that sounds really stupid when I say it out loud."
Evangeline grinned broadly at the blonde and he just knew she would find a way to use it to humiliate him. Counter black mail time.
He pulled a picture of Evangeline sleeping while cuddling a plushie that had red hair and wore a tattered robe out and flashed it at the vampire and savoured the taste of embarrassment in the air as she slowly paled, "Whe-where did you get that?"
Naruto grinned, "Don't bother trying to sneak into my room at night and stealing it. I got a lot of copies hidden all over Mahora just in case you did exactly that."
He left the spluttering vampire as he went to the meeting with a grin. He was going to do something nice for Chachamaru tonight. Dinner and Massage? Wait, do robots even enjoy massages?
****Broken Faith****
Naruto turned his head to find himself at the Plaza; there were 17 other people present, including Negi, Kotarou and Setsuna. The only other people he recognized off the top of his head was the Dean, Takahata and Shizuna-sensei.
On the far left were two nuns, one adult (Sister Shakti) and one younger than Naruto. To their direct right was a man in a suit that he vaguely recognised but couldn't place (Seruhiko), a red haired girl with cute flower hair clips, then the Headmaster, Shizuna, Kotaro, Negi and Setsuna all in a row. Then there were three people, one girl in a sailor uniform, and then two adult men, again in suits. One rather chubby (Nijuin Mitsuru) and the other slightly taller and more fit looking (Akashi). This time he didn't recognise them at all. To their direct right was a beautiful blonde girl, and then another group of three, two very tall men (Gandolfini) and a blonde sword wielding woman (Kuzunoha Toko), again in suits. Standing a step apart was another man with a beard and sunglasses wearing a suit (Kataragi). Naruto guessed they were teachers, but couldn't be sure. Then again, not his problem.
Striding up to Negi he ruffled his hair, "Sup?" while the wolf boy quietly edged away from him. The blonde was completely insane to Kotarou and he hadn't forgotten that time in the class either.
"Nii-san! You were called too?"
"Yeah. All mages and some certain people are called to attend, since Konoka and Asuna isn't here, I assume I was called because my status as bodyguard probably means I would have to do more."
"Hahah, but you're enjoying it here aren't you?"
"Yeah, I won't deny that," Naruto smiled at the small boy.
"Still, I'm really surprised, there are so many people here that I didn't know where mages."
"Really? Considering this place has dragons, half demons, ninjas, robots and even vampires, I can't find it in myself to be surprised anymore." Naruto said with a sweat drop.
Just then a man in a suit walked up to them, "Ah Naruto-san, Negi-sensei. I'm glad to be able to finally greet you as a mage." The man said with a small smile.
"Seryuhiko-sensei! You're a mage too!"
As the other mages moved to greet them Naruto took the time to look around and carefully noted the threat level of everyone there. For precautionary measures of course. The only person of note was a blonde girl in black. Her signature was somewhat different than the norm. He wondered why.
"You can stop checking me out now." A voice suddenly spoke and startled the blonde; the blonde girl he had been staring at had walked up to him without him noticing, he was amused to note she was blushing.
"Do you always automatically assume any men that look at you are checking you out? Or are you just looking for a reason to speak to me?"
The blonde girl in black huffed, "Don't let it get to your head. Handsome men like you are always playboys."
"And girls like you shouldn't wear such revealing outfits if you don't want men checking you out." Naruto shot back with a grin at the banter.
The girl blushed, "Wha-whatever." She stomped away to argue with a shy red haired girl in a hushed manner.
The rest of the meeting was pretty normal, the dean prattled on about the Legend of the World Tree. There wasn't much that Evangeline hadn't already told him and so Naruto amused himself by winking at the blonde in black whenever she looked at him.
Naruto suddenly paused as a thought hit him, what was it with him and teasing blonde girls? Ayaka, Evangeline and this girl made three. As far as he could tell, he didn't tease anyone as much as them. Meh, it was fun so he wasn't going to stop. Maybe it was because all three of them were so high strung and presented a sophisticated image he just couldn't resist teasing and proving that underneath all that trump and bluster was a soft mushy inside. Although... he wasn't going to risk teasing that blonde woman in a suit and holding a sword with a strict expression until he knew she wouldn't stick it somewhere uncomfortable if he did.
Suddenly a few teachers tensed and one of them, a serious old man wearing sun glasses with a Terminator vibe sent a vacuum wave at an object that was floating in mid air.
Chaos reigned as a few of them jumped away towards the object.
Huh, that was interesting; he hadn't noticed that thing at all. He assumed it was because robots didn't give away a magical signature, Chachamaru used magic as fuel so she didn't count. On the other hand he knew the ghost and Kazumi were nearby. But again, not his problem. What was his problem was the girl that the mages were chasing.
Sigh… he had avoided her whenever possible but it looked like that wasn't going to be viable any longer. Quietly the ninja cricked his neck and stretched before fading away.
Konoemon looked at the remaining mages, "All of us will make patrol shifts until the festival ends. Alright, scatter!" he finally ordered.
"Yes Sir!"
Instantly the other Mage's scattered, leaving Konoe, Kotarou, Negi and Setsuna in the plaza as it slowly began to fill with people again.
"Where did these people all come from?" Kotarou spoke for the first time since Naruto had arrived.
"The spell keeping them away has been lifted," Negi explained.
"Really? Cool."
"Negi-kun, Naruto-kun, please avoid confessions to your own selves as well." A voice broke in from behind the trio.
"Wah, what are you trying to say? The old man is planning something! Shit! Think of something quick! Why would people confess to us?" Negi tried to ask innocently, "Wait… where is Naruto-nii san?"
Everyone looked around until Kotarou answered, "He slipped away a few minutes ago. I think he went to chase after the student with the robot like the others."
"Ah…. Never mind then. I'll let him know another time. In the mean time, just please be careful." The dean restated before ambling away and out of sight.
Negi gave the old man an affirmative before the three of them went to start their patrol.
"Sigh…. Naruto-nii san probably ran away because he was too lazy to do patrols. He probably knew what the dean was going to ask before we did."
"Aahah…. " Setsuna couldn't deny it. The blonde was incredibly lazy sometimes. Or at least he looked lazy.
"Gwahhh… Nevermind that, because of that stupid legend I'm even more worried about my safety! Especially since I have so many dates! *sob sob* I have to go the tournament or Evangeline-sensei will kill me, but if I go, all the other girls will kill me. I'm too young to die! Kami! Help me!" Negi fell to his knees and desperately prayed for help with his hands spread wide while Kotarou and Setsuna sweat dropped at Negi's breakdown.
Just then a hooded figure landed in his arms.
"Err….. Thank you Kami?"
****Broken Faith****
AN : Just a small rant, I find it really annoying when authors decide to include divine help to the main character in a fic outside of logic's realm. Sure it adds a degree of romanticism but….. sigh. I have a lot of examples, Kami helps Naruto because he had a bad childhood. Death helps Harry Potter because Dumbledore was a jerk. Sigh. If God helped everyone with a bad childhood there wouldn't be any suffering, and I know there are many people who are treated worse, like in Iraq. The only difference is Naruto has a demon in his gut. I mean, I got nothing really when Divine gives assistance as long as it's a) plausible, b) the dude actually worked for it, c) it's a plot device. But when you get Kami coming down to Konoha just because Kakashi was an asshole and didn't want to train him for the Chuunin exams and bestow Naruto with enough power in his penis to nuke Konoha….
But I guess what my rant boils down to, is that I really hate overpowered Main Characters that aren't competent and couple that with a plot that doesn't make sense…. thing is, I dont mind overpowered characters but do it right, meaning; good story, good timing and pacing, enemies you love to hate, add some intensity and suspense and voila you can turn an overused cliche into something absolutely GAR and fantastically epic. but..but... i look at what is the norm nowadays and i cant help but cringe.
Sometimes I wonder where the good old writers that actually had common sense went. That and the days where Harry's ass wasn't permanently plugged by Snape or Draco and when Naruto wasn't busy lusting after Sasuke even in fanfiction. Lol. Is Yaoi really that interesting?
Sorry for the rant, I was bored and looked around for something decent to read, and one hour later? Nothing but butt plugs and sighs.
I think I should go back and archive all the good fics with Microsoft words or something. Before they're all buried under the yaoi and other crap. Stuff from writers like Jeconais, Kenchi618 and pokemaster12, Aragon Potter, lord of the land of fire, Gabriel blessing, robst, Third Fang; good storyline, overpowered for a good reason but with enough challenge that the story doesn't go stale, good grammar and consistent.