Broken Faith 23
Because
Disclaimer : I don't own anything, Naruto and its variants belong to Masashi Kishimoto, Mahou Sensei Negima and its variants belong to Ken Akamatsu. Songs belong to their respective singers and publishers and I'm simply borrowing all of the above.
This chapter is released at the same time Chapter 354 of Mahou Negima Sensei hit online readers(I still buy the mangas when they come out by the way, more permanent.) as a commemoration of the 2nd last chapter of a manga series that has lasted for nearly a decade and entertained millions.
P.S : That being said, I'm rather busy with University at the moment, so I didn't notice that 354 was already posted. Therefore, this chapter came out early, thank Khagerou for letting me know and giving me the link to a translated copy from Red Hawk. He's the reason this came out early, otherwise you would've have to wait till next Sunday (My usual down time when I check for updated mangas, the chapter came out on a Monday apparently) before this came out. Also I purposely set up the Mahora arc Fest to end at the same time that Mahou Sensei Negima ends as well, chapter 24 is already written and I'm simply waiting for 355 to make it out.
It's rather bittersweet, knowing that in a way what I'm writing is like signalling the end of something I like.
Soundtrack List
Nickelback – Gotta be Somebody
Nickelback – If Today Was Your Last Day
****Broken Faith****
"Takahata-sensei! I have always loved you~!" Asuna yelled out, her face burning brightly and her eyes resolutely focused on her shoes.
A brief silence passed before she heard the sound of a sad chuckle, "I thank you for your feelings Asuna... I'm really really glad for them..." Asuna looked up in slight hope.
"But I can't think of you in that way. I've watched you grow up and taken care of you ever since you came to Mahora, you're like my daughter."
They shared a few more quiet words before Asuna suddenly gave him a bright smile and clutched her chest, "It... it hurts a lot. I knew it would hurt but not this much, but I wanted to thank you for giving me a proper answer anyway."
Takahata watched Asuna give him one last deep bow before turning around and leaping off the edge of the roof where they ended the date.
Sighing, the mature teacher drew a badly needed deep breath of nicotine before dejectedly looking back out onto the blazing light show that was Mahora Festival.
He took another lungful of nicotine and spoke as he blew out smoke, "What are you two doing here?"
Two male figures landed gracefully on either side of him on top of the roof's battlements.
He drew another lungful and smiled softly, "Long time no see Al. Naruto, I thought you were busy? That one date was stressful enough but I heard you had more dates than strictly healthy?"
The robed man chuckled, "You too Takahata. You've really grown." While Naruto snorted, "You're telling me. I'm still a bit jumpy from Ayaka's date. Thank Kami for small blessings like that time clock thingy. If it wasn't for that, I would've had to make a few blood clones, and draining myself of blood over and over again isn't exactly pleasant."
All three of them fell silent awkwardly, "Why did you brush her off? Asuna Kaguraka was quite the trophy prize."
"Oi," Naruto grunted at Albiero with annoyance, "I don't appreciate you comparing my friends to trophies."
Albiero waved him off, "I meant no offence. It was a metaphor."
Takhata chuckled at their bickering, but it stopped the moment he spoke, "Someone like me... doesn't deserve someone like her." He lifted his eyes to look at the blonde, "I think Naruto would know better than most what I mean."
Naruto simply smirked before turning serious, "I thought I was supposed to be the cynical anti hero here? But not really, I don't really see why not. Taking people's lives will never be pleasant but if it meant some 5 year old somewhere could sleep safely at night then no. Do I like doing it? Only those who are insane don't. But it was necessary. It may sound a bit hypocritical of me but I don't see the point in regretting something like that as long as I don't enjoy the killing itself. The only difference between you and me is that I choose to repent and regret in my own way, and you chose to deny this from yourself."
Takahata laughed at his friend's somewhat callous but essentially logical assessment.
Albiero snorted, "After saying something like that, you have enough guts to get angry at me for calling you old man? Go bang yourself in a mirror."
Takahata perked up, "Speaking of something like that, you're not angry with me?" he asked the blonde who was in the process of throttling Albeiro.
"Why would I be?" Naruto asked blandly as he dropped the robed man like a brick.
"Because I turned her down and hurt her."
Naruto's eyes flickered towards the direction in which Asuna had left, "None of us here are Gods, Michi." He said softly, "If I got angry at everybody who hurt a friend for any reason at all, I might as well kill everyone alive before stuffing explosives up my ass and going out with a bang. It was her choice to have feelings for you and it was her choice to confess to you. It was your choice to reject her as well. Do I like the fact that she got hurt because of that? No I don't. But it was her choice and both of you acted logically according to your respective rationales. Sure you will have to live with the consequences of those choices whether you regret them or not, but as long as it was her choice I will respect it." Naruto paused and smirk, "Of course, the fact that you had a valid reason helped. If you had turned her down for a stupid reason like her chest wasn't big enough, they wouldn't find your body."
All three of them shared a laugh at Naruto's joke.
Takahata sighed again before noticing that Naruto still hadn't looked away from the edge of the roof Asuna had leap from, "Go to her Naruto, she needs a friend right now."
Naruto jumped slightly in surprise, he hadn't realized he had been so obvious. The blonde replied hesitantly, "I... I think she should be alone for now. She probably wouldn't appreciate me showing up, not when she knows that I have feelings for her like that and it would feel too much like I'm taking advantage of the situation or something anyway."
Takahata smiled, "And that's why I trust you to go after her. As her father figure I ask that you take care of her for me."
Naruto hesitated and looked at him once more for approval.
Once he received the nod, Naruto hurriedly leapt away with a quiet, "Thanks... Michi."
Takahata leaned back onto the balcony and sucked another lungful or smoke.
"You're going to die before I am, if you keep smoking that thing."
Takamichi snorted, "As if. Speaking of dying, where the hell have you been all this years?"
****Broken Faith****
Play Nickelback – Gotta be Somebody
Asuna meandered around town alone in a daze; she hadn't seen Ayaka since Takahata's toilet break. Judging by her dressy outfit, she assumed her best friend had her own date or something equally important. Without realizing it, she found herself in front of her dorm room.
This time I wonder what it feels like
To find the one in this life, the one we all dream of
But dreams just aren't enough
Sighing quietly, she opened the door and walked in. Everything seemed to a bit of a blur, she barely felt anything. She couldn't really think. So she sat down on the couch as if in a trance, pulled her knees up against her chest and stared unseeingly out the window, unable to cry or feel. Empty. From a purely logical standpoint, she had already predicted this would happen, she even planned for it. But it hurt so much.
She didn't know how long she had sat there, only that it was very comfortable and she didn't think she wanted to leave or move ever again.
So I'll be waiting for the real thing
I'll know it by the feeling
The moment when we're meeting will play out like a scene
Straight off the silver screen
Someone opened the door and stepped in quietly but Asuna didn't make any move to acknowledge the person, she assumed it was Konoka or Negi. A slight sagging on the sofa told her the person had taken the seat beside her but didn't do anything else. He or she was just there. Which meant it wasn't Negi.
So I'll be holding my own breath right up 'til the end
Until that moment when I find the one that I'll spend forever with
They remained that way for a long time, neither acknowledging the other, only the sounds of calm breathing filled the room.
Asuna sniffed slightly.
And that was what broke the dam.
Before long, tears started to roll down her cheeks, she couldn't hold them back any longer and her sniffs increased in volume until her shoulders were heaving and she was sobbing into her skirt.
'Cause nobody wants to be the last one there
'Cause everyone wants to feel like someone cares
Someone to love with my life in their hands
There's gotta be somebody for me like that
A warm hand wrapped around her curled up body and lifted her up before setting her down on the person's lap. Not once did she stop sobbing into her skirt. The person made no attempt to stop her or do anything else; he or she was just there, allowing her to take comfort in his presence.
Abandoning her skirt, she buried her face in his chest and screamed and tugged at the cloth until her sobs turned into quiet sniffles and her tears stopped flowing. When she had exhausted herself the person's calloused hands wiped her tears away with a handkerchief, his other arm secured her position on his lap while moving up and down her back in a soothing rhythm.
Since she had exhausted herself by screaming herself back into sensibility Asuna took the chance to turn her blurry eyes up to identify the person she was using as a pillow, "Naruto?"
'Cause nobody wants to do it on their own
And everyone wants to know they're not alone
There's somebody else that feels the same somewhere
There's gotta be somebody for me out there
Naruto smiled slightly but didn't stop rubbing her back and sides soothingly, "I'm not going anywhere. Cry as much as you want."
Asuna choked out her thanks and buried her face back into his warm chest, "I must look pathetic."
Tonight, out on the street, out in the moonlight
And you know this feels too right
It's just like déjà vu
Me standing here with you
Naruto shrugged, "It depends."
"On?"
Naruto shifted uncomfortably and averted his eyes.
Asuna poked him in the side, "Why aren't you saying anything?"
The blonde mumbled something incomprehensible to her ears.
So I'll be holding my own breath, could this be the end?
Is it that moment when I find the one that I'll spend forever with?
She poked him harder and Naruto winced at how much strength she put into the poke, she glared at him with watery eyes and he sighed tiredly before whispering guiltily, "I don't think you look pathetic. You've always looked so... incredibly beautiful to me, no matter you're doing, crying or fighting or laughing, when you let your hair down and it shines in the sunlight, that cute scrunched up expression you get whenever you're thinking..." Naruto's voice steadily got lower and lower, guiltier and guiltier until she couldn't hear it anymore."
Asuna nearly stopped breathing; no one had called her beautiful before.
'Cause nobody wants to be the last one there
'Cause everyone wants to feel like someone cares
Someone to love with my life in their hands
There's gotta be somebody for me like that
Without thinking she reached up to cup his cheeks and turn his eyes back to hers, she could see so much self hatred in them.
"Why do you look so guilty?" She whispered.
"Be...Because..."
He went silent again for so long that she was about to poke him again when he finally answered, "Because I can't help but fall in love more every time I look at you, especially now. But I don't know, I can't tell anymore, whether I'm falling in love with Akane or Asuna. And I hate myself that little bit more every time I have to ask myself; do I love her because she looks like Akane... I hate myself because I can't bring myself to choose, for loving more than one girl at the same time... It's wrong... but I can't help it and it's not fair for any of you."
'Cause nobody wants to do it on their own
And everyone wants to know they're not alone
There's somebody else that feels the same somewhere
There's gotta be somebody for me out there
He quietly trailed off as their faces unknowingly got closer with every word, until Asuna could feel his breath on her lips and his burning sapphire gaze never left her own mismatched orbs. Slowly she closed her eyes and leaned forward for that final leap.
His lips were sweet and warm and she revelled in it as they pressed onto her own. It was a chaste kiss. She unconsciously opened her lips and let her tongue flick forward, causing him to jerk for a moment before returning it with equal vigour. Her arms snaked around his neck and brought their bodies as close as possible, while his massaged her sides and back, alternating between fast and slow strokes, but always gentle and warm.
You can't give up, looking for a diamond in the rough
You never know when it shows up
Make sure you're holding on
'Cause it could be the one, the one you're waiting on
"Oh God," Naruto moaned into the kiss and Asuna felt herself chuckle throatily.
Their tongues intertwined slightly and Naruto pressed forward, slipping his hands underneath her blouse, seeking skin to skin contact with her warm skin.
She returned the favour, wanting to warm her dainty fingers by slipping underneath his shirt. As soon as her fingers touched the skin on his torso, the blonde jerked back as if burned and immediately got as far as possible with the girl still on his lap, his breaths deep and ragged. Asuna's eyes were glazed over but she had enough presence of mind to speak, "What's wrong?"
'Cause nobody wants to be the last one there
And everyone wants to feel like someone cares
Someone to love with my life in their hands
There's gotta be somebody for me, oh...
Naruto took a while to steady his breathing, "Th-this is wrong Asuna, You just con-confessed to Takahata, you're still too emotionally hurt and I'm still too confused. We-we can't do this right now. I promised Takahata I wouldn't."
Asuna looked at him brokenly for a long silent moment as the truth in his words slowly penetrated her pleasure soaked brains, "I-I'm sorry..."
Nobody wants to be the last one there
And everyone wants to feel like someone cares
Somebody else that feels the same somewhere
There's gotta be somebody for me out there
His arms rewrapped around her waist, careful to avoid any unnecessary contact, "I-I'm sorry too. We have too much baggage to do this properly. You don't deserve that and frankly it would kill me if that came back to hurt you in the future."
The red head sniffed loudly and blew her nose on his shirt, prompting a semi loud protest. She laughed slightly before sobering up and leaned into his muscled torso, "Friends?"
Naruto nodded before whispering again, "Friends," then he added almost desperately, "But I'll always love you more than one no matter what."
'Cause nobody wants to be the last one there
'Cause everyone wants to feel like someone cares
Someone to love with my life in their hands
There's gotta be somebody for me like that
It sounded utterly hypocritical considering what he had said to her barely seconds ago, but at that point in time he really couldn't bring himself to care anymore.
She hummed into his chest, fair enough. She could wait till he dealt with his issues, and he would wait till she dealt with hers.
Naruto just tiredly leaned back into the seat facing the window while Asuna curled up sideways on his lap, allowing silence to fill the room once more.
Tonight, out on the street, out in the moonlight
And you know this feels too right
It's just like déjà vu
Me standing here with you
The slow and steady rhythm of his heart beat and breathing that combined with his warmth sang an effective lullaby to the red headed girl and it didn't take long before she could barely keep her eyes open anymore. The steady beat and the warmth was like listening to the ocean waves, a soothing repetitive sounds and the warm sunlight, made her body feel too heavy to do anything but sleep, especially after the extremely hectic and stressful day filled with battles, both physical and emotional.
"Naruto?" She quietly murmured after a while.
"Yeah?"
"Why do you feel so different?"
"Huh?"
She nuzzled into his chest, "Last time you were cuddly, but not so cuddly."
His eyebrow twitched, was she implying he was getting fat?
"Last time big, but angry, fierce, scary presence. Now not so scary. Just big. Just there, like mountain." Asuna mumbled.
The blonde wondered what she meant, but before he could ask her insensible mumbling turned into quiet snores.
He tried to get up and put her to bed but the girl whimpered and tightened her grip around him, causing him to stiffen. Slowly he moved again but she whimpered louder. Giving up, he just fell back into the sofa, resigning himself to a long and quite frankly torturous night.
Why wouldn't it be? A soft and incredibly warm girl that he was incredibly attracted to was sleeping on his lap, her arms wound around his neck tightly and he couldn't make a damned move. Naruto suppressed a groan as she shifted on his lap.
His boner from earlier wasn't helping matters.
This was divine retribution. He just knew it.
****Broken Faith****
"Asuna~~!"
The red haired girl tiredly lifted her head up and stared blearily at her roommate, "What is it Konoka?"
"It's been four days since your confession and you're still sulking?"
"I-I'm not sulking..." Asuna averted her eyes, she was sulking, and she knew it. But it wasn't for the reason that Konoka thought it was. She still remembered what happened in the room with Naruto, and she was incredibly ashamed. Especially when she remembered thinking that she would wait for him. The next morning had been incredibly awkward between the two of them, especially when she woke up because something hard was poking her rear end. That being said, she could honestly say she had never felt so safe and warm in her sleep. Gah! Indecent!
Luckily Negi had asked both of them to come to the resort immediately because there was something important going on, and they both took it as a chance to try and reduce the tension between them.
It didn't work.
The two of them had yet to hold a proper conversation, even after four days in Evangeline's resort.
Although that was mostly because Naruto seemed to be too busy brooding about what Negi told them rather than making any real effort in avoiding her.
And that stung.
Aarghh! Why was she thinking about that idiot again!
What was wrong with her? She had just got rejected and not even one day later she went and kissed another guy, even if said guy had no problems openly admitting he liked her romantically. If someone had asked her even two months ago, she would have said that even if Takahata-sensei had rejected her, she would have remained faithful to him. So what had happened to that faithfulness? She even went as far as to even consider about waiting for Naruto. And if that wasn't bad enough, despite her emotional instability at the time, she knew she had really meant those words. Guilt and shame raged in her at shifting her affections to someone else so fast. It wasn't really love yet, but she could honestly say that she was physically attracted to him in the safety of her mind, and all of that just made her feel even more indecent.
Oh Kami, what was wrong with her?
Hormones?
"Come on, Negi wants to hold a meeting about what we should do about Chao-san."
She shook her head clear of the weird direction her thoughts seemed to be going in lately and tiredly plodded alongside Konoka to where the rest of those who apparently knew about magic were frolicking in the artificial sunlight.
She chided herself silently because the first thing she did when she walked into the sunlight was look for the blonde.
Naruto seemed to be missing again.
"...suna... Asuna!"
Asuna snapped out of her daze to see the rest of them looking at her in concern, "Are you really sure you're alright?"
Asuna laughed nervously, "Ye-yeah, I was just thinking about something. Don't worry about me."
Negi looked at her dubiously for a moment before speaking again, "We were just strategising to see what kind of combat capabilities we have, if it really comes down to fighting Chao-san."
Asuna tilted her head curiously, "Combat capabilities? Oh, you mean our Pactios? Adeat!" she waved her Harisen around listlessly.
Konoka glanced at her paper fan curiously, "Why does your pactio seem to change shape on its own? I know Naruto can change his on command, but yours doesn't seem to work that way."
Asuna frowned, she had never really thought about it before either, "Dunno... whenever I need something stronger the sword seems to appear automatically. It should be fine I guess," She made a strained smile, "Besides comparing mine to Naruto's is rather insulting. He's pretty much an oddball so I expect his pactios are just as odd as him."
"I guess..."
The discussion from there on started to bore Asuna so she listened with half an ear while looking around for the blonde ninja, only perking up when she heard the blonde's name being mentioned by Chamo.
"What about Naruto-sama? Has he said anything about this yet?"
Negi scratched his cheek, "Not really, but he seems rather reluctant to fight Chao-san. Maybe he knows her?"
"It's not that I know her. It's more that I don't really see a problem in what she's doing."
All of them swivelled around to see the blonde in a pair of cargo pants step out of the shadows.
Asuna bristled, "What do you mean you don't see a problem? She's trying to hurt Negi, and she already tried to do worse to Takahata-sensei!"
Naruto waved her off, "I know that, but from a purely logical standpoint, her goals do have merit, obviously something bad enough happened in the future and it managed to force her to go such extreme measures to avoid it. So her ultimate goal would be changing something in history, exposing the magical world is merely one step in her grand plan. But that is inconsequential right now." He gave them a troubled look, "Without more information, I can't find a reason good enough to justify fighting her."
Negi spoke up, "But she's trying to expose the magical world to everybody else!"
"And? What's wrong with that?"
Naruto sighed as he saw Negi try to think of a reason, "You grew up knowing that the Magical World is kept a secret from the normal people. Its tradition, so I know it's hard for you to imagine otherwise. But on the other hand, do you remember your Stan-jiji?" the blonde asked evenly.
Negi narrowed his eyes at the blonde, "Yes? Why? You agree with her about going back in time to stop it?"
Naruto paused, "Hmmm... She said something like that? So I was right about history being her main goal..." he snapped out of his musings, "Nevermind, what I wanted to ask was if the Normal World had something that could heal him, would you say that you would do anything in your power to obtain that something?"
"Of course!"
Naruto gazed impassively at his adopted brother, "Then what makes you so different from the people in the Normal World who are desperately wishing they had magic so that they could heal their loved ones? That's not all. Water mages can create rain easily; think off what that can do for the agriculture sector in dry areas. Fire mages could potentially resolve the fossil fuel problem, Lightning mages are walking generators and Earth mages could be pretty good builders. People will resist and there will be repercussions at first of course, that is something inevitable and typical to any kind of revolution, it goes against what they've grown up knowing after all but sooner or later they will probably come around... so it averages out."
Asuna growled as Negi was struck speechless, "If you agree with her then why don't you go and side with her?"
Naruto just gave Asuna a sad look, "I'm not just siding with her; I'm just being the Devil's Advocate here. There are negatives in her plans as well obviously. No one wants to admit it but mages who abuse their power on normal people from time to time aren't that uncommon, that's what people like me and Takahata are sent on missions for, to enforce the laws. For example, the memory erase spell is a standard spell that every magic prep school teaches. Now imagine if everybody had access to that spell, the judicial system would be wrecked. Someone could just walk into the bank, cast the spell on everybody present, steal their money and just walk out of the bank. Then look at what Negi, a 10 year old boy is capable off; large scale lightning attacks, powerful wind spells... Now imagine two idiots fighting on that scale for some petty reason and accidentally causing immense collateral damage without restraint. Unless Chao has some sort of safety net in place for eventualities like that, the social system will sooner or later collapse into a 'Might makes Right' situation." he finished his statement ominously before walking back into the resort calmly, leaving everybody to suddenly doubt their own reasons for fighting while Asuna just glared at his back.
Negi nudged Konoka, "Neh, Konoka, whats wrong with Asuna and Naruto-nii san? Something's going on between the both of them. I've never seen Asuna act like that."
Konoka narrowed her eyes at the seething red head, "I don't know, but I plan to find out."
Chamo scratched his chin thoughtfully, "It seems like we can't depend on Naruto-sama for this fight until he finds a reason. That seriously brings down the firepower available to us... we have to rearrange the front lines..." the ermine continued to mumble all sorts of stratagems and formations with everyone else while Konoka grabbed Asuna by the arm and dragged her to quiet corner.
"What is wrong with you?" the princess hissed at her roommate, "You got angry at Naruto without any real reason. It was like you just wanted to pick a fight with him."
The angry look on her face immediately fell and was replaced by one of shame, "I-I'm sorry... I..."
Konoka relented and sat beside the morose girl, "What's wrong Asuna?"
The answer came out in barely a whisper and Konoka had to strain herself to hear it, "I was jealous."
"Of what?" Konoka asked bewilderedly.
"He was protecting Chao, and then it was like a switch just flipped."
"Asuna..." Konoka immediately realized what her roommate was implying and pulled the morose girl into a hug.
"What's wrong with me Konoka? I like Takahata-sensei, but then I get rejected and suddenly I get jealous like that."
Konoka just silently patted her friends back soothingly, "I can't answer something like this for you; you need to find out what your heart really wants for yourself."
Asuna sniffed, "Thanks Konoka."
"That's what best friends are for, right?" Konoka grinned at her.
"Yeah." Then suddenly Asuna thought of something and stared at her with something resembling horror, "Wait, why are you even comforting me? This is your boyfriend we're talking about here!"
This time Konoka pointed a finger at her, "Wait! How did you even know we were dating?"
Asuna rolled her eyes, "After Naruto lost his arm and we visited him, you came out slower than me and Setsuna, and you were a lot more relaxed." Then Asuna leaned forward and sniffed Konoka's miko uniform, "Then there's the fact that your perfume is pretty unique and yesterday night he had the smell of your perfume all over him."
"What were you doing with him yesterday night?"
Asuna blushed and mumbled, "He was uh... comforting me." She rolled her eyes again at Konoka's knowing chuckle, "Enough with the creepy laugh, you still haven't answered me, why aren't you angry?"
Konoka's grin was pretty scary for such a small girl, "Fufufufu, it's not like I mind having an extra person around to... play with."
Asuna shivered and squirmed, Konoka's hug was starting to get rather... touchy. Internally she was troubled.
Even if Konoka and Chachamaru were ok with sharing him...
She wasn't sure she could do the same as evidenced by her jealous spike from earlier.
****With Naruto****
Meanwhile inside the resort, another conversation was taking place, "What's wrong Naruto? You're not usually one to let something like right or wrong bother you."
Said blonde leaned back into a sofa and pinned the vampire with an intense stare, "If it were that simple it wouldn't be a problem. Besides there's no right or wrong, good or evil in a situation like this. Just me and you, my pride against hers. Chicken and egg. And I've been in situations like this more times than I care to count, however all those only have something to do with exposing the magical world and is periphery to her ultimate goal at best; changing history. So I'll most likely follow whatever Negi does anyway. No, the problem is, something doesn't feel right, it's too convenient. I'm missing something."
Sometimes Evangeline forgot just how sharp the ninja could be under his idiotic tendencies.
"I see... why don't you do what I'm doing? I don't plan on interfering at all."
Naruto smiled, "I could do that, but like I said, it's too convenient. Maybe I'm just being presumptuous and I'm not really a factor at all, but it's as if she wants me to sit this out by making sure there's no right or wrong, and by doing that, it'll guarantee I participate in one way or another. Plus she has been here for two years and made a very strong power base. A power base in only two years. She could have waited longer and strengthened her position even further to guarantee a victory without all this elaborate fuss, yet she didn't. She chose this particular time to do this, so I have to assume that either the Festival or the Tree and by association, my awakening, will be involved in one way or another to a certain degree. Her actions so far have confirmed as much. The way I see it, this exposing the Magical World thing is nothing more than an elaborate gambit to suck us all into a confrontation."
His thousand yards stare intensified, "The question is why?"
Evangeline snorted in amusement, "No wonder Rakan told you to quit thinking, you're even worse than Negi when it comes down to it."
Naruto smiled faintly, "That is, of course another option." He waved it off, "Don't tell Negi what I said though. This is something I want them to learn; I want to see what they do when there is no right or wrong, good or evil." Naruto scratched his head, "Oh, and try not to break him too much." He added as an afterthought.
"Do I even want to know how you can guess what I'm planning?" she glared at him, "You didn't read my mind did you?"
"What? Don't be dumb, I don't need something like that to guess what you're planning for tonight. You care too much for him to let it go like that."
Evangeline humphed and tried to salvage her dignity as a fearsome dark mage.
Naruto chuckled at her radiant blush.
****Broken Faith****
Naruto was about to step through the portal back into Evangeline's cabin when he felt someone tug at his sleeve. Glancing back over his shoulder he was surprised to see the person who stopped him was none other than Asuna. He looked around and realized they were the two only ones left, the rest had already portalled back.
"Is something wrong Asuna?" He asked worriedly.
Asuna shot him a nervous and unsure look, "You're not angry with me?"
He cocked his head, "Why would I be angry with you?"
Asuna frowned and directed her gaze to her toes, "I shouted at you about Chao remember?"
"Oh that, I didn't expect any less from you. I was defending someone that hurt those important to you after all. It was only natural."
Asuna didn't know whether she should be angry that he brushed it off so easily or relieved he didn't seem to mind.
"Just don't forget sometimes there's a lot more colours than just white and black."
"Huh?"
Naruto smiled before leaning down to kiss her cheek, "Just be yourself, don't let your courage waver over the small stuff. Be the straightforward you that protects those important to her no matter what. Negi will need that quality of yours before the day is over."
The blonde left the stunned girl behind and stepped into the portal and was immediately teleported away in a brief flash of light.
By the time he stepped out, the rest where nowhere to be seen, so he waited for Asuna to arrive.
When Asuna appeared in a flash of light she found a very serious looking blonde, "Naruto? What's wrong?"
Naruto pointed at something stuck on the resort's globe, "I think we might be in trouble."
Asuna looked at he was pointing and her jaw dropped, it was a note from Chao herself with the words 'Thanks for the Victory' written on it.
Rapidly formed hand seals and a flare of chakra heralded the creation of twenty clones, "10 of you go find everyone and get them back here immediately. Everyone else goes out and gets information. Something changed. I want to know what, when and how." He rapidly fired orders at his equally solemn clones.
The why and who were moot points.
He in turn walked back into the teleportation circle, when it failed to activate he sighed, "I should have known you were up to something."
The first clones started popping and Naruto groaned. "What's wrong Naruto? Who's up to something?" Asuna repeated her earlier question, her confusion mounting by the second.
"Everyone needs to get here first, there's no point repeating this." Asuna followed Naruto into the main hall to see everyone except Negi already there. Kaede spoke first, "What is wrong Naruto-dono? Your clones were unusually serious."
"We were tricked. Chao managed to win the war before we could even do anything."
Everyone started to yell almost at once until Chisame spoke quietly, managing to silence all of them at once since no one expected her to agree, "Namikaze-san is right."
She fixed her glasses and spun her laptop around so that everyone around the table could see it, "Look at the date."
It was her blog.
It was currently dated June 30th.
"One week after the Festival?" Nodoka quietly squeaked.
Naruto nodded, "I found a note stuck on Evangeline's Resort. Chao managed to make sure we were stuck in there for one week. The war is already over."
He didn't want to say that Evangeline had been helping Chao all along.
Suddenly a loud crack and a yellow flash startled all of them; they all turned to look at Naruto. Seeing them beginning to open their mouths and ask what just happened, he halted them, "No time. I'm just a clone. The other clones just found out that all of us are wanted criminals now. And Negi was just caught. The original just teleported to him to buy us more time and information. For now everyone will have to remain here where it's safest."
Everyone paced around, filled with nervous energy, the cabin silent and tense.
Setsuna broke the silence, "We should look at that note Naruto-sensei said he found. If anything it might have a clue of some sort."
Everyone shared a look before trooping into the teleportation room and gathered around the orb that contained the Resort, Asuna was the first to recognize the paper, "Ah, that's the kind of paper mages use to send messages to each other. It can display some sort of 3-D image."
She pressed play and they were all treated to a tiny hologram of Chao telling them about the trap and gloating that she had managed to win without fighting them.
Suddenly they heard the squeaking of a door's hinges, all of them immediately ran back into the hall and found a panting Chamo lugging the Cassiopeia behind him. All them gulped at his first words, "Naruto-sama and Aniki were captured. Naruto-sama tried to tell them to take only him because he was the one that personally vouched for Chao before this happened. But the dark skinned mage refused. They had to surrender because they didn't want to fight mages from Mahora but he managed to create a diversion long enough for me to escape with the time machine for some reason."
Somebody cleared his throat and they all spun around to see the smirking clone of Naruto. Before any of them could ask why he was smirking he pulled a three pronged blade and started fiddling with it.
"What are you doing Naruto-dono?"
"The boss sent a message; he's going to try get as much information as possible. He'll take care of Negi, so you guy's shouldn't worry."
The blonde finished by stabbing the blade into the wooden surface of the table and a voice suddenly spoke, "Normally, even if somebody got onto national television and shouted something like 'Mages Exist', most people wouldn't believe and would just brush it off as a joke and we have agencies as well organizations that dealt with matters like this."
"That's Seryuhiko-sensei!"
"Yeah, the boss rigged the blades so he could sense anything around them when he threw them. Fiddle with them a bit and we can also hear the sounds around the blade. But it's only one way at the moment."
"Unfortunately, Chao-san used the latent magic that the World Tree expelled during the Mahora Fest to cast a worldwide 'Forced Recognition Magic'." Another voice picked up where Seryuhiko left off.
"That's Gandolfini-sensei." Konoka whispered as the voices continued to come out of the blade.
"The spell basically means Chao hypnotized everyone into believing magic exists. At exactly 7.37 p.m. of June 22nd, Chao managed to completely conquer all six of the 'Magic Concentration Points', the spots where confessions were forbidden to happen, with an army of robots. Once those were under her control, they resonated with another 12 'Magical Concentration Points' around the world, giving her sufficient magical energy to cast a worldwide spell. Along with the extra unbelievable images and videos of the Tournament on the web, we couldn't do anything to stop it. By the time a week passed, most of the school believed it, after a month; the country, and in half a year; the whole world will know about magic."
****Broken Faith****
Play Nickelback – If Today Was Your Last Day
Naruto leaned back into his seat casually as Gandolfini and Seryuhiko left him with Negi and Takahata.
Takahata cleared his throat, "So? What are your plans now?" the question was directed at Naruto but Negi replied, "I cant give up. I just can't..." Negi perked up, "I was serious about the time machine that Chao-san gave me! I can go back in time to change things Takahata-sensei! You have to believe me!"
Takahata looked sadly at Negi before looking at Naruto, the blonde simply nodded to confirm Negi's statement.
"I see... do you have it now?"
Naruto spoke, "No, I told Chamo to take it with him and escape, I didn't want the other mages finding out too soon. They might use it for something else. To be honest though, I'm might be a little vexed that after all that thinking and planning, everything comes out to a grand total of nothing. But in the end what's done is done, I'm a little relieved I didn't have to choose. Things may seem a little bad now, but once they get used to it and the punishments are over, no one will care, it might even make things better. Isn't that right Michi?"
"Nii-san! How could you say that! I... I know that Chao-san might have good reasons for doing this but I don't believe forcing everyone to believe about magic like this is right! Even if it's only a small possibility I want to fight for it!"
"I understand your feelings Negi..." Takahata softly interrupted him, "But you have to understand. Staying here in Mahora, laughing and smiling with your students, it's easy to forget sometimes that reality isn't that nice. Poverty, corruption, unnecessary deaths, they are all very common and a lot of mages do everything they can to help while staying in the shadows, but we are limited in what we can do because of the Secrecy Act. It might seem like this is a bad idea at first, but without the need for secrecy, instead of sitting around and watching people get hurt, now we can openly go out and help people. That's... where I hesitated and Chao managed to take advantage of it."
"But... " Negi looked down dejectedly.
Takahata lips lifted slightly, "I didn't mean to confuse you, it's not like her plan doesn't have holes. It's just that my frustration hindered me at the last second. Even with all her plans for damage control, she cannot control people's emotions, discrimination and racism are beginning to spread and there is now an increasing rift between the Mundane people and the Mages. The normal people are afraid because of what we can do. On the flip side of the coin, a part of the Mages are afraid because there are too many people to fight, the other part are so drunk in their superiority they feel like it's their right to rule over the normal people now that there are no laws to hide from, and some just don't care, simply wanting to go back to their normal lives. Tensions between both parties are beginning to spiral out of control, which is why all of us are being shipped back to the Magical World; to give things time to simmer down. I hope that might help you reach a decision."
Negi clenched his fist and looked up, "Thank you Takahata-sensei, for everything. I'm sorry but I can't just sit by and let this happen knowing I might be able to stop it. I'm so scared, thinking that maybe I'm the one that is wrong, that in the future, what I did would be what caused a lot of problems. That her choice might have been the better one and someone might die because of my selfishness. I know what I'm doing is selfish, so stupidly selfish that I'm ashamed of myself, but this happy life with my students, I want to preserve it, if I let what Chao wants happen, those happy days will end. So I will do whatever I can. Even if Naruto-nii san won't help me, I'll do it alone!"
There was a slight pause where Takahata simply smiled in pride.
The silence was broken when Naruto snorted, "And there you have it girls. Negi wants to go back in time. We're at the base of the World Tree. Get here as soon as possible."
Takahata looked at him strangely while Negi stuttered, "Huh? Ni-nii-san? What are you talking about?"
The blonde stabbed a three pronged blade onto the table, "The girls have heard everything we've been saying through this thing. I have no doubt they are already on their way here." He looked at Takahata, "Will you be stopping us?"
The teacher shrugged, "Why are you asking me? As someone who lost to a 15 year old girl, I don't really think I have a right to stop you two."
"Ni-nii-nii san? I-I thought you didn't care?"
Naruto shrugged and gave him a sincere smile, "I still don't. Like Rakan said I think too much, I cannot choose because to me they are both the same thing. Sometimes it's better to just charge ahead believing only in yourself. Which is why I will follow what you chose. Even if in the future destiny proves to us that we were wrong. Isn't that what family is for?"
Negi's eyebrow twitched slightly, if he wasn't wrong Naruto had just subtly called him stupid, before letting out a small relieved chuckle, "Then we can depend on you?"
"Meh. Within reason. I'm not going to fight your battles for you. Shut up Michi." He glared at the laughing older man.
A loud explosion caused the whole area to rumble.
"Wha-what was that?" Negi asked shakily.
"I think the girls are here." Naruto said with a smirk.
Negi rushed out the door, leaving Takahata behind alone with Naruto.
The spectacled teacher brought out a cigarette before passing another stick to the blonde, "What's your real reason for doing this Naruto? You were a little too blasé."
The blonde drew a quick breath on the tobacco stick and smirked, "Chao wants a fight. She's expecting us to come back in time. That's the only reason I can think of that explains everything she has done; the note she left behind to aggravate us, the time machine she gave to Negi. Everything is a huge ass trap. What for? Not a clue, how do I find out? By playing into her trap. What's the best way of countering a trap?"
Takahata nodded, "Setting it off on your terms instead of hers. But I wasn't referring to that."
"Oh? I assume you mean the chances of the entire universe collapsing or something?"
"Exactly. All of you came out of the Resort one week into the future where Chao succeeded. Before there wasn't any problem because you and Negi didn't go back in time far enough or change history enough to matter, Negi A went back in time to become Negi B, then Negi B took his place and time continued normally. But this time, assuming you manage to go back in time to before you enter the Resort and change history, the versions of you in that time are still in the resort. When they come out they will have no reason to turn back time and I doubt two versions of the same people can exist simultaneously. At the same time, if you do that, this reality will either cease to exist or split off into another dimension altogether."
"He is my brother." Naruto said simply, "I may not be related to him by blood but if he wants to jump into a deep hole I can't do any less but follow him in with a smile on my face and make sure he doesn't go splat on the other end."
Takahata took another draw from his stick and nodded in understanding.
"Will you be coming?"
The teacher winced, "I'm sorry."
"It's alright I understand. Even if this reality may fail to exist, you want to take the chance to see if you can help more openly now that the secrecy restrictions are gone. I'd be frustrated too if I were in your shoes." Naruto patted his shoulder sympathetically before squashing the cigarette underfoot and striding out the door with one last call over his shoulder, "If you see another version of me in this dimension again, be sure to say hi."
"Will do."
"Don't forget you still owe him dinner for the next month for that bet you made either."
Takahata snorted.
****With Negi****
"Eh!" Negi exclaimed, "You're sure this will work?"
Chamo scratched his chin, "We're pretty sure. Although we'll have to hope that the World Tree still has enough power to allow us to travel back in time."
"That won't be a problem. The World Tree's luminescence and my chakra are very similar in nature. As long as I make contact with the core and pour it in, the tree should be able to convert the chakra enough for the plan to work."
"Naruto!" All of them exclaimed.
Said blonde gave them all a lopsided grin even as Konoka and Asuna jumped on him, "I'm glad you're ok" the red head whispered quietly.
"Did you really expect otherwise?"
Asuna humphed.
"Come on, let's go, don't waste any more time then we have to."
All of them ran into a dark tunnel, it was a few minutes of sprinting before the tunnel slowly brightened. "There!" Yue shouted, her finger pointing towards some glowing roots, "We can make it!"
Negi grinned and looked at the watch, it was ticking again, "Alright! We just need to go in further where the energy density is high enough for this to work, we've succeeded!" Just then the ticking stopped.
Naruto sighed, "Did you really have to tempt fate Negi?"
"Oh no!" Nodoka squeaked, the glowing in the roots was fading bit by bit.
"No time, you can scold me about fate later nii-san." He started running again, "Let's go!"
"Shit! Negi duck!"
Negi instinctively obeyed his brother's shout and dropped to the ground just in time for a spiked tail to pass the spot where his torso had been a split second ago.
Naruto flashed forward and grabbed the flailing tail barehanded before it could squish Nodoka, "Get out of here!"
"Nii-san! Naruto!"
Footsteps started to echo down the tunnel and the sounds of shouting voices reached them.
"Bu-but Nii-san!"
"Grrr!" Naruto growled at him, "LOOK AT THAT GLOW! IT'S DISAPPEARING, NOW GET OUT OF HERE! I'LL CATCH UP!"
"Rrgggh!" Ducking a huge jaw that barely clamped around his head, the blonde heaved and lifted the entire dragon, body and all, by the tail before throwing it back down the tunnel where they had came from. The dragon crash landed with a yelp but Naruto didn't bother to spare the dragon a glance as he immediately flooded the tunnel with water and froze it into a wall before speeding down the tunnel amidst the earth shaking roars of anger, following the trail that Negi had gone down scant seconds ago.
A huge crashing sound from behind told him the wall hadn't managed to stall the beast by much.
"Nii-san! The lights are fading too fast!" a shout from ahead floated back down the winding tunnel to reach his ears. Grumbling he started to rapidly flare a huge amount of his chakra in the hopes that it might work even a little even as his legs never stopped pumping.
Leaping up to avoid a huge burst of dragon fire that left a charred crater, the blonde stuck to the ceiling instead and ran upside down towards the prick of light that signalled the end of the tunnel, behind the dragon's every step shook the tunnel while mages took pot shots at him from between the dragon's legs.
The dragon roared loudly, causing the tunnel to shake and nearly dislodged Naruto from the ceiling.
Naruto jumped clear of the tunnel entrance just as another burst of wild dragon fire incinerated the spot where he had been, ahead of him he could already see Negi and everyone else linking hands and slowly starting to glow.
"Ni-san!" Negi yelled worriedly as the dragon jumped into the air, spreading it's huge wings and crashing onto Naruto.
"Coming!" Naruto yelled back as he neatly side stepped a huge paw only for the tail to slam into him while he was distracted, spikes slashing his chest badly. Naruto crashed into the ground, winded and feeling as if he had just been hit by a speeding truck.
Shaking his head to clear his mind, Naruto glared at the overgrown dragon, "Gah! That's it you annoying lizard, Naruto Namikaze Original Combo : Iron Wall!"
Naruto jumped head on at the dragon with an angry roar.
And everyone watching face faulted.
A brief history lesson; dragons are all known as huge awe or fear inspiring creatures that generally came in as many varieties as there were colours. Some were huge, some were winged, some had spikes, and some breathed fire or even acid, and many other fearsome abilities that could cause untold amounts of pain. In short, dragons were awesome natural born predators that came equipped with every advantage imaginable that Nature itself saw fit to give them. But the most common thing among all dragons were their incredibly tough bodies, diamond hard scales that covered them from head to toe, their damn near invulnerability to anything but the most powerful magic, powerful lean muscles, and a skeletal structure that is as light as it is strong. The fact that they only grew more powerful the older they got didn't help matters.
That particular Dragon was seven hundred and ninety years old.
So while half of everybody, Negi, the girls and the mages assembled to stop them, was watching in shock as Naruto sailed through the air before thoroughly bashing his forehead onto the dragon's huge skull; the other half were already planning his funeral.
The dragon lost.
Only Chisame managed to say something as the dragon toppled over backwards in slow motion with its eyes crossed, "Iron Wall my ass! That was just a normal head butt!"
"Ha-Hasegawa-san... that's not really the problem here..." Asuna said sheepishly.
"Pfft, after everything I've seen so far, an idiot that can jump 50 feet into the air and head butt a dragon that is more than seven times bigger than him into a concussion is nothing! It's normal! Normal! Right!" Chisame practically screamed as she gestured wildly at the blonde who happened to be walking towards them casually and dusting his clothes off.
The self proclaimed 'most normal member of everyone present' would have sounded a lot more convincing if it didn't sound like she was trying to persuade herself as well.
"I know how you feel," Asuna said as she patted Chisame's shoulder sympathetically with a commiserating expression on her face, spectacled girl had started out rather calmly but by the end of her sentence her voice was rather strained and she sounded more than a little hysterical.
Everyone else sweat dropped at her as the girl continued to rant about how normal people could fly and shoot beams of mass destruction, and wondered if they should just erase her memories. She was clearly cracking.
"Nii-san!" An urgent yell grabbed everyone's attention from the drama between and Chisame, even the mages from behind the unconscious dragon, "We're disappearing hurry up!"
The blonde lunged from his spot with one hand outstretched; Negi's lower half was already fading away in the light.
Negi barely managed to grasp Naruto's hand before they all disappeared, but not before Naruto managed to flip them off with a huge grin, much to the remaining mages' chagrin.
****Broken Faith****
When they finally landed Naruto nudged Negi in the side and discreetly pointed at the still ranting Chisame, "What's wrong with the girl?"
"She's uh... a little uh... I dunno?"
"Why does she keep repeating 404 over and over again?"
"Err...She..."
"Speak up bro, can't hear you."
"I... " Negi swayed on his feet before pitching forward in a dead faint.
"Negi!"
The resident Ninja caught the smaller boy and lowered his body onto the ground before checking his vitals, "It's alright and he's just exhausted. He used a lot of power to bring all of us back in time."
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, including Chisame, "We need to get to a safe place so he can rest."
"A-ano... we can use the library... I don't think anyone will go there today and any library related events are held at Library Island..." Nodoka timidly squeaked.
Naruto hefted Negi up in his arms, "Alright. Lead the way."
"Ha-hai."
****Broken Faith****
Naruto leaned back into his chair and sipped from a cup of tea.
"You sure you don't have to be with Negi while his healing?"
The blonde shrugged at the question, "There's no point. At this point in time, Chao is geared up for a big finale. She won't do anything to jeopardize that. Besides I don't want to take charge of operations. I'll let Negi deal with that and just help out a bit."
Albiero observed his relaxed friend for a few more moments, "You are that confident that he will pull through?"
The shinobi scratched his chin in thought, "Well, not confident per se. I just want to see what he will do before I put my own plan into action. Chao supposedly utilized more than 2000 robots and 6 super sized ones to take control of the World Tree, while she herself challenged the teachers." He gazed thoughtfully into his cup, "Under that scenario, if this were truly a trap, it wouldn't be strange to say if she already expected us to come back, those forces in the future were ones that she could afford to show us as a diversion because we were not there to challenge her."
The robed man nodded, "I see... so you are saying that it is likely her forces then were simply an illusion and that since she knows that Negi and you will challenge her, her real forces will make an appearance."
"Something like that. I expect Negi to prepare for the 2000, but I doubt he realizes there might be reinforcements." Naruto grinned briefly, "That's where I come in, I suppose."
"Oh? You have an army?"
"Something like that." Naruto replied with a casual smile.
Albiero groaned at him, "Have I ever mentioned how much I hate it when you are being vague on purpose just so that you can enjoy watching people around you fluster?"
"Hello Mr. Pot, my name is Mr. Kettle. And we're both black."
"Touché."
****Broken Faith****
Asuna swallowed the lump in her throat and forcibly forced down her pride as KuFei charged into the classroom where the Haunted House was being held, "Iincho~~ Asuna-san has a favour to ask you!"
The red head felt like banging something, hard, why did the girl have to pick those words?
"Hoh? Asuna wants something from me?" Ayaka said as she started laughing her typical ojou-sama laugh, Asuna growled and swallowed another lump again, "That's right! Is that a problem?"
The blonde and the red head clashed, "Is that how you ask for favours hmm? Maybe I shouldn't have expected polite manners from someone like you!"
"Grr! You got no right saying anything like that you shotacon! Anyway it's a damn emergency, just shut up and help!"
"Beg!"
"Die!"
"Grr..." Ayaka huffed and crossed her arms across her chest indignantly, "So? What is this favour the great Asuna needs from little ol me?"
The red head flushed and averted her eyes, mumbling something under her breath, causing Ayaka to huff again, "What is that? I can't hear you! Speak louder!"
When her mumbles didn't get any louder, the curious blonde leant forward and listened to the mumbling carefully, her eyes widening with every sentence that came out of Asuna, "Wha-what! I can't do something unreasonable like that! Sure the Yukihiro group has got money and they can control events like that but... but..." Ayaka spluttered impotently, "I CANT DO IT! It'll make me seem like some arrogant rich ojou! You know how much I hate that!"
Asuna yelled back, "I know you don't like it but that's why I'm asking for you to bend a little here! I even tried to ask politely!"
"What the hell does a monkey like you know about polite!"
It didn't take long for the bickering to descend into an all out cat fight between Asuna and Ayaka.
KuFei sweat dropped and tapped Ayaka's shoulder, "Ano... we know we're asking a lot, but this is a favour for Negi-sensei you know?"
Ayaka immediately stopped gnawing on the red head's arm and untangled herself from Asuna, her previously messed up clothes and hair were suddenly miraculously pristine again, the blonde girl was even sparkling, "Ohoho, why didn't you say so earlier? For Negi-sensei I'll do anything, even drink a whole lake!" having said her part, she suddenly gripped Asuna and KuFei's arms and yanked them out of class, "Come with me and tell me exactly what Negi-sensei needs somewhere more private."
The two girls yelped as they were pulled along by an unnaturally strong and enthusiastic Iincho into an abandoned classroom, where Asuna grudgingly laid out Negi's plan while rubbing her bicep where it was sore because of Ayaka's strong grip.
"...And there you have it. We're sorry for imposing so much but this is really important and things need to happen this way."
Ayaka eyed her fidgeting friend with one squinted eye for a moment before sighing, "Alright, I'll do my best, but you owe me for this."
"Wha-what? Why should I owe you? Shouldn't it be Negi?"
Ayaka smirked, "Just because." She pretended to swoon, "Negi-sensei is too perfect to owe me anything, so a monkey like you will have to do."
"Grrr! You're looking for a fight aren't you!" Asuna yelled as KuFei dragged her out from the classroom while bowing politely.
Once the yelling from Asuna slowly receded from the hallways and was gone entirely, the blonde heiress quietly wilted into her chair and wondered how to get everything prepared as requested with a quiet dejected sigh.
"You sure you can handle something like this?"
Ayaka yelped and jumped out of her chair in surprise and spun around only to see another blonde leaning on the wall casually, placing one hand on her heaving chest Ayaka managed to growl out, "Will you stop doing that? Why do you keep trying to surprise me!"
Naruto shrugged, "Hearing you yelp like that is adorable."
Ayaka growled again and started to pummel him, causing the other blonde to chuckle and evade her fists. Giving up, Ayaka slumped back into her chair and the mood turned serious once again.
"You haven't answered me. You sure you can do this? You can't really ask your father for the money to do something like this can't you?"
Ayaka avoided eye contact with the other blonde and tried to casually wave his question off, "I... I have the money myself so I'm not worried about that," she chewed her lower lip cutely, "What I'm worried about is if my Father hears about this. He doesn't know I have the money and if I do something on this level, he'll guess that I have my own resources. He'll start pushing me to graduate earlier since he'll take it as a sign I'm ready to help my sister in the company."
Naruto blinked for a moment, she was lying about something. He was sure of it.
The blonde lowered her head and spoke shamefully, "I... I don't want to leave everyone here yet..."
"You can't do it without invoking the Yukihiro name?"
Ayaka shrugged helplessly, "They are one of the biggest sponsors for the Festival. If I ask the organizers, discretely or otherwise, he'll hear about it and if I don't; the words of a group of girls from middle school won't be enough to persuade them to do something on this level."
Naruto simply nodded but didn't voice his suspicion, besides he couldn't think of anything to help other than financially, "If you need more money, don't hesitate to ask."
Ayaka snorted, "Am I to believe that you have enough money to sponsor something big like this?"
Naruto draped his chin on her shoulder; two arms wrapped around her neck like a warm scarf and whispered into her ear, eliciting a shiver from the girl, "If it's for my fiancée, I'll find a way won't I? I don't want her leaving me because I'm poor after all."
Ayaka struggled out of his arms leapt away from the blonde, "Wh-who are you calling your fiancée you idiot! Hu-huh?"
Her supposed fiancée was no longer there, vanishing as if he were made of air, instead on the chair where she was sitting a second ago was a piece of paper with a phone number on it, she assumed it was the blonde's.
She couldn't help but shiver again, both from the sudden cold and the memory of his breath playing on her earlobes as she picked up the paper and carefully folded it.
"Idiot... why would I care about something like money?"
****Broken Faith****
Attention! Attention!" Yuna shouted.
"We have an announcement about the school festival's final day event!" Makie continued. The girls of 3-A were in various types of mage or nurse costumes and handing out flyers that had the new idea for what the entire campus was going to do. On the flyer it said "Mars Attack vs Mahora Mage Order". Everyone was whispering and talking to their friends with barely concealed excitement.
"...As stated above, this is the new plan for the final day event!" A blonde girl in an elaborate white mage costume with white feathers on the shoulders, sky blue breastplate, long white swirling skirt and a long staff declared loudly. "Now then we will be giving everyone here a demonstration!" ignoring the excited babble, Ayaka gave the ok to Makie who was wearing skimpy clothing meant to mimic a witch, but it looked more adorable than scary, and held a practice wand with a star on it. "This will be the equipment given to the people who want to join the game. There are various types as well, like a bazooka!. And since the robe serves as a safety device everyone must also wear one. The weapon here will be a mage's wand. Why don't you give us a demonstration?" Ayaka looked towards Makie who nodded.
"Ehm, Strike the enemy!" Makie exclaimed, as a white light shot out of her wand.
"This light does not affect the human body," Ayaka explained loudly. "Furthermore..." Behind her Yuna took a simple looking bazooka and shot another beam of light into the air, though more destructive. "We have other weapons such as bazookas. You can choose whatever you want as long as we have enough!"
A couple of feet away the class ghost and reporter were watching the events unfold; Kazumi even had a camcorder out. "This is getting interesting," the red head said with a smile.
"U-um, is it alright to not tell Chao-san about this?" Sayo asked her friend.
"Fufufu, Sayo-chan, I'm not really Chao's ally or anything. My duty ended with yesterday's announcer job. In return I already got all the facts from Chao about the current incident. All that's left is for me to get my material on the last day's event. Now the let's get ready too..OOF!" Kazumi suddenly bumped heads with someone. She was grabbing her aching nose and the other person was doing the same. When the person got a good look, she saw that it was Asuna.
"Asakura?" Asuna asked.
"Yo! If it isn't Asuna?" Kazumi greeted
"Eh...That reminds me! Yesterday you were the announcer of the tournament! That means you were working for Chao-san right! Weren't you supposed to be our ally?"
"Um..." Kazumi stuttered as she began to walk away from Asuna.
"Hohoho, Maybe I should teach you just exactly how much trouble we had to go through because of Chao-san?"
"Um no...Well if I had to say who's side I'm on I would say I'm an ally of justice..."
"Stop trying to look cool! You fail!"
"Geh!"
****Broken Faith****
F-Forced recognition magic against the entire world?" a mage teacher asked the headmaster as he was explaining the plan to the magical staff.
"Is something like that even possible?" Yuna's father, who was a mage teacher himself, continued on for the mage.
"We've underestimated her. Headmaster, where did you get this information?" Gandolfini inquired.
"The information source is irrelevant," Konoemon firmly rebuffed the question, not wanting information about time travel to get out. "What does matter is the fact that we must put a stop to this plan. I understand that everyone here is uncomfortable executing an operation of this degree without sufficient information but as mages, we cannot allow the public to find out about magic. Not before we can be sure there will be no adverse affects." Konoemon looked each mage in the eye firmly, quelling any arguments before continuing again, "That being said, I also understand a lot of you are uncomfortable about fighting nearly three thousand hostile enemies, especially with the public watching. That being the case, one of our own has put forth a valid suggestion, we will have the public participate in the fight as an active party without them knowing." The head master put up his hand as he saw some people about to protest the idea. "I know it's a pretty desperate idea, but this plan has been approved and comes with many safety measures. Rest assured everyone will be safe."
"It is true that our students like this sort of thing, and have the capabilities to do so. They might actually be surprisingly useful as a combat force," Seruhiko, one of the teachers who went to Kyoto with Negi and his group, mumbled quietly, the other mages who heard him started to mutter among themselves.
Konoemon smiled, their hesitance was faltering.
Someone behind the crowd who had been perusing the documents given to all the mages present suddenly exclaimed, "Wha-what is this? 6 gigantic life form weapons?"
"It seems that through a combination of magic and science, Chao has successfully managed to revive and control a few nameless demon lords that were petrified underneath the school," Toko Kuzunoha, Setsuna's sensei in her sword style when she moved to Mahora, explained. "We believe that the gigantic life forms to be some sort of amplifiers or switches that are important to the ritual. Should they appear too dangerous, we will get the students to stand down and retreat before our anti-demon forces take over."
Takane who had been quiet thus far suddenly spoke, "Will Naruto-sama be included in this operation?"
The dean looked at the tall blonde girl in surprise, he hadn't known that the girl and Naruto were acquaintances, "At the moment I haven't seen him yet but Negi assures me he will be fighting on our side. He seems to be doing something that will help us later."
With that said, everyone seemed to start having confidence in the wildly crazy plan, Konoemon tried to rally them even further, "Remember this; we have underestimated her for long enough, this plan of Chao-kun must be stopped. Support from the home country probably won't make it here in time either. Keep this in your minds as we fight: If we cannot stop Chao-kun's plan, the world will be changed. Everyone put your full effort into this operation!"
All of them stood up with their backs straight and a loud and overwhelming "Yes sir!" reverberated in Konoemon's office.
The wizened mage smiled at them gratefully.
****Broken Faith****
Special Extra, RPG style.
Rank = Overall Combat Capabilities
Tofu Magician Mage Archmage
F E D C B A AA AAA S SS
Negi Springfield
Class : Magic Duelist
Rank : B-class Mage
Asuna Kagurazaki
Class : Anti-magic Warrior
Rank : D-class to S-class Mage
Konoka Konoemon
Class : Squishy Witch
Rank : D-class mage.
Rank when pissed : AA-class mage
Nodoka Miyakazaki
Class : Mind Reader
Rank : B-class magician
Haruna Saotome
Class : Summoner
Rank : A-class magician
Ayase Yue
Class : Even Squishier Witch
Rank : A-class Tofu
Chisame Hasegawa
Class : Hacker
Rank : F-class Tofu
Rank on Internet : SS-class mage
Setsuna Sakurazaki
Class : Swordswoman
Rank : C-class Mage
Kaede Nagase
Class : Ninja
Rank : A-class Mage
Takane Dyanne Goodman
Class : Shadow Mage
Rank : AA-class Mage
Evangeline McDowell
Class : Non Applicable
Rank : SS-class Archmage
Takahata T. Takamichi
Class : Death Glasses
Rank : AAA-class Mage
Konoe Konoemon
Class : Pervert Dean
Rank : S-class Archmage
Eishun Konoemon
Class : Submissive Boss
Rank : AAA-class Archmage
Albiero Imma
Class : Horny Bookworm
Rank : B-class Archmage
Jack Rakan
Class : Ultimate Broken Character
Rank : You Stupid or Something?-class Archmage
Naruto Namikaze
Class : Walking Cheat sheet
Current Rank : B-rank Archmage
****Broken Faith****
Author's Note
\(-A-)/
Is it me or does all the good mainstream mangas seem like they are ending? Bleach doesn't count by the way. Tite Kubo crapped out after Aizen lost, even that fight was barely passable, what with Ichigo and his father pulling new powers out of their asses. -.- Everything after that seems dumb.
*Laughs Loudly* I was looking around for something good to read when I stumbled across a gem of an author note in a harem fic. This was what it said :
My rule was simple: if writing a harem story, end at the harem's formation; NEVER write harem interactions. The reason is, the interactions never turn out right. Naruto stories, Harry Potter... All harems just lose their flavours half-way through once the harem is actually formed, when the author fumbles in the interactions.
And so, I want you all to keep that in mind when reading this. I tried my best, but harem interactions are nearly impossible to do adequately. If you are a girl reading this, you've been warned: a guy wrote this and as such it will appeal more to male readers compared to female readers.
I completely agree with him. In fact, to be honest, I had that same problem the moment Chachamaru was confirmed. Lol. Of course I have my own ideas to circumvent that and there's a few tricks I have left to play in order to prevent exactly what the guy is saying, but I do agree it is hard once the harem or the pairing is formed.
PPS : Wish me luck, I'm posting this 30 minutes before I have an important meeting with my sponsor. Lol.