Hello everyone, I finished up chapter five. I hope you all enjoy the chapter.
(Marshalanime does not own Naruto or Monster Musume no Iru Nichijou)
It's been nearly two weeks since Miia moved in with them and Naruto could finally say that he's gotten back into a good rhythm. Wake up in the morning, untagling himself from Miia if she'd snuck into his room during the night, go for an early morning run, male it back home before Miia wakes up so he can get a warm bath ready for her, practice fuinjutsu with his mother for at least an hour after breakfast, spend time with Miia, study up on the books Ms. Smith left for him, leave a clone at the house to watch Miia while he and Kushina go out for physical training, come back in time to help with supper, some free time to do what ever he wants, and then it's off to bed so all of it can start again tomorrow. It might grow tedious for some people but Naruto was enjoying his daily life.
Today he was coming to the last third of his run, turning the bend to run along the river embankment as the sun was starting to rise over the city. As he sped along the usual path Naruto noticed a new sight. Slowing down to a halt the blond stopped to watch.
Below him was a woman holding a wooden practice lance with a target placed up further down the riverbank. With the sound of hooves hitting dew covered grass she charged the target, lance held firmly at her side as her long, blond ponytail flowed behind her. Coming to her target her lance hit just off center, launching the target into a spin as she continued past it.
Slowing doe to a stop she looked over her shoulder at the target she'd struck. "Kh... No matter what I do, I cannot hit the center mark...!" the centaur woman remarked with an unsatisfied expression.
"It looked pretty good to me" the woman heard someone say, startling her as she took one of her hands of her lance and reached for the sword at her side. With one clean motion she drew her blade and slashed, only for her blade to cut through thin air as Naruto back flipped out of its reach.
Holding up his hands Naruto frantically told the woman "Woh there! No need to swing a sword at me!".
Seeing this the centaur's determined look turned to on of shame as she realized how close she was to accosting an innocent man. "Forgive my actions, I was startled by thou's sudden appearance" the woman apologized as she lowered her sword. To be caught of guard so easily, truly this wasn't turning out to be her day. Then again, if that display of skill was more than a fluke then her search may finally be over.
"Ah, no... it's fine" Naruto said, slowly lowering his hands as he calmed down. "I guess... I should consider that most people can't hear me walking up to them" the blond man said, feeling a bit sheepish for startling the woman. It's not that he intentionally does it but when you're whole life has been dedicated to shinobi training moving silently comes as easy as breathing.
After glancing all around in embarrassment for a moment Naruto eyes came to land on the woman in front of him. Giving her a wide grin the boy stretched out his arm as he introduced himself.
Reaching out to take his hand the centaur woman then made her introduction, along with a little extra declaration "My name is Centorea Shianus. A member of the highly esteemed centaur race. Thou must be the fated man that shall become my master!".
As he shook her hand Naruto's head slowly tilted to the side as his brain attempted to registered what she just told him. "I'm sorry... what...?" Naruto quietly asked as their handshake came to an end.
"I was going to try a Japanese magic charm if my search had stretched on but it would seem fate had smiled upon us this day!" Centorea happily said.
"Wait! Waitwaitwaitwait!" Naruto blurted out as he came back to his senses, throwing his hands up wildly as he did so.
"Hm? Is something the mater Master?" Centorea questioned with a slightly concerned look on her face.
"Of course there is! How can you just decide that I'm going to be your master?" Naruto all but yelled at the woman, startling her a bit at his reaction.
"Ah, forgive me, Master, tis probably a little surprising but please hear me out" Centorea implored for his attention. "For we centaur, tis a great privilege to serve under a master we deem worthy. I have not known thy for long but already I can tell by thou's movements and by the way thou carry yourself that thou hath dedicated a great deal of time to strengthening thou's body and spirit. If I follow a man like thou I am certain that I can live without regret!" the woman told him.
Seeing that this was something important to her Naruto took a small step back while trying to work out how he should take it from here. When he came down here to watch her train it was just out of curiosity, he wasn't expecting to get roped into something like this. "W-Well... is strength all you care about when looking for a master?" Naruto asked after recomposing himself.
This seemed to push a button of hers as Centorea's hands tightened. "Of course strength is not the only factor that matters! I would never serve a man solely because of his strength!" Centorea shouted at the blond as she leaned down to stare him in the eyes.
"Then how do you know I'd be a good master, huh? We don't know anything about each other!" Naruto shot back, pushing his face closer to hers as the two entered into a short staring match.
Straightening herself out Centorea turned to the side as she folded her arms under her massive chest. "Very well, I shall accompany you for the duration of today and then decide if thou are worthy of being my master" the woman told him, getting a shocked look from the blond.
Naruto was so frustrated that he wanted to scream out to the heavens. Restraining himself he turned to head back up the bank. "Fine! Do what ever you want" Naruto said as he walked away.
The tension from their little argument dissipated shortly after the pair left the riverside and in it's place was an awkward atmosphere that lingered over them as they walked through the streets. Both of them wanted to apologize for how they acted but when ever either made an attempt to do so it just devolved into some meaningless small talk before even leaving their lips. Naruto had even taken a longer rout back home in the hope that they'd be able to resolve this, that and he really didn't want to see how his mother and Miia would react if Centorea decided to follow him into his house.
After walking two blocks in uncomfortable silence Naruto decided to just suck it up and be the first to apologize. As Naruto came to a stop Centorea halted a few steps ahead of him, her long ears flicking up as she turned at the waist to look at the blond. "Look Centorea, I'm really sor-" the young man was trying to say when a woman's scream cut off anything he was about to say.
Turning their attention to where they'd just walked from both Naruto and Centorea could see a man riding a moped with a purse, presumably belonging to the woman he had passed by, in his hand.
"Master, look out!" Centorea called out as she rushed over to push the young man out of the way, even if it meant putting her own body in the purse thief's path. However, Centorea was stunned when instead of protecting Naruto with her body like she intended she felt his arms warp around her as she wrapped her own around him before felling him pull her off to the side of the road with him. As the moped sped by both Naruto and Centorea fell landed with a 'THUMP' on the road a few feet out of his way.
Grabbing Centorea's shoulders Naruto pushed her, and her breasts, off of him. "Are you insane? You could've gotten seriously hurt pulling a stunt like that!" Naruto told her as he pulled his feet from out under her horse body.
"Forgive me, I was only thinking of thou's safety" Centorea apologized as she looked down at the road while her left arm came up to sheepishly rub her other arm. Seeing a hand enter her view Centorea looked up to see Naruto staring down at her with a warm, welcoming look on his face.
"Are you hurt?" the blond man asked.
"I am unharmed" Centorea told him as she took his hand, letting him help her back up to her feet.
Once she was on all four of her hooves Naruto asked if she could run faster than a moped. "Of course I can!" Centorea answered him.
"Good" Naruto said with a smirk as he turned and started to run off in the direction the purse thief drove off in. "Because I'm going to show that guy that he can't get away with this and I wouldn't want you falling behind!" the blond yelled back to her as his pace got fasters and faster.
With a smirk Centorea began to run as well, doing her best to catch up with the blond. "Tis my duty to always remain by my masters side, if I can not keep up then I will bring shame upon the centaur race!" the woman boldly proclaimed.
While speeding through the streets the thief marveled at today's prize, skimming through the contents of the purse and finding a sizable sum of money. That is until several shuriken were thrown at his pike, blowing out his back tire while others planted themselves firmly into the chassis. Panicking the man dropped the purse as his hands jerked back to the moped's handles, struggling to keep the bike from crashing as the now bare rim sent sparks out as it rolled across the asphalt.
"Stop right there!" Centorea yelled out as she thrust her sword down to catch the lope of the dropped purse. "Thou thief! The meek shall arrest you! Else, thee shall drown in the depths of thy crime" the woman said as her arm came up so that the purse slid down her blade and subsequently her arm. "I shall have you taste my blade!" Centorea proclaimed as she directed her sword forward.
"Y-You're that horse chick from before!" the thief shouted as he looked over his shoulder at the woman.
"Just give it up pal!" hearing Naruto's voice the man's head jerked to the side to see the young man running along the stone walls running along the street.
"The hell!?" the man cried out. Turning his head forward again the man squeezed the throttle as he yelled out "Just try to keep up with my model 36!". Even with his back tire gone the man refused to admit defeat and continued forward in a desperate attempt to escape.
As they approached a four way intersection the man's ride grew more and more unstable, threatening to topple over at any moment. It was then, at the intersection when policewoman came sliding in one her motorcycle, clipping the moped's front tire an causing it to flip over her.
As the officer came to a stop on the other side of the intersection she took notice of Naruto and Centorea's surprised expressions as they came to a stop. Putting down her kick stand she got off her bike and walked over to the two as Naruto hoped down next to Centorea.
"He's kind of durable isn't he" Naruto commented as he saw the thief trying to pull himself up with the add of a lamppost.
While he was busy with that Centorea was the first to notice the officer coming over to them. It was a little difficult to distinguish any sort of defining features with her helmet on but none the less the woman was clearly an officer.
"Tis no need to thank us, we were onlyayayaaaahh!?" Centorea was saying when the officer reached up to pull her down by her ear, a fate Naruto wasn't going to escape as her other hand grabbed onto one of his ears.
"Thank you? Thanking you is the last thing I'm going to do" the woman told them, speaking as if she were reprimanding her own children. Letting them go the woman placed her hands on her hips as she watched them rub their sour ears with small droplets forming at the corners of their eyes. "The police are here for a reason, regardless of whether or not your intentions are pure being reckless like this is just stupid, understand?" the woman said. Seeing the pair quickly nod the officer then told them "Good, then get out of here before I decide to dish out punishment".
Without hesitation the two of them took off, leaving the officer to clean up this mess. Once they were gone the woman let out a long sigh, "Honestly, why is my family full of idiots".
"That didn't turn out the way I expected, but at least that guy's going to jail" Naruto remarked as he and Centorea walked through the streets looking for the woman the guy robbed. In the moment they were just listening to what the officer had told them, but in the process they ended up taking the purse with them. "I don't suppose to remember what she looked like, do you Centorea?" Naruto asked. He figured it wouldn't be two hard to figure out who she was once they got back to the street she was on but by the time they got there she had left.
"Cerea" Naruto heard Centorea tell him. When he'd asked her a simple 'What?' she went on to tell him "Call me Cerea, not Centorea... It is the name those close to me use...".
"I suppose this means you're not going to drop the whole 'Master' thing, are you?" Naruto asked her.
"There is no other man in this world who I could call my master, Master" Centorea told him with a small smile and faint blush. Oddly enough, hearing that didn't bother him as much as it did when they first met.