"Is this really necessary?"
"I'm afraid so. We can't let you figure out the whereabouts of our headquarters just yet."
It was useless anyway.
Currently blindfolded, Naruto was in the middle of a transport trip from his school to Parabellum's headquarters. The driver had to blindfold him to prevent him from getting their headquarters' whereabouts, but that was a useless attempt. By closing his eyes, his vision, his auditory senses had sharpened. He could hear the outside commotion, things like construction sounds, sense the number of stops that they had to take, what type of shops they past, so on and so forth.
'...speed no more than forty kilometers per hour... a right turn... slowing down on a red light... halt.'
But, he was in a much better condition than his fellow student, he supposed.
'Left turn... thirty degree climb suggests highway entry... car speed increasing to fifty confirms it...'
Saika was still out cold. He felt no movement nor did he hear any sound coming from the bound, blindfolded and gagged teen occupying the entire seat behind him. Riding shotgun also helped with sensing things because he was sitting closer to the driver. He could also feel the amount of sunlight even clearer by sitting in front, that helped him pinpoint in which particular direction the car was heading to.
So, yes, the blindfold was pretty much useless at this point.
"May I ask you a question?"
The driver raised an eyebrow. The blonde had been quiet so far, why was he asking questions now?
"What is it?" asked the driver, with his eyes fixed on the road ahead.
"What will you do to him?" His head gave a slight nudge, referring to the boy bound, gagged and blindfolded in the back.
"We'll secure him and place him under surveillance... at least that's what you're allowed to know."
Naruto did not say anything else, opting to keep his mouth shut again.
'The sun is setting... we're heading west... approaching a halt at a toll checkpoint... driver picks up money... several five hundred yen coins... driving resumes... speed at seventy kilometers per hour...'
Ten minutes of driving later, the car came to a halt. The sound of seat belts being unbuckled and the handbrake being raised indicated that they were about to leave. Judging from the lack of sunlight, Naruto deduced that they were inside a building of some sort and from all of the sense navigation he did, they had to be somewhere west, meaning near the sea.
"I'm going to have to put an ear muffler on you." Naruto heard the driver said to him.
"Are you guys really that paranoid?"
"Hey, you can't blame us."
In response to that, Naruto let out a quick snort of bemusement.
The driver rigged the ear mufflers on his person, disabling his sense of hearing. He couldn't see nor hear, but at least they didn't handcuff him or anything like that. He felt a tug at his sleeve, Naruto took it as a sign to follow whoever had just tugged his sleeve. The person kept a hold of his sleeve, taking him on a walk that required exactly fifty steps forward, before ascending a short flight of stairs. Whoever was leading him stopped moving, and it was then when he felt the floor moving.
'An elevator... going downstairs... underground?' He did not feel the car going up a ramp or whatever earlier, so maybe they were taking him somewhere below ground.
He hoped that they managed to secure Saika properly, it'd be very troublesome if he were to wake up and cause chaos in a narrow place like this.
After exactly a minute of waiting, the descent stopped. Naruto felt vibration coursing through the elevator's flooring, he took it as a sign that they had reached their desired floor. He felt the tugging on his sleeve again, this time taking an immediate left as soon as they stepped out of the elevator.
'No drafts... in a hallway? Explains the narrowness I'm feeling with the walls and ceiling so close... my shoes aren't impacting the floors that hard, carpets?'
It was then when the blonde's olfactory organ decided to kick in, picking up an ever familiar scent.
'Coffee... sharp, strong... instant... we must be entering an office.' Or he was about to meet more of Parabellum's G-men.
'Taking a right... hallway was ten meters long, carpeted, with narrow space... it must be a main hall that connects the entire floor, so the exit has got to be somewhere at the end of the hall.'
The blonde was halted suddenly, then he felt a draft of cold air hitting his legs. 'Air conditioner... we've arrived.' Like he deduced, the not so subtle shutting down of door vibrated from behind him. The tugging ceased, and slowly, the obstructions were removed from his person.
The first thing he noticed was the number of people in the room, more particularly, the lack of people present. There was only four people in the room including him. Him, Saika who was now secured on a metal chair, the driver from earlier who had to bring both him and Saika here, and a big tittied blonde haired lady sitting on a chair with her hands propped on an aluminum table with a fresh mug of coffee and documents in front of her.
Though his facade remained as unreadable as ever, inwardly, he winced.
This was an interrogation scene from your typical spy movie if he had ever seen one! The only difference here was that there's a boy bound and gagged sitting on the other chair!
The woman, who had been occupied with the papers in front of her, finally turned her eyes towards him. "So you're the kid, huh? The real life Jason Bourne?" She asked with obvious sarcasm dripping from her very tone.
Naruto would have laughed if he found her joke funny. Sadly, it wasn't.
"Huh... looks like Shikamaru's reports weren't kidding, you do have the social capabilities of a rock."
Naruto's shoulder twitched.
The woman let out a long and exaggerated sigh, stretching her arms upwards, putting further emphasize on her mammaries. "You know, when they said that the infamous Hatake Kakashi took on a protege, I was expecting someone... older."
She sounded legit disappointed, but it was actually more than that. "But it just had to be a high school fuck boy like those retarded shounen manga that my little brother used to read, huh?" Sighing again, this time, she took on a more regretful expression. "Why must the world be so fucked up?"
"Ahem." The driver of the car that escorted Naruto and Saika coughed to his fist, getting everyone's – sans Saika's – attention on him. "Ma'am, if you would?"
"Right, right." The lady waved the driver off with a rude gesture of her hand. Her eyes found themselves staring at Naruto once again, only this time, she was properly staring at him. "Naruto, no last name, and student of the infamous – currently assumed to be – ex-Leafcorp operative, Hatake Kakashi."
Her tone took on an amused turn, where it was just pure disappointment before. "I have to hand it to you, kid. Leafcorp don't usually make them as quick and as young as you are... you must be their newest record or something."
Again, he twitched, it was his hands this time.
"Last time, Kakashi was the youngest... before him was that blonde pretty boy, gosh, what's with you guys and breeding dangerous killers, huh?"
The fact that she went silent made Naruto think that she was actually waiting for him to answer her. So, he did.
"...killers? More like janitors to me."
The woman blinked. She did not expect that the... rock in front of her could show and exhibit any form of humor, much less a sarcastic one at that. "Oh, care to elaborate that simile for me?"
"We work hard cleaning up whatever mess that you white collars make whenever you're done with your business transactions regardless of where it is. Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Serbia, Chechnya..." he let his voice trail off.
A dry chuckle escaped the woman's lips. She smiled at him, but it was anything but kind.
"Oh, so you can be funny after all. So, tell me, why are you here and not out there 'cleaning' the 'mess' that we've made, huh?" It was an obvious challenge.
And obviously, Naruto was going to take it.
"Name one janitor that actually loves his job." He deadpans. "I'll wait."
Silence.
…
…
…
"...touche."
The lady massaged her neck, temples and eyes exactly in that order. "Welcome to Parabellum, kid. Hope you didn't mind the blindfold and ear muffler that we had to put on you. Take a seat."
Naruto stepped forward, using his leg to drag a metallic folding chair that was propped to the table in front him. After unfolding the chair, he placed it next to Saika. The driver took his post near the door, guarding one of the four exit point in the room.
"I've had worse." Naruto rolled his shoulders, dismissing her halfhearted apologies off.
"Hmph, can't call you out on that."
Three brown paper files were slid towards him from the woman seated across of him.
"The one on the left contains everything that we know about you. Things like your habitual pattern, known associates, places you've visited... you know, those kind'a stuffs..." She waved her hand around. "The one in the middle is everything that we managed to compile about your friend over there." She gestured to Saika with a nudge of head. "Wow, you really fucked him up real good if he's still out cold, didn't you?"
Naruto was already opening the first file, his foggy blue eyes scanning through the contents.
"The last one is your next assignment."
At the word 'assignment', Naruto stopped his reading to look at the woman in front of him.
Recognizing the look that the boy was giving her, the well endowed lady raised a hand as if to defend herself. "I'm gonna brief you directly, so keep the questions after I'm done speaking. They at least taught you discipline over there, didn't they?"
Naruto's unchanging stare and stone-like facade were her only answers, prompting her to sigh.
"Open it and I'll brief you as you analyze the file."
Exchanging the first file for the last one, Naruto opened the file just as the woman was about to speak.
Parabellum Mission Briefing
"I am sure that Shikamaru had already mentioned the thing regarding the Yukinoshita's?"
"Briefly, but, yes."
"Good, this should be easier. Simply said, Leafcorp had been offering the Yukinoshita Conglomerate ridiculously tempting deals to help them build their foundation here in Japan."
"...in the literal sense?"
"Possibly, they do excel in building and shipping after all. Anyway, we cannot let that happen. If LeafCorp is to be given a chance on setting up more businesses in the country, it'll be even harder for us to touch them. As of now, they have been doing nothing but raking income from the contracts they have with their business partners."
"How important is the Yukinoshita's in all of this?" asked the blonde teen.
"You kidding me? Kid, don't you ever, you know, go outside?" The woman was blinking, thinking that he was some sort of hikkikomori.
"...are you insulting me?" A glare.
"...no, of course not. You are wanted by LeafCorp after all... but in any case, the Yukinoshita's are responsible for most of the major building projects in Japan, mostly here in Tokyo Prefecture. In addition to that, they also own a number of shipping vessels that are responsible for twenty percent of the international shipping processes that goes from and into Japan."
"...so they're rich." was the simple conclusion drawn by the whiskered teen.
"That's an understatement, but yes, they are. Ahem, anyway, we've gathered that LeafCorp's last contact with them was with the Yukinoshita matriarch, Yukinoshita Yukine."
"And what of it?"
"As far as we're concerned, they could have struck a deal of some sort without us knowing. Our intel is very limited, we can't do more without doing anything drastic."
"So, how do I fit in all of this?"
"Your assignment is to find out more about this probable deal that they may have struck. Find out anything, even the smallest details would help. Due to the nature of this assignment, we're expecting it to last for the long term, meaning that there's no real deadline until we find out more about the deal itself."
"...you want me to use Yukinoshita Yukino." a glare.
"What, is she your girlfriend or something?"
"...no, but I would very much appreciate not dragging someone from my school into our business." The blonde teen nudged his head, referring the silver haired boy, who was still out cold, bound and unmoving beside him. "The shock of finding out that one of them was a vengeful assassin out for my blood is still effecting me, you see."
A snort. "Yeah, right. Says the guy who knocked the boy out to the point of extreme unconsciousness and then bound the kid using bondage techniques that I'm sure even Anko doesn't know of."
"What can I say, my master is one of a kind."
"Ass." The lady coughed. "Anyway, I realized I haven't introduced myself..."
Mission Briefing End
"...I am Senju Tsunade, the Head Director of Parabellum. It's a pleasure to work with you, Naruto."
Unfortunately for Tsunade, the pleasure was not shared.
"Come with me, we're going to introduce you to some of the crew."
"And are you sure that's wise?"
The driver had been instructed earlier by Tsunade to transport Saika to another place, probably to administer treatment so that they could wake him up and cough out answers from him. Naruto was having mixed feelings about letting Saika off his watch. Saika was still a student in his school and one of his known associates within his circle of acquaintances.
If he were to end up missing by tomorrow, it would certainly raise some questions.
"Hey, we're trying to even things out with you here." Tsunade grumbled. "Since you've been cooperating with us these past few days, we figured that letting you in on some of our secrets would be enough compensation for the time being."
"...you're pretty dumb aren't you, lady?"
Tsunade stopped dead on her tracks.
"What. Did. You. Say?"
Even if she was leaking an aura that would make even the Duke of Hell piss his pants, Naruto maintained his deadpan expression quite well. With arms crossed and standing only a few feet away from the woman, he elaborated what he meant.
"You're about to introduce me to your associates, whom I won't have any problems tracking down and you're doing all of this in the name of fairness?"
A lose vein pulsated on Tsunade's forehead, her fists clenching and shaking. "Listen here kid, you should be thankful that we even allowed you to be here in the first place. Not to mention, those files I gave you." She snorted, turning her body to face the taller boy. "What makes you think that we're at a disadvantage here, huh? You are the one inside our turf all defenseless after all."
Naruto blinked. "Oh? Defenseless?" He sighed. "You really don't know anything about master Kakashi, huh?"
"What do you mean?"
Instead of giving her answer, the male blonde merely shrugged. "I don't know, what do you think?"
Sucking in her fury, Tsunade was thiiiiis close from becoming the next Mount Krakatoa.
"...just... follow me."
The whiskered blonde shrugged.
After their short banter, the two blondes resumed their walk, with Tsunade doing the leading. Naruto was about five steps behind her, a suitable distance in situations like this one where he was in a potentially hostile environment. Parabellum may have warned him about Saika's presence... but they had not really done anything to help him get what he wanted, which was information regarding Kakashi.
Five steps were more than enough for him to either run back to the exit or jump forward and snap Tsunade's neck in case they decided to pull a fast one on him.
But he was hoping that things would not have to come to that.
"Alright, everyone's inside. Get in." The woman dressed in the business suit inclined her head slightly, motioning towards the door in front of them.
The sign read 'Meeting Room'.
'How appropriate.'
Entering the room first, Tsunade closed the door behind them. Naruto did not hear any suspicious clicking noises that might have suggested the door being locked or anything like that, but he could never be too sure.
As far as aesthetics go, the room was normal. Lights, one long table, chairs surrounding the long table, a screen projector fixed to the ceiling pointing towards an empty white wall and a water dispenser at the corner of the room. It reminded him of the lounge rooms back in LeafCorp, except tidier.
"So he's the kid, Tsunade?"
The woman walked towards the table, finding herself at the edge of the table, before taking her place on the seat. "He is. Deceptive, isn't he?"
The same man as before snorted in amusement. "No shit, thought he'd be older."
Naruto made sure to burn the image of this man in his memories. White hair, sleazy grin, kabuki-like make ups...
"And he's Kakashi's protege? Damn, I gotta read his track record after this meeting's over."
"You wouldn't want to do that, Jiraiya-san. Otherwise you wouldn't be able to enjoy those spy movies that you love so much anymore after seeing what he could do."
Shikamaru was also present, looking as sleepy as ever. Unlike everyone else, he was dressed in a rather casual attire. Collared black shirt with a pair of khakis.
"Ohoho... he's that good, eh?"
"Alright, enough, all of you."
After memorizing the faces of those present in the room, sans his own, Naruto turned to Tsunade, who had silenced everyone. There were a total of six individuals in this room, not including him, and so far, the only one he had recognized was only Shikamaru.
"We're here for introductions, so cut the questions for later." She turned to the sleazy looking white haired man. "Jiraiya, why don't you go and start, since you're so eager to talk?"
The man hummed in pride of being able to do the introduction first. Striking a pose that he must have thought was 'cool' – he was raising his nose up in the air while loosening the sleeves of his shirt – he began his introduction.
"My name is Jiraiya, no last name, and I'm this organization's Intelligence Head Officer." The tone he took on reminded Naruto of those third rate actors in the television desperately trying to sound dandy but failing to do so. "And of course, the number one heart breaker in Japan."
But before he could go on and make his introduction longer, a younger male voice interrupted him. "In other words, a pervert."
Everyone chuckled, even Tsunade was smirking.
While Jiraiya was grumbling at how someone had just ruined his introduction, the one that interrupted him decided to go next.
Next was a man Naruto could consider of more-than-average looks. Angular jaw, black eyes... but really, what drew Naruto's attention was the fact that he was wearing a beanie hat on his head. The man grinned, waving his hand in a friendly manner.
"Toujo Mizuki, I'm from management." Some people snickered, but the most notable one was Jiraiya. "Oh come on, it wasn't that lame. Right?"
"No wonder Tsubaki ditched you that one time during Christmas if that's how you introduce yourself to people, Mizuki."
A deeper, gruffer and relatively mature voice piped up next. It took Naruto no effort to conclude that the man was a smoker, it was evident from how heavy and breathy his voice was. And that explained the smell of nicotine he had been smelling ever since he entered the room.
"Sarutobi Asuma, just call me Asuma. Unlike Mizuki over there, I'm the Head Handler for field agents." He had a smile on his face when he introduced himself. A tall man with a beard, intimidating if he tried to look the part. "Read some stuff about you, son. I'm just glad that we're on a friendly term."
"Friendly?" Shikamaru, even in his drowsy and unmotivated state, piped up from Asuma's left. "He threatened me, remember?"
Naruto rolled his eyes.
"Maa, but anyway, you know me." The pineapple haired sleepy head yawned loudly, enough to be compared to a whale. "And, I know I haven't said anything about it before, but I'm your handler from now on."
"My handler?" Naruto repeated.
"Yeah, sucks more for me, though." Shikamaru yawned again. "But, anyway, you know what you're doing so far; so I can't complain about anything just yet."
Last but not the least, the only other female in the room aside from Tsunade.
"Shishou, I still don't think that bringing him here into our headquarters is a good idea."
Naruto could not blame the pink haired girl for thinking like that. He even questioned the ingenuity of that fact before to Tsunade.
Dressed in a red blouse with white accents coloring the bordering seams of the clothing, she also wore a black, knee-length pleated skirt and a pair of black latex cork wedges. Everything about her clothing screamed prim and proper, even her hair was combed properly, showing off more than average forehead. Her jade-like eyes were giving him suspicious looks, but it had transcended the levels of suspicion with how long he had been staring at her.
"We've talked about this before Sakura, do not make me repeat myself."
"Yes, Shishou..."
"Ahem, anyway, that was Haruno Sakura, my assistant and the Assistant Doctor of the medical staff here. Despite her less than competent look, she's good enough to beat those snobby Tokyo-U med grads." With a jerk of a thumb, the boss of the organization pointed to the pink haired girl.
"S-Shishou!"
"Alright, now that introductions are over, let us begin with the discussions."
Discussions? Naruto was not made aware of this. Tsunade told him that he was going to be here for introductions only. Looking at exit, the whiskered blonde thought whether or not it was a good idea to excuse himself and exit the place for good.
"Naruto," Tsunade's voice broke him from his trance. ",please take a seat next to Shikamaru."
Nodding, the blonde made his way towards the boy who was struggling to keep himself awake for the important discussion. His seating position had placed him in between Shikamaru and the pink haired girl. Of course, said pink haired girl was less than happy to have him sitting next to her.
"Jiraiya, start the projector."
"Already on it, Hime."
The projector placed on the ceiling descended, the lens guard retracting so that it could project the image on the empty wall in front of it. The picture shown on the wall showed the logo of the Yukinoshita Conglomerate, as well as several text boxes detailing what Naruto had already known based on Tsunade's earlier explanation.
"So, we know that LeafCorp has begun moving to their next phase by hiring the help of Japan's biggest building and architectural company in order to increase their operations in the Japanese market. While we have deduced that they are sure to focus on private sector businesses in the country, there is no telling what they'll do should they decide to appeal to the public."
The projector switches the display, now projecting the image of the Port of Tokyo in its busy and shipping container-filled state.
"Aside from that, there's no telling what kind of tech LeafCorp has managed to smuggle into Japan over the past few months, past year even. Our influence isn't big enough to grant us that kind of knowledge, which is why we've been doing nothing but spy work these days. Stopping them from gaining popularity is our main priority, hence it's important for us to know their next move. But therein lies the problem: we don't."
When the next slide showed, Naruto's eyes widened briefly.
"However, we have Naruto to thank over here for being acquainted with one of the Yukinoshita's daughter." Tsunade was not ignorant to the fact that Naruto was currently glaring at her with the ferocity of a hungry tiger.
Even with his anger on display, he managed to keep his silence. He could have blow up any moment, but he needed to hear more of Tsunade's words to shed some light on the topic.
The slide showed a picture of his fellow student and club mate, Yukinoshita Yukino. With the way the picture's showing her full face and uniform, they must have had taken it from the school's server. It looked like the picture that the school made them take for their ID book.
"Whoa, can't wait to see her in a few years time." Mizuki commented playfully, a grin forming on his face.
Naruto felt his fist tightened. The man was sitting across from him, kicking the table should be easier, he didn't know why he thought of punching him the first place.
"We're supposed to question her to find out more about the decision that her family might have made regarding the deal with LeafCorp."
"Wait, 'supposed'?" Jiraiya spoke up, confused. "Isn't that the plan, Hime?"
"Apparently, our resident soldier over there objects the idea of involving anyone from his school into our business." Tsunade revealed with a nudge of her head.
"Oho? What's the matter kid, she your girl or something?"
Naruto did not answer to Jiraiya's teasing, causing the old man to back off.
"Ma'am, I agree with Naruto's decision of not involving her into this matter." Naruto was not expecting Shikamaru to speak. Honestly, he expected that he'd dozed off long enough to the point of sleep or something.
"Oh?"
"We've already had a student from his school turning out to be a spy. We don't need anything like that happening again in the future." He sighed. "Do you know how worried I was when we found out that that kid was an assassin with ties with LeafCorp?"
"But there was no need to worry, the kid took care of him in the end." Asuma pitched in, stretching his long arms. "Haven't seen the assassin myself, but last I heard, he was still unconscious."
"True." Tsunade confirmed Asuma's memory. "Anyway, I can see your concern of involving another person from Naruto's school, Shikamaru. It's a good thing that Yukino was never our priority in the first place."
The slide proceeded at the same time as Naruto's raising of his left eyebrow. This time, the slide was showing another female, but it was not a girl, but a woman. The whistle coming from Mizuki confirmed that this woman was a looker, and indeed she was. A beauty, even the picture clearly showed that. But it didn't take long for Naruto to connect the dots.
"This is Yukinoshita Haruno, the heiress of the Yukinoshita Conglomerate." said Tsunade.
"Now that's a girl I don't mind seeing right now."
"You can say that again, Tojou-kun." Jiraiya smirked.
"Mizuki, Jiraiya, zip it." the head director's firm glare was cold enough to make them shut up. "Anyway, our main objective was her all along. Since she's the oldest of the two daughters and prime candidate for inheriting the family's business, she has to know more than the Yukino kid."
Tsunade's eyes turned to the ex-mercenary in the room. "Naruto, have you met her before?"
At Tsunade's question, Naruto shook his head.
"Good. Though we're not telling you to approach and make contact with her-
"You're asking me to approach and make contact with her."
Jiraiya snorted. "Smart kid."
"...yes, we're asking you to make contact with her and learn anything you can learn regarding her family's business' deal with LeafCorp." said Tsunade, this time, her tone was more subdued.
"But Haruno-san is not just going to spill everything she knows to Naruto-san." Sakura stated the obvious.
"Obviously," Tsunade and Naruto rolled their eyes at the same time. ",it's not going to be as easy as that. From what we've gathered, she's not someone to be trifled with. She could be as fierce as her mother when it comes down to business. So, Naruto, we want you to at least get on her good side, find out anything you can about her first and her family later."
The whiskered blonde did not give any reaction.
"We have Jiraiya's network working to gather everything we could about LeafCorp, but hearing things from someone who's defected from them should be able to highlight the bits we've gathered." Tsunade said. "Naruto, sorry about this but you're going to have to stay up late to help us fact check some information."
The blonde did not respond.
"You'll be paid for it."
Still no response.
Eyeing the still and silent boy, Tsunade felt something bad creeping towards her. Seconds later, the boy finally responded by shrugging his shoulders. Releasing her bated breath, Tsunade nodded. "Thank you. Everyone, you're dismissed. Shikamaru, Jiraiya, please accompany Naruto to the intelligence department."
Naruto may had only met them in this short while, but he got the feeling that it was going to be a long night.
He hated being right.
Last night was a long night indeed. They kept him there for three hours fact checking information that he only knew half of. Needless to say, he was not in a good mood this morning. Sleep depravity was a concept that had returned to him once again. Back when he was still working for LeafCorp, he could stay awake for three days straight before eventually passing out from the lack of sleep. But since he did not have to stay awake for such a long period of time anymore these days, he had gotten too comfortable with his sleeping habit.
"Good morning everyone!"
"Yo, morning!"
"Morning!"
His classmates in class 2-F got to greet each other with a smile on their face, while he was on his seat, with no other choice but to endure and resist the temptation to sleep. Naruto was close to dozing off earlier, but he could not sleep when homeroom was twenty minutes away from starting.
"Hey, Naruto, good morning!"
A familiar pink haired individual skips over to him, a huge smile plastered on her face. She looked like she had a good night's sleep, something which irked Naruto a little bit.
"Good morning, Yui." He already looked miserable, there was no need for him to sound miserable too.
"Say, you don't look too fresh today, did you sleep well last night?"
The blonde's eyebrow twitched as Yui's question reminded him of the absurd 'interrogation' that Parabellum made him go through last night. "I can't say I have the pleasure. I apologize if I look unsightly."
"N-No, that's okay, more like, you should sleep properly from now on!" For some reason which was completely clueless to Naruto, she started admonishing him for his lack of sleep. "We've been having a lot of pop quizzes lately, it'd be a waste if you fell asleep doing them!"
"...coming from the girl who fell asleep when she gave up with her quiz isn't exactly convincing, Yui."
"M-Mou! T-Those were different!" the bubbly girl denied with a face comparable to that of bubble gum.
Though Naruto felt like he could say at least two or three things against Yui's denial, he felt slightly more awake from the conversation with Yui.
Despite it being a noisy classroom, the sound of door opening would naturally draw people's attention. But this time, what drew people's attention wasn't exactly the opening of door itself, but the person opening the door.
Or to be more specific, the state and condition of the person opening the door.
"T-Totsuka-san, you're all wrapped up!"
"Eh, what happened, did you got into an accident?"
"Oh my gosh..."
Self restrain did Naruto good as he was able to prevent himself from cursing. Everyone in class was literally staring at the banged up looking Saika who was standing underneath the door frame covered in bandages and an arm sling supporting his right arm. Naruto was glad that he didn't inflict any serious damage to Saika's face, otherwise it would make the whole accident thing a lot less convincing.
"Ahahaha... y-yeah, got into a bad accident last night when I returned from grocery shopping..." Attempting to dismiss all the attention he was receiving, Saika shuffled to his seat.
Walking past Naruto's seat, Yui approached the bandaged tennis player. "Sai-chan, are you okay, what happened?!" Not only did she looked worried, she also sound worried.
"It was an accident with a car, Yui-chan." The silver haired teen, despite being bruised all over, still managed to laugh. "Don't worry, the doctor said that it was nothing serious."
"B-But you're all wrapped in bandages!"
For a moment, while Yui was still babbling to herself about Saika's state, the tennis player sent the blonde a look. This was well received by the whiskered teen himself, who returned the tennis player's look with one of his own. The two seemed to have forgotten that they were in fact inside a classroom with how intense they had been staring each other.
"N-Naruto, Sai-chan?"
At the sound of Yui's voice, the two boys made things look like as if their death stare had never happened. Saika was back to smiling, albeit in pain, while Naruto's usual less-than-caring facade returned to his face.
"Yes, what is it, Yui-chan?" asked the bandaged tennis player.
"The two of you were staring at each other... did something happen?" Yui twiddled her thumb together, looking strangely shy about something.
"Nothing happened." was Naruto's brief and curt answer. "It's a shame that you got into an accident, Totsuka-san. It seemed that the request with the tennis club will have to be postponed."
"Ah!" Yui made a face of realization, dropping a fist onto her open palm. "That's right, Sai-chan's request! What are we gonna do about it, Naruto? Now that Sai-chan's all injured, we can't play tennis!"
Chuckling uneasily, Saika used his good hand to wave Yui's concern away. "It's fine, Yui-chan. I learned a lot from the training session we did, so, I'm sure I'll improve playing after I'm healed."
"Regardless," interjected the blonde haired foreigner. ",we still have to inform Yukino-san about this."
"Okay, I'll go do that at lunch then." Yui paused, thinking. "Why don't we go and tell her together, Naruto? Sai-chan can't follow us though since he's hurt..."
"It's fine, the two of you can tell Yukinoshita-san. I'll just stay here in the classroom." said the injured tennis player.
"Okay then." Yui nodded.
Saika waved her goodbye, returning to his seat somewhere away from Naruto's. He had other people approaching him, questioning him about his current state, making his morning a rather busy one already. Yui returned to her own seat, leaving Naruto alone to his own devices. Yui said that they would move out to meet Yukino at lunch, so Naruto made a mental note to take his bag with him when lunch started.
"Hm?"
Speaking of notes...
Picking up the folded piece from paper subtly placed at the upper right corner of his table, he eyed it for a moment. Finally opening it, his eyes glazed over the content of the paper.
It read:
Roof. After school. Skip club.
Raising an eyebrow at the message, the blonde crumpled the paper, pocketing it to throw later. He turned his body, facing the general direction of Saika's seat. When he turned, he was greeted by the sight of Saika flipping him the bird, before returning to his prince-like persona.
'Well that was concise.'
"...so that's what happen, basically, Yukinon..."
Yukinoshita Yukino hummed, her lunch box cast aside in exchange for learning the information that Yui had to share with her. Her eyes was staring off to the distance, signifying her occupied thoughts. Sighing after a few seconds of thinking, she reached for her lunch box, bringing it to her lap.
"I guess it can't be helped then if things turned out like this." said the black haired club president. "But is Totsuka-san really okay? I hope it's nothing serious."
"Hnn, Sai-chan said that it wasn't."
"Thank goodness." It was about time the black haired beauty turned her attention to the only boy in the room. "While I know I am a rather eye catching individual, Naruto-kun, must you stare at me with such intensity?"
"E-Eh? N-Naruto's staring at Yukinon..."
Indeed, he was staring at Yukino. But not for the reason that one might thought. After being caught red handed for his act, the blonde rolled his eyes. "Your eyelashes. They're longer."
Of course, that was not the real reason why he was staring at her. But it was true, Yukino's eyelashes were indeed longer.
Blinking, the black haired girl herself was astonished. "You noticed?" asked Yukino.
"Hm? Oh yeah!" Yui exclaimed, after taking a closer look at the club president. "Did you wear some fake eyelashes, Yukinon?"
"W-Well, my sister told me to try it on for her since she's not really used to wear such things." Defended the girl. "And I was hoping to have your comment about it, Yuigahama-san, but it seems that Naruto-kun noticed it... first..."
'So her sister's just that attractive, huh?' thought the blonde.
Well, the picture he saw last night of Yukinoshita Haruno did not lie. She was an attractive woman by the definition of looks, and that trait seems to have been passed on to the youngest daughter too. He was starting to get a clearer sight of the Yukinoshita family...
"You have a sister, Yukinon?" Naturally, Naruto listened in closer to the conversation.
"Ah, I have not mentioned anything it, have I?" for someone who was talking about a member of her family, she sure did not sound too cheerful. "Yes, I have an older sister. Her name is Yukinoshita Haruno and she used to go to school here."
That was one information Naruto learned from just listening. If Haruno used to go to school here, he could learn something about her just by looking at the school's record... something that would require stealing in the first place. Oh well, he just had to listen in for more details.
"Heeeh... so your sister's Alma mater is here, huh?"
"Oh? I'm surprised that you know such a word, Yuigahama-san."
"M-Mou... don't be so mean, Yukinon..." the bubblegum haired girl whined, before switching the topic. "Anyway, are we really going to stop helping Sai-chan?"
Yukinoshita gave a nod as an answer, albeit an uneasy one. "Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do, as pushing Totsuka-san would only worsen his condition." she said. "But he is still invited to mingle around in the club room, if that is what you're wondering, Yuigahama-san."
"I see, I'll tell him later then!"
'More chances of Saika being nearby... not something I want.' Though he was trying hard to not make it look obvious, he was avoiding Saika for the good reasons. 'That assassin is too much of a wildcard for my liking.'
Not to mention, there was that note from before too...
"Anyway, Naruto-kun, let us talk about your progress, shall we?" After finishing the last piece of her lunch, Yukino set aside the now empty lunch box.
"Eh? Progress?" asked Yui, looking like a clueless cat.
Narrowing his eyes, Naruto was figuring out what Yukino meant by progress, only in a much subtler way than Yui. Then, he remembered.
"I've been socializing with people just fine, thank you for asking." replied the boy with minimal effort, sounding 'cool' for Yui.
"Ah, I can certainly see that." Yukino nodded. "Not only did you manage to have someone like Yuigahama-san talk to you casually, you were also able to keep up conversations with her." She paused, her eyes entering a trance. "...I surely hope that there are no ill reasons as to why you're getting along so well with her."
'Why is she looking at Yui's chest?' But Naruto didn't feel like bringing his thoughts out verbally, voicing it in the most private corners of his mind.
"But Naruto's a pretty fun person to hang around with, you know."
At Yui's claim, the blonde's ears twitched.
"He's actually a very good listener, Yukinon! Last time, when I was babbling about the newest cosmetics I bought with mama at the mall, he remembered every single detail of the things I bought!" For someone who was recalling something that could be considered as trivial, Yui sounded happy. "Even I don't remember half the things I said sometimes!"
"Yuigahama-san, isn't that just your habit of being forgetful?"
"E-Eh? Really? B-But Naruto's still a fun person to talk with." She said. Then, she finally realized what she said. "N-Not like there's any deeper meaning to it, okay?!"
Giggling, Yukino found herself amused by her fellow club mate's theatrics. She gestured with a hand to the blushing girl sitting right beside her. "Well, what do you say to that, Naruto-kun?"
If he had to be honest, it felt relieving for him to know that he was able to come off as a normal person to Yui. Even though he knew that he was anything but one from the beginning. Yui was a nice girl. That much he knew. She was always the first one to approach people and talk to them, even towards people she never met before. There was that one might in class when they were supposed to make a team of four for a project. He was grouped with other three boys whom he could not recall and when he looked at Yui, she was already walking around the room, with people following her.
It felt... wrong for him to have such a person waste their energy on someone like him, honestly.
The two girls, Yui especially, were waiting for the blonde teen to answer. They saw him shrug his broad shoulders, turning his face away from them slightly.
"It's... flattering."
Yui did not know that she could fall for someone even more.
"Три... два... один..."
The door swung open in the speed of a speeding snail, its rusted hinges causing it to make a lengthy squeaking sound before eventually coming to a halt after coming in contact with the door stopper.
A pair of cloudy blue eyes gazed at the green tracksuit wearing mummy standing on the roof, who also had one of his arm slung over a medical purpose arm sling. Feeling the gaze imposed upon him by the blonde standing underneath the door frame, the Russian born teen returned the look with a piercing glare of his own.
"You're almost late." barked the tracksuit wearing boy.
"You're telling me you counted?"
"Hmph, the boredom was mortifying, сука." Saika did not miss the slight twitch on the blonde's eyebrow. "Now, come over here." Unsurprisingly, Naruto did not move an inch from his spot. "...as much as I don't like it... I won't try to kill you."
But Naruto was not going buy Saika's reason just yet. "Why?" asked the whiskered teen.
"After being... questioned last night, they confirmed to me that you are a former LeafCorp operative." Saika explained, his good hand was balling into a fist. "...and they also told me what my father's people did to your... men."
Naruto's eyes narrowed dangerously. 'Parabellum know details about what happened that day... just how much are they hiding from me?'
"Though I won't give up the idea of killing you... I will be willing to come up to a truce."
Without hesitation, Naruto spoke, "Let's hear it then. The conditions." He crossed his arms.
"I will not commit any acts of aggression within the school and do things that might compromise both of our real identity. I'm fully aware that if you go down, I go down." Saika paused, licking his lower lip to aid his speech. "The same goes outside the школа, school." He glared at Naruto, straight to his eyes. "I am willing to uphold these conditions should you be willing to do the same."
'There were so many loopholes in that condition.' Mused the blonde. But, he nodded, despite knowing better. "Alright, I accept your terms." Nodding, the blonde was about to turn and leave, before—
"Why?"
Saika's question stopped him dead on his tracks.
"Why? Why did you kill him?" The silver haired boy raised his head, revealing a pair of familiar looking cloudy blue eyes. "Everyone... none of them were alive... even the employees that had nothing to do with it... WHY DID YOU KILL ALL OF THEM?!"
Naruto did not react after being subjected to the raw, emotional outburst from the shorter boy. Naruto still had his back faced towards him, something that pissed Saika off even further. The air was already intense and eerie from the setting sun, their confrontation up here did not help with the atmosphere even a little bit.
"My father... he built Kestrel with his own two hands. All those sleepless nights... those days he'd spent neglecting his family for work... it was all put to waste because of you..."
Saika gritted his teeth, grounding them to a point where they were making sounds.
"...when the government declared my father a criminal... I couldn't accept it! The news spit on his name and everything he had done! They took away everything we owned! Our house, our property, our wealth, our dignity! E-Even mother... mother... s-she..." His legs gave up, bringing him down to his knees.
Choked sobbing came from behind Naruto, but still, he did not move an inch.
"T-Tell me... why...?"
Naruto heard the plea loud and clear. He closed his eyes.
"Fahrid, they have tanks from the North!"
"Don't let them through our left flank, Fahrid, keep the heat on them!"
"Fahrid... we... lost them. None of them survived."
"...boy, from now on, you are Naruto. The boy named Fahrid no longer exists. He died in Afghanistan from American carpet bombings."
Saika heard the sound of rustling, and eventually footsteps, approaching towards him. He looked up to see Naruto, standing, towering over him, with his usual listless facade.
"Tell me this first: do you know the name of the four men that your father's people killed?"
"H-Huh?"
The blonde's eyes, despite them not glaring, were piercing. "Of course you don't. So, what makes you think that I even cared about murdering your father?"
Saika was aghast.
"I didn't even know which one of them was your father... in the end, they ended up in the same body bag."
The boy's hands fell limp on his sides, eyes wide.
"But I'll tell you what I know." Naruto said. "I know that you hate me. I know that you want to kill me."
The blonde bent his body forward, arcing his back so that he could squat in front of the injured tennis player.
"But guess what? I want to kill you too."
Saika flinched. Hard.
"What I did to your father's men that night was not enough to sate the amount of ungodly hate and fury that I felt when they... butchered those four men right in front my very eyes. Even as I tear through their flesh and bones, I could not quench my thirst for their blood even a little bit. As I ripped and tore through their walls, the look of pure despair and fear on their faces fueled my rampage. The screams they made when they realized that they were the ones trapped in there and not me were something that I ecstatically enjoyed. I wished I could have left some of them alive so that I could personally hunt them myself and make them suffer the same fate as their friends."
His voice took on a more... 'demonic' tone. "Lo and behold, here you are, the son of one of the people responsible for the death of four good men. You were right in saying that if I go down, you'd go down with me. But make no mistakes..."
Saika was no longer seeing a human. He was seeing something much, much worse.
Not even a demon could come close to describe what he was seeing.
"...unlike me... you won't be able to get back up."
With that final message, the blonde turned on his heel, and left the scene.
He also left behind a crying and traumatized tennis player too.
"...Kawasaki-san, hey, do you mind if you help up with this?"
She disliked nosy people.
"...get lost."
But she disliked nosy girls the most.
Even if they were to smile and say nice things to her, she hated them. In fact, she hated those types of people the most, second to the stuck up ones. The fact that most boys around here were either shameless creeps or fake to the core was something she did not mind, after all, she had no interest in things like boys or romance or anything like that. Besides, the boys knew when to give up after they got tired from approaching her. It's the girls here that were the real pain.
As they troupe of girls left her to her own devices, while cursing her on their way out, she returned to fiddle around with her phone. Her aggressive gray eyes glared at the clock display on the phone.
'Damn... it's almost time for my job...' Sighing, she stood up from her seat and made her way out of her classroom.
Even on her way out, people were avoiding her subtly. She could not, for the love god, miss the whispers they made as she walked past them. But she could ignore them, let them whisper and say things about her. She let it all happened because she knew that it was the only thing they could do.
Besides, one look from her was enough to make them all scram at the same time.
Resuming her walk, she had her eyes glued to her phone's screen, her thumb skillfully punching on the buttons to input hiragana writings to the screen. She did this for some time, until it was time for her to take a left turn, towards the stairs. But—
"Oof!"
"...hn."
She looked up, her eyes glaring at the person who had just crashed into her. She realized that the person was familiar. "You again? Don't you have eyes or somet-"
She was not able to finish her statement. Why? When his eyes met her, she lost her entire ability to speak. Her words literally died in her mouth, disabling her ability to resume what she was about to say. Her words were killed by the stare she was receiving from the taller person and she thought that she was going to die herself.
Blue eyes were often associated with warmness and tranquility. They were supposed to be kind and peaceful... not... murderous. However, and unfortunately, the pair that belonged to the person she just crashed into were neither kind or peaceful, but it certainly promised death.
"S-S-S-S-Sorry... I-I..."
Again, the person did not let her finish talking. He simply resumed his walk, leaving for the stairs, descending, presumably to leave the school.
With her body in the semi-paralyzed state it was in, it took her a second before she could move, but the very first move she made was that of a fall. She fell to the floor on her hide, shoulders shivering and hands rattling.
"W-W-What the hell was that...?" She gasped out, panting. 'I-I thought I was going to die...!' She wiped her eyes, wiping the tears before they could form. 'Who the hell was that?!'
"N-No... wait, that was..."
The only good thing for Kawasaki Saki that evening was the fact that no one was there when she fell.
Yoho, finally got to update another chapter of this.
I guess I'm going to take a break with writing Immortal and focus on this. My muse struck me again and it compelled me to write more for this story. So, rejoice followers of this story!