Disclaimer: First Chapter
Story Start!

The drive to Kamioka was awkward.

They were using a Taxi Service for starters, and Naruto was stuck between Shirane and Shinobu, with both of the girls pressed up against him due to how tight of a fit it was. The fact that they were making a stop in Tokyo before they went to Kamioka to take care of an Amasogi that had killed the 19 year old exorcist in the area and devoured him to get a boost in strength.

"So... Shirane... you and Naruto were assigned to fight together for this Amasogi hunt..." Shinobu was trying to break the ice between all of them. Naruto was annoyed that he had been forbidden from using Shinobu for this particular hunt, seeing as Kukuri wanted to confirm that Naruto used Shirane at least once during battle. It was a direct order from his patron god, so Naruto wasn't allowed to actually refuse it this time.

While a patron god would never force an exorcist to use abandon a cherished partner, they could make an exorcist team up with others against their will. Kukuri was just normally too nice of a god to actually force a person to do something they didn't like, as long as you didn't get on her bad side.

Shirane looked at Naruto instead of Shinobu.

"Yes, My Lady has ordered him directly to make use of me... and now that we are partners, I am going to report to her how much of a drop your power experienced from the bond." Shirane had her orders. She had watched Naruto train for years now, so she would be able to see how much his ability decreased in response to giving his energy to 2 tsugumomos at the same time. There was no need to be gentle with her wording, since Naruto already knew the bonding process would involve him lowering his spiritual powers.

"I see... and what kind of amasogi is it?"

-At Location-

It was a tall, hulking brute of a humanoid shaped stack of paper and pencils. It also had some plastic materials, scissors, and other things you would find in a pencil case.

"It's... I'm guessing a pencil case. The person who made it was swallowed up inside of it, I can see hair... and I hear her breath." Naruto could tell the owner of the amasogi was still alive and well. Not all amasogi killed their owners, infact, most of them just wanted to accomplish a goal for the sake of their owners.

They were like baby tsugumogami that could never mature, and were a net negative for everyone around them.

"Shinobu, lets take..." Naruto paused and raised his hand up to catch Shinobu when she transformed and landed in his hand, but instead he ended up catching Shirane when she transformed instead. Shinobu stood behind him on standby in the case that she was needed, but she was going to stay out of the fight. "... right..."

The Amasogi raised it's arms up, and mechanical pencils started to shoot out of it's arms like bullets from a gun. It launched upwards of 30 of them at once.

Naruto, if he would have been using Shinobu, would have created a tight layer of threads around his arm and used himself to knock the projectiles away. Now he was wielding a short sword that was no longer than Shirane's forearm. Now he had to change up how he fought, and instead of using a needle and threads, he needed to destroy each of the pencils with the sword in his hands.

"That was sloppy."

"I've never used a sword before..." Naruto used Shirane's power and projected a second copy of her blade form, and he grabbed it with his free hand. He flung it towards the monster like it was an oversized needle. "Only needles the size of a sword... the weight is totally different." Naruto rushed towards the monster and ducked underneath a swipe of it's arm.

Shirane's 'spirit form' appeared behind him like a floating ghost that only he could see.

It was naked.

"Never used a sword or not, that isn't an excuse. Why did you throw the projected sword?" Shirane asked.

The sword stuck in the ceiling as Naruto took a hit to the to the center of the chest. He got sent flying and crashed into a wall. Shinobu judged the damage, and did nothing when she found it was within what Naruto could handle.

'A 15% drop in speed... even less of a drop in strength though. Seems he used spiritual energy to boost his speed.' Shirane watched Naruto adjust to his lowered speed. The creature formed claws made out of protractors and swiped at Naruto again, only this time he blocked with the side of Shirane's blade, placing his hand on the other side to further stop the strength behind the swipe.

Naruto sliced upwards and cut the arm off, and followed up with a swallow cut to the creature's abdomen. He revealed part of the girl's face as tons of school supplies went flying off the monster. That was when he grabbed her and pulled her out of the monster, tossing her towards Shinobu to catch. She didn't need the warning to catch the girl at all.

Three quick slashes and the other 3 limbs were cut right off of the monster, and Naruto created a second sword and started to slash and hack at the amasogi with wild attacks. The supplies he sent flying started to lift off of the ground, before they returned to the amasogi who spawned them. The creature reformed itself, and Naruto backed off to look at the situation.

"It's core has to be something deep in it's body... Shinobu... Shirane..." Naruto changed who he was talking to when he realized he was wielding a sword and not a sewing needle. He frowned, because the order he was about to give would have been an order that only Shinobu's skills would allow for. "... do you have a skill or ability we can use to peel off a large layer of it's armor at once and tie it up?" Naruto asked Shirane.

"I am a sword, I don't have a way to tie up an enemy. We just need to attack faster than it can gather it's tools back." Shirane watched Naruto just sigh when she said that. "I'm a divine sword, don't sigh like that."

Naruto started to run around the room and jump across desks. He kicked up a desk and used it as a shield to block an assault of launched rulers and pecils, that stuck with enough force to pierce through the desk slightly.

Naruto placed Shirane's handle between his teeth.

He clapped his hands, and 2 clones appeared next to him. Both of them jumped out from behind the desk, and the monster started to attack the clones instead. The clones only lasted a few moments, but that bought Naruto the time he needed to use the shield as a battering ram to push the monster up against the wall.

They got pushed back by an explosion of tools in all directions.

Shinobu used her body to shield the girl, but by the time most of the tools hit her they had lost most of the force behind them. The girl didn't get hit by anything though, and the most Shinobu got damaged was a small cut on her arm. Naruto and Shirane got blasted back, by being at point blank of the explosion.

"The core, attack the-"

"I know, Shinobu, toss me the girl, quick!" Naruto called out to his partner, who flung the girl with all of her strength across the room. Naruto caught the girl and rushed towards the pencil case amasogi's real form. The monster didn't regenerate in time before Naruto caught up it, and he placed Shirane in the girl's unconscious hand. He forced her hand to stab the amasogi right through the center, before slicing it in half.

The girl would face a curse backlash if he killed the monster.

So he would force the girl to kill the amasogi by forcing her hand to wield Shirane instead, and all the floating tools in the room fell to the ground limp. The spirit energy controlling them having died off, making them just normal objects once more.

Shirane transformed back into a human form.

She looked at the girl for a brief moment.

"... Other than a drop of speed, your abilities remain mostly unchanged from having two partners now. Your inexperience with a sword, and your reliance on her abilities will need to be overcome." Shirane stated.

Naruto had tried to use her like she was Shinobu several times by instinct during the fight, showing that he had gotten so used to Shinobu that using her really was second-nature to him by this point. It would be hard for him to just adjust to using a different tool, and a real weapon at that.

"That was amazing as always." Shinobu on the other hand complimented Naruto.

Having your physical abilities weakened, and using a different weapon but still defeating an amasogi was a feat to be proud of. She watched as Shirane stepped over the unconscious girl, and stood in front of Naruto. There was a tense silence between them.

...

"Overall, your fighting ability has gone down enough to be noticable. Still, once you master use of me, your abilities will surpass anything you were capable of before. Now, we can leave the girl here since it is safe. The taxi outside is still waiting for us."

-During the Taxi Ride-

It was even more awkward.

'... When I was using Shirane, even I could tell that just a little training with her, and I would surpass myself when I use Shinobu... that pisses me off.' Naruto hated having proof. While he was weaker than normal, he could tell that his starting point with Shirane had been MUCH better than his starting point with Shinobu. If he actually put in the effort and bonded with Shirane, or trained to master her true body, then he really would achieve excellence beyond what he did with Shinobu.

That was the problem.

He didn't want to hurt Shinobu.

'She's my partner, my tool... and I want her to feel comfortable by my side. I don't want her to feel like it would be better for me if she wasn't there. She's my partner, and I want to be her partner...' Naruto glanced towards Shinobu. She glanced at him, before she nodded her head once they made eye contact.

"So..."

"How did it feel using a superior weapon?" Shirane asked Naruto.

"I wouldn't say you were superior... Shinobu is my partner, I could have handled an amasogi of that level in a few seconds if I had used her." Naruto knew the truth, but he wasn't going to give Shirane even a small amount of satisfaction.

"True."

"Hm?"

"True, you could have ended that fight much quicker with her as your partner. The fact though is that you have no experience with using me, or a sword in general. All in all, you didn't do poorly... but you have much potential." Shirane didn't have much reason to hesitate in agreeing with him. As inexperienced as he was, and as sloppy as his technique with swordplay was, he did have a potential she could feel with her body. 'Lady Kukuri said he would be stubborn... but why be stubborn about this. He will have more potential with me than her... what makes her special to him?' Shirane just sighed.

She didn't understand humans in general, but Naruto was just cutting his potential off at the kneecaps by refusing to simple change weapons. Tsugumomo were tools to be used, and he needed to see that using a weak tool just wasn't the right option when he had so much potential.

Shinobu smiled.

"You did well as always." Shinobu leaned against Naruto.

He was trying to hard to make her feel like he wouldn't abandon her, and she appreciated that.

It touched her.

Chapter End!
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