A/N: Revised as of 3/26/2024

Naruto sat inside of Wiz's shop with his chin rested on one hand while the other impatiently tapped on the table.

It's been a little more than a day since the trial's surprising end.

Darkness had revealed that she was of the noble Dustiness family to everyone, and because of her family's influence, she managed to keep Naruto and Kazuma from being sentenced for execution.

But what was bothering Naruto right now was the fact that Darkness now owed Alderp a favor.

Naruto didn't like that Alderp guy, what with the transparent bit of foul play that the noble was causing in the trial. Additionally, the man was also staring at Darkness with a lecherous gaze ever since the trial had ended, which only made the shinobi more nervous.

It didn't help that he had visited Kazuma's mansion in the morning, only to find that Darkness had already returned to her family's home.

"I'm glad that the trial turned out well. I was scared that they were going to do something bad to you, Naruto-san."

Wiz chimed with a rather stiff smile as she pulled Naruto out of his thoughts. Her eyes were glued on the blonde, or more specifically the two girls that were currently attached to his torso.

"B-by the way… Do your Succubus friends have to be so close to you? They're not trying to drain your life force, are they? Because your lifeforce is rather addicting…"

She asked with a hint of jealousy in her features. The boy's lifeforce was pure and potent, which made it very addictive. The only reason that Wiz was able to control her urge to drain his energy was because of the equally addicting ramen that Naruto made.

"Ah, no… The truth is, I have a contract with these two. Close contact with the contracted is apparently necessary, and if they're not close to me for an extended period of time, something bad will happen to them because it would be a violation of the contract or something."

Naruto responded awkwardly while looking at both Maria and Morrigan, who were nuzzling themselves into his chest. Something that was kind of embarrassing, since he was wearing casual clothing right now. So he could feel their warmth through his thin white shirt.

He felt it would be okay to share this information with Wiz since she was technically an undead and would likely understand his situation.

Good thing the shop was currently closed, as it would be quite awkward if someone were to walk in on this. It was strange, however, that Yunyun wasn't here. After he had introduced the two, the mage would usually come here in the morning to chat with Wiz, but that didn't seem to be the case today.

"Yes, we must have frequent moments of skinship with our master or we will wither away."

"Indeed, for it is part of our contract."

Maria and Morrigan purred as they continued to snuggle into the flustered teen.

"Eh? But wouldn't simply touching Naruto-san's hand be enough for such a thing?"

Wiz asked while tilting her head innocently.

Upon hearing this, Naruto blinked and looked to the Succubi for confirmation, only to see them averting their gazes.

—Maria and Morrigan now sat in front of Naruto seiza-style.

"Care to explain yourselves?"

Naruto asked with a twitchy smile as he stood over the two girls with his arms crossed.

"W-we only wanted to make it up to Naruto-sama since we weren't of any use during the questioning or the trial!"

"T-that's right! There was a powerful barrier around the police station for some reason, so we couldn't get close!"

As the Succubi pleaded their cases, Naruto pinched the bridge of his nose.

So that's what Aqua must have been doing all night while she'd been waiting for him…

"Alright alright… It's not like I'm mad or anything, but please try to keep the teasing to a minimal."

Naruto said with a heavy sigh. Truth be told, he was almost glad that Aqua and Cecily were around. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to resist the temptations forever. Even he had his limits.

As if a switch had been flipped, Morrigan stood up and made her way around behind her master, all the while gliding her fingers over his shoulders.

"Minimum, you say? Does this mean that Naruto-sama enjoys our skinship?"

Morrigan cooed into Naruto's ear with a breath of hot air, sending shivers down the boy's spine.

"Y-you call this a minimum!?"

Naruto stuttered while taking a quick step back from the now giggling woman.

"Fufufu… I do apologize. But as your contracted servants, we must serve."

Morrigan chuckled at the boy's reaction before taking on a more serious expression.

"T-that's right, Naruto-sama! Just say the word, and we'll do anything! E-even… That sort of thing…"

Maria added while bashfully looking away.

Naruto gulped. Having servants that were so eager to please him, in more ways than one, was a little overwhelming.

But this did give him an idea.

"Actually, there is something I'd like you two to do for me."

After sending the Succubi off on their mission, Naruto bid Wiz farewell and began to head back to his inn to retrieve his adventuring gear.

'Giving the Succubi the task of looking into this Alderp person was a good move. Now we can focus on eliminating the real threat.'

'For the last time, I'm not killing Aqua. But since they're taking care of that, I can focus on earning some money.'

Naruto responded to his partner's obsession to kill a certain goddess as he walked into the inn and up the stairs.

But it was when he got to his door that he realized that something was wrong.

'The door… It's unlocked.'

'Get ready… I can sense something with malicious intent inside.'

Kurama warned, and his tone was serious for a change, something that put Naruto on edge as he cracked the door open and slowly peeked inside.

There was nothing in the entrance or the kitchen… But he could hear a strange noise coming from his bed. He couldn't see anything from this angle so he would have to go inside.

With clenched fists, Naruto kicked the door open and jumped onto his bed.

"Don't move!"

"WAH! W-wait! I'm not mentally prepared yet!"

. . .

"Aqua? What are you doing here?"

Naruto questioned when he saw Aqua squeezing her eyes shut, then realized he had just pounced on top of her… On his bed…

"S-sorry!"

The shinobi stuttered as he scrambled off of the girl, who immediately crawled under the covers upon being freed.

"But seriously… How did you even get in here?"

"…Cecily gave me a key, remember? I told you that the other night before you made me wait."

Aqua stuck her head out of the blanket and mumbled with teary eyes.

'Don't remind me of that while saying it with such a pitiful face… I might actually feel sorry for you…'

Naruto thought with a bead of sweat rolling down his cheek before patting the girl on the head.

"I'm sorry I pranked you, Aqua."

"You better be… I waited all night for you to come out and take me home, and now you suddenly show up and scare me like that…"

Aqua sniffled, but she seemed to be enjoying the ministrations.

Naruto wondered if Kazuma had ever patted the girl on the head or praised her… Nah, probably not.

"Well, I just came back to grab my stuff, but I guess you're welcome to hang out here if you want."

Naruto said as he began gathering his adventuring gear.

"Eh? You're leaving already? But you just got here… What if I get bored?"

Aqua came out from the covers and moved to lay on her belly.

Then go home.

Is what Naruto wanted to say, but held his tongue.

Dealing with Aqua was not on his to-do list right now, so he'd just let the girl stay in his room if she wanted. It's not like he had anything valuable in here, anyway, and he doubted that she'd be able to get into the sealing scrolls that he made.

Settling with a sigh, Naruto took off his shirt and turned away from Aqua, who was now blushing for some reason.

"I need to make money to pay off Cecily's debt. She's one of your 'precious children', isn't she? But anyway, turn around, unless you want to change classes to pervert and watch this 'stalker ninja' change his clothes."

"R-right! If my precious children are happy, then I'm happy. You'll be doing well to keep your promise."

Aqua stuttered as she quickly turned the other way, but not without stealing small suspicious glances at the blonde as he put on his mesh shirt.

"…Hey, is it true that you're not a girl?"

"Hah!? What are you asking all of a sudden? Of course I'm not a girl!"

Naruto shouted as he took his shorts off. He knew that people were going to bring up that nonsense from the trial, but he didn't think that Aqua would have actually believed it.

"B-but what about what that police lady said at the trial? About devils not having genders and transformation techniques! How am I supposed to know that you're not lying to me about being a man!?"

Aqua raised her voice and stood up to face the blonde, who instinctively covered his boxers with the pair of black pants in his hands.

Wait, why was he acting like a maiden? This reaction would only make things worse.

"Listen, Aqua… I am without a doubt a man. That police lady wasn't thinking clearly during the trial. You sensed it too, didn't you? The devil messing with the trial?"

Naruto claimed as he proceeded to put on his pants. The sooner he got dressed, the sooner he'd be able to leave this delusional girl behind.

"But how am I supposed to know that wasn't a devilish plot to confuse me!? You devils might have used that trial to make me think you're a girl and toy with my maiden heart!"

Aqua claimed while pointing a shaky finger at the now befuddled shinobi.

"What maiden heart!? Or rather, how did you even jump to that-H-hey! What are you doing!?"

Naruto shouted when Aqua suddenly lunged onto him and started pulling his pants down with a crazed expression on her blushing face.

"Prove it! Prove to me that you're a man!"

"A-Aqua, stop! This is a line that we really shouldn't cross! H-help! This girl's trying to do indecent things to me!"

It took a couple minutes, but Naruto finally managed to get Aqua to stop by threatening to tell Kazuma that she tried to undress him. Just mentioning the boy's name got her to become a lot more obedient.

But, with his adventurer's gear now in hand, the shinobi was now meandering his way down the streets of Axel towards the adventurer's guild.

Only his mind was now sluggish, and his eyes reflected the tragic event that had just recently transpired.

'I almost lost something precious just now…'

'See? I told you I sensed malicious intent in the room. We should have purged that evil long ago.'

Kurama chortled, and Naruto could almost hear the fox nodding his head all smug-like. But in reality, the fox was probably laughing at his troubled state.

Deciding to ignore the Tailed Beast who showed no sympathy, Naruto trekked on in silence. He was getting mixed looks around town, most likely due to the trial, but he didn't care about that right now.

'Just gotta earn more money so I can pay off that debt… Hm? Is that Dust?'

Naruto thought when he noticed his first party member. The delinquent seemed to be heading into an alley.

Well, this was an interesting development. Naruto wanted to go to the guild and accept a quest, but he was curious to find out just what the guy did in his spare time. Probably nothing good.

Stealthily following the boy into the alleyway, Naruto waited until Dust passed the first corner before he moved in further. He then saw Dust slow his pace until he crept alongside the wall of the buildings, peering around the corner as if he were watching something. Or someone.

Naruto smirked to himself. Just what kind of trouble could Dust be up to? If it was something shady, he'd put a stop to it and straighten his party member out with an iron fist. But for now, the shinobi decided to scale the wall to the rooftops so he could get a better look without being seen.

When he looked over the ledge from his new position, Naruto saw two men huddled up at the dead end of the alleyway.

"We'll meet up at the designated spot and wait for the signal. Then we're gonna get Lynn!"

"Such a cute face… I can't wait! But remember, only look, but don't touch or the boss will get mad at us!"

Lynn… That was one of Dust's old party member, wasn't it? Were they planning on kidnapping her?

While Naruto was in his thoughts, he almost failed to notice Dust walk into the open and make himself known.

"Hey, you two! You were talking about Lynn, weren't you? What's all this about, hah!?"

Dust shouted as he walked in a thug-like manner.

The two men seemed surprised by Dust's sudden appearance, but once they saw that he was alone, they stood up threateningly.

But Dust didn't seem discouraged by their attitude in the slightest. He was infamous in town for getting into a lot of fights, so maybe he was used to people looking at him like that.

"Oh, so you're not gonna say anything huh? Well then, I'll have you know I have Naruto Uzumaki with me just around the corner! That's right, the number one player of Axel who soloed the Destroyer to impress his lady friends!"

Dust claimed while gesturing towards the corner that he came from.

Naruto wanted to hop down and smack the boy upside the head for using his name for his schemes. But wait, was it Dust who was spreading those rumors about him?

The shinobi decided that he would have a serious talk with the delinquent adventurer when this was all over.

The two men looked at each other after Dust's boasting before they started laughing.

"Hah! There's no way that guy's here!"

"Yeah, he's probably picking up girls at the adventurer's guild right now."

Hey now.

It took all Naruto had not to hop down and smack all three of them, but he managed to hold himself back as it looked like the two thugs were going to fight.

"Heh… So you don't believe me, huh? Well, in the good name of my Boss, I'll take you both on!"

It was two on one, but one of them had a spear.

'If I could somehow get his hands on the spear… Ah, but I swore to never use a spear again-'

Dust thought, but he didn't have the luxury of time to come up with a plan as the first man charged him.

It was an all-out thrust, so an experienced adventurer like Dust managed to sidestep the attack with minor difficulty. But-

Swish!

Dust had to dive out of the way to avoid being impaled by the spear user who tried to catch him off guard.

'Dealing with both of them at the same time is going to be difficult with that spearman, so I better take care of that guy first.'

With that thought, Dust jumped to his feet and charged the man with the knife.

Having not expected the seemingly reckless charge, the knife user brought his short blade down in a vertical slash.

Dust moved around the attack in a zigzag and grappled onto the man.

'And now-'

Turning them both around, Dust faced the spearman who was about to pierce him in the back and used the man with the knife as a human shield.

"!"

In a clumsy fit to stop himself from killing his ally ,the spear user fumbled in his footsteps, to which Dust took full advantage of by shoving the knife user into a pile of trash and punched the spear user in the face.

The thug stumbled back as he held his now bleeding nose.

"Y-you shit! You're gonna pay for that!"

The spear-wielding thug roared and charged at Dust in a blind rage.

'He's gonna go for a thrust…'

Dust thought with a knowing smirk, and as he expected, the thug started thrusting the spear forward wildly. He was able to easily outmaneuver the angerfilled thrusts, which only filled his opponent with even more rage.

By this time, the knife wielder had recovered and rushed towards Dust from behind to help his ally.

Hearing the man's heavy footsteps, Dust grabbed the recently thrusted spear and pulled. This caused the spear user to stumble forward in surprise.

Thud!

The two thugs slammed into each other before falling on their backs with dazed expressions on their faces.

Before they could get up, Dust thwacked each of them on the head with the wooden end of the spear.

With the two men down for the count, Dust let out a sigh.

"Phew… It's been a while, but it looks like I still know my way around the spear."

"Is that so? Call me impressed. You did pretty well taking those guy's down all by yourself while unamred."

"Aw, well thanks-Eh!? B-B-Boss!? W-what are you doing here!?"

Dust stammered and threw the spear to the ground as Naruto hopped down to the ground from the rooftops.

"I was just passing by. But anyways, what are you going to do with these two?"

Naruto casually asked while gesturing to the two unconscious thugs.

Dust sent the shinobi an anxious look. Did he see? He definitely saw… But If he wasn't going to question it, then that would be the best outcome.

"I was just following my old party's temporary member when I saw him talking with these shady fellows, so I tailed them here. Oh yeah, I better tie them up."

The delinquent adventurer explained before he grabbed a bundle of rope that was laying on the floor where the thugs had previously been standing.

Naruto hummed as watched his party member tie the two men together. Looks like things were about to get rather interesting.

A/N: It seems Dust is hiding something~

Oh yeah, someone who goes by the name of Zackery Silverstone made a parody of this fic called "A Shinobi's Take on this Wonderful World Parody". If you like random alternate scenarios, then I'd suggest checking it out because it's quite funny~

See ya next time!