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Chapter 17: Talk in the park

Naruto is now standing at the entrance of the park. When he looked at the park, he couldn't help but remember the time when he and xenovia came to this park after she showed him around. A smile formed into his face when he remembered the evening. The way the evening of the sunlight bathed the whole park in orange was beautiful. Nothing like when he watched the sunset from the hokage monument, but it was still beautiful.

Shaking his head, he entered and started to look for her around the park. When he looked left and right, he noticed the familiar blue hair under a tree. He slowly approached and saw her hugging her legs while hiding her head behind them.

Naruto thought that she might be sad because she couldn't lift the damn stupid sword. So he decided to talk to her and reassure her that everything is going to be fine, even though that might be a false hope.

Xenovia who was blushing a storm at thinking about what she did, suddenly felt a presence coming towards her. She slowly raised her head and saw her secret crush, which she didn't realize this fact herself, slowly approached her with a concerned look on his face.

When she saw him, her heart started to pump at a very rapid speed. The closer he gets, the more redder her face gets.

Once naruto got closer, he kneeled down and noticed her nuclear red face which she is desperately trying to hide behind her two legs.

Naruto put a hand into her shoulder which caused her to look at him very shyly.

Dark yellow eyes met sapphire blue.

Naruto looked at her in concern. "Xenovia-chan, are you feeling alright? Why is your face so red? Do you have a fever? He said before putting his right hand into her forehead while putting his left into his.

Being oblivious to her feelings, he kept his hand on her forehead which caused her to go into an even greater shade of red.

Before naruto knew it, she suddenly screamed which almost gave him a heart attack. The moment she screamed, was the moment he moved his hand away from her forehead and clutched his rapidly beating heart with his eyes as wide as dinner plates.

Seeing his surprised expression, she blushed in embarrassment before she lightly coughed into her fist. "N-no naruto-kun, i-i don't have a fever. My face just got very hot after staying under the sun for too long. Yeah, that's it, my face just got too hot after staying under the sun." She said while laughing and nervously looking anywhere but naruto.

Naruto, being absolutely oblivious, decided to believe her words and just smiled at her. "If you say so, xenovia-chan." He said before also taking a seat right beside her, which caused her to blush once more but she quickly managed to suppress it.

Naruto looked at her and gave her a soft smile. "Xenovia-chan, if you can't lift the sword, it's alright. You don't have to be so sad about that."

Xenovia was confused for a moment before she realized what he meant. Her suppressed blush immediately vanished and she got very sad.

When he noticed her saddened expression, he put a hand into her shoulder. He was about to speak but was cut off by xenovia. "No, it's not fine." She said while shaking her head.

She then looked at naruto's eyes and started to tear up. "Your life is on the line and the only way i can save you is to lift the excalibur. If i can't lift it, then..." She then looked away and started to sob, while tears fell from her eyes.

Naruto looked at her for a few moments before bursting out into a full blown laughter. Xenovia looked at him in shock. Whatever she was expecting, this wasn't it.

For a few minutes, naruto kept laughing while holding his gut in pain, and xenovia just stared at him with widened eyes and an opened mouth.

When naruto finally stopped laughing, he looked at her with his one eye while wiping a drop of tear with his index finger from his other eye. "Seriously xenovia-chan, you think that i will let that psychopath do whatever he wants with me?

He then leaned forward and wiped the tears from her cheek which earned him a blush.

He then closed an eye and pointed a thumb at himself. "I'm made of really tough stuff. That stupid psychopath will have to go through a lot of hell before he gets to me. So don't worry about me, okay?" He said with a confident grin.

Xenovia, despite his reassurance, couldn't help but feel worried for her one and only friend. With reluctance, she nodded her head and decided to trust him. "Alright naruto-kun, i will trust you." She then stood up and gave him a determined look. "But I still have one more day before the end of the bet. So until then, i will train and try to lift the excalibur destruction."

Naruto sighed and gave her a nod. "Alright xenovia-chan. I wish i could help you more, but besides physical training, i can't help you with that holy energy of yours. That's something you have to figure out yourself."

Xenovia gave him a grateful smile. "It's okay naruto-kun, i know holy energy is not something you understand and it's totally fine. And besides, i'm really grateful for the training you gave me. But now, this is something i have to do myself. And i will do it, and i won't let you get hurt by that bastard." She said the last part with an edge on her tone.

Naruto couldn't help but feel flattered to hear that she won't let him get hurt, and she truly cared for him.

So, with a happy smile, he also got up and wrapped his hands around her back to give her a hug, which caused her face to get nuclear red.

After holding her for a while, he finally let her go and gave her his true smile. "Thank you xenovia-chan. I'm a really lucky guy to have a friend like you." He said with a sincere tone.

When naruto said that, xenovia couldn't help but feel happy to hear that he feels very lucky to have her as a friend. But she also felt a bit disappointed for some reason. She didn't know why but a small part of her wanted him to think of her as more than a friend. But what more did she wanted him to think of her as, she still dosen't know.

Despite her inner turmoil, she still gave him a cute smile which made even our dense idiot blush. Mustering up her courage, she held his hands and looked at him cutely.

Now our poor knucklehead is blushing even harder. He dosen't know why but when he looked at her, his heart started to pump at a very fast speed. For him, it felt like someone was trying to hammer his heart out of his chest.

For xenovia, it's the same but more intense. But she didn't back down and kept staring at his sapphire blue eyes. "Thank you naruto-kun, i am really happy to hear that you feel that way." She said before leaving his hands and quickly got out of the park to go to the excalibur.

Naruto once more froze on the spot. He didn't move for a few seconds before he slowly looked down with a red blush on his cheeks. "Why? Why does my heart always feel like this?" He then narrowed his eyes. "Whenever i look at her, or think about her, i always feel something that i can't really explain with words? Just..What is this that i'm feeling?" He questioned himself.

Before he could think further, he was interrupted by shinten. "Naruto, i have sensed some people outside the barrier."

Yes, the whole church is surrounded by a magical barrier which prevents other children from escaping the church.

"Hm, are they from this church who's entering after finishing a mission or something?"

Shinten shook his head from the subconscious. "No, their energy signatures are different. The energies i'm sensing are similar to the ones they call exorcist. But among them, one of their energy is not matching with the others." Naruto narrowed his eyes. "How so?" He asked.

"Well, the other energy is..um..well to simply say, it's like a light."

Naruto looked at the space in confusion. "Light? like, actual light?" He asked.

Shinten put a hand into his chin and thought. "To be honest, i'm not sure myself. And not only that but if i'm sensing it correctly, it feels like very innocent and pure."

Naruto blinked. "Innocent and pure, huh?" He then closed his eyes and shrugged. "Well, i guess this is something that this world's people possess. Which also shows how different they are from our world."

Shinten gave a shrug of his own. "True. But still, no matter how innocent or pure it is, it might pose a threat. So stay on your guard in case they attack." He said with narrowed eyes.

Naruto gave him a nod. "I will. Besides, even though i don't wanna brag but i'm not someone who they can mess with. If they fight, then i will happily kick their asses all the way to sunday, dattebayo!"

He said before looking at the direction where the unknown people were standing outside the barrier. He then clinched his fist and grew a determined expression. "No matter what, this time, i will protect my precious people." He then looked down and started to think about xenovia. Her laughter, her joy, and her smile, her beautiful smile which warms his heart whenever he thinks about her. That smile, he wants to protect that smile, he wants to protect her no matter what.

He thought determinedly before looking at the sun and pointed his fist. He smiled and vowed to himself to get strong so he could protect his precious people.

After promising himself, naruto decided to go to a small forest near the church where almost no one goes there.

Before he exited the park, he sensed a person looking at him through the distance. It was none other than alessio who kept an eye on naruto this entire time. Naruto internally groaned in annoyance before a lightbulb appeared above his head. A foxy grin formed on his face before he quickly got inside the park and hid behind the grassy fence.

Alessio got confused and tried to look closer through the binoculars but he couldn't see anything. So he leaned forward to get a closer look before he put one of his hands on the concrete rooftops. But when he put his hand on it, he couldn't feel anything under his palm. So he moved his hand up and down to see if he was putting his hand in the right place. When he still couldn't feel anything, he decided to lean more before gravity kicked in and started to pull him downwards. At first, he didn't realize what was happening before he decided to look down and saw nothing but 30 feet height. He sweated for a moment before he slowly looked back and saw his feet barely touching the concrete rooftops.

Before he knew it, he started to go downwards and started to frantically wave his hands and legs before he dropped his binoculars and quickly latched onto the edge of the rooftops for the sake of his life.

Naruto snorted and chuckled lightly at seeing alessio's poor way of spying. He shook his head in amusement before he formed a familiar cross sign. "Shadow clone jutsu." He muttered the name before an exact copy of his appeared beside him with a puff of smoke.

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