Wish I could've posted this earlier as I intended, but I wasn't satisfied with the first draft and had to rework most of it from the ground up. It's kind of an issue I've been having regarding writing fan fiction after getting over my lengthy writer's block that prevented me from writing one for years.
Also, there are two important things regarding my stories you should know regarding my take on canon Naruto as a whole before reading them. You can find it in my profile bio, you may read them before getting into this or after if you want to. It's going to be relevant to my characterization of good ol' Boruto's Dad.
Also, if someone wants to write a Spanish translation or something, they're free to do so. I would do it, but I've already got enough going on with this.
Update 14/07: Wasn't satisfied with the characterization upon re-reading, so made some adjustments.
Chapter 2
First Day
Light from the lamp set on top of the table flickered idly. Its orange light framed Louise's delicate and serene facial features. Reddish-brown eyes regarded the commoner familiar clad in bright orange lying across the room from her earnestly.
She rested an elbow on her desk, as the boy stroked his chin, musing in an almost meditative guise for a while, even though it gave her the impression that he was having a rather hard time doing so.
Following an explanation that had dragged on far too long, during which she found herself in the particularly frustrating task of enduring him: Naruto would hardly pay any attention.
If she went too long, he'd start snoring or distract himself with anything else. Some of her classmates would do the same—more of ten than not it was the guys, so she just assumed this was one of those things that come with being one—but this commoner was at the higher level of laziness.
But after struggling a bit too much, it seemed that finally, he'd gotten something out of her little account.
She had left out bits of information that weren't necessary (or would otherwise prompt Naruto to snore his bloody head off like a dunce) and found herself having to demonstrate things hands-on—Naruto seemed to learn better like that than with lengthy explanations, oddly enough. Yet another chore that also brought about its own set of challenges: don't let it be Naruto finds out about her little spell-casting problem. It'd cause more hassles down the line.
Surely the commoner didn't have to know that she was close to his level.
"Okay, so let me get this straight…" Naruto began, both his hands propped on his crossed legs' knees. "You," he pointed at the girl—the daughter of a duke—with an almost accusatory finger, without even the slightest ounce of value towards her status, "summoned me here with some kinda weird Summoning Jutsu, and I'm supposed to be your teammate of sorts. Ain't that right?"
The girl looked down at him, a scowl working its way on her brow, "I won't tolerate a commoner referring to his master with that kind of informality." Louise bowed her head, puffing up her chest with haughtiness, "You shall respond to me with Louise—Louise Françoise de La Vallière!"
The commoner looked vacantly at her. She could almost feel the cogs he must've had instead of a brain working their damnedest to process that. There was a lull before he finally spoke, frowning as he did so.
"You're seriously not expecting me to remember all that, are you?"
Louise sighed, "I have no more energy to argue with you, here, fetch this."
Suddenly, Naruto's sight was blackened by something wrapping around his head.
"Hey, what's the big id—" As he removed it, getting a more appropriate look, he realized, much to his absolute horror, it was a rather sizeable piece of white clothing: Louise's dress shirt. Then came a pleated skirt—it dropped over his head as well, blocking half of his sight.
Briefly, he contemplated whether to remove it or not. Both options would likely lead to a world of pain.
His mind went back to Captain Yamato's account: how Pervy Sage had a brutal brush with death after trying, and failing dismally, at peeking at women on a hot spring resort back at home, which ended with most of his bones smashed to bits by Granny Tsunade when they were younger.
Naruto whipped his head away from Louise, panicking and with his face practically burning red. "WAIT, W-WHAT A-ARE YOU DOING?!"
"Isn't it obvious? I'm changing to go to sleep. It's already pretty late," Louise grumbled. "I wasted a lot of time explaining stuff to you. Jeez! You're more useless than a dog!"
Needless to say, Naruto wasn't listening at all. He was too distracted by the fact that Louise was practically naked beside her black thigh-highs and an extremely short, semitransparent pink camisole with lacy straps. To make matters worse, the girl wasn't wearing a bra at all!
But his final cue to get his ass outta there, pronto, was when she, bending over in front of him—his brain for whatever fucking reason displaying the whole scene substantially more suggestive than it actually was, by emphasizing on areas that if Sakura-chan ever found out, would surely cost him his actual life—reaching for the edges of her underwear, something which the friggin' tiny dress flashed so outrageously clear as daytime, and began pulling them down.
First one leg, then the other, why was she taking so long to do so, he couldn't understand. And suddenly, they lay there—in his trembling hands.
Oh, God. Those were… those were…
Panties. Pink women's underwear.
"Wash those," Louise demanded, seemingly not giving two hoots that her fuckin' panties were in the hands of a guy. "They better be squeaky clean by tomorrow."
She closed her eyes, watching the boy basically going through a panic attack, grumbling. "Why's my familiar a lame and stupid commoner? Why couldn't it be something cooler, like a griffin or a manticore?!"
Louise hissed her frustration to the world, but when she looked to her side… she froze.
"Uzumakinaruto?"
There was nothing there besides her discarded clothes and the pile of charred hay. And… was that a… "A log…?"
How had he…?
To her right, the windows were closed, but then to her left the door of her room was hanging open, swinging idly to and fro. He'd done so in such a brief period, despite the fact he should've still felt weakened by the poison.
"H-He escaped?! A familiar spirit?!" Louise blurted out. "You have to be joking!"
Footsteps bounced off the medieval hallway as Naruto dashed down the winding staircase, heart pounding in his chest. Without a clear destination, escaping this place was his only concern. Adrenaline pumped through his limbs, and as the poison's fiery grip on his insides lessened, his usual speed began to return.
He kept telling himself, 'There's no way I'm touching a girl's underwear! No sir! If Sakura-chan or, even worse, Granny Tsunade finds out, what happened to Pervy Sage will look like a walk in the park compared to what's gonna happen to me!'
A door awaited further down the staircase. As he stepped into the next hall, almost tripping but managing to catch himself, he quickly slipped behind the threshold, gluing his back to the wall as he'd done in many missions before.
"Yikes!"
Two students stood there, alongside the candlelit passage, chatting.
Fantastic, just what he needed. Especially with his 'master' hot in his tail, more than eager to blow him up again with that ninjutsu of hers!
They were a guy and a girl, draped in navy blue and brown capes. The blonde-haired boy, with his somewhat curly locks, wore a dress shirt that differed from the other attires he'd seen thus far. It was slightly modified to expose his chest and adorned with frills, paired with bell-bottomed garish purple pants it definitely didn't paint an imperceptible image. He held a rose close to his face.
Naruto couldn't help but cringe and wrinkle his nose. The guy seemed like a character straight out of one of Pervy Sage's corny novels. The guy stood like a sore thumb. Even more so than he did with his orange tracksuit.
Unlike the boy, the girl was refreshingly normal, thank God, with shoulder-length brown hair styled in princess-like curls and magenta eyes.
"I'm good at making soufflé," said the girl.
"I'd love to have a taste of that!" The blonde wrapped his hand around her shoulder.
She cooed, gleefully clutching her hands on her chest. "Really?!"
From their conversation, it was clear they were in the middle of a flirtatious exchange (the guy's tactics reminded him of Pervy Sage's own lousy attempts at wooing his many escorts from those brothels), making them oblivious to their surroundings.
Perfect, he could use this to his advantage and slip past unnoticed. Three years of experience had him more than well-prepared for these types of stealth escapes!
"Of course, Katie," he opened his eyes. "I would never lie to your eyes."
"Lord Guiche!" Katie squealed.
"There's never a hidden side to my affection for you," Guiche replied.
There was a pause, and then he blinked. "Hey, that's the commoner that Louise summoned."
"Oh come on!" Naruto blurted out, he was crawling forward on all fours, before moving faster away from them.
How had he forgotten that he was never particularly good at stealth?
So, his escape had gone spectacularly wrong, he still tried to appear cool, with his hands in his pockets, eyes closed, and a confident smile plastered on his face.
"Oh, right!" Katie said, "It was a hot topic today between the first years, too."
"Since he fell unconscious and wouldn't move, we faced a lot of trouble," Guiche commented, rather scathingly.
He was about to leave the couple alone and go on his business, when the blonde womanizer barked out at him, "Hold it!"
Naruto did so without any particular enthusiasm, shifting his attention towards him, not out of obedience of course: there was a note of confrontation to his voice, was he looking for a fight?
"What?" Naruto spat, one eye shut. It was a question, but more out of the nature of the word itself. There was no curiosity in his voice, more of an unspoken challenge.
"A commoner putting a noble to trouble, and not even a word of thanks?"
He was glaring at him now, wrinkling up his nose as he did so. Not unlike the way the villagers had looked down at him for years: disgruntled grimaces from a safe distance that were usually followed by venomous comments, aimed dead on his back, regardless if he could hear them or not.
Truth be told, Naruto didn't want to follow his orders at all: he'd decided he didn't like the guy, and playing second fiddle would most certainly inflate his ego even more. But it really didn't make any difference. Regardless of what could happen, he was leaving tonight.
So, while rolling his eyes and sticking his lips, he just nodded.
"Oh, really? Thanks, I guess," Naruto said, somewhat begrudgingly. "See ya."
But just as he turned back, he whispered. "Cocky little shit…"
The fast shuffle of footsteps down the staircase, most certainly following the same trail he'd just made, made his heart stop for a moment.
'Oh, damn it!' Immediately, Naruto made a frantic dash towards the hallway up ahead.
"A restless fellow," Guiche said.
Next, Louise burst out of the staircase aisle; she stood up, gasping heavily, sullen and exhausted with her face clammy, looking as if she'd run a marathon.
"Oh, Louise, your familiar just passed by," Guiche said, nonchalantly.
The tiny girl growled, shooting a weary look at him. "Catch… him…"
"Eh?"
"He escaped."
"The familiar whom you sealed a contract with?" he said, before striking a theatrical pose, "Nothing less from your familiar, Louise. Common sense doesn't apply to it."
Whether that was meant to be a compliment or an insult, Louise didn't give a rat's ass. Instead, she stomped her way up to him.
"Don't just stand there yapping mindlessly! Help me get him back!" she barked.
He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, it can't be helped. I'll be seeing you later, mon cheri." Guiche caressed the brown-haired girl's hand, kneeling and kissing the back.
Katie was love-struck, "Oh! Lord Guiche…"
Louise seized him by the scruff of the cape and yanked him along as she hurried in a rather impressive showcase of strength. "Hurry up, Romeo!"
Once the two of them walked out of the castle—it had been difficult for the little mage to drag the blonde away, since he kept trying to flirt with the first year—night had already fallen. The school grounds lay deserted, bathed in moonlight. Torchlight streamed from the glass windows, occasionally shining on the grass and hedgerows. To Louise's utter confusion, there was no trace of her rebellious familiar spirit.
A year and a half into her time at the academy, she had acquainted herself with every nook and cranny of the castles on the grounds of the ancient château. Figuring out the trail that that idiot in orange followed, she knew where he was headed to.
No doubt, his wacky shinobi delusions or whatever he was prattling on about got the better of his judgment. However aggravated she felt with the fact that her familiar spirit was a commoner, that didn't mean he could just waltz away like nobody's business; certainly not with all the information she'd just dumped on him.
"He's like a stray mutt!" Grumbled the petite mage, tightening a fist with malicious intent. "Once I get my hands on him…"
As she stood surveying the hedgerows on the lookout for suspicious movement, she caught a sharp whack behind her, quickly followed by a yelp from Guiche. "Ow! What on earth—"
The blond boy stopped cold in his tracks, his mouth hanging open, his eyes glazing over as he eyed one of the nearby towers. He drew a trembling hand over it before uttering an astonished stammer. "L-L-L-L-LOU… LOUISE!"
He clutched her by the shoulder, shaking her to draw her attention.
"Not now, Guiche!" She spat at him, smacking his hand away.
Guiche remained astonished as we watched. Crickets chirping filled the night air. He didn't relent and shook her again, harder this time.
"LOUISE!"
"Shut up!" the pink-haired mage snapped.
He stood watching, turning more astonished. He rattled his classmate one last time, and Louise finally, fed up, spun around. "WHAT?!"
Still pointing toward the tower, he made a sound similar to that of a squashed mouse, this time.
When Louise looked up, whatever spark of anger and bravado she had melted into full-blown shock. "Wha— WHAT IS THIS~?!"
She had found her familiar, all right. There was no one else there wearing that garish orange and black getup with the red spiral crest embroidered on the back. As it happened, he was indeed climbing one of the towers in an attempt to sneak out, but he wasn't doing it with his hands as she would've expected any lowly commoner would.
No, he was climbing it with nothing but his feet, stomping across the brick face as if running on solid ground!
Although there was something odd about his movement: it was as if his legs were weighing heavily on him, even though he was running at the speed of an otherwise average, athletic person.
Both students' gaze lingered on Naruto, before remembering that if he did slip away, she would possibly look even more laughable than usual. Should Kirche learn that her familiar ran away, she would make her life hell for the remainder of the semester. The idea was mortifying, she found.
"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! AN INVITATION?!" She barked at him. "STOP HIM!" She pointed at him.
"W-What?!" Guiche blurted out.
"I DON'T KNOW, USE A LEVITATION SPELL OR SOMETHING, BEFORE HE GETS AWAY!"
Guiche held up his rose, it happened to be his wand, and clasping it with his thumb and index finger, he aimed it at the familiar commoner.
He thought back to his run-in with the unruly fellow in the hallway, the boorish way he had addressed both Katie and him, and most particularly how he had marred his moment with clowning around.
Certainly, it would be wasteful of effort not to take retaliatory measures and remind the commoner of his proper position within the food chain, would it not?
Guiche just grinned wickedly. He was going to enjoy this more than he had any right to. "Why, of course!" he uttered, readying himself to cast the spell.
Louise raised an eyebrow at his newfound courage.
Naruto almost wanted to give himself a pat on the back; his escape turned out more of a success after all. If only he could speed up his sprint—the poison hadn't quite subsided, it seemed—but he was pretty confident that Louise couldn't catch up with him by now.
At least he believed so until he froze in mid-step.
Quite literally in a way he couldn't have anticipated. Almost as if his legs somehow rushed through the air.
"Huh?!" he whipped towards his legs, and as a matter of fact: he stopped moving completely. "This isn't happening! What kinda stupid ninja art is this?!"
He turned his gaze down into the field and spotted two annoyingly familiar silhouettes standing there, in the moonlight.
"You again?!" Naruto spat.
The diminutive mage fiercely pointed her index finger at him. "This time I'll put a leash on your neck so you don't run away, you sneaky dog!"
He had to concede that he almost resented the runt's stubbornness: that resolution is the sort that carries one down the path of the shinobi; except for the fact that she was bent on taking away his freedom, forcing him to wash her worn clothes, and, on top of it all, leashing him up like a house dog.
That would not happen; he wouldn't dare to go near the stuff women wear.
"Not even in your dreams, lady!"
Naruto breathed, deep and long, spring night air filling his lungs. He mustered all his strength into his legs, shifting in warning, and ran like a madman.
"What are you waiting for?!" Louise yelled. "Pull him down!"
Guiche blinked, before shifting his attention back to his wand. He brought his other hand up and clasped onto his rose, his stance suddenly changing; he now looked as though he was grappling to pull it down.
"W-What's the matter?!" Louise inquired.
The curly-haired blond side-eyed her with baleful eyes, strain flashing in the stilted sneer that settled on his face.
"The commoner… is… fighting back… the spell!" He croaked, through gritted teeth.
Louise widened her eyes, dumbfounded. "W-What?!"
"It's like the malcontent weighed an accursed ton!" He shot a glance at the strawberry-blonde girl. "What in the world did you feed him with, Louise?"
"I just met him today too, you idiot!" she snapped back indignantly.
Guiche scrunched up his blue eyes.
"For a lowly commoner, he weights like a bag of bricks!" he remarked in stunned disbelief. "Are you kidding me?! He will not yield!"
Naruto was also pouring all his strength, or at least what he could muster with his body still somewhat weakened. His face started to redden from straining, veins bulging at his temples. His crumpled-up face sweated in spurts. Any tighter he clenched his teeth, he thought he would crack them.
Then he looked up into the blue velvet night sky.
Naruto blinked, his eyes minutely widening and his strength suddenly fading away.
"N-No… No fuckin' way…"
Throughout his life he had seen many uncommon occurrences, he had been through many different villages, but what loomed above him was beyond anything else he could think of. He wanted to deny it, to say that it wasn't true, that this was all caused by some strange genjutsu. Aside from the many stars, there was not one moon in the sky but two: the larger one shone sky blue while the smaller one shone bright pink.
No. The whole mess was bonkers. There couldn't conceivably have been two fucking moons in the sky. Let alone different sizes and colors.
That slip-up was just what Louise and Guiche had hoped for. The moment he slowed down, the blond yanked him away from the tower and began to swing him wildly from one side to the other.
"Hey! What's going on?! Put me down!" Naruto howled in midair, struggling to break free from the spell, but to no avail. "I'm gonna…" His face changed from pale oatmeal to a sickly green.
Guiche simply ignored him and waved his wand to and fro with a sly grin. "That's the second time I've levitated you today, commoner! Think of this as repaying me for spoiling my moment with my beloved maiden!"
"That's enough, Guiche! He's learned his lesson!" Louise protested, her fists clenched.
Guiche didn't look at her.
"Unless you teach a commoner such as him, he will not learn his proper place."
Naruto scowled. His stomach started to cramp again. "I'm so gonna get you back, pretty boy, just wait, dammit," he grumbled to himself.
"Another earth?" Louise said skeptically, standing tall and commanding before Naruto, her arms folded.
"Yeah!" Naruto complained as he held up the chain links; they made a clinking sound at his fingertips. "I was in the middle of doing something very important until you pulled me into this nuthouse with that stupid little spell of yours, pinkie!"
Louise wasn't the slightest lenient on his punishment. Her previous threat was carried out to the letter: she put a leash on him like a house dog and strapped the other end to her bed, warning her of any further escape attempts. Naruto would've loved to tear the stupid thing, chuck it at Louise, and insult her back before attempting to escape one more time. But with the burst of energy that had given him the strength to even stand up having all but fizzled up, he was back to square one. Maybe using Sage Mode to track down Kakashi-sensei and Sakura-chan wasn't his best idea.
"I don't believe you!" She turned her gaze away. "How could there be such a thing as another earth?"
"And how you think I'm feeling right now, huh?" Naruto propped his hands on his knees. "Sounds just as fuckin' nuts to me, ya know!"
There was a lull.
"Go ahead, try it…" Louise said all of a sudden as she caught a glimpse of Naruto picking up the chains, pushing them in a blatantly obvious attempt at breaking them, "It's a gift from my scary elder sister, Eleonore. The more you try to break them, the tougher they get," the way she grinned would've sent little kids crying with nightmares for days. "She said it had been very handy with certain folks she'd met. Never thought I'd need it until now, but thank goodness I didn't throw it out."
"Yeah, right, thank goodness, indeed," Rolling his eyes, Naruto dropped the chains on the ground with a loud clang, before dropping to the ground as he rested his face on his hand. Beaten by a shrimp like her, felt more humiliating than anything else.
'Man, if she fears her don't even want to imagine what kinda monster her older sister must be, and I thought Itachi was scary already…' he gripped the chains with disgust. He pulled just out of morbid curiosity, and as a matter of fact, they became tighter.
"Don't you think this is a little bit overkill?" Naruto wondered, "I mean, who does this?"
"I didn't want to take such drastic measures, but you forced me to. You're so problematic, you know?" Louise started to remove her cloak. "Making your mistress run around the campus like that."
"If you can't stand me, why can't you just send me back home?" Naruto asked, briskly.
"Because it's impossible," Louise replied flatly.
Naruto groaned, rubbing his face in frustration. "What you mean 'impossible'?! You summoned me, ain't you? Haven't you got some kinda Reverse Summoning Jutsu or something to send me back to Kakashi-sensei and Sakura-chan?"
"You're so noisy, jeez!" Her cloak fell on his head. Naruto angrily snatched it off.
"Regardless of who or from where the familiar spirit comes from, the contract is absolute. In other words: we're stuck with each other," Louise explained matter-of-factly, unbuttoning her shirt. She then flung it at the confused and exasperated boy together with her skirt, the same leisurely expression on her face.
"Wait! You're just gonna go for a nap and leave me with your clothes like nothing?!"
"What does it look like?" She retorted.
Snapping her fingers, the room fell in complete darkness.
"Wait! Answer me this, is there any way to break that contract?" Naruto wondered, shrugging his shoulders.
"The familiar spirit must die," Louise replied matter-of-factly. "It's as simple as that."
Naruto froze for a moment, gawking at her with his face blue, "Yeah, let's not do that." He hung his head down, "Guess I'm your familiar or whatever it's called for now, huh?"
She pulled up the straps of her camisole, sliding them over her shoulders. Naruto had to turn away, his face burning with bashfulness; even in the darkness, the moonlight streaming through the window emphasized her slender bare figure.
"Can you stop doing that?!" Naruto cried out.
"Doing what?"
"What you mean 'what'? Getting naked in front of me, of course!"
"Is that really an issue?"
"Yes, it is!" He shouted at her, just before averting his head again in utter panic, having caught a glimpse of her upper body. "I-I mean, don't you feel any shame of doing that in front of a guy you just met today?!"
Naruto could feel a much smaller fabric drape over his head; it only reinforced his decision not to turn around.
"A guy?" she uttered with genuine puzzlement in her voice, looking at him with innocent brown eyes. "You're nothing more than a familiar spirit!"
That got to him quite a bit. His grip on his knees tightened. She didn't even consider him a person?
"What does that mean?"
She slipped on a long purple nightgown with suspenders. The moonlight coming in from the window outlined her figure as she swept her curly, flowing pink hair behind her back.
"Well, wash those for me," was her command as she shifted the mattress cover and snuggled into her bed to sleep.
With a twitching movement in his eyebrows settling on his face, Naruto peered at the pile of clothes, tentatively focusing on the tiniest piece of pink fabric discarded on the floor. A sinking feeling crept into his stomach. He was not washing anything, he decided, standing up with his brow furrowing minutely.
"Hey!" Naruto barked, jumping to his feet. "I'm never doing your laundry, ya hear me?"
"And who do you think will be taking care of you?" Louise retorted snidely.
Naruto flinched. Of course, he didn't actually know any people in this world. There were no allies to lend him a helping hand here at all.
"You're my familiar, right?" Louise said, drowsily. "Cleaning, laundry, errands—those are to be expected. Make sure to have my clothes ready for tomorrow. Don't worry too much. If you do a job well done, I'll make sure you get plenty of food."
"Plenty of food?" Naruto held a fist in the air in outrage. "You take me for a dog, don't you!"
There came no answer from his mistress. Just a very subtle breathing every few seconds. She had drifted off into the arms of Morpheus leaving Naruto alone in the darkness of the late night.
Naruto heaved a heavy sigh in defeat. He crawled pathetically over to whatever was left of the stack of hay Louise had scorched to a crisp and tried to get comfy there.
"Man, this stinks…" He lay down on his shoulder. The floor surface was stiff and cumbersome. "I'll get a bit of a shut-eye, at least, I'll figure something out tomorrow."
Momentarily, his thoughts drifted back to the past: manifesting in the image of Sasuke's back, envisioning him in deep darkness.
Squeezing shut his eyes and clenching his fists, Naruto shuddered. 'I still need to tell him my answer…'
His mind replayed their final exchange, haunting the Uchiha's last statement.
I am not changing. I will kill each and every single person in the Leaf, and that includes you.
'Sasuke…' Naruto's jaw tightened. 'Please don't pour your hatred on them… just wait for me…'
The air felt cold, even though Naruto could withstand it. The night breeze was nothing in comparison to the extreme weather conditions of the Land of Iron.
Early in the morning, Louise still slumbered placidly. Naruto glared at the sleeping beauty, one of his eyebrows twitching slightly. He had been up for an hour to carry out his chores and spare himself yet another scolding from her. 'Can't believe this is my life now…'
With no-holds-barred, he yanked off his mistress's coverlet and clapped his hands together. "Up," he spat.
Drowsily, she half-turned over onto her bed, and through half-lidded eyes peered at the Uzumaki. "Who are you?" she asked in a half-asleep voice.
Naruto crumpled his brow and dropped her folded clothes onto her chest.
"Here. Your clothes. Getting them washed was a real pain in my ass with the leash, you know?" He gave the thing a pull.
"Ah?" She stared down at the fabrics with a puzzled look.
"You said you wanted them squeaky clean first thing in the morning, right? Well, there you go!" Naruto said, his arms behind his neck.
"Oh, right, you're the familiar spirit," Louise straightened up in her bed, rubbing an eye. "I summoned you the other day, didn't I?" She peered down at her clothes. "Where's the underwear?"
"At least go get them yourself, ya know!" Naruto exclaimed, stomping the floor.
The diminutive mage's gaze hardened.
"I'm going to make you skip breakfast!"
Naruto just grumbled, slumping down his arms. Louise gestured her head to one of the pieces of furniture in front of him: a ridiculously luxurious-looking chest of drawers decorated with embellished accents. The blonde estimated the thing must surely cost a hell of a lot more than his entire fucking apartment, alongside the other houses in there.
"In the bottom drawer," Louise said.
"… Yeah, yeah," he grumbled as he trudged sulkily toward the chest of drawers.
Naruto made it a point not to look at the private garment for a length of time. The whole ordeal in itself was an embarrassing experience for him, but he was nonetheless quite impressed to see how organized the girl actually was. Meanwhile, back at home, he would simply throw his underwear in the closet after washing it and not dwell further on the matter.
He picked one up at random, swearing under his breath, blanching upon seeing it, and flung it at her with a yelp. "Take it!"
Footsteps pattering on the hardwood floor told him Louise had just stood up.
Naruto held up the string chain restraining him to his mistress's bed in his hand. "Hey, ain't you forgot something?"
"Absolutely not," Louise said, slowly pulling her slender thighs into her underwear.
"I ain't escaping anymore, ya know, especially after being pulled into this whacked-out world!" Naruto protested, half-turning back to her as he slammed his hand on the floorboard. Immediately, his face reddened as he got a clear glimpse of his mistress standing in nothing but her underwear, and he whipped around as quickly as possible. "Not like I have any other place to go, anyway!"
"Oh, shut up! Fine!" Louise took hold of her clothes and slammed them on his back roughly.
"What you want now?!" Naruto snapped back.
"Dress me in this instant."
"Why would I? You've got arms and legs, ain't you?"
Louise's face scrunched up in outrage. "Nobles never dress themselves! Servants are there for that kind of task!"
Naruto snorted, "Bah! Nobles, my foot!" He stood up clenching a fist. "Stop acting like you—"
"Fine, then!" She looked away, now sounding completely relaxed. "No breakfast for you. And I won't take the chain, either."
Naruto stood still, wincing slightly. He groaned.
The faint rumbling coming from his stomach almost certainly told him one thing: he was famished. Now he was feeling stupid for turning down the rice porridge Captain Yamato had so kindly cooked for him. Who would've guessed that it might be the last time he'd be shown any semblance of respect?
Besides, his body was screaming for some exercise.
As long as he remained tied up as a house dog, he wouldn't be able to train and, more critically, return home to bring Sasuke back.
Not like pride ultimately matters that much when all is said and done. So he dressed her up in her uniform as though she were a little girl. What a slacker this girl was, he thought with a sneer.
That wasn't as complicated as he'd imagined, although Louise went through the awkward task of teaching him how to properly button a shirt (he'd never worn one, so he was clueless as to how to slip the buttons into the holes), but the whole process took about five to ten minutes at the most.
"Alright, you're good and dressed, ain't you," Naruto backed up and grabbed the chain again, jiggling the links slightly. "Now, take this stupid thing offa me, will ya?"
"A deal is a deal, I suppose," Louise said, holding up a key.
She approached him, nonchalantly, barely standing at his shoulders. She may have been shorter than him at twelve. From this close distance, Naruto had a clearer sight of the girl, her expression unusually subdued from before.
He blinked, his mouth hanging open, 'She'd be a lot prettier if she was like this more often' he flushed a bit, 'That smell again… like strawberry…'
Louise eyed up at him, quizzically, "Is something wrong?"
Naruto shook. His eyes narrowed a little.
"No, nothing."
When she removed the leash, tossing it aside, Naruto rubbed his somewhat sore neck due to the burden of the chain.
Naruto breathed a sigh of relief.
"Let's go," Louise said, clutching her wand.
"Eh? Where?"
"To breakfast, of course."
Naruto broke into a wide grin.
"All right!" He exclaimed, pumping a fist in triumph. "I'm starvin' ya know!"
Louise raised an eyebrow. "Weren't you angry just a few seconds ago?"
"It's over here," She told him.
The premises, Naruto decided, were as huge as they were archaic.
He stood transfixed with his arms slumped, gaping into the dining hall with his mouth hanging open in stunned silence, astonished by its sheer magnitude. By itself, the entrance loomed tall over most of the humble households of his former village—that hallway was a completely different matter: it measured the width of Konoha's adjacent streets.
Lively chatter from the students echoed across baroque-style walls lined with tiny folks made of limestone—definitely the weirdest type of monoliths he'd ever seen.
The folks were all seated comfortably around the longest tables he'd ever seen in his life, all of which were beautifully decked with candles and floral arrangements. There were three of them: each one lying parallel to the other, each one able to accommodate at least a hundred people. One could easily fit all the Konoha twelve, and there would still be plenty of room to spare.
He noticed the students seated at each table sported different colored capes: the furthest right was all brown, navy blue in the middle and dark purple on the left.
In his head, Naruto equated this to shinobi ranks.
'The youngest gotta be genin—hey, that's the girl Curly Hair was talking to last night—the ones in the middle chunin and the older ones jonin,' Naruto nodded his head with a low 'mm-hmm' while folding his arms with his eyes closed. That made sense to him. 'I got it.'
He was hit with the realization that if they were heading for the middle table, 'Wait! Does that mean she's basically a chunin… and I'm still a genin…?'
In his frustration, Naruto slumped down his arms.
The tiny mage's brown eyes glinted mischievously. "Tristain's Magic Academy doesn't just teach magic, you know?"
"I can tell," Naruto replied absent-mindedly.
"Almost all mages are nobles," Louise explained. "They say that nobles achieve their status through magic—that is the centerpiece for our education. So, it's only natural our dining hall is also worthy of nobility."
"Well, it is fancy, that's for sure, ya know," Naruto said, glancing at each side, and taking in its decor.
"Got that? A commoner like you would never set foot inside the Alvíss Dining Hall. You ought to be thankful to your mistress for that."
"Yeah, yeah…" Naruto said. "Hey, hey, what does Alvíss mean?" He asked, turning to her, "I don't understand you guys' tongue, remember?"
"It's the name of the little people," she pointed at the odd statues. "See those statues over there?"
"They're pretty cool," Naruto said, then he smirked. "Do they come alive or something at night?" He said sarcastically.
"Oh, so you already knew that?"
Naruto blinked.
"Wait… so you mean they're actually alive?!" he exclaimed.
"Well… they only dance," she clarified.
He opened his mouth to say something, but quickly shut it again. Just roll with it, he told himself.
The two marched along black and white tiles, disregarding the rumors about the infamous 'Commoner Familiar'—that was what they nicknamed Naruto, not that it mattered to ears used to vitriolic whispering after a lifetime subjected to them—until they found a vacant chair.
"Man! Talk about a feast!" The boy's hands settled on the top chair rail, gazing at the meal, his mouth practically drooling. The roasted chicken and the cake were practically tempting Naruto to eat them full. His stomach gave a flip: it wasn't ramen by any means, but that didn't make it any less mouthwatering.
Well, besides the wine and the veggies. Naruto still hated those things.
Louise's face darkened as she closed her eyes. "Hurry up and pull the chair back," she commanded while trying to appear composed. "You're really inconsiderate."
Naruto just glared at her, rolling his eyes.
"Yeah, I know, ladies first," he grumbled, doing as she said.
Almost immediately, Naruto moved to the unoccupied seat, his attention (but his stomach most of all) drawn squarely to the roasted beef dish at the table.
"Say, say, you guys having a special thing or somethin'?" Naruto asked, a broad smirk on his face.
Throughout the barrage of questions that poured from Naruto's babbling mouth, Louise could only glare blankly at him with her mouth open, in stunned and outraged silence. She lifted a hand and gestured it downward to the ground below.
The boy paused, blinking in confusion. He followed his mistress's hand. There was a considerably less luxurious and smaller plate on the floor compared to the ones on the table. It stood looking to be quite old as well judging from the cracks in some areas.
"It's empty," Naruto stated the obvious, his stupid face staring right at Louise's.
"Yes, it is, Familiar".
Naruto frowned. "What I'm supposed to eat?"
Unceremoniously, Louise dropped a loaf of bread. It landed on the old plate making a hollow noise.
That was supposed to be his breakfast. That paltry scrap of food was apparently supposed to sustain him until lunch. It was hardly bigger than his hand. "You still mad I tried to escape last night?"
"You embarrassed me in front of everyone," Louise hissed.
Naruto wouldn't have objected were it not for the fact that the folks at the other tables were partaking of the most scrumptious feast he'd ever seen in his entire life. Whereas he had to make do with scraps that would hardly keep even a pet well-fed.
It was food Louise didn't want: for all he was concerned, she had very likely given it to him not out of the goodness of her heart.
They say ninja have no business begrudging their blessings, particularly with simple commodities such as food. Soldier Pellets' very existence stood as a testament to that notion. Still, Naruto felt he deserved better than a measly slice of bread that looked rather dry on top of that.
"Dammit, all right…"
Naruto plopped down on the ground with his legs crossed, sulkily. Every so often the students in the purple cloaks would sneak in inconspicuous glances at him and start whispering to each other. It was annoying the way it stirred up unpleasant childhood memories. He would merely shoot them a glare screaming 'What ya lookin' at?' and, startled, they would go back to their own business.
He managed to overhear how the students, their hands clasped in silent prayer, expressed their gratitude for the meal. Even Louise was on it.
"Oh, Great Founder Brimir, and our lady, the Queen, we thank you for this humble meal that you have graciously provided us this morning…"
Naruto almost scoffed at that. That was a humble meal?
There was enough food on a single table to feed an entire underprivileged village there. Rather, they were squandering it to stuff these spoiled brats' faces full.
Had Old Man Third been around to enforce a little discipline, they'd probably learn the value of solidarity, even the hard way. That's how the old guy did things around town: he had been tough on his love, but he felt that it bore fruit in the long run.
He took the bread, brought it against his mouth, and tried to bite into it: his teeth struggled trying to gnaw through the hard crust, but with a firm tug, it ripped apart. It was as dry as he guessed it to be.
He thought back to Captain Yamato's porridge cooling off in the corner of the room at the small inn where they had lodged. His stomach cramped up again.
God, he could've at least gotten a little bit of it.
He almost felt like crying; it was so pathetic. Should these be his food allowance per day, he would most definitely starve to death in a matter of days.
"Here."
Naruto looked down at his plate, slightly taken aback. A piece of roast chicken was lying there, still steaming, almost tantalizing him.
For anyone else, it wouldn't have been more than a light snack, but for an otherwise empty stomach, it's heaven on earth.
Naruto lifted his head to catch sight of Louise, her head propped up on her hands, her fingers conveniently blocking out her mouth. However, they couldn't quite hide the very light red bloom on her cheeks.
"You already paid for your punishment well enough, but don't tell anyone I fed you," she said in a toneless voice. "Familiars usually stay outside," she side-eyed the blond. "You're only here because I requested it so. And if you're starving, you'll just be a liability more than anything. I'm not completely heartless, especially towards my familiar."
In his mind, a familiar scene sprang from the distant past: the time he found himself tied to one of the three logs in the Third Training Ground.
"If you're prepared to continue, you may eat one of the bento boxes. But no sharing with Naruto. He goes hungry." Kakashi-sensei had said, trudging towards them after contemplating the humble memorial stone.
"Huh? Why?!"
"You brought this on yourself when you tried to sneak for lunch. If either of you feeds him, you fail the test right here. My word is law. Do you understand?"
The way he narrowed his eyes carried the aloofness of a seasoned killer. It sent shivers down Naruto's spine.
After several minutes in which he pretended to be undeterred by hunger, his stomach's persistent rumbling eventually gave everything away.
Deflated, Naruto bowed his head.
And then…
"Here," Sasuke, a hint of unmasked generosity showing through his usual façade of indifference, held out his lunch.
"But, Sasuke-kun! Kakashi-sensei told us not to—"
"I'm not worried. He's probably miles away by now. And we'll need all our strength if we're gonna work together to get those stupid bells."
Without looking at him, Sasuke scrunched up his brow. "You're not good to me if you're just gonna be a liability."
There was a lull between the two of them. The clicking of kitchen appliances echoed down the hallway.
Naruto's broad smile threw her off balance. "Thanks, Louise!"
She flinched, cheeks still flushed, averting her face and scooping a piece of roast beef into her mouth with a fork.
"C-Consider it a reward for doing a job well done!" she said with puckered lips. "I-I'm not doing this again, l-lest we build a bad habit!"
"Heh!" But his grin didn't fade, he just nodded, he could tell she wasn't honest about it. "Yeah, yeah, I get it, boss."
"H-Hmph! A-Anyway, eat already, don't make me regret this!"
Naruto chuckled.
"Yes, ma'am"
Both Naruto and Louise dug into their food. Naruto perked up. It was the best chicken he had ever had in his life.
To Naruto, the academy seemed built as a stronghold in mind.
The facilities were seemingly crafted of different materials than those they employed in Konohagakure; one much tougher than the houses spawned by Doton style techniques that made up his town's architecture for decades since its establishment—they were rough and sturdy as Naruto could attest as he felt it with his fist, each overlapping on top of the other. They resembled the Uchiha Hideout—the long-forgotten bunker where Sasuke had faced down his brother in a death match.
Five barriers hemmed in the green fields. Its corners were topped by tall, cylindrical towers, from which sprouted huge open walkways that converged at the center: the tallest tower, which rose on top of the two-story dome-shaped building.
Naruto and Louise walked through the embellished wooden door, and down the long cement steps, with the tiny mage leading the way. With his hands tucked in his orange pockets, the boy admired the iconic buildings, marveling at the scenic view, his delight succinctly conveyed through youthful laughter.
"Man, this place is just like in fairy tales!" Naruto commented out loud. "Been a while since I've seen this much green anywhere, ya know!"
Louise, her eyes closed and without looking at him, spoke.
"Please, behave your age."
Naruto was moments away from calling her out until he saw some navy blue-cloaked students sitting at rather luxurious-looking white tables out in the field near one of those passages.
All of them were chatting nonchalantly. Each of them had animals along with them. Were they that thing Louise referred to as 'Familiar'?
"What are they doing over there?" Naruto asked.
"All second-year students have the day off today. We're all supposed to communicate with our freshly summoned familiars," Louise replied.
"You guys got days off?," Naruto blurted out.
"What are you talking about," Louise looked at him with an eyebrow raised.
"Nothing, it's just that Iruka-sensei never gave us any breaks during our training days!" Naruto grumbled with his hand behind his head. "It's so annoying, ya know."
"Ara?"
The two turned—
Naruto was greeted immediately by a deep red crocodile with glowing yellow eyes. A slight heat wave drifted towards him. The thing croaked with a sharp voice.
Naruto jerked back, startled. "Woah! It's some red thing!"
He recognized the brown-skinned girl with deep red hair.
"Is this the first time you've seen a salamander?" She rubbed the lizard's back as gently as an owner would her puppy.
Its tail, whose tip was in flames, wagged joyously.
"It… it doesn't bite, right?!" Naruto asked, warily.
"Don't worry! Familiars under contract faithfully obey every order from their master, and they never run away" the girl replied.
She closed her eyes, her tone suddenly turning affectionate when staring at the lizard, "Right, Flame~? Who's a good boy~? Yes, you are~"
The redhead grinned at both, but more so at the tiny mage.
"Don't give me that, Zerbst!" Louise snapped, gritting her teeth.
"You know, didn't you just sneak in a commoner that was walking around the area?" Zerbst replied, standing up. "Covered it up with one of your usual explosions, perhaps?"
"That's not true!" Louise shouted back, clenching her fists, "I made the summoning spell properly! Then this just happened to show up!" She pointed at him.
"I have a name, ya know…" Naruto grumbled in a hushed voice.
"I'd say he looks a bit too good for you, Zero, even if he's a commoner."
She winked at Naruto, before laughing loudly like an older woman. And she walked off along with her salamander.
"What's that wench's problem…?!" Louise growled, lifting a shaking, clenched fist.
"You two are like rivals, huh?" Naruto casually commented with a faint grin.
She then whipped around toward Naruto snappishly. "DON'T JUST STAND THERE, SLACKER! MAKE YOURSELF USEFUL AND GET ME SOMETHING TO DRINK, AT LEAST!"
"Okay!" Naruto grumbled. "You don't have to yell at me, ya know!"
"Shit, she just ain't got no respect for me at all…" Naruto muttered through gritted teeth as he trudged pitifully through the field, his shoulders slumped.
He had no clue where the hell he was going, and none of the students appeared the slightest bit inclined to lend a 'commoner'—whatever the fuck it was they used to refer to guys like Naruto who hadn't been blessed with that special chakra they called 'magic'—a helping hand. His mistress' orders were too ambiguous to figure out, but she didn't seem to be in the mood to follow up on them. In fact, Louise never seemed in the mood for much of anything. He had barely seen her crack even the slightest hint of a smile that wasn't a sneering one.
But she had given him a nice piece of roasted chicken. That had to amount to something.
Naruto kicked the grass, frustrated, sending a few emerald wisps into the air. Ever since that cryptic seal etched itself on the back of his hand, he started to feel a little odd. It felt as if homesickness slowly ebbed away, a realization that frightened him, but his mind kept shrugging it off anytime it surfaced.
Faces in his mind flashed of his friends but then were engulfed by the darkness of oblivion. 'How is everyone at home?'
He had hoped that Kakashi-sensei and Sakura-chan hadn't assumed him dead. He was alive! Stranded on another Earth with that pink-haired runt as his mistress via some stupid magic spell, but alive nonetheless!
How would Iruka-sensei feel? Could he get to see Konohamaru graduate as a chunin?
Naruto's haze of thoughts was cut short by his gaze looking up—
A massive eye stared back at him. It hovered blithely within millimeters of his face.
Naruto's reaction was perfectly normal.
"HOLY HE—!" he shrieked at the sight of the freak show before him, backing away without checking, and his back bumped right into someone.
"Kyaah!"
Turning around, he saw a young girl about his age on the grass. She was clad in a navy blue western maid's uniform, complete with a long skirt and apron. Her neck-length raven hair sported a frilled headdress of snow-white lace. She blinked, at a loss, innocent blue eyes locking onto Naruto's own.
"Ah, crap, sorry! I-I wasn't lookin' and stuff!" Naruto scrambled for words, reaching out a hand to help her.
"No! It's alright!" She offered him a hint of a smile, perhaps the most amiable one Naruto had seen so far since he'd first arrived there.
Soon, Naruto noticed there was a slice of cake overturned on the grass. Was it hers? Feeling sorry over the fact, he reached his hand towards it to pick it up.
She did so too, and their hands brushed each other's.
A light blush graced her freckled nose, and she pulled back her hand, sheepishly. "A-Ah, I'm sorry!"
Naruto just grinned. The maid's soft voice and stammers brought to his mind Hinata.
"Eh, it's fine," he said as he dropped the cake back on its dish on the tray. "Here."
"Oh! Could you be the one that became Miss Vallière's familiar?" The maid wondered.
Naruto stuffed his hands in his pockets. So she had already spotted the seal on his hand.
"You know about it?" He tilted his head.
"It's all over the rumor mill that a commoner has been summoned as a familiar."
She smiled again, compared to most, it was again the brightest he'd seen here.
Naruto just hummed thoughtfully, his eyes closed in his usual fox-like fashion.
"Well, in all honesty, I haven't a single clue about the nobles and commoners stuff," he scratched his cheek.
"Really?" she looked confused.
Naruto nodded. "Yup. Back home, we didn't have to deal with all that junk."
"Well, the nobles are those who can use magic. Commoners, meanwhile, can't, that's how it's always been," she explained.
"Ah! So that's it! Thanks!" Naruto said, slamming an open palm, "Are you a mage too?"
"Quite the contrary!" She shook her head. "I'm Siesta, and I have the honor of serving here. I'm a commoner, just like you are."
He puffed his chest, "The name's Uzumaki Naruto, ya know."
"Uzumaki?" she tilted her head. "That's a rather odd name."
"Actually, it's 'Naruto'. Uzumaki's the surname," Naruto pointed out.
"Naruto-san?" she smiled. "Pleasure to meet you."
"A-Ah! Yeah!" Naruto scratched the back of his head.
'Did she just use an honorific?' He tilted his head, a bit confused, 'I thought they didn't use those around there…'
"Hey, excuse me!"
He heard a voice. It was coming from a table to the left. Naruto almost immediately recognized the curly-haired blonde guy. He decided that he wasn't going to ask questions about the colossal, snub-nosed mole, whose talons hung on his legs.
"Is the cake ready?"
"Coming right up!"
Naruto arched an eyebrow. The way he was talking to Siesta rubbed him the wrong way. "Hmph."
Having the last night's humiliation still fresh in his head, he remembered that the jerk was, most of all, a womanizer not unlike Pervy Sage had once been.
Moreover, he also happened to have the perfect technique for dealing with these types of guys. Being alone also meant the perfect opportunity.
Naruto grinned wickedly. "I got it…" He brought both hands, performing the hitsuji hand sign: right hand on top of the left hand, both index and middle fingers outstretched. "Transform!"
CHAPTER 2 END
Mostly slow chapter. Building up more relationships and stuff.
Next time, some action to spice things up.