7
The Enemy of my Enemy is My Friend
Naruto was many things: a shinobi, the Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, the hero of his village, the Child of Prophecy and more recently Louise the Zero's Familiar.
But there was something else.
Uzumaki Naruto was a prankster, through and through, and not just any kind of prankster, but the real deal—the undisputed Master of Pranks.
And because he was still sore due to last night's beating (the whip mark was still on his face), today he figured Louise could use a little lesson in humility.
Of course, Louise would definitely cut him at least three meals for this, but since he wasn't worried about it anymore due to his fellow peasants at the dinning hall, he couldn't give less of a crap.
He came across a piece of charcoal while his doppelgängers handled his mistress's laundry, and he had an idea.
Louise was sleeping like a log.
A mischievous grin split Naruto's face. Perfect.
About a quarter of an hour later, his rib cage was sore from holding in his laughter.
He bowed his head, putting on a polite front. "Mistress, you're the embodiment of beauty today."
He had decided to keep calling her that, mostly for sarcasm's sake.
Drowsily, all Louise could muster was a listless, half-asleep response. "What are you up to now?"
"Me?" He looked offended, pressing his hand against his chest. "I'm a mere familiar following his mistress' every command!"
"Hmph!" Louise snorted. "It's good to hear you've finally learned your place. I knew a few lashes would teach you your rightful place!"
"I-Indeed, mistress!" Naruto bowed again. Unbeknownst to Louise, he snickered under his breath.
"Let's go to my class," she said.
"Right away!" Naruto nodded.
Man, this is gonna be priceless!
Luckily for him, there was no one around to see his masterwork and spoil it by blabbing about it too much. He couldn't wait to see how everyone else would react once they got to the classroom. Louise more than anyone.
With her rosy cheeks, charming hazel eyes, and sweet lips that looked like they were made of coral, Louise didn't see the point in makeup. She barely checked herself out in the mirror, and that day was no different.
Naruto picked up on that habit after living with her for a few days, and it made his job a lot easier than it would've been otherwise.
About ten minutes later, she still hadn't noticed the crude makeup work her familiar had dabbed all over her face after she woke up.
As expected, as soon as she opened her classroom's door and her peers noticed her appearance, they erupted in laughter on the spot.
"LOOKIN' GOOD, LOUISE!"
"THAT'S SO YOU!"
Mr. Colbert walked over to her, trying his hardest to keep a straight face, and put a hand on her shoulder.
"That's… that's quite the stylish… err, glasses and mustache on your face," he said, sounding like a compliment. "Very bold makeup, I must say, Miss Vallière."
It was really convenient that Colbert had a little mirror on his desk. He went over, grabbed it, and gave herself a good look. She looked at her beautiful face and saw that she had a pair of thick glasses and a mustache scrawled in charcoal.
Her eyes flashing with wild rage, she swung around and saw Uzumaki Naruto, the clear culprit behind this blatant insult to her person, cackling like a wild hyena as he grabbed his stomach.
Not missing a second, she ran to him, caught him by the collar of his jacket and dragged him out of the room.
"Excuse me for a second, Mr. Colbert. I'm going to give this ill-mannered mutt" she emphasized the words with poisonous disdain, "a little lesson in respect!"
THUD! Her teacher and classmates flinched as she slammed the door.
Naruto's laughter carried all the way there, even as it was drowned out by the walls. Even the loud blast they heard a second later did little to stop them.
Consequently, when both Naruto and Louise re-entered the room, he was from head to toe in soot and ash, while she had removed the charcoal from her face.
"You're no fun, ya know…" he groused.
"Shut up, let's got ot my seat," she hissed, then marched off, Naruto following behind.
"Would you like me to pull your chair, mistress?" Naruto asked, his tone snide, as they walked over to her seat. Louise fired a withering look in his direction as a retort.
"Just wait until we get back to my room," she hissed under her breath. "Then, you will be whimpering like the flea-ridden mutt you are."
"Sure, I will," Naruto said and moved to the floor, intending to rest his back against the table and enjoy a long nap. "Wake me up if anything cool happens."
The girl forcefully suppressed the annoying twitch under her left eye.
"Stand up." Naruto turned around, facing her, visibly confused. "You'll sit by my side from now on."
"Well, that's new. I thought familiars were supposed to lay on the floor," he grumbled.
"I'm not allowing a perverted dog such as you to stare at my classmates' underwear."
Whispers about the peasant being a peeping tom and a lecher came from all directions, and Naruto stiffened as his face burned a bright red from the embarrassment. Standing up again, he shot a sharp glare at Louise, who merely gave him a condescending smirk.
"Y'know, you shouldn't be saying those things out loud, Louise, what do you take me for?" he hissed as he took a seat next to her, then leaned his face over his arms against the table, in a resting position.
"A perverted dog," Louise said bluntly.
From his vantage point, he saw Kirche seated next to Tabitha. She waved and blew a kiss at him.
Innocently, Naruto waved back with a broad smile of his own.
Louise, apparently noticing this, landed a hard kick to his calf.
"Ow! What was that for?!" Naruto whined, rubbing his injured leg.
"Sorry. My foot must've slipped," Louise spat.
"Yeah, right," he snorted.
"My hand will slip down your numbskull too if you don't pipe it down."
"Bah!" Naruto pouted.
"Listen up, everyone," Mr. Colbert chimed in. "Since this is our first class together this year, I'd like you to introduce your familiars, one at a time"
A girl raised her hand; it was Montmorency. "Please, forgive me, but what exactly is the purpose of doing this?"
"I would like you all to share the lessons you've learned from your familiar spirits since they arrived here," Colbert elaborated, "That's it."
She sighed, then said in a low voice, "Just for that? I don't get it…"
The teacher looked around the room, and then spoke. "Tabitha," he pointed to the petite, light blue-haired girl, "why don't you go first?"
Tabitha, never taking her eyes off her reading as usual, spoke in a monotone voice. "Wind Dragon. Sylphid."
Naruto was confused because he couldn't see the girl's familiar. Then, when he looked around, he gasped in shock: there was a giant blue dragon flying in the air right outside one of the windows!
"No way!" Naruto hollered with childlike glee as he got up to take a better look at it. "That's super cool, ya know!"
"Excuse me, Miss Vallière's familiar," Naruto turned around slowly, startled at the teacher's rigorous voice, "would you mind keeping the volume down a bit during class?"
The boy couldn't help but flinch a little. Colbert's tone was similar to Iruka-sensei's whenever he was about to chew him out.
"Ah!" Naruto looked around the classroom and realized that everyone was looking intently at him. "Y-Yeah, sorry, sensei! Hah hah hah!" He laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand.
"Well, since you've already got the whole class's attention, I think it makes sense for Louise to come in next."
Louise flinched, then threw a glare at his direction along with a low snarl. Ultimately she sighed and stood up, "I'm Louise Françoise Le Blanc de la Vallière, and this is my familiar," she gestured towards him, begrudgingly, "Uzumaki Naruto."
Naruto held his hand up and exclaimed, "Yo!"
"He comes from a faraway village and his type is…" her eyebrows twitched ever so slightly, "his type is… a peasant…"
Predictably, there were a few laughs. Not quite like the first time, though. He was starting to get more respect at least.
Colbert apparently noted that, so he decided to move on to the next student. "Very well, you two can sit down, Miss Zerbst, you're next."
Both of them did so. Louise sat down with a heavy sigh.
As she stood up, Kirche winked at Naruto. As he blushed and chuckled like an idiot, some of the male students snarled to themselves.
Nevertheless, he seemed blissfully unaware of the whole thing.
It wasn't just the boys who were mad. Louise herself was furious that her rival was getting so much attention from her familiar.
Grr, she hissed inwardly, that stupid dog…
Naruto looked around and was briefly startled by the image of Louise's long hair, which had once again sprouted upwards and coiled in the air, reminiscent of the fox's nine tails.
He immediately turned around, avoiding her eyes, which were pretty much glowing with rage.
"And now, Montmorency…"
Suddenly, Louise grabbed him by the shoulder like a frightened child.
"Hey! What's wrong?" Naruto asked in a soft voice, confused.
She was clearly scared, her body wracked with shivers as she held on to his arm. Naruto thought she looked oddly cute like that.
It seemed like no one had really noticed her reaction. He looked around to see what might have startled her, and he spotted Montmorency's familiar.
"What, that's just a frog…" Naruto whispered.
"I-Idiot! I-I really dislike those animals!" she said, her lips quivering. "B-Both frogs and t-toads!"
"Toads, toads…" Naruto repeated, his brain suddenly having an epiphany. "Toads! That's it!" He smacked his forehead, "You're right, Louise, I'm such a fucking idiot, how could've I forgotten that?!"
"Y-Yeah, how could you not know what your mistress is afraid of!" she chided.
"Not that!" he looked around, disregarding Louise's slightly offended glare. "Dammit, I forgot all my scrolls back at that stupid inn," Naruto groaned and then turned around to face Louise, "Hey, you got any paper and a pen I could use?"
"Why for?" she asked, at a loss, her fear apparently forgotten.
"To write a letter," Naruto said. "I think I just found out a way to contact my friends back at home!"
Louise looked surprised.
"So, what will you do with that?" Louise looked at the rolled up parchment in Naruto's hands as they stopped by the fountain outside one of the towers.
"Simple," Naruto said as he bit his thumb, making Louise wince a bit at the sight of his blood spraying. "Stand back." She did so.
Gamakichi is huge now and so is Gamaken. They'd stand out a lot, so I'm gonna need something way smaller.
He started waving strange signs with his hands. Louise had no idea what they stood for.
"I, Inu, Tori, Saru, Hitsuji," Naruto mumbled with his eyes closed, then he opened them. "Ninja Art!" he shouted suddenly, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu! The Art of Summoning!"
THUD! Naruto slammed his open palm on the grass.
Louise watched in shock as marks spread from his fingertips in a small circle of ink around it. What is that?!
There was a small explosion of smoke, and as Naruto removed his hand…
"A…" she looked at it with a blank expression. "Tadpole…" The tiny orange and green amphibian leaped lamely on the grass.
Naruto remained there, looking just as baffled as the mage, staring at the pathetic outcome. He asked for something small, but that was way smaller than the ideal.
An awkward silence stretched among the two.
"I… I swear something cooler usually happens," Naruto said, sweat-dropping.
"You really have no talent at all, do you?" Louise commented flatly.
"S-Shaddap, ya know, like you're one to talk!" Naruto barked.
"Dammit…" Naruto stared at his hand, perplexed as they walked through the courtyard. "It shouldn't take that much chakra to cast a simple Summoning, at least not when you've mastered it to the degree I did." He stuck his hand in his pocket and sighed. "Last time I summoned something so pathetically small was when I was just learning this technique."
He hummed thoughtfully for a second, "Hmm… maybe it's because I'm summoning them from another world, so I need a lot more chakra than usual to bring one here. Louise, you've got any theories?" Naruto asked, looking at Louise.
"D-Don't ask me about those things, how should I know?" Louise retorted, looking away. "Anyway, I have class in a bit, and I don't want to be late. Let's go, Naruto."
"Oh, no way! I could barely sit through the last one without passing out from boredom!" Naruto complained.
The noble sighed, "Fine! Stay there, but don't cause any trouble!" she snapped, pointing at one of the towers. Other familiars' spirits were gathered around it.
"Yeah, yeah," Naruto groused, raising a hand. "Stop being so bossy."
With the strange creatures as his only company and witnesses, Naruto gave the Summoning Jutsu another try.
So far, he'd tried it twice, but neither time had he had much of a success. Even so, he wasn't going to give up that easily. As they say, third time's the charm, and this time he felt like he had harnessed a decent amount of chakra to try and summon something, anything.
Both his hands were firmly locked together, forming the ram seal, and his chakra coursed steadily along his body as he put all his focus into it.
Such was his focus on the task at hand that a vein had begun to pop on his temples.
"All right," he opened his eyes, which glinted with resolution and then bit his thumb, drawing blood. "One last time. Let's see…" he began the required signs, once again chanting, "I, Inu, Tori, Saru, Hitsuji… Ninja Art! Kuchiyose no Jutsu—The Art of Summoning!"
Naruto was excited when he felt his chakra ripple through the ground, forming shapes in the grass.
There was a small smoke explosion.
Unfortunately, his excitement died quickly and without mercy, like a ninja getting his throat slit by an enemy, which is pretty pathetic when you think about it.
Just as sad as the tadpole dying right before his feet.
This common, simple and painfully average tadpole.
Things could be worse, though. At least the thing had a pair of functional (at least they seemed functional) if tiny legs this time around!
So, progress!
"C-Can you at least understand me?" Naruto asked, desperate.
When the creature didn't respond (Naruto wasn't sure if it even had a brain to begin with, and he didn't have the energy to find out), he just exhaled loudly and let the jutsu dissipate, so it wouldn't get stepped on by someone on accident.
He simply dropped into a crouched position, resting his back against the concrete wall of the tower, and looked up at the rolling, billowing clouds in the clear sky, the same way Shikamaru often did during his days off.
"Am I gonna stay here for the rest of my life?" he wondered out loud. Then he frowned, "No! I won't!" and clutched his fists, "There has to be a way outta here! At the very least to tell my friends that I'm all right!"
Besides… he thought back to the Sasuke he saw at the Samurai Bridge, and that maniacal sneer on his bloodstained face. There's still something I have to do…
One roadblock after another. How to circumvent it?
Suddenly he heard footsteps crunching the grass. Naruto turned around, and scrambled to his feet at once.
It was Guiche, and two other second-years. Their faces had a stern look on them.
Naruto also put on a grave face.
"Shouldn't you guys be on class right now?"
"Class just ended," Guiche trailed off. "We're on a break, right now."
There was a tense silence on both sides, broken by the shinobi with what sounded like a warning.
"Hey, look, I'm in a pretty lousy mood right now. If it's another fight you're looking for—"
"Actually," Guiche looked at the ground for a moment, looking strangely down to earth, "I… came to apologize…"
Now, Naruto was confused. More so than before.
So much so that he was speechless for a moment, before blurting out a single word, "… Huh?"
"I… said awful things, and broke your arm," he rubbed the back of his head. "I made a boneheaded mistake. I let anger cloud my judgment."
Wow, he was dead serious in his apology.
Naruto knew this well because he'd seen it before. Sometimes, he was amazed at how effective his words could be, even if he wasn't trying.
"Hey, c'mon now…" Naruto said, feeling a little awkward himself as he scratched the back of his head. "It's okay, I can take a beating. Seriously."
"Are you sure? It was quite serious?" Malicorne asked.
"Boy, I have some insane stories to tell…" Naruto shuddered slightly as he recalled his fight with Pain and how he got most of his body, especially his arms skewered by his Chakra Receivers.
"How's your arm?" the boy with the orange hair and glasses inquired.
"Ah?" Naruto blinked twice, then lifted his arm easily. "It's fine. I healed quickly thanks to Louise."
"A-Ah!" Guiche said. "That's nice to hear, hah hah…"
"Yeah! Hah hah!" Naruto nodded.
"Honestly, you were awesome during that fight, the way you never gave up, I'd never expected to see a peasant with that kinda resolve," Malicorne said.
"Well," Naruto smirked, "I don't like to brag, but I've had some pretty tough fights before. Uzumaki Naruto, by the way. Don't… think we've introduced ourselves properly and stuff…"
"Guiche de Gramont."
"Malicorne de Grandple."
"Oh, yeah, you're the guy Louise insulted, huh?"
"Who hasn't Louise insulted?" Guiche inquired.
"Good point." Naruto nodded, with his arms folded. "And you?"
"Reynald," the boy with glasses said.
There was a moment of silence, now the awkward type.
"Hey," Malicorne said, "What happened to your face?"
Naruto scowled, "Louise. She got angry and whipped me straight in the face the other night, can you believe that?"
They all nodded with a few laughs.
"Actually, yeah," Guiche said.
Malicorne laughed, "Louise is always a loose cannon, huh?" he nudged his friend on the shoulder, "Just like Montmorency, eh, Guiche?"
"Pipe it down, Malicorne!"
"Eh? I don't get it, whaddya mean? What happened?" Naruto asked, curious.
"After you beat Guiche, and Montomorency tried to comfort him he really messed it up," he said.
"Seriously?" Naruto looked at him, looking genuinely boggled out of his mind. "You screwed it up that fast?"
"It wasn't my intention!" he blurted out, his face turning red. "It just… kind of… said it in the heat of the moment…"
"He called her Katie, and she slapped him so hard he knocked him out cold," Malicorne said.
"Ohhh!" Naruto said, shutting his eyes into lines. "Honestly, Curly Hair, that's gotta be some of the dumbest mistake I've ever heard."
"Oh, shut up," he said, lamely, "We're both screwed."
Naruto frowned, "You got a point, there, Louise still looked pretty pissed off…"
"That was a nice prank this morning, though," Malicorne complimented.
Naruto puffed out his chest in pride, "Naturally! It's an Uzumaki Naruto classic!" he snickered as he folded his arms across his chest, "Heh heh! You guys should've seen the stuff I used to pull back in the day! This morning's was tame! Once I painted every single house back in Konoha!"
The four of them looked surprised.
"Honestly, I'm shocked they didn't catch you," Reynald complimented. "That seems too risky."
"Heh! Most of the people there aren't as fast as I am!" Naruto chuckled as he thought back of the Chūnin he used to outrun easily on a daily basis. "I've always been pretty fast."
He laughed.
All five of them chatted about everyday stuff for a while, and Naruto was taken aback by how much they sounded like his old friends from Konoha. It stirred up fond memories of Shikamaru, Kiba, and Chouji, and it was more pleasant than he had expected, which made him feel more at home.
It was all going well until they heard more footsteps. Naruto was the first to look up, and the others followed, visibly tensing up.
"You, there, peasant…"
"Oh," Naruto blinked. "Oh, yeah, you guys are those guys Kirche kicked out of her window, right?" Naruto retorted innocently, extending a finger at them.
The offhand remark wasn't exactly welcomed by the group of five older students.
The one with the tan skin and sideburns looked particularly angry.
"Think you're pretty funny, don't ya, little freak?" Naruto remembered him ever so slightly from last night. Kirche had called him Styx.
"We saw how Kirche was hitting on you last night," a pretty guy, with neck-length blonde hair hissed.
"Yeah!" the one with green hair snapped, "And we don't like it."
"We're here to warn you: stop seeing Kirche," the guy with the glasses and brown hair slicked back said.
"Or else we'll have to force you," finished the guy with the sharp-looking blue eyes and silver hair, covering the left side of his face.
"Eh?" he asked, genuinely confused. "Why would I do that?"
"Hey," Guiche whispered, "Y-You've been going out with Kirche?!"
"Well, she invited me to her bedroom last night," Naruto said.
"S-seriously?" Malicorne said. "Man, I wish I was that lucky."
"I don't think it's the time to be saying that," Reynald commented with a sweat-drop.
"What's more important…" Naruto looked at the group of older students for a moment, before blurting out. "Uh, what was your names again?"
"DON'T MESS WITH US!"
"Naruto!" Reynald said with a weak voice, clearly frightened. "D-Don't antagonize them!"
"Huh? I wasn't doing that?" Naruto replied nonchalantly. "I'm just wondering what their names are."
"Naruto, they're senior students," Malicorne said.
"They have more powerful magic than I have!" Guiche said.
All of them sounded incredibly frightened.
And yet, all it did was pique Naruto's interest.
"So," he rose to his feet. "What you're saying is that these guys are strong, huh?"
"Yeah!" Malicorne stammered. "Very much so! They have powerful magic!"
"I think Louise said last night that I'd be running through fireballs and whirlwinds," he cracked his knuckles. "Sounds fun, honestly."
"H-hey," Guiche said. "What do are you saying?"
"What'll you do?" Reynald asked.
"I don't really get why," Naruto stood before the older students. "But it seems like you guys really wanna fight, isn't it?"
"Yes," Styx hissed. "We're Kirche's fan club, and we're not going to let some low-level peasant steal her heart."
"I don't care about any of that, to be honest, but the idea of a duel with you guys sounds convenient," Naruto scoffed, "I could use some exercise."
"This peasant really doesn't know his place, huh?" the elegant-looking silver-haired man growled.
"Let's show him," Styx said.
Whereas the three sophomores shuddered with fear, Naruto remained stone-faced.
"When and where?"
Jeez, that Naruto… Louise grumbled inwardly as she sat down in a bench in an effort to clear her mind. He seemed really down in the dumps, does he really want to go home that badly?
W-Why do I even care?! She shook her head, angrily. If he wants to leave, then good for him!
"Louise," startled the girl turned around. It was Montmorency, standing behind her. "Have you seen Guiche?"
"Of course not!" Louise replied, sharply, as usual. "Why are you looking for him, anyway? I thought you were still mad at him."
"W-Well, I am mad at him!" she looked away, replying similarly to Louise. "I-I just wanted to make sure that flirt wasn't checking out another woman while I wasn't paying attention. That's all!" She nodded, despite the luminescent red hue on her cheeks. "Yes!"
"Hmph, I understand what you mean," Louise scoffed, thinking about the other night. "Men can be truly idiotic."
Montmorency nodded, "Honestly!"
Suddenly, the two heard a voice, "Hey! It's another duel!"
"What?" Louise stood up.
"It's the peasant, again! He's about to face off against a bunch of third-year students!"
Louise blanched. But the worse was yet to come…
"He's not alone!" another one said, "Guiche, Malicorne and Reynald are with him!"
Montmorency and her exchanged equally worried looks, then rushed towards the Vestri Courtyard, where everyone was apparently gathering.
"Men!" Louise shouted.
"Why are they all idiots?!" Montmorency finished.
That stupid familiar, she thought, I warned him what would happen!
As Naruto looked intently at the group of older students, he confidently told Louise's classmates behind him, "You don't need to get involved. All they want is me, right?"
"You don't have to say it twice!" Malicorne said, ready to make a run for it. Only for Guiche to stop him by grabbing him by the cape.
"Where is your pride as a noble?"
"Screw pride! We're gonna get wrecked if we go up against them! They're older than us and have more experience!" he shouted in protest. "Naruto can handle them on their own, right?"
"Yeah, the big guy is right," Naruto nodded, without looking at them. "I can do this alone."
"You're outnumbered!" Reynald asked him. "Do you think, you can do this?"
"Heh! You'd be shocked by the kind of stuff I had to deal with, Four Eyes," Naruto said, looking at him from the side with a broad grin.
D-Did he just called me Four Eyes?
"Hey!" Suddenly, Styx chimed in from the distance, "Peasant! Will you fight or will you stand down?"
In response, Naruto strode purposefully toward him, his unruly hair whipped to the side by an intense wind.
The two stopped facing each other. The older student towered over Naruto, but he remained calm and unfazed.
A palpable silence filled the courtyard as a crowd began to gather around them.
"Well?!" Styx snarled.
"I ain't throwing the first punch," Naruto declared.
The older student nodded, struggling to keep his anger from boiling to the surface, "Very well." So, he made the first move.
A fireball slammed into point-blank range, aiming directly at Naruto's face as the duel began.
"H-Hey!" Malicorne stammered.
"Naruto!" Reynald exclaimed. "It hit him straight on!"
"E-Enough!" Guiche said. "I'm joining in!"
"Are you serious?!" Malicorne said. "Duels are forbidden, remember?!"
"I beat him to an inch within his life, broke his arm, and yet he spared me, anyway! I have a debt to repay!" He looked at them, even as his legs were shaking. "Besides, not like we have much of a choice!"
The other two looked at each other reluctantly, particularly Malicorne, who clearly would have preferred to be anywhere else but there at that moment. They then each drew their own wands.
"Will you help me?"
"You said it yourself, we don't have a choice!" Malicorne said. "They will come for us later since they saw us with him!"
"We will be in serious trouble for this, Guiche!" Reynald said. "But Malicorne's got a point: we're screwed anyway, so might as well go out with some honor!"
But the three of them, Styx, and the others present froze in place, completely dumbfounded. A scorched bush fell to the ground.
The peasant was gone.
Where did he—
"You call that shit a fireball?" Naruto's voice shocked the older student from behind.
One brutal chop to the back of his head, and he was out cold, sprawling on the grass face first.
"My best friend could've done something better when he was just a kid!" he finalized, lowering his arm and recalling the time Sasuke almost incinerated him with the Dragon Fire Jutsu.
That's not normal speed, I didn't even see him! Guiche thought, flabbergasted. If he could move that fast then, he could've taken me out in an instant!
"Naruto, behind you!" Reynald warned loudly as he noticed the long silver-haired man aiming his wand at his unprotected back.
He stretched out his own to cast a powerful whirlwind spell.
Two powerful swirling columns of wind slammed into each other in front of the Uzumaki, generating a colossal wall of air.
"Whoa! I-I've never seen a Wind Style technique like that!" Naruto breathed, hastily raising his arm to shield his face from the ferocious winds.
Both wind users lost their balance and were sent reeling by the immense backlash of their spells. Reynald crashed into the nearby concrete wall, and the older student followed suit, hitting the ground hard and slipping into unconsciousness due to a nasty head bump.
"Are you okay?!" Malicorne exclaimed as Reynald staggered to his feet.
"Y-Yeah, I think so…" then he grimaced, holding his shoulder.
"Oh, now it's ON, juniors!" Gimly shouted.
"Oh, man…" Malicorne stammered.
"C'mon!" Guiche shouted. "You better not back away now, Malicorne!"
The yard quickly erupted into chaos that lasted for several minutes.
Louise and Montmorency quickly joined the crowd, pressing through all the people gathered there. Kirche was standing beside them, and Louise shot her a hostile look.
"This is all your fault, you wench!" she hissed. "You just had to flirt with my familiar too!"
The girl blinked, then gave a bashful smile as she brought her hand to her chin. "Alas~! Being so beautiful truly is a curse~!"
"What a narcissist," Louise remarked under her breath.
"Honestly," Montmorency nodded.
The two looked at each other, nodded, and then pushed through the crowd, both of them shouting at the same time.
"Naruto!"
"Guiche!"
"Yo, Louise!" Louise immediately noticed there was a single person left standing, and surprisingly, with no injuries or any signs of exhaustion, really. "You missed the party, ya know!"
The two noblewomen gaped at the grass: both third-year and second-year students were sprawled on the dirt. Unlike Naruto, they were bruised to hell and back, and apparently unconscious.
"Guiche!" Montmorency rushed towards him, his eyes spiraling as he let out a barely conscious whimper that indicated he was still alive, then she turned to glare at Naruto, almost accusingly. "Did you do all this?!"
"Hey, don't look at me like that! Of course, I didn't!" Naruto looked at the unconscious Guiche, "They charged into the fight and tried to duke it with the older guys. They lost pretty badly, so I had to help them out."
"You took on those third years all by yourself and won?!" Louise exclaimed, baffled.
"Yeah, honestly I'm shocked by how easy it was," Naruto frowned, "They kept saying these guys were super strong but they all went down with a single hit."
"For crying out loud, I told you specifically not to pick up fights at random!" she chided at him. "Do you ever listen?!"
"Cut me some slack, will ya?" groused Naruto with a sigh, "I already won!"
"Dueling is explicitly forbidden!"
"Not for familiars, right?" Naruto reminded her, with a goofy smile.
"DAAAAARLING~!" Kirche said suddenly, hugging him from behind. "I've never though you'd fight for my love! I'm sooooo~ honored! To take on older students, you're so courageous and strong!"
"Hey! Stop clinging to my back, it's hard to walk like this, ya know?!" he complained.
Louise seethed as he watched at them, "Stupid familiar, again waggling his tail at the wench…"
"Miss Vallière!" Professor Colbert chimed in, clearing his throat as he did so. "Can your familiar come with me for a second?"
Both Naruto and Louise looked at each other, confused.
Colbert opened the door, "Headmaster, I brought—!"
He froze, stunned by the sight before him, so did Naruto: headmaster Osmond was sprawled on the floor, and his secretary was mercilessly stomping her feet on his rear. Longueville's eyes were wild as she turned to stare at him, her breath coming in sharp, ragged gasps.
"Am… am I interrupting something?" he asked, though not really that shocked. The headmaster's antics were already pretty infamous across the campus.
"N-Nothing…" Longueville said, "I was just giving the headmaster some back massages—" she punctuated with a pair of final, brutal kicks, "—that's all!" she finished with an angelic smile.
"They're white," the headmaster said.
Longueville nailed a fierce kick to the elderly man's face. Then she picked up some documents and scoffed loudly.
"Dirty old man," she let out a low, angry growl before shutting the door with a resounding bang, making the teacher flinch behind her.
The headmaster sat up on the floor as though nothing had happened and lifted his hand, revealing a small white mouse, his familiar, resting in the palm.
"You did a good job," he laughed a perverted laugh.
"Headmaster!" the teacher admonished him.
"What?!" complained the old lecher as he got up. "Us old folks have a right to enjoy ourselves once in a while!"
"Still…"
Oh, brother, another Pervy Sage, Naruto thought, one of his eyes twitching with disgust. Is this geezer the headmaster?
In an attempt to switch the topic of conversation, the director cleared his throat as he stood up, "Ah, that's Miss Vallierè's familiar, huh?"
"Are Louise, and the other guys in trouble for the whole thing?" Naruto asked. "She said something about duels being forbidden."
Colbert looked at the headmaster, who looked back at him sternly from behind his desk. "Who started the duel?"
"Me," Naruto admitted. "They wanted a fight, so I gave it to them. I just wanted to see if he was in top shape. You shouldn't punish Louise's classmates or her. They just wanted to help me."
After a few moments, Osmond's face softened. "I see… seems like you worry a lot about Miss Vallière, huh?"
Naruto shrugged, "I kinda have to, considering I'm her familiar or whatever until I find the way to go back home, but she's not exactly what I would call a team player."
"Do you live far from here?" Colbert asked, gaining Naruto's attention. "It's the clothes," he elaborated, noticing his disconcert, "I've honestly never seen attire like that."
"Y-Yeah, very far from here, actually," Naruto lied.
"I see…" Osmond scrubbing at his beard, "May I have your name, familiar?"
"Uzumaki Naruto, old man," he said.
"Ah, I see—a bit of an unusual name, I must say."
The boy folded his arms, pouting, I'm gettin' that a lot, is my name really that weird?
The older man stood up, "May I see the runes on your hand?"
Naruto hesitated, but eventually lifted his hand. The old man glanced at the markings with keen interest, mumbling thoughtfully.
"Hmm, interesting…" he looked at Naruto. "Given the nature of these runes, it would be wise for you to acquire some sort of weapon. I presume you have already figured this, haven't you?"
"Louise said she's gonna get me one, tomorrow," Naruto replied, lowering his hand. "Hey, bearded geezer, y'know what these mean?"
"We have some theories." He then lifted a finger when he saw the boy's lips part as if to ask something, "All in good time, lad. Patience is key."
One of Naruto's eyerows twitched, Yeah, key—key to make me lose my friggin' sanity…
"Although I must say I am most impressed by your physical prowess. It's not an everyday occurrence that a mere peasant can take on several mages of that level at once and come out on top that easily."
Naruto rubbed the back of his neck, feeling flattered.
"If I may, I would like to ask you about something. So, tell me, are you the only one in your land who possesses these skills?"
Naruto was blindsided by the question, to which Colbert immediately responded, "Upon your initial arrival, I used a spell to determine whether you possessed any magical abilities — and, to a certain extent, you do — it's not the exact same kind of magic that we practice, but it does stem from the same source." The boy's expression fell to one of wariness (so chakra was the source of power here too, somehow?) before the teacher reassured him, "We have no intention of harming you—honestly, we don't think we could, even if we tried to—we simply want to learn more about you."
"But why?" Naruto asked, narrowing his eyes, "I'm just a peasant, right? Whatever that means."
After a brief pause in which both men stared at each other, the headmaster spoke, his fingers intertwined, "A fellow human appearing through the Summoning Servant spell is unlike anything recorded in our history here in Halkeginia. That is why we are intrigued. You seem to be a truly unique person, Uzumaki Naruto."
"Well…" Naruto looked at his feet for a moment, debating whether to speak or not, and if he did, how much he should divulge, "I'm…" he looked at the old man dead in the eyes, "I'm not the only one who can pull off this stuff. There are tons of people who can use chakra."
"Wait," Colbert chimed in to which Naruto looked at him, "Are any of them peasants just like you?"
"Well, most of them ain't no nobles, but a few hold some power—like my village's Hokage."
"Hokage?" the headmaster inquired.
Naruto nodded, "Kage stands for Shadow—Fire Shadow. The leader of Konoha. But for the most part, we just stick to defending our village and its people, the little guys who can't use that kind of magic."
"I see," Colbert said, looking somewhat shaken, "So, you're like soldiers, although you're so young."
"You okay, sensei?" Naruto wondered, noticing the turmoil on the man's face.
"Ah! Y-Yes…" Colbert said sheepishly, "I was just reminiscing about something. Do not concern yourself with me!"
Another moment of silence transpired before the headmaster Osmond spoke again, "I suppose you won't tell us more about that magic you call 'chakra'."
"I really can't," Naruto said. "Some of my jutsu are secret from my village, and I have already said more than I need to. Nothing personal."
The headmaster nodded, "I understand. You seem like a nice lad, after all."
Naruto grinned at the compliment. "So, about Louise and her classmates…"
"Don't worry, I'll overlook this incident," Osmond said. "Boys will be boys. Just, promise me something."
"Yeah?"
"Try not to start more duels. Please? The princess should come visit us soon and that would cause problems."
"Yeah, don't worry, old man, I won't."
"You may go, then."
"Yeah!" Naruto nodded, and strode towards the door while the bespectacled teacher looked at him go, "Later, sensei!"
The two heard the door shutting close, then Colbert smiled, "He's a good kid—a bit too exuberant, but good nonetheless—the power of the Legendary Familiar couldn't be in better hands."
"Indeed," Colbert nodded. "He managed to win over at least three students, especially the Gramont boy, with nothing but his words."
"Yes," Colbert agreed.
Osmond smiled through the beard, as he stood up and turned around to face the window seeing the boy meeting with Louise on the courtyard, "Miss Vallière got herself quite the familiar, after all."
"Hey, Louise!" Naruto waved at her, but she just glared and smacked him in the head—she had to jump to meet his height. "Ow, that hurts! What was that for?!" he whined, grabbing at his head.
"Idiot!" she spat, pointing her finger at him indignantly. "How dare you act so carefree after having your mistress worried like this?"
He looked at her, confused (still rubbing his head as he did so), "What? You were worrying about me?"
The girl immediately turned around, snorting loudly, "Hmph! So, what?! It's normal for a mage to worry about her familiar, especially when he pulls stupid stunts like that!"
There was an awkward pause in which Naruto just looked at her at a loss.
"A-Anyhow!" she turned around, pouting adorably, scrambling to change the subject. "Guess I was wrong about underestimating you, but don't do anything like that again, understood?"
Naruto tucked his hands in his pockets as he smirked smugly, "Told ya."
"Don't push it, peasant," Louise growled under her breath. "What did you talk about, anyway?"
"They just asked me some questions."
"You didn't tell them you come from another world, did you?" Louise threw him a sidelong glare.
"Of course not," Naruto snorted, "Not like anyone would believe that."
I certainly don't, Louise thought.
"In any case, I'm starving," Naruto said, rubbing at his stomach. "Is it dinner time already?"
Louise flinched, "Oh, no you won't."
"Eh?" Naruto turned around. "Now what?"
"Have you forgotten your little stunt this morning?! A familiar who treats his mistress's beautiful face like a canvas to scribble on is not worthy of the bread that the Queen has blessed us with."
"C'mon," Naruto groused, "Baby Louise can't take a little prank?"
Louise's response was succinct: she stomped a foot on Naruto's.
"OW! OW, OW, OW!" He was hopping on one foot, clutching the other in pain. "THAT HURTS, YA SHORTY!"
"We're even, now!" she spun around, snorting as she did so, and began to walk away. "I'll be going to the Dinning Hall!"
Naruto just frowned as he followed her suit. The Nine-Tails' chakra made sure nothing was fractured.
As he was on his way, through one of the halls, he spotted Guiche's group on the way. Montmorency was with them, apparently trying to comfort Guiche.
"Why are you guys so down?" Naruto asked.
"Why do you think? They kicked the crap outta us!" Guiche snapped, then grimaced from the wounds he'd taken.
"Don't move too much, idiot," Montmorency hissed.
"And now, on top of that, we're most definitely in trouble," Malicorne complained. "My gosh, what if we're expelled?"
"You mean the whole duel thing?" Naruto asked. "I talked about it with baldy-sensei and the long-bearded geezer." The four of them looked at him, somewhat concernedly, "Don't worry, you guys ain't in no trouble."
"Wait," Reynald chimed in, "Are you serious?"
All four of them looked pretty relieved. Malicorne even looked like he might burst out into tears of joy.
"I'm going to go find Siesta. I'm famished, and I doubt Louise will give me anything to eat. Later!" Naruto said, pointing with his thumb back towards the hall, before heading off.
"Wait," he heard Guiche calling him, so he turned around to look at him. "Thank you very much, I owe you one, Naruto, really."
"Don't worry about it," Naruto said, and then headed off, waving his hand as he did so.
In the depths of Naruto's being, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox lay, its massive head pressed firmly against the frigid surface of its prison. Water sloshed hotly around its lower maw.
Suddenly, bright red eyes flew open, and the fox's head shot up, looking around.
THAT ENERGY… it growled, its gigantic teeth gnashing together, WHERE HAVE I FELT IT BEFORE?
A/N: I'm not gonna lie with y'all, I'm kinda 50/50 on this chapter. So, sorry if it isn't what people expected during this amount of time. I was busy writing something else—I'm possibly publishing after being done with the first major arc of this story and the equivalent of volume 1 of the LN.
I could've made a lengthy fight scene, but I think it's kinda obvious just how ridiculously overpowered Naruto is now compared to those kids so just off-screening it saved me a lot of hassle.
Honestly, I enjoy writing character interactions more than fight scenes—which I think are the best part of crossovers like this, seeing characters from radically different series interacting with one another—and I wanted to establish more relationships that will be important later down the line.
This is pretty much the end of the introduction arc.