Hi.

~,,––,,^^-

Naruto

It was during the break for lunch that I realized I had made a terrible mistake.

…Okay, it was during the break for lunch that I realized I had made a mistake, OTHER than failing to set my damn alarm correctly. Even if they are related by cause and effect.

I stepped out of the classroom shortly after the bell rang and looked around trying to find a noticeboard on one of the walls. I vaguely remember the student handbook mentioning that the school would be posting maps of the campus on them for the first week or so, in order to help out the new group of students. Being an 'elevator' school, it took in the majority of its students in the early grades and as such most students already knew the layout of the school. Printing a map in every handbook every year was therefore considered a waste of ink and paper when a set of poster size maps could be made once and reused.

Spotting a map on the other side of the hall two classes down, I make my way over and join the small group loitering around the notice board and take a look.

Hmmm. It seems the cafeteria is on the ground floor next to the elementary division. Looks like I have a bit of a walk ahead of me.

I noticed a moment later that I was the only one at the board now and saw that the hall was beginning to clear out, some students heading towards stairs and others filtering back into their classrooms, presumably to eat. I quickly glanced back at the map and did my best to burn the campus layout into my memory for a couple seconds, then turned and began my quest for some food.

I'm seriously starving.

I looked around as I walked down the hall towards a staircase, taking in the sights and the sounds of the school. Keeping in line with expectation from my experience in the classroom, it was practically all chicks, with only a handful of other guys. There was an energy in the air, a feeling of not quite excitement, but something more like waking up in the morning and just knowing it would be a good day.

There was a group of girls hovering by a different noticeboard to my left, giggling about whatever girls talk about with their friends, while a masculine sounding burst of unrestrained laughter rang out from a classroom behind and to the right of me, slightly muffled by the wall. A pair of guys were leaning back on the stairway railing, bored expressions and quiet tones as they both looked down at their phones and chatted, ignoring everyone and everything else around them. And behind all of that was the constant noise of muffled voices and echoing footsteps acting like the background sound on a movie set.

It seemed like practically everyone was in a good mood, nervous or not, and even the students who are sworn enemies of going to school on a conceptual level like myself were enjoying the atmosphere.

I couldn't help the grin that clawed its way onto my face.

Even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be able to get rid of it.

As I reached the stairs and started heading down, I put my hands in my pockets and pulled out my phone.

I then immediately froze in place as the realization hit me.

Phone in my right hand? Check. My right pants pocket is now empty.

My left hand is in my left pants pocket. That pocket is empty.

The grin vanished from my face instantly.

… Where the hell is my wallet?

My trusty Gama-chan who has never left my side through thick and thin?! Who followed me untouched even through the war?!

I quickly patted down my school jacket's pockets as well only to come back empty as well. I threw my head back and scratched at my hair with both hands in frustration. "Ughhh! Think Naruto, think..." I sighed and let my arms flop bonelessly from my head, moving one hand to rub the back of my neck

I traced my steps from this morning to try and figure out what I was missing.

Let's see, uhhh… I woke up and grabbed my phone off the nightstand, no Gama-chan. I also grabbed fresh pants from my dresser and the only thing on top of the thing was my deodorant, so that's not it. The bathroom counter? Hmmm… Nah, that only had some soap, my toothbrush, a cup, and mouthwash on it. So it must have been downstairs, either in the small living room area or… the kitchen… that I dashed right past.

Unbidden, a memory of the previous morning arose, of me walking back into my home after returning from purchasing my phone. I had entered the kitchen with the intent of grabbing something to snack on while I was engrossed in figuring out my phone's features, and had absentmindedly tossed my keys and Gama-chan onto the small circular dining table on my way to the fridge.

Oh yeah, I never did lock my front door behind me when leaving this morning did I? Ehhh, not like it really matters that much. I live in the closest thing this town has to a gated community, so there's no real risk of theft,

especially considering the fact that the complex actually does have a gate.

Wait, hold on… it literally is a gated community! I live in a gated community, what the hell?!

What is this sensation I'm feeling? Is this what it feels like to be part of the upper-middle class, to realize I'm no longer a street rat? It feels… actually, it's kinda painful. My stomach feels like it's twisting itself into a knot.

It was only when I heard a weird gurgling sound from somewhere below me that I snapped out of my daze and looked around, to see the two guys leaning on the railing glance at me momentarily before going back to their… whatever they were doing.

Oh. That sound was my stomach. That feeling was my stomach. I'm still damn hungry, shit.

I sighed once more and turned around to go up the stairs instead of down. Since I didn't have money on me to get some grub, I might as well go get some fresh air instead. Some light stretching should also help ease my hunger pangs, so the roof was a perfect place for some privacy. As popular of a spot as it was in fiction like manga and anime, in reality, most students would never actually go to their schools rooftops. In most cases, the roofs are off limits and the doors locked, not really used by anyone other than maintenance crews for things like the ventilation systems. In the cases of it actually having usable space, most students prefer to stick to the cafeterias, with the space being reserved for certain clubs and practical class activities, like the egg drop experiment.

Once I got to the top of the stairs, I tried the door handle and was only slightly surprised to find it was unlocked. I'd honestly expected I'd have to go find a paperclip or something to pick it open. Eh, I guess the academy is more lax about this sort of thing than most other schools I'd read about.

A moment later, I stepped into the light.

ᓚᘏᗢ

Koneko

After the bell let us out for lunchtime, I packed up my things and headed directly for the stairs while ignoring everything and everyone around me, one goal in my mind; the roof. That was fine, the other students won't hold it against me if I don't acknowledge their greetings. They usually just chalk it up to me acting like a stereotypical kuudere, which I leaned into for exactly that sort of social leeway. Despite the other students frequently making a big deal about my (young) petite appearance, they rarely ever actually tried interacting with me directly, while the ones that do tend to be the types who have no sort of verbal filter or sense of social shame. In fact, the other students usually tried to steer those ones away from me out of some weird sense of protectiveness. Annoyingly, while that made it easier for me to get around the school buildings unbothered, it also reinforced the other's image of me being childlike.

Just because my chest wasn't as big as Rias-buchou or that cow Akeno, doesn't make me childish-looking. Sona-kaichou's chest is the same size as mine, and nobody ever mistakes her for an elementary schooler!

… Okay, Sona's not a great comparison with the way she rules the school with an iron fist.

Reaching the top of the staircase, I pulled out the access key from my school bag, having asked Rias to get me one last year. Pushing the door open a couple moments later and walking a few steps out onto the roof, I was greeted with fresh air and warm sunlight. As expected, the early spring sun and breeze made the roof a perfect place to eat lunch and then take a nap. I turned back towards the roof access entranceway and did a quick hop up at it, easily grabbing its ledge and vaulting myself up to the highest level of the roof.

Heh. If someone came looking for me while I was napping, they wouldn't be able to find me up here to interrupt me.

I used a tiny burst of very basic fire magic to evaporate any leftover moisture in the gravel roofing before sitting down, and grabbed my bento out of my bag. I then used a small teleportation circle to summon my second bento from my secret stash in the old school building's kitchen. My first one was an actual meal made for me by Akeno, with a couple riceballs, breaded fish, and some veggies, all drizzled in a homemade sauce. As much of a degenerate pervert as she was in private, she was excellent at playing the role of a traditional yamato nadeshiko, especially when it came to her hobby of making food for the club.

My second bento was basically just a way for me to hide even more snacks than usual in plain sight so Buchou wouldn't make a fuss about my eating habits. It contained several types of mochi, a couple skewers of dango, and a bag of Swedish Fish that I got from a specialty sweets store that imports internationally.

I also grabbed my mp3 player and a pair of headphones out of my bag, settling the latter around my neck while I prepared my music to play. After I found the song I wanted to play (an English rap song from the west) and plugged in the headphones, I pulled them over my head and slid them onto my ears.

With that settled, I pressed play, opened my bentos, and started my meal

I picked out an onigiri with one hand while my other grabbed a piece of the fish with a pair of chopsticks and popped it into my mouth. I took a bite of the rice ball right after and began chewing. I sighed in contentment moments later at the mix of flavors. The rice was both fluffy and chewy, with a sweet paste-like plum filling, while the tender fish was a savory mixture of crispy breading and a buttery soy sauce. After savoring the first bite, I scarfed down the rest of the rice ball in seconds and started picking at the veggies. I almost didn't notice it when the door down below me opened.

It only took me a moment to silently shift from my sitting position to laying on my stomach, maintaining full access to my food without the risk of being seen. After immediately pressing pause on my music, I sneakily brought a sauce coated piece of broccoli into my mouth as the sound of the door closing reached me. I waited a couple seconds. No footsteps. I slowly shifted my headphones back to my neck, chewing the crispy vegetable ever so slowly to not make sound anyway, savoring the citrusy sauce.

Just because I hadn't heard any footsteps, didn't mean whoever it was actually went back inside. They could have decided to hang around by the doorway for some fresh air, or been a college student sneaking in a smoke break, though the latter wasn't likely with the lack of any smoke scent in the air. Still chewing, I chanced peaking my head up to confirm whether whoever came up here had left or not.

I immediately stopped and kept my prone position as another piece of fish was brought to my mouth, because near the edge of the roof some thirty paces away, was the new blond guy with those whisker tattoos. Fishcake or something. He had folded up his blazer and hung it over the railing, and was walking more towards the center of the roof.

How did he get over there without me noticing anything? I don't have my ears out, but even still, all of my senses are stronger than any normal humans. I should have heard the gravel shifting or his clothes rustling.

I continued to watch him as I ate, trying to figure out what was going on. He had begun doing fairly basic– if impressive– stretches, twisting and bending in ways most teenagers would get cramps from, and holding poses that would tire out even athletic adults for minutes at a time. At some point, I finished the fish and veggies and moved on to the sweets, leaving my other rice ball for later. About halfway through the lunch period, he began to throw out incredibly skillful punches and kicks against imaginary opponents, ducking and weaving through nonexistent attacks, and still hadn't even broken a sweat or run short of breath. Which wasn't normal at all, for a human that I could sense no magic or chakra from.

Not even any touki, the most basic version of chakra. I frowned.

Annoying. My lazy lunch plans were disrupted because some physical freak of nature decided to exercise on the roof instead of the exercise yard or gym.

My attention was snapped back to him suddenly when he performed a rising high kick and, moving with the motion, hopped off the ground with practically just a twitch from his remaining foot into a twisting backflip. For a moment, the world seemed to go by in slow motion as his eyes met mine and widened while he was still upside down, twisting in the air.

Then the world sped back up, the moment having passed, and he squawked as he failed the landing, scattering gravel around him with a thump as his momentum sent him rolling towards me.

It occurred to me that they were the first sounds he had made the entire time he'd been up here.

I pushed myself up into a stand from my position on my stomach and proceeded to plop back down on my butt with my legs hanging over the lip of the stairwell's roof. My cover was already blown, and he was clearly not up here looking for me, so I might as well get more comfortable.

I pulled a stick of dango from my box and started chewing one while watching the admittedly impressive weirdo slowly push himself back up. I could personally keep up with him in speed, stamina, body control, and flexibility, but going by the metrics of a half-devil yokai when talking about what seems to my senses to be a human? I'm pretty certain not a single human at this school, magician or otherwise, would be able to keep up with him.

On top of that, I'm not bad at close combat. Not the best in the school– that'd probably go to Yuuto or one of the kendo clubs members– and I should probably train more, but I'm not bad. That little showing though, was way beyond my skill level. If he had even half the strength and speed I have as a devil he'd definitely still beat me more often than not in pure physical combat.

He was now fully back on his feet, patting down his shirt and pants as he faced me, a strained smile and red cheeks painting his squinting face.

"Hi there, uhh… Toujou, right?" He finished patting down his clothes and rubbed the back of his head. "I, uh, didn't think anyone else was up here, heheh. I'm Uzumaki Naruto, if you didn't catch my name back in class."

I finished chewing the dango and swallowed before speaking the thought I had moments earlier.

"You move quietly." I pulled another dango off my skewer with my teeth after.

His squinty embarrassed expression shifted into one of surprise, eyes opened in reflex, and he took a step back.

Not a single shifted gravel stone, ruffled pant leg, or shoe squeak. "Just like that." I added through a pause in my chewing, pointing a finger downwards towards his lower half.

"Ah. Uh…" He seemed at a loss for what to say for a moment before seemingly getting an idea. He shrugged and opened his mouth.

"I'm a ninja?" He said casually with a questioning lilt at the end. His expression was relaxed.

That's… not what I was expecting. I'm not really sure what I was expecting. Definitely not an outright admission. It was easy enough for the supernatural side of the world to deflect and gaslight the unaware even without the use of memory manipulation, because it was easier for humans to believe in mundane explanations than to jump to something as 'outlandish' as the supernatural. Mundane secret societies on the other hand, they generally had to be super careful about that sort of thing.

Sane people don't believe in the supernatural, but only insane people don't believe shady organizations exist.

I was right, he is definitely a weirdo.

I finished chewing and swallowed while staring at him. He shifted on his feet a tiny bit. I snagged another dango and started chewing again, observing his features better now that he was standing in front of me and not moving around so much.

His hair was a darker blonde than Yuuto's, almost yellow, and his skin was a healthy and even looking tan, but lighter than a stereotypical anime gyaruo. His eyes were pretty noticeably blue now that he wasn't squinting like a fox. Speaking of foxes, those whisker tattoos make a lot more sense now. He probably got them to play into his stealth and the way his eyes look, to come off as a sneaky trickster or something.

He fidgeted a little more under my gaze as I finished the dumpling.

Honestly, he kind of stood out as a weirdo already, based on his behavior in the classroom. When any of the other students asked him about himself and his previous school, he chatted back with the same constant grin and squint, talking a whole lot while simultaneously saying a whole lot of nothing, things that could be understood just from observing him. When warned by the teacher to put his jacket on normally, he said he forgot he left it like that, as if that explained anything. Showing up to the first day of classes with his dress shirt unbuttoned and his blazer hanging off his shoulders like a cape– while not looking weird itself– mixed with his gaijin looks, just made him look like some sort of chuuni-weeb delinquent. Even his name sounded like it came right out of one of Rias' mangas.

If it were just one thing between the silent movement, the standout appearance, or his way of talking around subjects involving himself, I would have probably just put him out of my mind as just having a unique skill, being a weeb-delinquent, or being a very private person respectively. As it is though, all three combined just look to me like a person involved in the supernatural world trying (and barely passing) to fit in with normal people. That being the case…

"I believe you." I said.

"Believe what you want, you asked and I gave you my ans– wait what?" He cut himself off, the aloof airy tone he was using dropping to something more plain and normal as he blinked in confusion and tilted his head. "You actually believe me?"

"Mm." I nodded.

He was almost certainly trying to double bluff me with the confession. The other students would have most likely dismissed his claim and mentally label him as an athletic chuuni or something, but I'm pretty sure he's just someone who's been living in a whole other world from normal people, whether that's literally or metaphorically speaking. There's no doubt in my mind that whether or not he's being truthful about being a ninja specifically, he's certainly no normal human. In which case, he very well may be a ninja.

"Huh." He scratched the back of his head again. Some kind of nervous tic maybe? "I'm not sure where to go from here, that trick usually works better in the movies."

Knew it. I called his double bluff. There was only one question remaining. Is he involved in the supernatural, or is he a regular old mundane ninja?

I mentally snorted at that. Mundane ninja. I didn't let anything show on my face though, it wouldn't do to drop my image in front of the new kid. That, and it's kinda fun putting people on the back foot. It's one of the reasons why I prefer to be so bluntly direct when I talk.

I calmly set the now empty dango stick back into my bento box and stood up from my perch on the ledge, then hopped the four meters or so down to the gravel roof, landing with barely a sound myself. It wasn't as quiet as he could probably do it, but it would be all but impossible for most normal people to do so. I didn't even bend my knees more than the tiniest bit on the landing even though I dropped a full story down. I started walking closer to him so we could talk to each other at a more convenient distance.

I could hear him just fine from my previous spot, but I could tell he had to strain a little to hear me earlier, and I didn't want to speak up louder. That would go against the image I set up for myself.

"Do you have ninja magic like in the stories?" I asked him with a tilt of my head.

I made a point not to acknowledge the absurdity of my own feat. It was an intentional showing. If I showed him that I wasn't quite a normal human myself, making it blatant that he and his potential clan weren't the only 'superhumans' in Japan without explicitly outing the more supernatural side of things, he'd be more willing to either confirm or deny the existence of 'ninja magic' rather than hide it from a potential threat or a 'normal'.

I stopped a meter away from him. I had to look up in order to meet him eye to eye, but not as much as I usually did. He was kinda short for a boy our age.

"Nahh, not really." He answered with a shake of his head. "Most of what I can do is just body control and mental focus. Stuff like parkour and freerunning, hand to hand, weapons throwing, stealth movement, and so on."

Well, that answered that. He would probably make a great [Pawn] if offered a place in a peerage, but Rias would prioritize a sacred gear user, like she suspected Hyou–

"–I haven't been able to do any ninjutsu for a while now." He continued with his hands raised in a shrug, grabbing my focus. If I'd had my other ears out he would have seen them twitch to attention. "I got injured pretty badly in a fight and almost died. I survived and recovered obviously," he gestured to his body with a wry grin at the statement, "but I wasn't able to fully recover, and lost my other abilities in the process."

I made a short humming noise in acknowledgement. Now that was interesting. So he did at one point have abilities, 'ninjutsu' he called it, that could probably be considered magic of a sort. How much he knew about the rest of the supernatural world was still in question, but he was at the very least aware that it existed to some degree. And if it was a lasting injury that took away his ninjutsu, but he seemed perfectly healthy physically, did that mean it was a unique internal organ that got damaged, a spiritual injury, or something else entirely like a curse that was causing his issue? Without knowing more about how ninjutsu was used, I had no way of knowing if he would gain back those abilities even if Rias offered him a place in our group.

Oh well. I'd tell her about him and she'd either offer him a spot or she wouldn't, and he'd either accept or he wouldn't, and that would be that. No need for me to put effort into recruiting him without her even knowing he existed yet.

"So, how about you, Toujou?" He shifted his weight to lean on one foot and slid a hand into his pocket. "You got anything like, uh, magical girl magic or something? Some body enhancing spell or magic reinforcement?" His free hand gestured lightly towards me. "Your little show over there should have strained your tendons with the way you landed, but I didn't see any of the signs of tension or pain in your legs when you walked over here super casually. Your body seems to be tougher than human biology should allow for."

I scoffed internally. Me, following in the Leviathan's footsteps? That would be the day. He was definitely way more perceptive than I expected though. Being able to read muscle tension so casually that I didn't even notice him looking? Maybe it's something he trained as a ninja?

I shook my head to the rest of his question though.

"Wasn't a spell or anything. Something else. I'm not a magical girl."

"Hmmmm…" He squinted and rubbed his chin with his hand. He suddenly stopped and snapped his fingers before pointing at me. "Secret Japanese government super soldier child experiment!"

"No."

"Damn, haha! Instant rebuttal!" He laughed. "Well, if it wasn't a spell or magic reinforcement, and it wasn't some secret drug or procedure by the government, there ain't a whole lot of other possibilities I can think of. It can't be a body technique, I know for a fact that the way you positioned your feet when you landed without absorbing the impact should have done damage. If there was only one thing I could claim to have learned during my forced and early ninja-retirement, it would be human biology with a focus on biomechanics. I–" I saw his eyes flicker to my hair for a moment.

He paused with his mouth open mid-sentence, before squinting in thought and turning away to look down past the railing at the rest of the campus.

"Eh? Could that-? No no no, that doesn't make sense… unless? Definitely not that, but maybe similar…?" He muttered to himself with his hand over his mouth. He lowered it and looked back at me. I tilted my head. "... Ah, Toujou-chan? Do you happen to have any non-human parents?"

Huh, didn't expect him to come to that answer so quickly, given how unaware he came off as regarding the wider supernatural world outside of his own ninja community. I wonder what it was about my hair that pushed him to that conclusion?

Regardless, I nodded. "I'm part devil." I didn't lie, I just happened to omit the fact that neither of my parents themselves were devils, despite that being the implication of my response.

He snapped his fingers again. "That'll do it. Non-humans and hybrids tend to have more efficient biology than humans if the hybrid in question survives until adulthood. I'm not familiar with devirs, but the term rings a bell. Are they some type of demon or yokai species?" He only stumbled slightly over the word. I preferred to use the English 'devil' instead of the more common 'akuma' among Japanese speakers, because akuma implied genuine evil in a way the English language couldn't fit into a single word.

I was only slightly surprised he didn't know the term. While not as common as in the west, English and Christianity were still relatively widespread in Japanese culture. We even have a church here in town, although it's been abandoned for a couple years. What surprised me more was his apparent familiarity with 'non-humans' without knowing about arguably the most well known (see: infamous) group of them.

I shook my head. "Sort of. Not really. Devils are the descendents of Lucifer, the first angel to fall from the Abrahamic god's grace. Sometimes devil and demon are used interchangeably, but they aren't the same."

"Abrahamic god?"

I clarified. "The Christian god. Capital 'G', God of Heaven."

He made an expression of understanding. "Ohh, like that Juses Chaps guy."

What.

I resisted the urge to show my bafflement and instead just nodded, not bothering to correct him. He will never know just how dumb he sounded at that moment.

He began to talk about some of the things regarding culture and religion that he'd read about in an attempt to acclimate to normal society that he didn't understand, making comments about how such and such story in such and such mythology didn't make sense to him for such and such reason. I could have told him that at least half of them were just stories early humans made up to explain stuff they thought they saw, but that would require talking, so I instead just let him ramble for a bit.

When he mentioned how funny and weird he thought the depictions of some youkai were– specifically kappa– I took a bit more active role in the conversation, considering the fact that one of my favorite rappers was a kappa. Maybe I was being uncharitable in how little I paid attention before youkai came up, but I felt justified considering he'd mixed up like ninety percent of the stories he read, getting all the details switched around.

Maybe it was my fault? Maybe I shouldn't have expected some weird hidden ninja-society guy to keep up with modern common knowledge. It's not like Christian missionaries made any impact at all on the Japanese people hundreds of years ago or anything. Not at all.

Once I brought up Salamander Tomita, the kappa rapper, he asked about what kind of music I liked most. He mentioned off-handedly that he wasn't very interested in music himself, but was friends with another ninja who liked to freestyle rap mid-battle, so wanted to hear another perspective on the appeal of it. I explained that it was about the story, emotion, and energy for me, how a song needs at least two of those three to match each other to be good. I could tell he only sort of understood what I meant by that, and that he was mostly just asking because he noticed that it was a topic I was interested in, so I decided to move the conversation along.

It was my turn to ask a question or two anyway.

"You brought up youkai and demons. Have you met any before?"

He shrugged. "Sort of?"

When he didn't elaborate further, I continued staring at him blankly. He stared back.

I tilted my head.

My strategy paid off, with him submitting in the battle of wills.

"I-I mean, i-it's hard to explain," he stuttered out while rubbing the back of his head again, confirming for me it was a nervous habit, "My home knew of nine particularly powerful and dangerous immortal creatures that we called demons, with some of them fitting the descriptions of certain yokai, but they aren't actually either of the two. Like, one of the nine was a flaming two-tailed nekomata. Another one is one of my closest friends, and he's a nine-tailed fox."

I couldn't stop my eyes from widening at the mention of a nine-tailed fox being his friend. While it's true that not all of them are amazingly powerful, since there are some kitsune family lines where every newborn has nine tails to begin with, the fully grown ones are always said to be equal to an Ultimate-class devil at the least.

That's not to say that they were all as strong as the upper echelon of Ultimate-class like the Satans, because they are not. The classes, when being judged by power instead of political status, were not linear. There's more of a gap between the weakest Ultimate-class devils and the Satans than there is between a base human and an Ultimate class, but that doesn't change that Ultimate-class is definitely not a low bar to reach.

He continued.

"But like I said, they aren't actually yokai." He shrugged. "As far as I was aware, yokai sightings back home were basically always just civilian superstitions caused by summoner-type ninja and the rare true demon. You confirming they exist with that Salamander guy is new territory for me."

I would have asked more– like what these beings were if not youkai, or maybe how he was friends with a kyuubi– but Naruto suddenly pulled his phone out of his pocket and grimaced.

"Shit, lunch break is almost over. We should probably head back to class." He sighed

I almost wanted to pout. Instead, I just nodded silently

He must have seen through my reluctance to end our conversation, because he grinned at me in that squinty fox-like way. "Well, despite the awkward start, it was pretty cool talking to you. You're the first person I've met in nearly a year with superhuman abilities. I was beginning to think that there weren't any others like us in the wider world until today, so thanks for being up front with me! We should totally hang out again some time, ya know?"

"Mm." I nodded once. I was still curious about these so-called not-youkai, and how an entire ninja society could remain hidden from the rest of the supernatural seemingly by accident.

With that said we headed back to the roof-access stairwell, him opening the door to enter, and me jumping back up to the upper level to clean up and grab my stuff. When I was back to being alone on the roof though, I had to wonder to myself.

If he was as good at fighting as his workout seemed to suggest without access to ninja powers, just how strong was he with them?

ᓚᘏᗢ