To an outside observer, the chess game between Rias Gremory and Sona Sitri, both of whom were among the most popular girls in Kuoh Academy, was just a friendly game between friends.
In most cases, if you saw two childhood friends play chess, then you'd be right, this time however, they just so happened to be giving each other death glares as their natural competitiveness took over.
It didn't help that they were the respective leaders of their own...'clubs', which were used to hide their devil activities from normal human eyes.
The Peerages of both of the kings were present as well, displaying varying degrees of amusement at their usually mature leaders acting like children, squabbling with one another.
Though, at the moment, Sona was looking on in thinly veiled amusement as she watched her friend try to find a way to protect her king piece without losing her last rook. "So, how is your investigation going along? The one about your potential new Peerage member, Rias?"
Blue-green eyes shifted from the board to the violet ones of the student council president in annoyance, her lack of available moves on the chess board was getting to her.
The bespectacled girl quirked an eyebrow, patiently waiting for a response as she gave her rival a chance to concentrate on her next move.
"It's rather difficult to discern currently, Sona. But that's alright, since I have already asked Koneko-chan here to use her strong nose to check his scent, in the hopes that it could give us a clue to what his Sacred Gear actually is." Rias eventually claimed, a noticeably growing smile lighting up her face.
Sona noticed Rias' growing happiness and couldn't stop her curiosity from growing along with it, wondering what Rias' resident rook found out.
Yet, despite her growing interest, she didn't want to 'lose' by admitting as much to her rival.
So she held her tongue and concentrated on the chess game, her violet eyes crinkling in slight annoyance.
Thankfully, Tsubaki; her queen, noticed her reticence and decided to do the honors herself, saving her from her admittedly childish dilemma.
"What did Koneko-san find exactly, Rias-sama?" Tsubaki asked, earning a pout from the young Gremory, disappointed that Sona herself didn't admit to her curiosity.
Beside her, Rias' queen began to giggle at her king's antics.
She really was too cute sometimes.
"Ara ara, Rias, are you upset that Tsubaki-san asked you and Sona-chan didn't?" asked Himejima Akeno with a sly smile, the second most popular girl in Kuoh Academy.
Rias glared at her queen through the side of her eye, before ignoring her question entirely, which in turn, just made Akeno break out into a new round of giggles.
The red-head shifted her attention to her rook; Toujou Koneko, and motioned her to come to her.
Toujou Koneko stepped up to her king, ready to give her report on the person that she has now dubbed as; 'the pervert'. "...Buchou asked me to use my enhanced sense of smell to check what Sacred Gear the pervert had...the other day. I...managed to get close to him yesterday while the pervert...was away running from the swimming club...again."
Even as she was speaking, the end of her lips were twisting downwards, expressing her displeasure without words.
Now...most people would think that she was only a littleupset over Hyoudou Issei's actions, but anyone who knew her also knew that even the smallest amount emotion out of the usually stoic girl was very indicative of her mood.
In short, she was less than enthused by the perverted boy's actions.
"Please continue, Koneko-chan." Rias encouraged, her growing grin hinting to how much she was going to enjoy her friend's reaction.
Koneko nodded and continued. "...When I got close to the pervert, I managed to catch his scent, which I recognized as..."
She hesitated there, unsure if she was sure in her assessment or not.
Still, she soldiered on regardless.
"A dragon." Koneko finished, while maintaining her standard monotone voice.
Completely unlike her though, Rias, for her part, responded with a full-blown victorious grin thanks to the information's implications.
And, if the widening of a pair of violet eyes were any indication, then those implications were big news indeed.
Dragons were legendary creatures of immense power and prestige, so much so in fact, that the Sacred Gears that were based off of them were all quite powerful.
More than that, very precious few Sacred Gears could smell like a dragon, which helped narrow down the possibilities...
Rias may have just hit the jackpot.
Sona couldn't help but cursed internally, more than a little putout that she didn't put more effort in finding out what that boy carried.
That being said, it wasn't like she would have tried to pull him into her Peerage or anything, but, at the very least, she could have bargained with her friend/rival for the right to recruit the young man.
Despite how childish it sounded, there was a reason for her frustration.
Essentially, there was an unspoken rule between them in regards to the acquisition of new Peerage members in and around Kuoh Town.
That rule went along with the idea of 'finder's keepers'; where the one who finds a prospective Peerage member with a lot of promise is allowed to convince them into their group without the other's interference.
Unless, of course, they negotiate between themselves about who has the right to get a shot first.
If she found Hyoudou Issei first, then she could have earned a favor from her friend, for use in the future.
It's always best to have an eye to the future, just in case.
Yet Rias found Issei first, and now held the right to recruit him into her Peerage, so it was too late for any sly attempts at forcing the red-head's hand.
Sona sighed as she peered at the chess board again, registering all of the possible moves that could lead her to victory in their game, wondering what play she should make...
Then it hit her.
More precisely, the image of a certain blond student with blue eyes and strange whisker marks hit her.
All at once, the young black-haired girl did a one-eighty in attitude as she decided to broach the subject with her friend, fully expecting to ruin her victory parade before it really began.
Such was her competitiveness with her.
"While I am happy for your success in finding a new Peerage member, Rias, there is something that I have to discuss with you before you celebrate." Sona stated seriously, knowing full well that, all games aside, they should discuss about any strange happenings that occur in Kuoh Town, especially in Kuoh Academy.
Rias' expression switched from lighthearted to straight-faced in a second, understanding that play time was over.
"...I have recently met a new transfer student to Kuoh Academy today. At first glance, he seemed to be a normal human teenager, but...he did something afterwards that made me suspect that he wasn't quite normal." Sona explained, as the light caught her glasses, giving her a foreboding look.
Deciding to ignore that, her friend responded. "Who is this boy? What tipped you off to this, Sona?"
Looking at Rias straight in the eye, she responded. "His name was Uzumaki Naruto, and he was a second-year student. I met him while he was trying to leave the academy grounds, and lectured him on his lackluster effort with his classes before he...mentioned that he had a family emergency."
The young Sitri cut herself off from there, stopping herself from revealing what the 'family emergency' entailed, as that was personal information that Uzumaki gave her.
As the student council president, she had a responsibility to not give out that information to others unless they wanted her to.
Meanwhile, Rias frowned, not really seeing anything too suspicious about this boy's behavior. At least nothing totally abnormal that couldn't be explained away.
"...It was only after our little talk ended, that he did something...unnatural." the student council president continued, violet eyes focused. "As he was moving to leave the academy, I noticed that he was moving at speeds that a normal human teenager shouldn't be able to...which was made worse when he didn't appear to be particularly tired afterwards."
If anything, her friend's frown deepened further. "...How fast?"
Sona didn't bat an eye. "As fast, if not faster, than the fastest normal human in the world."
Now that made Rias more attentive to her fellow devil's claim, very much seeing how she could be suspicious of how...'normal' this boy was. "Do you sense anything different about him?"
"Nothing." Sona answered clearly, figuring that she meant that in a literal manner.
It really was strange too, as the blond had three of those whisker-like lines on his cheeks, something that was definitely not normal by any means.
Yet, she didn't sense the energy of the yokai within him, so he wasn't a fox or cat yokai or anything...
That only left one possible explanation for this then.
"You think he has a Sacred Gear...a powerful one at that, I expect." Rias murmured with growing realization, interpreting her rival's mindset.
Most Sacred Gears stayed dormant inside humans for their entire lives without notice, allowing them to continue to live their lives as normal beings.
However...some Sacred Gears were so powerful that they actively aided the holder despite being dormant in their soul.
Yet, only the most powerful of Sacred Gears could possibly do something like that, which meant that this 'Naruto' could very well have enormous potential.
"Hoooh...so you've been quite busy yourself, eh Sona?" the red headed devil asked with a knowing smile, a smile which had the student council president narrow her eyes.
That smile meant that the young devil had a decidedly good idea, and in such a situation, where they were talking about an individual that had enormous potential...that smile was nothing except bad news for her.
"Hey, Sona? Do you remember that favor that you owe me in regards to Tsubaki? I would like to cash it in." Rias expressed with a cheerful smile.
Sona felt her eyes widen at her friend's words, before sighing and placing her hand on the top of her forehead, already figuring out what was coming next.
The reason she even shared this information with Rias in the first place was due to the fact that 'finder's keepers' would be in place, allowing her to lay claim to grabbing the strange blond without interference.
If the rule wasn't in place, then she would have kept quiet about it until she learned more about the blond.
The two childhood friends were also rivals after all.
But now it seemed that her rival has decided to change the standard rules of the game, invoking her 'favor'.
That favor in question was in regards to Rias' aid in helping Sona acquire her first Peerage member in Shinra Tsubaki.
When they were younger, apparently, Rias stumbled upon Sona's future queen after the incident where Rias acquired her own queen, thanks to the actions of a particularly rowdy groups of exorcists.
Exorcist groups that were closely involved with the Japanese Shinto Gods.
Among those exorcists groups, were the Himejima clan, who were considered to be among the most powerful and influential family of exorcists in Japan.
Back then, that clan, after a long series of complicated events, were hunting down Rias' queen; Akeno, who was related to the clan's leadership and exiled.
Rias personally intervened on her future friend's behalf, forcing the clan to the bargaining table in order to get them off of her back.
Before she even brought them to the talks though, it appeared that the Himejima clan had managed to inform the other, less influential, exorcist clans of their plight. Mobilizing them in the name of protecting their 'purity'.
So the Himejima needed to inform the other clans of the new development, otherwise Akeno would continue to be hunted down by the Shinto-aligned exorcists.
It was then, during the meeting between Rias and the disparate Shinto-aligned groups, that the young devil would meet Shinra Tsubaki; a girl from the relatively undistinguished Shinra clan.
A girl who was isolated due to her power of attracting supernatural beings.
Honestly, back then, Rias would have taken her as another Peerage member herself, but then...she remembered something.
Her friend and rival; Sona, was currently lacking of Peerage members at the time.
Add to the fact that Rias herself had her hands full in making sure Akeno would join her without the Himejima clan's interference, and she figured that her friend could give Tsubaki a shot instead.
The rest as they say, is history.
Though, she did earn a favor from Sona, thanks to that little tidbit.
Rias somewhat regretted her decision later on though, since in only a year later, she would be faced with a threat that would need to build up her Peerage to become as formidable as possible.
Which was why she was invoking her favor now, several years later, for this boy.
"This is highly irregular Rias...isn't there something else that you'd like to request of me as a favor...?" Sona asked with a twitching eyebrow, her irritation becoming obvious.
For Rias to use that favor, which she held over her head for the past several years now, of all times...
"Unfortunately, I would like to use it now, I'm sure you that are relieved that you don't have to worry about Uzumaki Naruto anymore, since I'm going to take him off your hands now." the young Gremory stated blithely, grinning from ear-to-ear as she finally made her move on the chessboard.
Sona just groaned, and moved her rook to capture Rias' king, winning the chess game without much effort.
Yet, somehow, even though she knew she won this game, she still felt like she lost.
It was an irony that was annoying to think about.
Naruto just stared across the table at the two recent newcomers, present in what he considered to be his 'home base'.
His home away from home, his safe zone, the place where he can let Uzumaki Naruto rein free once more.
Well...at least it used to be.
Blue eyes regarded a pair of pink and purple eyes coolly, aware that the individuals who owned those eyes have thoroughly destroyed any hope of him keeping his anonymity by their sheer presence.
To be honest, he was still kind of in shock; what exactly has he got himself into this time exactly?
These two girls have recently told him their story; how Maria was a succubus-devil hybrid, and how Mio was a hybrid of a devil and a human.
Hell, he didn't know that hybrids were a thing until now, such was his ignorance.
But the red-head...she wasn't just any kind of half-devil...she was the daughter of Lucifer!
The real Lucifer, the one that he read so much about through his clones, and apparently; the former leader of the devil faction in the Underworld.
Naruse Mio was the daughter of a Maou that was overthrown in a civil war, where dark feelings about the first Lucifer were no doubt still festering in the hearts of the winning faction.
He picked the absolute worst person to offer a home to.
But the fact was that it happened, nothing could change that now.
And now that he had offered his home as a safety net against their enemies, Uzumaki Naruto would keep them safe, at least until they were able to move on their own.
Hopefully this entire incident would blow over without anyone noticing.
At least...he seriously hoped so.
"Ok, before any of you assume anything. I'm not about to kick either of you out now that Mio-san here is awake." Naruto reassured easily, sensing how tense his two guests were by their squared shoulders.
Considering how the tension immediately left their shoulders following his statement, it was obvious that both of the half-devils were immensely relieved.
Besides, he knew full well that even if Mio was conscious now, and Maria was now no longer sleep-deprived, they were both still not at a hundred percent. Not only that, but they could both be attacked by stray devils again if they didn't have a secure place to rest at.
Speaking of which...
"Quick question, why were the stray devils hunting you specifically?" Naruto asked, curious on why so many of these, apparently, mindless creatures managed to hunt them down.
Maria tilted her head in confusion. "Didn't I mention that Mio-sama's unique smell attracts such beasts to her? Since she is the daughter of the first Lucifer, she naturally attracts stray devils since they sense the hidden power inside of her. Unfortunately, since she is part human and still new to her powers, the monsters she attracts try to eat her since they think that she's delicious meat..."
"...You didn't have to put it like that." the red-head grumbled in soft protest.
The succubus sweat-dropped by this point, shrugging helplessly at her usually reserved charge.
Although she seemed to be taking the situation lightly, she actually was genuinely worried whether the stray devils would drive them from this new temporary home of theirs.
Just like every other time they tried to settle down somewhere.
Before she could even voice her worries to Naruto however, the blond spoke up again. "Good thing then, that this house is protected with my-"
Naruto cut himself off abruptly, realizing what he was about to say, much to his chagrin.
No matter how he looked at it, it was even harder to hide his identity while he was in his own home.
This was somewhere where he was comfortable, and that loosened his guard in regards to his willingness to talk about things that, normally, wouldn't be too bad to share in his world.
Before Naruto could try to do something to salvage his blunder, Mio supplied him with a means to do just that. "Did you mean to say 'magic', Naruto-san?"
The shinobi blinked, and focused his gaze on the red-head, quietly studying her.
She was unconscious when Naruto and Maria initially met each other face-to-face, as well as their subsequent conversation.
...Now that he was looking at her, especially as she cautiously shifted her gaze away from him, he could quickly figure something out about her.
She was scared of him.
He supposed that that made sense, since the last memory that she had of him probably revolved around his killing of those stray devils.
That was not exactly the best of impressions possible to a young girl like her.
A belief which turned out to be exactly correct.
Naruse Mio was a young girl that has lived a normal life mere months prior to this moment, and was, frankly, more than a little wary of the young man that killed those beasts without a care.
Yeah, they were mindless monsters...but still...
That being said, Maria seemed to have gotten a good impression of this man while she was out, and she trusted her guardian's advice.
After all, she would be dead without it guiding her when her foster parents were killed.
The red-head winced at the thought, still smarting from the fact, but quickly swallowed it down.
Meanwhile, Naruto took the lifeline that was given to him, accepting Mio's help. "Yeah, magic. Exactly that! Sorry about that, but I rarely talk about my powers to others, so it's a bit...weird, to talk about this."
Even while he was speaking, the young man was nervously scratching his head, a gesture which was filled with nervous energy that needed to be removed.
Apparently, Maria took it as a sheepish apology.
"No need to apologize, it is understandable, Naruto-sama." Maria said with a smile, cheerful.
Naruto twitched, feeling that the 'sama' honorific was a bit too much, as he really wasn't used to such formal ways of speaking...even if he was forced to use 'san' more often so that he didn't stand out...
But he had to ignore that for the moment in order to address something more important.
Ground rules.
"Alright, since we are going to live with one another for a while, I have a couple of rules that both of you need to follow, since this is my home and you're crashing here for a while." Naruto stated clearly, leaving no room for interpretation.
Both girls nodded in understanding, grateful to even be having a place to crash at all.
"First; don't practice any of your magic inside the house, unless it doesn't blow up. Second; both of you will have some chores to do to pay me back for freeloading. Last and most important; do not go into my room under anycircumstances. We clear?" the shinobi emphasized, trying to be unwavering on these points.
To be truthful though, the chores thing was something that he just made up on the spot while he was thinking about the rules that he could place. He usually forced his clones to keep the place nice and tidy before now, but now that these two were living here, he didn't have to use that anymore.
This was his way of getting out of doing chores himself.
But the last rule was very important to emphasize, since his room now carried all of his ninja gear and scrolls.
All of which he managed to scrounge up after his surprise entry into this world.
It also held all of the numerous records of possible leads that could -possibly- help him get back home, but so far, the only one that proved somewhat successful was the kuchiyose no jutsu for his contract with the toads.
It didn't work.
Or rather, he required an exorbitant amount of chakra to use it when compared to the amount he needed back home, and considering how large his chakra reserves were, that really was saying something.
The most he was able to summon was a tadpole, which took up to twenty-five percent of his chakra. Maybe he was too far away from home to use the kuchiyose no jutsu...?
Well...at least he's done one smart thing today.
Once upon a time, all of his materials and notes were sprawled across the living room haphazardly, but thanks to some quick thinking, he changed that.
When Maria wasn't looking, he made a clone and forced it to race back home in order to clean everything up, put it into his room, and lock it up with some seals that reinforced the door. Hiding them from view.
He didn't mind if people thought that he was a strong magician, but if people figured out that he wasn't from this world...then that was something different entirely.
Maybe it was the fact that his clones saw too many alien books and movies, but he was still pretty sure that people would want to catch him in order to do experiments on him...
The blond shivered slightly just thinking about it, nursing his new-found wariness of medical equipment.
Meanwhile, both girls shot glances at one another once Naruto finished laying out his ground rules, speaking without words.
After a brief pause, they both eventually nodded and turned back to the blond, prepared to agree to his terms.
A safe haven with rules was infinitely better than no safe haven at all, as they could actually take a breather from their consistently dangerous lives on the run.
Naruto took a second to check the time by checking the clock on the wall, sighing at what he saw. "Alright, I'm gonna head to school now...so you guys can just stay here and rest up, since neither of you are completely healed yet. I will see you guys after school."
The young man was already getting up from his seat in order to leave, dreading his boring day.
Yet, in an interesting twist, he was suddenly stopped by a hand to his shoulder.
Which just so happened to belong to the still-uncomfortable Mio.
"Can I...well...um..." Mio stuttered out, her voice faint and low, eyes shifty.
The red-head was obviously trying to say something to Naruto, though, for the life of him, he couldn't quite grasp what. It was all a garbled mess to him.
Maria, for her part, couldn't help but smile at her friend's shy nature, before quickly deciding to stop the painful scene and help her.
"She wants to come with you to the school so that she could apply there. I apologize for Mio-sama's behavior...she doesn't know how to act in front of her 'savior' yet I bet." Maria claimed, shooting a sly glance towards Mio's direction.
Whether the charge was true or not, the red-head's face still took on a similar shade to her own vibrant red hair.
"Th-! That's not it!" Mio shouted indignantly to the silverette, before clamping her mouth shut and glaring at the ground.
"...Then what is it?" Naruto questioned with a tilt of his head, more confused than anything else.
At the blond's query, Mio managed to stop glaring at the ground and ignore her obviously amused guardian. "I...wanted to go to school too..."
The shinobi's eyes widened slightly, surprised to hear that kind of request, of all things. "...Why?"
By this point, the red-head was beginning to squirm under his focus, but managed to keep forging ahead regardless. "...Before I knew about my lineage, I lived like a normal human girl. It's what I was, nothing more or less than that. So I can't help but...well...want that sense of normalcy again, you know?"
As if a switch had been flipped, she kept going, gaining more steam as she went along. "I just want a chance to feel safe again, with the worse thing that I have to worry about doing is getting good grades. So can I, please, please, please come with you to see this school?"
Mio was practically begging now, so much so that she was actually kowtowing to him, hoping beyond hope that he would give her the green light.
She knew that Naruto had, essentially, become their de-facto guardian while they lived in his home, so it was actually quite selfish of her to make such a request.
He probably felt responsible for their well-being by this point, so this appeal to his kindness could be easily seen as an abuse his inner decency in order to make herself feel 'normal' again.
All while she was placing herself out in the open again, where she could be attacked once more.
It wasn't fair to either Naruto or Maria.
But, deep inside, she knew that desperately needed this.
She somehow found the willpower to stay alive after her foster parents were killed by devils who hated her real father...but that was slowly being pushed to the brink with all of danger that followed afterwards.
For the first time, in a long time, she felt she was safe enough to finally...move past of what happened.
Safe enough to go back to what life was like before the people she called 'tou-chan' and 'kaa-chan' were murdered right in front of her.
So she hoped.
Which was why, when everything went silent, the tension was slowly becoming unbearable.
For a moment, Mio seriously began to worry that she angered their new protector, so she had brought her head up immediately in order to apologize for such a transgression.
At least, until she saw something that made her jaw unhinge.
Naruto was staring at her, just staring at her...with tears streaming down his face like a waterfall, and snot trailing down his nose.
The red-head was seriously gawking by this point, unable to believe what she was seeing, unable to even register it.
This was the mighty warrior that slaughtered the stray devils just yesterday? This was the man that frightened her just earlier this morning?
She just couldn't reconcile that the warrior yesterday and this...person in front of her were actually the same.
This guy...
This guy was weird.
...Not that she thought that that was a bad thing.
"Horrible...just horrible! Of course you can come with me dattebayo! You deserve to have some happiness! To feel safe! And if this is what you need to do in order to reach that, then let's go!" Naruto cried as the waterfall tears were wiped away by his sleeve, before grabbing her arm and literally dragging her towards the direction of Kuoh Academy.
"Wa-wait! Not so hard! Hey! If you keep this up I'll kill you a hundred times over! Hey! Are you listening to me!?" Mio cried, getting dragged further and further away from the house from an overenthusiastic teenaged boy.
Maria just watched all this happen with an amused smile.
Life seemed to be making a positive turn for everyone involved.
She giggled a little and trailed after them.
After Mio finally curbed Naruto's enthusiasm, the small group began to walk at a more sedate pace towards the school, with Naruto explaining what Kuoh Academy looked like, and how it was like.
So far, she liked what she heard, but was slightly bummed out that Naruto couldn't really tell her how the teachers were like, since he seemed to either skip their classes or fall asleep on them.
She supposed that, considering his rather spontaneous outburst, she should've expected that.
It took a little bit, but the group finally made it to the gates of the prestigious academy, and Mio couldn't help but marvel at it.
It was huge!
As she had her attention focused purely on the wealthy institution itself, the blond took note of something else entirely.
A girl was standing in front of the gate, welcoming them in, and checking to make sure all of the students there were in their proper uniform.
That girl was Shitori Sona, the student council president of Kuoh Academy.
Naruto cursed under his breath as he searched for a way to warn his new 'roommates' to dodge the president's notice.
But, just like last time they met, the girl with glasses noticed him before he could try and escape.
Damn it.
Naruto plastered a smile on his face and greeted her. "Heya, Shitori-san! What are you up to in this fine summer day?"
"Ah, Uzumaki-san. I am pleased to see you have decided to return to school. I hope your sister is doing well?" Sona questioned, ignoring his sarcastic remark, before she noticed that the teen wasn't alone.
The first one that she noticed was little girl next to Naruto, who was wearing what looked like a classic gothic lolita dress.
Well, she supposed that everyone had their quirks.
But his other companion made her do a double-take for a moment due to the girl's stunning similarity to one of her friends.
"...Rias?" Sona asked hesitantly, before reason finally took control of her momentarily stunned brain.
No. Now that she looked at the girl more closely, there were many differences between the most popular girl in school, and Uzumaki Naruto's companion.
This girl had pink eyes, a more rounded face, her hair was a lighter shade of red, was of far shorter length, and was physically quite shorter than her childhood friend.
The confusion was quite embarrassing for the usually serious student council president.
Mio was shocked by the bespectacled girl's outburst, getting a confused blink out of her.
Who was Rias?
But before she pondered the question further, the bespectacled girl shook her head and then spoke again.
"I apologize for my momentary outburst, I am Shitori Sona. The student council president of Kuoh Academy. It is nice to meet you the two of you." Sona introduced herself politely, before turning to Naruto and pinning him with a stare.
Naruto just raised a brow in response, confused at why the kaichou was looking at him, as if something was his fault.
"Uzumaki-san, while it is nice that you are showing your friends around Kuoh Academy, it is also not allowed. Unfortunately, you can't bring in individuals who aren't students, or aren't related to any students attending here. I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask you to escort your friends off of the premises. Rules are rules after all." Sona stated sternly.
To her, rules are guidelines meant for people to follow so that everyone could prosper to the best of their abilities.
"Uh...well, actually, she is related to me, Shitori-san." Naruto claimed and slightly regretted in the same breath.
He quickly decided to roll with it.
Mio turned to look at the blond with incredulity, unable to understand what the hell he was talking about.
What she didn't realize, was that the teen was trying to, in his own clumsy way, get her a spot in Kuoh Academy. Especially after hearing a bit of her story..
The shinobi quickly realized that only a parent or legal guardian would be able to enroll Mio into Kuoh, due to the rule that Sona just told him.
And since Mio's guardian was Maria, who probably have not 'legally' adopted her, so to speak, that meant that the red-head literally had no way to possibly get enrolled.
At least, within the short time frame that she was probably gonna stay in Kuoh Town with Maria.
Also, Naruto didn't want to make another fake persona like 'Minato' with a clone using a henge again, wary of just making up a 'parent' for her so that he could enroll her in.
Make too many fake personas, and he'd fuck up sometime in the future.
Thankfully, if this conversation worked like how he thought it would, then he could just use 'Minato' again to help enroll her.
Or better yet, just skip using a henged clone again.
So Naruto enacted his brilliant plan in order to help her out.
"You see..." the blond drawled out slowly, his eyes boring into Sona's with grim seriousness. "This girl here is actually someone close to me. As a matter of fact, I've mentioned her once to you before, kaichou."
The student council president straightened her spine at this claim, her mind registering his words, quickly recollecting their last conversation. "You mean...?"
With a triumphant grin, Naruto opened his mouth and made his announcement, revealing his brilliant idea. "That's right! This girl right here is my sister; Mio!"
Everyone there fell silent following this exclamation, with the only thing interrupting it being Mio crashing into the ground, face first.
What the hell!?
"So...this is your sister, Uzumaki-san? I must say that it's nice to meet her in person. Tell me, have you been feeling alright since your brother went to check up on you?" Sona asked ,quickly recovering from the blond's words, and pushing her glasses back onto the bridge of her nose.
It nearly fell off of her face due to her shock.
Mio, by now, was just staring owlishly at Sona, trying to understand what the kaichou of Kuoh was talking about.
There was no way she was talking about the battle that happened in the forest northwest of Kuoh Town, right? But what else could she possibly be talking about?
The half-devil looked helplessly at Naruto, asking him without words to give her an idea of what to do.
She saw his eyes widen as he tried to give her signals behind the black-haired girl as to what to do, though she had absolutely no idea what the hell he was trying to say.
She decided to play it safe.
"Thank you for your concern, Sona-san, I'm much better now thanks to my...nii-san." Mio admitted with a flushed face, trying not too fall over due to her embarrassment.
Maria gazed at Mio with interest, filing away a possibility of a fetish, for teasing material for later.
In her humble opinion, she felt that Mio-sama needed to be teased more.
Sona nodded, finally mollified that the rules weren't being broken by the blond and finally allowed them to pass.
Naruto exhaled a sigh of relief at that.
The stern girl was hard to say 'no' to, but he suspected she was like that with most people.
It was only when they moved past the gate, and then moved so far away from it that they couldn't see it anymore, that the shinobi quickly moved closer to his two companions and asked a question that he should have asked before.
"Hey...how come I couldn't sense your presences as devils at all? Hell, Shitori-san didn't suspect a thing about your true identities." Naruto wondered aloud, genuinely curious.
He sensed their use of demonic powers in the forest, but for some reason, he was barely able to sense their presences anymore.
Granted, he wasn't that good a sensor unless he was in Sage Mode, but still, his close proximity should have given them away.
Maria just winked at Naruto. "I have the ability to suppress our presences from others, it's a skill that allowed Mio-sama and I to live for as long as we have while on the run. It isn't perfect, and not too strong either, but unless someone is actively searching for us, they won't be able to tell us apart from an average human."
Naruto just shook his head in amusement at her antics and began walking faster, taking the lead in order to give them a tour of Kuoh Academy.
In the window of the Occult Research Club's main building, Rias Gremory was staring at something outside of the window, focused, intense even.
Her queen moved up to her side and offered her a tea from the tray that she was holding, expectant.
The king thanked her quietly, yet never took her attention away from the window, remaining focused.
Akeno tilted her head at Rias' strange behavior, and decided to follow her line of sight to check on what exactly had her attention.
Her eyes landed on a group of three that was talking animatedly with one another, being led by a teenaged boy with spiky blond hair, slightly tanned skin, and...whisker marks.
Ah...
"Ara ara, it seems like you have your sights set on a little fox, Buchou?" Akeno teased her friend with a small smile hidden behind her hand.
Rias just ignored her and stared hard at the boy, though she quietly acknowledged that he, indeed, kind of looked like a fox with those whiskers.
...Uzumaki Naruto, right?
The blond held himself up high while he walked, not leaving himself in a slouch like most teenaged boys did in their carefree lives. More than that, there was a bright glint in his eyes that spoke of a very positive attitude.
Though, that was all she could gather from her highly tuned devil eyes, but now, at least, she was keenly interested.
So this was who Sona noticed, huh...?
Rias nodded decisively, and smoothly went back to her desk in order to plan out how to best meet with him face-to-face.
With Naruto and Issei reinforcing her Peerage, she should be in a much better position to stop her nightmares from coming true...
Naruto figured that Shitori-san was probably very disappointed in him.
But he didn't really care about getting himself an education since he has a much better reason to say; 'When will I ever use this in my life?'.
After all, he was going to get back home one day, while focusing on beating the crap out of some people and talking down some others.
So he really doubted that he would ever need to know about how to draw art, learn about biology, or this world's history.
But, at the very least, he was able to give both of his new roommates a decent tour, which took most of the school day.
So he decided to skip his classes again, and lead his new friends back home.
"So Mio, how do you like Kuoh Academy?" Naruto asked his 'new sister'.
Mio beamed at him, and began to animatedly talk about how great the high school was, and how she would love to enroll into the school.
The sheer concept of going to school again, and making new friends really seemed to have brought the red-head out of her shell a bit.
Naruto just smiled at her exuberance, internally deciding that he would do his best to make sure that she could smile like that.
As long as she was under his case, he would do his best.
The shinobi frowned then, twitching as he...
...
"Hey girls, I need to go pick up some groceries for the house. I didn't really think that I would have too many people coming over, you see? So can I trust you two to find your way home by yourselves?" Naruto asked with a friendly smile, almost as a challenge.
Maria beamed at the sign of trust that the blond offered them and quickly agreed, dragging Mio with her as she moved to charge ahead.
Though, Mio physically stopped the succubus by dragging her heels on the ground, staring at Naruto for a moment, to his confusion.
"What's up, Mio? You ok?" Naruto questioned in slight concern.
She didn't answer at first, instead choosing to continue to stare at him, before she finally did something by asking a question of her own.
"I should be asking you that, are you ok, Naruto?" Mio asked, her growing frown marring her features.
The blond just waved her off with a chuckle. "What, don't trust me with getting the groceries right? Well, I think that you should have more faith in my abilities, imouto."
His remark caused Mio to burn up in embarrassment again, before she gave a huff, and stormed back towards the house. too upset to continue the conversation.
Heh. She was too fun to tease sometimes, even Naruto of all people couldn't resist.
Keeping his smile on his face, Naruto began walking towards the nearby grocery store, his features slowly losing it's positive attitude as he took in the features of someone he didn't want to see again so soon.
He eventually stopped in the middle of a busy sidewalk, right in front of a girl with hard eyes.
Nonaka Yuki.
Neither said a word for a moment, both just staring at one another for a couple of seconds.
Other pedestrians could be forgiven if they seemed like a shy new couple trying to kiss one another with their close proximity. But there was no friendly gestures to be found in each other's eyes.
"You lied, Uzumaki Naruto." Yuki eventually spoke up, her accusation stated like a fact.
Naruto felt his hackles start to rise at the charge.
"I didn't lie to you at all, Nonaka-san. I never go back on my words, you can bet on that." Naruto retorted, his blue irises growing cooler.
"Oh? Since when was Lucifer's daughter someone you considered precious, Uzumaki Naruto?" Yuki hissed with her eyes narrowing in anger.
Ah. So that's what this was about.
"That is a different matter entirely, she is a girl that needed help and I simply decided to help her in that time of need. Do I need to explain all of my actions to you now, Nonaka-san?" Naruto asked, slowly becoming more incensed by her words and his naturally hot-tempered temperament wasn't helping.
Nonaka Yuki stared at him for a moment before taking a step back.
Naruto widened his eyes for a moment, unsure of what was going on, or how he should take it.
Was she backing off?
"Fight me, Uzumaki-san." Yuki demanded with a dark glint in her eye.
The shinobi jerked slightly at the demand, needing a second to appreciate what the hell just happened.
In her eyes, no matter how you looked at the current situation as it was, they were enemies. Even if Uzumaki was just being a nice person for whatever reason, it still didn't change the fact that this boy was aiding an enemy of her faction.
That was all there was to it.
"I thought you cared about innocent humans? You would fight me here?" Naruto wondered aloud with a grim face, sparing a look around him.
If she attacked him here, then he would have no choice but to aim to kill, despite any possible problems down the rode with this 'Hero Tribe'.
Too many lives would be at stake if he didn't, and his anonymity wasn't worth the lives of so many people.
Yuki widened her eyes in surprise at his words, did he actually care about the innocent humans around them?
She thought that he would attack her here regardless, since he was helping the devil princess, so she assumed that she would have no other choice...
Maybe Uzumaki-san wasn't the trash that she assumed he was.
"You're right, let's take this to where you battled those stray devils and helped Naruse Mio. There will be no distractions there." Yuki conceded easily enough.
Both future combatants stared at one another and then disappeared in speeds that no ordinary human eye could follow.
They both arrived at the forest in a few moments, using the relatively empty streets to reach their destination without hassle.
Both of them took their positions away from one another, preparing themselves for a fight.
"...Is there no way we could end this peacefully, Nonaka-san?" Naruto asked, genuinely not wanting to fight the girl who seemed to have such a strong moral compass.
It was the simple fact that they were on opposite sides that made this hard to negotiate over.
Loyalty to a group above all else.
"Sorry, Uzumaki-san...but like I said before. We are enemies now, there is no more diplomacy. Don't worry, I will do my best to make your end painless." Nonaka solemnly stated before allowing the green aura from before to overtake her fully.
Naruto narrowed his eyes, so she was taking this seriously huh...
Before him, stood Nonaka Yuki in her combat attire.
She wore a form-fitting navy blue leotard with a white skirt. She had metal gauntlets on her arms and legs ,as well as a blue cape that adorned her shoulders.
On her hand was the blade that she had before in all of it's glory, pointing at Naruto again, just like last time.
Except this time...
"Uzumaki Naruto...this time you will face Sakuya's full power! Prepare yourself!" Yuki shouted as she lowered her body to pounce her enemy.
Naruto had his blond locks cover his eyes, and then looked up to meet determined yellow with hard blue.
"Bring it."