Naruto's eyebrow was twitching periodically as he stood outside the classroom. He was currently holding buckets up with both arms as some sort of punishment for skipping too many classes. Considering this was forcing him to miss even more material in the class, he thought that this was a stupid punishment.
Nothing will ever beat Iruka-sensei's big head jutsu in his eyes. Everything else was child's play.
The blond heard the classroom door slide open as the balding teacher stuck his head out and glared at him. Oi oi, he only missed like...what? Three classes? What was the big deal? He skipped far more Ninja Academy classes and he eventually did alright.
Naruto consciously didn't mention the fact that he was held back three times.
"Uzumaki...you may come back inside. I hope you have learned your lesson when it comes to skipping class. Keep this up and you will become a bum on the street." the teacher said harshly before making way to let him pass.
Naruto rolled his eyes in response at the threat. He never did have a good relationship with teachers, the bias that many had against him back at the Ninja Academy made him distrustful of many of them as a whole and was the origin of his disrespectful nature against people with authority.
The blond just cheerfully acknowledged the teacher and walked back into the classroom completely unrepentant, much to the teacher's frustration. All of his classmates looked pretty amused by the exchange as it seemed that Naruto's reputation was set by his actions.
Many in Kuoh seemed to have the impression that he was a bit of a delinquent, but that he was a very friendly one that just thumbs his nose at authority. In short, many students, girls especially seemed to have an impression that he was a 'bad boy' with his attitude and whisker marks on his cheeks.
Apparently he had a "boyish charm" or something like that, it was honestly the first time he was hearing this ever. He never heard such things about himself back in the Elemental Nations. Many of the boys who would have been jealous of the blond, were instead ensnared in Naruto's ever positive personality. Now he was apparently just another 'bro'...whatever that meant.
So he was decently popular, no where near the prestige that the 'Great Ladies' or the 'Prince' enjoyed...but he didn't want such things from Kuoh. Nice words were more than enough for him.
The blond sat down on his chair right next to the window and prepared to ignore history class again, he even prepared to use his own bag as a pillow.
He was all set before he felt an annoying poke in between the sensitive juncture between his ribs and thighs. He ignored it and tried to sleep before feeling the poke again, his eye twitched as he became determined to ignore the poking.
After what must have been the fifth poke in a row, Naruto finally gave in and peered at the girl next to him who was holding the offending pen.
"...What?" Naruto asked irritably, he was going to fall asleep either by getting bored or by resting on his bag. The bag was more comfortable so he wanted to sleep, no one liked having their sleep interrupted...even though he didn't really need it.
"Pay attention...this will be on the test tomorrow." Yuki said as she gave the blond a steady stare. She was still the class representative and wanted to make sure that Naruto had a good education...even if he wasn't a normal person by any stretch of the imagination.
Naruto deadpanned at her and attempted to go back to sleep, but Yuki was not the one who interrupted his sleep again. This time it was the teacher who slammed his ruler onto his desk to wake him up. Naruto had an irritated expression as he stared up unflinchingly at the now red-faced instructor.
"Is my class that boring for you Uzumaki?" the teacher practically hissed at the blond.
Naruto wanted to say 'yes' but that would imply that he was sleeping because he found the teacher boring, the problem was that even if he wasn't boring...the shinobi would still go to sleep.
He simply had no reason to memorize any of this for the future, after all, he was going back to the Elemental Nations and restore peace like the greatest hero that ever-
His daydream ended when the teacher slapped his ruler upside Naruto's head which caused the boy to just pout at his teacher for making him lose his train of thought.
"Ah come on sensei! It's not like I'm ever gonna use this crap!" Naruto complained, and for the most part he was probably right. But to anyone else it sounded like the same weak excuse that a lazy teenager would make when having to memorize stuff they don't like.
The teacher just sighed in return and then glanced at Naruto's neighbor.
Yuki noticed the teacher's gaze and raised an eyebrow, what was that about?
Later after class, Yuki found out and was given a new mission.
"Naruto."
"No!"
"Naruto this is for your own good. Let me help you!"
"I don't want help in this of all things!"
Several students were looking on in curiosity as Uzumaki Naruto continually denied the request of the the young girl behind him. It was lunch time and he promised to eat lunch with Mio since this was her first day here.
It has been a few days since the meeting with Rias and her Peerage had been concluded, with neither Mio or Maria being alerted to the fact. Both were still wary of the devils that go to Kuoh Academy and were trying to avoid them when necessary.
However it seems neither of them knew a thing about Yuki and her involvement with the Hero Tribe. So this was a good chance to at least introduce the hero and Mio, hopefully they could create a lasting friendship with each other!
But first things first, he had to guide the persistent hero to Mio.
But seriously? What was this about her becoming his tutor? That has to be the silliest thing he has heard in a long time, but it seemed that Yuki didn't agree.
"Naruto..." Yuki tried to say but was cut off just as quickly.
"No means no Yuki! I don't even know why you care so much about my grades! It's not like it's going to matter any!" Naruto stated crossly, repeating himself several times was beginning to get on his nerves.
"Sensei asked me to tutor you to get you reacquainted with the subjects that will be on the test tomorrow Naruto, as the class representative it is my duty to help a fellow student and friend." Yuki responded simply.
Naruto was still slightly surprised by Yuki's new demeanor after their clash in the forest, she was a hell of a lot calmer and friendly...in her own way anyways.
There were times where she would offer her help at the most awkward of times and with the most awkward of things...
He really should have seen such incidents coming when she offered to give him a massage after he complained of back pains in the middle of the street. The looks he got from several pedestrians were as embarrassing as one would expect, the thumbs ups he got didn't help.
He supposed that it probably had something to do with the fact that she was probably socially awkward...after all she was training to be a hero most of her life right? So that would explain it since she probably had few friends.
He just wished she chose better times to offer her weird requests.
Naruto shook his head for a second in order to forget the weirdness his life took recently, he actually had a question he was meaning to ask Yuki for a while now. But first he had to move away from the wandering eyes and ears of his classmates.
Not so hard since Yuki was still pestering him about tutoring sessions with her.
The shinobi kept walking with the class representative right on his heels, he took a turn for the stairs that led up to the roof of the building. As he reached the door leading to the roof top, he turned to check if his persistent friend was still behind him and confirmed that she still following him with that stare of hers.
He ignored it and pressed onward to the rooftop where they could have the private discussion he wanted, it was also where Mio wanted to meet up for lunch later. But since her class was at the bottom floor, they had a little bit of time before she arrived.
He faced Yuki again with intent but was forced to look away again at the very heavy stare she was giving, what the hell...she was even more insistent than usual!
"Jiiiiiiiiiiiii"
She was even making sound effects! Just how determined was she!?
Naruto sighed and decided that this needed to be dealt with. "Yuki, why do you want to tutor me so bad? I know you have your responsibilities but surely other people wouldn't go so far or be so persistent in tutoring someone else." Naruto said, while they were friends now it was still strange.
Yuki stopped her staring for a moment to contemplate her friend's question, why was she being so persistent? Was it because she felt that she owed him? Maybe because she wanted to help a friend? She frowned at that last one, friend...when was...?
"Ah." Yuki said with realization. She then turned to Naruto and relayed her findings.
"It's because you're my first friend." she said simply.
...
...
"...Wait really?" Naruto asked with wide eyes, he was her first friend? But what about the other heroes? But before Naruto could voice that thought, she continued.
"When hero children first start their training, they are taken in by an established hero to become their sensei. I...lost my sensei and was eventually trained by my adopted father. For the most part I would train and study instead of socialize with the other hero children, so you're my first friend." Yuki eventually repeated.
She supposed she was just doing what she thought friends did, which was help each other.
Naruto groaned at this, so she was really socially awkward then? He never really noticed it since he focused more on her fighting skills rather than her social life. Well at least one mystery was solved, now to the next one.
"Hey Yuki, I have a question that I think is pretty important. It's about our fight in the forest." Naruto said, hoping that Yuki would understand why he was asking.
Yuki turned back to Naruto with a certain glint in her eye which told the blond that his friend was up to something, something he probably isn't going to like.
"If I answer your question, then you have to allow me to tutor you like sensei asked me to." Yuki said with that glint still in her eye. Naruto deadpanned at the girl for her attempts at milking the situation, but unfortunately for Naruto he didn't have much time left. Mio would no doubt have trouble finding where the roof was since she was new here, but she would find her way eventually.
"...Deal." Naruto said through grit teeth, that hurt much more than he thought it would.
Yuki gave him a small smile, in triumph or in gratitude he really wasn't sure. "What do you wish to know Naruto?" Yuki asked, obviously satisfied.
Naruto just 'hmphed' and asked his question. "How does your True Sight work?" Naruto asked with a small frown.
Yuki returned the frown with one of her own at the question, why ask her this?
"I don't understand, you figured out it's weakness during our battle. So you should know how it works by this point shouldn't you?" Yuki asked, somewhat unsure of why Naruto asked her this question. She then widened her eyes when a thought occurred to her. "...You really don't know? Then how did you know to not look into my eyes?" Yuki asked with incredulity.
Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly then responded. "That's just it...I didn't. I just knew that as long as your face wasn't in my general direction, then for some reason your power turned off." Naruto said, shrugging helplessly.
Yuki just shook her head in disbelief.
The hero looked at Naruto for a moment before beginning her explanation, she had nothing to fear from a friend after all. "True Sight is a Sacred Gear that inhabits my blade; Sakuya. It is a gear that gives the user the power to avoid any of the enemy's attacks without fail." Yuki explained steadily.
Naruto was somewhat amazed at such an incredible ability.
Yuki simply continued her explanation.
"The True Sight gives the user the speed to keep up with their opponent as long as they retain eye contact with them, all attacks that are done at a certain range are completely blocked or dodged in accordance to the Sacred Gear, in short the Gear moves your body for you if you allow it to. The weakness you exploited of True Sight is the fact that you used that little knife of yours to to attack me which was outside of True Sights range and that you attacked me from behind with that cloning ability of yours." Yuki said simply. She didn't seem particularly broken up by her loss, but she did seem a little down when she told him the weaknesses of her Sacred Gear.
"I get it...so then all I need to do is back you up so that nobody can use those weaknesses against you. Simple right? After all friends always got each other's backs." Naruto smirked at her. That earned him a small smile in return.
They stayed silent for a little while just enjoying the quiet contemplation that Naruto's words brought before hearing a voice that broke both of them out of their reverie.
"...Am I interrupting something?" drawled a feminine voice.
Naruto snapped his neck towards the voice before a comical sweatdrop began to form.
"...Ah...hey there imouto!" Naruto said cheerfully, much to the ire of the younger girl. The girl was none other than Naruse Mio, decked out in her new Kuoh Academy uniform for girls and had her lunch in her hands. Truth be told Naruto completely forgot about her coming for a moment since he was so concentrated on Yuki's explanation of her Gear.
"...Hi there...oni-...onii...nii-san." Mio grumbled with a glare at the spiky haired youth. Naruto supposed that she was still upset about the fact that since Naruto announced that Mio was his sister to the student council president and due to the rules at Kuoh, he had to have Mio down as his younger sister from abroad.
So they had to publicly address each other as brother and sister...or at least that's what Maria said they should do. She seemed to enjoy this far more than what was appropriate. Nevertheless, Mio has already threatened to kill him a hundred times several times already by now.
Ah...the thankless job of being an older brother.
"I'd like to introduce you to a good friend of mine Mio. This is the class representative of my class, she has helped me a lot ever since I arrived." Naruto said cheerfully, silently hoping that the two would connect together easily.
"Thank you for taking care of my stupid nii-san so well iincho-san, it must have been tough for you." Mio said with a bow.
"Not a problem Mio-san, your brother may sometimes be lazy and a general menace. But he is a good person, by the way call me Yuki please." Yuki said genially.
...Ok he didn't want them to go and connect that easily...
"I'm not that bad am I Yuki? Mio? Right?" Naruto pleaded with both girls, positive that he wasn't that much of a public menace...
They both turned their heads away from him.
This just made Naruto to go into shock at their lack of responses.
Internally, he supposed that Mio was bound to insult him with snide remarks due to recent circumstances...but did Yuki really have to encourage her!?
"Damn it, you guys suck." Naruto pouted.
Mio just giggled slightly in response to his words and Yuki just sent him a small smile.
He supposed that he could get used to this peaceful kind of life.
Naruto was currently walking towards his next class with the intention of actually taking the class...and not skipping it. He supposed he had to be a responsible student every once in a while, besides he had no idea when the next supernatural emergency would strike.
Yes, best to just go to class before his luck struck again.
That was Naruto's mental plan, but his thoughts were broken over a dull roar of noise from somewhere far away.
That is to say that he heard a lot of screams and yells echoing down the hall.
Naruto was pretty confused, this was a normal high school if you excluded all of the supernatural beings who attended here. So what could cause what sounded like a mob out for blood to form?
Perhaps it was because Naruto simply skipped too many classes or maybe it was because he simply lucked out, but he never had the minor displeasure of meeting the infamous three perverts of Kuoh Academy.
While the blond himself was confused, no one else near the blond was and he definitely noticed it.
Many boys either sighed or just shrugged at what they considered a fact of life by this point, while the girls shared dark glances with one another in order to confirm whether it was their mortal enemies.
Naruto knew the look that the girls were sharing, he has seen such a look directed at his ero-sennin far too many times during his three year training trip. That meant that the trouble definitely revolved around-
"PERVERTS!"
...Yeah that.
Naruto watched in morbid fascination as three boys were hunted down by a large mob of angry girls that no doubt felt righteous fury in their crusade against the perverts. All three of them were pretty plain looking to Naruto, and his pervert senses that he obtained by hanging around ero-sennin too much were also going off due to their close proximity.
They were all irreconcilable perverts through and through.
So Naruto allowed his self-preservation instincts to kick in and stepped out of the way of the perverts and the mob chasing them.
"So much for this being a normal high school." Naruto mumbled to himself, not really intending for anyone to listen as he watched the group pass.
"Yes, but I think it is more refreshing and interesting this way, don't you Naruto-san?" spoke a masculine yet still soft voice.
Naruto glanced to his left to see the (in)famous 'Prince of Kuoh Academy' in all of his glory.
He couldn't help but give the pretty boy a small smirk to greet him. "Yo Kiba-san, what does someone with your prestige want with someone like me?" Naruto asked cheerfully.
Kiba just waved his hands in a placating manner thinking that the blond was serious. "No, nothing like that Naruto-san, I'm just a messenger for Buchou. She asked me to ask you if you're available next period for a private talk." Kiba said with a smile, ever the polite gentleman.
To be honest, Kiba's demeanor kind of made Naruto want to try to break his perfect exterior to see the man underneath. No one was this polite without hiding a bit of themselves, but he figured their acquaintance was too new for that, so he backed off from that idea. Now the bigger question was what to do about Rias-san's invitation?
Should he be a responsible student like he said he would be and postpone the invitation for a later time? Or rather should he just see what's up and skip class with a somewhat reasonable excuse for himself?
...
Stupid question.
"Lead the way Kiba-san." Naruto said while motioning for Kiba to go.
Well, looks like his luck struck again.
The shinobi stared at the creepy building that served as the club room for the ORC. More importantly, he was staring at the building that the Gremory heiress has made her base of operations in Kuoh Town.
Naruto grinned at that, he actually had an idea with what was up with this crazy world now. After his discussion with Rias-san, a lot of questions he had about the world and more specifically, the supernatural were answered by her. Devils, angels, fallen angels, the Great War, the other known factions across the planet?
Yeah, he knew a lot now and that made him very happy, if only for the fact that he didn't feel like he was walking on eggshells all the time anymore.
Kiba opened the door to the club room with Naruto on his heels, it was only when he actually entered the room that he noticed something off.
Naruto deadpanned.
"Now I'm not a good person to talk to when it comes to looking deeply into someone else's words but...I thought this was a 'private' meeting Rias-san? Naruto said with a sweatdrop forming. His confusion was based on the fact that all of the ORC members were currently accounted for in the spacious room.
Rias looked up from her work at her desk in order to greet the blond, pointedly ignoring his opening statement. "Greetings again Naruto-san, how are you doing today?" Rias started with a congenial smile.
Naruto's eyebrow twitched at her completely fake greeting, she kept doing this ever since he let it known that he hated such pointless talking when there was something more important he could do. Or rather, something more fun to do.
His impatience might have something to do with Uzumaki Naruto finally spreading his wings again after suppressing it in favor of staying low. But for now, to deal with the she-devil in front of him.
Rias grinned a little at his obvious annoyance before getting up and leaning back at the front of her table to face him. "Sorry sorry Naruto, your reactions are simply too irresistible to not try and tease you a little." Rias said apologetically, though one gets the feeling that she really wasn't too sorry.
This was what a stereotypical 'onee-sama' would do anyways.
"Ara ara Buchou, it isn't good if you tease foxy-kun too much you know? He may get strange ideas." Akeno claimed with a dainty hand covering her smiling mouth.
"Eh? But Naruto-san should be strong enough to take a little teasing from his senpai shouldn't he Akeno? Even if he can't, this will help him with experiences with older girls. As is my duty as his sempai." Rias retorted with a sly smile at her friend, framing her teasing as 'help'.
In response to this Naruto's eyebrow was beginning to twitch more frequently.
They were doing this on purpose. Maybe it was because they were the 'Great Ladies', but they were treating him like a sweet little 'kouhai' instead of the badass he was!
"That is very true Rias, but foxy-kun is not only our precious kouhai, he's also a little fox. So I think he needs to be treated like a little fox should. With treats if he's good and a little collar if he's not." Akeno replied cheerfully.
Naruto did his best to ignore the warning bells that were going off in his head about her words. He must have misunderstood her, that's the only possible explanation.
"Oi! Damn it...don't talk like I ain't here dattebayo!" Naruto exclaimed, he couldn't handle their blatant teasing if they were both ganging up on him!
He looked at the other devils in the room for support but found none with Koneko-san since she was eating sweets and Kiba clearly wanted to keep out of the conversation.
"Awww, foxy-kun even has a verbal tic. You're such a cute kouhai." Akeno cooed as she began patting his head, much to his chagrin.
Doing his best to ignore her petting, he cleared his throat and looked at the Gremory heiress seriously.
"Ok you had your fun Rias-san, now that I'm here what is it that you wanted to talk about?" Naruto asked irritably.
Rias nodded in regards to Naruto's question and sat back down in her chair in order to address Naruto. She was about to speak when she noticed that someone still didn't stop their ministrations yet.
"...Akeno, please stop petting Naruto-san so that we may continue." Rias spoke with a sigh laced in her voice. Maybe they did sometimes go a little too far with the teasing.
Akeno just pouted at being ordered to stop, but she complied and decided to make some tea as the discussions began.
Rias finally could begin to elaborate on why she summoned Naruto here. "Naruto-san, there is a favor that I wish to ask of you." Rias said, going straight to the point this time.
Naruto raised an eyebrow at this, looks like she was invoking their 'agreement' earlier than he thought...
The shinobi decided to hear the girl out and make a decision based on that. "Well what is it you need Rias-san? I can take it if it's not too crazy, but sometimes I wonder with you..." Naruto said dryly.
He was referring to the agreement that all three parties made during Naruto's last visit in the club room. It was essentially a pact between all of the...'powers' of Kuoh Academy to stay out of each other's business unless it interferes with their interests and to aid one another as long as it, once again doesn't interfere with their own interests.
It was not stated nearly as eloquently as that when Naruto said it but that is what it essentially boiled down to.
Both Yuki and the Gremory group were skeptical of each other initially, but of course that's what he was for, somehow he managed to become the 'middle man' between the two groups and the deal was set.
Rias nodded at that, this agreement of theirs came at a good time, her issue was...somewhat embarrassing for her to deal with and it had to be done.
"Naruto-san, I want you to talk to a boy named Hyoudou Issei and invite him to become a devil for me." Rias said with a beatific smile.
Naruto wasn't as inspired as Rias would have hoped, his deadpanned expression told her that when he processed her words after a split-second.
"Eh...? Uh...Rias-san. Don't you have other people who can do that sort of thing?" Naruto said with a sigh, he even looked around himself to illustrate the point as the other ORC members were apparently comfortable enough with his presence by now to just...do their own things.
Rias nodded and continued to explain. "That is normally true Naruto-san, but the reason I'm sending you isn't because I can't send someone else to...it's because you're genuinely the best person for the job to send at all." Rias said seriously, her voice immediately conforming to a more deeper tone.
Her attempt at a King's voice if he ever heard one.
"Ok...I'll bite...why would I be a better choice to send than any of your Peerage members, Rias-san? They probably have a better chance to sell that sales pitch to anyone better than I can." Naruto said with a frown, he really was confused on why Rias would ask him this favor.
Rias just shook her head and smiled at Naruto for his disbelief. "It may sound somewhat strange Naruto, but please. Do this as a favor to me." Rias replied earnestly, she thoroughly believed that Naruto could turn Issei into the 'dark side' so to speak. The irony of that statement caused Rias to smirk a little which only unnerved the already confused boy in front of her.
"Good luck Naruto!" Rias said cheerfully before he could ask her anymore questions. Naruto blinked, before giving up and accepting the favor as per the agreement. Naruto quickly glanced around in order to gauge the reactions of the other Peerage members. Did they have any idea about this?
Unfortunately, they were either too preoccupied with their own things or didn't seem to care about their conversation. But most likely they were just faking it so that he couldn't gauge it from their reactions. Damn.
Well...favors were voluntary things anyways. He was just gonna ask the kid and tell him the details and accept whatever he chose.
Naruto still let loose a curse before he left the ORC main room and then left the building to find Hyoudou. This was gonna be 'fun' alright...
As Naruto left, the room remained silent before Rias let loose a small breath of air that she didn't realize she was holding. It seemed that it was the catalyst for the other occupants of the room to finally stop what they were doing and pay their full attention back to Rias.
"Um...Buchou? Is this really a good idea to be asking Naruto-san a favor from him so early on? Also why ask him about recruiting Issei? Naruto was telling the truth about not being the most eloquent person to talk to." Kiba began, asking a reasonable question.
He wanted to know why his king would ask Naruto, who only recently learned of their existence, to convince Issei to become a devil. Even if Naruto was eloquent, wouldn't it be better if it's someone who knew of all of the perks of being a devil to go and ask Issei?
"You're absolutely correct Kiba. But before we go onto this subject further, I'd like to ask all of you something...have any of you noticed?" Rias asked with a serious face. All of her members looked confused at this question, Rias then just gave them all an enigmatic grin before settling herself back to her desk.
"Then for now, I'll just have to ask you all to trust me and watch the fireworks with me." Rias finished.
Luckily for Naruto, his last class ended before he was done with his talk with the ORC.
Unluckily, he now had a new mission.
Ask Hyoudou Issei to give up his humanity for devilhood.
He actually didn't have many moral qualms with this, if Issei was adamant that he wouldn't become a devil then he would stop and go back to the red-headed devil empty handed.
If he was wishy-washy about turning then maybe he was at the very least a little unsatisfied with his current lifestyle and could maybe change it to something better.
As long as the kid knew what he was getting into, there was no problem.
It was then and there that Naruto realized he had a problem, ironically enough.
How did Issei look like?
"Crap." Naruto sighed, times like these that he wanted to bonk himself upside the head. He really could be scatter-brained at times. So he decided to ask around, maybe someone knew him? But then Naruto realized something else, his last class period ended and his last class of the day was a free period.
The shinobi looked around to see if their were any students around to ask, but it seemed they either left or they were in class. So at a minimum he had to wait another half an hour before he could ask anyone.
...
"Ill get a bite to eat." Naruto said nonchalantly. He found a decent ramen place a bit south of Kuoh Academy, he would go there to kill time before he started his search for the illusive Hyoudou.
He quickly left the school grounds to head to the restaurant, he couldn't make ramen to save his life so he depended on this ramen to get him through his addiction before he made it home so he could pig out at Ichiraku's! Just the thought of the food of gods made Naruto's stomach rumble with lust for the food.
Yeah, his stomach lusted for ramen. It was that good for him.
Naruto was cheerfully taking in the peaceful scenery of Kuoh Town during his walk, but then he saw something up in the sky that immediately destroyed the peaceful atmosphere for Naruto.
"...No."
"...No no no..."
But as much as Naruto vocally denied what he saw, he knew what he saw. Black wings stretched up in the sky beyond what normal humans could see. Also now that he actually noticed it, his senses also detected their energy as well.
It was light, that meant only one thing.
Naruto didn't hesitate at all as he slipped away from the crowds and entered an alleyway.
No one noticed the yellow blur that sped off into the sky.
Raynare was bored. She has been floating around in the sky beyond the line of sight for the humans on the ground. Searching for the boy that her leader had dictated for her to search. Hyoudou Issei, holder of a powerful Sacred Gear that could potentially fall into the hands of the devils in this territory.
Problem is that they had no idea where he really was. This was devil territory, so while they knew that Hyoudou Issei was here in this town, they didn't really know where since they had very few chances to thoroughly study the area. So the group nominated her to scout the area, the strongest of her generation of fallen angels to do this.
She had no doubt she was going to hear how ashamed her mother was of her weakness...
She shook her head of the thoughts and continued to glide around searching for, what Sachael said would be a verynoteworthy individual. For what exactly she couldn't tell.
All those thoughts left her head thought when something that could only be compared by asking the question 'How would it feel like to get hit by a plane?'.
She thinks she now knows the answer to that one. Darkness was quickly overtaking her as she was losing consciousness. The last words she heard of her perpatrator were about as random as she could have imagined.
"Damn it fallen angel-san! This is what happens when you ruin my ramen time dattebayo!"
...
What the fu-?
Then Raynare knew no more.
Naruto stared at the scantily-clad fallen angel that is now on the rood of a building the he chose to lay her on. She was completely unconscious.
"...Shit." Naruto mumbled, going through a minor panic attack.
Naruto knew about the shaky truce between the three factions of the Christianity. When he saw the fallen angel floating in the sky seemingly looking for something, he immediately thought that she was someone that needed to be defeated quickly before she noticed him. But then another thought occurred to him.
"...What if she came here as a diplomatic mission?" Naruto asked himself out loud.
That's the source of his current panic, he never dealt with diplomatic crises before and he had no idea how to fix this. Then the proverbial light bulb went off in his head, he knew just how to fix this! He quickly grabbed the fallen angel by the sides and hoisted her up onto his shoulder, this would be tricky but he can pull it off without it being traced back to him or to the devils.
Naruto then made a cross sign with his hands in order to use his favorite jutsu.
"Kage bunshin no jutsu!" Naruto cried as a kage bunshinmaterialized next to him and gave him a thumbs up, no doubt approving of the plan in his creator's head. Naruto quickly gave him his wallet; his beloved 'Gama-chan' in order to get a few things to make this work.
Naruto then left the clone to find the perfect spot for this.
'Uzumaki Naruto you are a genius!' Naruto thought to himself smugly.
Chapter 6
Naruto needed to find anything abandoned in the city, somewhere where he could leave an obviously non-human woman alone for a split-second to set up his plan at getting out of his responsibility in this situation.
His clone was getting the necessary materials from home and local stores in order to properly bind the supernatural girl.
The good news for the original Naruto was that Kuoh Town was a relatively old place, it had numerous abandoned areas littered at the outskirts of the town. So the problem wasn't even really about finding a place to hide away, so much as a good place to go to before her comrades found her energy signal again.
When he spoke with Rias, he made sure to get out of her as much information as possible in regards to any faction that he might encounter.
One of the things that he remembered about either the regular angels or fallen angels was that their number of wings signified their power. The weakest of them had one pair of wings while the strongest among them had six, the girl he knocked out had only a single pair of them.
The fallen angels knew that this was devil territory, so it was a very good guess to say that she was not working alone. Another very good guess was to say that she has fallen comrades waiting for her while she was flying in the sky and surveying the area like a scout.
Naruto didn't want to alert the fallen's comrades just yet, but he was counting on their intervention later. He just needed to set himself up first. After running from rooftop to rooftop near supersonic speeds in order to not alert any of the normal humans milling around, he reached an end to his journey by finding a suitable place to set up his plan.
An abandoned factory.
It was a bit of a ways away from the nearest building so that none of the normal civilians could be bothered by the work of the factory presumably. It was good enough in short notice.
Naruto quickly jumped incredibly high, high enough to reach the clouds and landed safely on the smokestack of the large building. Naruto grinned as he jumped down the long shaft into the interior, this would work.
Raynare groaned as she woke from her painful nap, her eyes opened to find nothing but darkness before blinking repeatedly for her eyes to get used to the lack of light.
She frowned when she looked around to see that she was in an old and rundown factory, a place where some humans would try to make some product to sell in mass quantities.
She moved to stand up but was unable to, she widened her eyes as she realized she was tied onto the chair with something and couldn't get up. She looked down to see what was holding her and her eyes widened again, this time in outrage due to what she saw.
Rope.
She was held by fucking rope.
She immediately tried using all of her strength to break free from something that should not be able to hold her as well as it was managing to. This was rope right? But she didn't know that this rope had an additional feature to it, a slim piece of chakra paper slapped on the rope behind her so that she couldn't see it.
She began to use her light energy in order to form a spear and break out of the strangely powerful ropes...
Then stopped.
"Wh-what's going on!?" the fallen angel asked incredulously. Why couldn't she call upon her light energy!? It felt like somebody was putting a large damper on her powers and it made it exceedingly difficult to use them properly.
"Ah, I see you're awake fallen-san." a voice spoke a voice in the darkness.
Raynare froze at the sudden intrusion of total silence and rapidly turned towards the direction that the voice was coming from to find her unknown assailant. While her fallen eyes were very powerful by default, the darkness was all encompassing in this seemingly abandoned building and cloaked her unknown enemy. She grit her teeth at this fact, she was in a tight bind both literally and figuratively.
"Oh? So fallen angels do feel fear? Good to know for later." the voice said again, but closer this time.
After a few foreboding steps, Raynare finally met face to face with her captor in the form of a young man.
The young woman took a quick look at him to gauge his power, he didn't seem like much...
He had very pale skin, bordering on unhealthy with black pants and a black-grey top that didn't extend to his belly button. He had dark eyes with equally dark short hair.
"Hello, nice to meet you at last fallen angel-san. You can call me Sai." 'Sai' said with a smile.
Raynare just frowned at this, the smile looked off...even forced. This guy was strange, but he also had the advantage with this rope so it was best not to provoke him too much.
"Who are you and what do you want? Were you the one who attacked me?" Raynare demanded of her captor. 'Sai' just stared at the black-haired girl for a moment before replying.
"I don't think I want to answer any questions ugly." 'Sai' responded with that weird smile.
...
"...Excuse me?" Raynare growled.
'Sai' just looked confused, as if he didn't truly understand what he said was considered offensive. "I'm sorry did I hurt your feelings? I was simply giving a truthful statement, would you rather I lie about it? Very well, you are very beautiful." 'Sai' said with that strange smile again.
But by this point Raynare wasn't paying attention, this would probably be due to the fact that she was absolutely furious. She could take certain abuses from others who are superior in power and prestige if need be...but she would not take this from some random human asshole! She didn't notice that her light energy was beginning to practically leak out of her in decent quantities due to her emotional state.
The third party observer could only smirk at the fruition of his brilliant plan. 'Perfect.'
'Sai' just tilted his head in confusion at her anger, which in effect only pissed off the fallen even more. However before Raynare could explode onto the pale human, she couldn't help but notice that the boy's strange smile shifted again.
A small twitch on the side of the mouth that tilted upwards was all she saw.
But after that all she saw was red.
"You...! You think you can get away with this!? I am the most powerful fallen angel of my generation and the daughter of one of it's most powerful members! Your insolence will not be tolerated!" Raynare shouted in anger, completely losing her composure.
"Hoooh? You're the strongest fallen of your generation? How sad since you have been delegated to what seems to be a glorified scout. How the mighty fallen angel faction have fallen. Especially when one of their supposed prodigies was tied up by a human." 'Sai' said with a slightly twitching smile. Although the young fallen was too angry to notice or care about any of that. But deep inside 'Sai' hit a deep-seated fear inside the young girl.
Disappointment.
That triggered fear turned into seething rage at this boy's presumption that she was beaten...
If only she could break free...!
The third party observer looked at the ceiling where 'Sai' stood and smirked. Just on time it seemed.
'Sai' snapped his head to the ceiling as it practically exploded from descending spears made of light. He quickly dodged all of the spears by back-flipping away from their intended targets and stood back up in order to study the situation.
Three fallen angels quickly fell through the hole made by their spears in order to release their bound comrade, but one remained in the air. 'Sai' concentrated his focus on that one fallen angel in order to gauge their strength, he knew that this fallen was the strongest among the bunch.
Meanwhile Raynare was finally freed from the cursed ropes and quickly thanked her friends for breaking her out, but then she paled when she saw who else joined the rescue.
Her mother.
The woman that Raynare was referring to finally decided to join everyone else on the ground level and descended onto the ground gracefully. 'Sai' just narrowed his eyes at her appearance.
She had many resemblances to the fallen he had captured earlier today and was a breathtakingly beautiful woman with a buxom figure. She had long blue hair which stretched to her waist and vivid violet eyes. She looked just like the younger girl, the only difference being that her face had an adult appeal which the younger didn't have yet. But 'Sai' was paying more attention to something far more important than her looks.
She had four pairs of wings.
"This is it...? This is the downer who defeated a fallen angel? You are an even bigger failure than I thought Raynare..." spoke the obviously more powerful fallen. Her tone made Raynare flinch slightly before turning her head away from the scornful older woman.
"Vretiel-sama, what should be done with the human?" the only male fallen angel said to the older woman, he was staring at the pale human that was just studying all of the supernatural beings silently. "What do you think Dohnaseek? Eliminate him immediately, he must pay for laying his dirty hands against my daughter." Vretiel spoke without much compassion, almost bored as a matter of fact.
Raynare widened her eyes and opened her mouth in order to warn her comrades not to take him lightly, but she was too late as all but Vretiel and herself immediately formed spears of light and attacked. 'Sai' just let loose a small grin as he saw all of these fallen charge him with confidence.
He quickly took note on who his opponents were; there was a woman with long blue hair and a too-tight business suit that was form-fitting, a little girl with blonde twin-tails and a gothic-lolita styled dress, finally there was a middle-aged man with short black hair and a gray trench coat over a white dress shirt with a black fedora.
All in all, a colorful group of characters.
All in all, nothing worth worrying over.
For the fallen, one second this human was standing still while studying them, the next he was in between their formation. Before any of them could respond, he grabbed the blue-haired woman's leg with his left arm and lashed out with his right leg in order to smash the blonde fallen through a nearby wall. In that same second he grabbed the fallen wannabe detective's face with his right hand and with both of them in his firm grip...pulled.
The immediate end result of this was a wannabe business woman smashed into a conveyor belt and a wannabe detective smashed head-first into the ground with 'Sai' standing there with a small smile.
...
Raynare just gaped as three of her comrades were thoroughly defeated with minimal effort, she was stronger than all of them but they were still fallen angels. He was just a human...
Vretiel just gave a hard stare at all of the downed fallen before clicking her teeth.
"Looks like I have to get my hands dirty. Raynare! Be useful and grab your friends before they get caught in the crossfire...I'll deal with this boy myself." Vretiel said with a dark look in her eyes, she was destined to clean her daughter's mistakes it seemed. She had to defeat a mere downer instead of leaving it to regular fallen angels it seemed.
She wasn't happy about any of this.
So she quickly formed two spears of light and spread her four pair of wings...
Then she quickly dove into the pale human with supersonic speed in order to kill him with one move, but much to her own shock he managed to stop her spear with a metal knife that he procured from out of nowhere. Her shock was replaced with a snarl as she infused more light energy into her second spear, then she raised her arm in order to destroy the strangely powerful human.
'Sai' widened his eyes as he immediately backed up to dodge the light spear, but the attack was too close and he was forced to use his kunai in order to change it's trajectory.
*CLANG*
The resounding sound from the clash of the two weapons echoed along the abandoned factory and 'Sai' got out of the exchange completely unharmed. But the same cannot be said about his kunai. The reliable weapon has been split down the handle cleanly with 'Sai' holding onto the remnants. 'Sai' quickly threw the remnant of the weapon at the four-winged fallen, but she swiped the affronting weapon with her spear before it reached her. She then turned back towards her prey...
Then she saw a pale face.
She saw stars as a strong right hook knocked her back through the ceiling.
'Sai' landed upside-down on the ceiling before running to the hole made by the fallen group. The second he poked his head to the roof of the factory, he immediately had to duck since a light spear went soaring where his head used to be. Several more light spears rained down at the hole to make sure that the pale human didn't get to the roof without getting hit by one of them.
Up in the sky, Vretiel was scowling darkly as she wiped her bloody nose. The boy had a mean right hook, she'd give him that. But he made a fatal error in this little skirmish, where she had to admit that he had the advantage in close combat...
"But now..." Vretiel said with a cruel smirk as her wings flapped and moved her further and further away from the factory. Raynare had finally done something worthwhile by moving the rest of the weak one-wings away from the factory.
Now she can't be held responsible for their deaths once she finishes destroying the factory.
'Sai' quickly went through the hole in the ceiling once the barrage of spears have reached a lull, he scanned through the sky for the leader of the enemy group. Then he noticed a light, a bright light that could initially fool a normal human into thinking that the God from the Bible was blessing them...
But 'Sai' knew that the light was nowhere near as nice or as benificial as that.
"Shit...!" 'Sai' cursed as he jumped back down and desperately did some hand-seals before the entire world exploded around him.
To the humans who were living normal lives close to the abandoned factory, the explosion that would rock their sleepy town was sudden and loud. To a certain fallen angel, she just reveled at the destruction she caused and the death of the human that dared to cause her pain.
The only other conscious fallen angel there just watched her mother cackle at the destruction before turning towards the crater that once held an old man-made structure. She thought about the pale human before hardening her eyes.
"Good riddance..." Raynare mumbled, she only wished that she was strong enough to destroy the wily human herself.
There was no point in sympathizing with an enemy, it would make her weaker than she already was. The last thing she wanted to do was be a bigger disappointment to her mother, she was meant to surpass her after all.
"Come Raynare, we're leaving." Vretiel spoke with a commanding tone, she wanted to get back to their base as soon as possible. This whole debacle was an utter waste of time, although she was interested to learn that a human had become powerful enough to actually blitz her. But for now she had a more important mission, she slid her gaze towards her daughter as she carried all of her comrades.
Yes, a far more lucrative mission indeed.
The third party observer walked into the crater of the old factory before leaning into the center of the explosion where 'Sai' once stood.
"...Come on, there's no way you got killed that easily. You're me after all." Naruto said with exasperation. In response to the blond's statement the ground began to crack, then the ground gave way as 'Sai' broke through the ground like some sort of zombie from a horror movie. 'Sai' then gave Naruto a thumbs up once he finally got a firm footing.
"Mission accomplished boss!" 'Sai' said with a grin that did not fit on his face, at least as far as Naruto was concerned.
"Ugh...please turn off the henge already..." Naruto said with a sigh, he knew that he was a pretty good actor when he needed to be. His prank against his future best friend after they became genin but before they got assigned to Kakashi-sensei was proof of that. The problem was staying 'in-character' was tough for the blond after a while, he simply wasn't good at keeping fake appearances.
The fact that 'Sai' grinned at all was proof enough of that.
'Sai' sighed before turning off his henge and turning back to his original appearance; an exact replica of Naruto. The original just nodded towards his clone before speaking again. "Alright, please disperse yourself so I can see what I'm dealing with in the fallen angels." Naruto said, getting the experience that the clone gained from the small battle was better than hearing it.
The clone nodded and dispersed the chakra inside itself in order to give it's creator the memories it had. A POP later, the clone's memories began to transfer to Naruto.
Naruto grinned for a moment as he saw how his clone managed to get away from the destruction of the factory; Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu (Earth Release: Hiding Like a Mole technique). A jutsu that Naruto used to defeat Neji during the chuunin exams...man he totally forgot he knew that jutsu. Naruto then frowned as he remembered the clone's clash with the fallen angels, in a straight fight he was positive that he could crush all of them without too much effort, but the way that the four-winged fallen had attacked the factory...
Her wings gave her the ability to fly, something that wasn't usually a problem for the young shinobi since he could jump extremely high. But this woman had the speed to react fast enough to his own if given at least a split-second warning and the durability to not just fall over after a single punch. If she stayed high in the air like that and Naruto took account of gravity slowing him down on his ascent...
The blonde clicked his teeth at this weakness, something as stupid as the ability to fly was not gonna keep him down. Her attacks weren't even things that would kill him, just something that would hurt like hell.
The blond looked up to the starless sky and grinned, he just had to improvise a little then.
But before he makes plans on how to do that...
"I did it! I am the best at what I do 'ttebayo!" Naruto cried in glee, how could he not after all? His fool-proof plan had been an absolute success; he wasn't to blame for the capture of a fallen angel and he didn't just cause a war between supernatural factions. He couldn't help but worry a lot at the fact that he could have caused a war in this world!
Naruto frowned for a moment though, making the clone buy rope and a pretty early seal he made during ero-sennin's three-year trip was all vital in making his plan work. The plan was to get the fallen angel's comrades to help that girl; Raynare, and have them defeat the clone without Naruto being implicated.
The seal he used was pretty low level, it was meant to capture academy students and cause disruptions to their chakras. It was pretty easy to break out for any ninja since they knew the Nawanuke no Jutsu (Rope Escape Technique). But for supernaturals, it would be a decent enough trap to make it seem like the fallen's kidnapper was genuinely trying to keep her bound.
The problem with this was the simple fact that the small disruption seemed to knock Raynare's control of her powers so thoroughly that she couldn't even use it properly. So Naruto had to improvise and try a different tact.
Piss her off and let her energy run amok from her loss of control.
So Naruto made a clone and had it henge to the only person that could piss people off as easily as breathing.
He would buy a nice gift for Sai when he got back home.
But his improvisation worked beautifully, his clone quickly angered the young fallen to the point that her light energy began to leak enough that her reinforcements came to break her out. His clone then had to make the fight believable enough for the fallen angels really think that he was seriously killed.
It worked and Naruto was freed from the prospect of starting a war.
So with that, Naruto decided to leave the area before the normal humans decided to check the factory, an explosion was pretty eye-catching after all. He then disappeared in a burst of speed and reappeared in-between crowds of civilians so that he could blend in. It was only when he was sure that he was in the clear that Naruto thought about another problem.
What to tell Rias?
This was Gremory territory and there were fallen angels either staying in it or are dangerously close to it. No matter how he looked at it, the truce of the three factions wouldn't hold up when the little sisters of Lucifer and Leviathan were threatened.
But at the same time if he did tell her...what would she do? Would she try to negotiate with the fallen? Would she ignore them?
Would she declare war by attacking...and more importantly, would he let her?
Naruto just combed his hands through his hair and blew out some air in frustration, he was definitely not used to this crap.
The worst part was that he had no choice but to rely on Rias for this delicate situation since she was the only one trained for events like this. The only other people he knew where he could talk to about this were Yuki, Mio, and Maria...but he didn't want them to get involved in any of this.
Yuki was practically a neutral while Mio and Maria were technically on the run from the government in the Underworld.
He shook his head, he had to tell Rias. There was no getting around that fact since there was no one else to turn to, the fallen had to be dealt with before the Maous were aware.
He would have to deal with Rias' decision when it came and make his own decision from there...
...Man this sucked.
The blond made it to Kuoh Academy just in time to catch the end of the final classes, he was supposed to find Hyoudou Issei...but first Rias. He moved around the Academy to reach the headquarters of the ORC and quickly knocked on the door.
...
Naruto knocked on it again with more force when he didn't receive an answer, but then he noticed a little note in the front of the door that he didn't notice before. The shinobi bonked himself on the head for being an idiot and quickly read the letter, hopefully it would give him Rias' location so that he could-
'Sorry, the Occult Research Club is out studying the occult right now. Please come back at a better time. Thank you!'
Naruto stared at the note with dim eyes, Rias just generally chose shitty times to appear or disappear didn't she?
Naruto's temper didn't improve any when he saw a drawing of a chibi-Rias on the note, it seemed to be winking and wagging its finger as if to admonish Naruto.
He decided that the door should be made into splinters.
So Naruto decided to save the issue for later and instead search for the illusive Hyoudou. So he picked a random student that was going home for the day to ask, that student just so happened to be a female.
So was the next one.
As well as the one after that.
Now Naruto was confused, why were all of the students he talked to acting like he was asking them for their three sizes? Each one of them made a sour face and just advised him to never ask such a question to them ever again, it was pretty weird. So he decided to change his tactics by asking a guy this time, other boys were still pretty rare in Kuoh Academy so he was mostly asking girls by this point.
He decided to ask the boy with glasses that was seemingly spinning around in a circle in order to seemingly leer at the girls that passed by.
Huh. Well everyone had their quirks right?
"Ahhh! It's ero-megane! Don't let him look at you! It's said that he could calculate your three sizes with just a glance!" screamed a female student that was doing her best to cover herself up even though she wasn't indecent.
...
Ok then, maybe the guy is a creep. But he might have some good points, after all Ero-sennin and Kakashi-sensei were both big perverts right? So maybe this guy had a heart of gold hidden under his perverted exterior. Yeah, he won't judge-
"I can see theeeeeem! I can see all of your beautiful measurements! Nothing escapes my gaze! HAHAHAHAHA!"
...
Maybe...wait. Has he seen him before?
Naruto squinted at the 'perverted glasses', as the girls were referring to him anyways. Now that he looked at him closely, he could swear that he's seen him somewhere before...it was hard to tell since he had such plain features though.
Then something clicked. An army of women chasing after three boys, there was one among them that carried glasses.
"IT'S YOU!" Naruto shouted with a dramatic finger pointed at ero-megane, this broke the perverted boy out of his sexual harassment when he heard the loud shout. He sent an annoyed glance at Naruto as he was forced to stop his favorite hobby while in Kuoh to deal with what looked like a delinquent.
That and he couldn't help but dislike the blond immediately since some girls were sending shy glances at him behind his back. Damn it he hated blond boys.
"Whaddya want bastard?" the now dubbed 'ero-megane' said with a frown, he didn't want to talk to any guy that attracted girls. Naruto just squinted his eyes at the boy's hostility, what the hell did he do? Naruto decided that he should ask this strange guy whether he knew a Hyoudou Issei and be done with it.
"Hey, do you know where I can find a guy named Hyoudou Issei?" Naruto asked casually, but before he could follow up with his question he saw the glasses-wearing boy literally sprint towards him before giving him a steady stare.
"How much?" 'Ero-megane' asked, this just caused Naruto to stare at him incredulously. What the hell was he talking about right now? Seeing the blond's expression, he just lifted his glasses and spoke again with more emotion.
"You want me to betray my comrade...one of my closest friends...then you better pay me enough to make up for my horrible betrayal! It is so sad but he will understand! I want to lose my virginity...so please get me a woman!" 'Ero-megane' cried with tears flowing down his eyes.
Naruto just looked at him with dull eyes for his pathetic plea, Hyoudou was his friend and he would betray him for sex? Really? This guy didn't have a redeeming bone in his body. "Tell you what...I'll talk to some girls and see if any of them could-" Naruto tried to speak, but he was immediately floored when the boy in front of him bowed towards him like some sort of deity.
"Issei's near the girl's locker rooms trying to find a good peephole! Please make my wish come true!" the pathetically perverted boy cried.
Naruto decided that Issei needed new friends. As fast as possible.
Then he registered what the glasses-wearing teen just said and slapped his hand on his face in a facepalm. Maybe they really were perfect friends for one another...
Looks like they were perfect friends with one another.
Naruto was having déjà vu as he was staring at a teen with brown hair trying to look for any hole or crack in the girl's locker room. He remembered when ero-sennin did the same thing when he was trying to peep into the women's hot springs. Usually this would call for the 'ero-protocol' for his own shits and giggles, but he had to actually talk to the kid, not get him killed. So Naruto opted for walking behind the teen and poking him behind the head.
It was only when an annoyed plain face with an annoyed set of brown eyes glared back at him that he recognized the illusive Hyoudou.
"You were with 'ero-megane' when you guys were chased by that horde of girls..." Naruto deadpanned.
At this Issei just locked up and stared at Naruto in horror. "You're...you're not going to turn me in are you!?" Issei said with panic welling up in his stomach. The three of them barely managed to get away from the horde before his last class started, but they were no doubt still sore at their antics...so if this blond were to give them his location...
Naruto just shook his head in response much to Issei's apparent relief, but the shinobi then grinned at the pervert. "I won't tell them...but you gotta do something for me first." Naruto said cheerfully, Issei's fear returned as he realized that unless he did whatever this guy said, then his high school life would become a hell of a lot more unpleasant for a long time.
Issei opened his mouth in order to try to reason with the blackmailing blond, but he stopped when Naruto finished his demand.
"You gotta listen to what I have to say seriously Issei, if you don't then you could either change your life for the better or ruin it for a long long time." Naruto said with a cryptic smile.
Issei wasn't sure if he should make a break for it or not.
He decided to give a shot at the very least.
"Hey look it's a UFO!" Issei shouted dramatically towards the sky, he sorta felt like an idiot because it was one of the oldest tricks in the book.
"Really!? Where!? I didn't know they had a faction of aliens here as well!" Naruto said with sparkles in his eyes.
...
Ok time to make a quick get-away. Issei dashed off from his location near the girl's locker room and made his way behind an old school warehouse. He hoped that the blond would eventually leave him alone before trying his peeping attempt again...
"Yo."
Damn it.
Issei looked to his left and found his annoying stalker just looking at the sky, still searching for UFO or just mocking him?
"I still can't find the UFO you pointed out, but that's fine. I'll look for it later, that'd be a pretty cool picture to show your friends ya know? Also, smart idea in hiding behind the warehouse. No one will hear our conversation here." Naruto said cheerfully, completely unaware of Issei's escape attempt.
Issei just groaned.
"Ok, so you ready to hear me out now? What I'm about to tell you is super important and cannot be told to anyone else. Unless you want to die that is, but I wouldn't recommend it." Naruto started, but he seemed to be scaring the perverted boy with his blunt statements. Well, he was being truthful here and he would much rather be truthful and have him face the good and bad rather than give him a nasty surprise later.
"Don't worry about it, just don't tell any normal people and you will be fine. Now, I'm here as a favor for a friend of mine, I'm sure you know her since she is pretty famous at this Academy...her name is Gremory Rias and-" Naruto tried to say but was interrupted by a thoroughly excited Issei. "She wants to talk to me!? She wants to talk to me!? I accept! I accept whatever she wants me to do!" Issei said with enthusiasm, if he gets on her good side then maybe he could get a 'sexy' reward!
Issei's fantasies were ended the second a hard slap upside the head hit him and sent him to the ground with a lump on his head. The perverted boy just sent a halfhearted glare up at the perpetrator.
"What the hell bastard!? I accepted your offer so why did you hit me!?" Issei demanded while holding the painful bump on his head. Then brown eyes met blue eyes with startling intensity as they gave him a hard stare. "I don't know if you had any problems in trusting people in your life...but don't you fuckin' throw away your freedom so damn easily." Naruto spoke seriously.
Naruto had no trouble if Issei heard what Rias was offering as well as the realistic negatives of her proposal and accepted afterwards. But for him to say 'I accept whatever she wants me to do!' so easily without hearing what he actually had to do bothered him a lot.
No.
Issei couldn't accept something like this so easily, he had to think about whether the price of his humanity and his freedom was worth it to become a devil.
If someone heard his thoughts, then they would ask a reasonable question; isn't this against the Rias' wishes in regards to the favor she asked? To the casual observer, yes it is. But to Naruto he was helping Rias.
If Naruto just gave Issei the positives of becoming a devil without giving him the negatives, then there was a chance that he would become unsatisfied and try to rebel against her. This would inevitably make Issei into a stray devil and the demonic powers he now had would turn him into a monster without a king to keep him in check. In the end, Issei would probably be killed, Rias would lose prestige, this could sow doubt in her Peerage, and she would be back where she began.
If he failed in bringing Issei into Rias' Peerage then there were no negative outcomes in failing her favor, after all a favor was a favor. If he did bring Issei into her Peerage though, then she would owe him a favor, one that she couldn't deny as long as it was within reason. Naruto suggested this before so that everyone in their little 'Kuoh pact' could learn to depend on one another and begin understanding one another. So Naruto had to be the first one to make it work.
But he definitely wouldn't give up his morals for it.
So Naruto grabbed Issei by the shoulder and gave it a squeeze.
"Let's talk Hyoudou Issei, like I said this will change your life from here on in. For better or for worse. So the least you can do is make sure you make the best decision by listening to me." Naruto said with a firm tone. Issei saw the firm look that the blond was giving him and sighed.
"Fine...let's talk."
So they talked.
A certain daughter of the original Lucifer was looking around Kuoh for a certain blond.
Naruto promised Mio that they would leave together properly, but the blond seemed to have performed a disappearing act...again. It was strange to the young girl that someone so eye-catching could disappear so easily, she even entertained ideas with Maria that maybe their blond savior was a ninja.
That was a good laugh.
But as of now, she was annoyed at her blond savior due to his pranks that she was sure he had done on purpose.
Making her call him 'onii-san' was way too embarrassing! The fact that she had to say it near classmates in her age group and that Maria teased her mercilessly about it wasn't helping at all!
Now she was annoyed at the fact that he seemingly forgot that they were going to walk home, she hated to admit it but Mio was beginning to depend on Naruto. So much so in fact, that she didn't feel as safe when he wasn't around, he just had an aura that spoke of an unyielding spirit. So she wanted to stay close to him...
Not that she would ever admit it.
So after asking around the Academy she finally found out what her 'onii-san' was up to.
Looking for the infamous pervert Hyoudou Issei.
She heard horror stories from the other girls about the ghastly deeds of the 'Perverted Trio' and she decided that Naruto couldn't be allowed to influenced by such a person. Naruto was already a handful as it was, she didn't need to add 'pervert' to his admittedly few failings.
When she voiced her beliefs to her new friends in class when they were preparing to leave, many of them couldn't help but point out that she was acting more like a jealous girlfriend than like a concerned sister.
She ignored the accusation.
Mio finally reached the last confirmed location of Uzumaki Naruto and checked the girl's locker-room. When she looked around, she noticed a set of foot tracks that moved away from the area towards the old warehouse. She supposed that was about as safe a bet as she could get, so she walked the distance to the warehouse.
Once she arrived, she came upon a peculiar sight, she finally found Naruto but she also found a brown haired teen that seemed to be engaged in a serious lecture by her annoying savior. It was a peculiar sight, what could Naruto be telling this boy?
But before she could move closer without either of them noticing, Naruto turned his head towards her direction and gave her a smirk.
Damn it. He found her out before she could quench her curiosity.
So she moved closer to the two boys and was about to address Naruto when the other boy finally noticed her.
"OOOOOOOOHHHHH!" the other boy all but shouted out in amazement, what the hell? Who was this guy?
The boy leered at Mio's form without conscious thought and his nose started blowing out steam due to his rising excitement.
Mio just took a step back in shock at how the brown haired teen was behaving. The horror stories spoke of such perversion in muted whispers in the girl's bathroom...this can only be...
"...Hy-Hyoudou Issei..." Mio stuttered, she was face-to-face with womankind's number one enemy. She had to leave here as soon as possible before he began to harass her, so she quickly grabbed Naruto by the arm and physically dragged him with her.
"He-! Hey! What the hell Mio!?" Naruto cried out in surprise as he was getting dragged away by his pseudo little sister, he still had to tell Issei about the duties of a Peerage member! But Mio was determined to leave before the pervert's brain restarted.
Issei managed to shake himself out of his stupor, but only did it in time in order to see the beautiful girl dragging the blond away.
...
"...What do blonds have that I don't have!?" Issei cried out in despair with comical waterfall tears flowing down his face. It wasn't fair that the only two male blonds of the school got all of the love! The perverted boy finally stopped his despairing and turned solemn in order to answer Naruto's question...
The question of becoming a devil of Gremory Rias has finally begun to be taken seriously after Naruto told him about most of the pros and cons of becoming a servant. Could he really give up his carefree life for the chance of restarting his life for a better one? Naruto even said that if he worked hard enough, that he can not only get lots of money...he can also attract a lot of attention from female devils!
That thought alone when watching the many stereotypes of sexy she-devils in porn magazines was pushing him to go for devilhood! But did he really want to get targeted by other supernaturals...?
Hell he thought that the blond was crazy when he mentioned all of this. He quickly changed his mind when he met with a physical copy of the same whiskered blond after a puff of smoke. Soon after he was taking the blond's words seriously...
Man his head hurt! He was just an ordinary high school kid! What kind of teen deals with shit like this!?
But he also didn't want to miss such a chance at being something more than just a bug under everyone's shoes. Maybe he could be just like that sensei that Naruto was talking about one day...
He had to go home and really think about this.
Mio dragged Naruto through the Academy to leave the school grounds. She kept going on about 'how he shouldn't be influenced by perverts' as if he was talking to Issei due to his perverted charisma. He tried to ensure her that he wasn't going to go pervert on her but she seemed adamant on keeping Naruto away from Issei. He couldn't help but shake his head in amusement at her antics, she was acting so childish, but she was doing it for his sake so it came out as a little cute instead.
As Mio continued her little rants, Naruto noticed that there was someone waiting for them at the Academy entrance.
Maria waved her arms around frantically towards their direction with a big smile, Mio finally noticed her guardian and couldn't help but groan in embarrassment since a lot of students were staring at the seemingly little girl.
"Naruto-sama! Mio-sama! I've been waiting for you two for a long time you know?" Maria pouted, Mio just gave the crafty succubus a dull stare. She seemed to be in high spirits again, so she was sure that she was up to something again. The loli's next words only confirmed Mio's fears.
"So I heard that you have admitted to your classmates that you're prepping Naruto to be a perfect boyfriend! I never knew you had it in you Mio-sama!" Maria said cheerfully with a hint of sly smile making it's way to her lips. Naruto looked on in amusement as Mio sputtered her own defense of the charge placed against her.
"Where the hell did you hear that from!?"
"Well...your new friends were talking about your declaration to save your 'nii-san' from the dangers of the Perverted Trio. My my Mio-sama...are you trying to win Naruto-sama's heart?" Maria said with an increasingly growing smirk. This was probably due to Mio's steam that was coming out of her ears due to the incredible amount of blood that was swimming towards cheeks.
"Yo-...You...Maaaarrrriiiiaaaa...!" Mio began dangerously, her anger and frustration growing to the point that she would lash out. Maria widened her eyes to the newly aggressive Mio and began to back up, maybe she pushed her a little too much?
"Wa-Wait Mio-sama...it was just a joke! Please! Mercy!" Maria cried out to her charge.
"No."
Naruto heard pitiful whimpers from the succubus from the rest of the day.
Naruto stared at his newly made fuin barrier.
It would work this time, and no damsels in distress would deter him from actually training this time.
Maybe.
The young shinobi was standing in the middle of the forest where he found Mio and Maria a few days prior. It was night time and the blond left his home for this forest to test out a few things. First and foremost, he wanted to check whether the kuchiyose no jutsu could ever be used as a viable option to get back home.
The last time he tried it, it required a huge chunk of chakra that even someone like Naruto felt. But he had to keep trying, at least until he found a better option to transport himself back to his world. So he bit his thumb to let loose a little blood for the contract to work properly and then...
"Kuchiyose no jutsu!" Naruto cried as he slammed his hand into the ground.
A POP later and the smoke appeared that signified that something has indeed been summoned. Naruto made sure to use a similiar amount of chakra as last time in order to check if anything has changed. He peered into the smoke to see what he summoned...then he widened his eyes at his discovery.
What was in front of him was a small toad!
Naruto quickly fist-pumped himself at this small but noticeable achievement. He then leaned down towards the toad in order give him a message.
"Hey! You know who I am right? I'm Uzumaki Naruto; a toad summoner! Listen, I need you to give out a message to sennin-jiichan!" Naruto explained quickly, wanting to give the little toad as much info as possible. Maybe sennin-jiichan would know how to get him back!
The toad just stared at him unblinkingly without saying a word.
Naruto stared at the toad with hope, but as seconds moved on to minutes with still no sound Naruto began to suspect something else.
"...You don't know how to talk do you little guy...?" Naruto stated with twitching eyes, it would make sense that a very young toad wouldn't be able to speak with humans yet. After all this little guy was a lot smaller than even Gamakichi was during the chuunin exams!
The toad just blinked much to the shinobi's chagrin. So he just silently sent to little toad back to Mount Myoboku. Damn, well at the very least he learned that for some reason, the chakra requirements for the kuchiyose was lessening over time. He had no idea why though, he just hoped that in time he can actually summon toads allies to back him up if push comes to shove again.
Naruto got up and stretched. Ok! It was time to go training! He put his hands together to make a familiar cross.
"Kage bunshin no jutsu!" Naruto cried out as several clones appeared near the original.
"Alright! We gotta freshen ourselves up for future battles! It's time that we get back into training!" Naruto cried out in exuberance, all the other clones cried out in agreement and began to spar with one another to freshen up reflexes.
Yeah, this would work.