Kunou's eyes lit up. "That...that sounds like a karasu-tengu and a nue..."
With that, the shinobi snapped his fingers and pointed at the little girl. "That's it! I knew I recognized those yokai! But unfortunately that's not all, it turns out that your kidnappers are still hunting for you. So we should wait until tomorrow morning to -hopefully- get this mess sorted out. If we go now...we might get more easily ambushed in the darkness of the night. Best wait for light and better visibility dattebayo."
The little kyuubi nodded slowly, that made sense...
Then she paused, throwing the teen an incredulous look.
"...Dattebayo?"
Naruto snorted. "It's my thing, don't judge. Anyways, it's your turn to tell me your story."
Kunou nodded, and opened her mouth to reply, but shut it quickly afterwards. Suddenly unwilling to say anything.
This person may be friendly now...but what if he was trying to trick her? What if this was all some kind of trick? One that would hurt her mother...?
The shinobi, apparently taking the young girl's silence as an unwillingness to talk, made to lie down on his bag. Preparing to get some rest. "Well, no worries. You don't have to talk about if you don't want to. You're a kid after all, I'm sure you went through some tough shi- I mean...crap. Best to just unwind form the day's stress sometimes. Get some rest."
With that, the teen laid down on his bag, closing his eyes so that he could go to sleep.
"...You're letting this go? Just like that?"
Naruto didn't respond, he stayed on the ground, with his peaceful face inviting the blissful unconsciousness of sleep.
Kunou said nothing, she merely glanced at the older boy, then turned away resolutely, facial features blank as her thoughts raced.
"Kid?"
The little kyuubi looked back at the teen, her golden eyes connecting with his blue as he opened a single eye to look at her.
"...You're safe now. I promise. I will protect you. I'll stake my life on it."
Golden eyes blinked slowly, but then began to blink rapidly, trying desperately to stop the flow that wanted to leak through from increasingly puffy eyes.
The heightened sense of wariness finally left her frame as she began to sniffle, hiccuping minutely as she just let go.
Naruto watched in abject sympathy as tears began to freefall from the little girl's eyes...pushing him to get up from his position on the floor and move closer to the yokai princess.
The shinobi slowly, hesitantly, moved closer and brought his arm around her neck, bringing her close to his chest as she openly began to bawl, her hot tears quickly wet his vest as she snuggled close. Wanting, needing that contact.
He could only shake his head. She was so young...
"Sorry kid...I tried to be as understanding and as positive as I could. I...didn't want you to be stressed out."
Kunou could only nod lightly, refusing to use her mouth with the lump in her throat.
Naruto closed his eyes as the little girl let it out, the stress of the day and the fear that came along with it. An image of a little boy going through such ordeals flitting across his head...
He quickly swallowed the anger that wanted to rise up his throat, getting angry wouldn't help here. Leave that for when he found the perpetrators.
"...Um...excuse me?"
The shinobi snapped back to the little girl under his arm, staring up at him with puffy red eyes.
"Oh! Sorry, I'll get off you now." Naruto began, moving to get back to his spot.
"No, wait!"
The teen paused, looking back at the younger girl with interest. Unsure.
Kunou for her part, squirmed in her place, eyes glancing down at the rock floor with way too much interest.
"...Could you...well...maybe...stay with me for a little longer?"
Naruto's lips twitched upwards, a growing smile spreading across his lips as he moved closer to her again.
"No problem."
"Hei!"
The sound of the powerful blow echoed across the room, shaking it faintly.
Koneko panted heavily as she bent over and placed her hands on her knees, using it as a method to keep herself standing.
Not enough.
Why wasn't it enough?
She growled as she forced herself up again, intent on trying again with more vigor.
Harder.
The little fist she sent sailing towards the wall impacted, enlarging the crack that was already there from her previous attack.
Harder.
Another blow to the wall broke down the section where she was aiming at, the pieces of rubble falling off and riddling the floor.
This time Koneko sat down, taking in huge gulps of air to refresh her lungs.
...Ah...maybe she went too far...
The young devil groaned as her fists ached from the abuse she gave them, she wasn't getting much stronger...
She suppoed that it made sense...she already focused most of her energy on power, so raising that strength even further is going to be a bit of an uphill battle.
But she had to.
That feeling of natural energy still lingered close to her heart, that overwhelming sense of fear of that person being close.
Of that person coming for her.
She had to get stronger...!
Koneko couldn't help but sigh however, she definitely wouldn't be getting any stronger today. So may as well stop for today.
She wondered what everyone else was doing?
The young rook got up from her position on the floor back to the main room of the training center, wondering what everyone else was up to-
"Ah, no wait! Rias-sempai! STOOOOP!"
"Sorry Mio-chan! This is what the note said to do! No breaks!"
Koneko wasn't sure about how to respond to this development, so she decided to stay quiet for now.
"Ara, you're back from your time in isolation, Koneko-chan?"
The young devil coolly turned her head to regard her devil sempai, how long has she been there? Plus, how did she manage to get behind her without her noticing?
Kind of scary actually.
Akeno was smiling at her, with the usual graceful air of an ideal Japanese beauty.
But that air was somewhat marred by the her slightly frizzled hair and clothes, as well as the soot that covered her entire body.
"...Did something happen, Akeno-sempai?" Koneko couldn't help but ask, eyeing the queen warily.
Akeno glanced down at her current state. "Ah, you mean this? Well, I was testing out a new technique that I've been practicing today."
She then shrugged airily. "It didn't work."
Yeah, Koneko could see that...
"But that's ok!" the queen chirped, clapping her hands together. "Afterwards I got a volunteer to help me out! It was...admittedly exhilarating."
The rook shivered.
Who would be stupid enough to allow themselves to be a test subject for the sadistic queen...?
"Issei-san! Hold on! Please don't die!"
Amber eyes were dry as they slowly turned to look at the smoking body of Hyoudou Issei, who was currently twitching violently and didn't look amused at all.
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