Rias' expression became incredulous at his statement. "Huh!? What are you talking about? You've been using '-san' to my name since we've met! Which was about a month ago now!"
Naruto turned away stubbornly. "Nope, I never used that honorific on you. Stop talking nonsense, Rias-san."
Rias was dumbfounded! How could he claim that he didn't use that honorific!? He used it all of the time! Heck! He just used it now!
"You could literally ask anyone about it! They would agree with me!" Rias argued.
Why? Why was she excited?
The blond continued to stubbornly claim that he never used the '-san' honorific with her, he only used it to better hide out in this world damn it!
In the Gremory's eyes, he was acting like a child.
She then challenged him to say her name without any honorifics.
"...Rias-s!...Rias-sa!...Ria-tan!"
"No! Just no! Definitely not that last one!"
Was this what it felt like to have an objective in life? A goal? Something to aim for? Something to strive for?
Naruto raised his hand to stop her from speaking, annoyance clearly conveyed through his facial expression.
He quietly moved past Rias towards the closed balcony door.
Then, faster than she could see, the blond swung the door open.
The teens that were pushing their ears onto the wooden construct inexplicably lost their once firm support.
Thus, they fell over like dominoes.
Once found out, many of the perpetrators gave off sheepish smiles at the blond male towering over them.
All except one ballsy soul.
"Hi Naruto, what are you doing with Rias-san all by yourself? Yuki asked with a serious expression.
Naruto couldn't help but admire her guts, although, it could just be that her lack of social norms was to blame.
Besides, he knew who was responsible.
The shinobi's eyes turned towards Maria, who was sweating bullets at getting caught.
Rias watched in amusement, as Naruto began to pull Maria's cheeks in his annoyance.
She noticed her queen, who wasn't a part of the eavesdropping group, move up to her with a sly smile.
"Buchou...what could you have possibly been doing with foxy-kun all by yourself in the balcony? Especially in such a secluded area. What would your family say to that?" Akeno said with a mock affronted look.
Knowing full well that her closest friend had no such moral qualms to begin with, she safely ignored her teasing and decided to answer her seriously.
"Having a little talk. A nice little talk...Naruto is a really good person, don't you think so too, Akeno?" Rias asked rhetorically.
The black-haired devil looked curious at her friend's vague words, but smiled and agreed with her nonetheless.
Both older girls watched as Naruto began to demand from his eavesdroppers about what they heard, watching as many of them tried to deny any and all wrongdoing.
Yuuto managed to slip away from all of the confusion.
Smart.
"...So what did you two talk about, Rias?" Akeno asked quietly, intentionally calling her friend by her name this time.
Rias merely grinned at her friend.
"Why...about our future aspirations of course."
A new experience from the crawl of daily life, something that her competitive nature thrived on. A goal.
Just as she would help Naruto with his goal, he'd help her with her own.
That's what friends were for after all.
"Oh come on Naruto-sama! It's just a little bit of curious fun! No need for this!"
"Nope. Your videocam has been confiscated until you reflect on your actions. Don't think that I don't know about your ways! You try to take it back by trickery...then your videocam gets it!"
"Nooooooo~!"
Mio was staring at Naruto, who was currently scolding and punishing the main conspirator behind the eavesdropping.
She was curious, super curious, ultra curious on what her 'brother' and Rias-sempai talked about.
But at the moment, she was staying quiet so that the blond eventually forgot about the fact that she was involved in said eavesdropping.
"What is this inequality!? I get punished but Mio-sama gets off without any!? Unfair! I demand a retrial!" Maria cried out with faux tears.
Damn it Maria! Don't sell her out!
"Denied." Naruto quickly shut down. "Besides, who says that Mio wasn't going to get punished?"
The young female started sweating, damn it Maria! You traitor! You don't just rat out your co-conspirators that easily!
"I'm just going to let her suffer by not telling her about what happened with Rias-san. I know about how curious she always is." Naruto stated dryly.
Mio could have teared up with the unfairness of it all.
She didn't see him punishing Yuki! How was this fair!?
The shinobi frowned for a moment, looking up as he scratched his head.
"...Who else was there agian?"
Mio definitely wanted to cry at the unfairness of it all now.
Before any of them could continue, they were all temporarily blinded as a bright light emanated from the floor.
Naruto rolled his eyes once he could see again.
A magic circle.
...Again.
Silver too, so it was obvious who it was.
As expected, the beautiful maid of the Gremory family arrived on the scene.
Obviously enough, the rest of the mansion came running at the large amount of demonic energy that just arrived.
"Greetings everyone, apologies for the interruption, but we have much to discuss." the maid stated stoically.
The shinobi was beginning to hate magic circles.
"Huh!? A celebration!? What for!?" Rias cried out in shock.
She wasn't the only one who was shocked by the news, everyone there was looking at the maid in surprise.
"This is a necessary function in order to break in the news to the many devil clans, Rias-sama. Many of them were looking forward to your betrothal to Riser-sama, so they need to be brought up to speed in a special festivity to prevent anyone from having...a sense of dissatisfaction." Grayfia explained patiently, not just for the Gremory heiress but also for her comrades as well.
"...Did my intervention cause the Maou trouble, Grayfia-san?" Naruto asked wearily, not too sure that his actions have endeared him to the devil leader.
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