In my Dreams - Chapter 3 (Patreon)

Chapter 3-

"Rias, you seem angry."

"Whatever would give you that impression? I'm not angry."

"Your eye is twitching, and you're cleaning. I want to know why?"

"Oh, it's nothing," she said, throwing a few empty ramen cups away from the floor rather forcefully, all the while, she couldn't stop a single one of her crimson eyebrows from moving slightly. He could tell something was not alright with her.

He backed off, but not before asking, "Is it… is it… because of me?" Naruto asked. "Because if I did anything, I'm sorry and…" he tried to rectify. He liked talking with Rias, and he meant really talking with Rias. She had been his first friend his age, something he eternally valued, and he wouldn't give up for the world. If he had done anything to make her this angry, well? He wouldn't know what to do with himself.

"What? No, you didn't do anything," Rias stated, as Naruto sighed, happy that he hadn't done anything wrong to his newest and only friend.

"Okay, then… why are you angry?" Naruto asked once again.

As Rias was once again reminded of what happened, her eyebrow kept twitching. "I'm not angry, I'm just… a little frustrated, okay," she sighed, finally admitting that she might be a little angry. Why? You might ask, well, the main reason was rather simple. It was that she was forced to meet Riser Phenex, her 'betrothed', once again, and how she despised him. From the moment she had once again come into contact with him, he did nothing but brag about himself and saw her as nothing more than an object. This meeting was no different, a 'playdate' put together by their parents for them to 'get to know one another.' It didn't work, as she already knew all that she needed to about him. The fact that Zeoticus and Venelana Gremory couldn't see that frustrated her.

"It's nothing, just something my parents did that has me a bit angry," she told him. "I'm sure you understand."

Naruto shook his head, "Yeah, totally." He didn't. Deciding to change the topic, he decided to ask the young girl a different question. "So, why are you cleaning?" he asked her, as the young girl was once again throwing pieces of his empty trash along the floor into a trash bag.

"Because it's dirty in here, silly." So she liked to clean things? Sue her. It was something she never really did because she had servants who usually took care of things, but it was a habit she'd discovered soon after she had gotten into manga and left her books out too long. She despised dirty things, and most definitely being dirty herself, which was why she always took baths multiple times during the day. Given that she was likely going to be spending alot of time here, she decided that she would rather not spend it in filth and rubbish, so she went on fixing the problem that irked her. Plus, it had the added benefit of taking her mind off current things, which she desperately needed.

In the past couple of days, since their first meeting, Rias Gremory had found out a few interesting things about where exactly they were and what certain conditions needed to be met so they could both meet up here. They were in Naruto's room, that much was a given, but it wasn't exactly Naruto's room since even if she cleaned Naruto's room here, it would remain dirty in Naruto's room the next day. As if resetting to the state it was previously, as if she hadn't even been there, much to the joy of Naruto, as he had quickly found out that no matter how much of his ramen he ate, it would be replenished come morning. That was because this wasn't necessarily Naruto's room; in a sense, it was more like a pocket dimension made to resemble that of Naruto's room, similar to that of the battlefields they used in rating games, only on a much smaller scale.

This was like a dream.

It was a dream, a dream they both equally shared of Naruto's room before he went to bed. This brought on the two conditions needed for them to enter this space. First of all, they only entered this dream-like world when they were both asleep; that much was obvious. But they could only enter this place if both of them were alone in the room where they slept. The moment they fell asleep, they would enter. She found this out when a servant just so happened to wander into her room when she was sleeping. Subsequently, it didn't matter where she was sleeping, whether her room or another, all that mattered was that she was sleeping. The same could not be said for Naruto, as he had to be actively sleeping in his room for them both to end up here.

That was what she had found out upon the first couple of days of testing, which was easy to figure out, given enough time, and time was what she had in spades, given she and Naruto were essentially trapped here each night. The added benefit was that the moment morning came, she would be well rested, as if she were actually sleeping. Essentially, she was given an extra eight hours to do what she wanted, and she couldn't be happier.

Here, she didn't have to worry about titles, about being a devil, about being the clan heir; here, she could just be herself.

What was she doing with this time, you might ask? Well, right now she was cleaning, something she never really got the chance to do with her family's servants always taking care of everything before she could get to it.

But no matter how many empty cups of ramen there were, it seemed like the trail of ones remaining would never end. Honestly, she couldn't fathom how someone could get so many on the floor at once. She supposed her new friend really liked ramen. "Seriously, I can't believe your parents let you live like this," she muttered to herself, mostly. But even then, it seemed that Naruto had heard what she said, and instantly, he felt uncomfortable.

"Ah, well, you see, about that…" He rubbed the back of his head in the awkwardness of the conversation, as Rias looked towards him with a raised eyebrow. "My parents, well… I don't have any," he told her with a slight laugh. She could tell it was forced from the instant it left his mouth.

Instantly, Rias' eyes widened. "What? You don't have any? Then who else is living in this house with you?" she questioned in surprise.

"House? This isn't a house, it's an apartment, and this is all there is," Naruto corrected. "I'm an orphan, so the Hokage gives me a stipend each month so I can pay for expenses."

"Really? So you just live alone here?" she asked, to which Naruto shook his head yes. Rias was surprised. How could someone so young, someone her age, live alone all by themselves? Didn't the people of Naruto's village know that a child couldn't sustain themselves alone? Even when given money each month to live off of, that was no substitute for real human interaction and the feelings of a parent.

That thought brought on a new feeling within Rias. Naruto didn't have any parents; that much was a fact. And here she was, angry at her own because of something they had done when Naruto didn't have such a luxury. Thinking back on the situation, and many more within her past, she could tell that her parents loved and wanted the best for her, even if they went about it in all the wrong ways. Even in her anger, she could see that, so why was she so mad at them? She realized she didn't want to be angry at them for so long.

Ever since they had told her about her arrangement with Riser Phenex, she had always kept their distance from them, and even though she had never been outright hostile, she could tell that each of her parents and brother knew that things hadn't been the same since. In truth, she wanted to go back to the days when she could run up to her father and jump into his arms. Or play with her brother and pretend she was a great satan. Or even viewing her mother, seeing the woman she wanted to be, and imagining herself to be just like her when she got older.

She wanted that back again.

Sure, she wasn't going to just accept the marriage she had been placed in, but that didn't mean that she had to fully take out her frustration on them, not when they continued to love and care for her all this time.

As she was thinking this, Naruto stayed silent, whether it was because he had sensed her incoming thoughts or he didn't feel comfortable with continuing this conversation, she didn't know. But as Rias discovered her revelation, she did something unexpected.

"Hey, Naruto," she called to his attention, as he looked at her. Both of their eyes locked together. A small smile formed across her lips, "Thank you," she told him. She wanted to make things better with her parents and brother, and had it not been for Naruto, she didn't know if she would have done so.

Such a sigh was enough to embarrass Naruto; he had never been looked at with such gratitude before, and honestly, he didn't know how to react in this situation. "Rias, well, I…" he didn't know what to say and didn't know how to react in such a situation. In the end, he just settled for his usual action of rubbing the back of his head, not being able to convey his own words; he just hoped Rias got the message.

She did, at least, he thought she did.

Suddenly, something out of the corner of Rias's eye caught her attention. "Naruto?"

"Yes, Rias?" he questioned, "What is it?" Naruto wondered, but the red-haired girl didn't answer him; she only walked toward the edge of the room near the only bookshelf he had within the room. He wondered what she was doing.

Before she turned around, she flashed him a bright smile. "Want to play?" Rias asked, and he was confused for all of two seconds before he saw what was within her small, pale hands. It was a small box that had been tucked in between the books on the shelf that he had stashed there long ago. A set of playing cards, unopened, seeing as how he had no one to play them with.

A smile brightened along Naruto's face, "Of course!"

XXX

"What's this, Rias?" Naruto asked, and within his hands was something he was entirely unfamiliar with.

"It's a manga, Naruto," Rias squealed happily. She hadn't believed that she would be able to bring items from her world into this one until she tried it. In hindsight, she realized that it was entirely possible, especially considering she still had the same clothes on her from when she fell asleep the night before, so bringing other objects wasn't too far-fetched. She theorized it was possible, and surmised that she needed to be in close contact with the item before she went to sleep. She also guessed that the object needed to be small enough to fit within the room, her bed being something she wouldn't be able to transport, no matter how much she could have tried. It was why, even though she slept on it each night, she would never arrive here with it in tow, the action of which would be just ludicrous to even think about. But something as simple as a small book wasn't entirely outside the realm of possibility.

How had she come across this discovery? It was entirely by accident. I.E., she fell asleep reading her favorite manga under her covers and had found out it had gotten transported here, not that she'd ever tell Naruto that.

"Ok, but what is that?" he questioned, looking over the volume and seeing that it was much like the books he had been used to, only this one had fewer words and more illustrations to it, with most of the words being speech bubbles that the characters voiced, sticking out to him. There was a picture on the front, too, this one being a drawing of three people. A man with green hair and a bottle of sake, a woman with orange hair and binoculars, and a dark-haired boy with a red shirt and a straw hat atop his head. Each was riding on a small wooden ship with strange white and black birds flying close to them, and each seemed to be smiling and having a good time as they sailed across the ocean. He had never seen anything like it; a book like this was definitely out of the ordinary.

"It's a manga, something from my world, here, you should read it," Rias explained, pointing to the illustrations on the first page.

Naruto handed her the book instead, "No thanks, I don't like reading, it's probably boring anyway." As he tried to walk away, most likely trying to find more ramen

"Hey, it's not boring, you just read it, I'm sure you'll like it," Rias shot back, not happy that one of her favorite pieces of media was getting talked about like that. "It's about a pirate boy climbing from the bottom of society, going on wild adventures, and being free from society as he is on a journey to become king of the pirates," she gushed, rubbing the manga volume close to her heart. This was what made the story so great in her eyes: Monkey D. Luffy was a person who could be anywhere and do anything he ever wanted. He had the freedom to choose who he was, be the person he wanted to be, and have whatever future he could have. That's what she wanted as well.

"Honestly, the main character reminds me alot of you sometimes, with his determination and goal," she mused. Plus, both characters could be rather dumb at times, really dumb. Although, to be fair, Naruto was a bit smarter, something to note considering Naruto was quite a few years younger. That just went to show how dumb Luffy could be at times.

Naruto blinked, "That, honestly, seems cool." Really cool, it reminded him of the stories the old man Hiruzen had always told him about shinobi and the Hokages. And he didn't know what a 'pirate king' was, but it sounded cool, not as cool as being a Hokage, but still cool nonetheless.

"Does that mean you'll read it?" Rias smiled with sparkles of excitement in her eyes.

"Still no," Naruto told her flatly.

"Why not?!" Rias demanded.

"Look, Rias, I just… am not that into reading, okay?" As Naruto looked away, he scratched his cheek awkwardly. "Who would want to read…umm, whatever that is anyway? I don't want to be a nerd like you."

Rias looked at him skeptically. She could tell Naruto was acting strange, really strange, to the point she felt like Naruto was hiding something. And she thinks she found out exactly what. "Naruto, I'll stop trying to get you to read this if you do one thing," she told him.

"Really? What is it?" Naruto could tell Rias would be stubborn about this, and if he were given a chance to get her to change the topic, he would gladly take it.

"Read this for me, it's the title, if you can tell me what the story is called, I'll drop it," Rias told him, pointing at the text at the top of the cover. It seemed easy enough for him to answer.

Naruto gulped, "Ah, well, that's easy… it— Ona… One… something. One—" He tried to say, looking at the cover as best as he could. Finally, he put his head low. "I'm not sure, okay." He hated admitting he couldn't do things

"I thought so," Rias nodded, satisfied. Before she looked at her friend in concern, "Naruto, you can't read, can you?" she asked. He couldn't read the manga she was holding, not necessarily a problem if not for one simple thing… it was in Japanese. Most people wouldn't be able to read Japanese, and she would understand that unless you were within the country of Japan or given a good enough education like hers, you wouldn't be able to understand it. But the problem was from the numerous amounts of stuff within the room, namely empty ramen containers and books she had never seen Naruto touch— she had surmised that was it, Naruto's natural language. Meaning if he couldn't read it, he likely couldn't read any other languages as well.

It is a surprise, given that most people their age or even younger could do it was surprising. The average child started reading at around six or seven, with her being a little younger than that, and she was already capable of reading and writing in several different languages as well. Naruto was nine, the same age as her, and the fact that he couldn't read his own language was a bit of a problem.

"Hey! I can too read!" he denied, and she looked at him. "I can read a bit of the menu over at Ichiraku Ramen," Naruto admitted, as Rias's eyes softened.

"Naruto, don't you go to school? If so, what have they been teaching you?" the young child questioned.

"I don't know, each time they taught this sort of stuff, I was always sent out of the room for some reason, eventually they let me back in, and by the time they did, they kept trying to teach me things I didn't understand," Naruto told her honestly. At the academy, he could tell the instructors there never liked him, and he retaliated by pranking them. But each time they were teaching how to read and write, he was usually sent out of the room, even though he hadn't done anything to warrant doing so.

"I see…" Rias stated calmly, but inside, she was livid.

She could tell something was off about the way this supposed village treated Naruto, from making him live alone and giving him his own apartment to the local school system singling out one of their children for some unknown reason. She had half a mind to do something about it, like telling her father to buy the school just so her friend's education system wouldn't be so terrible as to allow one of their students to not be taught. But of course, she couldn't do so, she had found out long ago that her and her friend's worlds were entirely separate. She wasn't even sure if she could ever travel to Naruto's world; she didn't know if it was a separate world in a different pantheon or another dimension entirely. All she knew was that travel there would be difficult, if not outright impossible.

The best she could do was help Naruto when she could, and that meant…

"Naruto?" she spoke up.

"What is it, Rias?" he said slightly angrily, not happy that his not-so-secret-secret had been found out. He was made fun of enough by the other schoolchildren that he didn't need her to do it too.

"Would you… Would you like me to teach you how to read?" Rias questioned.

Naruto looked at her, surprised, but he wasn't shocked enough to not say. "Hell no! I don't want to end up being a nerd like you!" he told her flatly.

As Rias began gritting her teeth, "Naruto, this is something that is very important. How are you going to become your village's leader if you don't learn these things?" She questioned in a dark tone, and Naruto could vaguely see the figure of an older red-haired woman with violet eyes, with her hair floating in nine separate strands floating along her back. "Let me ask you again: Do. You. Want. Me. To. Teach. You." she told him.

Naruto inwardly gulped, "I-I… Yes, R-Rias," he stuttered out, his body frozen stiff and unable to move.

"Good," Rias smiled, the figure behind her disappearing and the young girl having returned to her old self.

Naruto sighed, he didn't know what that was, but he never wanted to see something like that again.

Oh, how little he knew.

End Chapter.

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