"The Morning Talk" (Canicular 15 Extra) (Patreon)

Naruto hadn’t slept well. It wasn’t the worst he’d ever had, but even for him, barely four hours of mediocre sleep the night before a dangerous situation coming to a head was pretty lackluster. A part of it was because of the worry he felt for the small and blunt girl he was utterly attached to, the one person in this world he would refuse to leave behind even if it meant he could go back home tomorrow, but that wasn’t the entire reason.

Hearing that Koneko had been badly injured and would need serious healing through the night had rattled him, and by the time he arrived at the ORC with his two carry-ons, she was already receiving it behind closed doors, so he couldn’t even get a look for himself to know how worried he should be.

But that was fine. Naruto was no stranger to his friends and loved ones going into battle and coming out at less than one hundred percent. He could compartmentalize to a degree, put it out of his mind temporarily to focus on other things that he could actually help with.

No, the main issue he hadn’t slept well was because with all the issues he needed to deal with from debriefing, to figuring out how to handle Destruction’s return and doing that, to dealing with Kalawarner, and more, by the time he finally got to sleep, the sun was already about to rise. It was so out of sync with his usual sleep habits that he was surprised he even managed to get any rest at all at that point.

He did anyway, falling into an unfamiliar bed and letting his eyes close for just a few moments. And when his eyes decided they couldn’t stay closed anymore with the sun shining on them that brightly, he woke up with nothing urgent to handle, which meant all the worry he’d pushed aside came rushing back.

But when he followed the smell of food to the main club room, no one seemed to be in tears or in a depressed mood or anything, so he assumed everything went as well as could be. Something that was confirmed to him when Rias mentioned she’d checked in on them during the night after tucking Asia into bed.

“Neither Koneko or Akeno have left the room yet,” she’d said with an apologetic look. “Last night was rough on both of them, so just give it some time.”

Naruto still wanted to check on her himself though. But he agreed with Rias about letting them wake up when they were ready.

‘Better to do something useful with my time while I wait.’

After going over most of last night’s debrief again, and discussing it in detail now that some of the student council members were present to be informed and chime in, Naruto asked to borrow some of the blade polish Tomoe was in the process of using on her katana, which she cheerfully agreed to.

After finding a private place to do a quick bit of maintenance on Transparency and the few kunai he had on him where no one would witness him wiping down thin air, he returned the jar of oily wax, briefly passing by the room he knew Koneko and Akeno were staying in.

‘Huh? Was that-?’

Naruto paused, thinking for a second he heard the sound of running water through the walls.

‘Is someone showering?’

There was a moment where he almost thought about putting his ear to the door to check, but before the idea solidified, Naruto shook his head.

‘Nah, I’m not that much of a creep.’

He continued on to the club room, deciding to come back in maybe fifteen minutes and politely check to see if the two girls were awake and aware.

‘Shit! Shit! Shit!’

“You…” The cat demon growled.

Naruto was panicking. “K-Koneko-chan, now hold on, let’s just calm down and talk this over-!”

After all his worrying and holding himself back from hovering around their room like a creep, he still managed to walk in on them. And with the way Koneko had stared at him wide-eyed like a deer, too shocked to even react?

He’d covered his eyes far too late to not have burned the suggestive image into his brain, something that would not go unpunished.

Akeno had mumbled out an apology that she didn’t even have the energy to pretend was genuine, but she was clearly still too tired for him to have trusted her permission to enter. The low growl that came from the tiny, outspoken pervert-hater was enough to inform him that he’d messed up.

The peek he took to determine how fucked he was, was another mistake, for all he saw were the eyes of a demon charging him in vengeance.

So with his arms up to protect his face, leaving the rest of his tough body open to absorb any punishment, Naruto was ready to face Koneko’s righteous fury.

“You… y-you idiots…!”

Thump.

“...”

Which is why he was stunned speechless when instead of a flurry of scratches and slaps, what he received was his best friend slammed into his chest and threw her arms around his midsection.

“Koneko-Chan…?” Akeno muttered in confusion from the bed.

Naruto’s eyes weren’t on her though, he was focused fully on the head that was buried into his chest. He slowly lowered his arms to drape around the hiccupping girl, who was ignoring her state of undress to hug herself to him tightly. 

When they’d first met, Naruto was actually pretty close in height to Koneko, just a few inches taller; a result of his mysterious de-aging when he’d arrived in this reality. Now, after months of receiving even more mysterious donations of life force, he’d begun regaining a tiny bit of the height that he’d lost. Now, Naruto stood just a few inches shy of meeting Akeno eye to eye.

Not much in the grand scheme of things, still short for a "sixteen year old", but tall enough to comfortably tuck his upset friend’s head under his chin and bring her closer. She really did feel small, holding her like this.

“You…” Koneko mumbled through a wet sniffle. “It was… like a scene from an anime… you coming in, seeing us like th-this… getting all fluh-flustered… like it’s some, some big deal…”

As the girl Naruto liked haltingly mumbled the words into his chest, he felt like he already understood the point she was leading towards, what had brought on this sudden surge of emotions.

“Even though, tonight… tonight, we’ll…”

‘Yeah, I get it.’

“Why can’t I…” Koneko whispered. “How do I get it out of my head?!” Her voice rose dramatically at the end, uncharacteristic desperation mixing in as she squeezed him tighter, almost painfully. “Why can’t I stop thinking ‘what if’?!”

“Because it’s natural to worry for yourself, and the people you care about.” Naruto began gently rocking from side to side, pulling her along with the motion. “It’s easy to freeze when the stakes are thrown in your face.”

Koneko was one of the stronger members of both peerages. Not in the top 5, not yet, but close.

From what he’d learned from Tsubaki, Koneko had gone up against one of the six-winged Fallen Angels, and kept up with him relatively evenly. Then the man had evolved into a fourth pair of wings, and utterly destroyed her and Xenovia in an instant while he was still getting used to his new power.

And Kokabiel is another whole tier above that. If she hadn’t fought that man who was so far above her, hadn’t learned just what we were up against and how much worse it might get if the big boss really did come to town, she probably wouldn’t be feeling this way.

“But the truth is, death is always a possibility, from the moment someone decides to learn how to fight for themself and others,” Naruto told her somberly. “Even the weakest stray can surprise you. Even the strongest person you know can make a mistake. All it takes is a single time. Gone, before you even have a chance to say goodbye.”

He closed his eyes, picturing that perverted old man peeping on the women's hot springs with a creepy grin. The same man who taught him how to proof-read and edit manuscripts out in the wild with a relaxed smile by the light of a fire.

“You and your friends have been training. Fighting and killing the regular threats in your territory. You’ve all built up a trust in each other’s skills that tells you ‘They’ve got this. They’re strong.’ But you’ve never gone up against someone else strong enough to make you fear for their lives, to understand just how mortal everyone is. That fear is drowning everything out.”

Naruto pulled away slowly, but Koneko just held on even tighter reflexively. He pulled one hand up to her shoulder, while the other snuck between them to grasp her chin, gently forcing her tear stricken face to look up at him as she shook.

“You really don’t know what you need to do?” He asked, looking into her puffy, reddened eyes.

She hesitated.

“You do whatever you can to make sure they come back to you,” he told her. “You trust them to do the same. You trust that whatever happens, you’ve done everything you could, because that’s all you can do. Trust in yourself and your friends to always come home, no matter what.”

Koneko stared into his eyes and slowly stopped shuddering.

Her lips quivered.

“I want… to watch anime with you late at night.” She started in a whisper, but rose in volume and energy as she kept going. “I want to hang out with you and Mitsuri and Norika at school. I want you to teach me how to master Senjutsu. I want everyone to be able to keep smiling every day! I don’t want you to leave me! You have to promise me, Naruto, promise me you’ll make it back with us!”

She wasn’t quite yelling by the end, but it was close, and Naruto felt the rise and fall of her chest, the intensity of her racing heartbeat through his shirt.

He smiled at her, soft and proud.

“I promise. I’m not gonna leave you, not anytime soon.”

Koneko sniffled once, and buried her face in his chest again.

“After this is over,” she whispered, just loud enough for him to hear, “You’re taking me out on a date. I’m done waiting.”

Naruto felt a goofy grin forming on his face.

Then he blinked.

He looked down, and realized something he had forgotten.

His face turned bright red.

“Aww, that was so amazingly heartwarming, I’m feeling a little bit left out now! Got any room for one more in that hug~?”

Akeno was pushing herself to her feet from the bed with an inviting smile, arms held out welcomingly.

“Go take a shower, cow tits,” Koneko’s muffled voice said blandly. “You’re still covered in my blood.

Akeno blinked, then looked down at herself.

Her nose scrunched up. “Wow, you’re right. I feel gross now.”

Naruto breathed a sigh of relief as the naked young woman disappeared into the bathroom with swaying hips. A little extra blood or not, she was seriously h-

“Ouch!”

“Don’t look at her butt.”

“Yes ma’am. Sorry ma’am.”

AN: 10:30 PM is still "tomorrow"!

I may be "late" finishing and posting this, but I'm not late, woo!