There was a pause in the conversation, with Yuki being hesitant in divulging what she suspected.
Naruto opened his mouth to ask what was going on-
"Naruto...whoever that person was...was trained by a hero."
Blue eyes widened imperceptibly, seriously? "...You sure? Absolutely?"
"Not completely, but fairly certain, yes." Yuki affirmed quietly. "There's something strange going on here, too many things don't add up or we simply don't know. Like...how did this warrior find us? Why did they attack the little kyuubi? Why was that warrior fighting like someone who was trained by the Hero Tribe? It's just so...-"
"Yuki!"
The hero immediately stopped speaking, heavy breathing was now the only thing that was coming through from the other line to the blond's ears.
"Calm down." Naruto comforted, trying to ease her. "We don't really know anything, sure. But this isn't the end of the world, we will find out what's going on soon. Hopefully. Listen...this attack obviously spooked you, just relax for a little bit...alright?"
"R-Right..." Yuki agreed readily, breathing out some air audibly. "I suppose I've just been on edge for a while. Sorry."
Naruto nodded slowly, despite the fact that there was no way she could see it, but his facial features were still troubled regardless.
"...Uh, I'm not really good at reading people behind a phone, but...are you sure that you're ok? You don't want to ask or tell me anything?"
The other line went silent again, but this was a moment of consideration rather than tension.
"Later." the hero quickly decided. "We'll talk about it later, I'd prefer to talk face-to-face. For now, let's just get some rest while we still can."
Naruto grinned, relaxing. "Got it. Tell Maria I said hi, would you?"
He could practically feel the smile grow on Yuki's face.
"Of course."
Yuki had a much calmer aura around her after having this conversation with her friend, whether she liked to admit it or not, the blond simply had that kind of effect on her.
The easy way he evoked a smile out of her could attest to that.
Not even her father could truly claim to have that kind of effect.
"Good!" Naruto chirped from the other line, content with her answer. "Now I'm gonna hang up now, gotta get some rest to deal with these pesky-"
Suddenly her friend cut himself off, almost as if someone cut off the connection between them.
The hero heard a twinge of concern leak into her voice as she called out. "Naruto? Are you ok? Naruto?"
"Ah...sorry about that." the mysterious blond quickly apologized, a sheepish tone in his voice accompanying it. "Was distracted for a split-second. Anyways, like I said, say hi to Maria for me, ok? See ya later!"
With that, Naruto ended the call, cutting off any more questions that the young teen could have asked.
Yuki took the phone off of her ear, staring at it with a puzzled look, before shrugging.
If something bad happened, then she was sure that explosions would have interrupted him. He was probably just tired.
"Ahhhhh! What the heck Yuki-san!?"
Ah, Maria's back.
Yuki turned her head to look at an irate succubus holding two water bottles in her hands, gaping at her in horror.
"...What?" the hero eventually asked, dreading the answer.
Maria just stomped her foot petulantly on the ground. "What do you mean 'what'!? I'll tell you 'what'! You didn't wait for me to come back to say hi to Naruto-sama!"
The young human female sighed in response, feeling a headache come on. "I didn't think that you'd come back so fast, apologies, it was an honest mistake."
The succubus crossed her arms over her chest, looking entirely unconvinced. "You totally don't seem that sorry...I wanted to see how Naruto-sama was doing too..."
Yuki rubbed her temples, scrunching up her facial features. "Alright. Alright. I'm sorry, I will be more considerate next time."
The hero stopped rubbing her temples for a moment to send the half-devil a dry look. "That being said...he actually wanted me to tell you that he said 'hi'. So...there's that."
Maria blinked, looking somewhat stupefied that the blond would ever do such a thing. Before flashing a cheesy grin.
"Heh...really? Awww...that's so cute. That Naruto-sama is such a tsundere!" Maria mumbled incoherently, wiggling around with a self-satisfied look on her face.
Yuki stared at the silverette, completely unable to understand what exactly goes through her head to make her act like that.
To be perfectly honest, she wasn't sure that she wanted to know...
After a few more seconds of wiggling, the succubus finally noticed her partner's disquiet and pouted. "What? Naruto-sama rarely acts like he cares about me sometimes, so when he does say nice things, it becomes a big deal! Like a tsundere!"
Yuki remained completely unconvinced, since when was saying hello such a big deal?
"...If you say so." the hero allowed, leaning back on her bag which she was using as a pillow. "Hand me the bottle you filled up please? We should get some rest, we need to head out as early as possible and grab a taxi."
By this point, considering the distance they have made between themselves and the train, they should be able to disassociate themselves with it.
If you added the fact that a full day would have passed, then even better. Now they can simply claim that they were curious to check out the incident instead of being suspected of being a part of it.
As the young human prepared to relax and fall to blissful sleep, a certain succubus crawled closer to her and gave a conspiratorial grin.
Oh no...
"So...we're in the forest...by ourselves...with no one to hear us...hm?" Maria hinted, the grin on her face growing.
"...You've somehow made this incredibly uncomfortable." Yuki noted dryly, turning her body over to look away from her annoying partner.
"No wait! I didn't mean it like that!" Maria protested, crawling around the hero to face her again. "I mean that we have a chance to talk about stuff that we normally wouldn't talk about! It's a chance!"
Weary yellow eyes focused on excited purple. "I really don't want to take that chance with you though..."
The loli looked taken aback, as if she was physically slapped. "Huh!? What's that supposed to mean!?"
Yuki's expression was stoic as she delivered her retort.
"It means that my faith on whether you can keep a secret or not is nearly nonexistent."
Maria pouted at this assertion. "Oh come on~ Give me a chance! What's the worst that can happen?"
The hero's eyes connected with the silverette's again, raising a single eyebrow at her question.
.
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