An Unordinary Shinobi

Chapter 16 - Sure, elevators are bad, but honestly, turnstiles are worse

CW: fodd, v10lence (knocked out), yeah that's it

Naruto Uzumaki was bored. After staying up late to finish his homework, with the help of some clones, of course, and eating two pots of instant noodles, he was wide awake with nothing to do. Naruto hadn't had much spare time for training during the past week or so, and the absence of strenuous physical activity was making him somewhat more hyperactive than usual.

Therefore it was with little surprise that we encounter our protagonist ten minutes later on the way to the convenience store at 1am in the morning, hoping to buy some ramen, despite his obvious lack of money and dorm keys (the latter he would only discover much later, to his dismay). Naruto was just rounding a corner while whistling a butchered rendition of 'Silhouette' when he paused and dived into a nearby bush. Someone was coming.

It took him about twenty seconds to remember that this was a town and people were bound to go on a walk sooner or later, even if it was the middle of the night, but by then the figure was too close for him to leave his hiding spot without looking like a complete lunatic, so he stayed hidden. He caught a glimpse of the person's face as they walked past and almost let out a small gasp when he realised it was the red-headed boy he had seen moving out of his dorm room last week called... Bluke? Bloik? But what was Bike doing out here all on his own in the middle of the night, and wearing such a sketchy looking hoodie too? There was only one option – Naruto would have to follow him! To keep him safe, of course, not to just ease his boredom. Obviously.

When Blake passed the turnstiles at a train station, Naruto began to have second thoughts. Where the hell was this red-headed weirdo going, and why did it involve trains? Not that trains were not cool or anything. Having to sneak past turnstiles was bad enough, but getting stuck in one was even worse. And with his slight delay, Naruto didn't manage to get into the train before the doors closed, so he had to fling himself at the passing train, heave himself to the top and sit there, nearly getting flattened by tunnels every five minutes and dropping one of his pens.

Blyde got off at the next station, thank the Kami, then wandered around the town for about ten minutes, apparently looking for trouble. Naruto got tired of following him around and found a comfortable spot on a roof nearby, opened a KitKat and got ready for the show.

It was around this time that Kurama woke up and promptly began pelting Naruto with insults and questions such as "What the hell have you gotten yourself into this time?" and "Why did you follow some random guy you've only talked to once into a whole different town and are now watching him talk to a group of yet more strangers who look like they're about to attack him?"

Attack? Naruto turned back and realised that what he had assumed was a friendly conversation had escalated into various people running in Bouke's general direction and letting loose their abilities in what could be considered an aggressive fashion.

"Ehhh... Kurama... we should probably help this guy out, ya know. He is kind of getting his arse handed to him, if I'm honest... I'll admit that he is holding out pretty well considering he's outnumbered, but he's still losing the overall fight..."

'Psh, he'll be fine. Remember when you used to always get into near-death situations and ended up making up a new technique or something? I'm sure he's got this all under control and is about to undergo some interesting main character development lore, just you wait. But he's not nearly angsty enough to be a main character. Maybe that John guy is the main character, hmm..."

Naruto shut out Kurama's ramblings and sat in tense silence as Blaiké began to tire. His ability was fairly cool – he could apparently shoot some sort of energy beams from his hands and was actually using them to move around as well as cause damage to opponents, which was intelligent. Blækë and a pink-haired guy (the leader, apparently) began to yell at each other. Naruto was too far away to actually make out any words at all.