[Orcbane] Chapter 12 - Froggy

AN: I added a few more pictures

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Chapter 12 - Froggy

It was a sunny and humid day in summer, but, regardless of the season, the weather was always pleasant, like in late spring, in Quel’Thalas.

The dockworkers at the Sunsail Anchorage momentarily paused their activity and shouted merry greetings when four people passed by, and they recognised their armour: they were Farstriders.



(high elven port)

Among the four Farstriders, three were high elves and one was human. They were none other than Naruto, Lor’themar Theron, Sylvanas, and Alleria Windrunner.

Lor’themar waved his hand back at them just as merrily, and Naruto did so too; the boy loved how much people respected the Farstriders.

Unlike them, the girls didn’t even glance their way. Their faces twisted by deep frowns, it was as though they hadn’t even heard them as they stomped ahead.

“Cheer up, ladies; you’re acting as if it’s the end of the world,” Lor’themar said with a grin.

“Easy for you to say that!” Alleria burst in indignation. “You’re not the one who will be cleaning up sludge off the beach!”

“Hey, I don’t see Alyndor complaining like you do. Look at him; he’s all smiles.”

Naruto shrugged his shoulders.

“It’s not that bad. Considering how pissed Lady Windrunner was, it could have been a lot worse. I once had to scrub the paint off an entire mountain, all by myself,” he said, grinning, conveniently leaving out the part that he had been the one to vandalise it in the first place.

Soon, the four of them arrived at their destination: the Golden Strand. It was an uninhabited strip of land on the western coast of Quel’thalas, right next to the Sunsail Anchorage, one of the bigger ports of the elven kingdom.



As the sea breeze brought over a putrid smell of fish and blood, Naruto covered his nose and let out a groan.

“Ugh, I take it back. . . this is terrible.”

The golden sands of the beach were stained with blood, and dozens of murloc corpses were strewn all over the place. Broken huts made of wood and algae littered the coast, and all sorts of wreckage could be seen lying around.



“Well, you know what you came here to do,” Lor’themar said with a snigger and equipped an enchanted mask to block out the terrible smell before walking into the shade of a tree and sitting down on the grassy ground. He opened a book and started reading without a care in the world, completely ignoring them.

Alleria, Sylvanas, and Naruto stared at the disaster they had to clean up, none of them willing to be the first to step up. Naruto stood with his hands on his hips, squinting at a pile of something green and suspicious that was oozing into the sea. Next to him, Sylvanas looked like she wanted to set the entire coastline on fire. Alleria had her arms crossed and was staring straight ahead, a vacant look in her blue eyes.

“This is beneath us,” Sylvanas snapped, finally breaking the silence. “We are Farstriders. Not janitors. Why aren’t they using golems for this?”

“They do use golems,” Alleria muttered with a frown. “That’s the point. This is a punishment.”

Sylvanas scoffed and kicked a broken murloc spear away.

“You have no room to throw tantrums, dear sister. This is all your fault,” Alleria said sharply. “Both of you.” She turned to glare at them. “Before you came along, everything was quiet.”

“Hey! I didn’t do anything this time!” Naruto said, throwing up his hands. “I slept the entire time! Sylvanas is the one who drew shit on your face!”

“But you’re the one who started it in the first place!” Sylvanas shouted at him. “You’re the one who snuck into my barracks and turned me into a circus act! And then you and Mother,” she said as she turned her attention to Alleria, “and the rest of the Farstriders laughed at me. You didn’t even try to punish that midget!”

Naruto groaned and rubbed his forehead. “That was two days ago! And it was just a joke! Why did you have to involve Alleria? This was between us!”

Although one year had already passed since Naruto and Sylvanas joined the Farstriders, their rivalry had yet to end. The two of them were at each other's throats at every opportunity.

Two days ago, at night, while everyone was sleeping, Naruto had snuck into the female section of the Farstriders’ barracks and used a special type of war paint to draw on Sylvanas's face. He had given her a moustache, a clown nose, and a black eye. Traces of his drawing still remained on Sylvanas’ pretty face, despite her repeated attempts at cleaning it off.

Suffice to say, Sylvanas immediately suspected him and demanded that he be punished. Unfortunately for her, she had no proof it was him. Nobody had. And Alleria had copious amounts of fun at her little sister’s expense.

Wanting to get back at Naruto and angry at her elder sister for making fun of her, what did the cunning girl come up with? She snuck into Alleria’s room and drew on her face just as Naruto had drawn on hers, knowing that nobody would believe it was her.

And she had been right on the money. The blame fell on Naruto’s shoulders, despite how much he tried to deny it. In the end, their ruckus reached the Ranger General’s ears, and she called a mage to cast a Scrying Spell, revealing what had really happened.

And that’s what led to the current scenario: Naruto was punished for his prank on Sylvanas and for starting the whole thing. Sylvanas was punished for doing the same and trying to pin the blame on Naruto. As for Alleria, she was punished because she had not been able to keep the two teenagers in line.

It was rather unfair for Alleria to be punished together with them, but, due to being her firstborn daughter, the Ranger General was extremely strict with her. Lireesa punished and scolded Alleria every time she felt she did not live up to her expectations. Someone who was going to inherit the mantle of the Ranger General had to be perfect. Average was not going to cut it.

Hearing the three of them beginning to argue, Lor’themar cleared his throat loudly and said.

“Whether you finish in one day or five, you won’t be assigned a different task until the beach is spotless. But if you prefer to inhale this dreadful smell for an entire week instead of finishing as quickly as possible, it’s all up to you.”

The Ranger Lieutenant meant every word he said. Supervising the three of them was actually not a bad deal for him. He got to sit in the shade of a tree and relax while reading a book instead of going on patrol duty.

All three of them fell silent.

Naruto let out a groan and walked ahead, but Alleria suddenly grabbed him by the forearm.

“Wait. Come here first,” she said seriously.

Knowing what was coming, he groaned.

“I’m not a clone; it’s really me –”

But Alleria didn’t listen and grabbed him by his cheeks with both hands, pulling them apart.

“Ow, ow, ow! It hurts!” he cried out and tapped her hands repeatedly, begging her to let go. 

“Yes, it’s supposed to hurt!” Alleria said when she finally let go of him.

“I told you it’s the real me!” he said in indignation.

“You fooled us one too many times. I had to make sure,” Alleria replied.

Due to how often Naruto had tried to skim on his duties by using a Shadow Clone over the past year, both Alleria and her mother, the Ranger General, had started pinching his cheeks to make sure he was the original body, not a clone. If he had been a clone, he would have dispelled.

“Bullshit, you enjoy doing this!”

“I never said I disliked it, did I?” Alleria grinned. “Those whiskers of yours are really cute.”

“I-I will go deal with the corpses,” he said and turned around with a huff so that she wouldn’t see he was embarrassed. He hated himself for how his voice had cracked.

What he said brought Alleria and Sylvanas back to the present, and they grimaced as they looked at the disgusting remains of the murlocs.

Murlocs were creatures that looked like humanoid frogs but with sharp claws, fins, and fangs. A species of amphibious creatures, murlocs were seen as vile pests by most of the people on Azeroth. They were virtually impossible to exterminate due to how quickly they bred underwater, and, unlike one might be tempted to think based on their appearance, murlocs could be extremely dangerous.

Though they had the height of children, murlocs lived in large groups. In addition, they knew how to use weapons, and they loved to smear poisons on their blades. Worst of all, despite their low intelligence, murlocs could use magic.

Seeing as nobody lived on the Golden Strands, the high elves would be content to leave the murlocs to their own devices, but, unfortunately, if left unchecked, the murlocs would expand and start attacking the nearby settlements or sinking the ships of fishermen. Murlocs could not co-exist with any race. They were violent and hated everyone not belonging to their own tribe. Every month or so, the Farstriders had to be sent to the coast to thin down their numbers.

“I’ll deal with the huts,” said Alleria, not debating Naruto’s choice. She sighed loudly as she started walking towards the broken remains of a hut.

“Then, I’ll collect their weapons,” said Sylvanas, and she glanced down, a look of guilt flashing on her face.

It was not lost on her that Naruto had volunteered to take the worst task and that Alleria took the second-worst one, too. Collecting the weapons was going to be the easiest job.

‘Lady Sun,’ she thought. Even though Alleria was angry at her, she was still acting as Sylvanas’ elder sister and tried to protect her even now.

Sylvanas decided to collect all the weapons as quickly as she could so that she would help her sister with her task.

“Oy, Lor’themar, why don’t you just let me use my Shadow Clones? We could be done with everything in less than an hour,” said Naruto, annoyance seeping into his voice. There were over a hundred murloc corpses on the beach and dozens of huts. With only the three of them, they might not even finish in a day.

“No can do, Naruto. That’s why Lady Windrunner sent me here to keep an eye on you. The main goal today isn’t for you to finish fast but to be punished,” Lor’themar said, repeating the words that Alleria had said not long ago. “You are Farstriders, yet you acted like children, all three of you. That has to change.”

With Lor’themar’s refusal, Naruto didn’t insist. Although he had yet to curb all of his troublemaker tendencies, the blond understood the importance of discipline and that of listening to the superiors’ orders when it mattered. Therefore, he went back to his work without saying another word.

Around two hours later, the boy finished dragging all the murloc corpses into one huge pile. The stench of blood and decaying fish was so bad that he felt like throwing up even though he was wearing a bandana tied around his mouth and nose.

Taking off the bandana, the blond formed six handseals: Snake → Ram → Monkey → Boar → Horse → Tiger. He struggled not to gag as he took in a big breath, and then a massive fireball came out of his mouth, engulfing the big pile of corpses.

Feeling as though that fireball would not be enough to incinerate the entire pile of dead bodies, he made another series of hand seals: Ox → Dog → Rabbit → Snake. He took in a big breath again before spewing a large amount of wind chakra from his mouth. It was Wind Release: Great Breakthrough.

The fire doubled in intensity, and a strong smell of flesh being roasted spread over the entire beach.

Naruto had not been idle over the past year. With Dar’khan Drathir refusing to take him as an apprentice, he returned to his roots. He was a shinobi; he was not helpless without someone’s guidance. Though Kyuubi had never really cared for learning the handseals for human techniques (he was a bijuu; he had no need for that), the blond was nothing if not determined.

Even though he did not have a teacher, he started experimenting with handseals and chakra manipulation by himself. Naturally, he did not do it with his original body because the risk was too great. If something went wrong, he could cripple his chakra network or even end up dying in the process; therefore, he made full use of his shadow clones.

Now, one year later, the boy had gained a moderate level of proficiency in Fire and Wind techniques, and he was beginning to work on his water elemental affinity now. He could not cast fancy techniques shaped like dragons and whatnot, but relatively simple things like wind blades and fireballs were a piece of cake.

Once he was done burning the murloc corpses, he went to help Alleria and Sylvanas, who were in the midst of collecting the wreckage.

“How the hell is human armour here?” he wondered when he noticed a tower shield bearing the crest of the Lordaeron Kingdom.

The closest Lordaeron settlement was more than one hundred kilometres away. Moreover, humans rarely ever set foot in the kingdom of the elves. Only high-ranked dignitaries had the chance to do so.

“Murlocs are hoarders,” explained Sylvanas as she struggled to drag a large wooden beam from a big hut. “They like to collect many things even if they won’t use them.”

Straining herself to the limit to pull the beam from the hut, the girl lost her balance and fell on her butt when the beam finally gave out.

“Lady Moon, are you alright?” Alleria quickly walked over and asked, a hint of worry in her voice.

Alleria and Sylvanas were not as frail and gentle as other girls and women their age; they were Farstriders. But they weren’t used to this sort of hard labour either. After all, they were the daughters of the Ranger General. They had never had to do manual labour in their entire life.

“Thank you, Lady Sun,” Sylvanas said as Alleria helped her up to her feet.

“You have some dirt on your neck. It’s gotten in your hair, too,” Alleria said while helping her clean herself. 

“Thank you,” the younger girl said again. “And sorry.”

Sylvanas glanced down and busied herself with brushing the sand and algae off her blue thigh-high boots. She couldn’t meet her sister’s eyes as she continued to apologise.

“It’s my fault we got ourselves into this mess.”

As much as Alleria’s relationship with her mother was growing worse, her behaviour was, unknowingly, becoming more and more like Lireesa’s. Not only was Alleria the spitting image of her mother, but lately she had grown colder and more serious and showed affection far less often.

So when Alleria unexpectedly wrapped her arms around her, Sylvanas stiffened in surprise. After a moment, she returned the embrace, holding her sister tightly.

Lor’themar momentarily raised his eyes from his book, smiling softly at the scene of the two sisters embracing each other lovingly.

“Hey! Look what I found!” came Naruto’s yell from inside a still-standing hut, a dozen metres away. 

The two sisters broke their embrace, and Alleria patted Sylvanas on the head, over her blue hood. Then she turned her attention to the boy who came out of the hut holding a peculiar stick in his hands.

“I’m starting to think you actually like digging through all this junk,” said Sylvanas.

She wasn’t being mean. He had already collected a shield with Lordaeron’s crest on it, a damaged music box, and now this.

“I think it’s a magic staff. How much gold would I get for this if I were to sell it?" he asked, showing them the stick he found.

“It looks like a murloc shaman’s staff,” said Alleria.

The staff was a knobby stick about a metre long, and it had a mummified seahorse glued to its head.

“If you go to a merchant with that, they’ll probably pay you to go away,” Sylvanas said, snickering.

“I think it looks cool,” said Naruto.

Suddenly, a peculiar cry came from the sea, and a spear whistled through the air as it was launched at him.

“Watch out!” Sylvanas cried out, but Naruto reacted before she could even finish her words.

He spun around and drew the dagger at his waist in one smooth motion, easily parrying the javelin heading towards him and swatting it to the side.

Alleria and Sylvanas did not have their bows and quivers on them (they had left them with Lor’themar so they could work), but they did carry a pair of twin daggers on their persons, and they unsheathed them immediately.

“What do we do?” Naruto asked as more than 20 murlocs emerged from the sea.

Had it been the old him, he would have lunged at the monsters by himself, but after spending one year as a Farstrider, he had learnt to stand back and wait for the orders of his superior first.

Lor’themar Theron also noticed the appearance of the murlocs, and he jumped up to his feet before grabbing Alleria's and Sylvanas’ bows and quivers and rushing towards them. 

“Alleria, Sylvanas, you and I will stand back and provide cover fire. Alyndor, don’t let any of the murlocs get to us. Be wary of their poisoned weapons. Don’t engage in close quarters yourself; send your clones.”

“Understood.”

Despite being vastly outnumbered, Lor’themar’s voice was calm, and his instructions were easy to follow. They were the standard tactic of making the archers stay at range and using melee fighters in close quarters.

⁂

To their surprise, it appeared that the murlocs were not there for revenge. Although the bulk of them started attacking the high elves, five murlocs ran towards one of the huts as fast as they could.

With Alleria and Sylvanas’ elite marksmanship and Lor’themar’s experience in dealing with these pests, the murlocs didn’t pose much of a threat. Moreover, even their numerical advantage disappeared once Naruto created two dozen shadow clones.

“Don’t let those five escape, or they’ll call reinforcements!” shouted Lor’themar as he notched two arrows in his bow and let them loose.

One of the arrows lodged itself deeply into the back of a murloc’s skull, its tip coming out the other way, through its forehead. The second arrow, however, did not hit its intended target because one of the murlocs raised its shield and jumped to protect its comrade.

Nonetheless, Naruto heard Lor’themar’s order and rushed at the escaping murlocs with four of his clones.

The murlocs were only four metres away from the sea now, and Naruto and his clones were five metres behind them. Realising that they could not outrun the human boy, the four murlocs turned around to attack him.

Two spear-wielding murlocs charged at Naruto with their peculiar, garbled warcry, while the murloc with the shield and the sword positioned himself in front of the last one to protect him - the last murloc was a caster. 

It was then that everyone saw what the murlocs had been trying to recover from their huts, even at the cost of their lives: it was a wooden pole sculpted in the image of a murloc, with many strange symbols carved on it and five human skulls dangling from its top section. It was a totem.

The murloc stabbed the totem pole into the ground. Then, his hands glowed with a green light, and a gibberish-like chant came out of his mouth.

With their speed, however, Naruto and the clones were immediately upon them. With agility far surpassing the murlocs’ ability to react, the clones stabbed their daggers into the throats of the spear-wielders.

Another clone blasted the sword and shield-wielding murloc with a chakra-enhanced punch that shattered his shield and caved his chest in, killing him on the spot.

As for the original Naruto, he threw himself at the last murloc, intent on killing him before he could finish his chant.

(Murloc Shaman)

His twin elven daggers sliced through the murloc’s thick, muscular neck like a hot knife through butter, sending its big, ugly head flying several metres away.

Unfortunately, just before he had decapitated him with his daggers, the murloc had finished his incantation.

A plume of grey smoke engulfed him and, all of a sudden, the world seemed to have increased in size by more than ten times.

“What the hell?!” 

At least that’s what he had tried to say. The words that came out of his mouth weren’t in Thalassian. They weren’t even actual words. The sound he made was –

“Ribbit!”

⁂

Lor’themar, Alleria, and Sylvanas gathered around Naruto, looking down at him with various expressions on their faces. Lor’themar was barely suppressing his laughter, Alleria was frowning, and Sylvanas was in disbelief.

“What just happened?!” Sylvanas asked.

“He’s been hexed,” Alleria said with a frown. “That murloc was actually a shaman.”

“Oh, no! Is it permanent?” asked Sylvanas. She had heard about Shaman’s hexes, but she had not expected a murloc of all things to be capable of that.

“Ribbit. Ribbit.”

The bright and boisterous blond boy had been transformed into a frog.

Lor’themar and Alleria exchanged a furtive glance.

“It might as well be. . . unless one of the Grand Magisters steps in. But you know as well as I do that they never leave Silvermoon and that it’s difficult to get an audience with them,” said Alleria.

In the meantime, the frog Naruto stood on his hind legs and tried to use his webbed forelimbs to make a hand sign. He wanted to cast a “Kai!” in an attempt to release the transformation like he would have done with a Henge.

His behaviour looked so cute on a frog that the corners of Lor’themar’s lips twitched and he started grinning, unable to keep a straight face anymore.

“There is another way to break this curse,” the Lieutenant said, seemingly hesitant to continue.

“Wait, if it is a curse, should it not have ended after the caster was slain?” Sylvanas asked, remembering now what she had learnt from her tutors.

“Not always,” said Alleria. “Sometimes, shamans can even sacrifice their lives to cast a spell. So, obviously, the effect will last even after they die.”

“Then, what’s the other way?” Sylvanas asked, frowning.

“The legend goes that a freely given kiss can break the curse,” Lor’themar said.

“Lor’themar, you think I’m stupid?” Sylvanas shouted at him.

“I’m not lying. It’s true, I swear it on my honour as a Farstrider. No matter how strong the hex is, nothing can stand against the power of love.”

“Are you being serious? You can’t seriously expect me to kiss a frog! There’s no way I’ll do that!” the girl burst in indignation. 

“Come on, Lady Moon, it’s not like you’ll die from it,” Alleria said with a grin.

“Then you do it! Why don’t you kiss him, Lady Sun?”

“I’m going to be the Ranger General one day. Can you imagine the gossip if they heard the Ranger General went around kissing frogs?” Alleria said in a self-righteous voice.

“Even so, I wouldn’t want to kiss that midget even when he’s a human! But a frog? No way! I won’t do it!” Sylvanas said, outraged.

“You can’t make such a small sacrifice for a friend?” asked Lor’themar, smirking.

“You want me to give my first kiss to a frog? Lor’themar, stop messing around!” 

“Eh? But I thought you two liked each other.”

“W-What?! Whatever gave you that impression?! I don’t like anything about that midget!”

“I don’t know about that~” Alleria also piped in, grinning.

“Are you two teasing me on purpose?”

“I was being serious,” Lor’themar said with a shrug of his shoulders. “I mean, think about it. You taught Alyndor how to use a bow. You scold him when he’s not wearing his armour properly. And you’re always seen together.”

Cheeks reddening by the second, Sylvanas sputtered in denial:

“That’s because we were assigned to the same team! I don’t keep him around because I want to!”

“Is being part of your team also the reason why you taught him how to mind his manners when eating?” Alleria asked with a shrewd look in her eyes.

“Lady Sun, you should know that Father asked me to keep an eye on his manners!”

As he had promised, Verath Windrunner had not taught Naruto only how to speak the Troll’s and the Human’s language, but he had also made sure to teach him manners too.

“What about that time he got stung by a Spindleweb Spider and you personally cleaned the venom in his wound?” Lor’themar asked.

“Would you have wanted me to let him suffer??”

“You could’ve just let one of the priests heal him when we returned.”

As the two continued teasing her by pointing out various things that she had helped Naruto with over the past year, Sylvanas finally reached the limit of her patience and exploded at them:

“I’m not kissing this ugly frog, and it’s final!”

Lor’themar shrugged his shoulders, still chuckling.

“Well, suit yourself then. I’ll go back to my reading.”

“Wait, do you mean we’re still going to continue cleaning this beach? Just Alleria and I?!” Sylvanas asked incredulously.

“Of course. The Hex isn’t a lethal curse. Naruto doesn’t mind waiting until you are done, do you?” Lor’themar said before turning his attention to the frog to ask him.

It appeared that Naruto was in full control of his body and that he understood their speech too, despite the fact that he was a frog now.

“Ribbit!” he said and jumped straight on Lor’themar’s shoulder.

Sylvanas and Alleria glanced at each other, crestfallen. The murlocs’ weapons and their corpses had been cleared out, but the most time-consuming task, that of tearing down their wooden huts and burning them, was only halfway done.

“By the Sun, with only the two of us, we will surely not finish today!” Alleria bemoaned.

Sylvanas clenched her hands into fists.

“What if-,” she began before stopping.

“What is it?” Lor’themar asked.

“What if I give him a k-kiss,” she said, involuntarily flushing. “I could do it… …but ONLY if you allow him to use Shadow Clones so that we can finish this fast!” Sylvanas said as she pointed her finger at him, her face beet red now.

It took Lor’themar and Alleria a godlike amount of willpower not to burst into giggles at that moment.

Despite his amusement, Lor’themar contemplated her offer seriously. On one hand, the purpose of their task was for them to be punished. But on the other hand, the boy being turned into a frog and the teen girl having to kiss said frog were already much worse punishments than cleaning the beach.

After a few seconds, the high elf Lieutenant answered:

“Alright. We can do that. But even if you finish cleaning quickly, we still can’t return too early.”

“That's okay, I’ll do it,” the girl said, gritting her teeth.

A shit-eating grin came on Lor’themar’s face as he held frog-Naruto in his hands in front of Sylvanas.

The girl bit her lower lip in distress. A normal girl her age would have never even considered the possibility of actually breaking the Hex like that. That being said, although she was a tomboy herself, Sylvanas was also not keen on kissing a frog. If not for how difficult it was to finish cleaning the bleach with just the two of them, she would have never consented to something like that.

“Just so you know, I’m not doing this because I like you!” Sylvanas said and poked the frog’s head with her index finger. “So don’t misunderstand, you hear me? It’s only because I want us to finish this heavy work quickly! That's all there is to it!”

Faster than she could react, the frog thrust out its long tongue, touching Sylvanas’ finger, and the girl squawked before making a huge jump backwards, landing over six metres away.

The teenage girl flushed anew when Alleria and Lor’themar both started snickering at her reaction. Even the damned frog seemed to be laughing!

“Stop laughing! You’re both being so annoying right now!” she snapped at them, but it only made them laugh harder.

It took a while for things to settle down.

Taking the frog from Lor’themar’s hands, Sylvanas mentally sighed in relief.

‘At least it’s not wet or slimy,’ she thought.

She glanced at the frog for nearly 10 seconds without doing anything. It seemed like she couldn’t muster the courage to do it.

But, eventually, she brought the frog closer to her face, and she squeezed her eyes shut. Then, she pressed her lips on the frog’s head.

A plume of smoke obscured everyone’s vision, and Sylvanas dropped the frog from her hands as Naruto’s body returned to normal.

The human boy and the elf girl stared at each other as if they were transfixed for a few seconds before quickly distancing themselves from one another.

“You better be grateful! If not for me, you’d be stuck as an ugly frog forever!” Sylvanas said, her head turned away.

Her long, platinum-blonde hair obscured her face like a curtain, making it impossible to see her expression, but her cute elvish ears poking out of her hair were so red, they looked like chilli peppers. She was mortified with embarrassment.

Sylvanas, Alleria, and Lor’themar had expected Naruto to shoot back another one of his smart-aleck replies and make fun of the girl. Instead, to their utter disbelief, the boy dropped to one knee in front of Sylvanas, took her hand in his, and kissed it gently.

“Thank you, Lady Sylvanas. I will not forget your sacrifice.”

It appeared that Verath Windrunner’s lessons in manners had not been wasted on him. The blond did know how to behave like a mild-mannered person now. He simply chose not to bother most of the time.

Sylvanas stood frozen, mouth open, clearly caught off guard. Her sharp tongue, always quick to lash out, was nowhere to be found. She snatched her hand back from his grasp as if it had been burnt, and she quickly turned around.

“Anything for a comrade,” the girl muttered in a barely audible voice, unable to face him.

She pressed her hands to her chest, trying to calm her pounding heart, but it was no use. Her face felt hot, her ears were burning, and she was suddenly very aware of every part of herself. She could not bring herself to look at Naruto, but she could practically feel his gaze on the back of her head. That thought alone made her stomach twist.

“Then, I will get started with the cleaning,” said Naruto quickly.

Sylvanas’ reaction to his gesture had made him just as flustered, but he could tell through Kyuubi’s Negative Emotions Sensing that the girl was not angry at him. She was just embarrassed.

“Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu.”

The wide beach was suddenly filled with over 400 clones of the boy.

“Sylvanas, Alleria. You can leave this to me. . . In the first place, I’m the one who got us all in trouble,” he said, letting out a short, awkward chuckle towards the end.