DxD: The Fox and Demons

In the process of this, she was going to thank their savior properly, before she froze up.

Naruto frowned at the silverette's sudden reaction, becoming wary of another attack. "What's wrong? Are there more of them?"

"No, no...it isn't that." the girl with the 'horns' replied, her eyebrows scrunching as she pondered on their bad position.

The reason that she was locking up was simple, the both of them were moving around during the middle of the night for good reason, unfortunately, as their last refuge was found out by the very stray devils that were hunting them down.

No doubt, to them, they were probably just like two tasty snacks to be devoured.

If they returned to their last refuge now...then she had no doubt that they would be attacked by even more stray devils, especially the ones that were instinctively looking to raise their own strength.

Her young charge was half-human, and the unique smell that she had thanks to her...ancestry, helped attract stray devils from quite the distance away to her, in the hopes that they could eat what they viewed as a delicacy.

Not only that, but the red-head was also unconscious...

Before she could fall into despair due to their situation, an idea sprang to mind idea, which could probably buy them some reprieve; a temporary home.

A safe place to rest.

Internally preparing herself, she quickly turned to their blond savior and pitched her idea. hopeful. "...My young charge is wounded and unconscious, while I am tired from the day's fight. Taking that into account, I'd like to ask you whether you could offer us a temporary home where we could recuperate. In return for this favor...I wouldn't mind doing whatever you want for payment."

Even as she was speaking, she was cringing at the possible degrading things that she may have to endure, well aware that offering herself up like that could very well remove the young man's inhibitions.

But...it was fine, as long as it was for her charge's sake.

She was her guardian, and even if she rarely conversed with her, she was still someone that she would guard, no matter what.

Which was why she was locking eyes intensely with the blond, showing him her grim determination.

Naruto didn't say anything at first, the only cues being that he raised his arm up slowly into the air, hanging there, as if he was raising his hand for the teacher to call him.

Then he suddenly swiped his arm back down, slamming his hand down onto the silverette's skull.

Hard.

The girl yelped as she faceplanted onto the ground with a comical bump upside her head, recovering after a spare second as she looked up at the blond with teary eyes.

He didn't look amused.

The shinobi, for his part, was very upset at the thought that someone would think that he was heartless enough to take advantage of the situation.

Among the duo; the red-head was out cold, and needed rest, while her...'guardian' was exhausted, leaving both incredibly vulnerable in the middle of the forest where they could get attacked again.

For all intents and purposes, he was going to offer them a place to stay anyway...

Plans to lay low and avoid garnering attention to himself be damned when he saw good people in such a desperate situation.

Despite his anger however, he couldn't help but be impressed by the silverette's actions, as she obviously hated what she was doing, but still did it anyway for her friend.

Who wouldn't respect something like that?

"...Why don't you try asking nicely next time, hm?" Naruto questioned, his eyes now reflecting how many points she had won with him.

The girl in question blinked in shock, before trying again, hoping against hope. "Uh...um...will you please give us a place to stay so that my friend here can get better, please?"

"Sure!" Naruto replied cheerfully, nearly making the girl faceplant with how easy it was. "Now...introductions! Something simple. My name is Uzumaki Naruto. Your turn!"

"Huh? Oh...! Well, my name is Naruse Maria, and the unconscious girl here is my charge; Naruse Mio." the now dubbed Maria said, a growing smile splitting her face.

Naruto blinked at that, the red-head was Maria's charge?

Huh...

This world kept getting weirder and weirder.

Shaking his head, the shinobi scooped up the unconscious Mio and turned to the direction of his home, walking towards it with Maria following in tow, nonchalant about his current situation.

It wasn't like helping two random people that were involved in the supernatural would get the world's attention anyway, right? So no harm done.

"Oh, by the way, Mio-sama is the daughter of the previous Maou Lucifer, so please make sure she is safe. I'm counting on you Naruto-sama!" Maria piped up cheerfully, moving up to the blond and walking side-by-side to him.

Naruto suddenly froze, only just registering what she had said.

...

...Eh?

...

EEEEEEHHHHHHH!?

Yellow eyes locked onto the screen of her cell phone, which was ringing, the caller id identifying who it was.

Things have changed dramatically since earlier that day, and required her to contact the Hero Tribe's leader so that he could be aware of the exact circumstances, at least before she could proceed with anything.

In the northwestern area of Kuoh Town, there was a forest area that was perfect for someone who didn't want to be found to do some exercises.

Keeping in shape was paramount for her career as a hero.

Yet, as she was in that forest, she very quickly found that she wasn't alone in the area.

Before she could even start back then, something quickly caught her attention, distracting her from her training.

It was noise, a lot of noise.

Specifically, it was the extraordinarily familiar sound of battle that caught her ear.

Opting to go and check out what was going on, she sped towards the source of the sound while trying not to alert the combatants to her presence, cautious.

What she would run into was a scene of a battle, one where two females were holding their own against a small group of stray devils.

Before she could even do anything productive, a certain blond would enter the fray, turning the tide of the fight and saving the two girls.

She was barely able to hear what they were conversing about, but she managed to catch enough to quickly determine that the red-head among them was, in fact, one of her targets.