The Fox of Sixth Street

Chapter 9 - Arc 1 & Special Story 1

Updates 04/28/25

- Astra and Selena scene moved to later chapters.

- A better pacing than before, grammars etc reworked.

Disclaimer, first chapter!

ZZZ

A few days had gone by since the Victoria Housekeeping mess, and things had pretty much gone back to normal. Naruto was buried in his lab with Bianca like nothing had happened, while the constructs kept things running at the store with the maids pitching in where they could.

It was starting to feel like the usual again... until the Phaethon siblings hit him up, asking if they could talk. At their place, if possible.

So, here he was, standing inside Random Play, barely through the door before getting swarmed by Eous, #6, and #18. They clung to him like abandoned puppies, practically treating him like a dad who ran out to buy milk and actually came back after a long time. Belle and Wise looked completely baffled by the scene, clearly not expecting their Bangboos to get all clingy over him.

Eventually, after some effort to separate their Bangboos from Naruto, the siblings then invited him into the backroom behind the counter. Inside, he saw racks filled with collection of video tapes, a couch facing a TV and a PC and a system connected to multiple displays.

They settled into their seats, Naruto and Wise on the couch while Belle on the chair.

"Wait, wait! Onii-chan! Shouldn't you have this chair and I have the couch!?" the bluenette glared at her brother who looked away, trying to lighten the situation since their neighbour didn't seem to be in a good mood.

Naruto stood up suddenly, startling the two before he switched seats with Belle, placing her on the couch and spun the swivel chair around, settled into it backward, arms rested on the backrest.

The siblings exchanged a quick glance before Wise cleared his throat.

"So... you're Kurama..."

"Yup. 'sup?"

They sweatdropped at him.

"The Kurama from the fall of the old capital?" He pressed again.

"You're seriously starting with this?" Naruto deadpanned before affirming his question. "Yeah, that was me. And don't even start with the 'why didn't you try harder to save everyone' bullshit. If I had, we'd be talking about a much bigger body count and a lot more destruction."

He gave Wise a pointed glare, but the gray-haired teen just shook his head. He hadn't any plan to bring that up.

"D-Do you know what actually happened back then?" Belle spoke up next.

"Nope," Naruto replied, dropping his chin onto his arms. "But Hollow Zero was already acting weird before everything went south, it started trying to expand."

That got both siblings to sit up straighter.

"I saw the military deploying teams, so I slipped past the lines to get a look. It went bad really fast. They weren't able to contain it like usual since the Ethereals kept pouring out."

He paused for a second, just long enough for the weight to settle in.

"I could've blown it up. But I didn't know what that'd do, and I wasn't about to risk it. So I did what I could, I started pulling out the soldiers they left behind."

He frowned, that part didn't sit with him correctly.

"After that, I went straight into helping with the evacuation of the old capital... and yeah, you already know how that turned out." He ended with a short huff.