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XII

World's Greatest Detective

"A detective?" Vince repeated with an expression of disbelief.

His teenage son nodded.

"Almost like you, father," Sirius supplied helpfully.

Aria stood from her chair and stalked forward, grabbing her son's shoulders as she whispered, "I will worry all the time, my dear Siri. Have you any idea just how dangerous it is to be a detective? I don't want to bury my son, you know?"

Sirius wanted to reassure her, to tell her that he would be alright. He could not die, after all. His immortality was something which had, just like his eyes, no reliance on the existence of chakra. If anything, he was the safest of them all.

Yet he knew that his parents were extremely rational people. Such a baseless statement would only serve to worry them further. He would never be able to explain to them that he could not die. In the first place, Sirius was not that sure whether he wanted to tell them anything at all. It was not that he did not trust them. He just feared that his knowledge could put them in danger. He knew about how much humans craved eternal life. If they knew about how he would be able to stay however young he wanted forever, they will desire to use him for their selfish reasons. He did not want his parents to be put in danger if that ever happened.

Vince had other concerns.

"You already sleep little enough as it is! Knowing you, you'll aim impossibly high and reach it. As the world's number one detective, you will receive a multitude of cases! How could you possibly cope?" Vince exclaimed.

The man was right.

Ever since he first entered university at the age of eight, Sirius had stopped sleeping altogether. It was not an essential activity for him, so he had stopped doing it. As such, he started to tease Cairn for sleeping so much. The kitsune was lazy and they both knew it. Naruto always spared a shadow clone to teach his friend languages, but Cairn prided himself in his ability to run away from it. What with his new ability to float, Cairn would often escape to the skies. However, he all too often forgot that water droplets were reflective too and would get dragged back whenever he strayed too close to a cloud. As such, the former bijū managed to learn three new languages thus far — English, British Sign Language and French. Cairn had requested to learn French and had been obsessed with it for a duration of time. The kitsune would speak only in French for that period and Sirius had the hardest time correcting his pronunciation due to the kitsune's sheer stubbornness.

"I will get myself an assistant," Sirius tried to reason.

Aria met her son's gaze for a long moment.

"That will only happen after you complete your PhDs, correct?" she confirmed with a firm look.

Sirius nodded. PhDs were research-based. He would be able to complete them in two years if he wanted to make it seem realistic. Although he could do it within a single month if he went all out with his shadow clones, no one would be able to believe it. As such, he had to take it easy so that less suspicion would be drawn to himself.

People were already marvelling at how Simeon Noir had managed to complete so many degrees and write so many books at such a young age. He did not like the idea of drawing attention to his alias like that. Although there was no harm in it, he did not want anyone digging further or being able to find his true identity.

"I will bring him to you, too," he promised just to sweeten the deal.

With two years to get everything ready for his debut, he needed all the help he could get. Having his parents' support will only be a blessing. Their connections had been his desire at the start when he had first become a part of this family. Although Aria and Vince meant much more to him now, it did not mean that he did not wish to make use of their network.