Deviance

A/N: Nothing to say, cept' Enjoy

"Excellent," Jiraiya said with a clap of his hands. "You're all here on time," As Sakura approached the, a few minutes early but being the last to arrive.

"Just because our sensei is Kakashi doesn't mean you should expect us to be three hours late…" Naruto chuckled amusedly in agreement but the Sannin ignored her comment, wanting to get down to business straight away.

"The pervert is likely beginning my shared… hobby right about now, so we need to get busy."

All three of the teens gawked at him deadpanned, even though they were hardly surprised by his accurate admission. It just seemed ridiculous to be on a "mission" to catch a pervert while being under the command of a guy who enjoyed referring to himself as a super pervert. It just wasn't right…

"We'll split up in two's, one of you with me the other two on your own. The sooner we find this guy the better… I'm tired of the competition."

"Compe…tition?" Ino repeated with an eye twitch.

Jiraiya shrugged. "He's being talked about around the village more than I am."

"So… Let me get this straight, you're not just a 'super pervert,' but an attention whore too?" She asked incredulously.

"What? No, of course not! I am a humble super pervert…"

"Right… Ok then."

Naruto shook his head and snickered at their conversation, snapping Jiraiya back to the task at hand. "Decide who's going with who… We meet back up here in three hours!"

"But what if we actually find him?" Sakura asked, "You never told us."

Jiraiya grinned, "Ah ah ahh… Don't assume it's a man!"

"Pervy Sage…" Naruto sweatdropped, "You would be hoping all of this commotion is being caused by a girl…"

The Sannin cleared his throat to answer her nonetheless, "If you encounter the pervert, you're authorized to apprehend them in Tsunade's words: 'by any means necessary',"

"All right that's enough for now! We better hurry up or we won't find them! Let's go you old perv…" Ino hurried the Toad Sannin as Sakura and Naruto gasped in surprise that she actually chose to work with the Sannin over either of them.

Wow, I assumed I would've had to go with him. Naruto stared.

Sakura however was skeptical. What's she up to?

It became clear the Haruno was right to feel that way, based on the wink Ino shot at Naruto before the two departed, mouthing something with her lips. 'You owe me.'

"Let's get going, Sakura," Naruto smiled, trying to appear in a good mood even though he was still a little sore about their latest encounter, "That pervert probably isn't going to turn himself in!"

Sakura followed the blonde without responding to that, instead addressing Ino. "What was that about, her winking at you?"

"Huh? I don't know…" He played dumb.

"You can't lie to me," Sakura warned him, "I know you too well, and you're not very good at it in the first place."

"I don't know whether to take that as a compliment or find it insulting…"

"Both," Sakura laughed, "Compliment as a friend, insult from one shinobi to another."

Naruto sighed but appeared amused; as far as he was concerned it was better to keep her off track than to let her—

"So, tell me. What's she up to? Ino would never choose to work with someone like Jiraiya for three hours instead of me, Naruto."

Damn it. "How should I know? Maybe she's mad at you?" He tried, but Sakura just glared at him as they continued to walk.

"I just told you, you're terrible at lying to me! What are you hiding?"

"Nothing, I swear! I don't even hang out with Ino… Just cause I ran into her yesterday and talked for awhile doesn't make us best pals or something."

Her glare crystallized as she grabbed his arm and pulled them both to a stop, staring at him threateningly. "Naruto…" The stern reply came and he had a feeling this conversation was about to head straight to hell if he kept playing this game with her.

"She didn't tell me anything," He reaffirmed, "But if I had to guess… She did it so we'd be alone to encourage me into making a move on you, which I didn't plan on doing."

"Why would Ino care about that?"

"I don't know! Maybe she thinks we'd be a good match."

Sakura scoffed, "Yeah right."

That did it, something snapped. "What the hell is your problem with me, Sakura!?" The tone of which he used was unlike any tone he'd ever spoken to her before. Yes, Naruto had spoken to her angrily or offended once or twice in the past, but this was beyond that. This was rage, pent up aggression that was being subconsciously drawn on at her attitude at the very idea of being with him. She acted like the mere thought repulsed her, and it was what he'd wanted on the contrary for years. One can only be rejected so rudely and openly so many times before they feel the need to shake things off their chest.

The pinkette flinched at the cold tone; to say that was un-Naruto like was understatement of the year. "Answer me! You owe me that much."

Sakura recovered from her initial surprise and the two engaged in a glaring match before she responded. "I don't have any problem with you! What are you…"

"Then why are you disgusted every time I even seem like I'm trying to get closer to you?"

"I do not!" She refuted.

"Oh yeah?" He snarled, "Well how the hell am I supposed to take it the way you act!?"

"We can't be together Naruto, we just can't."

"You're not telling me anything, you're just proving me right! You don't have any actual reasons why we can't give it a shot."

"We're teammates, it's unprofessional…"

"Wh- Bullshit! Do you think I'm stupid? That didn't stop you form chasing Sasuke!" He pointed a damning finger at her.

"That's not the same!"

"How!?"

"I was in love with Sasuke before we even graduated! You…You.. You were just infatuated with me at the time," She was sure to say 'were,' and 'at the time,' in order to acknowledge she believed it was possible he actually loved her now, but not back then.

"What kind of fucking logic is that?" Naruto deadpanned, it was rather strange of him to swear to much but he didn't give a damn at the moment. "If I was just infatuated with you, the same goes for you and Ino with the bastard. You can't just say it's different!"

She frowned at her teammate, "Don't compare Ino and I when it comes to Sasuke… She was only infatuated too, just like you with me."

"Ohhh right!" Naruto rolled his eyes. "Everyone's crush was infatuation except yours."

"It's true…" She insisted, "Ino moved on from Sasuke after he left the village, she got over it. I didn't, that's all the proof I need."

"I never got over you, so you're contradicting yourself!" He yelled, so mad he didn't even care what embarrassing things he was admitting to her, like it mattered… She'd known he liked her for years.

"You haven't gotten over it because—"She stopped herself.

"Because…?"

She averted his gaze, not really wanting to say this to him, but decided he was so mad already she would never have a more appropriate time to admit her opinion. "You're immature," And there it was, what she really thought of his feelings towards her.

For some reason, actually hearing her say that stung him into silence, and he settled for just staring at her. "Listen… Naruto, I didn't want to hurt you like this but you flew off the handle! I won't date a teammate, period."

The Uzumaki turned away, but had one thing to say before splitting up to work on their so called mission. "You'd do it for Sasuke."


Jiraiya and Ino had been patrolling for an hour now. The Sannin was surprisingly taking the assignment seriously, as if some part of his pride were at stake. A bored Yamanaka couldn't help but wonder why her partner wasn't acting like his normal goofy self, leering at everything that moved.

"Lord Jiraiya?" She said respectfully, seeing no need to refer to him as an 'old perv' when not in the presense of Naruto or Sakura. Besides, he wasn't acting like that at the moment.

Her voice disrupted his thoughts and he turned to look at her, "Huh?"

"If I may ask… Why is this making you so tense? Shouldn't it be child's play for a Sannin to catch some random pervert and hand him over to the Hokage? I mean… You weren't serious about being upset that he was having more rumors spread around than you… right?"

Jiraiya chuckled and stopped walking, she did as well. "Actually that does upset me… But not for the reasons you're thinking," Seeing her inquisitive look he elaborated, "I'm a pervert, it's true, not going to deny it… But, I'm not a fool that slobbers over himself watching them blatantly out in the open."

She shot him a deadpanned look and was about to dispute but he raised up a hand to stop her, "I do that on purpose… to make sure I have a reputation of that nature. Sometimes having a well known, eccentric reputation comes in handy to a shinobi so I broadcast my undesirable traits to the world. Do you really think a Jonin level ninja can't find more subtle ways to spy on women?"

"That's… a really good point," She admitted. "Why doesn't anyone else realize that?"

"I prefer that they don't," Jiraiya smirked, "But I'm sure a few see through it… Kind of like how Kakashi reads porn everywhere he goes… My porn," He then added with satisfaction.

"Wow…" And here Ino thought Jiraiya and Kakashi just didn't care what anyone thought of them because of the level of shinobi they were. Nope, they just shared what they did with the world for a negative look.

"I've been hunting for this guy for three days already," Jiraiya restarted their conversation as they began walking once more, "He gets caught everyday somewhere, but he manages to slip away before I get him, he doesn't even leave a trail behind…"

"But wouldn't that mean he's a shinobi?"

"Probably… Not necessarily though, there are other professions with people who know how to cover their tracks; that's why I never said it was. Anyone who doesn't think I could go around watching people undress without being noticed… are idiots. Hell, you're a Chunin you should be able to do it, most of the village's shinobi have the capability to if they wanted."

"How comforting…" Ino sweatdropped.

Jiraiya laughed, "I speak only the truth!…" The fact he was expecting the culprit to be a shinobi was why he had to take it seriously, a shinobi that was perving on women and being caught everyday was bad for the Leaf's image. Ironically, Jiraiya saw this as a problem. In his personal case, it wasn't such a big deal (to him anyway) because he perved on them in public settings like the bathhouse, and he also took missions that kept him away from the village for long extensive time periods like Naruto's recent training trip. This person, whoever he may be… was being seen, making his rounds at people's homes. That was far worse, that deprived people of their sense of security and it reflected badly on all Konoha shinobi. The fact he did it daily was an even larger issue.

After a moment of silence passed between them, and another moment of wandering around aimlessly hoping for a lead of some kind to present itself, Ino noticed the neighborhood they were now entering. The Yamanaka flower shop was only a few blocks away from here. "I'll be right back…" She said, turning the other direction.

"What are you doing?"

"Bathroom, just stick to the main streets and I'll find you easily," With that, the blonde and the white haired split up.

Once he was sure she wouldn't hear him, Jiraiya rolled his eyes and rambled about it, "Women. One hour of walking around impatiently and she has to find an excuse to take a break. I'm sure there will be some kind of 'complication' that impedes her from catching up right away."

He then laughed, "And then she'll apologize and if I act upset she'll beg for forgiveness with those damn puppy dog eyes…" He predicted before his mood deflated, "And I won't stand a chance… Damn it."

The Sannin was lifted from the depressing thought of what power the female gender had over him as his ears perked at the sound of a scream, a panicking high pitched scream that indicated to him the pervert was nearby, well… the other pervert I should say. Jumping into shinobi mode, he sprinted passed by several confused civilians, some of which were looking in the direction they'd heard the scream come from. Seeing a produce stand with an awning, he smirked and leapt onto it, ignoring the protest of a shopkeeper as he used it as a trampoline to get high enough to grab the edge of the roof and eased himself up. Good thing that supported my weight… if I ripped that marquee and splattered a bunch of fruit I would've looked like a complete dumbass. Being a notorious pervert was fine, but being depicted as stupid would not sit well with him.

He leapt across a few rooftops before coming to halt, trying to figure out where he was going. Pinpointing the location of the commotion, he rushed towards the area, jumping across the rooftops full speed. He barely stopped himself from jumping a rooftop in the wrong direction when he spotted someone running in the corner of his eye, managing to skid to a halt and leapt off the building, pursuing the suspect.

It became evident that the Sannin was faster than the other guy, as he gained ground on the black clad male who recognized he was being followed by a fellow shinobi, as Jiraiya could now tell their target was indeed a ninja, and began attempting to lose the Sannin by snaking through clusters of buildings and streets in order to lose Jiraiya.

Entering a sizable crowd of civilians and even some passing Genin, Jiraiya feared he lost his prey, but then he spotted a swift burst of movement through his peripheral. He's hiding behind that crate… He processed, walking over to it. Judging by the way the workers were behaving, they hadn't noticed a shinobi ducked for cover behind it, but that wasn't surprising, they were just regular guys tasked with unloading crates of clothing for a department store after all.

"You can come out now," Jiraiya called out with authority, "I know you're hiding behind those crates." This is great! I have him… I'll prove I was telling the truth to Naruto and the girls… rub it in their faces that I didn't need any help, and maybe even get some… extra reward from Tsunade!

Lord Jiraiya? The pervert recognized, and grabbed a kunai.

"Come on already… You're just wasting our time, I saw you move behind there."

Jiraiya was more than a little shocked when what he assumed was a fellow Konoha shinobi launched a kunai that sailed past him and impaled itself in a street post. He almost grabbed the nearest civilian and jumped away to avoid the radius of the blast but he realized it wasn't an explosive tag tied to it… but a picture. Woah, those are a very nice pair of…

The pervert bolted away from behind the crates, choosing to go the nearest direction that provided him something to obscure Jiraiya's vision. Meanwhile Jiraiya was momentarily slowed down; instinctively he began his pursuit but stopped in order to retrieve the kunai with the sexy picture on it. After all… it was evidence.

Unfortunately, the short time it took for him to retrieve it prevented him from catching up. Konoha had too many intersecting streets and buildings for the pervert to use against him. The trail went cold and fast… But he did secure something of use. Something that was rather nice to look at, but that was just a bonus.


"Nope, I didn't catch him… But he did throw this at me," He revealed, handing the kunai and sexy picture to Naruto without warning.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at what was attached to the kunai, flipping it over to view the front side before having a prominent nosebleed. "Damn it Pervy Sage," he muttered, shoving it in front of Sakura without looking, who in return rudely ripped it away from his hand unnecessarily, causing Ino to raise an eyebrow but Naruto pretended to be oblivious to both of them.

"Why would the pervert throw a kunai with a nude picture at you?" She gasped.

Jiraiya scratched his chin in mock deep thinking, "Nude pictures are verrry distracting."

"Which is why he got away," Naruto pointed out.

Jiraiya pouted, "In my defense, I had to secure this evidence before continuing my pursuit and he was smart enough to block my vision with buildings and objects."

Ino sighed, "We probably would've got him if I hadn't gone to the bathroom right before this all went down. Sorry…"

"Oh well," Jiraiya replied in a cheerful voice. "Three days and I finally got something on him… Naruto, I want you three to go have that kunai and the picture taken for fingerprint examination. Have it compared to the records of everyone in our ninja rosters. I'm going out to drink… After informing Tsunade of today's developments of course."

"All right… See you tomorrow, Pervy Sage." The sage waved as he walked away, satisfied with the result of the morning's incident and excited at the prospect of getting drunk after getting some good work in.

"I have somewhere to be," Sakura lied, tossing the picture-kunai to Ino. "I thought we would be done by now so I didn't leave my schedule open, bye."

The pinkette began stalking off without another word, a confused Yamanaka staring at her back. "Later Forehead…" Naruto didn't bother saying anything, well aware of where her attitude originated from.

"Let's go then, Ino…" Naruto asserted, and was about to start walking when he realized he had no idea where they were supposed to go. "Wait… Who does fingerprints? The T&I crew?"

Ino stared at him like he'd lost it so he explained. "Oi, I was away from the village for more than two years… It's been a long time and I didn't exactly pay attention to the boring stuff."

Ino shook her head with an amused smile and lead the way, "Yes, T&I does it, so could the hospital… and I think maybe the decipher guys, but I'm not sure about the last one and it makes more sense to go to T&I than the hospital for a relatively unimportant domestic issue."

"So T&I it is then… great."

"Something wrong?"

"Eh… To be honest Ibiki Morino is a bit creepy, but I'll be fine."

She giggled, "When I was a little girl, he really scared me and I'd usually try to stay in my room when he was around."

"What? Ibiki would go to your house?"

"Yeah, he and my dad are co-workers, remember? Ibiki's in charge and my dad's his right hand. I know a lot of the people who're in T&I."

"Oh yeah! So this should be no problem at all, getting their help."

As the conversation went dry, Ino examined the boy's body language and expression. She could tell he was pissed; he just managed to hide the fact in his voice and refused to take it out on her apparently. But she could see it in the way he walked. His fists were clenched; his steps were longer and slightly harsher implying he wasn't as relaxed as he pretended to be. She knew how to read into these things because it was used by the T&I crew, which her father wanted her to become a part of. Generally, they didn't get to see their prisoner's walk around, which made this less helpful to know, but examining people's body language was considered good practice for someone who wanted to join T&I because after becoming adept at it, they could learn the more advanced art of deciphering facial expressions and some of the worst prisoner's poker faces.

"Naruto, are you all right?"

"Yeah, why would you ask?" He responded, as if he didn't know what she was talking about.

"You and Forehead, spill it!"

Naruto laughed, and it almost sounded genuine but his heart wasn't really in it, "It's nothing… Don't worry about it we just argued a little bit and didn't leave on the best of terms. We'll be fine once we've both had a chance to cool off."

"Couples argument, eh?" She smirked. "What about?"

"Uhm… It's not important," He dodged. "And we're not a couple," He added.

"In due time Naruto…"

"Yeah right," he muttered, recalling the things she said earlier.

Apparently he wasn't quiet enough, or Ino had impeccable hearing. "What? What did she say to you!?" She demanded, put off by Naruto's mindset, so used to him being the stubborn and confident guy that never let anything get him down to get in his way. When they first made Genin, she had no respect for him… But the grit and determination he displayed to her and everyone else through the Chunin exams and missions that he accompanied Team Ten on… Were enlightening.

While she liked to consider everyone from their class a friend, she knew that her and Naruto didn't have much of a relationship beyond mere acquaintance, but she liked him for the most part. He was a good guy, loyal to the core, protective over his friends and he'd been battling the social odds stacked against him since birth, literally. He didn't resent anyone, despite how the first twelve years of his life had gone; he was an amazing person. There's no way she would've taken half as much of the crap he'd put up with.

After Sasuke left the village, she'd wondered when Forehead would get over him, (like she had, mostly) and when Naruto returned from his training trip with the perv she figured it would be perfect. Sakura's number one fanboy had returned to the village, the same fanboy that had been her teammate as Genin, the same fanboy that had matured greatly over the last two and a half years. He still showed interest in his old crush, likely yearning for an opportunity to be with her after spending so much time away, but as far as Ino could see nothing had changed at all since before in that regard. He asks her out, she hits him and says no.

Naruto hesitated, "Urgh hey, look we're almost there and won't have enough time to talk about this!" He deflected.

Ino glared at him, "Naruto, this conversation isn't going away… I WILL have time later."

Naruto sighed and followed her towards the T&I building, allowing her to lead the way since she was far more familiar with them than he was. I hope she just forgets about this… I don't want to make her mad at Sakura. Besides, if I tell Ino what Sakura said and she yells at Sakura, she'll be even more upset with me! Wait… Why am I worried about Sakura getting mad? I'm pissed at Sakura! He reminded himself.

Ino stopped to chat with one of the T&I grunts but Naruto wasn't even paying attention. Why can't she just butt out of it…? It would be better for all three of us… I guess this is why Shikamaru always says she's the most stubborn, bossy, troublesome person he knows.

"Come on, Naruto… Ibiki's not on duty right now, and my dad's in the middle of a weekly meeting between the council and the clan heads."

"Oh… Who's in charge then?"

"Mibu Shinobu, we're heading to his office right now."

"Okay, guess I'll just leave this to you… You seem to know your way around here real well," he commented.

"Well, my father wants me to join but I'm undecided."

"That's pretty cool, T&I's an important division for the village."

Ino smiled, "Yeah, it is. And they always encourage Yamanaka's to join because of our clan jutsu. I'm just not sure I want to take less missions in exchange for sitting around here. There's a lot of stuff to do besides the actual interrogation, sometimes… a lot of times, they have to try and piece together information they've extracted to make conclusions that must be as accurate as possible which can get stressful and frustrating… Not to mention a Hokage's worst nightmare is always lingering…"

"Paperwork?" He laughed.

"Yup," She joined him in the laughter and lead him into Mibu's office, who raised an annoyed eyebrow at the loud pair of unannounced teenagers.

"Ino Yamanaka, and… You. What do you want?"

Naruto's expression changed completely and glared at the man, not liking what he assumed the man meant by that. "The name's Naruto Uzumaki, you better remember it."

"I don't really give a shit; you're in my office, unpermitted and disturbing my work."

Ino joined Naruto in glaring at the man, and came to his defense. "Naruto was laughing because of me… So if you're going to put on the tough guy act you can direct it at over here," She pointed at herself with a thumb.

Mibu said nothing, but glared at Ino nonetheless. No… he wasn't glaring at Ino, he was glaring at Inoichi's daughter. "Well?" Ino spat at the man. "Nothing left to say? Wow you're intimidated by the fact I'm your co-workers daughter… some interrogation officer." Naruto couldn't help but snicker at how handily she disgraced him and turned the man's face red, it was clear that she really pissed him off but he kept himself in check.

Mibu growled at her but held back the temptation to shout vulgarities. This girl was dangerous… Inoichi was a protective father and if his little darling chose to exaggerate his statements or actions it was highly likely Mibu's life was on a one way ticket to hell. He'd worked hard to become the third ranked T&I director, and he wasn't sacrificing that by pissing off Inoichi Yamanaka's daughter and throwing it all away.

"What do you want?"

Ino dropped the picture-kunai on the desk. "We're assisting with a domestic matter; you may have heard of a guy running around the village peeping on people everyday… he threw this kunai at one of the operatives of our mission," She informed professionally, but withheld Jiraiya's name intentionally, because if he chose to comment he might waste their time and she felt like leaving after the way Mibu acted since they walked in. "We need a fingerprint analysis and a cross check with every shinobi on the rosters."

"Very well… Come by in the tomorrow morning and pick it up, I'll have one of the new guys take care of it, it's a rather basic assignment," He pondered aloud, ignoring the fact a nude picture was attached to the kunai but felt like he didn't care about it enough to comment. She did say they were tracking down the pervert that had been causing a ruckus across the whole village as of late.

"Thank you," She said but didn't smile, it was obvious that she disapproved of his attitude towards Naruto, because she just gave him a cold look and turned around to leave, motioning Naruto to follow. She knew Mibu would make sure this was done for them… if he didn't, he'd hear about this from Inoichi and she could tell the man was afraid of that. For an interrogation officer, Mibu wasn't very good at hiding what he was thinking.

"Thanks Ino…" He finally told her, as they stepped out of T&I. "It was nice of you to stick up for me, most of the time I just do it myself…"

She smirked, "You said it yourself, I know these guys a lot better than you… And I know how to deal with someone like Mibu. He brought it on himself; he was way out of line acting like that over a little laughter. And… for trying to pin it on you because of, well you know."

"It's okay, the bastard fox has given me plenty of headaches over the years it's normal."

"No it isn't," She frowned. He considers that normal? "Besides, I didn't mean that… I meant he tried to just act like it was you because who my dad is."

"Oh," Naruto shrugged, "Well whatever it was about… Thank you."

"You're welcome; now shall we resume our previous conversation now?" She said in a teasing voice and wiped the smile off Naruto's face. "You think I'd forget? Not a chance…"

A/N: Hope it was enjoyable, more dramatic than humorous this time but hey it says Humor/Romance for a reason :P

HOPEFULLY the Naruto/Sakura argument didn't sound too OOC… But I've always wanted Naruto to get fed up with the way she acts about his desire to have a relationship with her and blow off some steam to her face… So I figured what the hell it's my fic it shall happen!

And I admit I may slightly overstate her rudeness but it's not intentional. Til next time… be patient as I must remind you this is a side project, I did 2 Re-Alignment chapters before worrying about this, and that was with Holiday interference on my schedule.