Author's Note: To all my readers, I will once again be updating my stories. However from this point on I expect my updates will come at a slower rate as I have less free time these days. While I really do appreciate all of you who have taken the time to read my work I ask that people not leave reviews or send me PMs simply to ask me to update a particular story. I'll remind everyone that this is a hobby for me and not my profession; I don't have deadlines for anything I post here. I do promise to try and finish everything I have written, I just don't know how long that will take.

XXX

"You know Ria-sensei you're very different from any other teacher I've had." Naruto told her.

"Am I?" She sipped her tea and considered her next move. Reaching down she moved a Bishop to a spot where it would threaten his Knight. "How so?"

"Well for one thing none of my other senseis ever taught me to play a board game." Seeing his Knight in danger he moved it.

Ria promptly took it out with her Queen. "You saw one threat but not the other," she chided lightly. "Chess teaches you strategic thinking and to anticipate your opponents' moves. In real life you must be able to not only plan ahead but to adapt to changes and to prepare for unexpected threats."

"You have to look underneath the underneath," he muttered quietly to himself. As he considered his next move he stared over the pieces at the beautiful monster sitting across from him. Ever since the incident with Moka and the big fight the students had been steering clear of him. Moka and her clique were no exception. The situation reminded him of his days in the Ninja Academy where no matter what he said or did he remained an outcast and alone.

The only person he felt comfortable around was Ria-sensei. After school he always came here to her home, it was the only place he felt truly welcome. She treated him with compassion and was always willing to listen to what he'd had to endure. And there was also no denying that she was a very beautiful woman, having the undivided attention of someone like her was a really new experience for him.

"May I ask you something Ria-sensei?" He moved one of his two remaining pawns.

"You are free to ask me anything you like Naruto, you know that." She moved her Queen across the board. "You are in check by the way."

He frowned seeing his King in serious danger. "You don't believe in taking it easy on a guy do you?"

"No," she said. "Whether in a game or in true combat I never hold back. If you want to at least give me a challenge you will have to seriously improve your effort. So far I have won every match in less than 20 moves."

"Well what do you expect?" He sounded defensive. "I only just learned this game. We don't have it where I come from. The nearest thing we have in a game called shougi, and I was never good at that either." He moved his King.

Ria immediately moved her Queen again to keep his piece in danger. "If you were on a mission and you went up against a novice ninja would you take it easy on him? Or would you simply eliminate him as quickly as possible and move on?"

He grunted. He thought about Kakashi's bell test and ero-sennin's torturous method of teaching him the rasengan. Both of them had allowed him to suffer in order to force him to learn. He looked over the board carefully. "No matter what I do either your Queen or your Bishop will get me."

She nodded approvingly. "I'm glad you see that. So what will you do?" In his place she would have tipped over her King and conceded defeat. You could not win every single time; one had to accept occasional failures and setbacks.

Naruto however moved his King in a futile effort to avoid her Queen. All that accomplished was extending the game a couple more turns before her Bishop took his King from the board.

"Checkmate," she said. "Why did you continue even though you saw it was futile? Why didn't you just admit defeat?" She asked him curiously.

"I never give up," he told her proudly. "Even if it's an impossible situation I won't quit!"

"That's rather admirable," she told him.

He smiled and puffed out his chest.

"Stupid, but admirable in a silly outdated sort of way."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked in a childish voice.

"If you are in a life and death situation, or if there is some greater cause at stake, then it makes sense to fight on no matter the odds. However, when that is not the case it is foolish to waste your efforts when they are obviously doomed to fail."

"You don't know if you'll fail unless you try!"

She leaned back and smiled at him. In her hand she held up the white chess piece. "But you did fail. What's more you knew you were going to fail. You had no strategy in mind that might have altered that. You merely proceeded even though you knew you were destined to fail."

"There's no such thing as being destined to fail!" Naruto growled. "I believe that if you try hard enough anything is possible!"

It seems I have struck a nerve. "For a ninja you seem rather easy to provoke Naruto."

"It's just that I've had people tell me all my life what I couldn't do. I just don't believe in ever giving up or thinking anything is impossible."

"Is that so? Then you have never had a situation where you would have been better served admitting defeat rather than continuing on?"

His first instinct was to loudly say 'no!' But asking the question that way he did stop to think about it.

And there was such a situation. It was the decision to pursue Sasuke even though he had betrayed Konoha, even though he had very nearly killed him at the Valley for the End. From the moment a weeping Sakura asked him to bring Sasuke back and he'd made his promise of a lifetime he'd never once considered just giving up.

Every effort, every thought for two and a half years had been aimed at getting strong enough to redeem that promise and return Sasuke home. His sworn nindo was to never go back on his word and top have broken that promise would have been a betrayal of everything he was.

And yet… what had come of his effort to redeem his promise to Sakura? Her death and Sasuke's along with so many others. His banishment and all the harm that had befallen the leaf because of what he'd done. And in the end he hadn't been able to keep his promise to Sakura. Despite giving it everything he'd had he'd failed.

Did that mean he would have been better off having given up and declaring Sasuke a lost cause? Sakura would hate him and call him a liar and never want anything more to do with him. But she would be alive right now. He would still be in Konoha with baachan and ero-sannin and Iruka and all the others. The leaf village would not have been threatened with war by most of the other Great Villages. Wouldn't everything be better if only he had admitted defeat and given up?

He didn't like that thought, not one bit. His whole life was centered around the determination to never admit anything was impossible. His dream to be Hokage one day had been ridiculed by everyone, but he still believed he would attain it. If he'd listened to what others said he would have just curled up and died a long time ago. His determination and faith that he could do anything was the only reason he was who he was now. He didn't want to believe there was ever a time to just give up.

But no matter how he looked at it wasn't his decision to carry out the promise no matter what a mistake? So wouldn't giving up have been better?

XXX

Ria quietly sipped her tea as she watched him struggling with some inner crisis. She was silently pleased to see she was having such a strong effect on him. She wanted to make him question all of his old assumptions and loyalties. She wanted him to see the world as she did and only value the things that mattered to her.

She wanted to stain him with her own colors.

"You've been quiet for some time now," she said as she put her cup back down. "Was there a time when you would have been better off walking away from a doomed situation?"

He looked at her warily. "Maybe," he said quietly. "But… but I don't think it's ever right to give up or go back on a promise."

She nodded. "Some promises must be kept no matter what, just as certain situations require you to fight to the bitter end. I am not telling you to walk away when something is difficult, only when it is hopeless. You must recognize when you are in a no win situation and be willing to walk away."

He looked at her seriously. "Ria-sensei, what would you do if I were in serious trouble and helping me might get you killed. Would you abandon me?"

"No," she said with a small grin. "For I am sworn to protect you at all costs. I would never abandon you even if it meant risking my own life."

That was true but only partially true. She would risk her life to protect him, but if he became a danger to Moka or to the school her orders were to kill him.

Naruto studied her very carefully. "Why?" He asked. "Why would you risk your life for me?"

"As a ninja have you never risked your life to protect a client?"

He nodded. "Sure, so this is just a job for you then. I don't really matter to you beyond being part of a mission." He was surprised at how disappointed he felt at this realization. He hadn't quite understood how much he'd started to depend on her friendship and kindness to him.

He was surprised when she leaned forward and he felt her soft hand stroke his cheek. "I wouldn't say that Naruto," she spoke in a soft seductive voice. "You are my precious student and I care about you beyond this mission." Her brown eyes bored into his and he suddenly felt as though she could see right through him and into his heart. "Would you like me to prove it to you?"

"Pro… prove it to me?" He said weakly. In the back of his mind he would hear ero-sannin giggling perversely.

She leaned a forward a bit more across the table until her face was just a few inches from his. He could smell her perfume and his eyes darted from her eyes to her lips. He could feel her other hand gently caressing his neck.

"If you wish I will share something very precious with you as a sign of just how highly I regard you. This would not be because of any order but it would be because I want to give you something unique that will be shared only between the two of us." He felt one of her fingertips trace the line of his jaw. "Are you interested?"

Swallowing he answered her in a shaky voice as all sorts of possibilities ran through his mind. "Yes."

"Very well then," she said happily. "I will give you my blood."

His eyes widened in sudden surprise. "Blood?" That was not one of the things he'd had in mind.

Smiling he saw her fangs extend. "Nothing is more precious to a vampire."

Before he could react she leaned the last little bit forward and sank her teeth into his throat.