"That's what you get for picking a fight with us, loser!" one of the bullies said as he and his friends finally succeeded in taking the resilient and stubborn Naruto down.

Naruto angrily sat up and pointed an accusing finger at his enemies. "Picking a fight with you?!" he cried. "Yeah right! YOU were the ones who were picking a fight with ME! Admit it!"

One of the bullies personally took Naruto's accusation as a sign that Naruto had yet to learn his lesson and responded accordingly by giving Naruto another rough kick to the face. "Yeah right, Naruto! You were the one who threw the first punch, you jerk!"

"And even if we DID start it, all we'd have to do is say that YOU started it and then we'd get off scot free!" another bully scoffed.

Naruto angrily growled at his wrongdoers and cried, "Yeah, well just you wait! Someday, I'm going to become Hokage, and when I do, not only will you have to respect me, but you're also going to have to pay for every single bad thing you've ever done to me, believe it!"

"Tch," one of the bullies scoffed incredulously, "you, become Hokage? Ha! Please! You can barely perform a decent Transformation or Clone Technique, and those are like, the basics!" The bully who was saying this smirked. "How's a loser like you ever going to become Hokage? Get real!"

"Yeah, and even if you DID somehow manage to become Hokage, everyone in the village hates your guts! No one's going to respect you just because you've become Hokage!" The group of boys snickered and laughed at Naruto's misfortune, which happened to double, to them at least, as proof of their superiority over the boisterous blond.

Naruto smirked. "Ha! Shows how much you know! How can 'everyone in the village' hate my guts when my mom, the third Hokage, and the old man and his daughter from Ichiraku Ramen obviously don't hate my guts? Huh, well?!"

The bullies frowned disapprovingly upon hearing this particularly weak and pathetic argument. "The third Hokage's like, everyone's grandpa, you know?" one of the bullies argued. "He's not going to soil his reputation over a little fart like you!"

One of the bullies laughed as the rest snickered to themselves due to their comrade's comment. "Yeah, and the only reason Teruchi and Ayame keep you around at Ichiraku Ramen is because you keep wasting all of your money there! It's good for business, you idiot!"

Naruto gritted his teeth in frustration over the fact that two thirds of his argument had become so easily countered, but smiled victoriously and smugly to himself as he knew that the last one third was his ace in the hole. "Yeah, well that still leaves my mom you jerks! How can you say that everyone hates my guts if my mom is part of 'everyone', huh?! Huh?! Well?!"

The bullies were noticeably taken aback by the effectiveness of this argument, some of them even taking a step back and obviously losing some of the control that they had had over the situation just seconds earlier. Before Naruto could celebrate his victory however, one of the bullies pulled out an unexpected trump card. Placing his hands into his pockets and smiling to himself smugly, the bully calmly said, "Yeah, well, that'd be true, if Naruko was even your real mom."

This particular comment rattled everyone who heard it, but since this particular bully was a part of a group of bullies, the others quickly recovered from their initial shock and took comfort in the fact that one of their own was about to wipe whatever smug and obnoxious grin Naruto had on his face. Naruto got up from the ground and glared at the bully who had thrown the most recent curveball. "What do you mean by that?!" Naruto cried out angrily, his fists clenched and his body ready to pounce if he deemed it necessary.

The bully glanced towards him for a moment before nonchalantly shrugging and answering, "Nothing, it's just that," he placed his hands smugly behind his head, "I overheard my mom talking with her friends, and I heard her mention how sorry they felt about how Naruko was stuck having to take care of a loser like you and how it wasn't fair because she wasn't even your real mother!"

Naruto released a tiny gasp, his expression softening in disbelief and sadness for a moment before he went back to glaring daggers at the bully who had said this, this time, amplifying his glare tenfold. "You're a liar!" he screamed. "Mom's my mom! You're just jealous that my mom is totally prettier and nicer than yours will ever be!"

This seemed to strike a nerve with the bully, who stopped the entire smug act, walked up towards Naruto, glared at Naruto right in his face, and cried, "Don't you make fun of my mom, you jerk!" He then proceeded to punch him, and in a split second, his friends had begun to follow his lead, joining him on the retaliation against Naruto and his big mouth and continuing to do this until they were more than satisfied with the results: a dirtied, scratched, and bruised Naruto lying on the floor, breathing heavily from the beating and cowering behind his own arms which, for the most part, failed to protect him from the assault. As everyone began to calm down, the bully who had started the second attack on Naruto said, "My mom and her friends aren't liars! If they say that Naruko isn't your real mom then she isn't, you hear me?!"

"No!" Naruto cried out stubbornly, using what little strength he had left to direct one more glare at the boys he refused to back down from. "You're a liar! You're all liars! All of you!"

The bully growled in frustration over Naruto's stubbornness, but eventually regained his earlier smugness after a mischievous plan popped into his head. He once again placed his hands smugly behind his head and said, "Fine, then prove it!"

Naruto's eyes widened in surprise. "Prove it?" he repeated. "How the heck am I supposed to do that?!"

The bullies snickered at the complete control they had over Naruto at that point, and the bully answered, "Give us proof that your mother really is your mother by making her do something for you that only a mother would do."

Naruto still didn't quite understand what was being asked of him. "Yeah, like what?" he asked loudly.

Upon realizing that he had had nothing specific planned for that part, the bully looked to his friends for some help, and each and every one of them took a moment to come up with the best answer that, no matter whether Naruto succeeded or not, it would either hurt Naruto or be to their advantage. Eventually, one of them got a devilish idea, and said, "Your mom's got to let you see her without any clothes on!"

"Wait… WHAT?!" Naruto cried, completely appalled and surprised at the stipulation made for him. Even the bully's friends were surprised by their friend's term at first, but upon realizing that no women in their right mind would let a kid like Naruto look at them naked willingly and that, if Naruto was desperate enough, he would have to peek and risk getting caught, which, being the loser that he was, he probably would, he'd no doubt get punished for it, which would be just as fun as watching Naruto having to eat his own words if he failed, everyone was immediately on board with it.

The bully who suggested the condition smirked, and asked, "What? Have you never seen your mother naked before?" When Naruto shamefacedly shook his head, the boys snickered amongst themselves upon realizing just how perfect this plan was. "Everyone's seen their mom without their clothes on, idiot!"

"R-Really?" Naruto asked, doubt slowly beginning to creep into his mind. "I… I thought that it was rude to look at other people naked."

The bullies laughed at Naruto's gullibility and one of them cried, "Of course it is, you dolt! But your mom's your mom, isn't she?! Why would they care if their own kid saw them naked?"

Naruto gulped to himself nervously. "I… I never thought about it like that before."

Another bully smirked. "Wait, so are you telling me that you've never seen your mom without her clothes on before? Ha! That's just proves that Naruko isn't your real mom!"

"S-Shut up!" Naruto cried, quickly pushing himself up from the ground and pointing a daring finger at the bullies. "I'm just never around when she takes her clothes off, alright?! Just you wait, I'm going to ask to see her without her clothes on and she's totally going to be cool about it! And you know why?! Because she's my real mom, that's why!" He then proceeded to run back to his and Naruko's apartment, leaving behind the bullies who were laughing so hard to the point where some of them fell to the ground. Was this kid for real?

"Mom?!" Naruto called out as he opened the door to his apartment. "Mom?!" Still nothing. He entered his apartment and closed the door behind him, walking into the middle of the room before settling that the apartment was indeed empty at the moment, and considering how much his mom usually worked, he deduced that she wasn't going to be home in a while, which would give him time to think his predicament through.

"Aw man, what am I going to do?!" he thought frantically. "Mom's definitely my mom, she has to be! But she's been telling me since day one that she doesn't want me looking at people without their clothes on, especially her!" He scratched his head frantically as he realized how much of a predicament he was in. "Aw man, what I am going to do?!"

Just then, much to his surprise, the door to the apartment burst open, allowing his mother to make her way into the apartment, half walking and half dancing as she hummed a little song to herself. Upon realizing that Naruto was in the apartment however, she quickly froze in the tracks, blinked a couple of times in surprise, blushed a bit in embarrassment, recomposed herself in an attempt to make Naruto forget what he had just witnessed, smoothed out her clothes a bit to act more natural, and asked, "H-Hey there, sweetie, what…," she laughed awkwardly, "what brings you home so early?"

Naruto, however, ignored the question, as he was too shocked by the fact that he had just witnessed his mother be, quite frankly, a little bit too happy for seemingly no reason. "Um, mom," he asked, "what the heck was that just now?"

Fixing her hair in an attempt to feel less embarrassed about being caught being too enthusiastic about what the third Hokage had just given her, Naruko, with her face still a bit red from embarrassment, explained, "W-Well, that was your mother being very happy about something. That's all."

Naruto tilted his head to the side as he eyed his mother suspiciously and cautiously and asked, "And that 'something' is?"

Naruko sighed, realizing that she was going to have to let the cat out of the bag in this case, took out a small piece of colored paper, held it up in front of Naruto, and answered, "The Third gave me the day off and gave me this coupon that grants whoever uses it a free hour at the village hot springs. And I can bring up to any two friends I want along with me." She then gave her son a shameful pout, and cried, "Mommy was just really happy that she could go to the hot springs for free on her day off!" She hung her head in embarrassment. "Mommy must be getting so old if she's getting so excited over something as small as this."

Naruto's eyes lit up once he realized that his mother's strange behavior hadn't been over something overly weird and once he realized what exactly she had been given. "A free trip to the hot springs?!" he cried out excitedly. He clenched his fists in anticipation. "Man, I've always wanted to go there!" He rushed towards his mother, clasped his hands together, bowed his head, and pleaded, "Take me with you take me with you take me with you! Please?"

Naruko's expression softened upon witnessing her son's innocent behavior, but sadly, she was going to have to put her foot down on this one. She kneeled down and apologetically combed through Naruto's hair with her hand as she said, "As much as I want you to come along with me, the hot springs aren't mixed, so if I were to take you, I wouldn't be able to keep an eye on you. Besides," she poked him playfully in the stomach, much to the chagrin of Naruto, "you still might be a bit too young to be going to one of these." She then smiled kindly and reassuringly towards him and suggested, "Maybe some other time when you're older, okay sweetie?"

Naruto pouted and folded his arms angrily, but ultimately relented under his mother's gaze. "Yeah, sure, I guess."

Naruko giggled and gave her son a peck on the forehead. "Thank you for being so understanding," she playfully said before she got up to properly get ready for her little getaway.

As Naruko took her time to make the necessary preparations, Naruto laid down on the bed, hands behind his head, and watched his mother quickly walk around the house as she did what she needed to do. "Geez, what's so fun about the hot springs anyway?" he asked aloud.

Naruko poked her head from behind the restroom door and gave her son a bewildered expression. "You don't even know what a hot springs is?" Naruto simply shrugged. "And you made such a fuss about going too." She went back to whatever she was doing in the restroom.

"Well, yeah!" Naruto argued. "It's got to be fun if only adults with enough money are allowed to go in."

Naruko left the bathroom and closed the door behind her, shaking her head in amusement at Naruto's innocent and naïve reasoning. "Well," she began to explain, "hot springs are nothing more than very big, very relaxing public baths."

That suspiciously seemed to gain Naruto's attention, not that Naruko thought too much of it. "Public baths?"

Naruko nodded. "Yep, just a bunch of people sitting around naked in a pool with a bunch of relaxing properties to it. Sound pretty boring, doesn't it?" She opened the door of her apartment. "Well, I'm off!" Her face then became stern as she added, "Be good while I'm gone. I mean it this time! I don't want to worry too much about you on my day off, understand?"

Naruto nodded his head a bit too quickly then he probably would've liked. "You can count on me!" he cried, giving his mother a small salute.

Naruko smiled. "That's what I like to hear. If you need me, I'm going to be at the hot springs for the next hour or so, okay? Just ask the people in front for me and they should be able to get me for you, okay?"

Naruto nodded dutifully. "Got it."

Naruko smiled, blew Naruto one last kiss, and said, "Love you," before exiting the apartment, closing the door behind her, and making her way to her destination.

Naruto took a deep breath and began to stretch his muscles, getting his body ready for what he was going to attempt. "Well, guess it's time to see if all of those stealth skills they taught us at the academy actually work or not."

"This is a waste of time," Kurenai Yuhi muttered under her breath out of annoyance as she followed a twin-tailed Naruko outside to where the women's hot springs were, her arms folded and an annoyed look on her face. "We shouldn't be here sitting around in a pool of water doing absolutely nothing, we should be training to become even stronger!"

Just then, an arm wrapped itself around her shoulders and pulled her in closer towards her fellow female ninja, Anko Mitarashi, who embraced her friend exuberantly as she said, "Ah, lighten up Kuri! All work and no play makes for a dull life, you know? And besides, don't hot springs have some kind of regenerative property or something?" She gave her friend a knowing smirk. "A ninja should make sure to take care of their bodies, shouldn't they?"

Kurenai gave her friend a disapproving look and replied, "Don't give me that! The only reason you're here is because this place gives out free dango to all of its customers!"

Anko nonchalantly shrugged her shoulders, obviously unaffected by her friend's accusation. "Guilty as charged!" she said, raising her hand up as if she had been caught redheaded in the middle of a crime. She the smirked and said, "But come on Kuri, even you wouldn't turn down some free food, right?"

Kurenai averted her eyes away from her friend and muttered, "Keep talking like that and you're going to start packing some unnecessary weight everywhere you go."

Anko released her arm from Kurenai's shoulders and gave her one last nonchalant shrug. "Well then, I'll just have to work harder to work all of that unnecessary weight off, now won't I?"

"Alright you two, knock it off," Naruko said sternly. Kurenai and Anko turned to see that Naruko had already removed her towel and was already in the water. "I didn't invite you here so that you two could argue while I relax my muscles. Now come in, we've only got an hour before we've got to start paying for everything!"

Anko smiled. "Don't have to tell me twice!" She removed her towel and quickly made her way into the hot springs, letting out a satisfied moan as she let the water's healing properties do its work. "Aw yeah, that's the stuff." She learned back against the edge of the pool, resting her arms on the edge of the pool behind her as she leaned her head back. "Aw man, you're really missing out Kuri. This feels amazing!"

Naruko let out a hum of agreement as she gently placed her ponytails behind her shoulders and followed Anko's lead, though without the arm resting. "This really is nice," she said softly to no one in particular. "I never realized how tense my body was until now. This hot springs really hits the spot, doesn't it?"

Anko nodded her head enthusiastically in agreement. "Aw yeah, you can say that again."

Seeing as how much her friends were enjoying it, Kurenai blushed a bit in embarrassment and averted her eyes away from her friends' gazes as she removed her towel and finally followed them into the water. Kurenai let out a satisfied moan. They were right. This DID feel nice.

Naruko giggled. "Well well, look who finally decided to join us."

Anko smirked. "Took you long enough."

Kurenai blushed even harder as she once again averted her eyes away from their gazes. "S-Shut up you two."

As the two girls laughed at the silly behavior their friend was displaying, Naruto peaked from behind his Cloak of Invisibility Technique to see what was going on. When it looked like one of them was about to notice him however, he quickly retreated back into the security of his cloak and froze there for a few seconds. From what he had heard, the two women accompanying his mother were ninja, so he had to make doubly sure that he didn't mess up, otherwise he'd probably get in even more trouble than he already would've been in if only his mother had caught him; which was bad for him, considering the fact that, while he liked the Cloak of Invisibility Technique (it was one of the few ninja techniques that he was legitimately good at, which was probably because it was one of the few ninja techniques he actually put some practice into), it kept him from actually seeing what was going on in front of him, so even though he had had an ample opportunity to see his mother naked, he had unfortunately missed it, and the only way he would be able to do that was if he risked getting caught by poking his head out from behind the cloak every once in a while. Beads of sweat fell from Naruto's forehead as he stood as still as he possibly could, while internally screaming, "Oh man, I am so dead, I am so dead, I am so dead!"

"So," Naruko said as she gently combed her hand through one of her pigtails, "how's life been treating you two lately? From what I've heard, you two have been getting stronger and stronger with every mission."

Anko flashed Naruko an arrogant grin as she flexed her arm at her. "You got that right! The 'me' today would totally leave the 'me' from last month completely in the dust! At this rate, I'll be a jonin in no time!" She then grinned mischievously at Naruko, made her way towards her, and said, "But enough about me, what about you?"

Naruko frowned and gave Anko a few confused blinks before asking, "What about me?"

Anko smirked before forcibly turning Naruko around, playfully wrapping her arms around Naruko, reaching towards Naruko's bosom, and giving them a playful squeeze, which earned her a surprised yelp and blush from the older woman. "Kuri and I aren't the only ones who've been growing!" She then forcibly turned Naruko around so that Kurenai could see what exactly she was doing to Naruko and asked, "Hey Kuri, what do you think? Don't they look bigger than the last time we saw them?"

Kurenai blushed, averting her eyes away from the spectacle Anko was forcing her to look at, and muttered, "I guess."

Naruko blushed even harder. "H-Hey you two, stop it!" she cried as she tried to pry herself away from Anko's grasp. "I'm way too old to be subjugated to these kinds of jokes!"

Anko laughed as she did her best to keep her grip on the blonde's slippery body. "Are you kidding me? You don't look a day over thirty!"

"I don't know if I should take that as a compliment or not!" Naruko wailed as finally pried herself away from Anko's embrace. After she took a moment to catch her breath, she splashed Anko as hard as she could and said, "You naughty girl you! You should show more respect to your elders!"

Anko laughed and returned Naruko's splash with a splash of her own. "That line's not you and you know it!"

Kurenai sighed as the two of them got into a fairly big water fight. "I thought the whole point of this was to relax," she muttered to herself as she sank deeper into the water.

Meanwhile, on the men's side of the hot springs, Izumo, Kotetsu, Iruka, and Mizuki simply sat in the pool, their heads hung down as they heard everything that was happening on the women's side of the baths.

"Hey," Kotetsu quietly asked, "what should we do?"

Izumo gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. "We do nothing, that's what we do."

"Yeah, but how?" Kotetsu questioned.

Izumo gulped nervously. "With great… restraint," he answered.

Iruka turned to his friend, Mizuki, and asked, "What do you think, Mizuki?"

Mizuki simply shook his head, folded his arms, and said, "You guys leave me out of this."

Meanwhile, on the other side, Kurenai let out an exasperated sigh, stood up, and said, "Alright, that's enough relaxing for me." She turned towards Naruko and gave her a grateful bow. "Thank you for inviting me Naruko, I really appreciate it, but I've got to get back to training."

Naruko and Anko stopped what they were doing and both gave the genjutsu user a look of surprise. "B-But it hasn't even been five minutes yet!" Naruko exclaimed.

"Yeah Kuri, what the heck are you trying to pull, huh?!" Anko cried, making her way towards Kurenai as best she could despite all of the water hindering her movement.

Kurenai calmly reached for her towel and answered, "I'm not trying to pull anything. I simply take being a ninja and getting stronger very seriously, that's all."

"Bull!" Anko cried, pointing an accusing finger at Kurenai as she turned to face Naruko. "You want to know the REAL reason why she's so obsessed with training and getting stronger, huh? It's because she's still bummed out over the fact that daddy dearest didn't let her fight when the Nine-Tailed Fox attacked the village all those years ago!"

Kurenai gasped. "How dare you!" Kurenai cried. "That was not your secret to tell!"

Anko turned to her, an annoyed scowl on her face. "Like I care! And it's not like it was much of a secret anyway! Most of the other ninja either heard or saw firsthand what happened between the you and your father when the Nine-Tailed Fox attacked! It didn't matter if you admitted to it or not, it wasn't hard to put two and two together! Doesn't help that, no matter how hard you try, a lot of us can read you like an open book anyways! The only reason why no one's brought it up was because we all felt sorry for you and because we thought you needed your space so that you could sort out your feelings and whatnot! But you know what? I'm fed up with all of this! I get that you loved your dad and all, but get over it! We're ninja! People like us die all the time and your dad has been dead for years now! Just accept the fact that he died like an honorable ninja and move on with your life, because honestly, it's starting to affect everyone around you in your present life, and it's really starting to tick me off!"

Kurenai gritted her teeth as she averted her eyes to the side, away from Anko's intense glare, clenched her fist, and hissed, "Like you're one to talk."

Anko raised an eyebrow challengingly at her friend. "Huh? What the heck's that supposed to mean?"

Kurenai glared at Anko, Anko's response to her words striking a bit of a nerve with her. "Don't you play dumb with me!" Kurenai cried. "You think you're so clever, don't you? Secretly going off to train when you think nobody else is watching and working yourself to the point of exhaustion every time you do? Did you really think that no one would get suspicious over how quickly you were improving? Over how quickly you were getting stronger and stronger by every mission? Over how quickly and easily you were being considered for the jonin position within such a short amount time?" She pointed an accusing finger at Anko. "Why don't you just admit that the reason you've been working yourself just as much as I've been is because you're insecure about yourself because of your past with Orochimaru!"

"How dare you!" Anko cried after she had recovered from her initial shock. "Just who the heck do you think you are, you selfish little punk?!"

"I could ask you the same thing!" Kurenai countered.

"Hey, that's enough," Naruko gently chided as she made her way towards the two girls and tried her best to calm them down. "You're both taking this a bit too far, don't you think?"

"She started it!" both women cried, pointing an accusing finger at the other.

Naruko sighed wearily. "And here I thought we'd all just get some rest and relaxation today," she murmured to herself. She then lifted her hands up and pressed each of them against each women's chest, hoping that they would get the message and refrain from coming to blows with one another. When it seemed like the two women were willing to comply, she turned to Kurenai and gently asked, "Is what Anko said true, Kurenai?"

Kurenai averted her eyes to the side again. "It's just not that!" she argued. "Do you know what my father said to me before he went to fight the Nine-Tailed Fox? He told me that I was a woman! He tried to justify preventing me from entering the battle by telling me that I was a woman and that I should pass on the will of fire to his grandchildren!" She clenched her fist in anger. "Was that all I was to him?! Just a way to give him grandchildren?!" She shook her head angrily. "It was then that I decided to become stronger! Much stronger! I'd be so strong that even if people told me that I was a woman, they still wouldn't be able to keep me away from the battlefield, because they would know that I was so strong that it would be downright foolish to keep me away!"

"And by doing this, you're also denying to fulfill his wish of bearing him grandchildren," Naruko gently pointed out.

"I'm not just good for bearing grandchildren!" Kurenai cried. "By saying that… by saying that, he wasn't just disrespecting me, but all female ninja! S-So when you think about it, I'm not just getting stronger for myself, I'm also becoming stronger for all the other female ninja out there!"

Naruko placed a finger onto her cheek inquisitively and tapped it against her cheek as she pondered over what Kurenai had just said to her. "Perhaps," she said slowly, "but last I remembered, it takes two to tango."

Kurenai finally looked up towards Naruko, both surprised and somewhat enraged by her strange response to everything that she had just said to her. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Naruko smiled good-naturedly and explained, "A woman can't bear children by herself, now can she? She'd need a man to help her out, right? Men are just as responsible in bearing a child as women are. You don't think that all of the other male ninja who heard what your father said didn't feel the same way you did when they heard what he said?"

"W-What are you saying?" Kurenai asked. "Are you seriously tying to say that male ninja are just as discriminated against as female ninja? Because if you are, then you must not know as much about the world of ninja as I thought!"

"Oh please, stop with all of the faux feminism!" Anko cried. "You're not fooling anyone you know!" She pointed an accusing finger at Kurenai. "This isn't about changing people's attitudes towards female ninja and you know it!" Before Kurenai could talk back, Anko quickly added, "You realize that every time you lie, you could never look whoever you're lying to in the eye, right? It's so obvious! The only reason you're looking at us in the eye right now is because you realize you need to save face, even though you know as well as we do that this whole 'feminism' act you're putting up is just that, an act!"

"And what if it isn't?!" Kurenai cried.

"Oh, it isn't, I'm sure of it," Anko calmly said as she confidently folded her arms. "Because the Kurenai I knew, she NEVER CARED about all that junk! She had better things to focus on, like getting stronger for the sake of getting stronger and improving herself as a ninja!" She pointed an accusing, but still somewhat nonchalant, finger at Kurenai. "This whole 'feminism' bit? I've never heard a word of it come from your mouth until today, so either you look me right in the eye and say that it's all true, or you admit that this is just some boneheaded way for you to not admit the REAL reason why you've been working yourself to the ground! Do it, I dare you!"

Taken aback by the bluntness of Anko's challenge, alongside the fact that Anko was right but she didn't want to admit it, Kurenai slowly found herself averting her eyes away from Anko's gaze and saying, "I… I… I'm…."

"Ha!" Anko turned to Naruko, a triumphant smirk on her face. "See, what'd I tell you? Like an open book this one is!" She turned back to Kurenai. "So, mind telling us what you're REALLY trying to accomplish with all of this training?" When Kurenai didn't immediately answer, Anko quickly added, with a nonchalant shrug, "You've been exposed, after all. Might as well cut your losses, am I right?"

"It's because your father died, isn't it?" Naruko gently asked. Kurenai let out a small gasp of surprise at Naruko's inquiry. Naruko gave Kurenai a soft, tender smile. "You really loved him, didn't you? You loved him so much that the fact that he died and the fact that you were kept from doing anything to prevent that from happening (from your own father no less) frustrates you, doesn't it? That's why you're desperately trying to get stronger. You don't want to go through that entire ordeal again; feeling and being powerless to save someone you care about. Is that it?" When Kurenai hesitated in confirming Naruko's theory, Naruko took Kurenai's hand, gave it a firm, but gentle, squeeze, and added, "It's okay if you don't want to answer, but you should know that there's no shame in having that type of reasoning."

"Yes it is!" Kurenai cried, unshed tears forming at the corners of her eyes. "Father…," she sniffed, "father always told me how I should learn to accept the deaths of my fellow ninja comrades, because the life of a ninja was hard and that ninjas were never expected to 'live forever', but when he died," the tears had begun to fall, "when he died, I couldn't accept that." She looked up towards Naruko. "It's not fair! What did any of those who fell to the Nine-Tails do to deserve what had happened to them that day?! And why were the older ninjas so ready to leave their loved ones in the world of the living, without them?! Didn't they realize just how much they meant to those who loved them? Didn't they know how much we'd miss them if they ever went away and never came back?" She shook her head shamefully. "I am a ninja! I should've been prepared, from the moment I donned my forehead protector, to accept the harsher aspects of the ninja lifestyle! But here I am… unable to even accept the unfairness of the deaths of my father and his fellow ninja. How could I let myself admit that, especially after what my father tried to teach us in his final moments with me and the rest of the ninja of the next generation?" She shook her head again. "I couldn't. I had to make him proud. That was the least I could do."

Much to her and Naruko's surprise (though Naruko's was more pleasant than Kurenai's), Anko wrapped her arms around her and gave Kurenai a firm, reassuring hug, before releasing it, and saying, "I may have never known my real father, but even I know that a father will always be proud of their child, especially if their child is a totally awesome genjutsu user who should really give herself a break." She gave Kurenai a playful wink. "Don't beat yourself up too much, Kuri. No one's going to complain about you missing your father, or anybody else who died that day, or you wanting everyone to stay alive on a mission or whatnot." Realizing the irony of what she had just said however, Anko blinked, laughed and scratched the back of her neck awkwardly, and added, "Well, I mean, yeah, I guess I DID sort of do that to you earlier, but that was a totally different, you know?" She sighed. "The point is, Kuri, that you don't have to do it and suffer through it all alone, you know? We'll all be there for you, and we'll all get stronger with you so that what happened that time will never have to happen again." Anko grinned. "That's a promise."

Touched by what her friend had just said to her, but realizing that this was the perfect moment to do to Anko what Anko had done to her, Kurenai chuckled, as best she could in the current state she was in, and said, "All of you, huh?" This earned a confused raised eyebrow from both Naruko and Anko. "Does this mean you'll finally stop being so hard on yourself and start thinking of yourself as a true member of the Hidden Leaf Village, Anko?"

Anko averted her eyes to the side as she fidgeted nervously. "Kuri…."

"Just because Orochimaru was a traitor, it doesn't automatically mean that you are," Kurenai sadly argued. "You may have studied under him, but that doesn't make you an accomplice of his, Anko. You don't have to feel like an outcast amongst your friends anymore. Please, let go of this guilt that you never deserved to inflict on yourself and go back to the Anko you used to be. Not just the act you keep up just to keep us from worrying about you."

Anko shook her head incredulously. "You just don't get it, Kuri. Orochimaru…," she gritted her teeth and clenched her fingers around her arms tightly, "calling Orochimaru a 'bad' man is the biggest understatement anyone who knows that bastard could say about him, and I… I used to look up to him… I used to adore him… I used to -"

"Whatever you used to do doesn't automatically determine what you do now," Kurenai said. "And what you do now, it's nothing more than awe-inspiring. You're living proof that people can be given second chances and not squander them! You're a good person Anko! You always were. So stop thinking of yourself otherwise and just let everyone in!" When Anko still looked a bit hesitant, Kurenai added, "I'll move on if you move on. We could move on together. The prideful ninja who is ashamed to admit her own naivete and idealism despite the harsh realities of her job and the ninja who is stubbornly latching onto the past that no longer defines her, getting stronger together. How does that sound?"

Anko let out a small gasp before considering Kurenai's offer and saying, "I don't know Kuri. When it comes to Orochimaru, I'll always feel like I'm connected to him, you know?" Naruko noticed that Anko had placed a hand on a mark that she had on her neck as she said this. "But when it comes to moving on and letting other people in together…," Anko looked up and grinned, "now that, I wouldn't mind giving a try."

As the three women smiled at each other, they eventually heard a meek voice ask, from the other side of the hot springs, "Um, is everything all right over that?" The three of them all turned to find that the voice had belonged to Kotetsu, who, along with Izumo and Iruka, had poked their heads above the wooden fence separating the men and women's sides of the hot springs, with blushes on their faces as they looked at the three women whose decencies were only covered at this point due to the way the women were inadvertently covering themselves, either due to the positions they were standing in or them somehow being lucky enough to position their arms and legs in ways that protected their more sensitive parts.

Anko and Kurenai, upon seeing the three ninjas eyeing them, immediately tried to cover themselves up even more. "You pervs!" Anko cried, raising her fist at the three peeping ninjas. "Just what the heck do you think you're doing?!"

"W-Well," Izumo nervously began, "it's just that… you were both yelling at each other so much, and then it suddenly got quiet."

"Y-Yeah," Iruka said. "W-We were just worried about you, that's all."

"Don't lie you guys," the voice of Mizuki said from behind the wooden wall. "Fess up, you're all just secretly a bunch of perverts who were looking for an excuse to peep at women, weren't you?"

Kotetsu, Izumo, and Iruka screamed in horror. "Mizuki, how could you?!" Kotetsu cried.

"So you guys ARE just acting like a bunch of pervs then!" Anko cried.

Much to everyone's surprise, Naruko let out an amused giggle. "Well, I suppose they ARE at that age." Everyone looked towards Naruko, only to be absolutely shocked the moment they saw that Naruko was eyeing the boys with a seductive and amused look on her face.

"N-Naruko?" Kurenai asked. "W-What are you saying?"

Naruko gave her a nonchalant shrug before walking to the edge of the pool, pulling herself up, covering herself with her arms and hands, and playfully saying, "Well, if you boys are really THAT curious then we might as well get this over with then," before removing her arms and hands and revealing her naked body in all its glory to the three boys (four, unbeknownst to everyone else there) and posing seductively. "How's this, boys?" she asked, giving them a playful wink. "Is this good enough to satiate your curiosity?"

"Agh!" Izumo, Kotetsu, and Iruka cried as their noses bled with so much force that they were launched off of the wooden fense and into the pool, much to Mizuki's shock and horror.

"What the heck?!" the three girls (and Naruto) heard from the other side of the hot springs. "Guys, what happened?! What did this to you?! Hey, are you listening to me?! Guys?! Guys?!"

Anko and Kurenai stared at the now uninhabited fence for a long time before slowly returning their gazes towards Naruko (noticing this, Naruto made a mad dash out of the hot springs, jumping onto the roof and fleeing from there), who was now covering herself with an embarrassed blush, but an amused smile on her face. Once Naruko noticed Anko and Kurenai's shocked expressions, her blush noticeably got darker as she fiddled with one of her pigtails, and explained, "The Fourth Hokage… also took an interest in the opposite sex around that age. I've learned from personal experience that, if you want to stop the constant peeping, you've got to kill the curiosity from the get-go, you know? I mean, it's still embarrassing and all, and it's obviously a problem if they keep coming back, but, you know, you've got to do what you've got to do sometimes, right?" She then placed both hands on her cheeks as they were practically set on aflame by her feelings of embarrassment over the whole thing. "Oh, I hope that that doesn't make me sound too weird!"

Much to Kurenai's shock, Anko enthusiastically replied, "Are you kidding?! That wasn't weird! That was totally awesome!"

Naruko and Kurenai both gave Anko surprised looks. "Awesome?!" they both cried out incredulously.

Anko nodded her head fervently. "Heck yeah it was! To be completely confident in your own sex appeal," she held her chin as she reminisced about Naruko's daring moment, "I really like the sound of that." She then turned to Kurenai, grinned, and asked, "Maybe I should dress myself up from now on to reflect that, yeah?"

Kurenai frowned disapprovingly at her friend. "How? By wearing those ridiculous fishnet clothes that have started to become popular among female ninjas for some reason?"

Anko blinked a few times before snapping her fingers excitedly and crying out, "Now there's an idea!" She then began to giggle mischievously to herself. "Yeah, I could totally make that work, couldn't I?"

Naruko groaned, burying her face into her hands. "I am such a bad influence," she lamented.

"What do you mean you saw your mom naked?" one of the bullies asked.

"It's exactly what you think it means, you idiots!" Naruto cried. He placed his hands on his hips triumphantly as he smugly closed his eyes and held his head up high as a result of his victory. "She was so cool about it too!" he lied. "It totally wasn't a big deal with her!"

The bullies looked at each other for a moment before turning their attention back to Naruto, with one of the bullies asking him, "Okay, fine, where's your proof."

Naruto's eyes snapped open upon hearing this. "P-Proof?"

The bully nodded. "Yeah, where's your proof?"

At this, Naruto began to laugh awkwardly and fidget nervously. "U-um, w-well, uh, y-you see…," he stammered.

The bullies all smirked amongst themselves. "You don't have any proof, do you?"

Miraculously, an idea came to Naruto at this most crucial of moments. "Y-Yeah, sure I do!" He then performed the required hand signs, focused, internally prayed for his to work, and cried out, "Transform!" One puff of smoke later, the bullies were met with the image of Naruko's naked body in the same pose Naruto had seen her do in front of Kotetsu, Iruka, and Izumo, with one hand behind her head and the other hand holding the heel of one of her feet as the other one raised her up on her tippy toes, with it asking, in a tone of voice equally as seductive as Naruko had done mere minutes before, "How's this for proof?" This all proved too much for the bullies, who were in so much shock and embarrassment over the situation that they either fainted, screamed, froze in place, or ran.

Upon changing back, examining the reaction his transformation had caused to the bullies, and remembering what it had done to the older ninja at the hot springs, a mischievous grin appeared on Naruto's face. As long as his mother didn't know about it (because if she did, she would no doubt get mad at him and ban him from performing this technique ever again), it seemed that he had a pretty effective secret weapon at his disposal. At the very least, no one would be able to ignore him after performing THIS particular technique.

Author's Note #1: Consider this my belated Christmas present to all of those who continue to read this story despite how infrequently I update it. I always wish that I could update it more frequently, but life, you know?

Author's Note #2: I've got nothing against feminism, in case you were wondering. I just noticed that fans seem to think of Kurenai as a feminist, despite Kurenai never really saying anything about the subject in the show or in the manga, so this was my way of acknowledging both sides of her, the fanon side and the canon side, respectively, while still staying true to the canon. As for Naruko's logic on how do deal with perverts, it's based on how in "Tom Sawyer" how Tom wants to curse so much because he isn't allowed to, but once he is given the privilege to do so, he finds that he no longer has the desire to curse anymore. With Kotetsu, Izumo, and Iruka being young, their desire to peep could be assume to be just as immature and as innocent as Tom's longing to curse, so Naruko thought if she just let them see what they wanted to see, without any qualms on her part, their curiosity on the opposite sex would be satiated and that they would no longer desire to act like they did anymore. As far as this story will go, it works, though even I wouldn't recommend it in the real world. Hope that clears a few things up and hope that you enjoyed this chapter and look forward to the next one!