Chapter Eleven

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

A/N: Edited - 2012 October 09

"Oh you're back. Good. Don't be afraid to go into details – size, texture, colour." Jiraiya said, nearly squealing with excitement when he saw Naruto open the door to the room they shared at the Heavenly Purity Inn. It was about a half hour after midnight and though Jiraiya was not expecting Naruto to be back so soon, he still sat up in bed as he anticipated all the potentially pornographic details that occurred between Naruto and his cute, little Geisha girlfriend, Hinata.

Naruto looked at his sensei and was surprised that the man was able to finish his sentence given the glare that he was receiving. But if death glares were to stop Jiraiya from his love for perversion he would be dead a million times over, good enough to be a paleontological find. Nonetheless, Jiraiya realized that something was wrong with his student. He expected outrageous shouting at such an indecent suggestion for details, but all he got was a fiery glower that Naruto didn't seem to have the energy to maintain for very long.

"What's the matter, kid? Listen, sometimes with the nerves and the excitement, some men (not me of course) sometimes they just can't get their boys to come up and play. I mean, it happens to the best of us, not me of course, but you...you're a young kid and you're excited, maybe too excited –"

"Please. Stop. Talking." Naruto said as he fell face first onto his bed; his voice muffled by the pillow.

Jiraiya realized that all attempts at jokes would be futile. He waited a moment before he addressed Naruto.

"What happened?"

"I lost control."

"When you say you 'lost control', exactly what do you mean?"

"I had a minor transformation." There was a brief pause before Jiraiya spoke.

"Hmmph. Right, well, we'll need a shovel and some disinfectant –"

"What the hell! What did you think I did?" Naruto shot up as he looked at his sensei with confusion and outrage.

"What are we talking about here, exactly?"

"What are you talking about?"

"You said that you had a minor transformation? How many tails did you go up to? I mean, is she..." Jiraiya struggled, reluctant to bring up the most obvious question.

"You think that I killed her? I didn't kill her! And what kind of sicko bastard would I be if I did that only to come back here just like that after I supposedly killed my girlfriend?"

"So she is your girlfriend? Earlier you didn't want to say anything."

Naruto threw up his hands in frustration. "Oh my God! I can't talk to you!"

"Why not? I think I have proven myself as a good friend. I was willing to help you move a body!"

Naruto looked at Jiraiya with pure exasperation and then resignation.

"Come on, tell me what happened. I happen to have a lot of experience with the ladies."

"That experience usually carries a restraining order." Naruto muttered as he lay back down on the bed. With a heavy sigh, he continued. "So we were kissing –"

"What kind of kissing, what was she wearing?"

Naruto turned around and sat up on his elbows to give his sensei a fierce look.

"What?! I just wanted to get an accurate portrait of what it is you were dealing with."

"You are on a need to know basis only."

"Listen, I'm being objective, really. You never know, maybe the type of material set you off, like an allergy or something."

"Really?" Naruto looked at him with genuine interest, his curiosity piqued. Damn, this kid is gullible, Jiraiya thought.

"Yeah, really. Now, what did she have on?"

"It looked like some kinda black slip."

"What material?"

"I don't know. I'm not sure. It could be silk, I think. Or was it lace? I'm not sure. It was pretty. It was thin."

"Hmm. Maybe it was her bra then? Or did she have on bindings instead?"

"Well, she didn't have on bra, I think, not from what – hey! What's with the notebook? What the hell are you writing?" Naruto practically launched himself off the bed, ready to grab the book out of Jiraiya's hands.

"I'm simply taking notes, Naruto. I mean, the more we document this is the better chance we have at finding out exactly what triggers this." Naruto nodded, satisfied with Jiraiya's explanation. Jiraiya silently congratulated himself on his quick thinking. This material would be excellent for his Icha Icha books. She had on the type of dress a man would like all women to wear – an unfussy slip that in one movement it would be on the floor. Yes, yes, Jiraiya liked that line. It was definitely going in the Icha Icha books."Go on," He nodded sagely at Naruto as he attempted not to look like his usual perverted self, but like an understanding sensei. Naruto sat back down on the bed.

"Well, um, we were kissing..."

"What kind of kissing?"

Naruto's face burned up. He felt really awkward having to tell Jiraiya these things. Sure, this was his sensei, but what happened between him and Hinata were personal. He decided to skip over some details.

"Look, it's only when she cried out that I was hurting her, I realized that the Kyuubi was trying to take over. I didn't go into any chakra cloak or anything like that. But it could have been a lot worse if she didn't call out to me when she did. My teeth grew a little longer, my eyes changed colour."

"When she said that you were hurting her, what did she mean? What did you do?" Jiraiya had put down the notebook now and was staring intently at Naruto.

"I bit her."

"And you're sure that you didn't have the Nine-Tails chakra leaking out?"

"I didn't go up to any tails, I said."

"Are you sure? Naruto, listen to me. Are you sure that you didn't infect Hinata with any of the Kyuubi's chakra?"

"No, I'm sure."

"Good."

Naruto looked at his sensei, who had started back to write in his notebook, studiously avoiding Naruto's eyes. Something wasn't right, Naruto thought, but he couldn't put his finger on it. It seemed like Jiraiya was genuinely concerned about the safety of Hinata, but it also appeared to be more than that...

"Is there something that you needed to tell me?"

Jiraiya looked up at his young student, who was almost the splitting image of Minato, but with Kushina's personality and he thought; yeah, lots. But now was not the right time. Instead he said,

"Get up. Take off your jacket and lift up your tee-shirt. I want to see that seal."

Naruto complied, deciding to put aside his suspicions that his sensei knew something that he didn't, concluding that there were probably lots that his sensei knew and he didn't. Naruto knew that he was not the brightest.

"Naruto," Jiraiya said to the boy's stomach as he fed chakra into his fingers to highlight the markings of the seal, "as a teenager, you're going to have to learn something about control. Putting aside the fact that you have the Nine-Tails inside of you, you're still a normal, hormonal, teenage boy. If the Kyuubi didn't come out of ya, something else might've." He said with a wink and Naruto rolled his eyes and groaned in annoyance. "I'm serious! Every time that you've had the Kyuubi leak out is during a time of extreme rage. You've never been in a highly sexual situation before, so your guard was lowered, and also the seal was not fixed properly by me the last time. My bad, but in my defence I was trying to re-seal you while I had a hole in my chest. There." Jiraiya proclaimed as he removed his hand from Naruto's stomach and kanji and spirals stopped glowing on Naruto's abs.

Naruto felt that heavy feeling of failure again, but Jiraiya saw it and stepped up to intercept it.

"Look, you don't have anything to worry about. The seal was a bit weak and we both know that the Nine Tails will look for any opportunity to escape. As you get older, your control with regards to your anger and lust will get better. You need to meditate too. Emotional balance is something that all ninja aspire to."

"He does try to escape, you know." Naruto said as if he hadn't heard Jiraiya. "When I start to feel any kind of negative emotion or any sort of extreme emotion, he tries to feed into that and twist it."

"Like jealousy, rage and uncontrollable lust?"

"Yep. I hate him. He's needling me right now. He has the worst attitude ever. Right now he's like, 'Well, sure I tried to kill your girlfriend, but you're the one who won't let me out to wreak havoc and kill thousands.' You have no idea what living with this...this...demon is like. You know how people talk about having a devil and an angel on their shoulders when they have a tough decision to make? Well, I have no angel with me. It's just all devil, all the time. I'm tired. I get close to people and then..."

Jiraiya considered Naruto, whom had slunk back onto the bed, and he could tell that this would be Naruto's entire life – the struggle to surpass the Kyuubi. He realized in that moment that Naruto was a lot stronger than he looked. It could never be easy to live fourteen years in the face of temptation and continually resist it. What happened with Hinata was Naruto's biggest fear – that that was what he was afraid would happen, and hoped wouldn't happen, and feels silly for not realizing that it would inevitably happen: that he would somehow hurt her.

"She's good for you, you know. There are things that you need to work on, yes, but she...she's good for you. She's a good fit for you." Jiraiya said with earnest emotion. It was impossible not to remember Minato and Kushina in a moment like this. Just as how Minato balanced out Kushina, Hinata would balance out Naruto. All things balanced out in the end.

"I just really didn't want to hurt her, but I don't think it's just me. I think that she has some sort of danger magnet on her. You know, she told me that she can't remember anything before she was five because she fell into a river and smashed her head on a rock on something. And then just a couple of months ago some pervert, no offense –"

"None taken."

"...tried to rape her. And now she has a bloody demon-fox trying to go all Nine Tails on her. Maybe I should wrap up Hina in bubble wrap."

"I'm going to ignore that serial killer statement and say that I think that she's quite safe as a geisha. She'll probably be safer than if she were a ninja. She's fragile. I don't think that she'd make a great ninja anyway."

"And why not?" Naruto sat up, for no apparent reason there was a hint of outrage on his features.

"Honestly, do you think she could harm anyone?"

Like a popped balloon, Naruto's fiery outrage deflated instantly and he flopped back onto the bed. He didn't bother to respond. He already knew the answer to that question – Hinata could not hurt an ant. He knew that Hinata was probably safest living in one of the strongest ninja villages, in a relatively safe job. Maybe that bite was the last contact she'd have with any sort of danger. Now he wondered if that was the last time he would have any contact with her. Now that he thought about it, running off on her like that was extraordinarily douchey.

There was a sudden knock on the door. Naruto abruptly sat up in bed as both he and Jiraiya looked at the door.

"I think I have an idea of who that is. If you see me getting my ass kicked, don't step in. I deserve it." Naruto said as he got up to answer the door.

"You moron!"

Naruto was correct in his assumptions. He knew that as soon as he opened the door he would have received a greeting like that from the lanky ninja with the straw blond hair who was given the task of protecting Hinata.

"I gave you a chance and you messed up everything. Hinata calls me in to help her bandage a bite mark! A bite mark! Who the hell bites someone? What are you a frigging vampire bat! Nayako is going to wear my skin when she finds out what happened. And what's worse is that you run off like a little bitch! Are you a bitch, kid? Are you?"

Naruto hoped that was a rhetorical question as his eyes focused on the floor. The ninja seemed to be in a spit-fire rage even though with his heavily lidded eyes he looked sleepy to the point of seeming lethargic in his abuse. For a brief moment Naruto was reminded of that old coffin-dodger, Kakashi-sensei.

"She likes you. With some kind of completely unfounded logic she sees something in you that she likes and there's nothing that Nayako or myself can do to change her mind, no matter how much we try."

"Uh huh." Naruto muttered as he sweat-dropped. There was a moment as the ninja took a deep breath and visibly tried to calm himself.

"Why did you run out on her?"

"I panicked."

"What? You don't usually bite girls in the middle of the night and then run off?"

"Not on Saturdays, no." Naruto quipped and the ninja smiled.

"She must like you for your great sense of humour." Naruto ignored the heavy sarcasm. "She likes you so much she begged me not to kill you."

"She's so kind." Naruto muttered and again the ninja smiled.

"Eh, I just can't stand the paperwork. But she is kind, isn't she? You should tell her that in person." He stepped aside and suddenly there appeared Hinata. He hadn't sensed her there at all!

"Wow! You're like ninja quiet!" He shouted at her and her guardian rolled his eyes, knowing that Naruto was a walking oxymoron to his statement. Oh the irony.

"Hinata-chan, are you sure I shouldn't kill him? I promise I'll make it painless...ish."

Naruto showed the ninja a rather rude gesture causing both Hinata and her guardian to chuckle. Naruto and Hinata stared at each other for a while. She was wearing much more than a slip now. She had on a simple black kimono with a small crest of the okiya embossed on the top left side of the kimono, and a white obi that was made of a thin piece of linen. Her hair was down, but he could clearly see the bandage peeking out from the collar of her kimono. Suddenly Naruto was feeling as if all eyes on him. He looked back but he couldn't see Jiraiya, but he just knew that the man had probably cast his Transparent Escape Technique jutsu to spy on them. Pervert. He stepped outside into the hall and closed the door behind him to hear the disappointed groan of Jiraiya from inside. The Pervert. Naruto looked unsure of what his next step was. He wanted to talk to Hinata, but kept feeling a sharp edge on his back. It could be from the Kumo ninja's stare or it could be from the kunai that the ninja was poking in his back.

"I'm giving you a next chance, kid," The ninja whispered into Naruto's left ear so that Hinata would not hear. "You touch her, I kill you. You breathe too hard on her, I kill you. You speak to her too loudly, I kill you. If I feel like it, I'll kill you, but I don't want to. I kinda like you. You're cool, in a stupid sort of way."

In a puff of misty cloud the ninja was gone, but Naruto knew that he wasn't really gone. He was probably hanging around somewhere, already planning of ways to dispose of Naruto's body; just like how he could sense the presence of the other Kumo ninja that was charged with guarding Hinata. Nonetheless; there was something about him that Naruto liked. Maybe it was the big brother attitude he had towards Hinata.

"There's a garden outback. We could go talk over there." She nodded and for a second he hesitated when Hinata moved to put her hand on his shoulder. Pushing his recent death threats aside, he led the way with Hinata's left hand on his right shoulder.

It took them thirty seconds to get to the garden at the back of the inn, but to Naruto it felt like a lifetime because he could practically feel the awkwardness between him and her. She took a seat on the far side of a park bench and he sat down in the middle. A shuriken suddenly came spinning out of the night's darkness to land between him and Hinata and he took it as his cue that he needed to move further away from her. With a sigh he moved back.

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" He said to Hinata, careful not to raise his voice.

"It is a bit funny. I also think that you're quite skilled to have created your clones to fool Reizo like that." Hinata said as she and the real Naruto walked down a side street that led to the village's grassy fields.

"Yeah, well I knew he was going to come after to me, so I had two clones on the lookout. When I answered the door, it wasn't me. It was a clone. When you two approached, I just morphed one of my clones to look like you. It's something that the Pervy-sage recently trained me in – making my clones look like other people, that is. I'm just really glad that you didn't scream when I switched the real you with one of my clones."

"I wanted to, but I just froze up." She said in a small voice with slight disappointment. It was something she needed to work on.

They said nothing for a while, only walking silently arm in arm until they reached the fields. It was quiet except for the rustling of the wind on the grass. The moon was high and for a while, they could believe that they were the only people in the world as they stood in the middle of the field with waist high grass.

"You're a Jinchūriki."

"H-how did you know? How did you know that I host the Nine-Tails?"

"I didn't. It was a guess. One of Nayako's biggest clients is the Raikage and his brother. His brother, Killer Bee, is a Jinchūriki. He hosts the Eight Tails. When she has entertained them I've been in their company once. They're really nice people, despite the rapping. He's told us what it's like to transform."

Naruto was amazed. First Gaara, now this Killer Bee person. Naruto wondered what were the odds that she lived in a village with its own Jinchūriki and now she also knew him - another Jinchūriki? She should be wrapped in bubble wrap. He shook his head of the thought. Jiraiya was right; it did sound serial killer-like.

"I just put together what Nayako said about you, coupled with your side remarks and what happened tonight...everything sort of fell into place and started to make a lot more sense about who you really are. It was just a guess, but I guess I guessed correctly. You always reminded me of some sort of animal, but until tonight I didn't know what."

"Wait, Nayako knows about me? How does she know about me?"

Hinata shrugged. "Jiraiya?"

"I doubt." Naruto answered absently. He knew that Jiraiya would not say anything about the Kyuubi just like that. Did Nayako have some sort of connection to Konoha? That was odd. There were people in Konoha who still didn't know about his pet demon, yet Nayako knew...

"I guess that's why she wanted me to stay away from you." Hinata's soft voice brought Naruto back from his musings.

"She's right though." Naruto admitted as he tried his best not to look at the bandage on Hinata's left shoulder.

"She usually is." Hinata agreed and Naruto felt his heart sink. This has got to be the world's shortest relationship, he cynically thought. For a half-hour he was her boyfriend and in the next minute she'd break up with him. "But she's not right this time."

Naruto's head snapped up.

"You are not the Nine Tails. I don't like the Nine Tails." The Kyuubi snorted in derision; Naruto politely ignored him. She was staring at her feet and speaking very softly, so softly that Naruto strained to hear her. She was also doing that strange tapping thing with her fingers. He clasped his hands over hers and she looked up at him.

"Thank you. I mean it, thank you. You're going to be in so much trouble just trying to be with me."

"I have to get some kind of excitement in my life. I'm not a ninja like you. Before you came into my life the most exciting thing that happened was that we got new peach flavoured tea to serve at the Teahouse. It was just non-stop thrills." Naruto snorted out a chuckle and Hinata smiled.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to run out on you, it's just that I panicked and I thought that I hurt you and –"

"You didn't; well, you did, but it's not that deep. It probably won't scar."

"Well that's go –" Naruto looked off to the side.

"What's the matter?"

"One of my clones just died. We better go. I'll take you back to your room. I doubt you want to see your boyfriend get murdered in front your eyes anyway."

"I think you can take on both of them."

"I know. I just didn't want you to feel bad."

Hinata laughed and shook her head as Naruto scooped her up in his arms and ran off in the direction of the Silver Dollar Inn. He reached the inn in record time and set her down gently in the middle of the room. Because of their previous disastrous interaction in said room, they were a bit awkward when it came to a hug goodbye. He held her a bit stiffly and gave her a chaste kiss on the cheek as if he were kissing his aunt or something. Hinata said nothing, reckoning that it would take some time before he completely moved over his fear of hurting her. With a promise of seeing her later in the day, he took off through the window where the moonlight was still illuminating her room in striking shafts of light, simultaneously creating corners of shadows. She turned and lay back on the bed, disbelieving the night that she had when she remembered the crushed flowers. Rather, there were no longer any crushed flowers on her bed where she left them.

"If you're wondering where the flowers are, I'll have you know that I discarded them."

Hinata sat up pin straight. Like a ghost, Nayako emerged from the shadows of the room and paused in front of Hinata. It didn't help matters that she was dressed in an all white kimono with the simple crest of the okiya embossed on the top left side of the garb.

"Did he do that to you?" She pointed at the bandaged part of Hinata's shoulder. Hinata didn't know how to answer. She didn't want to lie, but she definitely couldn't say the truth. How did Nayako know?

"I try so hard to keep you away from danger, but it just seems to follow you. I do care about you, you know."

"I know." Hinata replied in a quiet voice. She kept feeling as if she were waiting for the other shoe to drop. She had been found out by Nayako. She was expecting lots of shouting, lots of besmirching of Naruto's name, but she got a Nayako who was frighteningly calm and telling her how much she cared about her.

"I just don't want to lose you."

"Why would you lose me? Nothing's going to happen, Nayako. I'm not going anywhere."

Nayako didn't respond, but simply stretched out her hand for Hinata to take. Hinata took it and was led out of the room and down the stairs, past the lobby and outside where she realized that their kago was there with four hired men waiting to transport them. The hairdresser, the two maids, the kanzashi artisan and the dresser were already seated bunched up in another kago. Reizo and the other ninja were also standing there. Hinata wondered if they knew what was going on all along. Instinctively, Hinata pulled away a bit, but Nayako's grip tightened.

"You won't be seeing Naruto later. We leave for Sand tonight." She led Hinata into the kago and stepped in behind her as the men raised the kago to begin the travels. All the while Nayako muttered that at least in Sand Hinata would be free from threats for a while; there were at least no Jinchūriki there, she hoped.