Two weeks later the mass of people were packing up to go back to Konoha, or in some cases to go for the first time and in many cases to go anywhere else for the very first time. It had been decided that all of the former prisoners would go to the hidden village even if they would not become ninja again or ever. Most of the twenty-eight remaining former ninja wanted to return to their former profession this time as leaf-nin if they were allowed to. It had taken a while but the bloodline purges of the Mist had been explained down to how the Kaguya had been the last to fall and even they had been eradicated. As half the inmates were now without a home to go to at all and the other half were unsure of their welcome should they return, it was easy to choose to make a new life in a different country, the fact that it was the country who had inadvertently rescued them notwithstanding.
The Kaguya children who had been having problems controlling their random bone growths had been tutored by two surviving Kaguya ninja. They were at least able to function in daily life now, although their de facto teachers swore that if they decided to become ninja there would be much more training needed. Some of the other bloodlines were also receiving some jury-rigged training in how to use their inborn gifts. After several days of general tutoring in how to use the bloodlines Kakashi had revealed that he had found some technique scrolls having to do with the bloodlines but they would be taken to Konoha and they would have to be registered as leaf-nins before they would be allowed to study them. They reacted much better than Naruto expected them to react but he eventually wrote it off as a side effect of having to follow horrible orders for so long that the nearly reasonable sounding ones given lately were a relief.
It didn't take long to finally get on the road for the estimated four day journey back to Konoha.
--
Naruto smiled at the sight of Haku and Hinata talking animatedly with a middle-aged kunoichi that had been revealed to be Haku's kaasan. When he'd found out he had immediately understood why she had tried to rush off into the crowd of shinobi right before the attack. Their reunion had been a tearful one and it had taken quite a while to explain how it had happened.
-flashback-
Naruto watched as Haku approached a kunoichi cautiously the morning after the rescue. He saw Hinata behind her as calm and serene as ever and he thought about how glad he was that she hadn't had to dirty her hands with blood yet. Haku had finally worked up the courage to speak after several glances at Hinata and stepped forward.
"Kaasan?" she asked tremulously. The woman turned to look at her sharply and Naruto immediately saw the family resemblance. The older woman shared the same brown eyes and dark hair. On a closer look it actually appeared to just be an older Haku. The woman's face looked skeptical before softening.
"Haku?" she asked softly. Haku nodded vigorously and they leapt into each others arms. They began crying and Naruto turned away to preserve the privacy of the moment just after seeing Haku beckon Hinata into the teary hug.
-end flashback-
He found out later that day from Hinata that Haku's father hadn't actually killed her mother but she had substituted an ice clone before Haku or her father saw so they both thought she'd been killed. Neither Haku nor her father had even known that she had once been a kunoichi and so neither were prepared for the possibility of a ninja trick to survive. Haku had already killed her father and ran off by the time her mother had been able to deal with the betrayal and began thinking rationally again. They had accepted each other immediately and Hinata had quickly gained a surrogate mother after Rikka, Haku's mother, found out that Hinata had been the cause of Haku's rebirth.
Many of the children had found previously unknown mothers or fathers as the former ninja had gradually thawed and accepted the kids that wielded their bloodline as their own offspring, there was no way to tell who was actually their progeny. Naruto wasn't so naïve to believe that they were actually going to be acting like parents to the kids. It did encourage him that they wouldn't hold the nature of their birth against the children and eventually they might even become the basis for restarting their respective clans in Konoha.
Naruto was curious about how they would explain the mission to the Hokage. Really, he would stop sending them on missions if every time they went on one it upgraded into a much more difficult one. This had probably already turned to another A-rank just due to its importance. Not that it was necessarily that dangerous but that the potential gains in bloodline users would have warranted a team of jonin most likely. Already Team 7's affinity for danger had forced Kiba to take a life long before his time. Kurenai had a long talk with her entire team after the action and especially with Kiba about the unglamorous truth of shinobi service.
Naruto couldn't wait to get back to Konoha. He hadn't been training at all and besides the two new jutsu he'd learned he hadn't done anything by way of getting stronger. He was also looking forward to a stress-free environment to help Sasuke's reformation. He didn't think that he would make great strides in that department but he hoped to get his greedy claws into the avenger's psyche before their inept jonin-sensei could wreck all possibilities of a beneficial change. Perhaps we'll start with drilling into him the lesson that he needs Sakura and me. Maybe we can move on to sharing information after that. It's probably too much to hope for to try to knock that vengeance kick he told us about out of him. Still I bet if I were careful enough…
His thoughts were interrupted by Ino dropping down next to him from her short guarding circuit of the caravan. Team 10 was still on guard duty for the procession despite the fact that they were no longer playing host to the wagons. It had been decided that since Team 10 was the freshest out of the Teams present they would be the ones to run guard duty. This consisted of intermittent patrols around the group. With so many shinobi clustered together and especially with such an overwhelming presence of high-level ninja there wasn't much need for patrols and Team 10 only did them lip service. Ino's turn had come up several minutes ago and she must have raced through it and reported a resounding "nothing spotted" to her sensei.
Naruto smiled at her. She was getting much better. He hadn't sensed her until she was seven meters away this time.
"Hello Ino-chan," he said calmly betraying his total lack of surprise.
"Damn it Naruto-kun, am I ever going to surprise you?" she asked in exasperation. He chuckled slightly and shook his head a little setting off another musical cascade from his head.
"I dare say that in another couple months you'll be able to sneak into my shower and I won't even know you're there until you start washing my back." Naruto's face held a wide lecherous grin at the obviously pleasant thought. Ino giggled a little.
"You're such a perv Naruto."
"No more than yourself Hinata-chan." Hinata had walked up in time to comment on Naruto's last statement. "I've seen what you and Haku-chan get up to when you're alone." The indigo-haired kunoichi blushed bright red recalling the particular incident he was recalling. Naruto and Ino both started chuckling lowly as they flashed back to that night.
-flashback-
Naruto and Ino were both outside the inn the former instructing the latter and the latter practicing her stealth. They had been trying different entrances into the inn trying to fool both Naruto's experienced eyes and Sakura's highly developed chakra senses. Already Ino had failed several times, the most entertaining was when she'd mixed up the rooms and had tried to enter through the onsen and nearly landed on Kurenai's lap as she was taking a bath. When asked what she was doing Ino had mumbled a halfhearted excuse about training before rushing out of the room as fast as she could.
Currently Ino was scaling the wall using chakra focused at her fingertips and toes in an attempt to cut the chakra signature and fool Sakura while entering via a bedroom window on the second floor. As she came even with the window in question she froze noticeably. Naruto frowned at the delay; she wouldn't have been caught by anyone except a jonin so far there was no reason to be so tense. She turned her face to look at Naruto and he saw the expressive confusion and strain there. He decided to take pity on her and continue up to see what the problem was. There was no reason for her to come down since she'd made it this far successfully. Naruto climbed swiftly the same way Ino had but without suppressing his chakra signature.
He stopped still as he saw the display that had rooted Ino to her spot.
Hinata and Haku were occupying the room. Everyone was asleep and they had decided to take advantage of that. Hinata was nude displaying endless alabaster skin. Her head was thrown back and it was good that her eyes were squinted shut or she would have surely seen the two voyeurs. Her mouth was opened all the way and her breathing was short and heavy. Most interesting to Naruto and Ino however, was exactly what had caused this. Haku's face was pressed firmly into the junction of Hinata's thighs. The slurping sounds and the movement of her head indicated that the chunin was giving her genin host vigorous oral sex.
Naruto and Ino were frozen. They stared in awe as Hinata grabbed Haku's head firmly and tensed before shuddering and collapsing. Haku looked up from her position and then crawled up to pace a very deep kiss on Hinata's mouth. The two watchers noticed that while Haku was dressed in her, now typical, kimono it wasn't being worn right. Haku spread it out revealing her own body to a very satisfied heiress before snuggling up to her in an admirable attempt to fit two people into one very petite kimono.
It was at this point that once Hinata had broken the kiss she noticed Naruto and Ino's faces framed in her window. She squeaked loudly and blushed a red that ran almost all the way down her chest. Haku's head snapped up and saw the two intruders before immediately going back down to hide herself in Hinata's unexpectedly abundant chest.
The interlopers weren't much more composed. Naruto was of the opinion that what he had just seen ranked right up there as one of the hottest things he'd ever seen. When he turned to Ino to get her opinion, both to lighten the mood with a bad joke and because he was honestly curious, he saw that his fellow voyeur had one of her hands firmly ensconced in her skirt and was obviously rubbing around down there. His eyes cut to Ino's face and he saw the slightly glazed look to her eyes and the prominent blush, all hallmarks of someone highly aroused.
"Holy shit Ino! Are you getting off on this?" he asked shocked.
"Eep! No… er… maybe?" she said as she jerked her hand out of her skirt. Naruto grinned wickedly.
"Well don't let me stop you." Naruto said as he ran his own free hand across her stomach and down into her skirt to cup her very wet pussy. Ino moaned in appreciation as she closed her eyes and ground her hips into Naruto's hand. He could see that she'd already forgotten her audience. It was a good thing she was already close or she might have been really embarrassed about having Naruto bring her off in front of two girls. As it was all he had to do was slip a finger into her slit and use one remaining finger and thumb to pinch her clit lightly and Ino came with a shuddering gasp and almost fell off the wall entirely. Naruto turned to the two still embarrassed kunoichi who were desperately trying to hide under the same kimono.
"I guess we'll leave you to your evening and try a different window to sneak through. Goodnight," he said.
Once they had climbed down they had decided to call it a night before anything else strange happened. Ino was going to rush off to her room with Sakura before she was stopped by Naruto.
"Remember Ino, this never happened. She still hasn't told you how important it is that she doesn't anger her father but I'm telling you to keep it to yourself." Naruto waited for a nod before he grinned and very flagrantly licked and sucked on the finger that had been inside Ino. "Mmm, you taste good Ino-chan." Ino blushed again before running inside to the background of Naruto's chuckles.
-end flashback-
"That should teach you to leave your window open while doing things like that." Naruto said to Hinata. She blushed but smiled slightly as if to imply that she wanted them to watch. She wandered off once more to join Haku and Rikka. Naruto turned to the still misty-eyed Ino. "Hey, snap out of it you pervert." He said nudging her shoulder.
"When are you going to fuck Sakura and me again?" she asked suddenly in a low whisper so it wouldn't carry to the others. Naruto looked at her in surprise. She looked very insistent.
"I thought it hurt you."
"Baka, it's supposed to hurt the girl the first time but it gets better. I thought you'd be dying to have us again."
"Oh, I'm ready to go whenever you are but I was honestly waiting for you both to ask me since it seemed to hurt you the other time. I wanted to make sure that you wanted it and it wasn't just my lust-saturated chakra that was making you want it." Ino sighed in relief.
"I was beginning to think that you didn't want us." Ino sniffed. Naruto wanted to comfort her but he couldn't with so many people watching. He didn't trust the villagers to find out about her attachment to the 'demon brat' and make her life hell.
"Of course I want you both Ino! I just thought that you girls might want some say in it was all."
"Okay, but next time you shouldn't make us ask for it. We're yours and you can screw us anytime you like." Ino finished. Naruto's eyebrows leapt up in surprise. He'd begun noticing their submissiveness to him in the months they'd been training together. He wondered if that was another effect of the fox but he found himself enjoying it and he didn't want to sour a good thing by attributing it to the thing that had been the source of so much bad.
He actually began to reflect slightly on the suddenness of Ino's inclusion into his and Sakura's relationship. When he thought back on that day Naruto realized that Ino coming to him with such a very strange request and all that followed afterwards strained reasonable expectations. Their relationship had come too far much too fast and there were times that the male blond worried about it. His connection to Sakura was already deep and growing deeper every day, there was a history there and a background of trust that their relationship was built on. The same could not be said of Ino. Their relationship started out as a lust-driven fling that was later bound by a seal. Naruto was sensible that Ino truly cared for Sakura and while she found him attractive and helpful her loyalties lay fully with the pinkette.
Naruto had already resigned himself to the initial mistake and was working to make the best of it. He'd lost control in his lust, he knew that, but it was now up to them to make it a pleasurable mistake or at least one that they didn't regret. All things considered, they were doing pretty well on that front. Naruto turned his mind to what other things he could do to strengthen his bond with his fellow blonde.
This physical intimacy issue held much promise there…
Pondering this, he soon lost himself once more in the drudgery of marching back to Konoha.
-- break --
They had arrived in Konoha two days after they departed. Needless to say the Sandaime had been shocked once he'd seen so many new faces at the gates. It also entered his head to wonder if this would become the standard of Team 7, they had brought people back to Konoha on every mission they'd been assigned and he was sure that the mission rank had been grossly minimized once again. With a subtle motion of his hand he summoned an ANBU squad to back him up and set another squad in the shadows unseen by the majority of the newcomers.
"Kakashi, report!" the elderly shinobi demanded.
"We completed the mission as directed but in the process found the bandits to be a front for a bloodline breeding prison run by a former Kumo samurai. There were signs that they were planning to sell the untrained children who had exhibited signs of having a bloodline to other ninja villages. The entire facility was underground and had been self-sufficient for years until recently and they'd become forced to show their hand with bandit-like attacks meant to steal food. We liberated the prisoners, as you can see, and I convinced them to come to Konoha by keeping the scrolls we found detailing their respective bloodline abilities and making the requirement that they become Leaf-nin to be allowed to study them. I thought that recruiting them was the best thing to do at the time." Kakashi explained in a clipped, professional tone.
"Very good, we'll house them in the poorer side of Konoha until we can obtain ground for each of the clans to occupy." At this point he motioned to the ANBU behind him and murmured low enough that the refuges wouldn't hear. "Take them to the empty apartments that we keep delaying demolition of. They can stay there for now."
The ANBU moved among the crowd and began dividing them up based on bloodline, if they knew it, and began leading them off into the neighborhood that Naruto inhabited. Sarutobi rubbed his temples in a preemptive strike against the stress migraine that was sure to develop.
"Well Team 7, is this going to become a habit? If you insist on turning my C-rank missions into A-ranks I might have to restrict you to D-ranks." He chuckled at the groan that came from the genin of stated team. "Fortunately I suddenly find myself with an abundance of D-rank missions to hand out. You, along with Teams 8 and 10, will be searching for small clan compounds and abandoned manors that are not in use and then you will be cleaning them for our new arrivals. Hopefully that will occupy you for the foreseeable future." Sarutobi mumbled the last as he moved away motioning the returned Teams to follow him to the Hokage tower.
Once they arrived they were invited to sit down, it would be a long time before they were allowed to leave. After a long and involved debriefing and another lecture on the values of the mission ranking system and how they should respect it by calling for appropriately ranked and trained ninja to supplement the mission. All the teams were allowed to leave on the understanding that they would be in the mission room early the next morning to start fixing the problem they had created.
The genin immediately left to go to their respective homes desperate for some rest. They muttered goodbyes and gradually they split up on their different directions through the city to their homes. Without exception all the young ninja went to bed early and still almost overslept. The stress of the mission had gotten to them no matter how well they had been able to ignore or suppress it up till the end.
-- break --
The next week heralded the start of the chunin exams. This wasn't to say that they were starting yet but rather that all the jonin-senseis for the rookies had told their teams about it. Teams 7, 8, and 10 had all been given the option of participating in them. None of the genin had even hesitated to fill out the acceptance forms and turn them in. With a startling flip in character all the genin who it had been assumed would hesitate (Hinata, Sakura, Ino) were the first to hand in their acceptance waivers.
After they had learned of the chunin exams Team 7, or at least Naruto and Sakura, had begun researching the old tests Konoha had hosted. They had quickly found that the point, at least in part, was to test their essential ninja skills. Thus they could assume that there would be spying, survival, and fighting split up into all the various subdivisions therein. For spying they might have to gather intelligence from a third party such as the examiner or they might have to spy on their fellow examinees. Survival was fairly basic, there weren't many ways to make that more than it already was besides choosing a harsher environment. Fighting of course was infinite in its possibilities: they might fight matches, they might fight as teams, they might fight as individuals, and/or they might fight as a consequence of one of the other stages, they really didn't know how they would fight just that it was guaranteed that they would.
In response to this new information, they had decided to look up spying techniques and to refine their survival skills as they thought they needed the most work there. Unfortunately they still had to contend with the unending D-rank missions they were being sent on.
The D-rank missions weren't so bad when considered fairly. They weren't difficult and they allowed plenty of time for chakra manipulation training when all Naruto had to do was summon up five or ten more clones than he needed and set them to doing chakra control exercises. There were actually a surprising number of abandoned clan houses loitering around Konoha collecting mass amounts of dust and bugs. Naruto figured it had to do with the Kyuubi somehow and Sakura confirmed it when she was ordered to check with the remaining three members of the clan whose house they were cleaning if they would allow it to be used by another clan. That particular clan had been reduced to three members from some fifty members and they had decided that the grief associated with the empty clan house had been too much to deal with. The missing members had all been killed by the Kyuubi when it had attacked. They had bought a smaller house in the residential section so they wouldn't be reminded constantly of their loss and one member had only moved out after he married someone.
That had been the second clan house/complex that they had cleaned out. The one they were currently cleaning was large enough to require the help of Team 10. This presented the pleasant but slightly awkward situation of Naruto and Sakura being close to and interacting with Ino. Naruto had not forgotten the conversation he'd had with the blonde kunoichi on the road back to Konoha and it was having the opposite effect that Ino had wanted. This wasn't to say that Naruto didn't want to have sex with the two kunoichi but he wanted to do it right and he wasn't sure how. That said it could be noted that the two girls really didn't care how as long as it happened again but they wanted Naruto to initiate and they were forced to wait on him.
In the end sexual tension won out, as it usually does.
Naruto had per usual spammed the sprawling house and grounds with Kage Bunshin and the army of blondes were picking up trash, dusting, and scrubbing industriously. The original had decided to clean one of the bedrooms with the help of two of his clones and was making good progress dusting the room. He was about to put back all the traditional futons and dressers when he heard the door behind him slide open. The scent of Sakura hit him hard almost as soon as the door finished opening. Naruto's eyebrows rose slightly when he heard the door slide closed once more. He finally turned to look at her when he didn't hear her move around the room like she was cleaning.
Naruto's jaw nearly hit the ground when he turned just in time to see Sakura's dress hit the floor. The pink-haired girl was now clad only in her sandals, her new ANBU styled greaves, her fishnet armor (she had taken to wearing metal mesh armor after the last mission) and her skintight shorts. Naruto and his two clones stopped work immediately and turned to better appreciate this new higher priority.
--
Sakura had finally had enough of Naruto's hesitance. She understood where it stemmed from but she thought there was no need for it and if it took her forward action to make him see it she would gladly help him along. She had been cleaning the hallways when she finally had enough and decided to confront Naruto. She checked for the presence of any of the jonin or other genin around and after she was sure that they weren't she slipped into the bedroom she was sure that the real Naruto was in.
His back was turned to her but that suited her fine. She didn't think that it would take much convincing to get Naruto to do what she wanted him to; he was a pervert with an accelerated development cycle. She quietly took off her dress, making sure that the zipper wouldn't make a sound as it traversed her torso. She pulled the garment off and tossed it to the side just as he turned around.
--
Naruto needed no more encouragement than what was just given to him. After all didn't Ino encourage me to take advantage of them? Which reminds me that I need to do something special for her too. Naruto stepped towards Sakura and reached out to begin peeling those deliciously tight shorts from her.
As soon as the shorts hit the floor Naruto was absorbed in the wonders of Sakura's metal mesh. It was one piece that laced up with ninja wire in the back and it seemed that some thought had gone into its design toward never needing to take it off during a mission.
The blond was fascinated by the slit between Sakura's legs that perfectly framed and slightly parted her pussy lips. He could see the faint sheen of her arousal already preparing her for sex. Naruto decided that he wouldn't wait to unlace the whole garment.
--
Sakura grinned in satisfaction at the lust she saw clearly in Naruto's eyes as he examined her newest additions to her uniform. She'd seen how some civilian girls had worn fishnet stockings to arouse their boyfriends and it occurred to her that she could do the same thing with the mesh armor.
She reached back to begin unlacing the wire ties in the back but hadn't even gotten hold of them before Naruto grabbed her hips. He lifted her up and spun her around to press her against a wall. She automatically wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck.
--
Naruto didn't waste any time in seeking out Sakura's nipples with his mouth. The feeling of crisscrossed wires between his lips and her smooth skin was very interesting and arousing in its way. He impatiently took one hand away from Sakura's ass where they had both slipped to from her hips in order to hold her weight. He quickly undid his belt and allowed its weight to pull his pants down enough to free his straining erection.
He groaned in ecstasy as he sank into the hot, wet core of Sakura.
He felt her hands grasp his head and insistently bring it up to her lips. They mashed together in a violent kiss, tongues dueling inside each other's mouth. Naruto jerked his hips back and slammed them forward again spearing into Sakura. He started a rapid pace pounding into her.
--
Sakura tore her mouth away and moaned lewdly as Naruto began pistoning in and out of her at a brutally fast pace. She was so close in such a short time. She could barely hold back her screams and grunts that were clawing their way up her throat. Naruto had taken her break from kissing to go back to attacking her breasts and she pressed his head further into them.
The friction of her mesh was almost painful against her sensitive breasts and it scraped her inner thighs harshly. She found the pain acutely contrasted the incredible pleasure though and her arousal spiked higher.
She grunted as she tried to thrust her own hips in time to Naruto's and the wet slapping sounds coming from their coupling increased as they got closer to the end.
--
Naruto's vision went white. He slammed forward for the last time and shot streams of cum deep into Sakura. He felt her muscles flutter and clench tightly as she reached her own finish. He heard her keening moan as she rode out the orgasm clinging to him.
Eventually he felt her muscles relax and he slipped wetly out of her. They shared a rather salacious grin as they began collecting their clothes and fixing their appearances.
-- break --
Kakashi stood before the three genin of Team 7 and watched in no little amusement as they displayed more teamwork in passing around a single pen that Naruto had found in his pocket to sign their chunin exam waivers than they had displayed since being assigned nothing but D-rank cleaning missions. He chuckled to himself slightly at their faces when he'd told them that he'd misplaced their original acceptance forms and he needed them to sign again. In reality he hadn't lost them, they were sitting on his desk at his apartment, but the meeting between jonin-sensei's was today and he didn't feel like running back to his apartment to pick up the already completed forms when he was just as able to pick up new forms when they had gone in to get their mission for the day.
--
Naruto couldn't wait to leave, as soon as Sasuke-teme was done with his pen, he was going to be training like a madman. He knew that he lacked the skills to be a good spy, well besides the acting bit, and he needed a way to discretely find out information from others. He knew that his Kage Bunshin would relay everything they learned to him when they dispersed but he wasn't sure how he might employ that without letting anyone know. He could bring them into being and immediately use his personal version of the henge to make them into something small and unnoticeable but that wouldn't cover the smoke and puffing noise they made when they appeared. He was thinking that his best bet would be to have them already in existence and either in place around likely areas or actually somehow on his person somewhere.
In minutes Sasuke had finally finished filling out the necessary information and Naruto had his pen back in his possession. Naruto leapt up and immediately rushed off to his typical training barren training ground to try to devise a way for his clones to spy for him.
-- break --
It had taken two hours but Naruto could now create and dispel his Kage Bunshin without making a sound to hear and only a slight flicker of hazy distortion to see. During his practice when he wasn't making much progress with the smoke plume that had formerly accompanied the appearance and disappearance of his clones Naruto had decided that making a clone before the test and having it assume a shape that would allow for information gathering at a distance would go a long way towards remaining undiscovered. To that end he had settled upon having his clones shapeshift into hawks and having them attempt flying around.
By the time he had eliminated the smoke part of the technique, and conversely gaining the knowledge of how to increase the amount of smoke, he also knew how to fly as a hawk. Not very well mind, but it was still an accomplishment for someone who was never designed to leave the ground for any sustained time period. Besides the hawk didn't have to fly well it just had to get to a perch it could see from, and given its rather spectacular eyesight that perch could be on the other side of Konoha as long as it had a clear line of sight.
One total failure had been inspired by Shino in trying to transform his clones into insects. The size, maneuverability, and commonplace appearance were all ideal it was the eye structure that killed the attempt. Nearly every bug Naruto could find was possessed of compound eyes which were less than useless as they actively caused Naruto headaches which would be counterproductive. Even the auditory structures (they were most certainly not ears) were too different to be useful. So as good as the idea looked on the drawing board something essential was lost in the translation from theory to practice.
--
Ino and Sakura were working on their own versions of information gathering around the other sides of the training ground.
Ino had decided that her body falling totally limp for a period of time necessary to gather all the answers would be fairly obvious and not likely to be sufficiently subtle in the minds of the instructors or examiners. Thus she was now working on a way to see what was on Sakura's piece of paper from across the field.
She had already worked out a way that used the bounced reflection of her sword's blade and a thrown kunai to read what Sakura had written (and she had blushed fairly hard at the rather detailed description of Sakura's last encounter with Naruto) but she was sure that a thrown kunai would not be any less obvious than her loss of bodily control unless it made sense to throw a kunai at the test proctor. She also somewhat doubted her ability to create a situation in which she could justify throwing a kunai at a test proctor.
Now she was considering chakra strings like the Suna puppeteers used to control their puppets. If she could attach one to the pencil of a fellow examinee and link it to her own she would only have to match the hand position that her victim had and her pencil would move in an exact replication of her victim's pencil.
--
Sakura likewise was attempting to find a way to read what Ino had written on her paper from across the field. The pink-haired kunoichi was having marginally better luck with it than Ino was however.
Sakura had decided to modify the kawarimi to switch papers with someone without their knowledge. The idea was grand and the execution shouldn't be beyond her grasp despite the awkward way in which she would need to mold her chakra. The problem she was running into now was getting the paper she swapped for the actual paper to read what the person possessing it thought it should read. So she was frantically working on a way to modify a mild genjutsu she had learned.
The beginner genjutsu taught and demonstrated the basis for much higher-level genjutsu that would actually take things from the mind of the victim to reinforce the illusion or make it more effective in what it showed. She was trying to modify it so that she could tag it to the paper and it would show what the person who she switched with thought they should see on it. She actually had it down but she wasn't satisfied with the strength. Currently; as soon as the person who was viewing it doubted what they were seeing the illusion would fall apart and thus be useless if you were trying to gather information without someone knowing you had it. She figured it would be good enough for the chunin exam but she resolved to ask Naruto about genjutsu seals she could use in the future. She respected the power and complexity of genjutsu as a discipline but she still couldn't stop herself from scoffing at a genjutsu that didn't even need a proper dispelling technique to break.
--
All three genin were almost immediately aware of the intruder as soon as he arrived. Ino, who was on the opposite side of the training area, picked up on the slight signs of contrary-to-nature movement in the trees behind Naruto and Sakura. Sakura picked up on the chakra signature of her third teammate and former crush at a distance jonin would be proud to be able to. Naruto felt Sakura stiffen slightly when she realized that the avenger was heading towards him and asked her what the problem was.
Sasuke stopped several meters outside of their training ground, far enough that he was able to use the last of the natural cover provided by the hardy shrubbery that surrounded the mostly dirt and rock training field. He'd had a hard time tracking down his teammates and he probably wouldn't have found them at all if he hadn't felt Naruto flexing his chakra in ways that made it impossible to conceal. It had taken another 45 minutes of wandering to find exactly which training field they were in and truth be told he really hadn't expected Sakura and Ino to be there at all. Their presence smacked him as odd and he momentarily felt a hint of betrayal though he couldn't understand why he would (had he examined it more he might have linked it to the evidence that Sakura gathering information about all his techniques and Naruto's reserves of chakra represented a good possibility that his teammates were stealing his jutsu, but he was far too arrogant to let that thought fester even if he had examined his minuscule feeling of betrayal).
In a totally unsurprising display of an utter lack of morals, Sasuke activated his Sharingan and watched closely to see if he could copy any jutsu they might be using. He was too far away and his senses too underdeveloped for him to hear the whispers passing between Naruto and Sakura that preceded him getting up and walking over to Ino.
--
Naruto leaned his head towards Sakura once he'd finally pinpointed the Uchiha's position. He needed to utilize that fount of knowledge that had been the first thing that Sakura had which made her useful in the beginning.
"Ne Sakura-chan, what do you know about the Sharingan?" asked Naruto.
"Not much I'm afraid, Naruto-kun. I know it copies techniques including all nin-, gen-, and taijutsu but I don't know anything about how. Why do you ask? Are you looking for a way to make sure Sasuke-teme doesn't copy your jutsu?" asked Sakura.
"Something like that. I'm wondering if it's like a reflex or if the bearer actually knows what they copied. If it's a reflex then they couldn't possibly control it beyond how much the person they copied it from controlled it. Also if they don't understand a technique you could link techniques together by doing all the handseals at once and holding off on releasing the chakra for the first until the second was completed." Naruto thought out loud after answering Sakura's question. "As long as the jutsu you linked were complementary you wouldn't need to worry about jutsu backfiring and that could turn into more harm than good for the person copying me. Since I have undoubtedly more chakra than the teme I could do a jutsu sloppy for him to copy and he would be forced to burn ridiculous amounts of chakra using it because he wouldn't understand it enough to make it more efficient. I'm actually thinking of purposefully doing a couple jutsu that he would copy all linked together and then dispelling the effects beyond the obvious while I'm covered by the chakra smoke plume that would result from throwing too much chakra into it."
Sakura nodded at this. "It seems that is the most likely effect of the Sharingan. I can't imagine pulling total understanding of a jutsu out of just looking at it once. With the ability to see how the chakra is being molded in the technique you would be able to monkey it just as shown but you wouldn't really know the how's or why's. I say go for it, teach the thieving bastard to steal techniques he had no business using. What were you thinking of anyway?" asked Sakura at the end in morbid curiosity. Naruto's library of jutsu was mostly attack jutsu that she was sure the blond didn't want to give to Sasuke free.
"Kage Bunshin combined with Orioke and a kawarimi. Just one clone done normally created in a space that would be behind my enemy, if I was facing one, then the body switch would act putting the real me behind my enemy and my clone in front. The final touch would be turning myself into a full-fledged girl. The idea is that if I see this long string of handseals used against me I'll know where the real one is and I get the satisfaction of teasing Sasuke about being a girl. The bonus is that my shapeshift doesn't release on its own and I believe it's self-sustaining if worn long enough in the form of a living being. It drains chakra because your chakra is a mix of mental and physical and your mental resists the change but if you stayed in it long enough or if you had a traumatic enough experience or even were under the effects of some mental jutsu long enough; your mind would accept the new form and it would fully integrate into you. In essence if someone screwed with Sasuke's mind enough while he was in the Orioke he would assume the girl form permanently unless we showed him how to change back and stuck him like that." Naruto paused here with Sakura staring at him in a mix of awe, horror, and interest. "Obviously we wouldn't want to do that but it is a fear I've had of my shapeshift since I created it, it's a little too perfect, I suppose."
Sakura gasped at the possible ramifications of that. To be stuck in a form changed down to the genetic level, and to believe with all your metal capacity that the form you were wearing was your original form, you would never return to your true original form because to return you would have to have the help of others who would add slight subconscious changes to the form based on how they reacted to your personality in your true original form. She now understood why Naruto refused to teach them the shapeshift technique. He was afraid that they would lose themselves to it. Sakura barely held off hugging Naruto to reassure him, remembering at the last moment that Sasuke was watching and a major deviation from the norm could totally dry up a useful fount of Katon jutsu.
"Unfortunately I can't risk the teme finding out about such a potentially powerful technique if the Sharingan do allow him to understand it so I'm gonna go ask Ino if she could remove the memory of the techniques from his mind should we need to." Sakura absently nodded in approval. If she could, Sasuke might just be able to lend them even more unwitting help as they could use subconscious suggestions to force him to reveal more techniques in greater detail once he knew about them. Or in the event he truly didn't understand what he was copying, they would encourage him to show them off enough for the three lovers to copy them in their own manner.
--
"Hey Ino-chan, can you erase memories when you're inside someone's head?" Naruto asked. Ino jerked her eyes to Naruto in wide surprise. She had told him about the leaps and bounds she'd been making during practice with her family jutsu but she hadn't demonstrated the progress to him and he hadn't asked up till now. There was also the limiting factor of having enough chakra at the end of these training sessions to be able to practice her family's jutsu afterwards.
"Why on earth would I want to do that?" asked Ino. In point of fact she could do something very similar if not exactly what Naruto had asked but she really didn't see a point to it when her father had explained it in an effort to make sure she was cautious and respected her abilities as a mind-walker.
"I was thinking about teaching Sasuke-teme, in the bushes over there, a thing about copying jutsu he neither has the right to nor the ability to use. I have a theory that the Sharingan only copies the techniques on a reflex-like level and imparts no more understanding of the technique than what to do to use it, and I believe that once they've seen it they could predict it coming from someone else." Naruto said. "I am, however, not going to risk my hard won techniques on the assumptions I've made and a half completed theory. So I was going to try an experiment that should teach him not to meddle with my jutsu and confirm the very theory I'm running with. However, if the Sharingan is much better than I've been led to believe I need a way to rip that knowledge from him so he can't use it against me or any other of his supposed allies. I don't believe that Sasuke knows what is best for himself or anyone else and I'm not about to hand a powerful jutsu combination, or any jutsu for that matter, to someone I don't trust."
Ino nodded at this, it was a reasonable fear and precautions should and would be taken to safeguard those involved. "I don't know if I can make him totally forget." Ino soldiered on before Naruto could swear or make his displeasure known. "I do know that I can repress the memory of it to the point he won't be able to retrieve it consciously. If you want it to be a reflexive action then his retrieving it subconsciously shouldn't be a problem and so I assume that would be good enough."
Naruto nodded. "I'm going to try something with that emo prick that I think you'll like. We're going to get up to spar, which I want to do for real when the teme leaves by the way, and you are going to use a kunai and try to fight me. I'm going to be using linked techniques very sloppily and I want to see if Sasuke copies them as he sees them or if he understands them enough to refine them. If he's able to refine them after only a few tries then we know the Sharingan is more dangerous than we thought and we'll have to be more careful around it. If he doesn't improve at all we know that the Sharingan is just an improved mimic ability and we can feed it what we want it to see."
Ino smiled and stood along with Naruto and went out into the middle of the field. Naruto positioned himself so that Sasuke would get an uninterrupted view of his hands when he started sealing. The two blonds faced off.
By some unspoken signal they started.
--
Ino grabbed two kunai and started to rush Naruto. She was careful to make the rush slow and sloppy. She was surprised at how incredibly painful that was after so short a time under the tutelage of Iruka. Naruto began forming handseals at speeds that would make chunin blush with envy.
As Ino raced forward she wondered why Naruto would form the handseals so fast. An instant before he finished she realized that to make the technique legitimate looking he wouldn't be able to hold back on his sealing speed. And with some luck the speed would cover any conscious attempts at improving the technique or breaking down the separate techniques inside it. If Sasuke thought that it was all one technique, then he would execute it as one technique.
Naruto was enveloped in a huge cloud of smoke that Ino thought looked much darker than usual, perhaps another slight deception to get Sasuke thinking that the smoke was supposed to happen not just to mislead the spy. Just a couple feet behind her she felt the displacement of a bunch of air as another plume of smoke exploded into being behind her. She only had a moment to think about what she was going to do about the one behind her when the smoke in front of her was dissipated violently by a Kaze: Toppa which sent her tumbling into the real Naruto who was able to grab her and put a kunai of his own to her throat in her distraction.
Ino thought that this wouldn't be a bad strategy against the Uchiha as the smoke would stop him from copying whatever jutsu Naruto was able to set up while the smoke covered him. It would be a decent advantage anyway because there would be no way to predict what was coming out of the smoke until it actually left.
Ino abandoned this train of thought in favor of dropping her kunai in surrender and discretely grinding her ass into Naruto's crotch. Inwardly she smirked as she felt the stirrings of a positive response. I can't wait until the broody bastard leaves so I can get some of what Sakura had on the last D-rank.
--
Sasuke seethed quietly. The dobe was developing jutsu specifically to counter him. Of course in the Uchiha's mind anyone would need to specially create jutsu to even attempt to meet the greatness that was an Uchiha's birthright. But to see Naruto successfully modify his signature jutsu to include something that would block Sasuke's vision of the first technique used by both clone and original was something that couldn't be tolerated. Of course it took nearly twice as long for him to get the jutsu off because of the handseals needed but Sasuke was awaiting the day he could pull Naruto's own jutsu out in front of him to prove that he was better than the belled blond would ever be.
Sasuke chuckled softly as he thought about how good rubbing Naruto's face in his failure would be. He turned around and headed back to the Uchiha complex to start more of Kakashi's chakra building exercises. He had seen how much chakra Naruto's jutsu took and he wasn't about to let the blond even think that he was stronger than Sasuke by seeing the Uchiha falter at the chakra expense.
AN: Hello again! I have updated to the expected pleasure of many of the reviewers. This chapter is kinda short I know but from what I have written yet another sex scene would shortly follow this and to stop this from becoming endless repetitive smut I have seperrated the chapters here. I actually expect to have a lot of fun with the next chapter as I go into the results of Naruto messing with Sasuke and the final bit of buildup before the chunin exams start.
to address some stuff that caught my attention both in the reviews and upon another read through: I realize that Naruto has no real reason to be as logical and advanced as he is and that he's had no model for that behavior (as was pointed out in a very helpful review) but i view it as Naruto socializing under his transformation technique. I think that after a point he would become so desperate for any kind of human contact that he would submit to getting it in a different form - on the heels of that i don't think he would accept that for long we are speaking about someone who knows that ninja are stealthy and turns around to wear bells in his hair and drools at the thought of jutsus that level buildings. I think that Naruto would have disguised himself to get that experience and after satisfying the 'uncontrollable' craving he would then be dissatisfied by not being able to be himself. at this point he views himself as stuck: he can't reveal himself as being so much better without causing panic (his interpretation of the state of things not necessarily the truth) and so he must cling to the idiot facade but for every person who knows the real him i think he gets less satisfied with the mask and goes out of his way to be opposite of that with the people who know him without it, overcompensates somewhat.
Sakura as a target for Orochimaru: hilarious! i've never heard of it happening, it's prolly not going to happen in this story, very funny none the less. I would love to see it if someone can show me a story that doesn't turn out to ship Saku/Oro
Ino is sudden: yes she was. it did disrupt the flow. i've tried to make up for it some in this chapter a little. in the end there's not much I can do to make it better. I've replied to several reviews but for those of you who want to know and didn't ask... this started out as smut oneshot (which i believe that i mentioned in the intro) and it involved that threesome. this rather epic (for me) story grew up around that scene which was the first one written. all that you read started out as the prologue to the smut and my inability to place a proper 'The End' it's not a very good excuse as I probably could have more seamlessly integrated Ino but i didn't and there you have it. I'm a fanfic writer you can't expect it all to be good - if it was it would all be original and you'd've paid for it at a bookstore.
well... i literally have 3/4's of a page written after the end of this as of now so expect an even greater wait for the next chapter. sry :^/
atom-of-ice
keep the reviews coming: i loves em, they taste like sweet and sour sauce over the souls of the innocent on a bed of stir fried noodles mmmm mmmm good
