Reading of Ashikabi no Shinobi

by Sajian

A reading of Ashikabi no Shinobi as written by The Engulfing Silence

21. Chapter 21

Chapter 19: Dig Your Own Grave

Lunch was a quiet affair again, though Tsukiumi was being a lot quieter than normal. Considering how she was rescued in the book, she was actually glad Minato was her ashikabi. It was no where as near as dangerous of a meeting than what it was in the book. Naruto went over with Hinata to ask how she was doing, and if she was alright. Hinata got her to talking about how she met Minato and realized she is much happier with how Minato winged her then how Naruto found her. Naruto apologized to her even though everyone knew he did nothing to warrant it, but it did help Tsukiumi get through the anxiety she had during the chapter. Tsukiumi confessed that she did like the story so far, and wonders what would have happened if Minato was strong like Naruto is. Hinata disagreed, and said Minato was just as strong as Naruto, but in completely different ways. The two should not be compared. Tsukiumi smiled and finished the rest of her lunch. When they were all finished and waiting for the next chapter the book lazily returned to the pedestal and opened back up. The Voice of Neo from The Matrix was heard, as the next chapter started.

XoX

The problem with trying to leave a scene where a Sekirei battle had been, Naruto noted sardonically, was trying to determine which path he should take that would allow him to remain unseen. It was a problem that he was finding to be most troubling, and had caused his ego to deflate quite a bit upon realizing he had no clue how to go about fixing this new conundrum. Really, as if all the crap that had happened today wasn't enough, Murphy seemed to have decided to throw this new curve ball at him.

While his 'rescue Tsukiumi mission' had been more or less a complete success despite being a completely on the fly operation he had made with only a bit of basic planning ― and getting zapped by who knew how many thousands of volts of lightning ― it was becoming clear to him that he had not thought about everything such a fight would entail. Particularly the moment after the battle where he needed to find a way home that would not reveal anything that happened to anyone who was not a part of the Sekirei plan, and not reveal anything more than had already been revealed about him to MBI.

"Kinda a bit late on that." Anko said. "There was probably one of those satellited watching the whole thing overhead. And that is assuming Matsu didn't hack into one and use it to watch the fight."

Thinking back on it, maybe that battle hadn't been such a good idea after all. Not only had several of his abilities been revealed, particularly his enviable ability to survive having somewhere close to fifty thousand volts of electricity shoved through his body, as well as the ability to walk on walls and fight Sekirei number zero five on even footing, he was also quite sure that MBI had likely seen it all. How else could they have arrived via helicopter so quickly.

Knowing that he had screwed up and the only thing he could do right now was run damage control, Naruto carefully sat down in the abandoned room in the small building that was several hundred meters from where the battle had taken place that he had taken to hiding out in.

"Are you going to heal her up at least?" Sakura asked. Naruto shrugged. "I honestly don't know if healing her will automatically wing her, seeing as I am having to completely saturate her body with my chakra. That could make her like Akitsu, and I wouldn't want to have to go through all that again to fix another seal."

He had gingerly set the blond haired Sekirei into his lap, mindful of the many cuts she had suffered at the hands of Mutsu. She had to have at least several hundreds small slices littering her body from her arms to her legs to her chest. The only part that seemed unmarred was surprisingly enough her face, denoting that Mutsu was obviously skilled enough to know that going for the face when trying to subdue someone with a sword was just foolish as it left a chance of causing enough damage to deactivate the Sekirei in question if the wound they received was too deep. Obviously he had been trying to get in as many small wounds as he could that would slow her down, rather than several large wounds that could very well kill her.

As he took a look at her wounds, Naruto also took that moment to look at her, truly look at her. He had noted during the moment where Tsukiumi had offered (ie where she had all but demanded he take responsibility for her) to be his Sekirei that the woman, alien, alien woman was, like all members of her species that he had must thus far, incredibly beautiful. He had also taken distinct note that her Tsundere personality, rather than detract from her beauty as it was wont to do in some instances (or was that flandere? Or maybe it was yandere, he had never been good with these new Japanese names used to denote female personalities with violent tendencies), enhanced her moe to levels so dangerous Naruto was not even sure Kusano, the cutest little thing on this planet (who also happened to have the strongest teeth he had ever had the displeasure of feeling dig into his calves), could match her.

Tsukiumi was in the middle of her lobster impression before the paragraph even finished. She was beyond blushing. She was also enjoying the compliments, but her haughty attitude was completely messed up by said blushing.

Naruto realized that the Tsundere personality, for all it's cuteness, paled in comparison to what he was seeing right now. Despite her body being littered with cuts, with bruises liberally spread across her body at varying intervals, the Sekirei in his arms was utterly gorgeous. Her face showed none of the signs of pain it was in, her expression placid and peaceful. Her lightly colored full pink lips were slightly parted as she breathed in and out. It was that expression, that look of content on her face that he would probably never see when she was awake and fully cognizant that caused his heart to start racing.

Noticing the path his thoughts were taking him, Naruto shook his head, clearing his mind of all thoughts on Sekirei who were simply too beautiful for words to describe, and instead focused on the task he had been about to do before getting distracted.

Reaching into his left pants pocket Naruto pulled out his phone and, carefully reaching his other hand around Tsukiumi who shifted a bit before mumbling incoherently and pressing her face into the crook of his neck, found the speed dial number for Matsu and pressed the button. Putting the phone to his ear, the blond Uzumaki waited for his computer hacking Sekirei to pick up. He only had to wait for one ring before she answered.

"And here comes the storm of worrying and complaints." Sakura said, chuckling. "You are about to be in trouble."

"Naruto! What happened? Where are you?" Was the immediate demand issued from the speaker on the other end. However, while it was the first thing Matsu said, it most certainly was not the last. Before he could even deign to give her an answer, the woman on the other line continued. "Ever since Seo called to tell us that you had asked to stay behind everyone's been panicking. Homura looked like he was about to spontaneously combust! And don't even get me started on Akitsu! Most of your Sekirei are currently out searching for you! Even Miya had dropped everything she did and was about to start looking for you! I..."

"Whoa, whoa!" Naruto started, interrupting the woman before she could continue on with this tirade. "Slow down. I can't answer any of your questions if you keep talking." He waited for a moment to see if Matsu had even listened to him. When the other end remained silent he began answering her two questions in reverse order. "First off, I'm not one hundred percent sure where I am. Somewhere in the South about twenty kilometers from the warehouse Seo and I left. As for what happened..." Naruto sighed as he realized this incident was going to cause a problem when he got home. "I happened to find Tsukiumi."

"Prepare for the emotional roller coaster." Minato said, chuckling.

"Eh!? You did!? Did you wing her!? Did you? Did you?" Within less than two seconds Matsu's voice had gone from serious to confused to shocked and finally, to excited. It seemed that the idea of him acquiring the Sekirei who had been plaguing his mind for a while now was enough to push the red head's worry out of the way. At least for the moment.

"No, unfortunately she passed out before I could do that," Naruto admitted, and then continued on before Matsu could speak again. Knowing his perverted hacker like he did Naruto was able to easily predict that whatever came out of her mouth would be something best left to an X-rated porn film or one of his Icha Icha stories. "She was being attacked by three Sekirei, number thirty eight, Mitsuha. Number thirty nine, Mitsuki... and number zero five, Mutsu."

"And cue more panic." Kakashi said.

"M-Mutsu!?" the fear, shock, and worry was almost palpable over the phone. "What happened? Are you alright? Are you injured? Where are they now?"

"Slow down, Matsu," Naruto said, trying his best not to accidentally wake up Tsukiumi by being too loud while also calming down the woman on the other end of the phone. "I'm fine. So is Tsukiumi. I managed to rescue her from Mutsu and the other Sekirei under his command and forced them to retreat.

….

There was a moment's silence as Matsu no doubt began processing everything he told her. No doubt she would be able to read between the lines and figure out most if not all of what happened during his confrontation with the number zero five.

That theory was proven a second later.

"You fought him?"

"Yes."

"ARE YOU INSANE?"

All of the ninja started laughing, which confused the sekirei. At least until Kiba told them that ninja tend to be a little on the insane side after a while, as they are assassins for hire.

Naruto had to hold the phone away from his ear when the red head shouted into it. That had nearly burst his eardrum! Damn super enhanced sense of hearing. He had no idea Matsu could scream like that. It was almost as bad as those times back when the Elemental Nations still existed and he was nothing more than a genin on squad seven and Sakura would scream at him for picking a fight with Sasuke, or asking her out on a date, or trying to cheer her up after Sasuke spat on her feelings for him...

Sakura started to get a little upset at hearing this, but Naruto quickly apologized to her.

….

Ok, so maybe he got yelled at a lot back than. The point was, he had no idea there was anyone else in this world capable of screaming as loudly as Sakura was. Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing he didn't know, but he did hope it was something only Matsu was capable of, and only in the most extreme of circumstances like now. It would totally suck to have two or more females capable of yelling like that.

He chanced a glance at Tsukiumi to see if the noise woke her, only to sigh in relief when he saw she was still asleep. It was a testament to how exhausted she was that she could sleep through all this racket.

Picking up the phone once more, Naruto could make out Matsu still yelling loudly into the phone. "What could you have possibly been thinking going off to fight Mutsu like that? You could have been killed! He's the –"

"Matsu!" Naruto barked quickly and quietly, ceasing the woman's continuing rant on how much danger he had been in. It seemed that even the normally playful and mischievous Matsu could be as fierce and overly protective as Homura given the right incentive. Of course, out of all of his Sekirei she was probably the only one who truly knew how strong the number zero five was ― aside from Miya, of course ― so it wasn't like he couldn't see why. As far as Matsu knew he was just a human with some strange powers and was a bit older than he looked.

"Just one word and she was silenced." Naruto said in wonder. "I have to learn how to do that." Kiba and Akamaru both started snickering.

The other end of the line went quiet, and with the Sekirei silenced Naruto breathed a small sigh of relief, though it was short lived as he knew it was best to answer her before she started again. "For starters, I am perfectly sane, thank you very much. And I was thinking that I had to save Tsukiumi from being forcibly winged by Mikogami, so don't try to tell me what I did was wrong. Would you have wanted me to leave if it had been you in that position?"

Matsu was silent for a moment, no doubt processing his words and coming to some kind of understanding. After exactly two seconds, she sighed.

"I can understand why you went off to save her. However, that doesn't change the fact that what you did was dangerous, and you could have been hurt." Naruto almost snorted at those words. Yes he could have been hurt. He had been hurt (by Tsukiumi of all people), but it wasn't as if he had actually been in any danger. Even limiting his abilities as he was it was not like Mutsu could have killed him. "And it also doesn't change the fact that you could have called us."

"You wouldn't have gotten here in time," Naruto told her, though they both knew he really meant Akitsu, Musubi and Homura when he said 'you'. Matsu wasn't a fighter, she was a tactician and intelligence analyst. "I'm in the South, that's on the opposite side of the city from Maison Izumo. Even if a Sekirei with Musubi's physical strength traveled at full speed, it would have taken a little over an hour for them to get here. By that time Mutsu would have already captured Tsukiumi and taken her to Mikogami's where she would have been forcibly winged. As it was she was already on her last leg when I got there."

"While I do agree with calling for backup, which you should have done regardless, I also agree with how you acted." Kakashi said. "If you had called, the others could have gotten to you and you could have had backup getting her back to the inn." everyone there agreed with Kakashi, as he is usually right about these situations.

There was another pause as Matsu processed that information. "I understand," she said, sounding almost reluctant.

"Good," Naruto sighed, that was one crises averted. Now he just had to run some damage control and deal with the potential fall out that would happen when he returned home. "Now then, the reason I called you was because the fight myself and Tsukiumi had with Mikogami's Sekirei took place on a rooftop, and I'm sure that MBI had at least one satellite on us recording the battle. I want you to search through their database and find the video file of my fight, erase it, and then replace it with a mix of footage from different days at the same time as the fight took place."

If he were an amateur hacker, Naruto would have taken the footage directly before the fight took place and simply put that into a looping repeat pattern that anyone with half a brain would have noticed was repeating. They may not have been able to find out what had happened if the hacker in question was thorough enough to erase all evidence of the incident and their presence in the database, but they would have determined that there was something that someone wanted to keep secret had happened there. That wouldn't do. Naruto didn't like leaving anything to chance.

Matsu seemed to think so as well, because she responded almost immediately. "Will do."

"That is a team player right there." Naruto said. Anko chuckled. "She puts up with your insanity. That alone should qualify her." Naruto pouted, which caused everyone else to laugh.

"Thank you," Naruto said, before hanging up the phone. With a small sigh, he re-pocketed the mobile device, put the hand he had been using to hold the phone under Tsukiumi's legs, and then stood up, taking the blond haired Sekirei into a bridal carry. The woman in his arms responded to his shift in stance, squirming a bit to snuggle closer to him.

Naruto let out a slight shudder when he felt her lips touch his neck. While the feeling was most definitely pleasant, he hoped she wouldn't be making any unconscious gestures like that while he carried her home. It would not do to get distracted by having a gorgeous female kissing your neck while trying to work.

Naruto did his best to ignore the feel of Tsukiumi's hot breath washing over his neck, as well as the goosebumps her action produced. He needed to focus on the task at hand. Namely, getting back to Maison Izumo.

"Wouldn't be the first time that happened." Naruto mumbled. Only Hinata and Sakura heard him, but wisely kept quiet. Hinata wanted to wait till later to ask him what happened.

Carefully, he peeked out of the window and used his enhanced eyesight to look at the area where his fight had taken place. The choppers were gone, not surprising. Their job was to go and pick up Sekirei after they had been defeated and cover up any evidence of a fight taking place. There had been very little in the way of battle damage except for the power box and the gouges he had left during the battle. That was good for him. He didn't need MBI spotting him as he made his way home.

And speaking of ways home, Naruto realized he still wasn't sure how to get home without being noticed by any MBI satellites or passing bystanders. He couldn't walk along the sidewalk, what with the fact that he was carrying a bruised and cut up Tsukiumi who was bleeding from countless wounds. Not only would it cause a scene and most likely cause people on the streets to call the police and cause rumors, it would also be at least partially violating the rules of the Sekirei Plan not to reveal the Sekirei Plan to anyone who did not already know about it.

The rooftops were equally out. Even now he could see several Helicopters hovering over the site of his battle, and even if the choppers weren't there, MBI still had one too many satellites floating in orbit around earth that could easily locate him. It also didn't help that he could see several MBI troop transports coming down the street. It looked like the death of a Sekirei had forced them to bring out the big guns and they were going to do their damnedest to find him. He didn't want them spotting him and alerting the company enforcing the Sekirei Plan, and more importantly Minaka, to know that he had been involved in this affair. If both of those were out, he supposed that only left the usage of back alleys, side streets and... the sewage system.

With a deep sigh, Naruto looked down at the still unconscious Tsukiumi. "You," he began, "have absolutely no idea how lucky you are to not be awake right now."

"I would gladly change positions with anyone for that."Naruto complained. Kiba agreed wholeheartedly. He knew both of their sense of smells were heightened, and a sewer jaunt was definitely NOT his idea of a good time.

XoX

It was nearly an hour later that Naruto found himself trudging down the street to Maison Izumo with the number zero nine, Tsukiumi, still in his arms. By now the sun was beginning to set, and all he wanted to do now was get cleaned up, get in bed, and sleep the like the dead. He was tired, he was sore, he was emotionally drained, and to top it off the lower half of his body was not only soaking wet, but also smelled like shit that had been left out in the son for several weeks due to the fact that he had just spent the last half an hour trudging through the sewer in order to sneak away from the place where he and Mutsu had battled it out on the rooftops without anyone, MBI or otherwise, seeing him. Yes, a nice relaxing bath and a long nap on his king sized bed sounded like a very good right about now.

It was rather unfortunate, then, that Naruto arrived at Maison Izumo to discover Miya standing outside on the front porch, broom in hand as she waited for him.

"Welcome home, Naruto-kun," Miya said, her eyes crinkling as she smiled pleasantly at the blond. It was a smile that belied the true terror hidden behind that veneer of beauty and gentleness. Fortunately none of it seemed to be directed at him for the moment, though he could sense the woman was just waiting for the right time to unleash her terror upon him. Naruto decided to count his blessings. "I heard you ran into an old acquaintance of mine."

Naruto shook off the way the air around Miya seemed to darken at the mentioning of her 'acquaintance'. It seemed there was bad blood between her and Mutsu. Not surprising. He knew very little about Miya's past, but even with the limited amount of knowledge he possessed, he knew that she had served as the commander of the first incarnation of the Disciplinary squad along with Mutsu. Naruto could only imagine that Mutsu's split from the group had not been under the best of circumstances.

"We were allied, but no, we did not get along." Miya said. "He did not like that I was the leader of the discipline squad, and left about a week after that invasion we thwarted."

"Yeah," Naruto replied slowly, wondering if perhaps she was about to unleash her hanya masked. He didn't think so, since the male who seemed to have earned her ire wasn't here, but one can always hope. "I ran into Mutsu while he and two other bloodhounds under Mikogami's command were chasing an Unwinged Sekirei."

"This is her I take it?"

Miya gestured towards Tsukiumi, still passed out and snuggled against him, with her broom. How the woman had been able to sleep so comfortably against him when he smelled horrible was beyond him. Then again, maybe it had something to do with the way she had buried her nose into his neck. Even now he could feel the flesh of her nose nuzzling against his skin.

"Goodness, it looks like someone decided to give her several hundred paper cuts or something."

Naruto was sure that if Miya were not holding her broom in both hands, she would have been using one of them to cover her mouth in an attempt to act like a demure and proper housewife.

"An accurate description," Naruto said, "only instead of paper he used a sword. Mutsu's blade was pretty sharp."

And strong. Naruto had been most surprised when the very thin katana the number zero five used had taken the full brunt of Kubikiribōchō and not snapped. All of the blades used by the Kiri no Shinobigatana Shichinin Shu were extremely powerful in their own right. Not only did they have their own unique abilities, but they were also made from unique materials that were far stronger than your average steel sword. Sharper too. The only way to break one of the seven blades made for the most powerful group of swordsmen to have been born was to mix elemental chakra, either lightning or wind, into a blade in order to increase it's cutting and/or penetrating power. Even then it would take a great deal of time to slice through it.

"Not only that, but that specific blade repairs itself by using the iron in the blood that it spills." Kakashi informed them. "It is a very dangerous blade to have."

On the flip side of things, because the blades were made out of a more powerful material than steel, and were far sharper than your average sword, they could easily cut through most bladed weapons without much trouble if one used enough force.

Which was why Naruto was so surprised. He might not have been using his full strength due to him being forced to limit how much he could show, it would have caused quite a bit more trouble if people knew just how strong he really was, but he had put a good deal of power into each blow that Mutsu blocked. The tiny katana the man wielded should have been, if not cut clean through, at least gained a few chips. That it didn't told Naruto that the blade he had was made of something far more durable than your average metal. Perhaps it had been created using the reverse engineered technology found on the Sekirei ship? It was as good a theory as any other one that he could come up with.

"The ship has its own armory. We just choose what weapon fits our personality and preference." Miya said. "Only my sword was not placed there, because I have already claimed it. It was secured in my capsule. And impossible to remove from any location I put it by anyone but me. I am not sure if it is the same in the story or not."

"And he was quite skilled in using it," Naruto added almost as an after thought. While he may have been upset by what had happened, the last shinobi couldn't help but admire the number zero five's skills with a blade. He was not in Miya's realm of ungodly talent ― from what he had seen so far of the woman ― but it would not be inaccurate to say that the male Sekirei was far better than Naruto himself. At least as far as raw skills with a blade went. Truth be told, Naruto had never been much of a swordsmen, and when he did use a blade he had never needed actual skill because no one could keep up with him. Who needs talent when you can swing a blade larger than the average Japanese male around faster than the human eye can follow?

A few ninja snort quietly, trying to not laugh, but they unfortunately failed.

"Oh my," Miya said, the blackness that had descended upon her like a cloak vanishing upon hearing his words. Her eyes cracked open, revealing her purple irises to him. They studied him with the same intensity they usually did when Naruto did something that she had not been expecting. "From the way said that it sounds as if you actually fought him." There was a question in her words, even though the way she had phrased it made her sentence sound like a statement. Naruto knew better though.

"I did," Naruto admitted, and though his face remained somewhat bland, partially due to exhaustion, he secretly took pleasure in watching the way the landladies eyes widened. While he had seen the woman surprised a number of times before, this was the first time he had seen her expression showing downright shock. It was amusing to say the very least.

"Are you alright?" asked Miya, and Naruto blinked when the woman began checking him over for any signs of injury. She wouldn't find any, aside from the fact that all of his injuries had been internal via electroshock therapy, they had already healed by now. After a few seconds of trying to see if he had any injuries she leaned back with a frown. "You don't look like you have any injuries," she muttered, then wrinkled her nose. "But you do seem to have a hygiene issue. Naruto-kun, you stink."

The laughter got louder as the sekirei started as well. It took a few minutes to calm the room down so the book could be heard.

Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Well, I was just forced to travel through the sewers in order to escape the battle without being seen by pedestrians or having MBI tracking me, so excuse me if I smell a little rank."

Miya blinked, once.

"You went traveling through the sewers?"

"Yes," Naruto started to make his way past Miya, who was staring at him with an indescribable expression. "Now if you don't mind I need to dress Tsukiumi's wounds, and then I'm taking a nice, long bath."

Before Naruto could get to far, a hand shot out behind him and grabbed onto his shoulder, halting him in place. And then it happened. A slow darkness began to descend upon the world around him. The endless black was stifling as it choked the life out of everything, Naruto could swear he actually saw the grass on either side of the sidewalk wilting right before his eyes. It was as if the dark aura that had suddenly rushed into the clearing was sucking the life out of all the plants nearby.

"I hope this does not turn into another big argument between you two." Matsu said.

Naruto knew he shouldn't turn around. He knew it, but he couldn't help it. The desire was too strong. Slowly, his neck craned around so that he could get an eye full of the woman behind him. Miya was smiling at him, her eyes crinkling in a pleasant expression that was borderline terrifying. The shadows cast by her bangs hung over the upper half of her face, almost, but not quite, concealing her eyes made the look all the more horrifying.

The black aura that seemed to emanate death was coming from her, Naruto noted. Wisps of acrid black energy seemed to waft off her frame like smoke. But rather than dissipate into the air like smoke, this wispy aura hung around her, gathering and cloaking her like some kind of unholy veil created by the devil himself, and her hair seemed to be swaying around in an unsteady breeze that was brought on, not by nature, but by the black tendrils of leaking, malignant energy.

Much to Naruto's disappointment, the hanya mask had not appeared behind her. It seemed she was still trying to keep it a secret from him. That was too bad. Naruto was sure he was getting close to a break through with that technique. If he could just see it one more time, the blond Uzumaki was positive he could replicate it to a degree. Then again, perhaps that was why she refused to show it to him.

Miya sighed, not knowing why he was so desperate to learn how to do that. Didn't he already have something like that?

"Na-ru-to-kun," Miya replied slowly, haltingly, enunciating each syllable to his name very clearly, and not in the way he was used to most women doing. Naruto shivered at the tone in her voice, an instinctive fear that all men have towards women using that tone no matter how many thousands of years they lived coming to the foreground. "I will not allow you to track mud and the gods only know what else through my newly cleaned house. I will also not allow you to dress Tsukiumi's wounds, as it is inappropriate for a man to see a woman in such a state of undress." Miya paused, her smile widening into a grin. "And you know what my policy is on lewd and inappropriate acts within Maison Izumo."

"So you're just going to have me stand out here?" asked Naruto blandly, raising a single eyebrow to look at the woman curiously. For some reason, the way Miya's smile widened made Naruto think he would have been better off not saying anything at all.

"Naruto, when they act like that, you need to just remain quiet, and say 'yes ma'am'. It is for your own safety and peace of mind." Kiba said. Kakashi was in agreement, as well as all the woman, who were giving very evil smirks, except for Hinata."

XoX

"You know," Naruto began in a conversational tone in spite of the fact that he was being blasted with freezing cold water by what felt like those hoses used by the fire department. "Out of all the Sekirei I have, you are the last one I would have expected to volunteer to spray me down. Isn't water, like, anathema to you or something?"

"Shut up, Naruto!" Homura scowled as he continued hosing the blond down with the cold water. It seemed he was still a bit upset by what had happened today. "I don't want to hear any smart ass comments from you! Not after what you did! Do you know how worried I ― we were about you when Seo called in and told us you had left him for some unknown reason!? And then we had to find out from Matsu that you had gotten in a fight with the number zero five of all Sekirei! What the hell were you thinking!?"

"Am I going to get yelled at by all of you with the exception of Musubi and Akitsu?" Naruto asked in a slightly whiny tone. Everyone except Musubi was nodding, causing him to sigh.

Naruto remained silent through the fire users diatribe, though he did smile humorously when he heard Homura's little slip up. It seemed that the fire using partially turned female Sekirei was beginning to get possessive. He wondered if this was a part of their nature or a process of the bonding itself. Then again, the bonding process seemed to be a part of their nature so maybe it was both.

Whatever, he could make theories later.

After letting Homura finish shouting at him, Naruto turned around so that the hose the fire user was holding was spraying his front. He watched, the amusement he felt rising as Homura's eyes widened and his face turned red. Naruto knew why, of course. He was wearing nothing more than a pair of boxers that only covered his privates and a bit of his thighs. The rest of his clothes were currently in the wash.

The fact that those boxers were so wet they were clinging to his skin and partially see through may have also had something to do with the look he was given.

"Now I see why Homura volunteered so readily." Naruto joked. Causing literal steam to rush from Homura due to the blushing.

He watched as Homura's eyes trailed down his form, then back up. The Fire user's face was growing redder by the second, and the redness was spreading, moving from the cheeks, to the rest of the face all the way to the scalp and well below the neck.

Naruto wondered what the latest member of his flock was thinking. As far as he knew, Homura was still mostly male, at least down below where it counted. He knew that the Sekirei was currently in the process of turning into a female, but had no time frame for how long it would take. It could take months or it could take days. The whole situation was an unprecedented mess and brought a whole new meaning to the words Gender Bending.

Back to the fire user's current transformation from male to female. Naruto couldn't help but wonder if the process of changing from one gender to another affected the Sekirei's thoughts. When the process was complete, would Homura still think like a man? Or would the process also change his thinking to those of a female? Would the white haired fire user begin finding the male form attractive? Or would he ― she ― still be interested in woman?

Homura resolutely ignored the stares, silently willing the book to start again.

Thinking about questions brought up an interesting image of all his Sekirei having an orgy, which he dutifully did his best to banish and force his mind back on track.

Hearing that made Hinata think of the same. Her face went nuclear red, and she nearly passed out. Who knew she was such a pervert?

"I was thinking that Tsukiumi was in danger and needed help," Naruto said. Homura blinked as the words registered in his ears. The currently gender confused Sekirei tore his gaze away from the blond Uzumaki's body and looked up into Naruto's blue eyes. "I was thinking that if I didn't do something she would have been forcibly winged by Mikogami." He raised a single eyebrow at the much younger person. "Or are you telling me I should have done nothing and let them take her, oh Guardian of Unwinged Sekirei?"

"That's not what I'm saying at all!" Homura scowled at the blond's jab at his job title. "Don't put words in my mouth!"

"Oh? Then what were you saying?"

"That you shouldn't have been so reckless! You went off on your own and got into a fight with one of the most powerful Sekirei in the game! You could have easily been killed!"

"But I wasn't," Naruto pointed.

"And that makes it better!?" Homura was practically screeching by now. It was loud enough that Naruto was sure the fire user's voice could shatter glass if there was any near him.

"Actually yes it does." Kakashi said. "Not only did he challenge Mutsu, but actually held him back, and still managed to end the fight and force him to back off. That says a huge amount about his power and ability that he did so while protecting another." the sekirei had no argument to this.

However, while there was no glass around for the voice to shatter, there were several people within the residence they were staying at who came out to see what the fuss was all about.

Uzume and Chiho were the first ones out. As the waifish Ashikabi still didn't have the leg strength necessary to walk on her own for prolonged periods of time, she was being carried by Uzume, much to her embarrassment. The girl had actually been offered a wheelchair, but Uzume had put her foot down saying she was going to carry her Ashikabi and no one could convince her otherwise. Personally, Naruto thought she was being so adamant on having her Ashikabi ride piggy back on her so she could cop of feel without rousing Miya's suspicion.

The males all started laughing.

"What's going on here ― woah!"

Uzume found herself gawking when she saw Naruto in nothing but his boxers while being sprayed with a water hose by Homura. The busty brunette wearing her traditional star shirt and tight fitting jeans blinked several times as she eyed him up and down before a salacious grin replaced the surprised expression on her face.

"Not bad, bro," she complimented with a whistle. "You've got some serious muscles going there. If I didn't already have an Ashikabi, I may have ended up picking you. What do you think, Chiho-baby? Chiho?"

When Chiho didn't respond, Uzume turned her head in confusion.

"Chiho, I was asking what you... oh..." Uzume trailed off when she saw her Ashikabi staring at the young (looking) blond with very prominent blush staining her cheeks. They looked like two large sunspots that she had gotten from staying out in the sun for far too long. And was that drool coming out of her mouth?

"I am that irresistible, aren't I?" Naruto said. Only to be bopped on the head by Sakura, Anko, and Tsunade. Hinata didn't join in, because she actually agreed with her crush.

Uzume began to pout.

"How come you never stare at me like that?"

"Eh?" Chiho blinked several times before her mind actually seemed to register what her Sekirei said. Once she did, however, the red dots on her cheeks began to spread until her entire face looked like a boiled over lobster. "I-It's not like that!"

"Don't worry, I know when I'm being replaced," Uzume fake sniffed. "It seems my eternal love for you can't match up with Naruto's hot bod. I understand."

"U-Uzume-chan!"

"Ara, ara, what's all this noise about?" asked Miya as she too appeared. Or at least, made it look like she randomly happened upon the scene. Naruto knew better. The purple haired landlady had been waiting just inside one of the shogi screen doors, eavesdropping on Homura's angry ranting long before Uzume had ever shown up.

"Does that mean she is secretly a voyeur?" Anko asked. The other sekirei plus Minato all gasped when they heard that. Miya of course just turned towards Anko and gave an evil little smile, asking to repeat what she said. Anko not only repeated it, but also used at least fifteen different ways to describe it much to the rest of Minato's group horror. Afterwards she just smiled at Miya, almost daring her to say something. Miya of course said nothing, knowing that Anko has no fear of her and will definitely escalate things far beyond what Miya would be willing to go.

Honestly, Miya was as bad as Matsu when it came to peeping in on other people's conversations.

Anko just started laughing. Claiming she knew it.

"Gah!"

"Kya!"

The two females standing on the porch whirled around. Well, Uzume whirled around. Chiho was currently on Uzume's back so she was just taken a long for the ride. It was actually pretty funny, watching Uzume as she spun around, nearly tripping over her own two feet, her arms flailing in the air as she tried to regain her balance while Chiho was screaming loudly as her arms tightened their grip around her Sekirei's neck.

Of course, it would have been bad if they actually had fallen. Who knows how badly Chiho might have been injured, but thankfully, the large breasts brunette was able to keep herself from toppling over. She still looked like she was about to have a heart attack though.

"Dammit, Miya!" Uzume swore as she clutched a hand to her breast, the effect of which really just served to emphasis the large chest she was sporting. "You scared the shit out of me ― ouch!"

Uzume's startled rant came to an abrupt end when Miya smacked the poor Sekirei with the handle of her broom. The brunette Sekirei instinctively reached for her head, only for Chiho to begin slipping, forcing the girl to tighten her hold on Uzume, unintentionally choking the woman she had bonded to.

Matsu started mumbling something about a soap opera while laughing.

"Swearing is not allowed within Maison Izumo," Miya chided lightly, the handle of her broom moving back and forth like a pendulum. A very threatening pendulum.

"He, eh heh," Uzume chuckled nervously as she re-grabbed Chiho's thighs so the girl could stop strangling her. Her eyes never left the broom though. "Right. Sorry, Miya."

Miya's eyes crinkled in a beautiful smile that had Uzume cringing. Fortunately for the large breasted cloth user, the purplette's were already off her and now on Naruto and Homura.

"Are you all finished getting cleaned up, Naruto-kun?" Miya asked innocently. Naruto's right eye began twitching a bit, but he did his best not to let his annoyance show.

"Seems that way," he replied with faux cheer. "Though getting hosed down doesn't really make one clean. All of the... waste might be gone, but it's done nothing for the smell."

"I see," Miya's smile grew wider. "Then I guess it's a good thing that I have a bath all prepared for you."

This time Naruto couldn't quite contain his annoyance.

"You mean to tell me that I had myself stripped down and blasted with a hose for nothing?"

In the presence of Miya's most beautiful smile, Naruto decided right then and there that this woman was the epitome of evil.

"You know she did it t tease you, regardless of how good you look in your boxers." Matsu said. "I do like how it shows those scenes while the reading is going on as well. I am guessing it is a new feature?" I nod at her and the book starts again.

XoX

After scrubbing himself so thoroughly his skin had actually been rubbed raw, followed by a long soak in the tub where he let his damage skin heal, Naruto, now dressed in a pair of tight blue jeans and a sleeveless orange shirt, found himself making his way up to the room where Tsukiumi was currently being kept.

Like he had expected, Akitsu was standing right outside the door, a silent sentinel that someone could almost mistake for a statue. The woman was so damn still it looked like she wasn't even breathing.

"Akitsu," Naruto greeted with a slight smile. Said woman looked over at him. Her eyes moved from his eyes, then down to his lips. She blushed and looked away.

"Ah," there was that pause again, "Ashikabi-Sama."

"Has there been any change in Tsukiumi's condition?"

"No," Akitsu shook her head slowly, methodically. "She's still asleep. Miya-Sama came in twice to dress her wounds and change her bandages, but zero nine hasn't woken up yet."

"I see," Naruto said. "Thank you for looking after her."

"Ah..." Akitsu's cheeks turned pink and her head tilted down to look at the ground. "You're welcome."

"Hey Matsu, do you think you can research a way to wing Akitsu?" Minato asked. "Maybe a way to give her hope and a purpose?" Matsu says she has been, and there are only a small hand full of solutions that might work, but no guarantees on any of them." Minato tells her that they can go over those and see if we can work out something new or refine what they already have. She is far too good of a person to be kept where she is.

Naruto shook his head, unsure whether he should be amused or not. The ice user was awfully easy to embarrass, especially when considering how Akitsu's outfit looked like it was more suited to an S&M convention than a household like Maison Izumo. Then again, it could just be that she had trouble accepting praise and gratitude. It wouldn't surprise Naruto, not when he thought about what her life must have been like in MBI's labs.

"I'm going to check in on her," Naruto didn't really know why he felt the need to inform Akitsu of this. It wasn't like this was some kind of hospital or anything with a hierarchical structure that would require him to inform the ice user or anyone else of his intentions. Nevertheless, he still found himself doing so. "Would you like to come inside with me?"

Akitsu tilted her head to the side, silently contemplating his question. After a moment, she nodded.

"Ok."

Room number two oh four was the last of the four rooms located on the second floor. It looked just like every other room within Maison Izumo; tatami mat flooring, off white colored walls, a closet on one side and a window on the wall farthest from the door. The only difference was this ones lack of furnishing. Where the room Naruto shared with his Sekirei was filled with many modern amenities and western styled furniture, Matsu's room was filled with computers and monitors, and Uzume's room was filled with posters and cosplay outfits, room two oh four had none of those, just a single futon laid out in the center of the room upon which Tsukiumi was currently resting.

Naruto stood in the entrance way for a moment, indecision clouding his thoughts. After a second or two, and with some verbal nudging from Akitsu ("Ah, Ashikabi-sama?"), Naruto entered the room and walked over to where Tsukiumi was resting peacefully.

She looked much better than she had after the battle that had nearly ended in her capture. Actually, that was something of a lie. Right now she looked more like a mummy than anything else, her body, from her neck to her legs, was wrapped in white medical bandages, but at least she had been cleaned up. Her face and arms were no longer covered with grime, sweat, and dirt. She didn't look like she had been running for several days on end. If one discounted the multitude of bandages wrapped around her body they could almost assume the woman was just sleeping.

"I think you might have gone a little overboard with the bandages, Miya." Naruto said, trying to not laugh.

As Naruto looked at the water using Sekirei, uncertainty began to set in again. He wasn't sure why he was even here. Ostensibly it was to check up on Tsukiumi, but with Miya having dressed her wounds and cleaned her up there was really nothing he could do until she woke up. So why was he here then?

A frown crossed the blond's face as he realized he had no clue why he had bothered coming in here when there was nothing for him to do. That realization was offset by the knowledge that there was something he could do, he just wasn't sure if he had the capacity or inclination to do it. The last time he had found himself in a similar position ― how long ago was it? fourteen? Fifteen hundred years ago? He couldn't even remember ― had been less than enviable. And it was not a place he would like to be again.

Thankfully, the situation with Tsukiumi was nowhere near as gruesome as that time had been. The water user wasn't in any danger, she was suffering from no fatal wounds. In fact, most of the damage done to her was superficial at best. Yes, if he looked at it from a more positive perspective, things were definitely looking up from the last time he had sat next to somebodies bedside..

"That sounds like it would have been a very bad event happening then" Hinata said.

A slight jingling sound and the clinking of chains brought Naruto's mind back to the present. He looked over at Tsukiumi again. His hand reached out towards her, as if to grab her hand, or perhaps run his fingers through her hair. He stopped himself before following through, however, and after a moment, withdrew his hand and stood up.

He made his way back out of the room, the 'chink, chink chink' of Akitsu's chains accompanying the sound of their footsteps. After the door to Tsukiumi's temporary residence closed behind him and Akitsu, Naruto turned his attention towards the ice user.

"Akitsu-chan, would you mind heading downstairs and getting Musubi?" he asked. "She should still be sparring with Miya," the blond cocked his head to the side for barely a second, long enough to hear Musubi's shouts and grunts and pained yelps when Miya hit her on the head with the butt of her sword. Yep, they were definitely still sparring.

"Yes, Ashikabi-sama," Akitsu was very quick to do as commanded, eager to please her Ashikabi.

"Oh, and also tell her to clean up as well," Naruto called out. "I'll be starting dinner in a while and I don't want her sweating all over the food when you guys help me prepare it."

"Ah," Akitsu paused. She turned slowly to look at him. Her head cocked to the side for a few seconds before she nodded. With a soft, monotoned "yes" she turned back around and began heading down the stairs to get Musubi and convince her to stop sparring with Miya and take a bath.

"How do you convince someone like that to stop a spar and take a shower?" Naruto said. "That is like telling Jiraiya to stop peeping and take a bath. That just doesn't happen." Tsunade snorted. "I just punch him once, he learned pretty quickly to be far away from me so I can't be sent to get him next time."

With Akitsu gone, Naruto began heading over to the sliding door that was the hidden entrance to Matsu's room. Without even bothering to knock, he slid the door open and walked inside.

As always the inside of Matsu's room was dark save the light granted to the small area by the myriad of computer screens that littered three of the four walls within the room. Naruto's keen eyes had already adjusted to the low amount of light and could make out the information scrolling across many of the screens. From the flow of data and the images on several of the monitors, it was clear to him that Matsu had been working hard.

And she was still working from the looks of things. Sitting in front of one of the consoles was none other than his red haired, perverted Sekirei. Matsu was staring at one of the monitors with lines of flowing data that Naruto recognized as computer coding intently, her fingers flying across the keyboard in front of her at speeds that seemed to rival Naruto's own speed at creating hand-seals. It was an impressive feat to be sure.

"That's... impressive." Kakashi said.

"Matsu will be with you in just a second, Naruto-tan," Matsu told him, alerting the blond male in question to the fact that she knew he was there. He assumed the woman had a camera planted directly outside of her room so she could see who was near her. Looking over at one of the screens cycling through various images of the rooms within Maison Izumo, Naruto knew he was correct. "Why don't you take a seat while Matsu finishes this up."

"Sure," Naruto replied as he moved further into the room. He sat down behind and slightly off to the side of the red head so he could see what Matsu was doing from over her shoulder. It looked like she was hacking into a database, at least, that's what he assumed she was doing. While Naruto made sure to keep up to date on new high end technology and how they worked, even he would admit that his skills at hacking could use work. Still, he was sure his guess was right. The coding looked incredibly complex, which likely meant she was delving into MBI's database, the fact that a lot of the images on some of the other screens seemed to be showing a birds eye view of Shinto Teito merely confirmed that fact in his mind.

"And... there!"

Tapping the keys a few more times with theatrically slow and overly exaggerated motions, Matsu finished whatever it was she was doing. The screen went blank for a moment, then a screen saver of... Naruto in his underwear popped up on the screen.

"I think she is worse then Jiraiya." Naruto said. He looked to be staving off a headache, which the ninja knew he is joking, because he doesn't get headaches.

"Where did you get that image?" asked Naruto as Matsu turned around to face him. He was pretty sure that he had gotten rid of any and all cameras and spyware within his room and the bathhouse. And he did routine sweeps through both areas regularly. Which meant this woman was either getting very good at hiding her peeping appliances, or she was setting them up and then taking them down when she got what she wanted. The salacious red head just gave him a mischievous smile as she poked her tongue out between her lips. It only seemed to confirm that one of these two theories was the most likely scenario.

"Wouldn't you like to know."

Naruto frowned, wondering if he should force her to delete it, but in the end decided not to. It wasn't like Matsu having an image of him in nothing but his undergarments as a screen saver was that big a deal.

Besides, there were more important things to focus on.

"I take it you just finished fixing the video recording of my battle with Mutsu and the other Sekirei?" he asked, getting down to the entire reason he had come here.

"At least she takes her work seriously." Kakashi said. Admiring the speed and efficiency of of her skills.

"Yes," Matsu's expression turned rather serious as she looked at him like something to be studied. "I managed to create a feedback loop by utilizing another video recording from last month that happened at the same time to keep from arousing suspicion that it was tampered with. A good thing to, considering what that video recording showed."

Naruto nodded, well aware of what had been showed.

"I have to admit, I'm surprised by what I saw from that recording," Matsu continued. She took off her glasses, causing her face to look much more mature than it usually was, and studied him with more intense expression. "I knew you were strong from what I managed to gather of you so far, but being able to survive forty thousand volts of electricity coursing through your body, fighting against Mutsu directly afterwords, and level fiving a Sekirei is a bit more than I imagined you would be capable of. To be honest, it's kind of scary."

There weren't many ways Naruto could respond to her words, especially when what Matsu had seen wasn't even the tip of the ice berg of what he could actually accomplish. The fact of the matter was no one within the Sekirei plan actually had the capability of defeating him, not even Miya. Hell, none of the Sekirei even had the capability of defeating the more powerful ninja of his age, much less him. While it was true that many of the Sekirei he met had the potential to be as strong as the kages and S ranked ninja from his era, they lacked the necessary training, experience, and killer instincts that made those shinobi so dangerous.

"That would be considered true." Tsunade said. "But, with his declaration of his power in comparison to all other sekireis, I am guessing Miya probably has a better idea than any of us here exactly how powerful he is." Miya nodded, surprised that he went and willingly stated that not even she would be able to beat him. Miya is getting very interested in exactly how powerful Naruto really is in the story, and is wondering how strong the Naruto in front of her is as well.

The only ones who cold probably match a kage from his time were the original five disciplinary members with the exception of Matsu, whose strength did not lie in combat, but intelligence gathering. Even then, the only ones who had a shot of actually defeating a kage were Karasuba and Miya, both of whom were supposed to be the two strongest Sekirei in the plan. And even then, Miya was the only one he had found so far who would have ever be able to match the likes of Uchiha Madara, at least in terms of raw power if not skill and ability.

"I take it this is the only level five defeat so far?" asked Naruto, deciding to let his curiosity get the best of him for a moment. He wondered how many Sekirei would actually die before the end of this 'game', as it's been called.

"Yes," Matsu took a deep breath. "I really didn't expect there to be any deaths in the Sekirei Plan," she admitted quietly. Naruto nodded his agreement. Most don't expect these kinds of things to happen. "I mean, while the Sekirei Plan is supposed to be dangerous, due to the fact that it's essentially a war between Sekirei, there have always been strict procedures and rules that most people follow. And while killing a Sekirei is not against the rules, it's definitely frowned upon."

Naruto shrugged.

"I didn't have much time to make any plan that would have allowed all of us to walk away. And I would rather one of my enemies get killed than Tsukiumi because I was afraid of accidentally offing one of my enemies Sekirei."

"Sounds like a better you than me situation." Sakura said.

"I understand," Matsu said, and Naruto knew she would. As one of the first five Sekirei to awaken, she had already experienced war, if on a much much smaller scale than himself. Unlike the rest of the Sekirei, she knew that sometimes death was inevitable, even necessary and unavoidable at times. Though he imagined she was still feeling a bit down at the fact that it was one of her fellow Sekirei that had been the necessary casualty. There weren't many of them after all, and she probably felt it was important to protect each one.

"So you're sure that no one saw what happened during the battle between Mutsu and myself?" Naruto asked, just for clarification. While he had acted quickly in getting Matsu to work her magic, there was always a possibility that someone had seen it before she could do her thing. He wanted to be one hundred percent sure that no one saw the video of that battle.

"Yes," Matsu nodded her head. "While they were alerted to your battle when number thirty eight was terminated and reacted very quickly to recover her due to it being a level five termination, they didn't actually look at the video feedback from the satellites due to, I suspect, the fact that they felt they were under a time constraint and it would have taken more effort to pull the file from the data banks, since this particular video was automatically encrypted due to the nature of the recording." She paused, then, almost as an after thought added, "and Minaka was doing his own thing when it happened, so he didn't get a chance to look at the file either."

"They might suspect it is you, since you did a level four termination already, but now there is no proof." Matsu said.

Naruto let out a sigh of relief at the news.

"Thank you, Matsu," he thanked her. "I'm not sure what I would have done without you. You did a good job."

"Good enough for a reward?" asked Matsu with a flirtatious, or perhaps perverted would be a better word, smile. She placed her glasses back on and suddenly, like a flip had been switched, the mature and intelligent Matsu once more became the perverted female version of Jiraiya.

Cue shudder.

Naruto opened his mouth, no doubt to tell her something along the lines of maybe later, when Matsu spoke again. "After all, you promised Matsu that if she was a good girl you would let her do some experimentation." He promptly shut his mouth after that and took a moment to consider the woman before him and her request.

If Naruto was being one hundred percent honest with himself, he was still very wary of letting himself get too close to his Sekirei. Even now, after he had promised to be better, he had yet to share so much as a simple kiss with any of his Sekirei besides Homura, and even than it had not been a sign of affection. It was simply so the fire user could get his wings. The problem was, in spite of making a promise to be better, it was still hard for him to put words into actions. He had kept his distance from others for so long it was simply hardwired into his psyche. Naruto could probably even go so far as to say it was simply habit now, as natural to him as breathing.

"Old habits are very hard to change." Tsunade said, knowing very well how true that statement is. She still can't stop gambling.

A habit that he's had for over a thousand years at least, perhaps even before then.

The problem itself wasn't necessarily the sex, or the act of intimacy that Matsu was implying she wanted. He'd slept with and seduced more women than he cared to count. It was who he was being intimate with that bothered him.

Not that there was anything wrong with his Sekirei. Each and every one of them was absolutely stunning. Beautiful beyond imagination. They made models look like ugly old hags. But it wasn't there beauty that was the problem. It was the bond he shared with them, and he wasn't talking about the metaphysical connection that linked them to him via winging.

The fact of the matter was, despite attempts not to, Naruto found himself actually liking his Sekirei. He enjoyed being in their presence, and he enjoyed spending time with them. There was just something about being with his Sekirei that made him almost forget about all of the traumatic experiences he'd suffered through in the past. Sometimes, it felt as if all he had been through was merely a bad dream rather than a grueling reality.

"That is a good thing, Naruto." Sakura said. "You need to pull away from the past. And start living in the present. You too Kakashi sensei." Kakashi was a bit surprised she knew anything about his past. He had never told her, and she never asked.

And that was the crux of his problem. Before now, sex was just that. Sex. There was no real meaning to it beyond pleasure and having a warm body next to him so that he could at least pretend there was nothing wrong with his life. It had been a coping mechanism more than anything else. But if he did something with his Sekirei it would not be just sex. There would be meaning behind it, emotions that ran deeper than mere lust. Companionship. Intimacy. Love. These feelings and more would be present, and that wasn't even going into the bond he shared with them as their Ashikabi. For all Naruto knew he could very well lose himself to the bond if he allowed himself to become intimate. And that thought scared him more than he cared to admit.

At the same time, Naruto knew he needed to get over these hang ups. Perhaps being intimate with one of his Sekirei would do that. He didn't necessarily have to have sex with her, but maybe a little intimacy would help him get over the issues he had with getting close to his girls.

"Alright," Naruto said softly. Strangely enough, Matsu either had not heard him, or had been prepared for him to reject her because a second after he gave his single word answer, she began defending why she deserved to 'experiment' with him.

The ninja began laughing, while the sekirei were surprised. The ninja expected the answer because of his reasoning, and the sekirei were surprised because Minato was still saying no.

"Matsu understands that Naruto-tan wants to take it slow, but sometimes I think you're taking things a little too slow. Matsu's not asking for much, just a little..." she trailed off after a few seconds, blinking. The red head stared at him for some time, her face blank, as if her mind was just now registering something that had happened some time ago. After a few seconds, her eyes widened in shock. "Wait. Did you just say alright?"

Naruto's lips twitched very slightly in amusement, but it quickly vanished as he began preparing himself for what he planned on doing.

"I did. After all, you've been helpful, and a good girl. And do you know what happens to good girls?"

Matsu shook her head, her eyes still wide. Naruto, for the first time in a long time, allowed a seductive smile to cross his face.

"They get rewarded," he purred. Matsu's eyes, impossibly, widened even more. Her cheeks took on a deep shade of red and her breathing began to pick up a bit. Through the bond, he could sense Matsu's arousal. It was so powerful it almost felt like a physical sensation rather than a mental one.

"That is really powerful." Sakura said. "But why do I get the feeling Miya is right outside the door waiting to come in and catch you in the act?" Naruto snorted. "She wouldn't be Miya if she didn't. But who wants to take bets on when Miya comes in?" Most of the ninja were making bets, Tsunade's bet would be as soon as they start, while Sakura's bet was once they started getting into it. Naruto and Hinata bet that it would be After Naruto got her off, but before she could start with him. Kiba had bet she would wait until the very end before coming in, while Anko bet she would join in. Kakashi refrained from betting. He was going to bet she joined in as well, but kept quiet. They all put money into a pot and put it next to the book. Before the book started, I informed the adults that no one under the age of sixteen would hear anything other then those two playing a board game, with Miya interrupting a kiss if she does show up. None of the adults wanted Kusano to hear anything adult oriented as she is way too young for that. Even tough she says she would want to play as well, and maybe get everyone playing too. Such as the thoughts of a small child. Needless to say the room spouted more than a few blushes and nosebleeds and the thought.

Naruto could understand why. It had been a while since he used any of his skills in seduction, but a few months could not change several hundred lifetimes of experience. While Homura may have been a skilled seducer of women when he was working at a host club. And male. Naruto was the single most talented person at seducing women alive. Period. With naught but a few words modulated with the correct seductive and sensual overtones to his voice, Naruto could have any women (married, single, divorced, lesbian) eating out of the palm of his hands ― or on their knees sucking him off ― and while the blond Uzumaki was not one to brag about his skills at seducing and sleeping with women, it would not be inaccurate to say that he was the closest thing to a sex god this world would ever have.

You could hear some perverted laughs from Kakashi, Anko, Matsu, and oddly enough Hinata, thought she was much quieter.

No, seriously. There was a reason his Icha Icha series was so damn popular, and it wasn't just because ninety nine point nine percent of the male population were a bunch of dirty perverts. Writing about past experiences is infinitely better than trying to come up with something from the imagination.

"Lay down," Naruto ordered the red head, who looked like she was just barely restraining herself from hyperventilating with excitement. Or launching herself at him in an attempt to rape him. When Matsu did as instructed, laying down on the futon, Naruto asked, "Are these walls sound proof?"

"Um... what? Sound proof?" Matsu blinked several times, her lust at actually getting something she had been desiring for a long time now warring with the more logical part of her brain. "Ah, um, let me think. They, well, oh! Right. They've been sound proofed. All the computers I have tend to generate a lot of noise, so Miya sound proofed the walls and door for me."

Naruto noticed almost right away that she wasn't speaking in her childish third-person speak, letting him know that her usual act was just that, an act. He didn't comment on it, merely nodding his head at her words.

"Good."

"I have a feeling someone is going to be screaming soon." Anko said, while staring pointedly at Matsu. Said sekirei was currently blushing and sporting slight nose bleed.

There was a moments pause as Naruto took a good look at the female before him. Matsu was laying on her back, her legs straight, arms at her side. Her head was raised and she was staring at him. Even in the dim lighting he could see the large blush staining her cheeks, and he could hear her heavy breathing over the loud hum of the dozens of computer consoles and monitors within the room.

Scooting forward until he was sitting by her feet. He lifted one leg up by the calf and divested the appendage of her shoes, then did the same with the other one. He looked over at Matsu's face to see a confused expression on it and smiled.

"All in good time," he said simply before starting things up by giving her a simple message.

'Slow and steady.' Hinata thought.

If Matsu had had any intention of complaining about not getting right down to sexy times, they were washed away when her blond Ashikabi began kneading her feet with his hands. It started with him simply grasping one of them in both hands and putting minor pressure on her arches with his thumbs. Then began adding small clockwise and counterclockwise rotations while continuously adding pressure.

Matsu moaned as Naruto worked his magic. It was not well known to a vast majority of people, minus those who were 'experimental' when it came to their sex life, but the feet often had at least one or two erogenous zones, places that had more nerve endings than others and therefore were more sensitive to stimulation than other places on the body. Matsu, Naruto noted idly, had two; one at the soles of her feet and the other being her big toe. He decided not to use those and leave them for later when they did more than just what he planned on doing.

"From a medical perspective, he is correct." Tsunade said. Sakura would have agreed, but she was apparently only hearing the book. Even if the book was silent.

He briefly thought about using his chakra to enhance the effect his hands were having on the amorous red head, but decided not to. It wouldn't do for him to overload her nerves with pleasure before they had even done anything.

Deciding that enough time had passed, and realizing that if he kept this up Matsu may very well cum before they even really started ― it had happened before ― Naruto stopped messaging her feet.

He ignored Matsu's wines, smiling with a bit of smug satisfaction about how she had almost been ready to complain about doing something with so little sexual connotations and now didn't want him to stop at all, and placed a kiss on the sole of her left foot. The blond heard Matsu gasp, and grinned slightly before moving on, placing another kiss, this time on her ankle.

Slowly, Naruto began working his way up her leg. He moved the leg he was not working over off his lap and managed to get himself situated in a seiza position without the use of his hands, which were currently busy holding up Matsu's other leg.

With the skill of someone who had been in a similar situation millions of times, Naruto kissed his way up her calf, listening intently to the moans and cries Matsu released. It was easy to tell which places caused her the most pleasure. Each time he found one of her erogenous zones her breath would hitch and a tiny gasp would escape her. This would have followed by a loud moan as Naruto kissed and suckled on her flesh.

You could hear some panting from both Matsu and Sakura at this point. Hinata was still too quiet for anyone to hear.

Eventually, Naruto set her foot down and began leaning over and down so he could begin placing kisses along her thigh. He moved the front flap of her dress away and spread her legs apart so he could access her inner thigh.

Matsu's muscles trembled under the touch of his lips. Her hands were tightly clenching the sheets of her futon as she experienced sensations she had only ever read about until now.

"Oh gods! Naruto!" Matsu gasped as her Ashikabi placed his mouth just off to the side of her panty clad core. "More! Please! I need more!"

Naruto smiled as he breathed on her mound, still clad in white panties.

"As you wish."

Still not removing her panties, Naruto placed his mouth directly over Matsu's mound and began to gently suck on her lips through the cloth. The red haired Sekirei released a much louder gasp than usual, followed by a particularly throaty moan. Her hands went to his head, fingers digging into his scalp as she grabbed a fistful of his hair. Naruto continued his work, heedless of the slight pain from his scalp as several hairs were accidentally plucked out.

At this point, only Naruto was able to hear the quiet panting and moaning from Hinata. Everyone else could clearly hear Sakura and Matsu especially as both are now starting to squirm and fidget. Anko was starting to enjoy the live show just as much as the book right now.

His tongue darted out, tasting the fabric of Matsu's panties and the secretion of her juices that were beginning to stain the cloth as her arousal grew. In response, Matsu began grinding and bucking her hip into his face, no doubt hoping to increase the feelings Naruto was giving her by pushing herself into him.

"Ahn! Naruto! Stop teasing me!" Matsu cried out. Her hips jerked, her fingers were clenching the spread of the futon tightly, and her thighs were quivering as her feet planted themselves firmly on the floor. It sounded like she was getting impatient. Naruto decided he had wound up this amorous red head enough.

Gripping her hips with both hands, Naruto hooked his fingers under the waistband of her panties. Matsu knew exactly what he was doing and seemed eager to let him do it with as little resistance as possible. She lifted her hips off the ground, allowing him to slide her panties down her legs more easily. They stuck to Matsu's core for a moment, the dampness from her arousal causing the sticking sensation, but they still came off with relative ease.

Her white and surprisingly plain looking panties slid down the smooth expanse of her beautifully shaped thighs, past her calves and eventually her feet. Naruto tossed the damp piece of bunched up fabric away and finally got his first look at the prize that lay beneath one of his Sekirei.

Hinata had put her hands on her thighs as if to look like she is trying to hold herself still while Sakura ans Matsu were rubbing their legs together. Still panting and lightly moaning. They were all trying to be as quiet as possible, but only Hinata was really succeeding.

Situated in between Matsu's legs, Naruto found himself staring at the mound before him. It was different than what he had seen in other women. It wasn't really a mound or anything of the sort. It was smooth and curved downwards perfectly (a small difference in Sekirei physiology perhaps?). They didn't appear to have any folds or lips either. It was just a perfectly thin slit that disappeared past her legs as it followed the curvature of her mound. It was the sign of someone who had never so much as even pleasured herself.

Naruto was surprised by this. He had, in all honesty, expected someone of Matsu's amorous nature to have at least masturbated. Was this another difference between normal human females and Sekirei? Perhaps their desire to experience love at their Ashikabi's hands kept them from doing anything with themselves? If that truly was the case it was just another sign of how devoted to their Ashikabis they truly were.

"Naruto?"

Hearing his name called, Naruto looked up to see Matsu staring at him inquisitively. Realizing he had lost himself in thought in the middle of being intimate with his Sekirei, the blond Uzumaki offered the female an apologetic smile.

By now a few have realized the screen is showing something completely different than what is going on, and Kusano's eyes are completely glued to it. So they can see what she sees, but she can't hear what they hear. Genius!

"Sorry, I was just admiring the view," while saying this, Naruto let his eyes trail down to the junction between Matsu's legs, letting the amorous young woman know just where he was looking. It was almost cute to see Matsu of all people actually going red from embarrassment.

The red head mumbled something incoherent. Naruto thought she was saying something about him, but couldn't be sure as he was already leaning down. It wasn't long before he was hit with the scent of her arousal, an unusual and heady smell that reminded him of lavender and lilacs. Strange, but not unpleasant.

Bending down the rest of the way, Naruto once again gripped both sides of Matsu's hip with her hands. Leaning down, he placed his lips directly over her maidenhood, giving her 'lips' a prolonged kiss as he nuzzled his nose against the small patch of red pubic hair.

A strange noise emerged from the back of Matsu's throat. A low, rumbling noise that was slightly halted at uneven intervals. It sounded almost like a mix between a gasp and purring.

Matsu, Sakura and Hinata were all looking completely flushed by this point, still trying to not make any noise.

Naruto's tongue flicked out from in between his mouth and teased Matsu's lips. His pink, fleshy appendage traced along the outer edge of her labia, taunting her with it's feather-light touches. Matsu squirmed and wiggled beneath him. Her hips tried to buck and jerk in order to make him give her more, but Naruto's hands arrested her movement and kept her still, forcing her to take his teasing.

"Gods, Naruto!" she cried as his tongue just barely penetrated her outer lips and teased her insides. "More! I need more! P-Please!"

Deciding to give her more, Naruto removed his mouth from Matsu's lower lips. The woman wined and pleaded with him, but he ignored her as he stuck a finger inside of his mouth to wet it. She wouldn't be begging much longer.

He pressed his finger against her sex and applied pressure. He watched as his finger was almost literally sucked into Matsu's waiting and eager sex. As his digit was sucked into her up to the second knuckle, Naruto curved his finger and quickly found the small ribbed area up the front of her anterior walls and began rubbing it.

At this point Sakura shoved a handy pillow to her own face and started moaning loudly, well it was loud to her as no one else could hear anything. Matsu and Hinata are still holding it together.

The reaction was almost instantaneous. Matsu came, hard. Naruto felt her walls tighten around his finger to an almost painful degree. Only the juices she released kept his finger from getting stuck inside of her. Her hips jerked upwards almost violently as she released a loud scream of pleasure. Her body and mind, it seemed, was completely unprepared for a sexual encounter with someone like him.

Naruto didn't let up. Despite having already brought Matsu to climax, he began working her over again. His finger moved within her and continuously rubbed against the small, sensitive wall of flesh. Meanwhile, his mouth came back into play, pressing itself against her lips above the finger that was currently bringing her pleasure.

His tongue darted out, teasing her lips apart and reaching the small hood that hid another prize. He skillfully worked out the small bundle of nerves out from behind it's covering and took them into his mouth.

Then, he began to truly send Matsu into orgasmic bliss.

Matsu had suddenly reached for the same kind of pillow that mysteriously appeared next to her as well. It seems only Hinata has been able to hold out, but she is also the only one of the three that are sitting on someone else's lap at the moment.

With her clit in his mouth, Naruto began to suckle on one of the most sensitive area's of a woman's body. His tongue flicked against the small bundle of nerves, his teeth lightly grazed against her. He nipped, sucked, and licked the sensitive bundle until Matsu couldn't stand it. Her screams of pleasure became incoherent gibberish that sounded like sixteen different alien languages mixed together.

He had no idea how long he was there, though he counted time by the number of orgasms the Sekirei he was pleasing went through, but eventually the stimulation and pleasure became too much for the perverted hacker. Her body twitched and shuddered several times, before the red head went completely slack, her entire body had gone limp.

Looking up from where he had been working, Naruto saw that Matsu's eyes had rolled into the back of her head and her mouth was parted slightly with a large amount of drool trailing down her cheek and chin. Her chest was heaving, breasts jiggling with each movement, the only sign she was still amongst the living.

Hinata was starting to shake, it doe not seem like she will last long herself. Oddly enough, it seems like both Sakura and Matsu have achieved an orgasm, by just listening to this scene, and nothing else. Anko is wondering how much longer till Hinata completely loses it. But what Anko doesn't even realize is Hinata has already achieved at least two orgasms herself, but is very practiced in being quiet, seeing as any unusual noise and at least three people will look into her room to see what is wrong. She has been caught a few times until she learned how to stay completely quiet.

Seeing the results of his actions, Naruto wondered if perhaps he had gone a bit overboard?

Nah.

Pulling his finger out from inside of Matsu and removing his mouth from her womanhood, Naruto sat up. He wiped the lower half of his face with his hand. It was completely drenched with Matsu's arousal. Almost absently, he began licking his fingers clean. Much like the scent of her arousal, Matsu tasted very different from other women. She tasted surprisingly sweet, like honey almost. It was a most unusual flavor and not something he had ever tasted from a woman before. He wondered if this too was just another part of being a Sekirei.

As Naruto shifted into a more comfortable sitting position the tightness in his pants caused him to look down at his own arousal. That would need to be taken care of soon, either by pleasing himself or cooling down. Maybe he should take an ice bath or something?

Before his thoughts on how he would take care of his own sexual arousal, the door behind him slid open. There was a hiss of steel and Naruto suddenly found a blade grazing the left side of his throat over his shoulder. It was just barely touching his neck, merely grazing it, but he knew that may be subject to change at anytime.

Naruto cheered, accidentally bumping Hinata, causing her to go over the edge once more. Only her sharp panting was any clue to her true excitement of this scene. Since Kiba could smell what had happened, and what was happening throughout the scene, he went and brought the money pot to Naruto, who had given half to Hinata. Unfortunately she could not say anything because her orgasm was still coursing through her at the moment. She had unconsciously reached up and kissed Naruto square on the lips, before coming to her senses, turning red, and actually passing out. Anko amused that Hinata didn't make it either had set off some laughter, mainly from Matsu and Sakura, who were happy she didn't make it either. It did not take long for her to wake up, apologizing to Naruto for kissing him like that. He was still blushing and told her she did not have to apologize, because he liked it. Hinata almost passed out again. After a couple minutes to cool off a bit, the book continued.

"Miya," Naruto greeted casually as he continued cleaning his face and fingers. He didn't sound like he was particularly worried about the landladies presence.

"Naruto," Miya's voice was surprisingly calm. Normally when she was angry her voice would sound unnaturally pleasant, like she was talking to an old friend she had missed dearly. She must be incredibly upset if she was foregoing her usual method of terror. Then again, her usual method didn't really work on Naruto.

"I thought Matsu's room was sound proofed?"

"It is."

"Ah."

"This explains the title of the chapter. You are about to make it much worse, aren't you?" Naruto started grinning like a loon.

Naruto nodded his head, taking her answer to mean that she had her own listening device installed somewhere within this room. It almost made him wonder why she had waited until after he had finished pleasing Matsu to come in. Had she been away at the time and thus didn't hear them until they were almost finished? Or was there another reason for her coming in so late.

He supposed it didn't really matter, even though he was curious.

"Hey, Miya," the sound of Homura's voice came from somewhere beyond the door, though it sounded like the fire user was getting closer. "What are you ― oh! Oh gods!"

Anko started chuckling, she knows what is about to happen, and is eagerly waiting for it.

Naruto, being careful not to slice his throat open on Miya's blade, turned his head so he could see Homura standing behind Miya out of the corner of his eyes. The flame wielding Sekirei was standing just a little behind and to Miya's left. Homura's eyes were wide as saucers, his mouth was agape, and his cheeks had already surpassed Hinata red as he took in the scene before him.

Not that he could be blamed. Matsu was still lying on the ground, her form prone and her legs spread with him situated in between them. It was clear to anyone what they had been doing.

"You know I don't approve of illicit relations within Maison Izumo," Miya said, her voice still calm. Dangerously so. Homura was so, ahem, engrossed with what he was seeing ― it was like a car accident, no matter how much you wanted to look away you just couldn't ― that he didn't even seem to register the dangerous quality to Miya's voice.

"Yes."

Perhaps it was his answer, or maybe the way Naruto stuck another finger in his mouth and sucked it clean, but Miya seemed to get even more upset. Her grip on her blade tightened, the sound of leather creaking echoed with surprising loudness within the small room lit by several dozen monitors.

The chuckling started appearing all over the room.

This time, Homura did notice her reaction and backed away. Or tried to. He ended up bumping into Uzume, who had Chiho on her back. From the slightly disheveled appearance of their hair, Naruto judged they had just woken up from a nap.

"Oi, oi, what's going on here?" asked Uzume, curious to see what had caused the small gathering of people near Matsu's room was. She peaked over Homura's shoulder, Chiho looking with her, and managed to catch sight of Naruto sitting in between Matsu's legs.

While Chiho's face took on the shade of a red sun, Uzume took several seconds to gawk at Naruto and Matsu, before offering him a grin.

"Wow, bro! So one of your Sekirei finally broke down your will and got you to experiment with them, ne? I'm not surprised it was Matsu though. She's always been the biggest pervert I've ever met."

Uzume gave him a sly grin. There was a teasing glint in her eyes and Naruto knew he was going to catch flak for this from the busty brunette, especially after how he had stopped her from doing something with her Ashikabi numerous times.

"Though now I'm kind of upset at you. All those times you stopped me and Chiho-baby from having our fun ―"

The chuckles were upgrading to laughter.

"U-Uzume-chan!"

"― and here you are experimenting with our perverted hacker." She gave him a mock pout, completely ignoring the embarrassed shouting of her Ashikabi. "Really, I'm not sure you have a right to stop me from having my fun anymore."

"Uzume," Homura hissed warningly, his eyes locked on Miya. "I'm not sure now's the best time for this."

"Eh?" Uzume looked over at the fire user, her expression denoting confusion. "Why not?" In response to her question Homura simply pointed at Miya. Uzume's eyes went wide, and her face paled. "Oh..."

Miya was standing still as a statue. Even her breathing was so slow it was hard to tell she was a living being and not just a very realistic doll. But it was not the way the purplette stood still, nor was it the expression on her face that terrified Uzume and Homura.

Laughter was increasing, but this time the book got louder.

It was her presence, or lack thereof. Miya had always had a presence about her, a certain feel to her that commanded the respect of those around her. Even when she was posing as the kind landlady who was always willing to help anyone in need there was just something about Miya that made people show her deference and respect. Now it was gone. Her entire presence had simply disappeared. She was like a blank spot to their senses. They could see her, but they couldn't find her.

And it was utterly terrifying.

All of the sekirei stopped laughing at the description of Miya. Only the ninja were still lauging.

They didn't know what this was. Neither of the Sekirei even knew such a thing was possible. The thought that someone could just disappear from their senses entirely was a horrifying thought, and they did not have the experience to deal with it. Neither of them knew how this was possible.

Naruto did. As someone who had seen the best and most powerful warriors life had to offer, and someone who had fought those very same super powered beings, Naruto knew what had happened. It was a very rare ability that took years of training and experience to master.

All beings of great power have a presence that could be felt by those who were sensitive to such things. It was that 'presence', that aura that allowed shinobi of sufficient skill to sense an impending attack from their adversaries. When an enemy ninja or Sekirei would attack, their aura would spike with killing intent or at least the intent to harm, even Musubi. By sensing that spike in aura, a person could tell an attack was coming a split second before it happened, thus allowing them to avoid the attack entirely.

And that was why what Miya had done was so terrifying. Without that aura, that presence, it was impossible to sense what she would do next.

The ninja stopped as well, as that was actually an impressive thing to accomplish. Anko was still laughing, but that is just Anko. She lives for this kind of stuff.

It was actually impressive. Very impressive. While Naruto could do it that was only because he'd had several millennial of training his presence to disappear. In all his life there had only been one other person he knew who could cause their presence to vanish so thoroughly.

Uchiha Madara, the founder of the Uchiha Clan. Madara had been a master at utilizing his presence to the highest degree possible. At times he could make his presence so overwhelming that less experienced shinobi would simply drop dead of a heart attack, while at others he could cause his presence to disappear so completely you would be dead before you could even realize he was there. Aside from his overwhelming power and skills in battle, that had been one of the reasons he had been held up to as one of the most powerful ninja in the world, and why so many people feared him.

That Miya could do this spoke very highly of her abilities and experience as a warrior. It also served to further confirm his thoughts on her power. If there was anyone currently living who could have matched some of the best his era had to offer, it was this woman right here.

Tsunade's respect for the women, being already high, was going up even higher.

"What's everyone doing over here?"

Before his thoughts could go any further, Musubi, Akitsu, and Kusano walked up, the green girl in between her two sister Sekirei, holding their hands. The one who had spoken was, of course, Musubi.

"Why is Matsu-san sleeping so early in the day?" asked Musubi, ever the oblivious one. "Did she do some sparring too? She does look kind of tired..."

"Oh she's tired alright," Uzume grinned, snapping out of her fear thanks to Musubi's oblivious nature. "But it's not because she was sparring. Unless you count what she and bro here did as sparring."

The laughter picked up again, on both sided.

"U-Uzume-chan!" Chiho gasped, her already red face going redder. An impressive feat to be sure.

"Is now really the time for this?" asked Homura, still eyeing the stock still landlady fearfully.

"Ah," Akitsu cocked her head to the side as her eyes slowly took in the scene before her. She eyed Naruto, then Matsu, then Naruto again, and then her eyes went to the junction between Matsu's spread legs. She blushed. "No panties."

"No panties?" Musubi looked confused. She lifted her short skirt, thinking Akitsu might be talking about her. When she found out that it was not her and she had not forgotten to put on panties, she lifted Akitsu's longer skirt.

"Is she serious?" asked Uzume as she watched Musubi check to see who wasn't wearing panties. "She can't seriously not see what's going on here, right?" she looked over at Chiho, who was too busy being embarrassed by Musubi's lack of modesty to respond, then Homura who had pressed his palm against his face in exasperation. "Not even Musubi can be that oblivious."

"Don't be so sure on that one." Minato said in beteen laughing, and more laughing.

"Don't be so sure about that, Uzume," the fire user said, the sound of his voice muffled by his hand.

Still confused, the shrine maiden with strange pacifistically violent tendencies said, "We're both wearing panties. What are you talking about, Akitsu?"

"Matsu," was Akitsu's single word response.

"Matsu?"

Musubi looked over at Matsu and finally realized what Akitsu was talking about.

"Oh!" Musubi gasped in excited realization, her left hand forming a fist as he smacked it into the open palm of her right hand. "I see! Matsu-san isn't wearing panties! Wait..." As the knowledge that her computer hacking sister Sekirei wasn't wearing panties set in, Musubi scratched the back of her head in confusion. "Why isn't Matsu-san wearing panties?"

A groan and a face palm was given by Homura, while Uzume began chuckling at the naïve shrine maiden. At the same time, Chiho was looking utterly mortified. Her face was red enough to make a boiled lobster jealous, and Naruto would not have been surprised if steam started pouring out of her ears.

By this time everyone but Miya is laughing, but she does have most of her face hidden by her fan.

Miya remained eerily still.

"He heh," Uzume grinned. "I guess you're right, Homura. But then, that's Musubi for you."

Homura just sighed.

While all this was going on, little Kusano had managed to worm her way forward, pushing through the much larger Sekirei until she was standing in front of her onii-chan. The adorable tiny terror with the ridiculously strong teeth stared at her big brother with her large, innocent eyes looking confused.

"Ne, ne, onii-chan?" she said, getting the blond's attention. "Why is Ma-chan not wearing panties? Should I stop wearing panties too?"

For the first time since this entire fiasco had started, Naruto paled. He looked over at Miya, who for some reason seemed even more horrible and terrifying than she had several seconds ago, despite not having changed from her stiff, statuesque posture.

Shifts in perception based on the happenings going on around people really were an incredible phenomenon.

"I'm in trouble," was all Naruto could say.

"Yes," Miya said, speaking for the first time since the other Sekirei entered the scene. Her voice was just as void of emotion as her face. It was frightening enough that even Naruto was beginning to feel uneasy. "Yes you are."

Naruto was really beginning to hate Murphy.

By this time the laughter was roaring, but everyone could still hear the book crystal clear, even through the laughter. At this time, Sakura, Hinata, and Matsu took the opportunity to run back to their rooms for a change of clothes, before they all got dinner. Miya took Kusano to the side while eating to hear what she had to say, but all she had seen and heard was a board game they were playing after she was given a foot massage. She had thought the title of the chapter was the trouble Naruto had gotten into after being in the sewers. No one bothered to correct her. Sakura and Hinata and Matsu had all eaten together, most likely talking about that last scene, and probably trying to learn how Hinata was able to stay quiet the whole time. They were wondering who the others had in the position of the guy. They already knew Hinata had Naruto, while Matsu had Minato. But Sakura, they had assumed it was Sasuke. She said it wasn't, that it was actually Kiba. Kakashi, Naruto and Kiba all heard them, but neither said a single thing about it. Naruto and Kiba would talk to their ladies in private, but on another day or when they leave. That night, before they went to bed, Naruto did tell Kiba to take good care of Sakura and promised to do the same with Hinata.