Naruto sighed quietly as he worked on the mission Kurenai had been given for them that day: Fixing the wall to a fence.
True enough, he was getting it done and would no doubt be paid for it, but it seemed harder, seeing as whenever he looked at Ino she would give him a short glare before returning to her own job.
It didn't feel the same with the way his blond teammate was ignoring him everytime he tried to get her to talk to him, not to mention Sakura, who was as confused as Naruto was over Ino's attitude today.
Naruto had little doubt that, if Sakura was taking note of Ino's behavior, Kurenai was probably as well.
Finally, Kurenai had moved Sakura to another art of the fence they were working on that Naruto felt safe enough to talk to Ino. "Ino-chan?", Naruto whispered, making the girl growl at him warningly. "I have nothing to say to you Naruto!", Ino whispered back as she kept working.
"But Ino-chan. I don't understand why you are so angry?!", Naruto asked as Ino huffed before looking at him with a glare. "Of course you don't! I wouldn't think you would! Why do you care anyway! You have a girlfriend to keep up with, don't you? don't let ME give you any reason to keep away from her!", Ino growled through her teeth as she turned back around to keep hammering a stubborn nail.
"Ino-chan, I'm asking because I do care why are you so… wait, are you angry about Tenten-chan and me dating?", Naruto asked slowly, unsure if he was right or wrong. Why would Ino be angry about such a thing anyway? It wasn't like she actually liked him more then what she had said in the hotspring anyway.
In response, Ino turned and glared at him like when she first saw him that morning. "Me? Why would I care if you chose some bun-haired girl over me?! You can fuck her for all I care! In fact, fuck you, Naruto!", Ino yelled barely low enough for no one else to hear as she hit the nail so hard it almost shattered the wood. She grabbed her things and stormed off to another part of the wall to work.
'Man, why is Ino-chan so angry all of a sudden?', Naruto thought to himself as he rubed the back of his head. 'This isn't good for the team, let alone me. I better talk to Kurenai-sensei, she knows us better then anyone… and maybe Tenten-chan, too.', Naruto decided as he worked on his part of the wall resumed.
A hour later, Naruto and the team stood before their sensei as she nodded to each of them. "Good work team, now: Ino, Sakura, you two are excused. Naruto, I need to speak to you about something, so hang back, got it?", she instructed as each of her charges nodded affirmatively.
Ino looked to Naruto before saying "I'll be over at nine, to drop what I borrowed off.", she said as she gave one last angry look to him and stomped off, leaving the rest of her team to stare at her. "Well, I'm off too Naruto... I'll see you at five, I guess...", Sakura said before walking off for home herself.
Kurenai shook her head a bit as she looked at him. "Come on Naruto, follow me.", Kurenai ordered as Naruto followed after her, quickly falling in beside her. The two walked silently, not a word passing between them as the walked to Kurenai's apartment.
After they walked into the cozy looking living room and Kurenai shut the door, Naruto turned to his teacher and said "Um… Kurenai-sensei there's something I have to talk to you about.", Naruto said, sounding a bit serious as his teacher stared at him. "Tenten-chan from Gai-sensei's team told us the Chunin exam is coming up soon, are you going to put us in it?", Naruto asked.
Kurenai shrugged before saying "I have to admit Naruto, I have mixed feelings about that. You guys have been suprisingly well in working together, but to be honest todays work between you and Ino was less then encouraging.", Kurenai said honestly, making Naruto nod.
"That's the other thing I want to talk to you about, Kurenai-sensei. I think Ino-chan's angry with me.", Naruto told his teacher, who raised an eye at that. "Naruto, why would Ino be mad with you? I have never seen you do anything to make them angry or upset on purpose, by most standards, you're a real gentlemen,", Kurenai commented.
Naruto felt he had to come clean with Kurenai here. "It might be because me and Tenten-chan started dating, Ino-chan found out and started getting colder since last night when I said something along those lines.". Naruto looked at his Teacher questioningly. She had to know what was going on, after all, she was a girl, no, a woman too. "What's going on, sensei?", Naruto asked as Kurenai gave him a thoughtful look.
Kurenai sighed. She saw how much faith Naruto was putting in her now to figure out Ino's feelings. She was touched too that he was so considerate about the girls feelings as well, but there was only so little to do. "Well, I am not too sure about Ino's feelings. You can probably tell me more about this, can't you?", she asked him.
'Crap!', Naruto thought. There was no way he could tell his teacher (who he had already fucked on more than one occasion, that he was fucking two other girls and was getting close to doing that with both of his teammates... was there? Naruto decided to try and tell Kurenai a little white lie. "I-I don't know what you mean, Kurenai-sensei.", Naruto tried to talk his way out of the question.
Still, Kurenai was persistent. "For one, I know a lot about you guys, but not everything. Then, Ino wouldn't have a reason to be mad at you from what I see. Or would she?", she reasoned. But that exactly was the question that plagued Naruto. "Tell me what that all 'I'll see you later'-talk from both Sakura and Ino was about, Naruto.", Kurenai asked.
Naruto started to sweat. So she had heard all that. Now, he figured it made no sense to keep on hiding the truth from Kurenai. So, Naruto told her everything. How he had agreed to 'teach' first Ino and later Sakura. How he had come to his relationship with Tenten and how Hinata joined in later... he told her everything that had happened since the day he had become a Genin.
Naruto looked at Kurenai after he had spilled the beans, expecting any reaction. Strangely though, she just looked at him for a few moments with a blank expression. Then, she laughed out. "W-W-What's wrong, Kurenai-sensei? This is not funny!", he protested while Kurenai went into a full-blown laughing fit.
Eventually, Kurenai finally calmed down a little (she still kept on giggling though), she came around to answer Narutos question. "Yes... yes, it is... you are a real little player, aren't you?", she stated teasingly. Then, she cleared her throat in an attempt to regain her composure, with modest success. "I must say, I haven't really expected this, but now I gotta say, it's not a real surprise.", his sensei admitted.
Kurenai looked at Naruto, a certain amusement still present in her eyes. "So, you have quite a following already... Hinata, Tenten, Ino and Sakura...", she listed them. The woman whistled in admiration. "A nice eye you got there, too. I can really tell you, they will all be beauties in the future. And they're all your age, too.", Kurenai said.
But something was odd with the mood right now... was Kurenai seeming depressed? Naruto was a little slow when it came to this, but even he could tell that something bothered her. "What are you getting at, Kurenai-sensei?", he asked her.
"I'm just thinking that you really should look for girls your own age instead of being hung up on your teacher. So, I'm glad, you know?", she told him and put on a more or less fake smile, one that Naruto could see right through.
"Don't say that, Kurenai-sensei! I think you're really pretty! I don't care if you're older or my teacher, you're still really sexy!", Naruto protested.
Kurenais fake smile disappeard for a moment to be replaced by an expression of wonder, but then, the smile returned, but this time real and warm. "You really know how to talk to me, huh? Thank you, Naruto...", she said and gave him a kiss on his forehead, a sign of her appreciation of Naruto.
Naruto also liked the gesture, but the problem remained. "So, what should I do about Ino-chan?", he asked again.
This time though, Kurenai smiled. "Don't you worry about her... you go and have your fun with Sakura-chan, and I will call her here for a little talk before she comes over to you. I think I have a pretty good idea of what is going through her head right now, so just leave it to me!", she told him confidently.
"Alright, thanks a bunch, Kurenai-sensei! You're the best!", he exclaimed, jumping up and down. He was certain, if Kurenai-sensei handled things, it would turn out alright.
"Don't mention it. Now go, you wouldn't want to keep Sakura-chan waiting!", she said with a smile.
With that, Naruto said his goodbyes to his teacher and took off to get home before Sakura would be there. He was anxious how this day would turn out, but with a little bit of luck, it would turn out right.