Chapter 25

Naruto hopped up and down while looking in the mirror of the bathroom. The orange-yellow flames licking his body flickered with him. Touching his chest, he felt solid, but he was also so light that it was almost impossible to come to grips with. Using that chakra, he was so strong, so fast, so much better than he had ever felt in his life. Thinking back on it, that's how it always felt when using Kurama's power. It was just that he didn't have to worry about the all-encompassing negative emotion that went along with it.

"What are you doing?" Yugito asked, quite bemused by the sight in front of her. Her platinum locks were tussed and disorderly and there was already a yawn growing on her lips. All around her was after-the-fact glow. She was also wearing her birthday suit.

"This isn't normal, right?" Naruto asked, unable to keep from smiling. "Yours and Fu's chakra cloaks look like your tailed beasts' while mine looks… weird."

Yugito walked into the bathroom and draped her arms around his neck, pushing herself up on her toes so she could rest her chin on his head. "Guess so. But it fits you."

"Are you calling me weird?"

"You have five wives."

"There's a difference between being weird and being in a weird situation."

She slid her head down until her chin was on his shoulder and her mouth less than an inch from his ear. "Weird situations? Like how there's a gorgeous naked woman hugging you from behind and you're not ravaging her right now? No, you're totally normal."

He switched around suddenly, hugging her to his body and crashing his lips onto hers. They were so soft and warm and wet and full of love and want. Just the act of kissing her was already so great. He broke their contact so he could stare into her eyes. "Someone's getting a bit arrogant, aren't they?"

She ghosted his cheeks with the tips of her fingers. "I learn from the best."

He slapped her ass hard enough for the sound to resonate outside of the room. "And don't you dare forget it," he replied huskily.

Yugito playfully glowered at him, detaching and walking back into the bedroom that the bathroom was connected to. It was the only area in the entire compound that had somewhat complete furnishings and they were making good use of it on their way back to the hidden mist. "As much as I enjoy our time together," she said the word 'together' with a licentious lilt. "Try not to bother others, would you?"

Naruto followed her back into the room, where she was getting her clothes from the ground where they had been scattered and leaned on the frame. "How am I bothering others?"

"It doesn't take a genius to figure out the sound of an ass getting slapped, especially with the force you put into it." She stood up to look at him seriously. "As much as I put up a steely front for myself for years and years, it still made my heart pang with loneliness whenever I saw couples being overly showy in front of me. All else equal, I don't want to do the same to others."

One of his eyebrows quirked up. "Says the woman who was screaming at the top of her lungs last night. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that sound either."

"I wasn't screaming," she said dismissively as she slid her pants over her shapely ass, which Naruto couldn't help but to stare longingly at. It was so well formed, after all.

"You kind of were," Fu chimed in, muffled by the pillow resting over her head. "At least for the first part… and also the middle part… come to think of it, the last part was pretty loud too."

As she was finishing putting her shirt on, Yugito crossed her arms over her chest and looked back at Fu as if she was telling a bold lie. "I was in complete control of my voice. It barely ever rose above casual speech levels in terms of loudness."

Naruto and Fu shared a look and did their best not to burst out in laughter, something that Yugito took notice of. "What?" she asked, already on the defensive.

Fu was covering her mouth to stifle laughter whereas Naruto was openly chuckling. "I'm not sure if you're not remembering right or if you're just obfuscating, but you were very, very loud last night."

"I was not," Yugito snapped, face growing red. Perhaps she had, at times, raised her pitch slightly when the good parts came, but surely that was to be expected? And it was only slightly; there was no way that it could have been noticed by others outside the room.

"It's two against one here," Fu said, grinning like a wild woman. "You know, it's okay that you're a screamer. Especially since this is, like, what? The second time ever you've had sex. Probably the first time you've had good sex. Looked like you were 'tensing up' every ten seconds."

While Yugito did have to admit that last night was probably one of the best nights of her life, full to the brim of never-ending pleasure and fulfillment and a font of writhing love, she knew that she was in control through it all. She didn't drink. She didn't get high. She didn't seek out things that altered her state of mind because she put great stock maintaining a healthy and calm mental state without a speck of mindless overindulgence. It went without saying that she didn't lose herself to the pleasure last night.

"I do have to admit," Fu said, leaning back against the headboard completely exposed. "You were pretty good at the, uh, 'not straight' part of sex. You sure you haven't had any girlfriends?"

Yugito looked between her and Naruto. "I don't… remember really, err, 'engaging' with you all that much…"

Her eyes went wild with fury.

'MATATABI!' She mentally shouted, a look of rage on her face.

"Don't blame me for your lapses in memory, kitten," Matatabi drawled out amusedly. "She speaks the truth though. For all the times I accused you of being secretly a lesbian and you fervently denying me every time I asked, you were quite proactive with the girl."

Yugito felt her skin crawl a little bit. 'Please don't call her a girl. Especially considering I, apparently, had proactive sex with her last night.'

Naruto snapped his fingers in front of her, hoping to draw her from her daze. Her face had gone through a hilarious multitude of different expressions during the few seconds she had lost focus. "Earth to cat-woman."

Her focus snapped back on and she looked from Fu to Naruto a couple of times, doing her best to extrapolate the situation. She shook her head and walked to the door, leaning in to kiss Naruto on the cheek on her way out. "It was a really good night for me," she said, drawn away from any embarrassment they were expecting her to feel. "I love you. You too Fu. You can continue with your love-making. I'm getting breakfast."

And with nary a word edgewise, the door closed behind her, leaving Naruto and Fu alone to stare after her. "I'm not crazy, right?" Naruto asked.

"If you're crazy, then so am I. But there's no way she can't remember that. What, does she have selective amnesia?"

He shrugged. "Maybe she just got lost in it last night? It was similar for you for our first time, right?"

Fu played around with the idea in her head for a few seconds. "I don't know, maybe?"

Naruto clicked his tongue and looked at the closed door for a few seconds, pondering whether to after her or not.

But then he looked at Fu in her state of no dress and decided to make good on Yugito's suggestion of love-making.

00000000

Yugito sat down at the table with a muted clatter. She was tired and a little bit frazzled from the night before, so her motor functions were slightly off the mark, but she didn't think anyone noticed. She chose the table that Bee and his apprentices were sitting at, hoping to inform them more personally of the good news that transpired yesterday. It had been a bit of a whirlwind for all three Jinchuuriki, so only the barest of minimums was divulged. Now, however, she could take her time and fill in the details herself and catch up with the three of them.

Bee was lost in his writing and Omoi and Karui glanced at her for half a second each before returning to their meals. Somewhat perplexed by their cold response, Yugito stalled for half a second before greeting them. "Good morning," she said, nodding to each of them.

The two glanced up again and nodded at her, though they couldn't retain eye contact for long. Omoi managed a "morning" in return and Karui said nothing.

Yugito looked down at her food, tapping her fork against her tray. "D-Did you guys… sleep alright?" she was looking for small talk and probing for something that might be the matter with them at the same time. In the past they at the very least had a professional relationship with each other. She hadn't done anything to invoke their ire, had she?

They shared a knowing and went back to their food. "I don't think anyone slept well," Karui muttered right before getting nudged hard by Omoi.

Yugito waited for an explanation but no explanation came. "Was there… turbulence?"

The party could take a boat away from the turtle island and arrive at mist sooner, but after calculations taking into consideration of wind and currents, it would only be by a few hours. They all elected to stay on the turtle and make course for hidden mist. And the turtle hit choppy waters every now and then.

"Turbulence? Guess you could call it that," Karui muttered once again and, once again, getting a hard nudge from Omoi.

"Okay," Yugito said, setting her unused fork to the table with a resounding clang. "What did I do to you two? Why are you acting that way?"

The sudden clang seemed to rouse Bee from his state of writing the sickest of rhymes and brought his attention to Yugito. He started smiling ear to ear and slapped her on the back a few times. "Hey, Yugito, congratulations."

She looked at him oddly, feeling her heart start to go cold. "Congratulations on what?"

"Yo yo yo, little queen cat; getting pounced on in the sack; feeling the world go slack; and it all goes black. Whoa whoa whoa."

Yugito blinked, blood starting to rise to her cheeks. "What do you mean by that?" she asked, voice cracking slightly at the end.

"It means that everyone heard you last night," Karui blurted out.

Looking at her face, Yugito realized that there was the faintest of red tinges to the girl's skin. They'd both been blushing up a storm the entire time she had been sitting there. She just hadn't realized it since their skin was darker. "L-Like… You mean…"

Bee hummed appreciatively. "Sounded like you were having a real good time."

Her face was starting to turn an interesting shade of red. "D-Did we keep anyone up-"

"YES," Karui said, just interrupting the last part. "I was up for like three hours."

"Four," Omoi contributed.

"And I heard about it in the morning," Bee said, still grinning ear to ear. It made sense. He could sleep through the world ending

Yugito put her face in her hands and leaned on the table. "But I thought I was being so quiet."

"How could you think that?" Omoi asked.

"You were screaming as loud as you could," Karui added.

"I'm just happy you finally got fucked," Bee said.

She'd usually be angry at Bee's lewd comment, but couldn't find it in her to get the moral high ground on him. What was good for her, in that it spared her of further embarrassment, was that sounds of light moaning began to penetrate into the cafeteria even over the low din of morning conversation, leaving Yugito wide-eyed and staring at the hallway she had come from in leaving her room. "Does this place magnify the sound?" she whisper-yelled.

"The walls are just super thin," Karui said, cupping her head in her palm, drooping her eyes slightly. Thanks to Yugito, she wasn't the only one who hadn't slept last night.

00000000

Just as the sex was starting to hit the crescendo for Naruto and Fu, the door slammed open with Yugito in the doorway, red-faced and full of shame. "Everyone can hear you two," she said gravely.

They looked at her, still entwined and shiny with the slick of sweat on them. Naruto took a bit to catch his breath and process the information. "…Wait, if they could hear us when we're actually being quiet, then last night…"

Yugito held up a hand. "Just… no more sex, okay?"

Naruto and Fu started laughing hysterically.

00000000

Naruto landed feet first in the soft dune of sand, sending up a plume that got carried away by the wind. It was a beautiful day in the land hidden in mist and he was having a good time. When they weren't covered in rolling clouds of fog and mist, the beaches were downright gorgeous. Kurotsuchi was making a large sand castle, aided by her nature release. Fu was buzzing around the ocean surf, looking for pods of dolphins she could have fun with while Temari, Yugito, and Mei were further up the coast protected by an umbrella.

He looked to the sky and let a big smile cover his face. It was shaping up to be one of the best days he'd had in a while. Farther away, out of his earshot, was a less wholesome conversation.

"So how big is he anyway?" Mei asked, the most recent question in a line of grilling. Each one was more searching than the last, not that Yugito ever made a great effort to dodge them.

"What is up with you people and the length of his penis?" Yugito asked, genuinely perplexed. "Even if it was small, we could work around that. It's not a deal breaker."

"So it's not small?" Mei asked with an impetuous smirk.

Yugito sighed into her palm. "I didn't say it was big either."

"It's pretty big," Temari said with a smug smirk.

"You don't have a frame of reference," Yugito bit back.

"Neither do you."

"I've sex before."

"Once. That's not a sample size I can trust."

"Do you need a randomized double-blind trial too?"

"It would help."

Yugito clicked her tongue and laid back against a dune of sand, letting the sun rays warm her skin. She'd always wanted to get a tan and with the world almost at peace, it was as good a time as any. Sunglasses, bathing suit, inane chatter with her female friends (and sister wives, but that was a small detail). She felt like a damn civilian and damn if it didn't feel good. She only wished she would come out on top when talking with Temari more often. In the back of her mind, she wondered if that was how Naruto always felt when around her.

"What about you, Mei," Temari continued on. "What's the biggest you've taken?"

The kage in question took a moment to think. "Nothing that stands out if I think about it. There were a couple that were uncomfortable, so it wasn't a really good time. It's more about the man than the equipment by my approximation."

Yugito perked up. "You never answered my first question: why are you so interested in this?"

Temari put her hands behind her head and crossed one leg over the other. "I'm an adolescent girl in the prime of my sexual awakening. It's to be expected, no?"

"For some," Yugito said back, snidely, in reference to her stunted adolescence.

Temari shrugged. "It's to be expected for those forced into a marriage with four other women. Better?"

"You came around," Mei reminded her.

Temari nodded. "And I'm very glad I did," she said as she looked across the sands at her lover as he splashed and ran through the water, trying to kick up a splash large enough to glance across Fu as she routinely swept down. He was laughing and Fu was too. It made her heart flutter just looking at him, happy as all hell. It had been horrible for her to see him depressed. Knowing that it only lasted a few days did mitigate it, though. Fu too, for that matter.

Speaking of…

"Yugito," Temari said. Her voice had lost its playfulness.

The two tailed Jinchuuriki, lowered her sunglasses and looked in the girl's direction. "Yes?"

"Thanks for taking care of Naruto and Fu," she said with an unexpected waver in her voice. From across the beach, he noticed them looking at him and he waved back, beaming like a bright light in a dark room.

Yugito brought her sunglasses back up and turned back to the ocean. "Don't thank me for that," she said softly. "I didn't do it for you. And I didn't do it for me."

"But you still did it. And I'm grateful for that."

"You would've done the same."

"Correct," she said, nodding. "I would have. But I wasn't there. You were."

"You look out for him too."

Mei snickered at the two of them as they spoke. "Listen to you two. We don't have to be thanked and praised for looking out for each other. It's what we do. We're family, aren't we?"

The two of them had to think about that for a few seconds. "I don't know," Yugito said. "I've never had a family before. Is this what it feels like?"

Temari shrugged. "Don't look at me. My family was just about as fucked as one could get."

"I didn't have one either," Mei said, standing up to walk over to the water with Naruto and Fu. "But I don't think it really matters. We're together now, and that's all that really matters."

With Mei having vacated their sunning spot, only Temari and Yugito remained in a somewhat terse, awkward silence.

Temari looked across at the sunning cat woman, a small smirk coming to her lips. "He is pretty big though."

"Oh, it's huge."

"I needed more than one ruler to measure it."

"You used a ruler? Amateur."

"What did you use?"

"My own body. And even then, if I was any shorter, I would have had to call Fu over. One Yugito and a tenth of Fu, that's how big he is."

"Some might call that well-endowed."

"I call it an average Saturday over in cloud."

Temari and Yugito burst out laughing over their ridiculous exchange.

Family, huh? That was a good thing to have.

00000000

"Are you sure that's a sand castle?" Naruto asked Kurotsuchi as she blasted another round of quicklime into her work. It was taller than her and wider than a shack already, and it didn't look to be even close to being done yet either.

"What would you call it?" She asked back. She was wearing a sports bra and spats, the only thing she had even remotely sea-worthy. As she was from a land of scraggy mountains, there was a very small amount of places to go to get recreationally wet, and even smaller reasons to spend money on high-priced swimsuits. Seriously, she could buy ten swimsuits in the land of water for the price of a bikini top in hidden rock. It was ridiculous.

"Well…" he said, appraising the 'sand castle' for what it was. It was abstract, that was for sure, lacking any actual physical characteristics that looked like anything he had seen before. "It's more like a sculpture," he decided on. "Or even a statue."

She crossed her arms over her chest and took a step back to appraise it as well. "It's not like I was specifically going for a castle anyway, so I guess that's pretty accurate."

"Anything I can do to help make it come into reality?"

She bit the side of her cheek in thought for a few seconds. "Not much. Just stand there and look pretty, like you always do."

He put his hands on his hips out of mock indignation. "I do more than look pretty sometimes."

"And I didn't say you didn't," she said before dousing the sculpture in a blast of water, making the quicklime dust expand and harden. "Just said that you're usually pretty when you're doing it."

He put his hands behind his back and pranced around a little bit. "Aw, you flirt. You know exactly how to make my heart thump, don't you?"

She crossed her arms behind her back and shot back a beaming grin, much like the one he normally wore. "You know, if you play your cards just right, I might even consider bringing you back to my place tonight. Show you what it's like to be with a real woman."

"Aw, shucks," he said, batting his pretty boy eyelashes at her. "Though it sounds so very tempting, I must admit, I'm married."

Kurotsuchi barked out a burst of laughter. "Yeah, you are. To me."

He nodded his head a little bit while he thought out that piece of logic. "That point you made right there… it's not wrong."

"Yeah…" she said, turning her focus back to the sculpture she'd been spending the better part of an hour on already. "But it's not quite right either."

Naruto's exuberance faltered slightly. There was something being left unsaid by the two of them and they both knew it somewhere in their beings. 'How do you feel about me?' It was very important and yet still not the most important, so it went unsaid. But it should be said and Naruto knew that. He could ask directly and hopefully get a direct answer. That was his first instinct to do, but something was holding him back from doing it.

Because if she loved him and she spoke it and she made it real, he couldn't pretend they were just friendly anymore. He couldn't face her the way he'd been facing her before. And how did he feel about her anyways?

The worst part of the scenario was that he couldn't puzzle out her feelings for him just by their interactions. What was the level of intensity? They were ambiguous and amorphous. He wanted to just stand still, look her in the eyes, and ask her dead on.

"So why don't you?"

At least the voice wasn't booming and snarling and vicious. That was a plus. The fact that it wasn't making a bad point was making him wish that it was, in fact, booming and snarling and vicious. It would've been easier to ignore if it was.

'Because… I like being friends with her. And after I ask her that, the situation can go anywhere from there.'

Kurama considered that for a moment or two. Interaction wasn't quite his forte and yet he knew rotten reasoning when he saw it. Well, maybe not rotten. Perhaps it was just too human.

"If she does love you, then talking to you like she is, is just causing her pain."

Naruto made a face and looked to the side, towards the surf and where Fu and Mei were playing. 'How the hell…'

"Don't forget I see everything you do. More, probably. Your interactions are too easy to understand. Knowing what to do after is a matter of course."

'I know what I should do, but doing it's harder that you think.'

Kurama knew that he didn't know how to respond to that. So he didn't. He just watched some more and paid extra attention, exactly what he'd been doing lately.

Naruto turned back to look at Kurotsuchi. She'd been using more chakra and was somewhat exerted because of it. A small sheen of sweat glistened off her skin, tracing the lines on her body where the toned muscle was visible. She swept her hair back over her scalp and put her hands on her knees, breathing slightly harder and staring at the sculpture in front of her intently. As she bent over, the material around her legs stretched a little bit, accentuating her rear quite nicely. A breeze swept over both of them, chilling the moisture on their skin. Her nipples perked up underneath her sports bra.

Naruto looked away, a blush starting to stain his cheeks and blood rushing to familiar places. It was weird how such a normal occurrence could look so erotic to him.

"You okay?" she asked, noticing his new, somewhat uncomfortable state. Her lips were parted a little bit and hadn't seemed to have noticed the fact that her nipples were pointing through the fabric. A sudden urge to perform the most carnal and indulgent actions coursed through him for a fraction of a second.

Yup. He was attracted to her. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. He needed to talk to Temari, Fu, and Yugito. He needed to… what did he need to do? He liked being friends. But his imagination was sending him different messages. What did he want more? And more importantly, how did she feel?

He nodded after a lengthened pause. "Yeah, I'm good," he said. The blond tried to say something more, but his words got caught in his throat.

She noticed that and raised and eyebrow, putting her hands on her hips and shifting her weight to her back foot. "You sure about that?"

What did she sound like? Playful? Flirtative? It was hard to tell. And Naruto wasn't in the rightest of minds to be trying to figure it out. "Do you like me?" he asked. He didn't cringe or berate himself afterwards. He needed to know. It wouldn't be good at all if they went on and he didn't know. Clarity was an odd thing and came at odd times. He never thought it could happen when he was at half-chub.

A huff of air escaped her lips. "Yeah." She said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Of course I do."

He smiled a little bit and brought a hand to the back of his head, chuckling a little bit. "Yeah, yeah. It uhh… well, I don't know. Things've been happening too quickly and… I haven't really been talking to you that much, so I just…"

"Hey," she interrupted his rambling with ease. "We're friends, right? You were feeling bad and… well, I knew the most I could do was to be there for you. Shame I couldn't get on the turtle, but everything shaked out, right? You got a handle of your stuff, got some cool glowey powers, a new sexual partner-"

"It's not…" He interrupted. He felt a little bit defensive on that. But it wasn't obvious how serious she was either. "It's not just that…" Naruto finished lamely.

A knowing smile was all she had to give him, but capped it off with "You don't have to put up any walls around me. You should know that."

And he did know that. And he desperately wanted that. He wanted a good friend to laugh and jest with. But he also wanted to wile the hours away with her, tangling in a sexual embrace. God, what did he want from her?

00000000

Naruto let out a deep breath from the bottom of his stomach and took another swig from the jar of milk by his side. The night was beautiful, especially so from his position on the deck of a wooden lodge facing the sea. The wood was cool underneath his legs and the wind would pick up every now and then, rustling the leaves in the tree and the hair on his head. The stars were out in full view, so much so that he could see the splotch of stars making up the galaxy in the sky. He couldn't see the moon; it was either behind him or covered by the planet. There was an eternal sound of the water splashing on the sand out in the distance.

His lungs were still stinging from use and his muscles were loose and well-used. If after-glows were visible, he'd be beaming.

And yet, he couldn't sleep. Not even after an hour of laying with Yugito and Fu and Temari, all of whom were exceptionally good sleeping partners. Something was keeping him up, so he grabbed some cold milk and sat on the deck.

He could sense the footsteps coming up behind him, but he already knew who they were even without seeing the owner of them. He knew who they were instinctually, somehow, even though he hadn't spent all that much time with them. It was odd how intimate he was with them; all of them in fact.

Mei sat down next to him with her legs crossed, leaning back on her hands to look at the same view he was. "It was the people I was fighting for, not the scenery," she said first, her voice as soft as the wind through a bird's feathers. "But the scenery really helped," she said with a slight laugh towards the end.

He nodded. "I like it."

She leaned over and nudged his elbow with her, a knowing smile stretching her lips. "Long day, huh? Even longer night, by the sounds of it."

He grinned a little bit and shrugged. "I like it," he repeated.

"Of course you do, you lady killer."

"I don't know about that," he said, shaking his head. He let out another long breath of air. "I have no idea how I ended up here. And I don't know if it's going to last."

Mei closed her eyes and let in a deep breath of the salty air. "I think it will," she decided on. "If anyone here led even a little bit of a normal life, there wouldn't be a snowball's chance in hell that this could continue on realistically. But… you all love each other. I think it'll work out."

He puckered his lips a little bit, squinting his eyes off in the horizon. "And… how do you… you know, feel about me?"

"You're probably one of the best men I know," she said without missing a beat. "Err… boy? Right now, you're in the area between those two, but it doesn't change my sentiment."

Naruto laughed a little bit, disbelief evident in the air. "Really? What's so good about me?"

"It would easier to count your negative attributes than to count your positive ones, if that helps. Positive, unyielding, kind, strong, altruistic, funny – though I'm not quite a fan of your humor, I know others are –, you always give people another chance, you always look for a solution to a problem that involves the least amount of people getting hurt…"

"But… that's just what people are supposed to do, isn't it?" Naruto asked, interrupting.

Mei's smile turned slightly morose. "And you always see the world for how it should be rather than how it is. Just don't sell yourself short, howabout?"

"Okay," he said, nodding. "I get it. I'm pretty cool... Today was a good day, wasn't it?"

Mei giggled. "Would it be sad if I said it was probably the best day I've had in my life?"

"Eh, just goes to show how great it was."

The Mizukage nodded and let her eyes glaze over slightly. "I'm going to miss this."

"We'll go back to it," Naruto said resolutely. "Once everything's all said and done, we'll come back here every vacation we can get and have fun just like today."

Mei looked over to him to make eye contact. It was hard to read her face. It was hard to read her eyes. "Careful with your promises. I just might believe them."

Naruto shot a beaming smile at her. "What kind of person do you take me for? I don't go back on my promises."

Mei turned back to the rolling surf and the galaxy of stars. "Jiraiya's coming for you tomorrow, right? Sage training?"

Naruto nodded. "That's right. Hopefully I'll be done and join the rest of everyone in the land of iron before the talks start. Then we'll kick swirly-face's ass, bring peace to the world, and everyone will be happy for the first time in a very long time."

"And I thought I sounded idealistic."

"You gotta have something, right?"

Acting a bit impetuously, Mei sidled up to his side and rested her head on his. They sat there for a time, resting and taking in the scenery