Sorry this is so late, espcially to those who I told this would be coming out last week =p I cam down with a bug and my beta was delayed by a trip to a hopsital, though most of the blame falls on my head, so yeah L worked together to delay this pretty badly. So sorry. That said, here you go, hope you enjoy ^^
Kurenai's brows furrowed. Like the rest of the Jōnin, she'd been informed of Naruto's bloodline the day it had shown itself. She had also been informed about it's apparent Sharingan-like ability to record anything Naruto saw. However, she'd only been told about the decision to enact the CRA yesterday, and she was assuming Naruto had learnt about it then too. He had already managed to find another girlfriend in less than a day?! Had he already been shopping around?! Her teeth ground in righteous fury for her little sister. From the stories she'd heard, Naruto didn't seem the sort, but the evidence was right there in front of her. Her gaze flickered back to Hinata and softened, though the fury was still burning in her crimson orbs. Had she known about it? She looked like she had. Why?! Had Naruto been taking advantage of Hinata's submissive nature? Her hand twitched through the first dozen hand signs of her signature illusion; Tree Binding Death. "Explain." she managed to grind out, she was a Jōnin, it wouldn't do for her to act rashly. Though if Naruto was as bad as she now suspected, then nothing would save him from her wrath.
Naruto and Ino had been a little caught up with each other, and Hinata in her sudden possessiveness, so none of the illusion mistress' charges had noticed the anger spreading over the woman's features. Turning to face her, Naruto blanched as he held out his hands shaking them in front of him in some attempt to ward off the angry woman, "Didn't Hinata-chan tell you? I'm part of the CRA so this is ok!" he defended. Although silently thankful of Hinata and Kyuubi for ensuring he was able to understand what was angering Kurenai.
"And when exactly would she do that?" Kurenai snapped, taking a mental breath to calm herself. It wouldn't be becoming for her to go off on a genin without a real reason.
That gave Naruto pause as he glanced back at Hinata, "I thought you guys met up most weeks?" he questioned, his brow creasing in a frown.
His confusion certainly seemed genuine to Kurenai, and her anger diffused further; there was obviously some kind of problem here, it didn't add up.
Hinata's cheeks were red as she glanced to his side, "Ummm I d..d..id.. didn't tell k..k..Kurenai-sensei abo..about the CRA." she admitted. She'd told herself it was fine and pushed it to the back of her mind. It wasn't something she really liked to think about, and liked even less now Naruto and his relationship with Ino were being all put pushed into her face.
The Jōnin glanced between the two as something clicked in her head "How long have you known about it?" she asked, careful to keep her voice clean of anything but curiosity. It was clear now that the pair had known about the CRA for a while.
"Since the night of the graduation test." Naruto replied with a shrug. "Why?" He'd heard the announcement earlier, but he'd figured everyone had been told when he'd found out, if not earlier since he had been in the hospital.
Ahh, well that made sense that he'd known for a few weeks. Still, it was a little fast to pick up a second girlfriend in her opinion, but no longer the abhorrent behaviour she'd previously suspected. "It's nothing, just curious." she waved off the question, noting that Naruto was still clearly curious and her deflection seemed to have only made him more so. She'd need to talk with Hinata alone at some point and find out what the girl really felt about this, and have a little talk with Naruto about making sure Hinata was happy.
Ino was shocked to hear Naruto had known about the CRA for so long. She'd been in the dark until he'd told her, and it seemed like this Jōnin had been too. It slightly rubbed her the wrong way that her two team-mates had managed to keep such a juicy thing from her for this long. "So is that it?" she asked, in her mind this was just a sort of meet and greet style thing and it was clear that everyone seemed to know each other fairly well. Well she didn't know Kurenai but it was pretty clear the other two did and she seemed alright from the little she'd seen of her so far.
Kurenai was silent as she considered the question, she'd planned this intro as a way to see her team's dynamic and to get to know Naruto and Ino. Though she was slightly ashamed to admit she was more intently focused on Naruto, considering his closeness to Hinata, and everything she'd heard of the boy from the shy heir. "I was planning to use this time to let you all get to know each other but you seem to have done that already." she grinned "So I think I need to change my plan a little, how much do you now about each other's ninja abilities?"
Naruto grinned widely "I know what Hinata-chan can do!" he volunteered quickly, radiating pride in his girlfriend, "She's really good with her Gentle Fist, she almost managed to defeat Iruka-sensei during our test!"
Kurenai raised an eyebrow as Hinata shrunk back shyly from the spotlight Naruto's praise had thrown her into. She knew Iruka in passing and he was a good ninja, a solid Chûnin, he must have been holding back a fair bit for any genin, even for a Hyuuga like Hinata, to match him. Well it was just the academy test so that made sense, asking students to fight a Chûnin was just expecting too much. Surprisingly Ino gave a small nod as she remembered that short spar. The Jōnin had seen their academy grades and she knew Hinata had done very well in her taijutsu section but Naruto was the type to exaggerate his stories. Had the training Hinata had done with Naruto really improved the girl that much? No, Hinata might have improved but the girl couldn't be Chûnin level. Still she couldn't voice her scepticism, Hinata's ego was already fractured and she refused to hurt her little sister by speaking up like that. She knew Hinata-chan could be a good, even a great ninja, if she gained to confidence to back up her natural talent and moved away from the ill-suited, rigid, stances of traditional gentle fist. "And Ino?" the Jōnin asked Naruto.
At this Naruto paused and frowned softly, he new a little, "I've never really trained with Ino." he admitted, "So I don't know her abilities too well." his Hyuuga princess had proved a more than capable distraction for ninety percent of the academy exam too, so he hadn't really seen how the Yamanaka heir had fared the test either. Still, you didn't go through the entire academy with someone without at least getting a rough outline of what they could do. "She's decent with throwing weapons and middle of the class in taijutsu, like me she uses the academy style." he paused for a moment "Her clan has a bunch of mind techniques, though I don't know too much about them." he'd certainly had first hand experience with them, and Kyuubi seemed to be trying to unravel how they worked so she could build a defence against them. But with the precious little information she had, the ancient fox really had her work cut out for her there.
Ino deflated a little as she noted Naruto's tone, he didn't have the same breathless pride in her abilities as he had with Hinata's. It stung. Why she cared so much about what the boy thought she didn't really know; she'd never planned, or wanted to impress someone with her ninja techniques. She had her looks and those should be enough. Although in the back of her mind that voice that wasn't her own yet was hers whispered that she was letting her Naruto down, she needed to get strong to defend him! To look after him! She needed to get stronger! Get free! That last though made her brow crease, free? Why had she thought that? Free from what? It was then her gaze met Kurenai's questioning one; the Jōnin silently asking the young blonde if Naruto's assessment was accurate. Ino gave a small nod of agreement, she was ok with the basic three academy jutsu, but it was nothing to write home about so she didn't feel the need to tack anything onto Naruto's list.
"And Naruto?" Kurenai asked glancing between the girls curiously, she knew all of their abilities from their files and it was interesting to see what they knew, or thought, about each other. "Not you, your team-mates." she added as she noted Naruto opening his mouth to tell her about his own accomplishments.
"He's good at taijutsu." Hinata spoke up softly, refusing to meet their eyes as she did so, "When we spar he always beats me."
"But you're still better!" Naruto hastened to correct Hinata's statement. He was proud of his abilities, gained through training with Kyuubi, but he'd seen time and time again that he was no match for Hinata's gentle fist. In the end he always won because Hinata was still too timid to go for any truly serious blows, even in sparring. Her hesitation in attacking her crush usually resulted in her loss. It was something Naruto had been working hard to break her out of. He knew how awesome the Hinata could be, and he hated how weak she thought she was.
Kurenai's lips tugged upwards a little at the sight before her, watching as Hinata's back straightened just a little. Naruto really could be good for her. At least if the CRA didn't bring everything crashing down.
Ino, likewise, felt her lips tug up slightly as she watched them interact. She'd seen how good of a couple they made, and the more she saw them together the stronger that conviction became. Yet somehow she was finding it harder and harder to be jealous of Hinata because of it, harder to convince herself that she needed to tear them apart. Naruto could have them both right? The CRA said it was ok and it was natural for a man to have more than one girl? Wasn't it? Slowly Kyuubi's own ideas of mating and courtship were leaking out and becoming Ino's. Her thoughts becoming far more open to sharing and to forming a pack, rather than taking Naruto for herself. Still it would be a while before they took hold permanently rather than surfacing in these moments of empathy for what she was planning to destroy for her own desires. "I also saw you do clones without a hand-sign" Ino spoke up, remembering Naruto's display. She never had asked him about that. "Our teachers said that was like an ANBU skill, how did you do it?"
"It's not an ANBU skill," Kurenai corrected off-handedly. "It's usually Jōnin level for the more basic jutsu, though removing all the hand signs is quite rare." She let her distinctive red eyes land on the blonde boy, "I will admit I'm curious about that too, how did you learn to do that?" she'd seen the report on the incident with the scroll of sealing, the edited, non-classified version at least. Naruto had picked up basic chakra string manipulation, the basis of Suna puppetry. Not a dangerous technique but forbidden simply for the diplomatic problems that could emerge if Konoha was discovered to be training its own puppeteers. It was possible that technique had given the boy the inspiration to try removing his hand-signs from other techniques, but even if that were the case he couldn't possibly have had the time to master such a technique. It took years of practice familiarising yourself with a jutsu to be able to cast it sealless without wasting huge swathes of chakra.
All eyes turned to Naruto who chuckled and bashfully and rubbed the back of his head. If it had been something learnt simply because it was cool then he would have been all too happy to brag about it, but his sealless clones were a crutch to waste the vast amount of chakra he poured into the technique. Bragging about that would be like bragging about the cool crutch he needed to walk on his broken leg. "Well you know I have a ton of chakra, right?" He asked, knowing he wasn't getting away without an explanation, and not wishing to lie to his girlfriends or his teacher. She might even be able to offer him a way to help his control without also increasing his reserves. Kyuubi-chan admitted freely she understood relatively little about human chakra techniques; though now it was important to someone she cared for she was rapidly learning.
Kurenai and Hinata nodded, Kurenai knew of the boy's burden, and so understood exactly why his reserves were so high, whilst Hinata was a Hyuuga and whenever she had her eyes activated she could see he crush's strength. The young blonde radiated chakra, bright enough to almost be painful to look at directly. Ino nodded too, though she was more hesitant. She'd heard in passing that Naruto had a ton of chakra; but she had no way of confirming it like Hinata, nor had she seen any real proof of it.
"Well because of it my chakra control is really bad. Like really bad." He continued, Kurenai nodding her head in understanding. That made sense; large reserves often did make precise control difficult. The Jōnin wasn't exactly sure where her male ninja was going with this explanation though. "Some of the basic techniques were pretty easy." Naruto continued. Henge had come naturally, as if he were remembering an old trick rather than learning something new. "But I could never manage a good clone, turned out I was pumping waaaay too much chakra into the technique and that was causing it to fail." He gave another bashful chuckle, "I found this out like a few days before the exam, which is why I really didn't have time to work around it properly. So I figured if I cut out hand signs most of the chakra I pumped in would be wasted and so I wouldn't end up overloading it."
Kurenai's eyes widened in shock. That was brilliant! He was using the sealless jutsu like a safety valve to blow off the excess chakra? In the field that would just be sticking a beacon over her team for any chakra sensors within a mile to come find them, but for a genin that was truly a remarkable piece of lateral thinking. Just the sort of mind someone needed to be a true practitioner of her art. "That was a good idea Naruto-kun." she agreed with a nod "But we'll definitely have to work on your control until you can use your clones without having to resort to such measures."
Naruto nodded eagerly, "Cool! When can we start?!" he was hungry to learn any and all ninja techniques he could get his hands on. His love of awesome jutsu remained the strongest motivator, but chakra control was working towards Kyuubi teaching him those six or seven S-ranked jutsu she claimed to know and the young boy was all too eager to rush towards that particular prize. They were S-ranked! They had to be awesome!
Kurenai suddenly felt a little bad about getting the boy's hopes up, after all they hadn't passed her test yet. They might just be sent back to the academy. She was hesitant to fail Hinata, but it was better that than sending her into the field unprepared to be killed or worse. "Well if you want me to train you," She smiled almost teasingly. "you had better pass the true test tomorrow."
