From Ramen with Love

by Ryushi-the-DutchEroSennin

With help from Ayame, Naruto manages to become closer to the girls, but now he has just one big problem. Naruto can't decide which girl he likes the most. Humor, Romance and Mayhem unfolds as Naruto is trying to find his love. NaruHarem

10. Chapter 10: A Day Beyond Expectations

A/N: Hey all! How is it going with all of you? A couple of things I'd like to adress, the first being the most important most likely. I'm sorry for the late, late update...I really am, but I had a couple of things distracting me in life and thus it took me a whole lot longer to write this chapter than normally. However, the good news is that it's my second longest chapter. ever! Can someone say '20k words chapter'? I can XD! Er...Yeah... well...Enough fooling around about that! It's again time to thank all the readers and reviewers. Why? Caus you guys rule and From Ramen with Love has passed the 200 reviews mark! woot! So thank you all for reviewing and reading of course : )

As for Chapter 11, I don't know WHEN it will be done, but I hope, like all of you I guess, that it will be doon soon. Very, very soon. Also, this chapter will be quite random, though not as in a 'wtf is this shit' randomness...After re-reading the chapter, I had more than a few laughs, so you all be warned XP.

One last thing for the people amongst us who like webcomics. I recently started making my own Final Fantasy sprite webcomic (I'm sure there are people amongst you that will think "Pfft...8-bit theatre rip-off!" but it's an original story concept and I haven't stolen anything from 8-BT...well...maybe one Black Mage Hadoken but I'm trying to learn how to make one on my own!...damned Hadoken -.- ) so if you care to take a look at it, the link to the site is in my profile : )

Now with all being said and done, my thanks to all who support me and my writing and all that stuff, there is only one thing left to say:

Now on with the story!

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Chapter 10: A Day Beyond Expectations

"Geez...Finally done..." Naruto groaned as he put the last of the dishes that he had cleaned away.

"Come on, Naruto. Cheer up. It wasn't that bad." Ayame smiled at the blonde as she too placed the last of the dishes away.

"Yeah, right...Kiba was like ordering extra amounts of ramen just to give ME more work..." Naruto sighed and threw the teatowel to a random location in the kitchen.

"Now that you mention it, that guy really started ordering lots and lots of ramen after he saw you working in the kitchen..." Ayame placed a finger to her cheek and look up towards the heavens, deeply being in thought.

Naruto sighed again, "Oh well...Ayame-chan...I'm going home now...It was nice to have your company during my labor, Ayame-chan..."

Naruto yawned as he turned around and started walking away from Ichiraku's Ramen stand, yawning again when he just left the kitchen.

"Naruto." Ayame's voice stopped Naruto in his tracks and caused him to turn around, finding Ayame standing behind him, who wrapped her arms around him.

"Have a safe trip home and good night." Ayame said as she hugged Naruto.

"Good...night..." Naruto replied.

Ayame blinked and looked down towards the blonde, she could hear him snore.

"Naruto?" She slightly pushed the blonde off of her, but still holding him so he wouldn't fall. Naruto had fallen asleep and drool escaped the corner of his mouth.

Ayame blinked at him and then pinched his cheek, causing him to wake up with a loud yelp, "That hurts!"

Naruto looked at Ayame, who was giggling at him like he had just said something funny, "Ayame-chan, why did you do that!"

"Because! You had fallen asleep when I hugged you!" Ayame continued giggling as Naruto blushed, hooking his collar with one finger and pulling slightly at it as he looked away from her.

"Night, Naruto...Don't fall asleep before getting home." Ayame smiled at him before she headed back to the Ramen stand to help her father lock the place down and call it a night.

Naruto let his eyes rest on the shaking movement of her hips as she walked away, but quickly shook his head, trying to stay awake and focussed on getting home instead of other matters. Naruto had little troubling staying awake on his way back home and he also had little trouble finding his way back in his half asleep state.

However, he did have trouble with not yawning, because for some reason he felt exhausted and longed for some sleep.

When Naruto finally reached his apartment, he quietly entered it, figuring that Gaara and Temari were most likely asleep for some time now. He slipped out of his shoes in the hallway, took his jacket off, threw it somewhere near his shoes and continued on, heading into the living room.

Naruto noticed Gaara's red hair sticking up above the couch and, apparently, Gaara was sleeping while sitting instead of lying down on the couch. Not giving it anymore thought than just that, Naruto stumbled on towards his bed.

He halted and squinted his eyes at the figures in his bed. Indeed, figures, plural, two of them, in his bed. Naruto could make out one of the two as his blonde roommate, Temari but he couldn't quite position the second form in his sleepy mind so fast.

Naruto focussed upon the form, realised it was a girl first and then, after taking a closer look to her face, he noticed that it was none other than Tenten. He jumped up and nearly screamed, but he refrained from doing so, seeing as it was unwise to cause a commotion after midnight.

Naruto blinked at Tenten, "What is Tenten doing here? Why is she sleeping next to Temari? What the...?"

He shook his head, trying to shake the confusion out of it and then he stumbled over to the couch.

"Eh...? Sakura-chan and Ino are here too..." Naruto blinked as he saw the two other girls sound asleep with their heads resting on Gaara's lap.

"Damn it...Where am I going to sleep..." Naruto cursed and noted that his mumblings had awoken one of the girls, Ino.

"Oh, It's you Naruto...Finally home, huh?" Ino asked as she looked with sleepy eyes at Naruto.

"Ah...Did I wake you up? Sorry Ino..." Naruto rubbed the back of his head and stared at the half-awoken blonde, "Ino sure as hell looks cute like this...Ah! What am I thinking...Damned sleep must be getting to me...It's not like Ino feels like doing anything with me right now anyway..."

"Naruto?" Ino's voice shook him out of his thought, "You should sleep too, you know...Lack of sleep..." A yawn escaped from Ino's mouth, "...is bad for you..."

"Uhuh, I know...However, I don't know where to sleep..." Naruto nodded, trying not to fall asleep right then and there.

"Why not share your bed with Temari and Tenten...I'm sure that they'll understand in the morning..."

"Uh...Nah...That would cause me trouble...Also, they're kind of occupying the entire bed...That is if I don't want to touch er..." Naruto stopped his little talk. Sleep was not good for your thoughts either and seriously reduces your sense of realisation as well.

"Naruto? Why are you staring at me?" Ino's sleepy eyes locked with his and he shook himself out of it again.

"Sorry...I...Ah, never mind...Talking to another human right now is not really what I want...I want sleep..." Naruto replied and could hear an evil chuckle in the back of his head.

Naruto gritted his teeth and clenched his fists, "Or like talking to a deranged fox demon trapped inside of me..."

Ino shivered and wrapped her arms around heself, "Damn...I'm cold...Naruto...? Do you have any spare blankets or something...?"

Naruto just then realised that Ino was still wearing her uniform that he had seen her earlier in and shook his head of any thoughts again, "Yeah, sure...I'll go get one..."

A short amount of time passed before Naruto came back with a blanket and handed it to Ino, who thanked him as she wrapped the blanket around herself, "Thanks... Naruto..."

"Now...I guess I'll sleep on the floor or something..." Naruto said and looked around to find a 'proper' place to lay down on and just sleep.

"Naruto?" Ino made room enough to allow Naruto to sit on her left side, "I...don't mind if you sleep next to me on the couch...we'd keep each other warm and..."

Naruto blinked at the blonde girl, who was awake enough to blush and look away from him, "Don't think anything of it...I'd just feel bad with you sleeping on the cold floor and..."

"Thanks, Ino..." Naruto grinned and as Ino opened her blanket so she could share it with Naruto, he sat down next to her.

"Ehm..." Ino looked at Naruto, "Your arm..."

Naruto looked at his right arm and then at Ino, "What about it...?"

"Well...It would probably be uncomfortable for me to sleep against it and for you too I guess so..." Ino's blush deepened.

"Oh...yeah..." Naruto blushed too as he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her closer.

Ino wrapped the blanket around the two of them more or less and leaned back against Naruto's chest, "You're kind of warm, you know..."

"Uhm...you too..." Naruto blushed again as Ino rested her head against his shoulder.

"J-Just to remind you...you are so dead if you have your hands anywhere I don't like..." Ino said, her blush turning deep crimson now.

"...Don't worry, I'll be too busy sleeping..." Naruto muttered and rested his head against hers, completely closing his eyes.

"Alright...goodnight..." Ino said and closed her eyes as well.

"Pretty...smell..." Naruto mumbled.

Ino's eyes went open again and she moved them towards Naruto, "Wh-What...?"

"Your hair...smells pretty..." Naruto mumbled again and rubbed his cheek slightly over Ino's hair.

"Oh...Thanks...I'll get you some of that shampoo sometime..." Ino said and unconsciously laid her right hand on Naruto's chest.

For a moment she realised what she was doing, making her bit on her lip for another moment before finally closing her eyes and falling asleep as well.

Though Ino and none of the others present in the room could notice, Naruto was having a disturbing dream. Not the most disturbing dream ever in the history of mankind, but it wasn't a very pleasant one either.

Naruto found himself in the midst of something that he could only describe as a crimson and orange mist. It was thick and Naruto couldn't see a single thing other then the mist crawling over his skin.

"Where the heck am I...?" Naruto questioned, trying to find out exactly what he was doing in such a place.

Just then a shockwave came out of nowhere from the mist and if it wasn't for Naruto's skills as a ninja, he would have been blown away.

"What in the..." Before Naruto could finish his sentence, something else flew out of the mist and straight past him and he could've sworn that the form had blonde spikey hair.

Naruto turned towards the location where the unknown form supposedly landed, but the mist was too thick for him to be able to see anything that was further than an arm's length.

A powerful gust knocked Naruto off his feet and even cut his shirt open, Naruto had trouble comprehending what was going on right now.

"Damn it...I don't know what's going on, but if it's a fight they want then..." Naruto jumped back and formed the cross-shaped handseal, "Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Naruto was unpleasantly surprised when his clones didn't pop into existence and a termor shook the ground he was standing on.

"This sucks..." Naruto stated for himself, as he had no weapons whatsoever on him and since his Kage Bunshin no jutsu failed, he was almost sure that none of his other techniques would succeed, "Not to mention I can't see a damned thing in this fog..."

Naruto tried to remain as calm as possible but his current made it very hard for the blonde shinobi, "Damn it...Who is attacking me and why! Is this some sort of Akatsuki trick!"

Naruto's eyes shifted nervously to every side, wondering where the next attack would come from and what the best way to counter it with mere taijutsu would be.

Another tremor followed and Naruto was able to not fall down again, allowing him to see the rupture in the mist, which revealed a redhead and a blonde with their fists collided against each other.

Before Naruto could even so much as blink at the two figures, the mist closed again and another tremor followed.

"What the..." Naruto softly muttered, really not knowing what to think at all in his current situation.

Another tremor followed and this time the blonde person, who was fighting the redhead, landed next to Naruto, obviously being hit by some sort of an attack.

"Who are you!" Naruto asked the blonde as he turned towards him with his fists tightly clenched, "I know this guy from somewhere...But from where...?"

"Look out!" The blonde shouted to Naruto, causing Naruto turned around to see what potential danger might come for him.

He expected it to be the redheaded person, something he might at least be able to put up a fight against, but instead he got more than he had bargained for.

A insanely big black beam pierced through the mist and headed towards Naruto and the blonde.

It was too fast, Naruto was unable to move out of the beam's attack radius in time.

Everything went blank in front of Naruto's eyes at the moment of impact.

"Waaaaaaaah!" Naruto jumped and threw his arms into the air, nearly punching Ino in her face.

"Thank God it isn't broken..." Ino rubbed her petit nose, checking if her nose was injured in anyway by Naruto's spontaneous actions.

Naruto looked around, not lowering his arms just yet, and noticed he was being stared on by everyone in his room.

"Ehm...Sorry, bad dream..." Naruto lowered his arms, unconsciously placing one of his hands on Ino's leg.

Naruto looked at his hand, as did Ino, and then he quickly pulled it away, as a blush formed on both blonde's faces. Ino tried to hide her embarrassment by looking half angry at Naruto, but the blush was still visible on her face.

"Looks like I was wrong after all, Ino." Sakura playfully stuck her tongue out at her blonde friend.

"Sa.ku.ra..." Ino placed emphasis on every syllable and threw a glare towards Sakura, though her face was still apparent red.

Naruto then basically let his brain comprehend everything in his direct vision. Ino was sitting next to him, though slightly away from him and with her back turned towards Gaara.

Gaara was just sitting there, acting nonchalant and staring at him as well, most likely in wonder why Naruto had woken up the way he did and Sakura was leaning over Gaara's lap, apparently to tease Ino a bit.

Naruto turned his head towards his bed and found Temari and Tenten looking at him as well, though they were the only ones with a confused expression upon their face.

Feeling uncomfortable underneath the looks of everyone, Naruto decided to abruptly stand up, but he forgot that he had just woken up and that he was still a bit wobbly, so he fell back down to his seat again, "Alright! I'm making everyone some Ramen for breakfast and then I want to know why I have three extra...guests today!"

Even though Naruto announced all this cheerful and like his normal self, he still felt quite tired, "Damn it...Whatever that dream was it sure as hell screwed my sleep over..."

Not long after that, they all had their own cup of ramen to eat. It wasn't much, but when freeloading of Naruto's pocket right now, they had no real reason to complain about it.

Sakura, Tenten and Naruto were seated at the kitchen table whilst the others were sitting on the couch, aside from Temari, who still sat in Naruto's bed and was careful with eating her ramen, not wanting to spill any of it on the bed.

Ino was gracefully devouring her noodles, as graceful as a girl could in the early morning, "I wonder what Naruto has dreamed about...It couldn't have been that he...he dreamt about me, right...? I mean...Oh! I wish I could find out..." Ino nearly spilled a bit of her ramen, but managed to save herself from that embarrasment, "Oh wait...I can find out what he dreamt about...Well...I think it must still be in his thoughts right now..."

Ino leered over her shoulder towards Naruto, who seemed to be eating his Ramen with a smile, "Alright...I can do this...Ninpou...Shinenhiken no Jutsu..." (A/n: Shinenhiken no jutsu stands for Mind Read technique...Ino doesn't have that type of jutsu (yet) in the manga or anime, so I 'invented' it...)

Ino's eyes locked onto Naruto's for a moment and she then found herself able to read his thoughts.

Ramen, Ramen, in the morning sun
Ramen, Ramen, eating it for breakfast is so much fun
Ramen, Ramen, it's always so good
You'll never get to find a better kind of food
And when my tummy growls from hunger in the morning
Ramen is what stops my tummy's moaning.
For Ramen is food number one
And is one of the best things under the morning sun!

"Wha...What the hell is that he's thinking about...? Is that...the theme song for Ramen or something..." Ino thought after she read Naruto's mind and shuddered.

Naruto noticed Ino was staring at him, so he looked up and stared back at her, his mouth still filled with noodles. Ino stared at him, looking kind of freaked out, Naruto broke into smile as he swallowed the noodles and then his face broke out in a wide grin.

"...Naruto...Why didn't you think of something better than that...? I wouldn't even mind if you thought about ME above that! Heck, anything is better than THAT song!" Ino thought as she shuddered once again.

Turning back to her ramen, she quietly continued eating it as she pondered, "But, this jutsu might be more fun to use right now than I thought it would be...I wonder whose mind I should read next..."

Ino carefully leered towards Gaara, who was quietly eating his Ramen, "Well...You know what they say...The more the silent they are..."

She used her jutsu again, this time reading Gaara's mind.

I wonder if Temari could combine Ramen with her soup...

"...He's thinking about food while eating food...Makes enough sense to me...Though, it's kind of boring..." Ino mused after reading Gaara's current thoughts and then focussed on getting to know what was Temari's thoughts were right now.

I should really buy groceries for Naruto...All this Ramen will make me gain weight if I don't get enough excercise...I think most of it is going to my breasts, but I think it would be best for me to head out today and train...I hope Nemar-kun won't notice if I have gained weight...

"Hehehe...I'll make sure that he DOES know then, blondie..." A sly smirk crossed Ino's face and then she took a bit more of her Ramen.

She looked over towards the table, momentarily locking her eyes with Tenten's, "Show me what you are thinking about, Tenten..."

Naruto...Neji...Naruto...Neji...

"Wha-What! She has a thing for Neji AND Naruto! Not even for Nemar! This is hot news! I love my family for possesing these skills!"

I wonder who I should call next time when I'm taking a bath...Ah, a bath...

"Damn it, she was serious when she said she likes to call people while taking a bath..." Ino mentally sighed and then looked towards Sakura, wondering if it was a good idea to read her mind.

She shook her head and continued consuming her breakfast, "I do NOT want another meeting with Sakura's mind..."

Naruto placed down his now empty cup of ramen and slightly grimaced as the dream he had earlier played through his mind again, "What was that..."

"What's wrong, Naruto?" Sakura and Tenten asked simultanously, throwing a playful smile at each other when they realised they asked it together.

"Nothing special really, I'm just somewhat sad I'm already done eatin..." Naruto stood up with a wide grin on his face, "So, I decided to take another cup!"

"Geez, you really ARE the biggest ramen obsessed idiot in the world..." Sakura closed her eyes and a smile formed upon her face.

"Sakura-chan, you make it sound like it's a bad thing..." Naruto smiled at her as he walked towards the cabinet where he stocked up on his ramen.

"Well, I guess there are things in the world that are far worse to be obsessed with." Sakura's smile widened as she turned around to face Naruto.

Naruto smiled once more at her before turning around and reaching out for the cabinet, "Naruto?" Tenten's voice caused Naruto to halt his movements and turn around to face the girl that caused him to do so.

Tenten folded her hands together and slightly bowed her head, "Can I please have seconds? I'm begging you here."

"Ehehehe, of course Tenten. I still have more than enough in stock." Naruto smiled and turned back around to continue what he was doing, getting a second cup of ramen for himself and now also an extra cup of ramen for Tenten.

Just as he was about to pull the cabinet open, he heard someone knock on his front door and he slightly grimaced, "Mou...It's like someone doesn't want me to eat Ramen..."

The sound had caused everyone in the room to halt their actions and look up in the direction of the door. Naruto turned around and let his eyes wander over each of the girls present, "Ehm...I think, I'll go and see who's knocking on my front door this early..."

Figuring out why Naruto had said that, the girls' faces turned a small shade of pink and Ino and Sakura even threw him a half-assed glare.

Naruto headed into the hallway and it didn't take long before he reached out for the door and opened it, finding a shy white-eyed girl waiting for him behind it.

"O-Ohayo...Naruto-kun..." Hinata said as a blushed formed on her face and she fidgeted with her two index fingers.

"Ah, it's you Hinata...Ohayo. " Naruto rubbed the back of his head and smiled joyfully at Hinata, "Why are you here? It's still quite early in the morning."

"E-ehm...Well...It's like..." Hinata averted Naruto's eyes, as he tried to uphold eye contact with her for longer than she could feel totally comfortable with.

"Oh, it's you, Hinata." Ino said cheerful as she threw her arms around Naruto neck and rested her chin on his shoulder.

"I-Ino! What are you doing!" Naruto was surprised by Ino's sudden action, but not even half as surprised as the young Hyuuga heiress.

"Eh...It's unusual to visit people this early in the morning..." Sakura said as she followed Ino's example and threw her arms around Naruto and resting her chin on his shoulder as well.

"Sa...Sakura-chan!" Naruto blinked and was now even more surprised by what was happening, "Wha...What in the..."

"Eh...ehm...ehm..." Hinata repeated as she looked in shock at the two girls who had clutched onto Naruto.

Temari then joined the two girls and pressed her face against Naruto's and grinning widely at Naruto, who was starting to sweat and it was not out of nervosity.

"Wha-What is everyone doing here...?" Hinata managed to ask as she still looked with wide-eyes at the girls.

"We're having a huge orgy with Naruto here...Care to join us, Hinata?" Temari playfully stuck her tongue out at Hinata and gave her a wink that was at least equally as playful.

"Te-Temari!" Naruto turned bright red in his face, only to be outdone by Hinata's deep crimson blush.

Just then, Temari was lifted up from the ground and sat on Tenten's shoulders as Tenten took over Temari's previous position.

"We're having a lot of fun here..." Tenten said and giggled as Naruto's legs started shake with all the girls leaning on him in one way or another.

Temari leaned over to look into Naruto's eyes and with a smirk printed on her face, she said, "Uhuh. Lot's and lot's of fun. Ain't that right, girls?"

"Definetely." Ino smirked.

"Without a doubt." Sakura formed a wide smile on her face and Tenten nodded, causing her to rub her cheek against Naruto's.

Maturing had given Hinata multiple things, but the most important was most likely that she now had a limit to her kindness and that she could actually snap at people.

That was mainly at her enemies for taunting her comrades and even once or twice at her father and her sister, but so far not at her friends or at least not like she had with her father and sister.

However, right now, she felt like snapping at the girls and not having a minor outburst like she usually would against her friends.

She could already imagine herself pulling out a kunai, the mere sound causing the group in front of her to take notice of her.

"Don't do such things to Naruto-kun!" She would've yelled and started running towards them with her kunai raised. The girls would have no choice but to run back inside.

She would chase them in circles around Naruto's living room until she was finally grabbed around her waist by Naruto and stopped her in her pursuit.

The mere thought of Naruto wrapping his arms around her caused the young heiress to blush, which was noted by the girls as reply to their doings.

"Ehm...ehm..." Hinata stuttered for a moment and then she gulped once so she could say what she meant to say in the first place, "I...I have a message for you Tenten...It's from Neji-niisan..."

"A message? For me?" Tenten blinked at the white-eyed girl in confusion.

"Y-yes..." Hinata answered and shyly looked from the corner of her eyes towards Naruto, who was stressing most of his muscles to support the girls that had piled on top of him.

"Oh...Looks like Tenten has no need to date Nemar if she has Neji..." Ino spoke her thoughts out loud as she formed a sly grin on her face and leered at Tenten.

Tenten slightly blushed at the remark, "I-It's not like that...We're just close friends..."

"But you know that there's a fine line between being close friends and...more, right?" Ino retorted and her smirk grew wider.

"I-Ino!" Tenten's reply caused Ino to giggle.

"But you know, whether it's a declaration of love from Neji or something else... I'm kind of curious what is...How about you, Naruto?" Temari asked as she leaned over to see Naruto's face, which as a matter of fact had become quite red for multiple reasons.

"Er...Sure...Let's go see Neji..." Naruto answered, "I'd like to get away from the weight of all of you...not to mention that too much soft female anatomy is NOT good for the amount of blood that flows through my body..."

"I'm...I'm sorry, but Neji-niisan said that...that only Tenten was allowed to come...He said I...I could find Tenten at Naruto's place so..." Hinata replied and shyly looked towards Naruto again, whose face was still quite red as a matter of fact.

"Just me?" Tenten blinked again at Hinata, who just nodded in reply.

"Well...We could just ignore that...but it's still early..." Sakura mused.

"It's alright, if Neji wants to see just me, I think it's really for the best if I'm the only one that goes there." Tenten replied and then remembered what she was wearing, "But first I'm going back to my place to get a change of clothes...I'm not going to see Neji in this outfit..."

"Alright then, let me get off your neck and you can be on your way." Temari said to Tenten, which made Tenten carefully walk back and allowed her to get off of the weapons mistress' neck.

"I believe I have a say in that as well..." Gaara stated.

Naruto looked over his shoulder towards the redheaded Kazekage as Ino, Sakura did as well and Hinata just plainly looked towards him.

"After all you are on a mission to be my slaves...I mean, my hired shinobi who will fight for me when I feel more like reading Shakespeare than flex my skills to make a lot of gory kills..." Gaara stated and then quietly muttered, "...I should read less poetic books..."

"Gaara, you can let Tenten and the girls go...It's not like there will be an assassin after you today... and even IF there would be one, you are strong enough to handle it on your own...Not to mention you'd always have me and Naruto around." Temari replied as she placed her hands on her hips.

"Even so..." Gaara replied.

Temari's glance sharpened and pierced through Gaara, "OR you could have all the girls here and listen to us talk endlessly about our monthly event..."

"...Terms of absence approved, return expected at nineteenhundred hours for training." Gaara said and turned around, walking back into the living room and muttering, "...Watching less war movies should go on the list with 'things I should do less' as well..."

"Hehehe...Luckily he doesn't know that we don't have that right now..." Temari winked at the other girls, "Well, I for one don't anyway."

"Then I'm going back home right now. Thanks for the free breakfast, Naruto." Sakura said and instantly left.

"Me too, I have a date to get ready for..." Ino said and left as well, giving a wave to those left behind, "Later, Naruto. I suggest that the next time we crash at your place that you'd better be sure to have extra sleeping space."

"Hm...I'm going to take a shower..." Temari stated and left the hallway to gather the necessary items to take a shower.

"And I'm off to change my clothing and head out to see Neji then. Bye, Naruto." Tenten said and left as well, leaving Naruto alone at the front door with Hinata.

After a short moment of silence between the two of them, Naruto rubbed the back of his head and grinned at Hinata as he slowly closed the door, "Well, see you later Hinata. I guess I'll see you soon."

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata quickly said, causing Naruto to halt his attempt to close the door.

"What is it, Hinata?" Naruto asked half surprised, "I guess I should give her the time to let her say what she wants...She's still the same shy Hinata as she always has been."

"I...I wanted to...I wa-"

"Hinata! What are you goofing off for! I was waiting for you! Come on, the walk from my place to your compound is very boring if you don't have a companion!" Tenten came running back and grabbed onto Hinata's arm.

"B...But!" Hinata protested as Tenten pulled her along.

"Come on! We don't want to keep Neji waiting for too long!"

"But I..." Hinata protested once again.

"If you want to talk to Naruto, I'll give you his phonenumber when we are at my place!"

Naruto sheepishly grinned at the duo as they turned around the corner and disappeared from sight and then he closed the door, "I guess I'll get a phone call from Hinata then later today..."

Shortly after that, Naruto headed out for the training grounds to at least have some kind of workout before he would have to go on his date with Ino. He arrived on the training grounds and, surprisingly, without any nuisances present or along the way to it.

"This is kind of odd...I expected Fuzzy Eyebrows and Super Fuzzy Eyebrows-sensei to show up by now...Hm...Why does this disturb me?" Naruto thought as he walked over the extremely quiet training grounds.

"Oh well...Better get my training started up..." Naruto stated as he took off his jacket and laid it on the ground, next to a tree that stood near the training grounds' perimeter.

Naruto took a moment to let his eyes wander over the training field, "Man...It's been a while since I last came here for training...A lot has happened since that day...Man...It was eight days ago that I had my first date with Ayame-chan..."

As Naruto took his trip down memory-lane, which consisted of a total of nine days up until today, he was unaware of what lingered directly above him.

It wasn't a member of the Akatsuki or a member of Orochimaru's Hidden Sound, but that didn't mean that it wasn't dangerous to the blonde shinobi.

Thick brows, a bowl haircut and clad in a tight green spandex suit while wearing inhumanly heavy weights, Rock Lee was far from being harmless.

"Konohagakure's young Beautiful Green Beast, Rock Lee! Enters! Mission commenced!" Lee's youthful thoughts ran through his mind as always as he carefully lowered himself upside down from tree, his arms carefully reaching towards Naruto's head.

"Gai-sensei! I'm going to do it! This is going to be my succes! My youthfulness shall prevail!" Lee thought excited and in his excitement, he softly let out a "Oooooh!"

Naruto, however, heard the sound and as he tilted his head back to see what it was, he only found some leafs falling down from the tree, "Hm...Must be a squirrel or something..."

"Oh! Gai-sensei! My youthfulness was nearly my undoing! But I shall prevail! My youthfulness shall prevail! Now once more, I shall try...And this time I shall succeed!" Lee thought and for a moment, he brimmed with energy until he lowered himself once again upside down out of the tree.

"Alright! Enough slacking around! Time to get to training!" Naruto said to encourage himself and started walking onto the training ground just as Lee reached out further.

The motion caused him to fall rather loudly out of the tree and hit his head on the ground, but the youthful Lee was quick enough in his recovery to hide behind the tree as Naruto turned around.

"I could've sworn that...Oh well..." Naruto said and shrugged it off, "Kage Bunshin no jutsu!"

Naruto created a single clone to spar against and thus started his training as a certain green clad, thick eyebrows having young man plotted his next move from his hiding place.

"Alright! I'll definitely get near him this time and complete my mission! And I just know how! Ooooooooh! Gai-sensei! Bless you for giving me this cool and youthful outfit! It blends in so well with the bushes!"

Naruto threw a punch at his Kage Bunshin, who caught his fist halfway through the attack and countered with a punch of his own.

Naruto managed to evade the punch of his clone and his clone's chest with his own counter attack. The impact caused the clone to let go of Naruto's other fist, allowing him to use that fist to punch his clone as well. His clone just barely managed to block the second attack and was slightly knocked back, creating some distance between him and Naruto.

What followed was a brawl of punching, kicking, blocking and evading between Naruto and his Kage Bunshin as a not so suspicious bush moved in closer to the battlefield.

"Gai-sensei! My disguise and stealth is perfect! The springtime of youth shall prevail! Oooooooh!"

Meanwhile, there was a temporary pause between Naruto's Kage Bunshin sparring and Naruto thought he could see a certain not so suspicious bush move slightly closer towards the battlefield.

"Hey, did that bush over there just moved?"

"Oh, Like I'll fall for that one!"

"No really, I could've sworn that thing moved closer towards us!"

"Oh come on, I'm you! You should know better than that! You wouldn't fall for such a thing either! Now come on, give my temporary existence some meaning!"

"But it really did move! Just look at it for a second!"

"If I'll look and then you kick my ass for being distracted during battle! It won't work! You have to come up with something better than that to outsmart yourself!"

"How much ramen could a ramen chuck, chuck if a ramen chuck could chuck ramen?"

"What the hell...? That doesn't make any..."

"RASENGAN!"

Naruto snickered as his mediocore one-handed Rasengan made his clone pop off, "Ah...Gets them every time...Now, let's see what's up with that bush..."

"Huh?" Naruto said after he had turned around to face the 'not so suspicious' bush, only to find it missing, "It was here until a second ago...I just know it..."

Naruto slowly turned, trying to detect any sounds of movement in the area and spot the apparently elusive bush. He spotted it near the nearby stream and he blinked at it, "Since when do bushes have thick eyebrow like things in them?"

Naruto blinked once more and the bush was out of his sight, "Maybe this morning's Ramen was overdate or something..."

Naruto turned back around to the training field and found the bush only a meter or so behind him, "Then again, it's more likely for that ol' fox bastard to lose all his tails and become a pink fluffy elephant than Ramen giving me delusions about a bush that slowly sneaks up on me..."

"You! Whoever you are! Stop hiding and show yourself to me!" Naruto pointed dramatically towards the bush.

A wind blew over the training field as a large silence was present and all stayed silent until Naruto broke the silence, "Oi...You're not fooling anyone..."

"...I am an hallucination..."

"Fuzzy Eyebrows, why are you hiding and moving around like you're about to kill me or something...?" Naruto crossed his arms and stared at the bush, "If anyone would see me like this, they'd probably think I'm crazy...or trying to do some kind of crazy laser vision jutsu."

"The name's Lee! I mean...I am merely using Rock Lee's voice to talk to you...I am not here...I am just a figment of your imagination..."

"Oh...I see...Then I guess you're just a harmless old bush that has no evil plots to do something to me..."

"That's right!"

"...Right. Well, 'bush', if you need me for anything, I'll just be over there doing my training...with my back turned towards you." Naruto said and walked away from the bush with his back turned towards it.

"Oooooh! Gai-sensei! Looks like I can do genjutsu after all! I was able to make Naruto-kun think that I was just a normal imagined bush! The springtime of youth will prevail!" Lee exclaimed in his mind as he looked towards Naruto, who was still walking away, "Now's my chance! Gai-sensei! I will succeed!"

Lee jumped out of the bush and flew towards Naruto, reaching out with his hands for Naruto's head. When he nearly had his hands on Naruto, the blonde shinobi took one big sidestep and Lee crashed with his face down on the ground.

"I knew it! What do you want, Lee!" Naruto dramatically pointed at the green clad shinobi who was lying face down on the ground.

Lee jumped up and struck the nice-guy pose, "Naruto-kun! Looks like you saw through my disguise and...! Wait one second please...Did you just call me 'Lee'?"

"I did?"

"Yes, I clearly heard you say my name instead of Fuzzy Eyebrows..."

"No I didn't..."

"I really believe you did, Naruto-kun..."

"Listen up, Lee...I'd never call you Lee. It's just unnatural. Why on earth would I call you Lee, Lee?"

"There! You did it again!"

"Argh...No I didn't! If I'd call you Lee, Lee, then something extremely random must happen today! Like...Ero-sennin declaring that he loves Tsunade-obachan! Which would never, ever happen!"

"What do I have to do that you called me Lee instead of Fuzzy Eyebrows!"

"You can't prove it a single bit because there is no one around to be a witness of the fact that I might have called you Lee instead of Fuzzy Eyebrows!"

"Then I will use my power of youth to make you confess that you called me by my name! For I am Rock Lee! Konohagakure's Beautiful Green Beast!" Lee beamed with the burning flames of youth as he clutched his fists.

"There is no way in hell you can make me say that I called you the L-word..." Naruto stared dully at Lee, who still beamed with youthfulness.

Lee's flame bursting suddenly halted and he looked dead serious at Naruto, "Now you've insulted my youthfulness..."

"I did what now?" Naruto was surprised by Lee's sudden attitude change and Lee was really looking dead serious at him.

"You've insulted my youthfulness." Lee repeated, "By calling my name the L-word, you made a connection to my name with an unyouthful thing like the N-word, the S-word and the F-word and thus you've defiled the youthful name that is Rock Lee. From this day on, Naruto-kun, I will stalk you until you call me by my name..."

"Right...Anyway, I've got some training to do before the afternoon so if you wouldn't mind, could you just get out of here, Lee? I was here first..."

Naruto blinked at Lee, for a second ago he was still looking fierce and now he had his shoulders hanging in defeat with his mouth hang wide open.

"Er...For what did you come here anyway?" Naruto asked as Lee kept on blankly staring at him, which more or less started giving Naruto the creeps.

"Ehm...I...can't quite...remember...Must...go home...and remember...it...I guess..." Lee stated dully for a moment and then shook himself out of his current state and back into his youthful state, "I will come back for you Naruto-kun! Once my youthfulness has restored my memory, I will be back to do whatever it was that I came for!"

Lee then quickly ran off, leaving Naruto behind in wonder of what it exactly was that Lee came for, "Oh well, back to training it is then."

Naruto trained until noon and this time he did not use weird riddles to distract his clones, followed up with a Rasengan to meaninglessly destroy them, but actually fully train against them.

After a quick run to the bank of Konoha, Naruto headed out to Ichiraku's Ramen to get himself a far more than decent bowl of Ramen for lunch.

"Damned old man...I know I should be respectful of the elderly, but this guy got to get himself a nurse or something...Saves me a lot of cleaning..." Ayame muttered as she cleaned up the mess that was made on the counter.

"Yo Ayame-chan, how's it going?" Naruto asked cheerfully as he entered his favourite Ramen-stand.

"Good afternoon, Naruto. I see you aren't dead like you thought you would be." Ayame took a moment to smile at Naruto before finishing her cleaning up.

"Hehehe, I guess I was just lucky." Naruto smiled back at Ayame as he took a seat and looked at Ichiraku-san who was cooking up the next batch of delicious Ramen, "Osan! One bowl of Miso Ramen!"

"Yo, Naruto! It's been a while. One bowl of Miso Ramen coming right up!" Ichiraku-san replied almost as cheerful as Naruto did when he ordered his meal.

"So how's it going, Naruto?" Ayame asked as she took a seat next to Naruto, taking a break from her labor.

"Hm...Good other than that I had a weird dream last night. It was kind of disturbing..." Naruto mused.

Ayame folded her hands and rested her head on them as she looked at Naruto, "And what about your girl 'problems'? Do you already know which one you like the most?"

Naruto looked with wide eyes at Ayame and slightly blushed upon hearing this question all of a sudden, "Eh...Ehm...I like them all...I don't know yet...Besides I have a date with Ino this afternoon, so I still have to get to know her better."

"All of them, huh? So not just Sakura anymore?" Ayame asked as Naruto was handed his bowl of Miso Ramen by Ichiraku-san.

Naruto let his head hang in defeat, "I thought I'd find out how to make Sakura-chan my girlfriend with all this dating, but all it really did was make me like all the girls more and more. It's only five days until it's Valentine's Day...Who the hell am I going to ask out..."

"Well...If you really can't make up your mind within the next few days you could always let fate decide for you." Ayame suggested and smiled warmly at Naruto.

"Fate?" Naruto asked and then quickly picked up his chopsticks and devoured some of his noodles after saying a quick "Itadakimasu."

"Uhuh. You could give each of the girls a number and then roll a dice to decide who you should go out with. For example, you could make Sakura number one, Hinata number two, Temari number three, Ino number four and Tenten number five. And if you roll a six you just roll again."

"But...what if I then decide I don't want to be with that girl on Valentine's Day?" Naruto asked and quickly slurped some of his Ramen.

"Then you reroll the dice and take that girl off? In the end you'll have one then. Anyway, you'll still have time to learn more about them. Oh! I nearly forgot! Naruto, tomorrow a new club opens up in town. Since you promised me we'd go to a club sometime..."

Naruto placed his bowl of ramen back down on the counter, "Hmm...I don't think I've got something to do then...I could always spend time with the girls during the afternoon...Alright! I'll go with you to this new club then, Ayame-chan! But..."

"But what?" Ayame blinked at the blonde as he seemed to be deep in thought.

"I don't think I can dance...I never danced before...so..."

Ayame giggled and got up from her seat, "You don't have to worry one single bit. I'll guide you all the way through it. By the end of tomorrow night, you'll be one of those guys that a girl would die for to have just one dance with."

"Eh? There are guys like that?" Naruto blinked at Ayame as she walked back around the counter.

"Hm..." Ayame tilted her hear and gave it some thought, "No, not really. However, I'm sure that it will be great to dance with you."

Naruto rubbed the back of his head and grinned widely, "Well...I guess I am great at just about anything if I really put everything I have into it."

"Then I'll see you tomorrow night around eight." Ayame winked at him and then bend over to whisper something to Naruto, "And please use the front door this time, k?"

Naruto grinned again and snickered for a moment, "Alright Ayame-chan, I understand. Don't worry about that."

After three more bowls of Ramen, Naruto decided he had enough Ramen for lunch, so he paid for his meal and left one of his favourite places in the world.

"Let's see...What should I do next? More training or check up on Gaara and Temari?" Naruto thought as he strolled down the streets of Konoha.

Just as he passed by a side street, Naruto had the odd feeling he should turn back and see what was going on there. Figuring it is best to follow his instinct, Naruto turned around and walked back to face the side street, "Hm? It seems that there's nothing here..."

"Or is there, Naruto!"

"That voice...!"

"That's right! The man whose name shines upon the heavens! The face that strikes fear into the face of evil! The charming good looks that can make a woman's heart melt! One of the Sannin... Jiraiya-sama ENTERS!" Jiraiya exclaimed as he landed with a frog on the street, hopping over towards Naruto, "Naruto, I have been looking for you."

"Ero-sennin...What do you want?" Naruto asked and gave Jiraiya a dull look.

"I have a mission for you, my student!" Jiraiya struck a pose, the hand palm of his left hand pointing towards Naruto.

"EH! REALLY! Wait...This isn't one of your perverted missions like last time, right?"

"No, It's of great importance to nearly the entire Village of Konoha." Jiraiya crossed his arms and gave Naruto a stern look, "And it's a mission that only you can complete."

"Eh! What is it! What is it, dattebayo! It's been such a long while since I last had an important mission! What are we going to do Ero-sennin! Hunt down Akatsuki!"

"No, like I said, this is a mission that only you can do. You'll have to play this one out by yourself..."

"You're really cool when you give me important missions, Ero-sennin! Tell me! What is it that I must do!" Naruto exclaimed cheerful.

"You have to convince that nymphomaniac Anko to come to a certain bachelor party I'm hosting..." Jiraiya replied and the second he had said that, all the cheerfulness in Naruto disappeared and the cool music that had been going on in his mind stopped.

"...What?" Naruto blinked at his white haired sensei and what followed after that was an uncomfortable silence between the two of them.

"Repeat that again, Ero-sennin." Naruto broke the silence after what seemed like an eternity.

"You have to convince Anko to come to a certain Bachelor party I'm hold- er...hosting." Jiraiya repeated.

"Oh ok...I see...'Of great importance to the Village of Konoha', you said...'It's something only you can do', you said..." Naruto took a deep breath and then let it all out, "HOW THE HECK DO YOU THINK I CAN CONVINCE THAT CRAZY WOMAN TO GO TO A BACHELOR PARTY!"

"Tell her there will be free booty for her to spank, that should do it..." Jiraiya nodded to himself.

"Huh? Why...How could she spank booty?" Naruto looked confused at his perverted sensei.

"Er...Let's not go into detail about that in public, shall we? Anyway, if that doesn't work...I suggest you try convincing her by say that she'll get free boot knocking if she comes."

"What's so fun about knocking boots together...?" Naruto said, totally at loss what his sensei was talking about.

Jiraiya slapped himself in the face and then pointed at Naruto, "Never mind! Just use your natural charm to make her come to that party! Details will be given to her later on! Now go and I'll buy you Ramen sometime soon!"

"One for Ramen and Ramen for all!" Naruto cheered and rushed off to find Anko, who Naruto hoped to find at her appartment.

Naruto ran as fast as he could towards Anko's appartment, deciding that he should not try to use Shunshin no jutsu to get himself there in an instant as he might end up on the other side of Konoha.

During his run towards Anko's appartment, Naruto slowly came to realise something as his thoughts continuesly repeated the word Ramen.

"Ramen, Ramen, Ramen, Ramen, Ramen...Wait...Ramen...plus Ero-Sennin treating me to said Ramen..." Naruto formed the mental images of Ramen and Jiraiya in his head allong with the plus sign and the equals sign, "Eh! He's going to use that Frog Kawarimi again!...Damn it...Oh well...Maybe I can somehow frame his plans..."

Not much later, Naruto found himself in front of Anko's front door.

Naruto gulped, "Oh man...Last time I was here I nearly died of bloodloss...Well, It's in the middle of the day right now so how bad could it be?"

He gathered his courage and knocked on the door, half wishing that there would be no one home to answer. Unfortunately for Naruto, Anko was home and opened the door a few moments after he had knocked on it.

Surprise was written all over her face when she saw it was Naruto who stood in front of her, "Naru-chan? What are you doing here all of a sudden?"

Her surprise then faded and a sly smirk formed on her face, "Not that I'm complaining about it..."

Naruto gulped again and took a small step back, "Ehm...Maybe I should leave now..."

"Sorry, Naru-chan, but I can't allow you to do that just yet..." Anko said as she grabbed onto his shoulder and pulled him into her appartment.

She closed the door behind them and held her arms behind her back as she leaned against the door, "Well then...Go on to the living room, Naru-chan..."

"This isn't good...Not good at all..." Naruto started sweating as he turned around and slowly started walking towards the living room, "Hehehe...yeah...sure..."

He could hear Anko take a step forward whenever he took one as well and something about that send a shiver down his spine.

"Take a seat." Anko said as they entered the living room, "Can I get you anything to drink...?"

"N-No thanks..." Naruto barely managed to bring out those two words and then he gulped again, "Knowing her it's probably drugged or something..."

Naruto took a seat on the couch and Anko sat down next to him with one arm resting on the backrest so she could face Naruto.

"I'm honestly surprised to find you seeking me out during the day...I could understand during the cold, lonely nights, but either way is fine with me..." Anko leered towards Naruto.

"My nights are not cold or lonely..." Naruto retorted and looked into Anko's eyes for a moment and then decided he should avoid her eyes.

Anko started crawling cat-like over towards Naruto, "Well, I'm sure I could make it even less cold and lonely for you..."

"Y-Yeah...I'm sure you could...but eh..." Naruto started trying to back away from Anko, but only found himself cornered on the end of the couch.

"So, why did you come to me today, Naru-chan? Did miss the softness of my lips...?" Anko asked playfully and gave Naruto a tender kiss on his lips, "Or perhaps my warmth and tender caresses...?"

Anko laid herself down on Naruto, whose heart started beating a hundred times faster then normal and sweat crawled down over his back as Anko stroke with her hand through his hair.

"Or maybe you missed the softness of my bare skin..." Anko whispered in Naruto's ear, sending a shiver down his spine.

"N-No...N-not really..." Naruto gulped again and tried to writhe his way out from underneath Anko.

She unzipped his jacket and let her hand slide over his shirt and around his back, "Then did you come just because you needed a hug and a kiss? Because you know I can always give you that...and so much more..."

"N-No...De-Definitely not for that either..."

"You meany...Then you just came here to tease me, huh? Maybe we should have a revision of our little sex ed. class..."

"No! Really! Not that again!" Naruto said with wide eyes, "Something like that again would kill me for sure this time!"

"But you've reeeaaally come at an unfortunate time, Naru-chan..." Anko said as she slid her hand off of Naruto's back and opened his mouth with it, letting her tongue slide as she passionately kissed him.

"D-Do I even want to know why it's an unfortunate time!" Naruto asked after Anko took a moment to breath normally again.

"Of course you do..." Anko traced a finger over Naruto's chest, "You could say that I'm in the heat right now and aching to have physical contact..."

"Oh great..." Naruto sarcastically replied as he gulped again.

"Do you want to try and succeed in what so many others have failed?" Anko leered lustfully at Naruto, making blood rush to his head faster than you could say Kyuubi.

"I...I don't think I want to...or could..." Naruto said as Anko continued leering at him with that lustful look in her eyes.

"I know I made a promise to you to leave it just at kisses and hugs..." Anko said and traced with her finger over Naruto's lips, "But will you please take a moment to reconsider that that's all you want and not fulfill my desires?"

"Reconsidering done...I think I should make you promise to stay away from me until I'm about 30!" Naruto thought as he looked with wide eyes at Anko, "Let's keep to that promise of just hugging and kissing..."

"Hm...Unfortunate for me..." Anko said and kissed Naruto once again.

"Eh...Ehm...Anko-sensei...I did come here for a reason."

Anko slightly pushed herself up from Naruto and blinked at him, "Oh? Really? Well, tell me then already so I can continue kissing you."

"...Ehm...Ok...Ero-sennin asked me to convince you to go to a bachelor party he's hosting." Naruto stated truthfully.

"Bachelor party? Why that white-haired rotten little..." Anko replied, causing Naruto to blink at her due to her reaction.

"Well...You don't have to go...He just said I needed to try to convince you to do so..." Naruto blinked at Anko, who in return blinked at him as well.

"Oh...Convince me, huh? Interesting..." Anko smirked widely at the blonde and drew closer towards his body, "Start convincing me then..."

"O-Onegai de-desu..." Naruto turned his face away from Anko, "Go to that bachelor party Ero-sennin is hosting..."

"Not good enough Naru-chan..." Anko gently placed a kiss on his cheek and continued leering at him, "Try harder..."

"Eh...Ehm..." Naruto gulped and started sweating even more, "Oh man, this is NOT good! I must come up with a plan to get out of here or else I'm done for! Screw Ero-sennin's bachelor party, my virgin...ity..."

"Has just become my ticket out of here...I hope." Naruto turned his head back around so he could face Anko and smirked at her, "Harder you say, huh? How about I give you something really hard..."

Anko's smirk grew widened and she licked Naruto's cheek, "Interesting...What did you have in mind for little old me?"

"How much ramen could a ramen chuck, chuck if a ramen chuck could chuck ramen?" Naruto thought and mentally slapped himself for thinking about that right now, "Go into your bedroom and I'll show you how the use of Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu can be made as effective as possible..."

"Why not show me right here, right now? Hm, Naru-chan?" Anko leered at Naruto and opened her trench coat so that it covered Naruto's side up.

Naruto's eyes widened, "B-Because this is the couch...P-People need to sit on it and..."

"I wouldn't worry about that if I were you...It's not like it will be the first time I've...used this couch." She winked at Naruto and ran with her fingertops over his body.

Naruto shivered, both due to the fact that Anko was caressing him and due to the fact that he now knew that 'something' has happened before on the couch, something that he really did not want to know about.

"A-Ah...Ok...I see...B-But I need a lot of space, s-so...a bed would be w-waaaay better..." Naruto gulped again, "I really hope she does go to her bedroom and that she doesn't decide to just rip all my clothes off right here..."

Anko traced with her index finger over Naruto's jawbone, "I see...Then, I'll wait for you in my bedroom..."

She placed another kiss on Naruto's lips and then slid off of Naruto's body.

"Don't keep me waiting too long..." Anko winked at Naruto as he sat up and then she swayed her hips from side to side as she headed into her bedroom.

Naruto, who was temporarily mesmerized by the movements, fiercely shook his head and then jumped up. When he was sure that Anko was in her room, he stealthily sneaked towards the front door and opened it almost without making a single sound.

He stepped out and turned around one last time to scream one thing, "Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Naruto didn't perform the actual jutsu, but Anko wouldn't know that just yet, and then he quickly closed the door behind him as he started running as fast as possible for the sake of his virginity.

Not long after that, Naruto reached the spot where he'd last seen Jiraiya but, of course, the white haired hermit was not the type of guy who'd wait all day long on the same spot for someone.

"Damn it...Ero-sennin is probably out peeping at the hot springs again..." Naruto thought as he couldn't see the white haired Sannin anywhere.

Just as Naruto was about to rush out of the street and head towards the hot springs, he could hear Jiraiya's chuckle. It wasn't hard to pinpoint his location after that, because there was only one place nearby where Jiraiya could possibly chuckle like that.

Naruto backtracked a bit and entered the 'shop' where he was sure he'd find the white haired Sannin. As he had expected, there Naruto found his teacher surrounded by five very busty women, "Oi, Ero-sennin..."

The tall white haired man stopped his chuckling and looked up to find his apprentice standing in front of him with his arms crossed over one another, "Oh, back already Naruto...? How did it go?"

"...Let's just keep it at that she's awaiting to hear the details from you." Naruto lied rubbed the back of his head.

"Hm..." Jiraiya gave him a suspicious look for a moment, "Alright then, thanks for the effort Naruto. That would be all. Leave me be then."

"Hehehe...No problem." Naruto grinned widely and then quickly left Jiraiya with his 'ladies'.

Naruto quickly jumped from roof to roof, heading back towards his apartment and feeling like a burden was lifted from his shoulders.

"Man, all of a sudden this feels good." Naruto smiled as the sunshine made him feel sort of warm and fuzzy inside.

Naruto decided to flex his muscles a bit and show off his skills as a shinobi. Unfortunately for our blonde friend, showing off was not one of his finer skills in life and thus he was destined to make a total fool out of himself, one way or another.

As Naruto flipped through the air from one rooftop to the next, he failed to notice the line of clothing that was on his landing spot, "Ah! Arg! Aaah! Aahaaa! Aaaaah!"

When Naruto finally came to a halt, he was wrapped in various items of clothing and the like, "Crap...If someone finds me here likes this..."

Naruto wrestled himself free from all the clothing and sheets with a few violonent, yet unharmful for the clothing, movements and took a look at all of the clothing that was clean before his antics.

"Damn...If someone found me like this, they'd probably think I'm something like a panty thief...I mean, I even got a blue bra lying on my lap right now...I don't doubt there is a matching blue panty somewhere in that pile of clothing..." Naruto said and picked up the bra, giving it a closer look, "I could swear that I've seen these somewhere before..."

Just then the rooftop door was opened and Naruto just froze, "Who is it...? I'm in trouble if it's a girl. Of course it's a girl! Guys don't do the laundry! Unless I'm lucky...Oh please let me be lucky..."

Slowly Naruto turned his head and looked up to face who ever it was that had just opened the rooftop door.

"Na-Naruto! What are you doing here!" Naruto's eyes locked onto Ino's bright blue eyes and he could notice a slight blush forming on her face.

"Eh...Ehm...I...I can explain this!" Naruto's eyes widened as he realised that he was most likely having Ino's clothes in front of him and, more importantly, her bra in his hands.

"...Well, I'm sure you aren't a panty thief...Else you wouldn't be having all those other fabrics around you..." Ino sighed and walked over towards Naruto, bending over when she reached him and snapping the bra out of his hands with one swift motion, "I'll take that..."

She gave the bra a skeptical look and then sighed again, "Oh well, I guess it doesn't matter..."

"You aren't going to beat the crap out of me?"Naruto looked with wide eyes out of sheer surprise at Ino, "Not that I'm complaining but..."

Ino looked back at him with her eyes just as wide as his and blinked a couple of times, "Why would I do that? It's not like I'll get in trouble or something..."

"Eh? But like...most of the laundry is dirty again so..."

"Come on, Naruto. I'll just tell my mom some young genin were fooling around and that I scolded them for messing everything up...It saves me from certain chores like ironing and folding all these clothes..." Ino partly gathered the laundry, "Just help me out with carrying these back inside..."

"A-ah...Sure! Can we carry it all by our selves or should I whip out some kickass Kage Bunshins to help?" Naruto jumped up and started gathering the laundry along with Ino.

It didn't take long before the two of them had gathered the entire mess that Naruto had created and they were now heading down the stairs that led from the rooftop to the highest floor in the building.

"Naruto." Ino said and all of a sudden stopped when they were walking down the staircase.

"Hm? What's wrong Ino?" Naruto turned around and froze up as a dark and evil aura surrounded Ino.

"If you so much as tell anyone you've seen or touched my underwear, I'll definetely kill you...Understood?"

"Y-Yeah...Don't worry...It's kind of embarrassing, isn't it? I mean I'd be embarrassed if a girl...Ahem...Yeah, don't worry, Ino...I-I'll won't tell anyone..." Naruto grinned sheepishly at Ino, "Even with that evil aura you can see that she's slightly blushing..."

"Good, then you don't have to worry about a thing." Ino smiled at him and continued her descend.

A while later, Naruto was back on his way to his apartment.

Naruto sighed as he temporarily soared through the air again, "Man, I really have no luck today...First that whole thing with Fuzzy Eyebrows, then Ero-sennin's mission and just now that whole thing with Ino's laundry...What else has this day in store for me..."

He hurried onward to his apartment, deciding he should at least shower before heading out to meet up with Ino.

"I'm back." Naruto announced but heard no reply from Gaara or Temari.

Figuring that they'd probably be out to train or find a hotel, Naruto shrugged it off and headed into the bathroom to take a shower. A few seconds later, he regretted making that decision.

For as soon as he entered the bathroom, he stood face to face with Temari, who wore nothing but her pink underwear. A moment of silence and blinking ensued when their eyes met, which ended with a loud scream and a punch to Naruto's face, "KYAAAAAAAAAAA!"

As Naruto crashed against the wall, the bathroom door was slammed shut, "Naruto! Don't you know how to knock!"

"I yelled that I'm back! When I get no answer, I expect no one to be home! You could've said you were in the bathroom!" Naruto retorted once he managed to stand on his feet again.

"Well, how would I know that you'd go straight for the bathroom! I thought you came back to eat or something like that!"

Naruto sighed in defeat, "I guess this just isn't my day...Temari! Can you please get dressed! I want to take a shower before heading out again!"

"Alright, turn around for a moment so I can run to the living room. It's not like I'd bother to bring clothing with me to the bathroom when I expect to be home alone for a long, long while..."

Naruto obediently turned around, facing the wall as he heard the door slightly open and Temari heading out of the bathroom, "Ok, don't even so much as think about peeping because I'll seriously kill you if you do that right now..."

"You know I wouldn't, so don't try to tempt me to unconsciously turn my head around..." Naruto replied and Temari slightly laughed at his response before quickly making a run for the safety of the living room.

When Naruto was sure that Temari out of sight even if he looked towards the living room, he turned back around and headed into the bathroom.

As soon as he had taken one step into the bathroom, an image of Temari running in her pink undies crossed his mind.

"Argh! What am I thinking!" Naruto banged his head against the wall until he got slightly dizzy.

Naruto then worked himself out of his clothing and took the shower he longed for right now.

He look up towards the shower head and let the water fall onto his face, "After today...I've been on a date with all of them...Though I'd probably need to spend a lot more time with some of them, mainly Hinata, Ino and Tenten, I'm running out of time...I need to make a choice before Valentine's Day...or atleast need to go out on a date with the one who I like the most..."

Naruto closed his eyes and breathed deeply in and out, "I guess I'll ask Ayame-chan to help me sort out what I like and like less about each and every one of them..."

---------------

Meanwhile, in a dark cave where no ray light from outside can reach and where the screams of torture victims echo long after their torture ended, a single torch was lit.

"Are the preparations ready?"

"We aren't sure that this will work...There are risks..."

"I couldn't care less...None will hear his cries...The sooner this is done, the sooner we can continue with today's objective..."

"Kukukuku...Let's start the ritual..."

---------------

Naruto flexed his muscles that had been loosened by the warmth of the shower, "Ah...Just what I needed."

He headed into the livingroom and found Temari resting on his bed, "Sorry about before Temari...I'm having a kind of weird day today, I guess."

Temari rose up from the bed and gave Naruto a wide smile, "What? It's my own fault. I'm just glad I had my underwear on at the time."

"Yeah, I guess it could've been worse for me." Naruto widely grinned and rubbed the back of his head, "Where's Gaara?"

Temari lay back down and rested her hands on the back of her head, "Out to find a hotel for us...Though I really don't mind staying here, you know."

Naruto slightly blushed, "Eh...Yeah...I...Uhm...Well..."

"I mean, Free meals, regularly having breakfast on bed, free showers...It really is the life." Temari waved her hand around in the air.

"WHAT! THAT'S ALL! JUST FOR FREE MEALS AND STUFF!" Naruto snapped and he litterally jumped onto Temari, grabbing her by her shirt.

"Well, that and there is the fact that I'll have almost all the intimacy that I need at my disposal during the night..." Temari winked at Naruto, who blushed bright red after hearing that from the wind mistress.

Temari smirked and overthrew Naruto with ease, now sitting on top of him instead of the other way around, "Don't get any funny ideas, I said almost..."

Just then the phone rang and drew the attention of the two blondes away from each other.

"I think that's for me..." Naruto said as Temari got off his body, allowing him to answer the phone, "It's probably Hinata, so I shouldn't be too surprised about a silence when I answer it..."

"Hello? Uzumaki Naruto speaking." Naruto said as he answered the phone.

"Hey, Naruto! It's me, Tenten!" Tenten cheerfully replied.

"Oh, hey Tenten. What's up?" Naruto said as he sat back down and Temari crawled over to his side, interested into what the weapon's mistress had to tell her blonde friend.

"Ah, hold on one second, Naruto..." Tenten replied.

A couple of loud moans came out of the receiving end of the phone, causing both blondes to blush and Naruto's eyes to slightly twitch, "What is it with these phone calls I've been having lately..."

"Tenten...? Are you alright...?" Naruto hesitantly asked after the moaning stopped.

"Ah! You heard me! Oh god!"

"If you're busy with...something, you should call me some other time."

"Oh no! I'm not busy! Well...I don't really call this being busy, it's something I do multiple times every day so..."

Naruto exchanged glances with Temari, who was blushing a lot, probably as much as he was, "Well, that's very interesting, but you really do not have to tell me this kind of stuff..."

"Oh god! No! No! Don't misunderstand! I'm just taking a bath right now! The water is a bit hotter than what I'm used to, so I had to get used to it!"

"Oh, I see...That's why you called me. Couldn't you call Neji or something?" Naruto asked and let out a sigh of relief that no mental images formed in his mind this time.

"No, I couldn't call..." Tenten giggled and then abruptly stopped, "Hey! How do you know that I call Neji while taking a bath every now and then?"

"Oh...shit..." Naruto froze up and dared to slightly look at Temari, noticing her blush had faded and she was looking with wide eyes at Naruto, "Well, you see...Neji once told me about that when all of us guys were hanging out together so..."

"Hmmm...Really, huh...?" Tenten replied and then everything went silent for a moment, "Oh well! I have something to tell you! Just thinking about it almost makes me laugh again."

"Hm? What is it?" Naruto asked, curious to find out what it was Tenten was talking about.

----Flashback no Jutsu! Tenten PoV!----

After Hinata and I ran by my place so I could get some proper clothes instead of Gaara's uniform, we quickly headed on to the Hyuuga estate.

"Any idea what this all might be about, Hinata?" I asked as we ran through the streets of Konoha as fast as we could.

"I-I don't know...Neji-niisan didn't want to let anyone in his room for the past twenty four hours..." Hinata replied.

"Well, I guess we'll have to drag him out of his room..." I said as I jumped to a rooftop to avoid the crowd that lay ahead, Hinata following me closely behind.

Not long after that, we arrived at the Hyuuha mansion and headed straight for Neji's room.

We were kind of surprised when we found Lee waiting there as well, yelling random things as usal at Neji about how he needs to come out so they can train and all.

"Come on, my eternal rival Neji! We must polish our youthful skills and become stronger!" Lee exclaimed, burning with his passion of youth as usual.

"Lee? What are you doing here?" I asked him.

"Good morning, Tenten! Are you here to help my eternal rival and friend Neji out of his room so we can train and burn with the flames of youth!"

"Ehm...I don't know about that..." I replied, sheepishly grinning at Lee.

"Tenten? Is that you?"

"Neji-niisan, I did as you asked, I brought Tenten here for you..." Hinata replied before I could say a thing and slightly bowed.

"Come on, Neji. Get out of your room already." I added.

"Alright...Now that Tenten's here, I will come out of my room..." Neji replied and a few moments later, Neji pushed his door open and exclaimed with a loud voice, "Behold! The new Neji!"

I was struck with awe.

'The new Neji' had completely knocked the living daylights out of me.

I was at a loss with words and like Hinata and Lee, just gasped at Neji's new looks.

Lee managed to bring out some words, though as usual it was just his thoughts and not mine nor Hinata's thoughts, "E-Eternal Rival Neji...has ascended to Super Saiya-jin Eternal Rival Neji!"

Neji had dyed his hair blonde! Totally completely blonde! He could be nicknamed goldy locks now! Words can't describe what kind of effect this would have on the world!

"Yes, that's right Lee..." Neji crossed his arms and smirked, "I have ascended from myself into Super Saiya-..."

Neji abruptly stopped talking and glared at Lee, "I'll kill you..."

"Oooooooooh! Super Saiya-jin Eternal Rival Neji! You've become far more powerful than ever before!" Lee exclaimed, "But I will not give up! I will surpass you and become Super Lee! My power of youth will prevail!"

And with that Lee ran off to probably train as hard as he can.

Neji turned towards me at this point and took a few steps towards me, "Well, Tenten? Do you like it?"

"Uh...Uhm..." I restrained my laughter as Neji looked totally clueless at me.

"N-Neji-niisan...What...What if..." Hinata stuttered and as if her thoughts were heard, Neji's uncle, Hiashi , came running from around the corner, "What's the cause of this commo-..."

He stopped when he saw Neji and then fell back. He had fainted on sight of Neji's new hair color.

"Father!" Hinata quickly rushed to her father's aid and waved some cool air into his face with her hand.
"Well Tenten...? Do you like me as a blonde?" Neji still looked with wide questioning eyes at me.

"Blasphemy!" Hiashi had regained consciousness and shouted at Neji, "Neji! This is the utmost blasphemy! How dare you taint the Hyuuga name like this!"

"I can do with my looks what I want, uncle...If I'd want to wear nail-polish, I'd do so. However, I don't want that, so I won't do that." Neji replied with a stern look on his face.

"Oh dear ancestors!" Hiashi fell to his knees and cried out to the sky, "Forgive his insolence! Forgive this blasphemy! I'll make sure that he regains his natural Hyuuga hair that has been the same for generation after generation! Be it with dye remover to cleanse his Hyuuga hair of be it with a kunai to cut him bald, I will not let him go on like this!"

"Shut up, you have nothing to say about me." Neji retorted and once again turned towards me, "How do I look, Tenten?"

"Neji...Honestly...You look..."

"Wonderful? Amazing? Cool? Wicked? Totally kick-ass? So damned good that I don't know what to say? ...Gorgeous?"

"Riduculous!"

----End Flashback no Jutsu!----

"And then I just started laughing and crying of laughter! Also asking him just why the heck he did that and..." Tenten started laughing again as Naruto and Temari let the restraints of their laughter go as well.

Upon lying down on his bed, still bulking of laughter, Naruto noticed what the time was and instantly shot up, "Oh shit! I got to go!"

Temari and Tenten both stopped laughing as well and Temari gave Naruto a serious look, blinking a couple of times at him before softly laughing again.

"But I'm not done taking my bath yet!" Tenten complained.

"Sorry, Tenten, but I have to meet up with...Er...Ero-sennin! Yeah! That's right dattebayo! I'll talk to you soon again!"

"I'll talk to her." Temari snatched the phone out of Naruto's hands just when he was about to hang up.

"Fine with me." Naruto grinned at Temari as he got up from his bed and nodded once, "See ya, Temari, Tenten."

"Bye!" Both girls replied, Tenten's voice obviously slightly softer than Temari's.

Naruto then quickly ran out of his house and jumped onto his rooftop, transforming into 'Nemar' as he jumped.

"Well then, let's see..." Naruto said to himself and looked around in order to figure out which way he exactly had to go, "Ah, that way."

"Alright! Let's go!" Naruto gave himself a small pep talk, hoping that he would not have more bad luck today, and then quickly headed out to Ino's house.

Luckily for Naruto, Ino lived not that far away from him, so he had little chance of anything happening on his way to her.

He soon reached the street where Ino lived and stopped in front of the Yamanaka flower shop, "Ehm...Should I just go inside? Or is there another entrance...?"

Naruto pondered for a moment and then figured he'd just have to see if there was or wasn't an alternate entrance. As soon as he stepped into the flower shop, two events happened.

The first being the colorful smell of all the flowers entering his nostrils, the second being Ino throwing herself around his neck and filling his nostrills with an even sweeter scent.

"You're here!" Ino exclaimed cheerful.

"Ehehehe. Yeah and so are you. Sorry for the wait, Ino." Naruto said and rubbed the back of his head.

"It's alright, I've been waiting for you almost the entire day." Ino said and then looked around Naruto, as if to find something, "No flowers for me?"

"Eh...I wouldn't want to make profit for your rivals, so..." Naruto sheepishly grinned, "Besides how am I supposed to buy you flowers when your flowershop is the only one I know..."

"Well, you could've bought them here." Ino winked and smiled at him, "Shall we go?"

"Yeah...But I have to tell you, I didn't really prepare anything special for this date...After four dates, I kind of ran out of orignal ideas...Please, forgive me." Naruto rubbed the back of his head.

"Four?" Ino looked questioningly at Naruto, causing him to freeze up, "I thought you didn't go out on date with Hinata yet..."

"Ehm...Well...you see...the thing is..." Naruto started sweating out of nervousity, "Damn it, I'm such an idiot! What am I going to say! Ehm...who could be the fourth one...saying Hinata won't work..."

"Nemar-kun?" Ino snapped him out of his thoughts.

"A-Ah! Yeah, well you see...Remember that dear friend I told you about in my first letter? The one who'd hold the replies for me? Uhm...We went out for dinner...So I guess that somewhat counts a date...Ehhehehe..."

"Hm, yeah I guess so..." Ino replied as she tilted her head, "Well, let's be on our way now. We'll see what we can do together today."

Naruto smiled at her when she wrapped her arms around his as they left the stor, Ino announcing her departure to her parents, "I'm leaving now!"

Even before the reply of her parents could be heard, Naruto and Ino had left the store.

"The weather is nice today." Ino sang as she looked up to the wide blue sky with it's pure white fluffy clouds.

"Yeah, quite rare that it's already spring in Feburary, but you know...this is how I'll always remember Konoha, beautiful and sunny." Naruto replied as he looked up to the sky for a moment with Ino.

"How was your day so far, Nemar-kun?" Ino asked him as she looked back to the road ahead of them.

Naruto blinked at Ino and then sighed, "One of those days that my luck seems a lot less than normal."

"Hm? How so?"

"Well it's just one of those days that it seems like the entire world is against you...You know, like hitting your little toe against the table, losing things and end up on your rear end a lot of the time."

Ino slightly leaned back and gave Naruto's rear end a look, "Your buns looks fine though."

Naruto slightly blushed at the comment and rubbed the back of his head as he sheepishly grinned, "Er...Thanks."

"Well, my day hasn't been half bad at all." Ino smiled at Naruto for a moment, "Last night I slept at a friend's place...Ehm, not that we did anything! Really! There were others there too and all, s-so don't think anything of it!"

Naruto looked at her for a moment and then bursted out into laughter, which for some reason made Ino go red in her face, "Wha-What's so funny! I'm telling the truth!"

"I know, I know! It's just that I wouldn't even think that you did something just because you spend the night some where other than at your home." Naruto said between laughs, "Of course, I know she didn't do anything, but I wouldn't have thought she did something even if I didn't know..."

"Do I look that innocent?" Ino asked as she let go of Naruto's arm and placed one of her fists on her waist

"No...It's just that, even though you tend to jump me from time to time, I don't think you'd randomly do...something with someone you only see as a friend." Naruto looked from the corner of his eyes at Ino.

"Well, unfortunately, Naruto is just a friend right now...He's a good guy though." Ino said and when both of them realised what she said, Naruto slightly blushed and Ino slapped her hands in front of her mouth.

"Unfortunately...?" Naruto repeated as he blinked in disbelief at the blonde kunoichi.

Ino blushed crimson and looked at Naruto, "N-Not like that! I just wouldn't mind if he and I became a bit closer...I...I mean closer friends. Because he really isn't as bad as he was when we were in the Academy..."

Naruto grinned widely at her, "And what about now?"

"Hey! Don't tease me!"

"I'm not. I'd like to know what you think of Naruto. After all, his a student of my sensei as well."

Ino let her arms fall down, slightly showing signs of defeat, "Well, he's definetely less of a loud mouth bragging kid and far more mature than he has ever been. Also, he even knows some etiquete! A week ago he bought flowers at my place for this girl he took out on a date! I have absolutely no idea, who it was though...However, he did say that he didn't have a girlfriend yet and that it was basically just obligation..."

"Rule number one in taking someone out for a date. If it's possible, never come empty handed to your date. That's what Er-...Jiraiya-sensei always told me." Naruto grinned at Ino, "Damn it, I almost said Ero-sennin there..."

"Then where is my present?" Ino clinged back onto Naruto's arms.

"Sorry...I didn't really know what you like, so I couldn't think up anything to give you." Naruto rubbed the back of his head again.

"Hm...I like you, so you could've given yourself to me." Ino replied and winked at Naruto, who slightly laughed at her reply.

"Well, I could've given you a temporary Kage Bunshin of myself, but I believe that you'd rather have the real me, huh?" Naruto smiled at Ino, who returned the smile.

"So, what shall we do?" Ino asked as she firmly pressed Naruto's arm against her chest, making him slightly blush again.

"E-Ehm...How about we go to the park and get to know each other a bit better?" Naruto suggested.

"If I can lean against you."

"Of course, I see no problem with that." Naruto smiled at her, "Ino's quite nice so far...I guess without having to worry about competition in her direct environment, she's a lot more relaxed..."

A while later, Naruto was leaning against the trunk of a tree and Ino leaned against him, dreamily staring past his chest as she traced with her finger over it.

"So tell me, Ino...What do you like and dislike?" Naruto smiled at her as he broke the silence, which was quite comfortable for some reason.

"Well, this may sound a bit cheesy, but I like you..." Ino smiled dreamily.

"She's sweet...though I guess I don't want to hear that kind of stuff all the time..." Naruto thought as he lay an arm around Ino, "And what else?"

"I like what we are doing right now..."

Naruto slightly laughed, "How about the things that aren't related to me?"

"Pudding!" Ino announced cheerful and with a wide smile on her face.

For some reason, Naruto nearly fell over and he just started laughing like crazy.

Ino rose from his body and blinked at him, "What's so funny about liking pudding?"

"Nothing, nothing at all! It's just that you said it so spontaneous that it sounded funny!" Naruto laughed so much that he started crying.

"But I really do like pudding!" Ino slightly jumped up as Naruto fell over out of laughter.

"There you did it again!"

Ino gritted her teeth for a moment and then jumped on top of Naruto, "Your turn. What do you like?"

Naruto stopped laughing and looked straight into Ino's eyes as she leaned closer towards him, "Well, I'm starting to like the fact that girls tend to be on top of me. At least, I like some of them...There are those who I don't want on top of me for various reasons..."

"And? Am I one of the person's you do want on top of you?" Ino brought her face about an inch or two away from Naruto's.

"Well, you're definetely not on the list of people who I don't want sitting on top of me." Naruto stated, "So far the only person that I don't want on top of me is Anko-sensei..."

"How about this then...?" Ino blushed and tenderly kissed Naruto on his lips, "Do you like that?"

"Hm, I don't know. I guess I need to have more of those before I have my opinion ready about that." Naruto grinned at Ino, though that grin didn't last long as Ino slightly pulled him up and passionately kissed him.

When Ino broke the kiss, she carefully laid Naruto back down, placed her elbow on the grass and rested her head on her hand as she had a look of self-satisfaction in her eyes.

She didn't need to say out loud what her thoughts right now where, as Naruto could clearly see the message in her eyes, "Do I really need to pursue you some more or do you just want to be kissed by me again."

"Yeah, I definetely like that." Naruto stated and gave Ino a wide grin.

"I shall let you enjoy some more of that then..." Ino replied and just as she leaned over to Naruto's face again, vibrations went through both blondes' bodies and Ino jumped ten feet in the air.

"What the...?" Naruto blinked at Ino, who patted all over her body. A little while later, she found what she searched for, a small silver-colored cellphone, "Damn...Already, huh?"

Naruto kept blinking at her as she snapped the mobile open with one swift motion and raced with her fingers over most of the keys, "Ehm...Ino...? Everything alright?"

"What?" Ino looked up in surprise, "No, everything's fine. Don't worry, I'll be done in a sec. Sorry for this, Nemar-kun..."

"It's alright...I guess." Naruto sat straight up and just stared for a moment at Ino.

"Done." She announced with a smile on her face and with a swift motion of her hands, she had pocketed her cellphone again.

"What was that all about?" Naruto asked Ino as she sat down next to him.

"Nothing special. Sakura just text messaged me. That's all." Ino replied and scooted closer towards Naruto.

"Ah, I see..." Naruto replied and everything went silent then.

Fortunately, the awkward silence didn't last too long as Ino decided to ask Naruto something that was always in the back of her mind, "Nemar-kun, do you have a cellphone? Or at least a phone number?"

"Ehm...Phone number, you say huh?" Naruto replied and blinked at Ino, "Come on, Naruto! Think! Think! Just say you have none! Yeah, that's it!"

"You don't have one?" Ino asked and gave him a questioning look.

"Well, I live with E...Jiraiya-sensei so..." Naruto sheepishly grinned and rubbed the back of his head.

"I see. Well, I guess we, or even better, I should get you a cellphone then so we, or at least me, can contact you." Ino smiled and winked at Naruto.

"Ehm...I don't know about that. I tihnk I'd lose it during training or something..." Naruto kept the sheepish grin on his face.

"Oh well, we'll go get you one sometime." Ino smiled at him and then positioned herself behind Naruto, wrapping her arms around him, "For now, let's get to know each other some more."

Naruto slightly laughed, "That is more than fine with me."

An hour later, Naruto learned a whole lot more about flowers and Ino than he thought he ever would in his life.

"Alright, time to tell me about your hobbies. You were so interested in what I had to tell that I haven't had the chance to get to know you better yet..." Ino said as she gently stroke with her fingers through the blonde hair of the blushing Naruto, whose head was lying on Ino's lap.

"Oh yeah, well I..." Naruto said and stopped when Sakura's voice loudly called out to Ino and him, "Nemar-kun! Ino!"

Naruto shot up and, along with Ino, he looked towards direction the sound appeared to come from.

"Sakura! What are you doing here!" Ino was full of surprise to see her pink haired friend.

"What's wrong?" Naruto asked as Sakura reached them, heavily panting.

"Tsunade-sama and Jiraiya-sama have something important to announce. I was told to find as much shinobi as possible and make them all gather at the Hokage's Tower."

"I see. Sakura..." Naruto said, "Don't add chan, don't add chan!"

"Yes?" Sakura asked, now breathing normally again.

"Have you found Naruto yet?" Naruto asked and mentally sighed in relief that he could refrain from adding the 'chan' part.

"No, I haven't..." Sakura said and stared into Naruto's eyes.

"I see...I'll go get him, I know where his 'secret training area' is. Ino, I'm sorry that this interupts our date. If this really is important enough to ruin the opportunity to be with you for the rest of the afternoon, I'll take you out for dinner tonight. Well then, I'm off to find Naruto." Naruto stated and was about to leave.

"See you soon, Nemar-kun!" Ino called out to Naruto as he jumped off.

Naruto looked over his shoulder and smiled at her and before he turned his face back around, could catch a glimpse of Sakura whispering something to Ino.

Shrugging it off, Naruto quickly headed onward to the Hokage's Tower, "Important announcement, huh? Ero-sennnin...Tsunade-obachan...What's going on that you need to gather most of the shinobi of Konoha..."

When he was a few blocks away from the tower, Naruto landed in an alley and created a Kage Bunshin.

"I guess I'll change back to myself then." Naruto said and popped out of his disguise.

Naruto and his clone, who was still in his Nemar disguise, jumped back onto the rooftops and quickly headed for the crowd in front of the Hokage's Tower, which was growing bigger by the second.

Naruto joined Gaara and Temari on the back of the crowd, with his clone following closely behind him, "Yo, Gaara, Temari! What's happen-...!"

"KYAAA! Nemar-kun!" Temari waltzed over Naruto and glomped his Nemar clone.

"...Women..." Gaara muttered and Naruto painfully nodded as he slowly picked himself up from the ground.

Shikamaru, who was standing close enough to hear Gaara, sighed and muttered something about women being troublesome.

"Good to see you too, Temari." Both Naruto and 'Nemar' said at the same time and Naruto's eye twitched, "This could get annoying..."

"Sorry, Naruto! Didn't see you standing in my way..." Temari sheepishly grinned at Naruto and then rubbed her cheek against Nemar's cheek.

"Hands off, blondie! He's with me today!" Ino appeared out of nowhere and clinged onto Naruto's clone.

"Share the wealth, blondie, share the wealth!" Temari replied.

"Both of you, quit it. We're here for more imporatant matters." Sakura said as she walked up to Naruto's clone and smiled at him.

"Hear that, Nemar-kun? Sakura thinks..." Ino started but was interrupted by Naruto's clone, "We are here for more important matters. She is right. Also, I think that you two will kill me if you keep this up, so could you just leave me be for now?"

"But we can hold hands, right?" Ino gave Naruto's clone her best puppy dog eyes and Temari joined her in begging, "We can do that, can't we?"

Naruto and his clone both sighed and his clone then nodded, Temari taking the clone's left hand and Ino his right.

Sakura lined up next to Ino, and Naruto stood between Temari and Gaara as two more familiar shinobi joined them, "Hey everyone! Hey Nemar-kun! How's it going?"

A "Hmph." followed the cheerful greeting and Naruto and co turned their heads around to face the two shinobi, who were none other than Tenten and a still partially blonde Neji.

An awkward silence followed as everyone but Tenten stared at Neji's hair.

Gaara snickered for less than a second and then coughed, which was like a signal for the others to burst out in tears of laughter.

Neji glared at them all and his eye twitched, "One day I will kill you all for this...I swear to the gods, I will..."

"Now, now, Neji! You have to admit! It looks...funny." Tenten said and started giggling again as she looked at his still partially blonde hair.

Naruto managed to say something between his laughs, "What happened, Neji? Ran out of Dye remover?"

As Naruto and the others continued laughing, Neji tried his best to remain calm and answer without flaring with anger, "As a matter of fact...Yes, I did..."

The laughter slightly died out and Naruto's clone replied to Neji's statement, "Well, then I guess you should buy some more, unless you like to be called Hyuuga Neji, clown of Konoha."

Everyone momentarily bursted out in laughter again, but this time Neji's glare silenced them with intent to kill and Naruto slightly felt sweat crawling over the back of his neck, "Maybe my clone overdid it a bit..."

"There they are!" Lee's loud voice could be heard by all and thus turned the head of everyone present in front of the Hokage's Tower to where the sound came from.

"Quadruple Dynamic Entry!" Gai exclaimed as Lee, he and his two brothers, Gee and Laim, entered the scene with a flying kick.

As soon as they had landed, everything went dead silent and everyone's jaw dropped open. Gai struck his nice-guy pose and his teeth shined in the light of the afternoon sun, "The Youthful Youth squad silences all with their stunning new beautifully youthful looks!"

Ino and Temari clinged onto the arms of Naruto's clone as they gasped in shock and Gai, Lee, Gee and Laim.

Naruto sidestepped towards his clone and stopped when he stood in front of him. He jumped around and started shaking his clone back and forth, causing both girls to let go of his clone, "HOW COULD WE LET THIS HAPPEN!" Naruto cried out.

"Wha-What are you talking about!" Naruto's clone replied.

"Is nothing sacred anymore in this world! We used to be cool with our rare blonde hair color! But now...!" Naruto turned around and dramatically pointed at the Maito group, "Now we fall into the same category as those guys! They're giving us blondes a very bad name!"

"AAAAAAAH! You're right! How could we let this happen! How could we let THEM dye their hair blonde, the same hair color as us!"

"We used to belong to the cool people with our rare blonde hair! We were cool! Blonde hair used to be only for cool people! And even cooler babes like Temari and Ino! What are we going to do now that we are losers like them!"

Naruto's clone hit Naruto's back, "Don't worry! We'll save Ino and Temari from a doomed lonely loser existance by making them ours!"

At this point everything went silent again as Naruto stared at his clone, his face bright red and his eyes twitching at his clone.

"Oi 'tebayo..." Naruto whispered at his clone as his eyes still twitched uncontrollably, "You do realise what you just did, right?"

"Eh...Since we have the same brain...yup, I do..."

"But that doesn't mean that girls with other haircolors aren't cool!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Yeah! All the girls are cool! Be they blonde, brunette or have a rare hair color like Hyuuga Hinata or Haruno Sakura!" Naruto's clone exclaimed.

"Yeah!" Naruto joined and then softly added, "But purple is the spawn of the devil...No 'good' can come from purpleheaded women..."

"I don't really get what's going on...However!" Gai exclaimed, drawing the attention back to him, or at least most of it, "My old, now ascended student Neji! Fear and lo, for my adorable youthful student and I have ascended beyond your level!"

"Gai-sensei! Let's show them the power of YOOOOUUUTH!" Lee exclaimed.

"That's right, my adorable youthful student Lee! Let's do this!" Gai struck the nice-guy pose again and then both of the men went into a power-up styled stance.

"Third gate..." Both Lee and Gai exclaimed, widening the eyes of everyone present, "Open!"

"This move..." Gaara thought and went over his memories of when he first witnessed Lee's ultimate move.

"Gai-sensei! We've ascended to Super Youthful Saiya-jins!" Lee exclaimed as the sheer power of the two Taijutsu masters started pushing the crowd in front of them back.

"Yes, my adorable student! Our power is indeed Super and Youthful!"

Two books that seemed to come out of nowhere, but where in fact coming from the Hokage's Tower, hit both Lee and Gai dead on their head, causing them to fall down on their backs and stopping their 'little' power-up session.

"Gai! Don't use your kinjutsu for fun!" Tsunade scolded Gai as she stood on top of the tower.

Gai used his youthful power to jump back up, "S-Sorry, Tsunade-sama! It's just that my adorable student Lee and I wanted to show me old student Neji that we can become Super Saiya-jins!"

"Do that when I do NOT have something to announce to everyone!" Tsunade yelled back at Gai.

"U-Understood!"

"Now if I may have everyone's attention..." Tsunade spoke to all the gathered shinobi, which was at least the largest part of the entire shinobi population in Konoha.

Everyone looked up towards the Godaime and patiently awaited her announcement. Tsunade smirked as she noticed that she had their absolute attention, or at least their apparent attention.

Tsunade turned her head around and looked over her shoulder at a certain white-haired man, "Jiraiya, join me. It's time for the announcement."

Jiraiya calmly walked up to Tsunade and stood besides her, looking upon the gathered shinobi below.

"Everyone, thank you for gathering here. Tsunade and I have a very important announcement to make today and I'm sure it will be kind of shocking for all of you. Well, at least for the non-Elite Jounin amongst you." Jiraiya stated.

"Five days from now..." Tsunade said closing her eyes for a moment and then opening them again, "Jiraiya and myself are going to be husband and wife. We're going to marry each other!"

What seemed for the millionth time that hour, silence was upon all as everyone stared with wide eyes at the two Sannin.
Naruto, being himself, blinked and then both he and his clone dramatically pointed at the frog tamer, Jiraiya, "Hey! Ero-sennin! Wat are you trying to do! Where's the real Tsunade-obachan!"

Realising that both he and his clone used Naruto's nicknames for the two Sannin, Naruto starting sweating, "Oh crap...We did it again, didn't we?"

"Yes...Yes, we did..." His clone whispered back.

"Naruto, I am the real Tsunade." Tsunade replied aggitated.

"Prove it!" Naruto replied and this time being the only one to point and shout, instead of both him and his clone.

Tsunade sighed and then raised her indexfinger into the air, "Sorry, Jiraiya, nothing personal..."

Jiraiya tried to run away, but it was already too late as Tsunade's finger connected with him and send him flying through the air. When Jiraiya crashed into the mountain behind the Tower and fell down from there, everyone gasped and nodded, agreeing that is enough proof to show that it really is the Godaime.

"Alright, Now that that's clear, I want all of you to know that we still have a lot to do within those five days and thus it is your job as shinobi to inform all of the villagers, not to mention get everything ready for the big day. That will be all. I'll see all of you again soon enough." Tsunade stated and as she turned around and walked away, the majority of the crowd replied, "Hai, Hokage-sama!"

After that the crowd slowly left, Naruto sighed, "It is the most random day after all."

"Then that means..." Naruto's clone stated.

"Let's leave that out of this, ok?" Naruto straightened up.

"Nemar-kun! Let's head back to the park!" Ino cheerfully exclaimed.

"I'll be there in a few seconds!" Naruto's clone replied and Ino smiled at him.

"Well then...Time to head out to 'training' again." Naruto stated and then noticed something in a dark alley that was close to them, "Hm?"

He saw something reflect the sunlight and the light caused a pair of eyes to be visible to the naked eye. Whatever it was that reflected the sunlight, it was thrown out of the alley and was flying towards the back of Gaara's head.

Naruto's eyes widened and he reacted as fast as possible. He flipped his kunai pouch open, took a kunai out and send it out on a collision course with the unidentified flying object.

When Naruto's kunai hit the flying object, both disappeared and Naruto could feel that who ever had thrown the other object was glaring at him. He turned his head, temporarily facing the other before that person ran into the alley.

"Looks like there's an assassin after you after all, Gaara." Naruto thought before both he and his clone quickly chased after the assassin.

"Hold it right there, you!" Naruto yelled as he entered the alley and saw the assassin run around the corner into the next alley.

When Naruto turned around, he quickly stopped as the assassin appeared to be waiting for him.

Taking a closer look at the assassin, Naruto saw that the assassin was a female with dark crimson hair, emerald eyes, a mask that covered her mouth up and an outfit that appeared to be flexible, as it revealed every curve on her body and it was black with a red cloud pattern.

That was all it took for Naruto to figure out who the assassin, "The Akatsuki..."

The Akatsuki assassin smirked and raised a single handseal before she spoke, "Wasn't very nice of you to make me fail my mission..."

"A Paralysis jutsu!" Naruto thought as his eyes widened ever so slightly when he found out he was unable to move.

"You know what I like most about men?" The assassin asked as she walked towards Naruto, extravagantly swaying her hips from side to side.

"Like I care..." Naruto thought, unable to speak his thoughts out loud due to a certain jutsu.

"They are such..." She traced her finger over Naruto's jaw, "Easy...prey..."

Naruto saw the assassin's hands swiftly move down to her side and before he realised what happened, she had stuck a dagger into his chest.

Naruto's eyes widened and stared in disbelief at the assassin, who tilted her head and gave Naruto a fake sad look, "Bye-bye now, I hope they'll find you before your corpse starts rotting."

With that, she ran off and just as she turned around the corner, Naruto smirked.

A poof sound could be heard and the dagger fell to the floor, Naruto jumping down from the rooftop and chasing the assassin once again, "Heh, Can't believe someone from those Akatsuki bastards is actually a woman. Not to mention a cocky one who thinks I'm some half-assed shinobi..."

After a while, the Akatsuki assassin was running through the forest.

"Tsch...Damned brat..." She said as she walked into a clearing, "He took my chance to kill the Kazekage away...Now I'll have to find another opportunity..."

"Sorry, but that's one thing I can't allow you to do..." Naruto stepped out into the clearing from behind one of the trees in front of the assassin.

"You again! How did you..." She narrowed her eyes at Naruto.

"Hehehe...Well...That's something you won't be finding out in this lifetime, you Akatsuki bitch." Naruto clenched his fists and glared at the Akatsuki assassin.

"You let your guard down again." The Akatsuki Assassin raised the same handseal as before, paralyzing Naruto on the spot.

"Oh, but did I really?" Naruto smirked as he walked up behind the Assasin with his arms crossed.

The assassin turned around and used her paralysis jutsu again.

"You know, using the same trick over and over again is kind of lame. Unless it's something flashy like my moves." Another Naruto walked into the clearing and grinned widely.

"Shut up!" The assassin said frustrated as she flashed through a couple of handseals and as she finished making the seal sequence, a black sphere surrounded the area momentarily and then faded away again.

"You know..." Another Naruto came into view.

"That was..."

"Kind of..."

"Flashy, but..."

"Still not good enough for me."

The assassin's eyes darted from left to right, looking at Naruto, who had a wide smirk printed on his face, and then she closed her eyes, "I see... You aren't just another shinobi brat. To be able to make even this much Kage Bunshin at your age, quite impressive."

"Well thank you for the compliment, but I haven't started even getting serious yet." Naruto said as an army of Kage Bunshin surrounded the clearing.

"Hmph...Do you know who I am, boy? Oh well, it's time to get more serious for me too..." The assasin said and formed two daggers in her hands.

"Let's go..." She said as her entire being appeared to become much darker than before.

"Let's see what you're all about..." Naruto thought and commanded two clones to rush at the Akatsuki assassin.

The assassin disappeared and reappeared behind the two clones, "Kitsune no Shikon." (A/N: Fangs of the Fox)

The two clones were impaled and popped off into existence and the assassin smirked, "What's wrong? If your Kage Bunshin can only do that, they won't even be a match for me."

"We'll see about that!" The Kage Bunshin said in unison and all of them charged at the Assassin.

"Ninpou: Kogane Renge." The assassin's daggers slightly grew and, within a few seconds, she had decimated Naruto's Kage Bunshin army. (A/N: Golden Lotus from what I know.)

Feeling confident that all of the clones were annihilated, the assassin stood in the middle of the now immensely large cloud of smoke, which previously was Naruto's clones.

That confidence was just enough to slightly let her drop her guard, which Naruto took advantage off by attacking her from behind. Naruto kicked, but his kicked was noticed on time and parried by the assassin.

She thrusted with her free hand and dagger for Naruto's stomach, but when the dagger connected, it appeared to be just another Bunshin. The assassin heard two more Naruto's rushing for her direction, so she jumped up and threw one of her daggers down to her previous position.

As soon as the Naruto's reached came close enough, the dagger exploded and ended the lives of the two Kage Bunshin. She quickly created and threw a couple of more daggers and all of them exploded once she fell back down to the ground.

Her fall however left her vulnerable for an attack and Naruto managed to escape the exploding daggers, thus he made his way to the assassin and his fist connected with her face, sending her flying through the air.

Naruto jumped up and threw a couple of kunai and shuriken at the assassin, who used Kawarimi no Jutsu to avoid injury.

"Damn it, time for some more serious Kage Bunshin attack methods..." Naruto thought and quickly made a couple of more Bunshin.

As expected, the Assassin attacked again, but this time was caught by surprise when, instead of attacking indepedently, the Kage Bunshins used each other for shields against the thrown daggers and counter-attacking.

After being punched, kicked and just hit by flying Kage Bunshin a bunch of times, the assassin was getting tired but she managed to get rid of all of the Kage Bunshins again.

"Damn it...This bitch is better than I thought...She's worthy of that Akatsuki name after all...though she is way below the level of those bastards I fought before...What should I do? Capture her for interrogation or kill her? I suck at capturing people...If only I could signal the others without her noticing, then I could..." Naruto thought as he and the Akatsuki Assassin had created some distance between the two of them.

All of a sudden, Naruto knew exactly how to signal Konoha without making the Assassin notice that it was a signal and kick her ass for trying to kill Gaara.

"Hehe...I didn't expect to do this against a low-level Akatsuki assassin instead of the big guys like that Itachi-bastard, but I guess I have no choice." Naruto grinned widely at the assassin, who looked shocked for a moment to find out that he knew Itachi, but then relaxed as she figured most of the shinobi in Konoha know Itachi by name.

Naruto formed a handseal and started molding his chakra, "Haaaa..."

The assassin readied herself for combat again, holding one dagger in front of her and the other behind her, but she slightly shivered when Naruto's chakra turned red and the feeling in the atmosphere dramastically changed.

Nine thin tails of chakra lingered behind Naruto as dust and some small rocks started rising up from the air. The tails wrapped around Naruto and gave him a crimson aura of chakra.

Naruto's eyes, now entirely crimson red due to the Kyuubi's chakra, locked onto the eyes of the assassin as the sky above Konoha darkened and thunder and lightning commenced right before Naruto said, "Let's go, Akatsuki bitch."

The assassin could only widen her eyes as Naruto disappeared from view and a second later reappear right in front of her, his fist connecting with her stomach.

As she gasped for air, Naruto kicked her up into the air and then jumped after her, grabbing her by her legs as he flew past her. He flipped through the air a couple of times, causing the assassin to flip along with him, and then he threw her towards the ground with all his might.

Unable to do anything, the assassin crashed onto the ground and groaned in pain for a moment. Naruto created a Rasengan with one hand as he fell back down towards the ground, aiming his arm at the Assassin.

She managed to roll away and avoid direct impact from the Rasengan, but the aftermath energy send her crashing into a tree. Naruto rose up and turned his head towards the Assassin, who clutched onto her ribs and barely managed to stand on her feet.

He crossed his arms in front of his face, his claws pointing at the assassin and with a loud roar, Naruto send a wave of energy towards the Akatsuki Assassin.

She crashed through a tree and Naruto ran towards her, his chakra causing a path of destruction along the way. Naruto jumped up when he was just a few meters a way from her and crashed down on her body, causing her to cough up some blood.

Naruto held his fist ready to punch her, but for some reason he just couldn't punch her. He softly growled as he sat on top of the Assassin, who coughed a couple of times again.

Part of him told him to land the finishing blow, while the other screamed that he should stop. Naruto lowered his fist and raised the assassin by her collar, "I've got a couple of questions and I believe you have the answers."

The assassin smiled, "Fool...I'm an Assassin from the Akatsuki...I shall tell you one thing about those who are like me, the pawns...You have two choices when you're caught by an enemy..."

"I don't care. You're in no position to kill me, so I expect that you start listening to me." Naruto raised her a bit more.

She laughed and ignored Naruto's statement, "When caught by an enemy, you either give them information and get killed by the Akatsuki self...or you kill yourself, which one do you think I have chosen...?"

"Don't be ridiculous! You aren't going to die before I get some answers! Why did you try to assassinate Gaara!"

"Too late, boy...I already impaled my wrists...As a gift for your ability to drive an A-rank assassin like me to suicide, I'll answer any questiong before I die...which will be within less than a minute from now..."

Naruto looked down to the assassin's wrists and noticed that there indeed was a full hole in them, the daggers lying in the grass with her blood covering them.

He faced the assassin again, "Damn it. Answer then already! Why did you try to kill Gaara!"

"Orders from the big chief...I had to try and assassinate the Kazekage in order to see how strong he was now that he lives without his Bijuu..."

"The Akatsuki Nine...Who are they! I already know that Itachi-bastard, that shark-faced bastard and I know that the other two we faced are dead, so tell me the names of the other five, starting with the leader!"

"I...I see...You're the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki...Impressive...I meet my end for our goal after all then..." The assassin laughed again, blood still trinkling down the side of her mouth.

"Answer me!" Naruto growled as he shook her once.

"Ugh...A...A..." The assassin started closing her eyes.

"Damn it, I've got to stop that bleeding before it's far too late!" Naruto said and carefully lowered the assassin to the ground.

"I...It's...useless...Don...Don't even...try...I...have...just...one...last...thing...I..." The assassin coughed some more blood up, "I...want to...tell you...I've...been spying...in...Konoha...for some...time now...and...they know...they will come...soon...and you will all die...when...the...moon...shines...with...a...blood...red..."

And with that, the assassin closed her eyes, unable to open them ever again. Naruto walked away from the now dead assassin and clutched his fists as the Kyuubi's chakra crawled back into his skin, "Damn it...Those bastards..."

His mind was now filled with a lot of questions and he knew that only time would give him answers, but only when it would be far too late.

"This really is one of the worst days in my life..."