Mostly filler in this chapter, but still hope you enjoy it.
Naruto, Hinata, and Sasuke walked up the ramp into the Invictus's open Docking Bay. It was large enough to house a decently-sized dropship, and looked very empty with just them and a grav-sled. Naruto turned and saw that a crew was already going to work opening the Fool's Gold. He snapped a salute to the old girl. "Bye, you piece of crap. I'll miss you," he said under his breath. Then Naruto activated a panel on the wall. The Docking Bay doors began to close, an atmospheric force-field springing up.
"This ship is sized for 300 Marines and a Naval crew of 40. Now it's just us," Sasuke explained to Hinata. He handed over a Holo-reader. "The schematics of the ship and instruction manuals for every module are loaded onto this. Should be light reading for someone like you."
"You'll be someone like me very soon, Sasuke," Hinata told him. She was already flying through the various pages of text and images on the Holo-reader. "So, crew's quarters are the deck below the Command Deck?"
"That's right. And I actually have a treat for us on Deck 2, in regards to our quarters." Sasuke looked over to Naruto. "You coming?"
Naruto turned away from his last glimpse of his old Freighter. "Coming, I'm coming. Let's get moving before we pack. Up to the Bridge!"
The three walked into the central section of Deck 9 that spanned between the Docking Bay and the Cargo Bay. The elevator was there, opposite the airlock, and they stepped in after it arrived, the large interior fitting the grav-sled as well. There was a whirring, and when the doors opened again Hinata let out a gasp.
The Bridge of the Invictus was impressive. The all-white room was filled with command consoles, all arranged so they could be seen from the Command Chair in the back-center of the room, just in front of the elevator doors. A door was placed at each side of the room, marking the entrances to the rest of the Command Deck.
Hinata walked in, scrolling through the Holo-reader for all the relevant information. "Pilot… Tactical… Engineering… Comms… Intelligence, it's all here. And here's my seat!" Hinata bounced over towards the Command Chair and sat at the smaller seat down a step and to the right of it. She flicked a few switches and pressed a few buttons, and the ceiling came alight with a holographic display of the surrounding area, as if the walls had become transparent. At the moment, the view was of Docking Bay 13 at Olympus Shipyard.
Naruto and Sasuke both followed her out into the Bridge, both overcome by memories. Naruto wavered for a second, but then he took a seat in the Command Chair. He blinked. "This is comfy as my ergonomic chair on the Fool's Gold!"
"Just has thousands of ryo worth of electronics integrated into it. The K-Fed doesn't need every promising Commander developing back problems by the time they reach Admiral. Seat comfort is one of the hidden expenses of building a ship," Sasuke told them. "Now, I'm officially retired. Itachi gave me his seal of approval an hour ago. There's nothing holding us here. Let's go clear up this mess with Inuzuka Hana."
"Right. Hinata, you mind piloting us out of here? You've got a better idea of how to do it than I do," Naruto admitted.
"Sure thing, babe!" Hinata said. She worked the XO chair like a master guitarist tuning a new instrument. In no time, she'd opened a channel to Olympus Shipyard Flight Command. "Olympus Shipyard, please state your intention," droned one of the toneless if well-behaved communications officers.
"This is the Invictus in Docking Bay 13, requesting clearance to leave Olympus Shipyard," Hinata said with confidence.
After a moment, a glowing green path overlaid their visual display, marking the flight plan they'd been given. "Proceed along provided route and best wishes from all Olympus Shipyard to Uchiha Sasuke on his next venture in life," said the comm tech before closing the channel.
Sasuke growled. "He didn't bother to keep it a secret, apparently."
"Of all the things he could have done, arranging a group goodbye is the least of it. Consider yourself lucky," Naruto advised. "Now, let's see if the old gal runs like I remember."
Hinata activated engines and retro-thrusters. The whole ship shuddered as it was freed from the grasp of the artificial gravity of the Shipyard. With textbook smoothness, Hinata guided the Invictus along the path to the Nav Beacon. By the time they got there (in a fraction of the time it would have taken in the Fool's Gold), she'd finished plotting their course to Port Heracles, taking advantage of the much superior military-grade Tachyon Drive. "Just under 4 days to Port Heracles!" Hinata announced as the ship left the gravity well of the Alpha Centauri system and accelerated to hyperwarp.
Sasuke had been following Hinata map out the course on a smaller hologram of the galaxy and shook his head. "I'd call bullshit, but the computer confirms it. How did you shave so much time? It takes our shipments a full week at least to get here from Heracles."
"Not your shipments anymore, Sasuke. And apparently it's something called warp tunneling. You might understand it if you ask her in a few days," Naruto said. "Now, your Commander has a very important task for you," Naruto said imperiously.
Sasuke turned and gulped when he saw the look in his new boss's eyes.
"The Commander of the Invictus orders you to strip and attend to your duties as his Chief of Staff," Naruto said saucily, unbuttoning his pants to reveal his substantial size.
Sasuke gaped. "Here? On the Bridge? While you sit in the Command Chair?"
"Welcome, this is your life now," Hinata purred.
"This isn't a Navy ship anymore. It's MY ship. And my rules go. Now follow your order or I'll discipline you for disobeying," Naruto growled deep in his throat, his prick twitching angrily as it waited for stimulation from someone, anyone.
Sasuke had a moment where he almost burst out laughing, but he resisted. Well, he'd known what he was signing up for. *I'm only going through with this because I expect to have this exact scene recreated with our roles reversed someday soon,* Sasuke sent Naruto mentally. Then, maneuvering his left arm out of the sling, he began to take off his suit.
*Of course, just play along for now and I'll do whatever you want later,* Naruto promised, his sincerity ringing in his mental voice.
Once Sasuke was naked, he strode confidently up to Naruto. A part of him felt like the ghosts of every naval crew member that had ever served the Invictus was judging him, but he didn't care. Right here and now, it was just Sasuke with Hinata and Naruto, the two people he trusted most in the universe. And they were Uzu, primal sexual beings. This was just them having fun, nothing wrong with that.
Sasuke knelt down on the cold metal floor before the Command Chair, looking dutifully up at his Commander, his Alpha, his Naruto. Keeping eye-contact all the while, Sasuke leaned forward to take the head of Naruto's obscene erection in his mouth. A rush of sweetness coated his tongue as he tasted Naruto's pre. Deciding to drag it out, Sasuke took a deep breath and then proceeded to 'eat' Naruto's length, his lips moving down it a quarter-inch at a time, slowly but inexorably ending with Sasuke's hair tickling Naruto's quad and abs.
"Fuck, that feels good," Naruto groaned. "Can you feel it too?"
Sasuke blinked. *What do you mean?* He asked, his mouth occupied.
Naruto blinked before smacking himself in the head. *Knew I forgot something,* he muttered mentally, before Sasuke was suddenly hit with the sensation of a wet throat wrapped around his own erection.
"You were holding back the psychic feedback? Shame on you, Naruto! That's what makes Uzu sex so awesome!" Hinata scolded her man.
"I didn't want to overwhelm him on his first day with us and then he left and it just slipped my mind!" Naruto defended himself.
Sasuke withdrew his head from Naruto's lap, feeling as if the phantom head around his own cock was mirroring his movements on Naruto's. Sasuke caught his breath and looked up. "You mean you FEEL what the other feels when you have sex? I'm going to be blowing myself every time I blow Naruto?" Sasuke demanded.
"Pretty much," Naruto said. "Does that bother you?" He asked worriedly.
Sasuke snorted. "Makes it all more fun. You really underselled the mind-blowing sex part of being with your crew to me."
"Keep in mind, you were straight at the time. We were hoping to hook you with powers and eternal youth first and then have you discover that benefit all on your own," Hinata said from the XO Chair, watching the show in front of her.
Sasuke grinned. "Well, now I have all the more motivation to improve my technique, don't I? Heaven forbid the Chief of Staff be poor at blowjobs!" With that, Sasuke went down on Naruto's length a second time, this time much faster.
Naruto groaned and laid his hands on Sasuke's head. *I'll control the pace, you just focus on using that tight throat and slippery tongue of yours to get us both off,* Naruto told him. And then he began to move Sasuke's head up and down his cock, making sure he got plenty of time for air between deepthroats. Sasuke moaned at the rush of being used by a man he… cared for, as well as the delicious feeling of his own handiwork on his own cock. He swallowed around the blockage in his throat and both he and Naruto let out identical moans. Naruto eventually sped up, until he was genuinely fucking Sasuke's throat, the inky-haired man's skull clutched like a sex toy in his hands. Finally, shortly after Sasuke found himself spilling on the floor, Naruto let loose his prodigious load, shooting for over a minute down Sasuke's throat until his abdomen made him almost half as wide as he was tall.
Hinata sighed with pleasure, seeing her two boys mutually satisfy each other. "That was beautiful to watch… now when's my turn?"
Naruto chuckled and stood up, shucking his clothes until he stood gloriously naked. He lifted Sasuke by the hand and pressed a kiss to the man's lips. "You, honey, are going to help me stamp my authority on the Commander's Ready Room the way Sasuke helped me here with the Bridge. Follow me."
He led them both to the door on the left side of the room. The door opened to reveal a spacious office complete with desk, chairs, coffee table, and a small bathroom in the corner. The real prize was the wide window, which at the moment showed the streaks of stars as they moved over five times the speed of light.
Naruto paused before sitting behind the desk. He stroked the glass-and-metal contraption. "I sit now where you sat. Who would have thought it?" Naruto asked Sasuke rhetorically.
Sasuke sat down in one of the chairs, stroking his cum-filled belly. "You were always Commander material, Naruto. If you hadn't retired, I'd have recommended you take my place when I left the Invictus."
"But luckily he did retire, and went on a long, wandering path that led him to me and the start of something incredible," Hinata said warmly, a bright smile on her face.
"How did you two meet, actually?" Sasuke asked, realizing he knew almost nothing real about Hinata's past. He'd tried looking up her file, and almost been struck dumb at the transformation she'd undergone since having her photo taken. Other than finding out she was a Navigator First Class from an asteroid colony named Karron, he hadn't learned much.
"I stowed away on the Fool's Gold," Hinata admitted without shame. "When he found me, he threatened to take me back but I convinced him otherwise. Since we were going to spend a lot of time together after that, he made me the offer to keep him from going insane. I said yes, we unlocked his powers, and the galaxy would never be the same."
"She was already a randy spitfire of a gal, I don't think I changed too much about her, just enhanced all the parts that were already wonderful," Naruto said, looking at her dreamily.
"He's too kind. I was a timid, shy, frightened little thing. And I've grown into the kind of woman I never even dared to hope I could be." Hinata began to strip. "Now, how does the Commander want to stretch his dutiful XO today?"
Naruto's grin turned predatory. "I thought we'd give Sasuke a visual lesson on why anal sex with an Uzu is to be celebrated, not feared."
Hinata shivered as she shucked her underwear. "Yummy, I love when you take me back there. Where do you want me?"
"In my lap, as I sit in this chair, the Commander's chair, facing Sasuke," Naruto growled, his slumbering behemoth awakening again.
"Already?" Sasuke asked incredulously.
"Psychic Healing, the bane of the refractory period. I feel like a teenager again," Naruto said. "Now, I want you to take part in this lesson. I want you to prep Hinata's tight little ass for me so she can slide down my cock with zero resistance."
Sasuke blinked, before he found himself face-to-face with the loveliest ass he'd ever seen on a woman. "Would it help if I bent over?" Hinata asked, looking over her shoulder down at Sasuke.
"This is fine, dear," Sasuke managed to say, feeling quite surreal. While he'd accepted he was Naruto's now in body and spirit, it still hadn't processed that he had full access to Naruto's women to use as his own. He had as much right to finger Hinata as Naruto did, in their minds. And Sasuke found himself eager to get with the program.
Reaching out, Sasuke cupped Hinata's perineum, feeling her fluids leak out over his palm. He gathered himself and then pushed two fingers into her snatch. The feel was heavenly, silk and honey warmed by the sun. Hinata's body gently massaged his probing digits until Sasuke deemed them wet enough. He withdrew his fingers, and pulled them back to circle Hinata's rosebud, which was almost hidden behind her ass cheeks like loaves of rising bread. Hesitantly, not wanted to hurt her but reassured repeatedly that she was very stretchy, Sasuke pushed his fingers in.
It was very different from her pussy. Hotter and drier, and the walls felt different. As Sasuke poked and proved and scissored his fingers, he wondered if he were doing a good job.
"He's great with his fingers, Naruto. Sasuke, do you play some kind of instrument?" Hinata asked, taking the rectal intrusion with ease.
"I learned piano, flute, and the biwa growing up," Sasuke told her, twisting her fingers to try and really open her up.
"Really? Well, we'll have to pick those up next time we're on Gravitus. I'd love to hear you play!"
"So would I," Naruto said, waiting patiently in his seat. He seemed to be getting some sort of thrill at seeing Sasuke and Hinata together.
*I thought you said that all Uzu are jealous bastards. You seem to be the very definition of compersion right now,* Sasuke sent through their link.
*I'm overcorrecting, I guess you could say. Plus there's a little part of me that views you both as my property so it's not really cheating in my mind.* Naruto shrugged. "I think that's good enough. Now babe, let's show Sasuke how pleasurable it is to get fucked in the ass by Uzumaki Naruto."
Hinata waited for Sasuke to remove his fingers before practically skipping over to Naruto. Turning to face Sasuke, she seemed to follow some mental commands from Naruto as she balanced her feet of his thighs. Then, with his monstrous dick pressed up against her loosened ass, Hinata sank down until the globes of her ass touched Naruto's quad.
"Fuck!" Hinata cried out, a look of rapture on her face.
"That's right, honey, take me in like a good girl. Now, I want you to ride me. And try to put on a good show for Sasuke, won't you?" Naruto purred in her ear before licking it.
"Yes, Commander," Hinata said, before rising herself up almost off Naruto's boner before slamming herself back down on it. She soon built up to a rapid pace, every muscle in her athletic body gleaming with sweat. And all the while, she had a blissed out of her mind expression on her face. Sasuke watched the whole thing, saw Naruto guide her with the help of his hands, saw her take THAT in THERE and obviously love it, and began to lose his own fear over doing the act.
Hinata came once in the middle, her fluids leaking out to the floor but not really squirting. She came again when Naruto began to meet her thrusts just before he roared his own release. They sank back into the Commander's chair, both looking thoroughly fucked and loving it. Hinata twisted in his lap to plant a kiss on Naruto's lips, and they shared a long, lingering look that for all Sasuke knew could have held an entire conversation. He still wasn't used to the whole concept of telepathy, even after five days of experience with Naruto.
Hinata stood up, as gravid as Sasuke now. Sasuke just now appreciated how beautiful she looked with a rounded tummy, as if his or Naruto's baby was growing inside her. An intense longing filled Sasuke at the thought of either. He would love either as his own, he realized. Either way, they would be a cub of the Pack.
"Now we've both had lunch, let's get our things packed away in our quarters so we can get the big, bad wolf his own meal," Hinata said cheerfully.
"You too? How…" Sasuke asked.
"Naruto does this freaky thing with Telekinesis to move his cum from my colon to my stomach. He claims he just doesn't want to waste food."
"I was raised in a restaurant, some things are just absorbed through the skin," Naruto protested. "Though I will get onboard with moving in. I'm getting hungry."
"Then it's time for my surprise." Sasuke led the two of them out of the Ready Room and back to the elevator, where the grav-sled was still waiting. They took a brief trip down one level to Deck two, stepping out into a long, narrow corridor.
"The door to our left is to the Officer's Lounge, complete with Kitchen. We'll go there right after I show you our treat." Sasuke walked then down the corridor, his pale skin glowing under the LED lights. He stopped at a set of double doors at the end of the hallway.
Naruto blinked. "Is it just me, or are the XO's quarters missing?"
"Given the new XO and Commander were sleeping together, I figured it be best to combine the spaces into something… special." With that, Sasuke opened the doors.
Hinata blinked. "Oh, wow! It's exactly like our bedroom at the Magnus!" Hinata stepped into the plush carpeted interior, eyeing the four-poster double-King-sized bed with approval. She darted over to the two doors in the side of the room. One led to a walk-in closet complete with weapons locker, and the other led to a luxurious bathroom with an open shower and large whirlpool bathtub.
Naruto gaped at the amount of luxury he was seeing on a Naval vessel, even if it were privately owned now. "You did this?"
"I wanted the three of us to have a nice place to return to at the end of the day. I got the largest bed I could find on short notice because I don't know how many people we'll end up stuffing in it every night. The Thralls can each have their own bedroom to keep their things and for privacy, but I have a feeling we'll all end up sleeping in here together," Sasuke explained
"It's perfect!" Hinata rushed over, her tummy hitting Sasuke's like a bumper car, and leaned in to smooch him. "This is so generous, was it really covered by the buying cost?"
"Given the scale of all the other modifications we made to the ship, this bedroom alone is nothing. Every ryo of that 150 million was spent, and it was spent well," Sasuke said.
Naruto wrapped his arms around both of them. "I'm very grateful to you Sasuke. This is a wonderful gift. Now let's pack our stuff away and get me a sandwich!"
They all dissolved into laughter, before bringing in the sled that held not only the bags from their shopping on Gravitus, but every piece of gear Naruto had wanted to save from the Fool's Gold. They sorted away the clothes, Hinata's taking one side, Naruto's taking half the other and the other half taken by tactical gear. The weapons lockers were soon filled and then Hinata and Naruto were officially moved in. Sasuke had come with nothing but the clothes he had shed up on the Bridge.
"I'm really going to grow out of all my old clothes?" Sasuke asked, thinking longingly of his wardrobe of fine suits back on Olympus Shipyard.
"6'1, and lean as a jungle cat. Trust me, you wouldn't have fit into anything after a week," Naruto assured him.
Sasuke sighed "Very well. I suppose I can keep the suit I wore today as a memento."
They got Naruto his promised lunch, which led to Hinata gushing over the Officer's Lounge. The room was dominated by a long bar, around which the Naval crew had chatted and shared drinks. A substantial dining table occupied a corner of the room, big enough to seat 12 easily. Like the Ready Room, the Lounge had a window, revealing the majesty of the Galaxy blurring by as they rode a wave of faster-than-light particles. Soft chairs and tables occupied the rest of the room.
"Not bad, but this will either be remodeled in the future or replaced by the Dining Room in the Uzu vessel we build," Naruto said, munching on his sandwich he'd made in the Kitchen tucked around the corner of the room. "But it works for now."
Sasuke rolled his eyes. "You keep claiming how much better Uzu tech is than Konoha's. Until I have a copy of them in my own head, I'm not going to believe it."
"Well, you've had five meals from me now. Another sixteen, give or take, and you will." Naruto paused to chew. "I could speed it up if you want, use energy from myself and Hinata to accelerate your own progress. But you'll spend an awful lot of time asleep as your body adjusts to all the changes so fast. And it'll wear us out a little to feed you energy."
Sasuke blinked, before he got a determined expression. "If you two are okay with that, then please accelerate my change. I strongly suspect we'll walk away from Port Heracles with Hana as a recruit, and I don't want my… feeding schedule to interfere with hers."
Naruto traded a look with Hinata. *You okay with this, babe?*
*He has a point. I say we do it. Besides, we could use the psychic exercise.* She reached out to swipe a crumb off his lip.
"Okay, Sasuke, by the time we get to Port Heracles, you'll be an Uzu."
The next three days passed in a long string of naps for the Uchiha. At breakfast, lunch, dinner, and bedtime, he awoke from his slumber to find Naruto naked and waiting for his mouth. Sasuke would practice his fellator skills, and be rewarded with a rounded belly full of Uzu semen. Then, hit by a wave of exhaustion, Sasuke would fall right back into bed to sleep until the next mealtime.
Naruto and Hinata had a slightly more varied schedule. The drain from speeding up Sasuke's transformation didn't seem that hard at first, but it was a constant leak of energy that eventually led to them being utterly spent by the end of day. They both focused on activities that would converse energy. Hinata busied herself with memorizing the function of every part and program on the Invictus, her eyes glued to the Holo-reader Sasuke had provided for her. Naruto toured the ship, refamiliarizing himself with her secrets. The Gym on Deck 7 had been heavily modified; Sasuke must have figured that without hundreds of fitness crazed Marines to cater to, some changes could be made. There was only one copy of each standard strength machine, a few treadmills, one area for lifting weights, and the rest of the Gym was now occupied by a pool and shaded hot tub. Naruto spent a lot of hours just playing in the water when he wasn't feeding Sasuke. He'd never had his own pool before, and he loved the novelty of having all the water to himself.
On the fourth morning, the day they were due to arrive at Port Heracles, Sasuke was awoken by Hinata kissing his ears. He blinked gummy eyes open, to see her pull back and grin. She was easily the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen in real-life. He couldn't wait to get to know her on a more intimate level, both personally and physically.
"You're one of us, now," Hinata whispered.
"Hmm, how do you mean?" Sasuke asked, rubbing his red eyes.
"Feel your ears and tell me," she countered.
Pausing, Sasuke reached up to the side of his head and was shocked when he didn't feel the shape he expected. He had sharp elf ears rather than rounded human ones. But that could only mean…
"No offense, Sasuke, but that's the only time we're accelerating a change unless it's an emergency. That sucked, losing energy all day. It probably helped stretch our reserves, but still," Naruto said, rubbing the shorter man's side from where he was spooning him. "Now, it's time for you to see your new body!"
Naruto and Hinata quickly got out of bed, with Sasuke hesitantly following suit. They both took him by the hand and led him into the closet, which had a mirror set up on one wall.
"Now, be prepared for a bit of a shock. I didn't noticed all the changes until they were shoved in my face," Hinata warned.
"But this IS how you'll look forever and a day, so I suggest getting used to it fast," Naruto said with a grin.
Closing his eyes, Sasuke braces himself for anything. Then, stepping in front of the mirror, he opened his eyes. And gasped.
The man looking back at him had the androgynous beauty of the most high-end glamorous models. His ink-blue hair fell last his shoulders like a gorgeous mane on a lion. He seemed to be at that age where the maturity of experience starts to overcome the energy of youth, but still clearly under 40. His muscles stood out like an anatomy chart, with just enough fat to appear beautiful rather than obscene. His cock was respectably sized soft, and had a foreskin. The two balls that dangled underneath were perfectly symmetrical and the size of softballs. He was completely hairless below his eyebrows, which flared out over familiar red Uchiha eyes.
"That's me?" Sasuke asked in wonder. Naruto and Hinata joined him in the frame and he suddenly realized his new height, just an inch off of Naruto's.
"Ahead of schedule, but yes. You're the first Beta Uzu in existence. For comparison, see the Alpha Uzu and female Uzu to your sides," Naruto said with a goofy smile. "Damn, I thought you were fuckable before but NOW… hmm."
"I know, right?" Hinata asked. "I can't wait to get double-teamed by you two studs!"
Sasuke blushed as Hinata and Naruto continued to shower him with compliments. The positive attention and sexual comments had the expected effect, and Sasuke was treated to the sight and feel of his new erection.
"Crap, I'm huge!" Sasuke used both hands to grasp his awakened sex organ and still had some left over. "And I'm uncircumcised."
"Oh, yeah, forgot to mention, that's part of old damage that just gets healed. You weren't cut for religious reasons or anything, right?" Naruto asked worriedly.
"No, no, just standard procedure at the hospital I was born. I always wondered what it'd be like to be uncut, but I wasn't going to shell out for the regenerative surgery to get it back." Sasuke hefted his new and improved piece of equipment. "I could do some serious damage with this thing."
"Luckily not on Uzu girls. We're used to taking guys the size of Naruto, what you're packing won't be an issue," Hinata spoke up. "On Naruto, though, I'd recommend being careful. But ten-inchers have sex in real-life, not just porn, too you know."
Sasuke waved his one-eyed monster in Naruto's direction. "You'd let me stick this inside you?" Sasuke asked incredulously. "You intentionally made me this big with that in mind?"
"I was thinking more on double-teaming our girls, but yes. I like sucking on big cocks. And on rare occasion, I even let them up my butt. So yeah, someday when I'm feeling lazy or needy or vulnerable, I'll ask my boyfriend to top me for once. Is that an unreasonable request?" Naruto asked with a pout.
Sasuke chuckled and hugged the bigger man. Sasuke noted that whereas he was muscled like a mountain climber, Naruto was built like a lumberjack. It was two different kinds of strength, comparing the lion to the bear. Either one could kill you, they'd just do it with different styles. "It almost feels wrong to think about dominating the Alpha, but I'm game if you are, Naruto."
Hinata promptly added herself to the hug. "And I'll be there to watch, jilling my brains out the whole time! Now, what are we going to do with the rest of the morning? And no, Naruto can't fill either of us up, we won't go down by the time we arrive."
Naruto and Sasuke shrugged. "We haven't tried out the bathtub yet. A long soak sounds amazing after the last few days we had," Naruto suggested.
And so they did, Hinata discovering that being submerged in water was a very pleasurable experience. She'd avoided joining Naruto in the pool because of her somewhat irrational fear of drowning. After learning the delight of a long, hot bubble bath, Hinata was suddenly more amenable to the idea of swimming lessons with Naruto.
They got dressed, going for a look of successful business as befitted rich traders. Naruto put on his charcoal suit, Sasuke managed to fit reasonably well in a black one, and Hinata found a tailored jacket and pencil skirt combo in an identical color to Naruto. They all had conventional food, Sasuke for the first time that week, for breakfast.
Then they went to the Bridge and went to their respective stations, Naruto and Hinata going to their Chairs and Sasuke to the Chief-of-Staff console to Naruto's immediate left. It was mostly a review console, keeping a list of reading from the rest of the Invictus so the Chief of Staff could micro-manage.
As if on cue, they exited hyperwarp when they all got settled in their seats. Port Heracles dominated the System Map in hologram above them.
"Time to save Hana," Naruto said.
The first proper Thrall added to the mix next chapter, and her integration into the crew and Invictus. Please fave, follow, and review.