Chapter 17

Tower infirmary inside Forest of Death

Sunlight poured through the window inside the room where Naruto and Izumi slept peacefully in each other's arms. As the light reached her eyelids, Izumi woke up and saw that she was still in naruto's arms. She gazed at him lovingly and ran her fingers through his blood red locks as he snuggled closer into her as she smiled softly. The events of the previous night ran through her mind and she blushed and let out a happy sigh. At this, Naruto awoke and saw her. Her eyes were closed so he leaned over and pecked her lips gently as she opened her eyes, looked at him and brought him into a hug.

"Good morning Naru-kun" said Izumi and Naruto blushed at her pet name for him. "Good morning Izu-chan" responded Naruto as she repeated his action on hearing her pet name.

They leaned towards each other and shared a kiss but was forced to break apart when they heard a cough behind them. Turning around they were met with the sight of the sandaime, Kakashi and Anko standing at the door. Anko gave a wide grin while Kakashi giggled perversely and the hokage wore an amused expression on his face. Embarrassed, Izumi buried her face into Naruto's neck as Kakashi began to recite a paragraph from icha-icha paradise leading to both occupants of the bed going scarlet while the hokage laughed at their antics.

"Well Naruto-kun, sorry to interrupt but I have to talk to you about that cursed mark my wayward student gave you. Kakashi here will have to seal it up," said sarutobi. "No need old man, the fox said and I quote 'I will not let anyone control my container except for me'." Said Naruto. At this, Hiruzen's eyes widened and Kakashi sighed in relief. Anko was impressed that the fox could remove the seal made by her former sensei.

"Are you sure Naruto-kun?" questioned the aged hokage. Naruto nodded and said that he couldn't use his chakra for a week while the fox removes the remnants of the seal to which hiruzen nodded. The hokage informed him that he would have to participate in the preliminary rounds tomorrow since there were more competitors than necessary. The hokage then bid him goodbye as Kakashi gave him two thumbs up before leaving along with anko.

"You can come out now," whispered Naruto. Izumi just shook her head negatively and mumbled that she was too comfortable earning a chuckle from Naruto. The two spent the rest of the day in bed passing the time with conversation.

The next day

All of the genin who passed the second round were standing in the arena listening to the hokage's speech. Soon Hayate came and took over as he was the third round's proctor. He asked if anyone wanted to give up now and kabuto and his team raised their hands as the hokage narrowed his eyes at them. Nodding at them, hayate turned to the rest of the competitors and explained the rules of the third round and that matches would be at random. [A.N. I AM NOT GOING THROUGH ALL THE MATCHES EXCEPT KNOW THAT SASUKE WILL BE REPLACED BY LEE IN THE FINALS]

The board flashed through the next set of names as the two contestants made their way to the arena.

Naruto vs kiba

As kiba made his way down he conversed loudly with his ninken partner, akamaru. "Yahoo, we got the dobe, this will be easy."

Up in the stands, shikamaru muttered, "troublesome, he underestimates him." This was heard by his teammate Ino who turned to him with a quizzical expression on her face.

As Naruto made his way to the arena, he knew that this would be a tough match as he only could rely on his taijutsu. He released his restriction seals and made his way over still formulating a strategy for his match. He faced his opponent and waited for the proctor to begin the matchup as kiba boasted about not having to use akamaru yet. Hayate then began the match and leapt backwards.

As kiba was about to make the first move, Naruto disappeared from his sights and delivered a right hand to his face sending him flying back. Naruto was then distracted by akamaru who attacked him as kiba lifted his face to show a bloody nose. Kiba then threw a pill to the dog and popped one into his own mouth as well. As akamaru ate the pill, his skin reddened as kiba's appearance became more feral and Naruto felt his chakra levels increase. Akamaru jumped on kiba's head as he yelled out.

"Man-beast clone jutsu" and there were now two kibas standing there. They then threw down smoke bombs onto the ground blocking them from sight as Naruto cursed under his breath. He expanded his sensory skill as he closed his eyes in concentration. He then heard kiba's loud proclamation of 'fang over fang technique' and felt two signatures closing in as he quickly predicted where they would land. At the last moment, Naruto leapt upwards and delivered an axe kick to one of the cyclones which turned out to be akamaru who now slumped to the floor unconscious.

At this sight, kiba's eyes widened and wondered how. At the confused look on his face, Naruto gave no explanation merely telling kiba to give up or else and placed a kunai on akamaru's neck. Scared for the life of his partner, kiba said "I give up."

Naruto left akamaru and went back up to the stands. As he made his way pass Temari, she gave him a flirtatious wink and smile and he raised an eyebrow and nodded back with a smile of his own. From her position next to the hokage, Izumi fumed at their interaction. Naruto approached his sensei as kurenai wondered just how the class deadlast defeated an inuzuka in a pure taijutsu bout. Kakashi just laughed and informed Naruto that he was proud of him as he went back to reading his smut. Internally though, he knew his student was about to get into trouble as he had noticed his interaction with the sand girl but said nothing as it would be an amusing sight for him.

The matches concluded and the qualifying genin were informed of the final round of matches being held in a month so they have the time to train for it and that all of the various dignitaries and daimyos would be here to see. They were then told to draw lots for their matches which ended up being like this:

First match: Naruto vs Neji

Second match: kankuro vs Shino

Third match: temari vs shikamaru

Fourth match: gaara vs Rock lee

As they exited the arena, Naruto spotted izumi and he called out to her. She turned and looked at him impassively which confused him but shook his head as he asked her if she wanted to go out with him tomorrow night on a date. She gazed at him and replied in an icy tone "why do you want to go out with me? Go with that sand girl you were flirting with earlier. I hate you." She then turned and began to walk away expecting him to stop her and give an explanation. It wasn't that she was mad, she was just jealous and wanted to tease him slightly. As no sound came from him, she stopped and turned around. She was met with the sight of Naruto with his head lowered with his hair covering his eyes and small tears dropping down to the ground and her heart tore in pieces.

For Naruto, the only words that replayed in his mind over and over was 'I hate you'. Hearing these words from Izumi crushed him as he broke down. Izumi saw this and immediately brought him into her arms as he wrapped her arms around her tightly and began to sob softly and whispered in between his sobs.

"Please not you too. Please don't hate me." He said as he choked on his sobs. This caused izumi to widen her eyes and feel like an idiot. He had told her of the village's treatment of him and hearing those words from her mouth must have been something that had completely crushed him. She whispered soothing words into his ear and said that she did not mean what she said and apologized for being so insensitive and gave him a passionate kiss to prove her point. She made a note to remember that he was not as strong as he portrayed to everyone else. Naruto held her like a lifeline for a few moments before releasing her and grabbing her hand as they walked out of the arena.

As they left, the shinobi and villagers around looked at them stunned. They were impressed and shocked that the village Ice Princess was walking with the demon boy. Some people glared in jealousy at Naruto wanting to be in his position. Others wondered what it was that Naruto did to melt the heart of the princess while there were some whistles and cheers. Of course, most of the reactions were ignored by the couple as they returned to their home. Sakura looked on as they walked and thought to herself he ruined sasuke-kun's career and hangs out with izumi-sama. He must be the reason why izumi-sama was mad at my sasuke-kun! She marched towards them intent on doing something when she suddenly tripped and fell onto her face. She saw konohamaru grinning like a loon at her as he said that he was not going to let her ruin the day of his boss and izumi-neechan. He was waiting for this for a long time now.

Izumi and Naruto made it home and cuddled on the couch before falling asleep with each other having a smile on their faces.

To be continued