Three months after Naruto received Shisui's eye he could honestly say he was currently living the best moments of his life every day. His training once he could actively use the eye went swimmingly, his reaction time had been boosted by a noticeable margin, which was impressive to say the least since his reactions were honed from a troubled childhood when he would always have to be on the watch for an errant kick or object thrown by the villagers. He could now break down techniques he saw through his eye but instantaneous copying were still out of reach for the moment. His repertoire of jutsu which before meeting Izumi was taken up by five techniques had tripled, Izumi didn't have as large a fount of jutsu knowledge as someone like Kakashi but what she did know Naruto gobbled up with an insatiable urge to impress her and gain strength for himself. Naruto could honestly say he had come very close to mastering the usage of wind chakra. He couldn't fly or anything as outrageous as that but he could feel the latent wind flowing around him and could use a few low rank wind jutsu like the Daitoppa with no hand seals. While not as strong as Orochimaru's in the Forest of Death his was powerful, If he had the chakra control to properly use his vast chakra reserves his would blow the snake's out of the water. Naruto was also in the best shape of his life, the diet of meat from animals he himself hunted down alongside foraged fruits and vegetables along with the weekly trips to the nearby town to shore up their food stocks and change their diets had made Naruto gain almost twenty five pounds of muscle in the four and a half months he had been at the abandoned Uchiha stronghold. Izumi had told him his diet habits when he was in the village would have killed any ordinary man, people are not designed to live off of ramen. The sodium from the ramen paired with the fact Naruto's apartment barely ever had flowing water meant he was severely dehydrated, only Kurama had allowed Naruto to live, even in a very malnourished form. He once tried to explain to her that it wasn't his fault, the Ichiraku's were the only restaurant he knew of in the village that wouldn't overcharge him and the grocers would only sell him spoiled goods at regular price, everything else was simply off-limits to him. After seeing the sadness cloud her eyes instead of her normal bright exuberance when round him convinced him that his eating habits would be the last topic of his upbringing he would bring up to her. He honestly hated how sad or angry she looked when he had told her these things, while he was overjoyed on the face that she cared enough about him to be empathetic, which was more than he had ever had before aside from the old man, in his opinion the only emotion that should be on a face that beautiful should be happiness and excitement. Another upside from his newfound physique was the effect on his taijutsu. After he could effectively use the sharingan his aptitude with the Uchiha Interceptor Fist style almost doubled! His increased reaction time meant he could actually turn away some of Izumi's strikes and just last week he had landed his first hit on her when she was going 100%! The Toad style did gain a marginal boost once he actually gained some bulk on his frame.
Now his strikes had much more power behind them and could block much better as well. His newest training goal was to try and blend the two styles more effectively, before he used to fall into one style or the other after the first couple exchanges but he wanted to naturally flow through both forms unconsciously during combat. All of these shinobi boosts were a plus for why he was so happy out here in the wilderness, but his main reason was his dime of a sensei! Izumi was a beautiful woman that for a reason he could never understand actually wanted to spend time with him and help him better himself. She was unbelievably knowledgeable on all aspects of shinobi life, she was kind and compassionate, and surprisingly funny once she opened up and let out her gorgeous laugh. His life since he finally admitted his love to the Uchiha woman has been paradisiacal. He had people who care for him during his life in Konoha, Iruka-Sensei, Tsunade-Baachan, Shizune-neechan, the Ichirakus, and Hokage-Jiji come first to his mind with Ero-Sennin and Team 7 having their moments. The care and compassion they've shown him throughout his entire life didn't compare to what he received from Izumi on a daily basis since they had met just four and a half months ago. She genuinely paid attention to everything he told her, not just nod their head and make non-committal sounds of agreement. She valued him out of no obligations whatsoever and actually gave him love in return. Him! The demon of Konoha, the jinchuuriki brat, the orange idiot! When she agreed to go out with him three months prior he had barely believed her and to this day he honestly wouldn't be surprised if this was some sort of genjutsu. An amazing woman who was sure to be desired by anyone she showed her true self would actually commit to being with a nobody like him. She even wanted to train him out of the kindness of her heart. No way did he deserve her, but he sure as hell wouldn't tell her that!
After his moment of introspection Naruto came up with a plan, a devious plan! He would take Izumi-Chan out on a date at the town so she doesn't figure out how inadequate he is for her! He steepled his fingers and gave off his best impression of Orochimaru's sinister chuckle, "Kukukukuku!" As much as he hated the Teme for supplying Sasuke-Teme with a reason to leave the village and betray Konoha he couldn't say he wasn't thankful for the mans chuckle. Honestly the snake was just like a stereotypical supervillain that Naruto just had to use him as inspiration for his more devious pranks or plans.
"Naruto-Kun, do I need to ask why you're staring off into space with a malicious smirk on your face?"
Oh shit. Izumi saw him, the plan to somehow make this amazing girl not notice how she could do so much better than him was ruined! But wait, he can turn this around, while he was a terrible liar his acting skills were top-notch!
"Nothing much Izumi-Hime, just thinking about what Ero-Sennin's reaction will be when he comes back from Kiri in a year and sees me with a girl he could never match!"
"Wow Naruto-Kun, such a little charmer. You sure it wasn't some sort of nefarious scheme or prank you think I wouldn't approve of?" Izumi asked with a sly upturn of her lips knowing she caught him.
"For shame Izumi-Hime, I just wanted to brag to the world about how I somehow stumbled into a relationship with the best woman in the Elemental Nations! I also know just how to start my humble bragging, by asking you out for dinner at a restaurant in town if you're up for it?"
"Why would I ever refuse, I love spending time with you and this could be a new step in our relationship. If we want to be properly rested for our date tonight then we should get to our training right away! Today is the day we start working on your affinity with water, so make some clones and grab some leaves. This time instead of cutting them with fuuton chakra we will try to get you to soak the leaf with suiton chakra. This will be much harder as wind was both your primary affinity and was trained first. The hardest obstacle to overcome won't even be drawing on the suiton chakra, no it will be trying to not use fuuton. Your chakra system has become used to only using elemental chakra in the form of fuuton. I wanted you to form this habit and break it so in the future if you learn jutsu from elemental branches that aren't an affinity of yours you won't have as much trouble unconsciously changing the form of chakra in your system to different types on the drop of a dime. Now hop to it so we can plan out our date! Ooh I'm so excited it's our first date!"
Sweatdropping at the slight squeal at the end and deciding to ignore it Naruto got to work creating one hundred and fifty or so clones to pick up leaves. So what he couldn't be confident that it was a hundred and fifty clones, chakra control is hard! Especially when someone has a certain resident fluff ball sitting in his gut exuding an indefinable amount of chakra just by living. So what if his chakra control wasn't precise enough to guarantee the desired amount of clones, Sasuke-Teme would probably die if he tried to create a hundred and fifty clones. After this he created the fifty clones to do chakra control exercises like water-walking that was becoming a habit he didn't think he would ever break. He also created just ten to practice sharingan techniques like genjutsu and so on to work with a clone of Izumi's. As his clones got to work so did the original Naruto, back to physical training that would improve himself. He sighed in realization that an overly excited Izumi would probably train him into exhaustion today, thinking their date would be an excuse to almost kill her poor boyfriend.
After training and a quick shower for both Narutoand Izumi Naruto was waiting outside Izumi's room ready to head out to town for their date. Naruto had grown in the past four and a half months and he now was an inch taller than his girlfriend, her standing at 5"7' and him at 5"8'. Naruto wasn't ever more grateful for his growth spurt than at this moment, because when Izumi walked out of her room his rational thinking faded to the background and outcame what Jiraiya was planning for Naruto to become, a pervert. As he looked at his girlfriend he couldn't tear his eyes away from her body. He'd been with her constantly for almost half a year but she most commonly walked around in unflattering training gear. When she walked out of the room in a strapless black dress he couldn't stop his eyes from doing a slow, very noticeable, gaze across her entire body, making multiple stops at her breasts, hips, face, and did he say breasts?
"Well that's a boost to my confidence Naruto-Kun, just know if you look at other women like that I may have to gouge out your eyes. But nevermind that you look quite handsome yourself when you clean up. C'mon, let's get going I'm hungry."
Taking a quick mental picture of his stunning girlfriend with his sharingan Nauto nodded dumbly before leading his date towards the town. On the way there Naruto wouldn't tell Izumi what the plan was for the night, wanting it to be a surprise. He almost caved in and told her when she pulled out those infamous puppy eyes, something about a cute girl looking up at you with those wide, shining, inquisitive eyes made almost any man's knees shake and eventually fold before they spilt the beans. Naruto somehow kept his resolve which he attributed to Moegi using that accursed jutsu almost every two days on him back in Konoha to get her, Konohamaru, and Udon a partner to play ninja with or to give them training advice. Maybe he had gained a resistance to those eyes after having them used on him so much? Naruto thought this was the case as it was known that powerful eyes lost some strength after having fought them multiple times. Like Hashirama Senju against Madara Uchiha and his own budding resistance against Sasuke that had further evolved after countless spars against Sasuke's big sister. To Naruto the line of thought seemed to prove that he was gaining a resistance to the jutsu, if one could build a resistance to the sharingan why couldn't someone build a resistance to more powerful eyes? As they finally got to the restaurant Naruto opened up the door for his date, because who says chivalry was dead? "Reservation for two, under Uzumaki please." The host nodded and took them to their table. The restaurant was quite nice, White tablecloths and other similar high class decorations gave the look of an austere but quite romantic setting for the two up and coming lovers.
"Naruto-Kun, you didn't have to take me out to some place so ice, I would Have been more than happy to just go to an inn and have a simple meal."
"I know I didn't need to Izumi-Hime, but this is our first date and I need to prove to you that I can be a good boyfriend. I'll be attentive, emotionally there, I'll pay for meals, and I'll do anything you ask until the day I day Izumi. That is a promise, nowhere in the Elemental Nations will you find a better boyfriend and I want to show you that because I know there's no way in hell I'd ever find a woman as amazing as you."
Both shinobi looked across the table and stared into their partners eyes, before Iumi leaned over to give her boyfriend a kiss.
"I hope you booked us a reservation at a hotel Naruto-Kun, because I think I know how I want this date to end."
Izumi seductively whispered into his ear before giving it a kiss as she sat back down in her chair and called the waiter over to get their order. Naruto looked at his girlfriend, face as red as a tomato before he mentally gave himself a high five. He had no idea Izumi was ready for this stage in their relationship and he honestly couldn't be happier, ready to give himself over completely to his soon-to-be lover.
