He grabbed his new shirt and walked out into the room… as he did a remarkable change seemed to come over him. He went from an upright strapping youth in a white suna robe to a stern faced old man… in a white suna robe. A trick Kyuubi had taught him, it was a series of artificial aging techniques, the opposite of what Tsunade did in fact. He had waited until leaving the changing room to do so, so that the lady behind the counter knew that it was still him.
"Take care of her alright? Oh! When she comes to, tell her that I'll be… (Naruto scribbled out the address of his hotel) Here, in room twelve."
Noticing the odd look the girl was giving him.
"She did me a BIG favor today, so I own her one in return."
The Lady just nodded, and Naruto walked out into the sunset whistling.
Naruto's day had started out rather bad, but it was getting better, MUCH better in fact. He had been running around Suna for the past couple of hours, and then spent approximately thirty minutes with Hinata-chan after she saved him; Meeting Hinata-kun had kind of…. Balanced it out.
Wait a moment… Hinata-KUN? When did I start adding that? Hmmm. I guess that I don't know… But I LIKE it! Now where did Kyuubi get to?
Naruto opened his mouth to call out for Kyuubi when he saw a note on the bed.
Naruto,
I'm at the bar downstairs if you need to get a hold of me.
I've decided that you probably need a break. I know that
I haven't given you any time for yourself, so you have
Today and tomorrow off.
Kyuubi
PS. If you do need me, please remember that you agreed to
Call me Kyuito at Tsunade's request.
Well, I have a couple of days off do I? Let me see here, it's currently… (Whistles) its noon already! Oh well, I think that I'll just take a quick bath and then check out the town.
Naruto was about to take off when he remembered his new shirt.
Oh yeah, I wonder what the sigils were, Hinata-kun had me so flustered I didn't look. HAH a fox and a Bird of some type… just my luck. Oh well, it appears that the fox will remain my trademark. Pity the whisker marks disappeared… perhaps I should have them tattooed back on…
Naruto was about to grab his stuff when he thought again of Kyuubi
Perhaps I better check on Kyuub… errrr Kyuito.
Naruto laid his new clothing back on the bed and walked downstairs to the bar. Naruto had become ever more observant in the last few weeks, but even he didn't recognize Kyuubi initially. When he did Naruto was shocked for a moment. Kyuubi was dressed in a soft-looking golden Tuxedo. It had silver frills, gold cufflinks, and a white undershirt with his typical fox emblem emblazoned on the collar. The most shocking part however was the fact that he had women HANGING off his arms, not literally, but they were sure crowding in thick behind him.
"… Um, Pardon me ladies, excuse me, Pardon me."
Kyuubi was telling a story as he played his hand in cards. It must have been fairly funny, because everyone seemed to be laughing. Naruto slowly made his way through the crowd until he was standing beside Kyuubi. The Bouncers were making threatening moves in Naruto's direction when Kyuubi waved them away.
"Excuse me KYUITO-san, but may I have a word with you."
"Certainly Naruto what do you need."
"A PRIVATE word if I may KYUITO-san."
Kyuubi sighed and shook his head a little.
"As you wish Naruto."
Kyuubi stood up and gave a short bow
"Pardon me ladies and gentlemen, but my protégé has just returned from training and needs a word with me before he cleans up."
The group that had been gathered around Kyuubi started muttering about 'Impertinent whelps' and 'disrespectful children'. Kyuubi frowned a little bit at the muttering, and a slightly dark Aura descended and made everyone shiver a little.
"Watch your tongues, He has been nothing but respectful that I have seen,"
As abruptly as the dark aura had started hovering it vanished
"Besides, I'll be back to finish the story in a moment."
Kyuubi turned around and followed Naruto out of hearing range of the crowd. This annoyed Naruto because Kyuubi managed to convey the feeling that he was tolerating a minor irritation rather than obeying his container. However the more Naruto considered this the less he felt like Kyuubi's container, in fact, he felt… oddly free.
"Alright Naruto, what do you want."
As soon as they had gotten out of sight of the crowd Kyuubi had become serious. He didn't seem Angry exactly, just more sober.
Sober, HEH ya right! His breath smells like a still.
"Well, to begin with Kyuub"
Kyuubi raised an eyebrow
"Errrr… Kyuito-san, what are you doing?"
"Gambling, drinking, doing a little flirting, telling some stories, why?"
Now that Naruto had Kyuubi's attention those didn't seem like such odd comments, until of course Naruto grasped the obvious."
"Kyuub… err Kyuito-san WHY are you doing that. I mean (Naruto lowered his voice father) Aren't you a DEMON? WHY are you… FLIRTING?!?"
Kyuubi looked amused again,
"Why should I not kit?"
"Well you're umm… you're a demon… don't you have something… I dunno, BETTER to do?"
"Let me Clue you in on something here kit, I may be Immortal, but I am also Immoral. You think that the frog Sannin was bad? He barely scratches the surface most of the time. Unfortunately, to do it right, I would need MUCH more time then we have, so you needn't worry about me bringing a woman back as your former Sensei tried to do. OH we do have a formal dinner that I've gotten us Invitations to however. Or rather YOU got us invitations to, when did you meet the former Kaze-kages daughter?"
"HUH? I've been to busy dodging crazy fan girls all day to meet anyone… did you get a name?"
Kyuubi Thought for a moment.
"I think that it was Tamari or Tomi or something like that."
"Temari?"
Kyuubi had of course remembered the name, but he WAS having LOTS of fun with training.
"Ahhh yes, that's the one… wait, I thought that you were to busy to meet anyone. How do you know this girl? She pull you into a dark alley?"
Naruto blushed a little at the comment
"NO girl pulled ME anywhere"
Hinata carried me, so that doesn't count
"Oh?"
Said Kyuubi with a sly look
"So you pulled HER! Did you have fun?"
Naruto was lost
"Huh? Fun... I… WAIT"
A look of horror was starting on his face
"At least tell me that you two didn't do anything…dirty."
"What? Dirty? I…But… NO!"
"No? Well I hope the two of you were safe about it anyway."
"GAAAAAA! I have ANOTHER pervert as a teacher!"
With that Naruto turned to go back upstairs as he did he heard Kyuubi addressing the crowed in the bar.
"Poor kid, apparently he's having women troubles, and he wanted advice"
An old man's voice spoke up from the crowd
"Sound like you gave him good advice alright"
Naruto Fled up the steps with the sounds of laughter ringing in his ears.
Kurenai wasn't having to bad a day, it had taken her a while but she had found a modest bathhouse and had proceeded to take a nice soothing bath. After Naruto and Sasuke had departed team seven, Tsunade had found it necessary to re-organize the teams. Kurenai had, surprisingly, drawn an all-girl team. Luckily she had also drawn some simple jobs until she could be certain of her new group's teamwork. She, Hinata, Ten-ten, and Ino had been given the job of escorting a group of minor merchants to the Hidden sand village in suna. They had also been given a couple of days off after they arrived so that the group could get some R&R, and get a little sightseeing done.
Kurenai had just gotten out of a nice warm bath when the receptionist at the counter found her.
"Kurenai-san?"
"Yes?"
"I have a message for you"
"Thank you."
As Kurenai read the note that had been left her face fell a little bit.
Well, today STARTED fairly good. Poor Hinata.
"Alright, show me to the messenger."
As Kurenai was following the Page toward the place where Hinata was currently dreaming sweet nothings, Ino and Ten-ten Were trying to decide what to do with their day off.
"Hey Ino! Have you heard the news?"
"What news?"
"Our 'Mystery Man' is in town somewhere!"
"What?"
"You remember the guy who bought us lunch back in Konaha?"
"Of course."
"Well he's here! Apparently he and his Sensei arrived this morning."
As Ino was thinking this Over, Ten-ten was looking up and down the street.
"Apparently he disappeared a couple of blocks from here. Right under the eyes of thirty or so girls"
"What? He has that many girls after him?"
"Ya, apparently someone at the gate tipped off the locals, and shortly after he left his hotel he had a group chasing him."
"How do you know that it's the same guy?"
"He actually stopped and talked with them when he first came out of the hotel It appears that the marriage offers made him a bit jittery however."
"Marriage offers? So he's a womanizer?"
"Nah, it's like the old Sasuke fan club at home. You know how some of them got."
"Ya, I suppose I do…"
Ino was lost in thought considering Sakura and Sasuke, and ten-ten was busy scanning the crowd. Naruto on the other hand was contentedly walking down the street under his new Jitsu.
Heh, thank god this artificial aging technique doesn't require much charka use, or I'd be FAR to noticeable to anyone trained as a Shinobe.
Naruto had re-taken his old man disguise, and thankfully the older women of the village were far less excitable. Of course he wasn't paying much attention to the villagers or he may have noticed that he had drawn a group of the older women and widows. They had oddly found a reason to do their shopping in the general direction that this refined gentleman was heading.
Naruto had been wandering the streets looking for the closest bathhouse for a while when he first noticed Ten-ten and Ino. Hastily he checked to be certain that the technique was still active.
Ino was walking along listening to Ten-ten chatter (when she was alone or with friends, Ino tended to become a rather good listener) she wasn't really thinking about anything in specific when she passed by the old man, but as she did, Ino couldn't help but brush up against him. As she did Naruto's Chakra gave away the fact that he was indeed using a Henge, or at least a Jitsu of some kind.
"Hey Ten-ten"
Ten-ten quit talking.
"What is it Ino?"
"That old man."
"Which?"
"The one we just passed, he's a ninja, and he's concealing something."
"How do you know?"
"I sat in on some of the lessons that Tsunade has been giving to Sakura, The last one I sat in on before we left was on Henge and artificial aging jitsu's."
"And?"
"I think that the old guy is actually a young guy! Pity Hinata isn't here, she could have checked for us."
"So?"
"So… why don't we see what's under the false front?"
Lucky for them, the entire conversation hadn't taken more then a few moments, and Naruto's new fan club still gave him away. It only took them a moment to catch up…
Kurenai Didn't really have much trouble finding the store that Hinata was in, It was a men's clothing store in the downtown district. Thankfully it hadn't taken much to get Hinata to wake up. Oddly Hinata's body had resisted more than usual. It was as though she were fighting the urge to wake up. As Hinata sat up and took her bearings Kurenai took a moment to speak to the manager of the shop.
"So? What happened just prior to her… loss of conciseness?"
"Well... I really don't know."
The lady did of course have some information, but to tell it would mean that she would have to give up the address that the young man had given her, Unfortunately for her, Kurenai was far more perceptive then her usual customers.
"Um hmmm. Let me be more specific, exactly, word for word, what did he say to her?"
The lady was taken aback
"How did you know about him?"
"I didn't, but you just verified my suspicions. That particular young lady wouldn't be in a men's clothing store without a good reason."
And so the clerk told the story as far as she knew it. The Girl walking into a changing room, the handsome man walking out shortly after, the brief exchange of words, and the strange girl fainting. Also, as much as the clerk tried to hold back the address, the look Kurenai gave her left no room for hiding things… well, either the look or the fact that she was trimming her nails with a Kunai.
Kurenai had taken the address and she and Hinata were about to go back to their room when a tan and white blur flew past followed by a horde of raging fan girls. A short time later Ino and Ten-ten came staggering up.
"Damn, we almost had him!"
"Wheeze, wheeze… good job seeing through the Jitsu Ino."
"What on earth have the two of you been up to?"
Ino and Ten-ten jumped at the sound of Kurenai's voice.
"OH! Kurenai-sensei, we found our 'mystery man' from Konaha, he arrived here shortly after sunrise."
Kurenai had of course heard ALL about the 'Hot Stud' in the Raman shop. In fact, it was almost all she had heard about all the way up here
"And you found him?"
"Yup, Ino here bumped into an old man and noticed that he was using an aging Jitsu, so we just followed him, and when he stopped to ask for directions to somewhere, we dispelled it."
"And it was him?"
(Together) "Yes Sensei!"
"So?"
Ino picked up the story where ten-ten had left off.
"SO, we were about to ask him out when this group of fan-girls rounded the corner and charge him. Quite a pity to all he managed to say was 'Oh Crap' before he took off again."
Hinata had listened to the whole story with some trepidation. After all she had figured out who the 'Hot Stud' was on the way over here.
Poor Naruto, You never get a break do you? I wonder what they would think if they knew that it was you.
Hinata was just following her sensei and teammates out of the store when she suddenly looked startled. She bent down and picked up something from beside the doorway. Ten-tenof coursenoticed this.
"What's that Hinata?"
"Oh nothing, I just saw something that looked out of place amongst all of this sand that's all."
Ten-ten wasn't paying attention however; she and Ino were already back to discussing the Mystery man's broad shoulder and toned muscles. Hinata smiled to herself and kept walking. At the bottom of her pocket, she now carried a leaf...
Me: Alright, I appologise for taking so long to update, but I have found out that I appearentnly have a bad motherboard in my computer... of those of you who don't know what that means, it means that my computer 'Don't work' and probably won't untill I get the part replaced. Also, I've been at a three day church retreat as a Gopher. For those of you who don't know what THAT means it means that I was the guy who had to Go Fersupplies when somthing needed replacing.
Naruto: (scratches his head) I don't get it...
Me: 'sigh' Never mind. Anyway. This probably isn't my best chapter ever, but it is a necessay stepping stone to some of the situations that Hinata and Naruto are going to find themselves in. Also, I start work in a short time, so My updates will probably get more infrequent... sorry.
Naruto and Hinata: (Crying)
Me: 'sigh' Oh well, On to the replies!
PersonaJXT: My typing skills aren't 100 percentof what they should be, so it usually takes between an hour and a half, and two hours to type and proof most of these.
Shinta Azechi: OK OK yeesh! you'd think I was writing fanfic or something... ;-)
Kitsune-Itai: working on it
Dragon Man 180: Um... isn't she supposed to be kinda shy?
To everyone else: Thank you for the reviews... I'm sorry it took so long to update, and I'll try to watch my spelling. Keep the reviews coming.
Sincerly,
Manatheron
