Wow, I actually got reviews! I'm so happy. All reviews old me to update, so I will. Then again, when people review do they ever tell you 'just kill this fic now!'? anyway, I hope this chapter works as well. I've still got the whole 'writer doubt' thing going on, but that's never stopped me before, so yeah.
Hex and Anni chan: thanks! I don't know how or why it would ever occur to me, it just did, so yeah. Maybe I have some random aspiration to be a bartender locked up deep inside me. Strange calling. I hope I don't let you down…
XAegis-SRX: you know, I never even thought about that. I guess most of my names are from Love Hina, and I guess their personalities are kind of similar… never thought about that. I dunno, does the Love Hina reference make it better?
Anyway, On with the show!
Naruto woke up with a yawn. Grumbling, he flopped himself out of bed and walked over to the small portable stove in the corner of his room. He couldn't wait till they got that new kitchen, and then he could make something other than ramen, for once. Too much of a good thing is bad, even with ramen.
He glanced at the clock, marveling that it was only around 1:30 pm. Usually he slept a lot later, but then again he didn't work last night. Stretching slightly, he popped on a comfortable t-shirt and some slacks and walked out; wincing at how bright it was in the shop. Sun streamed in from the windows, lighting everything up and playing havoc with his eyes.
Grumbling slightly, he grabbed his jacket from the coat stand near the door and walked out. One of the perks of working during the night was having your days free. A cup of coffee in hand, he sat down and enjoyed the morning.
Today's agenda was pretty simple; try and get as many of his friends to come and bring money as he could. Attracting new business was important. He still didn't know quite what he was going to say, on the other hand. It was kind of delicate, as many still lived with their (usually overprotective) parents, and in any case saying he owned a brothel was tantamount to suicide.
First things first, however. He bought a large poker table to pop in the corner with Mitsune and arranged to have it dropped off later. He remembered that the girls tended to train around this time, so he headed to the training grounds.
As he walked up, he confirmed the familiar faces and profiles of the kunoichi of Konoha. Tenten, Hinata, Sakura and Ino were all there, Hinata taking a break along the side. Sasuke and Neji were there too, along with Lee.
"Hey, everybody!" Naruto called over, shading his eyes against the sun.
"Yo, Naruto, you ready to go one on one? I'll kick your ass." Sasuke said menacingly, still determined to pay Naruto back for rescuing him from Orochimaru.
"Not today, Sasuke. I've got my focus on more mundane arrangements, thanks." He sat down next to the boys, watching Ino, Sakura and Tenten go at it. "Anyway, I just came to invite you all to the grand opening of my bar tonight." He said casually, though his statement was answered with a general ruckus.
"Since when have you had a bar?" Sakura asked, leering at him menacingly. Naruto really wished she would put those kunai down…
"A bar, really!" Tenten said, leaning foreword. Behind her, Neji, who had so far remained silent, winced. Naruto could almost see the gears working. Everyone knew Tenten had been attempting to seduce Neji for a while now, and this seemed just too perfect.
"Sounds great, Naruto. I'm sure Kiba and Shino would like to go too." Hinata said in her usual quiet voice.
"A bar, eh? Sounds like the site of many a youthful experience! I'd love to go! And if my beautiful Sakura would accompany me…" Lee said, bending at the waist toward Sakura with a hopeful glint in his eye.
He was firmly rejected. "Although if Sasuke wanted to go…" Sakura said, almost exactly copying Lee. She too was shot down.
Naruto chuckled. "Well, I'm betting it was the site of many 'youthful experiences'." He said, laughing at Lee's unintentional metaphor.
"And this means…" Sakura said, promptly smashing her fist onto Naruto's head.
"Nothing, Sakura, nothing at all, except…" he trailed off, mumbling the rest.
"Except what, Naruto?" Hinata asked, leaning toward him. He whispered something in her ear. "What, I couldn't hear you." She said, cupping her hand toward him. When she finally understood, she blushed scarlet.
"Naruto says that the bar used to be a brothel, and that in order to make good money, he's kept it as…one…" she finished, wincing as Sakura smashed her fist into Naruto's face, sending the boy flying.
"You pervert, Naruto! That's the kind of thing old men are supposed to do, not 18-year olds!" she shouted, launching after him.
"Jeez, I never really thought about it in the perverted way." He shrugged, ducking under her punch. "I guess after two years you just get used to thinking of it as a business."
"Two years…?" Sasuke said incredulously.
"Ah, Naruto has been living his springtime of youth to the fullest!" Lee said, leaping up.
"Well, I bet Sasuke doesn't mind the brothel, and Neji and Lee probably don't either." Ino said reasonably. "Still, it's definitely not a good thing to support people having sex for money."
"Well, you don't have to worry about that." Naruto said, getting up from the ground and brushing his shirt off. "It's kept in the back, away from the main bar, and suffice to say no one is forced to have sex for money." He spoke with a tone of finality. "Anyway, I hope you guys can make it, it'll be fun." With that he said his goodbyes and walked away.
"I think they took it rather well." Naruto said back in the bar. Tae had come to help him make some last minute adjustments to the table layout and to install the poker table.
"At least they don't think you're a greasy slime ball." She said with a grunt. She was very strong for a bartender. "So, you think any of them will end up out back?" she said with a short-lived grin.
Naruto laughed. "Probably not. Maybe Sasuke will, if he gets drunk enough. We'll just have to wait and see." He looked at his watch. "Well, it's almost opening time. Here, I got you a suit." He said, holding out a box. Inside was a long black men's suit, and after trying it on it fit Tae pretty well.
"Thanks. I look very official. Almost like a mobster." She said, whipping out a pair of sunglasses. In Naruto's opinion, she looked very sexy, but he didn't say anything more than a grunt of approval.
Mitsune walked in, wearing a card shark's uniform, followed swiftly by Motoko. "Hey all!" Mitsune said, guiding Motoko in by her shoulders. "Hope tonight's gonna' be fun, because I just drank about four cups of coffee!" she said, grinning widely.
After a bit of discussion, she positioned herself behind the poker table, shuffling the cards idly. "Hey, Motoko, here's your uniform." Naruto said, walking up and giving another box similar to Tae's. The woman opened it, revealing a black, short skirted waitress's uniform.
"Wonderful." She said sarcastically, and she went to change in the back. "At least I have a uniform." She mumbled on her way.
"Ok everyone, we're open." Naruto shouted back, flicking on the open light in the window and propping the door open. A few people walked in immediately, seating themselves in a few of the booths on the side.
It didn't take long for the bar to almost fill up. Mitsune was an excellent poker player, and she did nicely with the steady stream of customers heading her way. With two waiters now (Naruto continued waiting tables) customers were handled swiftly, and Tae made excellent drinks.
The bell rang again and Naruto was happy to see some familiar faces. Tenten was the first in, pulling what looked like a resigned Neji by the hand. He was struggling, but his heart obviously wasn't in it. Ino followed, looking ready to cut loose and have a good time. Sakura, on the other hand, was suspicious of the whole place, not quite sure she agreed with Naruto owning a bar (she knew how she felt about the brothel)
"Hey Motoko, I'm taking a break, cool with you?" she offered no rejections, so he grabbed a bear and walked over to the group. Sasuke was there, but he hadn't seen him before because he was still in the doorway. "Hey all! We got a table for you over here!" as he steered the group over, he sat down himself and took a large swig of beer. It was fairly high quality stuff, crisp and cool, and it tasted good.
"Wow, Naruto, and here I was thinking this place would be some hole in the wall." Ino said, admiring the wooden furnishings.
"Why didn't you tell me about this place earlier? I could've used somewhere to get away from everyone." Sasuke said, half-kidding.
Naruto took everyone's orders, sent them to Tae and walked back to the table. "Where's Team 10? I thought for sure Kiba would be here, and Shino too." He said, frowning slightly.
"Oh, they'll be over later with Lee. Don't know why." Tenten said with a shrug.
To Naruto's surprise, Neji's first beer was gone almost as soon as he put it down. Everyone stared. "Jeez, just because I like beer doesn't make me a freak…" he said, blushing slightly.
Soon everyone broke into groups of chatter, Naruto sitting back and enjoying the company. Sakura was trying to get Sasuke to agree to a date, hoping to take advantage of his possible inebriation. Tenten, on the other hand, was downing beers almost as quickly as Neji. They looked like old drinking buddies, arms around each other shoulder, slightly flushed, talking in loud voices.
Ino was laughing at Sakura's ungainly attempts to win over Sasuke. Ino had gotten over her Sasuke crush, admitting at one point or another than she knew he wouldn't like her and was only going along with it in spite for Sakura's dismissal of their friendship.
The bell rung again, and sure enough, Hinata, Lee, Shino and Kiba wandered in. "Hello my friends! May we join you in your celebration of youth?" Lee said loudly, putting on his (nearly patented) Nice Guy pose.
"Sure Lee, c'mere and sit down, man!" Neji said loudly in varying tones. Yup, thought Naruto, he was definitely toasted.
"Yeah, sit down! Have a beer! Party around!" Tenten said, weaving slightly. Alcohol, apparently, hit a bit harder for Tenten than for Neji, because she looked on the verge of collapsing, and was still a few beers behind Neji.
"Tenten, youthful revelry is one thing, but too much can be detrimental to your health." Lee said gently, inspiring laughter in everyone as he gently tugged her beer out of her hand.
"Hey, Naruto! Hinata told me this place was yours, so can I get some booze over here!" Kiba said, plopping down in a seat and banging the table loudly. In contrast, Hinata and Shino sat quietly next to him, ordering a beer each.
"Sure, you can have all the booze you want." Naruto said. "It won't be free, and we take no liability for whatever you do, but you can have it." He walked away and returned with a bunch of beers, set them in the middle of the table, and watched as people snatched one or two.
"Naruto, this is a very nice place for a bar." Hinata said quietly, scooting over to sit next to him.
"Yeah, I thought so. I haven't been to many, but it just seems to give off a nice vibe, you know?" he said proudly, sitting back and admiring his property.
"Yeah," she said, "I think I know what you-" she started, but was interrupted by a huge burst of laughter and a few lewd remarks from Kiba. They looked over and saw, to their amazement, Tenten and Neji engaged in a deep kiss. It hadn't broken for over a minute, and showed no sign of doing so.
"Didn't know you had it in you, Neji." Sasuke said, clapping the boy on the back.
"Alcohol makes strange things happen to people." Lee said after congratulating Neji and Tenten. "Myself included." Everyone still sober had noticed Lee purposely avoiding drinking beer, apparently the flashbacks of his battle with Kimimaro having reached him.
"They probably won't remember it anyway, so why not let them have their fun." Hinata said a little louder than usual. A flush had risen in her pale cheeks and she was leaning on Naruto's arm rather hard. He looked over and noticed several bottles in front of her.
He didn't know quite what to say. He had never thought Hinata would get drunk, let alone hang on his arm, which incidentally was starting to get numb. He didn't really want to brush her off, though, so he sat there until Ino leaned across him and asked Hinata something, and she and Naruto traded places.
There was a huge crash on his other side, and he looked over instantly to see Kiba with a broken bottle in his hand. "Hey, Shino, why don't you say that again, bastard. Go for it." He said, waving the bottle around. Shino looked strangely surprised, as though he couldn't tell whether to bash the man or to walk away.
Naruto made the choice for him. "Kiba, if you're going to get violent your going to have to leave." He said, as politely as he could.
Hinata finally realized what was going on. She practically glowed with anger, and gave Kiba a firm poke in the rib. A slight blue aura appeared on his other side, and he slumped back onto the seat with a dazed look on his face. She turned away from Kiba and began talking as though nothing had happened.
"Hey, Sasuke, you've been remarkably quiet. You alive over there?" Naruto shouted across the table, happy at the defused Kiba.
"I'm fine; I just don't want to make a fool of myself." He said, rigidly, looking at Tenten and Neji, who were still making out, and Kiba who was slumped over. Naruto advised him to play some poker, which he eventually did.
It was way past eleven when Naruto finally looked at the clock. Kiba, Hinata, Shino, Sakura and Sasuke had left earlier. Neji and Tenten stopped their make out session when, much to their chagrin, they finally understood what was going on. They both blushed severely at several remarks from their friends ("Eventually we all just assumed that you were still making out.") and they left in carefully staggered intervals.
Lee, having sat there perfectly sober for quite a while, got bored, and left shortly after, wishing Naruto and Ino a good night. After a while, Ino asked "What did you mean when you said you didn't employ prostitutes?"
Naruto was amazed she still remembered that. "Well, I got the idea from the Super Pervert." And eventually he explained, in a round about manner, the workings of the brothel.
"So everyone who goes in there is sleeping with one of your clones?" she said. Surprisingly, she didn't seem, as Naruto thought she would, disgusted. She looked thoughtful (remarkably so after a night of light drinking), and seemed almost impressed.
"Well, it's better than running all the risks and problems prostitutes bring about."
Naruto didn't know whether to pursue the topic or let it be, so he simply sat there. "Sorry Ino, but I should probably get back to work." He said, standing up. "See you later."
"See ya." She said, and walked out the door.
The rest of the evening was fairly uneventful. Naruto survived the poisonous looks of Motoko ("I thought you were going to help me out with all this!") and the reveling of Mitsune, whose poker table had raked in an amazing profit. Overall, the night had gone very well, the profits better than any had been in Gin's time.
After congratulating the staff (and apologizing to Motoko), Naruto had them all go home and closed up shop himself. Tonight was certainly interesting. It was interesting to him, strangely, how much it had mattered to him what his friends thought. Even though he didn't realize he was anxious, as he lay down in bed, he felt tension uncurling.
It felt good, somehow, to know that you were succeeding at something. Being a ninja was all well and good, but it was nice to do something that didn't involve honing your skill at killing other people. Somehow life was different when strength wasn't all that mattered.
He was halfway through thinking all of this when he fell asleep, his thoughts bouncing around his head peacefully. He vaguely wondered what would happen next, and decided that it wasn't that bad, just living a normal life.