Hi everybody, me again. Sorry about the wait, I don't know how long it was but it was longer than the waits for the other. I had a bit of writers block. I'm such a paranoid freak; I keep thinking 'what if they hate it and it's not as good and everyone never reads it again…' and all those other horrible possibilities. Anyway, I've got a lot (in my opinion) of reviews, and it's very satisfying to know A) that people are reviewing and B) that no one has told me it's crap yet. Oh, and sorry for the random spelling errors and stuff, I try but no one's perfect…

KatonKageNaruto : Don't worry, Naruto won't end up like mo. Glad to know it's ok that it isn't a Love Hina crossover, cause otherwise I would be like 'oh, crap, I have to make the characters different from what I planned.'

XAegis-SRX : No, I'm honestly not thinking what a freak because, writing this at 12:50 am myself. I usually stay up till about two, then go to bed. Yes, between Tsunade and Naru, the sheer girl power would be enough to launch Jiraya to orbit. Although he's a bit more skilled than Keitaro… But maybe he's more aerodynamic or something…

Keltosh : I'm glad to know this keeps interest. I've never seen it done before, so I hope it's original. I'm not actually sure what I'll do with the pairings, I'm actually going to take fan opinions (as will be detailed at the bottom of the page). The ultimate choice, however, rests on my shoulders and mine alone. Just to warn you all.

NarutoDemon : Glad you approve!

kyuubi () :Interesting is good. The pairings, as I say, are still up in the air.

Shinobifighter : See above comment, glad to know your eager.

Mist Aura: See above comments, and no, I'm sorry, there will not be SasuNaru. I'm sorry, but that's one of the few pairings I really dislike. I don't mind Yaoi ( I don't actively write it unless it serves a specific point, on the other hand) but that pairing is over done and, in my opinion, bogus. Sorry.

Preventer Squall : True, Naruto doesn't seem very peaceful, but I was trying to emphasize that in the life of a shinobi it doesn't all have to be stab and jutsu. They can be normal people just like you or me. Only with super powers. So not like us.

hexkun : Yeah, I personally would have stretched the drinking part longer, but I thought It might get boring for other people. Gotta serve the masses, not just the individual.

SmacksKiller : You'd be surprised how many people have expressed their desire to see what Tsunade does when she finds out. Well rejoice, my friends, for this chapter lays that to rest! I just hope I did it in satisfactorily…

ON WITH THE SHOW!

It had been two weeks since Naruto had first opened his bar. To his slight surprise, his friends actually came again. He had suspected they had simply been humoring him, but sure enough they had a regular table every Thursday. Not surprisingly, this was also the most profitable day of the week for him.

He awoke with a start. It wasn't obviously apparent what had woken him up, until another huge bang echoed from his door. Rubbing his eyes andmumbling groggily, heshuffled over to the door, and slid it open.

And was promptly flung backwards as a fist planted itself firmly in his face. He hit the wall on the other side of the room swearing. "What the hell is your goddamn problem!" he said, grabbing a kunai from the pack he had in the pocket of his ninja outfit.

"Oh, sorry Naruto. I wasn't expecting you to open the door just then." A startled Tsunade said, looking down at the boy with a sheepish grin.

"Oh, it's you. What do you want?" he said, dropping the kunai and rubbing the back of his head where he had run into the wall and groping around for a tissue to stem the bleeding from his nose. "Damn, that was one hell of a wakeup call, Tsunade. I think you broke my nose."

She scowled at him. "I think you'd probably deserve it, but still…" she said, and made a hand seal and slapped him hard in the cheek. He spiraled sideways, but when he got himself up, his nose was fine.

He stared at her as he mopped up the blood. "You couldn't just tap me, could you?" he asked.

"Hey, healing hurts. Listen, how about I give you a minute to get dressed?" she said, and sure enough Naruto realized that he was only wearing his boxers. He blushed a shade of red akin to a tomato and hurried her out of the room.

A few minutes later, Naruto walked out wearing a white linen shirt and a black pair of comfortable pants, his cheeks still slightly red. "Now that we're done with that, what did you actually come here for?"

Tsunade instantly glared at him. "Sakura told me that, not only do you work at a bar and brothel, but you own it!"

Naruto barely managed a "Yeah, so…" before she all but knocked him over. "What were you thinking! If you needed money so badly that you had to sell your body for it you should have told me, you brat! I would have helped you out!" she cried, leaping foreword and standing over Naruto like a mother hen.

"Wait, wait, did Sakura tell you I was a prostitute!" he said, blushing again, this time with a mix of anger.

Tsunade shrugged and back off a bit. "How else do you work in a brothel?"

"But if I owned the brothel, why would I stood to being a prostitute myself?" he said, trying to make her back down with reason.

"Because…um…well maybe… ok, I guess I didn't think it through all that much." She said in a defeated tone of voice. "But still, you own a brothel! Your not even supposed to know where to find one at your age!" she said, getting back on her old argument.

Naruto's patience was wearing out. "Look, I didn't buy it; I inherited it from the man who owned it first. First of all, I got over it, and so should you. Second, I'm not even employing prostitutes, so that's not a problem. Third, what I do is mainly as a bar, the brothel is just here because Gin left it here and it rakes in to much money to close." He said, fairly quickly. "And finally, no offense, but when did it become your business what I do outside of being a ninja?"

Tsunade blushed. After all the time they had spent with each other, she felt almost like Naruto was her brother. She was worried at the thought of him owning something like this on moral grounds, but she realized that she was treating him like he was still twelve years old. "Well," she said softly, "I suppose it doesn't. I'm sorry for intruding." She said, and turned heel and walked toward the door.

"Tsunade, wait!" Naruto said, placing a hand on her shoulder. He spun her around, and was startled to see tears in her eyes. "There's nothing to cry about, Tsunade! I'm not mad or anything, it was just-" he tried to explain, but was unable to do so as Tsunade embraced him.

She held the struggling boy like that for several minutes before speaking. "Your growing up, Naruto." She said quietly as she looked at the boy. She almost fell over as she noticed he was standing there with a dazed look on his face as she had shoved his face into her oversized chest. She was debating between blushing and apologizing or calling him a pervert and beating the hell out of him. She settled for the middle ground.

"You pervert!" she shouted, blushing furiously as she slammed her fist into his cheek. "You're almost as bad as Jiraya." She said, shaking her head slightly before she walked out the door. "I'll drop by later!" she said with a little wave on her way out.

Naruto sat up and rubbed his cheek. It still stung, but at least it hadn't broken anything. "She's the one that hugged me…" he said angrily, but he knew he wasn't really mad at her. Truth be told, he was touched by what she had said, but he wouldn't let her know that.

Looking at the clock, Naruto saw it was around eleven. It was Tuesday today, which was always a slow day for the bar. He rang up Tae and Motoko and toldthemthey could take the day off, he would cover for them. He had recently learned how to bartend, and got his license for it, so he could take care of making the drinks himself.

He was bored, and looked around for something to do but couldn't find it. The sudden rumble in his stomach told him exactly what he needed to do. A few minutes of walking later, he arrived at the Ichiraku Noodle bar, sat down and ordered a bowl of ramen noodles.

Loud voices came in from the street. He would recognize that voice anywhere. "Gaara!" he said, walking out into the street and walking over to the red haired shinobi. "I haven't seen you in forever!"

"Oh, hello Naruto." He said in his usual dry voice. He was flanked by Kankuro and Temari, who both said a short hello. "What are you doing here?"

The blond boy pointed into the ramen shop. "Oh, I was hungry so I was getting some ramen when I heard you guys outside of the shop and figured I'd say hi." He said quickly. "So what're excellent sand shinobi like you doing in a town like this?"

"Oh, we finished a mission near by and got permission to rest here before heading back to Suna." Gaara said, looking in the shop behind Naruto. "I believe that would be your food." He said as a bell rang from inside and the chef called out.

"Yeah, probably. Hey, I own a bar now, so stop by when you get the chance." He said, scribbling the address on a slip of paper and handing it to Gaara. "Tuesdays are quiet, but on Thursdays all the Leaf nins come and hang out!" he called over as he walked under the drapes and ate his ramen.

Later that night, Naruto was sitting behind the bar of his place, cleaning a glass. Like always, it was a slow day, the only people in the bar were the fulltime alcoholics and the occasional; ' customer for the backroom', as Mitsune called them cryptically. The doorbell rang, and Naruto looked up and found Kakashi staring at him.

"What's the holdup, Kakashi? Move your ass out of the doorway, please." A familiar voice said, a foot planted itself in Kakashi's back, sending him stumbling foreword. Walking in after him was a woman Naruto had seen before but didn't quite know a name for.

"Hey Kakashi. What're you doing here? And whose the beautiful lady in tow?" Naruto said dryly. It was obvious that his old teacher hadn't expected Naruto to be there.

"Oh, hey Naruto, long time no see. Um, this is..." he trailed off, obviously put off by the situation.

"Stop being a wuss, Kakashi." The woman said, slapping him on the shoulder. "I'm Kurenai, Team 10's teacher, you've probably seen me before. Kakashi's embarrassed because I bet him a date that Hinata could beat Sakura in a training match and he lost." She said, walking in and plopping herself at a table. "I take it you were one of his students?"

Kakashi obviously didn't want to be seen with Kurenai, afraid someone might get some ideas. Naruto was toying between good and evil, debating whether to use the blackmail or let Kakashi off the hook. He decided to reserve his judgment wither way and take their orders.

"Just give me a pitcher." Kakashi said, sitting down and gesturing slightly with his hand.

"Do you have any wine?" Kurenai asked, going for the dignified approach as opposed to Kakashi's brusqueness.

"Yeah, give me a sec." Naruto said, walking behind the bar and grabbing a bottle of wine. Pouring a glass, he brought it over to the table. "On the house." He said, producing the glass with a flourish. Kurenai laughed and accepted, drinking deeply on her first gulp then setting it aside.

There was a burst of alcohol inspired conversation between the two before the door rang again and Tsunade walked in. "Hey Naruto!" Tsunade said loudly, walking in and stopping when she saw Kakashi and Kurenai.There was an silence akin to the calm before a storm.

Tsunade gazed for a while before a smug look came across her face. Kakashi almost simultaneously groaned. "Why hello there Kakashi."

"Hey there Tsunade." Kurenai said happily, patting Kakashi on the back.

"I'm never gonna' live this down, am I?" Kakashi mumbled and downed another mug.

"Nope." Tsunade agreed. She looked around the room and her eyes lit up as they fell on the poker table. "Hey everyone, how about a game of poker?" she said, a glint in her eye.

Kurenai accepted, Kakashi downed another mug and agreed, and Naruto looked around to make sure nothing else was going on in the bar before leading them over.

"Hey Mitsune, we've got a game!" Naruto shouted at the sleeping girl. She leapt up, shook herself awake and shuffled the cards.

"Five card draw?" she asked, and everyone agreed. "Good." She dealt the cards to everyone and looked questioningly at Naruto. "Home game or business?"

Everyone followed her example until Naruto explained. "In a home game you pay a flat fee and can wager whatever you want but not chips. We've actually had a couple games of strip poker." He said, remembering the time when a group of girls actually requested a screen as Mitsune beat them mercilessly. She looked very happy at the end of that day. "A business game is when you play with the dealer using chips."

"Somehow I don't think strip poker is in the cards." She said, remembering her reputation. "How about a business game?" everyone agreed but Naruto stepped out.

"I can't very well bet against my own business, can I?" he said,walking over to a booth to watch. As he went away, he said over his shoulder "No mercy, Mitsune. Friends are friends, after all."

Mitsune was the only girl he knew who actually wore an unlucky charm. They had played a couple staff games before, and when Mitsune played for keeps she beat them all every time. There was no explanation, and they knew she wasn't cheating.

Sure enough, she reached into her sleeve and untied a broken piece of leather and cracked her knuckles loudly, a vaguely evilgrin on her face. It didn't last 10 minutes before Tsunade was out. She stepped back to watch the game and sat down next to Naruto.

"I've never been out that fast. Usually I get at least one lucky hand." She said, looking slightly disappointed. Naruto looked at the huge pile of chips on the table and laughed.

"Tsunade, if you come back even once a month you'll make me a very happy boy." He laughed. Being the friend of the Hokage really did have benefits. Tsunade mumbled something but he missed it. "What was that?"

"I think she's manifesting chakra." Tsunade said quietly. She looked at the girl and took a small lens out of her pocket and held it in front of her eye. "Here, take a look." As Naruto looked through it, he saw utter blackness except around the pool table, where a white light emanated from Mitsune and filled the area around her.

"What the hellis that?" he asked as he handed it back to the Hokage.

"It's a chakra lens. Every ninja emits chakra when techniques are used, and this helps you in a fight if you strap it around your eye. But most people don't unleash chakra constantly…" She said more to herself than Naruto. "That implies almost an aura of chakra, which looks like it bends events around her. But that's unheard of, no ninja has ever released his or her chakra continuously in an aura…"

Naruto realized the implications. Running out of chakra carried the penalty of death. To release your chakra continuously from all around you was tantamount to suicide. But many of the results of chakra application, catching onto things, running on difficult surfaces, could almost be passed off as luck, manipulating circumstances to the benefit of the user…

But that implied a huge chakra source generating it. Naruto looked at his poker player with a new light entirely. Who the hell was she to have this much chakra…

Kurenai let out a noise of frustration and pushed her stool away from the table. "I'm out…" she said, saying good bye to everyone before heading out.

Kakashi was locked in a struggle. So far he had managed to hang on, but he was increasingly pressured. Nonchalantly, he slipped his headband up over his sharingan eye as he pretended to scratch his head. Mitsune looked astounded as her read her bluff as plain as day and won back a large pot. She looked suspiciously at his left eye and then over to Tsunade and Naruto. "Hey, what's up with that trippy eye?" She said loudly. "You were flailing like a drunken monkey, then you pull out your eye and suddenly you're Mr. Mind Reader?"

Tsunade gave thejounin a dirty look before Naruto shouted over, "You took off your lucky charm, he's got his sharingan, so you're even. Kick his ass anyway. It'll be good for his ego."

Mitsune grinned and Tsunade laughed. The two players squared off looking deadly serious as they laid out the cards. "Hey, Naruto," Tsunade asked after minutes of betting. "Where are these brothels?"

Naruto wasn't quite sure what she was asking. "Need to get laid, do you?" he said, and received a slap across the cheek that was probably harder than she intended, because she was laughing.

"You wish. Just curious, boy, nothing more." She said, and Naruto shrugged and led her into the back rooms. There was no one in there at the moment (none of the little 'occupied' signs hanging from the door knob) so he knocked on the door before opening it.

Inside was a large bed and bad lighting, with a naked woman with blond pigtails and whisker marks across her cheeks seductively covered by the blankets. "Hey, isn't that your Ninja centerfold chick?" Tsunade asked. She had seen this a while back when she walked in on Naruto convincing Jiraya to train him. She had beaten them both senseless, needless to say.

"Yeah. I felt bad about forcing people to work as prostitutes, so I just kind of made my own. And they've worked remarkably well, and as they can change their shape I usually just put out a little checklist of various features." He said, trying to keep the embarrassment from his voice.

"Hmm?" Naruto was actually surprised. He thought she would think himdisgusting, but she was actually taking it fairly well. She even seemed slightly interested, which he wasn't sure was good or creepy. She asked to see a copy of the slip, which looked, almost disturbingly, like a make-your-own-sandwich form, columns headed by the category with options below them and a 'specifics' box placed in the bottom corner.

"The clones burn these when they receive them, so there's total anonymity between us and our customers."

"I can't tell whether to be impressed, interested or slightly creeped out." She said finally. "So you don't know who uses these things?" she said casually.

"You seem awfully curious." Naruto said suspiciously. "It's almost like-" But he never finished his sentence as they heard a shout of victory from the other room. They rushed back and found Mitsune crowing over a huge pile of chips, Kakashi facedown on the table.

"Naruto, we've never made this much money before!" She said happily, counting it up quickly.

"We've also never had the Hokage as a customer." He chuckled. Tsunade blushed furiously.

"I think it's definitely time to go." Tsunade said, looking at the clock. Naruto followed her gaze and was amazed that it was way past two in the morning. "Come on, Kakashi." Tsunade said, helping the moping ninja to his feet.

On his way out, he turned around and shouted over to Mitsune. "Don't get cocky, kid! I'll kick your ass yet!" he said as Tsunade steered him out.

Mitsune flicked him off and stuck out her tongue. "I was happy to take your money now and I'll be happy to do so then." There was a various exchange of insults before the door finally closed.

"You should probably go too Mitsune, I'll pay you overtime." Naruto said as the girl yawned. She waved sleepily on her way out and Naruto closed shop as soon as she left.

Lying in his bed, his thoughts strayed to Tsunade's comments about Mitsune. Manifesting chakra like that was unheard of, even in the ninja world. If she ever learned to do something with it… there were many possibilities for her. But that, he decided, was for another day. He closed his eyes, started counting backwards from one hundred and was asleep before he hit ninety.

THE FOOTNOTE

Ok, this is the first footnote I've done so far. First in order, I'm accepting votes for pairings! Basically anyone you can think of that I would logically add is fair game, and more of the konoha nins that I forgot will be added later. Sorry, but no crack pairings (LeeNruto, for example), but unusual yet viable pairings are ok. No SasuNaru either, for reasons I have stated above. Yaoi and Yuri are ok, but don't go wild with it. Secondly, I'm looking for a beta reader, you know, someone who'll give it the once over before I submit it. And, though I'm probably being presumptuous, I'm willing to the option of request fics, preferably one shots, so give me a shout about it. Whew, that was a long footnote…