Hello readers and welcome to my next chapter and I promise that I won't have something that makes me have to stop writing or publish only partially finished….hopefully. To be honest I am hoping simply because I am tired of having some rough months. Anyways enough rambling about my own life which none of you really care about. On with the story.

Chapter 47

_Naruto_

After meeting with Tsunade Naruto quickly left the hokage tower and went for a bowl of ramen.

"Hello…Naruto-kun!" Ayame called out initially just greeting a normal customer until she saw who it was. She then reached over the booth and gave him a strong hug with a large smile on her face.

"Hello Ayame-chan it's so good to see you after a long mission." Naruto told her honestly especially after having to deal with Sai and being buried alive.

"Aww was Naru-kun missing me?" Ayame asked the boy with a mischievous smile. "Just thinking about me got to be not enough to help you out?" She teased and quickly started laughing as she saw Naruto's face turn bright red.

"No! N-n-not like that I just missed spending time with all of you." Naruto told her waving his hands in front of himself.

"Oh, I wasn't pretty enough for you?" She asked with a frown.

"W-what? No you are pretty enough. I-I mean not that I would but I do think you are pretty enough if…ya" Naruto tried to recover from her teasing only to hear her laughing at him some more. "Oh, great. You are the first person I rushed to see and all I get is teased." Naruto told her with a small pout.

"Sorry, sorry" She told him trying to recover from her laughing spree. "You are just too easy to tease at times. Anyways how did the mission go?" She asked curious.

Course Naruto's thoughts instantly went back to Sai's comments, then the weird zombie fight, and finally to finding himself buried alive. "Well it will never be one of my favorite missions but it was interesting for sure." Naruto told her. "Anyways mind getting me a few bowls of ramen? I am starving." Naruto asked the girl who quickly went to help with the order. Soon enough she brought back two bowls and set it in front of the blond with a smile.

"Here you go Naru-kun. Enjoy the reward for yet another completed mission. "she told him kindly and was going to turn away only for Naruto to grab her hand and stop her.

"Well in that case can I get a beautiful girl to eat with?" Naruto asked causing the girl to blush a bit.

"Ok then Mr. smooth talker. Just give me minute" She told him and walked back towards the kitchen where she quickly took off her apron and called to her father about going 'on break'. She then walked back to him carrying yet another bowl of ramen. A bowl that she sat close to Naruto's before scooting up close to Naruto.

"So, any special reason you wanted to eat with me?" She asked curious.

"Oh I need a reason to spend time with one of my girlfriends?" Naruto asked chuckling a bit. "Anyways so how have you been while I have been gone?" Naruto asked curious.

"Well I pretty much spent most days like I normally do. Either working or spending time with my friends." She told him with a shrug. "Though come to think of it my friends were recently talking about the differences between ninja life and civilian life." Ayame told him.

"Umm shouldn't that be obvious?" Naruto asked confused.

"Well we weren't talking about the clear differences. We were more trying to figure out how some things you ninja use looks so elegant but yet is able to be put through so much." Ayame told him honestly remembering some of the dresses that some kunoichi wear on a regular basis.

"Heh well to be honest most clothing for us is made from durable cloth and if done right some strengthening seals as well. All in all though it isn't much different than normal civilian clothes unless the wearer wanted to put some actual protection on." Naruto told her.

"What? You mean all of you run around in basically normal clothes and fight deadly enemies in it!" She asked shocked seeing as that just seemed suicidal to her.

"Ya, some of us do but most do end up putting extra armor on. To be honest most of the time it is an annoying balance between protection and mobility. In my case I have the basic clothes on but have applied my own seals to them making them about as sturdy as rather thick leather armor and I have some chainmail underneath." Naruto told her. For with ninja gear if it too protective most of the time it was cumbersome and made them slower. Meanwhile it was just as dangerous as Ayame thought without it…but to be honest that is how the life of a ninja is; constantly staring death in the face.

"But wait what about that armor that we see in pictures of old famous ninja?" She asked making Naruto laugh a bit.

"Well that's the point they are well known and famous. That kind of armor is extremely expensive for one of us to buy. Meaning if I want a set I would have to either save for a long while or try a lot more dangerous missions to make it a bit faster." Naruto told her. "After all unlike with the samurai our armor needs to be made segmented with each section being individually reinforced. It takes a LONG time to make one of those sets; hence why they are so customized and only seen on famous ninja." Naruto explained.

"Oh, that makes sense" she says finally finishing her bowl while Naruto had been finished with his two for a while. "Wait so why don't civilians just get their clothes from ninja stores. All this 'fancy' stuff rips way too damn easy." She complains remembering the crazy prices that some stores try and charge for simple cloth.

"Well I guess….you know I have no idea." Naruto told her laughing only for her to get annoyed.

"Damn it you should have told me sooner. Jerk." She told him clearly not truly annoyed.

"Ayame..if you are done I could use some help back here." Teuchi told her surprising both of them due to the fact he 'snuck' up on them

"R-right. Sorry Dad." Ayame told him blushing out of embarrassment at the fact that she forgot that she took a sudden 'break'. "Sorry Naruto-kun I will talk to you later." She told him before giving him a quick kiss and getting back to work.

"See ya later." Naruto told her with a smile before leaving his money on the counter and walking off. "Hmm I wonder what I should do now…meh might as well just go relax and maybe spend some time with Haku if she's home." Naruto thought with a shrug.

~Naruto's Apartment~

Naruto quickly walked up to his door and opened it as fast as he could. Though seeing as he found the door locked he assumed that Haku wasn't in and instead was just planning on sleeping for a bit simply to regain some chakra after a long run back home. So, he quickly entered his room dropping off his gear on a table and stripped off his shirt and was going to flop onto the bed until his reflex kicked in and he felt something flying at him. Things that he dodged the only way he could; by falling onto his ass and watched as a few metal needles flew through the air where he just was and sunk into the wall half way.

"What the hell?" Naruto asked shocked that he was attacked in his own room.

"Nnng..what do you want?" Naruto heard a voice ask clearly having just woke up. So he looked over at the bed and his eye widened a bit.

"Haku!? What are you doing in my bed?" He asked not expecting to see her in the house let alone in his bed attack him. Said tired girl just looked at him tiredly before finally realizing it was Naruto and woke up quickly realizing what just happened.

"Oh Naruto-kun I am so sorry. Are you ok?" Haku asked worried she actually hurt him.

"Yes…but why were you even in my room?" Naruto asked the girl still recovering from the fact that his girlfriend nearly hit him just for waking her up. He then watched as the girl blushed a bit and looked away from him mumbling something quietly. "Huh what was that?" Naruto asked the girl who blushed a bit more.

"I said I missed you ok." She told him with her blush staying on her face. "I got so used to sleeping with you that it was hard to sleep unless I was in here…sorry that I didn't warn you or expect you to come into the room today." She told him.

*sigh* "Its ok Haku-chan we just need to figure out a way to warn each other when we go on missions. Now I am tired from a long run as well so move over." Naruto told her only for her to sniff the air and scrunched up her face.

"No, take a shower first you smell." Haku ordered him.

"Oh come on its not that bad is it?" Naruto complained just wanting to sleep only to look at her reaction to him asking this. "…I'll go shower." He told and walked off to the bathroom. They then slept till it was night and instead of getting up for the night simply they simply slept longer due to both of them being tired.

+Next morning+

The next time Naruto woke up the sun was shining through his window yet again.

"Good morning Haku-chan." Naruto told the girl as he sat up stretching his arms while said girl woke up beside him.

"Morning" She told him with a yawn.

"So, why were you so tired anyways?" Naruto asked Haku who still seemed a bit tired.

"I have been working a lot of long shifts recently and yesterday I just finished up with a long day of overtime." She told him.

"Ouch, why are you working so hard?" Naruto asked the girl.

"Well besides obviously getting a bit more spending cash I am also trying to prove myself to the board that I truly know more than enough to go out on the field…plus if I do good enough maybe I will get Tsunade's attention as well." She told him with a smile.

"You know I can just talk to Baa-chan and see about her working with you and at least getting a team to work with on missions outside the village. I mean you have proven yourself more than enough already." Naruto told her wanting to help her. She just smiled at him and gave him a kiss.

"It's sweet that you would do that for me Naru-kun but I want to do this myself ok?" Haku told him touched that he would do so much for her.

"Ok…just let me know if you change your mind ok?" Naruto told her and then heard his stomach growl at him. "Now how about we go get some food?" Naruto asked the girl who quickly agreed and got ready to go out and get some breakfast somewhere.

(AN: Just because I am a bit too lazy to look up actually appropriate foods I am not going to be using them. Instead I am going to use just basic breakfasts seeing as like other things I skip; it doesn't really matter)

They ended up in a simple diner and quickly order a breakfast of bacon and eggs and happily began happily eating.

"Hey guys!" Ino called over to them after they were eating for a few minutes as she rushed over to them from the front door.

"Oh, hey Ino how are you doing today?" Naruto asked the girl who smiled brightly at him.

"I am doing good Naruto-kun just getting ready for another day of training with the team. Just you wait soon enough you and forehead will have to be rushing to keep up with how strong I am getting." Ino told him determined to become one of the stronger of their graduation year. For even she knew that out of all of the group that passed she and Sakura were the weakest members. Then after the few years of training with Tsunade Sakura became one of the strongest leaving Ino as the weakest; something that her competitive side couldn't stand for. Hence why she has been upping her training as much as she possibly could to catch up to the rest of their group.

"Heh, I am sure that we will eventually Ino-chan. We should have a spar to see how much stronger you are now eventually. I bet it would be a close battle if you are already this confident." Naruto told her kindly already seeing the desire to prove herself hidden slightly in her eyes…something that he would have missed if he didn't see it in his own eyes during his childhood.

"Really you are up for a spar?" Ino asked getting a nod from the blond. "Well how about you come to our training session then and we will see who wins…though I warn you I expect a reward when I win." She told him deciding to place a bet of sorts seeing as Naruto still has never seen any of her new fighting style while she has seen a lot of the way he fights already. "I may know that he may be a bit stronger than me…being trained by a sannin but I at least have the element of surprise. Meanwhile he has no idea that I have seen him training a bit so I have a bit of a hint to his fighting style. I might just be able to win this." Ino thought with a smirk. After all while she admits even to herself that she isn't as strong as the others YET, she still could hold her own quite well.

"Heh a bet huh? Well ok I will do whatever ya want if you win…but what do I get if I win?" Naruto asked the girl who just smiled at him and walked towards him.

"Hmm, I don't know what could I ever give you that would be considered a reward for you?" She asked teasingly as she placed her finger on his chest and slowly brought it up while feeling his muscles until she reached his chin that she then cupped in her palm gently pulling their heads closer until they were basically breathing the same air. "Do you have any ideas Naruto-kun?" She asked the boy who was now blushing a small bit as he couldn't help but try and move his head the few centimeters closer to finally kiss the girl. But just as he did this she pulled away leaving him shocked. "Ah, good idea that is perfect. If you win I will give you a nice kiss." She told him with a teasing smile happy to see that she got to him with her flirting.

"Hmph, tease." Naruto growled out partially annoyed that he fell for the trick but more amused that Ino's attitude clearly is still her normal playful self. "Fine but I am coming for that kiss!" He told the girl who smiled at him.

"Oh, I bet you are ero-kun she told him emphasizing his new nickname causing him to blush even more.

"I didn't-…I mean. Gah" Naruto mumbled out embarrassed as he heard both girls laughing at his misfortune.

"Oh just you wait blonde I will have my revenge." He told the girl with a smile leaving them all amused. "Anyways sit down and get something to eat if you are gonna eat here." Naruto told her motioning to a seat at their table that she gladly took.

"So, Haku how has your time in the hospital been going? We have been too busy to talk much lately." Ino asked.

"Ya I don't know about you but I have been keeping really busy in the hospital. After all I think I am getting really close to them allowing me to actually be a field medic rather than just work in the hospital. I mean I spent so much time mastering all of the medical jutsu they taught me and that I could find." Haku told her.

"Huh? I thought you were already allowed to leave and take missions?" Ino asked the girl confused seeing as through learning about the T&I of Konoha she knew that Haku should have been cleared of any concern ages ago.

"Well yes I technically can do missions but I still haven't officially been told that I am able to be a field medic for the village." Haku told her pouting.

"Ah, well don't worry about that I am sure that you will get the recognition you deserve. After all from what I have heard around the village you are a damn good medical nin." Ino told her making Haku blush a bit out of embarrassment.

"I-I didn't know people thought so highly of me." She mumbled out.

"Heh well if you put THAT much effort into it then surely people are gonna notice." Naruto told her with a big smile. "Good job hime-chan." Naruto told her.

"Anyways how about we get to training? Instead of trying to make me blush more." Hinata asked and whispered out the last part still embarrassed by the praise.

"Heh, sure Haku. So, ready to get the fight of your life?" Ino asks looking over at Naruto determined to win.

"We will see Ino-chan, we will see." Naruto told her finishing the last of his meal before paying the bill. Their group then began to walk towards a training ground to have their friendly spar.

_Ayame_

Ayame woke up at her regular time ready to work through the day only to remember that she had a day off. So, she simply got comfortable again and tried to think about what she wanted to do with the time she had.

"Hmm what should I do today? I mean for starters Naruto has just came back from his mission so I could go spend some time with him…but I did spend a decent amount of time with him already. Hmm, I think I will let some of my other 'girlfriends' welcome him home…come to think of him maybe it is about time for me to check out the ninja clothes store and see what they have to offer." Ayame thought remembering what Naruto told her with a smile. After all what girl wouldn't want to have their favorite clothes last ages. So, with that in mind she quickly got dressed and grabbed her purse. Then after calling out a quick goodbye to her father and she left to walk to the store she had in mind.

"Hey! Ayame-chan!" Ayame heard someone called out to her after only a few minutes of walking. She then turned and saw a girl waving at her happily. Said girl was a rather short black haired girl with bright green eyes. She currently had a simple green t-shirt hanging loosely from her frame basically hiding her rather small chest a decent bit. The black haired girl also had rather tight pants on that showed off her shapely but and lean legs. All in all she was a rather cute girl that was shown off even more with the bright smile on her face.

"Hello Sakari-chan how are you doing today?" Ayame asked the girl who she now recognized as one of her best friends.

"I'm doing pretty good. Just got a day off so I was gonna visit you and your pops but apparently you managed to have a day off as well." Sakrai told her.

"Yea, you are right about that. I finally got a day all too myself." She told her friend with a smile on her face.

"Nice. So, got any plans for your 'me' day?" Sakari asked curious.

"Well to be honest I am going to check out the ninja clothing store to see what designs they have." Ayame told her friend who was shocked.

"What!? I thought that store was for ninja only hence what we call it." Sakari asked confused.

"Well apparently anyone can shop there according to Naru-kun so I am gonna try it out at least once." Ayame told her.

"Oh, well mind if I come with?"

"Sure let's go" Ayame told her with a shrug. And with that they both continued to walk to said store. Soon enough they reached a store name The Worn Traveler and quickly entered excited to see if what Naruto said is really true. When they entered they found out that the store really seemed to be a lot like a regular clothing store with separate sections for men and women and all sizes that you could think off. Though they did notice that instead of having a lot of fancy clothes that would really only be worn to fancy dinners and such it had a lot of more practical dress clothes. Even their more provocative clothes clearly looked to be much more durable than it normally should be. Lastly they noticed that instead of having an obvious 'out back' area there was instead a lot of scrolls were placed around the counter where a rather bored women sat reading a book.

"Wow this place has some amazing stuff even if it is still is a bit less fancy than some of the stuff I have seen." Sakari mumbled out to her friend who simply nodded at her. Needless to say they happily looked through all of the clothes and decided to buy several pieces. Something that lead to them happily spending a good portion of the day shopping around trying to see more what ninja clothing had to offer. In fact they spent more than enough time that when they finally stopped out of exhaustion it was nearing the end of the day. So, they ended up going to a simple bar & grill to get some dinner.

"Ah, wow I didn't expect to spend my entire day off shopping. But it was interesting to see those stores…I don't know why I didn't check them out before." Ayame said happily as she dropped her bags and rested on the chair.

"Ya, I don't know either. And to think it is all because of you talking to your boyfriend…speaking of which how is it going with your ninja boy toy?" Sakari asked with a smirk.

"Well first he isn't my boy toy; second it is going quite good. He has made sure to treat me better than I could have imagined any guy doing." Ayame told her honestly.

"Oh, you are happy even if he is 'legally' cheating on you." She asked with a small frown not completely happy that her friend hand to share making Ayame frown.

"Listen Sakari I know you don't like the thought of sharing…and to be honest I wasn't at first either. But I was the one who finally decided to go for it simply because Naruto is worth it. To be honest even though he has more than one girlfriend he still treats me better than any of my previous boyfriends did and even spends more time with me than they did…not to mention he has an amazing physic thanks to being a ninja as well." Ayame explained to her friend blushing at the end. For due to the rest of her previous boyfriends being civilians some of them had a decent amount of pudge whenever she felt them in a hug or something or saw them with their shirt off.

"…ok I will just accept that I guess…but if he ever hurts you somehow I will be sure to kick his ass ninja or not." She told her making Ayame smile at her friend.

"Thanks" Ayame told her friend then they simply enjoyed their meal. They both peacefully ate their meal simply enjoying the meal until right when they were about to finish they heard a loud bang that surprised everyone in the restaurant into quickly looking over to the door.

What everyone saw was Sakura's telltale pink hair though the next thing they noticed was the aura of depression she seemed to give off. Still no one said a word as she walked away from the door she slammed open and sat right at the bar.

"Give me the strongest drink you have." She told the bar tender throwing down some money on to the table. Though due to how silent the room still was everyone could clearly hear just how slurred her voice is and the fact that her cheeks were rosy.

"Umm I am sorry miss but I think you have had too much tonight." The man told her awkwardly and began to sweat out of fear when she slammed her hand down on her money hard enough to imprint the coins into the table. Seeing this Ayame couldn't help but worry about the girl.

"What is going on right now. From the times I have seen her in the village and around Naruto-kun she has never even tried to touch alcohol but now she seems to basically be drowning herself in it for some reason." Ayame thought concerned until she saw that the pinkette seem about ready to try to kill the bar tender for not giving her more booze. "I will worry about what caused this later. Right now I need to stop her from doing something that she will regret and will get in trouble for." Ayame thought quickly making a plan and quickly walked to the bar with her friend following her confused. She then quickly laid down enough money to pay for both her meal and quickly ordered some sake that the bar tender quickly did simply to get away from the pink haired girl glaring at him.

"Come on Sakura-san I got you some sake you just need to follow me." Ayame told the girl who growled at her and tried to snatch it from Ayame who manage to dodge the sluggish swipe. "No you gotta come with me." She ordered the women who groaned and mumbled "fine."

"Ayame what are you doing getting the attention of this dangerous women." Sakari asked worried about her friend's sanity.

"Sakrai this is one of Naruto's friend…I don't know why she is like this but normally she is nice. I can't just let her get in trouble for whatever is causing her to do this." Ayame told her.

"Ugh, fine but I am coming with you to wherever you are going." Sakari told her friend. "And to hopefully help keep you from being killed by this crazy chick." After this is said they quickly brought Sakura along with them by leading her along like an animal with a treat. Eventually they made it to where Ayame wanted to go and quickly knocked on the door of the apartment then waited as they dodged Sakura who was sluggishly trying to grab the booze until the door finally opened showing a clearly tired Naruto who currently was only in his boxers.

"Hello?" Naruto asked tired.

"Hey Naruto sorry for waking you up but we found Sakura like this and could REALLY use some help." Ayame quickly told her boyfriend who quickly woke up by the sheer shock value of what was in front of him. He then quickly got behind Sakura who was still focused solely on the booze.

"Sorry about this." Naruto whispers to the girl before quickly hitting a pressure point hard enough to knock the girl out and caught the girl as she fell down out cold. "Thank you for keeping her out of trouble Tenchi-chan. I will make sure she sleeps this off." Naruto told the girl bringing the knocked out girl into the house with Ayame and Sakari following behind him. He instead ignored this and focused on brining Sakura to his bed where he laid the girl down in the now empty bed while Haku watched confused. Still Naruto didn't focus on that and instead quickly took Sakura's shoes off before placing the blanket over her. "Now let's go to the living room shall we?" Naruto asked the girls who nodded not knowing what else to do at the moment. Though as soon as they made it there Naruto asked for the two civilians to explain a task that they quickly did making the blond shake his head.

"Thank you for all the help you two then. I will make sure that she is taken care of…and figure out what is going on. Now I am sure you have had a long night so how about you go get some rest?" Naruto offered the girl who groaned.

"I would like to but I just remembered that we need to go grab our bags." Ayame told him annoyed.

"Ah…well tell ya what; how about I help you out with that?" Naruto asked before creating a shadow clone who quickly henged to look like it was dressed. "Just tell him what place and he will bring them all to ya Ayame and you two can go through it later." Naruto told the girl who quickly gave him a strong hug appreciating it seeing as she just wants to go to sleep. So, with that they quickly left after Naruto gave her a quick kiss and began to walk towards their houses and soon enough reached said ramen stand.

"Well thanks for going through today with me Sakari-chan. Have a good night." Ayame told the girl with a smile.

"Heh, don't worry that probably was one of the most eventful days that I have had" She told Ayame with a large smile. "Oh, and I changed my mind. After seeing that bod I can understand why you want to be with him…hell maybe he wouldn't mind another gal for some fun." Sakari told her before running towards her house.

"S-sakari-chan!" Ayame called out blushing due to her friends words.

So I have just now realized that while I did the time skip I never really explained how much they changed through the skip so let me fix that a little bit right now I suppose seeing as I am sure that I have some people already unhappy about this.

Haku- She started off in her "trial" phase and passed it allowing her to take some missions in and outside of the village. Basically she has been determined to not be dangerous to the village. Meanwhile for her medical training she has been training to be an actual medical ninja (before she only had basic training with regular medicine) and has spent a long time trying to become as good as she could possibly be. Right now she is a competent medical ninja but has yet been truly clearly to go on missions with teams with her being the only medic…basically she just wants recognition of the fact that she is a "proper" medical ninja.

Ino- during the time skip she was determined to get stronger and is training hard to become strong enough that she isn't a "weak link" in any team she works with. Meanwhile she has began to work more with her father in the T&I program to both learn her clans technique and to have a job that she can do while in the village.

Hinata- got more confident and knows more of her clans techniques and has been preparing to be the head of her clan. She still has her perverted tendencies and now will be more likely to act on them. She while is strong will still be the "shy" girl she acts like in actual show

Ayame- While not a ninja has spent the time simply getting to know her 'sisters' a bit and getting use to the idea. While she may not be doing missions or such with them Naruto does try to spend as much time with her and get to know the civilian side of life.

Hanabi- Not predetermined to be the heir anymore (now more of a toss up until it is fully decided). She is now a gennin (note she is several years older they just kind of start a bit older in my story). Currently she isn't a member of the harem and Naruto isn't even aware of her crush on him. Instead she has been partially trying to stalk him a bit and will eventually try to express her love (get found out)

Also note that while I may not show that he spending time with all of them assume that he is spending some time as I leave "gaps" I am trying my best to put everyone in but it is does get semi difficult to do at times…and I will make sure to note that and make a new focus and get more time for each that I feel haven't been getting as much time as they should (I have no idea how some people try to make a decent story with him having a LOT of 'harem' members)

I hope this makes it a bit clearer for all of you... I need to spend some time refocusing my plan but that is a me thing…you all just try to enjoy this story…hopefully.

Well Ja Ne.