Greetings everyone! first up, I'm sorry it's been a long time since I updated . . . actually, this update was almost finished by the week before christmas . . . things just sorta happened that prevented me from writing the last scene to this chapter and publishing it.
speaking of this chapter's contents, I should warn you all now that this chapter contains Yuri elements (in the first scene) and also has more . . . sexual references than any of my other chapters to date . . . this isn't going to become a norm, this chapter was really just a day in the life of a bunch of characters, we will be moving right along after this and I have little intention to focus on romantic details . . . i won't skimp of them if they are important to character development or the plot. speaking of, the reason we are seeing so much of Sakura right now is because we are currently in what I call the "Sakura Arc" but don't worry . . . once this is over, she will hopefully go back to being a supporting character for Naruto . . . I hope . . . she is very forceful . . .
anyway, I hope you all enjoy, see you at the bottom.
Part 14
Sakura suppressed a groan as she woke up, the throbbing in her head making it evident she had drank more than she intended the night previous. It was about this moment that she noticed something soft and warm beside her and her eyes snapped open.
"Morning" Greeted Ino who had noted the pinkette waking.
"G-good morning?" Sakura returned hesitantly, memories of the night before catching up to her hungover mind causing her to blush madly.
"Never thought you swung that way but I am not complaining" Ino breathed, stretching herself out like a cat, displacing the blankets and removing any doubt as to what happened, before rolling over with her arms under her head and grinning at Sakura.
"W-well . . . I was drunk . . . but you weren't" Sakura said, remembering more details from before. "It's almost like you intended for this to happen" she continued, turning her head to look at Ino. the girl in question merely grinned before getting up and looking around for her clothes. "I-Ino?" Sakura asked hesitantly
"Hmm?" Ino stopped to look at Sakura over her shoulder, her blond hair falling around her back and down to her bottom in a waterfall of straight golden hair.
"Have you ever wondered what it would be like if we got together?" Sakura asked softly. Ino smiled before turning back to gathering her clothes.
"I have . . . but it would never work between us" Ino replied.
"Why not?" Sakura asked sitting up so that she was perched on the edge of her bed. "I mean . . . after going this far . . . why not at least see if it could? Worst case scenario, we just go back to being sassy to each other all the time" Sakura said, her green eyes memorising Ino's form in ways she couldn't the night before.
"Sakura . . . we're both girls for one and remember we both were into boys . . . or have you forgotten about Sasuke?" Ino replied, turning to face Sakura.
"I . . . want to give it a go . . . just to see if it would work" Sakura said before getting up and moving to just a few inches away from Ino. "Ino . . . I killed on this last mission . . . I . . . I don't even know how many I killed . . . me with my infalible memory . . . lost count how many lives I wrenched from this world" Sakura explained, her eyes closed and head bowed. Ino studied Sakura intently before sighing and wrapping her arms around Sakura.
"I am seriously going to regret this but okay . . . we can try" Ino said softly and Sakura opened her eyes, returning the blond's embrace. "Is your mum going to worry about . . . us?" Ino asked after a few moments.
"Just tell her we had an impromptu sleepover and she'll be delighted . . . think she's getting her little girl back" Sakura replied as she put her head on Ino's shoulder. "We're twelve Ino . . . and I see some of the civilian twelve year olds in town . . . they act so childish . . . some of them aren't even speaking properly . . . they talk about boys and hair and fashion and how bugs are icky" Sakura said softly, a tear making its way down her cheek. "And here we are . . . the moment we put our hitai-ate on we became adults, let into bars, clubs and . . . other establishments . . . because they know we need something to take the edge off" Sakura continued "I don't remember why I became a shinobi but I can't think what my life would be like if I wasn't . . . I see nightmares about things that have happened but when I wake I can't imagine myself doing anything different" Sakura was outright crying now. "I'm a murderer and I can't imagine life any other way" she gasped out between tears, barely noticing that Ino's hands were rubbing soothing patterns into her back.
"Shhh it's okay Sakura, no matter what happens, I'll be there with you" Ino said softly into the sobbing girl's ear.
"Hey Ino?" Sakura asked softly
"Yeah?" Ino replied
"Can you help me with my hair?" Sakura asked, shifting so that her head was on Ino's shoulder.
"You want it at the length you had it before . . . Sasuke?" Ino asked and felt, rather than saw, Sakura nodding.
Danzo watched as the sun began to sink below the horizon. In front of him a short ways was the blonde jinchuriki, sitting on the head of the Yondaime Hokage. Danzo had been meaning to talk to the boy for a short while now, ever since he had become a ninja. If the Hokage wouldn't turn the weapon over to him, he would entice the weapon to come willingly. The boy was loyal to his friends, family and adoptive clan which was another reason Danzo wanted the boy, his adoption into the clan came with a kekkei genkai that could be transferred to additional people, allowing Danzo to breed shinobi with tracking skills to rival the Hyuga. Just as he was about to take a step forward, a hand appeared on his shoulder.
"Now now Danzo-sama" said a distinctly female voice, Danzo knew exactly who the voice belonged to but he didn't know how she had snuck up on him. "Do you like it? It's a seal that my little brother invented . . . I refined it of course but it effectively suppresses sound, smell and chakra to the point where the user has to be right on top of you to be detected without you using your eyes . . . my refined version works better though" Minori explained from right beside him on his blind side. "I would move if I were you . . . that paper bomb on your shoulder might just trip that eye of yours" the insufferable woman said, he could hear the coy grin she was giving him as he went very still.
"What is it you want?" Danzo asked, keeping his head forward as his mind worked furiously for a way out of this and for how the woman could possibly know about his eye.
"It's not about what I want . . . it's about what you want" The woman replied, just out of his sight range, as if she was teasing the very edges of his senses. "I sooooo hope what you want with my little brother is worth it" she said in a voice that was almost seductive "Because now that you are here . . ." she continued before the temperature dropped as Danzo was hit with a killer intent that could only be described as psychotic. "Because now you have my attention" the woman said, the last word sending a shiver down Danzo's back and he could picture the malicious grin she was sporting. The hand that Minori had kept on his shoulder the entire time was removed and Danzo took the liberty of turning around, only to see nothing. He made a mental note to have some of his agents remove the troublesome woman before she got to be too serious a threat. Turning back to Naruto, Danzo considered what he was about to do, was the boy really worth the trouble of dealing with Minori. Taking a step back, Danzo decided it wasn't before turning and leaving. At least, he decided it wasn't worth it yet . . . he would remove Minori first, blame the crime on some threat he could use to manipulate the blonde and then the weapon would be his.
"Naruto" called out the soft voice of Hinata as she walked over to where Naruto was sitting on the head of the Yondaime. "I was looking for you" she said as she stopped beside the sitting blonde. "I had to find out from Tenten-chan that you were back . . . that you came back yesterday" she continued, Naruto looked up at her and she could see he wasn't doing well.
"I haven't been avoiding you . . . it's just . . ." Naruto trailed off before going back to looking out over the village, the intense orange glow of the sunset meeting the village in a dazzling display of colour.
"I heard you did some fighting on your last mission" Hinata said as she sat down beside the blonde. Recently she had taken to wearing a thinner jacket that looked almost like the old orange and blue jumpsuit jackets Naruto used to wear, only hers were softer and a cream and lavender colour scheme, she still wore her black shinobi three quarter pants though and her shoulder length hair had grown slightly longer.
"The last fight we had wasn't a fight . . . it was a battle only the battle was completely one sided and there was so many . . ." tears threatened to spill from Naruto's eyes as he recalled the battle while Hinata's own eyes widened in shock and sadness. "I remember the smell . . . Sasuke use flame release jutsu and I remember the smell of the charred corpses . . . dozens of them" Naruto practically whispered "And Sakura . . . she was cutting people's limbs off, arms, legs, heads . . . blood everywhere, body parts everywhere" Naruto said, unable to stop a solitary tear from snaking down his face but Hinata wasn't sure if he even noticed it. "And me . . . I cut people's throats leaving them to drown in their own blood as they tried to breath but only got blood instead . . . or I cut their spinal cord and watched as they dropped like puppets with their strings cut" Naruto recounted, the scene flashing through his eyes. "There was so many . . . hundreds of them that we slaughtered . . . we turned the ground red with blood . . . but that wasn't even the worst part . . . I got knocked out and left Sakura . . . my teammate . . . to fight a jonin level enemy alone" Naruto said quietly, his head in his hands. Hinata closed her eyes and shuffled closer so that she could put her arms around the blonde. She nestled into her embrace, putting her head on his shoulder.
"You did what you had to do and maybe you made a couple of mistakes but you can learn from those mistakes and never make them again" the girl opened her eyes and studied Naruto's face.
"Perhaps" he said after a short pause, his face devoid of emotion. "Thank you Hinata-chan, I needed that I guess . . . now wanna spar?" Naruto said with a grin as he stood up.
"You just want to see me naked" Hinata said with a sigh, knowing full well that the moment was over and hating the fact.
"Can you blame me? You have the biggest boobs in the entire class" Naruto replied, a grin on his face that was a touch too wide. Hinata blushed in response but otherwise held firm.
"W-we need to learn to fight with our c-clothes on . . . the enemy isn't gonna let us strip before a battle" Hinata said, stuttering slightly as her version of a verbal tic since she was embarrassed and slightly flushed that Naruto had definitely been checking her out and comparing her with the other girls of the class. Naruto grinned and the two headed off to a training field to let off some steam.
Naruto clicked his blade back into his sheath as Sakura and Sasuke returned to his position. They were in a bandit camp on the borders of the land of fire and the land of rice patties.
"This was surprisingly easy" Sakura commented as she surveyed the silent carnage around them. Naruto of course had been given the job of being the centerpiece of their strategy, the Anvil, while Sasuke was the flaming hammer, using his Ninjutsu to take out groups of enemies from a distance before closing in and helping Naruto in Kenjutsu and Taijutsu. Sakura held the unique role of commanding on the battlefield and taking out the people on watch, the girl's speed and stealth were such that she was capable of assassinating anyone that the bandits put on guard duty without anyone even hearing a whisper.
Naruto looked up at the sun that hadn't even reached mid morning yet, they had launched a daylight raid on a well entrenched target and still the bandits never knew what hit them.
"They were just civies . . . no chakra whatsoever" Naruto muttered as a flight of birds flew overhead.
"Well well, that was a perfect raid . . . well done" Kakashi said though the kids got the feeling that his praise was more of an apology that they had to do something like this. Sakura merely shrugged before rubbing her arms. Naruto had to admit that Sakura looked much better with her short hair in her green bodysuit that she was still wearing than when she had long hair.
"It doesn't even really matter" Sakura said as she studied one of the corpses "I feel nothing . . . like they don't matter" she continued before looking up "You know how they are bandits right? It's like they are some form of sub-human . . . generic . . . scum easily murdered"
"So if it were a shinobi or three . . . you might feel something?" Kakashi asked, his eye locked on Sakura's face.
"Kinda I guess . . . I don't know" she replied, looking away.
"I get what you mean . . . it's this power of ours . . . we have always seen civilians as some sort of breed of lesser beings that we need to coddle and cater too because they are too weak and incompetent to do it themselves" Naruto said, still watching the flight of birds. The other three members of his team looked at him.
"I . . . my parents antics always seemed so normal until I was broken out of the mindset of a civilian and adopted that of a shinobi . . . but we haven't quite gotten there yet have we?" Sakura said, posing her question to Kakashi.
"Not quite but you are coming along . . . I believe this is what they call the 'hump' once you are over this . . . it's all different and . . . better" Kakashi said, looking around him. He felt nothing for the lives lost here. He knew it was just business and that if the bandits didn't want to die, they shouldn't have taken to a life of crime, he really didn't care at all for them, it was the loss of his own comrades that troubled him. The three genin nodded at their jonin teacher before turning and leaving the destroyed camp behind, Sakura having already bagged the head of the camp leader in a scroll intended for that exact purpose.
"You look chipper than usual" Shin commented as Sakura pulled up a stool at the bar she frequents.
"Sensei called it the 'hump'" Sakura replied and Shin nodded in understanding.
"You do realise that most ninja go through the hump during the chunin exams right? That's usually when it clicks for them that this is serious business and they either quit, join the genin corps or become chunin . . . the ones that have to take the exam more than once are the ones that haven't clicked yet" Shin explained as he pulled out a bottle of sake.
"Do you have something more flavoursome than sake?" Sakura asked and attracted odd looks from Shin and several patrons.
"What do you want?" Shin replied, putting the sake back.
"Well, sake is great and all but I don't feel the need to drink myself into a stupor right now . . ." Sakura said, trailing off as she tried to find the words to describe what she wanted.
"I might have something for you" Shin said as he pulled out a bottle and poured a deep maroon liquid into a cup. "It's called wine . . . lots of foreign goods around the place these days and this is one of them . . . apparently popular for its flavour" Shin explained while Sakura took a gentle sip and then another.
"It's kinda sweet with a . . . juicy taste? It's actually kinda nice" Sakura said as she appreciated the drink.
"I'll be sure to keep some for you then . . . also, apparently the drink is best chilled so maybe I'll leave a bottle in the fridge for you" Shin said before turning his attention to another patron and leaving Sakura with the bottle he had pulled out.
Naruto was enjoying the pleasant morning sun as he walked down one of the lesser streets in Konoha, he was heading for the Higurashi forge to spend the day with Tenten and dearly hoping he didn't run into the two other girls that have invaded his life, though he could definitely handle it if Hinata demanded attention, she was worth it.
Naruto was pulled out of his contemplations of the three females in his life by way of Sasuke jumping out of a second story window and lightly landing on the street only a meter or two from Naruto. Naruto looked back at the window Sasuke had fled through and noticed a girl, clothed in only a sheet, shutting the window and blinds.
"Yo . . . nice day for a morning escape eh?" Naruto greeted Sasuke, an amused grin on his face while Sasuke merely gave a slight smirk.
"She's a ninja" Sasuke said as if trying to justify himself. Naruto raised his eyebrow at Sasuke's self-justification. "One of my former fan girls . . . I still have several in my cult following but it seems their numbers are dropping" Sasuke continued.
"So she is one that sorta moved on rather than actually moving on" Naruto said, hoping that Sasuke would clarify himself.
"Yeah . . . the ones that got over their fangirl nature still think I'm attractive . . . and are far more likely to accept some casual entertainment with no strings attached" Sasuke said, turning his head away and looking intently at the ground. Naruto snorted in amusement as he continued walking, noticing that Sasuke had opted to keep in step.
"So it's someone from class then? I thought only nine of us graduated properly and that girl wasn't part of that group" Naruto said as the two walked.
"Apparently there is also the genin corps . . . genin who fail the team exams can opt to repeat the year or join the genin corps . . . Ami decided to join the genin corps" Sasuke explained while Naruto nodded in understanding.
"Ami wouldn't have made a good ninja anyway . . . nice to know she understood that it was a waste of resources" Naruto said, crossing his arms.
"Yeah, she apparently now spends the days running messages between the various departments in the tower and apparently there is ground for promotion there" Sasuke replied and Naruto looked at him.
"Promotion?" Naruto asked, slightly incredulous "Why would they promote someone from the genin corps?" Naruto shook his head.
"It's intelligence . . . I highly doubt they get a lot of the frontline ninja . . . someone's gotta staff the desks . . . and you think that secretary that sits out front of the Hokage's office was someone who went on missions before she became a chunin?" Sasuke answered.
"I'm sure a lot of chunin decided that field work isn't for them and tokubetsu jonin are there because a ninja decided they preferred doing something that isn't combat" Naruto replied.
The two young shinobi arrived at a crossroads and Sasuke separated from Naruto leaving the blonde to continue his journey to the Higurashi weapon shop to hang with Tenten.
Hinata was lying on her bed, a dark green covered book in her hands and her clothes on the floor. Ever since she had started training with Minori, she had taken to enjoy some time without clothing, it was relaxing and in the comfort of her room, nobody cared. That was one thing about the Hyuuga clan that most people didn't know, their deepest and darkest secret . . . the Byakugan could see through clothes and Hyuuga people tended to enjoy the view a bit too much. This all meant that nobody batted an eyelash if Hinata was fully clothed in her room or not, her father had even seen her naked multiple times, it was only when leaving her room that she had to wear clothes.
Of course, the book that Hinata was getting lost in probably wasn't one she should have been getting lost in while at home with a bunch of perverts that could see through walls. Hinata paused in her reading, wishing that Naruto would enact the scene she had just read to her. This of course led to Hinata's active imagination quickly drawing her into a fantasy involving Naruto and the girl allowed herself to enjoy that fantasy for a good three quarts of an hour. A few minutes after she had snapped out of her little daydream, her father entered her room, looking at her with an impassive expression as always.
"Father" Hinata greeted as she put her book on her end table next to her bed.
"Must you always be so . . ." Hiashi began before stopping himself, Hinata gave her father an amused look.
"You see me naked all the time father . . . you shouldn't have walked into my room if you didn't want to see" Hinata said.
"I am aware of that . . . I was referring to what you were doing shortly before my arrival" Hiashi replied and Hinata went beat red. "You forget that I frequently turn my Byakugan on to ensure the safety of all the members of my clan . . . I didn't need to know that my daughter has began . . . entertaining herself" Hinata was embarrassed but she knew that this would occur eventually.
"D-did you need something father?" Hinata asked, a slight stutter in her voice in light of her current embarrassment.
"The elders have called a meeting and you are coming with me as clan heiress so get dressed . . . and wear undergarments this time" Hiashi said, his last comment was a reference to the fact that Hinata hadn't been wearing any underwear the last time she met with the elders, this led to one of the male elders to desperately hold in a nosebleed.
"Some of those elders seem to think that they are the only ones that know they can use the Byakugan to see through clothes and walls and what not" Hinata commented lightly before activating her byakugan for a hot second and deactivating it with a grin.
"Just get dressed before we are late . . . we would have had more time but I'm not walking in on your fantasies" Hiashi said, causing Hinata to giggle lightly before she moved over to put on an outfit. Since she was acting as the clan heiress, Hinata decided to wear a kimono that looked almost exactly the same as her father's save the fact that her jacket was lavender instead of Hiashi's brown and instead of being able to see bare chest, she had a mesh shirt on.
"I will never understand why Kunoichi love their mesh shirts so much" Hiashi commented as he took in his daughter's appearance, with her hair getting longer she was starting to become a mirror image of Hiashi.
"The are made of a ballistic weave that is both tight and flexible . . . it moves with me while keeping everything together" Hinata explained but Hiashi still wasn't convinced. "They work just as good as bras, actually provide some protection against blows and don't restrict my movement or breathing like a bra might" Hinata said and Hiashi finally understood.
"That makes perfect sense now" he said as the two began walking to the council chambers. They were almost there when Hiashi suddenly stopped and looked at Hinata "I didn't see you put on any underpants" he said seriously and Hinata just giggled before opening the sliding door and walking in, Hiashi could only sigh in frustration at his daughter "She is just like her mother . . . let's hope she doesn't corrupt Hanabi as well" he said under his breath before entering the council chambers himself.
Alrighty then, we come to the end of another chapter . . . If any of you feel like I'm being too . . . sexual with any of the characters feel free to let me know, also, if Yuri isn't your thing, don't worry, I won't be focusing on the relationship details with any of the characters . . . just a few mentions here and there and maybe some slice of life stuff occasionally. so after this i'd definitely like to hear opinions of the content and direction, I am worried that it's not up to tastes and I need to rein in the "Adult Content" more than I already am . . . it's not easy for me . . . I'm an erotic fiction writer . . . one that specializes in sci-fi . . . which reminds me . . . I haven't written anything erotic in some time . . . anyway, that's not your problem since FF.n has strict rules saying no good stuff allowed! and I hope I am still adhering to that . . . sorta . . . kinda . . . the main reason i'm not putting any lemons in is cause they are against the code of conduct for this site.
anyway, let me know what you liked, disliked, what you thought could use improvement and what you'd like to see more of.