This story will have a large ensemble cast. I've changed character ages to fit my story. They are as follows:

Rookie Nine – 21 (minus Ino/Naruto, who will have their birthday soon)
Gai's team and Sai – 22
Genma, Gai, Raidō, Ebisu and Ibiki – 36
Kakashi, Kurenai, Asuma and Anko – 32-34
Rookie Nine's parents – Early 40's
Mozuku, Shimon, Shinobu, Tonbo – 28
Sannin – 57
Iruka – 29

There may be other character's that will feature in this story (haven't made my mind up yet as to whether I want them in or not), and if that's the case I will write down their ages on the chapter that they debut in. However, all the characters listed above won't feature in this particular chapter. I'm just getting it out of the way so that you know for sure who will be in this story, however small their scenes are.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Naruto, or Naruto itself.

Friday 3rd October (Early Morning)

By the end of the night, only Ino, Naruto, Ibiki, Genma, Raidō, and Kakashi were left at the restaurant. Ino, the only one who hadn't had anything to drink, had a pounding headache and wanted to do nothing but crawl into her bed and sleep. After Naruto had broken another glass, the group was ushered out by an extremely vexed owner who mumbled something about it being pathetic when shinobi couldn't hold their liquor.

Ino, the last to walk out, stood still as she watched her brother, transformed into his sexy girl technique, tried to hang all over Ibiki and Raidō, the latter of which had turned a very bright shade of pink. Ibiki, as usual, seemed indifferent to it all.

Ino face palmed. "You're such an embarrassment, Naru." She mumbled.

"Yeah, I'm out." She heard Kakashi say before she looked up and caught a puff of smoke in the place that he had been standing.

'Don't blame you.' she thought as she remembered the last time Naruto had gotten drunk around Kakashi. It was not pretty in the least. She heard a chuckle and turned to her left. Genma was there with a highly amused look on his face.

"Is he always like that when drunk?" He asked with a nod in Naruto's direction.

"Unfortunately, yes." Ino groaned.

Genma chuckled again. "I would have thought that with the nine-tails in him that he'd be able to hold his liquor better."

Ino nodded her agreement. "I know, right. But no, I'm pretty sure Kurama goes into hiding as soon as he feels the alcohol first entering Naru's bloodstream."

"Well, at least he won't be waking anyone up when he gets home since his lives alone." Genma said.

Ino frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Naruto? He lives alo –" Genma's eyes widened at his mistake. "Sorry, I keep forgetting that you're his family." He said with a sheepish smile.

"Ohh." Ino gave a small smile. "It's alright. We only came out about it three years ago. I'd probably forget about it if I wasn't involved." She faced the direction of where Naruto was again. "I still can't believe mum and dad were okay with him having a drink tonight, though. I imagined over a thousand times what they would say the first time they saw him with a drink. 'Okay' was not what I had expected."

Both of Genma's eyebrows rose. "They've never seen him drink before?"

Ino shook her head and laughed. "Nope. Not even once."

"How's that even possible? He's so loud." Genma said with an incredulous laugh.

Ino scoffed. "This is nothing. You should have seen him the first time it happened. He went from happy, to angry, to sad, to ecstatic, and then back to sad. He was wailing so loudly that I thought my eardrums would burst."

"Wow." Genma wasn't sure what to say to that. "So how did you get him home without waking up your parents?"

Ino turned to Genma with a smirk. "I used my technique on him."

One of Genma's eyebrows was still raised. "Come again?"

Ino laughed. "Whenever Naruto drinks, I use my mind transfer technique on him so that I can control his body and make sure he doesn't break anything. We usually have someone come along with us so that they can carry me while I'm out."

"What about when you've been drinking?" He asked.

Ino waved her hand in the air dismissively. "I always stop drinking as soon as I see that he's had something to drink. I never know when he's going to stop, so I sober up as much as possible before we leave."

Genma smirked. "Well, aren't you just the nicest sister." He said sarcastically.

Ino rolled her eyes, but smiled. "Not in the least. I just never wanted to get into trouble from our parents."

"Ah, ulterior motives, eh?" Genma laughed. "So how you going to get him home this time? Need some help?"

"Nah, we'll be okay. I'll just take him to his place."

"So he does live alone?" Genma asked, confused.

Ino shook her head. "No, no. Well, I mean he does have a place to himself. But then again, so do I. Except, he's had that place since before he was born. Mum said something about it being his birth mother's place before she married the Fourth? For the most part, though, we both live at the Yamanaka Clan residence. We still have our own rooms there. The apartments we have are just places where we go if we want to get away for a little while."

Genma nodded his head in understanding. "So how come you never took him there before? Seems like it would have saved you a lot of trouble."

Ino shrugged. "I guess I just always worried that I'd come back to find him suffocated in a puddle of his own vomit, or something along those lines."

Genma smiled. "So you are a nice sister." He said with a teasing glint in his eyes.

Ino scoffed again. "Can't let him die just yet. I've still got years and years of annoying little sister duties to uphold."

Genma's smile was still in place, but Ino thought that for some reason it didn't quite meet his eyes. He didn't reply.

"Ino! Come and get your brat of a brother! My bed is calling me!" Raidō shouted out to the long haired blonde. Ino sighed before she and Genma walked over to where Naruto, now back in his normal form, was still clinging to Ibiki and Raidō. As soon as Naruto saw her he let go of the other men and clung to his sister instead.

"Ohh, Ino-chan, don't let them be mean to me. All I wanted was a hug, but they kept shoving me." He whined.

"You're not their child, Naruto. They don't need to hug you if they don't want to." She tried to explain to him. He was so impossible sometimes.

"But – but –" He began.

"Enough, Naruto. Now say goodnight." Ino commanded. "I'm sure they're tired and want to go home. I'm tired and I didn't even drink." Naruto did nothing but hide his face in his sister's shoulder. Ino sighed.

Ibiki laughed. "Don't worry about coming in tomorrow. I'm sure you'll have your hands full." He said with a meaningful look towards Naruto. "You can come in the day after. There's no rush, after all. You won't be starting till next week."

"O – okay." She replied.

Ibiki ruffled her hair. "Goodnight." He said before he walked away.

Raidō slung his arm over Genma's shoulder. "Come on, buddy, we should go too." He said with a huge smile on his face.

Genma shoved his best friend away from him with a laugh. "We are not going anywhere." He said, motioning back and forth between Raidō and himself. "Though I'm sure Anko's been waiting for you…" He glanced down at the hidden watch underneath the sleeve of his shirt. It was currently midnight. "…For the past five hours."

Raidō's eyes widened in horror. "Fuc – We were supposed to have a dinner date!" He turned accusing eyes towards the twins. "You!" He shouted.

Ino stepped back in alarm, dragging Naruto with her. "What did we do?" She asked.

"If you and your brother hadn't amused me so much I wouldn't have gotten distracted!" He ran a hand down his tired face. "She's gonna kill me!" He yelled before he ran off in the direction of the home he shared with Anko.

"Wait, did you say Anko?" Ino asked Genma, her face filled with both surprise and amazement. He nodded. "They're dating?"

Genma chuckled. "They're married." He answered.

"What?" Ino asked. "Since whe – ugh!" Suddenly Naruto's weight had become much more than she could handle and they both fell down. Ino looked at her brother who was lying on the ground beside her, snoring lightly. "I can't believe this! He's asleep!" She threw her hands up in exasperation. "Now how am I supposed to get him home?"

Genma was thoroughly amused. He bent down beside Naruto and placed the younger male across his back. He stood up with a sleeping Naruto piggy backing on him. "Come on, I'll help you." He said as he started to walk away. Ino stared in shock.

"Ah…Genma?" She called once she regained her composure. He stopped and turned around to face her. "His place is this way." She said as she pointed in the opposite direction to where Genma and Naruto had gone.

Genma coughed to hide his embarrassment. "Right." He said before he walked back to Ino. "Lead the way." They walked in silence for a couple of minutes while Ino showed Genma where to go.

"So –" Genma began.

"Since – " Ino had unintentionally spoken at the same time as Genma. She scratched the back of her neck, embarrassed. "Sorry. You go first."

Genma chuckled. "I just wanted to ask about the situation with Naruto." He said.

Ino frowned, confused. "What situation?"

"I was just wondering why you guys kept the fact that he was adopted into your family secret for so long. Were you guys ashamed of him or something?" He asked,

"Ohh." Ino's mouth formed the perfect o-shape. "No, no, we weren't ashamed of him. We love him. Even if he is annoying. We just didn't have a choice in the matter." She answered.

Genma raised an eyebrow. "Meaning?"

Ino sighed, annoyed at the memory of why they had to keep their relationship to Naruto a secret. "I'm not exactly sure why, but the higher ups made our family swear to secrecy on it. Something about how our family would be targeted if it ever got out about him being adopted. Which I think was total bullshit. I'm pretty sure that the only reason that they let us come out about it is because Naruto's done so much for the village and has 'proven himself to them'." She explained.

"That seems…cruel." Genma commented.

Ino nodded in agreement. "Tell me about it. Even if they hadn't let us tell people when we were eighteen, I probably would have found a way to make it known anyways. I can't tell you how many times I almost let it slip."

"What stopped you? If it meant so much to you, how come you didn't come out with it sooner?" Genma asked.

Ino laughed. "Ohh, I tried. Believe me, I tried almost every day. But as soon as the words were almost out, I'd instantly stop talking." Ino ground her teeth at the memory. "They put a damn curse mark on our tongues so that we literally couldn't say anything about it." Ino subconsciously ran her tongue, which she had gotten pierced as soon as the curse mark was off, along her lips. "I'm so glad they took it off of us when we turned eighteen."

"A curse mark? On your tongue?" Genma was dumbfounded. As far he knew, Danzo was the only one who had used those on his Foundation members when the man was alive. Ino nodded and stuck her tongue out to show him. "You have a tongue bar?"

"What?" Ino asked, confused. She'd had the piercing for so long now that she no longer noticed it was there. "Ohh, yeah. Got it done as soon as the curse mark was taken off." She smiled at him.

"And your parents don't mind?" He asked.

Ino laughed. "They don't even know."

"Really? How'd they not notice it?"

Ino scrunched her nose and shrugged. "Dunno. I guess you can't really see it when I'm talking unless I point it out to you. It's just become one with my tongue."

"But what about when you first got it pierced? Wouldn't the swelling have made it hard to talk?" He asked, curious.

"Nah, not really. I guess it's because I'm used to having things in my mouth." She said, referring to the fact that she constantly had a lollipop or some other sweet in her mouth. Ino blushed as soon as the words were out of her mouth. They sounded so much more innocent in her head. "I – I mean…um – I –"

Genma laughed. The girl was definitely something. "It's okay. I get what you mean."

Ino rubbed the space of skin at the back of her ear, embarrassed. "Yeah…" She looked ahead and realized they had walked right past Naruto's apartment. "Shit." She stopped walking.

"What's wrong?" Genma asked. He had stopped walking, too.

Ino scratched the back of her head sheepishly. "Um, we just missed his place. We walked two buildings too far." Genma chuckled but said nothing as he followed her towards Naruto's place. She stopped in front of a three story building. "Here it is."

"Lead the way." He said with a small smile.

"Ohh, I can take him from here. Thanks for walking us, though." She told him with a smile of her own.

"Are you sure? He's pretty heavy."

"Ohh. Um –"

"Which floor is he on?" He asked, interrupting her.

"The third." She pointed up to a balcony on the top level. "That's his place right–" Without a word, Genma shifted Naruto around to get a better grip before he jumped up to the balcony. "There." Ino finished. She followed Genma's suit and found that Genma had already made his way inside and into Naruto's room. Ino walked into her brother's room to see that he was already on his bed, hugging his pillow. She placed a blanket over him and kissed his forehead before she made her way back into the living room, where she guessed Genma had gone. She checked, but he wasn't there. Instead, she found him in the kitchen, busying himself with the kettle and two mugs.

He looked up as she walked in. "Coffee?" He asked, raising one of the mugs.

"Mmm, well, aren't you just domesticated?" She said with a sarcastic smile.

Genma smirked. "What can I say? I'm a man of many talents."

Ino laughed. "So the rumours say." She said as she sat down on a stool on the opposite side of the bench where Genma was standing.

He winked. "There's always a little truth to every rumour."

She shook her head in amusement. "Tea, please."

Genma nodded with a smile still on his face. "Wow, how much tea does Naruto have?" He asked, frowning at the vast variety of tea that was neatly arranged on Naruto's kitchen bench.

"They're not his. They're mine. Well, he bought them for me when he finally got tired of me complaining about him only having coffee in the house." Ino chuckled. "But as you can see, he had no idea which ones I like so he went a little overboard."

"Yeah, just a little." Genma shook his head, an amused smile on his face. "So which one do you want?"

"Erhm…just a black tea, please. Milk, no sugar. But can you make it really milky, please." She answered with a small smile. She felt kind of weird that Genma was offering to make her a hot drink in her own brother's house. It was like she was the guest, not him.

Genma gave a mock bow. "Your wish is my command, your highness."

Ino laughed and rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

Genma straightened up and began to make the two cups of hot beverages. "So what was it that you wanted to ask me?" He glanced up from what he was doing to see Ino with a small frown of confusion on her face.

"What?" She asked, leaning forward with her elbows on the bench top. She wasn't aware of it, but the action made the already low neckline of her dress dip even further down. Genma noticed, though.

He coughed, suddenly uncomfortable with the fact that they were alone in an apartment sometime just after midnight. "Um, when we were walking here? We went to go talk at the same time but you told me to go first."

"Ohh!" Now she remembered. She had wanted to ask about Anko and Raidō. Now, however, remembering that Genma had said something about seduction classes, she wanted to know more about that. "You said I'd be taking seduction classes?" He nodded, signaling for her to go on. "I just wanted to know why I had to take them. I mean, I'll be undergoing training for Torture and Interrogation, right? I thought seduction was for the Infiltration and Reconnaissance Squad?"

Yeah, Genma was feeling very uncomfortable. He wasn't supposed to be talking about how the TI and IR squads were going to be merging into one big squad where the new recruits were concerned. And even though Ino was one of the recruits and would eventually be told of the merge by Ibiki or Tsunade, Genma wasn't ready to have this kind of talk, especially since he would be the one to train said new recruit. "Um…I don't actually know." He finally answered, avoiding her gaze and deciding that the already well mixed hot beverages needed to be stirred some more.

Ino narrowed her eyes in suspicion. Something about the way he answered was fishy. "But you're the one that brought it up. What do you mean you don't know?"

"Ohh, would you look at that." Genma said as he took a look at his watch. "It's already one am." He started to walk around the bench and towards the balcony. "I really should be go –"

"Now, I know you're not trying to avoid the question, are you, Genma?" Ino asked as she stood up right in front of him to block the way.

Genma scratched his head. "No, I –"

"You what?" She challenged. A smirk slowly made its way onto her face and Genma didn't like it one bit. To make matters worse, she placed a hand on his chest and began to slowly drag it down his torso. "You wouldn't happen to be embarrassed about it, would you?" She asked as she looked up at him through her long, long lashes.

"Embarrassed? Just who do you think you're talking to, darlin'?" He drawled as he just managed to stop her hand from travelling south of the top of his pants. He moved her hand away but didn't let go.

"Hmm…maybe you're not who I thought you were." Ino said, trying to feign nonchalance and keep her smirk from reappearing. She let go of his head and turned around. "Maybe you really aren't as good as they say you are." She said softly as she looked back at him over her shoulder before she turned around again and began to walk away from him.

Genma inwardly sighed. He knew what she was doing. He contemplated on whether he should play along with her or not. "And what if I am just as good?" He asked, his voice slightly husky as he reached out and grabbed her around the waist. Yes, he was definitely going to play along. He leaned down and placed his lips to her ear, close but not touching. "What if I'm better?"

'Shit, shit! Abort mission! Abort mission! Who were you kidding? He's not going to crack. He's Genma Shiranui for fuck sakes! THE resident bed hopper and player. Second to none. Well…maybe you, but that's beside the point, Ino.' Ino was panicking inside, but on the outside she appeared calm. Ino turned around and stared up at Genma. Just as she was about to say something to defuse the situation, the pair were interrupted by the sound of Naruto's balcony door opening. Immediately, they took a few steps away from each other and turned to address their new company. It was Shikamaru. His eyes were narrowed suspiciously and his lips were pursed.

"Shi – Shikamaru? What are you doing here?" Ino asked her former teammate. Without even noticing it, Ino had stepped closer to Genma upon realizing who had interrupted them. The act didn't go unnoticed by either man.

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow. "Just came to check up on you and Naruto." He said in his usual monotonous tone of voice as he leaned against the glass door.

Ino gave him a tight lipped smile. She was way too uncomfortable right now. All she wanted was for both men to leave so she could go and cuddle up to her brother and try to forget the whole night. "You didn't have t–"

"Wasn't by choice." Shikamaru cut her off. Genma raised an eyebrow. The tension was suddenly thick in the air and he had no idea why. From his understanding, Ino and Shikamaru were old teammates and pretty much best friends. The latter didn't seem to be the case judging by how uncomfortable Ino looked and the way Shikamaru was looking at them with something akin to accusation. Interesting. "Mum heard about how much Naruto drank and forced me to come and check up on you." He sighed. "So troublesome." He mumbled.

"Ohh. Well, I'm fine. We're fin–" Again, Ino was cut off.

"I can see that." Shikamaru deadpanned, glancing back and forth between Genma and Ino.

"Okay, well if that was all you came for, you can go now." Ino said with her forced smile still in place.

"Yeah." Shikamaru said as he gave them one last look before he turned around and leaped from the balcony to the rooftop across from Naruto's apartment.

Genma turned towards Ino, who had been all but pressed up to his side by now, with an eyebrow still raised. "That was interesting." He said.

Ino turned to him and opened her mouth to speak. She frowned when she realized just how close she was to the older man. She took a step back. "What do you mean?" She asked, a frown still on her face and clear blue eyes staring up at Genma.

"You two seemed uncomfortable with each other. Or at least you seemed uncomfortable with him. It's just weird is all, considering you two used to be teammates and I heard you were practically best friends."

'Was it really that obvious?' Ino asked herself. She turned away from Genma and walked back to the stool she had been sitting on to sit down. "I don't know what you're talking about." She said, feigning ignorance. 'No way am I going down that road with you. I don't even know you. And besides, I haven't even told Sakura, my best friend.'

"Mhmm." Genma hummed, not sounding convinced at all but deciding to just let it slide. "Anyways, I should be off."

Ino sat up straight and turned around to face him. "Aren't you going to stay and have your coffee?" She asked.

"Nah, it's late already." He said, taking a senbon out of his pocket and putting it in his mouth. He couldn't believe he hadn't had one in all night. Too distracted by the woman in front of him, he guessed.

"Ohh. Okay." Was all she said.

He walked over and ruffled her hair, much the same as Ibiki had a couple of hours ago. "Some other time, sweetheart." He said as he turned around and made his way to the balcony. All he heard was her shouts of indignation when he took off. He chuckled and made his way home. She'd make the newly merged TI and IR squads interesting, indeed.

So not much happened in this chapter. It was more like a filler chapter, I guess. Boring stuff. I just needed to get some of it out before I wrote the 'real' stuff. Just telling you now that this story is going to be long. Only because I don't want to rush everything, and I actually want some semblance of character development. Don't worry though, there will be plenty of smut to come, as indicated by the M rating. Just not yet, though. Please review, as well! Constructive criticism is all I ask for.

Review responses:

TheBeardedAsshat – While I'm glad you took the time to review (even if it was only one word, and a mean one at that), I couldn't really gage much from it. What exactly was terrible? Too fast paced? The Naru/Ino twin concept? The swearing? Or just the overall concept of the story? Though that one word kind of hurt my feelings (I know, right? Who would have thought amateur authors had feelings?), I tried to write a better second chapter. And I would really like if you could review again (even if it is just a one worded comment). Like I said, criticism, though I'd prefer it to be constructive, is very welcome.

Guest – I'm glad you found my story worth reviewing Yes, Genma/Ino are my favourite pairing at the moment, and since there aren't many stories of them out right now, I decided to write my own :L