All right, back again. Now let's see how the genin fair in Himaru's humble abode…

"Himaru-sensei, where are our rooms?" Sakura finally asked.

"You and Sasuke are sharing the first room to the right upstairs." Himaru couldn't help but chuckle at the bright red couple. "Relax you're not sharing the same bed." Sasuke and Sakura's emotional reprieve didn't last long. "Unless of course, you WANT to share a bed."

"NOT A DUST BUNNY!" A loud explosion shook the two genin out of their embarrassment, literally. They fell on their butts into the junk, and Sasuke was almost swallowed up by the mass of trinkets.

"What was that?" Sakura asked as she righted herself and helped the utterly humiliated Uchiha heir back out of the junk. Himaru didn't answer, he just sighed and shook his head.

"I JUST told him not to touch anything that looked alive." With a slow, agitated walk Himaru made his way toward the explosion's origin.

"Sasuke-kun?"

"Yeah, Sakura?"

"Are you scared, too?"

" …Yeah."

"AAAAHHHHHH!" Naruto clung to the furry beast for dear life. He'd stepped on its fuzzy tail moments ago, and now it was pissed. After realizing that being on top of the creature was preferable to being in front of or under it, Naruto leapt atop it. Unfortunately, the giant "dust bunny" did not approve of being ridden. In fact, it was now ramming into the wall in an attempt to get rid of Naruto.

"DUSTY!" The being came to a complete and sudden stop, which in turn rocketed Naruto off its back, threw the wall and then skidding across the hallway. Himaru wanted to bang his head against the wall. Why was Naruto being so much trouble today? With a quick pat on the belly, Dusty settled back down into the sea of stuff, leaving Himaru to contemplate if bringing the genin here was such a good idea after all.

"I suppose as long as they'd don't find the raptors everything should be o-"

"GIANT SCALY THINGS!"

"Oh, Hell." Himaru dove through Naruto's hole in the wall, making a mental note to fix it eventually. He followed the shouts, screams and roars down the hallway. Naruto was backed up against the wall by a herd of growling dinosaurs. The head lizard growled one last time and then lunged at the blond before disappearing in a poof of smoke. The other raptors barely had time to look puzzled before they all vanished in puffs of smoke.

"Are you okay, Naruto?" Himaru asked, placing one hand of the demon container's shoulder. Naruto's head slowly craned toward him.

"This place is AWESOME!" Naruto hopped back to his feet and started off running, but a hand grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.

"Whoa, there, buddy. YOU are staying in MY room." Naruto paused for a moment before grinning like a maniac.

"COOL! Lead the way, Himaru-sensei!" The dark-haired half god pushed his bangs out of his eyes and sighed. Himaru stared walking, his had still clenched around Naruto's shirt. "Uh, I can walk on my own, Himaru-sensei." Himaru didn't say a word, but only continued dragging Naruto back across the hall. He pulled open a door and tossed Naruto inside. In a single, lightning fast motion, Himaru closed and locked the door from the outside.

"Well, that should give me a good fifteen minutes of peace before he figures out how to pick the lock." Himaru stretched his arms back and yawned. He strolled back down the stairs and plunged both hands down into the junk. "Here we go." Himaru focused chakra into his arms and braced his feet as firmly as he could on all the stuff covering the floor. He grunted, and unearthed a dusty sofa. He heaved the furniture back up the stairs and placed it in front of his room's door. With a chakra-enhanced blow, most of the dust flew off, and Himaru settled himself down onto the couch for a nap.

Naruto stared at the wooden door for several seconds. He'd just heard the click, and didn't need to check the knob to know that he was locked in. Not that that stopped him from rattling the door for a good minute. The blond eventually gave up and turned his attention back to the room. Other than having several dozen drawers, closets and only kami-knows how many trinkets spread across the floor, it was a normal room. Frankly, Naruto was more than a little disappointed.

'For someone so cool, Himaru-sensei has a really boring house. Well, except for that giant psycho bunny thing. And then there were those giant lizards things. Okay, so maybe boring isn't the right word.' Suddenly, a mischievous grin spread across Naruto's lips. 'With all this junk, I bet Himaru-sensei is hiding a lot of cool stuff.'

'Careful. I don't want to find out what kind of 'security' this guy has.' Naruto shrugged the fox's concern away.

'Don't worry so much, Kyuubi. I've got everything under control. Besides, are you curious?' The fox was silent, and Naruto knew that he'd won. 'Alright, now on with the exploration!' And so Naruto began yanking open every drawer or cupboard he could find. 'Ooh! This looks promising!' In his hands Naruto held a small scroll. He wasn't sure why, but something about it seemed to call out for him…

'Snap out of it, kit!' Naruto shook his head and dropped the scroll.

"What the Hell was that?" he asked, this time out loud.

'Something you shouldn't be tampering with. The chakra surrounding that scroll is the chakra of a god.' Naruto gulped. Even he didn't want to mess with something like that.

'Why would Himaru-sensei have something like that?' It took the Kyuubi several seconds to find his voice.

'Um, maybe because he's the son of a GOD!?' Naruto covered his ears on reflex.

'Alright, alright, geez!' Naruto reached to put the scroll back where he found it, when a hand gripped his shoulder. Naruto attempted to whirl on the person behind him, but killing intent froze him in place.

"Naruto." Himaru's voice came out slow and angry. "Do not continue to look through my things. There are artifacts here even the Kyuubi won't recognize." The blond gulped again and managed a stiff nod. "Good." Now I'm trusting you to stay in here and not cause trouble, got it?" Another silent nod. The killing intent vanished, as did Himaru's hand on Naruto's shoulder.He reached down and stashed the scroll into one of his many pockets. "Feel free to explore through the stuff on the ground, but anything in a drawer or cupboard is off limits." Not even a second later, Himaru's presence vanished from the room.

"Sorry," Naruto mumbled once he was alone. Half-heartedly, he began to sift through the trinkets scattered across the floor.

Hinata's eye cracked open, and she found herself in her bed. 'How did I get here? I was in the forest, training, when I bumped into Naruto-kun…' Hinata blushed a deep crimson as she realized that she had fainted again, and she blushed even harder when she realized he must have carried her here. She was sure her father would wonder why his daughter was brought home unconscious. 'I hope Naruto-kun isn't in trouble…' Reluctantly, Hinata used her hands to push herself out of bed and face her father's interrogation, when she felt a slip of paper. Curious, she looked down and noticed the note. After a brief pause, she picked it up and began to read.

"Dear, Hinata-san.

You probably don't know me, but I'm Himaru, Naruto's sensei. I was the one who carried you home last since I assumed you didn't want your father finding out.:) Anyway, I understand you have a crush on Naruto."

Hinata blushed again and could barely stand to read the rest of the letter.

"Unfortunately, as much as I care for him, Naruto can be a bit of an idiot sometimes. If you want him to notice you, you have to be a bit more bold about it."

Hinata's blush lightened and she frowned a bit. She already knew that.

"But let me give you a few pointers. Considering how much you stalk him," Hinata's face felt like it was on fire, "you're probably aware of his obsession with ramen. I'm actually here to warn you that going through his stomach is NOT the way to his heart. It's a little complicated, but all of Naruto's first friends, i.e., the Sandaime, the ramen chef and his daughter and Iruka-san, became his friends by caring for him. More specifically, they fed him ramen. So Naruto's subconscious had determined ramen to be a sign of friendship and familial love, not 'love' love." Hinata blinked in surprise. She supposed that made sense, but it still seemed awfully strange.

"If you want to be his girlfriend," Hinata blushed again. Naruto's sensei was even more frank than the blond he taught, "You have to do something no one else has done for him before. The easiest way to do this actually does start by just becoming his friend, but I believe you've already achieved that. The second step is to deliver the symbol his subconscious will register as a symbol of 'love' love. You either have to say it out loud, or…you have to kiss him, probably on the lips.:)" Hinata nearly fainted again. How could she just walk up to Naruto and kiss him?

"Good luck!

Sincerely, Himaru."

Hinata's whole body was shaking, and her face was beet red. But something had wormed its way into her mind, something strong and confident. Funny how Hinata never noticed the faint swirling pattern behind the words.

Sasuke sighed and stretched himself out on one of the beds. It had been an interesting day, and he was a bit exhausted from all the training he had done earlier. In fact, Sasuke wanted nothing more than to go to sleep, but…an uncharacteristic blush appeared on the Uchiha's face. He usually just slept in his boxers, but Sakura was only a few feet away.

'Be a man, Sasuke, it's not like she hasn't seen you with your shirt off before,' Sasuke told himself. But back then he'd been injured from Himaru's insane training, now he was just sleeping. Right next to Sakura. He shook his head clear of any dirty thoughts. They were in totally separate beds. 'We just happen to be in arms reach…' Sasuke rolled onto his side to hide his crimson cheeks. 'Damn puberty!'

On the other bed, Sakura was having similar thoughts. 'What if Sasuke-kun thinks my pajamas are silly?'

'What if he thinks they're sexy, huh!?' Inner Sakura shouted, almost permanently staining Sakura's face red.

'Where do I even change?' She couldn't do it right in front of Sasuke, and Himaru-sensei had forgotten to tell them where the bathroom was.

'Do it under the covers, you wuss!'

'That's still in front of Sasuke-kun!' The two halves of Sakura bickered and fought for several minutes, escalating to the point where Sasuke could swear he heard her mumbling curses under her breath.

Sasuke chose to ignore his girlfriend's mad mumblings, and instead focused his incredible, genius mind-power to solving his own predicament. 'Very well then,' he thought. Immediately, he pulled the covers over himself and fell asleep still in his day clothes.

A peaceful lull came over Himaru's house as the whole of Team 7 went to bed. Minus the odd growl or hiss coming from outside their doors, of course. The hours passed by, Sakura and Sasuke slept peacefully in their clothes, and Himaru and Naruto were fast asleep and snoring like wild bears.

Dawn peeked through the windows, attempting to wake Team 7 out of their uneventful slumber. "GOOD MORNING, KONOHAGAKURE!" And if the dawn didn't do it, Naruto sure as Hell did. Yes, after the fusing with the Kyuubi had started, Naruto gained one of the most hated qualities a person could have. He became… a morning person. The sudden crack of a fist meeting a skull resounded throughout the house.

"Sorry, Naruto," Himaru yawned. "I thought you were my alarm clock."

"Ouchie…" Slowly, the shinobi shuffled themselves out of their rooms, and into the hallway. Naruto was still re-wrapping his arms, mumbling something about stupid bandages. His nose twitched and he walked closer to Sakura and Sasuke, taking in a deep breath as he did so.

"Dude, did you guys sleep in your clothes?" The only answer Naruto got was the faint blush on Sakura's cheeks. His lips stretched into a sly grin. "Don't tell me you guys were embarrassed to-" Sakura fist shut the blond up rather effectively. "Not even an hour awake and I've already been hit twice…this is not a good sign." Sakura ignored him in favor of questioning their sleepy sensei.

"Himaru-sensei, where's the bathroom? I really need to take a shower." He never even opened his eyes as he picked up all three genin, and led them to a section of floor beneath a dangling light bulb. Himaru set them down and then waddled over to the bulb. He reached up, grabbed the wired, and pulled. The floor beneath the genin opened, and they fell down two separate tubes, one for Sakura and one for Sasuke and Naruto.

"Cannonball," he muttered before leaping down the boy's half. Himaru greeted the warm water below with a full on tackle, and splashed his sputtering students in a wave of water.

"What the Hell, Himaru-sensei!?" Naruto shouted as he struggled to clear the steaming water out of his eyes.

"Cover your eyes, boys." Sasuke and Naruto just stared.

"Wha-" Himaru punched the sidewall and a massive waterfall of bright blue soap came upon them. Naruto didn't even have time to scream before the pool starting spinning. The waves rocked and spun them around like rag dolls. Occasionally, Naruto and Sasuke would collide into each other, but Himaru never seemed to have that problem. After several minutes of soppy wet torture, the water drained out of the room, leaving the genin and Himaru soaked to the bone.

"C-cold," Naruto muttered.

"Not for long," Himaru replied, and just a moment later the walls and ceiling began to glow. Steam blanketed their vision as the water from their clothes and skin evaporated. "Shut your eyes and mouth," Himaru whispered. For a long time they just sat there in the intense heat, steam coming off their bodies in waves. "I suppose this is sufficiently dry." At his words, the whole room rocked back and forth. The wall ahead of them spit in two, and the three were rocketed outside. They hit the ground and rolled to a stop.

"Well, that was bracing!" Himaru stood up and waltzed across the grass. "You're probably thirsty. There's a lake right over here."

"Where's Sakura?" Sasuke grunted, spitting out a piece of grass.

"Eeek!" A pink flash bolted past them to the lake. Naruto and Sasuke made it over in time to see Sakura just pulling her head out of the water. With a few quick hand motions, she neatened her hair into its normal shape.

"What's the matter, Sakura-chan? You're hair get all frizzy in the dryer?" Sakura slugged Naruto hard upside the head.

I'm sorry, I know that last bit was kind of sexist, but it really does seem like the kind of thing Sakura would do, right? Anyway, please read and review. The explanation for Himaru's bathing methods will be in the next chapter.