Say what? 2 updates in one day? Preposterous!

..Oh wait. It actually happened? APOCALYPSE!

Just after submitting chapter 12, I thought of what to do next… so may as well write it now. -shrugs-

Oh yeah, and Ebisu's mental run-through this week's chapter? Awesome. I'm glad Kishimoto went into the change of mind of the older ninja towards Naruto. One final thing. I'm going with the assumption Kurenai's pregnant. I don't remember if it was a contemplation or not, but I was sort of thinking along those lines at the time so.. -shrugs- If you don't agree with me, that's fine, because we really don't know.

I actually proofread, but it doesn't mean I caught everything.

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If we go we go the distance we go all out.
And if you force us to fight we go for the knockout.
We haven't always been the same men we are today.
It took fire to purify us what didn't burn is what remained.

The Wedding, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, Polarity

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Sakura laughed at Ino who glowered at her friend annoyed. She ate her dango grumpily, contemplating her wisdom in telling Sakura about the other day…

"You.. You.. Aha… you actually had to tell him about..!?"

Ino glared, "As his teammate, that was really your responsibility, forehead."

Sakura paused and choked, realizing in a deep blush that her friend was right, "Oh.. Oh my gosh! I'm his teammate, I should have known better then-! But I would have thought Jiraiya-sama would have.. Or Kakashi-sensei.."

Ino stared at Sakura blankly. The pink haired girl cringed, "…What?"

"You do realize both persons you just mentioned are perv's, right?"

Sakura blinked, "Oh, right… But, what about Iruka-sensei, or the Academy in general? We learned about it then.."

More blank staring, "What!?!"

Ino sighed, "You know how well Naruto did in school, right?"

Sakura nodded, "Yeah, so?" pause, "Oh… Oh he did bad in the academy, didn't he? I almost forgot, honestly."

"I never saw him with a textbook, and I happen to have the odd inkling he might not… have been in class that day. I think he was ditching with Shikamaru and Chouji…"

Sakura slapped her forehead, "I've been such an idiot! Here I've been reprimanding him by slapping him without even explaining why something was perverted or wrong… man, no wonder he never understands why I get so pissed with him…"

Ino rubbed her cheek, "I'm pretty sure his sexy no jutsu was for more then just turning people on too…"

Sakura paused, "What? Are you serious? That technique is so vulgar and.."

"And it works against perverts, doesn't it?"

The pink haired kunoichi pondered this, "Well, yes…. But…"

Ino waved a hand, "Well, there you go. I remember while growing up that Naruto was treated pretty badly… though it seems a lot of the adult ninja have come to respect him a lot…"

Sakura nodded, "I've noticed that too… but still! How can you say that technique actually has a use?"

Ino thought a moment, "Well, he is the most surprising ninja isn't he? If the time comes and it's needed, he'll use it. End of story. So please, if he does actually use it in battle, don't hit him for it…"

Sakura sighed, "Alright, alright… I'll try to make sure Naruto understands my feelings… after I punish him of course, but I will make sure he gets it."

The blond sighed and nodded her head.

Sakura drank some of her tea, "So, what gender do you think it'll be?"

Ino blinked at the switch of conversation, "Huh?"

"Kurenai… y'know. Do you think she'll have a boy or a girl?"

The blond med-nin thought it over, "Well, I think it's fine either way… though it'd be kinda nice if she had-"

"It's a boy."

Both girls jumped at the voice and turned just in time for Naruto to sit down at their little table with a serious, yet apologetic look on his face. He knew girl talks were a no-no to walk into, but he'd overheard, and… well…

"Naruto!"

The blond boy held up his hands, "I won't stay long, I promise!"

The girls sighed exasperated but they decided they'd tolerate him. Sakura spoke first, "Why do you say that so confidently?"

Naruto tapped his nose as he sat in a confident position, "Just a guess."

Ino quirked her eyebrow, "Wait a second. Can you actually smell better then a normal person, or… or even Kiba?"

Sakura pondered this too, "Can you?"

Naruto tensed up a little, "I, uh… I don't know. It's not like I could honestly estimate that myself…"

The two girls looked at one another before turning back to Naruto. Ino spoke up first, "I've got a plan."

Naruto's eyes widened, "Wha!?" He raised his hands in partial surrender, "Wait a second! I came here to talk about something kind of important…"

Ino lent back in her chair, "What is it?"

Naruto fidgeted for a moment, "I uh…" he looked at Sakura for a moment, trying to decide if he really wanted to talk about this in front of her, but ultimately decided he may as well… otherwise, Sakura wouldn't leave him the hell alone about it. "I've been having this weird re-occurring dream the past couple of days… It's part of why I went to visit you the other day but I uh…. Got sidetracked…"

Ino blushed lightly. Oh, the sex talk was going to haunt the two of them for a while, "Right. Go on."

Naruto nodded, "So… I keep dreaming about this red-haired chick. She isn't always the same age, but I know it's the same girl."

Ino's eyes widened and she felt herself pale. Was he serious? That almost sounded like… but… that shouldn't be possible, right?

Sakura spoke, "So you've been dreaming about some girl? What's so important about that?"

Naruto sighed, "It's just, it's… hard to explain. She has this patch on her sleeve like I do, and she kind of acts like me, but… doesn't. I don't know what to think of it all. She's also wearing a hitai-ate, but it's blank… and that bothers me. I've tried to figure out what it could mean but…"

Ino finally caught up to herself, "So she appears at different ages?"

Naruto nodded, contemplating comically, "Yeah, like… sometimes she's 12, and then she's 18... But then she's 14, and just… it's weird. It's like seeing random moments of someone's life, and she has weird conversations with me…"

Ino leaned forward, interested, "Like what?"

Naruto paused, "Well… she asks me how I'm doing sometimes, or she talks about a waterfall… She's talked about the Fourth Hokage too, but when she talks about him it's never for very long."

Ino looked rubbed an arm and looked at the table, 'This is just impossible.'

Sakura watched Ino, "Do you know something?"

The blond kunoichi sighed heavily and tiredly, "I… I think he…" she looked at Naruto, "I think you're dreaming about your mother…"

Sakura and Naruto paused, but the pink haired girl spoke first, "What? Are you serious? That just isn't possible is it?" she looked at her teammate, "Have you even met your mother before?"

Naruto snapped out of a daze and looked at Sakura confused, "No! No, I.. I don't know anything about her. I don't even know what she looks like! Let alone her name or… or anything really…" He honestly forget he ever actually had parents at all.

She really was rather wild… nice, but wild.

He growled and pushed his Itachi-psyche to the back of his head. He didn't need to start growling and grumbling around the two girls, which would only make them freak out. He'd recently learned how animalistic his growl actually was.

Ino rubbed a temple, "Naruto?"

"What?"

"Do you think I could maybe… read your memories of these dreams you've been having? Just so I can make sure?"

Naruto paused a moment, "Uh… well… she has said some embarrassing things and…" Ino stared at him a moment blankly, "Oh.. Oh right. Right, ok. I, I guess you could… though I don't know if it'll actually work…"

Ino blinked, "Why not?"

"Didn't you try to get into Sora's head when he went berserk?"

Ino paused and suddenly came to a realization, "Wait, so even if your in control, I might still end up repelled by-?!"

Naruto nodded, "Maybe, I'm not sure…"

Ino sighed, defeated. She had no desire to be repelled by that again, "I.. I guess I'll leave it for now. If you can, would you please write down as much detail as you can about the dream, if you see her again?"

Naruto nodded, "Sure."

There was a pause between the three before Sakura piped up, "So Ino… what was this plan you had…?"

Ino paused before she smirked, "Well, I was thinking that maybe we could…"

It was then that Naruto learned the hard way how crafty and evil women could be.

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Kiba growled as he stood at the 'starting line' next to Naruto, "This is bullshit."

Naruto sighed forlornly, "I know."

"Why did I agree to this? Wait, why did you?"

"Hell if I know, dattebayo."

Kiba scratched his head, "Why would the girls think you have a better sense of smell then me? That's just a damn insult to me, let alone my clan…"

Naruto laughed nervously, "Well, I said something and well… here we are."

Kiba gave him a look, "Just what did you tell-"

"Ok boys! We're ready!"

Kiba cringed at Ino's screech/yell, "Could you watch the decibels, girl!?"

Ino growled, "Shut it dog-face! Now, you have to track down this."

She held up a cloth for the two of them to sniff. The two boys looked at each other before sniffing the item. Naruto did this more awkwardly, since he was simply not used to… sniffing… things.

Naruto blinked, 'Why are we tracking down-'

Ino back away from the two, "Alright, you boys ready?"

Kiba smirked and scoughed, "More then ready, this is totally won."

The blond girl rolled her eyes as Naruto nodded, "Yeah, sure…"

Naruto was feeling a little degraded at the moment. He didn't know why, but somehow it felt like this was so below him…

That's because this is damn well embarrassing brat. I can't believe you let it slip that you have a decent nose. Idiot.

Naruto sighed, he couldn't even gain refuge in his own mind.

Ino held a head up, "Ready…?! GO!"

Kiba jumped into the nearby foliage and started tracking the designated prey. Naruto, oddly un-enthusiastic, shuffled along for a moment before Ino whacked him on the head, "Hurry up!"

The boy held a hand up, "Alright, alright, I'm going!" With that, he jumped into the foliage a few feet away from where Kiba did.

Five noted dead-ends later, and Naruto found himself in a clearing alone with Tenten who was cleaning some of her weaponry. He walked over behind her with his hands in his pockets, "Hey Tenten."

She jumped and looked up behind her to find Naruto. She blinked in surprise, "Naruto! You…arrived first?"

He felt himself break out in cold sweat, "R-really? I got here first?" He laughed nervously, "Must have been luck…"

She quirked an eyebrow before Ino and Sakura came into the clearing. They paused as they saw Naruto but no Kiba. Ino walked over, "You made it first?"

Naruto shrugged, "I was probably just lucky-"

Kiba jumped out of the foliage, "GOAL!"

The four rookie nine members looked at Kiba with perplexed looks on their faces. He blushed first from feeling awkward, but then anger and pointed, "YOU! How the hell'd you get here first!? You cheated!"

Naruto felt himself get angry as he growled out, "Kiba…"

Ino stepped forward and put out her arms, "Boys, boys…" she looked to Kiba, "How many dead ends did you find?"

The dog-boy scratched his nose, "Four."

The blond kunoichi looked to Naruto, "You?"

"Uh… five."

Sakura's eyes widened as did Tenten's. Ino simply processed all of this in her mind, "Kiba? How many of the dead end paths did you follow?"

"Uh… two?"

Ino turned to Naruto for his answer, "Uhm… I just took note of them and came straight to this path. I could kind of tell which one was the freshest, though it took a few minutes to tell…"

Kiba lunged at Naruto, "That's impossible! You-"

Sakura sucker-punched Kiba in the face, making him shut up, "Oh stop it."

Kiba held his nose with tears in his eyes, "Bitch…"

Sakura glared at him as Inner-Sakura screamed, 'Kick his ass, SHANNARO!!!'

Kiba backed away, not wanting to experience pain so quickly, "I was joking!"

Sakura shook a fist at him, "You'd better have been…"

Tenten paused, "So, Naruto has a better nose then Kiba?"

Ino sighed, "It seems that way…"

Silence hung over the small group of five for a few moments before Kiba spoke up, "It's still bullshit."

Naruto simply nodded in exasperation. He really didn't want this sort of info known, and of all people, known by Kiba…

"It's 'cause of the fox, right?"

Naruto glared at Kiba as his anger suddenly exploded and punched him, "Shut up!"

Sakura grabbed Naruto before he could move to create more damage, "Naruto!"

The blond boy growled deeply in Kiba's direction before slapping the side of his face and holding a hand over his eye. Sakura was close enough to notice his eyes had slits, "Naruto…"

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath and relaxed himself, "…Sorry."

Sakura slowly released his arm as her friend tried to recollect himself. Kiba brushed himself off, "You didn't have to hit me for that…"

Ino growled and huffed out, "And you didn't have to bring up you-know-what. That was so unnecessary flea-boy."

Kiba growled, "I don't have flea's!"

Ino quirked a brow, "Oh?"

Kiba blushed and turned, "I don't have to take this crap. See ya."

With that Kiba stormed off, leaving a somewhat shaken Naruto behind. The blond was going to have a hard time sleeping tonight, he just knew it…

Sakura looked Naruto over, making sure he was feeling alright before she suddenly noticed something. She moved in front of him and pulled some of his hair, causing him to speak up in protest, "Oy!"

The pink haired girl cupped his face in her hand, examining him critically. This of course caused Naruto to blush and Ino to feel oddly… jealous. "Forehead… what are you..?"

"Have you been letting some of your hair grow out, Naruto-kun?"

The blond boy blinked, "Uh well… kind of…?"

Tenten stood beside the younger kunoichi and joined Sakura in her examination, "You know, now that you say it, he does sort of look like someone… but I can't really… explain why he looks… familiar? Like someone else I should know?"

Sakura looked to Tenten and released Naruto's face, "Exactly! I noticed it earlier in the tea shop, but now it's bothering me more and I just can't place it…"

Ino momentarily freaked, "You guys are probably just imagining it…" she laughed nervously.

The two girls and Naruto looked at her curiously, "Ino…?"

Ino shrugged and smiled, "How about I treat you to some ramen, Naruto?"

Naruto jumped, "YEAH!!! Ramen! HERE I COME!" he grabbed her and ran off, leaving behind a baffled Tenten and Sakura. Ino couldn't help but smile, glad that she successfully got Naruto off the train of thought of her hair-styling…

He'd notice sooner or later, but she'd rather keep him in the dark, especially since…

…since it was her experiment and inquiry as well.

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Two chapters. I hope this one was better then the last. Tell me how you enjoyed it!

Please Review!!!