Unforeseen Consequences
Chapter 13: Out in the Open
After eating the three teens decided to spend a little time with just themselves. After the entire morning of telling their family, or in Naruto's case the closest he had to family, they just needed some 'them time' at the moment. Plus with all the stress, this moment just seemed a nice opportunity to relax. Naruto walked along the streets with each girl at his side. They were just talking at the moment about nothing really. Mainly they just wanted to avoid the issues they dealt with.
"So Naruto there is something I've been wondering," Ino asked him as they walked on. "You've learned a lot since you were a genin. I mean summoning, those different rasengans and stuff, so where else will you go from here? I mean I don't have anything even close to that stuff."
Naruto hadn't really thought about it, he really wasn't sure to be honest. The girls could see him thinking and knew that he had no idea. Naruto was becoming one of the strongest ninja in the world. Although he didn't have a thousand jutsus like someone like Kakashi, the ones he did know were more powerful than most.
"Maybe you should work on your wind chakra more," Sakura put in remembering all the training he had put himself through. "I mean you put it into your rasengan but what about other jutsus?"
Naruto thought about it, it did make some sense as he know knew his chakra was wind based and now he could use it in other ways. He smiled broadly at Sakura, "Hey that's a good idea, but where can I learn more wind techniques? The only people I know are Temari and she's in Suna." Naruto was about to mention Asuma, but he didn't. He knew how much it would hurt Ino to bring up her former sensei.
He cast a quick look to Ino but she was looking ahead smiling, he mentally sighed at that. He didn't want to bring up painful memories. He saw Sakura give Ino a quick glance of worry as well but she recovered quickly that Naruto doubted that Ino noticed. What either of them didn't know was that she had noticed, but she was okay with it. Sure it still hurt but she didn't want people to tip toe around the issue forever. But she didn't want to open that old wound just yet, so she was thankful that Naruto didn't bring it up.
"Well I'm certain we can find a few things," Ino said trying to put her mind on the issue at hand. "Does Jiraiya know of any wind?"
Naruto thought about it, "Not sure, I don't remember him using any during our training..."
"Well, how about going to sign out a scroll?" Ino offered. "There are scrolls that only shinobi can access...although given you're still technically a genin you would only be allowed access to the low level stuff."
"Ino," Sakura said sharply seeing Naruto's mood go into a depressive state. Ino winced, she forgot that the fact that he was still a genin was a sore spot.
"Hey, when is the next chunin exams anyway?" Ino asked hoping to get him back in the mood. "I mean I'm sure this time you'll be able to take it and with your skills you'll easily go through it. I mean there are still members from our class that aren't chunin yet. Most don't even get into it until after two or three years, sometimes more."
"Yeah she's right," Sakura said trying to cheer him up. "I mean a few members didn't even make it past their genin exams I think. I've seen a few people from our class here and there but only a few made it to chunin. I'm sure that you can be put with them next time, in fact we could ask Tsunade about it next time we see her."
Naruto gave a small smile at their words. Although it was true, besides the ones he usually were with, he didn't know how the others students in his graduating class were doing. Although personally he didn't really care much about them as usually they were the ones that didn't give him the time of day or teased him the most. He hadn't really thought about them, and he wondered if they had changed over the years. Everyone had grown to various degrees since those days.
Sakura had grown up out of her fan girl phase and into a powerful and well respected medical nin that was said to be second only to Tsunade. Ino had become more serious a ninja and was training hard to make herself better. Everyone had become stronger among his friends and he suddenly realized something. Even if he was a genin, he had done a lot of things. He had faced and fought powerful ninja like Orochimaru, been to far off lands, trained under two legendary ninja, and he had gone from being the dead last to a really good ninja.
He wasn't the same kid as he used to be either, he had grown some himself. He took one of their hands in his as they walked together. "Thanks, and you know what, I think I'll do that. She owes me anyway given I couldn't even come back to join a chunin exam. It's about time I started to catch up with everyone."
"Now that's the Naruto we know," Ino said with a giggle seeing the fire in him return.
"Hey what's going on here?"
The three teens were surprised to hear Kiba's voice as they turned to face Team Kurenai. Kiba was there with his, now massive, dog Akamaru. Shino was there and also Hinata as they looked to be heading towards the tower. Kiba had on a curious look at them, Shino...well it was hard to tell what he was thinking since his change in clothing. Hinata however, her eyes were wider than normal as she looked at the scene.
"Oh you guys just get back?" Naruto asked totally forgetting he was holding each girl's hand.
"Yeah," Kiba paused and looked again at the interlocked hands. "So I'll ask again, why are you three holding hands like that? Almost looks like a couple or something, you'll give people the wrong idea." He joked, little did he know that he had hit it on the head.
The threesome looked between each other, silently debating who would say something. It was Ino that took the initiative. After dealing with her parents and Tsunade, their friends were going to be easy to deal with. "Well I guess you're pretty observant, because we were out for a little date at the moment."
Now the other team looked a little confused, especially Kiba. "Huh? What you and Naruto, Ino? Then how come he's holding Sakura's hand too?"
"That's because I'm also involved," Sakura said blushing a little. "Ino and myself are both dating Naruto."
There was a pause between them, Shino actually has both eyebrows raised up, for him that was the most expressive they had seen him in a year. Kiba looked to be slowly turning the gears in his head, as the full meaning behind it, he was thinking about. Hinata, well she looked like she had turned to stone.
"So...how the hell did this happen in the time we were gone?" Kiba finally asked them.
"Long story," All three of the pair said at once.
"We'll fill you guys in later," Ino said not wanting to go through this whole thing all over again. "If you don't mind though the three of us had had a long day. We want some private time."
"O-oh sure," Kiba said making room as the threesome couple walked off. Kiba looked after them before breaking into a laugh. "Oh man why is it that Naruto can never do anything normal? I mean how long has he been after Sakura?"
"For as long as I can remember," Shino commented still looking at the leaving three friends.
"Yeah and not only does he finally get her, but Ino too?" Kiba shook his head at that. "Man I swear you just never know with that guy. I'm not sure I envy him or not, although the first guy to be paired up and he gets two girls. Man he always over does things, eh Hinata?"
There was a pause when he looked to see that Hinata was still frozen in her form. "Hinata...hey you okay?"
Hinata wasn't sure if she could answer that if she could. All this time she had admired Naruto from afar, too timid and afraid to go up to him. She had a deep crush on the boy, her first and only so far to be honest. And yet because she could never do anything about it, not one but two girls managed to get Naruto's affection. She wasn't sure what to think on it all, she was confused and didn't know what to do, to think or feel.
As such, news like this was quick to get around. Especially among ninja, since information gathering is something certain ninja excel at. Also when it's someone like Naruto, things really take on a life of their own. In a few hours pretty much all the ninja had heard about this. That was when Kakashi and Yamato who had decided to take some time to relax found many asking questions. Mainly it was to see if the rumors were true, others were asking if there was a pool on how long it would last.
They were currently having a few friendly drinks with at a bar that ninja liked to hang out in. It was one of those places where they could just sit back and relax. There were a few in every ninja village of course, usually with some kind of ninja themed name to it all. Usually the drinks were cheap for ninja, plenty of room, decent food and the if the owner didn't complain about how rowdy his clients got, usually it lasted. The place they were in, was one of those types of places.
"I swear it's like a ninja can't drink in peace anymore," Kakashi muttered holding his drink. It was getting kind of annoying to be interrupted every now and then for questions about Naruto, Ino and Sakura.
"I saw it and I still can't believe it," Yamato said slightly swaying. He had been putting them away a bit faster than Kakashi, as Kakashi liked to savour his drinks. "I think it's started to make me depressed."
"Depressed?" Kakashi asked.
"Yeah, I mean I can't remember the last time I went out with a woman. Then he shows up with two girls," Yamato sighed.
"You need to get out more then." Kakashi said to him. He noticed someone coming up to him, thankfully he placed himself on Yamato's right, this way he wasn't blinded. It was just something he did out of repetition since he got his new eye. He was basically half-blind most of the time, so he had to learn to adapt. He turned his head slightly to see Iruka walking towards them.
"You look like a man that could use a drink," Kakashi said looking at the chunin teacher.
"I need one," Iruka said as he sat down next to Kakashi. "Just ran into Naruto earlier."
"Ah, say no more," Kakashi said and then looked to the bar tender. "Better make whatever he orders a double."
"I always knew that Naruto was different but this certainly goes right up there, with originality for him." Iruka laughed a little. It was such a Naruto thing for him to do, of course he had been shocked, well he still was shocked, but the young man was not the kid he had taught. He had grown, as all of them, but he never expected anything like this. He remembered the days when Sakura and Ino wouldn't give the poor boy the time of day. It was kind of funny really, as he looked back on it.
He bet if those two girls knew the future back then, they wouldn't have believed a word of it.
"He's got way too much luck," Yamato said downing his drink.
"True, but given his rash actions it's what's helped to keep him alive," Kakashi put in.
"Let's hope that luck will keep him alive with Sakura and Ino," Iruka told him. "I know very well how badly those two can get at times."
-Earlier-
Naruto had said goodbye to Ino and Sakura as they had to split up. Sakura was going to swing by Ino's place to pick up some flowers her mother wanted for the shop. As they walked both girls felt eyes on them and a few whispers. Just how much did people know about it and was it really that big news? Sakura sighed as she figured this would keep up for a couple of weeks at least.
"Just ignore them," Ino said looking ahead almost like she didn't notice what Sakura had. "You always did worry too much about what others thought."
"Yeah I know," Sakura admitted, "Thankfully I mostly grew out of that. But seriously it's starting to annoy me. Why is this just big news anyway?"
"Well Naruto has gotten pretty popular lately." Ino admitted as she too had heard people talking about him. A lot of people actually respected Naruto these days, which was just as well given how most people had ignored him in life. She had figured something like this would have happened anyway, she just wanted to focus on what's important anyway.
It was then that she noticed a familiar person sitting on a bench drawing. "Oh there's Sai, too bad he lost his chance with me, I hope he's not too heart broken over the news. If only he asked me out earlier, then he might had stood a chance." Ino said feeling pleased with herself that she could attract the attention of the good looking guys.
Sakura scowled a bit, she still thought it was unfair how Sai called her a hag, or ugly or other such things. While Ino of all people, she got the good things like gorgeous or beautiful. The world just wasn't fair, Ino wasn't that better looking was she? Sakura knew that Ino had a better chest, most girls did something that Sakura was very sensitive about, but honestly was it that big a difference? Or did Sai have a thing for blondes or something? At any rate she saw Ino had already waved and called out to him when they got close.
Thankfully Sai had stopped with the nicknames, it was one of the things Sakura was grateful for. She really didn't want to drag him to the hospital for the physical trauma she would put him through, if he tried those stupid nicknames on her again. She was in no mood for that stuff today.
"So Sai, what are you drawing today?" Ino asked trying to get a look at his sketch pad.
"Just some scenery today." Sai said simply as he showed that on the paper were the buildings from across the street.
"So have you heard the news about us and Naruto yet?" Ino asked hoping the guy wouldn't take it too hard. But after all, she was a catch.
"Oh I knew about that a long time ago," Sai said simply as he pulled out a notebook. "Jiraiya had me reporting to him Naruto's progress with you two. He was very informative with information collecting techniques. I must admit, I have been learning some new tricks thanks to him."
That statement left the girls speechless, it was too bad that Jiraiya hadn't told Sai not to tell the girls any of this. He just figured since they were friends it wouldn't do any harm.
"Wait you mean you knew, in fact you were watching us the entire time?" Ino asked finally finding her voice.
"Of course," Sai said to her. "It was most interesting to see and I think it helped in my research into human behaviour."
"So...you weren't jealous or anything?" Ino asked him. She could see why he could do such a thing unless maybe he was jealous. After all she thought he had liked her all this time. He seemed like a good guy too, it was just that he always went on missions with Naruto and Sakura, that they never really got to talk other than that one time. Sure they saw each other here and there but she had thought there had been something.
"Of what?" Sai asked innocently.
"Of what?" Ino asked a little angry now. "I thought you liked me, didn't you say I was gorgeous?"
"Oh I think there is a misunderstanding," Sai said to Ino as he was starting to realise her mistake. "You see, with what happened with Sakura, I decided not to make nicknames on what I thought about people. So I did the opposite in order to see if that would work better, what I really thought as their key characteristic."
"Oh okay then, well-wait a minute!" Ino suddenly realized what that meant. Sakura however was grinning gleefully at this. There was finally some justice in the universe it would seem. "You mean to tell me that you don't find me good looking!?" Ino yelled out.
"No, why should I?" Sai asked seriously with that damn smile of his.
Ino looked like she was going to hit him over what he said but was holding it in. Sakura meanwhile was trying not to laugh, she would do that later when she wasn't with Ino. It seemed that there was a bright side to all of this after all.
"Sakura-san!"
'Then again,' Sakura groaned inward at the sound of that familiar voice. She should have remembered this but honestly it had slipped her mind. Sakura, Ino and Sai looked to see Lee running over to them. He stopped dead in front of Sakura.
"Please tell me that it isn't true, please tell me that I have no lost Sakura-san's heart to Naruto-kun!" Lee asked her.
Ino nearly laughed at the scene, mainly from Sakura's expression it was priceless to her.
"Sorry Lee, but yeah, I'm with Naruto now." Sakura knew she should have told him this sooner but in all honesty, there hadn't been any real time. He was a nice guy, just not her type of guy, maybe if he toned down the 'flames of youth' and also wear something other than that jump suit sometimes. She honestly hadn't seen him in anything other than that. Even on his time off he wore that, while everyone else tended to go into more civilian attire.
Lee fell to his knees as waterfall tears seem to show up on his face. "Naruto-kun you truly are a worthy person to be a rival with! You have captured the heart of the beautiful Sakura-san, you have shown yourself a true man!"
"Oh god," Sakura groaned as she palmed her face. Lee was making things very embarrassing, thankfully she noticed a saviour coming running up to them. Tenten was running very hard to catch up with Lee, she was breathing hard by the time she got caught up.
"Damn it Lee, I told you not to run off like that!" Tenten shouted at him. She had been with him when he heard the news. Then he took off like only Lee or Gai could, she had to push herself to her limits just to keep him within sight. She knew he would go off on something like this and wanted to limit the damage.
"Sorry about that," Tenten said as she slowly got her wind back. "But I take it, that it's really true then?"
"Yeah it is," Sakura smiled happily.
"Oh my god that is so great!" Tenten jumped up and glomped the girl. What many didn't know about Tenten was that even though she was a bit of a tomboy, she was a sucker for romance. When it came to that, she could become just as girly as any other girl her age. "Man he's been after you for years, so what happened, what made you change your mind?"
Ino coughed as she really didn't want to be left out of this. "Actually there is more to it."
"Yeah," Sakura said as she got out of Tenten's surprisingly strong grip. "You see Naruto isn't just seeing me, he's seeing Ino too."
Tenten and Lee's mouth dropped open at that.
"How unyouthful, Naruto you were not happy with Sakura-san, so you cheat behind her back with Ino-san!" Lee yelled out.
"I can't believe this, he seemed like such a good guy," Tenten said to the girls. "I mean when did you learn he was dating the both of you?"
"Uh, no you don't understand," Ino said sweat dropping a bit. "Sakura and myself asked Naruto to date the both of us."
"It's a long story," Sakura said getting tired of this. "Long story short, Ino and me both wanted Naruto, we didn't want to go through that whole thing we had with Sasuke again, we asked Naruto to share, her idea by the way, and here we are." She said in one breath. Honestly maybe she could make pamphlets or something. It would certainly save time given how many times she had to go through this.
"Wait this was your idea?" Tenten looked at Ino. "So how does this kind of thing work anyway?"
Ino shrugged, "We're just going with the motions at the moment. But so far I think things are going well. All though my parents do want to meet him."
"Yeah same here," Sakura sighed, at least she knew that her parents actually liked Naruto. "Maybe we should compare dates, we don't want to put him through too much in the same week."
"Oh yeah, oh and we should think about things like a decent schedule." Ino thought out loud. "I mean you still go to the hospital at times to help out and my dad is putting me through extra training. We should think what days we're free for Naruto."
Sakura hadn't thought about that, it was true that they would have to work things out in advance. They didn't want to take too much of Naruto's time anyway. Then again when he had time off he usually just ate ramen and trained. Then what about missions? Those could take some time depending on how things went. She might have to give Ino a few days more with Naruto after those, just to be fair, as Sakura figured she would be with Naruto on most missions.
"Well it looks like you guys are on the same page," Tenten smiled at them. "Well I wish you guys good luck with all of this."
"Tenten, how can you easily agree to this?" Lee asked her.
"Lee, if they're happy then who are we to say it's wrong? I mean they made a choice and they'll take any consequences of that choice." Tenten told him honestly. She looked back at the girls with a wink, "Just be sure to tell me all the good points."
"Oh I know I will," Ino said grinning. "First off, he's a really good kisser."
-Naruto's Apartment-
Naruto was just about to get home, he had been planning something special one the way there. He maybe have been new to the whole dating thing, but he really wanted to show how much he cared. Plus with everything going on, maybe some time for just them would be nice to have. It would take some planning but he wanted to make sure it was perfect. In the mean time he could always take them on normal dates. Although he got the feeling that taking all three of them would be hard sometimes.
Maybe he could spread it out, date one girl and then date the other to even things out. He had a lot to think about but he was happy. Despite how strange it was, he truly was happy with things. He pulled out his key as he unlocked his door.
"N-Naruto-kun?" He turned to see it was Hinata, he had been so caught up in thought he hadn't heard her coming.
"Hey Hinata, what's up?" he smiled at her.
"I was wondering if I could talk to you?" Hinata asked him. She had been wondering what to do the entire day and she felt that she needed to talk to him. She had to settle this or it would drive her crazy. All day long she had been thinking on 'what ifs' and 'should haves' and she couldn't take it anymore.
"Well sure, come on in at least." He offered as he opened the door.
She had never been inside of his apartment before, it did look a little dirty but it was very lived in and comfortable feel about it. It could use a little cleaning and dusting but overall it was very pleasant place to her. Back home, everything was so neat and tidy all the time, she really hadn't known that other people didn't live the same way until she once visited Kiba's place to get him for a mission.
"So what's up Hinata?" Naruto asked her.
"W-Well I was just wondering how things were going," Hinata said to him. It was the truth, she did wonder how things were going with him. A part of her mind was actually wondering if he would mind another girl, she didn't mind sharing as long as it was him. But given the reaction her family might take, and she didn't want to burden him either, those reasons prevented her from asking such a thing. Plus it wasn't just Naruto, as Ino and Sakura were also involved in this.
"Oh? Well things are going great actually?" He said smiling broadly as he thought about things. Sure it hit a little rough area but over all, he was happy with how things turned out.
"So, you're happy? You know with this arrangement, I know it can't be easy." Hinata said to him wondering about this question.
Naruto didn't really have to think on the answer, he knew exactly what to say to this. "I know it will be rough and it won't be easy." He said in a more serious tone. Then a small smile grew on his face, this was one of his true smiles, the ones that only showed up when he was really happy. Not the large exaggerated ones he used all the time, and Hinata could tell the difference.
"But I really do care for them. I know that I've loved Sakura-chan for a long time, but with Ino-chan, well as I got to know her the more I started to fall for her. Both girls are different but are similar too. It's hard to explain but each of them means the world to me. I'd fight for them, die for them and I want to see them happy because they've made me happy."
"They'll be there for me when I need them just like I will be there for them. I've never had a bond like this with anyone and it feels really great. I mean, I never even thought of Ino-chan in this way before. In fact if events hadn't happened the way they did, I most likely would never have noticed her as more than a friend."
"But now, well now I love them both," Naruto scratched the back of his head. "I mean I didn't expect it to happen. I guess you never know how many times you can fall in love, I never even thought I could love anyone other than Sakura-chan."
"So it's possible to love more than one person?" Hinata asked him. "I-I mean what if you did like someone, but they only thought of you as a friend?"
"Huh?" Naruto blinked as he did have to think about it. "Well I guess you might have to work on it. I mean it worked with me and Sakura-chan after all."
"B-but what if this person is already in a relationship?" Hinata asked him. She didn't think she could come out and say exactly what her dilemma was. So she would go about it in a around about way.
"Well then I guess there is nothing you can really do," Naruto said more seriously as he sat down on his couch thinking back. "I think one of the reasons all my attempts failed as a kid, was because Sakura-chan was all into Sasuke. I didn't stand a chance back then. I know that she liked him, maybe even loved him, first but she moved on. I was just lucky enough to be there for when she did."
Hinata thought about what he had said, she hadn't thought about that before. She did care for him, but he knew that he already had two girls that he had given himself to. It would be unfair to him to ask to try for three. Plus maybe there was something to it, she had never told him her feelings, even now she couldn't bring herself to do it. Maybe if things had been different, but she couldn't life in the past, Neji had and it had turned him into something he regretted.
She knew that Naruto would always hold a special place in her heart, but maybe she should do what Sakura had done. Move on and find someone that she could give her heart to and have it returned. Although she still felt empty inside, she did also feel a bit better about it. No matter what, she would still be his friend. Maybe one day if things didn't work out and they were both single things could be different. Now, it was time to maybe become truly strong and move forward with her life.
She stood up giving him a slight bow, "Thank you for your time and for your advice Naruto-kun."
"Huh, oh okay then. Well I'm not sure what I helped with but I'm glad to help out," He said smiling broadly.
Next up Chapter 14: Epilogue
I thought about it and the next chapter will be the last one. Honestly I got no more ideas for this, so for all those who want to see it continued let me make a deal with you all. I'll take time to plan out a sequel for this, I think I'll call if Actions and Consequences. It will have more plot, action and other things in there. Think of this as just the set up for what's to come but I want to plan it out to get it right.