Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor am I getting any money out of this in any way. If I did own Naruto he'd unfortunately probably be dead by now since I like to keep things believable, I mean seriously he should have died so many times by now. But anyway you didn't come here for the ranting you came for my other undoubtedly brilliant talent. I'm so modest aren't I? Well on with the story.

P.S. I'll try not to waffle too much in these bits.

The fog was thick, the cool air pressing in around the five ninja was almost like a large grey blanket covering everything, none could see further than four feet in front of them barring Hinata due to her Byakugan. Team Mouse came to a halt when a muffled yell came from behind the fox mask as Uta stubbed her toe on another rock, "Fuck, Kami's shit that's worse than a kunai to the gut" she sat on the ground and rubbed her foot. "There's no point continuing now" Asuma stated as the rest of the team sat on the damp ground "The Akatsuki member, if there is one, won't be travelling in this. Now Hinata How far are we from crossing into Wave" Hinata blinked under her mask focusing her Byakugan, "About ten minutes of running, the bridge is just four miles North East of this point." She answered. "Ok, Naruto we need a fire if we are staying for the night, Uta, Yoake set some traps just in case. Oh, and a sound barrier seal" Uta and Yoake jumped away to set up defences under the guidance of Hinata while Naruto took a small scroll from his bag and opened it. A blue fire about the size of Pakkun popped into existence after a few seals from Naruto, Asuma smiled at the ingenious pocket fire seal invention of Naruto's. After the war Naruto had flung himself head first into seals and found he was a genius when it came to understanding and deconstructing seals. The ability to understand seals was unfortuantly not enough, collective years of neglect and being taught the wrong thing had finally caught up with Naruto. On the training trip with Jiraiya the focus was on getting stronger physically and gaining real world experience. There was almost no focus on increasing mental ability, perhaps the odd philosophical point or battle tactics against Uchiha but nothing else. Hell Naruto did more reading on that trip than he had done in his entire life, granted it was poorly written smut but it still counted. Even in the smut there were words he just couldn't read. Thanks to all of this Naruto had become a Chunin before he could read or write properly. Needless to say when this came out there was a furious Tsunade, an embarrassed Naruto, a shame filled Hokage for not noticing during his years as Naruto's sensei and some unemployed academy senseis that had been fired for their neglect of a student over ten years ago.

Asuma was pulled out of his fond memories of Tsunade, despite now looking every bit her age, punching a particularly bitter Academy Sensei through a wall by Naruto nudging his arm, "Hey Asuma- senpai are you Ok?" Naruto asked concern evident in his voice. Asuma looked at Naruto quizzically, not that anyone could see through the mask except Hinata, "Of course I am Naruto, why wouldn't I be?"

"Well you know Akatsuki must be bringing up memories of Kurenai it must be hard"

"I do miss her, but I have no doubt that Hinata misses her much more. When Kurenai came into Hinata's life it was like Hinata had found a mother."

"But senpai didn't you … er… weren't you and Kurenai- sensei you know… together?" Naruto asked confusion dripping from every word. Asuma laughed "We weren't together. That was just a rumour she was dating Genma when she died, and anyway, um, I sort of, well-"

"Swing the other way" Yoake cut in from behind them "We all knew Naruto, how did you not? You're so dense sometimes"

"Hey!" Naruto yelled indignantly. "Oh come on Naruto" Hinata said "You can't deny that you can't pick-up on anything like that, I mean up until Sakura made a joke about how I used to faint every time you spoke to me, you didn't even know that I had fancied the hell out of you."

"I just thought you were ill or something" Naruto muttered defensively. The rest of tem Mouse laughed at the response. "It doesn't bother you, does it?" Asuma asked "What, of course it doesn't bother me, I mean I am Bi." Noises of surprise came from the rest of the team. "What, since when?" Uta asked pointing a finger at Naruto. "I thought everyone knew" Naruto said as he noticed the surprised air around his teammates "I mean I lost my virginity to Kotetsu and then I dated Karui when we were both proctors for the Chunin exam a couple of years ago in Kumo. I thought you knew that."

"No we didn't" Hinata answered "and is this Karui the same Karui that you let beat you up when they were after Sasuke?"

"Yeah, she apologised for that during my stay and to make up for it she bought me a drink and the one thing lead to another and we slept together. Actually theres this pretty funny inside joke in Kumo, to ask Dodai, you know the guy with the rubber jutsu for a condom when you're gonna have sex." The rest of Team Mouse was dumbfounded about why they hadn't heard about any of this before "What? Why are you looking at me like that" Naruto asked when the laugh he was expecting from his story didn't come and he noticed they were staring at him "It's not like I'm the only one that doesn't tell you stuff, I mean the only reason I know about Hinata's 'special friendship' with Morino Idate is because he was staying at Sakura's before he got his own place and I ran into him when I visited Sakura and he mentioned a certain pale eyed girl with the name Hinata. And about 'the great fun they had last night'" Hinata was beet red when Naruto mentioned what Idate had said while Uta guffawed and Asuma and Yoake chuckled. "Well it seems that our teamwork is not up to scratch, we don't even know each other's personal lives." Asuma stated with a grin on his face "Well since we have time right now we are going to try a team building exercise." I'll get the ball rolling" Asuma said not allowing any time for anyone to object "Yoake are you in a relationship with anyone, got anyone bedroom buddies close at hand?"

"Senpai, are we really going to gossip?" Yoake asked incredulously with a small blush donning his cheeks "Yes because we as a team need to know everything about each other or our teamwork will not be the best it can be, now answer the question" Asuma said with a smirk. Yoake sighed "Fine, yes I am in a relationship"

"With who?" Naruto asked eagerly "A girl I met during the ANBU exams" Yoake answered "she didn't make it but she's trying again this year"

"What's her name?" Naruto said "Tenten" Yoake replied that little statement caused Naruto and Asuma to laugh loudly and Hinata to giggle, "Have you met her team yet?" Asuma gasped out between laughs. "No" Yoake answered bewildered by their reaction to his girlfriend's name. "You're in for a real treat" Asuma said causing another round of laughter from him and Naruto. "Yeah agreed Naruto you'll find them most 'Youthful'" causing yet more laughter. "Anyway, Senpai, it's your turn" Naruto said clapping Asuma on the back "Do you have any hidden romances, lost loves or first times you want to share?"

"Well no secret romances I'm afraid and definitely no lost loves, I guess it's first times." Asuma answered having no qualms about sharing. "hmm, let me think" Asuma adopted the thinking pose "Oh, yes, of course, it was Genma back when we were nought but horny teenagers, if I remember correctly it was only a few days before the Kuuybi reached the village. We were scared shitless, so we did the only thing a normal hormonal teen would do, shag. Enough about me though" Asuma turned to Uta, eying her lazily at the same time wondering whether she'd kill him for asking anything, he said "So Uta we've heard some of every ones sexual lives. Your turn" Uta hesitated before muttering "I haven't had any" Team Mouse could almost feel the blush through the Fox mask of the young ANBU as the silence after that statement permeated the air. "What not even a kiss" Naruto asked. Uta shook her head. "Well I was brought up in ROOT, no time for dating."

"Wow" Hinata said "bummer. Ok Uta when we get back we're finding you a man. Or at least a quick shag" Team Mouse stared at Hinata not expecting her to say something like that "What?" she said "So you lot can say those things but an heiress can't! If you want I can talk like Neji"

"No that's ok Hinata" Asuma said snapping out of his reverie "We don't need another stoic Hyuuga. Ok team that concludes our bonding session, bedtime. Yoake I'll be waking you in a few hours for second watch" Hinata, Uta and Yoake all found somewhere to sleep and arranged themselves comfortably, but Naruto stayed sitting watching the fire. "Come on Naruto you've got the early watch you should get some sleep." Asuma said through his mask. "Asuma-sempai… can ask you something?"

"Yeah sure, what is it that's troubling you?"

"Well if Akatsuki is back does that mean they're still after the Bijuu?"

"Well it's possible" Asuma answered "Why do you ask?" Naruto continued to stare into the blue flame for a minute or so before he said anything else. "I hope they aren't after the Bijuu, I don't want to go through that again. I've got too good a thing going for it to get disrupted like that. I mean there's Team Mouse and Kakashi-sensei. I've gotten acknowledgement from the village, Sakura's happy and there is peace between the villages. I know its peace that won't last but can't it go on for a bit longer without fucking Akatsuki fucking stirring things up again. I meant the Bijuu aren't even all accounted for yet, the Rokubi only just cropped up once in Sea country before disappearing. I mean can't we just not have this unbelievably large pile of shit hit the fan just yet. I mean fuck. It's just so un-fucking-fair. I don't want to be hunted again by those fucking shits. The people around me get hurt and I don't want that to happen to anyone, especially not yo-"Naruto cut himself off before completing the sentence. Asuma was surprised at Naruto's outburst and quite befuddled as to why Naruto had singled out him but let it slide at the moment and focused on reassuring Naruto. "Now Naruto since the main members of the Akatsuki were killed in the war I doubt that these leftover Akatsuki are strong, if anything they are probably just informants rather than actual ninja. S-ranked ninja don't just grow on trees you know and even if they were S-ranked we'd just kick their arses and sent them back to whatever messed up plane of existence they came from. Okay" Naruto looked up from the fire into Asuma's eyes with a smile on his face. "Yeah I suppose we are awesome like that"

"Yes I suppose so. Now Naruto it's nearly..." Asuma looked at an imaginary watch on his wrist "…ten past later and way past your bedtime, off you go now." Naruto grinned and stood up making his way to soft patch of ground "Thanks Asuma" he said before closing his eyes. Asuma smiled his heart warming with the thought that he had been able to cheer up his blonde ninja.

Ok, I just want to explain myself a bit:

Naruto has worked for peace and is kind of pissed because Akatsuki is still there and is still royally fucking up his life. He is in love with Asuma, the when, how and why will be explained later. Asuma is in love with Naruto but being quite dense about his own feelings does not realise it or if you prefer it he loves Naruto and doesn't want to admit it to himself because of his morals or something like that. I really don't mind why he doesn't know he loves Naruto is open to interpretation. The point is he loves Naruto but doesn't realise it and will often refer to Naruto as 'his' without realising it.

Aaaaaah phew I'm glad I finished that Chapter, I wrote it once at about four in the morning after not having any sleep. After I went over it I decided that sleep deprivation and writing Naruto fanfics do not mix well for me. Unless it's a good idea to put Naruto in a relationship with Japanese Hitler from that race filler episode with Idate in it. If you've seen it you'll know who I mean. Any who I have a bit of homework to catch up on so yeah hang tight and I'll try to get the next chapter out to y'all as soon as possible. You're all the best. Oh and super special ultimate thanks to Silvermane1 who was the first ever person to review one of my stories. So a big yay to him/her/it. So I'll see you all real soon. P.S. I just realised how creepy that last bit sounded.