disclaimer: I own all your bases, but not Naruto.
A few replies to friendly reviewers.
Demonkid: I hope there will be some more fighting, but don't expect anything epic for a while, I find the anime/manga way of battling sort of silly. "I'm almost defeated, but I'll remember why I'm fighting and suddenly surpass myself and beat you." The part about fighting in Narutoverse that I find really entertaining is the possibility of outsmarting rather than outpowering the opposition. So, that's what I'll be aiming for. Of course, those kind of battles require a bit of thought, hence the battles being short and brutal so far.
Elemental Dragon Swordman: I'm glad you think that.
Fuyuriku: Well, as long as you can keep reading, I think I'll be happy anyways.
Some comments may be found at the bottom. Or not.
Afterparty battles
"Man, I didn't know that opera could be like that!" Ino looked at her escort, unsure of just what he meant. He'd been pretty good she supposed, sitting still and at least pretending to be attentive for most of the performance. At least after the first act. He'd been a bit edgy before that, confusion quickly turning to boredom. They were after all performing in the original language, which in hindsight might make it a bit too difficult for an uneducated teen like Naruto to appreciate. And Turandot wasn't a light weight either.
"Would you mind explaining what you mean?" She wasn't certain, but it might just that the old saying about opera was true. Either you loved it or you hated it.
"Well ,first I couldn't understand what it was about, and sometimes they were screaming like they had a stomach ache, but once I understood the story it got better." He rubbed the back of his head looking slightly embarrassed. "Didn't know you could put so much feeling into singing." They kept on walking, the oppressive heat of the day had mellowed into a pleasantly warm evening. She'd insisted on going back to the apartment, wanting to change before they headed out again.
"Wait a minute, how did you get what it was about? You weren't reading anything during the performance, were you?"
"Na, I just sent of a couple of kage bunshin to read up on what the story was, and then I met up with them in the pauses so they wouldn't dispel while I was watching. I sometimes pass out if there's a lot of information to take in."
Ino stared at him, unable to contain her surprise. "What, kage bunshin can do that? How does it work?"
"Ah, sorry operational secret you know. Soooo I caaaaan't teeeell." He answered, finishing in an annoying singsong voice.
"Oh please Naruto, want could be the harm in telling little old me?" If he wanted to play, she'd show him exactly how good she was at this game. She knew he'd be on his guard right now, but if she gave it a bit of time, he'd tell her anything she wanted. Right now she settled for looking at him with big, pleading eyes, strategically using her arms to push her chest up a bit. Which she'd claim was pure coincidence of course. This was a pretty obvious technique, but if he thought she would be this obvious all the time, she'd win in the end.
Naruto had unfortunately decided to look away at that moment, which made her moves rather ineffective. "Last time I looked you were a trained kunoichi, telling you anything at all is pretty much tempting fate, and I've got enough trouble to handle without going off looking for more."
She smirked, hearing a subtle challenge in his words. "Well, maybe trouble will come looking for you. Our date isn't over yet, you know." She could hear him mutter something, before turning his head towards her, a wide grin stretching his features.
"Well, I suppose I'll just have to treat you so well that you forget all about those boring things. Of course I've been planning something like that all along, but you keep refusing to tell me where we're going after this."
"My, aren't you the confident one. I think all those girls you've been playing with while travelling has addled your brains, or do you think I'll be that easily charmed?" She grinned right back at him. "Remember that I'm the one trained in seduction here, don't expect me to just roll over and ask you to rub my belly because you know how to behave in polite society."
"Why would I rub your belly? You're not a dog." Then sudden look of confusion on Naruto's face gave Ino pause, as she realized that there was such a thing as honest, natural charm. She hadn't felt the need to squeal about cute things, or anything else for that matter, since Sasuke left in search of power. Now she found herself hard pressed to keep a straight face. He looked absolutely adorable, blue eyes wide and innocent, lips slightly parted and a small frown creasing his forehead. And his voice! Somehow he managed to completely lose the tone of grown-up mocking and revert to the thirteen year old clueless boy that he'd been before leaving on his three year long training trip.
"Well, what do you call a female dog?"
"A bit-, err, you know."
"Yup, exactly. I'm just saying that I am not going to be your, "female dog", just because of one nice date." Her grin turned a bit feral. "I might have you be mine though."
"Aww, come on Ino, I never meant it like that. Besides, I don't think I'd ever talk about any girl as being my bitch. A few guys, sure, but that's for fighting." He looked a bit annoyed, and then his eyes narrowed." Hey, hold on now, didn't you say that one date wouldn't be enough?"
"Yup." She replied, wondering what he was aiming at.
"Hm, so how many dates would it take then?" When her cheeks turned a bit red, he simply chuckled. "Wow, I hope you don't leave openings like that when you're fighting. That was almost too easy, you know."
"Shut up!" Now it was Ino's turn to get annoyed. This was not how it was supposed to go. "That's it, he's gonna get it later."
Just then they arrived at Ino's apartment. She let him in, telling him to help himself to any refreshments he'd like, and disappeared behind a door to change.
He sat down in the living room, a glass of water in his hand. The flat was definitely owned by females. One was interested in art and culture, there were a couple of what he suspected was modern paintings and a magazine about design on the coffee table. The other was probably a medic. There was a small library of medicine literature and a few folders with the stamp of Konoha's hospital on it. He'd have to ask, but he'd be willing to bet quite a bit on Sakura being the flat mate.
He let his mind drift, trying to make sense of the time since coming back to Konoha. It seemed like a lot had happened, keeping him from asking some rather pointed questions. He'd had thought that he'd return months earlier, when Jiraiya suddenly declared that their schedule had been changed. Then he determined Naruto's primary elemental affiliation to be wind, using a special type of paper, and together they'd worked on a few different uses for that combat oriented element. Then they had returned to Suna, and he'd been thrust into the role as diplomat and special envoy of Konoha to Suna, while the appointed representative returned home for rest and consultation.
Man that had been a crazy month. He'd spent most of the journey away from other people, training, meditating and studying. Jiraiya even shopped for supplies to keep him away from anything more densely populated than a tiny hamlet. The only exceptions had been some of the missions and when he had to go recover his irresponsible sensei. Then Tsunade had decided that a training obsessed recluse was the perfect stand in for Konoha's most important foreign diplomat. If he hadn't missed seeing Gaara and the others of the Sand, he'd probably refused outright.
Seeing as how he felt both kinship and a strange sense of responsibility for his fellow jinchuuriki, he'd accepted with the usual good grace of someone who knows that they're being strong armed by their own conscience into making a bad decision. "I'll give it three days, then we go back to training!" It had of course just been a way to cover his retreat. Jiraiya (and in extension, Tsunade) knew he'd never abandon a job half done. And the Sabaku family had done everything they could to help him along. Their assigning Akane as his liaison and unofficial aide had been one of the good parts.
The large number of official meetings, dinners and celebrations had not.
He was jerked out of his thoughts by the sound of a door opening, and he managed to stand up in time to see Ino entering the room. Which proved to be a good reason to stand up. He knew she was around his age, but the fact that she was wearing what she'd referred to as party clothes didn't seem to take away from her being a lady. Because a girl could never get away with wearing a dress like that, smooth black hugging a still maturing figure. Excepting thin straps, it started with an impressively seductive cleavage, left a hole centered on the navel and ended a bit too high up the knees for him to keep his pulse down. She'd also donned the gift he'd bought for her, a set of earrings and matching necklace worked in silver and adorned with various blue colored gems.
She smiled at him, walked up close, put her hand under his chin and lifted it up, closing his mouth. "I'm so glad you like this old rag of mine, but it's not polite to stare you know."
Naruto did an imitation of a goldfish for a few seconds, then blurted out the first thing that popped into his head. "Wow." Realizing that he wasn't sounding all that smooth, he decided to try and think before talking. "Is it legal to look that good?" Well, at least he tried.
Ino merely raised an eyebrow. "Don't really care, is there something you'd like to complain about? Should I go change?"
"No! Eheh, please, you look awesome. I'm just worried about getting stampeded by all the guys that'll wanna talk to you."
"Oh, that won't be a problem where we're going. Do you promise to pay for us getting in?"
"Huh? Sure, I promise, but where are we heading?"
"That's for me to know and for you to wonder about. Shall we get going then?" She led the way out into the street, hooked her arm around his and started walking toward the entertainment district. They spent the walk talking, Ino returning to the impressive rapid fire gossiping mode she'd entered during the walk to the restaurant. And during most of the dinner. And walking to the opera house. And during the pauses. And the thing that sort of stood out was that, no matter how much she talked, there was very little being said. He didn't really know a lot of the people she was talking about, he didn't care about the scandals happening in the higher strata of civilian society and he'd personally protected more royalty than you can easily shake a fist full of kunai at. They didn't impress him all that much anymore.
At the same time, she'd barely mentioned anything about a certain Uchiha missing nin, hadn't talked about any current operations or recent missions or even what most of their mutual friends were doing, although he'd managed to pick up that Shino was somehow involved in research and Shikamaru worked on mission planning. And Sakura hadn't had a date since he'd left, which was neither a surprise nor of much interest to him. He knew exactly what he'd promised at the hospital three years ago, and what he'd have to give up if he succeeded. Well, now he did at least. Before, he hadn't really considered the consequences. Of failure, or success.
Strangely enough it was an old text he'd come across when reading up on old chemistry, or alchemy as it was called. Some of it was almost esoteric, but at the core was actually a belief, which had made sense at the time. Something for something, nothing for nothing. If one gains, another loses. And in a flash of insight, he'd realized that, whether true or not otherwise, that was exactly what his promise to get Sasuke-teme home meant. He succeed, he loses any hope of winning Sakura. He fail, well, he'd have to be dead to admit defeat. It was effectively a case of 'damned if I don't, damned if I do'.
And he was very much a doer at heart.
So he'd resigned himself to Sakura being a lost cause. Not because he liked giving up, but because he hated it. The only thing he'd hate more was to let her down by failing to return their errant friend. It had in certain ways made life easier. Don't think about love and life after Akatsuki, because his chance at surviving was low enough without distractions anyway. Just take all that pent up frustration, guilt, sorrow and anger and push it into training. Use it in the best way possible and become so strong that no doors would remain closed. Then bring that idiot back, no matter what, give them their happy ever after if you had to force them, and then, well. He hadn't gotten that far yet, but he was certain something would pop up.
Oh, yeah, like Akatsuki. Maybe he could get his hands on Itachi before Sasuke did, remove his limbs and offer him as a bribe. Then again, Sasuke might be a bit peeved if he didn't get to fight his brother and use that hard earned power. Maybe he could be something like a wedding gift?
"Oi, Naruto, are you listening?" Ino's question managed to penetrate his thoughts, the tone of voice indicative of how his good health was depending on his answer.
"Sorry Ino. I guess I kinda drifted off for a second there. Things have been happening so quickly lately. What were you saying?"
"That we're almost there, it's that place." She pointed out a club a bit further down the street. "Now, remember that you promised to pay our way in right?"
"Uhu, I did. Um, did you just point to that place?"
"Yup."
"And why would we be going there? It doesn't look like a place you'd enjoy."
"Well, one of my cousins is getting married, and we're holding her bachelorette party there."
"A strip club? Why did you rent that place for a party like that?"
"Well, she has a lot of friends and relatives, mostly singles, and wanted everyone to enjoy themselves. That's why I brought you by the way."
Naruto suddenly got the urge to start running. Fast and far, far away. "What do you mean?"
Ino smiled the kind of smile that Orochimaru had spent hours in front of a mirror to acquire. "Well, I read about your trip with Jiraiya, and then I heard that you'd actually danced for strippers to get out of paying. So I figure you're pretty good at it, and I sort of promised to get a male stripper for the party, and well, you're it."
"Let me guess, you bought clothes instead of hiring a professional."
"Well, you do like my dress right?"
"How many are there gonna be in there? And can I use kage bunshin?"
"Well, somewhere between sixty and seventy I reckon, and I suppose you can get some bunshins to do the serving, but the dancing will be all you. I don't want the dancer to dispel mid dance."
Naruto, wondering just what sick asshole had put him in such a ridiculous position, decided to grin and bear it. A promise was always a promise. "Of course, there will be slaps and such, right?"
"Well, I know my aunts and cousins. There will be sake and such in there, and unless Tenten was trying to wind us girls up you haven't been training that body of yours for nothing these last few years. So yes, there will be slapping, caressing, groping, fondling and possibly a bit of ravishing. Just make sure to start off with a lap dance for the bride to be, okay?" The fact that she was smiling sweetly during the whole of that little speech was even more chilling than what she had actually said. "After all, I wouldn't want for you to get kidnapped and tied up somewhere before the girl we're celebrating gets her share."
"You- Are- Freaking- Me- Out-" Naruto had actually gone a bit pale, and he could feel sweat starting to gather on his back.
"Hey, I'm just giving you a heads up. Aunt Izanami hasn't done anything naughty for at least six months. She's probably getting tired of controlling herself." By then they had arrived to the club, a large sign proclaiming the place to be rented out for a private party and two large, non-humorous looking bouncers had apparently been hired to help anyone analphabetic. When Ino explained who she was and why Naruto was allowed in, they smiled, none to friendly and gave him that look that said 'better you than me'.
Naruto promised himself not to promise things so easily in the future.
"Naruto, please promise me you'll do this right, okay?"
"Sure Ino." Then he slapped himself. "Damn, so much for that promise."
Meanwhile, Konoha research center
Shino was done for the day. Well, evening really, but he didn't mind. The experiment was proceeding well ahead of the projected schedule. Hopefully it would mean a practical application before the end of the next month. The area of sealing techniques was unexplored territory, most of the knowledge kept within the minds of a few masters. Even the most simple ones, used every day for storage, secrecy and blowing things up, where more a work of imitation than off understanding. Unless something unexpected occurred, they would be able to start building seals from scratch soon, even long term consequences known beforehand. And of course, the possibility of undoing seals without having to rip it forcefully from the body was an enticing one.
Jiraiya, walking by his side, had been instrumental in speeding up their research. Shino wasn't certain of why, but the man had taken a vested interest in freeing the kunoichi Mitarashi Anko from her curse seal. He'd refused to comment, and Shino didn't really care. The things they would be able to do once this knowledge moved into the realm of documented and verified science, instead of the half religious one it had belonged to before, were almost unimaginable. It was almost enough to make him skip down the hall, and the slightest of smiles creased his lips. Almost two years of frowned upon, low budget research in a tiny one person office, sharing with two others of course, was paying off beyond anyone's expectations.
Priority would be given to understanding the medical seals first, and the removal of seals. Orochimaru's hobby of forcing seals onto anyone with even a pinch of talent or unusual skill had led to the elemental nations being overrun by unstable, overpowered maniacs. The Aburame clan was being tasked with most of these missions, as their chakra draining ability gave them the ability to safely disable the walking disasters that were Orochimaru's abandoned experiments. Over twenty had been captured and put in special holding cells. Soon, they should be able to remove the seal, and with a bit of luck they'd not only gather more information on Orochimaru and his operations, they'd also gain a few useful new recruits. They had a standing agreement to return all citizens they found from Kaze and Nami, but the rest were fair game for recruitment.
The information was more important however. Amongst other things, they still didn't know why Orochimaru had decided to just release all these people. Oto had been extremely difficult to gather information in before, but the last half year or so had seen the country turn into a veritable suicide run, borders closed up tight. All sources of information had either died, disappeared or left the country. Rumors abounded of some kind of rebellion, or attack. Possibly even civil war.
The lack of information was grating on everyone's nerves. They currently had better knowledge of the Akatsuki than the Hokage's old teammate, and the shadowy organization had never bothered with attacking the village directly. Not knowing what the deranged snake lover was up to had increased the numbers of stress related sick days to new highs among the ones tasked with ensuring the safety of the village.
Shino was grateful that his job wasn't as stressful, or annoying.
"So, how long do you think you can keep Naruto from chasing after Sasuke? If I know him right Akatsuki's just an annoying side event compared to bringing back the Uchiha."
Jiraiya shrugged. "That's Tsunade's problem now, but I've been receiving some interesting pieces of information lately, which points to him being kept occupied for quite some time. Luckily it seems like Akatsuki has been running into some kind of problem, although I still don't know what kind. I'm expecting them to resume hunting soon however, they have some of the most powerful missing-nins in the elemental countries in their ranks after all. I can't see anyone standing against them for too long."
"What about Orochimaru?"
"Well, I suppose he could take one or even two of them on by himself, but Akatsuki has a whole bunch of S-class individuals. I seriously doubt that they'd willingly deplete each others' resources before they've dealt with at least a few of the larger villages." They both stepped though the last security checkpoint, heading toward the facility's entrance.
"I suppose you're right, but the chaos in Oto does seem suspicious. The chances of both happening at the same time without being connected seem slim to me."
"I agree. There is probably a connection, but until we get something solid I'd rather not jump to conclusions. There just might be a third player involved, although I should have heard about it if there were."
"Indeed, the skills and resources required to move against either or possibly both without us finding out something would suggest a much worse threat than we believed Akatsuki to be."
"That's why I'll have to get moving again soon. Tsunade will need something to go on if we're to take the initiative. Good luck with the experiments until then." By now they were outside, and Jiraiya set off towards the Hokage's tower.
"Thank you, and good luck yourself." With that, Shino turned and walked off as well, heading home.
After they were gone, four shadowy figures left cover in a few nearby trees and headed towards the research building. They had several objectives, but the number one was to remain undetected.
One a.m. central Konoha
"Ahh, crazy woman! Get away from me!" Naruto was running along one of the walls, an older Yamanaka hot on his heels. He'd been smart enough to cover his face while embarrassing himself, almost bringing his life to a point as low as when he'd accidentally kissed Sasuke, which still held pride of place among his most-disturbing-moments-of-my-life. It hadn't been topped by anything yet, despite Jiraiya using him as a commodity for paying for "research". Taking a chidori through the chest was nothing compared to what the old super pervert had put him through.
"Shut up and stop running! I won't bite! At least not hard, unless you want me to!" The woman, whom Ino had called aunt just before the hunting had begun, was grinning in a way that would make any predator proud, apparently including the dozen or so women who were enthusiastically shouting encouragement at the not-very-sober-at-all kunoichi. He'd normally be thrilled having this much attention, but these women were starting to scare him.
Naruto had quickly learnt not to look for help among the crowd, as the motherly woman he'd tried hiding behind at first almost caught him in wire. Then he'd learnt that shouts were a lot more preferable to the various other things that were being thrown his way, in an attempt to trip him up. At least he hoped so, a few had come a bit too close for comfort. Why he'd decided to saunter out into the lounge after the "show" was something he would be asking himself for quite some time after this, provided he got out with his clothes on. He'd almost lost his mask within seconds, and hadn't had a chance to keep his shirt, although the tie for some reason had stayed around his neck.
"Is it too much to ask to just sit down and talk? What happened to romance and getting to know each other during late night walks?" He wasn't sure just what the hell was going on. He'd been able to evade or confound jounin after one of his pranks, and here was this older, well, sort of anyway, kunoichi who for some reason was able to look straight through his attempts at subterfuge. "How the hell did she see through that genjutsu? She's drunk for crying out loud!"
"Sorry, romance is for teens, us mature women are more interested in action!" She and a few others unleashed another barrage of weapons at him. He dodged most of them, but four senbon needles embedded themselves in his left calve, making him give off a sound halfway between a whimper and a rather animalistic yip. It seemed like the stress were bringing out some of the fox in him. That might turn a mildly annoying and embarrassing situation into something drastically much worse. Quite a few of the people watching the impromptu chase would be old enough to know who he really was if they stopped to think about it, and he really didn't want to turn the party into a panic fest.
"Ino, for Kami's sake, do something!" He could feel anxiety oozing off of him. So could some of the Inuzukas as well, as at least two of the dog crazy clan joined in, one heading him of and the other joining the aunt in chasing him.
Ino almost managed to get her laughter under control, before realizing that there were now three women trying to capture and possibly molest her date. A small voice, Conscience, was trying to say something about how she probably should help him, but it was outvoted by the voices known as Drunk, Happy and Evil, eagerly cheered on by Horny and Pervert. She would probably stop things from going too far, but this was the kind of stuff you'd usually read about in one of the Icha Icha books. "Go Naruto!" Was all the support he'd get for now.
"Damn all women and their weirdness. Guess I'll have to get a bit serious." Naruto brought up his hands, making three kage bunshin pop out alongside him. They threw themselves at the hunting women, slowing them down. Two of them got dispelled, while the last one fell to the floor. Shortly after their target was brought down, only to literally go up in smoke. They stood dumbfounded for a few precious seconds, before whipping around and starting towards the main exit, locking on to the mop of blonde hair moving as fast as only a deer or a young man can move during hunting season.
After the not so stable women had chased the figure out of the club and up into the world of roofs that was "topside" Konoha, Naruto carefully looked up from his hiding place behind Ino. Incredibly, no one had noticed him crouching behind the table. He hoped the clone would last long enough for him to convince Ino that it was time to leave.
"Hey Ino, where did you find that hot piece of ass?" Naruto quickly ducked back down, not wanting to get caught again. The speaker was one of the extended family of Ino's.
"Oh, Naruto is a Konoha shinobi, he's just been out of the village for a few years." Ino smiled. "He has changed a lot though, he used to be about as useless as a bottomless bucket. I mean, sure, some shinobi are a bit weird, but who has ever heard of a ninja dressed in orange?"
The woman looked a bit shocked. "Wait, you mean that guy is Uzumaki Naruto? Are you sure?" At that, the conversations nearby faltered, and Ino found herself under scrutiny from a lot of the older women present. Most looked baffled, a few angry or disgusted.
"Yeah, that's right. But how do you know him? And why is it so strange?"
"Ah, well, see." The woman faltered and another interjected. "He's not a good person you know, you should stay away from him! I heard he's been taking advantage of women ever since he came back to Konoha!"
Ino blinked at that. Sure, Naruto looked good enough to chain to a bed for a weekend or so, but the idea of him taking advantage of women was ludicrous, not to mention that he came back two days earlier. Just how many women can you seduce in forty-eight hours? "Oh, and where did you pick up this information? I've known him since the academy, and although his a bit dim, I'm positive he'd never take advantage of anyone, not to mention that Hokage-sama would rip his head off and go bowling with it if he so much as considered doing something improper." Her eyes grew colder as she kept on defending her date.
"Um, well, he did a lot of pranks before-"Ino cut the woman off before she got any further.
"So what, that was years ago, and I'm positive even those of you that are civilians know that he's been off training with one of the Sannin for three years. Sorry, but you're gonna have to do better than those tired old tales. Why do you really think he's so bad?"
Ino was surprised when the older women all turned apprehensive, well those that hadn't started looking nervous as soon as they heard Naruto's full name. Finally one of them, after several shared glances, started talking. "Well, it's not something that we can talk about. Just trust us that there are reasons for our advising caution regarding the Uzumaki boy."
Ino was starting to look pissed, so Naruto decided to intervene before they had a falling out over him. He'd hoped that he wouldn't be the party pooper of the evening, but that hope certainly seemed foolish right now. Standing up while pulling down his mask, and thoroughly startling those that had been part of the argument, he stared at them. After a few seconds of gauging their reactions he decided that it might be best to do something, and so directed his gaze at the young bride-to-be. "Yamanaka-san, I wish you well in your future marriage. I'm afraid that I've outlasted my welcome here, so I should probably leave. Ino-chan, you're free to stay if you want, I won't hold it against you."
Ino was not satisfied however. "Hold on now, I still haven't heard what the big issue is. And don't tell me you're going to let this silly slandering slide."
"If you'd like, we can discuss that on the way back to your place. Or some other day perhaps. "By now pretty much everyone was aware of the discussion, quite a few of the younger women wondering just what the big deal was."Either way I have a long day tomorrow, and it's a bit of a walk from your apartment to my home."
Ino gave him a Look, set her shoulders, crossed her arms and said in a voice that promised that Sakura would be hearing about it later if he didn't spill. "Actually, I want this aired out right here, right now. Something about this smells really badly, so tell me, and all the rest of us who does not understand what the fuss is all about." When Naruto looked hesitant, which didn't really suit him, she intensified the Look into a high powered glare. "Now, Naruto."
He deflated, realizing that she wasn't going to back down, and that the Rules for treating your date as laid down by Akane-neechan were crystal about situations like these. "Fine, but there are conditions that you must be made aware of."He exchanged a look with the informal leader of the older women, who already knew what he was about to say. "There is a sixteen year old law, instated by the Sandaime Hokage and ratified by the Godaime, which means that what I am about to tell you may not be shared with anyone who doesn't already know. Breaking the law is a capital offence, punishable only by death, so decide now whether you really need to hear it." At this, several girls fidgeted a bit, but no one moved as if to leave. "Suit yourselves then. The law was put in effect due to the method that the Yondaime used to defeat the Kyuubi demon. Demons in general can never be killed by humans, only contained in various ways. That was what the Yondaime did, exchanging his life to seal away the Kyuubi."
He paused, telling the real story never got any easier, the unanswered questions always returning with a vengeance. He looked at his audience, everyone giving him their full attention. "Unfortunately the Kyuubi was too powerful to be sealed into an object, so the Yondaime used a newborn baby boy to save the village from harm. For some reason he thought that the villagers would treat the boy like a hero." Here he gave the leader a sarcastic smirk. "That was not to be however, and so the Sandaime decided that the boy would need protection. Therefore the law was declared. No one was allowed to inform those too young to understand what had really happened, upon pain of death, that the Yondaime had sealed the Kyuubi into one Uzumaki Naruto."
When he finally said it, he paused again, the room completely silent. No one moved or said anything for a few seconds, so he decided to continue. "So, now you know why most of those who survived the attack all those years ago either resent me or hate me outright. As for just how idiotic it is calling me a playboy, well, that's as obvious as I could ask for. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go home. Enjoy the rest of your evening."
With that he turned away from the crowd and walked out of the room.
It took Ino all of two seconds to realize that he'd actually left, before she looked around helplessly at the women. She started saying something, stopped herself and then shrugged. She didn't need to talk to them right now, she needed to talk to Naruto. And to do that, she had to find him, which hopefully wouldn't be too hard. Moving as if in a daze, she turned and chased after him, leaving without so much as a word.
The party stayed quiet for another few seconds, before the crowd started buzzing like a hive. This development required a lot of answering.
While a part of Konoha's alleged future started tearing into their elders, Ino was hurrying down the street she believed that Naruto had taken on his way home. She couldn't quite run, but that wasn't a problem. Standard shinobi conduct required a minimum of chakra usage within the village in general, and the "civilian" quarters especially. She was reasonably sure that he was moving at a slow pace, and if necessary she'd even knock on his door. Reasoning thus she headed down an alley, hoping to head him off.
That meant that she missed the three shadows following her, as well as the blue eyes watching from a shadowy corner. Those blue eyes followed the movements, then blinked once before following. There seemed to be an unusual amount of moving shadows tonight.
Ino had been moving along at a decent speed, remembering that she wasn't really dressed for a high speed pursuit intercept. After a few blocks, she realized that her elevated pulse was not only due to chasing the sexiest demon in the elemental countries. Someone was following her, and although she had learnt a lot the last few years, she still couldn't sense chakra signatures to the extent where she could pinpoint the number of pursuers, their strength or exact position in relation to herself. At least until they started powering up jutsus.
She realized that she was in trouble, carrying almost no weapons and being a support fighter at best. After a few seconds she recognized one of the signatures, an unpopular chuunin that had been making passes at her before. He also had a reputation of enjoying violent missions more than most, and aggravating collateral damage. Or civilian casualties as it was also known. At three different occasions, as far as she knew, the medic ordered to assist his team had reported being hindered to assist wounded innocents. That had always been excused with the necessities of executing mission directives.
His constant hounding of her had not. And now he was closing in, with support. And she was alone.
She felt rather than saw the three men landing in a standard triangle formation, cutting off all escape routes. Not surprisingly, the prize bastard had decided to land in front of her. He seemed certain that she couldn't get away this time, and unless a miracle happened, she'd be in the deep end before long. That was of course nothing that she could admit to.
"Hi Ino-chan. Wow, you're looking mighty fine." The bastard was leering at her, a sure fire sign that he thought he had all the cards.
"Kentaro. Haven't seen you around for a while, did Tsunade run out of border patrols for you?" She knew that this was ending badly baring a divine intervention
"Now, now, Ino-chan. Me and my friends have been doing that three months straight, so we figured that you'd help us relax after a job well done." His leer was becoming insufferable at this point, but the worst part was that she probably couldn't do anything about what was about to happen.
"Sorry, but I'm feeling kind of tired. I'd prefer to go home and get a few hours sleep."
"Aw, too bad, but I expect that's what happens when you're whoring yourself out to the demon of Konoha. Now, I don't really care whether you give it up to him because he pays you or not, but I do think you should be giving it for free to us hard working, honest human Konoha nins. Don't you?"
Surprisingly to herself, that put some fire into Ino. "Don't you dare talk about Naruto like that!" She hissed, death evident in her voice. For some reason, the idea of him being put down just wasn't going to be accepted this evening.
"Bitch, there are three of us, all chuunin. Just shut up and don't put up a fight, and maybe we won't hurt you." She didn't have to see it, to know he was angry, as were the two others moving in from her flanks. Even if she managed to put up a fight, there was no real doubt about the result.
Thankfully, that was all the danger she'd be subjected to that night, as the four nins suddenly felt a fifth presence joining in. This one was as subtle as a slow poison, until suddenly an intent to kill flared outwards, while the body was outlined by a powerful red chakra overflow.
"Strangely enough, I can't help but feel that I should rend you sons of goats limb from limb. Do you have any reason for me not to do that? No? Aw, too bad then." The voice issuing from the new arrival was inhumanly deep, and lined with a thirst for blood. The voice was nothing to the oppressive atmosphere issuing forth from the shadow cloaked newcomer however, and it was turning everyone nearby pale with fright.
Before Kentaro and friends were able to answer, the figure was moving. A vortex of wind shaded chakra was gathering along his right arm even as he disappeared from sight. It was obviously both effective and deadly, as it shattered a hastily raised kunai in the hand of the nin to Ino's right, before continuing into the shoulder of his first target.
"Demon bastard!" Was all the other unknown shinobi had time to say, before an oversized tongue whipped out from the shadows and pulled the unlucky assailant from his feet. A forlorn scream of terror was cut off by a rather grisly, meat cleaving sound. And then only one of her stalkers was still standing.
That was not to last for long, as a cry of "Rasengan" declared the formation of one of the most powerful non elemental jutsus known in Konoha. Then a blue swirl of power was hurtling through the night, obliterating a hastily formed doton shield before powering into and seriously injuring the immoral chuunin standing before her.
The whole "battle" had lasted all of a few seconds, and it was obvious that if the suddenly motionless blonde had been serious, Tsunade would have been forced to replace three border guarding chuunins. Bad hygiene optional.
Ino stared at her date with awe. She knew intellectually that he'd spent the last three years training under one of the legendary sannin. She also knew that he'd been prohibited from attending any chuunin exams. Seeing firsthand the reality of just how powerful an apprentice of the Sannin could be when provoked was something else entirely.
Suddenly she realized that she was wishing that she didn't have a "one-date-rule". Not only had he jumped in to protect her like the proverbial knight in shining armor. He'd done so flawlessly, embarrassing a total of three veteran chuunin and even being able to hide his presence enough to surprise them all. This feat should be impossible for anyone with less skill than a mid jounin, and he'd done it like it had been natural.
There would definitely be a second date if she had anything to say about it.
"Naruto." She couldn't see his face in the gloom, but his posture seemed uncharacteristically demure.
"Sorry Ino, I didn't know you had bloody stalkers following you around. Want me to get rid of them?" While he sounded quite remorseful about neglecting her safety, he didn't seem particularly fazed about murdering three shinobi from his own village.
"Um, I don't think Tsunade would be pleased if you killed three of her chuunin."
"Huh? I wasn't talking about doing something quite that final, I just figured that the ANBU trying to keep an eye on me could be put to some use for once."
"Wait, you have ANBU as bodyguards." Ino didn't quite believe what she was hearing. ANBU only ever did the most high profile missions, guarding the village and its leaders, protecting priority targets and generally being a deterrent to crime and disorder. After all, you never knew when one of Konoha's finest was nearby.
Naruto made a motion with his hand, and Ino followed him over to a lonely street lamp. "You heard my story at the club right? I'm keeping the single most powerful entity under lock in my stomach. That's not something that any Kage can ignore, no matter what they think about jinchuurikis otherwise." His gaze was locked onto her own, intense and deadly serious. The usually silly and cute blonde that had annoyed her during her academy days was nowhere in sight, nor was the sweet if clueless young teen that had spoiled her during the entire evening.
Only a cold and merciless shinobi was left.
"Ah, of course. Sorry, it just seem so unreal. I mean, the Kyuubi was something my parents would scare me with when I was little." Almost as soon as she had said it, she realized that it might be the worst possible choice of wording ever. Antagonizing someone who ran around with an avatar of catastrophe sealed inside them wasn't exactly on her to-do list.
Thankfully, Naruto only smiled thinly."Be glad it isn't worse. I could be repeating some of the horrible jokes he likes to pull out." He still wasn't his usual goofy self, but he seemed to be slowly returning to normal at least. Naruto looked away, made a few hand signs that she couldn't see and pointed at her unwanted admirers. ´Then he turned his ice blue gaze back to her. "I'm sorry about ruining the date like this. Let me escort you home so I can sleep easily afterwards, and tomorrow you can pretend this never happened."
Ino stared at him. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"Well, I just-"
"Shut it, I won't accept anything other than another date as an excuse good enough for causing that scene back at the club! And who the hell told you that I didn't want to leave together with you anyway?" She was panting at the end of her outburst, realizing that she might have revealed a bit more than she would have liked. Trying to cover up her mistake, she took a half step forward, threw her arms around his neck, and then got into a rather aggressive lip lock. He seemed stunned at first, not being able to follow her mood swings at all. Then he felt her tongue poking at his lower lip, and soon they were involved in a fierce session of tongue wrestling.
Naruto felt his confusion gathering at the back of his mind, queuing up with a bit of wariness at letting his guard down and disbelief at a second person in two days choosing to stay nearby after knowing his secret. Thankfully Ino's kissing was able to override his ingrained cynical reactions, the assault on his lips wiping out anything other than the need to get more of this feeling. He knew that there would be a long talk with Akane later, but right now the pure physical desire was all he wanted to think about.
Naturally, that was when there was an explosion a few blocks away.
A/N: Yay! Evilness aplenty!. Other than that, this was a bitch of a chapter. Not sure what the problem is really, might be that I find Ino hard to figure out and write well.
As you might have figured out, I find the idea of stealthy assasins screaming out the attack they're about to use so silly that I refuse to use it unless I feel it to be nescessary. Other than that, I just don't think that fighting should take so damn long.
And that will have to do I think, I'm just glad I've moved past this never ending story. Next chapter will probably focus on the new development (ohh, surprise there, NOT) and hopefully bring about a surprise or three.
A bit of constructive critique would be welcome. Till next update (I ain't promising anything).
Ja ne.