Disclaimer: All HP characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies and all Naruto characters are the property of Masashi Kishimoto. This is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites.

Warnings: AU for parts of both worlds (i.e. kiss canon goodbye), mild character bashing, mild to moderate violence (there are shinobi involved after all), and a few others that will be announced as they crop up.

AN: This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance.

Chapter 36: A Kunoichi's Persistence

Monday, September 08, 2003, Late Morning
Konohagakure no Sato, Hi no Kuni

Harry tried to ignore the butterflies that had taken up residence in his stomach the moment Yuugao had come right out and said that she was interested in being more than friends as he led his crush to his family's private retreat. He wasn't quite certain why he even offered to take her there so they could talk when it would have been far safer (if not anywhere near as private) to take her back to the family apartment above the restaurant. He knew that one reason was because he hadn't wanted to give Arata and Eri any more reasons to speculate on his relationship with the vivacious kunoichi beside him least it open him to all kinds of teasing from the couple.

Another reason why he had opted against taking her back to his home was because he felt he owed it to her to give her his undivided attention after all of the uncharitable thoughts he'd been thinking about her because he had thought that she was avoiding him. There was also a part of him that hoped Yuugao would kiss him again. That first kiss they had shared had sparked a hundred fantasies and invoked feelings in him that he had not felt since the month and a half that he'd been together with Ginny during his sixth year at Hogwarts; feelings that had been noticeably absent after he'd gotten back together with Ginny once the war had ended.

They were also feelings that he had at one point feared he could never feel again. And part of him had felt guilty that it was Yuugao that had stirred those feelings in him and not Ginny. It wasn't that he still loved Ginny, he didn't. He wasn't even entirely sure that he had truly loved her rather than the idea she had represented to his younger self; the idea that he was worthy of being loved. That he could be loved. And learning that Ginny had only loved what he represented had cut him deeply.

It was only his anger over her cruel and crass comments about his cousin and godson that had stopped him from breaking down that night. Well, his anger and the presence of his cousin at the time. He'd buried the pain she had caused him deeply as he threw himself into Naruto's life and made plans for their move to Konoha. His growing crush on Yuugao had stirred the memories of that pain once or twice but never enough to fully trigger his insecurities. It hadn't been until after Yuugao had seemingly ditched him the day after she had kissed him that the old pain he'd kept bottled up burst forth.

He had been torn between fear that there was something wrong with him that he always drove the girls he fell in love with away from him and anger at Yuugao for toying with his feelings. He had briefly wondered if maybe she'd been ordered to seduce him by the Hokage before he discarded that notion entirely; there had been a glaring lack of seduction going on despite there having been ample opportunities over the past two years. There was also no reason that he could think of for the Hokage to order one of his kunoichi to seduce him; it wasn't like the aged shinobi needed to resort to such underhand methods to gain information from Harry when Harry had been grudgingly volunteering information each time he was asked.

Harry pushed aside his ruminations as they reached the wrought iron gate leading into the Namikaze Retreat. He pulled out a kunai at that point and deftly sliced his palm open before cleaning off the knife and putting it away. He allowed the blood to pool in his hand for a moment before he smeared a streak across the runic seals that controlled the wards. Harry felt the magic in the wards hum briefly as his blood was absorbed before the enchantments that protected the retreat when no one was using it went dormant.

The nice thing about having the runic ward scheme controlling the wards was that there was no need to use magic each time they needed to be activated or deactivated – which allowed the rest of the family to use the retreat without any need for Harry to be there to open the place up or close it down for them. The only drawback to using the runic ward scheme was that it required blood to lock and unlock them. It was also the need for blood that made it impossible for anyone other than a Namikaze to bypass or control the wards; Harry had keyed each member of their family into the scheme for just that purpose – even little Aika.

As soon as the wards were deactivated, a loud click sounded as the gate unlocked itself and swung inward to reveal a small estate that sat on exactly one square acre of land. Situated smack dab in the middle of the lot between two short white picket fences was a sprawling ranch house with a large porch that ran from corner to corner. Directly in front of the house, was a large pond that spanned the entire width of the property though it was only about ten feet across. There was a single cobblestone bridge centered over the middle of the pond. Running along the far edge of the pond were an assortment of willow and wisteria trees that provided shade for the pond and homes for the various birds that lived on the estate.

The stretch of land that fell between the pond and the gate was split in half by the cobblestone pathway leading straight to the bridge and both sides were filled with meandering pathways of stepping stones bordered by a wide assortment of flowering shrubs, bushes, and plants with the occasional flowering tree thrown in. Scattered amidst the greenery were a pair of fountains (one on either side of the main path), several marble statues of deer, dogs, and wolves in various poses, and a few scattered teak and brass benches that each sat beneath trellises of flowering vines.

On the far side of the pond, the cobblestone pathway widened into a cobblestone courtyard that was bordered on both sides by several juniper hedges that had been trimmed that they resembled a castle's battlements. The rest of the grounds between the house and pond were carpeted with a short cropped green lawn of hardy grasses. The flowerbeds that sat just below the porch were filled with a dozen different species of lily in a wide range of colors and sizes. Sitting on either side of the wide staircase that led up to the porch, a pair of climbing roses had been planted and their vines had been encouraged to weave themselves around and through the bars of the stair rails as they had grown.

As the two of them stepped through the gate, Harry discreetly watched Yuugao's face as she laid eyes on the sprawling garden that was the front yard of the Namikaze Retreat for the first time. He couldn't help but smile when he saw the look of pleased wonder fill her face as she took in the view.

"It's so beautiful," Yuugao breathed as she moved further down the walkway. "Why don't you live here instead of in an apartment above the restaurant?"

"Living here would have meant allowing others to access this place on a regular basis and I did not wish to share this peace of paradise with the general public."

"I can see why you'd feel that way; stepping through the gate was like stepping into a whole new world."

Harry hummed in agreement; every single last plant or tree growing on the property had been imported straight from England via house elf express or carried with them across the continent when they first arrived. The same could not be said of the wildlife that lived on the estate; the water fowl, fish, and amphibians that made their home in the pond all native to Hi no Kuni. The only exceptions were the boomslangs that lived in the greenhouse jungle that had been built in the very center of the house and the large family of kneazles, half-kneazles, and cats that lived under the porch.

"Come on, we can talk in the kitchen while I make us something for lunch," Harry suggested after giving Yuugao a few more minutes to take in the gardens.

The two of them made their way along the cobblestone path towards the bridge where they paused for a moment as Yuugao peered over the wrought iron and stone rails to watch a school of koi swimming beneath the water lilies that had been scattered throughout the pond. They reached the stairs a few minutes later and Harry fished his kunai back out as he bounded up the steps two at a time. He then sliced open his palm a second time in order to unseal the house. The door swung inwards just as Yuugao finally caught up to him once more.

Harry stepped into the small foyer and held the door open for Yuugao before he closed the door and exchanged his dragon hide boots for a pair of house shoes that were kept beside the door. He then pull off his dragon hide cloak and hung it up on the coat hooks that lined the wall beside the door above the collection of extra house shoes out of habit. He waited for Yuugao to change out of her shoes before he led her through the archway on the left hand side of the foyer into a cozy sitting room done up in a mix of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff colors. They soon passed through the door that was opposite of the archway that led into a formal dining room with a large table, a dozen chairs, a china hutch (filled with fine china, silverware, and crystal glassware), and a buffet table all made from mahogany.

Continuing on through that room in the same direction that they'd been traveling, the two of them next arrived in a large kitchen that was as long as both the dining room and sitting room put together. The third of the room closest to the dining room contained a small breakfast nook with an oaken table, wrap around bench, and two chairs on the left and an oak hutch filled with everyday dishware and cutlery beside a closed door leading deeper into the house on the right. The remaining two-thirds of the room was partially cut off from the informal breakfast nook by a bar counter with four stools situated under it that was attached to the right hand wall.

Directly behind the bar, was a professional quality stainless steel stove top, oven, and grill combo beside a small cabinet that was topped with a large cutting board instead of a counter top. Along the right wall, there were three sets of double doors that led into a walk-in refrigerator, a walk-in freezer, and a walk-in pantry; all three rooms maintained with magic that kept the food at the proper temperature and under a localized stasis spell to prevent it from spoiling. Just past the pantry doors was another archway that led to a small entry hall and a backdoor that led outside.

The back wall of the kitchen had a series of oak cabinets with a mica countertop that was kept bare and a sheet glass window that ran the full length of the wall – giving an unimpeded view of the small vegetable and herb garden that sat just behind the picket fence that cut the grounds in half. Along the left hand wall, there was another short countertop where several kitchen appliances were lined up including a toaster, a toaster oven, a microwave, a blender, a coffee maker, and an ice cream maker. In the very center of the kitchen was an island with a large kitchen sink and built in cutting board beneath which were several cupboards and draws where all of the pots, pans, baking sheets, and cooking utensils were kept.

All in all, it was the type of kitchen that would have made Harry's maternal aunt green with envy and white with fear; the latter strictly due to the magic involved in creating and maintaining the room.

"What would you like to drink?" Harry inquired as he crossed the room and began pulling out the pots and pans that he would need to make lunch.

"What do you have on hand? Do you even have any food in the house? Didn't you say it had been a while since you were last here?"

"We keep the house fully stocked year round so we never have to worry about food when we are here. And, off the top of my head, I know I have coffee, tea, juice, milk, cola, and water, of course."

"No alcohol…?" Yuugao teasingly asked.

"Hmm, no, not in the kitchen unless you count the cooking sherry; we keep all of the alcohol under lock and key in the drawing room."

"Why lock it up?"

"Two reasons; one is to keep it out of reach of the children and the other is to protect it from theft, since some of the imported liquors we have in the house are both hard to get and rather expensive."

"Why would you have to worry about anything inside of the house being stolen? Wouldn't the barriers you have layered over the property and house protect everything?"

"Barriers can be broken and it is always better to go overkill on protective measures and not need them than to skimp on your security and rue the day it falls," Harry replied with only the slightest trace of bitterness that was left over from the wizarding war.

Yuugao let out a soft snort of amusement in response to that rather paranoid answer before she asked, "What kind of juices do you have?"

"We've got apple, grape, cranberry, pineapple, grapefruit, pomegranate, cherry, orange, prune, and any potential combination of one or more of the above."

"Prune juice…? Seriously? You keep prune juice on hand?"

"Arata swears by the stuff. I just swear the stuff is disgusting."

Yuugao laughed and shook her head as she took a seat at the counter to watch him working. Once her laughter trailed off she stated, "I would not say no to a glass of grapefruit juice."

Harry hummed an acknowledgement as he ducked into the refrigerator to grab the juice along with everything he would need to make chicken fajitas. He then ducked into the pantry to grab a can of pinto beans, the rice, and a small can of tomato sauce. Once he had everything he needed, he set everything on the island counter before he passed the carton of juice to Yuugao and let her know she would find the glasses in the hutch behind her. He then began making lunch; starting with the Spanish rice since it would take the longest to make.

Once the rice was simmering on the stove, Harry began slicing up the bell peppers (one each of red, yellow, and green) and an onion. The mostly comfortable silence that had fallen over the pair stretched out for several minutes before Yuugao broke the silence to ask, "Are you upset that I kissed you that day?"

Harry stilled his knife as he briefly glanced up to meet her pupil-less brown eyes for a heartbeat before he dropped his gaze back to the cutting board as he continued slicing the vegetables for the fajitas. He considered Yuugao's question for nearly a full minute before he replied, "No."

"But…?"

"I am… confused. I had honestly not expected you to kiss me out of the blue like that. In some ways, it was unsettling."

"Unsettling how?"

"Your kiss made me feels things that I had not felt in years; things that I had not thought were possible for me to feel after the war ended."

"What kind of feelings are you referring to and why would you think it wasn't possible for you to feel them?"

Harry blushed bright red as he slid the sliced vegetables into a bowl and gave the rice a quick stir before he began slicing up the raw chicken breast he'd pulled out. He barely contained the urge to squirm beneath Yuugao's gaze as he tried to think of an answer that wouldn't make him out to be some kind of pervert or cause her to laugh at him.

"Takeshi…?" Yuugao prompted after several more minutes had passed.

"It was that first blessed taste of air a drowning man takes upon breaking free of the water, the cool rush of sweet water a parched man tastes when he finally gets his first drink after escaping a desert, and the welcome searing heat of a blazing fire washing over a half frozen man coming in out of a blizzard," Harry quietly confessed as he stopped cutting the chicken and just stared at the cutting board without really seeing it. He then glanced up at Yuugao with glittering emerald eyes as he added, "Your kiss made me feel alive, Yuugao. It's been six years since a kiss last made me feel that way and the girl who made me feel that way would have become my wife had I not met Naruto."

"You loved her," Yuugao stated in a quiet voice.

"No. There might have been a time when I thought I was in love with her but in the end it was the idea she represented that I had fallen in love with. Don't get me wrong, I did care for her, but I did not love her. And I do not know if she ever loved me or if she was just in love with my money and fame. In any case, whatever it was that I had with her when we first got together did not survive the war and any hope I had held of rekindling what we had died on the night I was going to propose to her."

"I'm confused," Yuugao stated slowly and when Harry glanced up at her after he dumped the chicken in the skillet, he could see a puzzled frown on her face. "Did you plan to propose to her during or after the war?"

"After… We'd only dated for about a month, month and a half, during the war and I'd broken things off with her after the headmaster of our school died. We got back together a year later, after the war had ended, and were together for over year before I gave into the pressure she'd been putting on me to propose to her and purchased an engagement ring. The night that I was going to propose to her was the same night that I met Naruto… in fact, I'd been on my way to the café that she'd asked me to meet her at for our date when I got an urgent message from Arata and I dropped everything to go fetch Naruto. If Arata's letter had reached me just ten minutes later, I would have made the worst mistake in my life."

"Are you implying that you stood your girlfriend up on the night you planned to purpose her?"

"Yes."

"Why…?"

"My family needed me," Harry replied as he stirred the chicken.

"So she broke up with you because you ditched her to go help your cousin?"

"Chigau; I broke up with her after we had a huge fight in front of Naruto, her parents, and my best friend where she accused me of lying, insulted my itoko because he wasn't born with our Kekkei Genkai, demanded that I get rid of both Naruto and Satoshi because they cramped her style, and revealed her true nature as a glory-seeking fan-girl. I never should have gotten back together with her after the war but I had thought… well, it doesn't really matter what I thought any more. At the time, I was young, desperate to reclaim something of myself that I had lost during the war, and did not wish to hurt the girl who I had at one time believed truly loved me."

"She hurt you; she betrayed you by pretending to be something she was not. She is the reason why you find it hard to believe that a woman… that I, could be honestly interested in you, as a man, as opposed to being only interested in your bank account or your clan's prestige."

"She is not the only one to blame; I share an equal measure of the blame," Harry countered as he added the sliced bell pepper and onions to the chicken and opened the can of beans.

Yuugao made a strangled sound in the back of her throat that Harry couldn't quite interpret but when he glanced up at her, she'd already cleared her face of any emotion. He eyed her for a moment before he returned his attention to their meal as he dumped the beans into a small pan and set them on another burner to warm them up. He then spent several minutes tending the fajita mix before he pulled both the fajita mix and the rice off of the fire and set a cast iron tortilla warmer on the stove to heat up as he grabbed several corn and flour tortilla and tossed them on the warmer. While he waited for those to heat up, he tossed on a kettle of water to make himself some tea and started dishing up their food; pausing every few minutes to flip the tortillas.

"You never did finish answering my original question," Yuugao pointed out as Harry pulled the heated tortillas from the pan and tucked them into a styrofoam tortilla holder that had been layered with warming charms. "You did not explain why you believed that it was no longer for you to feel the kind of feelings that you felt when we kissed."

Harry didn't answer right away as he set his tea to steeping while he divvied up the beans as he noticed them boiling before he dished up bowls of sour cream, guacamole, and salsa; his mind racing to figure out just how much he could tell her without giving away information about himself that he was not yet ready to divulge. He then stalled for a bit longer as he transferred their meal onto the bar before he lifted his gaze so that he could look Yuugao in the eye once more.

The moment he was certain that he held her undivided attention he replied, "I was not meant to survive the war. I was supposed to die a martyr's death for the 'Greater Good'. I was raised as a sacrificial lamb; I had been kept in the dark about my supposed destiny for nearly seven years and received only the barest minimum of training before I was told that the only way to end the war was for me to die. Only I didn't die. And yet, I don't think I survived completely intact because I sacrificed too much of myself. Some part of me died and I felt cast adrift; a left over war relic and a broken weapon that was no longer needed."

"I was only going through the motions of living during the year and a half that followed the war. I clung to that which was familiar in the hopes that I would miraculously recapture what I had lost by living in the memory of what I had had before. The only reason that I did not slink off into some dark hole and pray for death to take me was because I could not bring myself to abandon my friends or my godson. When I was given custody of my godson, it grounded me because he needed me to be there for him but it wasn't until I met Naruto and spent a bit of time with him that I found what I had been searching for all along; a purpose and an escape from a life I wasn't really living."

Harry paused for a moment as he glanced away from Yuugao and dragged a hand through his hair before he turned back and added, "There is far more to the story than that, obviously, but that is all that is as much as I am willing to say for the moment. It is also no more and no less than I have told Ibiki during our monthly sessions over the past two years; which means that you are free to pass along any of that information to the Hokage, if he should ask."

"I was not assigned a mission to seduce you for information…" Yuugao hotly protested.

"I never said you were," Harry cut back without any heat as he made his way around the counter so that he could take a seat at the bar beside Yuugao. "I was simply letting you know that it would not bother me if you were to repeat what I told you about my past to the Hokage."

"The implication was in your words."

"Sumimasen, I had not intended for it to sound like I was accusing you of something."

"Why not…? I mean, it would be an obvious conclusion for you to reach given how much time I've spent in your company since the day you and your family arrived in Konoha."

"I will confess that there had been all of ten minutes where I had considered the possibility that you had been ordered to seduce me but I quickly discarded the likelihood that you had based on the fact that you had passed up far too many opportunities to seduce me over the past two years. Besides, the Hokage does not need you to seduce me for information when I am still attending monthly therapy sessions with the current Head of the Torture and Interrogation Department."

"Sumimasen, I should not have jumped to conclusions."

"You don't have to apologize; I should have made my meaning clearer in order to avoid a misunderstanding."

"In that case, you can make it up to me by making me one of those sinfully delicious chocolate cakes of yours," Yuugao ordered playfully.

"I'll think about it," Harry teased back as he dug into the meal.

They would spend the rest of the meal teasing one another in between bites; the two of them silently choosing to leave the heavier conversation for after the meal. By the time they finished eating and the leftovers had been put away, the uncomfortable tension that had been building between the two of them had faded. For Harry, the familiar camaraderie between them was a sharp reminder of why he'd developed a crush on the vivacious kunoichi in the first place. She was so easy to talk to; there were no awkward silence (most of the time), repetitive inanities, petty gossip, empty platitudes, or useless simpering.

After the meal, Harry sent a Kage Bunshin to let the children know that he wouldn't be joining them for lunch and to keep an eye on his newest wards to make certain they were not slacking off on their studies. Another clone was then sent to track down Yamato to find out if he had plans for their team to take a mission and if not, to ask for permission to skip their usual training for the afternoon. Once the clones had taken off, Harry allowed Yuugao to talk him into baking one of his chocolate explosion cakes with the provision that she helped him.

Harry had just set the freshly baked base cake off to one side so that it could cool when he felt Yuugao stepping into his personal space to peer over his shoulder at the cake. He glanced back to ask her to move back a bit so that he could start prepping the fudge filling for cake but ended up forgetting what he was going to say when his lips brushed against hers unexpectedly due to how close she'd been hovering behind him. They both froze and stared into each other's eyes for a moment in surprise. Harry then felt Yuugao's lips curl up in a smile against his before she closed her eyes and turned the accidental contact into a real kiss.

For a single heartbeat, Harry considered pulling away to break the kiss but the thought failed to fully form as he was swept up in a rush of desire as Yuugao deepened the kiss. Without conscious thought, Harry's body twisted around to face Yuugao so that his neck was no longer craned awkwardly to the side. At the same time, his hands settled themselves on her hips with his fingers splayed wide. The moment his body completed its rotation, Yuugao stepped closer and pressed her self against him as her arms wound around his neck.

Breathing became arbitrary when Yuugao coaxed his tongue into dueling with hers and he tasted the chocolate that she had snuck from the bag of chocolate chips when he hadn't been looking. Desire pooled in his stomach as his hands reflexively pulled her tighter against him before they slid from her hips to her back only for his right hand to move up to tangle itself in the vibrant tresses of long silk that was her hair. The soft moan that she uttered in response sent his blood southward as his body began to show its appreciation for the kunoichi in his arms.

Yuugao broke their kiss several seconds later to trail a series of searing kisses along his jaw and down to the base of his neck where she nipped lightly at the sensitive skin. Harry tipped his head back and to the side in response to the gentle nips while he dropped his hands down to cup her firm bottom and pulled her flush against his arousal. He reveled in the feel of her lithesome body pressed up against his right up until his brain registered the fact that his hands were on Yuugao's butt and he was holding her against him in an inappropriate position.

Mortification over the fact that he was essentially taking liberties that he didn't have permission to take, doused Harry's desire more effectively than a cold shower. He sprang apart from Yuugao a split second later and blurted out, "I'm sorry! Please don't kill me for groping you! I got carried away and wasn't thinking…"

"Takeshi, shut up," Yuugao growled as she closed the distance that Harry had put between them and Harry instinctively backed away until his back collided with the counter behind him. "I was perfectly happy with your hands right where they were and I've half a mind to be cross with you for removing them so abruptly."

"Nani!? Nande…?"

Yuugao stopped right in front of Harry and searched his eyes for several seconds before she heaved a sigh and quietly explained, "The life expectancy of a shinobi is short; few shinobi survive to reach their thirtieth birthday and those that do, have more often than not lost more teammates, friends, and loved ones than they have fingers. This life we have chosen is not an easy life and we court death each time we leave the village on a mission. Those of us who survive after we hit puberty quickly learn to take pleasure when and where we can least we end up regretting an endless string of missed chances. For us, there is no time to worry about things like courting and propriety because we could die on the next mission."

"That's not to say that we will sleep with every person that crosses our path; we each have standards and preferences, after all. It just means that we tend to fall in and out of beds fairly often. And it isn't as if we don't like to establish meaningful and lasting relationships, because we do. We just don't waste time trying to find out if every single potential partner is mister or missus right. Mutual attraction for shinobi inevitably means a few good romps beneath the sheets as soon as they are aware that the feelings are mutual before they move on or settle down to start a family."

"Of course, there are exceptions; such as those individuals that are too shy and those who just aren't interested," Yuugao finished a moment later. She then tipped her head to one side and blanked her face of any emotion as she asked, "Does the idea of casual sex really bother you that much?"

Harry's brow furrowed in thought as he considered a facet of the shinobi life that he'd never really paid any attention to over the past four years. A facet that hadn't really been touched upon by any of his tutors during the years leading up to their arrival in Konoha or by any of the shinobi that he'd mingled with over the past two years. Sex was also a topic that Harry tended to shy away from simply because of his inexperience in that department. He was beginning think that maybe it was something he should have paid more attention to; if only because it would have meant avoiding the current awkwardness with Yuugao.

Letting his gaze slide sideways to the view of the vegetable garden outside of the kitchen window, Harry let his thoughts briefly return the disastrous mission to Nami no Kuni. Specifically, his mind replayed his close brush with death at the hands of the Oni Kyoudai because of bad luck and worse timing. Near death experiences had a way of changing how one views their life; Harry should know, his life had been upended at least a dozen times by death and near death. If not for that in-his-face reminder of his own mortality, Harry probably would have chosen to answer Yuugao's question far differently then he did now as he finally returned his gaze to the vivacious kunoichi.

"There was a time when I would have said yes, the idea of casual sex bothered me that much. I was not raised as a shinobi, I was not even raised in a shinobi village, and therefore did not grow up with the same set of social values that developed here in Konoha or in other shinobi villages. There was also my aversion to being treated as a conquest by my fans that drove me to avoid any acts of intimacy coupled with my less than ideal childhood. There is nothing like a near brush with death to make one put things into prospective though."

"And now…?" Yuugao prompted as her blank mask slipped just the smallest of fractions as a hopeful glint entered her eyes.

"No, the thought of casual sex does not bother me as much as it would have before my mission to Nami," Harry replied even as a light blush began turning his face red. "That said, I still know next to knowing about what I'm doing when it comes to physical intimacy. Hugs and the occasional kiss is pretty much the extent of my experience. I have no clue on what would be considered acceptable and I know part of that depends on the people involved but without the experience to draw on, I'm basically flying blind here. And while there's no point in trying to deny that I am attracted to you, I just don't really know what to do about it."

Yuugao's entire face lit up with pleasure in response to his answer as she took the last step separating them, took his hands in hers, guided his hands back to her butt, and stated, "That won't be a problem; I'll be more than happy to teach you everything you need to know. For starters, I am a very tactile person; I like the feel of firm hands touching and massaging me all over."

Harry only had two heartbeats to register the fact that he'd just been given permission to let his hands wander where they will (something Ginny had flat out told him she wouldn't allow until there was a ring on her finger). Actually, Yuugao had basically just told him that she wanted and expected his hands to wander freely. All conscious thought fled once more right after that realization as Yuugao pressed her lips to his for a third time.

The half finished chocolate cake would be forgotten entirely as the two of them spent the afternoon in a rather heated make-out session where Yuugao patiently taught Harry how to properly turn a woman into putty using his hands and mouth without it devolving into rough groping. When they finally went their separate ways around supper time (Yuugao to get some much needed rest and Harry to spend some time with his family), there was an unspoken promise between the two of them to continue their intimate activities at the next opportunity provided.

Their second intimate encounter would take place on Yuugao's apartment a couple of days later when Harry finally got around to finishing Yuugao's chocolate cake and would involve a considerable amount of skin when they both ended up shirtless halfway through their time together. Their third meeting would again take place at the Namikaze Retreat where they ended up in a bed together for the first time and Harry experienced his first orgasm that was not self-induced. That was also the first time Harry ever laid eyes (and hands) on a completely naked woman.

It would not be until their tenth intimate meeting nearly two full months after they shared that first kiss outside of the Namikaze Apartments that Harry laid his virginity to rest when he buried himself to the hilt inside of Yuugao's womanhood for the first time. It was an experience that would be repeated many times with much enthusiasm from both participants. That wasn't to say that the only thing the two of them did together was have sex, it wasn't. They still trained together, still hung out with their other friends, occasionally cooked together, and even went on a few discreet dates.

They just also happened to frequently share a bed on those nights (and occasionally on those days) when they were both in the village.

Translations: Japanese to English

Nande – why
Nani – what
Sumimasen – I'm sorry (formal)

Chocolate Explosion Cake (my own personal creation): devil's food bundt cake with a creamy fudge filling (chocolate pudding or mousse will also work), milk chocolate icing (buttercream, whip cream, or cream cheese icings work best), drizzled with both white and dark chocolate, and sprinkled with mini-chocolate chips (or chocolate sprinkles) and chopped nuts. Best when served slightly warm with a side of vanilla, chocolate chip, or strawberry ice cream.

AN: Just a couple of quick notes about the chapter here; first, if the way Harry and Yuugao got together seems a bit rushed; that was intentional and the reasons for it were already provided in the chapter. Also, keep in mind that they were dancing about each other for quite some time. The second note, for those disappointed that I didn't go into more detail at the end of the chapter, I'll apologize; the romance in this story is sort of a sub-plot and will therefore mostly only be mentioned in passing with an occasional moment of fluff added as filler here and there. So, don't expect a bunch of citrus flavored scenes to crop up.

I think that about covers it. I actually still have two more chapters that I plan to post because I split the next chapter in half to work in the training scene I skipped over earlier since it fit better there then it did in the original place I was trying to squeeze it. Both chapters are also a sort of lead in to the Chuunin Exam Arc which I'm still writing. (It's only taking me so long because there is just so much that is happening during that arc and I have to make certain I don't drop any of the fiddling little plot points I have lined up.)

Anyway, I should have chap 37 up either Wednesday or Thursday (just as soon as I finish polishing it up) and then will post chap 38 either Friday or Saturday. So, even though I cut out Ibiki's chapter, you'll still get an extra chapter in this arc. The last thing I'll say before I end this note is a huge thank you to everyone who wished me well while I was sick; your concern was very much appreciated. =) So, extra fudge all around. Yum - baking season is here again! I have homemade peanut brittle too if any of you'd like that instead. =D ~ Jenn

PS: updated the previous chapter to fix a few errors and clean up one little part but there's no reason to go back and reread the chapter since I didn't make any real changes.