A/N: Well, I must say that I am honestly surprised how few of you want to see Naruto with Ino judging by the ongoing poll. It's interesting to see where the opinions lie, especially since Yugao, in my opinion, is like the free Anko twinnie. I will say that it is highly unlikely for Naruto to get both Samui and Mabui, so I'll include which ever one gets the most votes (they're neck and neck for now) if they make it to the top five. Given how many people claim to be tired of the NaruHina mix, I was surprised to see her make a strong comeback. I always thought her good for the hyperactive shinobi as a calming presence. She's also smokin' hot later in canon.

One thing on the poll, I will add names recommended in PMs and reviews if they're new, but, if you really want to get your favorite up in the top 5, you should click on the link at the top of my profile and get them an actual vote. It makes it easier to tally them up and makes things less complicated in figuring out who is in the lead.

NOTE: This does not mean that a CRA will happen. Harems are difficult to write well and this poll will help me narrow done serious love interests in the home stretch. This may be Naru-hina. It could be Naru-Eina. Who knows.

As a warning, I will be closing out the CRA poll Friday, January 25th, 2019 either way so you have time to get your votes in. That gives you a few days, but not many. Don't dawdle!

Again, thank you to everyone taking the time to do this. As always, I am humbled by your support for a new writer like myself on only my third ff.

Jjay: Njord would never leave Melen. He loves his beach-boy image too much and scores major fan girl love in the process. Ino, while loving her eye candy, is also pretty level headed. I think she's trying to fill the empty Sasuke void right now but this to shall pass. Have no fear.

Zabzab: I wrote out a lengthy, and probably rambling, explanation about the "two-magic system" in this fanfic. In actuality it's not a colliding system but I'll write more of its application as the story progresses. This will most likely not be Naruto's only visit to Istoria, especially if Eina makes it into the final Bachelor round.

On the point of ease of access, the system is limited to the deity's acceptance of the supplicant. In this case, it's not unlikely that Orochimaru would have approached one or two "gods" and discovered a couple "disturbing" facts.

One, it's impossible to fool one of these temporarily mortal-plane dwelling beings. While they refrain, and the proper word is refrain, they still maintain a few of their godly attributes and, with a communal agreement, use some of their minor powers for informational purposes. In essence, you can't lie to one so they would have seen through his b.s. and told him to pound sand, which brings us to the more likely Orochi-bastard response.

Two, yes, Orochi-pedo would be miles more powerful than any adventurer and, in their weakened, self-imposed exiled state, he'd be able to trash the entire nation, it would only take him going through his normal routine of "I'm going to kill enough gods until one of them gives me what I want" before they realize something is up, call a temporary truce, then either reset the whole board by either handing the snake fiend his ass by killing him outright or sending him packing as a lesson to others with the same bat-shit crazy idea. Forcefully ejecting him as a lesson to any would-be S-ranked fiends better serves their purposes. NOTE: "Killing" a deity, which is just destroying their corporeal forms and not their essence, results in huge columns of light shooting into heavens no matter where you are (plus minor property damage as a result) so it's hard to hide it. Two or three of those in a week and you have the beginnings of a serious problem that's hard to miss.

For the purposes of my story, I did consider that and might have possibly played all of that scenario out for just that reason. Gods tend to respond when they're being hunted and send powerful avatars to smash their enemies.

Istoria is meant to be a bridge between the east and the west as it gives the greater chance to recruit new talent, most of it being the failed shinobi drop outs as the system isn't really powerful enough to entice the super strong shinobi of the elemental kingdoms. Add in the fact that they [shinobi] tend to overdo things in stressful situations, they'd end up pulling in more Nature chakra then they could handle and wind up stone statues making the risk far outweigh the benefits. This system isn't intended as an overwhelming attractor to shinobi that can become more powerful than even the strongest adventurer by the time they reach Chunin and any shinobi with half a brain would see that after being forced to spelunk dungeons for years to gain any perceivable benefits. Istoria, and by default Orario, is intentionally meant to be a haven for people trying to hide in a place that won't attract the really powerful people out to kill them for all the dirty crap they did before fleeing. The good thing is that Istoria, as a whole, is aware that people lie and tend to turn a blind eye to it provided the dirtbags in question pull their weight in mana crystals and the elemental nations don't come looking for their missing nin, at which time they can conveniently hide behind the "No lying to us about your felonious background rule" and quietly hand them over.

I designed this small corner of the nations to provide a gap fill for low-level story plots and add a little color via the Crossover no Jutsu power given to writers.

Fuyuriku: As always, thank you for the edits and I hope one day to cause you less eye-twitching. Just ask Zabzab, as he's the Beta for my Nature of the Beast sequel and probably lives off of anti-headache medicine.

Anon: Thank you. I hope you are not disappointed.

Reverentwolf: You, Sir, are most kind. Thank you for the wonderful comments and I hope you continue to enjoy my work. I'm not a large fan of crossovers but I tried to keep this one as seamless as possible. Hey, if I don't try then I have no room to complain about other people's work. Do I? As a sidenote, I will look into the Kingkiller Chronicles. I think you will enjoy the omake at the end, which I was going to remove until I read your review.

Killendell: Welcome to my little distraction!

Note: Added Ais Wallenstein, and the Twins, Tione and Tiona Hiryute to the CRA Poll by request.

To the Guest Reviewer that asked about "Maiden's Wellspring," I will be including more detail about that in the next few chapter releases.

Also, can anyone tell me if something being "really mangoey" is a good or bad thing? I am honestly curious.

As always, back to the story.

~Siva'a-tasi

~III~

Edited 25 JAN 2019 thanks to my unofficial Beta, Furyuriku-sama.

Re-Edited 27 JAN 2019 because evidently folks don't like to be teased with plot twists and surprise drama (Zabzab). Okay, I've filled in some questionable material that may be a bit racier for some. I have marked those areas with warnings for those of you under the age of 18. This fanfic has an M rating for a reason but I am trying to be responsible up front and give you adequate warning. Please act responsibly and accordingly.

Chapter 11: Not Quite Love, Actually

~ Previously on No More ~

His left hand slid up the slumbering girl's back, his fingers brushing just the tips along her pale skin. The smooth lines of her face held him entranced as her lips parted forming a sleepy "O" shape. Ino's head lifted from his chest, drooling string and all, as her back arched revealing both sides of her bulging chest smashed against his ribcage. She sighed, a gentle rush of wind as her eyes fluttered opened in shock and lust.

Ice blue pools of light met sparkling sapphires of the richest blue as time stood still.

~III~

~ Orario City: Second Floor Room of Team Ten, The Hostess of Fertility

"Ino?" Naruto blinked in surprise and confusion. His face was beet-red and his body tensed up expecting to receive a beatdown any moment now. If this wasn't righteous beating material for the justifiably homicidal female gender, then he truly didn't know what qualified. It didn't matter that he was dressed in his normal sleeping attire lying on the floor per his normal routine and that she'd stripped down in her drunken stupor to climb on top of him dressed only in her sheer purple panties.

He was a guy; therefore, he was always wrong in matters of intimacy and women. End of story.

His left hand was in full-hover mode above her right side and his right was still being pressed to her cheek by her own palm.

This situation also registered in Ino's sluggish mind as the fog of the previous night began to slowly burn away. A few other things pummeled her in the back of her thundering brain as she blinked crazily stalling for time.

Her face was wet. A quick glance down showed the trail of drool hanging precariously from her mouth to the glistening patch of gorgeous muscle where her face had rested not seconds before. Her cheeks warmed at the sight of his magnificent torso up close and her legs clenched again. This action brought on a few more immediate discoveries.

She was nearly naked and he was mostly dressed. Her quick glance down to the puddle of slobber she'd left on his body revealed the upper slopes of her fully-exposed breasts, the nipples hidden by the rock-hard bricks of his stomach. 'Kami, he's solid muscle and this feels good.'

Her legs squeezed again on instinct reminding her of her second realization and her face flushed full-on-cherry-red as she sucked in a deep breath of air, which only proved to rub her already sensitive nubs against his burning hot flesh.

She was dressed only in her undergarments (specifically the ones covering her lower half), her bare thighs were clamped feverishly against his equally rock-hard legs (which made her body shiver deliciously), she was soaking wet down there, and something else hard, thick, and pulsing was rubbing her in a very intimate location making her discomfort level rise just as fast as her arousal.

"Um, Ino? Ino, shouldn't-."

Her left hand shot up instantly to cover his mouth. She couldn't process his words right now since her brain was trying to chug through the booze's effects on her memory at the moment.

Her eyes snapped up again to see confusion, embarrassment, fear (and was that desire?) waging war in the most perfect pair of blue eyes she'd ever seen in her life. As her sheer panic mounted, she resorted to Emergency Kunoichi Protocol Seven-dash-One: In the event of a tactical disadvantage before the opposite gender, execute a tactical withdrawal, deny everything laying the blame on destructive toxins in your body (like alcohol), and deny any and all emotional attachments.

She ran.

"Close your eyes!" she hissed.

He blinked but then clamped them shut immediately after. Naruto sighed in disappointment right after he felt the sucking loss of her body heat when her incredibly soft skin left contact with his own. He could not put into words how much he enjoyed her weight on top of him, or how much the heat from her skin on his made him feel good. Even now, especially now, with his eyes closed, he could smell her flowery shampoo and a deep wave of disappointment overtook him.

He could also smell the alcohol oozing out of her pores but you take the good with the bad, right?

In any event, he kept his eyes closed until he heard the bathroom door close with a soft click.

The horrible wait in the dark gave him time to recognize the angry pulsing between his own legs and, as was appropriate, Naruto groaned miserably. He was going to have the mother of all pains unless he took care of that later. Kami, she was fine in her clothes, but he'd only caught glimpses of her curvy body, the swelling slopes of her ass emblazoned clearly into his memory. He was sorely tempted, horribly tempted, to peek as she fled to the bathroom if only to see what she looked like from behind but that would have been the height of treachery.

No matter how much they fought and argued, she was his teammate and he wouldn't betray her like that.

Sitting up with another groan, he grimaced as the still wet pool of slobber began to run down his stomach, his hand that had once gently stroked the silky plane of her back was now slapping at and wiping off the cooling liquid as he dried his palm on his sleeping bag.

With one last look at the firmly shut bathroom door, Naruto rose and prepared to gather his belongings for his turn in the bathroom. He needed to meet Bell in a few hours and he was definitely not going to get any more sleep after that wake-up call.

~III~

Inside the small bathroom, Ino was trying valiantly not to hyperventilate. Her mind was still slogging through the haze of last night's drinking binge.

'Ugh! Ale is deceptively effective!'

She was also nervous, her hands shaking and her breath still coming in short bursts.

At least he wasn't trying to stare at her fleeing bottom while she ran like a coward. Ino knew because she kept turning around to make sure he wasn't peeking. She hissed at herself and fought every instinct telling her to cry it out in frustration.

She had him! Then she RAN AWAY!

Standing with her back against the door and her few hastily-snatched garments clutched to her body, her head gently thumped against the wooden slab shielding her from his piercing gaze as her eyes slid shut. She was only vaguely aware of the cool surface chilling her skin from the tops of her shoulders to the rounded curves of her ass.

There was no way around it. She'd have to stay in here until someone else woke up and could prevent Naruto from asking her what was going on. She needed time to think. She needed time to come to grips with what the hell just happened!

She liked Sasuke, didn't she? She dreamed of a life with the clan heir to the Uchiha, didn't she?

'Well,' she considered honestly for the first time to herself, 'that hadn't been the case for a few months now.' Blond images of a ripped Genin sweating under the Konohan sun had invaded her steamy nights on more than one occasion. She blushed again remembering several of her private "Sasuke Moments" morphing into "Naruto Moments" that left her breathless while her body convulsed.

If she was being honest with herself, she knew why they were always more intense and… satisfying. He was always around her. He was always open to her in more ways than one and familiarity breeds all kinds of things besides contempt, including mind-blowing orgasms alone in your bedroom or shower. She wanted to thank every Kami she knew for the person that invented detachable showerheads.

Glancing around the tiny bathroom, she grumbled at the lack of a proper shower in this backwards nation. It would be enough to clean away the stickiness between her thighs, but she'd need a real bath later when she went with Anko tonight. Trudging over to the stool in the middle of a tiled ring, her soaked panties hit the floor while the rest of her clothes found their way to the basket cubby attached to the wall.

Plopping down on the cool seat, she turned on the water to fill the wooden bucket before flipping the lever to send water up to the tiny showerhead, grumbling again that it was non-detachable. Soaking her still high-strung and sensitive body, Ino cut the water and began lathering her curvy form, wincing slightly at the tenderness of her breasts.

'Just lovely. I'll have to deal with that in a few days as well. I can't wait for this wonderful mission to end!'

Being extra careful around her sensitive chest, her mind wandered back to the mental image of her body pressed up against the incredibly hot one that belonged to her teammate and, before too long, her soapy hands started wandering their way down her flat stomach to the soft patch of blond hair between her legs.

~III~

Grumbling, Naruto suffered through the dull ache as he tried to spread his legs without seeming like he was spreading his legs. It was surprisingly hard to do while walking down the busy main street of Orario with a ferocious case of blue balls. Damn Ino and her terminal case of "hotness."

Ignoring the odd looks from one or two passerbys, especially since they were better than the glares of Konoha, he worked his way towards the center of town and waited at the western entrance to Babel Tower, as requested last night by Bell.

Looking up, the tower itself reached into the sky like an angry finger. He chuckled to himself trying to force out of his mind the image of what he really thought it looked like. Whatever. Who was he to criticize another culture's architecture?

The ugly tower wasn't all there was to it, however. A large circular building four stories high surrounded the base of the tower, its walls made of the same hard stone. Peeking into the ground-level archway large enough for two carts to pass through side-by-side, the archway led to a tunnel along which were small shops you could walk into. Further on, the tunnel appeared to open up and he could see a stone-like bridge leading over a chasm and into the base of the tower.

Turning back around, Naruto found a spot next to the entrance and leaned against the outer wall while he waited for his new "clan buddy" for today's excursion. He hoped whoever the rabbit child was bringing along was at least pleasant enough to pass the time with as he settled into his favorite pastime: people watching.

~III~

Ino emerged from the bathroom to an annoyed Shikamaru, who stopped her fully in the doorway. Glancing quickly over his shoulder, she could still see Asuma and Anko in their respective beds, both dead to the world. Her eyes snapped back to his face once his hands landed on her shoulders immediately before he spun them around trading places.

She opened her mouth to say something, but he cut her off by calmly raising the flat of his hand between the two of them, forcing her to lean back a bit and blink repeatedly.

"I don't care what you and Naruto were into this morning," he waved his hand in her face once again to interrupt her potential interruption of his ongoing mini-speech. "Technically, according to the laws of our village, you're an adult now and can do whatever you want with whomever you want. Just make sure you aren't compromising our mission, use whatever protection you deem necessary," she blushed brightly at this point, "and if you ever hog the bathroom all morning again, I'll use my clan's shadow jutsu to reach under the door and physically remove you – naked or not."

The light blush on her cheeks became flaming hot.

Having said his piece, he took two steps backwards and grabbed the door's edge. "Get ready. We're going to go find the academy today and see about getting you some training in their healing techniques. Might as well while we're here."

With that, he closed the door rather brusquely.

A moment later she flushed with embarrassment as her ears resonated with the heavy sound of running water and Shikamaru's draining moan of relief. Spinning about to deal with her clothes, a much more relaxed Ino set about tidying up her area before they went downstairs for breakfast.

The Hostess converted into a café during the early hours and she was looking forward to some crusty bread and light fruit. Her mind hummed at the thought of some more of that soft cheese from yesterday to spread on a warm slice of bread and all was right with the world. The desire for something greasy nearly made her puke so "playing it safe" was the phrase of the day.

~III~

At roughly the same time, two people were walking through the crowded streets of Orario to meet up with a third. The young male was happily chattering with the beautiful half-elf oblivious to the murderous stares of the jealous men they passed while the lovely creature responding to his kind comments was having an internal battle of wills.

On the one hand, she was awfully fond of the gentle but bumbling adventurer that was once her sole advisee in the Guild.

On the other hand, her emerald eyes kept filling up with images of the bronzed Adonis of a brawler that had gone toe-to-toe with Loki Familia then joined Hestia's group to protect the current front runner of her affections.

She had to admit, her dreams were considerably racier when they included the rough and rugged young man that held a quiet intelligence she found more to her liking. Plus, by the gods, he was handsome in that feral way that made her daydream of loincloths and treehouses.

Not that anyone would ever live that way even among the Elves. There were standards of living for a reason you know.

Fighting down another rampant blush and having finally shed her stuffy Guild uniform, the curvy representative glided down the street as she listened to the flattering comments of a boy she knew would never give her his love. Oh, she'd childishly hoped that Bell would grow fond of her big sister personality, his admiration evolving to a deeper relationship like in the romance plays, but that boat sailed once she came into the picture.

His heart had already been taken after all by the unreachable Ais Wallenstein. At least now she had hope, a real chance, with the newcomer even as she guiltily searched the crowd for a glimpse of the golden-haired set of whiskers that held her rapt infatuation of late.

"You are very kind to indulge me, Bell-san," Eina commented as her eyes darted to the pale crown of a Chienthrope headed into a small tavern. She tried to hide her disappointed shame from the bouncing young man to her right. "It has been some time since I've been out and about like this, with someone other than Misha that is."

Bell blinked in utter disbelief. "Really? I'm surprised to hear that, Eina-san. I figured guys would be unable to leave a beauty like you alone."

The reserved Guild receptionist and advisor blushed for real that time. If he'd said something like that only a few days ago, and actually meant feelings of affection, her heart would have leaped out of her chest. Now they only made her conscious enough to blush and wonder if her choice in attire had been appropriate for the outing.

She was going to wear her Guild uniform to keep things official, that is until Bell swung by and mentioned that he'd invited a certain newcomer to join them. It was a good thing that Eina tended to work late hours and had been looking up the information requested by his teammate, Shikamaru-san. Pleasant boy that he was, she was not attracted to his terminally lazy personality, a realization constantly reinforced by his given choice of fruit-oriented haircut styles.

Nervously glancing down to the partially-exposed tops of her thighs, the Elf suddenly blushed a deep crimson as her hands shot to the now overly-warm skin of her cheeks.

She'd doffed the stuffy shirt and vest for a light button-up blouse that gently hugged her curves, the long sleeves and neck trimmed in lacy frills of white to compliment the sunny pale yellow of the garment. An appropriately small bow of pale green was tied around her neck to form a makeshift tie, which she'd grown used to as part of her daily ensemble at work. Her earth-brown shoulder bag tapped gently against her curvy hip as the strap all but vanished in the deep valley of her chest. The forest green pleated skirt fluttered around her upper thighs as she walked showing a tantalizing amount of creamy flesh for the handful of centimeters it bared her legs before the even darker green of her stockings took over shielding the leagues of curvy muscle sheathed in a thin layer of womanly softness.

She took pride in her appearance after all and enjoyed her recurring dancing and fencing lessons held in her communal Guild apartment building.

The soft soles of her black shoes, sensible slippers of silk, and by far her favorite, muffled her padded footfalls as she pictured her brawny defender tearing off her shirt, buttons flying in all directions as-.

She reigned in that particular fantasy with a gentle shake of her head. She was in public after all and had to maintain proper control. The thought did make her heart race a bit and her stride brought out a rarely seen sway to her full hips.

A man screamed nearby as a distracted waiter poured scalding tea in his lap by mistake.

Bell, watching her odd display of introspection, tried to brush it off as the normally reserved Eina being embarrassed at her casual, and damned impressive, dress for the day and so tried to distract her to ease her mind.

Bless his heart.

"So, Eina-san. You never mentioned why we were to meet Naruto-senpai at Babel Tower today." His curious eyes watched her as the pink blush slowly faded to be replaced with her normal work-like focus.

"That's because we're going to help you buy some new armor." She glanced over at him with a warm smile. "You lost yours in your battle with the silverback, did you not?"

Bell could only nod at the memory. That beast had nearly killed both him and the goddess. If it hadn't been for her last-minute gift… His hand wandered back to the hilt of the knife slung into his lower back, remarking not for the first time, how reassuring it felt and how convenient the location was for keeping his hands unobstructed.

"But we don't have a lot of money as a Familia, Eina-san, and the only armorers this way work for Hephaestus Familia." He seemed downtrodden but Eina only smiled all the more.

"Never fear, Bell-san. All shall be revealed in time."

Right about that time she looked up to gaze at the tower base and the crowd parted enough to reveal a blond-haired god-among-men leaning casually against the stone wall of the tower base, his forearms crossed and bulging thick with muscle. A jacket hung slung over one shoulder while his crossed arms pinned it to his lithe body.

He'd left off his gauntlet today and the sight as his eyes swung to lock onto hers forced the breath from her lungs in a sibilant hiss.

Yesterday he'd been in baggy travel clothes. Today, since Bell was taking him to the dungeon after their meeting, he was wearing black trousers that disappeared into a pair of polished boots reaching halfway up his shins. His thick leather belt hung just far enough past the buckle to dangle near a meaty thigh. The black tee-shirt he wore clung to every surface as if his body was its sole source of life and nourishment and she blessed whatever tailor-made it given the glistening sheen along every bulge and curve as he breathed and shifted when standing up from the wall. It was even better that it had no sleeves and bared the rocky bulges forming his biceps and shoulders.

'Oh, to clutch and scratch at those.'

Eina suddenly felt unconscionably warm in a place she was glad had direct access to the cooling fall breeze.

Shikamaru had informed her the first day of their meeting that his team would forgo wearing their metal symbol of nationality, meaning that the golden halo atop Naruto's head freely framed his rugged face and hung about his eyes and cheeks like a mane.

Without realizing what she was doing, Eina found herself standing close enough to Naruto that her chest was brushing up against his stomach as she gulped in nervous amounts of air, her tilted upwards with her eyes staring up into his deep blue orbs as her mind fought furiously to string two coherent words together.

She oddly commented to herself how cute he was when his eyebrows knitted together in confusion like that, as a buzzing noise started to pick up near her right ear. Her right hand came up to wave off whatever insect was pestering her as her lips began to part to help her suck in more oxygen to cool off her heated face.

Then she shamefully realized that the annoying buzz belonged to Bell as he gently grabbed her shoulders to pull her away from the cautiously concerned Naruto.

As she took a stumbling step back, painfully aware how nice it felt to rub against the magnificent specimen a few years her junior, realization struck, and her face blossomed into a beautiful shade of rose red.

Bell took pity upon her and stepped in to diffuse the situation.

"So, are we ready to buy some armor?" The white-haired boy chuckled nervously now that the uncomfortable tension was fading. Odd that Naruto-senpai didn't seem too offended by Eina accidentally invading his personal space like that.

Bless his heart, again.

~III~

Naruto chuckled softly and nodded his thanks to Bell. The woman was gorgeous, but he'd had enough frustration for one morning. Besides, he was still rolling over in his mind the short redhead carrying a backpack five times the size of her Prum-sized body as she nearly bowled over Bell during their final approach. Not noticing her lifting his money purse or anything like that, he filed her tiny face away for later reference and let Eina pull him along into the tunnel behind them.

The force of three trudged inside, small shops of all sorts lining the interior passage displaying everything from climbing gear (ropes, wires, spikes, belaying pins, and the like) to fancy and exotic garments with mystical properties.

Eina giggled as Naruto strolled casually from display window to display window asking questions about items that caught his eye and their uses, questions she was more than happy to answer. When they came across an open shop door with some scantily-clad animal woman leering up at him trying to entice him further, she found herself surprisingly willing to wrap her arms around one of his thick biceps in order to pull his blushing attention back to her while she deftly maneuvered him away.

The fact that his arm was sandwiched between her large globes of flesh had nothing to do with the deceptive ease of her success, or his very cute sputtering.

Well, almost nothing.

The Complex, as it was referred to among adventurers, held more than weapons, armor, and equipment shops, and the best places were found farther in. While the master-level smithies were located in the tower itself, the upper layers between the second and tenth to be exact, the shops surrounding the tower included several inns for adventurers to rest in, a half dozen pubs, public showers, and restrooms, as well as a Guild Branch and exchange for trading in crystals or currency from foreign lands.

Eina led them past it all and into the tower core itself, Bell sputtering the whole way about how he couldn't afford anything in the "core."

Naruto glanced over the edge of the western landbridge leading to the tower, one of four actually. It spanned a ravine that stretched down into the inky blackness, but he noticed a pair of stone steps following the ravine's curved walls deep into the earth below.

Bell pointed out that those were steps leading to the first level of the dungeon. They would be using them later on today.

For now, into the tower they went bypassing another more elaborate stairway leading below. Inside the tower ground floor were emergency medical people and Guild representatives that waved happily at Eina and her entourage. Moments later, the three of them were inside a box-like contraption just before a sliding door closed and the floor lurched upwards making their stomachs drop. When the small room rumbled to a stop and the door slid open, a clearly-shaken Bell and Naruto both stumbled through the opening looking back at the riser platform as if it were a snake about to bite them.

Eina giggled and moved past them both to begin pointing out the high-quality shops on the fourth floor of the tower, their current location.

She didn't stay long, just long enough to cloud over Bell's eyes with all of the shiny objects on display in clear glass display windows. The boy was bedazzled, his eyes flying to every gilded knife and bejeweled blade he could find, his exuberance diminished only by the multi-million Valis price tags attached to each item.

They were crafted by master smiths of the Hephaestus Familia and their price reflected their quality of work.

Naruto noted the numbers on the placards next to each item then his keen eyes noted the similarity between the engraved Hephaestus name on those items and the glyphs carved into the sheath of Bell's knife tucked into his back. At some point, Bell must have noticed as well as he grew extremely pale looking at a particularly nice short blade before his eyes snapped open and his knife sheath found its way into his hand.

He had mentioned just the other night that Hestia had called it a "one-of-a-kind" weapon forged as a favor to the goddess herself. Naruto didn't want to attempt a guess at its value and instead continued to frown disapprovingly at the gaudy items sparkling in each window.

Shinobis thrived in the shadows and this stuff would paint a target on his back from miles away. He needed something better suited to his occupation that could take the abuse of fighting beasts all day long.

He needed a custom job.

Fortunately for him, Eina took them to the eighth floor where the prices dropped several zeroes and took on a more rough-edged appeal. She explained that all of Hephaestus's journeymen smiths sold their wares on this level meaning that they hadn't earned the right to use the Familia sigil meaning they could not charge the prices they saw below. This meant Bell could find something within his current budget.

Naruto was either not so lucky or just far more selective. While Bell found a nearly complete set of armor made by a smith named Welf Crozzo that he adored, Naruto came away empty-handed. Eina, feeling sad on his behalf, hoped that he could find someone to help him and mentioned a Familia better suited to custom work, the Goibinu Familia in the northwest sector of town.

The fact that the nineteen-year-old Guild representative lived in that part of town had absolutely nothing to do with her recommendation.

Absolutely nothing at all.

She'd have to find a creative way to get Misha to stay out late once or twice.

Outside as they were saying farewell, things got a bit awkward as Eina was preparing to part company with them. Having a good idea where this was headed from years of dealing with Hinata's crush, Naruto looked over to Bell and told him that he'd meet him back here in thirty minutes for their first foray together into the dungeon.

"Huh?" came the boy's eloquent response.

"I'm going to escort our lovely hostess home while you go gear up. I'll meet you here in thirty minutes then you can show me this awesome dungeon you're so excited about."

Bell's face broke out into a grin as he bowed to Eina-san before dashing off.

"Oh, Naruto-san, you don't have to-."

He politely cut her off by gently taking her hand and stopping her mind mid-apology.

"I realize you're a woman capable of handling herself but my Jiji says, 'Naruto, a gentleman always escorts a lady home. It's the proper thing to do'."

His gravelly voice was supposed to imitate a much older person, but it only came out squeaky making Eina smile and flush pink all over again. Offering her his elbow, Naruto started off slowly as she clasped his arm and fell into step alongside him.

He did his best to keep her laughing and giggling as they stepped casually through the northwestern streets to her home. He also tried to ignore the way her chest kept rubbing against his elbow.

Fifteen minutes later, she was kissing him on the cheek and dashing inside her apartment building with a full-body flush.

Naruto felt indestructible for the rest of that day.

~III~

Asuma and Anko were both set up comfortably at a medium-sized table in the Hostess, their tankards resting comfortably between their fingers. Their outing had been less than beneficial, unless you counted finding fifteen taverns within easy walk of their inn beneficial. Apparently, Orarians were wary of strangers and their little dust-up with Loki Familia had placed everyone wanting to not end up on the wrong side of that group at arm's length from Team Ten.

Asuma cursed for the thirtieth time that day.

"Nut up, Asuma. The gaki didn't know it would have this effect on us. He just wanted to protect his team and I can't fault him for that."

Asuma merely grunted in frustration.

"I'm not upset with how he handled it."

The purplenette raised an eyebrow in question.

"Hell, I'd have done the same thing. I was just hoping to keep a lower profile than this."

Anko nodded in agreement and flagged down an Elven waitress she liked quickly placing an order for the trencher, her newest second favorite. Fresh-baked bread slathered in a thick meat stew? It wasn't Dango, well, nothing was Dango, but it was plenty good and plenty filling.

She was going to steer clear of the bourbon for a while. Gaki had been on her about slowing down her consumption and, for once, she thought it might not be a bad idea in a foreign country where people wanted to club you senseless and drag you off for who-knows-what.

No sooner had she placed an order than an exhausted-looking Shikamaru flopped down with an overexcited Ino hot on his tail.

"Went well I take it?" Asuma chirped out.

His only answer was Shikamaru's head thumping on the table hard enough to shake their drinks and Ino's eyes glowing like light bulbs while her head ratcheted up and down like a teeter-totter. What followed next was a dizzying explanation of healing in Orario and two spells she'd been given by the school along with a first-year textbook to assist her individual studies.

"From what it sounds like," she began without having taken a breath, "it's a lot like iryō jutsu only that they're converting this mana into healing energy. It's even green like our medic nins so no one will know the difference if I'm using my chakra or this mana stuff. Plus, I don't have to learn hand seals because I can cast these spells with incantations or chants!"

That was good news and it would be helpful to the team in the long run. Asuma didn't even start worrying until her lips started turning blue from oxygen deprivation.

"Will you be able to use this back in Konoha?" the older Kunoichi fired off hoping to prevent the girl from passing out.

Ino grinned even wider if that was possible.

"Yes, apparently the ethereum connects all living things so I should still have access back home. Furthermore, the more I use it, the stronger I'll become with it so, if we ever come back and Hestia is still here, she can update my status and Blessing."

Good news that it was, it made Asuma a bit nervous.

"You're going to keep it? I thought you were going drop it once the mission was over?"

The young lady frowned briefly.

"Originally I was because I'm not into tattoos and body piercings beyond my earrings. However, if Hestia can indeed hide it from view, I see no reason not to keep it. It might not be as powerful as chakra-based healing, but it is a source of healing that could save someone's life especially if I were already low on chakra myself."

Asuma couldn't fault the logic and neither could Anko. Then the conversation came to a screeching halt when Naruto showed up and dumped several large bags of coins in the middle of the table.

~III~

Naruto had a profound look of disappointment on his face as he stood there next to the table, his eyes fixed on the twinkling coins buried within burlap brown. He was trying not to make eye contact with anyone, especially anyone that might be a very pretty blond girl with ice blue eyes trying just as hard not to make eye contact with him.

"Take a load off Gaki and tell us what you found out."

He nodded then worked his way to take an empty seat on the far side of Shikamaru, his face landing on his hands instead of on his teammates. Both Jounin noticed but let it slide. Shikamaru had hinted that something might be going on between the blonds, so they weren't completely surprised at the sudden need for distance. If it got prickly, they'd jump in.

"First off, Hestia, no kidding, lives in the basement of an abandoned church. They're basically living in poverty and Bell's dungeon income plus her part-time work," Asuma blinked at that part, "keeps them just above starving. Tonight's haul will go a long way to setting them up better."

Asuma glanced at the heavy bags with concern. "Shouldn't you have left them one of those?"

Naruto chuckled as he shared a brief recount of the day's adventures inside the upper levels.

Recap No Jutsu – Dungeon Edition

Naruto followed the eager rabbit down the wide steps to the first level, his eyes adjusting easily to the almost glowing aura coming from the walls.

"So, how does this work, Bell?"

Red eyes whipped back as they finished off the last few steps.

"The dungeon is a maze of increasing difficulty the further down you go. Each level is connected to the next by a stairwell or open hole leading downward. Monsters spawn out of the stone around us to defend their home and we slay them in order to farm the mana crystals they carry here," he tapped the middle of his chest.

"Be careful not to strike the crystal otherwise you'll destroy it making it worthless."

Naruto sniffed the air tentatively. While there was a heavy stench of death and blood, it wasn't as heavy as it should have been in an underground cavern like this where things died constantly.

"And what happens to the carcasses?"

"Once we harvest the stones, the bodies break down into dust and get reabsorbed into the dungeon. At least, that's what Eina-san tells me."

Naruto grunted in acceptance. He had little reason to ever doubt the intelligent woman. His mental browsing was cut off by the sound of stone crackling and popping at the end of the medium-sized room they'd stumbled into first. Moments later, a half dozen spindly-legged creatures the size of Prums rose from the floor of the room, their dog-like heads swinging around to stare at the lightly armed duo. A few of them growled sounding like the small dogs they represented.

Naruto casually drew his blades and growled back as the razor-sharp edges hummed with wind chakra, Bell nervously matching him after a moment or two minus the hissing blades bit. Then Naruto charged and Kobolds throughout the room began losing their heads.

Literally.

Recap No Jutsu – Dungeon Edition, Kai!

"And it continued like that all the way down to level ten. Monsters kept popping up and I kept taking their heads, even the colorful little guy that gave me this. He held up an egg about the size of Ino's fist that appeared to be made of intricately-carved gold. Her eyes goggled at the small gems forming a circle around the middle of the object, mostly rubies, sapphires, and emeralds.

"Bell didn't want it, refused to take it actually saying he never even saw the bird before I beheaded it."

Anko's eyes flickered up from the group and she signed for him to stow it away.

[Hide object, too many eyes.]

It vanished like a desert mirage.

"We got a bunch of other stuff, goblin fangs, kobold nails, and a few finger blades from these shadowy creatures. Bell asked me to store a bunch of it in my empty storage scrolls saying we could sell them to alchemists later. He was really excited about these blue butterfly wings covered in this really fine powder for some reason."

He glanced up into the blushing face of the Elven waitress when she returned and he asked politely for another round of that spaghetti dish she brought him the night before. The quiet gal nodded once then strode off to the kitchen without taking another order much to everyone else's dismay.

"Anyway, I had to create a few clones to harvest stones full-time because the monsters just kept spawning. It was non-stop until Bell realized how long we'd been down there, and the time came where we had to turn around and fight our way back to the surface."

Shikamaru made mental note of that even with his head stuck to the table. Any trip into the dungeon meant you had to plan for a fight both ways. No easy day there.

"That leads me to my second point. The clones picked up enough stones that we made a crap-ton of Valis. Bell and I already deposited their cut into their Guild account and this," he motioned to the bags on the table, "is the leftover. Well, those three bags plus these three bars."

Naruto gently put three bars of gold as thick as his finger, as long as his palm, and three centimeters wide. The Koine runes just spelled out the numbers "One-zero-zero-zero-zero-zero-zero."

"Gaki, do those bars mean what I think they mean?"

Naruto nodded with a grin before sliding one of them over for her to hide away with one of the bags on the table for the Team Expense Fund.

"Yeah, a mil Valis each. Bell has his seven all stashed away in his Guild account for Hestia Familia."

Ino's eyes snapped up to Naruto and she spoke to him for the first time since the morning, um, incident. "Um, Naruto, can I go with you guys tomorrow? You are going back down there, right?"

He paused for a long moment as their eyes met before responding.

Shikamaru raised his head long enough to mention that she found a staff she wanted to buy and the extra Valis would get her a new shiny. He promptly thumped his head back to the wooden surface with a muttered "troublesome" bubbling out among the alcohol stains on the tabletop.

"Sure Ino. We're meeting at eight outside Babel Tower. You can come."

She nodded her thanks then turned to catch Lyu's attention once the woman delivered a heaping plate of pasta covered in that delicious meat sauce along with a slab of fresh bread and ale for the human pit.

Naruto stashed away his loot from the day and tore into his food sparing only a single confused glance to his female teammate.

Ino ordered the same meal, minus the ale, and seemed to cheer up just a bit.

~III~

Once inside the room upstairs later, the conversation became more serious.

"Think we can safely stash away in the church with them?" Anko asked casually.

Naruto faced the pineapple-headed Genin and shook his head at first negatively before pausing and changing direction to say it might be doable.

"We could but it might draw attention to them. The church itself is a defensive nightmare. The entryway is shot, the heavy doors disintegrating due to a habitual lack of maintenance. About half of the pews are salvageable and the rest is just waiting to graduate into firewood. That place where the altar would be? Yeah, it is vacant and none of the rectories are safe enough to even bother getting to so no high ground inside for a sniper. Forget windows or even solid borders as the eastern wall is a few rainstorms short of collapsing."

"Where do they live?" Shikamaru had a pained look on his face to go along with his question.

"There is a secret door at ground level right under the rectory that leads down a flight of stairs to an underground apartment just big enough for the two of them. The only way it works is because there is nothing of value in the place above ground. If we stay there, we camp out upstairs."

Shika nodded as he took it all in. "What about your lookouts today? Any luck?"

Here the blond grimaced.

"I sent out eight per the plan, one to each section of the city, with instructions to pulse their chakra once every hour. Most of them struck out but sectors three and four showed promise." Naruto was referring to the circular layout of the city, each section being divided out by a major road with sector one starting at the one o'clock position, just like the watch hands on the face of a timepiece, then proceeding clockwise in numerical order. Sectors three and four made up the southeast quadrant of town. Sector three held the cemetery and slums of the city. Sector four held the entertainment quarter.

"The two clones stationed there detected four, maybe five people trying to suppress their chakra while searching for the beacon. The clone in sector three actually got a live chakra flare, like someone lost control, then there was a huge pulse of Raiton chakra right after that and it hung around for a few seconds."

"That does not sound like our boy," Ino chimed in. "Wasn't he a civilian?"

Naruto nodded. "Yes, he was but it's not unheard of for him to latch on to shinobi to protect himself. I wouldn't have thought anything of it if the clone investigating the surge of chakra didn't pick up Koaru's scent in the vicinity of that same surge. Which makes me wonder who this nukenin with him is."

"I agree. Naruto, I want you to transition to phase two and focus on that sector. I want to learn everything about our lightning bug in the next two days and see if you can confirm Koaru's presence while you're at it." Shika's brows furrowed as he mentally chewed on the new information.

Naruto nodded then slid a cloth-wrapped package across the floor.

"Careful with that. Those are dipped in something nasty that locked up my clone's body as it popped to death."

Shikamaru carefully unwrapped a handful of senbon before glancing up at the Genin looking for an answer.

"There must be a nukenin that uses an umbrella launching those in waves. I found those scattered throughout levels four through eight of the dungeon, one here, a couple there. There were a crap ton more holes than anything else. Looks like he's using them to clear low-level mobs to probably power up."

Ino's eye's narrowed a bit.

"But no sign of him in the dungeon itself?" she asked.

Naruto shook his head in the negative.

"We were all over the first ten levels and we saw lots of other adventurers, even a couple groups doing a "pass parade" while running for their lives, but no sign of this shinobi."

Shika piped up out of curiosity, "Pass Parade?" Their team lead watched the other male's face twist up in annoyance.

"Yeah, an overwhelmed group being chased by monsters runs past another group hoping to 'pass off' some of their pursuers onto the new group. Dangerous to an unsuspecting party, potentially lethal in reality, but an accepted practice here."

Both of Naruto's teammates scowled. If the dungeon wasn't bad enough by itself, they had to watch out for douche adventurers as well.

"At any rate, I think whoever this is goes in late at night and uses the stairs away from the central tower to gain entry vice going in through the base. None of the healers stationed there remember Aono's face."

Shikamaru nodded. "Tomorrow night make some extra clones and station them around the tower. See if his behavior fits the profile."

Naruto nodded once.

"In the meantime, let's hit the hay. It's going to be a long day for your next trip inside."

The team huddle broke up, the senseis moving over to conference privately for a few minutes by themselves. Naruto glanced one last time at his blond teammate before his turn in the bathroom came up. By the time he'd emerged, Ino was buried under her sheets with the back of her flowing hair splayed out across the pillow.

"Night, Ino," he whispered as he slid into his bedroll and closed his eyes.

No reply ever came.

~III~

Naruto's eyes popped open a few hours later. His mind was racing and he'd never been able to fully sleep. Rolling from his side onto his back, one arm snaked its way behind his head to cradle it while he listened to the late-night sounds of Orario.

Nearby Shikamaru's snoring bedroll to his left set a steady rhythm indicating he was deep asleep. Above his head, he could hear Ino's soft breathing and a quick glance showed one pale leg slung over the side of the bed. As gently and as quietly as he could, he rose, stuffed her leg back under the covers, then tucked her back in for the night.

He paused while she mumbled his name and something incoherent ending in "baka" before smiling and returning to his own bedroll.

He was wide awake and it was eating away at him. He was anxious as he glanced at the two empty beds in the room.

Settling back down, he reached into his backpack and found the jeweled egg, its gems sparkling dully in the half-moon. Bell had called the critter a Jack Bird, some rare monster that to him looked like a fluffy rooster covered from crown to claw in puffy yellow feathers. The damned thing was fast though and he nearly missed it.

Thinking back on the day, he had more than enough now. In weight alone, he had more than enough money to start up the Uzumaki Clan again in Konoha even with the Valis he shared with the group. The bars weren't worth a million Ryu in Konoha but he could convert them to coins just before leaving and stash them all in a scroll. Hell, he could make all the scrolls he needed now and the coins he could sell by weight back home.

It was now or never. If he waited too long, he might get drawn into the ANBU for real and never get another chance. Shinobi didn't have the longest life expectancies. Hell, she'd told him that multiple times and he could hear her snarky laugh in his mind at that very moment.

'Gaki, there's good and then there's dead. Don't count on livin' forever in this business. Shit, it's been damn luck and stubbornness that's kept me going this long. Don't wait for the 'perfect moment' because you might not get to keep it. Find the one you love and grab on to them with all your strength. No shinobi is promised tomorrow.'

Just then the door opened and a tipsy Anko came waltzing in with an equally tipsy Asuma. Sitting up on his bedroll with the egg sparkling in his hands made it pretty obvious even to them that he was still up.

"Hey!" Anko crowed.

He winced at the sound level of her whisper flinching slightly as Shikamaru's snores hitched, snorkeled, then resumed again.

Anko and Asuma spent the next few minutes "shushing" each other until the bearded nin stumbled off into the bathroom.

"Morning Anko," he whispered softly. After managing to get off her sandals, she exaggerated her tiptoeing and stumbled onto one end of his "bed."

"Morning Gaki. Whacha doin' up still?" Her eyebrows were knitted together in real concern.

"Couldn't sleep. Been thinking about what you said to me during my last year at the academy."

She perked up a bit, wobbling in her haphazard sitting position.

"Hehe, thinkin' on my words a' whizzing, er, no that's not right. Words a' wisdom, yeah!" Her eyes grew comically large when Ino rolled over at her elevated voice.

More "shushing" followed complete with waving hands.

"Yeah," he smiled back. "Something like that."

Her hand playfully slapped his shoulder.

"So, tell me which pearl of wisdom izzat?"

Okay, perhaps she was a bit more than tipsy.

"Maybe we should talk about this when you're sober enough to remember it."

Her face immediately puckered up into a cute pout, her right index finger tapping repeatedly against her temple.

"Mind like a trap. C'mon, Gaki. Lay it on me."

Naruto paused and took a deep breath as he tried to steady his nerves. She wasn't going to leave him alone when she got like this. He remembered that much from many nights hauling her tail home from the Red Light District in Konoha.

"Okay then. To be honest, I'm going to be ecstatic when you don't remember a thing of this tomorrow."

A sloppy raspberry was her only reply.

"You told me to find someone I loved and grab on to them. To protect them with everything I had and never let them go. Do you remember that?"

Her face went from rapt attention to drunken concentration, her eyes staring up and off to the side with her mouth slightly open.

"Uuuuummmmmmmmm, yup! Sure do!" Her head bobbed in agreement a few times before her eyes found his again.

"I didn't want to believe you, that someone like me could be happy."

Here she interrupted him apparently not too drunk to get irritated.

"What do you mean sum'un like you?" Her eyebrows were puckered together again this time in consternation.

He merely placed a hand on his stomach and gently patted it and the lights came on for her. Understanding dawned on her face with an open "O" expression, big eyes to follow shortly thereafter.

She swatted his hand away and crawled over until her head was laying in his lap. Confused he could only watch as she smiled up at him and gently patted his cheek with one extremely warm hand.

"Don' worry Gaki. There's a pretty woman out there for you. You'll see."

He only smiled down at her as his own hand rested on her cheek in return.

"Oh, I know. I've already found her."

Her eyes, which previously slid closed at the warm feeling of his palm, snapped open as she stumbled up and out of his lap to face him. Apparently drunk Anko had no understanding of personal space as her nose ended up half a hand away from his own.

Naruto's eyes involuntarily closed as the bourbon in her mouth and leaking from her pores hit his senses. He tried to turn away but her hand shot up and pulled him back to face her.

"Who? Who-who-who-who is it?"

Trying not to gag on the fumes he just smiled at her. Too inebriated to get the hint, Anko's eyes moved to look over his shoulder at the sleeping Yamanaka and her eyebrows started waggling asking if she was right.

He gently shook his head no.

Nonplussed, she rocked back on her butt and struck a thinking pose, one finger to the side of her mouth. "Hestia?"

He gently shook his head no again.

"Eina?"

Once more, no.

"Oooh, this is a tough one." Her eyes locked onto his as if she was trying to solve a deep riddle. "You're too young for Kurenai."

He chuckled but shook his head no anyway.

"Who then?" She'd given up in frustration and leaned forward to pry the mystery out of him. Taking another breath, Naruto grabbed her face in both hands, leaned forward, then kissed her.

Right about that moment, Asuma came out of the bathroom, saw what was going on, blinked to clear his eyes, then turned right back around to re-enter the bathroom and closed the door again. He would be found there later that morning snoring quietly on the toilet.

Naruto's lips were warm and soft. It wasn't a toe-curling kiss. In fact, it was probably his first real one but it was hers and Anko initially melted into it. Her lips parted just enough to capture his lower one and a soft moan escaped from her mouth.

Things were good. For Naruto, nothing else in life was as perfect as this moment until it suddenly wasn't.

Anko's eyes shot open and her body shot backwards out of his loving grip, the back of her hand shooting up to cover her mouth. He could see her eyes since they were wide open. I guess you could say the curse of his great night vision, courtesy of being the demon container, showed him every line and contour caused by the irrational fear radiating from her body and showing on her face.

"What's wrong, Anko?"

She was muttering one word to herself over and over again, the same thing as rapidly as she could.

The word was "no."

"Why not? Is it my age?"

She didn't answer right away, her eyes locked onto him like he was a stranger. He was beginning to panic now.

"I'll be legally able to marry you when I turn sixteen in a little over a year. I'll be fifteen not too long after we get back from this mission, in two months." He reached out to her but she flinched and moved away until her back thumped against one of the walls.

"I don't understand. We've joked about marriage for over a year and now I can finally afford to take care of you. I'm getting strong enough to stand by your side. I'll be there by the time I can reclaim my clan. I thought you loved me as I loved you. Was I wrong?" His eyes were beginning to shine around the edges as they flickered back and forth trying to read her face.

"Don't do this, Naruto."

This time he flinched. She never called him Naruto unless it was serious. He was going to lose her and he could feel it.

Standing he lifted the egg in his hand and held it out to her.

"I can make it so that you never have to work again. I can make it so that all we have to do is train to become strong enough to make him pay for what he did to you. I can do that for you now, take care of you like you took care of me. Why is my wanting to do that so wrong?"

She was shaking her head in denial.

"Let me go, Naruto. Find someone your own age." She was sounding pretty sober now. Perhaps the shock had burned through the booze.

"Am-am I not good enough?" His voice sounded hollow. Defeated.

Her panicked expression shot up from whatever faraway land it had been in at that moment and met his pained look without blinking. Then her answer ripped his heart right out of his chest.

"No. You're not."

One minute he was standing there swaying as his world crumbled. The next minute he was gone and the blinds to the now open window were rattling in his passing, the jeweled egg coming to a rest on his now vacant sleeping bag.

After she was absolutely sure that he was gone, that she was positively sure she couldn't detect his now erratic chakra signature, did Anko fall over where she was sitting against the wall, curl into a fetal position, and ball her eyes out.

On the bed nearby, another woman gnashed her teeth and silently wept matching tears into her pillow for the teammate she felt deserved better than he got.

~III~

Morning came with a vengeance for the young kunoichi even without a night of drunken rowdiness and she was dreading her request to accompany the "boys" into the dungeon. At least Naruto had the decency to let her sleep a bit longer while he got ready to go.

He was unusually quiet, his eyes avoiding everyone else but she could see the bags underneath them. Ino was stunned given what she overheard last night. On more than one occasion she cast a searing stare at the older Kunoichi only to look away when Anko looked up at her in annoyance.

All too soon, she rolled out of bed keeping their interaction to a minimum of grunts and wordless acknowledgments. She'd let him think of her as a non-morning person, which wasn't all that far from the truth actually, and Ino would fall into her clothes before they headed downstairs to get a bite to eat.

Syr had been making a lunch for Bell to take during his trips to the dungeon and Naruto found merit in the idea so he ordered and paid for two more, so they would all have something to take. Ino had to hide her smile when she looked inside the small basket and saw fresh fruit, crusty bread, and that soft cheese she favored.

Damn him for paying attention to her interests!

Before too long, Bell would come hopping up, Naruto would down the dregs of his tea (it wasn't green tea and the taste made Naruto's mouth compress at the bitter flavor), leave a few Valis Crowns to cover their bill, and then they were off at a stumbling roar. It was business as usual it seemed.

This would set their morning routine for the next two days and, by the time the threesome arrived at Babel, Naruto would have already released eight clones to race off into the city and picked up his stride as the tea started to take effect.

He would then proceed to tear through the first ten levels of the dungeon as if it were a training exercise, much to Ino's amazement, his clones helping to funnel monsters to both Naruto and Bell while two or three stayed behind for rearguard and crystal duty.

After figuring out their rhythm, Ino worked her way into the rotation and scored a few kills herself.

Then they'd reset for the night by going to the church and entering the basement apartment one at a time to have Hestia update their status. A simple routine, right?

Maybe.

Since they were looking for Koaru, they couldn't delve deeper into the dungeon. Evidence suggested that the nukenin helping him either didn't have the strength to go deeper or couldn't safely do so with him tagging along. That made sense to a degree as the monsters became much stronger beyond the tenth floor, according to Bell.

Plus, retreating groups being hounded by mobs of monsters became an increasingly familiar sight the closer they got to the eleventh floor. In fact, it was as they were wrapping up the tenth floor and turning around to return to the surface that they discovered Bell's deepest fear.

"That's the last of them, Naruto-san," the white-haired youth stood up with one hand to his back as he tried to stretch out the kinks. The orcs were harder to kill with his short knives but Naruto's blades were able to make fairly short work of them.

Dropping the bulging sack of mana crystals into his backpack, his fifth one for the half-day, the crimson-eyed scrapper froze stiff and the bellowing wail they could just make out in the distance.

"AaarrrrrrroooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

It was getting closer in a hurry. Naruto and Ino closed in on his location, Ino's eyes still having trouble adjusting to the white mist on the tenth floor this being her first time down there.

"What the heck was that?"

Naruto could hear the unease in her voice.

"Dunno actually. This is the first time I've heard anything like it." He dropped his crystals into his backpack then looped his arms through the straps, his eyes shooting over to Bell as he started to ask what could make that horrible sound. What he saw was a petrified teenager instead, eyes wide and arms hanging limply at his sides.

Ino waved a hand in front of his face as the bullhorn sounded again, this time much closer and considerably louder. Maybe there were several going at the same time?

"Well, he's a goner," she griped motioning to the nearly-catatonic Bell. Ino prepared to fight or flee, her right hand snaking to her thigh to grab a Kunai.

Naruto nodded in agreement. Bell would be useless in a fight as he was. He'd have to either stop whatever this was or be prepared to have a clone grab him up on the way out.

Then they felt the first tremors and Bell's face went completely pale.

Naruto took a few steps towards the sound, both hands on the handles of his blades. The ground was vibrating and he could distinctly hear three or four raging bellows deep in the mist. He looked over his left shoulder at his teammate.

"I make out four heavy monsters headed this way." He closed his eyes, his head canted to one side as he strained to hear. "Five… no, six smaller creatures," his eyes scrunched up as he channeled chakra to his ears, "breathing hard, running this way."

The bellowing was turning into grunting sounds and snarling. Whatever it was had hard feet or boots. It almost sounded like hooves.

"…taurs."

Ino turned to the terrified Bell.

"What? Speak up, Bell-kun. What do you hear?"

His face, unchanged from his ongoing fright, swung her way as he named his greatest fear once more.

"Minotaurs!"

A minute passed and a group of adventurers tore by them, eyes wide and breathing raspy. The ones running under their own power were bloodied, broken, and trying to keep up with two larger males carrying more badly broken members of their group. They ran past Ino and the world seemed to slow down as her eyes registered their fear, each and every one.

It was absolute. There was no thought of stopping to defend. Not one of them considered slowing to catch their ragged breath. She had no idea how the gasping rear guard even stayed on their feet.

Her eyes swung up to meet her blond teammate while her stomach plummeted to the misty dungeon floor at her feet.

"Na-." She never finished her suggestion to run for it as the walls of the corridor from which that group fled exploded into a jagged shower of stone and smoke.

She instinctively ducked, her arms coming up to shield her face as Ino whipped around to face the oncoming nightmare.

Bursting through into the large chamber came giant creatures from her worst nightmares. Powerfully built bodies covered in matted furs of browns and blacks roared their thirst for blood from bull-like muzzles, the wicked horns crowning their skulls large enough to skewer a person. Indeed, several of them appeared to have been engaging in just that activity. They stood almost twice Naruto's height, the hardened bodies obscenely stacked with human-like muscles. Beady eyes, mid-charge, broke from the backs of their fleeing prey and locked onto the blond standing his ground.

Ino's world shrunk to a point, her ears barely registering the panicked shout of, "I'm sorry!" rang out from the pass parade group tearing for the hills.

Naruto glanced her way and smiled, the most tranquil grin on his face as his punch knives burst into wind chakra and his knees flexed.

Then he vanished and the blood flew as cowmen just over three meters in height burst into gushing ichor and floundering limbs.

~III~

Tired of listening to Bete complain about the noticeable lack of monsters, Tiona spun around and whipped her apple core at the tattooed werewolf, which he promptly swatted away.

"What was that for?!" he roared back into her smug face.

"Ugh, I can't even get you to shut up in a pretend fight."

To be honest, he'd been whining since Loki Familia's expedition entered the upper levels bound for the deep region. Talk circulating through the rumor mill eluded to an obscenely strong group raiding the upper levels picking the bones clean. That same talk recommended that lower levels looking to progress through the dungeon avoid the early morning and late afternoon if they ever hoped to score any graft.

Since Loki Familia had been planning this expedition for weeks, they were a bit put-out to discover that the rumors flitting about the rumor mill were disturbingly true. Their trek through the first nine levels went without a hitch, bump, creak, squeak, or pop right up until a terrified group of half-dead lowbies went streaking past them screaming about Minotaurs gone wild.

Looking for a little action, Bete led the charge as the tightly-packed formation began to break up hoping to get a lucky drop; Minotaur horns were infused with metal from the walls of the dungeon and made for excellent weapon or armor stock. For a seasoned group of level fives and sixes, it was like Old Saint's Day where Guild representatives paraded around the tower tossing sweets to the crowded bazaar.

What they saw, what caused them each, in turn, to come to a complete stop with jaws flapping in open disbelief, was the sight of Bell standing off to the side (with two bored clones swatting the random Minotaur back into play when they wandered afoul of the playing field), and the two blonds from that annoying group slicing limbs from a squad of six full-grown Minotaurs.

~III~

Ino grunted as a club the size of her body whiffed over her head.

"Whose bright idea was this again?"

It only took one blow to realize that blocking a bone-crushing swing from one of these walking man-mountains was a bad idea. It didn't break her arm (after she reinforced her body with chakra) but the massive bruise along the entire left side of her arm would probably linger for days.

As the club swung back around to smash the ground she stood on, the blond tucked under and rolled between its legs. It wasn't a difficult feat really since the thing's crotch was literally level with her chin (disturbing thought). Coming up from her roll and planting her left foot to stop her momentum, she flipped the kunai into a reverse grip and spun like a top, the sharp tip tearing a jagged rip into the back of both knees belonging to the foul-smelling creature.

The now angry cow, er, bull roared in pain but didn't drop.

'Damn, solid muscle and hard to cut.' She crabbed around as the beast swung around hoping to clip her, Ino trying to keep her smaller body in its blind spot while looking for another window to strike.

"Aim for the joints, Ino!"

She rotated back in the other direction and, as if waiting for her to glance his way, Naruto ducked the howling strike of one of his three remaining bulls, his body dropping into a low stance before shifting sideways fast enough to make her think he used a Body Flicker.

The Minotaur had just finished a similar overhand smash overextending his body, his right arm extended with a club wrecking solid stone, his left leg stepped forward to support his weight. Once the club struck the ground, Naruto shifted back just as quickly and a thunderous cracking sound echoed off the walls as he smashed his mailed fist into the side of the bull's extend leg, right at the knee joint.

The bull folded like cheap laundry only to have its head lopped off by a wind-covered punch knife while it dropped to the earth.

Ino's face twisted up into a grimace knowing she couldn't match his power, her eyes moving back to her opponent only to balloon in surprise as the angry bull tried to gore her with its horns.

"Oh, DIP!" she squeaked out before throwing her body to the floor, shoulders first, before kipping upwards with her feet allowing her momentum to pop her back to her feet in an impromptu somersault.

The hot breath on the back of her neck let her know just how close she'd come to being a Minotaur-kabob. Focusing on her opponent once again, she darted forward quick as a flash and started stabbing her kunai tip-first into whichever exposed joint or soft spot she could find, earning grunts of pain and frustration from her opponent.

Minotaur tried to backhand her, but she ducked underneath, popped up, and stabbed it in the oblique.

It roared in response and tried to smash her with an overhead fist sending it crashing into the stone floor, she swayed gracefully out of the way and jammed her kunai into the soft joint of its elbow.

The enraged beast jerked the now weakened arm up and away retaliating with another swing from the club in its right hand only for Ino to dip underneath and jam the kunai directly into its armpit.

Then she went to work on its extremities.

Back of the hand, tendons and muscles in the right forearm, right bicep, cleft between right shoulder and pectoral, left hip, right foot by way of dodging another gore, right carotid then finally right under the chin when the creature's head reflexively tilted to the side as it dropped the club and tried to stem the bleeding from its neck with a useless left arm. Giving one last heaving push, she drove the blade through its chin up to the handle and into its overly large skull piercing its brain stem.

With a gasping release, the brute crashed over and began decorating the floor with its lifeblood.

With her chest heavy and her lungs burning for air, an exhausted Ino looked up for her teammate to find him standing next to Bell with his arms folded and a shitty grin plastered all over his face. His cheeky "thumbs up" earned him a mocking chuckle but inside Ino was proud of herself.

She wasn't strong enough to fight off an entire squad of these fiends but could fend for herself well enough against one and that felt incredible.

"What! The! Hell!"

All three of Hestia Familia's adventurers looked up to see a stunned Loki Familia group grumble off and head below to the next level without a word of greeting. Naruto merely chuckled then pushed out a few more clones to help gather crystals.

It was just another typical day in the meat grinder.

~III~

Minotaur hide and horns were valuable drops. Since the monsters turned to ash once their crystals were cut from their chests, drops were not necessarily a certainty. For each of them to get one was truly a lucky stroke.

Bell tried to refuse saying that he was useless in the fight but Ino and Naruto both pressed the items into his hands and would hear nothing else on the matter. Naruto's terse, "Group effort" seemed to be the end of the argument and they left it at that.

Naruto, having done the majority of killing, was the only one to get two horns.

Night followed the same routine of food, bathing, and debriefing once they finished updates with Hestia.

Of note was the fact that his clones finally located Koaru in the cemetery and Naruto was beyond pleased. Before too long this would all come to an end and they could go home.

~III~

Omake: The Minds of Women and Other Fantastical Creatures

The great and powerful Kyuubi was lounging per usual on the floor of his overly-cramped cage, the standard swill of murky water pooling about his body as his tails lazily sloshed about. Today he didn't even seem overly perturbed about the one tail that faded to an albino white color up to a human's arm length away from his spine. He was being entertained, albeit indirectly, by the frustrated muttering of his jailer as the boy scrambled about setting up their weekly distraction.

At first, the great and powerful bijuu had been offended. It was bad enough to be entombed here in this pigsty of a mindspace, but to be forced to distract his tormentor? He was not a caretaker of small children! The very thought drove him to fits of rage and the first time the boy had tried to set up a game, the demon swiped an enormous paw, minus the talons, at the tiny meat sack in order to make him suffer properly for his insolence.

He hadn't planned to kill him, only make him wish that he were dead in order to prevent a repeat occurrence of this travesty. He didn't want to socialize. He didn't need to socialize. He was the Kyuubi, scourge of the mortal realm. The boy's voice grated on his nerves and drove his ears to bleed. No, not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever, if Kyuubi had his way!

Unfortunately, he wasn't aware that any damage sustained by the child mirrored itself to Kyuubi's form. The blow that laid low the son of the Yondaime equally crushed the bijuu flat as if some giant mallet had revisited the same strike upon his furry carcass like a nasty karmic rash.

Kyuubi was forced to flood his youki to heal himself and, unknowingly, heal the boy through the same venue.

It still took hours of them both lying there glaring hatefully at each other as the bones re-knit painfully together, the ruptured organs reformed, and the lesions in their flesh sewed themselves shut to prevent either from bleeding out. It was a hard lesson learned and the Kyuubi kept his paws to himself after that.

He at least hoped the boy would keep to himself but noooooooooooo! He was back at it all too quickly.

In fact, he became more persistent than ever. Only now, instead of the great gaming event happening on Monday it now happened on Wednesday of every week before the boy retired for the night. It happened like clockwork, much to Kyuubi's eternal suffering.

Naruto would appear and stride calmly through the bars into Kyuubi's cell.

The boy would raise up a large, square platform with slender lines overlaying it in a cross-hatch pattern.

Finally, he'd raise up a taller platform to elevate his body high enough to let him see the whole board and then the game pieces would appear in a pile between the two opponents.

With the red-headed seal expert to play referee and settle rule disputes, the contestants were set to decide who got to make the first move.

Then the great shogi battle was on!

Hey, who was he to complain? It was something to do and they both sucked equally bad at it. If it weren't for the disguised Yondaime soul fragment, neither of them would have any idea how to play. The one bright side was that Naruto usually conjured snacks and drinks which usually kept the fox mollified until the end.

And tonight was Kobe beef night with warmed sake (for Kyuubi and Minato) and virgin daiquiris (for Naruto) was on the meal plan. At least the kid was getting better in his food choices.

Naruto generated a pair of clones to move the large game pieces for him, and an extra to yell out his move choices so the actionable clones could respond, one to toss out the piece in question and the field clone to lay it in the proper spot. It was allowed for the rules given that the board had to be big enough for Kyuubi to play yet small enough that a clone could handle the board pieces.

The first game had been miserable while they worked all this out. They didn't even have snacks then! That came about so Naruto could bribe him to keep playing but Kyuubi thought it worked out nicely. He was actually starting to look forward to game night but tonight was different.

Oh, the food was excellent, and the finger shrimps wrapped in melted cheese and a crunchy outer shell of pastry were great, but the boy clearly was distracted by something. His mind just wasn't' in the game like he normally was. By the shinigami's short hairs, he wasn't even jabbering non-stop about his week! It was almost… boring. Gasp!

He made a move that gave Kyuubi pause, the great fox blinking as even he saw the opening Naruto's foot soldier left in its wake.

He took the bishop behind it anyway then looked up at the sullen blond waiting for a reaction that never came. Nothing. Not even a blink or a raging twitch of the eyebrows.

"What gives, maggot? You don't usually play this horribly. Tonight at least give me a challenge!"

He saw the boy blink and his clones looked up to glare at him, one motioning with both hands to the field advantage he was blindly surrendering.

"Oh, sorry. I'll try to focus better. Knight forward." Clones scrambled to find the appropriate piece and fill in the hole. It was going to take several moves to dig out of this trouble.

"Okay, not that I care, but I'll bite. What's ruining our game tonight?" Kyuubi folded his arms and refused to move. It took a while for Naruto to catch on and, with a heavy sigh, catch on he finally did.

"Girls are hard." The great demon lord guffawed in response.

"That's what has you distracted and pitiful?" His outburst did nothing to alleviate the child's angst and, eventually his booming laughter died down as well.

"Okay then, and again, not that I care but, what is so hard about vixens? Is your mate in heat?" One soggy paw shot up to cradle Kyuubi's jaw with its almost human-like dexterity.

"No! No, I don't have a mate yet!" Kyuubi was beginning to care a lot less now. There wouldn't even be gratuitous sex involved. He was starting to like that skinny blond creature though. Right now, however, he just wanted to get through the game and on to dessert. He was particularly fond of shaved ice as it turned out.

"Then what is it?" Large nails were drumming on the stone floor vibrating the game pieces.

Groaning out like a petulant teenager, which he was, Naruto explained how he and Ino didn't really get along. He talked about how they bickered all the time but sometimes she could be really nice, and it confused him. Then he explained how he woke up earlier in the week with her sprawled out almost bare-ass naked atop him one morning and how she freaked out once she woke up and has barely said two sentences to him since then.

She was pretty, she was confusing, and, most of all, he didn't know how to act around her anymore. Half the time she acted like she hated his guts and the other half of the time she got jealous if anything with boobs got within three paces of him. It made absolutely no sense and he was sick of it all.

Kyuubi, for his part, listened to it all then began to chuckle. As Naruto's face began to scrunch up and swell with rage, he laughed even more. It got so bad, the large fox rolled over onto his back and began pounding the floor in his amusement before winding down ten minutes later to a whimpering snicker.

The board game had been utterly wrecked but Naruto had been playing like crap so no real loss there.

"That's it?" Naruto nodded dumbly feeling overly ashamed at his confusion over the fairer sex. "Look, vixens are simple to deal with." Naruto looked up skeptically but listened just the same. "Find one you like, one with good haunches, pin her down once she snaps at you then dominate her!" Kyuubi's eyes gleamed with something almost maniacal in them.

"Uh, I don't think-." Kyuubi continued as if his concerns were mere trifles.

"Of course, you can, it's nature's law after all. No one can fault you." Naruto nodded once (very minuscule in the range of his available motion) then pretended to study the board for his next move. He was pretty sure raping a girl was illegal. And bad, yes, very bad.

Feeling absolutely miserable with his non-advice advice, Naruto muttered out as he stared down his remaining board pieces.

"Shogi is easy; girls are hard," Naruto groused.

Kenshin responded with a soulful, "Amen."

~III~