Chapter 28 The Step Forward

Morning came and Naruto felt rested but not much better. He opened his eyes and immediately noticed there was more weight in his bed than expected. He looked to his side seeing the sleeping face of Sahino, but she wasn't alone. Surrounding him and her were Sakura, Hinata, and Ino. All three were above the covers and stark naked.

'They're back.' He thought, smiling. Then he got worried. 'Oh crap, how are they going to react to Sahino? How are they going to react to...?'

Seeing no way out of it, he closed his eyes. Whatever happened was inescapable, so he might as well let it happen. Besides, maybe it wouldn't be too bad.

"Hey girls?"

The four girls in his bed started to stir awake, completely unaware of what awaited them. They looked to Naruto and smiled warmly.

"Good morning Naruto-kun." All four said, then it registered that there was more than one of them. Each looked at each other in surprise.

"We're back?"

"That's a relief."

"Sahino? You're still here?"

"Wait, I can remember everything."

"Holy crap, me too. I can remember everything too."

Sakura, Ino, and Hinata looked to Naruto, who now felt uncomfortable. Sahino scooted to the side of the bed, feeling rather out of place at the moment.

Naruto did what he felt he had to do to make this better, he pulled all three of his friends into a hug. "I'm glad the three of you are back. I was worried you were all gone."

"Glad to be back." They all said.

Sahino got up out of bed. "I'll leave you all alone."

"Wait Sahino." Sakura said, making the fusion girl stop. "I think we all need to talk, and you need to be a part of this."

Sahino looked surprised. "You mean... I get to stay in the harem?"

"You didn't think we'd kick you out of it, did you?"

Sahino smiled and sat back down.

"So is it official? We're doing an actual harem now?" Ino asked.

"I know I'm not giving up Naruto-kun, and Sahino and Hinata aren't either. So yeah, might as well make it official." Sakura declared.

Hinata blushed but gave Naruto a quick kiss on the cheek. "Looks like you're stuck with us from now on Naruto-kun."

Naruto looked happy but strangely melancholy at the same time. "I don't deserve you all. You deserve someone that actually has value in this terrible village."

"You have value to us and that's what really matters." Ino said, crawling to him until she practically sat in his lap. She paid no mind to the fact that he could see all of her body right then. "Naruto, do you know why you have several girls interested in being with you in the first place?"

"Not really. I mean, you'll all said what you like about me and I'm flattered, but right now I don't recall any of you telling me why you started liking me in the first place."

The four girls looked at each other, wondering if they actually had forgotten that detail.

"For me Naruto-kun, it all started when you stood up to a bunch of bullies for me." Hinata started. "You showed me kindness and bravery, something I had never seen before, not even among the Hyuuga, and you kept that up throughout the Academy. Even with the odds and everyone against you, you persisted and never lashed out at anyone. I admired that, a part of me wished I could be as strong as you. Then when you showed me your fears and doubts before the Chuunin Exams. I mean, I knew you could fail, but I always thought it didn't bother you and you'd keep trying. Hearing you worry, seeing you need someone to give you confidence, you reminded me of how human you still are. Before that, I had wanted to be like you, but after that, I wanted to be with you."

Naruto was stunned, remembering the moment before his fight with Neji when Hinata wished him luck. He had always thought of that as her being supportive, but now he saw she was telling him that her support wasn't conditional. Even if he lost, she'd still be there to help him if he allowed her to. And she was there for him even now, because he needed a hero as much as she needed one, and she wanted to be that hero for him.

The thought made him smile.

"I'm not sure when my feelings started to change." Sakura confessed. "I did always appreciate your affections and compliments, even if at the time I wanted them to come from Sasuke more. I think seeing you in the hospital after Sasuke nearly killed you was when it started to hit me how much I had taken you for granted. During your time away I would often wonder how you were doing and if I would really be able to help you get Sasuke back. And when we were finally about to actually do it, I saw how determined you were to keep your promise to me, even if it killed you. I didn't know it at the time, but I realized that sacrificing you to get him back was not a price I was willing to pay. I still believe that, I'd rather we never bring Sasuke back than have you die trying to bring him back."

Naruto's instinct was to refute this due to his nindo, but then again he wasn't a ninja anymore so how could he have a nindo? Even if he still could, he had resigned so how was he supposed to fulfill the promise in the first place? For now, he'd at least put this promise on the backburner and focus on more important problems in his own life before prioritizing his old teammate.

"I wish I had something better to say here." Ino admitted, sounding like she wasn't too proud of herself. "I think I started to think better of you after the invasion and you brought Tsunade-sama back, and when you came back after three years I was happy to see you. Then I got to spend time with you and you reminded me of all the things I knew about you but never really thought about. You... you opened my eyes, made me realize that while I liked you, I never truly respected you. I still saw you as that class clown, but now I see the man you've become and you're a man who's deserving of love. I'm proud to call you my friend... and my boyfriend, if you'll have me that is."

Naruto smiled and gently rubbed a finger down Ino's cheek. "I'm the one who should be asking if you'll have me."

Ino blushed and smiled, a single tear forming in her eye before she crawled up to him and planted a kiss on his lips. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in, the two making out naked on his bed. Ino got closer and could feel his hard rod poking against her hip, encouraging her libido to rise.

"Don't go too far Ino. I still haven't had my date yet so it's not your turn to get laid." Sakura spoke up, trying to pull the two apart.

Ino however growled and pulled Naruto into her chest, giving a sharp look to her friend. "Don't be a cockblock Forehead! If Naruto-kun wants to make love to me again you don't get to stop us like that!"

"Again?!" Everyone repeated, surprised.

Ino blinked and looked a little flustered. "Well, I remember being Sahino, so it's like he had sex with me too." She then made eye contact with Naruto and winked. "It was wonderful, but now I want the real thing. No mind jutsu or fusion this time."

"I told you, I'm owed a date so you're going to have to wait your turn." Sakura argued.

"And after Sakura it's my turn." Hinata added.

"What is this? A take-a-number situation?" Sahino asked. "If you want sex so bad, just go for it."

"That's what I'm doing." Ino remarked.

"But I'm one of his best friends. I deserve this more than you." Sakura argued.

"Hey I loved him before either of you bothered to even smile at him! If anyone deserves to go first it's me!" Hinata declared.

Lightning seemed to dance between the girl's eyes, neither willing to give an inch here.

"Hold on." Naruto said, sitting up more and moving Ino off him. She was quite reluctant to do so. "I don't want you fighting over me. So until the four of you can come to an agreement, none of you are having any sex with me."

"What?!" All four asked, objection in their eyes.

Naruto stood up out of bed to look more serious, though with him still naked that wasn't quite the effect he accomplished. "If you're all my girlfriends, then it's my job to make you happy. I don't want you fighting each other over me like you need to prove you love me more than the others. Now, I could possibly have sex with all of you at once with some clones..."

The perverted smirks, snickers, blushes, and glances at his waist from the four girls told him they were not opposed to this solution.

"But I'm not doing that. Using clones like that would be an insult to the love you're giving me. I have strong feelings for all of you, I will not treat loving you like a chore or D-rank mission that needs to be done and over with."

The girls felt their hearts surge at his words.

"So please, find a way to be friends and not try to one-up each other. I don't want to have a favorite."

"I'm sorry Naruto, I got carried away." Ino said, bowing her head a little.

"It's okay Ino-chan. I'm not mad." The whiskered blonde said, rubbing her shoulder to soothe her.

She looked up and saw his still somewhat erect dick was practically in her face. "I can see that."

Before Naruto could react, the platinum blonde gently took ahold of his penis and began to rub it, encouraging it to get hard. Sahino and Hinata came in on both sides to get in on the action, both licking his dick like a popsicle. Ino removed her hand and swirled her tongue around the tip.

Sakura huffed since she couldn't get in and join, so she decided to give Naruto a kiss. He wrapped an arm around her and grabbed her rear, exciting her.

"Want some of this Naruto-kun?" Sakura asked, placing his other hand on her breasts. "You know, I heard that having a man rub them helps them grow."

"Wait, are you saying we had men rub us?" Hinata asked, breaking away to frown at the pinkette.

"Yeah, because I never let any guy touch me and we both know Hinata never did." Ino claimed.

"Sheesh, don't take it personally. We all know you two were lucky to have big boob genes." Sakura stated.

"Which I'm grateful for, thanks." Sahino said, shaking her own chest.

"Say, if you have our DNA too, what does this make you to us? A shared sister? A daughter?" Ino asked.

Sahino looked bothered. "Let's go with sister, because I don't want to share my boyfriend with my mothers."

"Ah, and here I thought this meant I could call myself a MILF." Sakura joked.

"I want to have Naruto-kun's kid the old-fashioned way." Hinata declared.

"Me too." Sahino said.

"Same here." Sakura added.

Ino smirked. "I'm not ready to have a baby now, but I'm all in favorite of practicing to make one."

"Wait, you girls want to have kids with me?" Naruto asked, surprised.

All four looked at him. "We're in this for the long term Naruto-kun. Who forms a temporary harem?" Sakura asked.

"This is just the start of an Uzumaki clan." Hinata told her loved one.

"Ooh, can I have Uzumaki as my name right now? Since I don't really have one." Sahino asked.

"Boy, I can't wait to see the look on my father's face when he hears about this wedding." Ino commented with a grin, picturing herself in a white dress standing at an altar before Naruto. She had of course fantasized about this exact thing before, only with Sasuke instead, but this time felt different. Better.

Naruto pulled them all into a hug. "I love you all."

"We love you too, Naruto-kun." Sakura said.

'I'm not ready to say it, but I'm looking forward to the day I can.' Ino thought.

Naruto then let them go. "Okay, now I'm thinking we need to get dressed. I'm going to give Sakura-chan that date she's been patiently waiting for, and I think Hinata-chan and Ino-chan should help Sahino-chan with whatever she needs now that she's going to be around full time."

"Alright! A girls day out!" Sahino cheered.

"Where's she going to live?" Hinata asked, already certain of the answer.

"Here of course." The fusion girl answered, predictably.

"Then I think it's time we gave this bachelor pad a woman's touch." Ino offered.

"Should I be worried?" Naruto asked.

Sakura gave him a light kiss on the cheek. "Let's just say you're not going to sleep in a cold bed for a long time Naruto-kun."

In the hokage's office Tsunade and Jiraiya were at work going over the laws of Konoha. There were no meetings scheduled and currently no new missions to assign higher than D-rank, so this was their best chance to do what they had to do.

"There's got to be something here that can help Naruto and end this strike." Jiraiya said, flipping through some pages.

"Giving him what he wants sounds like a perfect solution, but we both know there will be opposition to doing so. Some loophole to invalidate, some bylaw that can be used against him, or some hidden clause to grant them power over him specifically should he become chuunin."

"You think that someone would create a law specifically to take effect should Naruto get a promotion?" Jiraiya asked.

Tsunade gave him a 'don't be dumb' expression. "Sensei created a law that revolved around people not talking about the Kyuubi. Of course it's not impossible that other laws were created specifically with the gaki in mind."

"Point taken." Jiraiya consented, returning to the books. Though he was having trouble focusing. "Tsunade?"

"What?"

"Why exactly have you not promoted him in the past? I get worrying about consequences, but you've had three years to look for this exact information and come up with a workaround. Why only now are you being serious about it and denying him the chance to become chuunin?"

The slug sannin looked annoyed. "You're one to talk about being serious. You said Naruto was limiting himself and you had three years to expand his arsenal, yet all you did was make him treat the fox like it was a battery. Why didn't you take his training seriously?"

"The kid was fixated on saving his friend and doing it as fast as possible. I figured if I gave him a power boost that he could use he'd feel like he was making steps towards that and then I could remind them that it would take more than clones and rasengans to take down Orochimaru or the Akatsuki."

"And in three years it never came up?" Tsunade asked.

"I mentioned it all the time, but the kid only wanted to learn new stuff, never work on what he already knew. Now that he had me he didn't care about what the other teachers taught him, he was only interested in what new shiny jutsu I could give him. So I wasn't neglectful, he was blowing my advice off."

"So despite being well-trained by Kakashi and others, all Naruto cared about was something new from you." Tsunade summarized, having a bad feeling about this. "Jiraiya, in those three years, did Naruto ever use one jutsu or technique that you hadn't already seen him use?"

Jiraiya arched an eyebrow but then rubbed his chin. "Now that you mention it, no I didn't see him do anything that I haven't already seen him do. Which just proves that he was limiting himself."

"Or maybe it was proof that he didn't have anything else to use."

"What are you saying? There's no way Naruto knows only clones and rasengans and that's it." Jiraiya protested.

"But what if that is the case?" Tsunade asked.

Jiraiya worried. Was it possible that his blonde apprentice was seriously that handicapped? "But... he's Minato's son. Surely somebody made sure he was looked after all this time."

"I want to believe the same, but then again why would Naruto be the dead last of his class if he got the support you think he did?"

"Like I said, he's just lazy." Jiraiya reiterated.

"Naruto Uzumaki is lazy?" Tsunade repeated, skeptical.

"I know it sounds weird, but what's the alternative?"

"You tell me Jiraiya, what is the alternative?"

Jiraiya thought for a moment and then he froze, his paradigm shattering as dots began to connect. Naruto... all this time he had been looking at the boy and expecting him to be Minato Jr. Maybe not a prodigy, but still someone who was meant to be one of the greatest. Naruto had a lot of shortcomings, and all this time Jiraiya had operated under the mindset that those shortcomings were self-inflicted. But what if he was wrong? What if everything he saw from Naruto was everything the whiskered blonde had to offer? What if the boy really was giving his training all he had, and Jiraiya had just assumed his student was holding himself back?

Jiraiya slumped in his chair, feeling so disappointed in himself. Had he really based his entire regiment on mere assumptions? Even if they were logical assumptions? Had he judged Naruto by standards that did not apply to him?

Frowning, Tsunade returned to the books. Flipping a page, her eyes widened. "I found something, but it's not good."

"What?" Jiraiya asked.

Tsunade showed him the book and pointed to a line of text. Jiraiya read this and his eyes widened before he looked at his former teammate.

"This can't be real."

Tsunade nodded. "I'm afraid it is. This just made a mountain out of a mess."

Jiraiya looked back at the words written in the book, hoping he has misread them.

'No jinchuuriki is allowed to possess the rank of hokage, clan head, or jounin sensei. Every jinchuuriki is required to serve Konoha, without having command over other ninja, until such time that they no longer can perform said work. Refusal to do so will result in punishment to be determined by current hokage.'

He had not.

"Do you have any idea what Naruto will do if he learns of this?" Jiraiya asked.

"Yes, I do. It means legally speaking, he can't achieve his dream or even come close to it, so he has no reason whatsoever to take his job back. At the same time, it seems that Naruto is legally not allowed to resign or go on strike. So as far as the law is considered, he's stuck between a rock and a hard place."

"And regarded as nothing more than a weapon to use until he needs to be replaced." Jiraiya sighed. "You have to repel this law."

"Well obviously, but it's not like I can just declare laws invalidate on a whim. I'll need at least a two-thirds vote unless I can prove this violates the Konoha charter. And if this doesn't work we'll have no choice but to tell Naruto that as far as Konoha is concerned he's a slave as long as he has the fox in him."

Jiraiya put his head in his palm. "At that point he might as well give himself up to the Akatsuki or become a missing-nin."

Tsunade rubbed her temples, trying to think of something. She looked at the law again and again, and then a lightbulb went off. "Jiraiya, I think I just got an idea."

"What?" He asked, hoping for some good news.

Tsunade stood up. "Come with me. If I can't change the law, I have an idea on how to protect Naruto from it."