Chapter 37

NARUTO

Naruto never made it to that night's session with Hinata-chan. Though Naruto isn't an expert in picking up on subtly, even he can see they're making decent progress, despite how boring all the housework was. Hinata-chan was almost looking directly at him for two seconds before she turns away. She can also say, 'hi,' and, 'bye,' to him without fidgeting much. As she is very shy, Naruto handles the bulk of the talking, not that he minds, since she seems content to listen and in less than two sessions, he finds it's actually nice talking to someone who's willing to listen. If this wasn't orchestrated by Hinata-chan's sensei, he'd be happy to be friends with the shy girl outside of all Kurenai-sensei's rules.

The beautiful sensei had a lot of rules and sometimes they were hard to remember when he gets caught up in a story. It forces him to repeat her guidelines over and over in his head: 'Don't ask or mention her clan. Don't talk about specific events from school. Don't be too personal or ask her too many questions. If you run into her, act as you did before the sessions.' And on and on. After every session, Kurenai-sensei would critique how he engaged the meek Hyūga heiress, reciting some of the comments she doesn't approve of verbatim—even he didn't remember everything he said in the session—adding more to his opinion of the adult kunoichi.

For a sensei, she was beautiful, smelled really nice, and he liked the way she would lean over sometimes, but she was very controlling over every part of the sessions, even governing the way he talks. Apparently, she thinks he's too cocky, but he's fairly sure she just doesn't like him much. She hasn't done anything outright to express her hatred of him, not like many of the villagers had when he was younger, but with every interaction, he felt more and more convinced she didn't see him as anything more than a tool.

Still, Naru-nii had already told Naruto how incredibly strong Hinata-chan can and will be. Hastening her training so she can be that much stronger is definitely better, which is why Naruto feels bad about missing the session the day Ino came over. After the unexpected turn of events, one orgasm wasn't enough to settle him and he couldn't leave without taking care of his raging hard-on. His hand helped but a cold shower worked better, however under the bone-deep cut of freezing water, he couldn't stop replaying Ino-chan's words in his head...

'You don't make me feel good at all!' he recalls Ino trumpeting endlessly. A painfully sobering recollection rivaled only by a sentence equally as destructive, 'You don't even know what you're doing!'

Her words struck him as deeply as being seen as a failure does because in this case, it's actually true. He didn't know what he was doing. In fact, he didn't even think about making her feel good at all, focused solely as he was on the immense pleasure he was feeling. If he were painfully honest with himself, he wasn't thinking of anything but satisfying the lust of his ravenous hunger. 'Why wouldn't Ino stay away from me when I couldn't even make sure she felt good too?' On top of his guilt over his betrayal of Sakura-chan, it pained him to realize he was using Ino-chan to satisfy himself, and he never noticed until she had to yell to get it through his thick skull.

He was selfish, and when he'd thought about the heedless way he'd rush into anything, it's demoralizing to realize he'd failed Ino-chan. If his mind loved training, and his stomach loved Ramen, than his body, apparently, loved sex. It was like discovering a whole new world of joy, with untold but truly amazing kinship, and Naruto was desperate for more exploration. He's been eager for that feeling since that day, but unlike training, he had no guide of reference, or, more importantly, a girl to 'train' with. After all, he may be able to relieve himself every morning and night, but the connection he craves can't be done alone.

Throughout his life, loneliness has been his constant companion, and though he'd never admit how much it bothered him, he could feel the solitude even in crowds. Training, ramen, pranks, all helped stifle the constant heartache of alienation. This new world he fortuitously discovered with Ino-chan, could not be explored by himself like his other favorite activities. He absolutely needed someone else. Though it would be a dream come true if it were Sakura-chan, he knows pursuing her as he did would only get in the way of her self-discovery.

Naruto made this monumental discovery with Ino-chan, a very beautiful girl in her own right, and likely more popular with the boys than Sakura-chan. The Yamanaka may not have his heart the way Sakura-chan does, but he did make a connection with her, if only for that afternoon. Aside from sex that day and the blowjob the day before, Naruto knows next to nothing about the pretty blond. If Naruto wants to explore this new amazing branch of activity, he has to be good for her as much as she is for him.

Sadly he doesn't know what that means or entails, thus he stayed up well into the night torturing his mind for a solution to this complicated dilemma. He didn't even train, which only highlights the plight of his impasse as losing several hours of training actually amounts to days when he uses his clones. On top of the remorse of missing the session, he was feeling guilty he hadn't trained, especially with the knowledge of what's at stake, but fortunately, he's given the chance to catch up lost time.

"Listen up my cute genin," Kakashi begins abruptly, showing up in a swirling circle of leave after being two hours late. "I'm sad to report Sakura-chan has fallen ill, so she won't be joining us today."

"Is she going to be okay," Naruto fretfully asks, worried straight away about Sakura-chan. "How bad is it? Is she in the hospital? Are we going to visit her?"

"Ma, ma," Kakashi starts, waving a free palm to calm the blond down. "Her mother said it was just a cold. She's resting in her home, so we shouldn't interrupt her recuperation."

"It's just a cold, dobe," Sasuke calmly points out. "Unless her existence is too weak for this world, it shouldn't kill her."

"She's not weak," Naruto throws back angrily. How anyone could love this pompous, emotional Shut-In is beyond him, but Naruto's animosity has more to do than Sasuke's indifference. "She's our teammate, teme! And you better start treating her like one or I'll-" Naruto angrily slams his right fist into his left palm. "Kick your ass!"