Chapter 45

She expected the normally talkative boy to yell at her straight away, but he says nothing, and many seconds pass in painful silence. Within those seconds she analyzes his appearance and overall demeanor. He's clearly suspicious of her and not at all shy about showing anger. He's very dirty—training being the most obvious reason—but with dried sweat, bits of blood, dirt, grime, grass and mud stains littering his body, he looks as if he's been thrown to the ground for hours.

Finally, she offers, "how about you wash up a bit and I'll make us some tea. You remember where the bathroom is," she states, moving toward the kitchen without his compliance.

Before she takes more than three steps he interrupts, "can't you just say what you wanna say so I can get out of here?"

"It'll only take a second," she counters. "Go on, wash up and I promise I won't keep you long." She exits into the kitchen and is relieved to hear him get up and head to the bathroom. 'Come on water, cool him down,' she mentally hopes. Though he was grumbling the entire way, it's definitely positive that he's following her suggestions. Settled exactly as they were moments later, his cleaner face still blatantly mistrustful, he impatiently started tapping the floor with a shaky leg.

'I guess not,' she thinks, recognizing no difference in his attitude. In hopes of breaking the ice with a compliment, she happily comments, "I had no idea Kakashi-sensei started training your team on the Tree-Walking exercise. You did it quite naturally."

"He didn't," Naruto answers hotly. "I'm going to leave, and I'll fight you this time if you try to stop me, or you can say whatever the hell you want to say, so I can get back to my training."

'A dog with a bone worse than Akamaru,' Kurenai thinks before gracefully jumping right in. "Naruto-kun, I sincerely apologize for what I did to you."

"You know, I expect that from stupid civilians, or retired shinobi, but not Jōnin sensei."

It's understandable how many react to the sight of the blond. She too, will occasionally see the rampaging monster over the boy. But rather than let this be some emotional tirade, she replies, "you're right. I should've known better and I am sorry. I was upset and took it out on you when I shouldn't have, but, part of it was due to you missing our last two sessions. Hinata-chan was doing really well and you may have hindered all the progress we've made."

"I wasn't trying to skip out," Naruto irately returns. But as he couldn't exactly bring up Ino's blowjob nor his longest lasting boner ever, he simply said, "something came up," without going into more detail.

"Look," Kurenai starts. "Why don't we forget this happened, start fresh, and you can come by tomorrow for another session."

"No way," he quickly puts down. She can tell from his eyes alone how dauntless and unwavering he is. 'Not shy to authority at all,' she mentally recognizes.

"Naruto-kun," she slowly says as she sensually crosses her long creamy legs. She catches him sneaking a healthy look as she continues, "I understand you're upset and again, I am sorry, but think about Hinata-chan. You're helping her exactly like I'd expect a Hokage would."

"I'm not upset, I'm pissed," he loudly returns. "And Ji-chan always talks about ignoring crazy people who're trying to take advantage of you. So you can forget it, sensei. Figure out another way to help Hinata-chan cuz I don't want to work with you again."

Kurenai allows the silence to linger as long as she dares, to give the boy some time to cool off. She expected some resistance, but her hopes for a submissive response from the blond dwindle to non-existent. She can't outright force him and negotiating with an altruistic motivation seems like a weak leg to stand on, leaving the beautiful kunoichi with bartering. There isn't a person alive who doesn't want something, and boys his age want all the latest ninja equipment, ninjutsu, or maybe just money.

Remembering the state of his door, and the area he lives in, money might be the best option, prompting her to say, "I prefer this method of helping Hinata-chan. But if working with me feels that difficult for you, how about I offer you some ryo for your assistance? Buying yourself something nice simply for talking to a girl doesn't sound bad, does it?"

Naruto looks at her dumbfounded, a reaction that Kurenai finds unexpected. On the outside, her smile remains just as pleasant, her posture is perfect, swelling out her breasts further with her hands clasp together on the top thigh of her crossed legs, not for a moment betraying her thoughts as he says, "you shouldn't pay people to be friends with your student. That just sounds wrong." Kurenai had not expected that level of integrity from him and she's silent long enough for him to add, "Hinata's nice and I want her to get strong, but I've got a lot of training to do too you know."

When Naruto stands to leave, Kurenai hastens to offer, "I'll help you with your training." If the blond was a master negotiator, she's certain he would've noticed the weakness in her bartering position.

Instead, he turns and looks at her suspiciously, responding, "Kakashi-sensei said I'm not supposed to train with other sensei. He says it could throw off our teamwork if we have more than one sensei at a time."

Stalling for time to consider the boy's other interests, she voices the cannon fodder, "Naruto-kun, this is very important. All you have to do is be yourself, I don't see what the problem is."

"That's because you don't care about me," he hotly returns, thinking of how often he's mistreated and is rarely given the chance to speak about it. With Naru-nii and the fate of the future dangling in the forefront of his mind, he seriously asks her, "you think you're the only one with stuff to deal with? I've got plenty of troubling stuff too, and your stab-happy ass is definitely not helping!"

"Okay, then let me help you," Kurenai quickly hops on the opportunity. "If you're really going through troubling issues, I feel we can work something out that can help us both. If you continue helping me with Hinata-chan's sessions, I'll help you with whatever I can." Noting his pause to ponder the offer, she can't help but mentally exhale and think, 'finally, progress.'

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