Chapter 195

"If he already has Kubikiribōchō," Naruto starts. "Why doesn't he just take it? I wasn't going to use it anyway."

"That's not Zabuza-sama's way," Haku explains. "Despite his vices, he has a strict code of honor. He must defeat you to properly reclaim Kubikiribōchō, and he won't let it go until he's done so."

Grumbling uneasily, Naruto hoarsely asks, "so when does he want to fight?"

"He'd like to meet tonight to discuss just that," Haku answers.

"Fine," Naruto states, thinking, 'as long as it's talking and nothing else.' Turning from a happier Haku to Karin, Naruto asks, "do you want to come, Karin-chan?"

"Sure," she answers with a shrug. Pressing her glasses back, she comments, "anything to do with you is basically clan business."

"Right back at ya," Naruto asserts.

Karin smirks as she then attests, "also, if this is round two, I should be there in case you need some healing."

Despite imagining being cleaved in two by a heinously evil and laughing Zabuza, Naruto shakes his head of the sickening thoughts and tells Karin, "I've been meaning to tell you, I don't like the idea of anyone taking advantage of you for your chakra. Only heal the people you want to, and if anyone gives you crap about it, you send them straight to me."

Trying and failing to hold in her joyful grin, Karin avows, "of course… Cousin-sama."

Naruto rolls his eyes when the memory of his clone's arousing conversation with Kurenai perforated his memory banks. He whole-heartedly thanked kami he was sitting with a table blocking Karin and Haku's view of his towering steel erection. With the pressure of his balls directing his very next action, Naruto crosses his fingers and calls, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu," perplexing the other two.

The blond then hastens to tell the clone, "head to the library, check to see if they have that new scroll we've been waiting for, then head over to sensei's house to study." Due to Karin's presence, Naruto didn't voice the rest, but he didn't have to. His clone knows to alert him the moment Nai-chan returns home from her team's celebration so he can race right over.

"You got it, Boss-dono," the clones calls before he rushes out of the room, making Naruto groan at the honorific now being used by his clones.

Watching the clone leave, a very concerned Haku asks Naruto, "you won't contact the authorities, will you?"

"Of course not," Naruto answers his friend. He knows Zabuza isn't here to hurt anyone but him, and also comments, "I know what he means to you." When Karin asks what he's studying, Naruto answers, "our clan's specialty; Fūinjutsu."

Fighting through her sudden timidness, a huffing Karin asks, "w-would you be open to t-teaching me?"

"Of course," Naruto confirms, allaying her fears. "Everyone in our clan gets to learn whatever they want."

"Don't forget to add her to the Fūin security," Haku starts, however, when the beautiful boy continues, "we'll meet Zabuza-sama near midnight and it'll be best if she can enter Iruka's home on her own," Naruto panics. With swollen testicles and thoughts of an achingly aroused Nai-chan in his mind, she's the only person he wants to meet that late in the night.

With a hopeful tone, a pink-cheeked Naruto bids to know, "any chance we can meet tomorrow?" Thinking about how backed up he is and where he wants to unload it all, he adds, "like, in the afternoon? I mean, it's the weekend. Who fights on the weekends, right?"

"I think the sooner the better," Haku serenely answers. "He wasn't a fan of Dānyī-san's attempts to steal Kubikiribōchō and has decided to stay there in the meantime. I believe he'll stay there until it's dangerous to do so or this matter is concluded."

"Wait, Tenten-chan's dad," a curious Naruto calls as he recalls the man. "What about Tenten-chan?"

"He wanted me to let you know he'll kill them both if you do not show," Haku calmly explains.

Slamming shocked hands on the table as he stands, an act he can only do because the imminent threat to fellow Konoha ninja is an effective boner killer, Naruto loudly asks, "and you're just telling me now?"

Haku shakes his delicate head, reassuringly waving his palm as he confidently declares, "it's okay, Naruto-sama. I can assure you he will only kill them if they try to kill him first."

Rolling his eyes by Haku's extreme and incomparable logic, Naruto tells him, "forget about waiting until tonight. We need to go now."

"Shouldn't you rest first," Haku tells him. "It's barely been half a day since your fight with Uchiha-kun."

"I can't relax knowing Tenten-chan is being held hostage," Naruto returns as he rushes to his room to change into his usual orange jumpsuit and gather his combat gear. Exiting his room, Karin and Haku are waiting for him.

Moving in front of him, Karin extends her left arm in front of his face, "go ahead. My chakra will revitalize you."

Naruto shakes his head as he gently takes her hand and lowers it to her side. "Thanks, Karin-chan, but I'm not going to hurt you so I can feel better. Besides, I'm good to go."

As Naruto adds Karin's chakra to the security, the vibrant redhead half-jokingly points out, "didn't think I'd be meeting a notorious Kiri missing-nin today."

INO

At the dinner table, picking at her light meal, Ino couldn't stop thinking about the preliminaries. Everything about her during that monumental moment was… pitiful. Naruto nearly died and she was so pathetic she couldn't hug him as she wanted. She hadn't even wished him luck before his match because she was so confused by Sasuke's part in it. And the most she could manage was bumping his shoulder and acting cold toward him.

That's unlike her, but she'll admit she's never been tested in such a way. Before Naruto, having only one love made her priorities and responses easier. Additionally, publicly chasing after Sasuke during their academy days almost seemed like a right of passage for every young kunoichi. It was easy to proclaim to all her love when everyone could easily understand why.

'Liking Naruto publicly takes a lot more courage than I realized,' she mentally sighs. 'And I failed.'

She didn't think she'd be so pathetic she couldn't hug the person she liked just because he wasn't popular. It was one of the now many moments in her life where she didn't feel like herself. She shouldn't care who's watching and what they might then say, but it's also true that Naruto is a very personal spot in her heart, in her life. When he walked up those stairs she wanted to hug him right away, but instead, she grew nervous and scared by the feeling.

That pissed her off.

'I need to be me,' her mind yells and when her parents bring her out of her deep thoughts by asking, "when are you meeting your team-"

Eying them both, she interrupts them by admitting, "the boy who gave me the Fire Slipper Orchid was Uzumaki Naruto."

The shock on their faces is acute as they both set their eating hand down. Taken aback not only by their daughter's sudden admission but also by the one boy they hadn't expected, it takes them several silent seconds to process the information. Their daughter's eyes are serious but her eyebrows are drawn together, nervous, and her lips are pressed thin pulled to the corner of one side showing a hint of a dimple.

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