Naruto: The Prince of Lust

Chapter 12: Chapter 12

"Mnn!" Naruto happily hums, turning from the Hokage to Sakura, then back.

"Ah, forgive me, Hokage-sama," Sakura starts stepping in and bowing respectfully. "I'm Haruno Sakura, member of Team 7."

"Yes, I recall," the Sandaime easily says, taking out his pipe and prepping for a good puff. 'It's always an interesting break when Naruto shows up,' he thinks. "What can I do for you?"

"Na, Ji-chan, do you have any scrolls or something that can help Sakura-chan do Iry-ninjutsu. She's got wicked perfect chakra control, and it would be super cool if our team had an Iry-nin in it."

"Mnnn," he hums in sheer amusement, aged eyelids lifting with genuine curiosity. For this Naruto to ask for such a thing was the best surprise of a rather taxing week. "I agree having an Iry-nin on the team would be quite advantageous, but Naruto-kun, how do you know this?"

"What do you mean?" Naruto asks quirking a brow. "Once we become genin, we have more access in the library. I was looking for cool jutsu but I found one about chakra control. Since Sakura-chan has perfect control, that means she'd make a great Iry-nin, right Ji-chan?"

"It most assuredly helps, greatly in some cases," the Hokage answers, looking at them both. "Why come to me, then; instead of your Jnin-sensei?"

"It's not like I didn't think he'd help, but he left after our mission and I don't know where he lives, so I can't ask him," Naruto explains. "Besides, we just need something for Sakura-chan to start with.

She's got like a perfect memory, so I bet she can remember things better than I can," he finishes with a smile.

"Oh, I don't know Naruto-kun, you can remember a lot, it seems," the elder tells him. Getting up, the Hokage moves toward the far wall, with several long shelves filled with many scrolls topping many more.

"Mnn, I happen to have a collection of scrolls on Iry-ninjutsu that spans from beginner to intermediate." Looking through his many scrolls, he finally pulls two out, then turns to a nervous Sakura. "Now, these are very precious to me, so you have to promise to be careful with them.

They were gifted to me by one of my students so you'll have to return them when you're done, understand?"

"Yes! Of course Hokage-sama," Sakura quickly conveys. "This is such an honor, I'll be extra careful with them, I promise." She cautiously takes the scrolls with both hands supporting each end as if she were holding a sickly baby.

"Alright," Naruto calls from his seat. "I knew you could help, Ji-chan!"

"So, how's your training coming along Naruto-kun," the elder asks retaking his large seat.

"I'm going to be the greatest Hokage ever!" Naruto bellows proudly. "So my training is top secret right now... but, what I can tell you is I'm working on my chakra control. Neh, Ji-chan, did you know I have high chakra reserves, which is why I can make a lot of Kage Bunshin and be okay after?"

"My, my Naruto-kun, you are growing before my weary eyes," the older man smiles. "Yes, I suspected that could be the case. You should continue to train on your control, so you can finally take my job."

"Damn right I will!" Naruto agrees vehemently.

"Speaking of, I should get back to work," the sagely elder tells them. "Thank you for entertaining an old man for a few minutes at least."

"Any time," Naruto calls and they start to leave, but Naruto has to pause at the door. Turning to his first ever friend, Naruto asks, "Neh, Ji-chan, do you know if Iruka-sensei is okay? They won't tell me anything. They won't even let me see him."

"I'm afraid I can't release his medical information, however, I can tell you he will live. And if they won't let you see him, just remember, you're ninja, and ninja always find a way."

Thinking of his future counterpart, Naruto can't help but agree with a sad smile and a nod before leaving. Meeting Sakura just by the outside entrance, still carrying the scrolls like precious treasure, he immediately recalls how all this started by trying to help her win Sasuke's attention.

On top of Iruka-sensei's injury, and now effectively giving Sakura-chan to another man, Naruto was not having a good day.

He grumpily dumps his hands in his pockets as she cautiously walks up to him, half her attention on the scrolls and the other half on him. "I thought you left?"

"I did. I am," she huffs. "I just wanted to ask you are you- you're not related to Sandaime-sama, are you?"

"Wha? No," he throws back. "Why would you think that?"

"You were calling our Hokage, Ji-chan," She adamantly states as if it's the most obvious thing. "That is so disrespectful! He's the leader of our village and a very powerful political figure," she loudly retorts as if he only needed to be told louder for him to get it.

"I've always called him Ji-chan," Naruto returns with a non-committal shrug. "That's just... I don't know, that's how I normally talk to him."

Further confused, she follows up asking, "how often do you talk to the Hokage?"

"Mnnnn," he hums, tilting his head up to the bright blue sky, thinking back. "More so when I was younger but I'd say at least twice a week, now. Sometimes once every two weeks if he's really busy."

"You're lying!" her instant reaction quickly says.

"Wha- Am not!" He defends, his brows furrowing in disbelief rather than anger. He can stand a lot but he doesn't think his own teammate should call him a liar. "I wouldn't lie about that!"

"You have to be!" she throws back. "He's the Hokage and you're nothing but a Dead-Last baka!"

The shock could not be clearer on his face, one that quickly transforms into sad resignation. That's just another layer to the type of day he's having. He woke up late for the meeting but his own sensei was over three hours late.

Then there was that Kami awful D-Rank mission, followed by this gut-wrenching plan to help the love of his life win the heart of another man, and now this.

The girl of his dreams thinking so little of him, she couldn't even recall being in the Hokage's room not five minutes before while he chatted with the old man like he always does. The idea of crawling in the earth and dying seems nearly as appealing as training nearly.

The silence between them is stifling for several moments before he says, "if I'm going to give you a lot of practice healing the teme, I better go train."

And train he did. While his clones worked on his chakra control, Naruto runs, trains his muscles, then runs some more, and repeats. Hours and hours of it, until his stomach had twisted itself into a tight not and threatened to eat itself if he didn't get some ramen.

The last thing he did before going to sleep, was leave a cup of instant ramen on the nightstand of Iruka-sensei's room. Naruto didn't expect him to be awake, but he hoped with everything he had that his favorite sensei would see and know that he was thinking of him.

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