-Chapter 14-

Ino sat at Ichiraku ramen with a cooling bowl of miso ramen in front of her as she tried not to cry. Suffice to say, she wasn't doing very well.

It'd been about two weeks since Naruto had rejected her proposal, yet Ino was crying about it like it was just yesterday. She'd only come to realize how much she cared about him after that one date where his warmth had enveloped her, and after she'd lost him as a potential love interest. When she was in front of him, she put on a brave face and tried to be a close friend. She wasn't entirely sure if she succeeded or not, but part of her didn't care. It didn't matter. She'd lost him. If only she'd seen who he was sooner, like Hinata had, then maybe she wouldn't be in this emotional mess...

"You gonna eat that?" Someone with an all too familiar voice said. Ino whipped her head around and audibly drew breath in. To her right, was Naruto, but wasn't. He had much longer hair, wore purple instead of orange, and had goggles that only covered one eye. She had no idea how he was pulling it off, but he was, almost to the point of making her completely forget about her other romantic troubles. "...Are you?"

Ino suddenly remembered all-too-late that she'd been asked a question. "Uh… no, sorry. You can have it."

The blond grinned. "Awesome." He devoured her bowl of miso, but she could see that there was a growing tower of empty bowls next to him. As her eyes widened at this, he continued the conversation. "So, why does someone as pretty as you look so sad?" He asked curiously.

Ino slumped slightly. "To be honest… there was someone I wanted to be with, but he's… not an option." She visibly sighed.

The blond raised an eyebrow as Ayame set down yet another bowl in front of him. "Not an option, huh...? What did you like about him?"

Ino struggled to not say too many qualities she liked about him. "He was really nice… and kind of cute, although I like long hair better, and he was smarter than he looked… but I think most of all, when you got near him, he gave you this feeling, like everything was going to be ok."

He was finishing up his bowl as she stopped talking. "You mean like this?" He snapped his fingers. For a brief ten seconds, Ino suddenly felt excited, prepared and confident as if she were just setting out on an adventure to explore the world. When the feeling went away, she stared at him as he kept eating. "Well, I suppose it wouldn't be exactly the same. It depends on the person..."

"Who are you?" Ino asked incredulously.

The kid was waving away Ayame, who was blushing slightly and asking him really inappropriate questions. "Ah, names Makima. And you are...?"

"Ino." She said quickly. "Yamanaka Ino. How are you able to do that?"

Makima shrugged. "Just takes a lot of chakra and some degree of control. The entire empathy/emotion thing is a bit of a trade secret, though. One can do some truly weird things with that technique."

"Like what?"

Makima blinked at her, and she had the irresistible urge to kiss him. A warmth was pooling around her stomach and going up to her chest, down to her loins, then surrounding her body. She became slightly dizzy as fantasies intruded on her mind faster than she could process them. There was nothing more important in the world than them having their bodies together and close, and her mouth had no other place in the world than on his. She only felt this for two seconds, and a moan was about to escape her lips when Makima wisely put his hand on her mouth and stared down Ayame, who was about to make the same noise.

Ino was extremely embarrassed as Makima slowly took his hand off her mouth. "Like that. Heaven knows I know one pervert in the world has a whole slew of techniques that use chakra that way. We don't need more than one unnecessary pervert in the world." Makima continued eating, even as Ayame shivered in front of him, struggling to hold the ramen she was setting down in front of him.

Ino was having trouble convincing herself that she minded the fact that that technique existed more than she minded not feeling it. She pushed the thought out of her mind. "Yeah, so anyway… I guess I was kind of sad about that." Internally, she realized that that feeling has been diminished drastically.

Makima shrugged as he paid for his bowls of food, then hers. "Well, plenty other fish in the sea, right?" He stood up from his stool.

"I'm sorry, but… Are you doing anything later tonight?" She looked at him intently.

Makima stared at her for a long time. "I'm telling you now. If a safe, normal relationship is what you're looking for, you've come to the wrong place. Getting into ridiculous antics with ridiculous people is in my job description."

Ino scoffed and hopped off her stool. "The person I study under most is an insane snake lady. I can handle it."

Makima smirked. "Then what are we waiting for?"

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Sakura was sparring with Jack, but she was getting extremely frustrated. The guy had always been there for her when she'd been visibly emotionally collapsing because of Sasuke, yet he never said one word to her. Save for corrections on her form or tips for training, he didn't talk to her. He watched her constantly, as if she was some puzzle that he had yet to solve. This was only the beginning of such frustrations, because Sakura was trying her hardest with the academy style taijutsu she'd busted her ass to learn over the years and Jack was using this weird wrist oriented style and beating her ass with it. Not only that, but Sasuke and Luna were having another sword duel and practically laughing while doing it. Didn't they have the decency to at least take their own training seriously?

This thought ran through her mind before she got hit under her chin by an upturned wrist and set tumbling to the ground. Jack sighed visibly at her. She fumed at him. "What?!" She yelled, as she was getting up.

"Why are you doing this?" He asked her quietly.

"Doing what? Training? Because I have to!"

He shook his head. "Why… really."

Sakura clutched at her hair in frustration. "Because I want Sasuke! And Luna said..."

"That you were weak? Hm..." He deliberated on this thought for a few seconds. "Do you think that a person who works in a store that they built and created by themselves for themselves is weaker than a kunoichi who's only in the profession for some guy?" Sakura blinked at him. "Don't you have a life? Is there really nothing more to your entire personality than just 'Sasuke-this' and 'Sasuke-that'? If Sasuke asked you to jump off a bridge and die so he could have a little more peace in his life, would you do it?"

Sakura choked up slightly. "I..."

Jack waved her away quickly. "No, don't answer that. The fact that you're taking that question seriously is sad in and of itself. God damn it, Sakura, who are you?! Because when I look back at what Luna said, I don't think she was referring to you as physically weak. I think she was talking about your mind. I think she meant that only a weakling would try to chase after Sasuke the way you are and not know when to give up and move on. I think she was talking about the fact that you might as well not exist if it wasn't for your infatuation with Sasuke. Are you a human being with thoughts and feelings, or are you a fangirl who he'll always have at his beck and call?"

Sakura stared at him silently. Part of her wanted to defend her love for Sasuke, but that part was currently very small. That part was very small because it was just now coming aware that other parts existed, or rather, used to.

"You know what? Whatever. I'm not even going to bother with this anymore." Jack walked away as he called back. "You actually want to be strong in the ways that matter, come talk to me. Other than that, good luck on your wild goose chase."

With that, Sakura slumped to her knees and was too shell-shocked by the entire event to even cry. She stood up after a few minutes, and walked home, thoughts clouding her mind.

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Naruto was talking animatedly in his room with Hinata and Uzumi when he heard many knocks at the bottom of the apartment complex. Naruto got annoyed at people trying to follow Sasuke inside, so he locked the entire apartment instead of individual doors inside and gave general keys to the necessary people. Naruto, pushing out chakra, could sense the various chakra signatures and knew exactly who it was at the door. He sighed. Well, better sooner than later.

He excused himself from the conversation to Hinata's slight dismay and went downstairs. When he opened the door, he almost laughed at the very pissed off Hyuuga Hiashi standing in front of him.

"Where. Is. My. Daughter." He asked venomously. Naruto raised an eyebrow at him.

"Well, that tone of voice isn't going to make you many friends." He replied coolly. Behind Hiashi, he could see many other Hyuuga members, most of them ninja although a couple of them elders. The majority of them were from the branch section. Naruto smirked internally.

"I will not have you play with me, demon! She is to come out at once and never affiliate with you again! She will do so or I will have your head and a seal on her forehead!"

Naruto scratched the back of his head and sent a mental message to Uzumi. Thirty seconds later, Hinata was downstairs and glaring at her father. In reality, she was nervous, but Naruto and her had prepared for this since day three. It was inevitable, after all. "What are you doing here, father?"

"You are to come home immediately and never see this… boy again. You are bringing shame upon your clan and one more word out of you will have you in the branch house!"

Hinata sighed. She didn't think he'd be so harsh so quickly. Naruto was right. "No, I don't think I will. I think I'll move out instead."

Hiashi balked. "What?! You can't do that!"

Naruto shrugged and leaned against the door frame. "Actually, she can. As a ninja, she's a legal adult. She can get a job, drink, gamble, and most importantly, move out of any house or clan that she wishes. The only reason the branch members don't do so is because they'd be afraid of dying in an "accident", and the house members are too proud of their pampering and slave-driving to move. Hinata doesn't care for either of these things, and unfortunately, doesn't care for you."

Hinata hugged Naruto with one arm. "I do care for Naruto, though. He is more of a home than that blasted compound has ever been. Naruto saw you coming, so there are clones taking out and packing all of my things as we speak. I'll be out of that house and out of your hair in 15 minutes or less."

Hiashi stared before going red with fury. He motioned to grab Hinata away from Naruto, when Naruto did a hand sign and the majority of the Hyuuga fell to the ground, clutching their foreheads. Hiashi paled as Naruto tsked slightly. "Ah, ah, ah… it'd be a very bad thing to try to force your official kunoichi daughter to come back with you. You might just realize that you don't keep secrets as well as you think you do."

Hiashi stared at the boy. "You..."

"I suggest you stop calling me demon as well." He stopped making the sign and the other Hyuuga stopped screaming in pain as they rolled against the ground. "You might just wake up and find a caged bird seal on your forehead. I know that there are only a few people who actually know the hand sign and even fewer who can apply it, but I can do both because I'm better with seals than your clan will ever be. Give up, cut your losses, and oh, I almost forgot: When it's election time for the next Hokage if the current one doesn't appoint one, you'd better vote for me." Naruto and Hinata smiled at Hiashi before closing the door in his face.

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Danzo was sitting underground, reading a report from one of his more efficient subordinates. The entire report was on Uzumaki Naruto's actions for the past two weeks, and Danzo was having a hard time believing any of it. From what the report was saying, every single ninja in the village had at least one bug on them that seemed like Naruto's chakra, but whenever his sensors tried to remove said bugs, the chakra signature would vanish. Not only that, but Naruto seemed to have clones doing every available D-rank mission for a small portion of the price, and his subordinates were able to find hidden facilities that Danzo didn't even know existed before Naruto used them. The mission reports said that any ninja who encountered a significant force of enemies would be helped out by a clone of Naruto's or Naruto's friends. There hadn't been a single failed mission or death in action within ninja ranks since he'd started.

Danzo was having a hard time believing it, because here he was, the leader of an underground sector of Konoha's ninja doing necessary dark things for the village without anyone's knowing. Danzo thought himself to be an intelligent man, but Naruto had his own underground sector, more numbered and powerful than his own, and it was completely full of his clones! How did Naruto even sustain that many clones over a long period of time, let alone make them go on missions outside of the village without having to go himself? How deep was this rabbit hole?

He grabbed the bridge of his nose. Danzo knew Sarutobi was getting old and weak, and he wanted to be there when he died to seize power. However, with the dynamics in the village going as they are, even the civilians were beginning to warm up to Naruto because of how much easier he made life for them. At this rate, Naruto looked closer to leading the village than Danzo ever has been. Something would have to be done. Danzo either needed to control him, or take him out. There were no other options.

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A/N: The chapter after this one has a scene that is so badly written, I am going to rewrite it before I post it. I haven't started on the rewrite yet and I don't know when I will. Hopefully I will do it within the next week, post it, and then I'll post the rest of the story. There are 19 chapters total so we're not that far off from being "done". Thank you for the support, compliments, criticisms, reviews and whatnot. I really appreciate it.