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Chapter Text

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            “We’re going… in there?”  Naruto was pointing, looking very hesitant to trek into the dense bamboo.  No sense in asking, though; the Toad Hermit Jiraiya the Gallant was already prying his way through the dense thicket, laughing lightly at the mild obstacle of squeezing through the tree line.

            “That’s right.  C’mon, Naruto!  I’ve already sent word of our arrival!  You don’t want to keep them waiting, do you?”  He guffawed as he skirted through the sky-reaching stalks.

            Even so, Naruto hesitated, from more than just the fact that there was hardly any reason for him to rush to meet their appointment.  It wasn’t their appointment at all, but just another sleazy pub for Ero-Sennin to lech around in.  No different than the last inn and the inn before that, during their whole training journey thus far.

            Naruto huffed, moved a step forward, but felt that warding sensation.  The hermit was used to these adventures, he was sure.  But to him…  “What’s up with this forest?” he muttered.

            “Huh?  What’s that?”  Jiraiya’s head popped out from between two bamboos.  “What’re you waiting for?  It’s just a shortcut!  Now hurry up!”  His impatience was showing.  Apparently the woman he was schmoozing at the roadside teashop earlier had only whet his appetite for the more vivacious sort of women at their next stop.

            Naruto didn’t want to say that he didn’t want to go in the forest, lest he get a lecture on what it meant to be a man from a guy who was more like a toad.  At the same time, he couldn’t bring himself to just amble into the forest of thick bamboo, deep shadows, and groundward vapor trails.  “Why do we have to go through here?” he chose with a sort of indignant pout.  He threw a hand out to the left, showing the pathway that went out of the way around the broad thicket and went through a regular forest, rounding a chasm, but there was a bridge that was certainly safe to cross for light-footed ninja.  “We can just take the normal road, can’t we?  We can get more training done like that!”

            Jiraiya’s face twisted in an unpleasant look as he scoffed.  “How dull.”  He pulled back and let the bamboo snap back together in front of him.  “You’ll gain more from coming through here!  Think of it as stealth training!  Hup!”  As if to demonstrate, he weaved through the close stalks, his large frame hardly causing as much as a flutter to the leaves.  His moves became more elaborate, and Naruto felt that he had become a bit too intent on showing off as he jumped from stalk to stalk, reaching to the top of the forest before sliding down… dropping on his face just before he could make a pretty commendable landing.

            Naruto held in a laugh at his boisterous teacher’s humiliation when pulling up and spitting dirt.  He was a bit more mature than that now!  At least he liked to think so…

            Yet some childish feeling warned him from the forest still.  When he reached a hand out and touched a shoot, he felt a very intense shiver, his nerves running to the surface of his body and experiencing everything.  “It feels weird, tebayo,” he confessed.

            “Heh!  Very perceptive of you,” announced Jiraiya proudly, coming back up to his feet and dusting himself off.  “This isn’t an ordinary forest!  Aside from being a good shortcut”—which hardly mattered, Naruto wanted to say—“it’s said that this is a spot where the Kyubi’s Chakra had once hit!  It cracked the land centuries ago near the border of the Land of Fire!”

            Naruto squeezed in past the bamboo and began to trail after his teacher, listening to the story.

            “It was thought that this would become a desert canyon.  Instead, and as you can see, it’s become dense and lush with vegetation!  No one can explain the phenomenon.  People have tried cutting it down, but the bamboo just continues to grow healthily, almost as if possessed.  Heh!  I’d say it feels weird to you because of that monster sealed inside of you!”

            Naruto brushed a hand against his stomach.  Something did feel off about it, like he could hear the Fox growling menacingly.  Maybe this feeling of foreboding came from the Fox’s instinct.  Knowing what was in him didn’t necessarily explain to Naruto what the thing inside him was all about, but he could at least detect its agitation.  Of the forest itself?  Maybe not.  But something within it…

            “Ow!”  Naruto bounded back, touching his nose and glowering at Jiraiya holding a small sprig of a bamboo shoot.  “What was that for?”

            “Don’t give me that tone,” Jiraiya derided him, spinning the stick between his thumb and forefinger.  “Aren’t you the one moping about not getting any training done?  Well, I promised you some practice, didn’t I?  And here it is.”

            He threw the stick with kunai accuracy, and Naruto reflexively moved aside, dodging it, but banging his head into the bamboo beside him.  The sun-blocking thicket overhead rustled and a few leaves fell.

            “How about we play some tag?”  Jiraiya leapt backward, his form sinking into the deeper mist and shadow within the forest.  Through all the stalks, cloud, and shade, Naruto could only see him for a moment before he completely faded from sight.  “Come catch me, Naruto!  We’ll see if you’re a match for this forest!”

            Naruto took a moment, and then grinned determinedly at the challenge.  He wasn’t going to back down from something so simple, even if it was sort of weird for an old man to suggest a game of tag.  “Fine!  And when I catch you”—He zoomed forward, chasing the last spot he saw Jiraiya—“we’re going on the main road, tebayo!”

            “Guahaha!  Fine!” echoed Jiraiya’s voice with no discernable location.  Naruto leapt onto the patch of ground Jiraiya had last touched; he saw the sandal prints on the ground, but they went in no direction.  Therefore, Naruto had to assume that the crafty codger was moving from stalk to stalk, leaving no evidence of his path.  “Just hurry and catch up, kid!  Or we’ll be through the forest before you know it!”  His laughter was loud, and then not so loud, and then soft, and then gone.

            Gone silent?  Or just gone?

            Naruto seethed and looked left and right.  Which way did he go?  Probably forward; he was single-minded when it came to meeting women.  This was probably just a ploy to get his protégé through the forest quick and without complaint.  All this time, and Naruto was still falling for his juvenile trickery.

            Trickery…

            “He might have gone right, then,” Naruto considered, now thinking that Ero-Sennin could just be in a playful mood and wanted to annoy him by making him take the longest amount of time getting across the forest.  And being right-handed, that would be the direction he would natural turn on a whim.

            Naruto shook his head vigorously.  “No, no!”  He thrust his hand forward with a point, committing an action to contend with his brain’s decisions.  “Forward!  Ero-Sennin said we’re on a schedule so he can’t go off course!”  He leaned, grinning at his own power of deduction.  Shikamaru would be so impressed by his honed problem-solving prowess when they met again.  “Get ready, Ero-Senning!  You’re not getting away, tebayo!”

            With commendable control, reflexes, and surefootedness that he hadn’t had before, he plunged into the deep dark of the forest, picking up Jiraiya’s nimble stalk-jumping, though he left the bamboo rustling in his wake.  He pivoted, spun, checked the ground every so often, and raced entirely in the wrong direction.

            He couldn’t see it, but the sun was going down fast.  Outside the forest was a crimson glow, but all around Naruto was dark.  And quiet.  Naruto noticed it after a while, and by then, he had started to realize that he was successfully lost.  He found a niche to ground himself and survey and wait.  He turned in each direction and pushed his hearing capabilities to the extreme.  Surely he’d pick up something from Ero-Sennin, like a breath or a rustle of clothes.  Nothing.  The old pervert had made it an art form of creeping around undetectable, so unless he wanted Naruto to find him, he would be gone from all the senses.

            What Naruto would not give for an Inuzuka nose.

            “Alright.”  He took out a kunai and slashed at a bamboo stalk to make a marking.  “I’ll just let him know where I am then!”

            He chose a direction and headed off.  He used instinct to choose his path, swerving very infrequently.  But when everything just seemed to blur into a familiar thatch, he decided to stop.  He picked another clear patch, sighed, looked and…

            His jaw clenched.

            And then loosened.

            “Whew!  I thought I’d just wound up in the same place again, tebayo,” he said, having checked the bamboo around him to confirm.  With a weary expression, he said to himself, “That’d be too cliché if I just went in a big circle.”

            Silence.

            “Where is he?”  Naruto breathed heavily, turning this way and that, trying to think of where his mentor could have gone.

            Silence.

            “The forest can’t be this big!  Dammit!”  He clutched at his head and whined loudly.  “It would have been better if I had gone in a circle!  Everything looks exactly the same!”  He spun around, his eyes scanning the dark forest, seeing nothing move but the trailers of mist in some unfelt breeze.  He was starting to sweat.  It dawned on him that he couldn’t even go back the way he came, because he didn’t remember which was he came!

            “Then-Then I’ll just go straight,” he resolved, again thrusting his finger outward in front of him.  “The forest can’t go on forever, and when I get out, I can find Ero-Sennin at the inn!”  With a bit of anger, he kicked out and trudged through the bamboo stalks.  “Damn Ero-Sennin knows where to go, so he won’t get lost!  He’s probably at the inn already.”  He shoved through some more brambles.  “Probably forgot all about me!”

            He continued to complain out loud, but it was more to keep sound in his ears, for he noticed that every ended sentence seemed to be sucked up in the quiet around him, and it made him feel very alone.  Beyond being ignored; actually alone.  Nothing to discover him.  When his mouth stopped, the dread that he’d always be alone seeped in, lost in this forest.  He held off for as long as he could, but then shouted with his hands cupped to his mouth, “ERO-SENNIN!!”

            Again, when he listened, it was like the forest choked all other sound.  If his voice carried to where it needed to go, the reply back was certainly stopped from reaching his ears.

            He was alone.

            He tried again.

            Nothing still.

            Once more, hurting his vocal cords, but to no avail.

            “That-That dumb hermit,” he simmered with a slight waver in his voice.  Then he carried on, straight and forward.  Don’t stop to look around.  March straight forward, eyes ahead of you.  Don’t look because there’s nothing to see.  The dark was getting worse, and would continue to close around him.  In the night, there’d be nothing to do but stop…

            He stopped.

            There was a light shimmering ahead.  A single lamplight, hanging at the side of a doorway of a quaint establishment; larger than a house, but certainly not a mansion.  Like an overgrown shack, maybe.  How something like this could be built in a forest this dense and treacherous…!  Naruto could hardly believe his eyes, thinking it must be a mirage!  Possibly, it was abandoned after the Kyubi chakra had hit?  No.  That would have devastated the building, and while it was falling apart, its disrepair was due to negligence and time.  Not to mention the lit lamp.  It couldn’t have been lit all this time.  Somehow, though, that made much more sense than this building existing in the first place.

            Naruto crawled into the clearing and looked around.  How had he not noticed this before?  That lamp was small but blazing pretty brightly.  He stood on the cusp of its reach, not entirely sure this wasn’t some sort of trap.

            He gazed at the head sigh.

            The name of the establishment was written with a crude illustration of a fox curled up and resting on its bushy tail.  More to the side was the insignia that hot springs were included.  Naruto almost disbelieved that, but it would explain the carpet of mist dragging along the forest floor.

            But it was so still!  Naruto couldn’t trust it.  In a place like this, normal people would come rushing out to greet him and implore his patronage – if he assumed right that this was an inn.  For a quick moment, he almost guessed that this was the inn Ero-Sennin had booked.  Possible… but for all this time, his room and board choices always involved friendly, bouncy staff.

            Not a woman, bounce, or friendliness in sight.

            But then, before Naruto could investigate further beyond what his eyes could see, the former appeared at the doorway, holding out a lamp on a stick, her eyes catching the light and making it motionless, like the reflection on a lifeless lake.  It might have been from the glow of the lamps’ red shade, but her hair was a vibrant crimson and rolled up in twin, elegant buns.  Her face was keen and beautiful, and her robes were tidy.  She stood with the demeanor of nobility, beyond what someone who lived in such a place should look.

            Haunting…

            Naruto felt something like a stone drop to the pit of his stomach, making him uncomfortable as the lady’s eyes transfixed on him.

            “Are you weary?” she asked softly, though in this oppressive bamboo forest, her voice carried.

            Naruto snapped up, unnerved.  Dumbly, he looked this way, and then he looked that was, as if it were possible that she was addressing someone other than him.  He even pointed at himself to make sure, though the lady made no gesture; just waited.  So, feeling a bit foolish for his hesitance and not wanting to embarrass her with his naivete, he forced some relaxation in his posture and laughed.  Dryly, but it was a laugh.  “I-I guess I’m a little lost, tebayo,” he sheepishly confessed.

            And at that, the lady made to turn, indicating that he should follow.  “We all lose our way on the path,” she said in her soft, even tone.  “But we must find our way.  Please come in, and you may rest.”  She did not wait and stepped over the threshold into the awaiting dark.

            He couldn’t move, and he was glad for it.  The shack looked like it could collapse on top of his head, and there was that gut feeling that warned him from accepting the kindness of this stranger.  Not that she looked like an assassin or anything…

            “Uh, wait a minute,” he called out, not yet mustering the nerve to move from this spot.

            The lady did not reappear.

            His right foot trudged through the damp earth, not lifting fully to take a step.  “Has-Has an old guy with long white hair come by here?  He probably acted inappropriately?”  He chewed his lip, leaning and stretching his neck as if he could peer through the doorway and see Ero-Sennin hiding sneakily at some angle just to annoy him.

            “Come in,” her voice said again, and he could see the slightest shimmer of her eyes in the dark.  “Rest and make yourself well.”

            Naruto cast a glance behind him; one last vain hope that Ero-Sennin would come stomping through the dark and chastise his student for not finding him.  There was nothing, and no chance that he’d have someone beside him for this venture.

            Grabbing nervously at the straps of his rucksack, Naruto hoisted the load unnecessarily with a lunge from his shoulders, and started forward carefully.  The lamplight didn’t shift; the lady was waiting expectantly for him, the glow in her eyes seeming intensified beyond the soft glow of her lamp.  Even when he came up to the doorway, she didn’t move to make way.

            He hesitated, and then he entered freely and of his own free will.

            The lady’s lamp raised, illuminating her beautiful face so that Naruto may observe her up close.  She was almost smiling.  “Welcome to the Sleeping Tails Inn.”

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Chapter Text

STOP RIGHT THERE!!!  Now are you sure you’re on this chapter?  Ch. 1 has been revised to establish mood.  Enjoy.

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            “Where is he?”  Jiraiya looked like an impatient child standing on the cusp of the bamboo thicket, his arms folded, his foot tapping, his face bloated with disapproval.  After a moment, he groaned out loud.  “What a nuisance!  He’s doing it to punish me, isn’t he?!”  He swung his hands parallel to the right.  “I told him where we were going was east.  East!  Really!  That kid never listens to me.  Little brat.”

            “Jiraiya-sama~♥”

            “Are you going to stand out there all night~♥”

            “I’m cold and lonely~♥”

            He turned and looked at the women calling out to him from the balcony; scandalously dressed, their breasts almost spilling out from the slips of cloth that could hardly be called clothes.  He had made it here two hours ago, met the reservation, and was introduced to the bubbly women of the Heavenly Oppai Inn.  They were immigrants from Amegakure who took their most profitable profession to the Land of Fire.  They knew how to woo a man, and Jiraiya was such a sap for them.

            “Yes, yes, I’ll be up there soon~” he called back to them gushily.  He pointed absently at the forest.  “It’s just, I’m waiting for someone in here~”

            The announcement brought a sudden change in demeanor.  The women’s adoring faces became concerned.  “In there?” said one.

            “No one comes from there,” said another, taking Jiraiya as joking.  “That forest is haunted~♥”  She waved for Jiraiya.  “Come up here and save me from the ghosts, Jiraiya-chan~♥”

            Already, the women were giggly and flighty again, giving their catcalls to their esteemed client.

            Jiraiya was already started to feel weak for them, but he had a duty to his student!  Torn between responsibility and pleasure…!

            “I guess Naruto will have to figure it out for himself tonight~♪” sang Jiraiya, frolicking back to the grand hotel.  He’d shirked responsibility before, and he do it again.

            For the benefit of his student.

            This night lost in the forest – if he was lost and not serving out a prank – would be a good lesson for Naruto to learn.

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            “I don’t think I should stay,” said Naruto, apprehension thick in his voice.  “I’m supposed to meet up with my teacher.  He’s going to… to a less…”  His lips pulled tight as he tried to figure out how to politely say a less rundown, more provocative establishment.  He didn’t want to offend this lady, whoever she was and whatever it was she was doing here.

            The lady just stared.  She didn’t even look him over.  Her eyes were just connected with his, though his strayed when it became uncomfortable.

            “Um…”  He futzed his fingers, and then realized that he didn’t have his frog wallet.  He had to keep himself from smiling brightly at this revelation.  “I don’t even have my money!  My teacher has it”—He pointed a finger over his shoulder—“so I can’t afford to…”

            The lady suddenly reached out, ignoring his explanations, and pressed her fingertips lightly on his jacket at his collarbone.  He gave a shudder.  What was that…?

            She swiped, and some dirt fell on the floor; loud.

            Naruto gulped, and that same hand came up and held his cheek.  He flushed at the contact as she innocently wiped her thumb against a smudge upon his streaked face.  “You are alone,” she murmured, “and dirty.  Hungry.  It is my duty to take care of the young.  Please follow me.”  She turned and stepped into the wooden corridor, leaving behind her wood sandals so that her socks hardly made a noise on the floorboards.

            Again, Naruto wanted to refuse, but chose not to.  She was being polite and matronly.  A bit odd, but he couldn’t dislike someone for that.  Given time, he consoled himself, he was sure that he could like her.  So he pulled off his sandals and set them aside.  To his surprise, he saw other sandals.  There actually were more people here?

            No harm in asking, if only to break the silence.  “Are there more guests here?  Or just you and your family?”

            “There are others,” the lady answered without turning.  Her voice sounded so distant; Naruto picked up the pace until he was just two steps behind her, concerning himself with the rooms they had begun to pass.  Everything was so dark and empty and lifeless, which included the lit candles lining the hallway.  “We are a clan not thriving as we once had.  We welcome our own here.”

            “Oh,” said Naruto, laughing and scratching the back of his head.  “W-Well, sorry for interrupting you guys like this.”

            She stared over her shoulder at him.  An unreadable look was on her face that stalled his humor.

            He gulped and kept his mouth shut until she looked back forward.  It seemed she was satisfied with the quiet, but it unsettled Naruto.  Others were said to have been here, but there wasn’t so much as a shuffle in the heavy gloom.  And it felt like they’d been walking for minutes!  He looked back, to see what kind of sprint he’d need to go at to just run out and escape the vicinity of this place.

            His eyes widened!

            How was it possible?!  The exit seemed almost a mile off in the dark, like this woman had been leading him down the gullet of a snake!

            He shut his eyes and shook his head and looked again.  The exit was not so far off after all; just a few doors down.  Their pace was just slow and their monotony lagging.  It was like sitting through one of Iruka-sensei’s lectures.

            He couldn’t bear the silence anymore.  It was stifling him.  “Wha-What is this place, anyway?” he decided to ask.

            “My husband built it.”

            To this, Naruto’s spirits lifted a little.  “Your husband?  So-So you’re…!”

            “He sought peace and knowledge and understanding.”  The lady did not stop for Naruto.  “If the world around was warring, he would hide in the leaves and bring those who shared his vision.  But even then”—Her head dropped slightly, somberly—“he was called to battle.  He has been gone for a time now, unable to rest here again.”

            Naruto’s spirits took a dip, realizing that her husband must have left her a widow now.  He had been told by Ero-Sennin before that he lacked tact when it came to talking to women.  Ones like Tsunade could overlook his crass speech and overbearing honesty, but this innkeeper likely would not.  So he scratched distractedly at his cheek, and gave an apology for her loss, but she didn’t acknowledge it and just stepped aside, indicating to the room door.

            “Here,” she had said simply, and then slid it open.  Not at all unexpected, it was just as dark and gloomy in here as it was out in the imposing corridor.  In fact, with the four walls and empty space with just a pair of cushions around a small table, this seemed like a cage.

            Even so, Naruto put on a smile.  “Looks great,” he flat-out lied.  He walked in, his blue eyes scanning for anything to liven up the place.  But honestly, he felt hanging paintings would have added a haunting dreariness to the place, and he was suspicious that any such painting would have eyes that followed him.

            He didn’t take off his backpack; instead, he placed his hands on the straps tightly.  He debated with his reason and his decorum about how it would look to flee.  He was unlikely to ever see her again if he did, but he’d probably suffer some guilt for treating a lonely woman so unkindly.

            She just kept watching him, deliberations supposedly going on in her own mind, but she was not so conflicted.  She was resolute in whatever stance she was taking with this boy.

            “Um…”  He gestated, thinking of the warnings Ero-Sennin had given him.  But while he felt a little creepy around her, Naruto couldn’t feel animosity here.  “M-My name’s Naruto,” he introduced himself, now that he realized he was being given hospitality without either of them knowing the name of the other.

            She bowed her head cordially, her tag earrings fluttering slightly.  “I am Mito, and it is an honor to meet you, Naruto-san.”

            Well, it wasn’t often that he was spoken to so formally; it made him snicker a little, bashful, and feel out of place.  “You too, tebayo,” he replied as she raised up and continued eye contact.  Just a mere stare, but it was heavy.  If her eyes had shone red like her hair, he might have mistook her for an Uchiha.

            There was no draft.  All the windows were closed, and they were too deep in the inn for a gust to reach.  In fact, it was stiflingly warm.  Naruto was sweating under his jacket already, though he hadn’t realized it until just then, when he shivered.  That gut instinct again…  He felt restless and unnerved, unsure of what to say to put the focused Mito-san at some ease.

            Chuckling, wiping the cuff of his sweater against a trail of sweat on his left cheek, he said, “It’s pretty warm.  Is that because of the hot springs?”

            “Hm.”  Mito’s eyes glimpsed past Naruto; he felt a weight lift mercifully from his shoulders.  “My husband’s interest was the forest, but our clan comes from the waves and eddies, so we have pure water to charge to body and spirit.”  She looked at Naruto again, but he didn’t tense up.  “You should enjoy a bath… and then come in to eat.”

            Naruto looked around again.  It was still very dark, but if there was a peephole, he would have been able to spot it in this vacant room.  All paper doors and walls, tatami floors…  Maybe the ceiling, he considered, glancing upward, and then thought no.  Not even the rafters would have supported the weight of even a slim person, let alone the mats.  It wasn’t a bad room, but the feel of it was old.

            When turning to address Mito-san, he gave a jump, finding that she had crept closer without seeming to have moved.  He couldn’t cover up his reaction, so he turned it into a laugh.  “You’re very stealthy, Mito-san,” he chuckled mirthlessly.

            “Please,” she said softly to him and laid a hand upon his chest.  A light touch, but he felt like she’d seep into him, flesh upon flesh.  His throat was strangled by unease.  It did not help that she was so wistful and beautiful in looks, putting his Sakura-chan to shame and even bearing some vague reminiscence to Baa-chan’s appearance – except in the bust.  The rhombus at her forehead was of paramount to the resemblance.  “We will rejuvenate you in the hot springs.”

            Having teetered on the idea of declining, Naruto couldn’t help but accept this time, if only to ease the empty weight upon his chest.  Those eyes held such melancholy with such authority; her plea was a command.  “Sure,” he said weakly.  His hand came up unbidden and grabbed at her wrist.

            Her skin was unusually cold.

            He winced at it, almost recoiling but for an instinct to embrace and warm her himself.  He scorned the thought.  He’d been around Ero-Sennin too long to think something so inappropriate.

            At her own leisure, she brought her hand back to her breast, his own falling halfway between them.  He swallowed nervously.  She actually smiled now; a very faint curve of her pink lips, something so very elegant and genuine.  Intuitively, he grinned back, though his was big and toothy and accompanied by a slight chuckle.

            Yeah, maybe he could make the best of this stay.  After calming down from the oppressive repetitiveness of the bamboo forest and the gloom of the inn, he could ask Mito-san for directions out of this place.  He’d be sure to come back with some recompense for his stay at the very least.

            “After you’ve settled in,” she began with a shift to leave, “call for me, and I’ll take you to the bath.  It will calm you and cleanse you.  I can see that you’re very troubled.”

            “Well, yeah,” laughed the anxious Naruto.  “I guess I’m kinda lost.”

            “Many who come here are lost.  But they find their way… eventually.”  She strode silently, though the brush of her feet on the floor was resonating.  Naruto didn’t comment; just held his expression and tried not to quake on his feet.  She was so odd.  Normally, he would like that oddness.  But this was entirely different to the gloom of Hinata-types.

            In silence and solitude, Naruto exhaled loudly, realizing that he was covered in a cold sweat.  He hadn’t felt such an overbearing aura since Orochimaru!  He unzipped and flung his jacket across the room, groaning loudly as he tumbled back on the bedding, arms and legs spread out carelessly.  “How’d I wind up here?  Dammit.  That Ero-Sennin.  It’s all his fault.”  He shuffled, getting comfortable.  All of a sudden, it was becoming easier to relax.  He moaned softly and opened his eyes; his eyelids barely could hold halfway open.  “Maybe… I’ll take a nap first, tebayo.”

            He wasn’t quite sure of the order of events after that.  He seemed fairly certain that he had gone over to a quiet rest, but the next thing he knew, he was following Mito-san down the hall again.  Weirdest yet was that he hadn’t questioned it.  Like slipping consciousness into a body that was vacant yet moving on muscle memory.  The corridor tilted back and forth, and it was all he could do to stay on his feet than wonder how and when he’d woken up.  “Mi-Mito-san,” he slurred, reaching a hand out to brace against a wall.  “I feel… dizzy.”

            “Merely the humidity,” she told him, now stepping aside to permit him to the dressing room.  “You’ll settle in soon enough.  Undress here, and please enjoy the springs.  But try not to stay in too long.  You wouldn’t want to pass out.”

            On that, Naruto had to agree.  He was regretting sleeping at all in this place.  All of his inhibitions seemed sapped along with willpower.  He knew he should decline and ask to return to his room until he felt better.  Or, more sensibly, request to leave altogether.  The bamboo forest hadn’t felt as draining as this.

            Yet, grabbing both sides of the doorway, he thrust himself into the changing room.  “I-I can’t…” he trailed off, closing his eyes, hoping the room would stop spinning.  It couldn’t have been something he ate.  Or drank.  Was this possibly a Genjutsu or even a dream?  It didn’t feel like it; it felt real.  But the mind could play tricks when fooled.  He could be imagining that he was feeling the boards.

            “Would you like some help to undress?”

            “No!”  Naruto swung around drunkenly but forced his feet to stay under him.  His hand warded her back; she didn’t flinch as his fingers swept an inch from her nose in his haphazard motion.  He collected himself, brought his reaction back inward and laughed sheepishly.  “Sorry.  I mean, I can do that myself.”

            “It’d be no trouble.  We are here to serve you.  Please feel better, Naruto-san.”  Then her red head bowed before she removed herself from his sight behind the sliding door.

            With her gone yet again, Naruto’s chest began to heave.  He worried that it wasn’t imagination that his heart was hammering in his chest.  And it didn’t help that the ephemeral growling in the back of his mind hadn’t let up.  Was the Fox aware of something that he was not?

            “It’ll all be better after a bath,” he scolded himself, forcing his black shirt over his head.  No sense of decorum; he tossed it, his pants, and his boxers in a messy heap in the nearest empty basket.  He then untied his headband and forehead protector to place it with more reverence before sliding it into a cubby.  He then grabbed a towel, lashed it around his waist, and headed out.

            It was chilly out here.  For all the steam and the impressive span of the hot springs, Naruto was wrapped in a cold that made him brace against it.  His skin broke out in goosebumps, his nipples hardened, and his package shrunk.  His teeth chattered noisily.  “W-Why’s it s-so c-cold, tebayo?”  The forest had been so dense that it had trapped warmth and moisture, and it was still thick beyond the fence.  It should have made this place a sauna!  Instead, it was so cold that the water should have frozen over!  “I-I gotta g-get in!”  He hoped that the water was actually warm.  Everything else seemed so bleak and backward, he didn’t really trust what he saw.  But if it was cold, he would zoom out of there, get dressed, thank Mito-san for her hospitality, and try to blindly traverse the bamboo forest.

            “Please wait, Naruto-san.”

            Cold hands clutched his shoulder; he howled in response, like he’d been cornered by a ghoul in a graveyard.  But Mito stood unperturbed by his reaction, even as he apologized profusely for it.  He just wasn’t expecting her to be…

            “Yah!”  He fixed his towel at his groin, making sure he was not indecent in front of her.  “M-Mito-san!  What are you doing here?!”

            “Attending you,” she answered simply with a bow, only one hand leisurely clutching at the top fold of the towel around her.  The towel fit her tight, pushing up her breasts to form a supple cleavage that Naruto had trouble tearing his eyes away from, though it was just as difficult not to acknowledge the high-riding hem that exposed a dangerous portion of her thighs.  “I was hoping you’d allow me to wash your back before going in.”  She motioned to a little stool and basin.

            Naruto looked at the station, and then looked at her; all of her.  His jaw held tight.  It was never more apparent how beautiful she was than when only a thin veil of dull-pink cloth was around her.  Even the icy air could not hinder his natural reaction, but his hands could at least blanket its arrival.  “I,” he began awkwardly, eyes twitching, “I don’t know… if that’s a good idea.”  He’d all but forgotten the chill now that his blood was starting to run hot.  “I didn’t know it was co-ed.”

            “You are our first male guest in a very long time,” said Mito.  “We don’t mind if you share the bath with us.”

            “Huh?  We?”

            Mito took his hand and led him.  Much like before, he did not feel the strength to resist and went along, though his head turned back to the pool.  The mist of heat was thick, but not entirely obscuring.  He could see to the far end of the pond to the fence enclosing the area.  Boulders and cobblestone surrounded the water; the vegetation was maintained and kept outside only.  Looking up, Naruto expected to see a starry sky but instead just saw an endless void of black.  He doubted the sun ever looked down on this inn before.

            “Sit,” Mito quietly instructed.

            He did, but not without a word that he was willing to forgo the wash entirely.  “I think I should just lie down for a little bit more,” he said, but it had been lying down that happened and obscured his recent memory.  He made sure the towel didn’t slip from his form when he sat on the small chair.  A shinobi shouldn’t expose his back to an enemy.  Mito-san wasn’t an enemy.  He hoped he could convince himself of that and calm the turmoil of the Kyubi.

            A cup was picked up aside the basin and sloshed into it almost noiselessly.  His ears hardly picked up the smooth sound, an electric charge swelling down his back.  The heightened senses made reception more palpable on the surface.  He anticipated the water, feeling it even before it began to cascade down his back.  Without meaning to, he moaned and hunched forward.  Again, the cup descended into the basic, gurgled and filled and then poured over Naruto’s back again, this time higher, across his neck.

            “Your hair next,” she told him in preparation, and then poured the third cupful.  Rivulets went down his face, around his screwed-up eyes.  He held his breath momentarily, and then exhaled loudly.  His eyes opened wide.  This ritual was intense, intimate.  Beneath his hands, he felt his body willing to express its gratitude for her attentiveness while his mind pleaded that he control himself.

            It was hard, the case for his basic urges rearing when Mito-san’s icy hands slid onto his back, making him yelp and tauten.  She worked her palms expertly over his trained muscles, forcing them to relax though he endeavored against her work.  “You’ll be restored afterward, Naruto-san,” he felt her whisper at his ear.

            His eyes crossed, his will buckling.  Why did a woman’s hands have to be so forceful in their weakness?  There was hardly any strength as she groped at his shoulders and pressed the heel of her palms against him, yet he couldn’t do anything to move.  Each stroke had him wilting in all areas except one, the one he wished to reverse and hand over to the hindrance of the now-banished cold.

            The feral growling rumbled beyond the pit of his stomach.

            “Our clan had once thrived, but no more,” said Mito, not stopping her massage.  “You coming here was not just by chance, Uzumaki Naruto.”  Her body was closing in on his; he could sense the gap fast dissipating.

            Soft whispers fluttered on the still air…  Naruto jerked one way, thinking to see someone; another woman.  There was nothing but fog.

            “What’s… going on?” asked the fearful boy, turning his head to catch a glimpse of the hostess.

            “Just relax,” she said in a lingering breath.  Her hands fell flat on his shoulders before coursing down his front, exploring his muscles and plunging down to his abdomen, thrusting her chest to the back of his head.

            All the work she had done to loosen his muscles went to waste; he’d stiffened like a plank when he realized his head was nestled between two pert breasts lacking the coverage of a towel.  She was naked.  Entirely naked!  He dared not move his head unless he shuffle them and take notice of their shape and state.

            “We are here only to serve you.”

            ‘We’ again.  Naruto was afraid of that, though he did not know why.  But soon enough, he saw them.  This place was empty!  He was certain of that!  But when he looked again, beyond the boulders, there were definitely occupants in the water.  In a pond that came up to the chest when sitting, he could even tell that they were all women!  Just what was going on?!  There was no way he’d missed them before, yet now could distinguish characteristics like those!

            Moaning with effort, Naruto tried to stand up but only managed to throw himself off balance.  Were it not for Mito-san reaching out for him and returning him back to her bosom, he would have done a header into the boulder in front of him.  “I told you”—Her fingers dripped down his body from his face like hot lava—“just relax.”

            “I should… go back to my room.”  He teetered on his seat.

            Mito shushed him.  “You haven’t even enjoyed yourself yet.”  Her hands still poured down his sternum, reaching, but were slowing now.  If-If he didn’t intercede, she’d go straight down to…

            The placid waters churned.  When he glanced again with his heavy eyes, he saw the occupants were turning to watch.  A clearer vision of them now; each woman had a head of red hair.  One, who did not tie her hair up as many of the others and sat nearest to him, stood up.  Her hair came down low to the back of her thighs, and it moved gracefully even with the water weight.  She turned to him, her naked breasts – full and round – swinging pendulously.  He could not make out much of her features in the gloom, but her smile radiated.  He hadn’t met her, but her lips moved like she had just called out to him by name; the voice sounded miles away.

            Who were they?  What was this place?!

            Naruto gave a startled, helpless yelp when Mito’s hand slid under his towel.  He involuntarily grabbed at her wrist, but was powerless and couldn’t hitch her for even a second.  She glided into his pubic hair with delicate fingers, combing out the curls before snagging her destination like it was hers to take.  Naruto gave a violent lurch with a rattling sound from his throat.  He faced the sky, gurgling some objection to her fingers linking around his sensitive shaft.

            “Please, Mito-san…!”

            She was undeterred and started to size him up; from base to tip and back down.  She did not choke up on him and kept her grip featherlight.  Like a clasp of silk, she stroked him, pulling at the organ, pulling the skin against the bulging muscle.  His own hand had always shown a certain arrogance for this activity, cinching up tight to hurry and be done with it.  Easier to do when alone, but he was wandering with a hermit whose schedule was erratic.  He couldn’t edge even after learning what edging was!

            But he’d been stiff since seeing Mito’s body decked out in only a towel.  He might have tried to resist it, but his cock had been eagerly awaiting a chance to spill out his seed for her.  Her small hand simply brushed away his attempts to stop her.  No heart was in it; he was doomed.  It was energy better spent on clutching at the wooden panel beneath him for support, surrendering reign to Mito-san’s fist.  With delicate movements, she rubbed his hard cock faster, more appealing to his senses.  His eyes wandered down to watch the towel flutter over the pole in his lap.  Clenching his teeth, he swore and hoped that they wouldn’t be discovered by the women in the pond.

            He was mistaken to think that they hadn’t already been aware of the goings-on in the little niche between the outcropped stones.  They wandered in close like phantoms, peeking around the boulders, unafraid to put their unseen eyes on him.  The one with the longest hair, biggest breasts, did not amble around, gestating at the stones.  She walked to the front of him.  She was beautiful.  Through the peculiar shadow over the top half of her face, he could vaguely make out eyes and their color: purple, big, wonderous eyes.

            “Nice to see you,” she said with an unusual type of tenderness.  The volume of her voice seemed pitched, as though starting from far away before coming home to the mouth before him.  He recoiled slightly, embarrassed by her own lack of modest and lack of reaction to Mito-san playing with his cock under his towel.  She just kept her face in a smile, latched her fingers together in front of her pubic mound, and leaned over to meet his eyelevel.  Her tits shifted and jostled with the motion, making it impossible for Naruto not to regard such heavenly globes.

            “Naruto,” she called him, to let him directly know that she was aware of his name.  Her smile was radiant, he had to confess, and even though he didn’t recognize her, the familiarity made his cock swell.

            “H-Hey…!  What’s happening?” he jabbered on, tearing his eyes from her when the other redheaded women began to emerge, climbing out from behind the boulders, seemingly spurred on by the predecessor’s boldness.

            The woman in front of him reached out and touched his cheek.  He hitched, frozen, wide-eyed, unable to prevent it when she leaned in and kissed him tenderly on his gaping lips.  A yelp was stifled as she lovingly kissed him, allowing it to linger.

            She, like Mito-san, was so very cold, but it was the kiss itself that left him breathless; almost senseless.  He trembled when she backed away.  He was all rigid as he stared at her.  She was up and backing away, touching her lip with fondness as the other women closed in from around her.  “What…?”  He wanted to ask her something, anything to make sense of the situation.  How had her kiss shocked him more than the hand lacing around his erection?!

            Another woman pulled his face into a kiss; he could not resist.  It was not the same as the first woman, but still very intense.  And she was replaced by a third.  Naruto could hardly get out a stammer between the women kissing him, let alone address the hands starting to roam on his body.  He didn’t know which one was touching where!  All he knew was Mito-san was still attached to his cock, but other women had started to caress there too.

            Mito-san was the fourth to kiss him, turning his chin up, exposing his throat for one of the women to press her lips again, and led into his orifice with her tongue.  He whimpered, thinking that this was very wrong.  She was a widow!  But her lips were so cold and needed warmth.  Even her tongue pressed like ice against his.  He moaned helplessly some more, and then gave a pained hiss when a brash redhead sunk her teeth at the thin flesh of his collarbone.

            She was the only one who spoke – “Damn shithead…” – and then licked at the red toothmark, suckling possessively at his skin while her left hand descended to grab at his balls.

            The towel that had covered him had started to slip.  The redheads pawed absently at it before, paying it no mind so long as their fingers could get underneath to scrape at his thighs.  Since then, the tie was finished and the cloth was loose.  He pulled partway from Mito-san’s mouth to beg a reprieve, but got none.  The women just bunched in closer, not speaking, but making sounds of lust.  And he was powerless against them.

            On either side, his arms were lifted and speckled with puckered lips and dragging tongues.  It was a fantasy straight from Ero-Sennin’s dreams.  Some even began to kiss his knees, and ventured further up to his tensed thighs.  The long-haired woman, the first one, had taken up the space right in front of him, staking her claim just as Mito-san had at his back.  With his head held back, he couldn’t face her directly, but his eyes could strain to see down to the middle of his legs.  She smiled up at him; a reassurance before kissing above either knee… and then leading her butterfly kisses upward.

            “No!” he choked out around Mito’s mouth.  The first was climbing closer.  “Not there, tebayo.”

            But she made it there, and Mito accommodated her, reversing the slant of his erection to point at her face.  Her hands settled at the joint of his legs, trusting Mito’s direction, and swirled her tongue at his tip.  He gulped loudly, his eyes rolling.  She licked again, this time a single lash that cleared his slot of a swelling dollop of precum.  It hung off the tip of her tongue before she reeled it in and swallowed.

            Mito’s hand slid down, now holding at his base, giving the woman freer range of his length.  She started with affectionate, light kisses, her face leaping from spot to spot, wanting to kiss him all over before sliding him in.  Her lips folded over his engorged tip, the space of her mouth tightening, her cheeks pulling inward.

            Once again, Naruto swore and reacted to Mito-san’s lips, shoving his tongue right back into her mouth to swish against hers in a challenge.  He combated her chill with the heat of his raw fervor, switching saliva from his mouth to hers and back again.  She was hardly deterred.  For all her regal exterior habits and traits, she seemed honed in this method and willingly gulped his spit with her own.

            The women had become more passionate.  The arms that were blessed with their mouths were now pulled down and mounted.  A woman to each arm, straddling his hands, holding them against their crotches.  He felt the prickle of their pubic hair; differing in length and bristliness, as well as the mutual soft slickness of their vaginal lips revealing their arousal.  Seething, knowing only what he sped-read through in Ero-Sennin’s books – when the rest of it was so boring – he curled his fingers and began to play with the folds of their sex.  The flesh there was supple and wet, contrasting the grown hair, smooth and appealing to the touch.  Those women he caress moaned much louder and more frequently than the others, arching and putting their breasts to his shoulders as they bucked against him on both sides.

            The one who had bitten him snorted softly, holding her selfish claim to his body.  She was more tongue and teeth, pulling her tongue across his chest in broad strokes, pausing every now and then to give him a fierce nip that made him lose his rhythm.  At last, she drew in on his left nipple.  Her tongue was surprisingly tender there, circling lightly, testing and probing it.  It seemed that she would leave there unharmed… until her teeth sunk deep.  What should have made him screech in agony instead made him groan deep in his throat.  He bucked toward the woman’s face in his lap until her hands had to restrain him.

            The sadistic woman’s lips curled in an evil way.  They loosened, but her teeth weren’t yet unclamped from his skin.

            Her fingers were also rougher than any of the others’.  She stabbed her nails in the center of his chest, digging in like a plough before raking them down and leaving four enflamed rows down his sternum to his navel before she circled her hand down to take possession of his balls.

            Naruto whimpered as she chortled and then latched over his nipple, sucking roughly but luckily without her teeth.

            Though his sac was captured, his testicles hostage, Naruto had settled down enough to commence the work of the ladies upon his hands.  They’d grown restless since his distraction and were grinding and hoping to kindle some sense of pleasure from his deadened fingers.  His vigor ignited, and by chance, he curled his digits up into them: one penetrated by his middle finger, and the other was spread by the middle and ring fingers.  The former gave a more satisfying cry of pleasure.  A bit awkward for him, but he didn’t want to try switching out his ring finger for the more comfortable pairing with his index.  Clumsily but effectively, he fingered both women while thrusting his tongue against Mito’s, endured the vicious woman’s mouth on his chest, and resisted fucking the first woman’s mouth as she slobbered obscenely over his cock.

            He didn’t think he was particularly good at what he was doing; really, he wasn’t sure about any of this and was only putting into practice what he had either read or imagined on his own.  But the bodies were offputtingly frigid.  The pleasure was there, his mouth chilled like he’d been sucking on mint, but it was certainly unusual that his fingers were deep in a woman’s body but felt naught of the warmth of life.  Yet the women chimed with pleasure, grinding and clutching his arms.  The woman at his chest continued to mar his flesh with bitemarks, and Mito-san moved her fist in tandem with the beautiful woman sucking his cock, now moving back and forth on him, showing very dedicated delight to his head.  Cold or not, her tongue wrapping around the tip made his knees twitch inward, though he couldn’t detach the more-frightening woman’s hand off his testicles; he didn’t even try, fearing retribution.

            Mito-san must have known even before he felt it.  Her kissing fervor diminished, though she still cupped his chin, keeping his head tilted back so the fierce-faced redhead could make sport of his throat with sloppy kisses and bites.  Mito’s lips had become tender but brief in contact; short kisses that he could hardly latch onto.  But that was alright.  His chest was starting to heave.  Considering the mess he was in, it was astounding that he hadn’t lost control of himself yet.

            One… Just one more kiss before his lips pulled back tight, his face scrunching up.  “I’m,” he strangled to say, and then pulled from Mito-san’s hand, tucking his chin, staring straight down his body to the woman whose lips were enfolded around his erection.  She looked straight back up at him.  “I’m cumming, tebayo!” he strenuously told her.

            The first dose of cum was poor, ejecting before the spasms of muscles could produce the lion’s share.  But just the sample of that dollop…  The woman’s eyes lit up, she made a loud muffled gasp.  She swallowed it up immediately before pulling back.  “It’s coming, tebane!”

            Teba…?

            Naruto couldn’t complete his thought when the women dismounted, suddenly frenzied and obsessed with his twitching cock.  Even Mito-san had shoved her way around him from behind, slipping under his arm to hold a hand at his tip in time to catch the second emergence of his seed.  A sticky, messy blob of white and semitransparency.  Without reservation or poise, she pulled the sample to her mouth – that prim and proper mouth – and imbibed on his essence, slurping with gulps so loud that Naruto could hear it.

            He couldn’t tell what landed in whose possession.  Everything was so wild in that moment, his eyes hardly able to stay open in mere slits as the women milked him, jubilating in his fountain, giggling and awing when he spilt over their faces.

            “You got my eye, you piece of shit!”

            He wanted to apologize for that, but…  “Ughn!”  It felt nonstop, the pleasure.  His bottom lifted off the seat, all his muscles clenching, working together to empty his balls onto the collection that had gathered at his groin.  Mito-san had gone for a second helping, her tongue flicking over his tip just in time to sup straight from the source.

            But any further observation was impermissible when he found himself smothered in the light but shapely ass of the vulgar girl.  He only saw her one-eyed stare over her rump, her lips brandishing a wide and wicked smirk.  “How’s that?!”  She clamped a hand to the back of his head, forcing him to inhale her scent.  “I bet a turd like you loves to eat ass, so get to it!”

            Naruto, out of necessity, reached up and grabbed her by the legs for support.  He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do here and was much too preoccupied with the mouths alternating on his cock to really figure it out.  His moans muffled against her backside.  Below, his cock shot out the last, and while the others seemed satisfied gulping down their bounty, the first woman who had enamored him most of all turned her face back into his lap and doted upon his exhausted erection.  Small pecks followed up the simulation of sucking the vestiges of beverage from a straw.  She completely covered him with her love, from tip down to his base, pressing into his pubes, rounding down to show love and appreciation for his reclining sac.

            But when she sat back, that was it.  It was done: the ejaculation, the frenzy, the erection.  The women fell back, sated; for the moment anyway, breathing heavily as they scanned themselves for any missed droplets to sup up from their fingers.

            Seeing the passion die down, including his own moans against her ass, the woman straddling his face realized she had missed her chance.  Eyes widening in anger, she shouted and cursed.  “You can’t be done!  You worthless shithead!”  She dropped to her knees.

            Even Mito-san had receded, behind Naruto once again, returned to a picture of nobility as she dabbed gingerly at the corners of her mouth, taking pleasure in the pungent meal.

            But the other was not having it.  Growling, she closed her fist around Naruto’s limpening dick, squeezing tighter than she ought to have, thinking passion would ignite him again rather than make him fear her.  “You call yourself an Uzumaki?!”  She glowered at his face, squeezed tighter, and swore, “I’ll wring you out until you’re shooting dust!”

            Naruto exclaimed, coming up from the bedding with a start.  He panted and was covered in sweat, though the air in the room was chilly.  And looking around, as his senses began to settle, he recognized the dreary atmosphere of his unfortunate room in the Sleeping Tails.  He touched himself after a moment: his chest, his neck, arms, checked his fingers, and finally.  It was where he’d left it, thank goodness.  He almost could breathe a sigh of relief, if not for the fact he was still in the hotel.

            Yet…

            “What’s…?”  He touched his face, groaning.  He was suffocating.  He tried to figure it out, but his mind was slipping.  He couldn’t even remember what he’d been dreaming!  But it certainly could have been a dream!  Even if he could not remember what it was, he remembered the feeling.

            He looked down at his black shirt and then lifted it up to his chest.

            Nothing… but sweaty skin.

            But!  But it’d been bitten… and scratched!  He was certain of it!

            The smooth slide of the wooden door on its track made his head switch to the lantern light that entered the room.  “Naruto-san?  Are you awake?”  Mito-san’s eyes glowed beyond the light, the rest of her was blanketed in shadow.

            “M-Mito-san,” he stuttered and held at his throat.  “I-I think I feel…”

            “You have a fever,” she said right away and began to move toward him.  He wanted to crawl back, but could not.  The lantern and stick were set at his bedside so that she may kneel to him.  “You were thrashing in your sleep, hallucinating.”

            “Hallucinating?”  It sounded ridiculous!  Naruto hadn’t seen such vivid images – though he could not remember them – in all his life, even in Genjutsu.  Not to mention he’d never been sick before, thanks to the Kyubi’s influence.

            Mito-san’s hand lifted, it’d feel like an icepack on his heated forehead.

            But it didn’t…

            It felt like… a woman’s warm hand, checking his temperature against her own.

            She certainly had hands like ice before!  What could have changed?

            “You should rest longer, Naruto-san,” she told him in a voice hardly above a whisper.  Her hand lowered to grab the lantern stick.  “You should recuperate your vitality.  It is… precious.”  She rose to her feet.

            Naruto lurched, feeling more ill than ever in his life.  He made a move to go after her, but couldn’t make a pace further from his bedding on his hands.  “No, wait,” he wheezed, though she didn’t even pause to leave.  “I need-need to go…”

            But the door closed, keeping him within.  Buckling, certain that his kindness had been a mistake, he resigned himself to the bed, and prayed that a good rest would do him well.

            Before the silence enveloped him, music played; a flue solo.  Four hollow, chasing notes, followed by a descending flutter…

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Chapter Text

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            “Tea, Naruto-san?”

            Naruto postured despite his feverish sweat.  “Yeah-tebayo,” he answered with a nod and feeble voice.

            Mito had started to pour even before his answer, and her pour was perfect.  A crisp sound of the clay mug filling.  The stream didn’t deter; one single line and the contents filled to the top before the line broke.  The last drop was totally deliberate, Naruto was sure; her showing her control of the pour.

            Echoing off the walls…  Thudding in his head…

            Turmoil.

He ignored it and quashed it down under his etiquette training.  Jiraiya didn’t skimp.  Being a renowned shinobi also meant observing niceties and impressions.  Mito-san had been abundantly kind and patient with him.  She needn’t welcome him into her establishment from the eerie bamboo forest that he could not find his way though.

            He felt it was one of his biggest errors to follow her inside…

            “Drink, Naruto-san,” she softly encouraged with a bow.  She sat opposite to him at the short tea table in his room, next to his futon.  The sheets had been kicked askew and rumpled, and he was sitting up on the turned-over corner nearest the table.  “You’ll feel better.”

            Doubtful.

            Naruto gave as polite of a smile as he could manage after regarding the steamy drink.  “Thanks, Mito-san.”  He reached out, fingers shaking from his sickened condition.  The mug was cold, like it was filled with ice instead of tea.  Still, the vapor continued to rise, and at level with his face, it gave Mito-san an otherworldly aura.  Why’d she have to face him with such impassive, intense eyes?

            His heartbeat started to accelerate.  Odd happenings since he’d come here.  He thought for a moment if this was poison; surely not, but the state of things had left him badly paranoid.

            He sipped.  It burned his tongue at once, scalding in his carelessness, and he instantly dropped it.  He exclaimed, truly apologetic and not meaning it despite his fantasized misgivings.  Fevered, he said, “I’ll clean it up-tebayo!  I’m so sorry, Mito-san!”

            “It’s alright.”  Her soothing voice was as a rebuke on its own.  Gulping, he reclined, his eyes darting to the mess and back to her.  She stood up and rounded the table with her feet hardly making a sound on the floor mats, and then knelt to retrieve the fallen cup.  “I’ll bring another after you’ve rested a bit.”

            Naruto’s laugh was forced and airy.  “I think, maybe, I’ll be better if I go outside and get some fresh air instead.”  But not in the hot springs…  Not in this rank forest either!  Everything within was so full and loud with smells of uneasy air.

            “Quiet,” Mito hushed him.  He didn’t expect her to touch him; a gentle brush through his hair, rounding about his face and cheeks, to his chin.  Warmth…  It was there now.  “And rest.  Purifying incense is in the air”—She watched him as his bright eyes turned up and looked around, searching for some ephemeral source of scent—“and your soul with be soothed.  But it can only happen if you let it.”

            Her fingers dragged down his throat as he gulped.  Her touched was so intimate even outside his black shirt.  The hand pressed over his heart, and it took him a moment to realize she was urging him back.  He went halfway, onto his elbows, and stared up at her.

            So tremendously intimate…

            It had all been a hallucination… by her explanation.  He had gone into the hot springs, but the heat had overwhelmed him.  Heat had never been an issue before; soaking in hot springs was a pastime of his, something to enjoy as much as Ichiraku.  But the humidity here, in a dense forest.

            To say the least, he wanted to believe her.

            The facts of the hallucination were muddled, yet trying to recall them had ignited feelings of exhilaration that had come only from intense wet dreams.  When Mito had told him how and why he was back in bed, he checked his boxers to see if there was a gooey mess to explain the relief.  Nothing there…

            At the same time, Mito-san’s hand upon his chest felt totally familiar.  The dream, whatever it was, connected him to her in an improper manner.

            He breathed in deep, employing relaxation methods taught to him by Ero-Sennin, when he felt his loins quickly stir for her.

            Then he allowed her light weight to turn him onto his back.  He swallowed again as he stared up at her; her rising to her full height over him.  He did not like this sensation of vulnerability.  Not like being careless as a shinobi; it was like surrendering his soul.

            “We’ll tend to you, Naruto-san.  So rest.”  Without another word, she left the room, shutting him inside with that single lamp in the corner filling the whole room with a dull orange aura.

            Tired, Naruto still couldn’t sleep.  He lay on his back and counted the ceiling mats, though he couldn’t concentrate past five.  Pressure was upon him.  His perspiring skin prickled at the endless cold.  He should shed his shirt – It was already damp enough. – and climb under the covers.  Sweat out this fever.  Do as Mito-san asked and rest.

            His eyes wouldn’t shut, though.  Even though they ached, they couldn’t do more than blink as his imagination put noise in his ears.  He hadn’t heard footsteps in his room; he already checked twice when he thought he had heard them.  It was harder to ignore his shinobi senses; the awareness around him, that alerted him to being watched.  Absolutely nothing in the room.  A few times, he tried to pretend to be asleep to see if he could trick some hiding person into coming out, but nothing happened.

            All his imagination.  All this fever.

            Until he heard voices.

            Certain voices, not imagined.  He tilted his head up to look at the door.  No one was there, but there were discussions in the hall beyond.  Mito-san was one, talking hushed and calm, and the other seemed angry, arguing, and foul-mouthed.  Not that he could hear clearly, but he vaguely picked things up.

            And all at once, the voices ended.  Through walls, Naruto could practically feel it: Mito-san’s gaze falling upon him, admonishing his eavesdropping.  His lips stretched across his face as he thrust himself down on his bedding and held himself there, hands clutching at the comforter like he was afraid he’d float off.

            Nothing ensued.  By how quiet it had gone, it would seem like Mito-san and whomever else was with her were standing in place, still and silent.  But with the amount of time that had passed, Naruto found that unlikely to impossible.

            “I-I think they’re going to eat me-tebayo,” Naruto decided, remembering how Jiraiya, in a drunken fit after spending so much money, wagged his finger in his protégé’s face and warned him about woman man-eaters.

            Throughout the ensuing hour, Naruto was able to drift in and out of dream-filled slumbers.  Nothing as intense as the supposed hallucination, but they were foreboding.  Sakura-chan was involved in one dream; he’d caught her in the hot springs, a figure of what he imagined her to now look like back in Konoha.  “You look like a woman, Sakura-chan!” he had blurted in his dream, with the bravado of dreams allowing him to look at her full nakedness with rapt appreciation.  Of course, dream Sakura-chan was as unforgiving as her real counterpart, big tits – as he imagined her to have going into adulthood – swinging as she landed a brutal slap across his face, with enough force to wake him.

            He dozed some more, regardless.  Better to be in dreams than this stuffy in, watching shadows move in soft candlelight.  He was seeing too many wicked things in the dark that would stave sleep off well beyond his stay here.

            Unless I wind up staying here forever-tebayo, he morbidly thought.

            But closing his eyes, he succumbed to sleep.  Dreamless… or maybe abstract.  Nothingness, really, yet undeniably warm.  A vast golden plane, where, if someone like Naruto were to put in words, dreams and wishes and aspirations began.  There was no point to this dreamland.  His own self was gone, though he was aware of himself.  Hard to explain, but it was good.

            A feeling on his cheek…

            His absent extremities stirred.  His finger ticked.  And when the feeling brushed him again – a sensitive spot on his neck – he gave a more significant move, halfway to a tickled laugh.  Each brush led him further from the golden plane until he was pulled back to consciousness.

            The feeling had been lips.

            Someone was kissing along his throat; sweet, adoring kisses down to his naked chest.  Naked beyond that as well!  When had he undressed?!

            He gasped awake, chest expanding as the person – a redheaded woman who was not Mito-san – rounded her tongue around his right nipple.  His cock – hard and already overflowing with precum – was in her light grasp.  She was rubbing it up and down, smooth and methodical, trying not to overstimulate him.  If not for his surprise to this sight, he might have reclined and let things take their course in earnest.

            She looked up at him, hearing his voice, and she beamed warmly.  Her purple eyes shimmered… not unlike his own when excited.  “Are you feeling better-tebane?”  The hand around his cock tightened, and

Chapter Text

            “Guh!”  Naruto arched off the futon, awakened by the euphoria of ejaculation.  The tip of his cock had escaped the band of his boxers and began to pour out across his belly, streaking the Sun-seal that locked the Kyubi within him.  He gasped desperately, wringing the bedsheet and thrusting his hips to an imagined hand, unable to suppress himself and retain his dignity.  His balls exhausted themselves, drawn up tight in his scrotum, lobbing copious jets of cum up his stem to discharge across his sternum.

            When it was all relieved and reduced to the trickles of nearly-clear remnants of diluted semen, his back returned to the comforter, though he picked up his head to examine the quickly-cooling slop he’d expelled.

            A dream?!  A wet dream?!  Now?  Here?!

            He was ashamed by it until Mito spoke; he was then mortified.

            “Mito-san!!” he exclaimed as she addressed him, “You were thrashing quite badly in your sleep.  Are you plagued by uneasy dreams?”  She was sitting at the other side of the table, as usual, at home in her own eeriness.

            Naruto tried to stabilize his post-ejaculation breath, though he could feel his pulse racing at the side of his neck.  He couldn’t even bring himself to smile, more likely to pull the covers over his head and beg her to go away as he figured out the tremendous spillage.  “M-Mito-san,” he barely got out.  A hand lifted in a vain and desperate effort to hide the semen.  “I…!”  He collapsed within a second, grounded and suppressed with fatigue.  On his side, he could feel his essence shifting and making new pathways across his body.

            “You’ve only gotten worse,” Mito calmly observed.

            There was a slide across the table; her pushing the mug on its coaster to him.

            “You should drink…”

            He saw her eyes cast across his body, with an ardent cool regarding of his sperm-coated belly.

            “It’ll warm the soul.”

            Naruto gritted his teeth.  He did not like her unflinching gaze.  Bad enough he’d done so in front of her – intentionally or not.  He wanted her out of the room.  He’d wipe it all on his black shirt and clean it when he was out of this damn place!

            Where had his shirt gone?  When had he taken it off?

            In the corner… were those torn rags his shirt?

            “Mito-san,” he rasped out, clenching at his wet skin.  “I can’t-tebayo!”  He didn’t want to sound disrespectful, even now, but his patience was quickly spent.  “A towel…”

            “I’ll send for a bed bath, to help cool you.  But first.”  She got to her feet.

            Naruto noticed – or at least thought so – that she was tall.  It might have been perspective, or hallucination, but she seemed giant as she rounded the table, erect in posture, shortening her strides to prolong her approach though Naruto gave protest to it.

            “I’ll be sure that you can rest,” she whispered as she knelt down beside him, much in the formality of a wife to her ailing husband.  She even took his hand – the one not stained with his cum – and held it compassionately.

            The tip of Naruto’s cock was still visible, though she didn’t seem to mind or notice.  He wished he was at least given a moment; just a moment of her looking anywhere but at him so that he could stuff his shame back into his trousers.

            “If you’ll allow me,” she whispered, and without losing his hand from hers, she reached back to the table and grabbed his cup.  He wasn’t feeling up to being lifted and helped.  He might as well deal with it and sit up by himself, drink without her help.  Two hands this time, so he wouldn’t drop it.

            But then Mito-san brought to cup to her own lips and tilted her head back, supping soundlessly, but not swallowing.  Then the mug lowered and her lips sealed.  Intently, she turned to her guest, her talismans flittering in a very effective way in the silence.

            Just what was she up to?

            Naruto held his breath when she brought their mouths together.  He gave a sound of protest, closing his mouth to hers, feeling the liquid she was retaining.  Too weak to pull away…  Too helpless against her tongue tracing the line of his lips, losing a bit of tea to trickle across his cheek…  Too enamored to keep her tongue from prying his lips apart to transfer the liquid.

            His mouth filled with the sweetened drink until he was forced to swallow in one loud gulp.  Mito-san lingered on his mouth, and then pulled away and let him settle on the futon.  The deep, deep futon…

            Was he falling or floating?  He looked, and Mito-san seemed so far away as she tilted her head with another helping of the drink.  Dumbly, he yielded, opening his mouth enough for her – easing her talismans back from dangling in her face – to now stream the tea down his gullet without the need of a kiss.

            “It’s good when you obey, Naruto-san.”  Her voice was distant too.

            Did she kiss him?  He wasn’t sure, but his lips sure tingled like she just had.  But she’d already spat the tea in his mouth.  No need to kiss-tebayo…  He gasped feebly before – and he was sure this time – she pressed her lips over his again and transferred the tea.  Every gulp had him going further down, until light seemed so far off that it was unobtainable.

            Sweet and bitter mixed down his throat.

            Almost dead to the world, he listened to her.  “Sleep…”  His hand was picked up off his lower belly, sticky with his emission.  He tried to call his hand back, but the impulse faded at the shoulder.  He felt her examine each of his fingers, and then something wet.  A… napkin?  A cleaning cloth?

            A tongue, lusciously cleaning a swath of his cum from his palm.

            A low moan came from his hostess before she went again, now suckling his middle finger clean.  Far off, yet he saw the string of spittle and semen between fingertip and pink lips before the tongue flashed out and caught it.  He dazedly watched her savor it.

            “I’ve arranged for a guest to”—Distracted, she kissed another blot of semen away—“help you rest.  Her music will soothe your soul.  And I…”

            Encroaching darkness…

            Naruto fought it, with every ounce of his strength.  He could feel torment inside of him, beyond his soul; the plane where the Fox was caged.  Somehow, the wrathful demon was being suppressed, and his anger was reaching Naruto.

            Yet he could do nothing.

            Mito-san stooped, looming over his belly, breathing heavily as she went down to lick his sperm-soaked skin.  A refined but bold path was cleared in the runny white.

            “Mito-san, stop!” commanded Naruto like he was finally able to breathe after too long underwater.  He came up with a surge of strength, ready to repel the woman by force to preserve her marital chastity.

            But she was not there.

            And neither was the wetness of his ejaculate.  In fact, he was dressed, and – upon checking – his cock was neatly flagged and facing down the leg of his pants rather than squirming up through the waistband.  Shirt on!  Wet with perspiration, but on!

            “Wha-?”  He looked this way and that, his breath heaving.  He must have been holding his breath or something to be so winded!  His hands patted along himself, holding over his heart to feel it thump-thump-thumping.  Beneath him was the futon and over his legs was the comforter.  Was he just waking up?  The concept of time had eluded him, ruptured by his sudden illness.

            But he felt fine.  Frisky, even.  And that worried him.

            “Did the tea work?” he uttered and looked at the table.

            The mug was there, full, but cooled.  No steam rose from it.

            Cautious, as if the mug might detonate, Naruto approached and loomed over it.  Nothing unusual about it.  But… it couldn’t be…

            He tapped the rim.  “This isn’t… what Mito-san first brought me… is it?”  It could all have been a fever dream.  Or, for all he knew, even the fever itself had been a dream!  He felt charged and relaxed and nothing seemed changed from when he first threw his orange jacket fitfully into the corner and laid down on the futon upon arrival.

            An uneasy smile brought up half of Naruto’s mouth.  “Heh.  Heheh.  I-I guess it was just a-a long nightmare-tebayo.”  Bucking up his courage and spirits, he crossed his legs and linked his hands behind his head.  “I’m feeling loads better now!  Maybe I should just let Mito-san know I’m gonna be on my way after all!  Ha-ha-ha!”  He could posture all he’d liked, but the truth was evident by his paled face and quivering features.

            He couldn’t have grabbed his things fast enough.  He threw his jacket on, not bothering to zip up, and slung his rucksack strap over one shoulder.  Oh!  Can’t leave without some form of payment-tebayo.  Unsettling or not, Mito-san was kind enough to offer him sanctuary.  He rummaged through his pack, sorry that Ero-Sennin held onto all finances, and that included his own private budget.  Aside from that, he didn’t keep anything of any significant value; the most precious thing on him was the necklace the big-breasted Princess Hokage had given him, and its sentimental worth was greater than its actual value.

            “Sorry, Mito-san,” he said out loud, embarrassed and ashamed to place a copy of Icha Icha on the table.  A poor payment, but it held some worth as a first edition.  Ero-Sennin had given it to him exclusively, but it was out of drunken hubris, not because he thought Naruto would appreciate it or anything.  “I’ll just ask Ero-Sennin for another to give to Kaka-sensei when I get back-tebayo.”

            Naruto then stood up and looked around.  All quiet.  All still except for the shadows.  He looked at the oil lamp.  It did not help.  He pursed his lips and mumbled something about wanting to be in darkness than sit around in this eerie glow.

            “Mito-san~?” he called out when he poked his head into the corridor.

            This dreary, stretching, suffocating corridor.

            He wanted to leave, but leaving a boring, perverted book without some kind of explanation felt wrong.  Just one last face-to-face with her.  One final glance at her regal beauty, contrasting her humble abode.

            “Mito-san,” he called again, his head turning left and right.  “I-I’m going to be leaving now.”

            He could hear the wind outside, the mere rustle of the bamboo thicket waiting for him.

            He sure could have gone for a bowl of steaming ramen.

            “I guess she’s… in the hot springs-tebayo,” he decided with an upward look, trying not to let old, perverted habits kick in.

            She was beautiful.

            Well, he needn’t bother her.  She had other guests to attend to, so him leaving would be a service.  He stepped out of his room when he heard the footfall from down the hallway… in the dark.  And at first, he thought that, maybe, it was just some floorboards creaking.  He hoped that.  Mito-san stepped silently.  An audible step was not hers.

            “Must be a floorboard,” Naruto laughed forcefully to himself before the second, and a third to quickly follow.  Why did he have to look?

            Why did the hall have to be so dark heading further in?

            The footsteps were approaching, one lurching after the other.  Naruto steeled himself.  It must be another guest, like himself…  Like himself, but eerie.  Unpleasant enough to want to stay at the Sleeping Tails.

            All at once, the footsteps stopped, and Naruto’s straining ears could only pick up the smallest pops and crackles of lamplight when an insect buzzed too close.  So he relied on sight.  No good.  Despite growing accustomed to the low light, he could not penetrate the void no matter his gaze.

            ♪♫♪♫

            The sting of a fluttering note seized him with an abrupt terror that stalled his heart.  He nearly stumbled out into the vast exposure of the corridor, but collected himself and wheeled on the melody.  In the corner.  Over the lamp.

            ♪♫♪♫

            The music commenced unhindered, a woman holding the flute to her lips, eyes closed, concentrating on a score that haunted the silent and still inn.  She dressed plainly, yet familiarly.  Naruto had seen these clothes before, yet the memory was vague and he could not access it.  The flute’s shrieks seemed to hinder his ability to recall.  Gray drab clothes and tight black spandex shorts with a spiral insignia at the skirt, a familiar purple rope belt about her waist tied in a great bow behind her, a black cap secured on the top of her head of long red locks.

            Naruto ogled her, unsure of what to make of her presence as she played.  She was in no manner to be interrupted, or so he felt.  Her aura was uncomfortable and rather intense.

            ♪♫♪♫

            Undisturbed, unconcerned, unbidden, she played with the single gestating audience member.  Notes of blazing, raw emotion and frenzy, and then, spiraling into the ending chorus.  The low tone dragged, silence followed, and then her eyes opened.  Deep and dark brows that reflected the lamplight’s persistent flicker.

            And then she spoke, “Leave this room, but don’t sleep in any of the others.  This place is old, and has a lot of bad memories.  You’ll have nightmares if you’re careless,” she warned, and then spat a harsh, “shithead.”

ccc