24 Bathhouses

Naruto was woken from his nightmare by someone kicking him roughly, not enough to seriously hurt the seasoned shinobi but enough to alarm the man who was so despairing accustomed to waking from sudden, lethal threats. On instinct he shot his arm out and grabbed the assailant by the ankle and yanked it from under them causing them to fall to the ground with a surprised grunt, before his eyes even had time to adjust, he had a kunai to their throat. Naruto's vision focused as he blinked the morning haze from them, and he saw his one and only future sensei looking at him with wide and slightly fearful eyes. Naruto processed this for a second, when it finally computed that this person was not a threat, he was quick to scramble off of him and offer Kakashi a sheepish hand up, which was rudely ignored by the way.

"You have got to stop kicking people Little Man, I could have killed you." Naruto warned jokingly, but there was also something in the way he said it that hinted there was truth to that. It was more of a humorous warning if it were to be properly defined.

Kakashi huffed out in agitation. "Stop calling me Little Man." He grumbled, crossing his arms in an uncharacteristic show of immaturity.

Naruto got an amused glint in his blue eyes. "Oh?" He asked and he leaned closer. "Would you rather be called '𝘓𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘉𝘰𝘺' then?"

Kakashi leaned away, trying to get the man outside of his bubble. "Tch, whatever." And he walked away, sending a glare to his three teammates who sat nearby with expressions of amusement they couldn't be bothered to hide.

Naruto tried to shake off the slight adrenaline that still pulsed through him as he rolled up his bed roll and stuffed it in its place amongst his other supplies and he was ready to go.

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"Finally!" Obito exclaimed. "I never want to walk far again" He groaned while looking at his feet as if pitying them. Naruto smiled to him as he remembered a time when he would have been just the same.

"Be quiet Obito. Remember why we are here, we don't need an idiot like you drawing attention to us with your constant complaints." Kakashi scolded in a somewhat snobby tone that made the Uchiha want to punch him. Naruto also remembered a point that Sasuke would've been just like Kakashi was now. It was hard to connect this stiff kid with the laid back Kakashi he knew and loved, he was so opposite, this Kakashi is always a minimum of fifteen minutes early while future Kakashi was always at least three hours late. This Kakashi preached about rules and regulations while future Kakashi just did his own thing. It was something to get used to for sure.

"Tch. What do you know?" Obito grumbled in response even though he knew his teammate was right, but his pride would never let him admit it.

"Obito, Kakashi may have been a bit harsh about it," Naruto sent said boy a glare. "But he was right, you need to be quiet as to not draw so much attention." He finished. They were now entering the town where the rumors said the Cloud ninja were setting up base.

Obito hung his head. "Yes Naruto... what are we supposed to call you?" He realized.

Naruto furrowed his brows at the young Uchiha. "What do you mean?" He asked.

Obito looked contemplative. "Well we have been calling you Naruto but it was never clarified if you were put in the team as a co-leader or as a subordinate of Minato-sensei's."

Kakashi got a look of interest and surprise. "Yeah. Obito is right for once. You have behaved more like a sensei with you training us and all, plus you are a jounin." He added. Obito nodded proudly before what Kakashi had actually said sunk in.

"Hey what do you mean 'for once'!" He exclaimed while pointing accusingly at Kakashi. Kakashi turned his head away before responding.

"What I mean is that you are almost always wrong." He said, the ranking thing momentarily forgotten.

"I am not!"

"Are too."

They bickered while the others watched. After all this travel and all the previous bickering between the two Rin was just done and didn't even try to stop them. Naruto noticed this and took it upon himself to intervene, he would have let them be but they were getting quite loud and it was severely irritating the blonde.

Naruto walked up to them and gave them each a hard knock on the head that left them on the ground groaning in pain. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘚𝘢𝘬𝘶𝘳𝘢, he thought to himself.

"You two need to cut it out." Naruto said in a hard tone. Kakashi and Obito flinched at the sound of it. "We may be in the Land of Fire but if the rumors are indeed true then we are on enemy territory. I expect you to at least act like proper shinobi and not like children." He scolded and though they hadn't known him long, his disapproval made them look to the ground in shame. Naruto looked at Obito.

"Obito." The Uchiha looked up at him but couldn't meet his intense eyes. "I know Kakashi can set you on edge at times, I used to have a teammate that hit my nerves just the same way." He set a hand on the younger kid's shoulder and crouched to look him in the eyes. "I used to be just like you believe it or not. I know you want to prove yourself so instead of focusing so much on how offensive Kakashi's opinions may come out to be why don't you use it as a way to better yourself. Who knows, maybe one day you will surpass him then you can give 𝘩𝘪𝘮 pointers." Naruto gave him a wink before removing his hand and turning to Kakashi with a stern gaze that was almost brotherly in nature, Kakashi had the urge to shrink away from the unexpected and unfamiliar sense of care.

"Kakashi, I thought you'd know better than this. You did after all just do what you scolded Obito for not even minutes ago. I believe that technically makes you a hypocrite." Naruto gave him a closed eyed smile. "You should know better Little Man." He said as he ruffled his silver locks, something he seemed to be making a habit of - much to Kakashi's annoyance.

Kakashi nodded. "Sorry." He mumbled. Minato was flabbergasted. Did Kakashi just 𝘢𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘪𝘻𝘦? Minato wasn't even aware that the word 'sorry' existed in the chunnin's vocabulary. He would have to get Naruto to teach him this magic sometime.

"So, if this is resolved then I do believe that is a bathhouse I see." He pointed to a small building eagerly. Minato smiled at Naruto's childishness after his show of maturity. It would seem that this mission had accomplished one thing, Naruto was more at ease while around Team Seven.

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Naruto walked into the bathhouse, the minute he saw that it was co-ed he turned on his heal and walked out. Or rather he tried to walk out, Minato caught his shoulder before he ever made it to the door.

"Is something wrong Naruto?" Minato asked with 'innocence'. Naruto's eyes fluttered back to the co-ed sign and then to the exhausted chunin, then back to Minato.

"Does the fact that it's 𝘤𝘰-𝘦𝘥 make you uncomfortable?" Minato teased. Naruto took his teasing as a challenge; he got a hard look of determination on his face as he steeled his resolve.

"No." He said then walked to the changing room almost comically with Minato, Obito and Kakashi following behind wondering what his problem was. Rin thought she had an idea.

**

Naruto groaned. "I hate co-ed bathhouses." He complained. Currently he was being surrounded by fangirls. Minato openly laughed.

"Normally you'd think a young man would be happy in your situation." He chuckled. All of Team Seven was having a fun time watching Naruto as he tried to escape the young women.

"Wow~ you're so strong." One flirted with him, poking at his biceps. Naruto scooted further away.

"You're so~ handsome." Another sang. Courses of agreement rang from the others. Containing laughter was becoming a challenge, even for Kakashi.

Naruto kept scooting further and further away as the fangirls followed him and eventually trapped him in the corner.

"So, what's your name?" One asked flirtatiously.

"Naruto." Naruto replied, looking extremely uncomfortable with the attention he was receiving. At least they knew why he hated co-ed baths so much.

"Naruto? Like... the fish cake?" A woman questioned.

"Hey! It's a beautiful name!" A blonde defended and a few others joined in, it wasn't long until they were in an all-out battle among hormonal women.

Naruto took the opportunity to use his ninja skills and slip away back to the others.

"Shut up." He grumbled to a smirking Minato.

Minato raised his hands. "I didn't even say anything." He pointed.

Naruto scowled at him. "You have loud thoughts." Minato chuckled.

A few of the girls had escaped the intense war and had made their way back over.

"Hey Naruto~" They chorused. Try as he might, stealth powers didn't work once the enemy had already spotted you.

"So, whatcha doing later tonight?" A brunette asked curiously.

"Uh... "

"Nothing with you!" The blonde from before said, she looked at the other girl like she was a stain on her favorite shirt.

"Oh? Then what? You think he would want to go out with your ugly ass?"

A raven-haired girl took this as her chance and advanced while the other two were distracted. "Look at those scars, you must be quite the warrior. Are you a shinobi?" Naruto sunk further into the water as if he wanted to melt in it, his face was beet red.

Both Minato and Kakashi's ears perked at the mention of scars. They both had a lot of questions for the blond Uzumaki and it seemed like the more time they spent with him the more questions they had.

Kakashi's eyes widened as he saw a particular scar on his right shoulder. It looked familiar, not one he had seen on a person, but a scar he often left on trees, it looked just like... "Chidori."

Naruto froze as soon as the word reached his ears. His mind was quick to get over the shock so he could calm down before anyone noticed his slight panic, he decided that he best play it off. He rose from the water and quickly grabbed a towel to wrap himself in, it's not like he particularly wanted to stay anyways.

He let out a yawn. "I'm really tired from all of the traveling, ya know. I'm going to check in at the inn down the street." He informed before heading out.

A chorus of 'aww's' were heard from the fangirls. "Can't you stay a little longer?" They asked. Naruto scratched the back of his head.

"Maybe next time?" He answered and rushed away before they could ask when 'next time' would be. They answer - never.

Being careful to conceal his wicked amounts of chakra, Naruto quickly made his way to the inn he had mentioned after getting dressed. On the way down the gravel road, he rushed and failed to pay attention, so it was only fate that he would run straight into the person he had hoped not to see on this mission, or ever in this time. He fell to the ground.

"Oh man, I'm really sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going... " He trailed off as his eyes met those of Killer B.