Chapter 24
True to her word, Tsunade indeed took in a jounin position and volunteered to be the sensei of team 11, Naruto’s current team, much to the displeasure of the council.
As expected, patience was the last thing she had when it came to D-ranks, so after making sure the team was in good enough shape to take C-ranks, she started working them to the bone to meet the necessary D-rank quota before testing them again and starting C-ranks.
Right now, they were resting, the women of the group had left for a bathroom break all the while, Naruto was cooling down with a cold beverage and some dango under a shade when the two kunoichi approached him.
“oh come on brat, don’t be a party pooper”, Anko says, sitting down next to him, shamelessly stealing one of his dango stiks to herself, “it’s not every day you get accosted by the two sexiest (and single) kunoichi in the village”.
“I believe there’s at least a dozen or so Kunoichi who would disagree with you”, Naruto says, scooting away from the snake mistress, “besides, shouldn’t you be torturing some poor idiot now?”.
“it’s my day off brat”, Anko says, with a grim.
“but isn’t hers”, Naruto says , pointing to Kurenai, “and I’m on duty”.
“the way I see, it looks more like you are relaxing”, Kurenai says, narrowing her ruby eyes at him.
“I’m on break, the rest of my team are in the toilet”, Naruto says, “now, are you going to tell me why are you bothering me or you just got here to score a free meal?”.
“rude much!”, Anko says, stealing more dango, but when she was moving to bite, she ends up biting her own thumb as the skewer suddenly appeared in Naruto’s hand, “damn it, how did you do that?”.
“fuck you that’s how”, Naruto answers.
“brat, I may own you one, but I’m still going to kick your ass if I have to”, Anko says, narrowing her eyes, but amused nonetheless.
“yeah, yeah, you and the whole village”, Naruto says with a slightly fed up tone, “so, did you came here to stab me or to ask for money?”.
“the way you speak makes it look like people only talk to you for those two reasons”, Kurenai says, with a wince.
“because they do, so far everybody I’ve talked with ever since I started taking D-ranks either demands I pay reparations for the Nine-Tails attack or try to stab me in the eye”, Naruto says with a groan, “so, which one will be?”.
There’s a beat of silence before Kurenai speaks.
“the latter”, Kurenai mumbles.
“nope!”, Naruto says with firm tope.
“what? Why?!”, Anko asks, shocked.
“because I said so”, Naruto says, “also because so far none of you gave me a good reason why should I spend my hard earned gold on you”.
“isn’t spending a delightful time with two hot kunoichi enough reason?”, Anko asks, scooting closer to Naruto.
“if I wanted to pay for company I would go to hostess club”, Naruto says, noticing the uncomfortable look on Kurenai’s face, “so, are you going to give a real reason, or are you just going to stand there like an statue?”.
With a bashful look on her face, Kurenai starts explaining, ten minutes later and Naruto face palms.
“let me see if I got this straight, you two got a massive loan with the bank to get into a high stakes poker game, lost everything and now you either pay or you become slaves for a sleaze ball”.
“well, when you put it like that it really sounds bad”, Anko says.
“because it is bad and it is stupid”, Naruto says, with a groan, “I expected this form you”.
He points to Anko before he turns to Kurenai.
“but I tough you were smarter that that”, he says and Kurenai flinches, “like, just how much did you lose?”.
“enough that the only thing we have left are the clothes on our back and our dignity”, Kurenai says, with a sad tone.
“can’t you ask your boyfriend for help, last I checked he’s the son of the previous Hokage, he surely must able to pull some strings”, Naruto asks, choosing to dry al other option before just saying no.
“I asked, his hands are tied”, Kurenai answers.
“did you tried the bank?”, Naruto asks.
“we don’t have enough credit score to get another loan, let alone one that big”, Anko answers with a devil may care tone.
“ok, let’s pretend for a second I will lend you some money”, Naruto says, looking into Kurenai’s eyes, “how does any of you intend on paying me back?”.
“you’ll get a cut of our income till we pay back the loan”, Kurenai says.
“you own that fucker a seven digit debt, both of you will be dead before you can even pay me back a tenth of the amount you want me to lend you”, Naruto says, after doing the math, “and that would be if you were giving me all of your incomes”.
“look, we are desperate here man!!”, Anko says, grabbing Naruto by the shoulders, “we’ll do anything, just lend us the money!!”.
“I don’t wanna be the plaything of a greasy bastard!!”, Kurenai exclaims.
The commotion grabs the attention of a few bystanders and even from his own team who were coming back from the restroom.
“kami give me patience, scream louder, I think the Raikage didn’t heard you!!”, Naruto retorts in an equally loud tone.
“Naruto, why are these fine ladies nearly begging on her knees for money?”, Mito asks, with a shit eating grin.
“because dumbarssery knows no limits”, Naruto answers, “and they are desperate”.
“oh, so, are you going to lend them money?”, Sakura asks.
“hell no!!”, Naruto says, “they have no way to pay me back and I don’t give money for free”.
“pleeeeeease!!”, Kurenai whines actually falling to her knees, crying on his lap, “we’ll do anything!!”.
“for goodness sake woman!!”, Naruto exclaims, snapping his fingers, making both Kurenai and Anko stand in front of him, “you are both especial jounin, show some dignity!!”.
The scene was, to say the least, cringe as hell. He could feel the burning judgmental gazes everybody was giving him and the whisper of ‘how the demon was forcing suck beautiful ladies to humiliate themselves’ where not helping.
“I’ll tell you what”, Naruto says, wanting to shut up the whispers, “you two go around ask everybody who’s shamelessly watching this sorry spectacle for money and come back to me in hour, I’ll triple the amount you get”.
And just like that, the crowd was gone, camaraderie his ass and looking at Anko and Kurenai, they tough the same.
“now that the vultures are gone we can actually talk business”, Naruto says, his tone clearly stating that he wants to be done with this shit, “it is obvious you two are desperate, but the way I see it, none of you have something that interest me enough to give you the money… except… yourselves”.
Kurenai and Anko look at each other, Tsunade, Sakura and Mito fix their eyes on Naruto who was staring at the duo in front of him, unknown to them the ANBU agents sent by Minato to keep an eye on Naruto and Asuma were watching the interaction from the bushes with interest.
“here is how this going to work, I’ll give you the money and in exchange, you two are mine to do as please”, Naruto says, “at least for a while”.
Ok, it may sound cruel, but to be fair, they said they would to anything, but all joking aside, Naruto had no intention of following trough, it was a bluff, a very convincing one, he could see those two didn’t wanted to be property of anyone.
If they took the deal, they would be his property, of they didn’t, they would be property of someone else.
“can’t you two, I don’t know, kill the guy?”, Mito asks, not comfortable with what was going on in front of her.
“we can’t, the guy is one of the feudal lords if we kill him his son would pull out the sponsorship of the village”, Kurenai says, her eyes filled with tears.
There’s a collective groan, of course it had to be a feudal lord.
“well, I’m in”, Anko says, making Kurenai jump in surprise.
“an-chan!!”, Kurenai exclaims in surprise.
“look, I may have got rid of that cursed hickey, but to the village I still the snake whore, I have little to nothing to lose, so being the brat’s servant doesn’t sound that bad”, Anko says, “also, as I said, I own him big time”.
The red eyed Kunoichi closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, when she reopens the, she turns them to Naruto, looking into his eye with determination.
“what are the condition?”, Kurenai asks, her voice filled with false courage.
“you are in no position to make demands”, Naruto answers with no real malice in his voice, “it’s take or leave it”.
“hey, can it just be me you know?”, Anko asks, “I’m the one who dragged Kure-chan into this and well…”.
“yet, she’s the one who threw herself into my lap and begged for my help”, Naruto cuts Anko, “I won’t pay double for half”.
It was another bluff, just little prying and he would cave in, he actually didn’t gave a shit about the money, not that he would give it to them, but still.
“I’m in”, Kurenai says.
Naruto groan internally, why couldn’t they just said no, but if anything he is a man of his word, so he opens the window of the Infinity Currency skill and withdraws the amount they requested in ryo, as soon as the block of neatly stacked bills is in the open, he seals it in a scroll.
“here is your ticket to get out of the mess you got yourselves into”, he says, shaking the scroll in front of them.
Anko expends her had of take the scroll, but Naruto pulls it away from her.
“last chance to back off”, Naruto says, looking at them in the eye, “think about it, you would be simply trading a master for another”.
“I’m not backing down”, Anko says with determination.
“me neither”, Kurenai chimes in.
There’s a second of silence before Naruto sighs and handles the scroll to them.
“alright them, take it”, Naruto says not letting the scroll go when Anko tries to pull it out of his hand, “but be warned, there’s no coming back”.
The moment the scroll leaves his hand, a mark in the shape of a horned three-eyed skull in the middle of six-pronged star appears on the back of the women’s neck and they felt it.
It was a painless mix of hot and cold that sent shivers down their spines, it visible for just a second before I disappeared, but they knew it was there.
“come to my place tonight, we’ll discuss what are your duties, till there, don’t bother me”, Naruto says as he gets up to re-join his team.
As the four of them walk away, Sakura stares at him with a mixed expression.
“Sakura, you are either going to ask me a question or constipated, choose”, Naruto says, noticing his pink haired teammate look.
“did you really had to… enslave them?”, she asks, her tone awkward.
“I didn’t enslaved them they did it to themselves”, Naruto explains, he was annoyed and Sakura could tell as much, but he wasn’t annoyed about her, “I gave them plenty of chances to back off”.
“I know but… it’s not like they had many options to begin with”, Sakura states, still a little awkward.
“that’s the reality of the world Sakura”, Naruto says, his gaze softening, “sometimes, victory is not an option, all you can do is choose how much you lose”.
That gives her a pause, before she asks the most inane question he ever heard.
“couldn’t you just give them the money?”, Sakura ask, that was an innocent question and Naruto could tell that.
“why not?!”, Mito asks, “you showed me your bank account once, it’s not like that amount would put a dent on it”.
“it’s the principle”, Naruto says with a groan, “also last I checked, no one is entitled to my money except me”.
“and your future wife and children”, Mito completes.
“yeah, right, the day I get hitched is the day pigs start flying”, Naruto say, his expression softening, “by the way, did you know that if a pig starts flying everything people say would only happen if pigs fly happens?”.
“do I want to know how did you found that out?”, Tsunade asks as her curiosity takes the best of, “actually I want to know how did you found that out”.
“I found out like everyone else”, Naruto says, holding down a giggle, “by fucking around”.