Chương 22: Chapter 22

NARUTO

"Ne, Naru-nii, why didn't you tell me I was going to have sex with Ino-chan?"

'WH-Wait, what? ..What? ...What?' Naru-nii garbled as if coughing and choking at the same time. Naru-nii was coughing so hard, Naruto actually worries the prayer would cut off. With his hands clasped at the back of his blond head, the de-virgenized genin walks to the unpopular training area to continue his chakra control training. He finds it much easier to talk aloud than in his head, and continues. "Is this like when I asked if you knew who my- our parents are, and you said yes but there's a good reason you wouldn't tell me?"

'I never said I wouldn't tell you,' Naru-nii returns with a somewhat raspier voice. 'I said it's for the best if the only thing you know right now is how bad-ass they were. I said I'd tell you if you kept all this stuff about me and the future a secret.'

"I have!" Naruto throws back to no one in particular, as he's the only one traveling down the dirt road.

'I don't go back on my word,' Naru-nii passionately replies.

"Me neither!" Naruto returns.

Humored, Naru-nii continues, 'I'll tell you after you learn Fūton Rasengan, but trust me, it's just like keeping the Kyūbi a secret, the less people know the better. Now... what the hell is this about Ino?'

Twisting his face curiously, Naruto asks, "didn't you have sex with her too?"

'No!' he bellows. 'No! I haven't had sex with anyone! Plus, I only have eyes for Sakura-chan... not that I didn't notice how some of the other girls were... 'developing,' but still, you're saying you had- ...you actually had sex with Ino? Yamanaka Ino? Long blond hair, blue eyes, curvy, always wears a purple skirt and top? That Ino?'

Naruto was nodding his head with a big smile the entire time, finally finishing with, "yup!"

'How?!' Naru-nii yells in truly astonishing disbelief.

"Wait, how come you haven't?" Naruto asks, believing they must share the same experience if Naru-nii is from the future. Even someone as dense as Naruto knows that much. "You're supposed to be the Me from the future. Doesn't that mean that you know everything that's going on now, like, in the past?"

'No! Er, at least I don't think so,' Naru-nii slowly comments, as if trying to gather his thoughts at that moment. 'I'm in a complete seal, remember. I'm cut off from everything. It was the only way to ensure I could have an uninterrupted chance of fixing everything. I have the memories I came in with, but I don't know how different things are since talking to you. I mean, you're learning stuff faster so I gotta imagine that'll change things... but damn man, that's a hell of a change.'

"Oh," Naruto gripes, before nervously adding, "that sucks… for you, I mean."

'SHEUUT UPP,' Naru-nii yaps, easily recognizing his own smugness in his past counterpart. 'Wh-what about Sakura-chan?' the older Naruto asks.

"Ugghh," Naruto groans griping his heart, nearly tripping over in guilt. "I know, I know! I'm worthless! I'm shit! How could I say she's the love of my life, then turn around and have sex with another girl? I couldn't sleep at all last night. I couldn't even look at her today!" Naruto yells up at the skies.

'Hey, now, don't beat yourself up too much,' he mildly puts. It's a generalization with a hesitant tone that spoke to how out of his depth Older Naruto is in this conversation. 'And Ino... I'm sure she likes you just as much as you like Sakura-chan.'

"I thought you knew me?!" Naruto bellows. "I don't just like Sakura-chan. I love her!"

'I know,' Naru-nii sympathetically agrees. 'I couldn't even picture my life without her in it. Even now, the only reason why I pushing on is because she's one of my precious people I'm trying to save, and I won't let her down. It helps me, knowing training you protects her and keeps her safe. But, none of that means she'll love us like we do her, you know? Nor does it mean that Ino couldn't love us- well, you, like you love Sakura-chan.'

"But Ino doesn't love me!" Naruto returns still looking around as if there's someone there. Sulking at the memory, he plunges his hands in his pockets and kicks at stones while he walks.

'What?' Naru-nii asks clear confusion in his tone. 'Uh… I don't get it.'

"She told me so," Naruto asserts. "When we- ...after we, uh, finished, she shoved me with an Academy Double-Palm, yelled at me, told me she'd kill me with poison ramen if I ever told anyone, and then she left. Even though it was hard for her to walk she wouldn't even let me help her home. She yelled at me to stay away." Naruto can't help feeling like he'd done something wrong, or why else would she be mad?

'Okay, I need more details,' Naru-nii responded. 'Start from the beginning because this isn't making sense,' he said before quickly adding, 'if there isn't enough time left to help you train, than keep working on the first step. Now, what happened?'

The younger of the blonds explained to the older how she asked him to help her find a plant, how they met near the monument, how weird she was acting, then how she essentially jumped him. With a fair bit of trepidation, an embarrassed Naruto even admits he didn't do a good enough job stopping her, simply submitting to her demands.

'Wow,' Naru-nii gasps absolutely stunned before Naruto further explains, "I was kinda scared at first and tried to stop it, but… you know, she's Ino-chan, and she looks like she does, and- and it looked like she was hurting! I swear, it was like she needed my help… like, with her p-privates, which is totally bonkers, but I... I did it…" Naruto trails off lost in memory for a moment before exhaling a deep sigh then continuing. "When I realized she wanted to do that adult stuff, well, she's so pretty and Kami, did it feel good... uggh, but that shouldn't matter, should it?! I'm horrible, aren't I? I'm a sick pervert."

'You're neither a sick pervert or horrible,' future-Naruto responds. 'I honestly don't know how to explain that situation. It doesn't sound like you did anything to start it, but she seemed pretty upset at the end… I just don't know. That's a tough one.'

"Should I... tell Sakura-chan?" Naruto weakly asks, his face crumbling and on the verge of tears. "Uwah, I just feel terrible! I think about how much I liked doing that with Ino-chan, then I think about how I betrayed Sakura-chan, and I get so confused! It's crazy! It was wrong because I love Sakura-chan, but it felt so right, and that means- it means-"