章節 68: Chapter 68

A blush grows hot on her own cheeks and the not-so-gentle reminders of all her orgasms this afternoon begins to dampen the panties between her tense legs. He catches her legs tighten together before she crosses them. Even though she's in her pajamas, he's seen her nubile body and she can easily see her clothes hide nothing from his eager eyes. Palming his hot cheek to raise his eyes to look directly into hers, she answers his question. "I don't think you have to worry about whether I'll feel good or not. I don't, um, foresee a problem there. And yes, I will be more... informative about the whys and hows of what you do and how it might make a girl feel."

"Oh, sweet," he says with a grin. "What else?"

"Second rule and this is very important," she states and he nods in rapt attention. "You will stop climaxing inside of me. Unless I specifically say otherwise, we will be using condoms from here on."

"Um," he bemoans as he tries to counter. "But, it feels really really good this way."

"I don't care," she easily tells him. "I may be on the pill but there's always a one percent chance I could get pregnant, and with the sheer quantity of your ejaculation, I'd rather not take that risk. As for the feeling, I'm sure it'll feel just as good. This is a deal breaker for me so without a condom, nothing happens, got it?"

He huffs, somewhat defeated and simply nods.

"Third rule. This very intimate and physical thing we're doing, is not, I repeat, not about love," she declares. "At least not romantic love. We can respect one another, protect one another, maybe in the future become good friends, but we will never be a romantic couple. Even though we have sex or kiss, or do many other intimate things, that does not mean we'll go on dates, get married, or anything like that. I'm teaching you the art of pleasure so you can use these skills either for the good of the village, such as on missions or for the special girl you one day decide to marry. Does all of that make sense to you? I don't want to break your heart because you were hoping we might become romantic one day."

He looks dejected throughout her explanation, but also thoughtful, as if he's truly trying to puzzle out what she needs him to understand. After several moments of deep thought, he asks her, "will you be okay?"

"What do you mean," she asks genuinely confused, hoping he's not cocky enough to suggest she'd fall in love with him.

"I uh, have a girl I really really like, who would make me the happiest guy in the world if she liked me back… but she doesn't. If we weren't teammates I think she might actually hate me, so, I'm definitely happy that I have this with you. But, what about your love? I don't want you to miss out on the love of your life any more than I'd want to miss out on mine… if she was actually interested I mean."

'He doesn't know,' she thinks as her stomach becomes a little weak. 'How could he know,' she questions as her chest constricts and her throat goes dry. 'The cheers of the world outside was so easy to ignore until this moment,' and she wants to cry again, though not simply because of her recently fractured and sore heart, but because in addition to that, this boy isn't so possessive as to deny her love for someone else solely to stay with him. Kurenai can't be absolutely sure he means it but all her psychological training is telling her that he doesn't seem like the type to hide or be deceptive; hell, even when he can't tell her something, he doesn't lie to cover it up. He simply tells her he can't say.

Compartmentalizing is easy for Kurenai's mind and she keeps it together as she tells the blue-eyed blond, "that's sweet of you to say-"

"I mean it Kurenai-chan," he tells her firmly, balling his fists. "You're a precious person to me now, so I want you to be happy too." He stands on his feet to boldly announce, "I know I asked for this, but if you ever find someone you can love, than you absolutely have to be with him."

Kurenai almost snorts and holds back a sad pitiful laugh. 'How can this boy, with all the seriousness he can muster tell me that with a straight face?' she mentally ponders. 'Because he doesn't know,' her mind then easily answers. 'And it's not like he actually positioned himself between Asuma and I. A princess accepted that position happily.' Kurenai realizes her constant heartache for Asuma shouldn't be placed on Naruto's doorstep. 'Heartbreaking hopes with Asuma, too much alcohol and bad decisions led me here. Even now, this boy has little to do with my heart, but at the very least, he's opened my eyes to even more I can do in service to my village.'

She can almost feel great honor in turning the Dead Last of the latest graduates into one of the strongest shinobi's the village has ever produced, and while this isn't how she would've ever decided to accomplish that, Kurenai knows her father would say, 'it is what it is but more importantly, what we make of it.' It'll take Kurenai time for her heart to mend, but at least with Hinata-chan, Team Eight and now Naruto-kun, she won't have much time to obsess over her gnawing pain.

"Naruto, thank you," she says with a mild but very real smile. "I believe you, and if I ever feel I might find happiness with someone, I'll let you know." He was being sweet and her smile was genuine until she realized he hasn't sat back down because of the cleavage she was showing. His eyes look dark and she can practically see his brain function slipping away for his clear desire of her.