Chapter Text
The sky continued to pour violently as Naruto increased his pace and started running to reach the Hokage Residence before ending up soaked with water. Tsunade said he had a new mission ready for him, or maybe he just wanted to distract him from Sasuke's desperate search.
On his trajectory passed two persons what seemed to be Rock Lee and Tenten, but they didn't pay too much attention to him because they were running to take shelter under a canopy. At some point Naruto was also splashed by a group of kids who continued to play next to the puddles, he complained to them feeling a little old inside and finally resumed his hurried flee.
He didn't want to be late; he had not been assigned a mission for a while and was eager to start. He needed to be distracted, to travel far, and possibly not in the company of too many people. He had to detach from the tedious monotony of every day and above all, he wanted to escape from the usual annoying thoughts about Sasuke.
He climbed the steps with long strides and passed the last ones with a leap, risking to slip on the wet concrete and making a couple of chunin laugh. Naruto did not deign to look at them and rushed inside.
"I'm here," he shrieked, making his entrance and smiling, before realizing that there was a heavy air in Tsunade's office. The new Hokage was not alone in fact; Kakashi-sensei was also with her. He must have just returned from a mission.
Naruto hadn't seen him in a couple of months and felt the desire to approach him to greet him warmly, but he restrained himself because he felt that something was wrong.
Both the sensei and Tsunade slowly turned to him, stiff as two sheets of ice. An expression of intense seriousness hovered over the elderly woman's face, her eyes were thoughtful and concentrated.
"Welcome, Naruto. Take a seat."
The seventeen-year-old moved hesitantly and sat in front of the desk, while the other two stood stoically, exchanging eloquent looks between each other. There was a long moment of silence, a silence marked only by the raindrops that beat on the surfaces of the office, echoing where everything else was silent.
"Then? Do you speak or should I interpret your body language?"
Tsunade sighed and crossed his arms, leaning against the edge of the table. "Naruto, I would have a mission to entrust to you, it's something big. Furthermore, you should leave tomorrow with Kakashi. The problem is that it is also a mission ... unpleasant, so I want to give you the opportunity to choose."
"There is nothing that frightens me,» Naruto said promptly, "so let's pretend I have already accepted."
"I am happy to find you ready as always, however, this time you cannot accept until I have explained to you exactly what it is. It's very important."
Naruto took the same position as old Hokage with folded arms and waited patiently for an explanation. Tic tic, tic tic. The rain outside was slowly ceasing.
The young blond took a moment to inspect Kakashi; his sensei looked out the nearest window, his dark eye matching the color of the leaden sky. Even he appeared to be in difficulty, indeed it even seemed that he had decided to let only Tsunade speak, which meant that ... Possible that the mission was really so complex?
"I'll start by explaining what's going on in the town of Aki. We are not sure of the identity of the criminal, but we can say with certainty that someone is experimenting with boys of your age." Tsunade took a deep breath as Naruto began to reflect on those words. "The detail is most of these guys have been kidnapped by a House of Pleasure that hosts male customers."
The boy almost risked falling off the chair. House of Pleasure? He had heard a couple of chunin discuss it once. These were cramped places where good-looking girls or boys - depending on the tastes of the visitors - performed a sensual striptease and when the customers of the premises agreed to pay a fair amount, they could win one of the boys in addition to a private room. Naruto hadn't listened to the rest of the speech, but he can very well imagine what was happening behind the doors of those rooms.
The thought almost made him blush like a timid girl, almost. He had never kissed anyone - nobody except Sasuke, let alone if he tried something more. He knew what adults did, though he didn't understand what was so special about it, so special it made certain men obsessed with sex.
Among his peers, the most experienced seemed Shikamaru, and the boy had only made out with Temari. Once Naruto had tried to start a more in-depth speech to know the details, but his friend had started to convulsively deny without even giving him time to conclude a sensible question. Since then Naruto had given up and let the problem flow, the time passed and they all grew up; he thought he would understand when his moment would come. After all, not even a story by Shikamaru could perfectly illustrate what it felt like, nor could it satisfy Naruto's doubts.
"The mission is to capture the person responsible for these kidnappings, right?" the blond asked cautiously.
Tsunade sighed and looked him in the eyes again, tense again as when Naruto had entered the room. Her eyebrows were furrowed and her gaze expressed urgency. "We need a boy to bait by pretending to be a stripper in the House of Pleasure, Naruto. And I immediately thought of you."
"M-me? Me? Why me?" Naruto's throat had suddenly become dry.
"Because you are one of the few free and among the few free, let's face it, you are the cutest. You turned into a handsome boy, you have a fairly slender body and many men like to dominate young boys and ... "
Naruto risked choking with his saliva and began to cough hard, which prompted Shizune - who had been silent in a corner all the time - to run to him with a glass of water in her hand. Naruto grabbed the glass and tried to recover himself between one sip and another, shocked by the clarity - er, cheekiness - of the fifth Hokage. How could she say such shocking things without problems? Or am I too embarrassed about this? he thought.
"If you accept this mission," Tsunade continued, regardless of Naruto's discomfort, "you will be hired in that House of pleasure, you will have to be seductive and remain almost naked in front of many adult men, you will have to be the best and approach the possible kidnapper. Perhaps you will have to do even worse things, although it would be better to avoid it. As I said, it's unpleasant."
Worse, she said. Will I have to have sex with some of them? Naruto blushed visibly and shivered, horrified by that possibility. He with a stranger.
"Are there alternatives?"
"The alternative are ... Kiba, Choji, Shino, or Rock Lee. You boys are the only ones free in this rage of the age."
Naruto felt a strong squeeze inside his chest. He struggled to imagine himself in that situation, but it was even more horrible to have to force one of his friends to do it because he was afraid. He did not imagine them in a House of Pleasure. Kiba and his inseparable Akamaru? It wouldn't work. Choji and Shino? Impossible. Rock Lee? On which planet? Yet even he himself ...
"I'm not sensual," he admitted, blushing to the root of his hair. How ashamed to say it aloud, even if it was real and clear to everyone. "I don't know how to seduce a single soul, let alone all those men."
"There is Kakashi for this. If you agree to lend us a hand, he will teach you tricks, watch over your progress and obviously follow you on the mission."
Naruto's head snapped mechanically in the direction of his sensei, his mouth wide open, while the man looked at his pupil with an indecipherable look. Always calm, never untidy.
"I thought it would be easier to be trained by someone you trust, not Jiraya because he's far too old, nor Iruka who is like a father to you," reasoned Tsunade, fingers crossed to support her chin, "but if you prefer, I'll give you a jounin you know less. It's your choice." There was a long moment of silence, with her waiting for a reaction from Naruto and the young boy who didn't know what to say, after which Tsunade resumed the speech. "Obviously I don't deny that Kakashi is the best chance. Not only because you have been a team for a long time so you are more close-knit, but the fact is also that yours is a psychologically demanding task and you may need a trusted person to vent along the way. Finally, I would be more relieved because, even if he is such a stubborn who does not admit his feelings, I know that Kakashi cares about you and that therefore he will take care of your well-being. However, I repeat that it is your choice, Naruto."
The blonde glanced quickly at his ex sensei, after which he resumed staring at his feet which at that moment seemed like a rescue anchor for not having to face the rest of the world.
The mission could have been very long, in fact, it could have taken months. What would all those months have been like in the company of a semi unknown who tried to teach them how to seduce adult men while Naruto had to face new and frightening experiences?
Instead with Kakashi ... it would have been different. He was my sensei, he knows me and would never let anything bad happen to me, he reasoned calmly. It's not like with friends my age, but I could talk about a problem with him, which would not be possible with an unknown jounin.
Eventually, he realized that he was foolishly reflecting on the details of a mission he had not accepted, or at least not yet. He had to understand if he could face it, if he was able to do what he had to do, even in a House of Pleasure, even if he had never had serious experiences with men or women.
"How many boys disappeared?"
"Five in the past six months, four of them worked in the House of Pleasure. Their families are desperate."
Five, Naruto repeated internally, with a heavyweight over his heart. Who knows what those five boys are going through, while I'm here dreading what? To take off my shirt and trousers in front of a group of stupid voyeurs?
In reality, what he had to do was much more complex than that, and he was aware of it, even if he didn't feel brave enough to think seriously about it. By now his thoughts were on those five boys, he wanted to help out and he wouldn't back down on anything. Then he pulled out one of his brightest smiles and showed his thumb up.
"I have decided, I accept." The smile died on his lips when these words dangerously took shape, reminding him of what he should prepare for. "But on one condition, huh! I want Kakashi-sensei with me."
After remaining silent all the time, Kakashi approached Naruto and put a hand on his shoulder. The boy's blue eyes met the deep ones of his sensei and the youngest was breathless; the man had unexpectedly removed the headband cover leaving the Sharingan exposed. "We will make it all together, step by step, and I swear to you that I will always be present and understanding."
Naruto smiled with his eyes closed and tilted his head, resting his cheek on the sensei's hand. They stayed like that for a minute, before taking leave of Tsunade and going each to their home to prepare for the departure the following day. The rain had stopped beating.
Shortly thereafter, the fifth Hokage looked out the window and watched the two as they took different paths. Naruto's shoulders were strained, even though the boy pretended to walk with ease as if to conceal his real feelings of fear and worry.
Oh Naruto, you are so innocent and want your ex sensei next to you, which is understandable, but you don't realize how hard it will be, do you? she thought.
Shizune approaches the older woman cautiously. "What do you think, Lady Tsunade? Let's speak about it."
The blonde sat back with a sigh and leaned on the desk, tired. "Naruto is still too innocent, he doesn't understand what he's going to encounter, but it's not about the House of Pleasure alone, it's about him and Kakashi too," she said darkening her face, while Shizune listened in silence. "There will be situations that will make both of them uncomfortable, it will be a challenge with themselves. Maybe their relationship will change forever."
"But you're happy that Kakashi went with Naruto, right?"
The sky behind them cleared thanks to the long sun rays that penetrated the texture of the clouds, thus revealing a translucent rainbow that ran through the village from the top of the Hokage Rock to its conclusion. Tsunade hoped that it indicated a good omen, even if right now he did not understand how that mission could go well.
"I would have been even happier not to have to send them on this mission at all, but other jounins have already tried to find this pervert and, without bait, it seems literally impossible."
"Then it's clear you had no choice," Shizune simply concluded.
So the fifth Hokage went back to browsing the mission records, thinking about Kakashi and Naruto, aware that when she would see them again they would be two very different people.