Uzumaki Naruto: Birth of the New Demon King by The Engulfing Silence

Chapter 13: Run Before you Can Walk

Naruto was sealing some of the items he felt he would need into a sealing scroll when he heard a light groan. Looking over at his bed, he saw Anko beginning to stir. He watched as her eyes fluttered for a second before shooting wide open. The purplette shot off the bed and instinctively reached for her kunai pouch, which was not there as Naruto had taken it off of her when putting her to bed. Her eyes soon landed on said blond Uzumaki and widened.

"N-Naruto..."

"Hey," he greeted with a half smile/half grin. "Are you feeling alright now? You were pretty uh, distraught when I brought you here."

Anko blushed bright red as she remembered her actions, which she would half admit was caused by mass amounts of sake and the other half being genuine gratitude. Though if Naruto were to learn those thoughts he would assume the sake had more of an influence on her. "S-Sorry about that," she scratched the back of her head sheepishly. "I was a little... erm, drunk when I spotted you."

"Don't worry about it. It's not like I didn't enjoy the kiss," Naruto said with a grin. He watched as Anko looked away. "Though I was a little worried for a moment there. I thought you were crying because my kiss sucked."

"Well I ah... I wouldn't know. That was my first kiss," Anko admitted with embarrassment laden in her voice.

Naruto blinked. "Really? That's surprising." He was even surprised that she would tell him.

"Oh," Anko gained a tic mark on her forehead but kept her face otherwise calm. "And why is that?"

"It's just that your so beautiful I thought you would have men lining up to be with you," Naruto told her honestly. Anko, who had been angry just a few seconds ago, thinking Naruto assumed she was some kind of slut like everyone else, snapped her mouth, which had just opened to spew expletives at him, shut. It took her several moments of silence to process Naruto's words into something she could understand. When she finally did, she looked down at the ground.

"Y-you think I'm beautiful?"

Naruto frowned at Anko's actions. They were very different then what he had expected of the strong and frightening kunoichi he had met before the second stage of the Chunin Exams. She seemed so unsure of herself. He had more or less figured out that her public personality was more or less an act. Some of what she showed others were real enough, but the blond was sure that most of what people saw was simply an act she used to keep others away. Despite this, she looked a lot more unsure of herself then he would have expected of a jonin.

"Why wouldn't I think you were beautiful?" Naruto said, answering her question with another question.

Anko looked at him for a moment before seeming to regain her usual attitude. She quickly laughed and said, "well of course I am, right? I mean, I'm the great and sexy Mitarashi Anko."

"You don't need to act around me, Anko-san," Naruto said, causing her laughing to trail off. "I know what it's like to be discriminated against by the village. So don't think you need to pretend around me."

Anko feet began playing with the carpet when she looked down. "I suppose you would, huh?" She looked up at him and grinned. "Though your something of a hero now a days..."

"Yeah, because of my tou-san," Naruto said with a snort. "They don't actually like me, but because I killed Orochimaru and my old man expressed his shame in how they treated me, I'm treated differently. However, I'm not Sasuke so I'm fairly indifferent to their ass kissing." Anko snickered at his words and Naruto grinned. "Listen, I've got a mission so I've got to get going. But I was wondering if you wanted to hang out some time after I get back?"

"What do you mean? Like a date?" asked Anko, looking at him curiously.

"If you want," Naruto shrugged. "I was just thinking of hanging out, but we could do a date too?" He grinned and winked at her, "you certainly won't find me complaining about taking such a beautiful young woman out to dinner?"