It was Unintentional

CH-1

It was a bright and sunny day in Konohagakure no Sato, at least it was for all but one nineteen year old shinobi. Naruto Uzumaki was slowly meandering down the street with his hands stuffed in his pockets and a slight slouch to his posture. He had no destination in particular, except for maybe where ever his long-standing crush of Sakura Haruno wasn't. Today marked the day the blond now-Tokubetsu Jōnin would cross the pinkette off the potential girlfriend list. Shortly after receiving his promotion a little over two months ago for his vast skill in the lost sealing techniques of his now defunct clan and considerable proficiency with Wind Style ninjutsu he was assigned to a team to capture Sasuke Uchiha, dead or alive. Unfortunately it turned out Sasuke chose the former and after a gruelling battle and the rest of the team had been incapacitated Naruto was forced to kill Sasuke himself. After he returned with the corpse slung over his shoulder Sakura would have nothing to do with him, and that's when Naruto made the mistake of trying to ask her out and received the most violent tongue-lashing of his entire life. Only now did Naruto realize that he was far better off without Sakura, if she was so obsessed with a shallow, treacherous hate-monger that she wouldn't even give any other male the time of day she didn't deserve anybody else but the object of her ridiculous obsession. At first Naruto was angry with Sakura, but as he reflected on it more he realized the situation was actually kind of sad. Sasuke had tried to kill her at least once Naruto knew of, not to mention he'd tried to kill the blond, Kakashi and that other red-haired girl that had been around for the fight with Danzō. It was clear Sasuke didn't care about anyone but himself, yet she insisted she loved him, even in death.

Naruto's thoughts then drifted to Karin, after intense interrogation and vetting from Ibiki and Inoichi she was given the choice to become a Leaf kunoichi on a probationary agreement until she could prove her loyalty or get thrown in prison for the rest of her life for aligning herself with Orochimaru, Sasuke and by extension, Akatsuki. Naturally she chose to become part of Konoha's military force. Naruto had met the girl several times since, she seemed nice enough but he couldn't help but be a little disturbed by her masochism at times.

The blond's reverie was cut short when he ran into somebody else. Bowing slightly, Naruto offered his apologies to find that he'd run into a woman with long, black, unkempt hair and crimson eyes and a singularly raised eyebrow.

"Kurenai-sensei?"

Kurenai frowned at his current demeanour, they'd been working together somewhat infrequently when Naruto could find time in between missions to try and help him with his genjutsu for that final leap to a full jōnin, and from what she knew of him the rest of the time he was almost always all smiles, even during training he was usually fairly cheeky despite his frustration caused by the slow learning curve of his less than ideal skill with the illusionary arts.

"Hello, Naruto." She smiled warmly, "Something wrong? You seem pretty down today."

Naruto sighed, "It's Sakura-ch – Sakura-san."

Kurenai nodded in understanding, she'd caught wind of the boy's crush shortly after they started training together and from what she could tell he'd been chasing after someone who barely even knew he existed for years.

"Relationship troubles then?"

Naruto snorted, "That's putting it mildly. Last time I asked her out she completely tore me apart. It's for the better though, I guess we're just not meant for each other."

Kurenai frowned again, it was less about his words but the look in his eyes. The phony smile might fool other people but the look in his eyes told him that it still hurt, even if he knew better. She momentarily considered going to find Hinata to set them up with a date to show him that he wasn't quite as hopeless in love as he thought, but then she remembered that the Hyūga heiress mentioned that Naruto had told her he simply didn't think of her in the same way some time after her confession during Pain's invasion. Then she hatched another plan to cheer him up.

"I'm free tonight." She said with a smile.

Naruto's eyebrows instantly shot skywards.

'Did she just say what I think she just said?'

Noticing the look on his face, the crimson-eyes woman moved to defend her offer, "You and Kakashi have been out on missions since your promotion right? Plus you're getting a lot better with your genjutsu. Why don't we go out and celebrate?"

Naruto's face softened somewhat at her explanation, but he still couldn't help but feeling that it was actually a pity date regardless of what excuse she gave him. Given that, he was conflicted about what to do. He liked Kurenai well enough, and he thought she was an attractive woman even if she was fifteen years older than him. But even so, he didn't particularly like the idea of being pitied by anyone.

"Sure." He said in spite of himself.

Kurenai smiled, "Great, see you at six then?"

"Yeah." Was all Naruto said in response.