Of Red Lights and Their Flowers

A Kakanaru Two-shot pt. 2

PSA: 'How do you Like it?' by Jynjo (ft. Spritely) is Naruto's theme song.

For those sensitive to sexual assault, I have placed a trigger-warning before and after the scene in question. Please, feel free to skip it if it makes you super uncomfortable.

~~~

It was very obvious when the team next gathered that Naruto would not be coming.

When Kakashi joined the other two his usual hour or two late, there was no problematic blond to be seen—just a hormonal teenage girl and a psychologically damaged teenage boy looking everywhere but at his less-than-subtle admirer.

He thought about canceling the mission, but figured it was only a D-rank; they could handle it just fine sans one genin.

But it turned out that they really... couldn't.

After the first 20 minutes of whining (mostly courtesy of lovely Sakura), he caved and summoned his pack to assist on their weeding job. But then he had to prevent his kids from slacking off now that there was help and he found that he really wished the lively blond were here, with all his silly or barbed remarks and his numerous shadow clones.

Mostly his shadow clones.

An agonizing 3 hours later, Team 7 had completed their 3rd mission and had gotten their promised payment (of which was split 3-ways). Once everything was said and done, the three of them split up and he headed towards 'The Mistress.' (He wouldn't admit it, but he was a tad concerned for the teen who hadn't skipped a single day of training since he'd taken on the team).

He whipped out Icha Icha Paradise as he strolled towards his destination, the urchins of the Red Light District stopping in either confusion or recognition of his jounin vest before they even thought of picking his pockets. There wasn't much revelry going on around him, most noise coming from loud gambling parlors that hardly closed an hour in a day.

He was thankful he wasn't stopped by anyone—a sign that he still wasn't quite familiar around these parts. (He knew this would change soon enough and feared the day he attracted the vultures.)

Taking the same route he had the first time, he came upon the minor establishment that served as Naruto's home and second choice of employment. The building had seen better days, but a fresh coat of paint had livened-up the exterior a bit since he'd last come. He braced himself for the perfume-saturated air and hoped his mask would block the worst of it.

"Hello, Mama-san. Is Naruto here?" The old woman in question briefly looked up before going back to what she was doing before he came in.

"Hm? Yes, he stayed here today to tend to one of his sisters. Not all customers are the most peaceful of sorts, but at least they pay well, ya know," she said disinterestedly, idly smoking from a pipe and flipping through a magazine of some sort. She didn't seem inclined to say any more on the subject.

"...Can I see him?"

"Sure, sure. He should be in Ama's room cleaning her up some more." He nodded to her before venturing towards the backrooms, slipping his book back into his hip pouch without a thought.

He perused the hallway, each door labeled with a large engraved name tag of light wood. Ikumi, Kinu, Yaya. . . ah; there's Ama. He wondered if Naruto went under an alias. Chances were he had to for safety reasons (but probably more so to attract any business in the first place). He knocked politely on the wooden frame of the sliding door and waited for permission to enter.

"Come in."

He shucked his sandals from his feet at the doorway and obliged, quietly closing the door behind him.