Haruto sometimes worries about silly things.
But now, however, he had a very real worry. Being naked in front of his teammates wasn't something that was entirely new to him, as in a sense, he'd been naked in front of lots of people already. His full body medical exams, for instance. He used to go swimming completely naked, as well, and quite often at that. There was a nudist beach not too far from Konoha that he and his father had used to frequent for training, though why the man insisted on swimming naked was beyond Haruto. Probably just a habit.
It really was more comfortable than wearing clothes, he supposed, but now it put him into a bit of a spot of trouble, maybe, kind of, sort of.
He supposed he could blame this on Naruko. She was the one who insisted on all three of them going into the hot springs together. He could've been content just waiting outside for them. Even worse, she'd insisted on mixed gender pools, instead of gender separated ones. Admittedly, the latter kind were fairly hard to find in Konoha, for some reason beyond Haruto's understanding.
So, despite being somewhat accustomed to being naked in front of others, and not self conscious of his body in the least, what was bothering Haruto, exactly?
He didn't know. That was the problem. He wasn't entirely sure why, he just didn't want, for the first time, to show his naked body to someone else.
For the first time, he was feeling self conscious about his body. The only question was… why?
It wasn't even the first time he ever visited a mixed gender hot spring!
So… why?
His eyes went, against his will, towards his teammates, both of whom walked ahead of him. It seemed both of them had picked up on his embarrassment, and had allowed him to walk sullenly behind them. However, Naruko had made it clear she wouldn't allow him to not go. She'd already paid, anyway, and even attempts at paying her back were met by the stone wall of someone whose ego you were challenging.
Clearly, she wasn't about to be denied, not any time soon.
His eyes focused on Satsuki first, as she was directly in front of him.
All things said, she had a fantastic body, which she could probably attribute to good genetics combined with consistent and constant exercise. She was toned, not overly so, possessing the lean physique of an acrobat. At least, she was lean unless you counted the fact that her breasts looked quite big on her. They were not particularly big breasts, but Satsuki happened to be a fairly thin and lean girl, and as such, they looked a fair bit bigger than they actually were. They were usually hidden by the thick, long sleeved clothes that she wore, and rarely displayed as openly as this.
Haruto supposed that, considering her already existing fan club, it hadn't done much good to avoid attention anyway.
Satsuki also seemed to lack modesty, considering that she'd gone for a fairly brief red two piece bikini that didn't leave much to the imagination. Oh, it covered everything important quite nicely, but… were female swimsuits always like that?
He hadn't ever truly noticed before, but females tended to wear very skimpy swimsuits. At least kunoichi seemed to. Haruto absentmindedly recalled swimming lessons back at the academy, and he distinctly remembered that the kunoichi that came from shinobi families tended to wear very small swimsuits.
Then again, so did shinobi. It'd been the most anyone had ever seen of Shino's skin, and Kiba had been making very lewd gestures as a joke while wearing a speedo that would've made even a stripper blush.
Haruto supposed that brief clothing was a quirk that shinobi in general shared. Most of them seemed aware of their sex appeal and willing to exploit it.
Case in point, Namikaze Naruko.
Of course, Haruto had been expecting something along the lines of what she'd brought along for herself. Whereas most girls went for brief, but perfectly acceptable and standard choices in terms of clothes, Naruko seemed to regard their choices in clothing with the same eyes she regarded their grades. As in, with the eyes of someone having to strain their vision from far above.
In this situation, however, it meant that Naruko had skipped "skimpy" and gone straight for scandalous. Haruto knew she was wearing a bottom only because he could see it the string-wide white lines that connected the back to the front.
It was amazing how mesmerizing a woman walking could be when there was precious little to impede your view of her backside, Haruto noted. At least, it seemed that way, given that not one but three people had crashed into walls as their eyes just became glued to Naruko's form.
It didn't help that the only thing covering her breasts was a pair of white triangles, with string so thin it was practically invisible being the only indication that it was a bikini top and not a pair of pasties she'd stuck onto her chest.
Haruto shivered as he focused his mind off the globes of feminine flesh that were straining their container, which seemed like they'd burst out at any time. Focusing his eyes on his other teammate didn't help. Covered though she might be, Satsuki was still a tantalizing image at any time. Being covered made her perhaps even more so than being naked. Not only being tempted by what he could see, but what was hidden, Haruto decided to just stare at the floor, keeping his eyes locked on it as much as he could.
Maybe, if he was lucky, they wouldn't look at him.
And particularly, he hoped they wouldn't look at his crotch. THAT would cause quite a few problems, down the line.
***
"So… what are we waiting for?" Satsuki asked, as she relaxed into the hot waters of the hot spring.
"Oh. No, we didn't come here to see if jisan was here. I really, really needed to feel clean," Naruko said, smiling and relaxing, letting herself sink up to her neck and closing her eyes.
"You're aware that we're wasting time, right?" Satsuki said, flatly.
Naruko hummed. "He didn't give us a time limit," Naruko said. "Besides, there's no way that I would fail this test. We have time to take it calmly," she said, clearly too delighted in what she was doing to add her usual condescendence to every sentence she spoke to her rival. She stretched a bit and looked up and towards her other, male teammate. "Haruka, get in," she nearly ordered.
Haruto protested, but he still did go into the pool, sitting down. Unlike both females, he couldn't quite sink entirely just by sitting, and as such, he had to half-sit, half-lay down. The curses of being tall, he supposed. He did reap the rewards, as well, such as being able to reach the higher shelves unaided, but sometimes it sucked. "That feels great," he said with a groan.
"It's a great way to relax, and rest your muscles," Satsuki conceded. "Speaking of muscles… I'm impressed," she admitted, smiling in a clearly appreciative manner. "I wonder why I never noticed before…" she mused.
"He usually wears long sleeved, heavy and baggy clothing," Naruko commented, airily, closing her eyes.
Satsuki nodded, humming a little and leaning back. "You're like that all over, too…" she said, her eyes roving over the entirety of Haruto's body. She chuckled when he covered his crotch, shaking her head, laughing a little more when she looked up and saw him blushing with an embarrassed frown on his face.
Haruto glared at her for a second, before he frowned a little more. "I don't know how you can ignore all the eyes on you, though…" he admitted.
"This is a primarily civilian pastime. Shinobi generally don't have the time. So mostly, you'll see civilians here. Civilians who aren't used to seeing the naked bodies of shinobi, male or female," Satsuki explained. "This is the case all over the village. You'll have to get used to it. You're a very attractive young lad, so of course this'd happen," she reasoned.
Haruto blushed crimson red at that, and it had little to do with the water's temperature. "But still… I think that guy over there's drooling…" he said, gesturing with his shoulder at a man who was, indeed, drooling.
"Well, you've never been to one of the high class parties that Naruko REALLY dresses up for. Trust me. I've seen her literally knock people unconscious just by showing up, all dolled up," Satsuki said, sighing as her cheeks colored a little. "If you think she's pretty now…"
At this, Haruto whistled, looking uneasily at where Naruko seemed to have relaxed to the point that she might very well be taking a nap. "Really?"
"Yes. Well, if you really want to see it for yourself, I usually never have a date to those parties. I think there's one about a month from now. I think it's the daimyo's nephew's son's step uncle's birthday or something like that. I'll tell you when I get an invitation and you'll see for yourself."
Haruto nodded, smiling and giving her his thanks. It'd be a new, different experience, and he was always up for those.
There wasn't much more to their time spent in the hot springs… though Satsuki did remind the civilian audience that she was, indeed, a kunoichi, and that she could, in fact, kill each and every single one of them with her bare hands in less time than it'd take for the ANBU response team to arrive and stop her.
Some would've thought that this would've been the result of some idiot groping her or something along the lines, right' Except nobody was that stupid. Not dumb enough to grope a kunoichi, anyway. After all, the laws in Konoha allowed any ninja who felt assaulted in any way, shape or form, to defend themselves as they saw fit, and it was known that the authorities wouldn't punish those who beat up perverts all that harshly.
No, in fact, there was no man who provoked Satsuki's anger.
It was actually a woman.
And it wasn't someone groping her.
No, it was someone groping Haruto. Of course, she wouldn't have cared all that much, except that he was clearly severely uncomfortable already, and that woman wasn't making it easy for her teammate to relax. Suffice to say, Haruto himself got a lecture on allowing people to take advantage of him just because he'd been raised not to attack defenseless civilian women.
She blamed his civilian schooling for that. They were the so-called rules of the playground, after all.