Red Love

By Un-usuality

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Summary: Uzumaki Naruto had finally found his special woman. But are his feelings respected by the said woman? Will they find each other or will Naruto end up being used again?

"This is speech."

'This is thought.'

This is flashback.

A/N: Alright, I am writing another story. This is the prologue; the story really gets rolling from Chapter 2. So, on with the show.

Chapter 1: Prologue – The Encounter

It was a peaceful day in Konoha and for Uzumaki Naruto it was a well deserved off day. A jounin at the age on nineteen and quite successful at that, this kind of day was very rare for him. For once, Naruto decided not to train himself to exhaustion and pursue his other hobby: thinking. Over the years, many things had changed about him, one of them being his outlook about his own life. And as a result, he often spent significant amount of time thinking about his life, its pros and cons and other various aspects of it.

So, it was a warm afternoon when one Uzumaki Naruto found himself sitting at his favorite thinking place. Situated beside the great lake and waterfall of Konoha, the place offered beautiful scenery that Naruto liked very much. Staring at the vastness of the lake with the waterfall in the background, he felt relaxed from all the stress that he had to deal with everyday, be that the hectic missions or be that the glares and hatred of the village folks and some of his fellow shinobi. The wind blew continued to blow gently, producing small ripples on the surface of the lake as the sound of the waterfall continued to soothe his mind as he sat on the shore. Even if he just arrived here a minute ago, he mind was already beginning to calm down.

All was well and good until he sensed another presence. It seemed to be coming from the lake. The water surface broke and the scene that unfolded before his eyes took his breath away.

Out of the water emerged a feminine figure, water covering her just above the middle of her breasts. Excess water cascaded down from her porcelain skin as she flipped her midnight black hair. Her eyes closed, her head slightly tilted to her left, she let the excess water drip down her body and hair, unmoving from her position. Along with the setting sun and the background, she seemed like a flawless sculpture created by the Goddess of beauty herself. As she smoothed her black hair, her eyes opened and she looked at him.

Uzumaki Naruto's sea blue eyes were locked with the mesmerizing red eyes of Yuuhi Kurenai.

Kurenai's first instinct upon seeing Naruto was the urge to submerge herself back into the water. But the expression of utter awe that decorated his face made her change her decision. Generally, she did not play games with younger people but she found this opportunity too good to pass. You see, Kurenai was a very self conscious person; self conscious in the sense that she knew exactly what kind of effect she was having on the young man. That was an everyday occurrence to her. Being a genjutsu mistress, she was pretty good in reading and recognizing hidden emotions as the effectiveness of her genjutsu would depend on that. She used that knowledge very well even outside her missions and whatever attention she got, she absolutely loved it. If her choice of dress (or wrappings for that matter) to wear in public was not good enough indication of that, one could always ask her best friend: Mitarashi Anko.

But there was a basic difference: where Anko was actually feared among many males, Kurenai on the other hand was worshiped. Admittedly, she loved that too. One would suspect that this kind of attitude earned her the name of the 'ice princess'; again in the sense that she could freeze-up any hot blooded male, and some females as well, at her mere whim. And in this occasion, despite the obvious age difference, she noted with much pleasure that Uzumaki Naruto, debatably the most powerful jounin of Konoha, was no exception.

Simply put, Naruto was thunderstruck. The indomitable man, the jailor of the great fox demon Kyuubi, a person who could strike a deal with the demon without feeling a hint of fear now sat staring at the most beautiful creature he had ever seen, with his eyes dazed and mouth open. To him, everything was perfect about her, be that her gleaming skin, be that her soaked hair, be that her posture or be that her blood red eyes. He just could not take his eyes away from her, nor could he think straight.

As his eyes were transfixed upon her, Kurenai slowly made her way toward the shore where she put her clothes earlier.

"Uzumaki Naruto-san," her silky voice floated into Naruto's ears. "Can you please hand me my towel?"

Now, one could mistake that as a mere request. But to Naruto, it seemed like a thundering command and he was in no position to disobey her. As Naruto handed her the towel, his thought process was still trying to reorganize itself and failing miserably. Kurenai held the towel in front of her. She slowly rose from the water letting the towel gradually cover her body. She stood in front of him, water still dripping down form her bare, slender but strong legs. With one hand holding the white towel in place she proceeded to smooth her hair with the other as Naruto still sat on the ground staring at her. She seemed to be really oblivious about him; all her attention was directed to her hair.

"Can you please hand me my clothes, Uzumaki-san?" another off handed request with that incredibly smooth and sexy voice.

Naruto again held her clothes to her, still dazed. But, instead of taking them from him, Kurenai continued to smooth her hair, while Naruto continued to hold her clothes. Kurenai was enjoying herself. Seeing Naruto just sitting there, holding her clothes reminded her of the power she had over him. To a casual observer the scene would look like the Goddess was standing there in front of her worshiper while the peasant was presenting his gifts and offerings to his goddess.

After a considerable amount of time, Naruto was still showing no signs of movement. Kurenai let out a small sigh and a small smile graced her lips.

'Teenagers are so easy to manipulate.'

She took the clothes and headed towards a secluded area without a second glace towards Naruto. He sat there with his eyes following her every movement as she disappeared into somewhere in the foliage. She did not look back and went on her own way.

Naruto would sit there long after she was gone.

A/N: Well, that was the first chapter. There are some things I want to mention:

(-) The chapter length: This chapter was about 1000 words long. But this is just the prologue. The average length for the future chapters will be larger and there will be 20 or so chapters.

(-) OOCness: I don't care. I will try to keep Naruto in character in terms of his standing in the village but his mentality will change. As for Kurenai, you already noticed how I started off about her being a bit… outgoing.

That's it folks. Leave a review or two. I am not one of those authors who actually demand a particular number of reviews before updating, but like anyone else out there, I really like reviews. I will be grateful to hear your comments, criticism and anything you want to say.

Until next time.