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Jiraiya chuckled. "Oh, they've got a training camp up in the hills for combat training. You should visit sometime. Watching thirty infiltration types practice taijutsu is almost as good as helping with their hentaijutsu training. But the kunoichi classes are always looking for assistants who can be discreet and actually take some work to seduce. The girls keep asking when my apprentice is going to start helping out."

"Yeah, sure they are."

"No, seriously," Jiraiya went on. "This is an important alliance, Naruto. The Kittens are proud of their skills, and they're going to get their feelings hurt if you keep this up. You could put them off when you were still in training yourself, but now that you're leading an ANBU team and fighting S-rank nin that doesn't hold water anymore. Pretty soon they're going to decide you don't think they're good enough to spar with. Or worse, that you look down on them because of their specialization."

A gaggle of eleven year old girls strolled past, each struggling to maintain a smooth gait and serene expression while levitating a leaf over her nose.

"Of course I don't look down on them," Naruto insisted as they passed. "If anything it's the opposite. The way my chakra is, I'd be afraid of accidentally hurting anyone who wasn't at least chuunin level. Besides, I'm not exactly single anymore. I guess Anko wouldn't care, but I'm not sure how Hinata would take it."

"Trust me, Naruto. She's a Hyuuga. They've been ninja so long it's seeped into their blood. Not only would she not bat an eye, she'd tell you the same thing I did about maintaining alliances. Just because she hasn't been through infiltration training herself doesn't mean she hasn't been drilled on the value of those who have."

Naruto stopped. "Um, what? You're kidding, right? Konoha doesn't train that kind of kunoichi."

"Heh. That's what Tsunade thinks," Jiraiya snickered. "Of course we do, Naruto. The 'Special Kunoichi Group' goes all the way back to the founding of Konoha, and the major clans always make sure they have family members in key positions. We just have a firm rule that no one asks which kunoichi are members, and no one talks about their missions in public. Everyone knows Tsunade hates that kind of thing, so when she took the hat they just went a little further underground than usual."

"Huh. That's not right," Naruto objected. "Making them hide it is like... like... it's like spitting on a guy that just took a kunai for you."

Jiraiya shrugged. "Yeah, I'm with you. Just remember that, if you ever do take over."

Indomitable, Chapter 10