Naruto grinned at her pleased with the small compliment she had given him, he had of course been called handsome before by other woman he had interacted with, but it was still good to hear. Naruto had changed a lot since leaving a year ago; at 13 years old he now stood at a height of 5'7" having hit a rather spontaneous growth spurt about six months ago, about a month after he and Jiraiya left on this training trip. His body was also more defined; even with the civilian clothing he was currently wearing it was rather easy to see the strain denoting to his well defined pectoral muscles, abdominal muscles and arms. His face had chiseled out as well, having lost most of his baby fat with his harsh training, giving it a masculine look; add on the whiskers and he had what many girls had described as roguish good looks mixed in with feral sex appeal. "How could I possibly refuse such a beautiful woman's company?" Naruto asked rhetorically with a charming smile.
The woman smiled at him as he ordered a drink for her while she sat down, "Thank you it's hard to find good company these days." She said looking around at the various tables.
Naruto looked around to and realized what she met, every where he looked men were eyeing her with lust.
"I see what you mean," he started before giving her a sly look. "Though I do hope that you're not just using me as a shield," Naruto affect a mock hurt expression.
The woman giggled slightly, "Of course not," she started before pausing in thought. "Well not completely, you seem like decent company. I'm quite good at detecting gentlemen who would actually be able to hold a conversation without looking below my face."
"That seems like quite a talent to have," Naruto said as he favored her with his patented 'foxy' grin. "A beautiful woman such as yourself must be used to sensing perverts rather easily."
Naruto and the young woman talked for about an hour; mostly he would ask her questions about herself while regaling her with the things he had seen on his travels being careful to leave out his status as a ninja. He learned her name was Aiko Miaki and much to his surprise she lived in Yuki No Kuni (Snow Country) one of the countries he had saved which was now called Haru No Kuni (Spring Country). She was apparently here on business working as a trader for some of Haru's technology, which Naruto knew was more advanced than anything else in the elemental countries. Naruto would also throw in the occasional subtle compliment that made the young woman blush; he was quite pleased with himself for that accomplishment. Since his first encounter with that group of girls a little over six months ago, Naruto had made an effort to get better at speaking with women. He would never go to Jiraiya for advice of course, after that night where the Sennin had tried to teach him, Naruto had been scarred for life. However he had read up on intimate and sexual relations, as well as books that alked about girls in general and several romance novels; he never really like them but felt they helped. As he continued meeting different women in the elemental nations, Naruto found himself actually enjoying spending time and flirting with various women, he could at least partially understand Ero-Sensei's obsession with them; even if he felt the man took it too far with his peeping.
Aiko herself was pleased that Naruto was actually listened to her, she found herself blushing many times as Naruto used his charm and gave her subtle compliments and not just about her figure. It was definitely a pleasant change to people either putting her down for doing what some considered a man's job or only trying to get in her pants. It also helped that she was downing more sake than usual since she felt so comfortable in his presence.
When it was time to go Naruto noticed that she was having a little trouble standing up, she had obviously drunken too much. Deciding to do the gentlemanly thing he offered her support as he took her back to her hotel. Of course nothing ever goes right when you're with a young beautiful woman at night and the two soon found themselves surrounded by several thugs.
"Look what we have here boys," one of the thugs exclaimed.
"That's quite the woman you have their boy, too much woman for a scrawny thing like you," another commented.
"Just hand over the woman and all your valuables and we may let you leave," the one on his right stated as he pulled out a knife.
Aiko while drunk was sober enough to realize the danger she was in and pressed herself against Naruto. Naruto just sighed, what was it with all thugs being arrogant fools? Deciding to be quick he created a shadow clone to keep Aiko standing while he launched himself at the thugs.
He appeared right in front of the first thug and hit him square in the solar plexus with enough force to send him flying down the road, breaking a few ribs in the process. The other thugs looked in surprise before it turned to anger and they charged him. The one with the knife tried to stab him but Naruto deftly moved out the way and grabbed the man's arm hitting it right where the elbow joint was, breaking it. Ignoring the man's scream of pain he spun 180 degrees and launched snap kick at the other mans left knee cap, breaking that before hitting the man in the neck knocking him unconscious.