"Ah, home sweet home… what a dump." A blue skinned man said with a grin on his face. The telltale black cloak with red clouds covered his body and the straw hat of Akatsuki sat on his head as he walked through the misty Mizu no Kuni island roads with his partner at his side, "I still say you should have just let me kill all of the fools on that ship we took Itachi-san."
"There was no need for such a drastic act Kisame." Itachi said, his Sharingan eyes visible underneath the brim of his hat. With his high-raised collar it was the only portion of him that was really visible beneath his attire, "My genjutsu more than aptly handled it. While things are going to get very busy for Akatsuki soon, it would be best to keep ourselves off the radar for as long as possible still."
Kisame let out an irritated sigh but agreed nonetheless, "Yeah, real cloak-and-dagger. That's going to be really possible when we're fighting with a gigantic death turtle when we finally track it down." He said sarcastically.
Itachi's eyes panned towards the larger former Kiri ninja upon detecting the obvious skepticism in his voice, "You don't believe that the Sanbi is still inside of its jinchuuriki somewhere in hiding?" There had been no word on the fate of the 'current' jinchuuriki in two years since the war in Kirigakure was still going on, "You really believe that Orochimaru has taken him the way Sasori figured from what his spy told him?"
"Do the math." Kisame chuckled in return, "The simple fact that we don't know where Yagura is, knowing what you know about the previous Mizukage position, should tell you all that you need to know as far as if he still has the Sanbi in him. Yagura's long dead, I can assure you of that." People getting 'sprited away' was not uncommon ever since the civil war and Otogakure's involvement. It was usually people of notably interesting skill as well.
That was a point that Itachi had to concede to the shark-like man, "True enough. Knowing the cause of Yagura's instability during the latter portion of his rule it would be obvious to say that if his location isn't known to us… that would mean that unsavory characters have their hands on him or the Sanbi."
Kisame reached up over his back and drummed his fingertips on the handle of the massive bandaged sword he carried with him in an impatient manner, "So do we have a plan of action?"
A nod came from the covered up figure of Uchiha Itachi to confirm that they did, "Scour the countryside until we run across an unlucky troop of Otogakure invaders and force them to give us what we need to know to begin infiltrating strongholds."
"…" Kisame just remained silent as they kept walking, but Itachi knew that he was unhappy with how they were going to go about working their angle. There clearly wasn't enough bloodshed in that equation for him.
"And then you can begin destroying them… I guess."
"You see Itachi-san, that's the thing with us. It's a real give/take relationship here. We get along well."
XxX
(With the Kiri Relief Team – Onboard Commandeered Ship)
Guren really didn't have a good night's sleep being stuck down in the hold of a ship that had been captured by the people that had kicked her ass. To rub salt in that wound the people that had kicked her ass had been a team of brats that three years ago she gleefully put the boots to.
And to pour alcohol on that salted wound not only had they taken a ship, they had taken her too.
All she knew was that whoever restrained her did a damn good job of it. She had been put in a wooden stockade with wood coverings over her hands tight so that she couldn't make hand-seals. Also, whether it was intentional or not there was a leak dripping right on top of her head. Sadistic fuckers, that was a good one.
The door to the hold opened up and in walked the blonde girl in purple that she had almost killed in Degarashi Port. Aw, wasn't she adorable with that serious look on her face like she was going to do something, "Oh, I get someone to take my breakfast order on this cruise? Konoha is really nice to their prisoners. What, do you charm information out of them?"
"If Ibiki was here and you said that to him you'd have screws in your tits by now." Ino said matter-of-factly as she walked closer to Guren and stooped down in front, "Alright it's early and I'm cranky, nobody is awake to make any breakfast so I'm going to be hungry really soon, and you killed the guy that would have been easy for me to break, so to be nice I'll only ask you once to cooperate. Otherwise I'm just going to do my thing, and I promise you're going to feel really violated when I'm done."
"I'm so sure princess." Guren said with a disbelieving smirk, "If you're going to do it you should just hop to it. I'm very busy as you can see." The two just stared at each other for a few empty seconds at that point, "See? Look how busy I am. I'm swamped."
"You're not scared." Ino said pacing circles around Guren while making a show of stretching her arms and pushing her chest out, "Honestly I don't blame you. I mean, I'm not Ibiki. I don't do all of the screwed up stuff that he does. I mean I learned how to do some of it because I had to, but I don't do it in my own interrogations after I learned how to do something else… because I'm a Yamanaka." She finished with a grin and Guren's eyes widened, "Surprise."
Damn it she should have seen that coming. When it rained it poured, and why wouldn't it be an interrogation specialist Yamanaka there to poke around in her head? That made just as much sense as anything else at the moment.
Still, Guren had a strong front. Nothing had been divulged yet, "I've got mental blocks that you'll never get through. You think Orochimaru-sama would send his elites out without making sure we had a preventive measure on us to keep us from spilling state secrets?"
"That's interesting." Ino said, reaching into her supply pouch as she idly continued to walk around Guren, "Because I'm also a poison specialist, and I've got drugs." She then threw a senbon that hit Guren right in the forehead.
"Ow, bitch!" Great, now she had a needle in her forehead. And it paralyzed her body. No struggling was at all possible.
"I'm not as good as daddy with this jutsu, but that's what the poison is for." Ino admitted as she set a hand on top of Guren's head and pulled out a small red orb that she squeezed in her fist until it broke in front of Guren's face. The gas that emitted from the orb was breathed in by Guren and dissipated into the air, "You see he can work past most mental defenses. It's really impressive. I can't yet, so I cheat. It's kind of like bringing a set of lockpicking tools to break into a house."
"I hate you." Seethed the red-lipped Oto kunoichi as her eyes glared up at Ino past the palm of her hand, "I'm going to get out of here and kill every last one of you on this tub."
"I don't care." Ino shrugged as she shut her eyes and began focusing on her link to Guren's mind, "Now I hope you're comfortably numb for your pending blackout because this is still going to take forever to find what I want." Her love of gossip and secrets were the main reason that Ino didn't outright hate her job. The time it took to sift through someone's memories, especially by herself, she absolutely despised it.
XxX
(On the Deck)
It had been all quiet since the trouble at Degarashi Port the previous night. As early as it was, as the sun had barely risen into the sky at that point, it was time to get up since Ino had seen fit to rise and shine.
While Naruto wanted to spend a little bit of time while there was time to be had catching up some more with his lovely Yamanaka teammate, she had gone right to work on trying to yank some good information out of Guren after getting herself prepared for the day. There had been barely enough time to give her a good morning after she had come out.
In return she just yawned one back in response and fondly ran a hand over his cheek before going down to the hold, all the while mumbling complaints about how she was going to be down there all day at least.
Once Naruto was awake there wasn't really anything that could get him back to sleep, so he just decided to sit up on deck and smoke a cigarette while waiting for anyone else to wake up. Footsteps eventually reached his ears from behind and he extended his senses to get the signature of who it was, "I didn't think you'd wake up anytime soon if you didn't have to Shika."
"I blame you." Shikamaru said, learning forward on the railing of the ship that Naruto was sitting on, "Well yesterday went well, even with the whole trouble of you blowing up the entire warehouse front to cover our escape."
"I think it did too." Naruto agreed, blowing smoke into the air and manipulating it into patterns with his chakra, "I mean, other than the warehouses we didn't annihilate the town at all. I knew my new tags would make fire-free blasts that burned. And you said it would never work." He said with a smug grin.
"Yeah, yeah, you're a prodigy of demolition." Shikamaru said in a patronizing fashion before looking at the ocean ahead of them, "So… elephant in the room that we've been ignoring for the last six months… do you think you're ready for what you left to get ready for?"
An exhaled breath of smoke from Naruto took the form of Konoha's leaf insignia in the air before dissipating into nothing, "To be Hokage? Yeah, sure. I'll just wait for Hokage-jiji to step down and I'll get a body of work behind me. And if I'm not the next Hokage I'll be the one after that. And if I'm not that Hokage I'll be-."
"You know what I'm talking about and it's not that." Shikamaru cut him off before he could go on a useless tangent, "Don't skirt around this thing Naruto. Do you think we're ready or not?"
Blue eyes panned over to the right and Naruto caught sight of Shikamaru giving him the same impassive, bored stare that Naruto was giving him in return. Behind it though, Naruto knew that Shikamaru was deadly serious. The entire reason they had left to expand their horizons for three years was so that they would not be caught off guard by the pending threat of what was supposed to be a group comprised of the ninja world's resident boogeymen.
"Does it matter?" Naruto asked glibly as he shrugged his shoulders, "Time's up. How would we know? I've never seen any of these guys. You've never seen any of these guys. All we know is that Ero-sensei's old teammate Orochimaru used to be one of them." And they had the strength kick him out, "Take that any way you want to Shika, but when or if they ever come I'm not laying down for them. If they beat me, and I do mean 'if', you're gonna know I was there."
That seemed to be enough to get Shikamaru off of his back as the young genius turned his eyes back towards the ocean. But then he opened his mouth again, "If I was that kind of person I'd shove you into the water for saying something that stupid." He said, getting a surprised look out of Naruto, "Seriously Naruto? 'We're gonna know you were there?' What kind of crap is that? If I find out that I wasted three years training my ass off with you just for you to go down swinging…"
"I don't plan on going down at all. You know that." Naruto interjected sharply before his friend could finish his statement, "You got on the topic to start with, so if you don't like my answer you shouldn't ask me the question. I'm being real, I'm not going to sugarcoat this. We've had three years to shake that baby shit. It's not like I can strike first instead of waiting for them to come to me, so all we can do is wait."
"So until then all we can do is just try to act like everything is cool and you don't have a big red beacon in your belly?"
"It works for every other marked man in the Elemental Nations so it's good enough for me."
"Troublesome."
"You keep saying that. I'm starting to think that's your verbal tic."
"You would know wouldn't you?"
Back and forth banter aside, the two simply kept on looking out at the ocean. They still had a few days of sailing before reaching their destination where the mission would truly begin. That was what they needed to worry about. Naruto had a point. Akatsuki didn't matter right then.
One issue at a time it seemed. Prioritization was the word of the day.
XxX
(Mizu no Kuni – Hidden Otogakure Base)
When he walked through the halls people wisely moved out of his way. The nameless, faceless, masked Otogakure grunts would only bow and greet him with a curt 'Kimimaro-sama', which was well advised, because he didn't suffer fools that would waste his time with petty talk idly.
He had been in full control of Orochimaru's ambitions to procure peoples of interest in Mizu no Kuni, and there had been plenty of opportunities to snatch up experiment subjects for his master with the ongoing war that had been happening at the time.
The end of Mizu's civil hostilities though, put something of a damper on that. after the disappearance of the Yondaime Mizukage Yagura the war effort in the resident hidden village sharply declined and petered out altogether. The village of Kirigakure reunified under a Mizukage that had been recognized by the Water Daimyo.
That was Otogakure's mistake.
An opening presented itself during the civil war, and Orochimaru saw to the double-crossing, the defeat, and the capture of Yagura himself. Kimimaro had of course been there assisting in the battle personally, along with his closest friend with a hair-trigger berserk switch, and victory had been a foregone conclusion. Orochimaru's combat prowess against the jinchuuriki Mizukage had been glorious, and everything had gone off without a hitch.
The Sanbi had been extracted and confined until a suitable new jinchuuriki had been found. And one had been presented in the form of the youngster walking beside the pale-haired bone manipulating shinobi through the dimly lit halls, "Yukimaru. I told you when you first arrived here that your unique abilities would be valued under Orochimaru-sama, and now you have been recognized for your importance."
The boy next to Kimimaro was younger, under the age of thirteen from the looks of things. He had magenta eyes and very long pale olive hair. A plain long grey kimono top adorned his frame with dark green pants and a purple rope belt tied around his waist in a bow over his back. From the bright look in his eyes he seemed to revere Kimimaro and took pride in hearing those words from him.
It had been eight months since the Sanbi had been sealed inside of this boy Yukimaru, who had abilities that were able to somewhat control the creature. Whatever connection between the two there happened to be, they were compatible enough that there was no backlash dealt to the boy's body due to the sealing, "You will have a home with us as the jinchuuriki of the Sanbi. Orochimaru-sama will keep you close to him forever as long as you continue to serve your all-important purpose."
Closer than Yukimaru would ever be aware of as well. With the Sanbi in his body, Yukimaru had become a leading prospect to house Orochimaru's soul next once the time came for him to make the switch. Whatever Yukimaru's bodily composition was comprised of either physically or chakra-wise, it was able to tame the mighty biju within him.
A jinchuuriki body without the fuss of losing control over the beast within? It was simply too much for Orochimaru to overlook. And who could blame him? Kimimaro certainly wouldn't.
While Kimimaro wished to serve the snake sannin as best he could, and he saw no better way to do so for all eternity than to be the shell for the man's soul, he did have to admit that he realized that he could serve his lord more efficiently and completely as his outlying vassal, enforcing his will out of Orochimaru's reach.
"My home is here with all of you and Orochimaru-sama now, right Kimimaro?" Yukimaru said with a heartfelt smile to the ever-stoic Otogakure elite. Sure, he had started out as a prisoner and a test subject with that strange person Kabuto, but when it was deemed that he was so special he was treated exceedingly better after being sent to Mizu no Kuni.
Yes, it couldn't be ignored that Kimimaro was something of a cold person, but Yukimaru liked him. And he liked that woman that he had met in that town Degarashi Port, that Guren lady. He wondered when he would see her again. She was pretty and treated him just as well as Kimimaro did. Even when he said that he didn't want to be a ninja and train to fight, that was just fine with all of them. For him to find a home with a roving hidden ninja village without needing to fight, that was wonderful for him.
Upon hearing Yukimaru's words, Kimimaro peered over and down to him before allowing the minutest of smiles to move his lips as he looked away once more, "That's right."
Yukimaru noticed that the amount of Oto manpower was starting to get thinner and thinner in the direction of the base that they were walking, and to him that only meant one thing, "Are we going to see your friend again?"
A nod came from Kimimaro as they came upon the door that they intended to enter. The entire wall around the steel door was steel as well, and it sported the most complete security measures in the entire base as far as it went in the door remaining closed to whomever was inside. It was like the ultimate solitary confinement cell.
Lifting out an arm, Kimimaro stuck his arm into a slot meant for it and began manipulating the bones in it in certain specific patterns that unlocked differing tumblers of the thick door until every lock was removed. As he pulled his arm back out and the bones slid back underneath his skin, Kimimaro turned towards Yukimaru, "Stay back and out of his sight when I open the door. I don't know what kind of mindset he'll be in when I do."
Obediently, Yukimaru moved aside and allowed Kimimaro to pull the door open and walk inside without an ounce of fear on his face. The same could not be said for the new young jinchuuriki who could only stand back and watch.
Once inside, Kimimaro looked around and saw a very tall young man with spiky orange hair, black pants, and a tan shirt, sitting down facing a corner. Slowly walking inside, Kimimaro eventually stopped just out of reach of the large inhabitant of the room, "Juugo." He said, to get his attention. He really hoped that he wasn't in one of his 'moods'.
Juugo didn't answer though, and eventually Kimimaro reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. Kimimaro prepared to defend himself when he felt Juugo tense up, but calmed down when Juugo turned around and looked up at him in surprise, "Oh, Kimimaro. Good to see you." He said, revealing that he had been playing with a small mouse to occupy himself.
"You as well." Kimimaro returned with an actual smile at seeing that his good friend wasn't in a murderous state of mind at the moment. He then frowned at the sight of the mouse in Juugo's hands, "You do know that those animals carry disease don't you?" He shook his head when Juugo ignored him and just put the small creature onto the floor to scuttle off elsewhere, "Do you feel in control enough to make rounds of the base with Yukimaru and myself?"
Looking towards the door, Juugo saw Yukimaru peering his head into the room once it was more or less confirmed that it was safe. He got up from the floor to tower over a full foot in height over Kimimaro as they both began to walk to the door to leave the room, "Yes. I'm fine today. Even if I wasn't, I'm certain that you can stop me. Besides, being around a spirit like Yukimaru helps me remain calm."
"Shall we go then?" Kimimaro said, getting agreement from both Juugo and Yukimaru. With that, the three of them left to observe the day-to-day proceedings of the Otogakure base. There was always work to be done, and Kimimaro trusted no one else as much as Juugo.
XxX
(A Few Days Later – Konohagakure no Sato – Naruto's Apartment)
It was definitely the good life for Jiraiya. Why pay money for a hotel when he could just bum a place to sleep from his apprentice while he was out of town on a life threatening mission. He never needed to keep his own place; he was never in the village for long enough.
Naruto's bed was awfully comfortable due to seeing no use for three years, but truth be told the brat would need a bigger one if he ever planned on entertaining any female company over there. Hey, that was a good idea for a birthday present. A large and sturdy bed. A man's bed one would say.
…But that could be done later. Way later. After a very good nap.
BANG BANG BANG
…A nap that would come later as well, because someone had apparently not gotten the memo that Naruto wasn't in town.
Begrudgingly, Jiraiya sat himself up and stood to walk out of the room and to the front door groggily. Upon opening the door he woke up very quickly at the sight of the rather displeased blonde woman standing out front, "Hello Tsunade-hime." Jiraiya said dumbly, blinking as he tried to think of something else to say, "Naruto's not here right now."
"I know that Jiraiya." Tsunade said in a deceptively sweet voice, "I've known for quite a while now, though I didn't find out until two days after he'd already left. And then that led to me having to dismiss myself of my contract with the daimyo without using Naruto as an excuse. That was a fun conversation to have with the man." It clearly hadn't been a fun conversation at all.
"I didn't know anything about that." Jiraiya assured her as he backed away into the apartment, "But you had to know that the exact day that his contract ran out he would be out of there. Seriously, did you really expect those two kids to hang around any longer than they needed to?"
Tsunade's eye twitched at the thought. Consideration for others that would have left at the same time would have been nice, "It's clear that being a Guardian didn't beat thoughtfulness into their heads."
A derisive snort came from Jiraiya as Tsunade sat down on a chair and Jiraiya went to the kitchen to scrounge up some refreshments for the guest. It wasn't his house, but he'd reimburse Naruto somehow (yeah right), "I don't think there was much time for that when they were whipping those kids into killing shape. Did you ever sit in on any of the earlier sessions they had with Naruto and the Nara kid? I did. That was some brutal stuff."
It was admittedly almost as bad as the physical training that he made Naruto do when he trained him for the chunin exams only the Guardians did it every single day. The only thing that kept it from actually being worse was the fact that Naruto's body was already durable. Shikamaru hadn't been nearly as durable and he suffered a ton in the beginning because of it.
While Tsunade had never gotten a chance to watch the training in the early days of Naruto and Shikamaru's tenure, she or Shizune repeatedly had to receive Shikamaru as a patient from whatever they had done to toughen them up.
But it had obviously paid off in dividends because within three months they were running missions like they had never missed a beat at all. As if they had been members all along.
As a matter of fact as the months carried over into years she saw both of them less and less for medical reasons. So either they were getting hurt and never coming to her, or they simply weren't getting hurt enough to justify using a medic-nin's time. That was something she hadn't thought about with as busy as her work kept her over the last three years, and it wasn't like she never saw either of them. Tsunade and Shizune saw them a lot, just to spend some time with them, never for anything important unless one of them needed a favor.
So that begged the question, because they were running back-to-back B-rank to A-rank missions and seemingly never racking up any wounds severe enough to require serious attention, "…Jiraiya, how strong are those two?"
Jiraiya just shrugged out of Tsunade's line of sight as kept looking for something to serve as a good host in the home that wasn't his, "Beats me. Why are you asking me?"
"Because you trained one of them jackass." Shouldn't that have been obvious?
"I didn't teach Naruto everything he knows how to do though. I couldn't." And Shikamaru? Forget about it. He didn't teach that kid anything really, "The seals he somehow taught himself after I was through teaching him those, and his jinchuuriki training; he took some time off to visit Takigakure's jinchuuriki to learn some helpful tricks from her after some unpleasantness happened when I tried to get him to use more chakra than he was ready for." That reminded him to show Tsunade the scar on his chest later. Maybe she'd pity him and from there… who knew?
"So what did you teach him?" Tsunade asked with a raised eyebrow.
Jiraiya turned and pointed towards the sky, "How to be a man! How to look the devil himself in the eye and make that bastard blink like he'd gotten a lemon squeezed in his retina! How to get the women to-!" Hearing Tsunade growl at his eccentricity, he quickly cut his spiel short, "I completed his ninjutsu theory. Who do you think finished his elemental training? And then there was the helping him learn how to use the ash-ninjutsu that I know you know about. I kind of taught him the theory of how I work with toad oil in my own fire release jutsu."
Tsunade let out a grunt of understanding. She wasn't a fan of the whole ash thing because of where the idea came from, but it was a pretty versatile wrinkle to his game, "Anything else?"
"Ask him yourself. I'm not his walking, talking playbook. You should have been paying attention to all of that crap yourself anyway." Jiraiya stated tersely, finally giving up on procuring refreshments for the two of them, "Wanna go get lit at a bar?"
"How irresponsible can you get Jiraiya? Honestly." Replied Tsunade sternly, as the two seemingly had a stare down prior to breaking down in loud and raucous laughter, "Oh, that was a good one. Come on let's go." Tsunade said, getting up and allowing Jiraiya to open the door for her, "I couldn't even take that one seriously. I mean who am I, the Hokage?"
"Hah!"
XxX
(With the Kiri Relief Team – Onboard Commandeered Ship)
"Oh… that feels so good Goldie-kun." Ino said, sitting down on the deck, leaning back into a crate that Naruto was sitting on behind her. She never thought that a back, neck, and shoulder rub could feel so damn heavenly, but when she had spent the last two days with the exception of a four-hour napping shift running through every corner of Guren's mind for intel on the state of the island nation it did. It was also a lot harder to do when she didn't even know where to start looking, "Where did you learn how to do this?"
And it wasn't like Naruto wasn't enjoying it either. A license and a pass to freely have hands on Ino? Not a bad way to spend a boring boat ride to say the least, "Adapt to survive Ino-chan, that's all you're getting out of me. But I will say that it helps to calm down crazy musician girls that throw wind blades from their instruments, so I definitely know it'll help you feel better."
Ino was in such a blissful state she wasn't even going to try and bring up the almost comparison between her and the crazy musician girl that he was talking about. That was just some drama that would stress her out further.
"Ahem."
The two were then forced to pay attention as at the time Naruto had sat the tense girl down to relieve some of her stress, Ino had been addressing the amassed party that would be entering the territory of Mizu no Kuni. It had been mostly incoherent rambling because she had been so stressed, but there was still the matter that Asuma, Shikamaru, Yamato, Anko, and Haku were still waiting nearby for some news.
"If you are through with the intimate groping-." Anko said, amused though she was by the byplay she was still ready to figure out how to stick it to Orochimaru the moment that they got to some land, "-We have an actual briefing to do. Before we land and have no idea what we're getting into please."
Both Naruto and Ino glared at Anko as there had been no aforementioned groping going on the way she had so brazenly stated, but she had a point. It was time to get to work, "Okay fine." Ino said, a bit perturbed as she got started, "I think Haku should tell us about Mizu no Kuni for the sake of background and why getting anything out of Guren was so important in the first place."
Blushing at being put on the spot so suddenly, Haku, dressed in her hunter-nin garb once again for the chance that she would be returning to her village and getting right to work once she did, got up to take her impromptu course in public speaking, "Well, Mizu no Kuni is a nation comprised of hundreds, possibly more than one thousand islands of varying sizes. Many are inhabited with towns and villages, but most of them are not. Many are not large enough or have worthwhile resources for settlements worth setting up."
"But… they're big enough and have the resources for 'other things' right?" Shikamaru finished for Haku as he understood why it was important to pick Guren's brain for Oto information, "Just because the islands are too small for towns for the general population doesn't mean that they're useless."
"Exactly." Haku continued, glad that they were following along. Maybe she wasn't as bad at speaking to others en masse as she thought, "There is a reason that the civil war in Kiri didn't peter out no matter how harshly the Mizukage pressed to stop us, a reason why we have an abnormally high number of missing-nin, and a reason that we created the hunter-nin corps for dealing with them in particular within our nation. The islands are Kirigakure's greatest strength in comparison to other nations with hidden villages, but also a massive detriment to us."
Way too many islands without names. Way too many islands that hadn't been mapped or even discovered yet. It was just too much. The amount of places to hide and retreat to were impossible to fully count.
And that was a major problem when there was a smart and fully organized force of smugglers, raiders, pirates, whatever one wished to label the Otogakure forces leeching off of the lands. They made self-sustaining hidden bases on the mainland to begin with. In a place where there were so many islands that constituted natural places to hide it was even easier to set up shop. Yagura had royally screwed up when he partnered with Orochimaru to end the civil war.
What was meant to be a symbiotic relationship ended up as a parasitic one.
"Otogakure has been bleeding this place dry." Ino said, going back to referencing what she had gotten from Guren, "Throughout the civil war they worked as freelance marauders for the Yondaime Mizukage, attacking rebels on his paid request, but they captured anyone from either side that they found interesting. And then it ended, and they never left."
Yamato and Anko looked at each other, knowing exactly why they never left. Mizu no Kuni was lucrative for Orochimaru's ambitions to know everything about ninjutsu in the world, "Orochimaru has a thing for experimenting unique bloodlines and ninjutsu styles." Anko stated matter-of-factly, "This place has to be a gold mine for him as far as that goes."
The ANBU member of the group, Yamato could only look at his hands before he looked out amongst his team, "I know firsthand the kinds of things that Orochimaru likes to do with the special bloodlines of others. And he had three years here… dear Kami."
Asuma wordlessly rested a hand on the younger man's shoulder, knowing Yamato's whole origin story and the root of his secret techniques, getting a nod of acknowledgment from Yamato in return. While the kids were left out of the loop so to speak, Anko and Asuma knew what was up in that regard and knew that it cut Yamato deep to think about. Anko especially could relate.
This returned attention back to Ino as she proceeded, eyes closed blissfully as Naruto's hands continued their dutiful work, "Guren didn't come here much. There was someone else stationed here to head up the entire operation and she was only sent here once in a while when there was something that needed her touch-. Ooh, right there Naruto, stay there." As Naruto did as instructed, Ino let out a hum before someone cleared their throat, "Oh! Ah, apparently she needed an escort to navigate her way to the island that they used. She never came herself."
So if she needed help to get to their base just what did Ino pull out of her head worth a damn, "Did you get anything that we can use?" Asuma asked, "Anything at all?"
"Don't insult me Asuma-sensei." Ino chided at the attempted slight towards her interrogation skills, "Of course I did. I spent two days getting way more than I wanted and I narrowed it down. It's not a wide area, but the map says that there are numerous islands there clustered. Does anyone have a map?"
Haku quickly produced a map of the Mizu no Kuni landmasses that were sprinkled throughout the waters of the region. Setting it down in front of Ino, Haku's brow furrowed when the blonde Yamanaka girl pointed out a clustered area of islands to the south, on the outside of the barrier of islands that comprised the core of the country.
The further away from the mainland island of Mizu no Kuni there were just so many smaller fragmented islands that without being able to trail someone back to the hideout it was impossible to determine where they were coming from. It was common knowledge that Otogakure would have had a hideout on one of the too numerous to count islands on the outsides of Mizu no Kuni's jurisdiction.
But it had to be there didn't it? In the south. Haku had suspicions, but never enough reasoning to bring such concerns forward before then, "It was estimated that. I suspected as much, but that area is disputed territory between several countries. No large military operation can be done there without it being seen as an aggressive move to the nearby countries."
That was a good place to hide for those that could get away with it.
Kirigakure did not want to be the initiators of a regional war after years of dealing with a civil war within their own borders and years of purges in the meantime. It was most certainly not the time for them to be throwing their weight around without something to back it up yet. Maybe if this had happened a short time later after a potential strong showing at the upcoming chunin exams, but without anything to give them any bluster there could be no reasoning or bullying the other regional powers into dealing with it and shutting up.
Asuma just grunted and lit himself a cigarette as he listened. He hated politics. It was one reason why he was never keen on his father's position of Hokage despite the honor and prestige of the position.
Just too much b.s. for his liking, even when it wasn't sent his way. Screw all of that. The politics just muddied the water too much for his taste. Subterfuge had its place and whatnot, they were shinobi after all, but seriously… it was like a massive chess game using human pieces, which was a wonder why he didn't have more of a taste for it because he happened to love shogi.
"So if Kiri actually sent out an expedition force to hunt the dozens and dozens of little clustered islands in this region…" Naruto started to reason as he looked at the map and all of the markers around the unmarked location that Ino had pointed out, "…All of the other 'powers' of the area like Benisu Island, Umi no Kuni, and Nadeshiko Village will piss and moan and bitch and cry and try to swell up on Kiri, and you can't afford to deal with that right now?" Haku nodded and frowned, sharing Naruto's apparent distaste for the situation, "…I hate this kind of crap."
"It certainly makes the job harder." Yamato agreed, stroking his chin in thought, "Harder but still not impossible. We just have to be a little inventive when the time comes. We need to go to Kirigakure first to see what resources the Mizukage can spare for us before we can actually work out a plan of action. Ino, do you have more?"
Still with Naruto rubbing her shoulders, Ino was more or less at his mercy, "I'm just getting started Yamato-taichou… you should all get comfortable because this'll take a while." Yeah, get comfortable like her, because if Naruto kept things up like that she could talk all afternoon and evening long without a problem.
XxX
(Some Time Later – Main Island of Mizu no Kuni – Kirigakure no Sato – Mizukage's Office)
A large village that always seemed to have a thick mist casting out the sun within its borders, Kirigakure was a rather hilly place, surrounded by mountains outside of its limits and containing many cliff faces and ledges within.
Many large, cylindrical buildings of various sizes with trees at the tops of them and elevated roads and bridges strewn about the village comprised some of the more prominent infrastructure that had been amicably rebuilt and restored once peace had been restored and the rift between the armed forces of Kiri had been healed.
In the largest of these buildings in the center of the village, therein lay the office of the leader of the island-borne ninja settlement.
Staring out of the full-sized windows that comprised the end wall of her office, the Mizukage looked back at her desk at all of the files of shinobi that sat upon it with a frown. All of the files had at least one thing in common; the stamp of missing-in-action right across the front of them.
The Mizukage was a gorgeous woman with exceptionally long auburn hair in a certain spiked pattern down her back and a topknot, bangs going down over her face with one actually covering her right eye. She wore a long-sleeved shoulder dress that went past her knees, left open on the right side going down past her hip. Underneath she wore mesh leggings and high-heeled sandals with shin-guards that went up to her knees.
"Mizukage-sama."
Her attention was turned towards the entrance to her office where she saw one of her elite shinobi Ao, standing there patiently dressed in a garb similar to Haku's; by way of his different-styled blue kimono and turtleneck undershirt.
"The mighty Terumi Mei Taking a break?" Ao pointed out joking as he was beckoned forth to enter the office of his superior. Upon reaching the desk he looked down at all of the files and frowned, "I can see why though…"
"It is difficult to keep going through all of these." The Mizukage, Terumi Mei said as she retook her seat at her desk, "Five more this week captured while out on missions. What did Yagura do to us?" It had been years at this point since she had been accepted by the Water Daimyo as the successor to the Mizukage seat and the problem of Otogakure plaguing the countryside still prevailed.
Ao sighed and ran a finger over the bridge of his nose, taking care to avoid the right eye of his that was covered by the patch, "I'm as certain as I've ever been Mizukage-sama, Yagura was under the influence of a genjutsu. He was being controlled. I just couldn't get close enough to prove it before I was accused of treason."
She knew that much back during the civil war days, and that was why Ao was so important as a sensor to the village, not just for his attentive nature and his already impressive ability to feel out chakra signatures, but for the secret that he concealed behind his eye patch. If he swore to her that Yagura was under a genjutsu, the man had been under a genjutsu. It would also have given weight to his sudden disappearance as well, because no one knew what had happened to him.
But still, Ao wasn't one to visit just for the novelty of it. That meant that he was there for something important. At least important enough to bring it to her attention, "Is there anything you've come to report to me Ao?"
"Yes. Haku has returned from her mission to Konohagakure to request assistance from them." Ao informed Mei who smiled at the touch of good news, "She was the only one of the squad that we dispatched to return though." And there went the wind right out of her sails, "Only one returned out of a team of four. They truly didn't want us to get word to Konoha."
But one did return though, and hopefully with good results, "Did they agree to assist us?"
Ao nodded with a small smile, "Thankfully. They sent two high-level people that are probably more qualified to deal with Otogakure short of one of the sannin or the Hokage themselves; Mitarashi Anko and Mokuton no Tenzo. In addition to that they've sent us the son of the Hokage himself, Sarutobi Asuma, as well as three chunin… but two of them wear the sash of the Twelve Guardian Ninja group as well." They looked awfully familiar to Ao as well, but he could look in on that later. Facts came first.
Mei was actually quite surprised that Konoha was willing to dispatch such assistance to them. Kirigakure and Konohagakure had never particularly been close before. Aside from a skirmish here or there between forces working on conflicting missions once every so often they didn't really have any kind of relationship with each other, antagonistic or otherwise.
The surprise was of course pleasant, because after the end of the civil war two years ago, Kiri needed to extend some olive branches, and having one seemingly extended to them from Konoha was the best thing they could ask for at the moment. Still, Yagura had gotten them burned before doing something like that with Oto years ago, so she had to play this carefully. It was only six people, but caution still needed to be taken.
"I would like to speak to them as soon as possible." Mei requested, in the same vein asking Ao to retrieve them and bring them to her. He bowed, understanding what she was asking without needing to be further prompted on that front, "I'd like an eye to be kept on them for the time being though." She didn't want to seem ungrateful, but village security was village security.
Ao just smirked though, "Haku is still with them and seemed to have no designs of leaving this mission alone, but I was already way ahead of you when it came to that Mizukage-sama."
XxX
(Elsewhere in Kirigakure – With Konoha Relief Team)
The entire Konoha team walked through the village being led by Haku at their forefront as she intended to show them around. Perhaps even find somewhere to stop and eat before things got busy for them. Times weren't exactly the most settled down, but for Haku who had been dealing with the civil war since returning to the motherland so to speak, having a foreign enemy was something of a dream situation to bring the village together.
"You'll love meeting Mizukage-sama." Haku assured them as she continued to walk them down one of Kiri's elevated constructed paths, "She is a very kind and wise person. She was the person that believed in me when I said that I had returned to achieve Zabuza-sama's dream of bringing down the Yondaime Mizukage."
Anko stroked her chin in thought, now very interested in meeting this new Mizukage the more she heard about her, "The first female Kage in history. That's seriously interesting. She's got to be much stronger than any male shinobi elite just to be considered for the position with her gender."
"She's the strongest woman in the world I believe." Haku said in a heartfelt and adoring manner while Naruto and Shikamaru moved near each other to talk out of earshot.
"I don't think Tsunade-baachan would like hearing that one too much." Naruto whispered, getting a nod out of Shikamaru. Asuma heard them and snickered at the thought, "I think a lot of stuff would get turned to rubble before she'd let that one go."
Asuma just kept snickering, "Tsunade-sama traumatize you too much while you were gone Naruto?" All Naruto did was whistle innocently while Shikamaru acted like they hadn't just brought up 'she-who-should-not-be-referenced-from-afar #1' "Well imagine growing up with her as your dad's student. Man I've got some horror stories for you two…"
Since they hadn't really talked too much, even when they had first run across each other in Nami no Kuni, Ino decided to take the moment to get to know the kunoichi closest in age to her at the moment in Haku, "So you came back here after the mission where you fought us?" Haku nodded yes to the question, "What was that like?"
"It's hard to explain the concept of war deeper than the surface if you've never been involved in it yourself…" Haku said with a frown. It was an understandable question, "Any battle you've ever fought… there is no comparison as far as scale. You see things happen all over that you have no control over, no matter how strong you believed yourself to be prior to it. I don't wish such a thing onto you, but if you don't fight in one I can't make it clear to you just what I mean."
"It's okay. You don't have to if it's that difficult." Ino was just curious. She had heard her father talk about it for years. It was just a thought that someone closer to her age could give her a comparison. Konoha had never fought a war within her generation. But both Inoichi and Haku had said something similar, about how no battle she had ever fought would compare to a battle in war no matter how powerful the enemy.
An overhearing Yamato interjected for the benefit of his younger underling on this mission, "Just hope that a war doesn't occur within your lifetime, but be prepared for when it does. The Elemental Nations always go through a pretty vicious cycle." He had already fought in the Third Shinobi World War by the time he had been thirteen so if anyone knew it was him, "Don't worry about that right now though. Be prepared to recant to the Mizukage everything that you told us on the ship."
Ino's face was fixed in understanding determination as she had never been in such a prominent position on any mission before, let alone an S-rank mission. Wow, way to jump back into the saddle with her teammates in regards to working. They certainly didn't do anything halfway, probably much to Shikamaru's chagrin.
Hearing 'information' brought up another thought from Haku though, "What of the Otogakure captive Guren?"
"We're going to keep her as a prisoner and take her back to Konoha for more interrogation when we have more time. She's still supposed to be ours." Naruto answered for her, throwing an arm around both Haku and Ino in a friendly chipper manner, "Me and Shika know just how hard it is to take one of them and keep them alive, and we've got an elite ninja that knows a lot about the mainland stuff that they're into, so we can't just hand her over. Sorry."
"As long as we can cast Otogakure out of Mizu no Kuni I don't think the Mizukage will care what becomes of a prisoner that you captured to begin with." Haku said with a smile.
This was certainly a different Team 10. The first time Shikamaru seemed to be the only one that had his ducks in a row, but he didn't have the drive to do anything with it. Now Ino seemed to be in charge of information, trusted with it over her actual superiors, and Naruto seemed to be an all-around cool hand operator instead of a jittery brawler, apparently completely at ease with a timed stipulation-laden battle behind enemy lines with their overall commander.
Naruto just let out a laugh and shook his head, "I've got a clone on the boat guarding her until we get back there just in case she finds a way to break free. Even though we have what we need by now I can't really use my toads to ferry her back to Konoha because they can't stand saltwater, so we've got to keep her the old fashioned way."
The entire time that Ino and Naruto seemed to be getting along with Haku and Asuma and Yamato seemed to be taking stock of the situation, making preliminary plans of action to pitch to the Mizukage once they had met with her, Shikamaru was being kind of quiet. Something felt off.
"You feel like we're being watched, don't you kid?" Anko asked him, as the trench-coat clad kunoichi moved to walk closer to the uncharacteristically silent genius. Even by Shikamaru's standards of avoiding troublesome conversation he was being quiet, "What do you think?"
"It's not the atmosphere of the village, not the villagers." Shikamaru said, looking around, "I don't feel like we're being followed by an enemy either, because it doesn't have that feeling to it. But I do feel some bloodlust in the area. Killing intent maybe?"
"Are you sure it's not just me?"
"Your bloodlust is mostly for show and we all know it."
"Well, well, well. Check out the big brains on the brat."
"Whatever."
As the continued to walk and passed over a crack in the road, from inside of it, water seemed to gush out and take the form of a person directly behind Naruto, stopping the moving convoy right in its tracks. A lean young man with straight white hair and purple eyes that wore a purple sleeveless shirt, bandages around his neck, and grey pants along with a Kiri headband tied around his forehead and what looked like Zabuza's old sword strapped to his back.
"Well isn't this a pretty little picture that I can't help but want to cut apart?" The white-haired young man said, grinning to show pointed teeth like Zabuza as well. He positioned a finger against Naruto's head in a gun-like gesture, "You Konoha ninja should know to watch your step in a foreign village no matter what."
"I did." Naruto said before dispelling in smoke, revealing himself to be a clone.
Instead of being angry, the young man was amused and saw Naruto standing not too far away, glaring at him, "Not bad." He admitted, "I can't believe that you had that substitution planned in advance so that was some quick moving on your part to pull it off without me noticing."
"Yeah it was planned." Naruto said, not taking his eyes off of the seemingly hostile person in front of him, "I'm not too shabby of a sensor and even if I wasn't I can sense your kind of killing intent from a mile away. Zabuza's was worse. But that might be because I was a kid back then too."
It looked like it was going to be a standoff of sorts as another Kiri ninja ran up, "Suigetsu what are you doing? These are the people sent to help us." Another young man arrived, only this time he looked rather meek with short blue hair, glasses connected to what looked like earphones, a long-sleeved blue pin-striped shirt, camouflage patterned pants, and a unique-looking large sword covered in bandages on his back, "You can't just jump them."
"I wasn't jumping them all." The aforementioned Suigetsu then pointed at Naruto, "I was just jumping him. I don't like him."
As Naruto pointed at himself dumbly, Asuma gave Naruto a few pats on the shoulder, "Most people don't. But still though, you aren't just going to attack our team member unprovoked when we've been sent here to do a mission requested by you. Are you trying to start a war?"
Any response Suigetsu would have possibly given was cut off at a rather high-pitched squeal that put a big grin on the swordsman's face as he turned to meet a flying glomp from Haku, "Suigetsu-kun!"
"Glad you're alright Haku." Suigetsu said in return before giving Haku a peck on the lips, much to the surprise of the younger Team 10, "What? You got a problem?"
By now Ino was rubbing her temple at all of the things that had been presented to them over the last couple of days, "You're telling us that you're her boyfriend." Sure, why not? There was probably a story there, but for once Ino felt that she'd be better off without it. She had received all of the information that she could stand.
And after having spent an exorbitant amount of time around Jiraiya, Naruto knew exactly why Suigetsu had been sending killing vibes his way before springing the surprise attack, "Ohh, my bad." Naruto said, holding his hands up defensively, "That hug was a friend kind of thing, not a trying-to-get-into-her-pants kind of thing."
He might have been trained by Jiraiya, but he had standards and he drew the line solidly at putting moves on another guy's lady.
Suigetsu nodded, content that Naruto had recognized what was up, but then he felt Haku's touch turn cold and looked at his pleasantly smiling lady friend and knew that spelt trouble, "Suigetsu-kun I would appreciate it if you didn't attack my friends again. They've come to help us get rid of Otogakure you see."
"Ah… got it." He said in an effort to calm her down. The last thing he needed was to be frozen solid. It wouldn't have taken much from Haku with her kekkei genkai, "Well. This is Kirigakure. I'm Hozuki Suigetsu, and the pansy swordsman over there is Choujuurou. Two of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist."
Choujuurou walked up to Yamato and adjusted his glasses on his face nervously, "Sorry about Suigetsu. He's a bit… well I really shouldn't say. But we were sent to make sure that you got to the Mizukage's office without any problems-."
"-Because that's been going swimmingly so far." Shikamaru chimed in dryly, pointing out Suigetsu's little jealous snap. He was sure there was more to it than just escorting them, but for the time being he'd keep his mouth shut, 'Probably a show of force to let us know that they're not as weak as the world would think they are after the end of their war.'
Because those swords weren't just regular weapons, they were national treasures. The sword Suigetsu had was Zabuza's old weapon Kubikiribouchou, and he was guessing that Choujuurou's weapon on his back was another of the famed swords of Kiri's most infamous fighting force. No matter how Suigetsu acted and how Choujuurou seemed to outwardly be they were still strong enough to be selected, and to send them just to escort them to the Mizukage's office. Well, message received loud and clear as far as Shikamaru was concerned. Don't screw around with Kiri.
Either way they were heading to the office of the most powerful ninja in Kirigakure now.
Let the true S-rank mission begin, for better or for worse.
XxX
(River Inlet of the Main Mizu no Kuni Island – With Konoha Team's Confiscated Ship)
"Well what do we have here?" Kisame said with a predatory grin. He knew what one of those ships was supposed to be. From Gato Company. Gato was just one of Orochimaru's puppets on a string, and it was this far inland. He'd bet money that it was meant to be a ship meant to raid for more test subjects for the snake sannin's experiments, "Shall we investigate Itachi-san?"
Itachi and Kisame stood outside of the ship just looking at it as it sat calmly just anchored offshore in the river, "I believe I should investigate on my own. No offense of course, but your kind of investigation would possibly destroy whatever information we could possibly obtain from this."
Kisame let out a good-natured scoff, but was mostly fine with it, "Fine with me. If it's not time for me to cut loose and cut something up there's no need getting me involved anyway. I would probably just ruin whoever was inside of there. Information is golden after all…" He finished with a cryptic chuckle, "Go on ahead." By the time he looked to his side towards his partner, Itachi was already gone to get onboard, "Heh. I don't know whether it's lucky I'm not getting on with him, or unlucky because Itachi-san is going to be fishing for some info."
XxX
Onboard the ship, Itachi looked around on the deck to find no one. Not that he really expected anyone to be there. Gato's ships were only really sent in this far to ferry Otogakure ninja close enough to snatch up captives.
Walking inside he ventured down to the hold where he could feel the presence of others. How many he was soon to find out. Hopefully they would be Oto forces instead of just some of Gato's hired hand sailors. They were useless when it came to any kind of information.
"You can glare at me all you want to Guren." Itachi stopped at the door to the storage room when he heard the voice of a young man inside of it, "This is as much your fault as it is ours that you're in this situation."
"You'd better hope I never get out of here brat." Itachi could hear a second voice, one of a female belonging to the 'Guren' person within, "You'd better just kill me now because I'll spend the rest of my life just waiting to get you back Uzumaki."
"I'm so scared." The first person in the room said in a sarcastic tone of voice, "Look. Look at my face. Look at how scared I am. Don't you see it?"
The door then slowly creaked open and Itachi caught sight of who he presumed to be Guren, restrained quite totally, utterly unable to free herself or move. And from the abject look of horror on her face she knew who he was from his attire alone, or at least who he represented. His attention wasn't quite set on her at the moment.
Itachi's attention was on the other person in the room, someone who had initiated eye contact with him off of sheer instinct once the door opened. Poor unfortunate young man, how was he to know what awaited when he did so? The blonde hair, the blue eyes, whisker marks, and the attire that included the sash from the Twelve Guardian Ninja.
"Hello Naruto-kun." He said calmly to the paralyzed, genjutsu-hazed Naruto, "How unexpected to find you here of all places."
Omake: Guardian Days 3
(Five Months after Naruto and Shikamaru's Acceptance)
Shizune had been gifted with a smaller office than Tsunade's own, but it was good for what she needed it for. She was never really there anyway because most of the time when nobles needed medical consul they sent out for it. Unless it was serious enough to require Tsunade, no one really came to the offices.
But on a rare slow day as far as workload went, Shizune allowed herself a moment of rest to take some reading time to herself. Sitting at her desk, she had to admit that despite being a pervert of the highest caliber Jiraiya could spin one hell of a literary yarn. The sex scenes weren't half bad either.
"Shizune-nee, I need your help!"
That shout preceded Shizune's door being thrown open forcefully, stirring her from reading her copy of Icha Icha so that she could quickly hide it in her desk because she knew the voice of the person that opened her door. The last thing she needed was for him to catch her reading that book. That was something she didn't want to explain.
"What's the matter Naruto-kun?" Shizune asked, jumping up as she was ready to treat any bump or bruise that he felt had been serious enough to bring to her, "Did you break your arm trying to screw around with that bigger Rasengan again?"
Naruto gave her a confused look before blushing in embarrassment. The way he entered it did seem like he was legitimately hurt, and that just wasn't the case, "Uh, no. Sorry, but I'm not hurt." He did still need her help though, "I have a question."
Oh, he just wanted some advice. That was something pleasant. It was good that she didn't have to deal with any injuries today, "I have an answer." Shizune replied in turn, sitting back down at her desk and gifting Naruto with a warm smile, "What do you need?" Such a nice boy.
A skittish looking Naruto looked down at the ground and seemed rather hesitant to talk about whatever he wanted. Eventually coming face to face with Shizune raising an eyebrow in curiosity, Naruto figured that it was time to fess up. He was wasting her time after all, and he had work to get back to, "Fine. I need help getting rid of someone."
"You can't kill any of the nobles." Shizune frowned at Naruto and rested one of her cheeks in her hand with a sigh, "I know sometimes it seems really appealing. And I know that sometimes you've got it worked out to the very last detail about how you can sneak that odorless, tasteless poison into their food if they proposition you and grab your butt one more time during the 20th damn health screening they schedule in four months just to hit on you, when you keep telling them that you're a professional and not interested! And you know you can get away with it because, oh who's going to run the autopsy? That's right it's you-!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Naruto stopped Shizune and reached over her desk to grab her shaking hands as she got more riled up than he had ever seen her before. Where the hell did that come from? That was scary, "Calm down okay? Take some deep breaths, count to ten. It's alright." A nod came from the raven-haired medic-nin as her breathing stopped coming out so erratically, "I don't want to kill her though."
"Her?" Shizune asked with a raised eyebrow. Okay, now she was really interested, if only to be nosy anyway.
A shiver went down Naruto's spine and he nodded before getting back to his reasoning for being there, "Naho." Now he didn't want to say that he hated someone, but damn it that girl was pushing it really close, "That girl is so aggressive it's creepy. And how does she keep reserving either me or Shikamaru for guard duty when she goes into town? She's thirteen. She shouldn't be able to do that herself."
Aggressive girl troubles? She must have been outright forceful in how she informed Naruto of her outright desire for him if it actually spooked him that badly. The poor thing probably didn't know how to handle it, especially because he clearly had absolutely no interest in this Naho girl.
Well that was where older sister Shizune could give some help. Naruto was entirely uninterested in learning how to take care of himself medically since he was incompatible with learning medical ninjutsu, so advice was definitely where she could contribute heavily. The fact that he came to her instead of Tsunade spoke volumes, "Why are you asking me instead of Tsunade-sama?"
Naruto opened his mouth to give a well thought out and rational explanation as to why he was coming to Shizune instead of Tsunade with something like that, but any answer he could have given would not have been as good as what the world gave to him at that exact moment. From slightly down the hall, crashing and rumbling could be heard from where Tsunade's office was.
"I know I have one more bottle of sake here somewhere! I am not sending to town for more without one bottle left, those attendants they send out take forever!"
That was pretty much all the explanation that Naruto needed to give. Life experience didn't really translate into good advice on all fronts. He'd ask Tsunade about dealing with mission preparation and things like that. He'd save the more delicate social advice questions for well-mannered, even-tempered Shizune. Life would be safer for everyone that way.
With an understanding nod, Shizune got up and put an arm around Naruto's shoulder as they left her office, "Walk with me Naruto-kun, I need the company. We're going to town, and we'll see if I can't help you out on the way." As they left the building, Shizune threw a shout into Tsunade's office, "I'm going to get you more Tsunade-sama, and you hid your last bottle around Tonton's neck."
As they passed by, Naruto got a look into the warzone that was now Tsunade's office and saw the now calm woman enjoying a drink with her pet pig in her lap. As if she hadn't just rendered her office to shreds. How was Shizune so used to such a thing that she didn't even register it?
Without saying a word, but with an all-telling thousand yard stare on his face at the thought of going to that woman with anything intended to be sensitive, he merely hugged Shizune around the waist as they walked and got a few reassuring pats on the head for the gesture.
Yes, Shizune would proceed to be Naruto's ever-present and sturdy rock of good sense in the tumultuous and unforgiving sea of crazy that came with his life led while he was a Guardian Ninja. And he would love her dearly for it.
Someone had to be there to keep him from being driven to drinking… and she was the woman for the job when it came to helping him keep what was left of his sanity.
Ongoing Stats (Out of 5)
Otogakure Ninja
Kaguya Kimimaro
Ninjutsu: 5
Taijutsu: 5
Genjutsu: 3
Intelligence: 4
Strength: 3
Speed: 4.5
Stamina: 4.5
Hand-Seals: 3
Total Score: 32
Juugo
Ninjutsu: 4
Taijutsu: 5
Genjutsu: 2.5
Intelligence: 2.5
Strength: 5
Speed: 3.5
Stamina: 4
Hand-Seals: 1
Total Score: 27.5
Yukimaru
Ninjutsu: 3.5
Taijutsu: 2
Genjutsu: 3
Intelligence: 3
Strength: 2
Speed: 2
Stamina: 4.5
Hand-Seals: 1.5
Total Score: 21.5
Kirigakure Ninja
Terumi Mei
Ninjutsu: 5
Taijutsu: 3.5
Genjutsu: 4
Intelligence: 4.5
Strength: 3
Speed: 4
Stamina: 3.5
Hand-Seals: 4.5
Total Score: 32
Ao
Ninjutsu: 3.5
Taijutsu: 3.5
Genjutsu: 4.5
Intelligence: 4
Strength: 3
Speed: 4
Stamina: 3
Hand-Seals: 3.5
Total Score: 29
Hozuki Suigetsu
Ninjutsu: 4.5
Taijutsu: 4.5
Genjutsu: 3
Intelligence: 3
Strength: 3.5
Speed: 3.5
Stamina: 2.5
Hand-Seals: 3
Total Score: 27.5
Choujuurou
Ninjutsu: 3
Taijutsu: 4.5
Genjutsu: 2
Intelligence: 3.5
Strength: 4
Speed: 3
Stamina: 3
Hand-Seals: 3
Total Score: 26
Akatsuki
Uchiha Itachi
Ninjutsu: 5
Taijutsu: 4.5
Genjutsu: 5
Intelligence: 5
Strength: 3.5
Speed: 5
Stamina: 2.5
Hand-Seals: 5
Total Score: 35.5
Hoshigaki Kisame
Ninjutsu: 4.5
Taijutsu: 4.5
Genjutsu: 2.5
Intelligence: 3.5
Strength: 5
Speed: 4
Stamina: 5
Hand-Seals: 3.5
Total Score: 32.5