Ino loved waking up next to Naruto. Despite being named after fire, most mornings in Hi no Kuni tended to start out particularly nippy before things got hotter, and there was nothing like a warm body radiating natural heat just inches away from you.
It made her want to stay in bed instead of getting up to greet the cold morning air. Did they have to get up so early? Yes, they were shinobi, but the sun could come up a bit more and raise the temperature a bit before they had to start moving around and doing things, couldn't it?
As per usual, Naruto was the first to officially stir, depriving Ino of her living furnace and giving her a quick rush of cold air as he threw the comforter up to get out from underneath it. The blonde girl was not a morning person, and let it be known with a tired whine.
"I know," Naruto said in an understanding tone as he started shaking off the morning cobwebs. He was a slow starter as well, but once he was up and about it didn't take him long to get raring to go. Ino didn't share his unquenchable, quick-to-burn engine, "Do you have to go back to work today?"
"No," Ino grumbled from underneath a pillow on her head before peeking out with a drowsy smirk, "I don't have to go back to work until you're cleared. I'm your babysitter. So as long as the Hokage is forcing you into time off, I have time off."
Days off. The thought made Naruto want to scoff. His leave had to have been for more mental reasons than physical. A lot of things had happened, and his experiences had been intense with little to no time to process any of them. Ino was not only qualified as a medic-nin, she could double as a therapist in this case if it was necessary, so it was a no-brainer that she would be slated to oversee him in the meantime.
The fact that they were romantically involved was a bonus, as was the fact that most nights that week ended with them having sex. Ino had taken to calling it Naruto's 'physical therapy', especially in public so that she could talk about it around people and see if he would get flustered.
Just watching Ino sit up in bed and stretch out like a cat reminded Naruto of it, because she wasn't wearing a stitch of clothing.
Picking on Naruto was a good way to start the day, Ino decided after watching Naruto shuffle out of the room hiding a clear case of morning wood that had likely been aggravated at the sight of her in absolutely nothing. It was just some good-natured teasing. There was nothing wrong with that. It was a foundation of their relationship.
Chuckling quietly at the sound of the shower running, likely cold, Ino got out of bed and went to grab some clothes for the day.
It was nice that Naruto had her clothes washed whenever she kept things over there. It gave her a selection of entire outfits to choose from. And he had given her basically half of his dresser to store clothes and unmentionables away in. She didn't even have to slip back home to have something clean and functional to change into.
Everything she needed was already at Naruto's house. He still had her toiletries and other things that she'd kept over from when she'd housesat in his absence from Konoha, and even more.
Ino looked around Naruto's apartment and realized something that made her want to ask Naruto something that was entirely out of the blue after he came back into the room after his shower. He regarded her with a quick smile as he reentered the room and saw her sitting on the bed.
He had missed the look of utter determination on her face as she amassed the guts to speak up and say what was on her mind, "Goldie, I want to move in," She told him, eliciting a look of sudden surprise from her boyfriend, "I mean… I'm keeping more and more of my stuff over here, and you can count more nights in the week when I just stay here instead of going home."
It wasn't only those things either. As a matter of fact, she hadn't even gone home in days.
When she was hungry she would either go back to Naruto's apartment and cook for the both of them or the two would go out on a date and eat then.
When she was tired, the first thought in going home to rest would usually carry her up the stairs to the door of Naruto's place.
More and more, home started to seem like the place where she could spend private time with her man, and that certainly wasn't her parents' house. Naruto had probably been there a handful of times since coming back to Konoha anyway.
Instead of responding with unbridled, optimistic enthusiasm at finally getting the chance to live with someone instead of coming home to no one all of the time, Naruto seemed to be thunderstruck, "Uh, I don't think you moving into here is such a good idea Ino-chan."
Naruto being anything but excited about her idea hadn't been something that Ino had been expecting.
"What? Why? You don't want to move in together?" She asked, visibly trying to recover from getting cold water dumped all over her aspirations of moving forward in their relationship. She did an admirable job of trying to downplay her feelings on the matter, but they still clearly showed, "I guess it is kind of quick. I mean, we only just started sleeping together not that long ago."
Naruto looked at her in confusion before realizing that his quick dismissal of her request could have been construed badly, "No-no, I don't mean that. I mean I'm moving out soon, so why would you move now when you'd just have to do it again right after?"
Any hurt feelings Ino might have been nursing cleared up after learning of Naruto's pending plans, "You… you are?"
"Yeah. I told you about that," Naruto said with a shrug as he threw on a mesh armor shirt, "Remember when I was talking about building a place on the property that my clan's mask temple is on? I know I told you about that. I told a bunch of people."
More like he told anyone who would listen. It was something he was proud of, that he actually had property that belonged to his family. Because he had a family. A legitimate clan with land holdings and everything. Why wouldn't he run around telling everyone about that? Until he'd found out that he'd actually had a pedigree as a ninja, it had only been something he'd dreamed about in the past.
Recollection of what Naruto was talking about shined in Ino's eyes. She remembered that place. It had been the first place Naruto had kissed her, "Oh yeah," She said dreamily before the scope of what Naruto hadn't quite said sank in, "…Wait, you're saying you did that?"
If self-satisfaction had a face, it likely would have been eerily similar to what Naruto's looked like at that moment, "I'm doing that. I'm doing the hell out of that. Got the foundation and the frame up before the last mission and everything," He needed someone to be impressed with him for his efforts, and who better than the girl he shared a bed with on most nights?
Ino hadn't really thought of Naruto as the do-it-yourself type, so it was a noteworthy accomplishment, "I thought your clones were terrible for manual labor though," She said, engrossed with the idea of Naruto being an eventual homeowner.
Naruto let out a snort, thinking of his clones that could fight a full-scale battle and effectively put their existences on the line without a second thought but found the task of putting hammer to nail too much to stomach.
"They are," He told his thoroughly intrigued girlfriend, "I had to make a deal with myself that I'd hire some genin teams to do all the rest of the grunt work. You know, putting in the insulation, putting in my hard wood floors. D-rank shit," He'd have to hire a proper electrician to deal with getting his to-be home lit up properly, "Eh, I've got the money to burn."
Ino shifted down onto her belly, grinning at Naruto as she thought of the annoyance he'd likely be putting some poor hapless rookie shinobi through. Fresh out of the Academy, and one of their first all-important missions would be building his house, "Mmm. You know, I used to hate that system when we were the manpower for it. Now, it's kind of nice to know we've got genin on tap to do our odd jobs."
If anything, Naruto shared in Ino's delight at the thought of properly inducting Konoha's youngest members of its ninja force into the lifestyle, "Right? It's like hazing. It sucks when it's happening to you, but doing it to other genin later is great. The circle is complete, I say."
XxX
(Elsewhere in Konoha – Hokage's Office)
Debriefings were the worst.
Jiraiya hated them, but was more than experienced enough to know why they were necessary. They were a military force, and any little thing they saw out in the field could have massive repercussions. Little to nothing could be glossed over in that regard. More so when the missions you went on were vital to village security from the outset.
Still, bringing up anything that had to do with the mission he had just gone on made him angry in hindsight. He'd been able to keep a level head, because more lives than just his had been on the line, but afterwards it almost made him wish he wasn't a man of his word. If he had been more vindictive, he would have turned most of the denizens of Iwagakure into mountain toad droppings.
That course of action was several bridges too far, however. And it made him angry that he wasn't that much of a bastard to do it in the end.
After retelling everything from his perspective that had taken place from the time he'd set out with his team, Jiraiya stood in front of the Hokage, his foot tapping on the floor to show how stir-crazy he was. Hiruzen remained silent for a moment, digesting everything that he had been told, eventually choosing to speak his mind on the matter.
"In his overconfidence, Onoki likely, pardon my language, screwed himself to the wall in his endeavor," Hiruzen said, eliciting an amused snort out of Jiraiya. Good. Anything to calm the man down right now. An irate Jiraiya would do no one any good, "He has the Shodai Hokage's necklace, does he not?"
The reminder of the piece of jewelry that remained around Onoki's throat raised a bit of anger in Jiraiya's chest. Looting the body of his godson that he hadn't even killed yet. Only a level head kept him from leaving his post to try and take a hunk out of the Tsuchikage after his clone dispelled and showed him that information.
"Right around his stubby neck, front and center like a war trophy," Jiraiya told his old sensei. There was no way he'd have missed that hunk of rock. He wanted to rip it off of the man. It didn't belong to Onoki. Tsunade had entrusted it to Naruto. But getting out while he and the others he'd brought with him were ahead was the best idea at the time.
Instead of being angry, Hiruzen seemed to be coldly analytical, "Then he has no high ground to stand on in this situation," He said, lacing his fingers together in front of him, "Naruto and Sasuke being missing in action was put into our records long before the incident that our enemies would try to spin as us conducting raids on Iwagakure. No one will side with him, knowing what they do about the situation."
Iwagakure tried to steal not only Konoha's jinchuuriki, but one of the most coveted kekkei genkai in the world, and a national treasure. No village would ever work with a leader that would do such a thing, all at once and under the radar to boot.
"He still has the necklace," Jiraiya asserted in return.
"It's a piece of jewelry in the grand scheme of things. That's all," Hiruzen rationalized, "Other than being worth money, it helped Naruto keep the Kyuubi's nasty voice out of his head," With Iwagakure's complete lack of tailed beasts, it failed to serve a purpose of control for them, "Besides, I don't think he'll try to find a buyer for it. For Onoki, it's a vanity prize, if anything. He'll keep it just to think that he came out on top in this encounter. We all know for a fact that he did not."
Between Naruto and Sasuke cutting a bloody swatch through a fair number of his chunin and even a few jounin, Jiraiya basically rendering their current emergency evacuation measures worthless, and the hornet's nest Iwagakure's actions could potentially stir up internationally (as all of this had transpired during the Chunin Exams, at a time when many villages' vulnerable genin could have been caught in the crossfire), there was nothing they could say.
Thinking of the setting in which all of this occurred brought another thing to mind.
"We're not sending our genin back there for the final exam, are we?" Jiraiya asked, wincing at the thought. Shoddy officiating would likely be the least of their worries if they were to do so.
It wasn't even an option as far as the Hokage was concerned, "No. And unfortunately, we won't be able to simply ask for reports on the progress of the candidates that have reached the finals," A plume of smoke blew from Hiruzen's mouth and nose, reflecting his disappointment on the matter, "It doesn't seem as though we'll be able to promote any this time around."
Still, it was better than putting the lot of them and their teachers at risk just for the opportunity to raise the ranks of one or two of them to the next level.
Considering all of this, Hiruzen let out a tired sigh, "We are coming into our fair share of problems lately, aren't we?" There was always something prevalent that needed solving. It came part and parcel with leadership. Still, these things seemed to be compounding and overlapping. Trouble always did seem to find ways to pile up.
Several of these issues directly involved Jiraiya, or people that Jiraiya was directly connected to. That did not make for a happy toad sage.
"Oh, where should we start, exactly?" Jiraiya asked acerbically, "The fact that Akatsuki's still running around as free as jaybirds? That Naruto and Sasuke almost got their good bits scooped out by Old Man Onoki, just because? Or should we go ahead and jump right into the fact that apparently Orochimaru doesn't care about keeping all of his twisted shit under wraps anymore!"
Which led to the piece of news that had almost been swept away with everything else that had been happening in the now.
The Fire Daimyo's Guardian Ninja came to Konoha to inform the Hokage that Orochimaru was leaving little leftover remnants of his experiments all over the Hi no Kuni countryside. It was so unlike him to be that way. Formerly, it had been so difficult to get even the slightest hint of where Orochimaru was, or what he was doing. Now, it was almost as if he were daring someone to make a move on him. To roll the dice and take a shot at putting him down for good.
He was simply too confident that there was no one capable of it. Probably with good reason the way things were.
It made Jiraiya's blood boil.
"I'm going to kill him, sensei," Jiraiya said with a stark coldness that contrasted his normal boisterous demeanor, "I'm going to kill him the way I should have years ago. I don't know how, I don't know where, but I'll find a way."
"Jiraiya, calm down," Everything that had been happening was circulating close to Jiraiya's personal life, bringing up past mistakes, threatening an important part of what he saw as the future. As shinobi, they had a bad habit of letting things from the past bleed over into what they were trying to build for those meant to come after, "Getting angry about him now won't do anything to change the fact that he's out there somewhere, doing God knows what. We need a more recent idea of where he is now if we want to do anything. All we can do is wait."
Jiraiya was tired of waiting, of scouting. It was all he had been doing for years. He had missed most of his godson's life doing it, and this was what it had gotten them. For all that his information network had brought Konoha throughout the years, they weren't much better off than they would have been without him ever starting it.
They were still suffering. Still taking blows from the original person he had sought out in the first place. The entire reason that Jiraiya had started a spy network was still out there, and every minute he walked the planet his plans were in play. And they would make someone somewhere suffer greatly.
"Orochimaru came from here. Anyone he hurts, any military power he screws over to give us that clue, they see us as responsible for letting that monster loose on the world!" Jiraiya said, "Back when he was careful about letting nothing slip on what he was doing, or where he had been so that we couldn't hunt him, at least people tried to pretend that it wasn't him doing the awful things we all know he did. People treated him like an urban legend almost. Now he doesn't care anymore!"
"Jiraiya," Hiruzen said, stopping the man in the midst of his attempted tirade, "I. Know."
At that, Jiraiya slunk down into the nearest chair and ran a hand through his long, spiky white mane. The proactive approach that they had been trying only seemed to leave them more at a loss for every supposed victory they were getting. But waiting for something to react to would likely damn someone else.
"The resources it would take to wage a shadow war against Orochimaru would leave us vulnerable to the rest of our enemies. We need more allies," With the loss of Sunagakure as a comrade village, that only left a relationship with Kiri that was still in its infancy.
There were cracks between the great walls that represented the five most powerful hidden villages that allowed for groups like Akatsuki and Orochimaru's organization to operate inside of. They were like vines that grew within the mortar, and if they weren't dealt with they would eventually bring it all down.
XxX
(Naruto's Mindscape)
Due to the current circumstances, Naruto was very much unable to go out and search for things to do to satisfy his short attention span. The only thing he could really do was sit around and take inventory. That meant tending to his tools and restocking his supplies of explosive notes and seal-based tags by hand.
It was all a way to keep from staying idle. Naruto hated remaining still. He hated silence. Even if that silence meant that he wasn't hearing from one particular figure in his life that he hadn't heard go truly silent for quite some time. One that most others would have been more than ecstatic to hear nothing from.
He hadn't been in contact with the Nine-Tails inside of him since he'd gone dark at Sora-ku. Now that he had a moment, it was time to reach out and make sure everything was copacetic.
As he made his way inside of the mental representation of the seal that held back the powerful creature inside of him, Naruto stared down the being within. Gigantic, angry red eyes opened up, and the furred muzzle snarled at the sight of him.
Some things just never changed.
At a loss for how to cordially start a conversation with someone/thing that completely abhorred him, Naruto went for the stock-standard greeting he had on-hand, "…S'up?"
"And what exactly are you doing here, boy?" The Kyuubi asked, contemptuous to Naruto's very presence, "Have you had enough of nearly getting us killed yet? Or are you here to test just how much control over my chakra you think you still have?" It finished with a bout of deep, mocking, chuckles.
"I don't get it," Naruto replied, "It should still be about four-tails before I start to slip," That was what it had been during his fight with Kisame. It had been a struggle to maintain enough composure to fight a thoughtful battle, but he had still managed while he had been in that form.
Nothing had happened that Naruto could recall to change that to any significant, lasting degree. Any seals affecting his chakra that he might have missed during his escape from imprisonment had been taken care of by Jiraiya during the journey back to Konoha.
"You're missing a little something that's normally sitting front and center around your neck," The resulting blank look from Naruto elicited a nasty sharp-toothed grin from the hateful fox, "Oh my God. They never told you."
"Tsunade's necklace? What about it?" Yes, that was missing, along with everything else he had taken on his last mission. Jiraiya told him the Tsuchikage had the keepsake, and it pissed him off to no end that the gnome of Iwagakure had possession of a valuable gift from an important person to him, but Naruto didn't know how that factored into tailed beast control, "It's gone now. So what?
"That accursed Senju necklace you wore kept my influence in check by a measure, though I question whether or not the woman who gave it to you knew it at the time. I'm certain the toad man did, however," The Kyuubi said, its hot breath blasting out at Naruto scornfully, "You no longer have it. Without it, you'll never go any further. Not if I don't allow it. Just another reason for you to hate me, isn't it?" It finished, opening its large mouth with bellowing laughter at the plight of its jinchuuriki.
While Naruto wasn't keen on the reminder that his necklace had been taken away when he'd been taken prisoner, it wasn't enough to elicit an explosive response out of him, "I don't hate you, you asshole fox," He said, causing the Kyuubi to stop laughing out of sheer surprise.
Its mirth was quickly replaced with outrage at Naruto's attempts to blunt its pointed words, "Don't lie. It makes you seem more pathetic."
Naruto shook his head as if to say no, "I'm a shitty liar," With a shrug of his shoulders, he continued on with his point, "Yeah, I don't know my mom and dad because of what happened, and my life kind of sucked because you're stuck inside of me… but that's over now. Things are better now. Way better."
He had friends. He was a skip and a hop away from possibly being promoted to jounin of all things. He had a girl that he was utterly over the moon for, who felt the same about him. He had respect as a worthwhile ninja and was getting more with every achievement he notched into his belt.
Life was much improved for Naruto. Though the same definitely couldn't be said for the Kyuubi, "Well how wonderful for you that things finally improved years after I was placed inside of your disgusting meat sack of a body. Nothing has changed for me! I've been locked away inside of you humans, one after another for the better part of eight decades!"
Naruto opened his mouth to speak, but was at a loss for words. There was no right way to talk about such a thing. Nothing he could tell the Kyuubi that would soothe the bitter biju, "I don't know what to say."
"There is nothing to say. You expect to co-exist with me somehow? You can't begin to understand enough of my wrath to endure it."
"There are too many people out there who want to use you as a weapon. I'm trying to keep that from happening."
"It's funny how your way of preventing me from being used as a weapon is using me as a weapon. That seems to be defeating the purpose, don't you think?"
"I-…" Naruto started to defend himself before stopping, a look of stunned insight on his face, "…You have a point," How could he ask for help to keep it from being used, when using it was the only interest he himself had ever had in it. It was a realization that just made him feel dirty, "You're right."
"Of course I'm right," The Kyuubi crowed victoriously until it saw Naruto sit down on the surface of the water that flooded the mindscape, "What are you doing?"
Naruto sat cross-legged and got himself comfortable, as though he planned on being there for quite some time, "You just said it. I don't understand. People always tell me how hard-headed I am and how long it takes to get anything through my skull, so the sooner I start working on this, the better. The first step's listening, isn't it? So go ahead; talk."
"…What?"
Naruto gave the Kyuubi a grin that was equal parts amusement and triumph. Throwing a being of nigh immeasurable power off of its game was more than a little gratifying, "You've been stuck in here for seventeen years, and before that you were stuck in my mom for however many years, and someone else before that for years. I'm sure you've got a lot of things to bitch about. I'm not going anywhere until you get everything off your chest. Anything that pisses you off. Go for it."
"Like you for starters?"
"There you go! You're getting the idea! Come on. Keep going."
"Oh really? Do you want me to go chronologically, on a scale of least-to-most rage-inducing, or vice-versa?"
"Just let whatever comes to mind fly!" Naruto exclaimed positively, arms waving wide, "Yelling in someone's face about what makes you mad makes you feel way better about it. Trust me. I won't leave until you're done."
"What if I want you to leave?"
"Still not leaving until you're finished," Naruto said, eliciting a growl from the monster in the cage, "Oh, what are you gonna do if I don't?"
*CLANG!*
Naruto didn't flinch the sight of claws the size of a building flying through the bars in his direction. They stopped short, just before they could reach him, courtesy of the seal, causing the deafening sound of iron banging to ring out.
"Was it fun trying to take a swing at me?" He asked after the fact, "I can't say complaining about all of your problems will feel as good as killing me probably would, but it's better than sitting in here letting it all build up even more."
At this point, it was a battle of wills. The question was, who would win out? The stubbornness built up through the better part of a century of containment, or the intrigue and lack of other stimulating activities available to a 17-year-old tenacious ninja.
XxX
(Kaminari no Kuni – Island Turtle)
Killer B wasn't necessarily the peace-mongering type. After all, fighting gave him the chance to show all of the poor, ignorant masses one of the many things that made the Eight-Tails jinchuuriki so great. Still, he wasn't a fool. There were clouds of war that had been building since the last blowout between hidden villages. For quite some time there had only been minor skirmishes that had been quickly covered up or negotiated down. That served to do nothing other than build up resentment on the side of those who were wronged.
His own student and his brother's protégé had been casualties of these constant on and off conflicts, and now B's two other students were holding on to that remaining anger.
He wasn't going to tell them that it was needless to feel that way. The wounds were still very fresh from Omoi and Darui's deaths. His own were as well, but having long since understood the nature of what they did for a living and having met the person responsible for their deaths in battle, his desire for revenge had decreased.
After he had done his part and battled Akatsuki for the sake of Yugito as well, that had only done more to reaffirm the kind of person Uzumaki Naruto was at his core.
"Your brother has come for you, B."
'Yeah, yeah… I can hear that gorilla from here, ya know?' B thought to the helpful biju inside of him, a grin crossing his face, 'Thanks anyway Eight-O.'
As the Hachibi had told him, it only took a little while longer for the Raikage to arrive, flanked by his bodyguards. With a look and a wave of his hand. Once he was certain that they were alone he made his way out to the rock at the base of the waterfall where Killer B was sitting.
"What are you doing here by yourself, B?" The powerhouse of a shinobi said to his adopted brother, "At a time like now, you need to be back in the village, somewhere our forces can keep an eye out for your well-being."
Killer B kept his eyes on the waterfall in front of him as he addressed A, "Hanging out in the village was crampin' my style. Thought I'd chill out on the island for a little while. Can't be a crime how I spend my time."
A looked around to make sure no one was around to see him be so vulnerable. He sat down on the rock next to B and waited for a moment before speaking again, "You're upset," He declared, instead of asking, "Yugito is doing much better by the way. She's eager to get back to work in the field, but I don't think I'll be sending her on assignment away from the village."
"Like with me?"
The Raikage let out a sigh. Times were rare when B didn't try to speak in some sort of rhyme. He knew that B was not a fan of his decree to keep him in the village with the title of Kumo's protector, but it was the only way he could think of to protect him, "Times are getting dangerous again," He explained, "Sora-ku, and what happened with Iwagakure was a hell of a wake-up call. What we've been doing hasn't been wrong, but it's also clear that Kumo hasn't been going far enough."
Killer B's jaw locked up tightly, and for once, he chose not to say anything. In decades, nothing he had ever said had been enough to change his stubborn brother's mind on something. He wasn't willing to take an Iron Claw just for something that wouldn't affect his viewpoint anyway.
Kumo had stayed militarized, even with the lack of a major war in the last eighteen years. They had constantly stockpiled their forces, even sabotaged the attempts of others to gain strength. A had relaxed more on that policy than his predecessor as Raikage, but that was simply because of the clear strength that Kumo already held compared to any other single village.
It was all necessary. Anyone who thought otherwise was just being ignorant to the nature of the kinds of people in power around the Elemental Nations, "All-out war will eventually happen again. We're closer now than we have been in fifteen years. Anyone with eyes across the landscape can feel that," Everything happened in a cycle. It always had, and the time was coming where events would repeat themselves again, "We're more prepared for that than the other villages, and every other village knows it. That is what will keep us safe."
"Sounds like you're counting on a war comin' to serve," Killer B finally said, "Instead of stoppin' it you're just tryin' to be ahead o' the curve."
"The world isn't going to change," A said, grousing over B's apparent attitude. He was often more annoying than normal whenever he was troubled about something, "You've been out there by my side. You've seen what it's like. How people are. Even with all you've done for our village, it took forever for them to eventually warm up to you as a jinchuuriki."
"If we're all out tryin' to kick each other's ass, who'll make sure the end of the world don't pass?"
XxX
(Konohagakure no Sato – Naruto's Apartment)
Shikamaru took a seat and watched Naruto lazily sprawled out on his couch, boredly watching Konohamaru try to pop a water balloon, "You know, if Ino catches you do anything involving training, she's gonna throw a fit. You're supposed to be taking it easy."
Naruto looked over at his usual teammate and best friend momentarily before returning his attention back to the genin he was trying to 'instruct', "I'm not doing anything hard. I'm teaching the Rasengan to Konohamaru," He explained to Shikamaru, "It's going great, right Konohamaru?"
Gritting his teeth as he focused wholeheartedly on Naruto's instruction to try and pop the object in his hand with nothing but his chakra, Konohamaru let his feelings on his new training be known, "Fucking water balloon! Why is something this lame the first step?"
"You should try learning wind as an element," Naruto responded, smiling slightly as he reveled in the frustration of his would-be pupil. Now he could see why some teachers took a sadistic pleasure in the struggle of their more boisterous charges, "Talk about a lame first step."
"You're still teaching him that jutsu?" Shikamaru asked from the sideline, "Didn't you hear? The Chunin Exams are cancelled."
Raising an eyebrow, Naruto sat up on his couch, setting his feet firmly on the floor, "So? He did everything I told him he had to do for me to teach him. So what if there aren't any finals? He made it there in the first place, so he gets to learn it."
Hanabi made it as well, and he was going to teach her in accordance to their agreement as well, but he wasn't going to bring that up in front of Konohamaru. He was just going to let that surprise amuse everyone around the two of them when they met in the next Chunin Exams.
Apparently having given up for the time being, Konohamaru let out a breath that he'd been holding while concentrating, the balloon in his hand no more popped than it had been before he'd started, "This sucks! Can't you just tell me how to do this?"
"I'm gonna tell you the same thing Ero-sensei told me," Naruto said, hopping off of the couch and guiding Konohamaru to his front door by the boy's shoulders, "Work it out for yourself. You'll know why I want you to later, but not for a few years. Now come and see me whenever you pop it so I can watch you do it in front of me. Then you'll get the next step."
It took Konohamaru until he was past the threshold of Naruto's apartment to realize that he had been escorted out, "Wait, are you kicking me out?"
"Yeah. Watching you do that was funny for the first two hours. And I don't want water all over my floor once you finally do get it," Naruto answered, entirely unashamed as he gave the Hokage's grandson a heart pat on the back, "Good luck, Konohamaru! You'll get it in no time!" With that, he shut the door behind him, shaking his head as he headed back inside, "It'll take him a few weeks. Hanabi'll probably take a few days to get it, honestly."
That bit of reasoning pissed him off. Good for her, but it was kind of annoying that she would pick it up way before he himself would have been able to. Damn prodigies.
"How long did it take you?" Shikamaru asked, having forgotten that mundane aspect of their lives, what with all of the constant near-death experiences and training that came with their place in the Ninja Guardians.
"A bit longer than a month," Naruto said, choosing not to get caught up in a wave of nostalgia. Reminiscing wasn't why Shikamaru had come to see him, "So what's up? You didn't drag yourself all the way across the village to watch me train Konohamaru or talk about old times."
Shikamaru shook his head and pulled out a scroll that he tossed over to Naruto just as he sat back down. As he broke the seal and opened it up, Shikamaru pulled out a similar, official-looking document, "I got mine this morning. There was one for you sitting in your mailbox, so I figure these were sent today."
Naruto's eyes scanned over the characters on the page until the message they comprised made themselves clear to him, "No way," He said, his eyes slowly widening as he mentally summarized all of the bureaucratic gobbledygook written out to him, "They're thinking about promoting us?"
Shikamaru didn't seem nearly as jostled as his friend, mostly because he'd had time to process the decision and rationalize it in his own head, "Aside from the work we did tracing Kabuto's origins, the whole ROOT thing, and all of the missions we've been doing since we came back, they've got our records from when we were working at the Capital as well,"
Naruto couldn't believe it. A step up the ladder was staring him in the face again? He hadn't even thought about getting a promotion with everything that had been going on around him since coming back to Konoha. But when he stopped to think about it, or more specifically, after Shikamaru had pointed it out, their body of work did warrant giving the idea some thought.
"I just got captured," Naruto said with a laugh, "Don't they have to do some kind of thorough screening to make sure I'm not brainwashed, or turned, or something?"
"That's what they've had Ino doing since you came back," Shikamaru said, having broken down the real reason Ino had been ordered to more or less stick to Naruto like glue until he was 'medically cleared'. What a joke. Naruto's physical wellbeing would never be a genuine reason to keep him on the sidelines.
Golden eyebrows raised up past Naruto's bangs, "She was telling the truth about that?" He said in surprise, "Huh. And here I thought it was just her way of trying to spend the night," To say the very least about what they had been doing with so much alone time together.
"To be fair, that's probably a reason why she did it without any kind of fuss," Shikamaru replied, "They'll probably give you a psyche interview with someone who's not one of us later, but this was approved and dated before Neji and I came back and reported that you were missing. As of now this is legit."
"So what, do we have to take another test like the chunin exam?"
"Oh, God no. We get scored on a series of missions by more experienced jounin who come with us."
"What exactly are we getting scored in?"
"Taijutsu, ninjutsu, and genjutsu, plus tracking, teaching, interrogation, organization and leadership, strategy and tactics to name a few others," Shikamaru explained as Naruto sat back near a window and lit up a cigarette, "You need the three combat proficiencies and a few of the sub-qualifications to pass as a jounin. If you score high enough on at least two sub-qualifications, they'll at least move you up to tokubetsu jounin."
"Why do you know that?" Even if his dad was a long-time jounin, Shikamaru wouldn't have cared about that kind of thing in Naruto's mind. He certainly wouldn't have asked about it today, even after all of this did come up.
Shikamaru gave Naruto a look as if to ask him if he were kidding, "Because that's what I want," He said, "That's a specialist's position, which means they'll only ask you to do jounin-stuff that falls into your field. Aside from that, you're still seen as a chunin as far as most other missions go, and they won't send me on many outside of the village if I score high in the most useless specialty of all."
"Teaching?"
"No way, then they'll probably saddle me with a genin team if I did that. I'm trying to avoid having to do any actual work, remember?" He sort of joked before seeing that Naruto wasn't bouncing off of the walls at the chance to be a jounin, "What's wrong?"
It wasn't that Naruto was unhappy about it. He was still smiling. He just wasn't raising a gigantic stink and raising the dead with an impromptu celebration the way Shikamaru would have expected him to after receiving such news.
"Nothing's wrong. This is great," Naruto said, and he meant it. It just didn't necessarily show. The meaning was there, but the energy simply wasn't, "We're gonna crush this exam. I'm gonna get promoted. Everything's going my way these days. Heh-heh… finally, right?"
Shikamaru fixed him with a long, hard glance before letting out a sigh, "…You're still messed up in the head from the Iwa stuff, aren't you?"
It would have been too good to be true for him to get out of all of that with no adverse effects. Even if he physically bounced back the same as he ever was, there was little chance that he could go through that kind of an experience and remain as he had been. Shikamaru had originally chalked it up to Naruto being a little off, but the fact of the matter was that people didn't just block things like that out and move along. It stuck with them in some way.
How it would stick with Naruto from here on out had yet to be seen. But at least it could have been worse.
Naruto gave Shikamaru a funny look before letting out a snort, smoke billowing from his nose, "No. If Sasuke's fine, I'm fucking great," He argued on his own behalf, "Whatever happened to me, he got it worse. They actually tortured him."
What Shikamaru said next caught Naruto entirely by surprise, "Who says he's fine? Didn't Ino tell you where she was going today?"
"No," Naruto said before a second, much less important thought hit him next, "Wait, why'd she tell you?"
XxX
(Meanwhile – With Ino – Uchiha Clan District)
Being a good friend oftentimes meant having your friend's back and dealing with wearisome things for their sake or upon their request.
After Ino's one-sided crush on Sasuke had gone the way of the dinosaur, she had basically ceased regular attempts at interacting with him. It was for the best really. She could speak to a brick wall and get the same amount of emotional response from it that she could have from Sasuke on her best day. After getting interested in Naruto, she never even thought about him unless she was having a boy-talk with Sakura and he came up.
So when Sakura came to get her that morning to ask her to head out to Sasuke's home with her, she hadn't exactly been enthused.
"Sakura, I know you're worried, but this is the kind of thing that's normal," Ino told her worried friend as they walked through the empty streets of the Uchiha Clan District. That place gave her the creeps. She used to think it was just an added part of Sasuke's cool factor that he basically had an entire section of the village that belonged to him. Not so much any longer. It seemed like a museum; untouched since the night the clan was destroyed, "Sasuke has been through some serious shit over the last few weeks. I mean, can you imagine?"
This was the sort of thing Sakura wanted to bring Ino along for. That specialization of hers in human psychology gave her a point of view that Sakura didn't have. Also, because she hadn't seen Sasuke in the same light as she did in quite some time, her perspective of his current state would be more unbiased.
"I just want to make sure he's alright," Sakura said, focusing on navigating her way to Sasuke's home, "He hasn't been coming into the village much, and even when he does he's so much more distant. It's reminding me of how things were when we were just starting out as a team again. It's scaring me."
Sasuke had never been the most sociable person, even when everything seemed to be going just fine. Once Ino had dropped her old crush on him, she could recognize just how startlingly frosty he had been back when they were all children, right up until graduation. Her boyfriend had somehow stricken up an odd friendship with him, based on one-upmanship, but Ino herself could never manage to drum up anything beyond a basic cordiality.
"He's not there," Ino said as Sakura started to make a turn that would have taken her to the front door of Sasuke's house. Before Sakura could ask where he could have been, Ino pointed in a direction and began leading her instead, "He's a little farther along this way. Maybe he's training or something?"
A disgruntled Sakura could absolutely see Sasuke doing just that, despite the fact that he was still supposed to be healing, "He'd better not be," She said, "He doesn't heal like Naruto does, and even he's not doing anything right now."
"Well that's just because Goldie listens to me when I ask him to do things," Ino gloated brightly, "Also, bribery is really helpful with that."
"What do you bribe him with?" Sakura asked before immediately regretting it when she saw the grin on Ino's face, "Forget it. I don't want to know," She cut her off before she could go into any sort of detail.
Before long, the two of them came to a tranquil shrine that sat at the top of a set of stone stairs. This was where Ino's sense of Sasuke's chakra had led her to, though Sasuke had never particularly struck her as the religious type. It seemed like it would be a waste of time to someone like him.
Ino's eyes suddenly went wide when a good reason finally hit her, "Sakura… what day is today?"
"It's September-," Sakura started to say before realizing why the date was an important thing. She had always been good with dates and memory-based things of that sort. Why she hadn't seen it sooner could have been chalked up to her worries over the thought of something being wrong with him because of his time as a prisoner, "…Do you think I should-?"
She stopped when she figured that her friend was just as at a loss as she was. Ino wasn't even close to Sasuke in the slightest, but what she knew about him didn't give her much confidence that intruding on his time during such a hallowed day would be a good idea."
Ino slowly shook her head, trying to come up with something helpful to say, "I don't know. I mean, you show up out of the blue on the anniversary of his clan's massacre. He's not exactly the friendliest guy on a good day," She pointed out, "Has he ever talked about it with any of you the entire time you've been a team?"
"No," It was uncomfortable. None of them wanted to talk about it. Choji had never been one to broach an uncomfortable topic in the first place, Kakashi wasn't exactly a fan of talking about the past in his own right, and Sakura just knew that anything having to do with the massacre would cause Sasuke pain, "I was hoping that settling things with Itachi would have given him some peace of mind."
"There's a good chance he still needs some time to let it all sink in," Ino said, putting her logic hat on to try and utilize her psychology experience, "It's only been just about a week since he accomplished the entire reason he's lived his whole life for the last ten years. That's it. It's done."
Most people didn't achieve the reason for their existence by the time they were 17. They definitely didn't find a new goal to dedicate their whole being to just like that.
It also couldn't have come at a worse time for Sasuke as well, right before the anniversary of his entire family's demise. He probably didn't want to so much as look another human being in the face for the next 24 hours.
"What are you both doing here?"
A chill went down Ino's spine from the frost on Sasuke's tone. Of course, even with her being a sensor he still would have gotten the drop on her. She and Sakura stopped and watched Sasuke walk out of the front of the shrine with heavy bags under his eyes. He looked like something or another had been keeping him up.
"Hey, Sasuke," Ino greeted, trying to manage some cheer and play dumb to the fact that he was not happy to see either of them on his clan grounds, "Just stopping in to check on you."
Sasuke's gaze narrowed on the pretty blonde girl who tried to stand tough despite its piercing nature, "That's not your job."
She wondered if it had to be a part of her job just for her to drop by, "Well, you were in that same hell of a mess that Goldie was, and we are friends. We were classmates at least, and your teammates are definitely my friends, so…" Ino finished with a shrug before looking to Sakura for how to have a conversation with the least willing participant in all of Konoha.
"It might not be Ino's job, but it's my place to, Sasuke-kun," Sakura insisted, "I just figured you would have liked to see someone else today that cares about you."
Skepticism covered Sasuke's face, and Ino wondered if Sakura had managed to cut through his bad attitude. It was only temporary though, as he quickly returned to his original point; he wanted them out of there.
"Not today. Go," Sasuke quickly shot back before pausing for a moment, "…I'll talk to you later."
With that, he went back inside of the shrine.
Sakura frowned but nodded and began heading back the way she had come with Ino in tow. At least she had confirmed that Sasuke was alright for the time being. It had been the reason she had come in the first place. But now definitely wasn't the best time to gauge how recent events had affected him.
"Well, if it's any consolation, that went a lot less explosively than I thought it would have," Ino tried to joke, only for it to fall flat.
XxX
Sasuke had to send them away. While he wouldn't have wanted outsiders on his property uninvited under normal circumstances, let alone on a day like today, now there was a much more realistic reason to want Sakura and Ino far away from the Uchiha Clan District.
Right now, he was dealing with a very unwelcome visitor inside the hidden Naka Shrine area of the district. And he didn't want anyone near this person until he got answers first.
He didn't want anyone he actually liked or cared about around someone this dangerous at all.
As he returned to the secret area only accessible to Uchiha Clan members, Sasuke glared at the man in the swirl-patterned mask leaning carelessly against the wall.
"You've got some nerve getting anywhere near here right now, 'Madara'," Sasuke spat disbelievingly. To think, that this imposter would have found his way into the inner sanctum of his clan. It made him burn with rage, "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't rip your heart out?"
"Other than because you physically can't, you mean?" Tobi said, trying to needle Sasuke further, "That temper, that passion. That's the thing that sets you apart from Itachi more than anything else."
"Don't say his name!" Sasuke snapped, "He's dead. I killed him. It's over. There's no reason for anyone to ever acknowledge him again. Itachi's just a memory now. A dark memory in the minds of all of the people here. Soon he won't even be that. And that's the way I want it."
Tobi let out a hiss of false pain, "So cold, Sasuke. And you used to love Itachi so much."
"Things change."
"Not everything," Tobi continued, "He obviously still loved you. After all, why else wouldn't he have dodged?"
"Why didn't you dodge?"
His final attack, a straightforward Chidori right to the heart. Itachi didn't move an inch and seemingly allowed his younger brother to strike him down.
Sasuke's own words, asking the exact same thing to Itachi's motionless body at the end of their fight rattled around inside of his head, echoing off of every corner. And every time it did, it only served to raise his temper further.
His Sharingan flared to life, but the only thing that stayed his hand from attacking was the area that they were in. He had already tried to attack Tobi in Iwagakure and had failed to even make contact with him. Anything he could do that would potentially damage the infuriating mystery man would also destroy Naka Shrine.
"I didn't come here to fight," Tobi declared, his tone shifting to one of grave severity, "After all, you and I are the last of the Uchiha Clan. And since that is indeed the case… you and I should both know about the truth behind our clan's downfall."
He'd planned for this.
The bastard in the mask had confronted Sasuke in a place he wouldn't wreck in order to rid himself of an annoyance, and since he wasn't attacking Sasuke first, Sasuke wouldn't force the issue. It was the only reason nothing had been destroyed yet.
He put himself at risk by even coming to Konoha in the first place. But it was a calculated risk, as he came to a place that was impossible for the village to patrol. A place where he would have time to do what he needed and then leave in secret.
Tobi's confidence showed in his body language. His complete lack of any caution in dealing with Sasuke up close, "It's clear by now that you won't simply hear me out, so I came to visit you here, in this place, on this day, to make absolutely sure that you would sit and listen,"
If anything, the sheer audacity of showing himself was enough to pique Sasuke's interest. If Tobi's reason for being there wasn't to kill him for meddling with Akatsuki, it would behoove him to find out just what he wanted.
Sasuke took a series of deep breaths to calm himself down. He had a feeling that this would be far from the only time he would feel severe vexation today, "The next thing that comes out of your mouth better be damned good," He said, doing his best to keep a calm and measured voice as he sparked up a Chidori in his hand, "And you'd better pray to whatever god you worship that I believe it, 'Madara'. Otherwise, just being in this place won't keep me from doing whatever I have to do to rip you apart."
A chance to speak was all Tobi could have hoped for, "If there's a god, it's not worth worshipping. The hand life wound up dealing you is proof enough of that."
XxX
(Amegakure – Pain's Tower)
Deidara's report filled Pain with rage. The sheer audacity of Orochimaru to do what he had done.
To take the power of the Sanbi and make deformed hybrids of human beings and miniature biju. While it took a disturbing spark of brilliance to think of perverting the human condition in such a way, the same kind of brilliance that attracted Akatsuki to Orochimaru in the first place, this was simply something that could not be tolerated.
He wanted to create his own army of mindless monsters to serve his own ends. He was using something that was meant to achieve Akatsuki's goals and making a mess of things.
So now there were two options.
He could either go after Orochimaru himself or secure another jinchuuriki in the meantime on his own, to ensure that the job was done correctly.
Decisions, decisions. Which was more important for the time being? He had to make a choice and then move on to the next thing. He wanted results. Akatsuki had worked too hard, he had sacrificed too much, come too far to simply allow things to slip from his grasp.
If you wanted something done right, you had to do it yourself, after all.
Omake: 'Til Death Do Us What? (8)
The morning of her intended duel with Shizuka, Ino awoke and prepared herself before the sun had ever even come up. She left her family's home under the dead of early morning darkness and marched with purpose to the site of her fated conflict.
What she didn't expect to see upon arriving was the subject of the to-be fight, her boyfriend Naruto, standing and staring in complete shock and awe.
Immediately, Ino rushed up to him, "Goldie! What are you doing here!" He wasn't supposed to be there. How did he even find out about what was supposed to happen that morning? And why wasn't he paying her any mind?
After reaching his side, Ino followed the direction of his gaze and saw what had garnered his attention.
The training field that would have served as the setting for Ino and Shizuka's battle had already been torn to shreds. Rows of trees had been hacked down, square yards of ground had been ripped asunder. In short, it looked like a fight had already taken place.
"…What happened?"
"I… I was heading here to try and talk this whole thing down," Naruto said, "On the way here, I found Lee while he was doing morning stuff."
"Lee?"
"Lee fought Shizuka," Naruto continued, "I don't even know what happened. It all went down so fast, by the time I realized what was happening they'd already started."
"And?"
"You tell me. You're a better sensor than I am."
There was no need to. Before Ino could even try and put her sensing technique to the test to try and keep tabs on the two combatants, Lee jogged his way up to the two of them from the wrecked training field, body covered in cuts, bruises, and scuffs, jumpsuit torn, bowl-cut slightly askew. Despite all of that, the wide smile on his face was unmistakable, "Ino-san! Good morning!"
"Uh… yeah," Ino replied at the sight of Shizuka being held underneath Lee's right arm. She was completely unconscious, "…Lee, did you do that to her?"
He looked down at Shizuka under his arm before nodding frantically to Ino's query, "Yes! I ran into Naruto-kun during my early morning training and decided to accompany him to this meeting."
Ino looked over at Naruto who simply shrugged in return, "Why did you fight her?" She asked as what seemed like an obvious follow-up question.
Rock Lee grabbed his chin in thought, inadvertently dropping Shizuka to the ground with an audible thud, "She seemed happy to see Naruto-kun, but not with me here as well. I would have excused myself when I realized it, but she challenged me before I could," At that, Lee turned to Naruto and bowed profusely, "I am so sorry! I did not mean to ruin your meeting. But she was so powerful!" He picked himself back up with an expression of pure, unbridled joy at getting to take on someone so powerful, "I had to begin releasing some of the Gates to defeat her! Ah, what a challenge!"
Naruto's face twisted oddly as he tried to keep the smile off of his face, "It's alright, Lee. But she'll be okay, right?"
"I only knocked her out," Lee explained, "Some bones may be broken from blocking a few of my blows and taking a few of them outright, but she was still awake when I first picked her up."
Ino stooped down by Shizuka and began working on some of her injuries, "I'll take care of her. We'll make sure she gets to a hospital. Don't worry Lee."
Gratefully, Lee bowed to Naruto and Ino one last time, "If she wakes up, could you thank her for me! Such a splendid kunoichi, I could not have asked for a better battle," Having spoken his mind, Lee dropped down into a squat and began to run by kicking his legs forward from that position, one at a time, "Back to my training then! Goodbye!"
Rock Lee was easily one of their odder friends, but he was definitely a great guy. Ino looked down at Shizuka and sighed. Clearly, they weren't going to be having their little duel today.
As she finished touching up Shizuka's combat wounds, she found Naruto's hand resting on her shoulder. She looked up to see him standing over her, a wide grin on his face, "I know what you did. Or at least what you were going to do."
"Fight Shizuka?" She confessed before he could say it himself, "How'd you know?"
"Sakura told me yesterday."
Damn Sakura. Stupid forehead-girl, snitching on her. Of course, that didn't explain why Naruto wasn't upset, when fighting was the last thing he wanted Ino to try and do, "Well if that's the case, why are you smiling so hard?"
If anything, Naruto's smile grew even larger. A few laughs even escaped him as he thought about it, "Because Lee beat her," He said, almost gleefully, "I never did. I just threw my weight around and showed I was stronger than her. He beat her straight-up. That means he has a better claim than I do."
"So you're saying Rock Lee is a more legit fiancé candidate than you are?" Ino asked, getting her hopes up for good reason when Naruto nodded. Ino forgot about her patient and hopped to her feet, throwing her arms around Naruto's neck and letting him swing her around, "Hell yes! I don't have to talk you into that one night stand after all!"
Naruto stopped celebrating and pulled away from the hug, "What?"
Figuring that the jig was up, Ino averted her eyes away from Naruto's shamefully, "Well, back when I had no idea what I was going to do to help you with this, I might have made a deal with someone saying that if she helped me and we got Shizuka out of here I owed her three 'favors' involving you."
More shocked than angry or appalled, Naruto could only take a step back and take that information in, "…So let me get this straight. Your plan for getting help to keep me from being whored out… involved whoring me out?" He sounded less than impressed, but not totally against it.
"…When you put it that way, wow, that really doesn't sound like a good idea at all."
"You know what? It might make me look like a hypocrite, but honestly, I'm kind of alright with it," Likely because it would have involved his girlfriend consenting his doing adult things with another, likely gorgeous, girl. Jiraiya would have approved. Then again, he wasn't exactly Naruto's moral compass.
Ino seemed surprised, "Really?"
"Yeah," Naruto admitted, "My idea wasn't much better."
Now it was Ino's turn to be confused. What was he talking about? Of course his idea was better. It had worked. The buck had been passed to someone else, fair and square, "But Lee won the fight," Eventually realization as to just how lucky they were dawned on her, "Wait. Lee wasn't your idea then?"
"No, he just showed up," Naruto explained lamely, "When we got here, Shizuka threatened him so he'd leave us alone, and Lee took it as a straight-up challenge. Thank God for Rock Lee."
Ino couldn't help but agree. Yes. Thank God for Rock Lee.