Things were somewhat calm for a few days after Naruto returned to the village with Karin. He identified that the redhead's extremely clingy state was indeed due to the gradual opening of the seals in Uzu that made her experience the extreme emotions that she was feeling while in the ruins of the hidden village. Once they were back in Konoha, Karin was back to her usual flirty self who teased and in general enjoyed tempting Naruto but only to a certain limit. Under his probing, she revealed that she recalled the events correctly but still didn't feel anything wrong with her thoughts and actions. She just amounted everything down to her feeling horny at that time.
As for Naruto, he continued spending time with his family while funneling away all of the funds of the two elders into secret accounts under the name of unknown decedents popping up out of nowhere. It was one situation where the civilian council's actions of putting massive loads of paperwork came in handy because most of those permissions were to come from Naruto anyway. Within the span of two days, all of the two corrupt elders' funds and properties were under Naruto's control.
As for his lovely disciple, Naruto continued supervising her training which was followed by her helping him with some paperwork and them sharing a nice conversation over ramen when everything was done.
Soon, almost ten days passed since Momoshiki and Kinshiki's invasion and the aftereffects of their appearance seemed to have all but disappeared. That was when one of the aftereffects came up like a mole from the ground.
In the evening, as Naruto was analyzing the mission reports of the genin teams, Shikamaru entered his office with a slightly flustered expression.
"Something big happened," Naruto said, easily understanding the gravity of the situation from Shikamaru's expression.
"Yeah," He nodded. "I just got a message from Sai from his personal encrypted line. Suna is in bad shape."
"Rebellion?" Naruto asked.
"Worse," Shikamaru said, pulling back a seat and sitting down. "Kankuro has been attacked by five different assassins over the past week or so. Sai kept him safe, but we've lost three of our Anbu members. Not only that, Shinki has been taken by the commander of Suna's Anbu, who is responsible for everything."
"You're all over the place," Naruto said. "To clarify. The Anbu commander of Suna staged a rebellion in the name of Gaara's son by kidnapping him. I assume Sai and our Anbu were too busy focusing on Kankuro and let Gaara's son get taken. In return, the support that Kankuro has from the elders has dwindled down to almost nothing and there have been multiple attempts on his life. Also, Sai isn't able to sneak into their base and kidnap Shinki right back. Did I get everything?"
"Pretty much, yeah," Shikamaru nodded.
"Your wish of sending your wife to Suna may yet be fulfilled, Shikamaru," Naruto leaned back in his chair, deep in thought.
"You say that like I would be happy if she went away," Shikamaru said gloomily.
"Wouldn't you?" Naruto asked. "You can spend time with your mistress then."
"Yeah, this mistress right here, I guess," Shikamaru raised his right hand. "She's been helping me for a while now since Temari is still mad at me."
Naruto burst out laughing, making Shikamaru laugh lightly as well. The previously tense atmosphere that Shikamaru carried with him seemed to have dissipated a little as the man calmed down.
"On a more serious note," Naruto showed a serious expression, "We need to quash the rebellion before it becomes too widespread. I'm going to send a clone there to take care of things as quickly as possible. Kankuro isn't a viable candidate after this debacle, however. I feel that Shinki would do best as the Kazekage."
"He's too young, and he's not Gaara," Shikamaru said. "He can't handle the pressure."
"That's why he's going to have both his uncle and aunt supporting him," Naruto said, making Shikamaru sigh.
"Temari needs to go to Suna for a while," He understood what Naruto was saying.
"Are you going to talk to her, or should I summon her?" He asked.
"She won't listen to me. And mentioning Suna to her is only going to make things worse," Shikamaru said. "You should do it."
"Then tell her to come meet me first thing in the morning when you get home," Naruto told Shikamaru, making the man nod as he got up from his chair.
…
The door to Naruto's office opened without a knock, making Naruto look up from his work. He saw his disciple walking in through the door with a tired expression on her face as she dragged her feet forward. Barely making her way to the couch, she fell on it, half of her body hanging from the cushions as she groaned tiredly.
"Good evening, Sarada," Naruto said with a smile, continuing some work. "I hope training went well."
His disciple merely grunted in response, unable to gather the energy to speak coherently.
Naruto smiled and took care of a few more documents before standing up from his chair. He approached Sarada and sat beside her, pulling her head in his lap. "Feel better?" He asked as he gently took her glasses off and started passing his chakra to her.
"Much, master …" The girl buried her face in his stomach. "I'm so tired …"
"It's going to be fine. Since you're tired and sore, then that means that your training was fruitful." Naruto said as Sarada quieted down, humming comfortably as he essentially recharged her like some sort of battery.
"Master …" Sarada spoke, not moving her head from its spot as Naruto ran his fingers through her short locks.
"What is it?"
"When will the next council meeting take place?" She asked him.
"Next month. It's a monthly sitting. Why are you asking?"
"Can I also join that meeting?" She asked, turning her head and looking up at Naruto from his lap.
"Why do you want to join in on a bunch of old people arguing with me and asking me for money?" Naruto traced his palm from her forehead to her hair.
"I feel that it would be good for me to see it …" Sarada said.
"Not yet," Naruto shook his head, recalling Sarada's state after she met the daimyo. "You are far from ready to meet with the old foxes that all sit on the council seats. You will be pressured by both the Shinobi and the Civilian Councils. The Civilian Council because they will try to establish dominance over you; and the Shinobi Council, solely because of Sasuke. Trust me. You aren't yet ready for the heat that comes with you meeting them."
"But I have to be ready sometime …" Sarada said, her voice shaky.
"Not yet my disciple. Just trust me on this."
"But … Fine," She pouted.
"Tell me how your missions were today," Naruto said. "I assigned you guys a C-rank mission today."
"Ah … that one," Sarada suddenly seemed hesitant.
"I already have the report, kid," Naruto laughed. "I know it didn't go as well as you would've liked. I'm asking you about what you felt you could do better during the mission. The reprimand for the mission goes to your jōnin sensei."
"Don't blame Konohamaru-sensei, master," Sarada said, suddenly acting cute, "It was all of our fault. First of all, the bank robbers had no affiliation with the Mujina bandits whatsoever. The leader whom Boruto, Mitsuki, and I captured didn't give the correct information at all. As for the robbers … well they seemed prepared for us and most of them got away. At least we managed to foil the robbery."
"The captured leader of the Mujina bandits gave us the correct information," Naruto said. "I dispatched many of our ninjas according to his information and they all captured many criminals who were all affiliated with the Mujina bandits. As for your assignment targets, they were a little different. Those robbers were from an affiliate group that the Mujina bandits usually work with. I could reprimand you for meaninglessly blaming T&I, but as I said, that reprimand goes to Konohamaru. What I asked is what you felt you could improve upon."
Sarada decided not to say anything more about the mission because she felt that she was very close to being reprimanded in Konohamaru's place right now. 'Sorry, sensei. I tried. You're on your own after this.' She inwardly prayed for Konohamaru.
"I felt that my initial reaction wasn't fast enough," Sarada said. "When we'd just reached the bank, two of the robbers just ran past me and I hesitated between following them or staying my ground. They got away because of that. I feel that if I'd reacted soon enough, I would've been able to stop them in one fell swoop."
"It's understandable that your battle senses aren't very honed yet," Naruto said. "Most fighters without much real-world battle experience have a small window of time right as the battles start where they pause or hesitate. Call it a lapse in their movements as their minds adjust to the abrupt shift in the situation."
"That's exactly what I felt …" Sarada said. "Why is that? Why did I pause just after landing and allow the bandits to run past me?"
"That's not just a problem that you have. Every freshly graduated genin and even some chūnin have this exact lapse in judgment," Naruto told her. "That's because of the nature of the battles that you have in the academy. There is always a starting whistle or signal that tells you that you are allowed to fight. Same when you spar with someone of equal strength. Understand what I'm saying?"
"There's no whistle telling us to battle in the real world. The fight just starts."
"Exactly. While you are getting used to real battles, you still need another half a year to a year of such missions to hone your mindset to be inclined in such a manner. I still remember my sensei abruptly attacking me out of nowhere at completely random times for two whole months to fix my lapse."
"Was it Lord Sixth?" Sarada asked, her gaze inadvertently hovering over Kakashi's portrait.
"It was ero —" Naruto coughed. "— Jiraya-sensei. I spent three years training all sorts of foundational skills under him."
"The Toad Sage …" Sarada spoke, recalling the story of Pain's assault on the village. "If not for him and the intel that he sacrificed himself for, then you wouldn't have been able to hold back the assault of the leader of the Akatsuki, right Master?" Sarada asked. "Only because you held Pain back, was the hero Nagato able to save all of the victims of the assault, saving the village with his great sacrifice."
"You're correct," Naruto nodded with a little laugh, curious about what she would say if he told her the truth regarding the villain Pain who destroyed the village, and the hero Nagato who saved the inhabitants of the destroyed village with his sacrifice.
'All in good time child…'
***
If you like the story, follow it and leave a review and whatever else, it motivates me a lot. I try not to leave any mistakes in the chapters, but if you find something glaring, let me know, and I'll try to fix it.
If you want to support me, check out my Patréon. I post advanced chapters there and do weekly polls to decide the stories that I will be posting for the week. No pressure though, I'm eventually going to post my content publicly regardless.
www.patrèon.com/addyctive
(Replace the è with e)