Another arrogant civilian stood, "We are the council boy. You are a ninja of this village and therefore your secrets are ours to know."
Naruto gave him a look as if to say 'are you serious?' He looked up at Tsunade, "I work for you. Not some petty merchant with a superiority complex. Keep him out of shinobi business." He turned to the council, "The only ones that have even the slightest amount of authority over me are the clan heads, and that's because they're all jounin. Outside of the field the only person here that can tell me to do anything is Hokage-sama. Do any of you have the title of Hokage-sama?"
He got a unanimous shaking of heads, "Do any of you have that kick-ass pointy hat?" Another round of no's, "Well then you can all respectfully stuff it. My techniques are my own, you don't need to know them, you couldn't perform them anyway so the knowledge would be useless."
The civilians broke into an uproar while the clan heads started looking at Naruto with amused respect. The main yells from the civilian council were calling for Naruto's punishment until one of them changed the subject altogether, "You should be punished for allowing the Uchiha to escape! He was the last of our most powerful bloodlines and you send another genin to get him instead of yourself!"
Naruto looked at the ignorant man coldly, "Like I said, Kimimaro Kaguya was far beyond anything Rock Lee could have done to him. Kimimaro would have killed him for sure had I not stepped in, which was my job in the first place. I was sent as back-up, to get them out of unfavorable situations, and that was as unfavorable a condition as they were going to face on that mission." Naruto stood and began pacing, "Kimimaro could have beaten Sasuke without trouble. Sasuke only had Chidori and a few katon ninjutsu as something that could slow Kimimaro down, and that wouldn't have stopped him. What I did to make that crater, Kimimaro survived it and launched one final attack. As far as I'm concerned, none of them could have kept up with him. And besides, I was sent to make sure they could carry out their own mission parameters, my own were different from theirs and I did what I thought I had to do to achieve both. Rock Lee had not told me that he wasn't in prime condition. I don't know what would have changed if I had known, but that is moot at this point."
"Get back to the other topic! What did you do to cause the crater!"
The room once again got loud on the civilian side as cries of 'the Kyuubi is escaping' among other asinine remarks were being made. The shinobi side were looking bored, most of them knowing full well that jinchuuriki should be able to utilize the power of their demons so this wasn't much of an issue. Tsume Inuzuka even let out a loud yawn signifying how bored with the proceedings she was.
Naruto made subtle motions to the shinobi council signaling 'blah blah blah' and pointing at the civilian side, getting a few smirks on that side. He looked up at Tsunade, "Can I be dismissed Hokage-sama? I've already spoken my peace, anything from this point forward and there's nothing I can do or have any part in."
Tsunade nodded, "You are dismissed chunin Uzumaki." Naruto bowed to her and left the room. As the door closed shut she sighed as another uproar from the civilians broke out.
XxX
Naruto sighed in relief as he jumped along the rooftops towards his apartment, "Well that wasn't as unpleasant as it could have been. Hopefully baa-chan can block any of their powerplay bullcrap against me."
Naruto arrived and opened the door to his apartment to find Kankuro raiding his fridge. Naruto's eye twitched as he grabbed Kankuro by the collar and dragged him away from his food, "What the hell are you guys still doing here?"
Kankuro looked at Naruto smugly as the boy let go of him, "Don't you remember Naruto? You told Gaara we could stay here after he got you to the hospital." Naruto looked around his apartment, "Does my place look like it can accommodate all of you and me at the same time? Why don't you all go and get a hotel you rich bastards?"
Kankuro chuckled, "Well we got the call to leave so quickly that we didn't have any time to go home and grab any money. We were fortunate Gaara asked you."
A tick mark appeared on Naruto's head, "Gaara asked me when I was hopped up on so many painkillers I couldn't tell that there was a catheter in me! Nothing I could have possibly said in that state of mind could possibly be held as a valid statement!"
Kankuro shrugged, "It's done man. Temari swiped your bed, I'm hitting the couch, and Gaara doesn't sleep so it worked out just fine for everyone." "Except for me…" Naruto had a perturbed look on his face, "Because you probably ate me out of house and home! I ain't made of money here you know!"
Temari came from the back with a sad frown on her face, "But Naruto… When you stayed in Suna you stayed with us we didn't say anything. Am I really that bad that you can't live with me for a few days?" The look on her face appeared as though his answer would end up breaking her heart.
Naruto was slack-jawed and sputtering, "I-. But-. You guys-. My food-." He eventually threw his hands in the air in exasperation and went to grab his wallet, "Fine whatever, I'm out of here. Don't eat all of my food!"
A grumbling Naruto turned to leave the apartment, shutting the door roughly behind him. Kankuro smirked at his sister, "That was messed up Temari. Playing with the kid like that. You shouldn't mess with his head like that, he might think you like him or something."
Temari shrugged and walked back to Naruto's room, "Maybe I do. I'm going to take a nap for a few hours."
Kankuro sat blinking in place for a moment, "Wait, Temari are you serious?" Temari said nothing as she shut the door to Naruto's room, "Temari!"
XxX
Naruto grumbled as he left his apartment, "I can't believe this crap! What the hell is going on around here? Can I get a little me time?" Naruto decided that since he wasn't going to get any alone time he might as well get some food in him. Going to the place that he was most accustomed to going for his meals, Naruto ended up taking a seat at Ichiraku Ramen.
As he plopped down in his usual seat Naruto sighed, "Can I get some ramen you guys… I really need some relaxation food right about now."
Ayame giggled as she came over with a pen to write his order, "Ramen is a strange food to relax with Naruto-kun even for you. So what do you want?"
Naruto pulled out a full wallet with a wide grin, "Give me one of everything to start, let's say I have money to blow today."
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