Well the first chapter went well, I got alot of what I wanted to do, done. This chapter will continue the introductions to the last two remaining characters, so you kinda have a full view of the plot from different angles. :P Anywho, thanks for the nice review(s), and sorry about the uber long pre-notes last time.There won't be any near that long anymore. And on to the story...
By the way, sorry for taking so long, I had a bit of a writers block. :)
"talking"
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"We're going to WHAT?!" Screamed an almost rageful Naruto.
"You heard me right, brat... We are going to war." seethed Tsunade.
"Why the hell are we doing that?!..What happened, Granny?...Please tell me!" He said pleadingly.
"Where to start, well first the Rock's most powerful Daimyo has been assassinated, and us framed for it, by some unknown force, but most agree its probably...Akatsuki, ther-"
"What?! Akatsuki is behind this?!"
"Shut up while I'm talking, brat! You asked me what was going on and I was telling you, so shut up!"
"Sorry, old hag.." he muttered under his breath.
She glared at him for a moment before continuing her story. "There are many secret alliances in this world, when rock declared war on us, it forced many of their alliances to do the same, by way of the treaty they signed. These countries include cloud, and grass... We have the same type of alliances with wind and water, so when we declare war, which, is in the process of being written up... They will have to declare war as well. We just got involved in the biggest war of the century..." She sounded resigned and somewhat defeated because nothing was under her control, and she knew that many good people die in war...
Naruto was in complete shock, his sapphire eyes just stared blankly at Tsunade, unable to grasp what was happening.
He walked away, just what is going on here, why is this all happening, a million thoughts were overwhelming his mind... He remembered what had happened to Kakashi-sensei, losing so many friends, so many precious people...
No..No, that would not happen to him, he would rather die, than let Sakura-chan die, or anyone he cared for...But thats just it...He cared for the whole village...
Something caught his eye over by granny, that pulled him away from his depressing thoughts, he could've swore he saw a pink lock of hair.. that could mean that only one person could be over by the old hag..well two, Sakura's mom or Sakura-chan, he really was hoping for the latter.
He slowly made his way over towards the heated discussion between Tsunade and Sakura-chan, taking care to note how the conversation was going. It would not bode well to play around with his teammate if she was especially worked up, not with her superhuman strength.
So far it didn't look so good, Sakura looked furious and confused, an odd combination of emotions. Apparently she had heard what the old hag had said, because everyone was quiet during the speech, he would be certain to be more aware of his surroundings in the future, especially in this foreign area known simply
as politics.
When he finally deemed the area safe enough for contact he entered himself in the conversation.. With "Hey Sakura-chan, how are you-"
Bad idea, should've waited longer, he realized this as he fell towards the ground below, from his once cozy spot in Tsunade's office...
Once he managed to come back into the office, Sakura had noticeably calmed down, he primarily figured this out when she started healing his wounds from his surprise date with mother earth.
"You should know better Naruto, then to be annoying when I'm angry." Said Sakura, in a matter of fact tone...Naruto visibly flinched...
"Sorry about that Sakura-chan." He said softly, then beamed a grin at her.
She returned the smile, it was a good smile that always made him feel better.
"Come on Naruto, lets get something to eat. I'm starving." Stated the pink haired girl.
"Whatever you say Sakura-chan." Said the blonde haired boy as he followed her out of the office.
"Hey brat, the briefing will be in two hours, be ready by then!" Yelled Tsunade as they walked out.
A few minutes later they were in town browsing possible food ventures when they heard a grown man giggling... wait... giggling... That could only mean the world's biggest super pervert was here...Jiraiya.
"Hello, Jiraiya-sama" seethed a now very angry Sakura.
Jiraiya looked down from his hiding spot in the tree and paled, he then leapt onto a nearby rooftop and screamed "you'll never take me alive!" And ran for his life.
Naruto grabbed Sakura to keep her from demolishing several city blocks in pursuit of the Legendary super pervert.
After a minute or so, she dropped from rage to mild annoyance, a new record in his book.
When he thought about it, that was an even weirder encounter than usual.
After about ten more minutes they were seated in a quaint restaurant, it was quiet and out of the way, so that they knew they wouldn't see any of their friends, they weren't really in the talking mood.
After a mostly silent meal comprised of little small talk, they paid and took their leave, and just walked... after walking around for a while, Naruto finally decided to start the conversation.
"So what do you think about all this Sakura-chan?" He said a little nervous that she may explode on him.
She stopped and looked over at him, her cerulean eyes glimmering in the sunlight "I just don't know what to think about this, its just to much." She whispered "How do you keep such a good attitude?"
He scratched his head in his normal fashion and said softly "Eh, well its not that I feel good, its just I'm good at putting on mask's..."
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"Goodbye son, your the man of the household now, you have to take care of your mother and siblings while I'm gone."
The son looked on the verge of tears, but quickly puton a brave face "I will father, you can count on me." He said in a wavering voice acting his best to be courageous.
"I will miss you my love, I'll be back, I promise..." He said softly to the small women in front of him, with large hazel eyes that were holding back a flood of tears and emotion.
"I'll miss you too. And you better come back, or I'll never forgive you.." She said in a muffled tone while hugging his torso tightly.
She let go unwillingly and watched his departure.
He left with the thoughts that he will come back to his family, there is no way this war will take him from them.
He needed to find the camp soon, if not there will be problems to deal with.
After several hours of travel he arrived at the camp,and walked up to the desk where a small man with an unusually large mustache looked up at him.
"Name and papers." He said annoyed that the man in front of him did not have them ready.
He fumbled around in his bag for a minute and found the papers, and handed them over to the man behind the desk, then said "My name is Kofuru Ihira, reporting
for duty as requested by the Daimyo of the holy country of Rock."
After the little man had checked his papers he directed him to the barracks where he would meet his commander, and get his equipment.
This was turning out to be a long day after all...
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He quickly jumped over the roof tops away from queen of destruction, and her counterpart the idiot, why did he have to giggle? Grown men don't giggle, giggling is
for girls, or very femine men, not for big strong men like Jiraiya.
It was time to go and see what all the hustle and bustle was about, right from the source...Tsunade.
And few minutes later while just sitting on the window seal, he heard her click open the windows and say "Come on in you big idiot."
"My pleasure, Hokage-sama." His voice dripping with sarcasm.
She looked as though she didn't even hear him... That was not a good sign, that meant things were much worse than he thought.
He suddenly questioned her seriously "What's the specifics of the situation Tsunade."
She sighed and looked up at him "Well you obviously know the basics, that we are in fact going to war with
rock, cloud, and grass." He nodded and she proceeded "Well its worse than we thought, it looks as though our intelligence is long expired concerning troop
build up, and all the countries in questions are also drafting all able bodied men over the age of 15 for their mass armies. They won't be well trained but they'll make up for it more than enough in numbers." Jiraiya shifted uncomfortably "...I've already spoken with fire country's Daimyo's, and we will have a hard time matching cloud, let alone rock and grasses armies. Wind and water are both small countries. we are going to be severely out numbered, when it comes to foot soldiers. It's going to be up to our shinobi, and generals to win this war, or at least not lose it..."
He nodded, and sat down with a cup of sake to think, Tsunade fell on the sofa next to him and sighed loudly.
This wasn't going to be good, leaf needs more allies, every ninja they got on their side was essential, he would have to use all his resources, contacts and skills to help leaf win the war... Even though he didn't much care for leaf, there were certain people he wanted desparetly to protect, He glanced over at Tsunade who was nearly asleep...He had to protect them.
He got up and flashed a startled Hokage a smile, and leapt out the window towards his nearest contact who happened to be in waterfall.