In which: Naruto takes charge on his 'rescue' mission, Anko is playing the predator. Shizune is sexually frustrated and Konan is amused.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Honestly I think Naruto should have had a bit of a longer time/chance to mourn for the man who represented his missing father. I've also made a few if not a lot of gender changes.
Beta: Still in the market for one :(
"Ready?" Naruto asked his team members.
"Hai." Both females acknowledged.
"Good." He nodded, "I don't want to stop until we have to. Ame is a two day trip. Anko take the lead, Shizune middle, and I'll follow behind. In sage mode I can keep us away from people."
"Hai."
"Let's head out."
Anko jumped straight into the tree tops just outside Konoha's gates. She was excited at how loose her leash was at this point in time. Ever since HE showed up knocking on Konoha's doors and leaving the place with out a Hokage she was put on a rather tight leash. For three years she couldn't leave the village but she was able to jump ranks. They didn't take that right from her.
Shizune kept quiet even as she was acutely aware of Naruto traveling behind her. This was supposed to be a serious mission, yet all she could think about was how Naruto looked when he had barged into Tsunade's office, shirtless.
Naruto saw Shizune duck her head a little, was that a blush staining her cheeks? He raised a brow but didn't comment. He shook his head slightly and focused on the task in front of him. He breathed in and then out slowly entering sage mode, his pupil shrank down into a horizontal slit. Suddenly the world came in more focused and frazzled at the same time, he could feel and see at the same time. Every time his foot touched down on the bark of a tree images would assault his mind.
"Head east, any further and we will be crossing paths with a team." Naruto let the girls know as he changed his direction.
Naruto jumped up high pushing hard against the sturdy tree branch. He landed on the one next to Shizune as she touched down to jump to the next. She jumped slightly and flushed a pretty pink. He refrained from commenting, "There is a clearing up ahead, doesn't looked touched, but it is going to be hard to get to it. I'm going to take point, let me know when you need a break."
"H-hai." She nodded and took off the branch.
Naruto pushed hard off of the branch, touched down on another before sliding up next to Anko, "Blondie." She acknowledged.
"I'm taking point for a bit. Let me know when you need a break." He gave her a cheeky grin.
"Of course, taichou." She practically purred. She slowed down making an obvious after you gesture with her hands. Hands that skimmed his waist when he moved to take point but of course when he looked back at her it was like it never happened. He shook his head, it didn't happen and it didn't matter. In another day or two they would be getting Konan out of Ame and back home.
He pushed higher up into the trees noting the steep incline from one branch to the other. It wasn't exactly a cliff face they were scaling, but it was close enough. Soon though the trees started to thin out and were replaced by sharp boulders that jutted up along the path making them about the same height as the trees they were using as landings.
He could feel the muscles in his legs protesting with each sharp jump to avoid the rocks, more like boulders and mountains. He jumped up a lot higher than the last jump, suddenly the trees were ten feet taller, leaner, and a whole lot harder to find purchase on. Eventually he had to channel chakra to the bottom of his feet and stick to the trunks of the trees because the branches this far up were hardly there, thin and frail.
Finally when he was ready to double over and fall to the ground completely exhausted, they made it. Tall trees had plateaued with shorter trees but they were in the same condition. Keeping up with his sage mode and having the control to keep from falling wore down on his reserves. He knew Anko and Shizune were more than likely dead on their feet. He stopped for a split second sending a wave of sen chakra out from his body to quickly deduce the inhabitants and if there had been any with in range. All that came up on his radar were animals, both big and small. No trace of lingering chakra. In fact this place was completely devoid of human chakra. No scars on the nature. Absolutely nothing. He touched down in the middle of the clearing, still listening with his chakra.
The most resent human chakra, their own, was already fighting with the nature chakra that flowed around them in everything. He could see the winding 'path' that they had taken to get up here, the red trail of the chakra standing out among the green. The creatures that ran around were orange. He really couldn't get enough of the sight the sage mode offered. He breathed in and let it go with the exhale. His stretched senses faded back to normal. He opened his eyes to take in the clearing and the two females who were pressed to the ground in crouches trying to catch their breath.
"That." Anko breathed standing up wobbly, her legs felling like jelly, "Wow." She whistled out a hard breath. "I think I died." She flung herself backwards. She landed sprawled out in a star fish formation. The grass untouched by any thing other than the animals that lived there bent softly beneath her back.
Shizune didn't rise from her crouch instead she took a seat on the ground. Still trying to catch her breath.
Naruto let out a breathy laugh, "We're going to have to go back the way we came and wipe our trail in the morning. For now though, it seems as if we are the first humans to travel up this mountain." The girls hummed a little, as much as one could while still panting. "Where are we anyways?" He asked curiously as he took a seat next to a suddenly flushed Shizune.
"In the Eastern part of fire country. Close to rain but not on the border." Anko shrugged unhelpfully.
"I'm going to be sore in the morning." He grumbled and stretched out on his back. The grass was cool against his heated skin.
It was quiet as every one relaxed and came down from the adrenaline high. Sweat clung to their bodies in rivets that dampened their clothing and slid down their foreheads. The sounds of birds chirping and tweeting from different directions calmed their racing hearts and let them drift into a serine peaceful daydream.
Anko cleared her throat and sat up. "We need a game plan."
Naruto sighed as he pushed himself up, he was so close to falling asleep. "Alright, Konan has been informed about the mission and has agreed to it. Since she was the only leader of Ame at this moment she has given the leadership to the council, they will find some one willing to full fill the dreams that both the God and Angel of Ame wanted in the first place. They don't know she will be leaving with us. In fact they only know that she is retiring." He folded his hands in his lap unaware of Anko's and Shizune's eyes following the appendages. "We will come in tomorrow night, Konan will meet us at the furthest gate from our location. From there we'll travel to Kusa. Then a zigzag formation through out Iwa, Kusa, and Taki leading up towards where we think Otokagure lies. We'll have to back track through several parts and then from their we will be heading to Kumo. From Kumo we'll take a boat towards the Ushiogakure ruins. That should take up about two to three months. From there we will wait for Tsunade's go ahead and make our way back to Konoha."
Shizune frowned, "Isn't Whirlpool extremely hard to get to?"
He nodded, "that is exactly the reason why we will be hiding out there for a bit."
"Wait I thought this was only going to be a two week mission." Anko asked leaning forward.
Naruto looked over at her, "It's true, it was supposed to be just a two week mission but for cover purposes I am getting in contact with most of Jiraiya's spies. She extended the mission to two months. Hopefully by then we will be at Whirlpool waiting for permission to enter Konoha again."
"No wonder we are hitting some of the wishy washy countries and Iwa." Anko nodded.
"For right now, I suggest we get to sleep and worry about wiping our tracks in the morning."
"She's a foot from the entrance, speaking with some of the guards." Naruto whispered in the dark, his eyes were closed as sen chakra gave him the vision he desperately needed. He felt the two girls nod in agreement. He could feel the chill of the wet air nip at his bones, he repressed a shudder.
"Let's go then." Anko whispered lowly and moved to jump off the perch they made in the droopy willow tree.
"Wait." Naruto grabbed her shoulder his eyes peeling open. "She'll come to us."
Shizune kept her eyes on the gate and sure enough, the blue haired woman walked out from the black metal gates.
Naruto squeezed Anko's shoulder briefly before letting go and dropping to the ground gracefully. Anko and Shizune were quick to follow suit.
"Naruto." The other woman breathed in relief as she picked up her pace towards their small group.
"Konan." He bowed his head in greeting. "Lets go."
"I understand." They turned and took off at a sprint away from her homeland for the last time.
Okay so first I'm sorry. Life hates me, and yada yada none of my excuses cut it. Truth is, this one just got zero attention and about none of my focus wanted to pay attention to this story. However I'm back and I will be getting the time line together for this story-it's more of like a jumble of big events at this point, now I need to line them up and iron it out while working on the next chapter.
I'm willing to take suggestions :)
I hope to have the next chapter out as soon as possible. (I would love to have it out today but I don't want to promise anything if I end up not completing it in time.)