Disclaimer: No Naruto! Bad, bad Naruto! You know I don't own you! Go home!
Hello! From the Edge of the World
Chapitre 2: A Journey is Revealed...
It had been a few days since the twelve young shinobi had departed their beloved Konoha. However, one wouldn't know their allegiance at first glance, for no one was bearing their hate-ate.
It was a suggestion of Shikamaru's, to which he talked about with Naruto. The Nara explained to his 'leader' that since this trip was more like a vacation than a mission of importance, it would be a good idea to take off their hate-ate. Shikamaru explained that this would make their rather large group a bit less conspicuous, and any discretion would be useful.
Other than that, Naruto had no real conversation with the other men. Since they all were taking their time, the twelve had decided to just walk towards their destination. As such, the party split into several different factions and groups. Sasuke was walking at pace with Shino and Kiba, who engaged the Uchiha in modest conversation. Naruto was too far to actually hear what they were saying, but from the look of disbelief on Sasuke's face, he assumed it was something of a juvenile nature.
Another grouping consisted of Hinata, Ino, Sakura, Lee, and Chouji. It seemed rather mismatched on the surface, and Naruto noticed a look of boredom on the faces of the guys from time to time. However, Ino and Sakura seemed to change the subject often enough that Lee and Chouji seemed satisfied in listening along. Every now and then Ino would look at Lee and Chouji, and try to get them involved, to which the boys obliged.
Shikamaru and Neji were talking quietly to each other, forming a group Naruto jokingly called 'The Brain Trust'. Whatever they were discussing was over Naruto's head, but they were nodding along with each other all the while. Naruto started to wonder about when those two became acquaintances. As far as he could remember, Shikamaru wasn't too fond of confident guys like Neji, and Neji didn't think much of the lazy Shikamaru. Somewhere along the way the two must have found some common ground, and that was the best guess Naruto could come up with.
Naruto was content with just being around his friends, and he knew that the twelve of them would have plenty of time to get to know each other. However, for this little stroll he was joined in tandem by Tenten. This left the Uzumaki a bit uncomfortable. The weapon master was a new source of confusion for the young man. Tenten was a perfectly nice girl, but Naruto barely knew her. After that night at Ichiraku's, Naruto was further conflicted with himself. It was a honest reaction; before that night, Naruto never even really touched a girl, much less had one pull him into a hug.
"Naruto? Are you listening?" spoke up Tenten, as she noticed the blond simply staring at her.
"Huh?" spoke Naruto, snapping out of his trance. "Oh sorry, I had something on my mind."
"Oh? What would that be?"
"Well," said Naruto, looking ahead of himself.
He noticed that Tenten and himself were bringing up the rear of the group. This made him more comfortable that he could speak to her in confidence.
"Listen Tenten, I'm not that good with this kind of conversation. Sure I've talked to Sakura and such, but even then I would act like a jackass and such every now and then."
"So how does that relate to me," asked Tenten, a look of ire on her face.
"Well," Naruto turned his head away from the girl, a hint of red coming to his cheeks. "I've just, ya know, never been hugged by a girl before."
"What?! Are you saying I'm diseased or something? You mean to tell me you're acting funny because you hated my hug?"
"No! I'm acting like this because I liked it!" he blurted out loudly.
At this the party came to a crashing halt, and ten sets of eyes stared at the two shinobi behind them. Neji and Sasuke looked to be indifferent towards the matter. Sakura and Lee both had smiles on their faces, and seemed to be gushing support from their eyes, especially in the case of Lee. Ino grinned like a minx, rubbing her hands together in a mischievous manner.
Naruto at this moment wished there was a small hole for him to jump into, for right now he was so embarrassed that he just blurted out something so intimate to the group.
"Well uh," he stammered, "there should be a town up ahead a few miles. I think we'll spend the rest of the day there. Tomorrow we can continue!" he said, and dashed off as soon as the words left his mouth. A thick cloud of dust was kicked up as Naruto fled the scene like a madman. At first, the others were just standing still in confusion, before the slowly started to make their way in Naruto's direction.
Neji notice that Tenten was still standing there in the clearing, he turned to look and see if his former teammate was okay, but he quickly quirked a brow at her. Apparently Naruto's words struck a cord with the weapon master. She had a tint of red on her face, and was staring a hole into the dirt below. Neji continued on his way; it wasn't any of his business, but he personally thought that things on this trip may turn out to be interesting.
"He liked it?" muttered Tenten to herself. And for the first time in her life, Tenten acted like a girl, rather than a weapon master.
The town was indeed up ahead only a few miles from the group's position. It wasn't a bustling community, nor was it something to be considered a small rest area. No, this town seemed to be a fair balance. There were visible living residences, to which one could find a child or a family strolling along from time to time. There were a few shops and entertainment venues, and plenty of restaurants to be scattered throughout. The Konoha Twelve approached one of the few buildings that mattered to them: the hotel.
The building was rather large from the outside, and once they entered the building, they found a neat and tidy lobby awaiting them. Naruto walked up to the receptionist, who greeted the stranger with a smile.
"How can I help you?" she asked politely.
"Yes, we're going to need a few rooms," answered Naruto.
"Actually sir, if I may suggest?" requested the employee, to which Naruto listened to.
"There are a few large, studio suites that we offer for large groups," she explained. "It's a two-floor area, with 5 bedrooms, a spacious living area, and even a patio complete with a small outdoor bath."
"That sounds perfect!" exclaimed Naruto. "I'll take that room please."
"Very well sir!" chirped the receptionist, who wrote down some information into a log book. Afterwards, she walked over to the back wall, where she picked up a small bundle of room keys. She placed them on the counter, and then proceeded to ring up the cost.
"That'll be twenty-thousand ryou please," she told Naruto, who began to convulse. That amount was the same one would get paid for an A-rank mission! The average shinobi in Konoha made about thirty-thousand ryou a year. What, where the rooms made from solid gold?!
"Naruto, almost forgot," spoke up Sakura, who approached Naruto. She pulled out of one of her various pockets an envelope. She handed it to Naruto.
"What's this?" he asked the kunoichi.
"Give it to the receptionist," ordered Sakura.
Naruto opened the envelope, and discovered a letter inside. Naruto handed it over, to which the receptionist looked at it in confusion.
"Just one minute please," she asked her customers, and called for her supervisor. The supervisor was a man who wore an outfit much like the receptionist. The girl showed her boss the note, who opened it and looked it over carefully. After a few minutes, he smiled widely at Naruto.
"Very good my lord!" he said quite happily. "We'll arrange all the appropriate paperwork and handle it ourselves. Please, enjoy your stay here. And as a extra show of gratuity, we will prepare a nice dinner for you and your group, complete with an open bar."
Before the dumbfounded Naruto could say anything, the supervisor and receptionist ran off into the back of the lobby, at least not before handing back the note to the blond.
Once everyone had entered the suite, bed assignments were decided, and things such as what to order for dinner. Sakura had decided to shack up with Ino, and Hinata would bunk with Tenten. Kiba, Shino, and Chouji would take one room, as would Sasuke and Shikamaru. Neji and Naruto took the last room, seeing as neither of them cared about their bed. Heck, a nice bed to sleep in was enough luxury for the Uzumaki.
The girls decided to take advantage of a personal onsen, so they all went outside to the bath while the boys sat around the living area.
"Anyone wanna tell me why I'm not being thrown out by the seat of my pants?" asked Naruto to no one in particular."Obviously it was that note you handed the supervisor," scoffed Shikamaru.
"How does a piece of paper give us this fancy room, with no questions asked?"
"Let me see it," ordered Shikamaru, who was handed the note in question. After a quick minute, Shikamaru had an answer for the group.
"Its a Letter of Marke from the Emperor," he stated plainly.
"And a Letter of Marke is?" asked Sasuke.
"Basically, its a letter that allows us anything we want," said Shikamaru.
"How is that?" asked Lee. "I mean, a letter from the emperor is indeed important, but it's not a free ticket."
"Well, you would normally see these notes handed out during times of war, or if the Country of Fire was in dire need of money," explained Shikamaru, "but apparently our Hokage was granted one, to which she has loaned the group. That's the best I can come up with, and it would explain why Sakura was the one who had it."
"This is great!" said Kiba with joy. "That means we can take whatever we want, and the big-shots in the capital will pay the bill for us!"
"Don't get too excited Inuzuka," said Choiji. "You don't think that the Hokage would just give something like that to us without any common sense, do you?"
"Chouji's right," said Shikamaru. "This isn't like some bloody credit card. Sure we can fit the bill on the emperor for some frivolous expenses, but if we go crazy the Hokage is going to get it."
"And if Tsunade-sama is given hell, that will pale in comparison to what she'll do to the twelve of us," leaded Sasuke.
"Ugh," shivered Naruto at the thought of Tsunade's wrath. "I don't wanna talk about it anymore."
"So Naruto," asked Lee, "what exactly are we going after?"
"Good question," said Naruto. "I've yet to take out this map and look at it. I wanted to wait until we got settled down before looking it over."
Naruto pulled out the scroll that Ren had given him. He walked over to a coffee table which adorned the living room and layed it out. The scroll was a world map. It was rather old – given the rips and tears on the edge, not to mention the all the wrinkles – but it seemed recent enough that the landmasses didn't look so different from their shapes today. All over the map, various marks were drawn. Some were drawn in pen, while others seemed to have been made with improvised material, like charcoal or mud.
"Lets see here," said Naruto, scanning the map with his eyes. The other boys quickly huddled around the map looking as well. Naruto's finger finally was pointed out to a specific point. It appeared to be a peninsula, which occurred near the edge of the map. The spot was obviously important, as many marks and note were scribbled all around it.
"You think that's the spot?" asked Kiba.
"It has to be," said Shikamaru. "It's too obvious to be anything else."
"The...Edge...of the World?" said Chouji, slowly deciphering the chicken scratch for kanji.
"Rather poetic for a supposed holy site, don't ya think?" criticized Lee.
"Most people tend to do that with significant places," pointed out Neji.
"Well, at least we have some choices," said Naruto. "I'm looking at this map, and there appears to be several different paths people took to get to this 'Edge'."
"So what are our options," asked Sasuke.
"Shikamaru, you're good at this crap, why don't you tell us?" remarked Naruto.
Shikamaru sighed at the sudden work he was asked to do. Nevertheless, Naruto was the leader, so he had to obey.
"It seems there's a mountain path, that crosses this range right here," said Shikamaru, making a line with his finger. "The range starts at the Northeastern border of the Waterfall village's territory. From there, it looks to be pretty high in elevation, so we can expect harsh weather at least a few days. I think that if we wanted to cross this path safely, it would take a few weeks, but the benefit would be that we could make up the lost time once we passed the mountain range."
"Option number two," began Shikamaru, "starts here, at this river mouth. The marks tell of a dry bed that leads to a underground tunnel. It most likely is an old waterway, which became useless due to some tectonic shift and other terrain changes. The bed starts Southeast of our location, and is about two-hundred kilometers long. The bed exits right in the heart of the frontier, where no shinobi village holds sway."
"And Number three seems to be that we walk around the range. This is a dangerous proposition, since that the range stretches up to the Oto Village territory. Of course, we know Orochimaru is gone, but it could still be very hazardous up there. After we walk around the range, we can make it to several villages and supply depots that are scattered around that area."
"And those are my suggestions," finished Shikamaru. Naruto was looking rather thoughtful when the Nara had concluded his speech.
"I'll have to sleep on this," said Naruto. "Now that that's settled, lets relax and go crazy!"
"Sounds like my kind of leader!" cheered Kiba, Lee, and Chouji.
"I suppose we can let loose during this trip," thought Neji.
"Try not to break yourself in half doing so," snapped Sasuke.
"You're one to talk," muttered Shikamaru.
Meanwhile, Tenten was in a battle of wits; one that could decide the very fate of her shinobi career.
"So what was that all about Tenten?" asked Ino, who grinned. Sakura and Hinata were content to just sit back and watch the impending fireworks for now.
"What was what?" Tenten tried to dodge the question.
"Don't give me that..." teased Ino. "You were putting some moves on Naruto, weren't ya?"
"Hmph!" scoffed Tenten. "You've gotten a lot less womanly these past few years Ino. Everything with you has some hidden meaning."
"Not womanly?!" exclaimed Ino. Sakura, Tenten, and Hinata smirked at the fact that now Ino had completely turned the spotlight on herself.
"Look at this!" she said, getting up from her spot in the bath. "What part of this body doesn't say 'womanly'? I'm not the Blond Bombshell of Konoha for nothing."
"You're right by that. You'd definitely have to pay us to call you that," snapped Tenten.
Sakura and Hinata laughed at that joke, while Ino started to get a bit peeved. Sure, this was all fun and games, but you could only go so far before things went from joking to warfare.
"Come on guys," said Hinata. "You're both beautiful for different reasons. Why is there a need to bicker about our looks?"
And with this, all attention was turned to the Hyuga. A few warning signals started to fire off in Hinata's head, but she wasn't aware of why.
"Did you hear that Sakura?" asked Ino. "Seems Hinata is suggesting that she knows a thing or two."
"I could see that interpretation," remarked Sakura. "How about you Tenten?"
"I agree, but how would she know?" asked the weapon master.
"Perhaps we should find out for ourselves," said Ino, a devilish look on her face.
"G-girls?" asked Hinata, as her three friends slowly surrounded her.
"Time for a surprise physical," said Sakura, and with that Tenten and Ino tackled Hinata.
A trail of moans, giggles, laughs, and screams could be heard coming from the bath.
Soon afterwards, dinner arrived for the twelve. It was quite a feast, with various meats, cheeses, vegetables, and desserts. A large cart also was wheeled into the suite, with many types of alcohol. The friends gathered around the living room table, and enjoyed a lengthy dinner. The boys, after hearing the commotion in the bath, looked at the girls in confusion, and one might think arousal, depending on who they asked. Conversation around the table was long and full of many topics. The suite was filled with laughs, scoffs, yelling, and drunken stupors (minus one Rock Lee of course).
After everyone had their fill of food and drink, the girls whisked themselves off to bed early. After the kunoichi, Kiba decided to turn in, and was soon followed to the bedrooms by Lee. Sasuke left after that, and had Shikamaru come with him, not wanting to have anyone disturb his sleep. Chouji went to bed, and closed the door to his room behind him.
Naruto had decided to take a nightly soak in the bath, now that he would be alone. As he walked towards the onsen, he noticed Neji still in the living room, and he appeared to be reading some literature. Naruto thought nothing of it, and closed the door behind him.
The Uzumaki breathed in the cool, fresh night air, as he felt the soothing warmth of the water overcome his body. He found a place to sit, and found himself looking into the clear night sky. There was a half-moon out tonight, and a few stars could be seen beyond the town's lighting.
"Nice night, isn't it?"
Naruto turned to see Neji walking towards him. Neji had chosen to forsake covering himself, but there was no need to. Naruto didn't wear a towel in the bath, and Neji didn't have anything attached to him that Naruto didn't come equipped with. The Hyuga dipped himself into the water, and took himself a seat across from Naruto's seat.
"I didn't know you felt this way about me Neji," smirked Naruto.
"Don't flatter yourself," smirked back Neji. "Besides, I wouldn't do that to Tenten."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"That's right," scoffed Neji. "I forgot you weren't there to see Tenten after you blurted out that awkward statement."
"What happened? I didn't make her cry did I?"
Neji laughed out loud at that remark, which only served to confuse the Uzumaki.
"No, I saw her blushing, and mumbling to himself. I'm not know for my ears, but I think we was saying 'he liked it' in a questioning manner."
"Neji..."
"You know, I've know Tenten for about seven years now," remarked Neji. "Along with Lee, we three have seen a lot of life together. We've had fights, laughs, danger, and a ton of memories. But none of those memories include what I saw this afternoon."
"You can't be serious," remarked Naruto.
"I am always serious," said Neji. "You should feel special Naruto. You are the only person I know that can make Tenten act like a woman rather than a hardened shinobi. I think its because you see Tenten as just herself: nothing more and nothing less."
"Tenten is just Tenten Neji," said Naruto. "That's all she really can be."
"Yes," said Neji, who stood up and proceeded to get out of the bath. "but Naruto, you need to know that isn't the entire story. Its not my place to say, but I get the feeling you're going to be one of the chosen few who will know."
Neji exited to inside the suite. Naruto stared into the night sky, trying to solve the riddle Neji just told him.
'There's more to Tenten than just her being herself? What does that mean?'
Footnotes:
(1)
Letters of Marke - In the 1500's, England was in dire straits. The country's funds and economy was to the point of near destruction. Enter one Queen Elizibeth I. The queen needed to make quick cash, and so issued Letters of Marke. With these letters, the holders became honorary members of Her Majesty's Royal Army. Within months, ships from all over the Atlantic Ocean were attacked, plundered, and sent to England. The vaults of England were quickly filled to capacity, and found build the foundation for the empire that England would be for the next 200+ years. To England, these sailors were heros. To England's rival empires, like Spain and France, they were Pirates. It is most likely that the age of piracy was born from this situation.
Using this information I learned in my History classes, I made a variation of the Letter for Naruto's gang. It works mostly the same, as Naruto is looked upon as a servant of the Emperor. The biggest difference is that instead of plundering goods for the Emperor, the Emperor's Letter will compensate for any expenses Naruto's gang creates throughout the journey.
(2)
For this next chapitre, I thought I would leave it up to the readers. I explained in brief the three choices Naruto has. So, with your next review, send me your vote for which path Naruto will choose. Please let me know.
KPAAF
