Naruto: Ice Burn
Blanket disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Freezing
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Here's chapter 4. Enjoy!
Last Time:
Around lunchtime the five idiots were starving and the autumn breezes had picked up. Naruto finished eating in front of them and said, "I reckon I'll stoke this fire up a bit as I pack up and leave you guys here." He went over and picked up their clothes and started tossing them in the fire where the fabric burned merrily in the crackling fire.
"What are you doing?!" screeched one of the bandits.
"I'm feeding the fire." said Naruto nonchalantly.
"But those are our clothes!" shrieked another bandit as Naruto threw a shirt on the fire.
"Naruto shook his head, "No, they're my clothes now. If I want to use them as kindling I will."
"We'll talk! We'll talk!" cried all five bandits at once.
Naruto gave them a sunny smile. "I knew you guys were reasonable fellows deep down!" The bandits quickly spilled their guts and Naruto threw their underwear back at them….and promptly burned the rest of their clothes….
Over the next three days thirty seven streakers were caught in the forest after the local authorities were mysteriously informed of an unexplained nudist colony in the nearby area….
….Meanwhile Naruto was finishing up looting the bandit's main camp after beating the tar out of their leader when he found signs that something small was buried inside the leader's tent. Digging around with a kunai he found a wooden box of ten bars of gold stolen from the Kiri mint. He didn't know how the bandit leader ended up with it but decided this would be an ideal nest egg to start his emergency money stash….
As for the crowd of beat up nudists that were now residing in the Forest Country jails they learned a valuable lesson that had been passed down through the Elemental Nations since time immemorial:
Never piss off an Uzumaki!
Flashback end….
Chiffon was laughing hysterically as Naruto explained how he helped rehabilitate quite a few members of society in Forest Country from their wicked ways. "….And so, that's how I got the gold. When it was all said and done I felt a lot better since helping those bandits out of their self destructive lifestyles was pretty cathartic -and Master Jiraiya never even had a clue about it."
The Pandora giggled and said, "I believe it's safe to say you are one of a kind Uzumaki Naruto."
They both laughed and decided they should start their day with a late breakfast….
….
Chapter 4
Fang Country, Daimyo's Compound
Chiffon was in the Fang Country Daimyo's entertainment hall. She was dancing and really trying to appear happy about it….'Thank god I took ballet classes at West Genetics to improve my coordination and balance for combat.' thought the Pandora. 'At least Naruto-san seems to be enjoying the show….'
….
Flashback….
After having a mid morning meal Naruto and Chiffon went to the Fang Country Daimyo's very lavish compound. At first they were stopped cold at the entrance but when Naruto revealed he was Jiraiya-sama's apprentice the Diamyo's chancellor eagerly showed them in to meet his grace. Naruto and Chiffon were shown in and soon bowed in deference to the Daimyo. He was a middle aged man with a square jaw and a black goatee. After introductions the Daimyo warmly welcomed them. "Uzumaki Naruto-kun; I welcome you and Chiffon-chan to my compound. I understand you are here at the behest of Jiraiya-sama. I am a great admirer of his literary arts and I see he has sent one of his beautiful muses with you." He turned his attention to Chiffon. "Tell me Chiffon-chan, how long have you been a concubine in Jiraiya-sama's harem?"
Naruto's eyes nearly bulged out of his head and his mouth went dry wondering where the hell that came from. 'What kind of delusions does this guy have about Ero-sennin? And just what has Jiraiya told him?' The blonde ninja was about to say something to correct the Diamyo because Chiffon's eyebrow was twitching again.
The Pandora spoke up first though. "Forgive me Daimyo-sama but you are mistaken." She said respectfully. "I am not Jiraiya-sama's concubine."
"Oh, my mistake." said the Daiymo. (Naruto sighed in relief that the tension in the air had passed). The Daimyo smiled in delight. "Then Jiraiya-sama must have sent you as a gift to be my concubine. I can't tell you how pleased I am with his wonderful tastes. You are at true beauty Chiffon-chan."
Now Naruto wanted to bolt. The twitch had returned tenfold and the ninja's thoughts were filled with the CLAW that Chiffon wielded turning the Fang Country Daimyo into chunky salsa. 'Oh. My. Fucking. God.' he thought while sweating profusely. Naruto's eyes looked around rapidly for escape routes. He couldn't save the Daimyo's presumptuous ass but he could escape with Chiffon….and to hell with Jiraiya's medical bills!
Chiffon smiled through gritted teeth. "Actually Daimyo-sama, I am Naruto-kun's companion." She said as she made a show of gripping Naruto's arm possessively.
The Daimyo laughed and wiped a tear from his eye. "Ah, I see now. Naruto-kun; you're following in your Master's exalted footsteps. I sometimes jump to conclusions Forgive me Chiffon-chan; I didn't realize that you are Naruto-kun's concubine." he said chuckling good naturedly.
"Why yes!" said Chiffon with false enthusiasm as her eyebrow twitched wildly. "I am Naruto-kun's concubine so I am afraid that I am not available. Isn't that right Naruto-kun?" she said eagerly.
Naruto looked at her deranged smile and he nodded and smiled to the degree his face felt stretched. "Ah ha ha! Yes, Chiffon-chan is my faithful concubine!"
The Daimyo clapped his hands together and said to a male servant. "Keichi, prepare a spot for my guests in the entertainment room. Tell me Chiffon-chan; how do you entertain Naruto-kun? Do you sing, dance or play an instrument? I would love to see a display of your talents."
Naruto's smile was an expression somewhere between sheer terror and a grimace. Chiffon's smile looked like sparks were about to ignite between her grinding teeth. "I….I can dance if it would please you Daimyo-sama but I come from far away where our dances are different so you might not be familiar with the style I use."
"Wonderful!" said the Daimyo enthusiastically….
Flashback end….
….
….So now Chiffon was doing ballet for the Daimyo and his court. First they had the Daimyo's own girls dance and play music so Chiffon was able to formulate something between her ballet with a bit of interpretive dance thrown in. 'If someone had told me I was going to be dancing for a Daimyo in a feudal country instead of fighting Novas someday I would have told them they were absolutely insane. Naruto-san looks happy but I've been ignoring everyone else.' The music finally was nearing the end as she dazzled them by executing a perfect pirouette. Then she stopped and bowed gracefully as the song ended. The Daimyo and his people broke into wild applause immediately and she returned to her place sitting beside Naruto. She giggled slightly at Naruto's dazed look and squeezed his hand to bring him back to reality. "How did I do Naruto-kun?" she asked as she regained her breath.
"You were amazing Chiffon-san." said Naruto with genuine awe in his voice.
She whispered, "You were the only one I was dancing for." Naruto smiled and blushed.
Sadly their moment was broken up by many dancers wanting to know what kind of dancing that was. Even the Daimyo himself was very enthused….and they still hadn't gotten to the fact Jiraiya was laid up in the hospital….
….
Later, the Daimyo was visiting with Naruto in his private office and Chiffon was stuck talking to her new fans in the court….Naruto said, "….And that is the situation Daimyo-sama. Master Jiraiya is stuck in the hospital and his funds are currently tied up in Fire Country so it will take some time to retrieve them. I'm wondering if some arrangements can be made with me as his proxy."
"I see." said the Daimyo with great concern. "I can't have my favorite author away from creating more of his divine works. Normally I wouldn't make such an offer but since you are Jiraiya-sama's apprentice I trust you are a ninja of some skill, yes?"
Naruto sweat dropped and said, "To an extent….I would need to clear things with the Master Jiraiya first of course."
"Oh of course!" agreed the Daimyo. "I believe a few little under the table ninja missions would pay for Jiraiya-sama's medical bills; wouldn't you agree?"
'Baa-chan is going to kill me for this.' thought Naruto warily. "I think we can negotiate something. Could I use your aviary? I believe the Hokage needs to be informed of where Master Jiraiya I are currently and I'd like to get some medical assistance from Konoha to speed his recovery."
"An excellent idea Naruto-kun." said the Daimyo. "Please consider yourself and Chiffon-chan my guests here at the compound during your stay here in Fang Country and feel free to use our aviary. We don't want you and your lovely companion's presence to be too public, yes?"
"I agree entirely Daimyo-sama." answered Naruto. 'He wants to keep us in sight. Well, no harm there since we really aren't up to anything other than what I've said.'
Nodding, the Daimyo summoned some servants to prepare a room for Naruto and his 'concubine' as well as make arrangements for them to be guests for a few weeks. Naruto and Chiffon were shown to some very luxurious quarters and Naruto sent a shadow clone to retrieve the belongings they had at the Fuji Inn. He also sent a letter out to the Hokage via bird….
….
Fire Country, Konoha
It was bright an early the next day in the Hokage's office and Tsunade was decoding a scroll that was in Jiraiya's personal code….It seemed he'd taught the same damn code to his brat of an apprentice….
On the outside it said: To the Honored Fifth Hokage of Konoha, Senju Tsunade-sama
But on the inside it was different:
Baa-chan-
Ero-sennin got himself messed up pretty bad and is in the Hospital here in Fang Country. I don't think their medics are going to be able to do the job and I've included a copy of their medical assessment from them. Jiraiya claims he can't access his Fire Country bank accounts so I need your permission to take some missions from the Daimyo of Fang Country to pay his medical expenses. I can be contacted at the Daimyo's compound which is where I currently staying. I've also included Jiraiya's (sealed) report for you that I was to present to him if I had to come back alone in case something relevant is in there.
Awaiting your instructions,
-Genin Uzumaki Naruto
Tsunade stared at the message with a mixture of irritation, relief and disgust. She was irritated that Naruto addressed her as Baa-chan even in a formal report but relieved that he and Jiraiya were both okay because they had vanished off the map a couple of weeks ago and she received no reports. Lastly Tsunade was disgusted that her idiot teammate Jiraiya had once again landed himself in a pickle and left it to Naruto to bail him out of the situation. Sighing, she looked over both Jiraiya's report that was mainly about Naruto and his skill levels as well as Jiraiya's medical report which was a complete and utter mess….
Tsunade quickly summoned Shizune and the dark haired younger woman reported in. "What can I do for you Tsunade-sama?" asked Shizune.
"Gather up a roster of our available chunin teams for a mission to Fang Country centered upon chunin Haruno Sakura. It's a medical relief mission and I believe she's well up to the task."
"Team Kurenai is out on a mission and Team Gai just got back from a long term one last night. Team Asuma is available; what rank is the mission?" asked Shizune.
"Consider it B-rank." said Tsunade. "It will be paid by Konoha as it is one of our own needing help." 'And I'll bill Jiraiya with interest later! Bwahahaha!' she thought.
Seeing the insane gleam in her Master's eye; Shizune wondered just what was going on inside Tsunade-sama's head. 'Oh well, I'll hear the grisly details soon enough.' "I'll gather Team Asuma and Sakura-chan then."
Tsunade nodded and penned a coded message back to her favorite genin:
Naruto-
I'm sending a Chunin Team to help out with my perverted teammate. They should arrive in the next two or three days. I'm taking a risk here but as long as you don't destabilize the region politically I'm giving you permission to take whatever jobs you think you can handle from the Fang Country Daimyo. This is a BIG responsibility Naruto and if you plan to be future Hokage then you'd better prove that you have sound judgment with this. I have faith in you and I want you to succeed Naruto so be safe.
The Fifth Hokage of Konoha, Senju Tsunade
P.S.: Don't call me Baa-chan; especially in a formal report you obnoxious brat!
She quickly dispatched the scroll to the Konoha aviary.
….
Fang Country, Daimyo's Compound
Naruto woke up around nine in the morning in the luxurious room the Fang Country Daimyo had provided for them. Despite the fact the bed was huge Chiffon was once again using Naruto as her snuggle pillow. It seemed his presence kept her nightmares from bothering her. They had stayed up late the night before as Naruto listened to her describing her life as a Pandora at West Genetics and how they worked with Limiters to fight Novas. The idea of fighting giant, other dimensional aliens was quite fantastical to Naruto but given what he'd seen in that lab he rescued Chiffon from things didn't seem all that farfetched. Chiffon also talked about her best friend Ticy Phenyl and how she hoped that somehow Ticy survived the war with the Novas. It was cathartic for Chiffon to talk about her past and share it with another person.
Surprisingly the blonde ninja was a very good listener when he needed to be. He remembered a condition that Kakashi had called 'survivor's guilt' and he didn't want Chiffon to fall into the same depression as his old sensei had. At any rate, all the talking about everything and laughing together was nice for both of them. Naruto told her about growing up in Konoha and the Ninja Academy as well as some of his more infamous pranks. He was even pondering about telling Chiffon about Kyubi as well. Naruto usually was much more guarded about the subject but something told him he could trust Chiffon with that secret….maybe it would at least distract her from her bad dreams.
Still, Naruto had been having some crazy dreams of his own. Naruto had seen a ninja(?) with some incredible powers in his dreams. The guy had brown hair and wielded both a monk's staff and a sword. The man's dream was to bring peace to the world by bringing people together. Sadly, the guy's worst enemy was his own older brother who was a total jerk and had some kind of crazy doujutsu. Naruto really didn't understand why the two were fighting to begin with but somehow the older brother reminded him of Sasuke with his superiority complex of an attitude. The blonde ninja really didn't understand why he was having these vivid dreams but something deep inside told him it was important. He wanted to know more about the brown haired guy and his dreams of peace in the world. Strangely enough Naruto actually felt the staff wielder's powers and how he used them. It was almost as if he had those crazy powers in himself and he was learning how to use them in his dreams….
'I just wish I knew the guy's name!' thought Naruto. Feeling the call of nature he decided to get up and gently shook Chiffon awake.
Chiffon yawned and stretched like a cat before she opened her golden slit eyes widely and smiled brightly at Naruto. "Good morning Naruto-sa- I mean –kun. I guess since I'm basically your wife now we should make sure to address each other informally." She said with a tiny blush on her cheeks. She looked into Naruto's blue eyes and said, "What are you thinking about Naruto-kun?"
Naruto looked back into her eyes and thought blushing, "I was thinking how beautiful you are Chiffon-chan.' but he answered, "I was just thinking about what we'd do today. Hopefully we'll hear from the Hokage soon. As much as I like relaxing I can't sit still too long."
"Just don't prank Daimyo-sama. I don't think that would go over well." teased Chiffon.
"I outgrew that." defended Naruto. Seeing Chiffon raise a questioning eyebrow he said, "Well, mostly anyway…." Chiffon just giggled. Knowing he'd already lost this battle Naruto got up and quickly did his morning rituals. Looking around in the big bathroom he saw a hot tub that would easily fit both him and Chiffon quite comfortably. Blushing and shaking his head at his perverse thoughts he quickly brushed his teeth and turned the bathroom over to Chiffon. While she took over the bathroom Naruto was getting dressed when he heard a knock at the door.
When Naruto answered it he was greeted by a young man that asked, "Are you Uzumaki Naruto-sama?"
Naruto's brain froze for a moment but he said, "Ummm, I'm Uzumaki Naruto but I'm not a lord or anything."
The young man said, "You are a guest of Daimyo-sama's and must be given the proper respect Uzumaki-sama. I have a message from the aviary. A messenger bird from Konoha has arrived and they'd like you to come up to receive it."
Nodding, Naruto said, "Give me a moment to get dressed and I'll be right out." The young man nodded and Naruto closed the door. Quickly getting dressed he made a shadow clone to inform Chiffon he was going to the aviary and would be back in a few minutes. Stepping out into the hall Naruto followed the messenger up to the aviary to retrieve his message. 'Baa-chan must have sent it out at the crack of dawn for the message to have gotten here so fast.'
Chiffon poked her head out of the bathroom ten minutes later and said, "Naruto-kun?"
Naruto's shadow clone said. "Boss had to go to the aviary for a message Chiffon-chan." Chiffon noticeably pouted. "What's wrong Chiffon-chan?" asked the clone.
"I need some fresh clothes out of a scroll but I can't use chakra." explained Chiffon.
The clone said, "No problem! I can get that for you. What do you need?"
Chiffon's eyes sparked with mischief. "I need some fresh panties and a bra. Either the satin teal ones or the lacy fuchsia ones." she said smiling innocently.
The clone looked like a deer caught in the headlights when he unsealed the 'intimates' scroll and said, "W-which ones do you want Chiffon-chan?"
"Pull them out and set them on the bed so I can look at them Naruto-kun." said the Pandora sweetly.
The trembling clone put said articles of clothing on the bed carefully as if they were made of glass and nervously said, "There you go."
Chiffon made a visible show of trying to make her mind up. Teal or fuchsia; lace or satin ones? Which would feel better against my naked skin?" The clone was visibly gawking by now. "I just can't decide Naruto-kun. Use your imagination. Which do you think would look better on me?" The poor clone was blown back by a nosebleed and dispelled when it hit the floor from the 'fatal' shot. Chiffon was laughing hysterically as she grabbed some yellow underwear from the open scroll and went to get dressed.
….
Up in the aviary, Naruto broke into an enormous blush when his clone's memories came rushing into his head with the force of a sledgehammer. 'That woman is going to be the death of me….' he thought embarrassed as he assured everyone he was okay and faked a cough saying he just needed a glass of water to drink.
….
Thirty minutes later Chiffon was fully dressed and had gotten her fit of giggles under control. Naruto quietly knocked before he entered and found Chiffon waiting for him smiling pleasantly. "I couldn't decide between the two so I chose the yellow ones with ruffles instead Naruto-kun." Seeing Naruto blushing up a storm she started giggling again and said, "You're so cute when you blush Naruto-kun!" Naruto managed a weak glare but it just made Chiffon laugh more.
Finally giving up Naruto said, "Well, if you're done teasing me I'll just open up this message scroll and see what Baa-chan has to say."
"That's fine Naruto-kun." said Chiffon energetically. "Let's see if we're going to be going on any missions. After that you can seal up my scroll of intimate apparel."
Naruto just groaned in utter defeat. 'Chiffon-chan is a pervert and she's trying to make me into one too!' he lamented inside his mind. Chiffon just smiled.
….
Fire Country, Konoha
It was early afternoon and Nara Shikamaru, Yamanaka Ino, Akimichi Choji and Haruno Sakura were all standing at attention in front of Tsunade. The Fifth Hokage said, "Your mission is to head to Fang Country and help treat Jiraiya's injuries. Ino, I'll expect you to assist Sakura with this task. You are to report first to the Daimyo's Compound there and link up with Uzumaki Naruto who will have further information on the situation."
"Naruto is there?" asked Sakura. "It's been almost three years…." She grinned and wondered about her teammate.
"I wonder if he's still a shrimp…." Ino thought aloud.
Shikamaru sighed. "Well, things just got even more troublesome than I predicted…."
Choji smiled and patted Shikamaru on the shoulder. "Naruto owes me a rematch from our last eating contest. It will be great to see him again."
The Hokage interrupted their musings and said, "Nara Shikamaru, you are in overall command of the mission but the medical matters are Sakura's area. When you link up with Naruto he may have some missions from the Fang Country Daimyo to pay off Jiraiya's debts so you are to coordinate with him."
"Jiraiya-sama's debts?" asked Shikamaru.
Tsunade snorted. "Jiraiya has racked up a great deal of medical expenses and once again it has fallen on Naruto's shoulders to bail Jiraiya out of a sticky situation which is where the missions from the Fang Country Daimyo come in. How my blockheaded, perverted teammate managed to train the Fourth Hokage so successfully is beyond me. You have your orders. Pack for a month long mission just in case. You are to leave as soon as you are ready."
Being dismissed the four chunin went down to the base of the Hokage Tower and had an impromptu team meeting. Sakura was already looking over Jiraiya's medical reports. "Well, there is nothing life threatening going on but Jiraiya-sama is in bad shape. We should move out this afternoon or first thing in the morning at the latest."
"I'm more worried about Naruto doing something crazy before we get there." said Shikamaru. "With the way he operates the knucklehead could spark off a war with a simple mission. I say we move out this afternoon before Fang Country is laid to waste."
….
Fang Country, Daimyo's Compound
Naruto was in the Daimyo's office discussing a possible mission. "Ahahaha….No; just no Daimyo-sama. I'm not going to assassinate the Daimyo of Claw Country even if he is an unreasonable jerk. Konoha is on good terms with both Fang and Claw Countries and it would be bad to destabilize the region. I understand you have border tensions but I'm not about to start a war because of the political differences your two countries have."
Seeing his bright idea to get rid of a political rival had foundered the Daimyo said, "I'll have to respect your position as a representative of Konoha. Let's find some more suitable missions and just forget about that first one okay?"
"Certainly!" said Naruto with a beaming smile that would have made Maito Gai proud. 'Whew, I dodged a landmine there. What the hell is this man thinking? I'll have to report this to Baa-chan.' "So what else did you have in mind Daimyo-sama?"
The Daimyo went through his papers nervously trying to cover his 'little' faux pas. "There have been some bandits led by a missing nin in the southern rivers of Fang Country we need to get rid of. Could you take care of that for me?"
Naruto got serious and asked "Do you have any specifics? It would be a B-rank mission minimum but it depends on the level of the missing nin as to the actual level."
"The ninja in question is Mizu Aki who we know little about. She has twenty or so bandits helping her and has been terrorizing the south for months. We can't seem to catch her in the forests." explained the Daimyo.
Naruto got out his bingo book. "Mizu Aki: B rank missing nin who was a former member of the Nokizaru Group that specialize in assassinating other ninjas. She had a falling out with them and lost her title of 'Hiding in water member.' Guess it makes sense she'd hide here where there's lots of rivers." Naruto looked over the specifics and it showed she specialized in demolitions and was often hired by terrorist groups. Oddly her main weapon was a crossbow. She had a pretty face with white hair and pupiless light blue eyes. Rumor had it she could always be two places at once indicating she at least knew the water clone technique. The bounty on her wasn't that huge since she wasn't affiliated with a major village. "This is an A rank mission." said Naruto as he closed his bingo book. "If you agree to deduct the Konoha standard A rank mission pay from Master Jiraiya's medical expenses once it's carried out I'll agree to it."
Naruto's tone told the Daimyo that the ninja wouldn't budge on the amount. "Done." said the Daimyo. "I'll have my intelligence people turn over what little we know on her to you this evening after dinner."
"Thank you Daimyo-sama." said Naruto bowing. "I'll get a plan together. I'll need maps of the southern regions and rivers as well."
The Daimyo summoned a servant and said. "Get Naruto-kun whatever information he needs for his mission." With that, Naruto and the servant bowed again and departed for the library.
….
Over the next couple of days Naruto discovered just how bad the maps were of the southern region of Fang Country. There were three major river routes and he was looking over an atlas. He had an overlay of areas where Mizu Aki and her group had struck over time. The next day he went out to the shipping companies that had suffered losses and found they had much better maps that charted the rivers in great detail. His eyes kept going to a particular peninsula between the two largest rivers. "This is where I'll start hunting Chiffon-chan." he said as he pointed to the peninsula. "It's an ideal place to hide a base and none of the hits have been close to it. It's centralized and the two main river routes combine right by it."
"Don't you mean this is where we'll start hunting Naruto-kun?" asked Chiffon. The two had bickered about it and Naruto didn't want to endanger her but having seen what she could do he had no delusions that she couldn't defend herself. With her volt weapon she could easily reduce a tree to splinters.
The blonde Ninja sighed. "I guess since you'll follow me even if I say no so we'd better plan to go as a team. What do you think?" he asked as he pointed to the peninsula.
"I think that what you've figured out is devious and clever." said Chiffon. "In conventional warfare such tactics would never be used but for some sort of terrorist it makes sense."
"That's how we ninjas think Chiffon-chan." said Naruto. "To fight a ninja you have to think outside of the box. I learned that the hard way."
"What about that point?" ask Chiffon pointing towards some high ground on an island. "That looks like an ideal lookout point for any of the three rivers."
Naruto nodded. "I thought so too. We'll be going there first. Unless I miss my guess we'll find a small lookout post there….and maybe a couple of bandits we can interrogate. It would also be in direct line of sight with a base on the peninsula for mirror signals."
Between Naruto's training as a ninja in tactics from Jiraiya and Chiffon's training as a field commander as a high ranking Pandora the two complimented each other very well….
"We'll set out first thing in the morning." said Naruto as he sealed up the maps for the night.
….
Location unknown….
"…. Protocol One Command of Aoi Gengo…." repeated the monotone voice.
A holographic image of Aoi Gengo appeared in front of her. "….Ultimately we were just buying time." he said in a static filled voice. "The Novas won and like that humanity's survivors were set back to the dark ages. The Novas were unto gods sent to punish mankind whose reach had exceeded his grasp. Mankind's greatest weakness was himself. Our powerful Pandoras under my personal command were a glimmer of hope against the Novas for a brief time but Chevalier couldn't bear the thought of such power being outside of their control. They sent their own Pandoras against us and the civil war that resulted left us helpless when the next wave of Novas came…."
"….In a last bid for humanity's survival a number of Pandoras were recreated through supercloning technology in order to continue the fight. They were hidden deep underground in the labs they were recreated in for the sake of mankind….You have to gather them into one united front under your command as you are the highest rank of those that have been recreated…."
"….Su-Na Lee, you and those under your command must carry out my will…."
Red eyes opened for the first time….
….
Morning, Fang Country Main Road
Shikamaru and his team arrived with little trouble at the main gates into Fang Country. The Nara heir said in a bored tone as he presented his paperwork, "Konoha Chunin Nara Shikamaru and my team arriving from Fire Country. We are here to render medical assistance to Jiraiya-sama once we report in to the Fang Country Daimyo."
The Head Guard stepped forward. "Your group is expected Nara-san. I'll need to inspect each of you papers before I can allow you to enter Fang Country first however."
The Nara yawned and handed over his I.D. "Knock yourself out guard-san." Then he went and sat on a bench to doze….Everyone else present just sweat dropped at Shikamaru's antics….
Within the hour the four Konoha chunins were through the gates and formally welcomed into Fang Country. After reaching town hey had a filling meal because they were all hungry (Choji was bordering on starvation) and checked out the Hospital since it was along the way. Entering the Hospital they were greeted by the same not so friendly nurse at the desk that Naruto and Chiffon met when they first arrived. After they explained they were there to see Jiraiya her answer was predictably surly. "That pervert? Why would you want to see him? Especially you young girls!"
Sakura explained, "I'm a medic nin from Konoha that was dispatched here to speed Jiraiya-sama's healing by the Hokage herself. The Daimyo-sama of Fang Country is aware of our mission. Now if you'll-"
"You won't be going near that pervert without written permission from the Office of the Daimyo himself!" snarled the nurse. "I know how you ninjas operate. You're planning to escape with that lecher so he won't have to pay his medical bills! Out with you! Out I say!"
….
The four chunin level ninjas were standing outside looking a bit shocked. Even Shikamaru was wide eyed. "What just happened here?" asked the Nara genius.
"I'm guessing they really had a bad experience with ninjas skipping out without paying in the past?" asked Choji.
"That or they really had a bad experience with Jiraiya-sama." said Sakura in a flat tone.
"Ya think?!" exclaimed Ino. "That old bat was rabid crazy! I think she needs her shots. I've met dogs at the Inuzuka kennels with much better attitudes."
Shikamaru sweat dropped at Ino's assessment but couldn't find an argument against it that wasn't troublesome. "Well, as much of a drag as it is I think the best choice would be to go on to the Daimyo's Compound as originally planned. It isn't like Jiraiya-sama is going anywhere. They may have him tied up for all we know."
Sakura nodded. "Well, the sooner we see the Daimyo and link up with Naruto; the sooner we can resolve this whole situation."
"Right, let's set out!" said Ino. "Hurry up Shikamaru, we're burning daylight."
"Damn troublesome, bossy woman…." muttered Shikamaru under his breath as he fell into step with Choji behind the two kunoichis.
After the chunin team was once again checked over by the Daimyo's guards, they reached the Daimyo's compound by noon. They were soon welcomed into the compound by the chancellor. "Welcome, you are expected Konoha ninjas. I'm afraid Daimyo-sama is taking his lunch right now so it will be a bit until you can see him."
Shikamaru nodded respectfully, "Is Genin Uzumaki Naruto available then? We have much we need to discuss with him."
"I'm sorry but Naruto-sama isn't available either." said the chancellor cordially. "He and his concubine Chiffon-san departed early this morning."
Sakura's enraged voice echoed throughout Fang Country. "NARUTO HAS A CONCUBINE?! I'LL KILL THAT PERVERT!"
….
POSTSCRIPT:
Well, this chapter was pretty much a prelude to a battle in the south of Fang Country next chapter. We finally have our friends from Konoha entering the picture. We also have seen the introduction of the Pandora Su-Na Lee. Now for the important questions: When will Team Shikamaru manage to see the Daimyo? Will Jiraiya ever get out of the hospital? Will Naruto complete his mission successfully? For all that matter, will the situation of Chiffon being a "concubine" be explained before Sakura takes the moral high ground murders both Naruto and Jiraiya? See you next chapter. Blue out. 11/8/15. Updated 1/22/19