Ashikabi No Shinobi

by The Engulfing Silence

Unable to move onto the next life, Uzumaki Naruto travels the world. He comes back to Japan, the place where Konoha once stood, and soon finds himself sucked into a game of battling busty women. It all started when a girl fell on top of him. Literally.

7. The Broker

Disclaimer: Akurako Gokurakuin owns Sekirei, and Masashi Kishimoto owns Naruto. I make no claim to owning either of these stories. The only thing I can claim to own is my fanfiction.

Ah, good old fanfiction. Now if only I got paid to write it things would be perfect.

Chapter 6: The Broker

XoX

Walking within the Arboretum was a figure, short of stature, nor taller then one-hundred and seven centimeters of height and maybe around forty-one kilograms in weight. The figure was male, with a lithe body that matched his small stature. He had white messy white hair with several large bangs that hung over his face and overshadowed his grey eyes. His outfit consisted of a white, long-sleeved shirt with a turtle neck collar. Wrapped around his torso were several black stripes that went over his shoulder and under his arms near his waistline, with one black stripe moving across his waist over his buttoned up shirt. He was wearing a pair of white shorts with a pouch attached to the strap, hanging off of his waist and bouncing on his knees with each step he took. A pair of grey boots with straps that buckled on either side and wrapped around in three different places, the sole, heel and the midstep finished off the ensemble.

He looked around at the overgrowth of plants, an unreadable expression on his face.

"You came here, didn't you Ku," he spoke softly to himself. He walked up to one of the many trees that had overgrown and stopped just a few inches from it, placed his hand on the tree and closed his eyes.

The place where his palm touched the tree began to glow, a strange aura overtook the Arboretum. Around his feet a circle of green light appeared, creating a radius that was about twice as wide as he was. It soon began to expand, spreading out like the ripple from a rock as it's tossed into a pond. Whenever the ripple left it's previous spot, the landscape changed.

To be more specific it died. With a creeping slowness the trees and plants that Kusano had caused to overgrow began to die, withering and decaying within seconds of the strange, green light touching them. It wasn't long after the young boy had worked his magic that everything within the Arboretum, every plant and tree was killed, leaving the place a barren husk of what it used to be, a lifeless graveyard that was marked only by the now ashen gray trees that surrounded the landscape.

'Ku... where are you?'

XoX

Within a small enclosed space filled with large machinery and monitors, a young woman was typing away on a keyboard. This young woman had long red hair with side plaits and usually appeared unfashionably dressed, wearing detached sleeves that resembled a cheongsam and glasses.

As she typed away on her keyboard, the screen she was looking at pulled up a file with the image of a certain blond shinobi on it.

"Uzumaki Naruto," the woman said with a small smirk. "Just flew into Japan a little over a week ago, has only been in Shinto Teito for a grand total of five days. Very little information is on him, in fact one might call him a complete blank spot in the listings of people who were born during the time periods 1985 and 1994. It's as if he doesn't exist."

A giggle escaped her mouth as she thought about what this meant. He was a complete mystery to everyone.

She just loved solving a good mystery.

"Despite being new to this city he has somehow managed to wing three Sekireis." She typed in a few more keys and the file on Naruto was pushed off to the side, though still visible as it made way for three more files; those of Musubi's, Akitsu's and Kusano's. "Sekirei number eighty-eight, Musubi. Sekirei number one-hundred and eight, Kusano. And the most shocking of the trio, Sekirei number seven, Akitsu, the so called broken Sekirei."

This was part of the reason she was so intrigued by him. Naruto had not only managed to wing three Sekireis within a five day time period, making him three for five, he also managed to wing someone that should have been impossible for anyone to wing. The emergence of Akitsu in the game had caused ripples of shock to spread out, not just to MBI who she knew from hacking into their database were completely baffled, but had also earned him the attention of many unwinged Sekirei. Many of the Sekirei who had yet to find an Ashikabi, herself included, had found themselves growing curious about the man who had managed to wing a scrapped number. There were also a number of Ashikabi who had no doubt heard of his feat as well, and she knew that things might begin getting very busy for one Uzumaki Naruto.

"He's so utterly fascinating! No wonder I can't keep my eyes off him."

XoX

Naruto yawned as soon as he finished cleaning his room. It was Sunday, surprising the blond as he had completely lost track of time thanks to the craziness that had entered his life, and because it was Sunday that meant everyone was doing there share to keep the Inn clean. Akitsu and Musubi were helping Miya by cleaning the halls and dining room, Kagari was cleaning his own room and fixing up the window sills and blinds, and Miya was sweeping outside and doing whatever else needed to be done.

Uzume was probably sleeping again, lazy girl that she was.

It almost came as a surprise to the blond when he realized that this was only his third day living in Maison Izumo. So much had happened since he had first come to Japan that it felt like a lifetime ago since Musubi had fallen on top of him, and in that time many things had happened. He had bonded himself Musubi, a process known as winging; he been found Akitsu and managed to break the block on her crest, binding them together in the process; he'd had that dream about Kusano, began making plans to rescue her from the Arboretum, discovered that Minaka had sent a mass text to all Ashikabi about her, discarded all of his carefully crafted plans in favor of rushing in like a blind man, nearly got burnt with a fireball by Homura/Kagari, ended up allying with said Sekirei, got ambushed by three Sekirei that his two Sekirei ended up fighting, almost got shocked by a bolt of lightning, ended up running into the lightning twins again and meeting their Ashikabi, Seo; got in a fight with and defeated Sekirei number forty three, Yomi; and nearly gave away a number of his secrets in the process. All of that had happened within days of each other, and that last day had been one of the longest he'd ever had in his life.

At the very least he had managed to save Kusano, who was now the third Sekirei in his ever growing flock. He could only hope she was the last one. Naruto had nothing against Sekirei, and he would admit that he was growing attached to the ones he had bonded to. But the fact remained that they were just human, albeit humans with super powers, but still human. One day they would die, leaving him alone again. It was already hard enough keeping what little distance he could from the Sekirei he already had, he didn't want to become emotionally involved with anymore.

With a sigh as he once more realized where his thoughts were headed, Naruto looked out the window and noted that it was going to be a beautiful day. There wasn't a cloud marring the sky, allowing the sun to shine it's brilliant rays of light on the city. It was the perfect day for an outing of some kind, he thought to himself.

An outing, he snorted. The words made it sound like he was planning a camping trip of some kind, when in truth he was only thinking of doing something with his Sekirei in the city. As wary as he was of growing close to them, he knew that no matter what he did in the end, they wouldn't let him be alone. Akitsu was already practically attached to him at the hip, the only time the ice user ever let him out of her sight was when she was in the bath, doing something for Miya, or just like last night, battling it out with enemy Sekirei. It was very rare that he was not in the snow woman's presence. In much the same manner, Kusano had grown quite attached to him. Not only had the girl been quick to start calling him 'onii-chan', the little sprite had also taken to sitting with him at the table already. Even now the girl was with him, helping clean up his room to the best of her ability.

Really, all she was doing was grabbing smaller items like the clothing his Sekirei quite often discarded within the room before they went to bed, and putting them in their rightful place or the dirty clothes hamper. She wasn't very effective at doing this either. Her entire 'process' when it came to cleaning the room was to stand in the center of it, sometimes with her hands on her hips like some kind of imposing statue – which when considering her stature wasn't all that imposing – sometimes with a over her eyes like some kind of sailor as he looked out at sea. During this time she would also make strange 'jiiii!' noises while she searched, and when she finally found something she would run over to it with a yelp of excitement, grab the item in question and hold it over her head as she ran to put whatever she was holding in it's rightful place. It was a very inefficient process, but Kusano wanted to be with her 'onii-chan' and much as Naruto wanted to say otherwise, he was loath to tell her no.

Currently, she was holding a pair of what Naruto recognized as Akitsu's panties, due mainly to the fact that he knew Musubi did not wear black lace undies, over her head as she ran towards the dirty clothes hamper.

He sighed, and thought about his last Sekirei, the first one he had winged. Musubi was not quite as... reliant on him as the other two were. Which was almost surprising since she was the one who seemed to need the most guidance, at least as far as common sense went. Kusano didn't have much common sense either, but she was a kid so it was excusable. Then again, the fist fighter also had Miya watching out for her, so maybe she just had more people to spend time with.

Also, there was the fact that while their bonding may have had the most impact on Naruto, on Musubi it had not meant nearly as much. For Musubi it was the act of finding her Ashikabi, something that all Sekirei did according to her. It was, Naruto wanted to say instinctive, in many ways the Sekirei's search for their Ashikabi was a lot like many animals when they searched for their mate. So while it may be important, to them it was just something they did.

For Naruto, the act of bonding to Musubi had made him much more receptive to emotions. Ever since he had given the fist fighter her wings, the blond had been feeling more in the way of strong emotions than he had ever since he had truly become aware of just how much his curse had cost him. Even now, just thinking about one of his three Sekirei brought with it it's own unique emotion. Protectiveness for Kusano, a desire to show Akitsu that she wasn't worthless, and an intense level of affection towards Musubi. The feelings he felt for his Sekirei were strong, and he was still trying to come to terms with them.

To complicated the matter further Naruto could still feel the emotions of his three Sekirei. Even now they were there, a presence in the back of his mind, not just interfering with, but increasing the level of his own emotions. It was something Naruto was coming to both love and hate with the same passion. He was of two minds of conflicting interests. On the one hand, Naruto would admit to himself that he enjoyed the feelings the three gave him, it had been so long since he'd had precious people to cherish, and a part of him wanted to cherish them, much like he had cherished his other precious people before his life had gone to hell. And on the other hand, there was still the issue of their mortality. They were die, and Naruto knew of nothing he could do to change that. He had tried finding a way to grant another his immortality before, and that relationship had taken a turn for the worst and left him even more emotion and psychological scars than before. So far as he knew, there was no way to grant other people even a portion of his immortality.

With a small shake of his head, Naruto returned to his original thoughts. It was getting easier to do that. Ridding himself of his negative thoughts and emotions. Maybe it was a by product of the bond.

So, taking his Sekirei out to do something fun. The question was what should he do? If he was going to be pestered by his Sekirei all day, then he wanted them to go out and do something fun. There were many activities that he could think of that most people would categorize as fun; going on a picnic, going to the movies, the arcade, the mall, which could be considered an entire sub category unto itself. There were many places they could go and activities they could do. And therein lay the problem.

Naruto had no clue what they would like. Each of his Sekirei were very different from each other. Akitsu was subservient and seemed to have placed their relationship in a master/servant role, she would probably not care what they did so long as she was with him. That didn't mean she didn't like anything, however, just that he wasn't sure she would tell him. At the other end of the spectrum, Musubi was excitable, enjoyed being active, and was apparently completely crazy for battle. If they were to do something, it would probably run along the lines of nonstop sparring, or something. Though she had enjoyed that picnic, so maybe something involving food would be an activity she'd enjoy. Finally, there was Kusano and, well, she was a child. The only things she seemed to enjoy doing was running around the house, spending time with her onii-chan, and just causing mayhem in general. With three vastly different personlities it was difficult for him to think of doing any one thing that they would all enjoy.

By the time Naruto had finished cleaning the room with Kusano, which had taken much longer than it would have if he had just used clones, he still hadn't figured out what kind of activity he should do with his Sekirei. In the end, he decided to figure out what to do later.

"Ready to head down now, Ku-chan?" Naruto asked the youngest of his Sekirei. Kusano beamed a smile at him as she nodded her head and gave him an 'uh huh!' noise. With the little girl rearing to go, Naruto lifted the child up and set her on his shoulders. The Green Girl giggled and laughed, grabbing fistfuls of his spiky mane as Naruto held onto her ankles and began making his way downstairs. There he found pretty much exactly what he had expected to find. Musubi was cleaning the wooden tiling of the hallways with a large rag, the piece of cloth was placed in front of her and she had both hands on it as she ran from what side of the hall to the other with the same enthusiasm being put into her work that she normally had with fighting.

She did stop, however, when Naruto came down with Kusano. "Hello, Naruto-sama!" She greeted with good cheer as she scrambled to her feet and beamed at him. "How are you doing? Do you need any help cleaning our room?"

Naruto's smile carefully hid the grimace as Musubi mentioned 'our room'. Again, it wasn't like he didn't enjoy her presence, but he was still wary of becoming too close to her. It would be a long while before he would realize just how close he already was too her.

"No, thank you, but I actually just finished cleaning the room," Naruto told the fist fighter. He looked down at the floor and felt a wry smile form on his lips at what he saw. "And you should probably wait until you've finished your own chores before offering to help someone else with theirs," he said as he pointed out the fact that the hallway was only half finished.

"Right!" Musubi said with a nod of her head. She made a fist with her left hand and punched it into the palm of her right one. Naruto shook his head and let the girl in skimpy Shrine Maiden clothes get back to the task Miya had given her. As he heard the thump of Musubi getting back onto the ground, followed by a loud and enthusiastic shout of 'haa!' that he associated with Musubi beginning her process of cleaning the floor anew, Naruto made his way into the dining room.

There he found Miya as he had expected. She was kneeling on one side of the dinner table, a small cloth in one hand and a spray bottle of wood cleaning in the other as she cleaned the table. Everything else was spotless so it looked like that was the last item she needed to clean. Sitting over on a small table at one end of the room behind the head of the table, the television was turned onto a news channel, the anchor currently making predictions about next weeks weather patterns.

"Miya-chan, do you have anything you would like me to help you with?" asked Naruto as he stopped in front of the doorway and set Kusano down. The little girl looked up at him in disappointment, but the blond simply smiled and ruffled the girls hair. Of course, Kusano being a child did not seem to like it when he treated her like one. She quickly pushed his hand off and gave him a childish pout, before stomping off. Naruto's lips twitched as he fought back a grin. There was just something amusing about children at that age wanting to be treated like an adult.

At the sound of his voice, Miya looked up and graced him with a smile. "Oh, hello, Uzumaki-kun," she greeted, before his words seemed to fully register in her ears. Like always, Miya went through her act of pretended to having not understood what he said as soon as he said it, bringing a hand to her cheek as she acted like she was pondering the question. Naruto waited, knowing she would give him an answer in time.

"No, I think we have everything pretty much cleaned," she said at least, her eyes crinkling as her smile widened. "Thank you for the offer though."

Naruto nodded and gave the purple-haired beauty a grin, idly scratching the back of his head. He looked back to where Musubi was still cleaning the hallway, her form appearing and disappearing in front of the Shoji screen door as she ran across the tiles on hands and feet, and was about to speak again when the news report coming from the television caused him to shift his attention to it.

"I'm standing outside of the Arboretum right now," the man was saying into his microphone. The reporter was indeed standing outside of the gated entryway that number forty three had destroyed during her assault on the gate. It looked like most of the wreckage had been picked up, there was no longer any gate, just an open entrance, and all of the metal from the ATV's and bodies from the soldiers that had been injured or dying were now gone. However, there was something different between today and last night, which Naruto took note of immediately.

All of the tree that were behind the gate were dead.

"As you can see the overabundance of plant growth that had randomly sprung up here has been completely eliminated by MBI overnight. The method used by the company has not been disclosed to the public, but I have been given assurances by their spokesperson that no harmful pesticides or defoliants were used in the..."

Naruto stopped paying attention to the report after that, having understood what they were saying. If the reporter followed protocol the rest of what was said would be useless drivel that didn't really have anything to do with what they were reporting on. Which essentially meant that he had not learned anything he could not have learned from looking outside.

Sensing a sudden spike of negative emotion from Kusano in the back of his mind, Naruto turned his head and found that the small blond girl was now sitting out on the porch, looking at the backyard, or possibly the Arboretum beyond the backyard. Even from where he stood, Naruto could just make out the tops of the now dead trees peeking out over the buildings in front of it.

Making his way over to the girl he stopped just a few feet from her, staring at her back with a mixture of concern and curiosity.

"What's wrong Ku-chan?" he asked. Ku sighed, then sniffled. Naruto watched as her shoulder began to shake and her hands went up to her eyes. He didn't need to be a genius to figure out that she was on the verge of crying, if she wasn't already.

His thoughts were confirmed a second later when Kusano began to sob into her hands. Feeling a small pang in his chest, one that truthfully had very little to do with the feelings he was receiving over the bond from the tiny girl, Naruto moved over to her and dropped into a sitting position. Whether by instinct of somehow sensing his presence, Kusano lunged at him, burying her face in his chest as her tiny hands grabbed onto his orange shirt. In response to this, the blond Uzumaki lifted the child into his lap and began rocking back and forth as a hand started to pet her hair.

"Come on now," he said softly, using a soothing voice that he would have never been caught dead having when he was younger for fear of ruining his manly image. Thankfully he had grown out of such things. "Why don't you tell me what's wrong?"

It had been a while since he had dealt with a crying child, three-thousand nine-hundred and twenty-six years to be exact. However, there were some things that you never forgot, and Naruto had always been good with kids. It might have been a while, but he was sure he could get Kusano back to her normal, childish self in no time. The first step towards helping a crying child was to figure out just what they were crying about in the first place.

Kusano sniffed several times, rubbing her face against his shirt to wipe the tears away.

"S-Shina."

Naruto blinked. "Shina?"

"Shina's a boy. He's a little bit older then Ku-chan, but he was really good friend. But that tree just told Ku-chan that Shina took the plants she grew in the Arboretum and he... and he..."

'Interesting,' Naruto thought to himself as he was given a new piece of information to puzzle over. 'So her friend was the one who killed off all of the plants, not MBI. Though that does beg a question. Why would they bother to create a cover story? Aside from the fact that the Sekirei plan is some kind of top secret project.'

He took a moment to snort, top secret his ass. Between the bondage babes that had been tossing lightning around like candy, the battle his Sekirei had been in, and the battles he was sure other Ashikabi's Sekirei were participating in, there was no way that this plan was still a secret. How Minaka actually believed that the normal, everyday citizens were still completely oblivious to what was going on was beyond him. Even the most ignorant of fools would have some inkling that something strange was going on in this city.

Of course, he was thinking along the lines of a shinobi during war time. The average civilian these days were even more ignorant of military affairs then the ones in his own time had been. Not only were they ignorant, but they tended to ignore anything and everything so long as it didn't affect them directly. If there was a homeless man on the street wearing nothing but a pair of boxers and a sign asking for money, most people would just pretend the man didn't exist. The Sekirei situation might be even more extreme than that example, but the idea behind it was the same. People enjoyed their ignorance. If something was going wrong, they would do everything in their power to pretend it didn't exist just so they wouldn't get caught up in it. That was one of the many reasons he had washed his hands of humanity, after all.

For those few who actually didn't ignore the strange happenings around them, well, MBI was rich. As a multitrillion dollar corporation they had more than enough money to throw around. No doubt Minaka had been forced to toss out a lot of hush money to keep people quiet about what was happening within Shinto Teito. Just thinking about the amount of money MBI must have already given away made the blond shake his head. He had used bribery plenty of times in the past, but it was always a last resort. He may have more money than anyone else would ever see in their lives, but he didn't want people thinking they could threaten him into giving them money to keep silent.

This was not to say that MBI was doing everything wrong. While the text message Minaka had sent out bothered the blond something fierce, the man had at least had the foresight to evacuate everyone within a two mile perimeter around the Arboretum somewhere else so they would not find out what was taking place there. However, even that had likely taken a lot of cash to keep people silent. Humans could be quite belligerent when they were told they had to move somewhere else, even temporarily, and were not given a good enough reason why.

Backtracking, Naruto resumed his focus on trying to figure out the reason MBI had decided to take the credit for destroying all of the foliage within the Arboretum. 'They could just be trying to take all of the credit for themselves. Large companies like MBI love being in the spotlight, and love being seen as the hero, even when they aren't.'

He could remember quite a few cases when a large conglomerate corporation would take the credit for something Naruto himself had done. He remembered one time a company had actually tried to claim credit for writing the Icha Icha novels, which there were not only over two hundred and fifty-six issues out at the time, but was the largest series of books on the planet. Naruto also remembered how he had not only sued their ass for all they were worth under his assumed name, leaving them completely penniless. But also managed to prank them by setting up firecrackers in their toilets to explode on the last day of their companies 'life'.

Ah, good times.

"Shina, he had the opposite type of power that I had."

Naruto blinked at the voice and turned his attention back towards the trembling girl on his lap. She was still looking quite distraught, her eyes were red and puffy from crying, and her nose was leaking some fluids. She did look better than she had a few seconds ago, thankfully, and was at least no longer crying.

"The opposite? I see." That made sense, actually. If this Sekirei had the opposite power of Kusano, then he was the perfect balance to the girl when her powers ran out of control. Naruto had already noticed that the Mokuton – which was what he had decided to call her abilities for lack of a better term – using girl's powers were unstable. They seemed to activate against her will based on how high her emotions were running. That was also the reason the Arboretum became the way it is – was. He had been told all about how one of the other Ashikabis had tried to force Kusano into a winging. Undoubtedly the trees and plants had responded to the girls will and grew until they had been large enough to protect her from being winged.

So if this Shina had the opposite power Kusano had, then it would be... death? It was hard to say seeing as hoe he had never met this Shina before. However, Kusano's power, from what he had been able to discern from looking at the Arboretum before it was destroyed, was life. She had the ability to make any type of flora grow at a rate that seemed capable of putting Senju Hasharima's own control with trees to shame. There was an old legend of his people about how the Shodaime Hokage had used his Mokuton Jutsu to create the forest that Konoha had resided in before it's untimely demise. It had taken the man six days to create, and at the end of it he was exhausted to the point of being bedridden. Kusano had made that forest within hours, and she had been in there for several days afterward without food, water, or sleep. Even then, after just a few hours rest and a good meal she had been in perfect health.

Perfect enough health to get her wings at least.

So if Shina had the opposite power that Kusano did, then it was probably death. A scary thought. Naruto wasn't even sure what the power of death would include, but it sounded like the ability to indiscriminately kill anyone and anything no matter how powerful they may be. Perhaps he would even be able to kill Naruto himself, at least if the blond's theory was accurate.

He looked over at the girl again. Was that why she was so sad? Because her friend had murdered her creations? Well, children did have a tendency to cry when someone destroyed something they had worked at building. He had seen a number of children bawl their eyes out, when they had their sand castles destroyed at the beach by other children. And Kusano was connected to the trees, right? So it would probably make her feel even worse.

Naruto was snapped out of his wondering when he heard Kusano speak again. "What should Ku do?" she asked, her voice changing from sad to frantic. The eternal shinobi looked at the girl with slight worry. "Without Shina to help, Ku-chan is all alone!"

Ah. so that was it. Kusano wasn't sad that her plants were destroyed, but was worried that she would lose control over her powers once again. He was somewhat surprised, but in a way, her words made sense. If she and Shina were friends, than they had likely grown up in the labs together, most likely due to their complimentary powers. And if that were the case then this was not the first time Shina had been needed to keep the Green Girl's powers under control.

Looking at things from that perspective, Naruto saw MBI's recent actions in a new light. Both Kusano and Shina had still been in the labs, Homura had told him that Kusano was not supposed to have been released from the labs for some time due to her powers still being erratic, and with MBI needing to take care of the overabundance of plant growth they had sent the one person capable of dealing with it in the fastest manner possible. From this new point of view, MBI taking the credit made sense. They may not have been responsible for the destruction of the Arboretum directly, but they had sent the one who was.

That did bring a few new issues to the fore, but Naruto could think about how to deal with them later. Right now he had to help the still frantic girl in his arms.

"Hey now, what do you your all alone?" Naruto asked the question rhetorically, his tone light-hearted. Kusano looked up at him, her large green eyes even wider than usual, and he gave her a soft smile. "I'm here." Even if he couldn't decide whether or not he wanted to be, he was still here. And even if he was confused about this whole situation, the fact that he didn't want this girl to be so sad remained. In for a penny in for a pound as the relatively new – to him – saying went. "And so is Akitsu-chan, Musubi-chan, Miya-chan and Uzume-chan..." Naruto paused, then blinked. "Kagari-san is here too, but I don't know if he's any good with kids."

Behind them Miya heard this commented and covered her mouth with the sleeve of her Kimono as she giggled. Naruto paused to eye the woman, who merely smiled back, before shaking his head and turning to look back down at Kusano.

"The point is," Naruto continued in what could almost pass for a lecturing tone. "That you're not alone. All of us are here for you, and we'll help you in any way we can."

"Really?" Kusano sniffed, her big, puppy dog eyes looking at him with hope and happiness.

"Really, really," Naruto said.

"O-Onii-chan!" Kusano cried out happily as she wrapped her arms around the blonds neck in a tight squeeze. Naruto found himself very glad that this child was a simple type and not a fist type like Musubi. With her powers still needing to be adjusted, a hug from her might have actually damaged something. "Ku-chan is so happy! Promise Ku-chan that you'll stay with me forever!"

Naruto's breath hitched at the words. It had not been so long ago that he had asked Musubi to make him that same promise. It also brought back all of the fear he had been feeling since he had become an Ashikabi. It was the one reason he was still so confused about what he should do about this situation, the one reason he was still undecided of just how much he should allow himself to feel for these people, and the one reason he didn't enjoy being bonded to them as much as he probably would have were circumstances otherwise.

He could easily spent the rest of Kusano's life with her. It was a promise well within his capabilities to keep. The problem was, would she and by extension the other Sekireis be able to spend the rest of his life with him? It was a question without an answer. Naruto still knew very little about Sekirei. He knew they all had power, abilities beyond the human norm, he knew that some could control the elements while other's seemed to have gained a massive boost in physical power, and he knew that they could bond with certain people. Beyond that, Naruto had very little idea on what these Sekirei were.

On top of that Naruto was an anomaly. An immortal that had lived for thousands upon thousands of years, a man whose own era had been ravaged by the sands of time. Even if Sekireis had been a well-known entity for years, he had set something that was and would always be unprecedented. Which meant the one question he had, the question that burned in the back of his mind and longed to be answered, the question that he also feared the answer of, would only be solved by him, through a trial by fire, so to speak.

Would a Sekirei bound to an immortal Ashikabi allow them to share in his immortality?

XoX

"A movie?"

"Yeah, I thought we could all go to the movie theater and watch a movie together." Naruto sweat dropped when he saw that Musubi had a confused look on her face, left index finger placed below her lower lip and head tilted to the left as she stared at him with an owlish expression. "A movie is like those television shows we watch together, only longer and it's played on a much bigger screen," he deadpanned, and sighed when the proverbial light bulb lit up in the girls mind.

"Oh, I get it!" Musubi said excitedly, pounding a fist into the palm of her other hand. "That sounds so fun! We should definitely go!"

Naruto grinned at the girl and stifled a chuckle. The blond had almost forgotten that Musubi had only been living outside of the labs for a few days. On top of that she was incredibly naïve and knew next to nothing about the world outside of the labs, so of course she wouldn't know what a movie was.

Shaking his head, Naruto turned to look at his other two Sekirei. "What about you girls?" he asked. "Do you all want to go see a movie?"

"Oooh, oooh, Ku-chan wants to go!" Kusano shouted as she raised her hand in the air and jumped up and down. She looked like a spring with her constant motion. "Take Ku-chan with you!"

"Ah," Akitsu tilted her head, slowly pondering the question. "I would like to go too," she said with a nod.

Naruto nodded his own head, even as he berated himself for over thinking things so much. He had been so worried that he would be unable to find anything they could all do together and enjoy, that he had completely forgotten that all of them had grown up in a lab. They had never gone to the movies theater's before, never gone on picnics – except Musubi now, and Akitsu and Musubi were the only two who had been to the mall before, and that had been to shop, not spend time with friends and family. The blond almost found himself annoyed with how much he was over thinking everything. Was this a bi product of being thousands of years old?

As Naruto shook himself down, chalking his over analyzing of the situation to old age, he caught sight of Miya. The lavenderette was sitting at the head of the table, sipping some tea and watching the events playing out between Naruto and his Sekirei with a smile. She seemed to be enjoying watching his life, and the blond couldn't help but wonder if perhaps she thought the situation he found himself to be like something she might watch on television.

As he watched the woman out of the corner of his eyes, an idea came to him. The blond smiled as he turned to look at Miya fully so he could speak to her. "What about you, Miya-chan?" he asked, and when the woman holding his attention tilted her heads at his words, realized she might not know what he was talking about. Thus he made sure to elaborate. "Would you like to come with us?"

In his mind, the idea made sense. It had only been four days since he had first met Miya, and unlike with his Sekirei, Naruto did not have the benefit of being able to feel their emotions over a powerful bond that transcended physical boundaries in a way that should not be possible. It would be a good idea to get to know the woman who owned the boarding house he and his girls were living in.

Also, there was just something about Miya that made him want to know her better. She was like him. Not that she was immortal or anything like that. The similarities between the two was not so drastic, and he would have known if there had been another immortal in this world besides him. He was sure they would have met at some point in there life before now. She was like him in another way, one that was much more fundamental than immortality.

Regret. He had seen it in her the moment he had first laid eyes on the woman. It was in the way she walked, in each movement she made, in the way she would help his Sekirei, in her actions, her voice, it was such a fundamental part of her that Naruto could almost believe she had been born with the emotion. Something very tragic must have happened in her life to leave such a large scar. And it was in that way that they were both similar. The scars they bore were of a much more emotional nature than others, not visibly able to be seen by the naked eye.

"Me?" Miya seemed surprised for a second. She stared at him, blinking as a baffled expression crossed over her face. It was not a look one would see often on the kind and patient woman's face, which made Naruto savor the look as if it were a fine wine.

Hey, he hadn't pranked anyone for a thousand years. Cut him some slack.

"Yes, you. Do you know of any other Miya's that live in this house?" asked Naruto, his voice teasing. Miya pouted for a second before her congenial smile was back in place. She placed her hands on her cheeks and looked at him with a look the blond had come to recognize as the opening sequence of her return fire.

"Oh my, is Uzumaki-kun asking me on a date when he's already surrounded himself with beautiful women?" she asked, her face adopting a look of mock disappointment. "It seems as if my house is being turned into a den of debauchery and misconduct. Not only has Uzumaki-kun stolen the hearts of these poor young women, he now seems to have set his sites on me. Whatever would my dear husband think?"

"Your husband would probably tell you to make up your mind already," Naruto commented with a sniff. "And I have no clue what you're talking when you say 'den of debauchery'," he added with a smile. "So far Musubi-chan, Akitsu-chan and myself have been very good about following all of your house rules."

"Hmm... that is true," Miya admitted with a look that said she was contemplating her next move. "However..." She paused, turning her attention to Kusano who had begun releasing a 'fuuugh!' sound as she glared at Naruto with childish anger.

"How come onii-chan only mentioned Aki-chan and Mu-chan?" she demanded, her tiny hands clenching themselves into fists as she placed them on her hands and gave Naruto an imperious look. "Ku-chan want's onii-chan to mention her when he talks about his Sekirei!" It was the demand of a little girl who apparently did not like to be left out of things.

"I'm sorry, Ku-chan," Naruto apologized, placing a hand on her head. This was not quite to be the best thing to do, as Naruto could attest to when Kusano tried to bite him. Fortunately, he removed his hand before she could do so, eying the girl warily before smiling again. "From now on, onii-chan will mention Ku-chan whenever he talks about Aki-chan and Mu-chan, ok?" he offered, using the childish tone of speaking in the third person to answer the girl.

"Mu~ promise?" asked Kusano, still glaring at him.

"Promise of a lifetime," Naruto answered. The little girl glared at him for a moment more before beaming at him. Satisfied that her onii-chan would no longer leave her out of a conversation, she latched onto his legs like a leech, looking up at him with a bright smile. Naruto returned to look, before returning his attention to the still smiling Miya. With their moment of banter broken by Kusano, he decided to just get to the point. "So, you interested in heading out with us?"

For a second, Miya looked like she was truly thinking about doing just as he asked, joining him and his Sekire for an outing to the movies. The finger holding her cheek twitched, a sign that she was actually interested in possibly doing something that did not involve cooking, cleaning, or any other house hold chore. However, a moment later, when it appeared she might give into temptation, the lavenderette shook her head. "I would love to go see a movie with all of you, however, I still have some things that I need to get done here." Her smile widened, forcing her eyes closed. "Besides, I wouldn't want to be a bother."

And it look like she was similar to him in another way as well. She had accepted Naruto and the others into her house, had offered to spar with Musubi, made friendly banter with him, helped him look after Kusano, and had even begun making sure that Akitsu was wearing panties – yes, the ice user still occasionally forgot to wear underwear, though she had gotten better. Yet, despite all her kindness, despite all her willingness to help others, she remained determined to keep her distance.

Did he really act like this as well? Maybe, probably. Naruto knew that when he had first met Musubi his only intention, after deciding that he didn't want to feel guilty for seducing the incredibly naïve girl, was to help her find her Ashikabi and than leave caring for the fist figher to them. Once he ended up being bonded to the girl, he had tried, sort of, to keep his distance. It was hard, maybe even impossible to truly do as he suggested, and Naruto had resigned himself to simply letting Musubi. He would be her Ashikabi, but he would keep himself as emotionally detached from the girl as possible. At least until he could find a way to break the bond.

Now Naruto wasn't even sure he wanted to break the bond. They had only just me, but Naruto honestly felt better now than he had in thousands of years. His sleep was untroubled, the feeling of waking up to two beautiful women was very pleasant, and the constant thrum of his Sekireis emotions in the back of his mind soothed his troubled emotions in ways he had never experienced. The fact was, as much as he may deny it, as much as he may fear it, he enjoyed being bonded. Even if, just like the women he had seduced when his loneliness became too much to bear, this was only a temporary reprieve from his own personal hell, a part of him wanted to welcome these feelings with open arms.

Naruto sighed. There he went again, over analyzing everything. He really was going to need to start meditating some more. But for now, he had a woman to convince to come with him. If Naruto was going to try and make at least some effort into this whole 'bonded' business, then the least Miya could do was make an effort at being more than just the landlady of their boarding house.

"How many times do I have to tell you, you could never be a bother?" He looked at the purple-haired beauty with a fox like smile, in which his whisker marks stretched so wide they gave him a very kitsune-ish appearance. "You're our friend, this is simply something that friends do together."

Miya looked at the young man, her respect for him going up several notches. Since their first meeting she had been very impressed by him; he was confident yet humble, respectful yet playful, calm but also capable of being just as enthusiastic as his first Sekirei. He was also strong, and not just in the physical sense. She already knew he was powerful physically, she had seen him lifted several hundred pounds worth of furniture with one hand, so she was well aware of his strength.

The strength she was talking about was an inner strength. She could still remember the first morning after Naruto and Musubi had come to Izumo Inn, the day they had gone on a picnic and brought Akitsu back with them. She had seen his eyes, tired, aged eyes that should not be on a person who looked so youthful. They were the eyes of someone who had lost everything. She could only imagine what Naruto had suffered through to gain those eyes. How much had he lost to have such a bitter look?

Despite whatever loss he had weighing on his soul, the man continued to keep himself together, continued to smile and laugh and love. God only knew how long he had been carrying around whatever baggage weighed him down, yet he still managed to keep going, to keep living. He didn't let his past drag him down, and it was that strength of character that Miya respected the most about him.

He truly was an amazing young man.

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt to take a break every now and then," Miya admitted slowly. She looked at the three Sekirei, Musubi was following the conversation with an earnest look. No doubt she was hoping the landlady who had sparred with her would join them. Akitsu was staring at Naruto, but then, she was always staring at Naruto so that was to be expected. And Kusano, she just looked confused, staring from Naruto to Miya and switching back and forth between the two. "Very well then, I'll go with you all to the movies."

"Yatta!" Musubi threw her hands up and cheered. The other two were much less enthusiastic in showing their pleasure. Well, Akitsu wasn't, but then again, she rarely ever expressed any emotions at all. The girl only ever displayed any form of emotion when around Naruto, at least if intense staring could be considered an emotion.

Kusano on the other hand was right with Musubi in the enthusiasm department. The two of them had even started dancing at some point, waving their hands up above their head as they moved in some form of dance that looked like it had started off as a hula dance and degenerated from there. The sight of the two females, one a child and the other a child at heart, caused Miya and Naruto to share a look and a couple of chuckles.

With the decision to see a movie decided, the group made their way down the hallway to the rooms of the other two tenants at Izumo Inn. After all, it would be rude not to invite them as well.

Their first stop was Kagari's room. Unlike Naruto and Uzume, Kagari's room was on the first floor, located on the opposite side of the hall as Miya's room. When they got there, Naruto knocked on the door several times before waiting. They knew that the white-haired male had not left the house yet as it was still morning and neither of them had seen him leaving his room except when he came down for breakfast. But he had gone back up so quickly none of them could say much to him. The sound of footsteps came from behind the door, before it opened and revealed the person they wanted to speak with.

Kagari was not looking very good. It wasn't immediately obvious, but Naruto caught several discrepancies in his figure and form since they had first met. The easiest thing to spot was the light sheen of sweat on his skin, as well as the unhealthy pallor it had. Kagari was fair skinned, but at the moment it looked very pasty. He was also looking slightly flushed, his cheeks were stained with red, and his breathing was a tad heavier than normal. Along with that was the fact that his clothes were a mess. His shirt was untucked, the top three buttons had been undone, his clothing had wrinkles in it. The once professional and cool look the fire user had worn since they had met was all gone, leaving this sickle man in his place.

"Um, hello?" he said, grimacing a bit. Naruto caught sight of him rubbing his chest from behind the crack in the door. "Can I help you guys?"

"Are you alright, Kagari-san?" Naruto asked, he was honestly beginning to get worried for the man. After that first day they had met, Kagari had been looking worse and worse. At first Naruto had simply thought the man was sick, but now he was beginning to think there might be another reason he was looking so terrible.

"I'm fine," Kagari told him. "I've just been feeling under the weather," he lied, and Naruto knew it was a lie. Within just a few days the man's condition had steadily grown worse. Still, it was obvious that the fire user had no desire to tell anyone what was wrong with him, and Naruto was not one to butt into another person's personal business so he would leave the situation be for now.

"Are you sure you're alright, Kagari-san?" asked Miya, her voice sounding worried as she looked him over with a concerned eye. "You're beginning to look awfully pale these days."

"Gee, thanks Miya," Kagari tried to joke, though it came out with more sarcasm than intended. He flinched a bit when Miya's frown grew, and tried to reassure the woman. "Really, I'll be fine. I just need some rest."

Well that settled in it Naruto's mind. "I see," the blond said. "That's too bad, we were all planning on seeing a movie and were hoping you would join us." He looked Kagari over once more and almost winced with sympathy, the man really was looking terrible. "But since you're not feeling very well, we'll leave you to get your rest."

Despite himself, Kagari eyed the group with undisguised curiosity. In particular he looked over at Miya, his left eyebrow raised in a question. The purple-haired beauty seemed to understand what he was asking, because she just smiled and gave him a mild shrug as if to say 'yes, I am going with them'.

"Sorry to disappoint you guys," he told them, and he actually sounded genuinely apologetic. "I would love to come with you, but I haven't been feeling very well I don't think it would be a good idea."

"I figured as much," Naruto replied with a sigh. "Alright, I guess we'll see you later. I hope you get better, Kagari-san."

"Thanks." Kagari said, then added. "Oh, and have fun at the movies."

"We will."

When the group began to walk off, Kagari closed the door and locked it. Turning around he leaned against the door frame, his knees giving out as he slid down onto his backside. He released a shaky breath, and tried to regulate his breathing as he clutched at his chest.

Why? That was the only thing he could ask himself. Why now? And why him? It was not Naruto's fault, and he didn't blame the man, well, not completely. Had Naruto never arrived he would have never started feeling this way. But it wasn't like Naruto had intended for this to happen, it wasn't like Naruto even knew what was really happening.

That still didn't change his question.

Why?

XoX

"So what movie are we going to go see?" asked Uzume as she walked with the other five people beside her. After Kagari had turned them down the pair had gone to Uzume's room, and after waking the beautiful Sekirei up had asked her if she wanted to go with them. The young woman had agreed readily, having not actually done something like gone to the movies before.

Not even with her own Ashikabi. That thought made her pause for a moment, as a well spring of sadness welled up inside of her. But she deftly shoved the feelings down. Right now there wasn't anything she could do for her Ashikabi, all she could do was hope and pray.

"I'm not sure yet. I don't know what movies they have playing and didn't want to make a decision that you guys might contest. So I just figured we would decide when we get there." Naruto looked over at her from where he was walking and smiled as he answered her question, earning a nod and a smile in return. Much to the envy of every single male they passed, the blond Uzumaki was in the direct center of the mass of female flesh. Kusano was sitting on top of him, riding on his shoulders with a large smile on her face and her hands gripping onto his blond locks to keep from falling. On either side of him were Akitsu on his left, and Musubi on his right, with Miya and Uzume just a few paces ahead and behind him respectively.

That was a thought that brought no end of amusement to Uzume as she spotted the many people they were walking passed. Nearly every single guy they went by seemed to be having a hard time not displaying their emotions like an open book. They also seemed to have a hard time determining which type of emotion to display. Envy at seeing Naruto surrounded by so many beautiful young women, or lust at seeing so many beautiful young women in the first place. Most of them seemed to settle on a mixture of both.

'He hasn't even been in the game for long and yet he already has three Sekireis,' she thought to herself as her eyes settled on the blond, who was saying something to Kusano about helping her grow a garden in the backyard. His words seemed to make the little Sekirei insanely happy as Uzume heard a cry of 'I love you, onii-chan' from the little blond girl. 'Granted, I can see why.'

And she could. Aside from his looks, which were admittedly exotic and handsome, not pretty boy handsome like Kagari, but a more rugged kind of attractiveness, he was also very easy to get along with. The people he met just seemed to be naturally drawn to the blond man, even Miya seemed utterly taken in by Naruto's easy going personality! She would use the moth to a flame analogy but didn't really feel that it could truly describe the Ashikabis ability properly. There was just something about him that made others want to befriend him. She couldn't put her finger on it but...

'If I didn't already have an Ashikabi I probably would have bonded to him as well,' she thought to herself. Not that she was unhappy, while she was hurt that she couldn't be with her Ashikabi everyday like Musubi and the others were, she loved her Ashikabi very dearly. At the same time she could unbiasedly see why Naruto had managed to gather three Sekirei to him in such a short amount of time.

He truly was an impressive person.

XoX

After arriving at the movie theater, the group had gotten into a small debate about what movie they should see. Naruto was interested in seeing the new Underworld movie that had just come out, by extension and simply because her Ashikabi wanted to see it Akitsu had decided she wanted to see that movie as well. Uzume wanted to see 16-Love, while Musubi and Kusano had wanted to see Joyful Noise. It had created a small problem with the group as all of them wanted to see different movies. At least until Miya had bashed each one of them on the head with the sheath of her katana, which she somehow managed to... convince the people working their to let her take with her, and told them they were going to see Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.

And that was that, because when Miya wanted something, she got it one way or another. Even Naruto was unwilling to cross the woman when she decided something.

Not that any of them could complain, the movie had been very good, witty and humorous, with a good plot and many nice twists and turns as Robert Downy Jr. played Sherlock Holmes and tried to defeat his Arch nemesis, Professor James Moriarty alongside his companion Watson.

The only problem they had was the seating arrangements. Once again there was the small issue of who would sit where. It was really only a problem for Akitsu, Musubi, Kusano and of course, Naruto, who the argument, if it could be called that, was about. All three of the Sekirei wanted to sit next to Naruto, the problem was that there were only two seats and three women, or two and a half if you wanted to be specific. Both Akitsu and Musubi felt it would only be right to allow Kusano to sit next to their Ashikabi, she was a child after all and it just didn't feel right not to allow the girl to be with the blond, whom she had grown rather attached to since he rescued her. Of course, both of them also wanted to sit next to Naruto, and it had looked like it might actually come to blows between the two. Thankfully Naruto and Miya had solved the problem.

Two lumps on the head later Naruto had been sitting in his seat, Akitsu and Musubi on either side of him while Kusano found herself perched on the blonds lap. After that small altercation they – and everyone else who had been in the theater – were able to enjoy the movie in peace. Eventually, the movie ended and the group left the theater to begin their walk home.

"That movie was so good," Musubi stated the moment they had left the sanctity of the theater. She had been the one who had enjoyed watching the movie the most, laughing during the funny parts, gasping during the moments of suspense. She had been particularly enamored with the unusual way Holmes had used his deductive powers to fight. "Sherlock Holmes was so cool. Did you guys see how he fought?"

There you go.

"Yes, Musubi-chan," Naruto said with a resigned smile. "We were all watching the movie as well." He had to admit he rather liked the movie. Sherlock Holmes had been an interesting character. The fact that he was based on a person who actually existed, Dr. Joseph Bell, a man that Naruto had actually met during one of the times he had spent in London, had helped the blond draw up comparisons between the two men. They were surprisingly similar, though the Holmes in this movie had been a lot more, well, eccentric, then the man he was based off of.

"So what did you think of the movie, Akitsu-chan, Ku-chan?" asked Naruto as he tried to include the other two in the moment.

"Ku-chan really liked the movie," Kusano said from atop the blond's shoulders. "They were all like 'bang, bang' and then they were like 'woosh!'," the girl took her hands off Naruto's head to make wide, gesticulations to emphasis her many sound effects. "And that guy was really funny, though Ku didn't really understand some of the things he was talking about. What elementary, onii-chan?"

"Do you think Musubi could learn to fight like that?" asked the fist fighter, barely even paying attention to the conversation Naruto was now in with Kusano.

"Elementary was nothing more than a catch phrase, Ku," Naruto explained to the little girl. "It was really just his way of expressing his ability to accurately solve a case using logical reasoning and incredible observational skills."

"Oh, ok," Kusan said, then paused. "What's logical reasoning and observational skills?" she asked, making Naruto sigh.

"I don't think anyone can actually fight like that, Musubi," Uzume said with a grin. "And you're not really the time to think things through like that. You're more of the dash in and try to hit them before they hit you type of fighter."

"You think so?" Musubi asked, tilting her head to the side as the small slight against her went right over her head. After a moment, she shrugged. "I guess you're right. Still," she smiled. "It would be so cool if I could fight like that."

"You're all so lively," Miya said, giggling into her hand as she listened to the very conversations going on around her.

"Not regretting that you came with us to see the movies, Miya-chan?" asked Naruto once he got finished explaining 'logical reasoning' and 'observational skills' to the little girl riding on his shoulders. This had required him to actually start explaining what logic and observation meant to the tiny sprite in a way that she would understand. Considering Naruto often had a habit of over analyzing and over thinking just about everything, this was a lot harder than it looked.

Miya favored him with a grateful smile. "I must thank you, Uzumaki-kun, for insisting that I come with you," she said. "It has been a long time since I have allowed myself to go out simply for the sake of going out."

"I'm glad to see you had fun," Naruto allowed his more charming side to come out to play, though toned it down quite a bit for the sake of not wanting to make an attempt at seducing the woman. Or of her thinking he was trying to seduce her. The last thing he needed was for the woman to actually think he was attempting to get into her pants and using the sword still in her hands against him. "You're always doing so much around the house that it can't be healthy. It's good to get out every now and than."

"If you say you say so," Miya said, smiling a smile that Naruto was beginning to recognize with quite a bit of ease in spite of having only met recently. It was the look she gave right as she was about to begin her teasing, normally by either commenting on his 'lustful urges' or how was trying to, in her terms 'take advantage of a poor widow like her', there mere thought of which caused him to snort. The only way someone would try and take advantage of Miya was if they had a death wish.

The expected teasing never came, however. Miya had stopped walking and was tilting her head slightly, a frown on her face. "Ara?" she looked around, as if sensing something that had yet to reveal itself and was now trying to search it out. Naruto, Musubi, Akitsu, and Uzume all stopped walking as Miya turned around. "It seems we have guests."

Naruto turned to look at where Miya's head was already turned. The people she was referring to were not that difficult to find, in fact, they were a remarkable contrast to everyone else around them, much like Naruto's group. There were three of them, the first one Naruto took notice of was the man in the middle of the group. He was dressed in an a black and white very formal and expensive business suit, the kind used by rich executives of large corporations. He had dark hair cut to a moderate length, and it looked like it had been professional styled, and when combined with his outfit and glasses he gave Naruto the impression of a secretary of some kind.

The other two were female. The first one was wearing a large brown cloak that covered her body completely, disguising both her appearance and gender. The only reason Naruto could tell the figure was female was from her smell. It was a skill Naruto had picked up during his live long tenor as a wanderer, by enhancing his nose with chakra, he could detect and track a scent on a magnitude of one hundred times better than the best ninken, ninja dogs that had been used by the Inuzuka Clan.

It was bit difficult at first, with so many other scents in the area Naruto had a hard time of picking out which one was hers. Already several powerful scents were blocking his nose, Musubi's strange animalistic smell – though he couldn't tell what type of animal, the smell of a garden coming from Kusano, fresh linen from Uzume, wintergreen or perhaps sperament from Akitsu, and the scent of blood that hung around Miya.

He didn't know what those smells meant, perhaps they had something to do with their powers, though if Miya was a Sekirei with power over blood than he did not want to know what she could do. Whatever the case was, the cloaked figure before him smelled of a mixture of steel, female arousal mixed with bloodlust coming off of her. Judging her based off of those smells she was definitely a Sekirei, and perhaps a weapons user if the scent of steel were any indication. The other was a young looking girl dressed in a white midriff baring no sleeved shirt and tie. She had on long dark gloves, and coming down from beneath her top were what appeared to be dark suspenders attached to black short shorts.

Naruto felt himself tense as the man continued to approach him. This was obviously another Ashikabi, and it was clear the man was here for him. But why? What reason could this man have for wanting to approach him? Was he hoping to do battle? If so then that wasn't a wise choice. He was outnumbered, with Akitsu, Musubi, and Kusano, Naruto had three Sekirei to this man's two; he was sure that Miya and Uzume would help him if the situation demanded it...

No, wait. Naruto looked around and frowned when he saw that Uzume had disappeared. Where had she gone off to? She had been here just a few seconds ago...

He was left with no more time to ponder the situation when the man stopped just a few meters from him. The two Sekirei that had been at his side stopped several feet behind him, perhaps a sign that he was not here to fight but merely talk? The business suited man didn't seem to have any intention of moving from that spot as he looked Naruto over with a superior expression Naruto would recognize anywhere. Sasuke had worn that look often enough.

After studying him further, the man casually dismissed Naruto to look at the others that were with him. Kusano shrank under the man's gaze, while Musubi merely looked at him curiously. When the man's eyes landed on Akitsu they narrowed, she was doing what she usually did, stare at Naruto. The ice user was not even paying attention to him beyond the first glance she had given. When the man's eyes landed on Miya they frowned, then blinked. He didn't look quite sure what to make of the formally dressed beauty with the sword.

Eventually, he refocused on Naruto, and the blond's previous thoughts came true when the man used the middle and index finger of his right hand to push his glasses further against his nose, an arrogant smirk on his face and began to talk. "You are the one they are calling the miracle worker that everyone is talking about, yes?" he asked, even his tone sounded derisive. For a moment, Naruto did nothing, busy as he was trying to overcome the sudden urge he felt to kill this man.

That tone, that smirk, and that god forsaken way he had pushed his glasses was so reminiscent of someone had grown to hate.

"I decided I wished to be like you as well, Naruto, and for that reason… with Lord Orochimaru now integrated into this body, I plan on finding a new "me", one stronger than Lord Orochimaru himself! Finding a new me, that is the lesson you taught me."

Naruto almost physically shivered with rage as that man's voice entered his head. That man, who he hated more than anything else in this world. Even now, the blond was almost tempted to use the Edo Tensei to revive that man just so he could torture him for all eternity. It was only because he was starting to get the hang of controlling his wayward emotions that the blond limited his physical reaction for the man in front of him to stiffening.

"Miracle worker?" he asked, tasting the words. Though his tone sounded merely curious, Naruto was still having some difficulty fighting back his hatred. In an effort to keep himself from lashing out and doing something foolish, he pondered the words as he tried to derive their meaning. It sounded like some kind of title, though he could not figure out what the title meant by the name alone. This man appeared to believe he was this 'Miracle Worker' though, a fact which confused him since he had not done anything that he felt was noteworthy.

At least nothing that anyone outside of his tenants and Sekirei know of. In fact, aside from the time he had rescued Kusano he had not done anything that would have drawn attention to himself.

"Miracle Worker?" Musubi questioned as well, poking her lower lip with her index finger as she looked up at the sky. "Is that like discretion?" she asked, causing Naruto to almost snort with amusement. He was actually thankful for his Sekirei's inane comment, for some reason, her words had helped him quell the rage that had been burning in his gut at the sight of this man.

"You mean you don't know?" the man didn't seem to know whether he should be amused or appalled by the blond's lack of knowledge on this subject. His indecisiveness only lasted a moment before he decided on amused, though the look he gave Naruto was more condescending than anything else. "Miracle Worker is the title given to the Ashikabi who had managed to give the scrapped number her wings," he explained in a lecturing tone that sounded like he was explaining something fundamental to a child.

Once more Naruto felt the urge to rip this man's face off. Kami, even his god forsaken personality was like that mans.

"That is you, is it not?" he asked once again with a derisive sniff. "My master, the Ashikabi of the East, Higa Izumi, is never wrong when it comes to gaining this kind of information. You are obviously the Miracle Worker, even if you do not recognized the title. My master is very interested in meeting with you."

Another shudder almost became visible on Naruto. The way this man said 'my master' in such sycophantic and obsessed way. Even that was similar to 'that mans' personality. It was almost enough to make him sick, though he did his best to visibly shove that aside and focus on the information this man had just given him.

Naruto frowned at this new title and name. The Ashikabi of the East, he had no clue what that meant, though he could take a few guesses. His first clue was the ending word in the title. East. Ashikabi of the East. It's obvious meaning was that the man was an Ashikabi located somewhere in the Eastern quadrant of the city. Since he had a title, then the man was most likely of some import to the Sekirei Plan. Perhaps some kind of power behind the scenes or something. Whatever the case was, this Izumi Higa was obviously a powerful figure, especially since another Ashikabi was calling him 'master'.

Damn. Damn, damn, damn, dammit! He had been expecting this to happen at some point, but not so soon. He wasn't ready for this kind of confrontation yet. He didn't have enough information, he didn't know anything about the other Ashikabi, the other Sekireis, he still wasn't even sure what the hell a Sekirei was.

And worse! Naruto still didn't even know if he wanted to take part in this god forsaken plan!

He kept all of this to himself, however, showing none of what he was feeling on the inside. It had been a long time since he had really called himself such, but Naruto was a shinobi, a ninja, an assassin. And during his time as a Konoha shinobi he had grown to be one of the most adaptive ninja in the force. There was no situation he couldn't react to, no mess he couldn't adapt to. He might not have been on the ball when it came to rescuing Kusano, but he was going to make damn sure that the next time a dangerous situation arrived he would bring his A-game and –

– wait. What did he say?

"What the hell is a scrapped number?" asked Naruto as his mind came down from, where ever the hell it had gone to. He hadn't been paying attention to that small piece of knowledge, too busy dealing with the other shocks he was going through, but now that his mind was actually beginning to focus on everything, bringing his A-game as it were, those words he had missed at first came back to him and made him pause.

"Ah," the sound of Akitsu's voice startled Naruto. Turning to look at the ice user along with everyone else, Naruto saw the woman looking down at her feet. "That would be me," she finished quietly. It took Naruto a moment to realize what she had meant, but when he did his eyes widened.

"I am... broken... I'm... a failure..."

Those had been Akitsu's words when they had first met. Was this what she meant? He had assumed that the reason she had called herself broken was because she couldn't gain her wings from any normal Ashikabi. Was that what it meant to be a scrapped number? Or was there some other meaning as well? Something more specific perhaps.

A snort of derision made Naruto's head snap back to the man. "You mean to tell me you didn't know?" the business suited man asked, a condescending smile on his face. "You are quite ill informed, it seems. Do you even know what it is you've gotten yourself mixed up in boy?"

Naruto's lips became a thin line, and not just at the boy comment. This pretentious little shit was several thousand years too young to be calling him boy. And of course he didn't know what the hell it was he had gotten himself into! He had only been in this city for five fucking days! And he may have bonded himself to three Sekirei within that time frame, but that didn't mean he understood a god damn thing about them! Musubi didn't seem to know anything about the Sekirei Plan other than the 'fight, and fight, and fight' slogan that Minaka had given him during their one video phone meeting.

Come to think of it, that man's information had been next to useless as well.

Akitsu wasn't a vast source of knowledge herself. He didn't know whether the ice user was just tight lipped, didn't feel like talking, or it was just in her personality to speak as little as possible no matter the subject. Though Naruto would admit he was very sure it was the latter of those three possibilities, that still meant she wouldn't be able to give him the information he wanted.

As for Kusano, well, she was a child. Enough said.

Perhaps he should have questioned Miya in earnest. He was almost one hundred percent positive that the woman knew something about the Sekirei Plan. Naruto hadn't asked her because he wanted to be polite, even with the teasing they had started neither of them really knew each other. It wouldn't have been right to ask her, or so he had told himself at the time. Now he was regretting it.

"Of course I know what I've gotten myself into," Naruto lied with the kind of casual nonchalance that actually made the business suited man pause. If it wouldn't have given away his poker face, the blond would have smirked. The best way to bluff your way out of any situation is by presenting just the right amount of bluster with the correct lacing of confidence. It was a skill he had often used when blackmail didn't work against some of his more... unruly blackmailees.

"Hmm... well whatever," the man said at last, seemingly deciding that he didn't want to waste any time arguing that point with him. "As I was saying before, my master would like to meet with you," he continued, and Naruto narrowed his eyes in thought. There were only a few reasons that this man's master wanted to meet with him, and only one of them made any sense right now. His master, this Izumi Higa, wanted him for some purpose, he wanted to use Naruto for something.

Naruto hated being used.

"If your master wanted to speak with me then why isn't he here?" asked Naruto, almost visibly shivering with pleasure as he saw the man bristle at his blatant words. He would play this man's game for now to get the information he wanted, but that didn't mean he had any intention of actually letting this man dictate their moves. Naruto was an old hand at political double speak and the art of the silver tongue. It was time he put those skills to use.

And maybe he could have some fun poking at the pricks mental defenses while he was at it.

"Do not be so presumptuous," the man regained his bluster by snorting in contempt and pushing his glasses further up his nose. It looked like some kind of habit. Maybe it was a reflex action that all douche bags possessed? "My master is a very busy man. You shouldn't assume that he will go out of his way to meet with you just because he wants to meet with you."

Well, if that wasn't the most contradictory, ass backwards sentence Naruto had ever heard. Still, he was able to get the gist of what this man was saying, and decided it was time to have some fun. Tilting his head and adopting an expression of innocent curiosity, he asked, "but if your master is too busy to meet with me then how is he supposed to meet with me?" in a tone that was laced with mockery that completely contradicted the look on his face.

From the way the man's body visible stiffened, and the twitching of the man's left foot, he had caught the slight Naruto made against his way of speaking and wasn't quite pleased. It almost looked like he would forgo his 'no moving from this spot' position to rush Naruto, but visibly held back. After taking a moment to regain his composure, which consisted of the man snorting derisively and pushing his glasses up his nose again, he spoke.

"My master has scheduled a time and place for this meeting," he said, and Naruto was pleased to not the barely held back anger in his voice. "The meeting will be at noon next Saturday at Hyamaki Hospital." The man had apparently decided he'd had enough of dealing with Naruto, and was now trying to hurry this meeting along to a close. "It's not everyday that my master decides to meet with someone he doesn't know. I hope for your sake that you don't decide to snub my master's generosity." With that one last threat, the business suited man, who Naruto realized he had now never gotten the name of, spun around and began to walk off. As he passed the two Sekirei they once again took position on either side of him and followed suit.

It wasn't until the man was gone that Naruto allowed his posture to sag slightly in a mixture of relief and exhaustion.

"Uzumaki-kun?" Miya's voice rang in his ears and Naruto turned his head to favor her with a tired smile.

"Let's go back home," he said, his voice letting her know that he had no intention of talking about what had just happened. Miya actually looked startled for a moment, but a second later she settled down and gave him a compassionate smile. In silence, the small group began to walk home.

"Naruto?" and of course it would be Musubi who broke the silent tension that had formed, having not even been aware of it in the first place.

"Yes, Musubi-chan?" Naruto asked with a tired sigh.

"What does 'snub' mean? Is that like discretion?"

"Ugh."

No, Naruto just couldn't get a break.