Disclaimer: First Chapter
Story Start!
"I am I the one carrying the dead body!?"
Yamato, suffice to say, wasn't pleased about the current predicament that he was somehow in once more. First they stuck him on guard duty, which was mostly just sitting around and killing the rare few ninja that would enter the base. It was boring work, and most of the enemies didn't even put up a fight that would have at least made the effort a work out. Now though, he was being tasked with carrying Kabuto's dead body so that his memories could be looked at later on.
"Well, I'm going to go to my apartment. I'm starved after that mission." Naruto ignored Yamato as the guy complained.
He had ramen at his apartment calling his name, and it was almost morning. Soon Guy and Lee would be up, and starting their morning work out. It would be best to avoid any uncomfortable questions, like why were his clothes damaged, why did he had blood on him, and why he smelled like snake guts. The guts might have been washed off, but it wasn't like the smell wasn't in his clothes.
"Don't worry, I'll go with you. Naruto, if anything important comes up, I'll let you know. Later." Kakashi vanished in a burst of speed, with Yamato huffing as he followed him. The two senior ninja leaving the younger man behind, with Yami standing behind Naruto with a neutral look on her face.
She looked at the back of Naruto's head, and he felt her piercing stare.
"Yo." Naruto turned his head and looked at her. "You did great out there, too bad you're not a leaf ninja. I would have loved to go on more missions with you." Naruto complimented her on their success. She didn't play a small part, because of her radar they not only tracked down her ship, but they even found the base that Kabuto had been hiding in.
Yami nodded her head slowly.
"... Thank you." Yami stated as she turned her head away from him.
It was always so embarassing to thank people for her, though she rarely had to actually do that anyway. She would have actually been stuck on Naruto's planet if he hadn't helped her. She wouldn't have been able to get to her ship, or made it passed all of those ninja (The Cursed Seal ones) were it not for him and Kakashi. She wasn't stupid though, and knew that Kakashi only helped because of Naruto as well.
Naruto's reaction was expected when he gave it.
"No problem Yami-chan. I was happy to help." Spoken with a bright smile she was coming to know him for, she nodded her head, and gave a very slight smile of her own.
She was capable of smiling too.
"Is there a place I can take a bath?" Yami changed the topic, gesturing to her body. She winced when she did so, and she looked at her bandaged ribs. "... I might need healing again too." Yami examined herself. Her injury had stopped bleeding, and while it was never light threatening, getting it healed would prevent any possible infections from happening. It would also bring her battle strength back up to 100% if she did, and she wanted to always be at her best.
Naruto looked at her.
"Yeah, I know a place. Konoha has always had a few good hot springs in the village, though some were destroyed, we've rebuilt them. They'll even wash your clothes if you pay a little extra." Naruto mentioned to her, he looked down at himself, and his own dirty clothes. He could use a good wash himself, before he ate, and the hot springs did serve dango. It wouldn't hurt for them to go there.
It was pretty early still, so there shouldn't be too many people there, other than some of the early risers.
"... Can I borrow some money?" Yami asked Naruto with her cheeks more red than before.
Pure embarassment for her to have to rely so much on Naruto, and it was showing on her face. She couldn't quite look him in the eye when she asked for his help once more. Seeing as she didn't have any of the local currency, she had no way to pay for anything. Until she looked at her ship, and washed the snake guts off of it, it would be best for her to stay in the village. She wanted to make sure that everything was okay with her ship before she took it back into space.
Naruto nodded.
"Sure, we can go together."
"Ecchi." Yami covered her chest as she looked at him with narrowed eyes.
"It's not mixed bathing damnit!" Naruto shouted at her with red cheeks. He wasn't his sensei, who would go to every mixed bathing place that existed. He might be the inventor of the Sexy Jutsu and the Harem Jutsu, but most of the time he wasn't really a pervert. He enjoyed his perverted moments like any guy, but he would rather spend his time training than peeping on women.
Yami uncovered her chest and nodded her head at him, believing him when he spoke those words. He had yet to lie to her, or make himself out to be a pervert, so he would have the benefit of the doubt.
For now.
-At the Hot Springs (8:39 AM)-
"This place is... nice." Yami noted as she walked with Naruto towards the building. It looked like it was still in the process of opening for the morning, and the walk they had to make to get to the hot springs had been lengthy. They weren't in too much of a hurry though, since getting to the place before it opened wouldn't have done them any good.
The building was all wood, and the back part of the building was surrounded by a tall wooden fence with a visible split down the middle. The steam coming out of the fenced off, unviewable area, was enough to let her know that was where the bath was.
She would be on the lookout for perverts.
"Yeah, anyway, lets get in." Naruto walked through the clothe door without a care, Yami following behind him when she realized they were actually doing this. "How much for two people, and to have our clothes fixed up?" Naruto asked the front counter woman, the woman stocking the towels behind the counter.
She yelped in surprise.
"Ah! Naruto-san... I mean Uzumaki-sama!" The young woman became nervous when she saw Naruto, before she looked at him and the one he was with. "... For you, consider it on the house! After everything you've done for everyone, you deserve thanks!" She bowed to him with a thankful smile.
Naruto pumped his fist.
"Yeah, thanks! See Yami-chan, no problems here. We can go get something to eat after we're done." Naruto walked off towards the men's side, taking a towel with him. Yami could only nod silently as she walked towards the girl's side. She took a towel with her as well, and he trained hearing picked something up that caused her to blink.
"Lucky girl, dating the Hero of the Leaf."
The counter girl whispered under her breath as Yami walked by with her towel. She gave the woman a confused look for a moment, before she put it to the back of her mind. She could think about it later, but right now she would be better off relaxing with a hot soak. She walked through the pink clothe barrier that led into the female changing room, and saw wooden boxes where she could place her clothing. She even saw that they had bath robes stocked incase she finished her bath early, but wanted to keep walking around.
'Me, date Naruto? I'm not suited for such things.' Yami thought on the girl's earlier words while she started to undress herself. As her top came off, showing her lack of bra, she looked down at the bandages that Naruto used his clothes to make for her. Her wound underneath it, and she untied the bandages and looked at the blood stained orange cloth. '... He better not peek though.' Yami thought as she put her top, and the cloth bandage, into the wood box. She wrapped her towel around her upper body, before she removed her skirt and panties from underneath it and tossed them inside.
Then came the troublesome part of taking off all the straps she had on her arms and legs, with her sleeves and shoes.
No, Naruto said he wasn't going to peek, so she would have some faith in him not to. Yami shook her head, before she walked towards the other side of the room, and saw the hot springs for the first time.
It was rather beautiful.
"... I'm not alone." Yami noted under her breath when she saw several other girls where already in the hot springs. Either way, she made her way towards the water, and gently placed her foot in. She walked over towards the side of the hot springs, and she took her towel off, and used the body soap provided and scrubbed herself down, before rinsing herself off.
She had been to a hot springs before on another world, and knew that it was pretty common for people to wash their bodies before getting in the water.
"Aaaaaaah, I deserve this after putting up with Lee and Guy-sensei, I really do."
"Way to sound like an old man Tenten. This is a nice break though. After this, I'm going to be spending all day healing Yamato-sensei's chakra exhaustion. His Wood Style is making restoring the village so much easier."
"I'm sorry Ino-san couldn't join us."
Yami glanced towards the three women that were talking to each other, while getting into the water herself now. The first who spoke, Tenten, was a girl with medium length brown hair, with a toned up body. She had a rather moderately developed body, more developed than the next of the three. All three of the girls were a noticable amount taller than Yami herself was though.
Then there was the pink haired girl, also medium length... but pink, with green eyes and a pale skinned body. She wasn't too sexually developed, Yami noticed, having rather small breasts, the smallest of the trio of girls. Actually, her body was even more lean muscled than the first girl, showing that she had a rather powerful strength in her lithe body.
Then there was a girl who made Yami look down at her own chest in jealousy, a long blue haired girl with white eyes. Her breasts were large enough that they were floating on the water, with the girl in question actually having to push them back down under the water. While Yami was rather well developed, though she wasn't really that big either, this girl's measurements would have blown her out of the water.
"She's working with her dad, apparently, Kakashi-sensei brought a guy in early this morning. She's working to try and get important information." Sakura, Yami actually knew her name after seeing a picture of her in Naruto's appartment, and she had been mentioned in passing while on their way back to the village.
Who was the white eyed girl though?
"Well Hinata-"
Ah, so her name was Hinata.
"-you confessed your love to Naruto when Pain attacked, has he answered you yet?" Tenten asked Hinata, and Sakura turned towards her, with her full attention on the girl. The blushing girl, with a near full body blush.
Yami glanced over with more interest.
'She confessed... to Naruto. He never mentioned having a girlfriend.' Yami thought, and unknown clenching feeling in her chest. Her eyes trained on Hinata, and would have bore into her if she didn't decide to look away before she was noticed.
"... I don't think he remembers. Right after I confessed..." Hinata winced and put her hand on her chest, remembering when she was nearly killed. How she could have been killed were it not for Sakura healing her. Then again, since everyone who died was brought back to life, even if she were killed she would have just come back. "It doesn't matter, I'm just happy I finally said it. Right now, I'm not strong enough to stand by his side. I'll confess again when I'm stronger." Hinata spoke with a little more confidence in her shaken voice.
Tenten smiled widely.
"Good for you, tell you the truth, Naruto's thick headed. I've spent enough time with him to know this about him. That idiot doesn't really know the difference between love and love." Sakura spoke the first love with a little extra in her voice. Yami didn't know what she was talking about, since she herself didn't really know anything about love. "I mean, he loves me like a sister, and he used to mistake that for romantic love. He's like a brother to me... honestly Hinata, I think you've got a good chance." Sakura gave the girl a thumbs up, standing up when she did so.
Yami noted that pink was indeed her natural hair color, or she decided to also dye her pubes the same pink as well.
"Speaking of the Hero of the Leaf, he's getting stronger and stronger so quickly. Just a week before Pain attacked, he just finished mastering Wind Chakra... and now he's a Sage, and one of the strongest ninja in the village. Neji and Lee have really been pushing themselves to try and catch up, and it's killing me." Tenten complained about Naruto's growth in strength, for no other reason than her teammates not wanting to get left behind by the blond. She and her team had been out of the village when Pain attacked, and they all felt pretty bad they couldn't defend their home.
Neji had taken it pretty harshly that he had failed to protect Hinata, but he had been so proud that she had stood up to Pain, despite not having a chance of victory.
"All his hard work is paying off, and we need to work harder too. He's just going to keep getting stronger. We can't afford to hold him back." Hinata smiled, and Yami looked at her once more as she listened in on their conversation. "... but his smile's still the same." Hinata whispered under her breath, a bright smile on her own face.
This girl... she loved Naruto.
That dazzling smile made the clenching in her chest grow tighter when Yami saw her, the soft spoken words made an unknown emotion swell in her chest.
'... This is... jealousy?' Yami tried to define her emotion. Was she feeling jealous of this girl, and her ability to voice her emotions so well? "They're weapons... killers, but they're still so... human." Yami whispered to herself.
That was it.
She, Yami, was a weapon, who wasn't suppose to feel emotion. Yet these people were also raised from a young age to be emotionless killers, but here they were being normal people with real emotions. They felt all the emotions that Yami had once believed she herself threw away, and they found that balance in their lives that allowed them to do it.
"Meh! At the end of the day, he's going to be injured, and I'll be healing him! Speaking of healing, that's a pretty nasty cut you have." Sakura looked towards Yami as she started to walk towards her in the water. Sakura sat down next to Yami, and looked under the water at her wound. "Seems rather fresh, here, I'll take care of it so it doesn't scar. Us girls need to always look our best, even after a hard fight." Sakura told the girl with a smile.
Her hands glowed green, and Yami felt the same sensation as when Shizune was healing her. Her wound practically vanishing before her eyes as the healer went about doing what she did best.
"Wow, she's really pretty. She looks a little like a girl Naruto, don't you think Hinata?" Tenten pointed at Hinata with a smile.
Hinata nodded.
'Same hair color, about the same skin color, and more rounced cheeks, with rounded odd eyes.' Hinata observed the girl, unknowing that she had also been observed by said girl earlier. "I'm sorry you had to listen to us. You must have been annoyed by us when you were trying to relax." Hinata apologized to Yami.
She was apologizing?
"It's... fine." Yami didn't ask the questions she wanted to ask about Naruto, since these people were his friends. She wanted to ask the questions that she was curious about, but didn't think it would be wise. Like what was the Kyuubi that Naruto mentioned, and more about his past.
"There, all healed! You should rest for a few days, just to be safe. I don't recognize you, what rank are you?" Sakura asked the alien girl.
Yami shook her head.
"I'm not a ninja, I'm..." Yami stopped herself from introducing herself as an assassin, since Naruto wasn't with her, she was pretty sure that her words wouldn't be taken too well. She was pretty sure that the only reason Kakashi, Yamato, and Shizune earlier, treated her so well was because it was Naruto who introduced all of them. "... I tripped while holding a knife." Yami corrected herself.
"Hey Yami-chan, I'm done over here. While our clothes get washed, I'm going to go and get some dango. Join me when you feel like it, it'll be a good way to celebrate the fun night we have last night!"
...
"Was that... Naruto?" Sakura asked as she looked towards the wall seperating them from the men's side. Hinata blushed red, and Tenten blinked, and all of them looked towards where Yami was.
"Where did she go?"
What Yami did was not run away.
It was a tactical retreat.
Chapter End!
Please Leave Me Lots of Nice Long Reviews, But No Flames Please!
100 Reviews for a 10K Chapter, shouldn't be too hard considering how many people are Favoriting this story, and how many more are reading it.
Sadly, last chapter didn't reach the Review count needed.
I will give you a hint about the name of this Arc.
The Great Misunderstanding.
