Well, I'm back, guys! And amazingly, just a bit sooner than expected too. I guess it's a good thing that it's still pretty early on in the semester for me, in spite of the essay I have for English and the readings for my classes (thank God for the readings being relatively quick to do and be done with). Though with one class in particular being a short one, my workload for that class will be picking up soon enough and since I'm out in ten weeks for that class, I really got to do well on the 2 tests for it…

Here's the next chapter, guys. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 8

Passing through the diminutive village, a man in his mid-twenties walked, his footsteps silent. This wasn't something he was consciously trying to accomplish; he was simply this eerily silent on his own. As if to compliment the lack of noise from his steps, the man also didn't speak at all nor did he make any sort of movements that could lead to loud sounds. He might as well have been a ghost of sorts.

And it showed, for all around him, not a single person so much as batted an eye at him as he shifted past them all one by one. However, there were some exceptions to this; a few of the shopkeepers he passed by spotted him, though not without difficulty. And when they did, they would freeze for a few seconds as a cold sensation overcame them.

It was as if death had just passed them over, briefly touching them before moving on. The shopkeepers that spotted the man immediately retreated deeper into their shops and with much haste. His presence, when noticed, was absolutely terrifying.

The man was aware of this. In fact, he made it a point sometimes to even use it to his advantage, especially during his more… pressing jobs, when he felt he would benefit from it.

He continued to walk in silence until he finally reached his destination: a simple inn.

Entering, the man didn't so much as glance at the receptionist nor did the receptionist appear to notice him entering either. Instead, the man simply made his way down the hallway and towards a room near the end of it.

Opening it, he quickly entered and locked the door.

"Ah, Nobuo-san," came a voice. The voice belonged to a young girl, no older than 11. The girl was short for her age and thin, almost sickly so. Despite this, she appeared very vibrant and happy, her large brown eyes filled with happiness at the mere sight of the man.

"I've returned, ojou-sama," the man greeted as he approached the small girl, who was currently lying in bed, resting. "I hope I've not kept you waiting."

The girl shook her head. "Not at all. How far away from there, are we?" she then asked.

"Not far. If we leave early tomorrow, we can be to the banquet just in time to meet up with your father and the daimyos," the man, Nobuo, explained. He had set out just sometime earlier to scope out the distance between their current position and their destination. He felt confident in his words, although he couldn't help but worry ever so slightly for his young charge.

The girl sighed happily. "That's good. We wouldn't want to worry tou-san too much if we came too late."

"Of course." Nobuo simply nodded along as he spoke.

Ever since the girl was young, Nobuo had been given the task of watching over her, the girl's father having stressed the importance of doing so. This was in part due to the girl's mother having been killed in an assassination attempt on the man, who had blamed himself ever since and made it a bit of a point to try and keep his daughter simultaneously close by yet far enough away from him to hopefully not risk her safety.

Nobuo couldn't help but think of this briefly and silently marvel at how well his young charge had put up with this for so many years now. Then again, because of how young she was when her mother was killed and thus placed under his care, he doubted it wasn't too hard for her to adapt.

"Nobuo-san," she called out.

"Yes?" he answered.

"Do you think that strange event will happen again?" she asked suddenly.

Nobuo, for the briefest of seconds, wasn't sure of what to say. Just a few days ago, some strange phenomenon had occurred and the two of them had ended up in some place that he instinctively knew was part of the real world yet separate from it altogether. The two of them had been seemingly alone in the strange new environment, with all the people of the town having seemingly disappeared.

"I don't know, ojou-sama. I highly doubt it though," he eventually replied. Oh, how it hurt to lie. Although whatever had happened was something he had never seen before in his life, Nobuo was certain that it was far from just a one-time thing. But it seemed to weigh heavily on his young charge's mind and thus felt that perhaps, even if only for now, it'd be better to simply let her believe that it was over and done with.

"I see." She looked down and then looked back up at him. "But if it does happen again, you'll be there for me, right?" she asked, her voice so full of hope.

A ghost of a smile flitted across Nobuo's face. "Of course, ojou-sama," he said and meant every single word of it.

He owed his life to the young girl and her family. He was indebted to them and as such, he had absolutely no intention of letting them down. Not now, not ever. If he had to kill everyone else alive to ensure that his charge would survive, then so be it. For he won't let anyone ever hurt her.

No matter what.

In Konoha, it was yet again another quiet day. Relatively speaking.

"Tou-san!" Reiko cried out cheerfully enough as she and her team – Team 7 – entered Minato's office, reporting in for a mission.

Minato, sitting at his desk and currently cursing the bane of his existence (paperwork), smiled at his daughter as her team just now provided just enough of an excuse to not continue his paperwork right now.

"Reiko," he said. Then he nodded towards his daughter's sensei. "Kakashi."

"Sensei," Kakashi greeted, the jonin eye-smiling a bit. "Enjoying the paperwork, I take it?" he joked as he stepped forward. Ah yes, how much it relieved him that he never had to do as much paperwork as a kage. Though he couldn't help but be amazed by his former sensei/hokage; even after all these years of menial and hair-pulling amounts of paperwork and other stressors, Minato still looked as young and in shape as he did back when he was still in charge of Kakashi and his two deceased teammates, Rin and Obito.

Minato chuckled tiredly. "As always, yes." Then he directed his gaze towards the other two members of team 7. "Sakura-san, Sasuke-san, I hope the two of you are doing well."

"We're doing well, hokage-sama," Sakura said with a smile. From her side, Sasuke simply nodded, a ghost of a smile on his face, evidently amused by how much paperwork Minato had to put up with.

The hokage, noticing this, couldn't help but be thankful for having made sure to make the teenaged Uchiha attend therapy back when his clan had been massacred by his older brother Itachi. It sure paid off in the long run, it seemed.

"Ne, tou-san, do we have a new mission?" Reiko spoke up, stars in her eyes. "Preferably one that's more thrilling than the last one?" The sheer amount of hope in her eyes almost made Minato feel bad to not have given his daughter the more recent one. Almost.

Instead, the most recent and most urgent-of-sorts mission request that had come in, he had instead assigned to Naruto's sensei-less team just the other day or so. "Naruto…" Now that made him feel rather gloomy at the moment. Although it had been a few days since that Hanako girl and Naruto talked with him and his wife, Minato was still very much feeling the sting of Naruto's words. He imagined that Kushina and Reiko still were too, though the latter appeared to be covering up her troubled feelings by being extra cheery today, it seemed.

The hokage inwardly sighed. "Had we really messed up that badly with Naruto?" he thought. He had spent the past few days thinking back to the childhoods of both his children and found himself at a loss when he had realized fully that he and Kushina hardly had any interaction with Naruto save for the barest minimum, such as eating together at meal times… and even those memories were vague and distant.

"Tou-san?"

Minato snapped out of his thoughts upon hearing Reiko's now worried voice.

"It's nothing." He smiled brilliantly, but he knew that underneath her energetic exterior, Reiko was a relatively observant girl. She undoubtedly knew that something was bothering her father. And it was easy to guess what that was too.

"Anyways," Minato began, getting team 7's full attention as he put on his authoritative face. "There is one mission that had recently come in. There's this bridge builder from Wave…"

Elsewhere, Naruto, Hanako, Miki, and Ryuichi traveled at high speeds, much faster than even the fastest of jonins could move, thanks to them all being magi with the exception of Hanako, who was a humanoid magical weapon. Since it was just them by themselves, they could afford to unveil, however little or however much, their enhanced abilities.

"Talk about odd, though…" Naruto thought. Ever since the short tirade he gave his family a few days ago, things had been quite awkward between them all, even for him. So it had been rather odd, though not entirely unpleasant, when just the other day his father had given him and best friends a mission out of the blue.

"Ne, Master, how much further is it?" Hanako then asked as she kept pace with the blond and the other two members of his team, all of whom were running across an open plain right now.

"Uh…" Naruto, snapped out of his thoughts, wasn't able to answer that question. So he turned to his friends. "Guys?"

"About another hour or so at this speed," Miki answered for him.

"Oh, okay," Hanako returned with a smile. "Just how is this flame dame guy, anyway?"

"Fire daimyo," Naruto corrected her with nary a sigh. Over the past few days, he had quickly gotten used to Hanako's airheadedness outside of battle. This didn't mean that it didn't tire him out though every now and then.

Both Miki and Ryuichi stifled a chuckle, but Naruto heard it anyway. "Yeah, laugh it up, guys," he muttered, but in good humor.

"Well, Hanako-san, we never met the man before, so we can't say how he's like as a person…" Ryuichi began. "But from what we hear through the rumor mill and such, he's a fairly easygoing man." A pause. "Though I doubt we'll be in contact with him too much considering the mission parameters…"

"Yeah…" both Naruto and Miki said in unison.

(Flashback Start)

"Wait, he wants us to what?" Naruto asked his dad in slight disbelief. To his sides, Miki and Ryuichi looked surprised as well.

The three of them had been called in by the hokage just a while ago to speak with him about something that had just come up. And out of all the things they had been expecting, this was definitely not it.

"The fire daimyo personally request me to pick one of our best teams to protect his daughter during the upcoming banquet at his palace," Minato explained again.

"Excuse me, hokage-sama, but just when exactly did this mission come in?" Ryuichi then asked while Naruto tried to make his mouth work, but couldn't due to shock.

"And why us of all people too?" Miki threw in. "Surely, there are other people that would be better for this."

"Well, the request came in along with the usual one for capturing Tora," Minato began. All of them then shivered; that cat was a terror to be reckoned with, for any shinobi. "As for why I'm choosing you three, although this mission is one of great urgency to the daimyo, he himself didn't rate it as being urgent enough to warrant a team of jonin. Probably because he thinks if so much as rumor even started about there being Konoha jonin anywhere near him, people may start getting nervous," he reasoned.

"Okay, we get that," Naruto began. "But still, why us? It's not like we're the only genin team around."

"Because you three are one of the best, most cohesive teams we currently have on stand-by," Minato replied succinctly.

Both Miki and Ryuichi balked slightly at the blunt praise. Naruto didn't. Instead, he just merely raised an eyebrow in response to the praise, feeling a little weirded out by it. "That so?"

Minato nodded, trying to smile. There was tension between him and his son and right now, that tension was making itself well known as there was an awkwardness to his slowly forming smile. "Yes."

Naruto tried to think of something else to say, to retort and continue questioning this, but stopped. A mission was a mission, after all, and this one was of great importance from the sound of it. Not every day one gets to meet the fire daimyo's family, let alone the man himself.

He, Miki, and Ryuichi shared a look and subtly nodded. "Fine, we'll do it."

(Flashback End)

"It sure did surprise me, though," Miki then said suddenly.

All eyes were on her. "What surprised you?" Ryuichi asked.

The kenjutsu specialist smiled sheepishly and motioned to Hanako. "As soon as you found out about the mission, Hanako-chan, I didn't expect you to beg the hokage to let you come with us…"

"Ah." Both Naruto and Ryuichi shared a brief look and their faces turned slightly red from embarrassment. So did Miki's as she spoke just now.

Who would've thought that Hanako would've all but glomped the hokage as soon as he got back home and beg him to let her go with them on the mission, all while giving him teary puppy-dogged eyes? It didn't help that the way she had latched onto the understandably shocked man had been rather… hormone-affecting for everyone that had been witness to the scene. It hadn't helped that the three magi, who had been walking with the hokage back to the Namikaze household, had a front row view to it.

"But I didn't want to get left behind!" Hanako exclaimed. "Especially when you never when Ai Space will appear again!"

"…could've just summoned you with Da Capo if that happened…" Naruto muttered.

Hanako heard him and gasped. "B-But, don't you want me around, Master?"

Naruto actually slowed down a bit at that and looked at her. "I don't mind having you around, it's just that… we're about to meet someone very important, you know? Not sure if you can not cause any kind of scene…" he began and then trailed off, already imagining the worst. He even shivered at the mere thought of a repeat of Hanako's misleading statements. And that glomp! In the name of the biju, that glomp could easily knock out a jonin if caught off guard! And not just because of Hanako's tight grip either…

"No, Master, I'll be a good girl!" Hanako pleaded.

Both Miki and Ryuichi exchanged a glance. The way she said that… didn't sound like something that should be said in public. People could get the wrong idea.

This wasn't lost on Naruto either. "Fine, fine! Just calm down!"

Hanako immediately cheered up. "Okay.~" She smiled beautifully. "I knew you were nice, Master.~"

Naruto groaned. Both of his friends/teammates chuckled sheepishly at all of this.

An hour and a half then passed by relatively quickly after that, with Hanako having been much calmer throughout the trip than she had been starting out on it.

But now that they had arrived just several hundred meters outside the fire daimyo's palace, she was back to her childlike self. "Wow…" she said breathlessly as she ogled the palace. It was far bigger than anything else she's seen so far.

"If this is really where the banquet is being held, covering all of the more dangerous spots could get kind of troublesome…" Ryuichi pondered aloud as he and the others proceeded to calmly walk the rest of the distance to their destination.

"Y-Yeah," Miki agreed.

The three of them immediately felt out of their depth right now. Due to their heavy emphasis on close range combat – Naruto and Ryuichi being taijutsu specialists while Miki had her kenjutsu – the team was ill suited to long range combat for the most part due to also their lack of jutsu – Naruto for reasons he had explained rather vehemently to his family a few days back whereas Miki and Ryuichi simply weren't ones to rely much on ninjutsu or genjutsu – and serving as bodyguards in any capacity was a rarity for them. So they had already been walking into this mission feeling a bit out of their league in some respects. But now that they've gotten a general look at the area they'll be in, it was clear that if they had been normal shinobi, this might very well have turned out to be a doomed mission should someone actually try to attack the fire daimyo's daughter; the place was simply too big for them to cover all areas where an assassin could try and get in from. It was only thanks to them being magi that they felt they could protect their charge easily enough.

"If worst comes to worst, I have Da Capo…" Naruto muttered to his friends and they nodded. If anyone did end up hurt during their time here, as long as they didn't die, Naruto could 'rewind' them to an unwounded state easily enough. Though the three of them would much rather avoid using their magi abilities if possible; the last thing they wanted was for word of their abilities getting back to any village.

"Well, I guess we should go in. Let them know we're here," Ryuichi eventually said a minute later.

"Right." Naruto was the first to walk forward now that they were right outside the palace, heading directly for the palace's main gates. Hanako followed directly behind him, the humanoid magical weapon being flanked by Miki and Ryuichi.

As much as they expected, there were guards – samurais – standing by the main entrance to the palace and stepped forward as the team of four approached. "Halt."

"We're from Konoha, here on a mission from the daimyo himself," Naruto returned casually as he kept on walking, only stopping when he was just several feet away from the guards, both of whom very subtly shifted as to better grab their weapons and attack just in case.

"Is that so? Why should we believe you?" one of the guards said.

Naruto was about to speak up, but was beaten to the punch by someone else. "No need to question them so harshly, Mutsu."

Immediately, the guards turned around and bowed. The fire daimyo had come out to greet them apparently.

"Daimyo-sama," the guards said. "I-Is that really so?"

The daimyo nodded, a wiry smile on his face. "Yes it so. Let them pass."

"Of course." Both of the guards stood and moved aside, allowing the Konoha team clear access to the palace.

However, none of its members moved. They all simply stood there, shocked, even Hanako. It wasn't every day that a team is greeted by the fire daimyo himself at the front gate.

Eventually though, Naruto, Miki, and Ryuichi regained themselves and bowed slightly. "Daimyo-sama," they greeted.

Hanako was the only one who didn't bow, but only because – Naruto presumed, anyway – she naturally wasn't used to social graces and such. Thus, when she saw her master bow, the humanoid magical weapon hastily bowed as well.

It was rather much to their surprise, however, when the daimyo suddenly laughed. "Oh no need to be so formal around me," he commented, waving off their greeting. "I get enough of that as it is from everyone else here."

The team shared a glance. They were going to like this guy. Standing back up, they saw the daimyo turn around and motion for them to follow him. They complied.

"I'm sorry for having to call you shinobi out like this. I imagine it must have been on rather short notice," the daimyo said as he walked with them in tow.

"Ah, it wasn't much of a problem, daimyo-sama," Ryuichi said. "It's common for us shinobi to be ready for anything."

Naruto and Miki nodded. Hanako simply took to staring all around her in wonder as they entered the palace. "Yeah. Though it was a bit of a shocker when the request came in with the Tora one…"

The fire daimyo chuckled at that. "Ah yes, Tora. I'd imagine he's still giving young genin nightmares?"

Naruto, Miki, and Ryuichi all nodded in unison, a suddenly tired expression on their faces. "Definitely," all three said in unison.

The fire daimyo chuckled sheepishly. "I'm sure that Tora's escapades haven't made my wife very popular among you. I'm sorry about that."

"Eh, no need to apologize," Naruto said. "It does help us genins put our skills to the test…"

Miki nodded beside him. "Although we would appreciate it if maybe someone would file his cla- I mean nails," she said hastily.

The fire daimyo actually appeared to be seriously contemplating that idea. "Hmm, I'll see what I can do about that." Then he smiled as he looked over his shoulder. "However, I must say, I am rather surprised to see that the hokage would send his own son on this mission."

Naruto's eyes widened slightly. "So you knew…"

"Of course," the daimyo answered. "Being essentially a politician, it's pretty much required to keep up with any news regarding others with some measure of power, political or otherwise. And your father, Minato-san, is one such individual. He wouldn't happen to have sent you as some attempt to marry into the family?"

At that, Naruto's face flushed red. "Wha-? No!" he shot back, a little flustered. "No, not at all!"

The daimyo raised an eyebrow. "Really?" he chuckled at the bemused expressions of Miki and Ryuichi, while Hanako was still following them, her mind solely stuck on the palace's set up. "Your family isn't hoping to have you marry my daughter or anything?"

"No," Naruto repeated.

"Hm, that's a bit of a shame; aside from protection at this event, my daughter certainly could use an escort. The girl simply appears to have no interest in romance and such," the daimyo said with sigh.

However, this statement of his wasn't entirely true; if he were to take all of the men that had shown an interest in his daughter and place them in a line, that line would stretch all the way from the entrance of his palace and around it. This was a testament to his daughter's beauty. However, her beauty – along with her own considerable intellect and refined personality – was so entrancing that there was virtually no one, man or woman, that had ever been capable of not putting her on such an impossibly high pedestal. Isolated from virtually everyone outside of her immediate family, the fire daimyo's daughter had in turn shown no interest in the idea of romance despite being at around the right age for it.

Naruto and his companions just stared at the fire daimyo. Who would have expected the man to be the kind of man to joke around and such? They sure didn't.

"Ah yes, before I finally introduce you to my daughter," the daimyo began. "I must ask: is your friend over there alright?" He pointed at Hanako, who was now looking at the rug that lined the floor they were on, her eyes practically shining with wonder.

"Ah…" Naruto sounded sheepish at that. He had forgotten about the magical weapon for a bit there. And from the somewhat guilty looks on his friends' face, the same could probably be said about them. Just goes to show how their attention had been captured by the daimyo's surprising sense of humor. "Oi, Hanako."

As soon as he uttered her name, the girl snapped to attention. Then she suddenly skipped forward so that she was right up in Naruto's face, forcing the blond to lean back a bit to avoid accidentally butting heads with her.

"Master, Master," Hanako called enthusiastically. "Just look at this place! Isn't it awesome?!" she exclaimed, with stars in her eyes.

Naruto could almost literally feel the fire daimyo gaze at him as soon as Hanako called him master. "Errr, yeah…" Calmly and gently pushing Hanako back a little, Naruto promptly addressed the older man. "This isn't what it sounds like," he began feebly.

"No, no need to explain," the fire daimyo then said, looking amused. "I think I now understand why you don't seem so interested in my daughter…"

Never before had Naruto so strongly felt the urge to go and crawl under a rock. This was just beyond embarrassing. Hell, Miki and Ryuichi looked embarrassed for him too!

"I-It's really not what it looks like…" Naruto weakly said.

His words fell on deaf ears though as the fire daimyo finally came to a stop outside two large and intricate looking doors. "Ah, we're finally here," he commented aloud, more for the sake of the team than for himself.

Pausing by the daimyo's side, it occurred to the team that for a while now, a piano was being played. And now they were right outside the room that it was coming from.

The fire daimyo opened the door and led the team inside.

As they did, they all couldn't help but be slightly wowed by the room, easily being one of the fanciest ones they've laid eyes on thus far. It was easily large enough for the likes of them to hold a semi-serious training session (without using their magi abilities, of course) and was decorated all over, with a number of said decorations apparently being music based if some of the symbols they were seeing were anything to go by.

Then their eyes fell upon the person playing the grand piano that was by a large window with magnificent red drapes and the three members of the team and humanoid magical weapon couldn't help but slightly gasp.

The fire daimyo's daughter, Masami, sat there at the piano, her thin and delicate fingers masterfully moving about. Her eyes were closed and a serene smile was visible on her face. Thanks to the light coming in from the window that highlighted her dress, it would have been very easy to mistake the young woman for an angelic figure.

"W-Whoa…" all four thought, captivated by Masami's beauty and lovely piano playing skills, now that they bothered to really listen to the music.

"Masami," the fire daimyo spoke up gently as he walked forward.

"Hm?" Masami opened up one eye and peered at her father as she slowly brought the unnamed song she was playing to a close. "Tou-san?"

Her father smiled. "Sorry to interrupt your playing, but I do have a few people here to meet you." He moved to the side to allow his daughter a clear look at Naruto, Hanako, Miki, and Ryuichi, all of whom immediately snapped out of their stupor before the young woman could notice.

"Ah." Masami smiled and stood up gracefully. "These are…" she began, walking forward now. Her father had briefed her just the other day about his request to Konoha. So these four were her guards, it would seem. While the thought was very much appreciated, she wasn't quite sure if she should feel more at ease or not with these guards around, especially since they appear to be a year or two younger than her from the looks of them.

Nonetheless, it was rude to not greet them cordially.

"Tou-san informed me about your coming," Masami began as she neared them. "Thank you for accepting his request. I'm Masami," she introduced herself, bowing towards them.

At her introduction, the team began to respond in kind. "A-Ah," Miki started. "I'm Miki. It's nice to meet you, Masami-san," she said, somewhat flustered. Although she had confidence in her own looks and such, Miki couldn't help but be impressed by how refined Masami showed herself to be so far.

"I'm Ryuichi." The black haired teen bowed as well, trying to keep his ever so slightly widened eyes hidden from Masami's gaze. "It's nice to meet you as well, Masami-san." While he was far from one that was interested in romance and other things associated with that – he was too pure hearted to out and out think the word 'sex' – Ryuichi found himself already under the same effect that Masami usually had on others.

Now it was down to Naruto and Hanako. The former couldn't help but be a little worried that maybe the latter would do something else to embarrass him and potentially cause a problem before the mission even officially began.

However, it seemed his worry was unfounded; sparing the briefest of glances in Hanako's direction, the blond magus saw that Hanako was too busy numbly staring at Masami to say or do anything. While this was partially a good thing, Naruto also knew that he couldn't just let her not respond; that'd be rude and probably leave a not-so-good impression. And in missions like these, it can be essential to have at least an amicable relationship with their charge.

"Hi there," Naruto said casually enough, flashing a small smile. He was never really one to be formal anyway. "I'm Naruto and the girl beside me is Hanako," he introduced himself and his magical weapon. "Sorry for her not introducing herself, but she can be… a little out of it sometimes. So I hope that doesn't bug you or anything."

Then he sheepishly scratched the back of his head while trying to keep a straight face. Masami was downright gorgeous! Didn't help calm the male part of his brain either that the fire daimyo's daughter was very well endowed.

"I hope we get along, Masami-chan," he finished, with a nod of the head.

Masami, on her part, raised a thin eyebrow and some kind of emotion registered on her face for an instant. What that emotion was, was one that Naruto and his best friends were unable to identify.

But then, Masami's smile grew considerably more relaxed and her eyes softened as she gazed at Naruto. "Yes," she began. "I hope we get along as well, Naruto-kun."


And that's it for this chapter!

Originally, I had intended for this one to be longer, but due to my self imposed time constraints (I didn't want to keep you guys waiting too long nor did I want to try and find time to work on this in the middle of an essay or two for classes), I had to cut out an event or two.

Ah well, I'll be putting in that missing event in the next chapter. And as for last chapter when Miki met Yuko, you can expect for what became of that to be explained in the next chapter as well.

And on a random sidenote, my bad about Masami's name; I just noticed that in a few instances near the very end of the last chapter, I typed her name as 'Manami,' instead of Masami, like it should have been.

As for when I'll be getting the next chapter out, I honestly can't even guess this time around; I plan to work on my side project a bit and then there's also whatever my classes will be assigning me as well in the coming weeks. But if something comes up that'll delay the next chapter for longer than expected, I'll mention something about it on my bio or something.

Well, until then guys! Take care!